Wretched Joy 7 (Patreon)

Wretched Joy

Chapter 7

-VB-

July 24, 2010

I realized that I didn’t want the Empire Eighty-Eight to just die and disappear. I wanted them to suffer like they made others suffer. It wouldn’t be justice for them to die like how I wanted them to, however. I knew that much because suffering only served to erode justice.

But it would make me and so many others who suffered at the hands of their ilk just … feel better.

There was nothing so cathartic as to see your tormentor suffer and scream.

This was why after I completed my [Cloak of Invisibility], [Beanie of “Fuck Masters”], [Protected Mask], and [Uno Reverse Ring], I stopped focusing on them to create a different kind of enchanted equipment.

I stared at the chained sickle sitting on my lap.

I had imbued two concepts into this thing: nightmare and reach. Individually, the sickle would induce a nightmarish hallucination to anyone who looked at it when I wielded it with the intent to cause harm. If the blade actually cut into my target, then the hallucination became a physical thing for the wounded. Other cuts from monsters only they could see would appear as well as teeth marks…

It didn’t affect me because of [Beanie of “Fuck Masters”] acting as anti-master and anti-stranger effects, which cost me a nearly a full month’s worth of charges.

I had tested it out against a few lone Merchants in the southern outskirts of the suburbia, and they had pissed themselves after a single look and ran the fuck away.

It heartened me to see that even drugged out idiots got feared.

The other concept, reach, allowed me to cut and strike targets. If I missed by an inch, then it would still cut. If the chain was just a feet too short, then suddenly, it wasn’t and struck my target true. It didn’t compensate for everything, but it did for a lot of little details.

What I hadn’t realized when I put reach as the second concept to the sickle was that the concepts found themselves “compatible” with each other. Because of this unexpected additive reaction, nightmare’s hallucinogenic effect had a half-mile radius effect and reach …

The sickle can now bite and cling to a victim, but I still didn’t understand how it could.

Today, I intended to finally use this new weapon against the Empire.

I intended very much to make them suffer.

-VB-

Velocity turned down time after stopping in front of the cape who had to be Everyday Joe despite the small changes in his costume.

“Stop!” he demanded as he quickly got into his combat stance.

The beanie-wearing white-masked (not helmet) Everyday Joe did stop and looked at him. His shoulders remained loose and relaxed as if he didn’t consider Velocity a threat.

“Oh. It’s you,” Joe remarked.

The way he said it irked Robin a little.

“Joe, surrender yourself.”

Joe exaggeratedly tilted his head to the side.

“Hey.”

Robin whirled around and then nearly screamed when he saw his friend. His dead friend.

Jack smiled. “Hey, man. What’s the problem? Surprised to see your friend?”

Velocity stumbled backward and then realized that he had activated his power out of surprise. 10x? No, he was moving 20x faster than real time.

But Jack… he was still there, looking at him expectantly complete with a missing left eye and bloodied camo vests.

It had been an accident.

“Y-You’re not real,” he shook his head. “I’m under attack from someone else, aren’t I? Did Joe get a teammate?”

“No, no. I’m very much real,” Jack shook his head in the same speed as him. “I mean, I’m still alive in your head, aren’t I?” “Jack” began walking forward, but the gait was wrong. Like he had too many joints he was compensating to mimic himself. “It was nice of you to freeze up then, right? Not enough time, right?”

Robin shook his head. “J-Jack, I-I-”

“You left me to die, Robin,” Jack smiled as he stumbled but caught himself before he fully tripped and fell. “You were like a brother to me, Robs. And you left me to die.”

“No, no-!”

And then Jack was in front of his face, mouth wide open and filled with teeth.

Crunch.

---

I blinked and then Velocity was off to the side, spasming on the ground.

… Right, he sped up his personal time. Did this mean that he went through the full hallucination in the same second that I activated the hallucinations via intent? If that was true, then it sucked to be him around me.

I walked over to him and unclipped his radio.

I held the radio for a moment. I had held a radio like this before my “death.” It was still so familiar…

Steadying myself, I pressed down on the send button. “This is Joe.”

“{?!}”

I could hear the scramble on the other side. Whomever was in charge of the console had to be either inexperienced or they made a serious mistake letting my side hear every little detail.

“{Oh shit, it’s still on.}”

Mistake, it wa-.

“{This is Vista. Why do you have Velocity’s radio?}”

Oh, it was the unlucky Ward mascot.

“I left him catatonic without meaning to,” I said as I glanced at the now frothing man. “You might want to send someone to come and pick him up.”

“{!!!}”

Was she always this emotive?

I stopped wanting to kill, and the sickle obeyed. Its own desire to kill ceased, and Velocity stopped spasming and frothing at the mouth.

“I was going out to test a few things against the Empire but Velocity happened to put himself on my path. It’s such a drag, because once he submits his report on what happened, the Empire will know what happened. What a drag.”

“{Do you intend to harm Velocity further?}”

“No,” I replied, knowing better than to get into an argument with the PRT who would perceive the event however they intended to see it. “In fact, I wanted to get my hands on Hookwolf, the head honcho of the violent trio. I killed Cricket and Stormtiger, so I should finish my job, right? Unlike your people.”

“{!!!}”

Riling up the kid was kind of fun. She was so serious, but she was still a kid.

“You know what? How about this? I feel a little bad about Velocity here,” I said while nudging the unconscious hero with my foot. “If you, and only you, come to face me for Velocity’s sake and withstand five seconds of the same effect he did, then I will give you and the PRT each something worthwhile for your time.”

My murderous mood was thoroughly ruined, and now I just felt sadistically playful.

It took only a minute for Vista to appear.

She took one look at Velocity’s prone form and her eyes hardened behind her green visor.

Good. Perhaps there was hope for the Protectorate’s future.

“Greetings, Vista. I believe this is the first time we’ve met in person?” I asked her with a small bow.

She blinked rapidly, obviously taken aback by my act. She gulped before nodding resolutely. “I am Vista. You are Joe.”

“I am. Now normally, I do not care about the PRT and the Protectorate. Your two organizations are willfully accepting of the status quo of the world that propagates suffering. However, I know that you and Velocity are … good.”

“What are you getting at?” she demanded as she slid into her own combat stance. It was different from Velocity’s. Velocity’s stance had been aggressive which made sense because his control over his personal time stream allowed for him to disengage and reengage however he wanted. It was shown in how he had leaned forward and his feet were ready to take off.

Vista’s, on the other hand, was more assured of her defense. Again, this made sense because any attack sent her way would just be twisted out of the way by her control over space itself.

But unless she could immediately escape a half-mile radius Master attack, then she was screwed.

“...” I smiled as an idea popped up into my head. It would confuse the shit out of anyone, and I always was a little bit of a chuuni when I was young in my past life. I hefted the chained sickle up towards her, and she tensed in return.

“Shatter,” I spoke melodiously and with more drama than the moment deserved. “Kyoka Suigetsu.”

And Vista froze.

---

A cave? There were stone pillars of different sizes and shapes that seemed to be supporting this slightly flooded cave.

Why was she in a cave? Wasn’t she facing off against Joe?

What was she seeing?

No.

How was she here?

She whirled around, but froze when she couldn’t move. She looked down, feeling something on her shoes, and screamed.

Zombies were on the ground. No, she was standing upon a hill of zombies, and all of them were looking at her, reaching out with their rotting hands and gaping mouths where maggots and flies flew out.

She tried to use her power, but for the first time since her trigger, her power didn’t respond.

Her stomach dropped as the zombies started climbing.

“NO NO NO NO-!” she shrieked as she felt their damp, porous skin latch onto her legs. She pulled and kicked but it only made it easier for them to grab her.

One of them grabbed her wrists and dragged her down.

“NO-!”

And then she was back on the street with Joe and Velocity.

She nearly collapsed to her knees at the whiplash of … hallucinations. She couldn’t stop gasping while her body trembled almost too violently for her to manage.

“You lasted longer than Velocity did,” Joe hummed as he pulled his sickle back down.

She stared at the sickle and felt horror.

“W-What was that?”

Joe snorted. “Why would I tell you? Since you lasted so long, I’ll drop off you and the PRT’s rewards. Ciao.”

And then he teleported away.

She stood there for a moment longer before she slid down to her knees.

She was so getting months of console duty for this.