Super Travel Agent -5minutefreewrite (x3)

For https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/mcf7r-weekend-freewrite-03-10-2018-part-3-the-dramatic-twist

Dad gave me a wink, like we were pals or something. He's my DAAAAD, you know? I don't want my friends to think I LIKE MY DAD.
Gawd, what a cliche.

Dad winked. His eye curled up. He had unicorns bounding around his effervescent cloud chair. The bubbly sparkles winked with him. My dad thinks he's Zeus or something, but that's what virtual reality does to people, makes them think they're the gods of their immediate surroundings. I'm the only one who knows that I'm a superhero, not a god, but I'll let them think that. I mean, some might mistake me for a god. After all, there's a whole subset of people who I'm sure spend hours in worship of me. They're always saying things like, "Nice to see you, Steve!" Which I know is their way of paying homage to me.

Yesterday, as I was wielding my flame sword against a typhoon, a little bird tweeted in my ear about a supervillain on the other side of the planet who was tempting tourists to a volcanic island that he was then going to explode. Thank goodness the bird got to me in time. I immediately wrote the Tourism Board, and got the supervillain's ads taken down, then wrote him a bad yelp review. Day SAVED.

She was standing behind the counter, giving him this root beer-float kind of a smile. He was in my favorite soda shop. TRAVEL AGENT. That was the supervillain's name. Or, his code name at least. His secret identity. By day... or, well it was day. Regardless, in ordinary life, he probably had a very average name, like Lex... wait... not all supervillains have secret identities. Could it be, he REALLY WAS a travel agent? Perhaps our paths had crossed entirely by accident. He sent me on a very bad cruise vacation years ago... a virtual cruise, but with real food poisoning. That's when I learned how to belch fire. SO really, without him, I never would have become the superhero I am today. Does that outweigh his treachery? Oh, she smiles that root beer float kind of smile. It means to all and sundry that she has identified treachery. WHen she smiles at me, it's more of a Hot Fudge Sundae kind of smile. That's how you know she knows I'm a superhero. This is our secret code. We've never discussed it, but she knows. Then she says, "how are you today, Steve?" and I know she's paying homage to me, but she needn't. Is homage the right word? You know... whatever it is you pay to a god. Not that I think I'm a god, like my dad does, just a superhero. It's funny how many people think they're Gods.

The time Leslie called me a leech... that's his name, the Travel Agent, I found out because he had it written on his starbuck's cup. He called me a leech when I started a competing virtual travel agency. I was this close to putting him out of business when HE complained to the Tourism Relations board about ME. And then left me a scathing Yelp review. There was so little I could do about it. It's been nothing but animosity since then. At least now he acknowledges me as his arch nemesis. I have found a way to make all of the vacation packages he sells have a coding error, so he's been refunding them all. I'm saving them all from bad vacations with real food poisoning, and occasional volcanic activity. He's been cheating, though, and just making my site appear as a 404 error even though I've checked the back end. It says "content not available in your country" which people should know isn't true, since we haven't had countries or borders for 100 years. But they fall for it and move on to another site. Of course they never find his because my algorithms have buried him beneath many pages of other travel agencies. The true beneficiaries of our war are the big travel conglomerates. Who, I now am realizing, are the actual supervillains. I think I've made a grave error. Maybe Leslie and I can have a coffee.