Limits of Flesh 5

Limits of Flesh
Chapter 5

-VB-

Taylor wanted to scratch their faces off.

Their introduction to dad obviously wasn’t good because it triggered whatever it was that led dad to punch them!

Not that punching them did anything…

“So you two are the bastards that roped Taylor into this cape business…!” dad growled and he looked ready to bring out the gun.

“Dad, stop it!” she hissed at him. “I was already a cape before they got involved!”

“Taylor, I’m talking to th-!” dad snapped back at her.

“Mind you,” one of the twins spoke up, directing his words to dad, from the floor where she told them to sit. “We’re one of the richest people right now in Brockton Bay.”

“You’re a criminal,” dad roared without raising his voice.

“Does that really matter in a world where the law has been subverted and all that’s being done is to put up appearance as if society is still functioning properly?” the other twin asked.

“We are mercenaries, father-in-law-”
“We are murderer-”
“We are criminals as you say -”
“We are honest, however,-”
“Because we only take what we are paid-”
“Because we do not filch money from taxpayers-”
“To do stupid things like PR stunts-”
“Or collect tax in the first place-”
“To cover up the fact that human population is on a decline-”
“Or the fact that Chief Director Costa-Brown is Alexandria.”

Dad just stared at them.

“And?”

That brought up the twins up short.

Dad’s outburst and question brought her up short, too.

“I don’t care or give a shit about what world does or falls,” he snapped as veins popped up on his forehead. “All I heard were excuses you give to justify whatever it is that you two want to do. I am fucking pissed that you let Taylor continue to fight for her life as a cape!”

The Adylan twins … looked sheepish?! Huh?!

“Then you come here and call yourselves my sons-in-laws?! Says who?!”

Taylor wasn’t sure where she was on this. Or what was happening. Her dad scolded(?) the twins, and they weren’t reacting like she expected them to?

Weren’t her twins violent sex addicts? Where was the violence? Where was the innuendo that their types spouted like water from a water fountain?

Huh?!

Then dad whirled towards her, and she shrank.

“And what is this I hear about you and them?”

She wished she didn’t say anything or that the twins never showed up.

She wasn’t ready for this level of intense communication!

-VB-

Danny sat on his bed that night as he tried to wrap his head around the recent changes.

First, his little girl was a cape.

Second, Taylor was in a relationship with twins, who were also capes.

Third, the twins - on behalf of Taylor - killed multiple capes and became a new power, if unknown so far because everyone was treading lightly.

All of these were heavy and world shaking revelations on their own. Put altogether, they shined a serious issue… on him.

He missed all of these and their signs. He was worthless as a father.

… But just wallowing in his faults would only make this worse, wouldn’t it? He did well to reign in his anger and outbursts today so that he could learn what he missed. He wasn’t sure if he could do that next time.

‘God, why did Talyor have to have murderers as boyfriends?’

He had no delusions about what was happening when he wasn’t looking. They were capes. Capes, in general, did not live chaste lives.

And then he also had a realization.

There was a chance that he might become a grandfather before the year was over.

The realization rocked his world and sent him to sleep.

-VB-

When Danny met them again the two days later (he took the day off), they came dressed in business suits and presented themselves as well as they could. It was a marked difference from yesterday when they appeared in more casual clothes mixed with togas, which actually surprised Taylor as well.

“What are you intentions?” he asked the two of them.

““Marry Taylor,”” both of them replied at the same time.

“But you can’t. Marriage doesn’t work that way.”

“Monogamy is merely the norm-”
“And we have no desire-”
“To let them stop us-”
“From marrying Taylor.”

“She’s a minor!”

“We are also barely not minors.”
“We’re eighteen!”

That … surprised him, honestly. “You are?”

“Yes-!”

“At least, that’s what -”
“The records say-”
“We’re orphans.”

Danny nodded slowly. “I see.” He took a deep breath in. “Then how do you intend to provide for Taylor?”

They waited for him to explain himself.

“Being capes can’t be your life forever. Eventually, you settle down and have a family. How do you intend to provide for her and yourselves then?”

“If you believe that the current model of society will persist-”
“Then you are solely mistaken.”

“Not because you are uneducated-”
“But because you do not have all of the information that we do.”

Danny had been about to snap at them until they said the last part. “What information?”

“The PRT’s brass are aware-”
“But have made it classified information -”

“The state of humanity-”

“And its current decline.”

He felt a chill run up his spine.

“... How bad is it?”

“Expected total collapse of the current model of human civilization-”
“Twenty years at the earliest, no more than thirty.”

Danny felt his world collapse again.

Everything he had done, everything his parents had done, and more would just … disappear in his own life?

“In that way-
“We who are powerful-”
“Capable of space flight-”
“Are ones best suited -”
“To keep her safe -”
“And our child in her.”

This time, Danny froze stiffly.

And punched them again.

Yeah, it hurt him more than them but it felt good to let the blows land.

But he gave them his blessing (she chose them already, so he couldn't tell her no).

Keep her safe.