What is Happiness 6.1 (Patreon)

I keep getting questions about where the rest of the story is. They are on QQ.

What is Happiness?
Arc 6 Chapter 1: Changes 1

-VB-

Despite my cape persona’s infamy, no one knew my real face nor did they suspect that the Butcher had a harem of three women.

So when two of those women came to the hospital with their man and delivered their babies, no one thought worse of it.

They also looked the other way when they saw the man’s hand get nearly crushed when he was there for two consecutive deliveries.

But there we were at the end of it in one room. Sabah stood to one side with her pregnant belly while Taylor laid on the bed with our son, Joseph, in her arms and Lisa on her bed with our daughter Catherine in her arms.

This simultaneous birthing was to our surprise. We expected the delivery to come maybe one week after another, not on the same day!

Slightly panicked as we were, we got through it and there were smiles all around.

-VB-

“He has to be the Butcher.”

Miss Militia raised an eyebrow. “Armsmaster, Butcher would not have a harem.”

“He has the exact height and build.”

“By that definition, so would three percent of the Brockton Bay’s men. There are a lot of … rather well sculpted men, you know?”

When Armsmaster turned to look at her, she didn’t look away. She could feel the surprise coming from the man, but what else was she supposed to say?

She did look around a lot, and had … let’s say sampled more than a few since she came to the city. America certainly had better stock of men than her home country. And in such a wide variety, too.

It was just too bad that she couldn’t find someone agreeable to her job and lifestyle. Most men she took fancy too were all very eager to settle down.

Normally, it would be the opposite, but maybe that was just her type? A reliable kind of man who wanted to settle down and make a family, except her own circumstances and unwillingness prevented her.

She was getting in her years as well, and soon, having a child might not be an option anymore.

She sighed.

“What are you thinking about?”

“... A lot of things.”

Armsmaster returned to Protectorate internal debriefing. Across from the table were their colleges who weren’t currently patrolling: Assault, Triumph, and Velocity.

With the fall of the Empire Eighty-Eight and the death of the Slaughterhouse Nine in the city, the city gained a new infamy in the cape scene as “where villains go to die.” Not even Los Angeles with Alexandria residing there had that kind of reputation.

Of course, this resulted in local independent villains and outsider villains to try and muscle their way to prominence. Because of this, Protectorate ENE’s heroes have been working overtime to manage the reduced but steadily increasing villain population.

Never mind the fact that the Butcher was still around. He was now the big bad along with Lung, and the two of them seemed to have some kind of non-aggression pact. The Butcher never invaded Lung’s territory nor did he form a rival gang and Lung and his ABB never expanded beyond the Docks.

This left the Commercial District, the Docks South suburbia, Downtown, and mostly recovered Downtown Coast and its suburbia for other villains and heroes to establish themselves. With the Wards and New Wave’s new generation taking a semi-active role in Downtown Coast and Downtown, most of the newcomers have relegated themselves to Docks South and the Commercial District.

And a few of them have met a gruesome fate at the hands of the Butcher.

Miss Militia wanted to arrest the cape, but the Butcher proved himself different from his previous incarnations. Because of this PRT ENE eased themselves on removing him as a threat.

This meeting was partly because of the Butcher. The reason why Armsmaster was discussing the latest man to be registered by the public records and camera was that the Protectorate wanted to pinpoint the Butcher’s area of operation if only to keep their Wards away and allies warned.

“Okay then, he’s the last of the potential Butcher, right?” Velocity asked as he looked up from the fle.

“Yes,” Armsmaster grunted.

“Then we should discuss how we should approach the rest of the city? Specifically, the Dandy Land have been causing too much of a ruckus.”

Dandy Land, a cape gang composed of three Brockton native capes, have more or less risen up to fight the cape-less remnants of the Empire Eighty-Eight. The trio of capes was… let’s just say that if they were heroes, then Hannah might have entertained some naughty thoughts about them.

Unfortunately for her, they were not. The most she could fantasize about was stomping on them when they inevitably lost to the grea-

“-Militia?”

“Hmm?” she uttered. Apparently, she lost herself in her thoughts.

“How do you feel about focusing the Protectorate’s focus on the Dandy Land?” Armsmaster asked.

“You know, before their dandy lads in the Dandy Lands seduce some of our poor PRT ladys~!” Assault cackled.

Miss Militia rolled her eyes. She knew that there was no way any of the PRT field agents would play along with Dandy Land’s capes. Aside from their poor taste in hairstyle (pompadour in the 2010s?), they made way too many innuendos, so many in fact that Assault was tired of them.

“As long as we will coordinate with the PRT on this as per regulation, I don’t see why I would disagree,” she replied factually.

“Very well. I will submit the request.”