Page 1 of Vapor (BSC #32)

PD Law Club

Julius

There are times I love being Badass, then times I’m wondering how my dad could have been a President.

Ranger and Jack said he was the best, Stan and Bishop agree but I never met the guy.

My mom raised me alone with lessons she said I’d understand as I got older.

They did provide a good work ethic and the logic kept me on the straight and narrow without being a bully-target at school.

She didn’t mention the lessons would show clearer when she was gone and I wouldn’t understand any of it until I read her letter about who I am.

That who I am would have been better when someone alive could answer questions but I did make it to Badass eventually.

While I wonder about my father, I miss my mom and the lessons she stole from him and his brother Vince.

That makes me smile, everyone is a brother in Badass but Vince was Tito’s brother by blood, so an uncle to me.

Ranger says I’m related to Betsy Ross but there isn’t anyone alive to ask.

Ranger also said he’s not a blood relative but I didn’t ask because I was afraid he’d send me away but he said I’m stuck with him and Jack, the VP of Bravo.

Adoption doesn’t make him blood but Badass makes him family.

VP says that’s all of us and I’m expected to buy presents for the kids since they only have the two uncles and Ranger is a wing nut.

Badass is the family and honor is what I feel, Falcon said not to forget that lesson and Mag agreed.

They’ve all been Badass for life, I think, so I’ll remember the lesson.

It’s a lesson my mom never told me. There are a few lessons I never got from her but she didn’t miss much of the Bible the Michigan Brother emailed me.

Bishop said Jinx wrote the new parts of the Bible that makes what I did get more understandable.

I thanked Pres Jinx as soon as Bishop introduced me to the giant.

The Brothers here are incredibly smart. I thought bikers would be like that Club of jerks I met in Michigan but Captain Yard told his nephew Richard to get me to Bravo and he’d get me to Ranger Ross, who I thought was my brother or cousin.

Every Club here impressed the hell out of me.

Bravo was a shock because the President took time to ride up to Phoenix so I could meet Ranger and I didn’t expect it.

Falcon didn’t know me but is close to Ranger and said he was happy to be Ranger’s reason for smiling that day.

Something about his kids dismantling golf carts to make a bigger one had him down, but he was all smiles when I met him, reminding me of my JAG buddy, Richard.

It takes a lot to bring either one down and very little to make them smile.

Richard dragged me into JAG Corps with him and we ended up in Joint Base Myer together until he deployed a week before I was discharged.

The job of guiding commanders on the lawfulness of weapons or targets complying with international laws held no interest to me.

Since our advice wasn’t being followed here at home, I saw no reason to put me in the line of fire out of the country.

Central Command was breached a few years ago and never recovered.

I had been deployed after it happened and had no idea.

They kept bouncing me from base to base then left me in CENTCOM but not the Command building.

It wasn’t apparent to me until I hit a base where everything ran by the book, of course it was at the end of my deployment.

I didn’t need a map to see how far from straight we’d veered off course.

Richard didn’t want to let his dad down, but his uncle told him to show at Bravo with me. He ended up re-signing and got redeployed overseas. He always was a dipshit.

I laugh softly, shaking my head. I’ve talked to Richard twice since I moved to the Law Club.

He’s spinning his wheels and shows to work but is never in meetings or asked for advice.

The last I heard, he’s excited to learn how to build a completely sustainable house from army engineers.

I didn’t tell him about the Alpha-Bits but listened to him go on about the batteries needed to hold power while collecting it.

I’m not a solar guy but I’d hope all batteries hold power while collecting it, otherwise, what’s the point?

“Boss Julius, I ready!” The little voice always has me smiling.

Turning, I bend for two boys running my way. “You’re Brody?”

Aaron nods so fast I almost reach over to stop his head before he hurts himself. They come from the Champion Club and Aaron says brother in a way that made me think they’re blood so I expected Brody to be dark headed with the brown and pink eyes. The smaller Bit is albino like the majority.

“Brody Ford. I see you to Phoenix Club. You meet you family, I help kid pool.”

I nod. “It was an exciting day. I’d say I remember you but it would be a lie. All the kids looked too alike but I know who is who here and at the Veritable Club. Are you learning to fly too?”

“Just practice. I help you need it.” He’s cute.

I ruffle up his hair. “Thanks, Brother. I’m getting better but may need that help.”

“Today to Champion Park. Alpha-Bit dinner order.” Aaron is multitasking.

I smile at my little dark-haired buddy. “It works for me. I’m glad you met me here.”

“Pack recharge when we fly.” He’s got everything figured out.

I nod and click the button at the seam. “Pres said that but I was completely intimidated by him then.”

Brody laughs. “Pres Jinx scare to me I meet him. Pres Bishop, Pres Cort never scare to me.” Bishop is my President and not as big as Jinx, the Pres of Veritable Rising, or Cort Masters, President of everything here in the West.

Aaron stays right with us going up. “Boss Hannah, Boss Mucimi scare to me. Giants okay, freaky…” Aaron has me looking at his shaking head.

“I’ve got to give you that one, Brother. The freaky freak me out too, or maybe it’s just how everyone accepts it so easily.”

Brody agrees. They’re quiet, so I ask about the solar batteries Richard was droning on about. Turns out there are different types, reasons, cost and availability which makes that difference important depending on what you need. Now I know.

~*~*~

Champion Town at Veritable Rising

Vapor

Pulling into what looks like the Hollywood set of an old western town had me wondering what century I’m in.

My truck was running a little hot so I stopped before hitting the ranch my old team is gathering at.

They got out before me and found themselves some work.

Lucky for me, the job isn’t all in the US and they need my training.

A day of recognition and week of home, served to show how long I’ve been away.

The mayor got heckled for honoring a military woman in the middle of his speech.

A speech that happened in front of thirty or so people at the town hall.

I was stopped by a city council member when I went to check my property records for boundary markers and was told not to expect special treatment and every job here in America will expect me to be qualified.

As if the job I just did for the US and the ass that freely spouted his opinion wasn’t earned, I ignored the jerk.

The best was the small-town big shot that tried to low ball a price for the old house and tract of land mom left me from her parents which was the reason for my checking lot lines.

Since he decided to carve a road on said tract, I parked my truck across the entrance of the make shift dirt road so he couldn’t use it as a shortcut to his house from downtown.

His price went up and I’d had enough of the nutty elitists acting like my presence was an inconvenience in their lives.

Even getting coffee at the café got a snotty comment about how they had only regular coffee and no special blend, as if my regular coffee and cinnamon roll order was in a foreign language.

The people have changed and I’m not sure what exactly I’ve spent my adult life training and fighting for.

I was very young when we lived here before my mom moved us closer to DuPont so it could be me, but the jabs seemed excessive.

Not needing more convincing that it was not and never will be my home, I left with my duffle, a purchase agreement and Vet group storing the contents of the house in a pod for me.

I don’t need shit from people who don’t know a thing about me, so I decided on a road trip.

I found very few smiles in the places I’ve stopped while crossing the country.

It seems everyone is hurt by someone somewhere.

I gave up on the road trip to places I’ve never seen as soon as I got the invite and job offering Nebraska.

Which brings me here. Walking the main road had me smiling.

People here look like every other place but they’re smiling and don’t look past or away from me.

The mechanic talked like he knows me and pointed me to what he called a look-see.

It’s been a long ride so I gladly took the walk and like what I see. This is what I trained and fought for.

Two policemen walked in a door under a US Marshal sign.

My truck is getting serviced behind the livery.

The general store has plexiglass protecting the display of old food brands and home good supplies.

I was happy to see the old Levi's look close to the same as they do today, but the E is capital on them.

I am glad it had normal and fresh shit behind the displays, I think, walking out.

“Anton, freeze!”

Antifreeze? Whoa…The yell has me turning, then a blur hitting my shoulder has me on my ass.

My chips and water fly into the road and another white blur forms into a kid with platinum hair lowering down like he’s landing without a parachute.

His knees are bent right, hand is on his sideways zippered lapel like it’s a chute strap and other hand reaches out for me.