Wretched Joy 33

Commissioned by southmonk

Wretched Joy

Chapter 33

-VB-

It was a Saturday night.

Sirens rang throughout the streets. Police cars, armored trucks, and ambulances raced with nary a care. It happened on Main Street in the heart of Downtown. It happened in an unnamed industrial site in the Trainyards. It happened in the quiet suburbia shared between Boston and Brockton Bay. 

It happened everywhere. 

It happened so quickly. 

Everyday Joe swept through the entire city in a campaign of terror, beatings, broken bones, mutilation, and death. 

In less than three hours, he teleported across the entire city, delivering “justice” in whatever form he thought fit. 

Armsmaster grimaced as he came upon a torched site. 

This was the latest of his hits and Joe disappeared before he arrived. 

“What the fuck is the point of all of this?!” Assault hissed from the side as he glared at the woman who’s been burned alive. 

For what? The crime of having murdered children.

Yes, killing children was as bad as crimes went but it didn’t mean she deserved to burn to death. This wasn’t justice or even revenge.

The neighbors who’d come out to help, even knowing her crime, continued to stare at the site in horror, if they weren’t voiding their stomachs in shock. Neither water or sand had been able to put the fire out, and the woman had been forced to burn for close to ten minutes after being chained to the ground and set on fire. Now, they’ll never know the context behind the murder or which child was murdered. The child’s parents would never know because now they didn’t have anything to go off of to identify this woman’s victim.

Then there was a crash behind him. Armsmaster turned around and frowned. 

Assault had become incensed. No, it would be better to say that he was wrathful. 

“We have to do something!” Assault hissed. “The list! Who’s left on it?!”

“There are five left,” he replied. 

There were a lot of people on the list, but between Vista’s proactive warnings and the fear of Everyday Joe brought roughly half of the people in, most of whom called the PRT to get confirmations for what Vista had told them. 

The other half…

Most of them were now dead, dying, or suffering. 

Just five left. 

“I’m sending you the address for the closest person on the list. It should be showing up on your helmet soon,” he said quickly while dragging the aforementioned address with his eyes over the eye-tracked interface on his visor. “Go and keep them safe.”

“What about you?” 

“We can’t save everyone if we all move as one. I’ll go to the next person on the list,” Armsmaster replied as he quickly got on his motorcycle. “Go!” 

Then he sped off and saw Assault do the same for a moment in the periphery of his vision. 

-VB-

CRASH!

“Ah. You’re here.”

Armsmaster froze when he heard my voice after entering the unlit house. The only light was coming from outside of the house and the light coming from his armored suit. 

“Joe,” he hissed out. “Where is Mister Hessen?” he demanded as he pulled out his halberd. 

Bad move, boy. 

I turned on the light. 

And the gory scene revealed itself. 

Armsmaster froze again. This time, I could tell that there was a sense of horror instead of the surprise he showed in his first freeze. 

Kneeling on his arms and legs with me sitting on top of him, John Hessen trembled as he awaited his judgement. He was one of the people that Vista visited, apparently, and was foolish enough to ignore the little heroine’s warnings. 

Fortunately for Mister Hessen, he hadn’t killed anyone nor did he lead anyone to death. No, he was just a scammer and a scalper, which was why he just got beaten very hard. His face was so swollen from the beating I gave him that he could barely see and talk. 

Ultimately, he was a low priority target, which was why I came for him close to last. 

Because he wasn’t just a criminal who needed to be punished.

He was a bait. 

“Do you remember what I told you, Armsmaster?” I drawled as I stood up before kicking Hessen in the face without turning. The man took the hit and screamed as he fell down to the ground. Armsmaster didn’t hesitate. He charged at me with his halberd’s spear tip pointed at me. He impressively crossed close to a dozen feet in under two seconds at most…

But I was faster. 

I wove into his guard under his strike.

And I was stronger.

Then I punched.

His armor creaked as it took my punch, and sent him sailing right back through the doorway he came through. 

I saw him tumbling on the concrete sidewalk and then the asphalt road as I calmly walked out of the house. 

“I told you that you should quit being a hero if you can’t act like one,” I snarled as I brought out my bat. “I told you gloryhound dipshits to quit before I made you quit!” 

Then I ran forward and struck with a horizontal full swing. 

Armsmaster, who barely got up, quickly crouched down low and held his halberd at a low angle. My bat struck and skidded off towards the sharp end of his weapon. He counterattacked and struck with his halberd’s blunt end like he was attacking with a staff. 

Instead of letting the hit get stronger by jumping back, I pushed in and made the attack strike weakly against my Brute 7 equivalent leather armor. I barely felt the sensation of something pressing up against my side when anyone else would have flinched in pain. 

Then I push-kicked him with the same strength that sent him flying previously. 

My eyes widened in surprise when he dodged to the side and then cartwheeled out of the way. His feet grazed against my helmet’s chin on their way over but I managed to dodge it.

When he landed on his two feet, he was ready to fight again. 

Wordlessly, we glared at each other before attacking again. 

He swung. I parried. I punched, and he dodged before having to block a bat strike. 

His power armor whined as he pushed it to its limit to keep up with me, and as the fight dragged on, the armor got more dents and tears from where I managed to successfully land hits, either with my fists or bat. 

And then…

I got him.

I swung.

He tried to defend by ducking… And I just changed the trajectory of my strike mid-strike. 

What should have grazed the top of his helmet abruptly changed and struck him in the neck.

He bounced as he struck the asphalt ground and tumbled away. 

Armsmaster laid still for a moment before he tried to get back up, his arms reaching out for his halberd that was now too far away from him.

I didn’t wait. 

I kicked him over to his back. He grunted and still tried, but between the damages his armor sustained and the shock he must be in, he couldn’t get back up.

Then I lifted my bat up.

And struck down right at his spine. 

The armor cracked. 

I struck again.

The armor shattered. 

And then I struck again.

He screamed as I shattered his spine. 

Oh, I knew that Panacea would heal him eventually, but the point wasn’t to prevent him from getting healed. 

It was to instill the pain of inaction and drill it into his body so much so that whenever he even thought about me, his body would freeze up in phantom pain.

And to do that…

I needed to make sure the lesson stuck.

I brought my bat back up… 

And struck down again. 

I brought it back up -.

BAM!

My head tilted slightly to the left.

I glanced over to my right and saw Miss Militia. She looked the most angry I’ve seen her.

Good.

Heroes should feel what they made other people feel through their inaction.

And while staring at her, I brought my bat down again. 

Snarling, she changed whatever sniper rifle she had been shooting at me with into some kind of -.

Wait.

Was that a grenade launcher?

She pointed it at me and -.

BLAM.

And smoke filled the area. 

… The fuck?! 

I heard something getting dragged. 

And then a skidding tire.

I teleported out of the smoke to a nearby building and then whirled around. 

There.

I saw Miss Militia running away with Armsmaster slung over her back and her motorcycle. 

‘I was so focused on fucking over Armsmaster that I didn’t even pay attention to a fucking motorcycle stopping near me,’ I hissed mentally at my own failure. 

No matter. 

I telepor-.

BLAM! 

I spun in the air as I struck something.

The fuck?! 

On the spin down, I looked up and saw what I had struck. 

A road sign. 

But there was no road sign between me and Miss Militia?! 

I slammed down onto the ground and got back up quickly. 

And then I paused. 

Because standing between me and my prey… was a very determined Vista.