Chapter 133

Destroy Everything 1

-:-

1 Week Later

A cafe near Bartholomew Lorne’s Apartment

Theodore Lorne was a person of many flaws.

He was a hypocrite that say one thing and did another.

He acted like he could do anything he set his mind on, but the amount of mistakes and failures he had canceled out all of his successes.

He learned from Miss Samantha that the persona of confidence was the basis of emotional manipulation. However, she also said that it was absolutely essential to one’s mental health to have someone to show one’s fragile side.

Bottling up your problems will eventually cause you to explode.

With this in mind, Theo decided to confine with Diego about the issue that has dominated his mind for the last few days.

“Kid…. do you know how out of place we are here?” asked Diego

“I know man. I’m not exactly thrilled of being here either.” replied Theo as he scanned the establishment.

Their current location was the cafe named ‘Little Kittens’. It was a reputable establishment that specifically targeted the female customer base.

This was painfully obvious by the shop’s pinkish color scheme and their menu which was contained very cute looking desserts

A man who looked like he ate steroids for breakfast and a young man with a terminator eye were beyond out of place.

The glances they received were painful.

If it wasn't for the cafe’s proximity to Barth’s apartment, you’d never catch Theo in such an establishment.

Though he had to admit, their strawberry pie was top notch.

Theo made a mental note to try out all of the menu in the future.

“Kid. I know I owe you one for hooking me up with a room in a good neighborhood for my wife and daughter, and I did promise to help you out when you’re in need, but being here is torture! Make it quick!” whispered Diego while flinching at the gaze of some highschool girls.

“Yeah yeah…. *sigh*”

Theo was silent for a second and fidgeted a bit.

He took a deep breath and hardened his resolve.

“I got Juno pregnant! As an experienced father, I ask for wisdom of what is to come!” said Theo in a voice that was slightly louder than he wanted.

It was clear that the nerves has gotten to him.

Pretty much every pair of eyes in the cafe focused on him.

Women had a particular love for these types of drama.

Theo wanted to face palm for being unable to control his emotion, but he decided to put up a strong facade and powered through the unwelcome attention.

Diego had a confused look plastered over his face.

“Er…. that’s your big problem?” asked Diego

“Hell yes it is! I don't know what to do here!” replied Theo

“Kid… you stormed through hordes of murderous criminals, battle man eating monsters and have the military might that made an entire city cautious…. And you’re stressing out about having a kid?” whispered Diego

“This is a problem I cant solve by pumping it full of lead! No amount of technological advancement I achieve can prepare me for the fatherhood!”

“You’re pretty good at technology right? Search the internet.”

“Why trust a bunch of random people I dont know while I can ask directly from someone whom I am 100% sure knows what he’s talking about?”

“Hmmm… Well, I can't deny that I’m very experienced in the whole parenting thing.” Diego leaned back, causing the relatively small chair to creak under his weight. “*sigh*... Fine. It is the duty of adults to guide the younger generation. Lay your worries on me.”

Theo sighed in relief. This was a pep talk he needed badly to boost his relatively uncertain mind.

“Then I’ll start with my greatest worry.” said Theo before leaning in and whispered to Diego. “As you know, my hobby and business isn't exactly on the up and up. I fear that I’ll be a horrible role model for my future child. Any advice on that one?”

This was the main fear and dread that has robbed Theo of sleep for the past few days. While it was a welcome break from the nightly nightmares, it did give him quite a bit of stress.

Theo was an evil person.

He has already come to terms with this the moment he realized the disconnect he had with the Superhero ideology.

The criminal scum were vermin and Theo’s role was pest control. He took it upon himself to do the dirty job no one wanted to do.

To exterminate the filth of society, one corpse at a time.

God knows how long till his quest will reach its end, but he was in it for the long haul and he had every intention of seeing his wish fulfilled.

However, he has read somewhere that kids often mimicked their parents.

The very idea of his children slaughtering the trash of society made Theo quite happy but also very terrified of their future.

Was it really fine for him to have his children follow in his bloody footsteps into a live of violence and death?

Theo unloaded this to Diego

“In summary, you’re terrified that your brats will copy your more questionable hobbies. Am I right?” asked Diego

“Well yeah. Though Juno is just as bad of an influence as I am.” replied Theo

“How true. I may not know that white haired girl that well, but her tendency to go for excessive violence as her first resort is as bad example as bad examples can get.”

“Amen! That’s exactly it! No matter what I do, my kid will end up becoming a mess!”

“That’s bad….What about adoptio-” said Diego, but was cut short when Theo’s metallic hand gripped his throat.

“Are you telling me to throw away my child just because it’s inconvenient?! Do you want die?!”

“Calm down kid! I’m just saying the option is available!”

“Never EVER spout that stupid shit to me ever again! No one forced me to impregnate Juno! I am not like those brain dead fools that run away from their stupid decisions! I may not be mature enough to be a parent, but I take responsibility for all of my actions!” roared Theo

Theo grew up in a family with a mother that was an Ecclesiarchy devotee.

Ecclesiarchy teachings often states that a child is a gift from god and anyone who destroys such an innocent life deserves to burn in hell.

While Theo may no longer hold any reverence to the Ecclesiarchy due to his exposure to its dark side, he did agree that children should be protected and treasured.

FYI: Theo’s sudden passionate outburst swooned quite a bit of the females in the shop.

Everyone loves a dependable person.

“Okay okay! I’m sorry! I’ll never say something like that again!” said Diego while he tapped out.

Theo snapped back to reality and realized that he got caught up with his emotions.

“S-sorry about that. I got a little heated up” replied Theo while he let go of Diego

“No worries kid. In fact, I’m quite pleased that you hold such a belief. I respect you more now.”

“Hahaha. Thanks. Anyways, you know my circumstances. Any advice is much appreciated.”

Diego silently mussed for a little bit.

“Now that I think about it, our situation is kind of similar. Both of us are neck deep in Vermilion’s dark side while firmly believing in the merits of good parenting.”

“Ho… good point. Based on how you brag about your wife and daughter, I think its correct to assume that you guys are solid. So? How did you do it?”

“Ah that. The answer is simple. I told them exactly what my job is in all of its entirety” said Diego, much to Theo’s disbelief

“You gotta be shitting me.”

“I shit you not. I sat them down and told them everything I have done and what I will be forced to do. As long as I have a family to support, I will do the jobs that I only know how to do. But the most important part was this: I will eventually go to jail and pay for my crimes.”

“And they’re fine with that?”

“Absolutely not. My wife and daughter nags me about it from time to time, but I just need to use the ‘HAA tuition fee is so damn high’ card and all of their complaints vanish”

“Nice play, my friend. Nice play. But still…. Telling the young ones the truth huh… That’s a bold step. Arent you afraid that they’ll accidentally leak your crimes?”

“Absolutely. But just as I asked them to trust me, I placed all my trust on them.”

“Hmm…. Trust based manipulation huh… That’s some high level stuff there. So this is the wisdom of adults… ”

“Kid, there’s no manipulation here. How the hell did you grow up so twisted?”

“Hahaha. That’s the byproduct of having a metal pipe shoved into my brain. I’m sure something is broken there somewhere.” said Theo while using his mechanical left arm to point to his cybernetic right eye to make a point

“You seriously need to trust your family more. You’d be surprised how powerful blood bonds are.”

“Not gonna happen. My family is not fond of excessive violence. Even my asshole of an eldest brother couldn't stand the sight of a corpse. No way they’ll be supportive of the shit that I’ve been doing”

“Oh. So that’s why you’ve been recently dodging your brother despite being how close their home is.”

“Yup. Pretty much”

There were many consequences that resulted from the Hellgate Incident. Most of it was about how horribly compromised the city was and there were calls to beef up security.

There was also a surge on the support for the Superheroes due to how very little casualties were inflicted on their jurisdiction.

One particular event that had Vermillion City in a bit of a frenzy was a weapon of mass destruction that obliterated a large chunk of the Hellhole district in one go, killing nearly a thousand people in the process.

It didn't take a day for the Superheroes to realize that the out of place 20 meter long cannon in the Vermilion City junkyard was the perpetrator of said mass destruction.

And since Theo was the legal owner of the junkyard, it was an easy 1+1=2 scenario.

The media, the public, the ones in office and even the Superheroes went apeshit.

While they were thankful that the BFG 01 ended the Hellgate incident (lol), they were terrified that a weapon of such power was in the hands of a person who none of them could control.

Protests, news reports and official inquiries has been bombarding Theo’s company for the past week.

Long story short, Theo’s company was viewed very negatively by the general public.

A reasonable response that Theo was expecting.

What he did not expect was how Miss Samantha, Theo’s ‘PR Head’, was reacting to the sudden shitstorm.

Instead of being pissed off of the massive increase in workload, Miss Samantha was laughing her ass off.

Apparently, she has been stressing on the lack of opportunity of ‘convincing’ some organizations to bend to her will. She couldn't just attack them for no good reason.

That would be wrong.

But with the Hellgate shitstorm, she now has the right to ‘defend herself and the company’.

Naturally, her self defense strategy was probably something that involved a silent, extremely brutal yet surprisingly bloodless takeover of some major companies.

When Theo asked what she was planning, she merely replied ‘You don't want to know’

Until Miss Samantha does her magic, Theo has no choice to endure it all.

Naturally, all the negative press thrown his way has hurt his relationship with his family.

While this deeply saddened Theo, keeping his distance was a good idea.

This will keep them from getting caught in whatever crossfire that may come in Theo’s way.

“By the way, where’s that creepy girl that you got pregnant? I haven't seen her around recently.” Asked Diego

“Juno’s with her family in Eldorado. She should be back in a week or so.” replied Theo. “And it’s weird for you to call Juno creepy.”

“Do you disagree?”

“No. But you’re probably one of an extremely small number of people to openly call her that. Why?”

“You probably never noticed this because she stands either beside or behind you, but the way she looks at everyone that doesn't belong to your ‘family’ makes my skin crawl. It’s like she sees everyone as subhuman or something.”

“Oh that. Yeah. I know about it.”

“And you dont find it creepy?”

“Sure I do, but her stare is tame compared to all my ‘new acquaintances’. If I wasn't sworn into silence by Ecclesiarchy higher ups, I’d tell you of all the messed up shit those ‘holy men and women’ do behind closed doors.”

“I see… You’ve been desensitized huh. If that’s the case, then it cant be helped if the white girl doesn't worry you. But here’s an advice from an experienced father to a newbie father: The one that will screw the growth your future children over is not you…. It’s that white girl.”

“Ugh… Touche”