Chapter
1 – First Apprentice
My life isn’t all crime-fighting.
I’m a father, husband, and inheritor of my family’s legacy. I help run the
schools, charities, and hospitals that we own in Meridian and frequently visit
them to ensure they are running well and that their concerns are heard. I’ll
even help out with whatever they need on any given day, just like my parents
did. Even though I don’t practice medicine like they did, I’m still able to run
around hospitals, giving people what they need, and help teach at schools, and
serve at community centers that feed and give to the poor.
Today, I’m assisting the Knights’
council, which my father and past generations of men built to serve our parish
community, its families, and the city's poor. We’ve already prepared and
distributed meals to those in need and are cleaning up our hall before
decorating it for a school event. Suddenly, a group of armed, masked men kick
in the doors of the hall and reveal their intentions by threatening to shoot us
unless we hand over our money. Just as we’re about to give them a warm,
Meridian City-style no by pulling out our guns to shoot them, a third party
intervenes. A man clad in a black and red hood, black gloves, black pants and
boots, and a white shirt with a snake resembling the chi rho symbol bursts in,
guns blazing, taking out some of the criminals with his revolver while
targeting others exclusively with his pistol.
The guys and I keep our guns
trained on this mysterious man, thank him for saving us, and ask him what he
wants. The man with the red hood makes his guns disappear into thin air as he
raises his hands with a smile.
“I came here simply to help you,
dark hero,” he says while looking directly at me.
Knowing what he’s talking about, I
tell my friends that he’s trustworthy and that I need to talk to him in
private, and despite not knowing what he’s talking about, they trust me.
Bringing him over to a room where
my friends won’t hear us, I ask, “Why did you seek me out?”
“I want to learn from you,
L’Obscurité. I want to be a hero like you are. Have I not proved my dedication
by finding out your true identity and saving you from criminals?” he says.
“Finding my true identity is not
unique, and what you’ve done is just the first step in impressing me.” I look
into the man’s eyes to see the quality of his soul and into his memories for
the truth of his intentions. “You seem to be honest, Kane Mundr. Let’s put in
some honest work before we get to the real work and take off your hood. You’re
among friends here.”
Accepting my request, Kane takes
off his hood to reveal a young face with slicked-back black hair. His right eye
is light blue and grey, while his left eye is red and black, and both look like
the eyes of a snake. My friends don’t question Kane helping us clean up, and I
call my friend, the Chief of Police Raymond Ellory, to clean up the remains of
the criminals and ignore Kane.
“Kane Mundr was there to ‘save’ you
from criminals?” Raymond asks. “He was the villain known as The Guillotine. You
put him away in the first few years of your hero work for attempted murder. I
think he was going after certain politicians for whatever self-righteous reason.”
“I’ve seen his memories, and he
looks to be a genuinely repentant soul. It’s what my powers are supposed to do,
so I trust him,” I say.
“I won’t doubt you and your powers.
Just be careful, okay, kid?”
“I’ll keep you updated as always,
chief.”
After cleaning up, Kane and I take
a walk through the busy streets of Meridian.
“That was the Chief of Police on
the phone, right?” Kane asks.
“Right. He’s why the police didn’t
question you much when they arrived. Back in the day, he would’ve had you sign
a contract before doing anything with me,” I say.
“He won’t be much help for the
villain I have in mind for us to go after.”
“I need to see you in action again
before I think we should work together. There’s work to be done, lives to be
saved, and criminals to be punished, after all.”
“Okay…Even though I thought I did
enough to impress you, I won’t argue.”
Leading Kane to areas of crime by
transforming into my dark hero, L’Obscurité, form, and transporting us
instantly. I watch as he shoots criminals with either his revolver or pistol,
and question him on it and his particular powers.
“After your powers touched and
brought me to repentance, I was able to see if a person should continue living
or die. The revolver shoots them with a pellet that injects a substance into
people that knocks them out for a day, while my pistol shoots them with bullets
that have lethal poisons in them,” Kane explains.
I check for a pulse in the
criminals he shot with his revolvers and look into the souls of everyone he
shot, and find that he’s telling the truth.
“Fascinating. Let’s continue
cleaning up the city,” I say.
“Sure, but can I point out the
people who do daylight crime despite the presence of you and other heroes and
vigilantes? People aren’t just desperate, stupid, or greedy to do this kind of
crime.”
“I know some have connections in
legitimate businesses, the government, and law enforcement, both the police and
the hero associations. Those kinds of criminals are harder to root out
legitimately.”
“Not for a hero like you. You
rooted out plenty of them and hung them from a building they were doing
business in on the first day you revealed yourself to the public, remember?”
“I remember, but I’m also not as
extreme as I was in my earlier years.”
Saying that makes me feel old, even
though I’m thirty-two years old.
“So, what? You’ve gone soft now? It
doesn’t look like it from what I’ve heard.”
“I’ll explain more after we’ve
punished more evil.”
I lead Kane through various parts
of the city and watch him effectively clear out entire buildings, warehouses,
and streets of crime. We also stop robberies and extortions in between his
clearing of areas. He doesn’t seem to be invincible like me, as he actively
tries to avoid bullets, and is good at doing so, as he dodges and dances
between them at superhuman speeds.
“You can’t take a bullet, can you?”
I ask.
“I have tougher skin than most, but
no, I cannot, unlike you,” Kane says while pointing at the gun wound in my
forehead. “I have to say, I like your new appearance, and that bullet in your
head makes you look tougher and scarier. It was your encounter with your
brother that convinced me that Timeo Severe and L’Obscurité were the same
person. I’m sorry about what happened then.”
“I try not to think about that,
despite my parents and siblings all dying in one night. Still, I keep this
bullet in my head as part of my appearance as a reminder of that somber day. As
for the rest of it, the long hat, the coat of darkness, and the scarf that’s
now lower to show the terrifying face behind it, it’s all a result of my growth
in power and inspired by the Divinity who gave it to me.”
“How come you aren’t using it to
its fullest potential? Why hold back and not let justice flood the city?”
“It inspires the wrong kinds of
people and gives them the wrong message. Besides, God gave me my powers, and
what happens to those touched by it is decided by Him, not me. I am merely a
conduit for His will. The most I can do to influence what happens is by praying
for those affected by it to increase their chance at repentance and receiving
mercy.”
“Really? All that praying must be
working out if you’ve spared more people than killed in recent years. Even so,
I know that you know more deserves death than mercy.”
“All of us deserve death instead of
mercy. Watch me work and I’ll explain more.”
Taking Kane to another location, I
handle the criminals by allowing my dark powers of justice to execute their
will upon them. From the shadows, he watches as people are torn to shreds, shot
o pieces, stabbed to death by drug needles, beaten to a pulp by the demons that
controlled their desires, and other such horrible fates that somehow left them
living despite appearing to have gone through an experience that would’ve
killed them. For the last criminal, I reach down their throat and tear out
their heart, which is a filthy thing with mouths that have sharp teeth in them.
“If you can stand this being in
your body and repent, then you’ll live,” I say to the criminal before shoving
their heart back down their throat and leaving them to be challenged for their
salvation.
I then take Kane out of the area so
we can talk.
“What did you notice back there?” I
ask him.
“A lot of those people were
destined to die, but your prayers and powers gave them more time,” he says.
“Correct. A repentant soul is more
likely to never sin again and tell others to do the same.”
“Tch. ‘More likely. ’ The worst of
them is more likely to fall back into their old habits.”
“We all do, some of us worse than
others, but that doesn’t mean we don’t get another second chance. Remember what
happened to you and let that humble you. If you follow me, you’ll find that
you’ll be sparing more people than killing and want to spare.”
“You may have a better view of
things because you see into people’s souls and memories, but you have to admit
that there’s a time when justice needs to be given more than mercy.”
“I know that. Tell me the reason
for all of your righteous anger.”
“Can’t you just see them in my
memories?”
“I want to hear you tell it to me.”
“My dad was one of the rare honest politicians
who never took a bribe from anyone or picked a political side. He just did what
he thought was right for the city and damn the consequences for doing so. Well,
that attitude got him killed. The people that we’re after staged an accident
with AI-driven cars so that he would stop giving them a hard time.”
“That’s what turned you to a life of
crime?”
"I admit that I regret my earlier
years. I hurt a lot of innocent people who probably didn’t deserve it or knew
what was going on to figure out what happened, but there’s no time to regret
the past. We have to fix this situation in the present. My mom was so
devastated by my dad’s death and what I had become that she had to risk her
life to bring my dad’s killers to justice. She contacted my dad’s friends in
business and the government, but they sold her out, leaving me clueless about
where they took her. All I got was a finger, a toe, and a necklace that I got
her for a birthday, along with a note mocking me for my efforts to get back at
them and telling me to stop."
“They don’t all deserve to die, and
criminals get too greedy or over their heads because they think they have all
angles perfectly covered at all times.”
These people may slip up, but they
maintain a seemingly endless array of contingency plans for failure. They have
friends at all levels of power who can eliminate evidence or manipulate it so
they can imprison people they dislike. If that approach fails, they have judges
and lawyers who can minimize punishments or extricate them from the situation
entirely, such as when they hired a villain to break into a courtroom to stage
a fake assassination attempt, had a hero fight and imprison them, merely to create
an excuse to keep their ally in protective custody where they enjoy a luxurious
prison cell from which they continue to operate.
“I think I know who you’re talking
about. They don’t have a name for their group, despite being a collective, but
they are known as The White Collars by those who do business with them. I’m
pretty sure I’ve done damage to their organization in one way or another, but
nothing substantial yet.”
“Why not make them your next target,
then? The longer we let them operate as they are, the more people they hurt and
kill. Haven’t you seen and heard enough yet to trust me? Is this too big of a
challenge for the great, L’Obscurité?”
I consider it for a few seconds in
prayer before answering, “Alright. The darkness of justice will fall upon The
White Collars through you and me.”
I manifest a dark hand that has a
hole in it, similar to the wounds of my God. Kane smiles as he shakes my hand.
“Let’s kick ass, partner,” he says.
No comments:
Post a Comment