One last explosion. The building trembles and a piece of the roof falls down into the warehouse. There is smoke, coughing and there isn’t good visibility of the winner, but a black heavy boot steps out of the black cloud; the figure is dragging a leather jacket with little blood drops that are only noticeable when the light hits it. There is murmuring around the place as the dense air dissipates, showing the younger as the victorious one and the older one on the floor, NOT MOVING.
The boy stepped forward to the group of people, throwing confident glares to everyone in a silent threat, daring them to show the slightest sign of nonconformity towards the results of the fight, but the silence remained and an arrogant smile showed up on his lips as he hung the jacket from his shoulder and squinted his eyes, studying the group.
“ It came to my attention that we have some… guests here that know something about the new security system at Haggis Tech. Bring them ”. Nobody moved and the whole building shook softly, causing some cracks up the pillars. “ Did I stutter? ”
And soon, the prisoners were thrown to their knees in front of the new Alpha Latierre. He approached and crouched down, lifting the dehydrated face of one of them from the chin, recognizing one of the heroes that worked for his mother.
“ Well, well, well… isn’t this a nice surprise? How is my mother? I heard she… had an accident. Did she manage to wake up? ”, he asked with a little smirk that bordered on happiness, just as if he had told a joke and was waiting for the other to laugh.
“ Robin… how—- how could you…? ”, the hero spoke up with a dry voice and a weak rage in his eyes.
“ Me? Oh, please— don’t be ridiculous. I did nothing bad. I just… wanted to chat, but things don’t always go the nice way, do they? ”, he asked, the smile turning kinder, but his tone more menacing. “ Now, be a nice hero and tell me about the new security system, if both of you cooperate, I’ll set you free ”.
But at the request, instead of an answer or plain silence, the hero spat at the villain’s face. THE TENSION ROSE. Robin wiped it off with his gloved hand and stood up.
“ Lock him up ”, Robin ordered and as the prisoner was taken away, his eyes shot to a specific villain, to which he ordered to approach with movement of his fingers ”.
“ Uh… yes? ”, the subordinate spoke.
“ I heard you manipulate concrete; do me a favor and give the prisoner a bottle of water ”.
“ ——-sir? ”
“ then seal his cage all around ”.
Now, Robin walked to the next prisoner, crouched down and tilted his head in a curious way, trying to recognize the person, but nope! Nothing; they also looked rather young.
“ I never saw you around, are you new? ”, he asked. The other simply nodded as his eyes jumped frenetically all over Robin’s features. “ Cute ”, the boy grinned in fake sympathy. “ Y’know… I was new as well at some point… at the hero thing, I mean, but… it just wasn’t the right thing for me. Apparently there is a policy of ‘do not kill the criminal’ which is… absolutely stupid if you ask me! That bastard had killed a whole family and we were just… supposed to let the police handle him? HELL NO. So one night I got into his cell… benefits of being the son of Harriet Haggis, of course, and… and I made him pay. I tortured him slowly and painfully in the same way he did to the family. I let him DIE in agony while the cops did their best to take down the door. My mom was —oof— FURIOUS! She even kicked me out of the team and said I needed to consider if I really wanted to be a hero or not; that’s when I realized that… being a hero would never fulfill me, nope, so I talked to dad, but apparently he was on my mother’s side ”, he scoffs, “ what a hypocrite, he built all this… CULT to worship the wrong ways and instead… he goes all guardian angel on me. BULLSHIT! That’s not how things in Crystalline City are done… at least not from now on, but he didn’t want to understand and… I had to make him understand ”, he whispers the last part as he glanced back to the still body on the floor. “ And maybe you are wondering… ‘ hey, Robbs, why are you telling me all this? ’ and well, it’s very simple…
THIS IS MY CITY NOW ”.
Robin raised once again and helped the other prisoner stand up as well, dusting off his clothes.
“ Now, if you’re so kind… the security system, please ”, Robin asked and the younger hero was quickly to mutter the answer, only loud enough for the boy to hear. “ Ah, EXCELLENT. See? Things go well when you cooperate ”, he smiled and upon touching the chains that held him prisoner, these dissolved in thin air. “ But… you know? Both of you had to cooperate… that was the deal; I’m sorry, but I tolerate no mistakes; blame it on your teammate, I guess ”, Robin chuckled with a childish shrug as he held the young hero’s face with his whole palm and the body of the other, slowly, started to crumble down in nothing but dust and the echo of his screams decorated the empty old halls of the construction for the next couple of seconds.
“ Now all of you, get ready… I’ll talk to each one of you later after I sketch the plan. We attack in three days ”, he bluntly commented as he dropped his father’s jacket on the floor.
“ What about the Pantheon? ”, someone within the crowd asked.
“ What about them? ”, Robin inquired apathetically as he felt a pinch to his guts.
“ Won’t they be an obstacle? I heard one of their members can suck people’s souls ”.
“ Just stick to the plan… ”, he replied dryly as he turned around to pull something out from one of his pockets: a picture. A picture of a couple of years ago when things were easier and times were better. A group of friends were hanging out at the New Year’s Eve party. With one last thought for them, Robin drops the picture over the jacket. “ I will deal with the alien and The Pantheon will CEASE to exist ”, he declared as plum flames started to ignite both the photograph and the piece of clothing. Robin jumped up to a table and extended his arms with a big full smile.
“ Rejoice, my friends! Tonight we rise again but not as The Syndicate, oh no.
We rise as THE TEMPLARS and I am PARADOX, Crystalline City’s NEW KING. ”
