Title Anger
Characters Vincent, Caligula, Lear (mentions of Burnofsky)
Summary Youth equals inexperience.
Author NotesThis bit takes place when Vincent is young and still the only active member of BZRK New York.


He'd expected and anticipated that there would be some changes in his thought patterns, that maybe he'd finally be able to experience a wider range of emotions than usual. But he'd never expected it to be so drastic.

"You need to focus more, kid," Caligula always told him, and it pissed Vincent off.

Pissed off. He'd never really experienced anger before this, and while sometimes it felt good (he was still hesitant about using the term good, because his version of good wasn't exactly the same as everyone else's) other times it just compounded in upon itself and he felt as though he were drowning in a sea of anger. It was strange, what having a purpose could do to a guy.

"You're good, Vincent, but you're not perfect. No one is perfect."

The words didn't help. No matter how many times they were said, no matter who said them - they never helped. The fact of the matter was that the further he sunk into his new role, the further down in the body he got - he wantedto be perfect. If he couldn't be happy, he might as well be the best at what he was doing.

"Come on, kid, Burnofsky's been doing this since before you were even born. Of course he'll get the better of you every once in a while."

"Whatever," Vincent said, not in the mood for some bullshit pep talk. He'd won today, of course, but Burnofsky had come awfully close to taking out one of Vincent's biots. As much as he hated to admit it, he'd been lucky today. Burnofsky hadn't been expecting him, so he hadn't brought a full contingent of nanobots. Just six spinners and two attack bots.

But he'd still made the mistake of attacking the spinners first. Focus and control, he knew Caligula was right but it still made him angry.

Caligula sat in the main room still, typing into his phone.

How's Vincent? was the message waiting for him, and only now did he have a chance to reply.

Good. A little shaken up, got snappy with me. The kid's turning into a regular teenager.

Make sure he stays focused. I need him.

Don't you worry, he just needs a little more time to adjust to all this emotion he's never felt before. He's still deep in the cause. He won't fail you.

Good. If he does - it's on your head.

Caligula had to laugh at that one. Lear was nothing if not blunt.