A Gentle Man's Wrath: Chapter 1 – One Bad Series of Events

Chapter 1 – One Bad Series of Events

The life of a freelance hero is difficult, especially for me. Isaias, the general who put me on a blacklist from all hero associations, already knew that I wouldn’t accept payment from the people I help without them begging me to or making me feel guilty for not taking it. Even though I live with my parents, I still need to make money to help support them and save money for when I eventually live on my own or with a wife and children. Additionally, being a freelance hero means I’m responsible for any damage I cause during an arrest or fight with a criminal or villain. Usually, the hero associations cover for the damage since they’re backed by the government, but freelancers like me have to pay an arm and a leg if we break the smallest thing. It’s especially harder for me since my powers of strength and speed can easily cause damage in places like Solis, where I used to work.

Because of the risk of so much damage, I only work in Poca Bellezza, my rural hometown, where most of my work is charity work helping the residents and occasionally arresting a few criminals. I don’t get paid much, but it’s honest work, and the people are friendly and don’t press charges if I end up damaging something. The friends I went to the hero academy with, who work in Solis, try to get me work in the city, but I refuse them. I still don’t feel like I can trust them after they sold themselves out to Isaias and put the people of Poca Bellezza in danger for a foolish challenge, so I can work independently in my God-given role as a simple hero and don’t have to help Isaias and his wife in their shady dealings. I don’t even hang out with them anymore and have blocked their calls and texts on my phone.

Tragedy strikes one day when a group of tourists comes to Poca Bellezza and is attacked by a villain. By the time I get there, the bus is destroyed, and many of the parents and children are dead or critically injured, with only one child left alive. After beating the villain down, I hand them off to the authorities and rush the last living child to the hospital. Over the next few days, I visit the child to check up on him and see if he’ll make a full recovery. Unfortunately, the doctors tell me he won’t make it, and the child has asked to pray the rosary with him. The child flatlines during the prayer, and the doctors rush me out as they desperately try to save his life and fail in the process.

Afterward, the child’s family, who were also here, mourn his passing at his bedside. I finish praying the rosary with part of it in the child’s hand. At the end of the prayer, the child miraculously wakes up from death, thanks me, and goes back to his long sleep. The doctors have no answer as to how this could happen, even though the child’s heart has stopped beating with no brain activity, and the family is sorrowfully thankful.

“I didn’t do anything. I couldn’t save him,” I say to them.

“You still fulfilled his final wish. I’m sure he’s in Heaven because of you,” the child’s mother says.

“Yeah…Yes, you’re right. That’s the only bright side of this situation.”

During the next day, I’m randomly attacked by Isaias and Irlene, who are still wearing the same red, blue, and gold military uniforms that I saw them wearing in our last encounter, and have some strange light shining in their eyes. Because they attack me without warning and saying anything, I’m forced to defend myself against them without holding back. As our fight continues, my old friends from the hero academy, Mark, Titus, and even Luke, join the fight and have the same light in their eyes. Luke is in a robot he manually pilots from within, Mark wears his usually flashy hero outfits, and Titus is decked out in his police hero uniform. My skin turns white as it powers me up on its own, my strength and speed increase, and no attack can pierce my skin anymore. With my God-given powers, I’m able to defeat all five of them; however, I’m unable to hold back either because of my powers or my frustration with their second betrayal and attack in my hometown.

Going over to Isaias and Irlene, who are still conscious, I ask them, “Why are you here?”

“It’s…it’s not of our choice, son,” Isaias says. “We tried to increase our powers and become like you, but we were tricked and mind controlled by the person, who we thought was a virtuous priest. Heh, I guess it makes sense that we’d get tricked. What we consider a faithful man is different than what a faithful man like you actually is, and here we thought we knew our friend better.”

“What are you blabbing about? Speak clearly to me, for once.”

“We acted foolishly again so we could get you to rejoin our family.”

“We should’ve focused more on caring for you and your sister instead of our larger goals.”

Isaias and Irlene tell me how proud they are of me, and my sister, Idelle, tell me that they love both of us, and then suffer some sort of seizure that makes them bleed from their head and eyes before seeming to die.

“No, no! You can’t leave before you tell me more!” I say out loud.

I grab Irlene, Isaias, Luke, Titus, and Mark and carry them all to a nearby hospital. It doesn’t take long for the doctors to come back to me to confirm that they all died for sure, and there was no reviving them. As I stand over the bodies of my blood-related parents with my sister, I can’t help but feel mixed feelings. Isaias and Irlene had experiments done on Idelle and me when we were younger to make us into superhuman soldiers for the country, and did dozens of shady things behind the scenes, using their power to make the country better in their own way. On the other hand, they did genuinely care for us and the country and wanted to become better people.

Part of me wonders if they would’ve actually become better people if I took their offer to join them, but I can’t let that bother me. Of course, I had temptations to plan how to change them beyond prayers and penance, but those were useless. I know God wanted me to be a simple hero and not the behind-the-scenes hero of the law that my parents wanted me to be. Still, I can’t help but wonder and think about all the things left unsaid and undone by their sudden passing. I only learned their real names and spoke to them recently, and now, they’re gone forever, and I have no clue whether their souls are destined for Heaven or Hell. I can only pray and hope for the best for them.

“They got what they deserved,” Idelle says.

“How could you say that about our parents?” I ask.

“You didn’t know them like I did. I knew there was always a good possibility that they’d be stabbed in the back in their pursuit of power and change. They had their sights set so far ahead into the future that they hardly paid attention to what was in front of them.”

Not wanting to argue with her over the bodies of our dead parents, I shut my mouth. Five days pass, and a funeral is arranged for my friends and parents. My parents mustn’t have had any true friends or family since no one I’ve ever seen shows up. The only people at the funeral are friends and family of my friends and the same townspeople they put in danger, who are here more for me than them. Maybe the people they’re close to are watching from the shadows, or it’s likely the people they were close to were like distant coworkers, who were only close to them because they had similar goals or used each other to reach their goals. Whatever the case may be, I try to pray and think of something to say as my time to say something about them during the funeral is coming up, and I have little to say.

A series of explosions suddenly stops me before I reach the altar, and parts of the roof fall on everyone in the church. I’m only able to save some from injury as a group of people start attacking us. With my attention split up so much and so much evil being done around me, my skin goes white, and I go on a frenzy, uncaring which of the attackers I go after or if I end up killing them in a single blow or not. My rage is drawn upward as if someone is grabbing my face and forcing me to look up. Above the chaos, I see a man dressed in a priest’s garb with light shining from his eyes and the holes in his head, the same light that’s coming out of the people who are attacking us.

It's obvious to me now that he’s the one who made my family, friends, and these people attack me, so I jump further into the sky than I’ve ever jumped to grab the man, crash him down into the ground, and beat him until there’s nothing left him but bits of flesh, pieces of bone, and blood. Now that he’s dead, those under his influence have also died. Some of the townspeople died, many are dead, and a few managed to survive with scratches and minor burns. It’s thanks to the police and superhumans who attended the funeral that many were able to survive. As for my adoptive parents and Idelle, they’re in critical condition, so I bring them to the hospital along with others who are badly injured.

Please, God, help me not lose more family. You’ve been good to me my entire life, filling me with an uncountable number of happy moments and times that I will forever treasure. Why now have you tested me in this way without a single lasting comfort? Why give me the strength to overcome my enemies, but not a way to prevent tragedies like the ones I’ve been going through? Have I been so blind and close-minded to your wisdom? Do I care too much about what’s in front of me that I lose the whole picture?

A doctor comes up to me and says, “There’s good news, John. Your parents and sister are stable.”

“Thanks be to God!” I say as I stand up with tears in my eyes, and nearly break the doctor’s body and arms with my hug.

“I’m so sorry!”

“It’s fine. I get it after everything you’ve gone through, but you should be thanking Timeo Severe. He’s the one who gave your family special health insurance, which saved their life.”

“Timeo Severe? Who’s that?”

“The head of one of the most powerful families in Meridian. His family specializes in medical care, charity, and education, and has been trying for years to turn his crime-ridden city into a safe one. He’s expressed interest in meeting you and has been trying to reach you through the hero association.”

“Unfortunately, I’m black listed. It’s a long story, but I have to meet him one day to personally thank him.”

“You’ll have to wait a bit since on his honeymoon with his new wife, Darcy Travail.”

“That’s fine. I need to be here, for now.”

“Here? I know you want to be here for your family and fellow townspeople, but you’re a mess as well.”

I look down as if for the first time and notice that my cape, shirt, jeans, and boots are in tatters.

“I’m fine. Trust me.”

“But you need your rest. You’ve been through so much, and I’m sure even a superhuman like you needs it.”

I know the doctor is right and concur to leave the hospital for now and come back later. Going back home, I put on a new pair of clothes, a simple yellow shirt, a blue and red hoodie with a golden cross on the back, and a new pair of jeans and boots. Feeling the clothes, I remember how my now deceased friend, Luke, bugged me to put ballistic weave or some other kind of material in all my clothes so I can be extra protected, Mark criticizing my simple, farm boy fashion sense, and Titus mocking both of them. Going back downstairs, visions of the past remind me of all the good times spent down here, making my sister smile, eating my favorite breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast with orange juice, all the movies my family and I watched together, the books we read, and the daily prayers we prayed.

Thinking of prayers, I head out to the destroyed church. It’s been hours since I was here, and it’s hardly been cleaned up. I’m sure that bits and pieces of the people who were killed here can still be found, but I keep that thought out of my head because the bodies of my blood-related parents were destroyed in the battle. Going into the destroyed adoration chapel, I sit by the altar and pray. During my childhood years, I’d uncontrollably go here since God gave me my powers, and the experiment done to me involved me being born in and constantly spending time in an adoration chapel. Even now, I feel most at home here, although the entire building is in ruins and the monstrance is shattered.

There’s nothing more to be said or asked of God. All I can do is silently pray without thought or word and allow God to speak in the silence. This silence I seek to find comfort in doesn’t last long, as it starts to rain. Despite it, I refuse to move and simply put my hood on and try to be at peace. A few more minutes pass as another interruption comes. Three cars pull up to the ruins of the church, and men in suits and armor approach me.

“John Elio?” one of them says.

“Yes?” I ask.

“Isaias and Irlene Kruk left you a heavy inheritance, and we are here to deliver it.”

“I don’t care for it. I wished they were still here rather than scattered in pieces across your feet.”

The people here don’t look at the ground and their shoes to make sure they don’t have blood or flesh on them. There’s something cold and impersonal about them.

“They’re the reason why you’ll be set for life, and the lives of the townspeople don’t have to pay their medical bills.”

“Are you with Timeo Severe?”

The question seems to confuse the man talking to me.

“No. He has nothing to do with us. We worked with your parents behind the scenes to protect this country and make it a better place, and now, we need you to fill their shoes.”

Praying in the silence, I wait for a God-given answer, and for Him to answer through me.

“I’ll help you, but not won’t follow in your ways.”

“You’ll have to if you want to protect your town. Don’t you think it was a bit overkill for someone to attack your parents’ funeral and everyone in it, if they just had a grudge against them and you?”

“I know that. Still, I refuse. Tell me what I need to know, and I’ll take care of this in my own way.”

“Heh. You sound like your parents, but you don’t have the same power and influence they did, kid. Now, you listen to me-”

Immediately, my body and clothes turn white, and I grab the man by the collar.

“You listen to me. I refuse to work with corrupt men and get involved in their crooked methods. If you want my help, tell me where I need to go and the people I need to go after.”

The other people here activate their powers and have their guns trained on me. Not wanting to waste time, I beat them all down and grab the man’s collar again in the blink of an eye before another drop of rain hits the ground.

Seeing what I’ve done, the man says, “Solis. Everything you need to know is on this device. We were going to give it to you if you cooperated.”

Before the man can crush it with his super strength, I grab it out of his hands.

“Thank you,” I say before taking the man and using him as a weapon to total the cars that the people came in.

The device he gave me is activated by confirming my identity by scanning my fingerprints. The names and locations I’m given list people, criminals, villains, heroes, and citizens of varying kinds of power. If they’re who I need to bring to justice to protect my family, then I will. Even if it means being ostracized from society or dying in the process. Before leaving Poca, Bellezza, I kiss the broken monstrance, kneel, cross myself, and leap into the air and sprint at high speed toward Solis. There is no time to hold back or care about doing things by the book. Now, it is the time for merciless justice.