Wretched Joy 23 (Patreon)

Commissioned by Southmonk

Wretched Joy

Chapter 23

-VB-

Of course, Everyday Joe’s “assassination” of Skidmark got released. It happened because the hospital released the information. They couldn’t afford to not do it when not doing so would negatively affect their standing, security, and stocks. 

From the hospital group’s perspective, they just had a very messy assassination happen inside their facility. This directly affected the patients who watched a body come out of a room in multiple bags and soaked rags. Some of those patients experienced fear and anxiety that led to changes in physiology that worsened their conditions. Some went online to openly protest the weak security and threatened to sue. And because the unit the assassination happened in was in one of the more sensitive units, their argument and threat had some substance.

But more importantly, even more patients threatened to pull out of the hospital unless they got some kind of deal to “cope with the apparently unwarranted reviews and potentially dangerous lack of security.”

This didn’t include what the doctors, nurses, techs, and other staff felt about the situation. 

It was one thing to have defeated and more or less sedated capes bound to bed. 

It was another thing for brutally murderous mass murderer more or less threaten to visit the hospital again not with words but with his action. What else was the attack on Skidmark if not a statement that hospitals and other more “sacred” places weren’t off the list for him? 

So people complained. They protested. 

And the hospital gave in… and went a whole different direction from everyone was expecting. They didn’t give salary raises. They didn’t offer better securities. They didn’t even move patients. 

All of those cost money. 

No.

Instead, they released a shit ton of videos from the hospital’s own records, released a shit ton of statements about how none of this was their fault, and more or less shot the PRT in the back by screaming to high heavens about how the PRT didn’t provide security for something the hospital was obviously not responsible for. 

It wasn’t a fair response for the staff and patients, but not a bad one as far as corporate and legal issues were concerned. After all, in the eyes of the New Hampshire law, the hospital wasn’t responsible for providing security for a criminal being taken care of within their facility. 

So .. PRT ENE got hit with public dissatisfaction. Coupled with their recent inabilities coming to light, even the state legislation got involved. 

And once the state legislators got involved, the federal legislators and agencies got involved. 

Which meant that, within a week of Skidmark’s brutal death, the Chief Director of PRT had to get involved as the outcry became louder and louder.

This, of course, had the unwanted side effect of raising Everyday Joe’s history to the national forefront. 

And what used to be a regional problem became a national one.

Two weeks after Skidmark’s assassination and the slow disintegration of the Merchants as the last remaining capes failed to hold onto the drugged out and downright delusional group of dealers, bangers, and addicts, cases of caped and non-cape vigilantes began to rise.

And they rose sharply after “success stories” of non-cape vigilantes putting a bullet through low tier capes hit the national scene.

Giant Mower, Jailer, Markovio, Slanter, and more. Names that meant nothing unless one lived directly in their cities of operation. Their names became the first names on the list of the dead cape villains that came out in the first month whose deaths were attributed with evidence to non-cape killers.

PRT’s carefully constructed social dynamic began to break down.

It had been frailing at the edges for some time but it was now shaking its foundation. 

Politicians began to question why the Parahuman Response Team was as ineffective as it was despite hogging up half as much funding as the military. 

Then …

Then it happened. 

The last thing anyone wanted.

It was an arrest gone wrong. 

A Protectorate hero from St. Louis broke down the doors of the wrong house. Went in with full powers. And got his brains blown out by the scared, half-blind, and half-deaf elder citizen.

It riled up the pro-gun owners into shouting that they were right and the government was oppressing the citizen’s right to own guns. But as more details came out, things began to get … ugly.

The hero in question was someone who had a track record of, somehow, being involved in arrests and attacks on black residents and villains. Then some stupid fuck dug up information that should have been secured but hadn’t been done properly. News stories came out about “unverified” stories about how that hero used to be a member of a criminal gang.

A criminal gang that used to be a power in Brockton Bay. 

Unverified stories then became verified. Names started getting out. 

Three months after Skidmark’s death, riots broke out in St. Louis. 

And as the Midwest descended into chaos, Brockton Bay continued to suffer Everyday Joe’s presence. 

The Nightmare Circle grew bigger. People showed up dead with a list of their crimes stapled to their forehead, if they weren’t brutally murdered in front of their families. 

Enough was enough. 

She came here personally to deal with the problem causing issues for the PRT and Cauldron.

Alexandria surveyed the city from above as her cape fluttered behind her. 

It was unfortunate but she could not enter the Nightmare Circle. She knew the true reason why, but the public assumed that it was because she was responsible for many villains’ deaths. She didn’t correct them.

But this made life hard for her in her quest to hunt down Everyday Joe. 

One, not only was Everyday Joe a teleporter, he didn’t claim territory outside of the Nightmare Circle. 

Two, more than a few people within the Nightmare Circle actively supported Everyday Joe because the Circle made them safe. 

Three, even outside the Circle, people who have benefited greatly - which was most of the citizens - actively protested against the PRT, and even the local police were reluctant to help the PRT. 

“How am I going to solve this…?” she muttered to herself. 

And the biggest issue.

Four. 

It was confirmed by Thinkers, Watchdog, and observers that Everyday Joe grew stronger everyday, and he’s had almost a year to grow.