“Sidekick”

  “THEY TOOK ALL OF MY SHIT!!” Immortalis yowled out to the night sky on his knees while staring at his now completely empty basement, where he had been keeping a good portion of his assets in gold. Alexander was making his attacks as painful as possible in order to get Immortalis to hesitate and therefore drag on the battle for as long as possible. I thought in amusement, realizing now just how genius of a plan it actually was. No wonder! Alexander and the Rebellion were smarter than trying to actually end John, especially after last time, so they had to find an alternative. He turned around to where I was standing behind him, my head tilting while carrying a passed out Love Love by the armpits. I shrugged, my eyes narrowing smugly, “I see, I get it now. No wonder he was being careful about not outright killing you with his blows…” Immortalis punched the floor and stood up, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me violently, “OH, DO YOU NOW, ZERO?! DID YA REALLY FIGURE IT OUT?!” he cried out sarcastically, grinding his teeth. I raised an eyebrow and took a step back to free myself from his grip. “Do you want me to wind the clock and warn you about what happened?” I asked innocently, already knowing what he was going to answer. The way the heist was normally supposed to go was a lot more sneakily, where Immortalis would find his basement half-emptied of gold after the party was over and swear vengeance. Oh but this is an infinitely better result!! This is great!! I’m loving this attitude, John. I thought in excitement. Get mad. As mad as you can. Immortalis stomped his foot on the ground, shaking his head vigorously after only pondering it for a few seconds, “NO!! No…” he began, kicking a rock before turning to look at me with renewed determination in his eyes, “This is MY fight, just like I said before. I’ll take revenge myself… I’m not a wuss that has to rely on you or on anyone for shit.”

  “So uhh…” I started, looking at him sideways as he paced back and forth, “My gift to you was supposed to be this woman here,” I told him, nodding at the passed out Love Love. That caught Immortalis’ attention, turning to look at me with a raised eyebrow. I continued now that I had his attention, a sly smile spread across my face, “She’s quite useful, able to augment the powers of others among a lot of other side bonuses and whatnot. She’s the reason Everliving was activating faster than usual earlier, y’know,” I began, snickering to myself in amusement over just how badly I was underselling what Jessica was actually capable of, “Of course it's not a substitution for your power - nothing could ever be - but it is still extremely good. She’d make an extremely useful sidekick for you! No more fear of pain. No more getting tricked-!!” I wasn’t even able to finish before Immortalis suddenly took a step towards me with narrowed eyes, rearing back a fist and throwing it right at my face, but stopping a mere centimeter off my skin and creating a small gust of wind that made some of my hair flutter. I blinked a few times, genuinely stunned by this response. “Did you not hear me, Kevin?!” he snarled, his fists clenched so tightly he began to bleed from his palm, “I’ll fix this myself. I ‘appreciate’ the gift, but I don’t want it,” he hissed, walking away as his palm healed.

  I was left speechless for a few moments, watching him resume his back and forth pacing with narrowed eyes. My left eyelid twitched, my smile dropping as I glared at Seven. Enough is enough. Even I have my limits of tolerance. I thought, pissed off. I suddenly dropped Love Love to the floor with a deafening thud, dusting my hands and making Immortalis turn around with wide eyes, having just realized what he had done in an outburst of emotion. “You should be a lot more careful about who you threaten like that, John,” I warned him, my voice becoming deep and threatening, my eyes narrowing as the pitch black darkness within them seemed to spiral even further into nothingness, taking a step towards him and jabbing my index finger at his face. John quickly put up both of his hands in front of him, a bead of sweat running down his face as he gulped subtly, “I-I mean- I didn’t mean it like that!! It’s- Umm-” I sighed and closed my eyes, turning on my heels 180 degrees and picking up Jessica from the ground. I turned my head slightly to look at the distressed Immortalis apathetically before heading over to my car, “You’re lucky I’m such a patient person and I happen to also be in a good mood, Seven… But if you threaten me like that again, I’ll unmake you,” I threatened coyly, my voice trailing off as I looked back to the path in front of me, walking up towards where the parking area was, leaving my fellow Celestial alone with his thoughts.

  SHIT!!! I didn’t just make myself look like a total idiot and fraud, I also threatened Kevin in my stupid tantrum!!! And what he said earlier- As if I had been defeated!! Beaten?! ME?! Immortalis thought to himself in rage, his blood practically boiling as he began to call his guards, none of them picking up, having either fled or died. And the worst part was that Immortalis was no fool, he knew I was right. He had been beaten fair and square. In fact, Alexander and the Rebellion had humiliated him unlike anybody had ever humiliated him before. That damned electromancer had played him like a fiddle, exploiting the fact that even though Immortalis couldn’t die, he was susceptible to the fear of pain just like anyone else. Tricking Immortalis into fighting while trying to avoid Alexander’s blows; into fighting cautiously like he was a normal human who could die instead of the literal immortal he was. John scrunched up his face in disgust, flexed his fingers, looked over at a wall and raised back a fist. He tried to punch the wall as hard as he could, but his body instinctively slowed him down until his fist merely tapped the wall painlessly. He let out a frustrated yell of anger. Me?! Afraid of pain?! That’s like someone that can fly being afraid of heights!! BULLSHIT!!! And right in front of Kronos, too!!!

  Immortalis reminisced about back when he was ascended to Celestial status. He had earned the honor by single handedly defeating one of the most wanted criminals of all time after a 4 day long battle with no breaks. After the fight, Breadman, number Four, had approached him to give him some words of advice. “Don’t think you can win by just outlasting your enemy every single time. Maybe against monsters that works, but no sapient enemy will ever be kind or stupid enough to just fight you forever.” Immortalis had dismissed such a ridiculous thing; after all, who could ever defeat a literal immortal? So what if he didn’t get to kill his foe, he was still invincible, no? I’m never, EVER, going to allow myself to be humiliated like this again. His eyes narrowed and he reared back his fist once more, slamming it into the brick wall so hard that his tendons dislocated and his knuckles began to bleed, leaving a crack where he had hit, gritting his teeth in determination. Meanwhile, in the parking area, I laughed joyously and boisterously while placing Love Love in the copilot seat, my eyes shaking in excitement and my head bobbing from side to side like a child.

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  The following morning, I woke up with a yawn. Still no dreams, but I didn’t really care about that. I stood up and walked over to the whiteboard, drawing a smiley face on it with a childish giggle before walking into the common room where I had placed Jessica on a couch for her to sleep in. “Wake up!!” I clapped, startling the poor girl and making her sit up quickly, snapping her out of her dreams. “Wuh?! Wah?? Kronos!!” she exclaimed groggily in surprise, looking around and then at me with wide eyes, memories of last night rushing into her as a smile quickly grew on her face. She jumped off the couch with surprising strength and rushed over to me, giddy with excitement and giving me a big hug, much to my surprise. I blinked a few times, my arms at my sides stiffly while I looked down at her in confusion. “Hello, Jessica…?” I muttered, taking a step back the moment she let go of me. Did she just give me a hug?? Huh?? “What’s with the warm welcome?” I asked her in curiosity, sitting down on the couch where she had been sleeping, watching as she paced back and forth with a big dumb smile on her face. She stopped after hearing my question, her eyes widening incredulously as she tilted her head to look at me, her mouth agape in awe. “What do you mean ‘what’s with the warm welcome’?! Don’t you realize what you just did?! I have POWERS!!! I’m not a-! I don’t have to work at-!! I could maybe even become a hero and- Oh my god I can even tell people I personally met TWO Celestials and everything!!” I listened to her incoherent rant, my eyes narrowed in thought as she continued to pace back and forth, rambling on, “Holy shit I’m standing in the house of THE Kronos himself right now and everything!!” she realised, stopping in her tracks to look around in admiration.

  “Well, that IS true…” I muttered, interrupting her and drawing her attention to me. I stood up and walked over to my closet while her eyes remained glued to me, following close behind like some sort of lost puppy. I opened the middle drawer, going in to grab a bunch of rolled up bundles of cash to give her and make good on my promise about the whole life of luxury thing. Even though the original meaning was about you living with Immortalis as his sidekick or servant or whatever. But that’s besides the point. But before I could pull them out and hand them over to her, she tapped my shoulder and excitedly asked; “So!! What are we going to do now??” I raised an eyebrow, turning over to look at her in confusion, my pitch black eyes and her bright neon pink ones staring into each other. “What?” I asked succinctly. She also raised an eyebrow in confusion, matching mine, “What do you mean ‘what’? I’m asking what we're going to do now that I’m your sidekick. I heard ya saying that to Immortalis while I was semi-unconscious... I-I know I just ruined the surprise of the reveal and all, but that doesn’t matter, right??” I stared down at her face with my mouth slightly ajar. She must have misunderstood my conversation with Immortalis. Oh well, not that it matters anyway. I have no need for a servant, it’d just be troublesome. But then a devilish grin started to appear on my face as my eyes narrowed malevolently, a hand extending forward and being placed on her shoulder, my voice coming out a tad bit more excited than I wanted it to, “Oh!! Of course, Jessica. You’re pretty smart, aren’t you? You figured it out pretty quick.” I discreetly closed the drawer, chuckling softly. Hell, why not? I have no other use for her anyway. Why not a “sidekick”?? This has never happened before after all… why not have some fun while we’re at it? Let’s at least give it a try. Worst case I just come back to this point in time and send her off. Love Love chuckled as well, looking up at me with a mischievous half smirk.

  I gave her a cup of coffee and we sat together on the table while the egg cooked, facing each other. Love Love sighed and set down the coffee with a satisfied smile, looking up at me and smirking. I’m no idiot. She thought to herself while staring into my dead man’s eyes. I’m not a naive girl anymore. He wants ME as a sidekick? Yeah, right, ‘sidekick’... And when so many others would die for the chance too?? He definitely wants me for more than just my powers or personality, heh. But that’s fine. This is just another job to me. One far more luxurious than my last one, at the very least, But then I opened my mouth, placing down my own cup of coffee on the table, looking down at her semi-menacingly, “I’m going to need you to keep a secret, Love Love.” I was being dead serious, staring directly into her eyes without even a hint of emotion, making me impossible to read. She perked up, looking around in confusion for a moment but nodding firmly. I sighed and took another sip of the drink before continuing, “And I mean it, Jessica. If you tell anyone, I WILL find out eventually,” I warned her softly, pointing a finger at her, suddenly seeming a lot more dangerous than she had been mentally prepared for, “And I will come back to this exact moment in time and personally drive you back to the red light district. Understood?” Love Love blinked a few times, staring down at her coffee as she felt genuine fear crawl up her throat, her heart beating quickly. Ok Jessica, brace yourself. This is the part where the super powerful hero shows his true intentions and it's revealed that he is actually secretly a villain. It's exactly like you expected. She gulped and met my stare, her eyes narrowing with determination as she gave me a firm nod. I smiled softly and leaned forwards on my chair, adopting a more laid back attitude once more. Despite this, though, Love Love found herself completely unable to read me. My smile and my body language seemed like farces, but it also didn’t seem like I was hiding anything or disguising any feelings I wanted to remain unseen.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “The world’s gonna end really soon. Well, not literally of course! But yeah, everyone on this planet is going to perish. Pretty bad, right?” I asked her casually, resting my head on my fist as I stared into her own unknowable eyes, my expression passive as I smiled fakely. Jessica failed to react for a few moments, processing the information, before suddenly jumping to her feet and knocking down the coffee on the table. Her eyes were as wide as could be, her pupils fully dilated, pink energy surrounding her while her mouth was agape. “W H A T ? !” she yowled out as hard as she could, making me frown and cover my ears a bit. Jessica noticed and gulped, slowly sitting back down and putting a trembling hand on her sweating forehead before continuing in a much tinier tone of voice, utter despair coming from her voice, “B-But how?! How?!?! Why?!? Oh god… I’d ask if you were joking but I mean- Well- Haha- You’re clearly not joking so- Ahem- But…” tears were beginning to form at the edge of her eyes, so I interrupted her before she began to cry, placing my cup on the table with a loud clunking sound. She looked up at me, shrinking into herself in nervousness. “It’s not impossible to avoid, though,” I clarified, my voice back to being dead serious as I stared emotionlessly right into her, “I KNOW it isn’t impossible, I just haven’t found the correct solution. Yet. Do you understand what I’m trying to say here?”

  Love Love’s shivering gaze slowly came to a stop, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before opening them again and looking straight at me. She grabbed the napkins on the table and began to clean up the mess from her coffee, perhaps to distract herself from the overwhelming information I had just thrown at her. I was wrong. She thought in half-hearted dismay and self-loathing. I was so, SO wrong. He doesn’t have even an ounce of lust for me in his soul, I can tell from the way he looks at me. Not even a little. Hahaha… And I even went as far as doubting if he was even a hero when all along he was saving the world… I really am worthless. She looked back up after a few seconds, “Y-yeah. I think I get it,” she whispered unnoticeably, thinking back on how I had acted so far around her, realization dawning on her, “I think I get it. This is one of those ‘by all means necessary’ sort of situations, isn’t it? You’re… saving the world after all, aren’t you?” I nodded solemnly once she finally looked up from where she was cleaning up, confirming her suspicions. She gulped, the sheer weight of what I was telling her hitting her like an anvil. Then why me?? Why- I’m not worthy, not at all!! I’m just some street filth…

  “Before I can fully trust you, though, I need you to understand exactly what being my sidekick would entail,” I told her straight up, standing up and motioning for her to follow me despite her clearly not being done cleaning up. She sighed and dropped the napkins, following me despite there being obvious worry, confusion, and fear mixed in her gaze. We arrived at my room and I sat down on the bed like it was a throne, pointing at the whiteboard casually while twiddling with a marker in my other hand. Jessica blinked a few times and slowly followed my finger, looking over at the gigantic wall-sized whiteboard that covered the entire front of my room. Her eyes widened quickly, once more terror building up inside her, her face turning a ghastly white and her throat clogging up until she felt like vomiting, cold sweat running down her chin. Oh my god. She thought in dismay, approaching the whiteboard sheepishly. Dozens of markers were scattered all over the floor senselessly, all of them completely empty of ink. She lifted her hand tentatively, looking at how many things were written on it. From a detailed hand-drawn world map with various x’s sprinkled around it, to columns after columns of names and ideas, all of them crossed out. And finally, in the center of it lay a list of the Celestial Ten seemingly out of order, as well as some names she didn’t recognise to their right - among them Alexander. She then turned to look at me, opening her mouth to speak but words failing her, my visage seeming less and less human and more like a living shadow the longer she stared. “How… How long have you been trying?” she asked meekly, her voice barely a whisper. I’m sorry. She thought to herself, her heartbeat quickening as she finally understood the magnitude of my endeavor. I’m so sorry, Kronos, I’m sorry for having thought those things of you!! Please, forgive me…

  I stopped dead in my tracks after hearing that question, my smile and playful demeanor disappearing in an instant, my hand wrapping around and suddenly clenching the marker so intensely the veins all over my arm began to pop. My eyes glossed over, seeming more dead than ever, like black holes that throttled all life within me, and my breathing turned uneven. Jessica took a tiny step backwards in fear, her instincts registering me as if I was no longer a man but rather a coiled up snake, ready to strike at anything that moved. Get a grip, Kevin. I thought to myself in frustration, the marker in my hand beginning to crack, Are you really so pathetic that such a stupid question sends you reeling like an offended child?! GET A GRIP. The edges of my lips curled upwards in a smirk so pathetically forced and fake that even a child could tell there was no genuinity behind it, attempting to hide just how hard that simple question had hit me. I turned to look at her, closing my eyes and tilting my head a bit in an attempt to be endearing, failing horribly. “For far too long, I reckon!!” I answered with the most forced chuckle Jessica had ever heard. The marker in my hand split in half, ink splattering all over the floor.

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  “That’s a very odd thing for you to say,” Stalwart mentioned softly, his eyes concentrated on inspecting a painting. Number Four sighed and shook his head, his eyes narrowing as he looked towards the exit with a worried expression clouding his eyes. He turned to his seasoned elder of a coworker, his voice full of frustrated disdain, “I know what I am talking about, Bagwis. Empress keeps ignoring the warnings I’m trying to give her, so I’m just going to tell everyone directly myself,” he hissed, crossing his arms while pursing his lips. Nine took a deep breath and stood up to look Breadman in the eye, his dull grey irises glowing menacingly while the barrier around his body shimmered barely noticeably. “Are you… Absolutely certain? It's not that I don’t believe you, Lev. It’s rather that the mere idea is simply too inconceivable… If what you say is true, it would change everything.” Lev groaned, shaking his head in disbelief as he turned away and towards the door, giving an incredulous shrug, his bright yellow eyes glowing softly behind his sunglasses. “If it is truly that inconceivable, then investigate it yourself, Nine. I value my time - I would not waste it on something I wouldn’t consider urgent or clear cut. I don’t care what Eight says, I know what I have seen and what I heard,” Breadman warned his comrade with a hiss, walking away. Nine sat back down and looked down at his painting, pursing his lips as his mind began to drift, his comrade closing the door behind him. I don’t want to believe it. Stalwarts admitted to himself, raising up his hands and focusing on them instead as they trembled softly. If it really did beg for mercy… If it talked at all… Does that mean I broke my promise before I even made it? Stalwart pondered in sheer misery, closing his fist slowly and turning it over to look at the deep scar on the back of his hand. He looked towards the door and sighed, standing up as his eyes began to glow ever so slightly. And yet, I can’t rule out the possibility that he’s right. If I sat here and did nothing, I would never forgive myself. Still, I hope with all my heart that this is all just a misunderstanding.

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  “This is… Well, this is certainly new for sure!!” Maquineer admitted nervously, a pillow manifesting out of thin air which she quickly hugged, her eyes nervously looking through the reinforced glass and at the two 4 meter tall monsters inside the room who were currently ripping each other to shreds. Or at least, they were supposed to be ripping each other to shreds instead of standing around with surprising calmness. Empress sighed and placed a hand to her temple, staring through the glass worriedly, “And this is not the worst of it. Breadman has come to me talking about how he is certain that a monster he killed recently actually spoke to him with its dying breath.” Maquineer blinked a couple of times, raising an eyebrow as she turned to look at her boss, her dark green eyes focusing in on her like camera lenses, “And you… believe that? I-I’m not saying I distrust Lev!! He’s a very trustworthy man - as far as I know at least - but I mean… A monster, talking? That’s a bit silly…” she muttered softly, looking away after a couple of seconds, her eyes focusing on the monsters before her as they walked around the room and scratched the walls, ignoring the presence of the other. Eight crossed her arms, tilting her head to the side before turning to look at Five, answering the short woman's concerns, “I won’t cross out the likelihood that he misinterpreted garbled sounds or imagined it, but I wouldn’t be a leader worth her salt if I didn’t take his warnings seriously. I told him to not worry about it for now until I can confirm his statements, but he seemed really unhappy with my answer. I just hope he won’t go and do something stupid.”

  Maquineer inquisitively stared at Empress for a couple more seconds before finally looking away, her eyes once more focusing on the odd behavior displayed by the monsters before her. She opened her mouth, her irises beginning to glow with energy softly, “So you want me to study these monsters to see what’s wrong with them?” she asked, her fingers flexing as a clinical saw appeared in her hands, her voice barely disguising how eager she was about the prospect. Eight shook her head, answering back, her eyes still fixated on the creatures as well, “Monster sightings and rampages have spiked significantly in the past few weeks, and I suspect that that is somehow connected to this odd new behavior we’re witnessing here. I’m going to need you and every other Celestial to get out on the field and deal with this issue while the Association’s top scientists try and figure out what’s wrong. I can’t afford to have you cooped up in here, lest the situation escalate and we get a mass panic on our hands - which is the last goddamn thing we need in the current political climate.” Five frowned, pouting as the saw in her hand vanished and she mumbled incoherently in complaint before speaking up, “So what am I here for?? You surely aren’t just bringing me here to taunt me about not being able to sink my fangs into this mystery… Right?” Empress’s face remained still, but her eyes darted down to meet her subordinates’ gaze, “No, I brought you here to give you the ‘why’ to what I need you to do. It is highly unlikely it will come to such drastic measures… but I still want you to make one ‘of those’ just in case.” The small Austrian girl’s pupils dilated, her arms crossing as a nervous half-smirk became etched on her face, quickly looking away from her boss’s piercing and intimidating gaze. “Oh…” she muttered, lips pursing a little, “Well, that’s… That’s a bit ominous, eh? Damn, things must be ROUGH rough.”