The Prince of Astoria-Chapter 60: LX - The Museum

Etienne and Nairobi stared at the full-body mirror for a long time after Isaac stepped through it. Nairobi slowly put her hand to the mirror, but nothing happened.

"This must be Sammi’s ability..." Etienne muttered to himself.

"Sammi?" Nairobi questioned.

Etienne nodded his head, "A local criminal Alex told me about. You’ll have to—"

Upstairs, glass shattered and brick crumbled. The entire building shook for a few seconds and felt like it would buckle. Etienne and Nairobi rushed upstairs and found a giant hole in the building’s side. Etienne looked around the room and didn’t spot Alex.

Etienne and Nairobi shared a concerned look for a moment before Nairobi broke the silence with a laugh, "I guess he was ready to get home. I didn’t even get to tell him about the team outing I have planned."

Etienne leaned against the wall and smirked, "Team outing? You want us to do team-building exercises?"

Nairobi shook her head, "Don’t make it sound so silly, Etienne. If we’re going to be the ’Paragons’, we need to be more familiar with each other. We need more chemistry."

Etienne nodded, "I agree with that. So what did you have in mind for our ’team outing’?"

Nairobi pulled out her phone and showed it to Etienne. The letters "OMSI" were printed in big red letters.

Etienne leaned forward and scratched his chin, "Yeah, I’ve heard of this place. The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. We were supposed to go on a field trip here in high school, but Christina and I ended up ditching it. Isn’t this place for kids?"

Nairobi scrunched her face at the mention of Christina’s name, "Christina, huh? But no, this place is actually pretty interesting. They opened up a sixth exhibit recently, the Future Sciences Hall."

Etienne’s eyes widened, "Future Sciences Hall? So what, like time travel? Teleportation?"

Nairobi chuckled, "I thought that would be more Alex’s thing, but I’m glad you’re interested too. I’m going to reach out to Isatou so she can have some forensic investigators look into this place. And I’m going to call Alex and tell him to meet us at the OMSI at 7."

Etienne furrowed his brow, "Wait, we’re going tonight? Isn’t that kind of soon?"

Nairobi laughed and walked down the stairs, "There’s no time like the present, right, Ninjaman?"

____________________________________________________________

Several hours later...

Etienne stood in front of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. He looked back at the humongous glass tower flanked by flat brick buildings before looking back down on his phone. A young man rudely bumped into him without a word of apology. Etienne rolled his eyes and looked around. Even as the sun began to set, a crowd of people stood outside the entrance to the OMSI.

"Where in the world is she?" Etienne thought to himself, "I thought she said be here at 7. I knew I should’ve called before I left the house..."

"Hey Eti!"

Nairobi waved at him through the crowd of people. Etienne gawked at her outfit. She wore a blue soccer jersey, blue acid wash jeans and tall platform boots filled with silver spikes. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"I wish I could dress up more," Etienne thought while looking down at his outfit, "I don’t want to stand out too much though..."

"Is Alex still coming?" Etienne asked as Nairobi approached him.

Nairobi shook her head solemnly, "No, he’s not. I called his phone a few time but he’s not picking up."

Nairobi’s eyes lit up as she finally stood face to face with Etienne, "But oh my gosh! Look at this outfit, Etienne!" She squealed, tugging on his black fencing jacket, "Are we going to the museum or the Met Gala? How much do those shoes cost?" She pointed at his patent leather high-top sneakers.

Etienne put a finger up to his mouth, "Can you not scream my name out loud, Nairo? I don’t want to be mobbed by a crowd of people!"

Nairobi pursed her lips together and they walked toward the front entrance, "Do you really think you’re that famous, Etienne? That Prince of Astoria title is really getting to your head, huh?"

Etienne sighed and shook his head as they walked through the museum, "Nope, that’s not it. I’ve never really liked that nickname, but it caught on before I could object to it. I never did anything to earn it, I just happened to be the son of the King and Queen of Astoria."

Nairobi nodded, "Your parents were amazing people, Etienne. Some of the charities they set up helped feed my family out in California when we didn’t have much. Truth be told...I confronted you the first time we met because I thought you were some clout chaser using the Blessad name."

Etienne glanced at her, "You and Isatou. It’s amazing that you two are on such different paths, even in the same field."

A small, sad smile crept up onto Nairobi’s face, "My sister was the star student. The golden child. She graduated high school at 16 and finished college on her 20th birthday. She worked her way up corporate hierarchies for years until she was brought on to be the director for INHO’s Oregon branch."

Etienne continued to stare at her, "And what about you?"

Nairobi let out a bitter laugh, "What can I say? I was a troublemaker, a delinquent. Instead of going to high school, my parents shipped me off to a ’superhero academy’. If you ask me, it was just a fancy boarding school for troubled metahumans. They did their best to sand down my rough edges there, but I was still a hot head."

Etienne scratched his head, "Superhero academy? There is so much about the superhero world I don’t know. Is that how you became Hardware?"

Nairobi shook her head and looked at the ground, "No, it’s not."

Her expression shifted immediately and she looked at Etienne with a grin, "So what about you? How did the esteemed and respected son of the Blessad family become this ruthless ninja?"

Etienne stopped walking in the middle of an exhibit and looked at her, "Do you really want to know how?"

Nairobi nodded her head.

Etienne looked away from her, "This happened because I was running away. My parents were killed, and I think my extended family had something to do with it. I had so much rage and anger and sadness for years. After a while, I wanted to escape everyone’s pity and sympathy. I took a plane to Japan and said I was ’finding myself’. But in reality, I just wanted to run away to the countryside for the rest of my life. Work a menial farm job and forget about my problems."

Nairobi took his hand and smiled at him, "For what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re here. No matter how it happened or what led up to it, you’re here now, and you’re a hero."

Etienne stared into her eyes and everything else began to fade away. He leaned in slowly, but Nairobi turned away, her eyes fixed on one of the displays.

Her eyes lit up, "Wow, we stumbled into the Future Sciences Hall!"

She walked through the exhibit, her eyes wide with awe. She stopped and looked at everything like a giddy kid, smiling and flashing her colorful grill.

"They have everything! Spaceships, the prototype time machines the Geeks made..."

She pointed to a 3D projection of a smug, tanned man wearing a red jacket and parachute pants.

"They even have an entire exhibit about Speed the Superhuman," Nairobi narrowed her eyes, "You’ve at least heard of him, right?"

Etienne finally looked away from her and looked at the projection, "Of course I have. Even I’m not that ignorant."

He leaned forward and read the text right below the projection, "Speed the Superhuman. Identity unknown. In collaboration with a group of friends known as the Geeks, he endeavored to create a serum that would greatly improve the bodies’ natural healing capabilities. One sleepy night, after many failed attempts and a lack of funds necessitating he test on himself, an unrecorded mixture of chemicals created the world’s first superhuman, Speed."

Nairobi chuckled, "Just like in the textbooks. They tell it the same way every time. You know what I think? I think this will be you one day."

Etienne glanced back at Nairobi. He opened his mouth to say something but stopped himself. Instead, he leaned in and planted a soft kiss on Nairobi.

Nairobi stumbled back slightly and stared at Etienne, confused. The museum continued to bustle around them as they stared at each other for a while.

Etienne blushed and looked away from her, "S-sorry. Was that not good?"

Nairobi shook her head vigorously, "No, no, it wasn’t...bad but..." She took a step closer to him, and their hands brushed together, "Let’s come back to the museum when Alex is free. How about we go to a bar, get a few drinks and I show you how to kiss instead?"