Note: Some parts in this chapter refer back to 'Oh Sister Where Art Thou?' and 'Falling Inside the Black'
Chapter Five
Getting to Know You
Diablo leaned back on the beam and looked down at the Panther and Doberman.
"So you wish to learn about how I am?"
"Yes." Milo growled.
Marcus nodded in agreement.
"Very well." Diablo said "I'll tell you, I'll you all of it, and hopefully you'll understand why I gave you this new life."
The Panther and Doberman looked up at Diablo as he leaned back on the beam and looked at the sky through the roof.
"Before I became this, I was human, just like you two, I lived a normal life, but then it was taken away from me. I was living in Wisconsin, with my family, for years we were very happy, I was the youngest child, with an older brother Jake and sister Monalisa, I was very close to both of them, especially my oldest sister, but then one day, she left home, and never returned, for eleven years I never knew what happened to her, until recently."
Milo and Marcus frowned and looked at each other then looked up at the Raven.
"It turned out she had become a mutant, a lizard mutant, and was living in the sewers with four mutant turtles and a rat, living as crime fighters and protectors of the city! Yet she never even bothered to let us know she was still alive, after so many years of believing her to be dead."
"Jesus Christ." Marcus whispered.
"What had happened to your sister exactly?" Milo asked, his anger turning to curiosity.
"She was attacked and mutated." Diablo growled "Attacked and raped by a street gang, then mutated by toxic waste after being thrown into the sewers to die."
"We're sorry man..." Milo started but Diablo continued.
"I never imagined she would be living a life as a mutant, I was angry, angry she choose to live as a mutant and not let us know she was alive, and dedicate her life to protecting ungrateful humans! Humans that know nothing for her existence and what she does for them! Practically beating a fucking dead horse!"
"Where is she now?" Marcus asked.
"In New York." Diablo replied "That was where my brother and I found her, she and her new family," he growled slightly at the word new, "Rescued me when fucking drug dealers kidnapped me and drugged me up on Crystal Meth."
Marcus and Milo glared.
"Meth..." Marcus hissed "The Bastards."
"I stayed in the sewers with my sister's new family." Diablo continued "I couldn't help but feel anger towards her, and them, that she was living a new life and had left me alone. I needed time alone, so I ventured topside, and thinking back to it now, I shouldn't have gone out, Jake followed me, tried to bring me back but we were caught by a Criminal Group, and tortured, then they fatally injured me! I should have died, but Mona and Jake brought me to this place under Chicago, and I was forced to drink the magical water, the same water I used to save your lives, and I became this."
Milo and Marcus stared at Diablo for a long time, not believing what they were hearing.
"The water you gave us?" Marcus asked "It's magical?"
"From what I was told, yes." Diablo said, holding up the water bottle which was about more than three quarters full.
It had been filled to the brim when he fled Mutopia and after his escape and where Heather and Tyroth had injured him he had used the water to heal himself and had used some of it to Mutate Milo and Marcus.
"What is this place?" Milo asked "Where you got the water?"
"The place I fled, where I took the water, is an underground city, called Mutopia, a city of Mutants and outcasts, humans who all drank the water and mutated into superhuman animals, all with one purpose, and that is to hide from the world above."
"A hidden city?" Marcus asked, shocked and shaking his head "I never...I mean..."
"I don't believe it!" Milo gasped.
"Believe it." Diablo said "I fled from that place! I grew tired of their rules and restricts! I thought I was going mad! They're strong mutants, more powerful and capable to surviving better than the humans, yet they choose to hide like cowards! That's why I fled! As I believed in a better purpose! A better use for my new life! I lost my pathetic human form, I was angry, but then I realised I could do so much more with it!"
Diablo then smirked as he looked at the new mutants.
"And now I have gifted you with it, you can also find new ways of living and using your new bodies!"
Milo and Marcus were silent for a long time, still trying to take in the Raven's story as well as his theories on his mutant life.
They didn't know how long they had been silent for, but before long, Diablo spoke again.
"Now I've told you my story, and my reasons, please, tell me yours."
Milo and Marcus looked at each other, then at Diablo, they were unsure whether they wanted to speak to this strange creature about their lives, but seeing since they had no other way to go now they had new bodies, it seemed the Raven was the only person they could trust right now and after hearing his story, they thought it only right to talk about their own lives.
Marcus looked at Milo and nodded to which the panther swallowed then looked at Diablo.
"My name is Milo." Milo introduced "Milo T'Challa, I'm a bouncer in a Strip Club near here, been working there for a long time, my upbringing was happy, my parents owned an off licence here in Chicago, until when I was nine years old, my mother was raped and murdered by White Supremacists and my father was shot dead by thugs who were robbing his store three years later."
Diablo looked at Milo sadly but also with anger that such tragic events took his parents from him.
Milo sighed.
"I then went to live with my grandparents on my mum's side in Indiana, where I was constantly bullied for being black, and an orphan, I used to get in trouble when I got into fights at school, trying to defend myself against the bullies, then after graduating I took up different jobs to earn enough money to move back to Chicago, and not long before I moved, my grandparents passed away, leaving me with no other living relatives."
He then felt Marcus's hand on his back in an act of comfort.
"Since I lost my parents, then my grandparents, I've been trying to make it through alone, and I found a place to settle here, as well as get a job as a Bouncer, as all the fights I got into as a student, I gained experience in throwing arseholes out of the club."
"I'm sorry to hear such a tragic story." Diablo said softly "I know what it's like to loose a parent, my mother died from cancer."
"Sorry." Milo said then sighed again "Life was never easy, but trying to help others..." so saying he glanced at Marcus "Has helped me through the days."
Diablo looked at Milo.
"And you can still help others Milo." he said "Even in your new form."
"What do you mean?" Milo asked.
"I will explain that in due time." Diablo promised "But first, let me hear your friend's story." to which he turned his attention to Marcus.
Marcus frowned and stood up straight and saluting.
"Sargent Marcus Flint." he said "That's what I was known as! A dedicated soldier in the US army! I served with them for 20 years! Willing to serve my country! And die protecting it! As was my duty!"
"An ex soldier hmm?" Diablo said "Interesting."
"I was dedicated in protecting my friends and comrades!" Marcus continued "I vowed I would protect them with my life and body! And I proved it!"
He then held up his right hand.
"When I was serving in Syria, a grenade was thrown at me and my men, and if I hadn't picked it up, and thrown it back, all our lives would have been lost, but the only thing lost that day, was my right arm."
Marcus winced as he remembered the incident all too well.
"I saw the tiny explosive land near us, and I knew I had to act, so I grabbed it, and threw it back, yet as I let go, it exploded..." he inhaled "I don't remember much of what happened after that, I just remember hearing a bang, then I was thrown backwards, then all went black."
He flexed his clawed fingers.
"I thought I had died, I could feel nothing, I heard, nothing, just white noise, and I could see the faces of my concerned men before I blacked out, when I awoke, I was in an air ambulance, and I couldn't move, nor could I feel my right arm."
"You were a hero that day." said Diablo "And your men must have been grateful to you."
"They were." Marcus said "They told me so, and they had gotten me to safety and to be looked after after the grenade blew my arm off."
"They should have been grateful." Diablo said "Along with all of America!"
"I thought they would be too." Marcus said "America I mean, as since I lost my arm I was unfit for service, and I was sent home." he then sighed "I thought when I got back I would get the help and support I deserved after all I did for this country! I found it hard to find a job being an amputee and my welfare benefits weren't covering the ever increasing rent on my home, and before I knew it, I was evicted and I've been on the streets ever since."
Hearing that last part, Diablo was furious.
How could they? The people of America, the government treat Marcus in such a way after he had done what he could to protect the country he loved so much, giving his right arm and risking his life and yet he had been living as a tramp.
"Life had treated you both unfairly." he said "Life is so cruel and unfair to you, as it has been to me, but now we are mutants, we can write our own story and live as we please, with no restrictions!"
Marcus and Milo stared at Diablo in silence.
"Think about it." Diablo opened his wings and lowered himself down from the beam so he was on the ground with them, "According to the humans, we do not exist, we hid in the darkness, the humans do not know about us, so we do not have to follow any laws, or live like puppets, we can live how we wish, go as we please, and not have to fear anything."
Marcus raised an eyebrow.
"No rules?" he asked.
Diablo shook his head.
"No." he said "I followed stupid rules as a human, and when I was in Mutopia I was told I would have to follow rules, but I refused! I refused to be restricted! I have a new body, and I can use it how I wish, and I offer the same to you both!"
He turned to them "I gave you the choice to mutate into what you are now, and you have a chance to start afresh, even though you have to say goodbye to your old life, and who you were before, but this blessing I have bestowed upon you, you have the chance to be what you want to be, with no rules and also...to make those who hurt you...pay for their sins!"
As he said the last bit, the Raven smirked and his moonstone eyes flashed.
"I have a gift for you."
Diablo gestured his taloned hands towards the left and Milo and Marcus soon saw the Red Necks who had beaten them up and stabbed them, tied up and gagged.
"What the?" Marcus gasped.
"What in the name of?" Milo breathed.
"I gathered them up for you!" Diablo smirked "After the abuse and almost killing of you, I'm sure you're itching for some payback?"
The Red Necks looked at the Raven in terror and pulled at their cords as well as tried to scream and protest through their gags.
Milo and Marcus looked at them for a long time, then at Diablo.
"Well?" the Raven asked cocking his head on one side.
"Why have you done this?" Milo asked.
"Why?" Diablo asked "Well duh, you've been tormented terribly by those beasts, and isn't it only fair that they get a taste of their own medicine?"
Milo looked at the Red Necks.
"I was a fighter." he said "But only when people attack me."
"Likewise." Marcus agreed.
Diablo shook his head.
"I can understand." he said "I understand why you hesitate, the goodness in your souls, you still feel empathy despite what those bastards did to you, but then again, if you do not teach them a lesson, will they stop doing what they did to you to someone else? Hmmm?"
Milo and Marcus thought for a moment.
"I don't see it as vengeance for what they did to you, or getting your own back, but rather, justice?" Diablo offered "You weren't the only victims, you know?"
"How do you know?" Milo questioned raising an eyebrow.
"I looked at their phones, and I saw they recorded themselves beating up others and abused others just like you!" Diablo held up four Iphones which showed videos of the Red-Necks abusing others, a few had them beating up and abusing black people, Muslims and even the odd woman.
"And so far they got away with it," The Raven continued "But now, they will not, and if the humans won't deal with it, why not you?"
Smirking at the panther and Doberman, he wondered if his words were starting to sink in, and before long he saw a slight twinkle in Marcus's eye.
"The Raven has a point." he said then clenched his fists before looking at the Red-Necks who looked at him terrified.
Milo still looked a bit sceptical, but then he looked up as he thought more about what Diablo said.
"Justice?" he said softly "Satisfaction." his lips some formed into a smirk and Diablo's smirk got wider.
"Do what you wish with them." Diablo hissed dangerously "Yet do not kill them, I find that a more worse punishment is eternal torment, and mental trauma, than death!"
"Very well." Milo said then walked with Marcus over to their tormentors who began to protest more through their gags, and try to move yet couldn't due to their tight bounds.
Diablo meanwhile sat back and smirked, licking his beak.
"This will be interesting." he thought "As well as fun to watch."
So Diablo has explained his backstory to Milo and Marcus, and they likewise have told their stories, both not having easy lives themselves.
Now, after letting Diablo's words sink in, they seem ready to take vengeance on their tormentors, and bet it won't be pretty!