Grim thought he was seeing things. But no, there was a kid at the tailor wearing, of all things, a green flannel shirt.
He didn’t think anyone under the age of 40 wore flannel shirts. The kid left some items on the counter, and the woman behind the counter took them away. He pocketed whatever money he got from it, and then looked around the store. His eye was caught by Grim, who smiled at him and started going up to him.
“Nice shirt,” Grim said. Grim noticed five pens in the kid’s breast pocket.
“Huh?” the kid looked down. “Oh, thanks.”
“It looks really stylish on you. Are you an engineer?”
“Huh? Oh, no.” He laughed.
“Well, with all the pens, I expect to see a slide rule in your back pocket.”
The kid pulled out from his back pocket, a tailor’s measuring tape. “Tape measure.”
“Tape measure,” repeated Grim, mystified.
“You never know when you need to measure things.”
“Like what?” Grim said with a grin, his mind heading straight into the gutter.
“Parts. I’m building a power suit.”
“That’s what I thought you were getting rid of.”
“Oh, no, that’s just a copy. It doesn’t work.”
“Did you make it yourself? The original?”
“Yes. It’s not perfect.”
“Well, nothing really ever is when it comes to technology. There’s always improvements.”
He perked up his head to Grim. “Do you know about technology?”
“Um…not really. I’m more into magic myself.”
“Oh. Do you know any technomages?”
“No,” Grim snapped. The boy was taken aback. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I had bad experiences with technomages so I don’t really associate with them. Maybe my husband knows, or my friend, Mikael.”
“You have a husband?”
“Yes…” Grim was not in the mood for homophobic teenagers.
“That’s so cool.”
Grim smiled. Good answer, he thought. “Are you part of any groups or academies?”
“I just left one. They were into fighting against themselves. I didn’t like that much.”
“Well, I have just the thing. I’m putting together a group of teens to go up against the big villains of the world, the ones that the rest of the Champions don’t seem to want to let you go after. Are you interested?”
“I’m not exactly a teenager.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-two.”
“Close enough.”
He considered. “Are there a lot of girls?”
“Just one girl, and she’s tough as nails.”
“Can I think about it?”
“Here’s my card.” He gave the boy a copy of his business card, which had a few arcane symbols that commanded the holder to call him. “You think about it and let me know. What’s your name?”
“Kelvin.”
“I’m Grimaulkin, Grim for short.”
“Ok, sir.”
“Don’t ‘sir’ me to death. Just call me when you get a chance.”
He went to the other side of the tailor’s and gave him five minutes to come find him. He had it in three.
“Mr. Grim?”
Grim turned around and smiled at Kelvin. “Already decided?”
“I think I’m ready.”
Grim went over to him, put his arm around Kelvin’s shoulders. “Let’s go have a cup of coffee and I’ll tell you all about the Teen Guardians…”