Chapter
1 – A Fool’s Redemption
The new heads of my Coronamento
Corporation meet in a conference room to discuss the company's future.
One of the heads of the
organization says, “With Giovanni still recovering in the hospital, I think
it’s only right that we stay the course with every project he started.”
Another boss says, “Many of those
projects are why he was put in a hospital. A singular priest pushed through our
defenses and breathed his supernatural fire, burning Giovanni, and a rogue
researcher destroyed his life’s work in our facilities, where he worked. Let's
lick our wounds and improve our defenses so that no singular superhuman or
group of them can attack us and do major damage as those two did.”
“We have the best defenses out of
every corporation in the world, and the best guards, who are hired from the
world-dominating hero association, the Dominion of Mercy and Justice. What we
need is to broaden our horizons. With the Dominion as our ally, we have
theoretically infinite resources to do whatever we want,” yet another boss
says.
“Such as?”
“Whatever needs to be done to
increase our reach across the world. Giovanni created this corporation to
spread the Catholic faith across it and use whatever means necessary to instill
it into its very bones.”
“Again, that’s what got him put in
the hospital with burns all over his body.”
“It won’t happen again, and it
won’t happen to any of us if we use the Dominion’s resources to protect us.”
Finally, I say, “May I chime in? I
own the company after all.”
Everyone in the room gets nervous
and looks around.
“Giovanni? Where are you?”
“In the room with you.”
“We thought you were still
recovering in the hospital. When did you get out?”
“Just now. I can teleport and
become invisible, among many things. Observe.”
Playing a card I get from my
sleeve, I uncloak myself in front of everyone, who are again surprised.
“Tada!” I say with a bow.
“What happened to you, Giovanni?”
“Yeah. You look totally different
from the last time I saw you in the hospital.”
“What’s with that getup? You look
like a ringmaster at a circus.”
“Haha, ain’t it cool?” I say as I
spin around as if modeling. “I like the manly pink color of it. The red and
blue tear marks near my eyes complete the look, don’t you think? As for the
blonde parts of my hair, my blackened skin, and the pale hand that I now have,
I got these all after having survived the holy fires that engulfed me, burned
the sin from my soul, and graciously forced me to open my eyes.”
“Yes, but why look like a clownish
ringmaster, Mr. Coronamento?”
“Because I’ve been a fool my entire
life, and thought it was fitting. I find it very penitential. Why shouldn’t the
clown look like a clown?”
“If…that’s what you want to do,
then I guess you should do it?”
“What about these new powers of
yours, Giovanni? What can you do with them?”
“I can do any number of things.
Observe.” I put my hands together, and a stack of cards appears between them
when I separate my hands. “See these cards? Each one has a unique ability. You
have already seen me teleport and be invisible, but I can also do this.”
Playing the transformation card, I
turn into a raptor. I play another card to turn into a robotic version of
myself, another card to turn my appearance back to its original self, another
card to make various kinds of fruit fall into the room, and yet another card to
make a living shark appear in the room, which I quickly undo with a card that
undoes everything I just did.
“It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?” I
ask my stunned audience.
“Yeah, just try not to do the shark
thing again.”
“What are the limits to your
powers?”
“There are none as far as I know.
The only limit is to me. I can’t choose which cards to use; trust me, I’ve
tried pulling cards out of my sleeves, ears, mouth, and nose, and they’re all
the same cards that I originally drew in the situation at hand. When I asked
the mystic priest who kept visiting me in the hospital about it, he said that I
can only draw the cards God wants me to use, and since God is the origin of all
power, I can’t argue with that explanation.”
“What will you do with your new
powers?”
Drawing new cards, I say, “These
cards reveal to me God’s will for my life. They simply say; destroy, rebuild,
and renew. I don’t know about you, but I think this means a story of redemption
for a fool like me. My life and life’s work will be renewed and brought to new
heights.”
The heads of my organization clap,
finally seem comfortable, and say how glad they are for me.
“What’s the next step for you and
us?”
“Let’s see what God says through
the cards.”
I draw some new cards and play
them. The first card that I play takes us all outside, along with others who
are working in the office building. The people who weren’t in the meeting are
confused and frightened by their sudden teleportation and are given a short
summary as to what is happening by the people who know. The next card I play
teleports a bunch of shady-looking people in front of us, who are also confused
by what is happening. When they see me, they all turn their attention to me,
draw their weapons, and activate their powers.
They say things like, “Look who it
is. It’s Giovanni Coronamento. I was hoping that you’d die in the hospital, but
me getting the opportunity to kill you myself is even better.”
“I want to kill him first!”
“Get in line!”
“I have a bone to pick with him
because of what he did to me and mine!”
“Please, please! There’s enough of
me to go around,” I say as I play my next card.
The card I play summons about fifty
copies of myself out of thin air, each with its own superpower and weapon to
fight my enemies. My copies recklessly charge the enemy and fight them. When
one takes serious damage, it explodes into fire, acid, or blades, taking the
person who killed it with it. Eventually, all my enemies are dead, and with
them, the clones disappear. The heads of my company clap, then take a closer
look at our attackers and are astonished to see who they are, many of whom are
longstanding enemies of my corporation and notorious criminals and villains.
Because of this, my employees clap again and are not afraid of my powers.
“Praise be to God!” I say.
My employees cheer and repeat my
words over and over again with me, until I hold my hands up and tell them to be
quiet.
“This is but a taste of my new
powers, thanks to my repentance and giving real control of my life to God. Now,
let’s see what God has in store for us next,” I say to an excited crowd.
Using the next card, another crowd
of my employees from different places in the world appears around me. They are
caught up on what is happening and are excited to see what I do next. The next
card strangely teleports us all away to a nearby rooftop, and the card after
that seems to do nothing at first, until we look up and see one of my
facilities falling from the sky into the office building I was just in.
“What was that, Giovanni?”
“What did you do that for?”
“Like it was explained to you, I
have no control over what cards I draw and what they do,” I say.
Hoping to draw a good card, I play
the next one that I have and see that the destroyed office and facility completely
disappear as if both were never there. That’s something, I guess. Next up, we
are all teleported to one of my private resort islands, where my other managers
and lead researchers are taking a break. These people are caught up as well,
and all seems well and good. I only have two more cards from the many that I’ve
drawn, and I hope and pray that these do something good. Uh, oh. I draw a card
with a bleeding face on it. The card melts into blood as many people around me
start bleeding out of every part of their bodies, dying a horrible death. I
frantically play the next card, and somehow things get worse.
Pillars of fire spew out from the
ground all over the island, and in the distance, I see more pillars of fire
coming out. I know that they’re from the other islands I own. Everyone is fleeing
for their lives and getting caught up in the chaos. In the midst of it all, I
feel a tightness in my chest as my body suddenly goes cold. Why? I thought I repented
in the way that I was supposed to. These cards are supposed to make God’s will
manifest, so why is everything going so wrong? Did I sin without knowing? I clasp
my chest as I fall to the floor and consider what I could’ve been doing wrong
and how this all could be right and come up empty. It doesn’t make any sense to
me, but then again, I’ve always been a fool…always a foolish fool…
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