Chapter 18: Chapter 18: Diamond pass
Annie was a bit busy with her different events and couldn't hang with them, so Mike decided to help Hughie with his studies.
"So, Hughie, can you do a "wave of fear"? Or can you still not project your anger?" Hughie looked slightly awkward and sighed "Look, Mike, I might be good at this sensing and spirit shit, but I have no idea how I am even supposed to tap into this 'heart of anger' you keep talking about! Where even is it? Not near my actual heart, I'll tell you that much!"
Mike facepalmed "Hughie, it's a figure of speech, YOUR language's figure of speech. In my language, we refer to it as "think place" or "thought up" place? You look for the place, where the anger comes from and follow it till you find the exact point. Most have it near their brain, not their heart. What is it with you people and linking a blood pump with emotions? Your heart doesn't give you special powers, at least an unmodified one. My friend could give you a litter heart of anger, but we have neither a druid, or a hemomancer nor a wrath demon."
Hughie waved his hands "Okay... That's a fair point, but I have no idea how to be angry, much less where it comes from! I can count how many times I have been angry on both of my hands!"
Mike scoffed and went up to Hughie and directly looked him in the eyes "Halve that number and maybe you can count the amount on an amputee's arm! Hughie, you have never gotten angry. The reason you're such a great death knight material is because of that! You're a spinless, weak, pathetic bundle of disappointment." A bit of spit even fell on his face.
"The whole point of your existence is to leach off of others. You leached of Butcher's and my effort and killed Translucent! You even want to just ride a bandwagon and have fun, while we do all the work and hand you A-train on a silver platter! The fucker killed your girlfriend! DO YOU NOT FEEL ANYTHING?! WHERE IS YOUR RAGE?!"
Hughie balled up his fist and Mike just widened his eyes "Oh for fucks sake Hughie! Even after all of that and you still can't get angry? I give up. Go on reddit or Twitter, I've heard those are the go-to places if you want to get a stroke from anger. Maybe your cuck personality can get angry from the safety of a virtual screen."
Butcher looked through his sunglasses and said "Damn Hughie, you got Reddit zoned! On a side node, how the hell do you even know what that is? Ain't you from outer space?"
Mike raised an eyebrow at that "Butcher, I'm from a technology advanced space civilization. We have space travel and fleets design with the sole purpose of planet colonization. We have internet, though ours is run on a 3 bit systems, not a 2 bit one."
Hughie raised an eyebrow and said "Wait, really? How'd you even pull a 3 bit off?" Mike chuckled "One's off, one's on and the other is blown up and gone. Quite ingenious, eh?" Hughie laughed while Mike chuckled. "Yeah, that was a pretty dumb question." Mike shrugged his shoulders at Hughie's remark and continued to watch Hughie take his advice seriously and actually go on Twitter.
After a few minutes, he even furrowed his brows and said "You might have a point, Mike."
Before anyone could respond Butcher stopped terrorising the local religious people and picked up his phone. "Yes?"
For some reason, that was the only word he said. After a long pause, where no one spoke and Butcher just listened, he hung up and left.
Mother's Milk tried to catch him and said "Where you goin, Butcher? We have a job to do." Butcher shrugged his hand off and said "Piss off. I've got somewhere to be."
Mike sighed "leave him. We mostly need me and Hughie here to do the job, while at least one man is on scout duty. Sorry Mother's Milk, but you're stuck with being our lookout once again."
The black man sighed, as Mike suddenly left as well. He disappeared for the two of them, but for another person, he appeared at just the right time.
"Hey, starlight. What's got you down?" Annie looked towards her left, seeing Mike coming towards her, she just sighed "It's just... I wanted to be a hero for a long time, I went to hero pageants as a kid and teen. I didn't live a normal life and for what? So I could look those confused teenagers in their worshiping eyes and lie to them? It just doesn't feel right."
Mike furrowed his brows and patted Starlight on her shoulder. "It's okay. I'm not much of a big shot in the hero business either and I can't say I have experience with such stuff, but still, I feel like you need to hear this." Annie looked up into the gentle and friendly eyes of Mike.
"Being a public figure... Is difficult and easy. Most people in a democracy need to care for their image, but dictatorship leaders don't. They have an entire system built on oppression and don't care about their image much. They are universally hated and do horrible things, but they still stay in command. A simple question... Why?"
Annie listened to his question and was thoroughly confused on what Mike was talking about. He just smiled and said "That question also has a simple answer... Power. They have power, be it connections or military weaponry or even super powers. People with power don't need to care about public opinion. They are free to do as they wish. You don't need Vought, you don't need the seven. If you want to save someone and be a superhero, then do it. You don't need a company label to be a hero. Be yourself and if it gets you kicked out of the seven, then we can start our own team. If it helps you climb the corporate ladder and gain more influence, than that's just you increasing power and using it however you see fit..."
Annie listened to Mikes words as if they were the words of a God and couldn't even stop if she wanted "In the end, what people think of you doesn't matter. You have power and choose to use it to give them safety. Once you help enough people, the cheers for your name will overwhelm the cucks slandering you."
A redhead suddenly appeared near starlight and said "Starlight, be ready in 10. You have a meeting to go to."
*Shit, girl! I owe you a favour. You came in just in time. My focus is struggling.*
Starlight looked at Mike apologetically. He just chuckled and said "Don't worry about it. Go out there and show those cucks what a woman who fucks looks like!*I hate this world's slang. It sounds atrocious.*"
Annie nodded her head and hugged Mike "You really got a foul mouth since the last time I met you. Hughie must be a bad influence for you!"
Mike's eyes lit up "Oh yeah, speaking of Hughie, can you get him into that diamond place as your plus 1? He begged me to ask you to get him in. He isn't much of a christian fan, but he wanted to see homelander."
Annie looked at Mike with a surprised face "Really? I thought you'd want to come as my bonus. You not jealous of Hughie anymore?"
Mike scoffed "Me? Jealous? Never. Hughie's a good friend, he won't do me dirty. Also, I'm not even a Christian, why in the fuck would I attend a baptisation?"
Annie smiled "It's called a baptism and sure, I can take Hughie with me."
Mike smiled and called Hughie over "Oy, Small Knight, get off twitter and get over here! You be meeting your maker!"
The sudden call startled Hughie and he quickly came over and thanked starlight "Thanks, Annie. This has been my lifelong dream for a while."
Annie shrugged and said "Yeah, sure. Happy to help a friend out." Mike chuckled and began leaving, before he turned around and said "Oh yeah, he's the jackass, that screamed into my phone last time! Keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't cause any trouble!"
With those words, the two of them disappeared into the crowd, while a certain redhead stared at Mike and seemed to contemplate something.
A.N. Give me stones, a review and all the good stuff. I'm busy being dogpiled, so have a nice day.
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