Chapter
1 – A Master Reflected by His Apprentices
Today’s another morning, but also a
special one. All my friends are coming over for breakfast, which I help prepare
for with my wife and apprentices. My wife, Darcy Travail Severe, is a
blue-eyed, black hair beauty who is pregnant with our third child. She wears a
purple and black dress, a white cooking apron, and her favorite pink lipstick.
As for me, I wear a black dress shirt, red tie, black dress pants, dress shoes,
and an apron as well. Behind us, our infants Rouge and Gris watch us in their
booster seats, patiently waiting for breakfast and constantly making noises to
get attention, which we give, in between cooking and preparing the table.
Next to me stands my first
apprentice, Kane Mundr, who is dressed in his crimson hoodie, a black shirt
with a snake on it, black cargo pants, and black boots as usual. His black hair
is a bit messy from waking up early, and his grey, blue, red, and black eyes
look heavy from being tired after last night’s work and today’s stress. Near
him is Raziel Emundatio, my second apprentice. He’s wearing an apron, a red
shirt with a cross on it, jeans, and leather boots. His golden blond hair
shines as brightly as his red, orange, and yellow eyes, matching his cheerful
personality and hopeful outlook, thankful for another God-given day.
Last, but not least, my third and
most recent apprentice, Polina Yelizaveta, just arrived here not too long ago,
so she can help. She’s dressed up in her dark blue police officer uniform with
a badge on her chest, an equipment belt, and a pistol on each hip. Her crimson
hair is as red as her eyes, and her fiery personality and love for mercy and
justice. Cooking like this together reminds me of the times when I would do the
same for the needy and homeless at the many charity centers my family runs. My
parents would bring me out to them when they weren’t working at our hospitals
to teach me the value of giving to others without expecting anything in return.
Our guests soon arrive: Mayor Jeph, Deputy Tim, my close friend and brother,
Lancetto Affare, and Klinge Geben, another inheritor of his family’s rich
legacy like Lancetto, Darcy, and me. While we eat, I can’t help but watch
everyone talk, eat, and enjoy themselves.
Lancetto is dressed in a top hat,
bow tie, round glasses, and snazzy outfit as well, mixing white, gold, and red,
appearing to be the embodiment of his family’s dignified wealth. The mayor and
his deputy are dressed the same as Lancetto in their own way, and Klinge is a
mutated man dressed casually in a grey hoodie, plain black shirt, dark blue
jeans, and boots. We’ve tried to get him a custom suit, but he prefers to stay
casual, representative of the common man and manufacturers, whom his family
represents.
Darcy notices this, puts her hand
on mine, and says, “Are you okay, Timeo, my love? You seem to be lost in
thought since you’ve been looking at everyone strangely.”
My wife is one to always notice the
finer details. It makes sense since the Travail family is taught to do this
because of how they influence the city through the arts and fiction. She’s
right in that I’ve been looking at my loved ones longer than usual and noticing
every detail about them as if I’m admiring a prized possession or nostalgic
photo.
“It’s been a long year, hasn’t it?”
I ask. “Many criminal and villainous syndicates were taken down, I got three
sidekicks or apprentices, my hero identity was outlawed, and then redeemed in
the eyes of the law, and now, the safety of Meridian is about to be ensured
thanks to our newest friends from the undercity.”
“God is good.”
“Yes, He is.”
Our peaceful breakfast is crashed
by a group of masked robbers, who wear body armor and threaten us with guns. As
they make their demands, I continue eating my breakfast of steak and eggs and
drinking my wine. One of the criminals asks me what my problem is, and I simply
laugh and raise my glass to them before my apprentices spring into action,
taking them down and away from the dining room. With the criminals restrained
in an adjacent room, our breakfast resumes as if nothing happened.
“How goes the investigation into
the villain of the week?” I ask Kane, who sighs in frustration.
“We’re getting there,” he says.
“Who are they? They must be either
well-funded, powerful, and bold or incredibly stupid to attack the house of one
of the four powerful families outside the city,” Mayor Jeph says.
“No one will remember their name by
tomorrow,” Raziel says.
“I’m glad to see you and your
brother restraining yourselves more,” I say.
“Thank you, father,” Raziel says
with a bow of his head.
Kane rolls his eyes at Raziel’s bow
and says, “I’m only using my non-lethal revolvers because we need information
out of these people and don’t want another lecture on the value of mercy from
Polina again. If I didn’t, I’d use my lethal pistols.”
“I’m sure you don’t mean to be so
blunt, brother. You’re a gentler man than you seem.”
“He isn’t really,” Polina comments.
“I’ve had to keep him on a leash with my mental powers a few times to restrain
him from killing our targets.”
“I’d prefer it if you used those
powers to explode more heads or at least give people migraines, not including
me. Anyways, I’m done eating. Let’s head out.”
Polina and Raziel agree and follow
Kane out the door. While leaving, Polina mentions she’ll take care of the
robbers first before doing what Kane plans, and seems to do so because of all
the racket outside and the back and forth between Kane, Polina, and Raziel that
we can barely hear.
“Your apprentices seem to be more
independent than usual. Are you planning on retiring, Timeo?” Mayor Jeph asks.
“No, not for a while at least. I’m
just trying to leave a legacy and people to take my place so I can spend more
time with my family,” I say.
“I can see that, especially with
those strange superhumans that you found in the undercity. Their replacing the
heroes and cops who died during Raziel’s city-wide fire, and you saving
Meridian from a villain syndicate with them are the only reasons why I was able
to make your hero identity legitimate again. Don’t get me wrong. I was always
on your side, but-”
“Politics don’t make it easy, I
know.”
“I don’t think you can recover your
status again if something like that happens again,” Deputy Tim adds.
“Men are more judgmental than God.
I’ll try to prevent it, but I promise nothing. You know that my dark powers
bend to the will of God more than I.”
“But the public can only guess
that’s true. It’s not like they know what you do or see God pulling your
strings. Most of the city was quick to get behind you for saving them and your
past actions, but there are still some who are distrustful. To them, it looks
like you saved them by bringing in an army that you control. This is all an
attempt to take over the city in their view.”
“Let them think what they want to.
We have God’s work to do.”
Jeph and Tim nod their head at my
dismissal. I know they agree with my thinking and just want me to be careful so
we don’t find ourselves on opposing sides, a concern that I share with them and
try to be accommodating on.
Continuing, I say, “Lancetto?”
“The Church and businesses I
control and am allied to like you, even if they do so out of fear. Your
protection brings the fear of God into the faithless and keeps the city safe,
so business can go on as it should without threat of corruption or attacks from
criminals and villains,” Lancetto reports.
“I was just going to ask you if you
got that game we were going to play, but thanks for the report anyway.”
“Oh, you know I got that and took
time off for us to play it so I can beat you at it.”
In a moment, Lancetto and I share a
laugh as if we were kids again, our only concern being when we’d play together
next, what game to beat each other at, and what to say to get on each other’s
nerves. Back to business, I ask Klinge about the status of the common citizen
and what they think.
They’re on our side. They don’t
care what their bosses or politicians think of their heroes. In fact, they
support their heroes even more when they oppose those in power they don’t
like,” Klinge says.
“You’re right, but we have to be
sure not to inspire people to become radicals and completely go against the
law,” I point out.
“Whatever you say. They’ll keep
supporting you as long as you don’t step on their toes and become a tool of the
government.”
“That’s a fine line that all
legitimate and uncertified vigilantes and heroes walk, so I’ll continue to be
the example people look up to.”
We finish off our formal breakfast
by bringing to attention smaller rumors of newer criminal groups, superhuman
villains, and other minor conspiracies.
“My contacts will keep an eye on
those people and put them down like dogs, if necessary. I won’t let them
jeopardize the future peace we are trying to build for the city and our
children,” Darcy says with conviction.
It, along with the look in her
eyes, reminds me of the time when she was one of my first obstacles when I was
first starting as a hero. Her intensity in making sure Meridian is an orderly
and safe place to live seems to have risen after becoming a mother and learning
from her previous mistakes.
“Do what you think is right, but
don’t let them get carried away and have them taken care of in secret, if they
can’t get enough evidence against them to have them taken care of by the law.”
“Yes. I’ll be sure to send them
reminders.”
With that, the formal breakfast
meeting is over. My friends stay to help clean up and take any leftovers with
them on the way out. After taking a breather, Darcy and I take our children out
for our day off. We stay in the calm suburbs of Meridian, which usually doesn’t
like being associated with the city because of its crime rates, although
they’ve recently been lower than usual. We browse and buy things at the
shopping district and take walks through parks decorated with artwork donated
by the Travail family, while receiving some attention from the public, signing
autographs, and talking to people who are familiar with us. Thankfully, we
don’t get too much attention, and people are respectful enough of our desire to
be with our family not to take up too much of our time. Rouge and Gris fall
asleep in their stroller, and Darcy and I take the opportunity to rest as well,
sitting on a park bench and watching happy families play and do the same as us.
I tend to naturally gravitate
toward Darcy when she’s visibly pregnant, like she is now, as if expecting
trouble or trying to show others that they’ll have to get to me if they want
her. I’ve done this before when she was pregnant the other two times, and I’ll
probably do it again. She does want to have as many children as my parents did,
and even added Kane and Raziel to that number, allowing them to stay at our
house because they were orphaned—something Kane found off-putting, but Raziel
was completely okay with. My hope and prayer is that my children won’t end up
like the six siblings I had, who were all apathetic toward my parents, faithless
children who abandoned their parents and took their inheritance when they were
needed most. It shames me to think that I wouldn’t mind beating them half to
death again if they were still alive, but it’s just one of those permanent
memories I have to keep in the back of my mind.
“Timeo? You seem lost in thought
again. What are you thinking about?” Darcy asks.
“Family, as always,” I say.
As Darcy talks about family, my
attention diverts to Kane, Raziel, and Polina, who are in the park looking
around and talking to one another.
Seeing I’m not listening to her,
Darcy looks where I am and says, “I hope there isn’t any trouble here.”
Looking over to me, Kane’s eyes
widen. He then talks to Polina and Raziel, who look at us, and they all hasten
their movements. Tapping into my power a bit and allowing myself to be a
conduit for justice, I seek their targets for myself, while clouding myself in
my power, so it doesn’t look like I’m doing anything. Sure enough, a criminal
is sneaking up behind me, about to draw her gun, and make her demands. Before
she can, I allow my dark powers to flow through me and pronounce their justice
upon her. Dozens of hands reach out from her shadows, first covering her mouth,
and then grabbing her head, legs, arms, and body so they can drag her into the
shadows. She’s confused and terrified, and even more so when I lock eyes with
her and watch her become one with the shadows where the hands break and twist
her body to punish her for her sins and force her to repent. Feeling sorry for such
a simple foot soldier, I say a prayer for her, as I do with everyone who my
dark powers of justice touch.
Noticing my change, Darcy is about
to ask what’s wrong until she looks over at my handiwork. There’s nothing left
of the woman but all of her body’s blood that’s drenched the grass. She didn’t
repent and paid for it. Darcy seems to be afraid at first, not of me, but of
the threat that was so close by. Her fear is then replaced with rage since our
family was almost the victim of criminals twice in the same day. Soon after, my
apprentices engage the woman’s associates in the park, some of whom are
superhuman.
“Did you read her memories before
she died?” Darcy asks.
“I did, but most of the details of
the group she is from are things that my apprentices already know,” I say
before smiling. “Really, it’s useless information since the group will face
justice today.”
After my apprentices win their
fight, they run over to me and see the mess I made.
“Damn it! I knew we should’ve been
faster, done more,” Kane says, while looking down in defeat.
“Kane, it’s okay,” I say.
“No, it isn’t! You trusted me to
lead, so you can take it easy for once, and I wasn’t able to.”
“Our enemies can sometimes blindside
us even when we do everything in our power to stop them. You’re doing good and
will do better in the future.”
Raziel puts his hand on Kane’s shoulder
and says, “My guardian angel says that you’ll have many more challenges and
failures to face, but God and we will always be on your side.”
“That doesn’t help, but I appreciate
the sentiment,” Kane says.
“We still have to go to their base
of operations today, so there’s time to get payback on them,” Polina says.
“You know the location of their
hideout, and you came here first?” I ask.
“Yeah, because at the last place we
were just at, we interrogated some of them and found out they were going to
attack you again, so I thought we’d protect you and your family first before
going there.”
I smile with a sense of pride in my
chest.
“Thank you. You did the right
thing. Would you mind if I joined you to get some payback of my own? They’ve
been ruining this day I was meant to spend together with Darcy and the kids. I
don’t want you to think that I don’t trust you to end them. I just want a piece
of the action, and I’ll leave you all to do the majority of the fighting.”
“Of course you can come.”
Looking over to Darcy, she nods her
head and says, “Bring justice to those pathetic scumbags.”
I promise that I will and go with
my apprentices to a place where I can secretly transform into my dark hero
form, L’Obscurité, a tall figure dressed in a long black cloak, scarf around my
neck, long hat, a bullet hole scar in the center of my head, and an
indescribable face with a terrifying smile on it. Taking my apprentices into
the darkness and light, we travel at blinding speeds to the location of our
prey, a farm further out from the suburbs of Meridian. According to Kane, this
simple place acts as a front for their operations and their only legitimate
source of income. I drop off my apprentices and let them handle the situation
in their own way. Polina suggests going in stealthily and using her mental
powers to turn their own against them. Raziel proposes using his guardian
angel’s fire and his scythe, and Kane mentions combining both strategies, a
plan that Raziel and Polina agree on.
While they carry out their plan, I
retreat into the light and dark to slip through the cracks of a building on the
farm. There, I sift through the memories of the people present and discover a
hidden basement, a common trait among criminals like these. Assuming the
appearance of one of the criminals, I approach the door leading to the
basement, pass the retinal scanner, and enter. Here, I find a hidden training,
testing ground, and illegal experimentation for superhumans. They’re building
an army here to gain influence in Meridian’s suburbs and city, but it’ll all
stop here. I lock the door behind me as my dark powers twist the locks so no
one can open it.
I then read the souls of the people
here and plant my dark power throughout the room. Hmm. It’s a shame about the
state of their souls. There’s a small chance they’ll repent and be saved, but
that can really be said about most people, can’t it? With all my setup done, I reveal
my true self to everyone by clapping and calling out to them. Everyone’s
attention is on me, and they are all surprised to see me. The superhumans and
guards have their weapons on me and raise their hands as if getting ready for a
fight.
One of them says, “We’ve been trying
to get you, Mr. Severe, but we expected you to come with one of our ‘escorts’. If
you want to leave here alive, you'd better start telling us why you’re here
alone. Is this some sort of trap by the law, hero, or vigilante?”
I laugh and say, “It’s no trap. A
trap implies subtlety and deception, but there’s none of that for what I have
planned.”
“And what’s that?”
“I’m merely searching through all
your memories to see if you have any associates or allies outside of this
location.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I know that you’re here because
the city is secured by its new protectors. After they ran you out of the city,
you fled with your tail between your legs, but still wanted to stake your claim
to it for the honor and glory, so you built up your forces here, taking what
you can from the suburbs, and dipping into the city from time to time. Your methods
aren’t unique, nor will your efforts bear any fruit.”
My words strike a nerve and make
the man in front of me shoot me in the head. The shot hits me, and nothing
happens, shocking and confusing everyone as they step back as darkness emanates
from my body and transforms me into L’Obscurité.
“He’s…he’s L’Obscurité!” one of
them says as they begin to run away.
“Yes. It’s a secret that I allow
only a select few to know, and none of you will leave here alive,” I say as I laugh
and let the executioner’s axe of justice fall on them.
My powers punish them in ways
unique to them, such as shooting them to bits for gunning down the innocent,
tearing them limb from limb for experimenting on unwilling subjects, boiling
them alive with chemicals appearing from nothing and suspended in midair for
torturing their victims, and so on and so on. They all suffer horrible deaths
for their crimes. None of them escape or are spared. From what I gathered from
their memories, they know of other criminal groups and syndicates like them,
but they’re all scattered and only have tenuous relationships with one another.
Most of them are known to my allies and me, and will be dealt with next.
Going back outside, I find my apprentices
cleaning up the last of the criminals, with some of them actually aiding them,
thanks to Polina’s powers. It’s always good to see repentant souls and even
better to see the fruits of my labor come to fruition. The proper law enforcement
arrives and comes in to take those who were spared as we leave the area and
head back home, where Darcy has prepared dinner for us. I reiterate to them how
proud I am of their work and how well they did without my help.
“Yeah, but it could always be
better,” Kane says.
“It could also always be worse,”
Raziel points out.
“It’s best to think about what we
could do better next time and leave our regrets behind us,” Polina adds.
I raise my wine glass and say, “I
couldn’t agree more with that. Here’s to doing better and leaving the past in
the past.”
My family toasts with me as we
celebrate another job well done. Even with all the protection I have in and
around the city, it seems like I need to tighten my grip a bit more. I’ll need
to go into the city to arrange that, but that’s tomorrow’s problem, and
tonight, I rest easy knowing my apprentices have the potential to take over my
legacy when I need to rest, and do it possibly even better than I.
