Wretched Joy 28

Commissioned by southmonk

Wretched Joy

Chapter 28

-VB-

Despite how quickly I went through with it, which wasn’t what I wanted for Oni Lee and Lung, I ultimately achieved my goal of eliminating the ABB. It happened much more quickly than how I wanted it to happen and none of the side goals were accomplished, but I wasn’t going to cry about it.

Lung was dead.

Oni Lee was dead. 

The ABB was now powerless, and if the news said anything, then the PRT and the police were now swarming over the ABB’s territory to gut them as quickly as possible. A few gunfights broke out, but even then, Protectorate heroes were in the frontlines, eager to show the world that they were not useless.

And they weren’t.

Despite what the dumbest people might think, what I did will not build and maintain civilization. I was a harbinger more eager to … 

… to …

… To enjoy the slaughter.

I had to be honest with myself. 

I was enjoying all of this. 

I relished in the bloodshed. The violence. The hopelessness I instilled in my victims. It just happened to be that my victims were also violent, also bloodied, and also without salvation. 

I was doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. 

… But my actions ultimately did not maintain society, which was a foundation of good. Society gave people opportunities to do good that they wouldn’t be able to in anarchy; everyone would be too busy taking care of themselves to help anyone else out. 

And the likes of these gangsters, the Empire, the ABB, and the Merchants were the forces that drove society back towards anarchy.

I think.

… Bah. Those were all more justifications, and I knew it! I just wanted to kill bad bastards.

…

Again.

Why am I having this mental debate with myself again? I’m doing this ever-.

I sat frozen in my chair.

I did this every time I came back down from whatever aggressive high I got from having too much enchanted tools.

I leaned back into my chair. 

That was … that was definitely an interesting observation. 

I pulled out a small black book I used for this and wrote it down, which also listed all of the enchantments I’ve put on my gear so far. 

… Yes, I needed to start making a journal about how my mind was like. So that I could look at it and see how much my power changed me. 

Then I hesitated.

If I dropped all of my enchantments except the very critical ones like the Silent Ring and the “Fuck all Masters” Beanie, then would I change? 

Am I right now who I was when I started this journey? 

The thought … well, it didn’t scare me so much as it unnerved me. 

After just a moment of hesitation, I started to take off all of my equipment except the three that gave me the most protection: the beanie, the Silent Ring, and the still unnamed white jacket. 

I sat back down in my chair after that and … waited. 

… I can’t say that I feel different. 

-VB-

Everyday Joe’s near effortless takedown of Lung made the rounds across the news media and the internet. Details of the investigation leaked. 

Brockton Bay was nearly free of all parahuman villains. 

For many, it reminded them of the situation in Boston prior to the Boston Games. 

Would there be a “Brockton Games,” too? 

“... and while it is possible that Brockton Games may occur even with all of the aforementioned preventative factors in place, any newcomers seeking to enter our city will ultimately be limited in their actions. After all, we have to ask ourselves this: how many villains will be able to brave the Nightmares, never mind be able to even step into them?” 

The class clapped after the end of the presentation. 

Vicky remained in front of the class as the powerpoint slides changed over to the references she used for the presentation before the teacher shut it off. 

“Alright, we’ll go into questions!” Mrs. Delcamaiore, Arcadia High School’s own Parahuman Studies teacher, said after her own light clapping. 

Dennis, who sat among the crowd, deliberately didn’t raise his hand, merely looking around to see who might ask questions. 

Despite the fact that she fit the stereotype almost to a T, Vicky wasn’t a “dumb blonde” or “blonde bimbo.” Most of the girls who said that were the bitches who didn’t like her for whatever reason. Vicky just didn’t like studying, not that she couldn’t study. 

“Vicky!” Jessica raised her hand. 

“Yeah?” she asked. 

“Like, no offense, but reaaally think the Protectorate’s gonna be enough?” she asked.

Vicky frowned. “I think so. PRT Boston only has half a dozen heroes. PRT ENE, though, has nearly triple their numbers if you count the Wards. There’s Armsmaster, who is nationally recognized as one of the most flexible and hardest hitting heroes. Miss Militia is perhaps the most experienced hero in all of the East Coast, not counting Legend. Then there’s Assault, Battery, and Dauntless, who can each match me, and you all saw me lift that tanker.”

Dennis certainly remembered that. It happened really early into Vicky’s cape career. She got it into her head that she could clear out the Boat Graveyard and started lifting entire ships out of the way. It wasn’t until her parents and the Protectorate stopped her that she stopped. 

Vicky learned the hard way that she couldn’t touch objects that were part of a decade long legal battle. 

“But they couldn’t beat the Empire or the ABB!” someone else pointed out. 

“Yeah, but that’s part of the home advantage I talked about. The reason the Empire stuck around was because they had home advantage and numbers. If a cape gang with the Empire's size came around, then they won’t be able to stay as big or stable as the Empire did. I mean… it’s not like the new gang will have the same nazi-supporting people supporting them, right?” 

There was a real bit of hate in how she said that. 

“Besides, if a new Empire wants to butt in, then they’re going to have to deal with Everyday Joe.” A few people grimaced at the mention of the most murderous cape to grace the city since the Butcher himself. “You all know what happened between him, Lung, and Alexandria just last week.”

Yeah.

Wasn’t that a shocker? 

Joe could kill Alexandria if he wanted to. Everyone saw Alexandria getting cut. 

Alexandria getting cut! The Tankiest of all Tanks! The Bulwark of Liberty! The Real Life Superman!

Only the Siberian did that before! 

Which meant that there was nothing the regular capes, heroes and villains, could do to keep Joe from slicing them up if Alexandria couldn’t no-sell Joe’s attacks. 

Oh that and the combat capable teleportation. 

And the fact that people didn’t forget he could just turn off powers like what he did with Kaiser. 

Oh, and the Nightmare Circles.

All of those combined just punched people in the face that Brockton Bay was home to the only S-class villain who didn’t go on a civilian-killing rampage… and conversely actually made it one of the safest cities for regular people. 

Yeah, Everyday Joe, the guy who went around killing gangsters - powered or not - lived in the city, but if someone didn’t do anything, then he was almost a nonexistent entity. Most people never met him. Or see him. Or talk to him. 

The only people who did were people who saw their family members getting butchered by Joe for a list of crimes that made sympathizing with them a little hard. 

Like the half a dozen pedophiles and their collaborators Joe brought in before his battle to the death with Lung and Alexandria.

Dennis sighed as even more of their classmates raised their hands to ask questions. 

As the only open combat cape in the entire school, Vicky just got bombarded with questions like these, and Dennis seriously thought that Mrs. Delcamaiore was helping Vicky by making the recent case study as the class’s current project. It cut down on questions.

But people still wanted to know how Vicky thought about it all.

“And what do you think about all of this?” someone asked.

See?

Vicky frowned. “... I’m going to be honest here. I’m still going to arrest Joe if I can.”

That got boos out of some of their classmates. Mrs. Delcamaiore immediately put a stop to it, but Dennis saw who made those boos. Classmates who were or had minority parents. 

Yes, Asians included. 

“Just because he’s kicking out villains doesn’t change the fact that he’s also a villain!” Vicky snapped back. 

Dennis winced when a bit of her fear aura leaked out but Vicky quickly reined it in.

“Alright, that’s the end for Vicky!” Mrs. Delcamaiore said quickly. “Next!” 

As Vicky went to sit down, he gave her a nod when their eyes met. 

She smiled and then sat next to Dean, who started whispering to her. 

Dennis focused back to the front of the class and saw -.

Ugh. It’s her. That Everyday Joe fangirl.

“My project was on Everyday Joe’s powers!” 

Dennis nearly dropped his head onto his desk. He had to go through this back at the PRT headquarters almost everyday!