CHAPTER 162: CHAPTER 162: RILEY VS. DECEMBER

Riley vs. December

"Why do you run away, Ms. December?"

Riley stood up from his throne made of dead corals and rocks. It was almost completely dark inside the dome he and December were in, and their only source of light was the traces of sunlight that happened to seep into the deep water.

But then again, there shouldn’t have been any light at all that could reach them.

This, too, December thought, was the doing of Riley Ross.

She knew that the friends of the students in the potential villain list were troublesome; she reviewed whatever profile they had on them.

She also knew that discrepancies were normal.

But it shouldn’t have gotten to this point.

"Since you are not going to answer that question. May I ask you something else?" Riley tilted his head. "You are on the spectrum, correct?"

"No."

"You are," Riley insisted, shrugging as he looked at her from head to toe. "Why did you join the Dark Millennium? Do they have certain benefits that caught your eye?"

"They recruited me, and I joined." Still, December answered. "I felt that with my abilities, I would be a good fit for them."

"Even though they are an organization for villains, Ms. December?"

"Yes. I believe that doesn’t matter. If another organization or group recruited me first, then I would be there too. I need the money."

"Come work for me, Ms. December. The only downside is that you can not leave."

"What sort of work do I need to do?"

"The most evil things you could probably think of, Ms. December."

"Salary?"

"Quadruple your current salary, Ms. December."

"You do not even know how much they are paying me."

"Because it does not matter, Ms. December."

"Okay. I will come work for you."

"Very well. Welcome to the group, Ms. December. We will get you your new name soon."

And just like that, Riley vs. December was over. The chase was longer.

***

"The kids really are growing fast, huh?"

"They are."

Back on the island, Prophet and Bernard were still in the woods. Despite Hannah’s insistence, or even the fact that he casually and accidentally revealed his identity as Whiteking to the rest of the Baby Crew, he still didn’t let them learn how to handle this situation from hereon out.

Why not? Well...

"Can you just stop talking for a moment? If you have time to talk, then just help me dig. Or at least place the body closer so we can just push it!"

"Old friend. There are only a few days in the year that we meet, and burying several bodies is the first thing we do."

Yes. Bernard didn’t want to let Hannah and the others watch how he handled it, because he handled it. Permanently.

"Yeah? Cry about it more," Bernard scoffed, shaking his head as he drove the shovel onto the ground. And now, with him only wearing his undershirt, the muscles that were being hidden by his clothes could be seen, and... they were glorious.

Every fiber, the way they were lined up and etched from his skin, was perfection.

Bernard Ross, aka Whiteking, was not only one of the wealthiest individuals on the entire planet—no. His body, and this was recorded by the World Government and the Hero Association, was the peak of what a normal human could achieve.

"Dude, just fucking dig!" Bernard raised his voice, but Prophet only laughed at him while shaking his head.

"I’m just here to make sure no one’s watching us," he said. "And if both of us returned with our hands dirty, someone would notice. Especially that son of yours."

"Your hands are already dirty. You’re the director of the FBI’s Superhuman Affairs, and yet you watched me murder these people in cold blood."

"That’s too much paperwork. We’re on vacation," Prophet waved him off. And instead of helping, he doubled down by sitting on one of the corpses and even throwing a clump of dirt back into the hole that Bernard was digging.

"And... we’ve done worse things, Berns. Things that I’m trying to pay for, but probably wouldn’t be able to even after several lifetimes."

Bernard stopped digging, planting the shovel through the dirt as he sighed and let himself fall into the hole he had dug. He stared at the hints of light seeping through the leaves above them, and then he sat up and once again sighed.

"The things we did back then were necessary," he said. "And now the country forever owes us a debt of gratitude."

"Was that really necessary?" Prophet closed his eyes. "I’ve done some digging, and half of the people in that village were civilians."

"I already told you to cry about it more."

"It... wasn’t only that village. But I guess you knew that, right?"

Bernard didn’t really answer Prophet. Instead, he climbed up from the hole. He pulled one of the corpses closer and also sat on it.

Prophet pulled out a box of cigarettes from his pocket, offering Bernard one, but he quickly refused.

"It makes you think, huh?" Prophet whispered, lighting up a cigarette in his mouth. But when he had lit it up, he took it out and just placed it on the ground in front of him. "Just how many innocent people did we kill?"

"Being a civilian doesn’t automatically make you innocent. And you’re right, I knew about it," Bernard took in a deep breath. "There were children there, too. Children who were already being taught to kill at a young age."

"Like us," Prophet shook his head. "We joined the military hoping to serve the country. And, fuck... who did we even serve? Is that why you decided to become a superhero? To control who and what you can save?"

"No," Bernard shook his head. "I became a superhero to save. No who, no what."

"And have you?"

"...Not enough," Bernard’s voice turned quiet. "It never will be. I was there, dude. I was there, and I couldn’t even save Alice. Millions of people died. That’s... more lives than we’ve ever saved. We’re just fucking hypocrites."

"It was Ms. Phoenix. Berns, no matter how much you want to play big leagues with these people, you’re only human. You’re a human playing with gods," Prophet lit up another cigarette, and yet he still didn’t take a puff and just placed it on the ground.

"I just don’t mean then." Bernard shook his head. "After Alice, and even before that. When Hannah was born—"

"Stop," Prophet quickly placed his hand on Bernard’s shoulder. "You promised me you would never talk about that again. That was an accident, Bernard."

"It always is when it’s convenient," Bernard scoffed. "But what I’m trying to say is that after that happened, I could’ve put my efforts into something more meaningful, more... permanent."

"Hmm?"

"I could do it, you know? Save even more lives. Save everyone," Bernard whispered, his eyes blinking several times as if he was looking at something. "My mind. It never stops. I’ve solved it. Cancer. Sickness. Hunger. I’ve solved all of them... and yet I don’t. Do you know why?"

"You’ve already told me a couple of times, Berns."

"I don’t solve them because I think they’re not problems," Bernard placed his hands on his head, letting the dirt paint his face. "Sickness, hunger... they are natural."

"Just because something is natural, it should happen," Prophet reasoned. He then lit up another cigarette, but this time, he took a puff and glanced at Bernard.

"Evil is natural, too. Are you trying to tell me... that if you see evil right in front of you. If you see it growing. If you see it slowly infesting your lives, into the lives of many. You won’t cut it?"

"What I’m trying to tell you is that I don’t want to play god," Bernard whispered. "Because once I do, I will never be able to stop. Because I can stop it too, you know?"

"Stop what?"

"The demographic that has committed more crimes than any other," Bernard looked Prophet straight in his eyes. "The supers. Your kind. My daughter, my son. I can stop the supers from being born. Decades, a hundred years from now—I can make it so that supers can no longer exist. It won’t even be painful; it would just be... natural. But what happens if I deem that another kind deserves not to be born, just because a number of them have committed heinous crimes? What would that make me?"

"You’re very confident about that. You do know she’s still flying up there, right?" Prophet pointed at the sky. "She’s your contingency. Megawoman. You think she’ll just sit by as you do that?"

"Megawoman’s the biggest hypocrite of us all. She quit." Bernard scoffed, standing up before jumping back into the hole. "And it doesn’t matter either way. One way or another, we’re all gonna end up in the same place as the guys we’re burying here today."

"...Right."

"But tonight, dude. We need to bury these guys tonight. So, come fucking help."

"Eh... I just got my nails done."