In the Midst of Callousness 9 (Patreon)

In the Midst of Callousness
Chapter 9

-VB-

“See you later,” his neighbor smiled as she waved goodbye to the white man who stayed the night at her house for the past two days.

“Love you!” he grinned as he left, and she blushed.

Ugh.

Adults.

She sighed with that awfully common lovestruck sigh as she closed the door.

Ugh.

Adults.

Joseph wanted to complain about their nightly activities because the walls of the apartment weren’t that thick, but his parents told him to drop the issue just because they knew the neighbor.

Whatever.

It was time for him to go to school anyway, so he quickly finished the last of his toast, waved goodbye to mom and dad, and left.

-VB-

School was boring.

It was always boring. His best friend moving out of the city because of his parent’s “safety concerns” didn’t help with Joseph’s burden. No, it just made it all the worse.

“Hey, did you hear?”

“What?” he asked his second best friend, Jay.

“The Teeth got their teeth kicked in yesterday,” the giddy senior grinned like a lunatic. “The Butcher lacks an arm now, and the Teeth as a whole, or at least their capes, got driven out of the city.”

“Rumor?”

“No, there are videos of it and all. Two dozen of their minions died, too.”

“Who did them in? I assume it’s the Empire?”

It was the Empire that fought against the Teeth the most.

“No, it was him.”

Ah, him.

Joseph scratched the back of his head as he felt a chill run down his spine.

He, him, the killer. The Slaughterer. The Bastard. Even before he went and fought the Slaughterhouse Nine, Joseph liked the Bastard as a cape. He was irreverent when he wanted to be and wrecked anyone who was a dick.

Yeah, Joseph was a little miffed that he wrecked Armsmaster not too long ago, but that was part of being in Brockton Bay; all villains, at one point, win against Armsmaster due to the sheer number of encounters the seemingly ever active and patrolling Protectorate Tinker runs into.

What was the current number of fights Armsmaster currently had on record?

One thousand something? He had at least one encounter every two days.

Of those thousand and then some encounters, twelve had been against the Bastard.

Each of those ended with the Bastard beating the shit out of the hero, but Armsmaster always came back harder, stronger, and tougher. It was why Joseph admired both of them. The Bastard and his “no fucks given” attitude towards everything and Armsmaster’s tenacity and ever improving armanents showed everyone just how tough Brockton Bay was.

Yeah, it was a city pride thing.

“From what I heard, Armsmaster managed to filch one of the Bastard’s toys. It looked like a bat, but the PRT is mum about it.”

“Really? Don’t they usually tell everyone what they took … unless it’s actually dangerous?” Joseph asked, and it was only after he spoke that he realized how quietly he said those words.

Because if the PRT didn’t say anything about Tinkertech that had been used in public, then they were risking people’s anger at not being explained what might have happened to them due to exposure. But they did this in the past, according to PRT’s own declassified files, when the tinkertech in question was too dangerous and needed to be either neutralized or dismantled as quickly as possible.

The Bastard was known for his variety of tinkertech weapons, but most of them were a wreck if he left them behind (if there was anything left at all; the Bastard did use tinkertech but he was more known for his usage of tinkertech grenades like the one that supposedly killed off the Slaughterhouse Nine).

Jay shrugged. “If it is, then they’ll get rid of it.”

“Shucks. They could at least use it against the Empire before they let it break.”

“Right? They should do that.”

Then the class bell rang, and they shut up lest they get in trouble with Mr. Handers, Arcadia’s strictest history teacher.

-VB-

As Joseph walked back home, he noted how everyone was happier. Or freer?

A lot of people were definitely relaxing with how the Teeth were driven out of the city.

Now, there was only the Empire Eighty-Eight and the March who were the major villai-.

“KYAAAHH!!!”

He froze and whirled around, and paled when he saw a cape he’d never seen before.

Considering how he was eating a woman alive and no one heard of this thing before, he knew that this was serious trouble.

He turned back and ran for it, but his movement only attracted the attention of the hunchbacked and furry were-alligator(?) that roared as it chased after him.

“FUCK FUCK F-!” he whimpered loudly as he stumbled but kept running after only a moment of losing his balance. He crashed into aluminum trash cans and their contents, and the bipedal alligator stomped them flat as he quickly caught up.

Everyone else jumped out of the way and ran the other direction, leaving him to his own devices.

“Someone save me!” he shouted with tears and -.

KRACK!

He stumbled forward and then whirled around.

The were-gator(?) was in the process of spinning forward after someone - a cape! - had landed on its head and sent it spinning forward.

Joseph’s eyes widened as he took in the cape’s appearance.

It was the Bastard!

“Oi, kid,” the gruff cape grunted out. “Get out of here,” he said as he pulled out a big double barreled shotgun.

Actually, that tinkertech (had to be tinkertech) shotgun looked more like someone put two small cannon barrels together and called the resulting abomination a shotgun.

As the were-gator came spinning right back up, the Bastard held his double-barrel cannon-gun and fired.

Joseph watched with a dropped jaw as the were-gator flew away almost horizontally to the ground. He watched as the Bastard pumped his gun, and two enormous shells popped out, each of the shells was as long as his forearm and thick as his head.

‘That’s tinkertech for you,’ he thought in shock.

As the battle moved away from him, Joseph also felt something niggling at the back of his head.

The Bastard’s voice sounded familiar.

He shook his head and ran off from the skirmish between two capes.

He lived! He was gonna thank God, mom, dad, and his lucky charms!

-VB-

Apparently, surviving a cape wasn’t enough of a reason for him to not take out the trash.

Joseph grumbled as he pushed the door open with his back and walked out.

He paused as he saw the white man, his neighbor’s new boyfriend, open the door.

“Shelly, I’m back~!”

As his neighbor’s door closed with a feminine squeal from within, Joseph realized something.

The Bastard’s voice was awfully like the white guy’s.

But … there’s no way a cape with tinkertech arsenal and a long history of violence calmly lived a life here in the poor part of Brockton Bay, right? Making tinkertech was expensive, and the cannon-gun he used today looked intricate and not cheap at all.

… Right?