Chapter 19
The next morning was rough for poor Galaxy-Man as he had one monster of a hangover. He would've stayed in bed all day, but he was a special kind of hungry that morning so he begrudgingly got up. He walked into the kitchen and pillaged through the fridge for sustenance. As he scavenged for leftovers, he glanced over and saw Cherry in the living room, and she had company this morning. She and Caiden were playing Super Nintendo together. It was sorta cute actually. Galaxy-Man grabbed a pot of last night's black-eyed peas, added a ton of hot sauce and put it on the stove to warm up. He then walked into the living room to say hello.
“What's up, fooligans?” he greeted.
“It's not what it looks like,” said Cherry sharply, as if she just got caught masturbating to Shrek or something. She and Caiden were playing Tetris Attack together.
“What's goin' on, Caidydid?”
“Nothing,” he replied. He sounded very nervous. His social skills were sorely lacking, but Cherry liked hanging out with him. He was a good listener after all... plus he was just fun to mess with. Cherry wasn't shy at all, though she actually had a lot of trouble making friends. Truth be told, Caiden was probably her only real friend her age.
“Hey, Dad, wanna go over to JupiterRay's house? I wanna find out what the dongles we've found do.” The glove was still over there after all.
Galaxy-Man groaned at the thought of leaving the house. “Ooohh, do we have to?”
“Please,” Cherry begged.
“Alright, Mom, lemme go pop some lortabs and we'll go. You're driving though, and we're stopping for beer on the way.”
“Word. Hey, can Caiden come with us? I promise to take good care of him. He'll be on his best behavior.”
“I guess that's up to Miss E.. She might be okay with it actually. She's been real nice to me ever since Stevie died.”
“She liked Stevie,” Caiden explained. “She used to go into your backyard to see her.”
“Huh, I never knew that.” Galaxy-Man always assumed that Etsuka hated him and everyone associated with him, including Stevie. I guess when you get down to it, there are a lot of bitter people in the world, but very few of them are monsters. Etsuka could be nasty, sure, but it's not like she didn't have a heart.
Galaxy-Man put on some okay khakis, a gaudy Hawaiian shirt and flip flops, and then it was over to the Fukunaga house. The peas would have to wait sadly.
The group walked up to the door and Galaxy-Man gave a gentle knock. Etsuka answered.
“Galaxy-Man, good morning,” she greeted. It was strange, she never called him that. She and Barnard were no longer together. It was just her and Caiden now.
“Hey Ms. E.,” Galaxy-Man replied. “You care if Caidydid here comes with us for a bit? Don't worry, it's just to the edge of town. No interstellar adventures today.”
Etsuka was a little apprehensive. “It's just to the edge of town?”
“We goin' to Didney Worl!” blurted Cherry.
“That's a damn lie and you know it!!” yelled Galaxy-Man way too loudly. He suddenly felt embarrassed as Etsuka gave him winced eyes. He cleared his throat and scratched his neck. “Um, actually we're going to a friend's house. We'll be fine. I promise.”
“Okay,” she replied, “just don't bring home any bad habits from these two, Caiden.”
Cherry gave a cute grin and a showy bow. “We shat let you down, madam.”
As the group walked away Etsuka already regretted her decision somewhat.
They then walked over to the Whomper. Caiden was a little nervous as he had never been in a spacecraft. He had never actually left the planet before, not that they would be leaving the planet today. Interstellar travel was a pretty uncommon prospect after all.
Once inside, Galaxy-Man immediately lied down on the couch and turned on the TV while Cherry went over to the helm.
“Shouldn't an adult be piloting?” asked a very worried Caiden.
“Aw, you don't trust me, do you?” Cherry gave fake sad eyes and Caiden felt bad.
Cherry flew the ship like a boss. Truth be told, she was probably a better pilot than her dad, even at the age of nine.
After a quick trip to the store to buy beer and candy, it was off to JupiterRay's house. They arrived and knocked on the door. JupiterRay answered.
“Galaxy-Man,” he said, “to what do I owe the pleasure?”
“We found some more dongles,” replied Cherry.
“Yeah,” added Galaxy-Man, of case a cheap beer in one hand and Twizzlers in the other, “we thought we could test 'em out or something.”
“Of course,” replied JupiterRay. “Come in.” The house was a complete disaster, even more filthy than usual. There were papers scattered about, stacks of plates, old computers part; the place was somehow even more of a train wreck than last time. “Have a seat,” he said. “I'll go get you guys some homemade cookies my dad baked.”
“Word,” said Galaxy-Man coolly as he cracked open a fresh beer.
“How's your dad doing?” asked Cherry.
“Why don't you ask him yourself. Hey Dad! We got company! Get in here!” He then stepped into the kitchen to get the cookies. “Magnum P.I. can wait!”
Cherry looked over at Caiden, who hadn't said a single word since they got there. “Are you okay, Caiden?” she asked with worried eyes. “You're so quiet.” The poor boy was a social disasterpiece. He wished he could talk to people as easily as others, but he could never bring himself to converse with people.
“I'm okay,” he lied. Inside he was dying of anxiety.
“Relax, dude,” said Galaxy-Man. “You look like you're scared out of your mind right now, man. Shyness is simply the fear of being yourself, so do you, boo, and don't be so worried about what people might think.”
“Is that something Nomad said?” asked Cherry.
“No, that was all me just then, cuz.” The man was clearly proud of himself.
Cherry nodded and started giving him a round of applause. “Nooice.” Even Caiden started clapping. Galaxy-Man's words meant a lot to him.
JupiterRay came back with the cookies. “They're a little bit cold, but still good. They're my dad's secret recipe.”
“S'all good,” said Cherry. She reached in to grab one, but there was a slight problem – these were chocolate chip. “Aw shitwaffles, I can't eat them shits.”
“Cherry can't have chocolate chip,” explained Galaxy-Man. “She's allergic.” He then chugged down some beer and stuffed his face with tangy red licorice.
“You're allergic to chocolate?” asked Caiden. He was very intrigued by this.
“Damn my mom and dad to hell for giving me these sucky genes. It's weird enough I have purple eyes and milky white skin that can't tan.”
“Actually, I have some cranberry cookies in the backroom,” said JupiterRay. “I can go ahead and show you something I've been cobbling together while we're at it.”
“Lead the way, JupiterRay,” Cherry replied.
They walked into the backroom. JupiterRay grabbed a box of store bought cookies from the bed and handed them to Cherry.
“Word,” smiled Cherry. She turned to Caiden. “You want one, dude?”
“No thank you,” he replied.
On the computer desk was some kind of strange contraption made of old junk. It resembled a makeshift time machine from a cheesy 80s movie or something, complete with pointless lights and colored glass tubes. They half expected a fog machine to come on.
“What's this doohickle?” asked Galaxy-Man as he drank way too much beer.
JupiterRay started flipping switches and typing in commands on his keyboard. “It's a VR testing ground for the Power Glove. I call it the DongulationChamber, no space.”
Cherry shook her head at the name. “These names are too much, man.”
“How does it work?” asked Caiden of all people. He was mostly silent, but he'd never seen a gadget like this before.
“Well,” replied JupiterRay, “I created a safe virtual sandbox where the mysterious Power Glove can be tested. We wouldn't want a repeat of last time,” he wince at Galaxy-Man.
“Don't look at me,” retorted Galaxy-Man. “Cherry's the one who dared me to do a flip.”
“With that being said,” JupiterRay continued, “we can attach these special electrodes to Galaxy-Man's head. When he falls asleep, the electrodes will encode his brainwaves when he enters REM sleep, and we'll be able to view and interact with his dream. His unconscious mind will effectively enter the DongulationChamber and we can upload the data collected from the Power Glove and the new dongles.”
Cherry's jaw practically dropped. “You built a machine that looks into someone's dreams!? Why isn't this book about you? That's amazing, dude.”
“That is absolutely incredible,” Caiden added.
“Do it gonna work though?” asked Galaxy-Man. He was already becoming drunk from the stupid amount of beer he drank.
“Of course it works,” replied JupiterRay, very sure of himself. “It took a lot of BASIC, but it works.”
“How the Funk & Wagnalls is my dad supposed to fall asleep in the middle of the day?”
With the oodles of painkillers and alcohol in his system, taking a nap wouldn't be a very difficult prospect. “I could go for a nap actually,” he said. He smiled and bobbed back and forth as he suddenly began to sing.
“Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah,
Someone's in the kitchen I know,
Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah,
Strummin' on the old banjo.”
“Go drunk Dad, you're home,” said Cherry.
JupiterRay hooked the electrodes to Galaxy-Man's head. He plugged in the new dongles and wired the Power Glove to the computer.
“So, you guys will be able to see my dreams?” asked Galaxy-Man.
“Yes,” replied JupiterRay. “Until we can upload your thoughts directly into the DongulationChamber, we'll be able to see your normal dreaming and it's likely you'll be totally unaware you're being watched until we can directly interact with your subconscious mind via the machine.”
Galaxy-Man was strangely nervous about the whole ordeal. Science can be scary at times after all, but Galaxy-Man was more nervous about something else.
Cherry walked over to her dad and gave him a big ol' hug. “Goodnight, Dad. Love you.”
“Aw, I love you, too, Cher, even when I'm too talk to drunk.”
“If you die in your sleep, can me and Caiden get your ship? I wanna fly over Cinetron and spit on it.”
“Hell to the no, you little snots. I want the Whomper cremated, you heard?”
When all was said and done, everyone left the room so Galaxy-Man could rest. Galaxy-Man hadn't told anyone, but he had been having unusual dreams. He hoped things would be different this time, and thought happy thoughts until he fell into a deep, Fat Tire and Twizzler-induced drunken stupor.
Soon after, he began to dream. He tried to have a fairly tame dream, but he was no lucid dreamer and his mind began to wander places he didn't intend to go. It was a dark and windy place, the sky void of any stars and black as the ace of spades. Galaxy-Man was walking up a hill, but his legs were oddly weak and he was having noticeable trouble.
Meanwhile, everyone else watched Galaxy-Man's dream via a computer monitor set up in another room. The image was blurry and a bit difficult to fully discern.
“Why does he keep looking at his legs?” asked Cherry. “Those are his legs, right?”
Galaxy-Man continued up the hill, as fast as his decrepit gams could carry him. Standing at the top of the hill was Galaxy-Man's deceased father, Ed Grey.
“Daddy?” asked Galaxy-Man in disbelief, “but you're dead. Me and Tom buried you.” He of course didn't know he was dreaming and to him this seemed very much the real deal.
Cherry chuckled to herself. “He calls his father 'Daddy.' That's cute. Wait, who the heck is Tom?”
“I was so good to you,” said Ed. “You could've been somebody.”
Galaxy-Man tripped and fell as he climbed the gentle incline. “Shut up! I'm not gonna cut my hair just so I can look like you!” He staggered to his feet and continued forward. He then noticed that his father was holding Stevie.
“Look at you,” Ed continued, “you can't play sports, can't draw, can't play any instruments, can't sing, can't dance, and you're afraid to look me in the eyes. I see through those sunglasses, boy. You're a scared little man and you run away from all your problems. One day you're gonna stumble and your misfortune will catch up with you."
“What a dick,” said Cherry. “Can we put him in the DongulationChamber yet? I kind of don't wanna watch this.”
“It won't be long,” replied JupiterRay. “We have to let the world fully buffer to be safe.”
Galaxy-Man trudged up the hill and began to cry as he looked at Stevie. “Put her down!” Galaxy-Man kept moving, but the distance between them never seemed to change. “It's never enough, is it? You're just a greedy fat pig who has to take everything. Give me my cat, Daddy. She doesn't belong to you.”
Suddenly, Etsuka walked up to Galaxy-Man. “Don't bring home any bad habits from him,” she said. “Do you, boo.”
Caiden was a bit surprised to see his mother in Galaxy-Man's dream. “Mother?”
Galaxy-Man fell over once again. “Goddammit I can't move, Ms E.. I can't do anything.”
“You're not a disgrace, you know that?”
Ed stood at the top of the hill petting Stevie firmly. Galaxy-Man let out a terrible gasp, for Ed had broken her neck.
“No! I'm no hero! I'm a side character in my own life story.”
“Oh my God,” said Cherry. “This is horrible. Can we send him yet?”
“All systems are online,” replied JupiterRay. “We're ready to go.” He typed in a short line of code that started the program.
Galaxy-Man's thoughts and feelings were directly encoded into the computer. He saw a flash of white light and he entered the DongulationChamber. He stood in a large field covered with a static flat image of grass that repeated infinitely. Unlike his dream, things felt completely realistic, even though it looked as though he were in a video game. That's one of the weird things about dreams – it's easy to tell when you're not dreaming, but it can be extremely difficult to tell when you are dreaming. It doesn't make much sense.
Transitioning from his natural dream to a computerized dream caused him to soon forget his previous dream entirely.
“The heck is this?” he asked no one in particular. He felt as though he were awake, since this was not a natural dream. He actually had no clue that he was even in a dream.
From outside the room, everyone else watched him walk around his new world, this time in glorious high definition.
“Whoa, it worked,” said Cherry in amazement. “So you can mess with his dream now?”
“Yep,” replied JupiterRay, “and we can even talk to him now. We just-” he paused and cocked his head. “Dad! I want you to see this! I told you it worked! Put down the comic book and get in here! Spider-Man can save the day later!” He turned back to Cherry and Caiden who were both confused. “I'm sorry, guys. My dad's being a wad today.”
“So, we can talk to my dad now, right? Shouldn't we let him know he's dreaming?”
“Here, put on this headset and you can be his guide.” He handed Cherry what appeared to be an Xbox 360 headset, and she put it on.
“Dad, can you hear me?”
“Who said that?” asked Galaxy-Man. He was very confused by all of this. “Is that you, Cherry?”
“Listen, Dad, you're dreaming right now. You're in the DongulationChamber.”
“Oh, of course. I remember now. We're testing out the Power Glove or whatever.”
JupiterRay used the computer to place a simulation of the Power Glove into the world.
“JupiterRay is sending in the Power Glove so you can test it out.” Cherry paused and realized something. She turned to JupiterRay. “Wait a minute, why does my dad need to be in the simulation at all? Couldn't you just test it with AI or something?”
“I tried that,” explained JupiterRay. “The glove always rejects them. There's some wicked encryption on that thing that I can't even begin to wrap my head around. As far as I can tell, Galaxy-Man is the key. It's weird. It's almost like something I would design.”
“Hey Dad, you still with us? JupiterRay is sending in the glove so you can test out the new dongles.”
The glove appeared in front of him and he grabbed it. “Hey, what happens if I go to sleep in here? Would I have a dream within a dream? That would be so weird, man.”
“Focus, Dad. Put on the glove.”
“Yeah, yeah, I'm putting it on, Mom.” He put on the glove and a brilliant aura surrounded him. He felt an incredible energy throughout his whole body. “I don't like this.”
“What do you feel? What strange new abilities do you have?”
“I don't think I have any new abilities, but I just feel impossibly strong right now.”
JupiterRay was flabbergasted by the numbers he was reading. “This is incredible. I don't think the dongles grant any new abilities at all, but increase the glove's overall power output. His FE is off the charts.”
“What's FE?” asked Cherry.
“Field energy. It's an exotic energy form from another dimension,” answered Caiden. “It's what spacecrafts use to power their engines, and why they don't have to stop for fuel.”
“Well aren't you smart,” teased Cherry.
JupiterRay couldn't believe what he was observing. “The amount of power he has with the glove on is terrifying. He's easily a thousand times stronger than he was last time we tested the glove, and even then his energy far surpassed any human. This thing is definitely a weapon, and an unimaginably powerful one at that.”
“Hey Dad,” said Cherry, “try to focus your energy and do a hadouken or something. I'm getting bored watching you do a whole bunch of nothing with a side order of nothing none-ion rings.”
Galaxy-Man closed his eyes and tried his best to focus. “I think I'm getting the hang of this thing.” He found that the more he flexed his muscles, the more energy he drew in. However, the more power he drew in, the more difficult it was to control. Soon the digital ground beneath him began to shake and warp and his aura stretched high into the sky. “Guys, I... I don't feel so hot.”
“The power is too great for him to bear,” said JupiterRay. “How is the glove generating that kind of energy? It's... not possible.”
“You alright, Dad? You look like you're about to explode or something.”
Unable to control the immense level of energy he was generating, Galaxy-Man began to shake violently until his entire body exploded into a fiery inferno of smoke and bolts of colorful energy. He immediately woke up in a cold sweat and the screen went to black.
“Oh my God, is he okay?” asked Cherry as she ran out of the room and over to her father. JupiterRay and Caiden followed her.
Fortunately he was completely unharmed, just a little out of sorts. He removed the wires from his head and panted. He had trouble remembering anything that happened in his dreams.
Cherry burst into the room and ran over to her dad. “Dad, are you okay? I thought you were gonna explode, but I didn't think you'd really explode.”
“I did what? What's... what is going on right now?”
“You don't remember anything?”
JupiterRay and Caiden walked into the room. JupiterRay was all sorts of discombobulated. “I don't know what kind of tech is in that glove,” he said, “but as it stands now it's much too dangerous to be practical. If you would've worn the glove in real life you'd be dead right now, and so would everyone in this neighborhood, maybe more.”
“Jesus Christ!” shouted Galaxy-Man. “What the hell are we dealing with? You're telling me the toilet glove could raze a city?”
“With all the dongles, I think it could do much, much more damage than a city. Try an entire planet, or maybe more.”
“Should we destroy it?” asked Caiden. “No one should have a power that big.”
“Don't worry,” assured JupiterRay. “Unless Galaxy-Man actually puts it on, there's no danger. I've been trying for weeks to crack this thing, but it's unhackable. I suspect it uses some sort of advanced bioquantum encryption and there's just no way to use it without a key.”
“You totally just made that word up,” mumbled Cherry.
“Besides, I think it'd be much riskier trying to destroy it. I'm going out on a limb here, but it might just tear a whole in the fabric of space.”
“I guess we should keep trying to learn more about the glove then,” said Caiden.
“Exactly. Maybe it's Galaxy-Man's unique energy signature, or something about his body, but for whatever reason, only he can use the glove as far as I can tell. I'll keep running tests until I can pinpoint what makes the glove work. Just to be safe, I'll keep the glove in a special chamber that'll block out any outside interference and continue using the DongulationChamber to run tests. I'd like to take a blood sample if you don't mind.”
“Sure, sure,” replied Galaxy-Man, still pretty out of it. “Do you think we should still look for the other dongles?”
JupiterRay grabbed a clean syringe from a nearby first aid kit and walked over to Galaxy-Man to take a bit of blood. He was good with needles because his alleged father was apparently diabetic. “There's really no harm in finding them all. Fact of the matter is, we may not understand what this thing can really do unless we find the others. I think it's best you continue your search so I can learn more about the glove, and maybe find a way to control its massive power.”
This was certainly a strange day, a bit weirder than Galaxy-Man thought it would be. Though he didn't have much memory of his dreams, it was very much apparent to Cherry that Galaxy-Man was hiding his feelings from her. It was no secret that Galaxy-Man hated his father, but now Cherry could sort of see why that was now. Ed was a greedy moneymaker and had no faith in his rebellious son.
They also learned a great deal about the Power Glove, and just how dangerous it really was. They still wanted to find the rest of the dongles, so they could learn more about the glove, and because it was something to do. It seemed to bring everyone together. It was for the thrill of the hunt.
The ride home was pleasant enough, but something was troubling Cherry as she flew the ship home and Galaxy-Man could tell.
“Everything alright, Cher?” asked Galaxy-Man.
“Who is Tom?”
“Who, Tom Braidy? Wasn't he the funny black dude on Whose Line Is It Anyway?”
“I'm being serious, Dad. And that's Wayne Braidy, you dumb wad. Listen, I saw you talk to your dad when you were dreaming. You mentioned a guy named Tom and I wanted to know who he was.”
Galaxy-Man looked very troubled. He clearly didn't want to say. “Aw rats, how much did you see? I don't remember much.”
“Enough. Dad, who is Tom?”
“Well, Tom... Tom is my brother.”
“You have a brother!?” Cherry was shocked. “Wait, that means... I have an uncle. Why didn't you tell me?”
“Yeah I got a brother, and three sisters, too. We don't get along very well, never did, never will. That's why we're never gonna visit them.”
“I got aunts!? Oh my God, I always dreamed of having aunts. I can go visit them and they'll buy me gifts and I'll get to play with their dog, and then I get to come home and tell you all about it while we eat name-brand Cap n Crunch. It'll be great!”
“They hate me, Cherry.”
“Why?”
“My father left all his money to me of all people, because he hated me. I was a bad kid, Cherry. I did horrible things because I was rebellious, because I didn't want to be anything like him. He gave me all the money so my siblings would try to kill me to get their hands on it.”
“So you gave it all away.”
“I did them a favor! That money was ruining them, and... I almost let it ruin me. There was a time when I was spending a million profit every single day. I had everything and it still wasn't enough. It's never enough. I hated what I was becoming, so I gave everything to Hamilton because I knew he would do a lot of good with it, more good than I'd ever do with it. My siblings never forgave me for doing that. So yeah, Tom is my brother.”
“Dad, I had no idea. I'm sorry.”
“Money can't buy a happy life,” said Caiden from across the ship. They had sort of forgotten he was there at all.
“Shut up, Caiden,” said Cherry teasingly. “You need to shut your mouth once in awhile, you sexy fool.”
Caiden just smiled and laughed a bit. “I think that when you have everything, there's nothing left to work for, and life loses much of its meaning. I think the key to happiness is to improve yourself throughout your life. When you have nothing left to improve, you have nothing left to live for.”
“Damn, Caidydid,” said Galaxy-Man. “That's some mad-deep knowl' right there, man. We should hang out more.”
“Thanks for coming along with us, Caiden,” said Cherry. “I just wish you would talk more. You got a real purty mouth, sir.”
Caiden laughed to himself. Overall, he had a good time. “I'll do my best.”
And so their simple journey to the edge of town had indeed become a marvelously interesting day. Who would've thought that you could look into someone's dreams? Who would've thought that the Power Glove was as powerful as it was? Who would've thought that the Galaxy-Man had a four siblings? It was a fun-filled day of exposition and discovery.