Wretched Joy 38 (Patreon)

Commissioned by southmonk

Wretched Joy

Chapter 38

-VB-

Brockton Bay… was lost. 

That was clear as day to anyone who could see. 

The normal PRT and police officers readily patrolled the now safe streets to show the flag, but everyone knew what was really happening behind the scenes. 

Or sometimes right up on it. 

Everyday Joe. 

Or E.J.

Or just Joe. 

Sometimes even John. 

To the people who lived in Brockton Bay and had little to no stake in politics, Everyday Joe was their savior, not the Protectorate, PRT, or the gangs. It was Joe and his Circles that kept criminals out. 

It wasn’t the PRT.

The police… 

If they hadn’t been complicit, then their reduced numbers in the Circle, even when they were trying to wave their flag, made their alignment clear. 

No one but Joe could be trusted. 

Joe did not lie. 

Joe did not omit. 

He looked at the problem, gave them a chance to repent, and then excised what couldn’t be saved. 

After all, just as many people on The List had lived just as they had died. 

The people had their own ideas separate from that of the government. That was all the clearer when certain capes couldn’t enter the Circles without experiencing the nightmares, and what the government said on the news and through their mouthpieces didn’t line up with what they experienced on the ground. 

And Taylor, now living in one of those circles, found herself realizing just how … quiet everything was. 

The quiet floated around, instead of oppressively pushing down against her Brockton Bay-grown instincts. Except, sometimes, this newfound calm quiet grated on her native Brocktonite instinct as well. 

Where was the gunshot?

Where was the weed smell?

Where was the coked out druggie who always stood by 11th and James Street? 

Where was the flickering light?

Where was… everything? 

It felt like a horror show but it wasn’t.

She didn’t feel like she was home. 

Brockton Bay within the Circle felt alien to her. 

She walked down the street without anyone even glancing at her. No one walked hurriedly anymore. People were just being … people. 

And school was …

…

Odd. 

It helped that Sophia Hess, otherwise known as Shadow Stalker, was no longer here. Apparently, she was one of the people on The List who turned herself in, instead of facing Everyday Joe’s wrath.

And along with her, Emma was gone as well.

Or a bunch of other students and teachers. The most prominent absent teachers and staff were Mr. Gladly and Principal Blackwell. 

And they all knew why, didn’t they? 

Gang-related students committed crimes, so the Circle punished them with nightmares. 

And harm allowed through other methods like negligence and willful ignorance were also crimes, so the Circle made sure to let them know.

It finally felt like there was someone out there who cared about the small details of her life, even if he never listened to her grievances in person.

At the same time, though, she resented Everyday Joe. 

She could never go out and be a hero herself because to be a hero was to commit violence. If she accidentally hurt someone too much, then she would be subjected to the Circle’s cruelties as well. Or that was the assumption. No one knew exactly how the Nightmare Circles worked, and no one wanted to test it. 

And Taylor, discouraged and wary in this new Brockton Bay she didn’t recognize, was the same. 

“Hey, Taylor!” 

She sighed and looked over her shoulder at the boy with a backpack too big for him swaying side to side as he ran up to her. 

“Hello, Greg.”

Now that the Terrible Trio was gone, she had to deal with the limpet for ten minutes as they walked to school.

“Oh, I just got a new game last week! It’s the new Cataclysmic Cape Crusher 5!”

And here he goes talking about games again when no one else cared about them in Winslow. He just didn’t understand that, did he?

-VB-

It’s been a month and a half since Joe’s Rampage, and Vista hated the fact that someone took video of her consecutive fights with Joe. 

They called her “The Little Heroine.”

She was not little! She was normal sized for her age! 

Of course, the fact that she was out and about while a murderous villain tortured and killed people in a rampage didn’t paint the PRT in a good light, even after both they and she confirmed that she acted against orders. 

Which had its own consequences, but what were they going to do?

Fire her? 

They weren’t going to terminate her status as a Ward if they haven’t already. 

Which said quite a bit about how the PRT and Protectorate operated. 

They were too soft. 

As much as she hated it, she had to admit and agree with what Shadow Stalker once said about the PRT.

But it wasn’t like what Sophia thought as well. The bitch called everyone weak and prey or something stupid like that, but it wasn’t that they were weak. 

It was that they were chained by ineffectual laws and deliberately ob… ob… obfu…? Obfuscate? Yeah! Deliberately ob-fus-cating laws. Things like too much paperwork or getting confirmation for every little thing. There were too many threats on this side of the law for the law enforcement to work correctly. Too many lawyers. 

Uhm. What was the phrase Battery used…?

Oh, right, she remembered.

“Too many cooks in the kitchen.” 

“Too many what?” 

Vista looked up from where she had been sitting on the Ward common room couch and saw Clockblocker looking down at her without his helmet. 

“Too many cooks in the kitchen. Everyone wants a say in every little thing that happens.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Is the Green Heroine looking to get into politics and add to the kitchen?”

She crinkled her nose. “Hell no. You saw just how many politicians were on The List.”

Dennis cringed with a frown as he came around the couch and sat down with just enough distance between them to be friendly. “Well, yeah. Dean’s dad was screaming to high heavens about a third of his rich supporters getting brutalized and a few were outright murdered and their bodies desecrated.”

“You got to see him recently?”

“Yeah, we were hanging out after school and, well, his dad came to pick him up. But he was so busy talking to someone on the phone that he didn’t notice we could hear everything he said.”

“But he wasn’t one of the people who got their shit kicked in?”

“Nope.”

“... Eh,” she shrugged. “Then Dean’s dad is good in my books.”

Dennis frowned. “... Look, Missy. I know that you’re angry and pissed about everything that PRT isn’t doing properly, but that doesn’t mean you can turn to vigilantism.”

She snorted. 

For all of his class clown behavior, Dennis could get serious when he wanted to. Unfortunately for her, he was decidedly against Everyday Joe. 

“You saw how long it took our bosses to get their head out of their ass just to start investigating. Until they offer us a better solution, I’m going to keep speaking up about how Joe, even if he’s a bastard, is better than them.”

“You don’t mean that, do you? I mean Assault, Battery, and Triumph helped you.”

“... I guess not everyone’s bad,” she grumbled as she sunk into the couch. 

Assault really stepped up. He was the best Protectorate hero in her opinion, and that wasn’t just because he knew how to … not have a stick up his ass. When it mattered, he acted, even if it meant breaking the law. Yeah, she learned about what he did before he became a hero, but, hey, she didn’t care. 

She learned too long ago that people made mistakes and sometimes got better for it. 

Assault was one of them. 

And Battery stuck by Assault even when she didn’t want to, so Vista didn’t give her as high of a score to her. 

Triumph, though, surprised her. She still remembered how he was all about rules and regulations when he was the Ward leader. But then he became a Protectorate hero and went out of his way to break the rules and regulations? 

It had been so different than what she expected. 

“... What do you think Joe is doing?”

Dennis grimaced. “Probably out hunting some idiot.”

“... Probably.”

-VB-

I stood before a condemned city. 

And within the city lived a king unlike any other. 

A week since my culling of the Nine, I found myself here with an even more empowered Nightmare. It would be just strong enough to eat away this small portion of reality. 

But this was also a test. 

Unlike with the Nine, I was out in the open.

To show the world that the reign of tyrants was coming to an end. That even if there was no one else out there in the world who could end this reign, I could and would. 

And this was a test. 

For Cauldron.

If they messed with this presentation, to deny the people their rightfully due hope… To deny them the right to feel the joy at the freedom they regained at seeing their tyrants dying gruesome deaths…

I was going to kill every single one of them for their past crimes and current ones.

I would have a field day exposing them for what they were to the world. 

… Ugh, that was way too chunni for my liking. 

I took a deep breath in.

And allowed the Nightmare to become reality. 

Silently, black teeth emerged all around the walled and quarantined town’s edge. Sirens rang as the PRT and military personnel in duty panicked. 

Then…

I slapped my hands close.

And the maw’s teeth traveled kilometers in mere moments before slamming into each other with a deep, booming crack that ached the bones. 

Not too long after, the maw dissipated into nothing, leaving behind a hole so deep the sunlight couldn’t shine down to the bottom of it. 

Just like that, Nilbog and all of his creations were dead. 

And to make sure they knew who did it, I made a new Nightmare Circle on top of this new geographical landmark and extended it beyond the walls and the military bases around it. 

Now…

‘What are you going to do, Contessa?’