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Vengeance is His Ch. 1 (Unedited)
🕑 Added 2024-02-24 01:29:35 +0000 UTCVengeance is His
By Bubbajack
Co-Authors/Editors: Icysnowsage, First Hassan/Darklord331
Special Consultant: Heliosion
Ch.1-1: Spark
Greg blinked, doing his best to decipher Sherrill’s words. After a solid minute he thought to himself, ‘What’s that mean?’ Clearing his throat, he asked, “Sherrill, what’s WAAAGH mean?”
“Eh… Yah al’right dere ma wee Squiggy?” She asked, her speech having turned more guttural and strange.
Greg nodded, getting the gist of what she was asking, “I’m fine Sherrill are you okay… You're green now.” Greg pointed out.
Standing up and revealing her new height to be over seven foot. Taller than Lung in his pre amped state. “I’s… I’s feelin’ good! Really good… I’s could go for a krump if I’s bein’ honest!”
“I don’t think fighting is a good idea right now. We should probably get rid of him before someone comes looking for him, don’t you think?” Greg asked, nodding towards the headless body of Skidmark.
“Dat’s a guud idea Squiggy. Yur no Grot dat’s fer sure… Should’s I eat da body?” Sherrill asked, her sharp teeth seeming to gleam at the prospect.
“No Sherrill, don't do that,” Greg said in his emotionless monotone, “You don’t know where Skidmark has been, he could make you sick.”
Bending over and giving him a cursitory sniff, Squealer recoiled from Skidmark’s corpse, “I dink yer roight bout dis one Squiggy, smells like a fresh grot he does.”
“Here let me,” offered Greg as his flames glowed slightly and then Skidmark erupted into flames. The fumes made Greg ‘s head a little fuzzy from all the drugs being burned out of his body. Eventually nothing was left after a few minutes. After the deed was done he turned to Sherrill and asked, “Now what?”
“Now?” She said, picking him up and placing him on her shoulder, “We rouse da Boyz! It's time for Dakka, and Truuks, it's time to WAAAGH!” she replied ducking down so they could both fit through the garage door.
Greg still didn’t know what WAAAGH! meant.
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Stomping out into the yard, Sherrill hollered, “A’right Boyz! Front an Centa!”
“The fuck! Squealer is that you? Mush the only other cape the Merchants had left asked.
“Dat’s Warboss Squeal’a ta you Mush!” She said looming over him and giving him a glare.
Swallowing nervously, Mush nodded, “Right Warboss… where is Skidmark?”
“Da git thought he could take me in a scrap, got krumped good he did by Squiggy here.” Squealer reached over and patted Greg on the head with her free hand.
“Hello I am Greg, a friend of Sherrill’s.” The young boy introduced himself calmly waving from where he was perched on her shoulder.
“Hi… so Skidmark is dead?” Mush asked for confirmation.
The blonde boy nodded, “Yes and his body has already been disposed of.”
“How..?” Mush looked at Squealers pointed teeth and turned green, “Oh God! Did she?”
“No, though she suggested it, I used my powers to cremate him.” Greg replied.
Mush let out a sigh of relief. “Thank God.” He then asked, “So does that mean you're in charge now Squealer?”
“Too roight I is, unless you think you can take me in a krump?” Squealer replied as she cracked her knuckles together looking eager.
“No! No, no, no! Mush said, waving his hands in front of his face. I’m good, thanks.”
Squealer became sullen, “Bah, you’s nuttin’ but a grot! Not Orky at all you git,” Looking at Greg Squealer complained, “Squiggy! I’s bored!”
“You need to rally the troops, remember Sherrill?” He reminded her.
“Roight! You!” She said pointing at Mush, “Go get da rest’a da Boys an tell em… Tell em I got’s sumthin’ ta say yeah?”
“Yeah sure boss.” Mush said moving as quickly as he could and collecting trash as he went.
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Soon a few hundred people were gathered under Archer’s Bridge, the officially unofficial base of the Merchants. It was crowded and it stank of unwashed masses. Greg didn’t particularly like it but he’d grown used to the smell. Survival warranted sacrifices after all. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d bathed himself so he likely didn’t have room to talk. So he decided to listen as the new Warboss of the Merchants gave a speech on a stage made of overturned oil barrels and planks of wood.
“Right Boyz! Lizzen up an’ Lizzen good! Cause I’s don’t loik repeatin’ miss’self! I’s Squeal’a I’s da new Warboss ah da Merchants cause I dun beat Skidmark in a krump fair and square! Any of you git’s think you ‘an take me, step up now!”
Nobody moved and silence reigned over the crowd. After a moment, Squealer continued, “No challengers down for a scrap? Shame,” Squealer looked dejected for a moment before she continued, “Anyway to the futu’cha of da Merchants… We’s bettah than dis. We’s bettah than mere druggies! We kin be more! More Orky! With all the Dakka! An by the powah granted to me by da gods Gork and Mork we’s will become the greatist gang in Brok’on Bay! Den we will form a great WAAAGH! All will burn under our truk treads as we take da entire eastern seaboard! Den we’ll krump da Americas! Finally da world! WAAAGH!”
As she spoke, the Merchants felt something none of them had felt for a long time burning in their breasts…
Pride.
It was an emotion that homeless druggies like themselves had thrown away long ago as they lost themselves to their addictions willing to debase themselves and go to any lengths to feed their habit. The speech from their new “boss” inspired them to try to do more and maybe just maybe be more. None of the merchants gathered noticed that their skin was slightly green now. All except Greg. Small sparks popped in the air when something his auxiliary senses notified him were spores coming from Sherrill and was likely causing the rapid mutations in the crowd. ‘Well time to go,’ He thought as he hopped off the stool he’d been placed on near the back corner of the stage, and made himself scarce while Sherrill was still distracted. With his hands in his pockets, he walked down the trash filled alleyway, lost in thought, ‘I’d intended to kill them all. Squealer, Mush, Skidmark their goons. All of the Merchants. He could’ve done it in a couple hours… and yet when he’d gone to do some reconnaissance dressed as just another one of the homeless when Sherrill found me she took me in off the streets to her garage, kept me warm, fed me, even made me swear to stay away from drugs. In the end I couldn’t hurt her. She was a good person in a bad situation. Uncle James taught me to protect people like that.’
Greg’s Uncle James Veder was a decorated US Marine who participated in Operation Desert Storm. The man taught him everything he knew. Gave him structure and treated him like a man, and how to conduct himself like one. Now deceased three years on due to a Merchant spiked beer, he had no reason to care about anyone in that gang. He should’ve annihilated them as enemies of the state… but that’s when they were faceless fiends. Sherrill had a face, a name, history, and a story. In the end all those factors together painted her as a victim, someone he’d been drilled by his Uncle to protect. Skidmark however was fair game. With his death, the Merchants as they were would fall apart. The head had been cut off of the snake. What they could become under this second trigger Squealer, he didn’t know, but they couldn’t be worse than Skidmark.
Once he was sure he was far enough away not to be noticed, he pulled out a burner phone and dialed the first number he had on speed dial. The moment the person on the other end answered he said, “Hey it's me, can you come pick me up?”
“I’ll be right there! Are you okay? You're not hurt or anything right? Did the plan go off like you thought it would?”
Greg chuckled, “I am fine Lisa. Come get me please. I’m heading out of the docks now. We can talk about what happened over breakfast.”
“Be there in one hundred fifteen seconds.” She promised him over the phone as she drove to her savior's location.
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The moment she saw him, Lisa put her purple escalade in park, got out, and started checking him over for wounds of any sort or worse, needle puncture marks.
Greg Veder is unharmed and has not been forced to take any illict substances. Her power informed her, causing Lisa to sigh in relief. She had been prepared to swallow her pride and call in a strike team a la Faultlines Crew if she had to in order to make sure Greg got out safely. ‘I don’t know how or why Faultline is so sweet on Greg-’ She thought only for her power to interrupt her,
Likely due to the fact that Labyrinth and he have similar dispositions.
‘Thank you power, for being useful for once.’ Lisa thought. ‘But as long as he’s fine that’s all that matters.’
Agreed. The safety of the Immolent One is paramount.
‘Immolent One?’ Lisa asked her power, yet it remained silent. She chalked it up to her power giving Greg a nickname as they pulled into an IHOP. Greg liked his pancakes after all.
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After they’d been seated, Lisa had ordered her coffee and Greg his Sprite, and not without their server noting how cute the two of them were being out on their little date, causing Lisa to laugh a little. She laughed even more awkwardly when Greg said, “Lisa is special to me, yes.”
“Oh Greg you Casanova you.”
“I think it's sweet how you can look past his problems and see the man underneath hon, not a lot of people especially in this town, would be willing to do that,” Their waitress whose name tag read as Diane said with genuine warmth. “I’ll be right back with your drinks, take your time looking over the menu.”
As she perused the menu Lisa couldn’t help but think back to about when and how she and Greg first met.
It was ‘09, she’d just fled home in Boston and for all intents and purposes Sarah Livsey was dead. Just like her brother Reggie. She doubted her parents cared, especially since they were likely being investigated for insider trading thanks to an anonymous tip she sent before she left along with about half a million dollars. Most of which was spent setting up her current identity of Lisa Wilborne complete with a birth certificate, SSN, a paper trail of a lifetime leading up to this point plus a nice house in Empire Eighty-Eight territory. She thought she’d covered her trail rather well… She thought wrong.
It was a typical day for her, she was heading out for the afternoon for some fresh air and a bite to eat when she was kidnapped off the street by men wearing black baklava’s at gunpoint. A black cloth back was put over her head and her hands were bound behind her with a twist-tie. That didn’t stop her power from working with what little information she was able to glean however.
You were targeted. These men are professionals, and well funded based on the fact they have Tinkertech arms.
‘Thanks power, I would never have figured that out all by myself!’ Sarah yelled at it. ‘How about you help me find a way out of this situation?!’
Men are too well trained and armed. Van is going at too high a speed, escape at this point would likely result in lethal wounds regardless. Escape is ill-advised. The power replied. Captors are not affiliated with Azn Bad Boyz at least. Not brave enough to try a kidnapping in the middle of E88 territory.
‘Fuck!’ She thought to herself. ‘So I guess I just gotta see where this ride ends.’ She was confident she wasn’t being sold into sexual slavery. For what little comfort that brought. The van suddenly pulled some rather sharp turns and came to a sudden stop.
You are on top of a parking garage. Her power informed her, as she was hauled up to her feet and pushed forwards. The hood was roughly pulled off and the light was briefly blinding. Once she adjusted, she was looking at some skinny guy in a black spandex suit, with a white snake motif, sitting behind a desk, his hands steepled in front of him. He spoke with the oily veneer of a snake oil salesman as he said, “My dear Miss Livsey, we meet at last.”
Doing her best to play it cool and use what she’d gleaned from surfing PHO, Lisa said, “Coil I presume?”
The man put his hand on his chest and said with a dark dramatic air, “Ah, my reputation precedes me, how nice. That will certainly make things easier.” With a snap of his fingers, a gun was pressed to the side of her head. Uncocked according to her powers. As he continued, “I would like you to work for me.”
“You want me to work for you… and this is your pitch? Kidnapping and putting a gun to my head?” She said incredulously. “You couldn’t have, I don’t know, arranged a nice sit-down at a nice cafe or back room in a bar or something? You went right for the Stick with no attempt to even show the Carrot!”
Coil raised a finger, “Well, I feel the need to remind you I am a villain, Miss Livsey. You can work for me and reap all the benefits that come with it… or…”
He let the word hang in the air as the gun pressed against her head was suddenly cocked quite ominously in the silence. “Well I’m sure you can figure it out.”
A sudden rustling came from near a concrete pillar and Coil snapped to his men, “Go check that out! We shouldn’t have any… uninvited guests.”
Moments later, the mercenary came back leading a blonde-haired blue eyed boy by the shoulder, he was in jeans a black turtleneck and sneakers. The boy looked around cluelessly before waving and saying, “Hello, I am Greg.”
Coil sighed in relief, “Well, as lucky as we are to have someone mentally impaired stumble upon us, we really don’t need any witnesses. Mr. Dimitri if you would?”
The mercenary in question raised his rifle needing no further prompting and fired once, a crimson red laser striking the boy in the temple causing him to spin before collapsing in a heap on the floor.
“No! He… didn’t even do anything… know anything… you could’ve just sent him on his way and he’d have been none the wiser…” Lisa said doing everything in her power to keep her knees from buckling. She refused to give this bastard the satisfaction.
“Yes, but again, I’m a villain Miss Livsey, and now, I do believe I’ve made that point quite clear haven’t I?” Coil said as he chortled a little as if killing an innocent boy had been a joke told around the water cooler at work.
It was then that it hit home just how demented the man in front of her really was. She was no angel of course, but at least her crimes were victimless. Her parents didn’t count as far as she was concerned. No, this man this Coil, was nothing more, or less, than a monster in human skin. ‘I swear if it's the last thing I do, I’ll see you dead and take everything you hold dear,’ Lisa vowed to herself as she stared at the corpse of the innocent boy…
Which suddenly spontaneously caught fire. His corpse became a raging inferno, and from the blaze of ash, cinder and smoke, stepped a woman. She was sinfully curvaceous, naked as the day she was born with blonde hair but in a bob cut pointed ears like an elf, and black tribal tattoos scrawling up and down her arms, legs and toned stomach. The only thing covering her modesty were the flames enshrouding her body.
She grinned manically at Coil before she said, “You really shouldn’t have done that. Now the Master is upset, and people tend to die when he gets upset.”
In response to her warning the fire that was the boy greg’s corpse coalesced, into a humanoid shape made of cinders and ashes. Its neck jerked to either side as if cracking before a hand shot forward in a spray of flames, torching Dimitri alive, before anyone could react, he had manifested a sword of molten metal and had already cut down two mercenaries the smell of burning pork filling the air as their severed torso’s hit the ground making Lisa want to gag.
Coil tried to run, but as if he expected that, the boy Greg looked over and with his free hand snapped his fingers.
Snap
Suddenly, Flames engulfed Coils' eyeballs. His screams of utter agony were music to Lisa’s ears… or they would’ve been if she wasn’t sure if she was next.
So she watched as he painlessly took lasers, melted tinkertech rifles with a wave of his hand, killed men by engulfing them with fireballs or, more painfully, sinking a hand into their chest. She was stuck in a state of utter morbid fascination as he burned Coil’s mercenaries alive in his human bonfire-like Breaker State. Once the last man fell, his corpse charred to so much roasting meat, he slowly approached her, the cement being scorched by his footprints as he neared while Coil moaned piteously in the background. She could feel the heat rolling off of him as he got close…
And then it was gone, and the same boy from earlier was standing in place of the human torch offering her a hand up. She hadn’t noticed falling to her knees at all during the massacre, but her limbs must’ve given up on her at some point. Smiling kindly, Greg asked, “Are you okay?”
Nodding Lisa replied, “I-I am now, thanks to you,”
He means you no harm, came here to save you. Her power informed her.
“Thanks, but how did you know I was in trouble?” She asked, taking his hand and getting back to her feet.
“Saw you get grabbed off the street on the way to the park. Decided to do something… Mom and Dad are gonna be mad at me,” He thought aloud.
Autistic his parents are his minders. Are likely freaking out at him missing. Her power informed her.
“Don’t you worry about a thing Greg I’ll take care of that. In fact, I owe you my life so… from here on out, I’ve got your back m‘kay?”
“Mom and dad have been looking to hire a minder… not a babysitter minder,” he emphasized. Showing that while he may be impaired he refused to be treated like an infant.
“Oi, Master, don’t ignore me!” the Fire girl said, slapping him playfully on the shoulder.
Girl might be a physical manifestation of Gregs powers. More Data is needed to confirm Hypothesis.
“Ignis, you didn’t need to come out like that,” Greg told her calmly.
“Idiot! What was I supposed to do, just let them get away with shooting you… idiot. You're always so reckless when you see someone in trouble! Doubly so if it's a girl. Dumbass! Womanizer! Philanderer! Go drown in the Bay!” Ignis shouted at him.
“Sorry for worrying you Ignis,” He said, grabbing and patting her hand. “You know I didn’t mean to, like always.”
Ignis sighed, and rubbed her temples, “You never do that’s why I can’t hate you Master… But please at least try to look before you leap next time, okay?”
Greg nodded, “I’ll try,”
“Why do I not feel reassured?” the flame being asked as she put her hands on her hips before she fixed her gaze on Lisa. It was then that she noticed they were bright yellow like sparks from a fire. “You… I hope you're ready to deal with his shenanigans. Since you do owe him your life and all.”
Clearing her throat Lisa replied with steel in her tone, perking her chin up defiantly as she replied, “Well, I’m safer with him than not so… I have no plans of going anywhere at the moment.”
Ignis grinned mischievously. “We’ll see how long that attitude lasts. Oh, and you might wanna do something about that wretch over there,” Ignis replied, jutting a thumb over her shoulder at Coil, who was trying to blindly crawl away.
Greg made a come hither motion with his hand, and a strong gust of wind bowled Coil over, sending him rolling right towards them. Once he came to a stop, Greg said, “You're a bad guy, an enemy of the state. My Uncle often told me that the tree of liberty must be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. You’ll do nicely.” He finished as he raised his hand, prepared for a fingersnap.
“Wait Greg,” Lisa said as she put a hand over his, “He can tell us things. Information like bank account numbers, where his base is, how many men he has in his employ and the like.”
“I… I can’t! The man moaned, “I can’t tell you anything! I’m just a body double! He has my family hostage! If I don’t do what he says then he’ll kill them… Please, just put me out of my misery! Oh God, the pain!”
“You chose the wrong man to serve,” Greg said calmly before he casually waved his wrist and seconds later the man spasmed and went still.
Greg seems to have inflicted a pulmonary embolism on Coils body double. This, combined with the display earlier, implies his power is not just heat but also somehow air related. Lisa’s power informed her.
‘Yeah no shit,’ Lisa thought back. Greg turned to her all smiles offering her a hand and said, “Shall we get going?” Turning to Ignis he said, “You can go back now Irina. Tell Pyrrha and Sylvie everything is fine.”
The fire girl beamed. “You gave me a name! Finally! I’ll let them know Master… be careful, wear your seatbelt, and try not to do anything else crazy today please?”
“I’ll try, no promises.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Irina sighed before he form shattered like glass, leaving no remnant of her existence behind.
“I think we were leaving?” He asked, turning back to Lisa as if a friend dissolving into thin air was commonplace.
Deciding to just roll with it, Lisa replied, “Yes we were Greg, and thanks again for saving me,” Though she was wondering what the PRT was going to do when they found all these bodies.
“No problem,” He replied as they walked down the car ramps, Lisa found several more of Coils Mercs who had seemingly been killed, their throats slit open from behind by something sharp.
Turning to her savior, Lisa asked slowly, “Greg… just how many men did you go through to get to me?”
“All of them?” He replied innocently as he stepped over a puddle of blood. “There were three men on the bottom floor guarding the entrance to the parking garage, and two guarding each ramp up. Don’t worry though, I took care of them.”
‘We’re on the fourth floor, so nine guys plus the half dozen up there with Coil… Jesus, he took out a whole squad of trained soldiers!’ Lisa realized.
“Can you drive?” Greg asked as he eyed a red sports car.
“Yes.” Lisa affirmed.
Greg took that as his cue to smash the window and unlock the car before he proceeded to hotwire the thing.
“Who the heck taught you how to hotwire a car?” Lisa couldn’t help but ask as she took over the driver’s seat while her helper sat shotgun.
“My Uncle did.”
‘I really need to question him about his uncle soon,’ Lisa thought to herself as she drove the car out of the parking garage. Once they were a few dozen meters out. She saw Greg make a fist, and then bring it down hard on the car door armrest. Seconds later, the entire parking structure collapsed in on itself. Lisa couldn’t help but stare at him in shock. ‘Just how strong is he?!’
Very. Her power surmised.
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That was then, and this led us back to the here and now. The two of them, sitting across from each other in an IHOP booth. Looking over the booth and chatting like a dating couple. Lisa honestly had trouble reading Greg sometimes even with her shard. He was so straightforward that any surprises actually surprised her which was refreshing considering her damn powers gave all the little hints and secrets others hid.
Like how their waitress just broke her smoking fast, or that the chef was being abused by his wife or that the couple behind them were about to have a divorce over an affair. Honestly, it sucked to be Lisa most days. But that's why she loved being around Greg. He was honest, open. He never lied or tried to hide anything. In fact, she was pretty sure he was incapable of it. So she knew when she asked the question she was about to ask, she knew she was going to get an honest answer.
“How did it go with the merchants, Greg? Did you take care of everything you needed to take care of?”
“Yes and no.” He replied simply. “Skidmark is dead, But Squealer is still alive and now running the gang… She has.. Changed. She's big and green with purple hair now. Also, Lisa, what does WAAAGH mean?”
The use of blinked once, twice, then thrice before finally saying, “Greg, what exactly happened?”
Greg pondered in silence for a moment before he replied, “I'm not entirely sure, but I'm fairly certain that Cheryl went through a second trigger. And something in that trigger broke.”
“That's not good.” Lisa said worriedly.
To which Greg quickly countered, “Actually, I think it's a really good thing. Cheryl's out of an abusive relationship now, and she seems much happier.”
“Greg, it sounds like you're describing an OrK from Warhammer 40,000, a tabletop game where orcs do crazy, crazy things. On will alone. If that's the case and freaking Squealer has become an Orc. All of the Brockton Bay is going to be in a lot of trouble.”
“I'm sure it'll be fine. Probably. I highly doubt it'll be any worse than it already is. Right? Right, Lisa?”
‘He's so damn lucky he's cute. He is so very, very damn lucky that he's so cluelessly cute.’ The cold reader thought to herself. Giving her best fake smile, she replied, “I'm sure it'll be fine, Greg, hopefully. If anything, we won't have to worry about any more drugs on the streets. We'll just have to worry about giant rampaging Meka and tanks and all kinds of other orkish things.”
“Yeah, but we already have that Squealer was already doing that anyway, and Uber and Leet aren't too far behind her In that department. Right?”
Lisa raised her hand, finger held out, ready to make a counter argument only to stop and pause. “Good point there, Greg. So where to now? You know we can't stay in one place very long with Coil probably looking for us.”
“I have a place we can go where Coil will never find us. It's up in the mountains though. Road trip?” He said hopefully.
The Thinker looked at her Ward uncomprehendingly, “You've had a place up in the mountains this whole time when you've been living on the streets?”
“I didn't have a car and I don't know how to drive,” He said by way of explanation. “But you do, and that means we can head up there now. It's safe, well out of the way. It does have its own Internet access, no one should look for us there, And no one even knows it's there besides the guy I have watching the place.”
The more she learned about Greg, the more surprised she was, “You have a guy watching the place?”
“Yeah, Mr. White. He's nice enough,” Greg replied, “Just don't call them Heisenberg. He hates it.”
“Duly noted. Let's get going then,”
Greg got his cell phone out While holding up a finger, “One moment, I'm going to shoot Mr. White a text to see if he needs us to bring anything to the cabin, like food and stuff,” Seconds later, he replied with, “No, he says. We're good. He's been doing some hunting. He did say if we want to bring some marshmallows and stuff for s'mores, he wouldn't mind it though.”
“We'll pick that up on the way,” Lisa promised as she waved the waitress over, calling, “Check please.”
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Greg's uncle's cabin, if it could be called that, was a two-story house made completely out of polished logs. Lisa couldn't help but stop and stare at it for a while as they came to a stop in the car they'd bought for cash, inthe dirt road driveway that led up to the property. The place was idyllic, really. It was surrounded by woods.And a little bit through the trees, she could even see a lake. It was beautiful, serene, quiet.And most of all, secret. No one would ever think that someone was living up here out in the woods, Up in the mountains, away from civilization. She even saw a gigantic satellite dish on top of the roof, so obviously they had some type of television access.
“Uncle James liked his Sunday Night Football.” said Greg by way of explanation for the satellite dish As he opened the front passenger side door and got out. Stopping only to go to the back seat and retrieve what little groceries they'd collected before making their way out to this Solitary place.
All but kicking the door and with his foot, Greg called, “Hey Heisenberg, we're here. Where are you at?”
“I'm in the back, and how many times have I asked you not to call me that?” A strong, masculine voice called back in return even though there was a slight chuckle in his tone as he spoke.
From the back room came a tall dark skinned man. He was bald, skinny, and he looked dog tired. He gave Lisa a wary look before looking back at Greg and saying, “You trust this one, Greg?”
“With my life and yours, Mr. White,” Turning to Lisa, he made proper introductions, “Lisa Wilborn, this is John White. John White meet, Lisa Wilborn.”
Holding out a hand, Lisa said cautiously, “Nice to meet you, John.”
“You too, Miss Wilborn. I hope we'll be able to get along,” John said in a kindly but slightly tired and gruff manner.
“John White seems to be physically exhausted, yet no signs of physical labor seemed to be present. Possible power use? Unknown needs more data,” Her Shard replied, doing what it did best and analyzing the people and the situation around her.
Lisa took in the cabin and what information she could from it. There were deer heads and other animal heads mounted on the walls, guns and gun cabinets. Bookshelves full of all manner of books A lot of, a lot of them on survival, bushcraft, and martial arts. On the walls were pictures of Greg and an older man. Likely the eponymous uncle. Nearby on a shelf was a folded up triangular flag along with a Display case of Army medals.
‘Owner of this cabin was James Veder, United States Marine Corps veteran, Sergeant First class. Saw combat in Desert Storm and other, more dangerous areas. Most of the military service would be redacted Under Freedom of Information Act. Nickname was the Shark on Land. Likely moved out here due to unresolved issues with PTSD. Became a survivor, Prepper. Was more of a father to Greg than his own father. Taught Greg everything he knew. Which Mainly consists of how to be stealthy and lethal in a multitude of ways and environments.’
Normally, Lisa would have shut her power off after going so far, but She was curious about Gregg's mysterious uncle, and the man was already dead. So she didn't see the harm. If anything, it just told her more about how sad Gregg's life was that his closest relative was a military officer suffering from PTSD who basically trained Greg into a killer himself. All this may, at least I want to do, is give Greg a very, very long hug. But Greg wasn't the best with physical affection. She was easing him into it though. She glanced into the kitchen, Finding marble countertops and stainless steel appliances that couldn't be more than maybe a few years old. Nodding to herself, she thought, Yeah, this will do just fine. She turned to the only unknown that was still truly unknown.
“So, Mr. White, how exactly did you and Greg meet?” She asked, putting as much cheer as she could into her tone. She knew he didn't trust her, and it went both ways.
“He saved my life. Thus I am in his debt.” The man said sufficiently. “Yourself?”
“Same actually,”
This caused the man to smile, “Then it appears we have the same goal.And can trust each other at least a little bit,” He paused, Seemingly appraising her for a moment before continuing, “We both wish to keep Greg Veder safe, even from himself at times, He offered her a hand, “So let's work together to that end Miss Wilborn.”
She hesitated for just a moment before taking his hand and giving it a firm shake. “Let's Mr. White,” She couldn't help but give a vulpine smirk as she added, “Or should I call you Heisenberg?”
“Whatever you say, Pinkman, whatever you say.” He shot back just as easily. And just like that, these two had formed an uneasy friendship Centered around keeping their savior safe from himself.
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Word count: 5,885 Number of pages: 13 Date completed: 2/13/2024.
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AN: Welcome everybody to chapter 2 of Vengeance is His. So far I think this quantity over quality way of doing things is going rather well. Mainly because I'm able to put out chapters faster, and I'm able to build a little bit of a stockpile, which I kind of like, I'm not going to lie. But I hope you're enjoying reading this as much as I enjoy writing it. Because if not, then the whole situation is kind of moot, isn't it? I do hope you're all having fun. However, should that not be the case, please say something and I'll try and work something out with my editors. Speaking of them. It's now time for them to weigh in on things. Here's Snowy and Hassan to finish things up.
Snowy:
Hassan:
Thanks again for reading. This has been an inkblot Bros Production! Peace!
Comments
Bubbajack
You have guessed perfectly correct. That is us making a small joke about John's identity in universe.
Flbiv
Is John the guy from the InFamous game series that ends up becoming the Beast in the second game? Or am I way off base?
