This was a weird situation for Victor. Usually, he would be running after a fight. Win or lose, a villain does not want to be around when the police and heroes show up. Now, after taking out four men, he was in his daughter’s diner having a cup of coffee. It was weird, but not unpleasant.

“More coffee?”

Jennifer held a flask of the black stuff in her hand. Victor nodded. His daughter poured and Victor glanced outside. A crowd had formed outside Jennifer’s Place. The Banger Boys had already cleared out, bringing their fallen members along with them. Luckily, the idiot with the gun wasn’t dead. Not that Victor knew much about that. He could barely remember the fight. He remembered the red mist and the bear’s roar, but after that...

Victor was a little mixed about the bear spirit. Victor had been possessed by a demon once, and it felt eerily similar. However, the bear spirit felt friendlier. Victor felt as if the bear was there to help, rather than to control him. He knew his cultivation technique was called Iron Bear Sambo, but he didn’t think there would be an actual bear spirit with him. Victor hadn’t felt the spirit when he fought the two Banger Boys a few days ago, so why did it come out now? Was it because of the higher danger, or was it because Victor was more powerful now?

Victor could only shake his head at the questions. He knew too little about cultivation, and only had one person to ask about it. He only hoped that Reunion knew the answers. The flaky System did not inspire a lot of confidence.

That was a problem for the future. Right now, Victor had more pressing concerns. No one outside had entered the diner, but everyone in the crowd was looking at the father-and-daughter duo. Victor knew this was trouble.

“You are going to get into trouble for this. You should have just let me take out the gang. Telling everyone you are my daughter was-”

“The truth.” Jennifer interrupted. “Besides, killing Bradley wouldn’t solve anything. They were hired. The guy paying them would just hire someone else next time.”

“Bradley?”

“The tall black guy. He is the leader of the Banger Boys. He is a martial artist who couldn’t cut it in the hero academy and became a villain. Well, more like a wannabe villain. The Banger Boys are really just the local neighborhood thugs.”

Victor had the Finder dig up some information on the gang when he heard from Bar that the two robbers he took out were gang members, but he didn’t know they were hired. Either this Finder wasn’t as good as the old one, or he was holding out on Victor. Still, the fact that the Banger Boys were hired did explain some things.

“You know what I mean. People in the community will be paying you extra attention once word spread about our relationship, and you are...a civilian.”

“Is that what you guys call a normal human being?” Jennifer laughed. “I’m not afraid.”

“What about Jason? Or your kids? You haven’t told them about us, right?”

“I foresee weeks, if not months, of groveling but Jason and I will get through this. Xavier is just a baby, and Zachary will probably be the coolest kid in school once the other kids discover he is the grandson of the Sweet Fist.”

Victor sighed. There’s no getting through to her. “You are a lot like your mother. Stubborn as hell.”

“Considering she raised me as a single mother, I shall take that as a compliment.”

“Really? My report said you two have a bad relationship.”

“We do.” Jennifer admitted. “But you can be both proud of someone and hate her at the same time.”

Victor sighed again. “I meant what I said Jennifer. You should be afraid. At least a little. Having a relative in the super community is a danger.”

“Then do something about it.”

“What?”

“If you are so worried about my safety, then do something about it. You are The Sweet Fist, right? Find some way to ‘protect’ me.”

It was at this moment Victor wondered about the joys of fatherhood. Was there really such a thing? Was it nothing but a lie society tell men to get them to have more children? Victor was beginning to think so. He only discovered he was a father a few days ago, and it was already a headache. Being a parent was hard!

Then the door of the diner opened. The heroes had finally showed up. Victor was almost glad. This was a situation he knew. Victor took a glance and noticed it was Night Leopard. There were two uniformed police officers behind her, one of whom was Sergeant Filler. Victor was beginning to think this area was the Night Leopard’s beat. A hero with a beat? It sounded offensive to Victor.

“Nice to see you again officer.”

To her credit, the young hero reacted much better this time to Victor’s taunt. The hero walked towards her carefully, her police drone flying near her.

“We had reports of some trouble at this diner. Anything to say about that, Sweet Fist?” Victor kept silent and drank his coffee. The hero turned to Jennifer, “Anything to add Ma’am?”

“Nope.”

Victor felt strangely proud of her daughter’s answer. Villains didn’t answer to heroes, and their family won’t either. Victor hadn’t known it meant that much to him. The feeling only lasted a second.

“Then how do you two explain this?”

The police drone floated down to the diner’s counter and it projected an image from its camera. It was a video, and Victor quickly realized it was showing his fight against the Banger Boys. It was of poor quality, and seemed to have been taken at a distance, but the video clearly showed him taking out the Banger Boys. It ended with Jennifer hugging him.

“This is all over the internet, along with another video. You couldn’t see the whole fight in that one, but it had sound. You didn’t say you were the daughter of the Sweet Fist the last time I was here, Mrs. Woo.”