Chapter 154- Kingmaker 9

Theo has faced off against monsters that defied human comprehension a couple of times in the past.

It would be a lie to say that he felt no fear.

He often presented a false facade of confidence while hiding his desperate attempt to keep his legs from shaking.

At those times, he had his Terminator Armor and allied reinforcements to tip the scales into his favor. This helped ease his anxiety considerably.

Unfortunately for Theo, his current predicament was not such a case.

At first glance, Theo leaned on the barrier on the 70th floor as he watched both criminals and civilians evacuate the building in an orderly manner.

He was also waiting for the his real opponents to get to where he was like a overconfident bastard.

In reality, he was a rat being stared down by a snake.

Like his first meeting with Nosferatu and Freya, Theo was desperately fighting to keep himself from a fear induced faint.

He was sure who the old buffed samurai was, but he instinctively knew that if he ran away or tried to do anything stupid, the old man will unleash a holy beat down upon him.

Theo would have preferred if he fought the old man one on one. That scenario had the greatest chance of success.

Succcess meant that he would be able to find an opening to run away.

He felt like winning against the old samurai was impossible.

Unfortunately, the prescence of the Tenjou group and Sparrow completely removed any chance of escape.

Sparrow was especially dangerous to Theo since she was trained the same way as he was. She'll be able to read Theo and block any stealthy means of escape.

Things were not looking so good.

While Theo was desperately trying to think of a means of escape, Sparrow approached him.

"Yo 'Boss'. Long time no see." said Sparrow in a friendly manner.

This confused Theo quite a bit.

Didnt she hated his guts?

"Good to see you too. What should I call you?" asked Theo in an attempt to buy as much time as he could.

"Just call me S for now. And dont worry, I didnt tell anyone of your true identity." replied the light hearted Sparrow

"Wait! You know who he is?!" asked the sole male member of Tenjou

He was a typical 15-17 years old Zifanese boy with black hair and a weak willed face. He reminded Theo of his good friend Vivi Cornielo who personified the typical Zifang harem anime protagonist.

Naturally, he wields a katana because reasons.

His name is Makoto Tenjou and his whiny voice was already getting on Theo's nerves.

"Because I expect him to reciprocate by keeping my secrets secret." replied Sparrow with a dismissive wave at Makoto.

"He just slaughtered 80 people in less than 20 minutes!"

"Err... It's was actually closer to 30. Friendly fire was the main culprit for the high kill count" inserted Theo.

"That's not the point! You killed people!" roared Makoto

"You know that these were criminals that killed and tortured their fair share of innocet civilians"

"T-thats true. But everyone deserves a second chance! No one is beyond redemption!"

"And how many innocent civilians needs to die till these criminals finally earn their redemption?" asked Theo in a very cold voice. "By not putting these pests down once and for all, you have doomed hundreds of innocent lives. Criminal negligence is just as bad as murder."

"B-but-! Thats-!"

"Stop talking welp. This Boss person has more resolve in his finger than you have in your entire body." said the old man in surprisingly energentic manner.

Now that Theo got a good look at the gramps, he and the samurai girl had a fancy looking eyepatch over their right eye.

Interesting.

"Grandfather! That is going to far!" said the samurai girl of Makoto's harem

"Bah! What you see in this pile of spineless shit is beyond me. I once said that I disapprove of your relationship, and this pathetic display just solidified that. And you were suppose to inherite the Jubei namesake? Disappointing."

"Grandfather!!"

Oh, speaking of Makoto's haremittes..... they dont really matter!

They were a collection of cookie cutter tropes you typically find in a harem anime.

There was the serious eye patch samurai girl, the twin tailed spear wielding tsundere knight, the kind hearted (brain dead) childhood friend healer and ice queen archer.

Their names were irrelevant.

The energetic yet scary old man turned to Theo.

"Your... The Boss, right? I am only here to judge my stupid granddaughter if she is worthy of the Jubei namesake. I will not interfere with your battle." said the old man.

The old man turned away, leaving Makoto and his harem to fume in silent anger.

He took a chair, some beer and a decent amount of junk foods from a nearby room. He then went to a far away corner to watch the show.

"Okaaaay.... hmm.... That was awkward." said Theo before turning to Sparrow. "So, what's your deal? Why are you here?"

"Hahaha. It's kind of an embarassing story.... I had a fight with the boss lady (Crow) a while back and I kinda... ran away from them." replied Sparrow

"Oh? Do tell." said Theo with great interest.

"During the whole Hell Gate incident, one of the Bible Cultist I captured a year or so ago, was released from prison via bail and performed a ritual where he sacrificed a baby to summon a demon."

"Well .... Shit."

"Hahaha. Yeah. I was so angry that I punched the guy as hard as I could.... then I hit him again and again and again and again for 10 minutes."

"Oh! So you killed him! At least the baby's killer got what he deserved!"

"*sigh*.... Yeah.... I didnt sleep for a week after that. Then it finally dawned on me.... If that one guy did such an antrocity after getting out of prison, what of the others?"

"Ah yes. That's how I got started. I assume you were not happy with the answer?"

"Yup. Even if they did serve their time, they just went back to their evil ways. I couldnt stand it..... so I killed them... All of them." said Sparrow with a hint of exhaustion in her voice. "The more I killed, the easier it became. The easier it became, the more efficient I became at killing."

"And eventually the boss lady found out?"

"Exactly. We fought, I lost. The boss lady kicks serious ass for a woman in her mid 30s."

"Tell me about it. I had my power armor on the last time we fought, and I still got my ass handed to me."

"That's exactly what happened to me. I was turned to the cops and was on my way to jail.... but the bus I was on got attacked by some guys who were trying to save another prisoner. I got away thanks to that..... I've been wandering ever since."

"Ho. And you're in Eldorado because?"

"I.... may have killed a prominent congressman who secretly supported a child prostution ring in his district. I've been hiding ever since."

"Oh! That was your handy work? It was a beauifully executed assassination. Planting a fireaxe while the good congressman was bonning his secretary and realising an unedited video it was pure genius."

"It was fun, I admit. But not having access to all of those fancy equipment sure is a big hinderance though."

Suddenly, Theo had a eureka moment.

One of his forces' main weakness is the lack of superhero level talent.

This was a chance of a lifetime.

"Head to Miguel Baroque's campaign HQ. My people will meet you there and give you some 'toys' to pass the time for the moment. Once you get bored and want a more comprehensive partnership, head to my office in Vermilion City. We'll iron out the details then."

For a couple of seconds, Sparrow stared at Theo in shock.

There was no need for words because they understood each other's pain.

Sparrow may be the senior of the two in the crime fighting gig, but Theo was much more experienced in the violent vigelante scene.

This partnership was a win-win for both parties.

Sparrow would get weapons, intel and a support base to fall back on.

Theo would gain a powerful ally and maybe some info as to who the hell was Sparrow.

Sparrow gave Theo a light brofist on his shoulder before making her exit.

As she passed the Tenjou group...

"Makoto, girls, I thank you for all that you've done for me." said Sparrow

"Eh? Ah. No problem S. You're always welcome to visit us in the future. We'll always be here for you." replied Makoto

Savy with the tropes of anime, Theo easily saw through Makoto's intentions. It was obvious that Makoto was hoping to get Sparrow to join his harem.

Theo could understand why.

She was the textbook example of a beautiful sporty girl.

And if Theo was right, she knew of Makoto's intention as well. No way a disciple of Crow could not have picked up on such a blatant attempt of a spineless anime protagonist.

Sparrow gave Makoto a 'You'll be too dead to make it to our reunion' look of pity.

"I wont stand against you in your fight with The Boss, but I wont help you either. I will give you this advice: You guys, the Tenjou group, has a rank of A in the Superhero power scale. The last I heard, The Boss was had a rank of S in the Supervillain category. I hope you understand what that means."

"Yes, we understand. We'll do our best!" replied Makoto

Sparrow sighed and went to the elevator.

Both Theo and the old man also sighed when they heard Makoto's energetic answer.

The Superhero and the Supervillain ranking had a very different metric system.

The Supervillain ranking was ment as a warning that a supervillain of a certain ranking, for example an A ranker, required a 'team' of atleast 3 superheroes of a same rank or 1 of a higher rank to defeat with a high chance that no one ends up dead.

It didnt matter if the Supervillain had no superhuman power, skill and cunning has been proven many times to trump pure raw power.

Crow was a prime example of this.

The fact that Makoto answered the way he did, it meant that he did not understand what 1 rank difference between a Superhero team and a Supervillain meant.

Mind you, Theo wasnt entirely buying Sparrows claim that the Hero Alliance has bumbed 'The Boss' rank to S, but the idea that her bluff did not make Makoto even a little bit cautious was proof that this group were a bunch of overly positive idiots who has survive on luck alone.

Oh well. More numbers to the kill count.

Theo went ahead and performed a weapons check before the party starts.

"Before we begin, allow me to ask you a few things Mr. The Boss" said Makoto

"Ugh. That sounded weird. Just call me Boss. And sure, go ahead. I'll answer everything except the classified stuff." replied Theo

"Were you hired by Theodore Lorne to kill Gregorio Lorne?"

"Nope. The Machine God hired me to kill as many criminals as I can. Gregorio Lorne just happens to be one of them."

"What?! Gregorio is the nicest man I know! He would never do anything that would break the law!"

Theo nearly LOLed.

The words 'Gregorio' and 'Nice' cannot exist in the same sentence.

If Makoto though that Greg was a saint, then his older brother must have done a lot of acting to pull that off. Or at least, he did exceedingly well in hiding his skeletons from this idiotic boy.

"Well played big bro. Well played."

Theo could waste his time and present evidence to Makoto of Greg's wrong doing, but that is not going to happen.

Everyone has this annoying thing called 'Confirmation Bias'. In layman's terms, it was when a person would only believe in what he wanted to believe.

Construct whatever logical argument you want, a belief that a person held dear was extremely difficult to change.

Theo knew this well because his entire being revolved in a belief that he refused to disregard no matter how wrong he was.

"Hey man, I'm not going to argue if you believe that he's a good person. I'm still going to kill him though." replied Theo.

"You bastard! Have you no morals?!"

"Nope. But how about we make a deal? Tell me where Gregorio Lorne evacuated to and I'll let you and your bitches go without a scratch."

"Hah?! You must really think that little of as huh cunt!" roared the twintailed knight.

"Oh? That was surprising." replied Theo

"What are you talking about dibshit!"

"I apologize. I thought you were a tsundere knight. I didnt expect you were a punk girl. That caught me off guard."

"WHY I OUGHT TA-!" roared the twintailed knight as her fellow haremites did their best to restrain her.

"Just to be clear, I quite like this gap in character." said Theo before turning to Makoto. "I may be about to murder you and your entire harem, but I will say this: You are a man of culture and I approve of your tastes."

"Er... Thanks?" replied Makoto

"Dont agree with him dumbass!" said the twintailed knight.

While the Tenjou group was doing the typical harem anime bickering, Theo jumped on top of the concrete barrier with his back towards the 70 storie drop.

"Ladies and gentlemen! LET THE GAMES BEGIN!"

Theo leaned back and allow himself to fall.