Note:
- I'm going on holiday this upcoming week so no new chapters for this week and maybe next.
- Ok I'm definitely changing them from present to past tense. Idk what was wrong with me back then but present tense is so fucking awkward like holy. Anyway, it's going to be a real slow process so for readers who have caught up while I'm doing the editing, apologies for the awkward shift.
- 16th Oct 2021 update: I'm keeping these notes up just to see what the state of my head was at the time but for new readers, this story was initially present tense but I decided to change it to past, except for ch.65-76 bc when I made the decision, I wrote up to twelve chapters that I could not be arsed changing. I still don't know if I'm going to change those just yet. Maybe when I'm extremely bored
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POV: Nero
(continuing from before)
It was dead silent once all the bad guys dropped to the ground. Just blank, confused and fear-filled stares. There were stares of admiration but I pretended those were also fearful glares or else my face would heat up from all the attention.
No one did anything for a minute. It was a standstill. I didn't move because after knocking them out, I blanked out and didn't know what to do next other than flying back up again, which was very uncharacteristic of me. But then again, when I usually did these, there was somewhat of a plan. I was completely winging whatever I was doing, so cut me some slack.
Luckily, a couple of gunshots directed towards me broke the dreadful silence and brought back some action into my life. Said action, however, grazed the side of my arm due to my weakened reflexes (Raziel was going to shit on me after this). But it wasn't anything that couldn't be healed.
I immediately faced the source, behind the counters and called out, "τείχος!"
A large black yet transparent barrier formed behind me, creating a wall between me and all of the hostages. Adults were either screaming out of shock and scrambling further away from the newly positioned wall, or were holding back children who tried to have a taste of the evil magic. Literally.
The robbers were fazed for a second before they shot the barrier and aimed at me, only for their efforts to be met with disappointment.
"Did these mere Neanderthals think their stupid metal plastic is going to pierce through MY magic? These plebeians got nothing on the ex-ruler of the underworld! Why I ought to– "
I'd cut him off with an eye roll and zoned him out as I continuously dodged the rapid rain of bullets. Oh yeah, there were two more of them who entered the vaults. Seems like they heard the commotion that's going on. Speaking of which, are the staff they took alright?
As soon as that thought passed by, the two heisters stopped pointlessly wasting bullets and instead directed their barrels towards the temples of the hostages, who were held in a headlock. "STAY WHERE YOU ARE," one of them screamed, "OR ELSE THEIR HEADS ARE GOING TO BE BLOWN OFF."
The victims were trying hard to not sob out loud while trying to telepathically tell me to listen to their demands. I humoured them and remained put with the blankest of expressions on my face. I crossed my arms over my chest and raised my eyebrows as if to ask what's next.
They got the non-verbal message and the other robber spoke (with a slight tremor in their voice). "You're going to clear up a pathway and get us out to safety with the duffel bags."
They were brave I'll give you that. "Oh? And why should I do that?"
"Or else we'll pull the trigger faster than you can say run."
"Is that so? So you're telling me that if I take one step, well, fly a step closer you're going to pull the trigger OR if I don't listen to your absurd demand, you're also going to pull the trigger. Not giving me much of an option here are you now."
"You have no option if you want zero casualties."
"Is that so?"
The other two didn't reply, staring at me. It's really hard to read their emotions through the mask but if I were to take a wild guess, they were sending me a real mean glare.
"Now come here and–"
I cut the other man/female off immediately with very important words of my own. "Let's play a game."
"Huh?" I sniggered at the very flustered tone of the robber and continued onwards.
"I said let's play a game. It's a very simple game."
"ARE YOU CRAZ- WE'RE NOT PLAYING A STUPID FUCKING-"
"You have no option." A bit of Raziel's voice mingled with mine, giving off a deep and demonic tone. The entire room chilled, leaving only the strong-minded unaffected. The tone left no room for discussion and by the silence from the other party, it seemed they understand that.
"As mentioned before, it's a very simple game. Let's test who's faster..."
"Fas...ter?"
"The bullet or... me."
"Wha–"
Instantly, I was behind the two robbers (who were conveniently huddled together) and I karate chopped on the wrists of the occupied hands. They howled in pain, but it was intensified by ten folds when I showed absolutely no mercy and I broke their necks... with an even more intensified karate chop (courtesy of Raziel). Like their friends, they slumped on the floor and joined the two hostages, who were looking up at me with fear, gratefulness and confusion.
The human eye was really good showing varying emotions in a span of two seconds. It was quite impressive.
The cold silence was settled again (minus the sirens in the background and the annoying megaphone spewing some bs) and used the opportunity to go back into the vaults to deal with any hidden accomplices. Luckily, the two I just had dealt with happened to be the last of them and a huge exhale of relief escaped out.
Time to face the crowd. Which was so much scarier than dealing with a bunch of unprepared robbers.
I flew back up, hovering two metres above the marble top counters and observing the people (minus the-man-who-shall-not-be-named). The general consensus was the now ex-hostages were displaying looks of either awe or fear, all in absolute silence and it was very fucking awkward.
"Maybe I should've kept you in your cage a bit longer..."
"That's only because of you're an awkward bean who's contradictory to yourself half the time" The demon sounded very bored and it made me want to strangle him. Again.
I sputtered out my response. "I-I'm not an awkward bean! And what do you mean I'm contradictory to myself?
"Legit five minutes ago you were annoyed that your enemies were talking among themselves whilst ignoring you and now you want to shrivel up in a manmade hole and die?"
Curse this motherfucker. Why is he right?
"Curse you motherfucker. It's probably your fault."
"MY FAULT?!" Raziel shrilled out. "How the fuck is this my fault?"
"Your attention whoreness is clearly rubbing not to me. It's not appreciated I'm telling you now."
"MY ATTENTION WHOREN– FIGHT ME YOU FUCKING BRAT!"
"No, I ceebz. I'm going to zone you out now and deal with the crowd who's still staring at me. Bye."
"OH HELL NO, WE'RE DEALING WITH THIS N–"
I shut him out.
Well, time to deal with... people. While scratching the back of my neck, I broke the silence with very simple words. "Um, hello?" God, I cringed so hard. "I'm not here to hurt you, as much as your body is telling you otherwise." Cringe. "Uh, I'm really not used to dealing with people." Cringe central.
"Anyway, after I remove this barrier," as soon as I finished the sentence, I followed through with my words and removed the huge barrier. People flinched but I ignored it to finish what I needed to say. "You can, uh, you're free to leave. The building that is." God, why can't you just not be awkward?
"The police is still outside since I'm assuming they have no idea what's going on in here. They'll do their jobs and take you to safety or whatever. Although, you're safe now since the fuckers are all knocked out into next year." A couple of giggles sounded throughout the crowd and I felt myself smiling along under my mask.
"Yeah, so you can leave... oh and if anyone asks, you didn't see me here." We all knew the majority would spill but it was worth the shot. No harm in trying.
With that, I shot at the chains blocking the front doors with one of the guns disposed on the floor and then shot up through the hole of the glass dome, leaving behind startled screams. Instead of flying off immediately, I sat on the fancy ledge of the roof. Although no one would probably look at that roof, I barely stayed out of their sights just for precaution's sake.
Below, you could see ants (people) scurrying out of the building, all gathering up with blue and white officers. Probably very confused officers. There were news station vans around with announcers running up to victims without any consideration and bombarding with them questions. It reminded me of how insensitive humans could be.
To counter that comment, however, medics were running around, checking out everyone and associates of the victims rushed to crush them with a bear hug. It was a sweet sight.
Made me feel a tad bit melancholic, reminding me I don't have anyone I could call my biological or even adoptive family. Speaking of loneliness, my eyes happened to catch sight of a very familiar golden-brown hair moving through the crowd, towards the bridge located next to the building. No, I was not looking for him. It was a sheer coincidence my sight happened to catch his very distinct and soft hair.
Leo was trying to move away from the crowd but it seemed everyone used the opportunity to touch him as much as possible to "check up on him". They definitely had a second agenda and irked him. Made me want to call forth a huge fireball and throw it down at the crowd. But I'm a mature adult who could handle my emotions. (That's a lie), so I don't. It reached a point where someone had to forcefully tug him out of the crowd. That was probably the accountant.
"Oh, there he is. Forgot about him in all honesty. He has a very bland aura. Could be a badass ninja if he tried."
I snorted out loud and found myself nodding in agreement. I observed the actions of the subjects of my recent dreams and was quite entertained. On the bridge, there were a couple of people waiting for him and I recognised one of them being Erwin. The entire interaction was quite unclear but one thing was clear though, it was Erwin utterly enjoying the entire situation if his laughter said anything. If Leo told him who his company was during all this, then Erwin definitely knew who cleaned up the job.
The sadist enjoyed the fact that I had to expose myself, didn't he? I should ask Aiden to give him a hard time. A harder time.
A limo turned up in front of them ("Are they going to work in a limo in the middle of the day? I respect that. I want to be that. Nero go find a genie and wish for my freedom already") and used that as my cue to fly back to the same location as them, hopefully arriving much earlier than them.
With the wind blowing through my hair, used the free time to call up Aiden again. He picked up after two rings and immediately said with a semi-cold tone, "I'm at work."
It caught me off guard but I was not all that surprised. "Shouldn't you be proud of me instead? I saved the people instead of ignoring them AND no one had to die."
"Oh yeah, I am but the feeling of frustration and anger is much larger and has overtaken any positive emotion I'm feeling towards any of this. Like well done on not going full psychopathic mode like you would a couple of years back with my family and that one perve but bro, we fucking exposed ourselves."
"I exposed me for your information and you know I had no other option."
"You could've just let them get away with the money? Not like they were going to shoot anyone if everyone complied. This capitalist society needs to lose some money anyway."
"We don't know what they would've done and you also know that there would be some civilian playing villain and getting themselves killed. As much as I feel nothing for doing the killing, I do feel something for someone else being shot right in front of me for no valid reason. Hence why I said that there is no other choice. You would do the same if you were in my position"
I hefty sigh vibrated through my eardrum, followed by a couple of moments of silence. "Yeah, I know. Well, I'll try my best to cover up as much of your presence as possible but it's going to be on the news that some mysterious dude is trying to play batman. We're also probably going to have another stupid Oddity meeting since the very thing they were trying to keep under wraps has been exposed to the general public. So for now, we're not going to take any jobs and be the good, lowkey business employees that we are."
Out of all that, only one thing caught my attention and worked me up. "Oi, I wasn't trying to play batman. I'm much cooler than him. You can call me like dark Naruto or something since I'm literally a devil vessel. Naruto is much cooler than batman anyway."
"That's very much not the point of everything I just said."
"Yes daddy, I know what the point is. Just be a ghost and stay hidden."
"Kinky but no, don't be a ghost. Ghost likes haunting and ghosts are supernatural beings. Therefore, they attract attention. I need you to be human. A very boring human. Shouldn't be too hard, especially for you."
"Now what the hell do you mean by that? And I don't have a daddy kink oh my fucking god"
"That you're boring? Well, relative to me, the light and joy for your life. The only thing that keeps your life exciting. If you went clubbing, you'd join the unboring gang too."
"Eh, I'd say I had a pretty exciting childhood. Not in the good kind but definitely exciting." My already sour mood turned dourer, reflected through the sad frown settled on my features, seen through the tinted windows of the passing buildings.
"... This conversation has taken a dark turn and I would like to stop this train of thought."
"Great idea, we have more dire matters to attend to. Like what the fuck I'm meant to do with Leo now. He now knows who I am. He's met both sides of me. No one has ever met both sides of me, well except Erwin but that hardly counts. He hasn't seen how I deal with people. Leo has. His opinion of me is going to change, and it shouldn't bother me that much, but it does. Why does it bother me so much?"
"Because you're smitten?" Aiden helpfully answered.
"I am NOT smitten," I spat out, "I just have a small crush on him. So his thoughts on me should not matter. But it does, and now I'm mad. What do I do Aiden? I should just quit, right? Saves all the drama of seeing him again. Just disappear like poof."
"lol, this is funny. Good luck dealing with that."
"Oi wait I asked for help."
"And I'm not helping because I'm too humoured and too pissed at you for getting yourself exposed. Why the fuck did you go to the bank? I'm pretty sure it's not your job. Actually don't answer that, tell me when I come to your place and absolutely grill and praise you at the same time. Ok, I gotta go now, I'm getting mad stink eyes. Have fun. Bye"
"Ai–" but the line was cut and I was left staring at my lock screen. The urge to throw the phone against the MegCorp rooftop (just got there) overtook but I didn't meet said urge's demand as it would cost a lot of money for a replacement and it hadn't done anything wrong. I should smash Aiden into the ground, or just dump him and find a new best friend. Is there an exchange option somewhere?
With a frustrated growl, I put the phone away and retracted the overgrown mark. With me all normal again, I headed down from the rooftop with the full intention of picking up my laptop from my desk as fast as I could (since my dumbass forgot to put it in the car before leaving earlier) and essentially bolting out of the building.
I reached my floor and first thing I noticed was people crowding under the TVs located throughout various parts of the halls and common space. They were all intently absorbing in everything the news channel was saying about the robbery. Quietly moving past the crowd, murmurs about Leo and updates of his safety reached my ears and I couldn't help but smile.
Looks like they found out about the boss's bank appointment. Either the man announced his schedule or someone can't keep their mouth shut. I have a gut feeling at it's the latter.
I finally reached my cubicle and noticed there was barely anyone around me, meaning they'd probably joined the TV crowd. Way to make my life easier. I packed away my laptop and any paperwork that needs to be finished soon and left for the elevator.
Once again, I needed to sneak past the crowd and I almost succeeded entering the elevator without any attention, except as I was about to step into the metal box Mason's impeccable timing kicked in and he exclaimed, "NERO! You're here?!" Fuck.
In two seconds flat, everyone on the floor rushed towards me and bombarded me with questions and concerns. They were mainly along the lines of what happened to the CEO or what happened in the bank but a couple were asking how I was doing which was nice. It's extremely overwhelming and I was hit with nausea. I felt the panic rising through my body and the only thought running through my mind was what I wouldn't do right now to faint and avoid dealing with the crowd. Luckily, Pearl seemed to notice my distress and scolded everyone, telling them that I came back from a "traumatic" experience and they needed to back off.
Most quietened down looking apologetic but their eager eyes clearly told me that they want some sort of response out of me. I directed a silent nod of appreciation to Pearl and vaguely informed them,
"Um, the police told everyone involved to keep what happened and everything confidential until an official press conference is held, which might be tomorrow. But I can tell you that no one got harmed (except me) and Leo– I mean Mr. Covell is perfectly fine. He's on his way to work now so he will arrive soon."
"Wait, if he's coming later, how did you arrive before him? Didn't you guys come together?" said the guy who usually ate everyone else's lunches from the fridge. Sticky notes with names were not enough to stop the man. Only padlocks w.ere.
Oh, shit a slip-up. Mayday! Mayday! "I– uh came separately! Yeah, um, I didn't want to stay there any longer so I sneaked my way out. Sir needed to stay a bit longer but since I was so traumatised, I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Plus, he seemed to have company that he was going with and I didn't want to be the only outsider there. So here I am, to pick up my laptop and go home. So if you don't mind me..."
I backed up and press the down button behind my back. The elevator immediately opened up and I rushed into the elevator and smashed the ground floor and close door button repeatedly. People tried to rush forward in but to my surprise, Mason and Pearl blocked the entrance. They sent a smile over their shoulders and the last thing I saw as the door slid shut was their back and heard them scolding the crowd for being insensitive assholes.
I couldn't help but laugh for a bit before resting the back of my head against the metal. I closed my eyes and let the exhaustion finally settle into my bones and muscle. The elevator music was enough to put me into a lull and I felt myself falling into REM sleep.
A familiar tune quickly broke the atmosphere, and I grumbled. Without opening my eyes, I brought the phone to my ear and asked, "I thought were you pissed at me? You even refused to help me out with the Leo problem."
"Oh? What's this about a me problem?" This came from a familiar British voice that was definitely not in Aiden's pitch. My eyes snapped open and I straightened up so fast, I nearly lost balance and fell face-first onto the floor. I brought the screen in front of me to find that an unknown number was displayed, not Aiden's. Meaning this was no joke. Leo continued saying something and I automatically brought it back to my ears. At this point, my autonomic nervous was running my functionality.
"–and I wouldn't say I'm pissed at you. Just annoyed, slightly surprised and very confused. Although, I'm assuming that comment was not directed towards me, rather your best friend, no?"
The elevator opened up to the ground floor and I robotically left onto the marble floor and just, stood there. My mouth was opening and closing at a speed of one opening/closing per second and the silence caused Leo to call out to me again. I was still in a slight daze but I managed to blurt out,
"How the fuck did you get my number? On this phone?"
"Through your best friend. He was quite eager to give it when I asked."
THAT'S his revenge?! DOES THIS GUY WANT ME TO BE A GOOD GUY OR A BAD GUY?! "...I'm going to burn his apartment down with him and his favourite porn star in it. They'll both be tied to chairs, facing each other from the other ends of the room. No evidence will be left behind of the deed except for this phone call. It will be a perfect crime."
A burst of bellyful laughter rang through the speaker caused my lips to twitch up (again). My heart ran a marathon (again) and all the blood rushed to my face (again). I don't know why he's laughing though. I'm completely serious. He a sadist?
"Well, I certainly wasn't expecting that as the response. Well, more the porn star bit. Anyway, I'm calling for a reason."
I gulped in fearful anticipation. "I would assume that's the case, considering everything that happened today."
"... Yeah. Go to my office. We have quite the bit to talk about, don't you think Nerovsky?"
He used my full name. I'm a dead man. "R-Right. When... do I...?"
"Now."
"Now?"
"Yes, now."
"B-But don't you have other appointments o-or other things to do? It's s-still working hours."
"I cancelled all of that. I do need special consideration after the absolute trauma I went through." God the man could not make the sarcasm any more obvious.
Welp, I'm already out of excuses. Brain can't be a beast right now. "Are you even here yet?"
"Here yet? Does that mean you're already in the building?"
What the fuck is with all the careless mistakes Nero? "I- Well- yeah I am. I just came back to pick up my stuff and leave."
"You flew there didn't you?" he asked with a knowing voice.
"Maybe..." Guilty as fucking charged.
"You have an addiction to not following the rules, don't you?"
"Well–"
"Nevertheless, don't leave and go to my office. No one should be on the floor since my secretary is here with me and the door is left unlocked due to Shinsou's haste and carelessness ("WELL SORRY FOR WORRYING ABOUT YOUR SORRY ASS" – Shinsou through the phone) so you can just enter and wait there. I'll be there in about three minutes."
Alaska isn't far enough. Mars might be the next best thing. They surely don't have any post offices there "Is there an option to decline this meeting?" and never see each other ever again?
"No." He replied with a stern voice before ending the phone call.
I stared at the now black screen for a while before I banged my head against the closed elevator doors. It caught the attention of close-by loiterers and I could hear crazy running through their heads. Like I gave a shit. I had bigger issues to deal with. Like my boss. Who I had a crush on for no justified reason and was coming to hammer in the last nail of my coffin. I hate him (no you don't).
"I'm buying gasoline and calling NASA after this." I groaned out to myself.