1 Arriving in style

"Doctor Longwin hid the chemical formula behind the cabinet and took out the two guns that were always hidden in his desk for a rainy day like this one.

The clouds outside were still dark as thunder rumbled and the temperature dropped a few Celsius. Doctor Longwin entered the hallway and locked his office before swallowing the key to make sure that it wouldn't be easy for a person to enter his office.

Captain Markus stood at the end of the hallway with nothing more than a sledgehammer in hand. He didn't want it to go down like this, but somewhere deep inside, he always knew that this day would eventually come.

Ever since they had first met each other, he knew he would never be able to accept Doctor Longwin's craziness and go along with his shenanigans. They were made to stand here, always at opposites.

'So you're finally here...' Doctor Longwin's voice was heard along with the sound of lightning.

Captain Markus glared at him as he started taking calm steps towards the other, slowly raising his sledgehammer higher. After a few steps, he started to increase his speed steadily till he was finally running towards the other.

Doctor Longwin wasn't fazed by it, like always, he was calm and his lips curled upwards in a wicked smirk as he raised both his hands up and aimed the two guns at the man who was running at him.

Bang!

Two shots were fired out, but Captain Markus ducked and rolled to avoid them both.

Another shot was heard, but this time, Captain Markus moved aside to avoid it.

Few more rounds could be heard but they all either hit the wall or the ground.

When Captain Markus was just a few meters away from him, Doctor Longwin smiled brightly as he put his hands down and threw the guns away before taking something else out from his pocket.

Captain Markus's eyes went wide as he immediately recognized it as the cold weapon he had seen kill his precious teammates before.

It was the weapon that Doctor Longwin was proud of making and also the curse in the name of a weapon that was considered to be the biggest regret in Captain Markus's life.

'Our story ends here,' Doctor Longwin aimed the weapon at Captain Markus and pulled the trigger.

Boom

Time seemed to pause for a mere second as everything went numb and quiet. The walls of the hallway instantly crumbled at the impact and Dust rose up, making it hard for Doctor Longwin to see if the job had been done or not.

Doctor Longwin smiled proudly. There had never been a human that fell target to this cold weapon and lived to tell the tale. He was confident that Captain Markus would also not be the first exclusion of this fact.

However, the smoke cleared and it seemed that for the first time in his life, Doctor Longwin had calculated wrong.

The raised sledgehammer struck down on Doctor Longwin and his head was instantly crushed under its weight and power.

'Goodbye old friend...' Captain Markus said for the last time as he saw the man's body falling lifelessly to the ground.

The clouds started to clear up and from in between them, peeked out the rays of the sun.

In the end, the villain was defeated and Captain Markus emerged as the hero."

"That's... Stupid!" A young boy cried out as he heard his mother finishing up the story that was supposed to entertain him.

His mother chuckled as she asked, "What's stupid about it?"

"I don't know. Maybe... Everything?"

She ruffled his head and giggled, "I thought boys your age enjoy action-based stories."

The boy shrugged, "Not this type of stupid action. Action-based stories are only good if they have a great plotline and characters. "

"But I thought the story was pretty good," His mother commented, "The hero and villain were old acquaintances and the hero was part of the research team that developed the bionic weapons. When the hero saw his friend going crazy with his inventions, he tried to stop him but got fired... And now he feels guilty about not stopping his friend from going down the wrong path. The guilt makes him think that it's his responsibility to stop the man."

"That's exactly what's stupid!" The little boy shouted in a frustrated tone, "The 'hero' is a stupid man who can't understand anything about the world."

"Eh?" His mother was shocked as she listened to her seven-year-old son talking about 'how the world worked'

Little boy, how long have you lived?

"Doctor Longwin wanted to become the best scientist in the world! He was ambitious and wanted to rule the world using his bionic weapons, whereas, Captain Markus was an idiot who wanted to create machines that could help clean his house!" The young boy started speaking seriously as if he knew both of the characters on a personal level and could understand them very well.

"It is clear that the two of them are very different from one another. Captain Markus was a small-minded man while Doctor Longwin had a broader mindset that could see the bigger picture!

In the end, Captain Markus is nothing more than a hypocrite! He killed his own friend and called it 'taking responsibility'. I'm pretty sure he didn't even consider him a friend while Doctor Longwin truly considered Captain Markus his one and only friend."

Saying that his mother was stunned to hear such a long lecture from her own son was an understatement. She blinked a few times before looking at him and asking, "Hecathe, are you sure you're still a seven-year-old?"

Hecathe pursed his lips as he looked at his mother with an unimpressed expression, "You're my mother, you should be the one to tell me the answer to that."

His mother sighed, "I'm a bit concerned about how your brain works."

"I'm sure it works better than ninety percent of humanity," Hecathe scoffed.

His mother smiled as she patted his head.

Hecathe had always been a bright child and had never fit in with other boys his age.

Although his mother was proud of him for this, she was still concerned about it. Standing out from others was good, but sometimes fitting in with others was better.

"So what do you want to be? Do you want to be a hero like Captain Markus or do you want to be a better hero who isn't stupid?" She asked eagerly.

Hecathe seemed to ponder over it for a bit and when he was finally done coming up with an answer, he smiled brightly as he replied, "Mom, I want to be the villain! A better villain than that Doctor Longwin who was fooled by Captain Markus!"

"Eh?!" His mother was shocked and in the next minute, when the shock had settled in, she broke out laughing, "You're really different, aren't you?"

"I'm your son, you should know it best."

"I do!" She beamed as she added, "And my son is amazing because of his differences!"

Hecathe smiled as he listened to her praise him like this. He definitely liked it and what he enjoyed the most about it was his mother's warm smile as she looked at him through her eyes that had turned up into two crescents.

He wanted to be able to see this smile forever... However, fate had other plans in store for him.

Beep!

The annoying sound of his alarm woke him up and he immediately picked it up just to throw it at the wall opposite to his bed.

"Ugh~" Hecathe groaned as he shut his eyes and tried to go back to sleep, but a minute passed and he slammed his clenched fist on the bed as he forcefully picked his body up from the soft mattress underneath.

He scratched his neck and squinted due to the sunlight that had abused his eyes first thing in the morning.

"Damn it..." He cursed.

He wanted to be in that dream for a little longer. It wasn't every day that he had a dream like this.

He looked at the analog clock that hung on the wall in front of him.

6:36 a.m.

He closed his eyes for a mere few minutes before opening them again.

6:40 a.m.

...

6:40 a.m.?!

His eyes went wide in panic as he pushed himself off the bed and rushed to the bathroom immediately.

He was late!

Hecathe had a meeting at 7 a.m. so basically... He was done for!

By the time he had freshened up and came out wearing his black suit, it was already 6:52 a.m.

He double-checked if he had forgotten anything and only after having done so did he pick up his car keys and leave his apartment.

His phone that was forgotten inside his apartment suddenly started ringing as his secretary called him, but since the apartment was empty, it was only natural that the call was ignored.

Hecathe climbed inside the stylish black Zelium car and turned on the engine before putting on his seatbelt.

After the engine was turned on, the car started hovering and in just a few seconds, it was already out of the garage and on the road where it was speeding by faster than the other non-zelium cars.

The most advantageous thing about a Zelium car was its speed. They were ten times faster than the fastest non-zelium car. Their beauty and attractiveness were just an added plus point.

Hecathe chuckled as he remembered an old saying he had once heard from somewhere.

'So what if you are late to work? With a Zelium car on your side, you can at least arrive in style.'

It was an ad made by his own company.

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