Chapter
3 – Justice and Justifications
It’s strange being in another
country, and even stranger being in the light and dark for as long as I have
with Timeo. Since flying to Nexum is tougher because we’re criminals, we
decided this would be the stealthiest and fastest way to get there. Luckily, we
didn’t sink when we crossed the ocean, and since our phones have maps, we
managed to reach Nexum in under three hours. As we enter the country, we can’t
relax yet because it’s hostile to us, and we’re sure the enemy already knows
we’re coming, considering how much they know about us. To my relief, Timeo
planned this well in advance, and we’re meeting one of Giovanni Cornamento’s
spies here. We enter the house through the basement and finally exit the light
and dark.
Checking on Timeo, I ask, “How you
ever been in the light and dark for that long before?”
“No. It was my first time. My
powers don’t exhaust or exert any kind of physical stress on me, but after
making that trip, I do feel like I should sit down for a bit,” Timeo says as he
takes a seat on a nearby steel chair.
“You’ll need to sit down for this,”
Giovanni’s spy says.
The spy taps on his computer,
closes the windows, and makes sure the door is shut as a video stream is
projected on the wall. We see a live feed of Giovanni Coronamento being
streamed to us. He’s as well-dressed in a suit as Timeo is and has a diminished
look of confidence on his face. Both he and Timeo are known for their planning,
Giovanni with his smug demeanor and alegal methods, and Timeo for his
confidence, traps, working closely with the law, and dark methods of justice.
Whenever I’m in the room with them, I feel like a child who has no room to
speak or an idea how to start because of their intelligence and foresight.
“Gentlemen, I’m glad you made it to
Nexum safely and so quickly. The common bet with my people was that it’d take
you at least half a day, but I guess Timeo can travel faster across the world
than we thought,” Giovanni says.
“I’m surprised, or rather, should I
not be that you have spies here in Nexum and information on its leaders?” Timeo
asks.
“Heh, just because my company is
based in the Columbian Union doesn’t mean that I can’t have influence
elsewhere. It’s a common business practice for others, so why shouldn’t I do
the same? Anyways, on to the matter at hand, I’ve been given the information we
need to move on Nexum’s leaders and a way to get justice for us.”
“How come we couldn’t just get this
information?” I ask.
“Having it on us, in any physical
way, could get it lost or compromise my spies if they get captured. With
nothing on them, the police here can’t prosecute them. Also, they have
information I need to do my part over here with Darcy, right, Timeo?”
“Correct,” Timeo says with a sigh.
Giovanni then begins to explain who
to bring to justice, their positions of power in the government, and the roles
they’ve played in exerting their influence across the world and in the
Columbian Union. It’s a lot for me to remember, so I just take note of our
targets and their locations.
“Any objections or questions?”
Giovanni asks. Timeo shakes his head. “John?”
“Nope. I only needed to know who I
needed to go after. As for the reasons, I already have it, which is going after
them because they hurt my loved ones and for divine justice’s sake.”
“Plain, faith-focused, and simple,
as always. I admire that about you, John, but that approach won’t work too well
in this situation—at least until we reach the big battle. That’s why I’ve
assigned you the task of causing trouble to draw attention away from Timeo,
while he gathers intel, certain key items, and handles our targets in the dark.
I assume neither of you minds doing things the way I’ve suggested?”
“Even though I’ve tried not to put
myself above the law, we’re already criminals, so there’s no choosing
otherwise. If anything, we should thank our enemies for making our choice so
simple,” Timeo says.
“I’ll do what I need to, while
ensuring innocents are kept safe,” I say.
“That’s noble of you, John, but
there are few people here who we could consider innocent,” Giovanni says.
“You’ll probably find yourself fighting against them when you don’t want to,
but if you want to do things your way, I have disguises in this hideout you can
use to get a feel for the local customs and where to strike to avoid hurting
any ‘innocents’. You’ll find that they wear their beliefs on their sleeves.
Once you start a fight, let us know, so Timeo can begin his part of our
mission. Good luck and God bless, gentlemen. I’ll speak to you soon when the
chaos starts.”
Giovanni’s spy points me to a
closet full of slip-on fake skin suits, ones that make me look like different
people. Something feels off about wearing them, even though they don’t feel or
smell like real skin, but I put one on anyway, tell Timeo good luck, and head
out. The culture of Nexum is a blend of Eastern, European, and Middle Eastern
influences, since its territory sits right in the middle of all of them, which
is why the Columbian Union and many other countries are allied with it. It’s
large enough to wield power but small enough to ask for money, military
weapons, and soldiers for support from its detractors on this side of the
world. Its people are a mix of cultures, with superhumans among them helping
out with daily activities.
Regarding religion, they practice a
form of Christian heresy combined with Jewish customs and view various pagan
gods as angels or pillars of nature, or at least that’s what I can gather from
visiting their churches. From the history they’ve inscribed on plaques, I learn
that many of these sites were originally Catholic churches that were converted
into their own after the dominant religion took over. I don’t need to look far
to learn about their politics; I simply visit a nearby restaurant, read the news,
and see them celebrate the villainization of the Dominion, the damage inflicted
on its buildings, and the murders of its members. You’d think they all
conspired in its destruction, from the youngest to the oldest, talking trash
about it and pridefully mentioning how certain targets of mine and Timeo’s had
a hand in it.
I’ve heard that the people of Nexum
actually hate the Columbian Union and put on a façade so they can take what
they want from us, but I thought it was a minority of their people, not a
majority. Perhaps, showing them that they’re not as untouchable as they seem
will humble them and shatter their vile beliefs. To start, I might as well
target the worst thing in the city I’m in, which is one of their churches. I
break the false image of Christ and smash the other images of idols with my
hands, causing panic and prompting people to call law enforcement. With them on
my tail, I use my earpiece device to tell Timeo to start moving and where I’m
going next.
Not wanting Timeo to do all the
work, I target their weapons facilities, superhuman research centers, and other
churches and places where they honor their heroes. Within minutes, I caused
damage all over their country in the parts I was assigned, and at least a
hundred or so law enforcement superhumans are after me. They tell me to stop
running and fight them, so I oblige. None of them stands a chance against my
strength, nor are they able to even pierce the skin suit I’m wearing, that is,
until I’m hit by an energy blast composed of frost and fire that sends me
flying into a skyscraper. My skin suit is completely damaged now, so I take it
off, and look at who hit me, and see a young adult man who reminds me a lot of
myself.
He wears a simple one-piece hero
suit colored in the colors of his country, purple, gold, and red, with Nexum’s
flag on its back, with a lion, eagle, and sword on it. His hair is a dull gold,
and his eyes are red and blue. Next to him is an older girl who wears a
one-piece suit of armor like my sister, except this girl has two insect wings
on her back.
“We’d known come here, John,” the man
says.
“Who are you?” I ask.
“Heh, the better version of you.”
The man flies up into the air
without any wings or a visible kind of propulsion and shoots fire out of his
mouth. I dodge his attack, and he switches his attack to breathe ice in front
of me to slip me up. He then uses both fire and ice in his breath attack to
overwhelm me with his power, forcing me to take hits while running for cover.
Unfortunately, when I do, the girl comes after me with a ferocious flurry of
punches and kicks as she flies around with super speed. Seeing that there’s no
room to catch my breath, I exchange punches with the girl until I send her
flying away with one last one, just as her partner comes flying at me with a
punch of his own, sending me in the direction that I sent the girl in.
By the time I hit the ground, both
of my enemies are on me with their attacks. I weakly through punches of my own
in return, weakened, but not giving up at all.
“You’re outmatched, John! Give up
already!” the man says.
“Not yet!” I say through the pain.
“Not when I have so much to fight for!”
I offer the pain given to me as
penance for the sins of those who give it to me, and I am strengthened by it.
Grabbing the man, I use him as a shield against the girl’s attacks, which
causes her to slow down and hesitate briefly. During the struggle, I throw him
aside, quickly punch the girl, grab her by the legs, and use her like a bat to
knock away her partner, who rushes back at me. Tossing her in the direction I
hit him, I land on top of both of them and keep punching until they stop
moving. After catching my breath, I realize I am in the middle of a crowded
city area with civilians watching me. Seeing their heroes fall at my hands
enrages them, and the superhumans and ordinary people among them start fighting
me, forcing me to defend myself.
Nothing I say makes them back off,
nor does beating them back as they swarm me. Eventually, the man and girl I was
fighting get back on their feet and resume the fight. They both throw a single
punch at me, sending me into the air. The man flies up and punches me back
down, while the girl punches me up repeatedly until I snap out of it, reorient
myself, and punch the girl square in the face on my way down. The force of the
punch breaks her neck, killing her. This enrages the man, turning him red and
setting his arms on fire. The crowd also gets riled up and multiplies their
attack on me, as both they and their hero assault me simultaneously. My entire
body and clothes turn white, symbolizing that there is no mercy left for these
people and no more holding back.
I scream out in righteous anger, which
vaporizes some in the crowd and leaves others stunned, allowing me to finish
the fight in seconds. Making sure that the man is dead, I walk over to him and
see that he’s barely clinging to life. He weakly punches me as I kneel to hold
him up.
Grabbing his hands, I say, “Stop.
It’s over.”
“N-no…no, it’s not. Not until I die,”
he says in nearly a whisper. “I still…have friends and family to defend. My God
gave me a purpose to fulfill, and I’m not going to let Him down.”
“You fought for the wrong Jesus
Christ. May you obtain the clarity to see that and mercy through repentance.”
“I…I just wanted to help people.
They depend on me…”
“Me too.”
I finish off the man with one last
punch to the chest that kills him and ends the fight. Timeo calls him and lets me
know he’s done his part, and I tell him that I finished mine as well. We then met
back at the spy’s hideout and talked to each other about what happened.
“Nexum also tried making a hero
like me, too,” Timeo says. “Though I didn’t have any trouble taking care of him
and his apprentices. If I have to thank my older brother for anything, it’s for
preparing me for fights against people with powers similar to mine. They also
gave me trouble since they knew about my abilities and had certain people know
select information, forcing me to cover all my targets and then some to gather
all the intel we needed.”
“Yeah, they are crafty, if
unoriginal,” I say.
The spy interjects, “I was on
standby, just in case your sympathy outweighed your duty, with an acidic rifle
to finish the job.”
“I appreciate it.”
Timeo agrees and, noticing I’m not
saying anything else, he asks, “Are you okay, John?”
“I am. That man I faced reminded me
a bit too much of myself and Idelle. I’m praying for their salvation and the
salvation of the others I’ve killed and hurt today.”
“I see.”
Timeo silently prays with me for the souls lost today and our enemies as we rest and wait as part of the final part of our plan.
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