Chapter
3 – When Mercy is Harsh
Timeo is truly a saintly man, whose
inspiring example and cunning will be looked back upon for ages to come. It
makes sense given the loving and faithful family he grew up in, and even though
he grew up in a city that corrupted his many siblings, he didn’t give up, not
even when his own God-given powers turned on his parents and closest allies,
like the former chief of police, Raymond Ellory. As the co-founder of the
Dominion, I should plan like he does, and not always be so focused on the here
and now. I have a legacy to leave for the family and country I love, and I
should leave an example and something for them to follow in the event of my
passing. Timeo has given me the reins again in planning for another event to
gather more support for us, and I’ve chosen the hero recruiting event in Solis,
the Sunny City of Tomorrow.
This near-future city is the place
where I usually operate as a hero, and a shining example of what a Columbian
city should be, besides Poca Bellezza, of course. Here, at the hero recruiting
event, the hero associations, police force, and legitimate vigilante groups
have areas set up on the outskirts of the city to recruit new members. It’s on
the outskirts because each group needs a large enough area to safely show off
the powers and skills of the recruits and existing members. Just like in Poca
Bellezza, we receive a lot of attention, which includes people I’ve already
worked with, some of whom are here to offer an alliance to their group. People
also come here to see me show off my powers, and Timeo’s, even though they
don’t know it’s him when he transforms into L’Obscurité. They like me watching
more than him, but that’s just because Timeo’s dark powers don’t do much when
they don’t have a person to use them on, since they uniquely punish a person
based on their sins, and we’re not willing to subject criminals to it in front
of families for the sake of attention.
Everything seems to be going well
until we hear the sounds of explosions, gunfire, and screaming. At first, Timeo
and I think it’s one of the other groups getting too loud in their power show
casing, but when the cops start heading in the direction of the noise, we
decide to check it out. A crowd has gathered around the scene and is watching as
two heroes engage in a confrontation. Deciding to get involved, Timeo moves
away to transform into L’Obscurité, in secret, while I leap into the fight and
take attacks from both sides meant to hit one another. They both look surprised
at me with their fists in my face.
“What’s going on here?” I ask.
Both people from the two groups share
their reasons simultaneously, accusing the other of initiating the attack, and
talk over one another to the point of sounding incoherent.
“One at a time,” I continue.
“There’s no time to talk,” one of
them from the group says as they start fighting one another again.
I get more physical with both
groups since they don’t want to talk, and beat them into stopping their fight.
Before I can question them further, the cops take them away for questioning of
their own. It’s then that I recognize Timeo is nowhere to be seen, which is
strange because it shouldn’t take him too long to transform, especially since
he can cloud men’s minds without obviously using his powers. Suddenly, more
fights and explosions happen in the area, forcing me to search for Timeo later,
get the civilians to safety, and put a stop to whatever or whoever is causing
this.
“They started attacking us!” one of
the heroes says when I ask them when they’re fighting members from another
association.
“They’ve always had it out for us.
Always jealous of our accomplishments and our virtue,” another says.
More of the heroes and vigilantes
sling insults and fighting words at one another.
“Our cause is just and true, while
yours is hollow and false!”
“I’ve been waiting for the excuse
to put you in your place!”
“Your pathetic excuse for an
association will be disavowed for what you’ve done!”
“I’m going to expose the dirty
secrets we’ve been holding against you!”
“We’ll air your dirty laundry as
well and make the public know you’re nothing but frauds!”
There’s no time to talk this out,
and none of the conflicting associations wants to, so I have no choice but to
bring them all down by myself. I leap and run to each fight, beating down both
sides of the fight, and then quickly run to the next. In the beginning, it’s a
bit easy since one side would think I’m on their side when I start beating
their opposing side before turning on them, but eventually, someone tells the
others that I’m the reason that the fight started, and everyone starts coming
after me.
They even say, “You’ll pay for threatening
my family and friends!”
“What are you talking about? I don’t
even know who you are!” I say.
“You can’t lie to me! You said you’d
kill them if I didn’t leave here because you want all the recruits to yourself!”
Others say the same thing and
accuse me of fighting them before running away. It’s obvious to me now that
this entire fight was more than just tensions between hero associations boiling
over. This was a setup to make us look bad, particularly the Dominion. Timeo
has probably figured that out, and is doing something about it, or at least, I
hope so. As I’m fighting, I watch as a punch being thrown at me is twisted back
on my opponent. Looking around me, I see the limbs of people hitting
themselves, meaning only one thing.
“L’Obscurité!” I say, knowing this
is the result of Timeo’s dark powers of justice.
Sure enough, I see Timeo emerge
from the piles of injured heroes and vigilantes. In his dark hero form, he is
the living embodiment of a shadowy force of justice, wearing a black cloak,
scarf, and hat, and sporting a nondescript face with only black eyes, a dark
smile, and a bullet hole visible in the center of his forehead. From the piles
of writhing, agonized bodies, one of them rises into the air, suspended by
nothing, then is sliced apart while still alive.
“I’m sorry it took me so long to
help you, John. I was rooting out the scum that started this fight, and sure
enough, I have found the rotted foundation,” Timeo says in a deep and dark voice.
It’s just like Timeo to get to the heart
of the issue in the most effective way, while I stupidly headfirst into the
trap without thinking. As the authorities watch the morbid sight and gather
around me, the sliced-up man admits to setting us up by using science to
temporarily make themselves look like others, capitalizing on the drama between
associations, and making themselves look better by making others look bad,
especially the Dominion, because they knew that I would leap into the fight to
end it. The man then talks about the announcement of supremacy that my and
Timeo’s doppelgängers are about to make in the center of Solis. Timeo and I speedily
go out and leave the sliced man to slowly be reformed into one, as we head into
the city, where we find our doppelgängers threatening the citizens with taking
over the city.
My doppelgängers says, “This city
will belong to God and the Church, and you’ll all become Catholic whether you
like it or not, for the sake of your salvation.”
Without skipping a beat, I punch
him in the face and slam Timeo’s doppelgängers into the ground several times
until he stops moving. Meanwhile, my doppelgängers is being taken care of by
Timeo, who practically skins him alive by separating his false appearance from
his real one, exposing to the public that both he and the false Timeo aren’t
who they say they are.
To be sure they understand, I say, “We
don’t want to forcefully convert you! We’re a hero association whose only goal
is to help and protect people and serve our God. Nothing more!”
There are people I’ve encountered
before in the crowd who already know this and voice their support, while others
look at me as if reserving judgment or already having an immovable negative opinion
of us. Later in the day, Timeo and I watch the news at my house, seeing the
media accurately reporting the news about us being set up and saving the day.
Still, I feel uneasy about what happened, and Timeo seems to sense it.
“It’s going to be alright. We aren’t
going to get any negative PR about this,” Timeo says.
“Thank you, but that’s not really
the thing that bothers me. It’s the fact that a hero association started this
to get at others, with us being their main target. So-called heroes who turn on
their own are worse than villains,” I say.
Timeo agrees with me, and Deborah puts
her arms around me from behind and gives me words of comfort that I thank her
for.
“This is all part of starting and
being part of a hero association, and having the reputation that we have.”
“I know…still…it shouldn’t be this
way.”
“We’ll find a way to make it so
that something like this never happens again.”
Timeo’s words reinvigorate my
smile.
“You’re right! We’ll make a
difference sooner or later. This was just something to discourage us from our
goal and nothing more.”
Timeo agrees, and we renew our
promise to make the country and world a better place where infighting between
heroes and vigilantes doesn’t happen.
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