The true face of heroism.

"Am I getting a big sis, Papa?" Star asked from behind, startling us both.

"Jesus fuck. I thought you were sleeping, Star. How long have you been awake, you naughty little rascal?" I laughed, pinching his cheeks.

"The whole time!" He smiled back.

"I see. Yes. You're getting a big sis. Star, meet Riley." I introduced.

Star ran up to Riley and gave her a big hug.

"Welcome to the family!" He said, squeezing Riley hard, as she gasped for breath, tapping his back desperately.

"Star let her go. You're hugging her too tight. She can't breathe!" I said, pulling him back.

Riley fell to the floor, gasping for breath, coughing and Star shrunk into my shadow, feeling guilty.

"I'm sorry. I don't want to hurt you.

I am just so happy!" Star muttered, woth down ast eyes.

"Aw!" Riley cooed, getting her bearings.

"He's so cute! I've always wanted a little brother!" She said, ruffling his hair, as the smile returned to Star's face and he giggled happily.

"Great. Now, where was ...I?" I turned around to see the camera still active and realised what I had done.

"Oh nonononono! I did not just say all that on live feed!" I exclaimed, pinching myself.

"Oh man!"

"What's wrong with that?" Riley asked.

"It's just....I was supposed to portray this image of a cold bastard, y'know a real hardass guy for the next part, but that's clearly down the drain now.

Unless....."

I put my fingers on my forehead and squinted committing this point in time to memory, when Riley interrupted.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"I'm committing this point in time to memory so once this is over I can come back in time and stop myself from doing this." I replied absentmindedly.

"Please don't!" Riley insisted.

"Wait wha- No. I don't mean... that came out wrong. I mean I was going to shut off the feed after you killed Jack so I could get you out of here and into fosterage without the heroes knowing. That way I can just lie later and say I disintegrated you so no one will come after you. Though I doubt that will work anymore.

So....time travel!" I said, raising a finger.

Riley just looked at me like I had skinned her mother before her, and I realised what I was saying.

"Oh....what was I even thinking? I just got so wrapped up in the moment and ...you know what?

Screw that. I'm not afraid to admit I can be soft sometimes.

And that's that!" I said, authoritatively, before opening a portal.

"Now the next part of this is going to be dangerous, so I want the both of you to be out of here. Star, why don't you show Riley around the ship, get her settled."

"Can we have ice cream?" Star jumped at the opportunity.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Papa please!" Star pushed, using his signature puppy eyes guilt trip.

Ugh!

It was super effective!

I sighed.

"Okay fine." I said, "But just one cup. For the both of you. And remember to put the staff back in properly. If I come back and find it lying on the floor or hanging off the pedestal, you know what that means!

No more ice cream for a whole week!"

"Uhun!" Star agreed, nodding his head.

"Wait staff?" Riley asked.

"The entrance beacon for the microverse. You'll see." I replied.

"What's the microverse?" She asked.

"Hmm? Oh it's this universe I created inside a fish tank. I wanted a storage space and pocket dimensions just take so much maintenance. And they cam collapse like anything.

It's a pain in the butt.

So I just created a miniature universe inside a fish tank to store my excess materials, raw ores, food, labs, a couple of Suns, planets, two blackholes that I stole from an abandoned galaxy. That sort of stuff.

But then I noticed like a year ago that sentient life had developed on one of the planets in the microverse, so I just went down there, gave them fire, technology, the usual promethian stuff, and they started to worship me and Star as gods.

In my defence, I did try to dissuade them but people will be people, even if they are blue lion plant hybrids.

So I figured I might as well use them for something. Set up a couple of farms and such. An ice cream factory or two or three.

And trust me, they make some killer ice cream. It's to die for!"

"You created a universe?!" She asked in disbelief once the words registered to her.

"Yeah. Don't worry about it. It's pretty safe. Won't collapse on you. I made sure of that."

"That's not my-" She added, exasperated.

"Yes. I know. It's awesome. Great tech. Yada yada. But really, compared to some of the other stuff I've made, the microverse is small potatoes. Now go! I don't have all day. And keep an eye on Star for me. Don't let him gorge himself on ice cream. He'll get an upset stomach." I said, shooing them away.

Riley nodded absentmindedly, shocked out of her mind as Star dragged her into the portal, disappearing behind the veil of neon green.

I closed the portal behind them and turned back to the camera when a notification popped up in the corner of my eye.

Picking on it, I opened it to find a thread blowing up on PHO.

This time I had left the choice to quit the livestream that I made on the computer screens of the world so I suppose this was to be expected.

I'll check it out later.

I portaled back to the warehouse roof, before I continued.

"Ahehem!" I cleared my throat, looking at the camera, and smiled.

"Now as you can see the Slaughterhouse Nine have been dealt with, mostly by my son with my assistance being necessary only at the very end.

So you can understand how easy it is to deal with the Slaughterhouse Nine. So much so, that even my three year old son can do it with one lightsaber, a low grade forcefield generator, a disintegration bomb and minor telekinesis.

None of the above are things that the Protectorate and the heroes don't already have.

Alexandria is faster and stronger than my son, not to mention she can fly. So can Eidolon and Legend and a dozen other capes.

There are also heroes with telekinesis abilities far stronger than my son's.

Any number of tinkers can recreate the gadgets I gave Star, with little difficulty.

So I want you to ask yourselves.

Why did the heroes conciously allow, nay, choose to let the Slaughterhouse Nine run free, at risk to millions of lives, when a three year old with a laser sword and a forcefield can do it in less than ten minutes.

What great evil were the heroes busy fighting for them to not be able to accomplish such a simple task?

They clearly weren't dealing with the gang problems because as anyone with two eyes and a handful of brain cells to rub together can see, the gangs are ever stronger.

They weren't dealing with Nilbog, because that city is still walled off and quarantined.

They weren't protecting the civilians either, because of they gave a sigke flying fuck abouts that then they wpuld have dealt with the nigh genocidal Slaughterhouse Nine already!

You know why the Nine were still free after all these years?

Because your heroes, are no heroes at all!

They were either too incompetent to do what my three year old son can do in the time it takes to take a decent shit, or they purposefully allowed the Nine to go free.

And I'm leaning more to the latter.

Because your heroes are more interested in keeping the status quo, stroking their egos, participating in dick measuring contests and consolidating their political power, than actually being you know, heroic!

Being a hero to them isn't about doing the right thing or helping people. It's about personal fame and glory. About the money they can make. The power they exert over others with their stupid bureaucracy and authoritarian bullshit.

Because if the heroes cared to clean up the streets, they could have done it ages ago.

Every day, in cities around the world, just like this one, people suffer under the yoke of villainy while the heores sit there sucking their thumbs and watch!

You have no heroes, people, just villains with better PR departments.

They can hide behind the law, and justice and following the rules and all that other legalese sophistry, but down to their core, they know as much as you do, those are just excuses they use to avoid doing anything and hold themselves above the rest of you.

But that is not all!

There is another reason the heroes let the Slaughterhouse Nine live so long.

It's because the Triumvirate, the top ehroes of this world wanted to inflict as much misery on the people as possible.

And don't take my word for it. Take theirs!" I said, projecting a holoscreen.

With a thought a video of the Triumvirate in their Cauldron headquarters opened up on the screen.

"Why do we have to let them go? Didn't you see how they killed Hero? And I'm supposed to just shut up and do nothing?" Legend raged.

"Yes. The Nine are a necessity. The more they roam free the more people will trigger. And the more people that trigger...the more our cause gains momentum." Alexandria said.

"You must understand, Legend, we miss Hero just as much, but..." Eidolon added.

"But what, Eidolon? You want more people to die, for what? Power? Influence? Do their lives matter so little to you?" He shouted.

"Legend! You know our mission." Alexandria replied, coldly.

"I thought our mission was to protect people! Not...not this!" Legend ground his teeth.

"This is the best way!" Eidolon said, angrily.

"We should have never let Manton live!" Legend said, turning around, "As for your mission, our mission.....leave me out of it. As much as possible. I will have no hand in the death of innocents."

"But you will let the Nine live. And that is an order." Alexandria replied.

Legend looked back at her with a murderous stare, before he acquiesced.

"Fine. But if someone else hunts them down, I won't stop them." He said, flying off.

I shut off the video, and looked back into the camera.

"And there we have it. Now sure, you could dispute my argument. You could say that I must have doctored the video or just made it all up.

It's your choice ultimately whether you believe me or not.

As they say, you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink.

If you intend to remain blind to the obvious, that is yo-"

"GameBreaker!" A voice shouted from below and a bike sputtered to a stop at the edge of the forcefield.

I looked down to see a man in a sleek blue silver streaked power suit carrying a high tech hakberd jump off his bike and run up to the edge of the forcefield.

Armsmaster, tinker parahumam with the ability to make compact, efficient tech, that can fit more tech in a small space and the biggest tool in the series. The guy had a seriously massive stick up his ass for most of the story. Suffive to say, not my favourite character.

"GameBreaker! You are hereby under arrest for the murder of Heartbreaker and harbouring the criminal known as Bonesaw. Surrender peacefully and your sent-"

"You'll arrest me? You and what army, Armsmaster?" I asked.

I knew the answer. I could feel it in my nanobot net. But I wanted him to say it.

He was silent for a moment, almost glaring at me, before he replied, his voice punchably smug.

"This army."

From all around the corner, heroes and villains alike converged on the edges of the forcefield, surrounding it.

Just what I wanted.

I panned the camera around the forcefield, showing the 'army' of heroes gathered by him.

"Ohohohoho!" I laughed, "Oh boy. This is just perfect!"

"Lower your forcefield and get down on yo-" He continued only to be interrupted again as I faced the camera to him and snapped.

"You see this everyone? This is the amount of heroes that were in Brockton Bay today, when the Slaughterhouse Nine attacked.

I count easily two hundred of them.

And yet they couldn't be fucked to fight the actual villains or save the zombified people. No. Not a sibgle one of them.

That they couldn't do.

But once I did their job for them, once I or rather my three year old son beat the Nine, suddenly they appeared out of the corners and crevices, from their crawl spaces and hidey holes like cockroaches, ganging up on me because I showed the world their true face. Because I did the right thing where they wouldn't!

To preserve the illusion of their power!

Where were you when Heartbreaker terrorised Montreal for years? You didn't help his victims. You didn't try to capture him. No.

But once I saved the victims, you were the first to come accusing me of crimes you know very well were deserved.

When the Slaughterhouse Nine where massacring entire towns, I did not see a single one of you stop them. But now that I stopped them, now that I saved poor little Riley that you have come here to arrest me!

I know heroes arrive fashionably late but at this point you might as well be the scavengers, come to feast on the corpse of my hard work. To steal the credit for my hard work.

Big damn heroes.

I bet your parents feel real proud right now. It must have been their dream to see their children become such pathetic leeches on society.

Parasites is what you are!

The whole lot of you!

And you call yourself heroes!" I spat.

Several young heroes, I could see hung their heads low in shame while the older ones shuffled uncomfortably.

"If you had come to us with your serum we could have helped Heartbreaker's victims too!" Armsmaster rebutted.

"Oh, of course. And if I had come to your house this morning, I could have wiped your ass too. Maybe you want a side of blowjobs with that? Huh? Excuses. That's all you heroes have.

Fucking pathetic! Is that what it means for you to be a hero?

Such brave heroes, expecting other people to do their job for them.

Oh, if only you had done my job and let me take credit for it, everything would have been fine~

That's what you sound like, by the way.

Like a whiny little baby!"

"ENOUGH!" A voice echoed across the city, and something slammed into the forcefield surrounding the warehouse with a deafening boom.