...
"I mean I just want to help people, and I want to help the city; save it and — I know that's what everyone says, but," TwentyOne shrugged slightly, looking flustered even behind his green goggles, "It's what I believe."
Knight knew that TwentyOne had not been designed to be a hero — Teufel had simply taken a no-name and warped his genes to make another minion, another monster of the week. And yet —
"That's admirable," Knight said, strapping his trident onto his back. The same demonic captain from hell had just launched an attack at the Hero's HQ. There had been gore. Several heroes and civilians had died. And TwentyOne had fought against his creator.
"And why are you doing this?"
Knight thought for a moment as he surveyed the smoking cityscape. Civilian authorities were picking up the wreckage and motioning for survivors to move to the nearest shelter.
"There's nothing else that could challenge me." His hero suit sported cuts and dents, and his body was aching from the bruises and scrapes of the fight. TwentyOne fared no better, his simple suit torn distractingly, revealing bloody and bruised skin.
This was the first time that either have talked, but they both had heard of each other. Knight, the second S rank; and TwentyOne, climbing the ranks at a terrifying speed with a yet unknown power cap.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Maniac tries to chain Seijuro back but he crushes the links between his hands and keeps marching forward. Maniac swings his sharpened chains around in a warning, but Seijuro is a single minded force and snaps those as well.
He brandishes his trident, and it glints with promise and wrath and sorrow.
"Hero HQ is full of corruption."
Maniac seethes, grinds his teeth. "Take that back, fucker. Don't you say anything like that about my HQ or I'll kill you. I don't care if we are teammates —"
Seijuro kills him swiftly, and throws the corpse into a nearby building. The building shudders and collapses on itself.
"Ah, Knight!" TwentyOne all but clambered to him after he returned from a vicious monster attack. "It's good to see you safe."
Knight was about to pass out from bloodloss. He coughed once before collapsing into TwentyOne's arms.
"It's okay," TwentyOne murmured as Knight's pants brushed against his neck. "Let's get you to HQ, okay?" There was the softest nuzzle against his neck in response.
There are civilians and then Seijuro waves his hand and there are corpses. And he looks at their mutilated bodies and hears his feet splash in their blood and hears the other civilians shriek in tune with the sirens.
And he marches forward. There is only rage.
Before TwentyOne was mutated, he worked retail. He was small and meek, he bent to the will of the customer. Teufel thought him the perfect underling. That fell through.
TwentyOne was different than the other numbers and had never belonged there. He was different than Knight, who had been born a hero. He had thought that he would be arrogant, but he was the one to train with him and take him under his wing.
TwentyOne cupped his fried curry bun with both hands up on the roof of HQ. No one really came up all the way to the roof, especially on a cold, raining knight — night. TwentyOne shook his head, puffing out his red cheeks.
"You're here," Knight said and sounded — TwentyOne wasn't sure. His voice was gruff as usual but he sounded amicable enough. They were crowded together to shelter themselves from the icy rain.
"Un," TwentyOne said. "I like the view. Though my food gets cold fast."
"Those aren't healthy."
"Well, yeah, I know, but they're good. Do you want some?" He asked before he could think things through.
Knight looked down at him. His black gasmask reflected the orange and blue city lights.
"Ah, er, I mean your identity and all and that was stupid. Just forget it."
"I'll have some," Knight unclasped his mask and within the same motion, he bent down and took a bite of the bun from Sena's hands. He licked the crumbs from the side of his mouth, and then used his thumb to wipe Sena's lower lip. "I'm Seijuro."
"Uhm," TwentyOne said, blinking. He tugged his opaque goggles off. "Sena," he whispered.
Seijuro isn't stupid, there are others — the Emperor and his followers, Spider Poison, even King Neptune — but they have a different cause. They are fighting against the corruption of HQ, and Seijuro is going to level the city. He refuses to go under the tactical geniuses and just says that "We'll meet up at the HQ."
Flying towards him is one of the heroes that stayed, Archangel. She was soft and motherly to Sena and grudgingly accepting of Seijuro's part in his life.
"Knight, as part of the defense force of Hero HQ, I order you to stop immediately," she has metal breast plate and eyeguard; in one hand she holds an electric sword. Her white robes flair around her as she floats in the air.
Seijuro continues marching forward.
She draws her sword. "I know that you cared about him, but so did I. So did a lot of people. HQ did what they had to do —"
Seijuro's trident clashes with her sword before he can slice through her. She grits her teeth and slashes a wide arc, the air crackling with electricity. Seijuro dodges out of her next strike, and the one after and the whole time she is saying platitudes of:
"This HQ brings order and we can't have our image tainted."
"I wish it hadn't been done as much as you, but we can't change what happened!"
"Knight, stop, you're one of our bests!"
"They murdered him," Knight says, and he skewers her through her stomach. Her blood sprays out in a red crescent.
"Ah —," she gasps when Knight twists the trident and shreds her organs.
They were caught kissing on camera, a grainy image that is only barely recognizable.
Seijuro and Sena had been requested for a meeting with Id. His twin was nowhere to be seen.
Id simply placed the photograph on the table and leaned back on his chair and smiled his fake, slow smile. He didn't say anything. Evenetually Sena spoke up.
"What was it you wanted —?"
"No more fag business."
Seijuro starts killing blindly, climbing his way up HQ as he looks for Id.
They sent him a video of Sena's execution, first from outside the glass-walled gassing chamber where he heard Id's megalomaniac voice spout accusations and then the sentence. The audio cut to inside the chamber where Sena panted in fear, eyes wide and wet. Then the hissing of gas started.
"Sei — Knight! Knight! I love y—!"
Id looped the last bit of audio over and over again. Just short of what Seijuro wanted to hear. Over and over again: Sena's last words. Over and over again.
"You're killing our own," Neptune hisses. Seijuro kills him.
"This isn't what we agreed on," Spider says. Seijuro kills him.
"We're only to stop those corrupted," the Emperor says. Seijuro kills him. At one point, the Emperor would have been a matched opponent for him, but not after a deal with the devil.
"They killed him."
"I fucking know."
"I need to be stronger."
"How's that my problem."
"I need to destroy those who did it."
Seijuro stared at Teufel. Teufel stared at Seijuro.
"And I won't harm her," Seijuro lies. Teufel believed him like Knight had believed Id would not continue the matter regarding Sena.
The world shudders beneath Seijuro's feet.
"Ah, if it isn't the fucker himself," Id says, brushing his dreads back. Ego is tense next to him, a hand on his twin's shoulder. "You can't beat me; you can't even touch me."
Seijuro phases next to the twins and crushes Ego's skull in his fist. Gray matter and brain and bone splatters on Id.
"Shit — you motherfucker, you fucking —"
Seijuro gouges out Id's left eye, scratches out his vocal chords, stomps his fingers back and breaks his arms and Id is still alive so Seijuro uses his trident to dig out Id's ribs and rips out his lungs.
And he doesn't feel.
I want to help the city, Sena whispers in his mind. Seijuro slaughtered it.