Chapter 7: And a good, "Fuck you too," sir!

I paced impatiently back and forth between throughout the room. Kneesocks sat patiently on the sofa, reading a book; while her sister, Scanty, sat next to her impatiently filing her fingernails. Running my hand through my hair, I tousled it a bit, trying to stave off my aggravation and impatience. Generally, I would be patient and collective, but I'm rather tired of Damien's secretively maneuvering behind our backs, ignoring me and all around I'm sick of his bullshit. But finally yesterday, he asked us to all meet him downstairs to share some insight on his actions of late.
"Knick, are you ok dear?" Said Kneesocks, looking up from her book. Both Scanty and I looked at Kneesocks with this, 'the fuck you just say,' look and I stopped.
"W-what? Was it something I said?" She said, turning a deep red.
"No, just the whole, y'know, dear thing is rather unexpected...and not you," I said, stopping to look at her.
"I was just expressing concern, no reason to act like an ass Knick," she said
"Ich bedaure sehr," I said, turning and continuing pacing.
"Knick, what did you say?" Asked Scanty, looking up from her filing.
"I'm very sorry, why?" I said.
"No, it wasn't English what you must said," Kneesocks said, closing her book and putting it on the side table.
"I said 'I'm very sorry,' what did it sound like to you?" I said, turning to face her.
"I-,"
"German," Damien's rough, stern voice said.

The three of us turned to see Damien walk out of the shadow of the corridor where his study, room and lab (and gods knows what else he has down there) we're located. I've never been down further than his room, and I feel like I don't want too ever explore that hallway. Damien is very secretive when it comes to his companies and research; he's also a tad bit off his rocker. I 'affectionately' called that hallway, "The Gate of Hell." He wore his usual lab coat, and his glasses were tucked away in his pocket. The mess of golden brown hair rested as a mess on top of his head. Stepping forward, he approached me, a serious look adorning his face. This was not the usual asshole-ish look he wore, but one of no bullshit, as if something has happened that could never un-happen, something…something must've happened for Damien to suddenly change his mind and reveal what he's been working on for the past month and a half.

"You three, come with me," Damien said and with that he started down the hallway, not looking back to see if we we're following him or not. I gave the girls a look and began after him, Scanty and Kneesocks followed, speeding up to stay close behind me. If this fuck face didn't hurry up and tell me what the fuck is going on, I'll get Cestus down from the club to spread his ass apart with his fist. You know what someone doesn't want doesn't want done to them? Cestus to spread their ass with is fist. I mean seriously this guys' fist is the size of like two of my heads put together. I bet any woman he has been with has always had a good time if you know what I mean. I was tired of being kept in the shadows, tired of him keeping everything closed up inside and staying down in his fucking bat cave and neglecting me. Not cool bro, not cool. Plus, he was looking at bit pale, I think he has been down there the entire time and really needs to get some sun; because spending all his time down there isn't healthy.

As we approached the end of the hallway, passing several doors and the paintings that also occupied the hallway; we came upon some very interesting pieces. There were paintings depicting vast green landscapes with vast shimmering castles in the back ground. Some of the paintings were massive and depicting the constellations of the sky and odd swirls, spanning across the sky. But something struck me odd about those paintings, I've seen them before…someplace, somewhere, I've seen them. We continued down the hallway and passed more paintings of battles on the same green landscape. Many of the battles depicted a faction of medieval soldiers with shining silver plate armor marching onto a field of lush green, where another army of what appeared to be barbarians stood, waiting for them. As we continued down this hallway that appeared to go on forever, the paintings depicted various scenes from history, groups of unknown men conversing between each other, and many other events from history. But something that me odd about these paintings, is I feel like I've lived these events, and that there was something I was supposed to- if anything- remember. I don't know why I felt it but I did.

We finally neared the end of the hallway, when Damien suddenly stopped. In front of us was what appeared to be an outline of a picture frame, but it was too dark to tell. With a snap of Damien's fingers, a light suddenly flicked on flawlessly to reveal a painting that was approximately twenty four by thirty size frame. Within that frame, a much less tired and less scowling Damien stared back at us. Except, this wasn't the Damien I knew. He didn't have the small cut that ran along the left corner of his mouth, his hair was a shade lighter than the golden brown, and his hair was swept back and neatly kept as opposed to the Damien that stood only a few feet in front of me. Another thing with this painting is the attire of the man in the painting; he had shiny silver plate armor on and a symbol that looks close to the letter "E" was painted in bright blue on his left pauldrons, and behind him in the painting was the same lush green landscape that we saw in the other paintings. There was only one explanation.

"Damn Damien, and here I thought you were very selfless, but this truly proves how much of an ass you really are," I said, continuing to stare at the painting.

Damien turned to me, "What?" he said with the familiar, 'I know you're a dumbass, but what dumb shit just came out of your fucking mouth this time,' look.

"Yeah, I mean that's why you had this huge ass painting made right? To show you caught up on yourself you are."

He just continued to look at me, and Scanty and Kneesocks both turned to look at me with a similar expression.

"What?" asked Scanty.

"What do you mean what? He is self-centered," I said, shooting Damien a smirk as he turned to fully face me, wearing the same smirk.

"So, what's the deal with the painting?"

"What do you mean?" he said, crossing his arms, doing his sassy black woman stance.

"Like, is this your way of showing you superior intellect, or apart of some fan fiction you're writing?" I said, mimicking his stance.

"What's fan fiction?" asked Kneesocks, pushing her glasses back up on her nose.

"Yeah, it's where someone who is a fan of a TV show, videogame, books or any other media and writes their own version of it, or even an alternate timeline in the story. But it's mainly a fan-based parody."

"And just how do you know this?" Scanty said condescendingly.

"When I'm looking for ideas for my history reports, sometimes I come across them. I also use to write a book," I said.

"You're writing a book?" asked Kneesocks, her interest suddenly peaked.

"Well, sort of…it's kind of in the fan fiction stage," I said, feeling my face turning a brilliant red.

"Ah, so you write fan fiction? Aren't you a hypocrite?" said Scanty shooting me a rather bitchy look.

"Well-," I started.

"Seeing as this has nothing to do with anything, may we continue?" Damien said, sounding rather annoyed.

He snapped his fingers again, and the painting slid back into the wall, and the entire wall split down the middle to reveal the doors to an elevator. Damien stepped forward and the doors to the elevator slid open and he stepped in and turned to face us.

"Coming?" he said.

I exchanged a hesitant look with the girls and stepped forward into the elevator. We all piled in the elevator, and began our descent. The lift began its descent into gods knows where. The descent was smooth for a while until the elevator jerked for a moment, causing us to rapidly descend before it suddenly jerked to a stop, causing the lights to flicker and throw us to the ground in a bundled heap. "Ow, you know what, that fucking hurt. Damien I thought you were supposed to be a genius!" said a rather annoyed Scanty, struggling under the pile of bodies.

"Oh shut up you demonic whore," said Damien working his way to his feet.

"WHORE?! Do not confuse me with that trollop angel! I am a dignified woman of class and you better remember that the next time you ask me to cook you sorry sack of shit, I-."

Damien quickly put his hand over Scanty's mouth to prevent any further rabble from her trap. Seriously the girl can fucking rant, for hours. Damien removed his hand and you just barely hear Scanty whisper, "And a good fuck you to you sir." But if you weren't listening you probably wouldn't have caught it.

As I stood up, and helped Kneesocks to her feet, the elevator began its descent again; I suddenly felt a nudge against me. I looked to see that Kneesocks has gotten close to me and grabbed onto my arm. She looked at me with those green eyes and just gave me the look of, "Don't leave." How could I resist? I wasn't ready to say it, but this past month and a half, well I feel something, just not sure what.

We soon reached the stop. The elevator came to rest and we all waited in silence as the elevator gonged, signaling that the doors were going to open and that it was safe to exit. The doors slide open smoothly to reveal an immense laboratory that was very modern in style and featured multitudes of incredible equipment; it almost looked like something out of a fantasy novel or a fanfiction or something. Seriously, there was some crazy shit.

"Damien, what is this…what have you been doing?" I asked stepping off the elevator along with Scanty and Kneesocks. I took in the sights and it amazed me with every glance.

"This, this is the rebirth of our empire, this is where we finally make the world a better place, to protect it. Secure it," he said facing away from me.

"What do you mean? You've been hitting the 'X' again haven't you?" I asked looking puzzled.

"You still don't remember."

"Remember what?" I asked, again puzzled, but now more concern for the mental stability of my friend.

"What you truly are Knick, what you were born to do, born to protect," he said turning to look me in the eye with the same expression when he saw the blue rune on my hand, "You aren't human Knick."

"What?" I said in disbelief.

"You're an Equalizer. You're the most important one too," he said continuing to stare, "And I'm going to make you remember."

End of Chapter 7

A/N:

OK, so let me just say this:

FUCK!

This chapter literally took close to three months to write. I pissed myself of with this. First, college has been bending me over like I'm a second-rate whore (and not even the good second rate whores either,) Secondly, mom has been riding my ass and that in itself is a brutal story I rather not get into. I just want to commend everyone on their patience, and hope you enjoy.

Now to go write chapter 8. Also, I enjoy comments, asks, conversations about the story etc. and I would love to receive those. Give me your comments and what you think I could do better or worse. Also I'm still taking ideas for some one-shots and would love to write something for you guys (and my lovely loyal Lady audience) so send them in everyone.

Mr. Michael R. Anderson.