My imagination couldn’t imagine us earning an income compared to more than a month’s earnings. But that income didn’t want to be earned easily. Almost 50 people came for Lucka’s haircut. A little preparation would have let our mental state become more stable, but I guess you can’t always have the butter and honey both at the same time. Dev, Jules and I helped out and were able to make the process a little more bearable but even with seven people, it was still difficult.
When the last customer got their hair cut and was outside of the barbershop, it felt like something removed our legs and so everyone collapsed onto the floor. Some were swearing violently, others breathing violently and some just were staring like their souls had left their body. Jules was practically pegging for someone to make her magnificent tea for her. One by one, everyone stood and were proud of the work they had done. Our joy was piling up, a mountain of emotion. We all thought about a way to celebrate this accomplishment. Conveniently, Lucka showed up to invite all of us to his concert. All of the girls excitedly made their faces and hair up as quickly as possible and went straight to the concert, without my permission. Well, I suppose it couldn’t be bothered. Jules was still with us, waiting for her tea to get ready.
Before going to the concert, Dev and Jules helped me to clean the shop and prepare it to be closed for the day. While doing some cleaning Dev complained:”I don’t believe it. We went through the holy war and back and the prize we get is Lucka’s concert. Crucifixion would have been a better reward.” Jules answered his complaint with: ''And since when jou despise rock? I remember you said that jou cracked someone’s skull inorder to get an autograph fron David Bowie. Is that a sign of hatred?” Dev stopped cleaning the mirrors and looked at Jules with an irritated smile on his face and said:”Look. Rock is a very delicate genre. You either make it or break it, nothing in between. Can’t just combine the sound of a cricket, a jet and some guitar solos and expect to make a masterpiece.” Jules, having her smile and brown eyes set on the Italian man, gave Dev a short response:”Yeah,yeah. For sure buddy.” After that Dev kept on arguing with the Spanish woman about the nature of the rock genre while Jules, being very amused that she was able to irritate the tall Italian man so easily, just looked at him with a smug face. I too had a smile on my face at all times and was just enjoying the ride.
I sent Dev and Jules to the concert and I stayed to give the shop its final touches before closing for the day. It was more than a miracle to have our money issue resolved, at least in a fashion like this. You can say that being the Guardian of Express Street in the city of Pigmentrue, the city of color and mourning, has its advantages. The barbershop was ready to be closed. I just needed to water the plants in front of the big window and get rid of the half full cola bottle in front of one of the mirrors. While I was fixing my hair, the shop’s door opened. A man was revealed behind the door, wearing a cap, a black jersey covered by a gray cotton coat and ripped jeans. Normal looking guy. I couldn’t see all of his face at first, so I couldn’t tell how he was feeling. I said to him that we are about to close and he may come again tomorrow. He answered: “Oh, no worries. My work wouldn’t take long.” then he processed with a slight jab “Didn’t know THE Guardian has a humble workplace.” I leaned on the nearby wall, tilting my head while crossing my arms, and said:”Oh? Anything else about THE Guardian that might have subverted your expectation?”
“Not yet. But I do know about the influence you have. So much so that it has hit you in the head. Makes you go around, pralazing innocent people.”
“You talking about Benjamin? How the hell do you know about him?.”
“A set of interesting people filled me in on it. They’re interested in you, like me.”
“Sorry to kick you back into reality, but they didn’t fill you in all the way. Benjamin got what he deserved.”
“There was no proof for his ‘abuse’, you committed him for.”
“The proof you’re talking about was there, I felt IT even though I couldn’t see it. I felt how his family was acting around him. And I felt the way he spread his so called innocence like a sweet lie. I was just able to see right through it.“
“Heh, I’m pretty impressed how you can be soooo disillusioned. Beating guys like you gives me the extra pleasure.”
“Well, I’ve never seen a vigilante being practically the same as his nemesis.”
“Hehe. Your guilt has reached a point where you desperately try to compare yourself to ME. I break the law for the sake of the law, for the sake of justice. The only thing you desire is yourself and your emotions.”
That was the end of our little bonding time. He took a step closer to me and with a blink of an eye his appearance changed. He turned bald, wearing white boxers instead of jeans and also a black leather coat with nothing underneath it. All over his skin, scars were visible. Especially his chest. Some surface level and others deep. His skull was also visible from his head and it didn’t seem to be in the best shape. All this time, the radio was on. At that moment, it was playing the song Dead by Pixies. The stranger wasn’t just a ‘want to be hero’ like Daredevil. He was a Gusto. I knew that because I could feel that his emotions were the same as mine. I was in shock because of how rare it is to encounter other Gustos. The only Gustos that have the ability to change appearance are only from my generation. why is that? I don’t know.
He was coming closer to me, so I naturally tried to back off and come up with a strategy to do something about him. I wanted to take the first step back, but my leg didn’t move. I turned my face toward my leg and as I did, the leg took the first step back. My confusion could never be understood. I tried to move my other leg back, it only moved after almost one second. There seemed to be a delay in my actions. Before really figuring out what was going on, the stranger landed his heavy fist on my face, sending me straight to the floor. I wanted to back off but my body didn’t respond as usual, that was an opportunity for the stranger to bring upon me another blow. He seemed to quite enjoy himself. I tried to block his upcoming attack but my body didn’t work as fast as my commands wanted it to. He was not giving me any room to breathe and kept on throwing his fists and legs at me.
“COME ON. You’re not making this any fun. How about putting a little more sweat and tears to this ordeal, huh?”
After he said that, the stranger stepped back to let me stand up. With the delay between my commands and my body, I stood up and took a fighting stance. I couldn’t keep it a secret any longer if I wanted to have all of my pieces intact. In a blink of an eye , my appearance changed too. After my transformations, I always wear a gray business coat with a gray shirt under it, ripped black jeans, gray sport shoes, my usual hair, and cracks on my skin with lava filled in it are visible. I know that when Gustos transform, their ability is in effect.
My ability is to leave my body as a spirit. In spirit form no one can see me and unfortunately I can’t pick up people and shove them into the sealing or punch them so hard they pass out. I’m limited to giving energy to small objects which sends them flying in the direction I want. I can move big objects too but it requires a lot of energy. My spirit form has the same appearance as I have but the difference is that my spirit has long purple nails and long brightly colored hair. When my power is in effect and my soul is freed from my body, the body would be like an empty shell and have no movement. I need to distract the stranger long enough to pay back the beating he gave me. That thug will meet his end.
While I was floating in the air, trying to find a way to distract him; the thug started moving towards me, saying:”That’s more like it! Let me see what you’re made of.” I found a bottle of hairspray and gave it energy in order to make it fall from the table. When the bottle fell the stranger only looked towards the source of the sound for a moment and then focused his eyes on me. Now he was approaching me more cautiously. If I don’t come up with something he will realize my body is like an empty nut. I looked around and around and around. I was panicking, a lot. Then I saw the half full cola bottle, the perfect idea struck me and my plan was set in motion. I used my energy to loosen up the cap a little bit. When I loosened the cap, I concentrated my energy on the lower parts of the bottle. The bottle needed to line up with the thug, and so it did. I released the energy and the bottle was sent flying with one destination in mind. The stranger noticed the bottle and grabbed it near his face, the cap was pointing to the ground. He smiled, thinking that he blocked my attack. As he was dreaming of his victory, the cola bottle’s cap was removed because of gravity and all of the cola inside the bottle was spilled on his clothes. ”OH GOD! You kidding me?! COME ON!” He said those words uncomfortably. As he tried to remove the stain on his clothes, he did not notice that my body started moving. My appearance changed back to normal, and I prepared to land my hateful fist onto his eye. Although there was still delay in my actions the fist landed perfectly. The thug didn’t have time to mourn because the second punch was in its way, and even with the delay it landed as precisely as last time. Every time I landed an attack, fist, leg or knee, I felt that there was less and less delay between my commands and my body. For the last strike I took his jacket by my hands and throwed him towards the plants in front of the window. One plant got knocked down to the floor and others were just barely moved. The stranger collapsed to the floor, and the fight was over. I went down on my knees and was trying to not break into pieces and keep my body intact. Dev and Jules entered the shop, wondering why I haven’t joined them yet. To be honest, their looks were priceless when they saw what happened to me and the barbershop. They both came to me and let me lean on them. While Jules was calling 911, the thug started moving. Dev and Jules got alerted and were ready to use their abilities. They were Gustos too. But the thug, who had already turned back to his previous appearance, didn’t care about them. He only sat on his ass to pick up the plant that fell to the ground and put it back in its place. It’s pot was a little bit cracked. Then he picked up the water spray near the window and gave a little spray to the plant. After that he just leaned on the wall next to the window and waited quietly; until the police and ambulance came.
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