Chapter 22

OK, what do you mean? No, Bohica and Chris are the same person, and not the same person. Well, they share a body, but are different minds that take over whenever one body is in charge.

No, not like a Ecetarkian Parasite. I’ll admit I don’t even know what that is, but Bohica is not a parasite. Anyways, you want me to continue my story? Because Bohica is not a parasite, no more than I have one to became who I am.

Anyways.

The rest of the year was mostly calm. The only excitement of note was when Bohica and Gloria went to court with Alicia to become her guardians. Some religious nuts tried to get in the way of that, and ended up pretty much being laughed out of court.

Apparently in the legal system, claiming somebody is an actual monster is not grounds to stop a custody case when the girl wants to be with the “monster”. And Lucy was holding my hand as the judge threw out the lawyer for the nuts, and she whispered it was a good thing it was Bo and not me up in the front.

I winked at her, and nodded. But the best part was at the end, when Alicia went up and softly spoke into the microphone. Several of us even chuckled when she called him “Mister Your Honor”. He laughed and said that mister was not needed, and asked if he could help her.

I am positive none of us expected her to ask if she could hug him, for giving her a real family. I know I was crying, and Lucy was clenching my hand tight and crying also. Several of us stood up and clapped as she hugged him, surely breaking court protocol but even the bailiffs were touched by that.

It was pandemonium outside, but I finally managed to catch Bo between interviews and we gave each other hugs. He asked if I was going to Clarissa’s afterwards as they were having a small celebration, but I shook my head. “Sorry, would love to but I gotta head over to the building site. The surveyor is arriving as well as the architect and we gotta approve the plans. We should be there now, we had this arranged two weeks ago. But I was not going to miss this no matter what.”

He thanked me for being there, and Lucy kissed my cheek and got into her car and I followed her to the site. The surveyor, architect, and contractors were all there, and I could see they were already at work. Three guys and a gal were laying out stakes and orange twine to mark out areas, and the others were going over layouts.

They shook our hand, and started to go over the areas we had set aside. First was the entryway, right in the middle of the property along the road. On the east side was to be the parking area for Omega and the sales and administrative office. Then next to that the main R&D building. Link had been renting three empty stores in the mall, and this would let him consolidate it all into a single location.

To the west was to be the new Dojo. Harry would take over my other one, this would be for me to work out of. And Lucy had actually taken charge of this, along with her grandmother. It had a real old Japanese look to the design, with a zen garden in front. The only thing he was unsure of was that I had asked for it to be made out of granite, not wood.

“Yes, I know it will be a lot more expensive. But remember, I will be training Paladins here. We have some pyros, and just in case they lose control we can’t have them burning it down.”

“Well, how about this instead Mr. Lee? Instead of granite, we use cement. Hold on, hold on a moment. We make the frame of reinforced concrete, and then we clad the exterior with granite. It will be almost indistinguishable from granite blocks, but a fraction of the cost.”

I looked at Lucy and she nodded, so I told him to do it that way. And even the contractor said that was a better solution, as he could do the main structure, and only hire a team to put on the cladding as it would essentially just be granite tiles.

“Masons would have been expensive, and this is a better solution. Now, what about the back area?”

We went to the center of the lot, and the surveyors were still working on what would be the road. “OK, the northwest corner will all be blocked off. Single gate going in, that will be 10 acres for a training area. Just put the wall around it, we will fill that in as we go along.”

They nodded, and then we went to the center of the back. “This, this is where the main house goes, right?”

“Yep, right there.” He pulled out the drawing and handed it to me, and I showed it to Lucy. She nodded also, and it was something she was familiar with. It was basically her old house, but three times bigger. Twelve foot ceilings inside, the architect had done a good job. Five bedrooms, seven baths, with a freight elevator in the back to reach all three floors.

Essentially all he had done was send a team to Florida to sketch the original, then scaled it up to something I would feel comfortable living in. All doors were ten feet tall, and wide enough I could walk through them easily. Two bathrooms upstairs and the half bath downstairs were going to have fixtures I could use, that was Lucy’s idea.

And for the other three houses, much more minor changes. They were two floors, with three bedrooms on the second floor of each. But the entire first floor had vaulted ceilings, so I could be comfortable in them. One was for Link and Carly, the other two as guest houses or in case we rented them out to other Paladins in the future.

“So tell me Mr. Lee, how did you get this through the zoning commission?” the architect asked.

“Please, just call me Clint. And to be honest, it was a piece of cake. We submitted the request to rezone it as split commercial and residential, and they turned us down. We requested another hearing, and this time I went myself. Lucy was inside the meeting room, and when they called my name I came in. I took the microphone, told them why I was requesting that, and they decided unanimously to approve it.”

Lucy giggled and nodded, and the contractor laughed. “That they did. And while he was there he requested light industrial zoning as well, and they approved that also. I was there when we were working on his current dojo. I was ripping out the front and doing demo for the new entrance when the code enforcement guy showed up and demanded to see my permits.”

I smiled and nodded as he continued. “I simply said I did not have one, and he screamed that we had to stop all work immediately. Clint here came out and handed him a piece of paper he had gotten from Control the week before. Essentially it said his dojo was a Federal facility, and therefore did not fall under local mandates other than for safety and general appearance. And whoever did that was a real burocratic artist. Stating that if the renovations needed were fought the Feds would step in themselves with an American with Disabilities Act lawsuit, in addition to possibly requiring that any other City and County buildings might be mandated to be modified to allow people like Clint here to use them.”

“That was Ms. Smith and Dr. Tran. And yes, in most ways for us the Bureau of Mutant Control and Congress have made it clear, any reasonable needs we have should be recognized and allowed for. I think they simply did not recognize my name when the request came in, so did the usual rubber stamp of no on it. But when I showed up in person for the appeal, they realized that they might be screwed if they did not comply.”

Lucy smiled and nodded. “At first I thought Clint here was using that to be a bully, but now I do get it. When we submitted the plans for our house and the businesses in front, we ran across the same thing. They wanted engineers to go over the plans, even though the ones at Control were the ones that made them up based on your designs. It turned out the same way. We went back and Clint showed them the letter, and another from the Secretary of Mutant Affairs stating that a Doctorate of Engineering had made and signed off on the plans, and all were of large scale to accommodate Clint and any other mutants that might live or work here. Hard to believe that even after over five years, some of those pinheads do not get that things have changed.”

“Well, I wish I could cut through all that as easily as you two can. More than once we have had to pay extra for one of the ‘accepted engineers’ to go over and accept our plans. Between you and me, I think a lot of the time it was just a form of kickback.”

“Oh, I think it is also. Me, I lucked out each time. For my original dojo they tried to complain we were doing it ourselves instead of using a contractor. What they did not expect was for us to show up with the American Legion and VFW to protest why two disabled vets needed to pay a contractor when it was not required for cosmetic interior changes. This was the third and fourth time, and they are just barely getting it. But that may change next year, at least three mutants are going to be running for the board.”

“Are you going to be one of them?”

“Oh hell no! Nope, not me. But I will be campaigning for them, they are going to be running and saying that the entire system needs to be cleaned up and streamlined. And they are right, we have had an annual increase of 10% of the mutant population per year. Compass City is actually the third largest growing city when it comes to mutants. And they need to recognize that, and not try to act like it’s business as usual.”

Lucy actually snorted after I said that. “Last month one of the pyros tried to get a building permit over near Westside. And you know what the idiots tried to do? To make him instead find a property and build it over here. The guy and his family have been on the Navy base for three years, and they just want to get on with their lives. He showed up and screamed at them that was like the old Jim Crow laws, and they were trying to segregate all of the mutants into a single neighborhood. Thankfully they realized what he was saying and granted him his permits.”

They were all shaking their heads as the surveyor came up and asked for verification of the tunnels. We laid out the map on the ground and he traced them all out with his finger and I nodded.

“Yes, those will all be trench and cover, just mark them out. They are going to start on Wednesday, starting on the front then working back.”

The architect looked at me, and asked if that was why each of the plans required a basement. “That is exactly why. Under all of this will be a series of tunnels, linking each building to the others. That way we can move between them in the event of bad weather, or in case we get attacked.”

The contractor laughed at that, and nodded. “That was actually my idea on how to get it through. That they did try to balk at that, but my father and grandfather was in construction also. I simply pulled out an old Cold War era law regarding fallout shelters. It was made in 1952, and essentially said so long as it met codes and any property owners it extended under agreed, we could put them in. Since Clint owns all of this, they were screwed. That is due to be revoked once the city council meets in a few months, but he will be grandfathered. I don’t think any of them even realized that law was still on the books.”

We all laughed, and the architect even shook his head when I said I was having a dozen old school “Fallout Shelter” signs made, and I would post them outside as the law mandated. He asked if that was a requirement, but I shook my head. “Not for private ones, but I’m gonna do it just to tweak their noses. They need to realize this city is not their private little kingdom. Three of the people on it are into real estate, and another owns a major construction company. Two are career politicians that hope to use this office to move up to a bigger one, and the last one is a banker. We hope to get at least two or three of them out next year, and start to make it a board that listens to what the people want and need, not just their own interests.”

“Well, I wish you all luck there. What are you gonna do with the rest of the land?”

“Well, that is mostly being set aside” Lucy said. “At the moment it will be a kind of open park, but it allows for future growth. This is not exactly going to be a mutant only area, but there is room if one wants to open a shop or arrange to have a house built. This way we can accommodate them.”

“What, like Bohica?” one said, and I shook my head.

“No, he has his own place, and lives in Darktown. He likes living and working in his own neighborhood and I can’t see him ever moving here. Same with Dire Wolf, she is a fixture of Chinatown. But there are others, and some still on the old base want to get off the Reservation. I figure we can put up at least ten more families with ease, each on their own acre with two acre separation. Still room to expand, and not make it look like a mutant ghetto.”

They all said that was a great idea, and after shaking our hands the architect headed back to Capitol City. “That guy’s alright, how did you find him?”

“Oh, that’s easy. When Sister Clarissa’s expanded their second shelter in Capitol City, he was the guy the city had go over the plans. But they are not quite so corrupt as they are here. He called me as I was the point of contact for the place you helped us build here, and I realized he was a fair guy. I had him contact the Marine Corps, and he went to Camp Lejeune to see the original structures those are all based on. He told them that they had been standing for over half a century, and the changes done for modern ADA rules exceeded the state and city requirements. And a few more times since I contacted him like when I had Bohica’s place expanded to give Alicia a room of her own.”

“So he’s not like the ones here I take it?”

“Nope, he was shocked at all the red tape Compass City tried to make us jump through. He said at Capitol City they made the decision to largely rubber stamp any requirements. But here, is still the good old boy and girl network. And I have been here for years, but I am still an outsider from California in their minds.”

Lucy laughed at that and gave me a hug. “Yep, you are just a flaming Liberal who wants to jump all over everything and set it on fire.”

“Oh, I doubt that. Remember Miss Lucy, I worked with him five years ago. And we have had many a beer together since then. But can I make a request?”

I told him to go ahead, and he smiled. “Well, the lease on my current place expires in just over a year and a half. If you can rent me the corner next to Omega, I can move it all here. You already got light industrial, so I can put up an office, a warehouse, and a small storage area. Say five or ten acres. One of the problems I’m running into is storing excess materials, or in case some materials arrive earlier than needed or if a job runs over time. That will give me the room to do it, as well as actually buy some equipment I currently rent. Like the roller for the roads here. I currently contract that out on projects this big, because my current yard only lets me have smaller equipment. But with a bigger yard, I can buy one and expand my crew so we can do it ourselves.”

I looked at Lucy and she nodded. I smiled at her and reached out my hand to him. “You got a deal. Write up a proposal and send it to Lucy here.”

“Not you?”

Lucy and I both laughed and I shook my head. “No, her. Her family has been in the land business for three generations now, she will run it past her mom and ultimately she will make the decision.”

“When my grandfather got back from World War Two, he inherited the family farm as the Interstate was coming through. About a half mile from the farmhouse they put in an onramp, and we owned all the land around it. They were still paving the onramps as the first truck stop was being built. There are now three of them, a few motels, fast food stands, a liquor store, and a few other things there. But the family still owns all the land, we just lease it out.”

He said that was a smart move, and that his bid would be a fair one. And we were still shooting for six months until we could move in.

Holding hands Lucy and I walked the property, and she was again amazed that I had gotten all of it. “Well, this had been vacant since before I moved to town. And I think the taxes, maintenance, and security were chewing them up. The city screwed up there, as they agreed to reassess it once I took possession. But they had no idea I planned on gutting the old factory, so my taxes will be a fraction of what they were before. But they still come out ahead, as with it being developed it will increase the value of the land around it.”

Lucy shook her head, and said she might consider running in a few years. I looked at her and she smiled. “My dad is a County Commissioner, you didn’t know? When mom’s uncle retired he took his seat. But he does not use his power to just get what he wants, he really does want the entire area improved and not just our land. He has hopes to get a town charter passed within a decade, so it will become incorporated.”