Chapter 19: Chronoshift
Destro emerges from the tube.
He is large. Two meters tall, most of his rather substantial weight coming from his impressively well-sculpted muscles. Even without his individuality, his strength and resilience was impressive.
He is 56 years old. It starts to show. His black hair is partially graying out here and there, and is clearly receding from the front, leaving his forehead bigger than it used to be.
He is also intimidatingly naked, of course.
"Analyst, my boy, what a change in aesthetics!" Destro says, his voice as bellowing as ever. Revenant missed him, but, err, he isn't getting bear hugged by a man who is this … errr… unequipped. Instead, he just extends his hand, giving the supervillain clothes' back to him. "The black business suit? And so well tailored? I expected you to come in a T-Shirt to your own wedding!"
Destro is many things, but an idiot he is not. He is controlling himself properly, but it's clear that his mind is racing, trying to find an explanation for so many odd things. Such as Revenant clearly getting older despite his daughter being of the same age as he remembered her as. Or himself emerging naked from the odd tube in a completely unfamiliar place.
Whatever ideas come to his mind, none of them are optimistic. Yet, despite all of that, he has a role to play.
He was an actor. Training his charisma dutifully, as he planned to go into politics even while still at college. He also took some dramatic acting lessons when he decided to spice his political career with supervillainy.
"Well, to be honest with you, I considered that." Revenant replies, while scratching the side of his head. "I mean, despite Demagogue's utmost attempts, I just couldn't look well in a suit. But I got it under control."
"Glad to hear it!" Destro replies, his outfit already on. Gray business suit. His hair is a mix of black and gray if not downright white. Is it so hard to make it clear who was Revenant basing his villainous aesthetic on? "So… we died, didn't we? Me and Onslaught."
Of course he figured it out already. The whole place doesn't look like any place that's familiar to him. Some odd tube that he emerged from. People in front divided between those who weren't in New Liberty when his memories ended… and those that aged significantly.
And Humility, but the AI was another can of worms entirely.
"Yes." Revenant sees no reason to sugarcoat it. "The Government panicked that Archvile was going to win and tried to kill him… by dropping a nuke on New Liberty, where they hoped that he was at the time."
Something worrying flinched on Destro's face. Something that promised nasty things to the people responsible for it. Together with, probably, a lot of 'is X/Y or Z alright?' questions. The answer to the latter is going to be… complicated. The former is practically impossible, as not only did Revenant deal with most of them already, he is also not letting them come back.
He then moves over to the most important thing after making sure that nothing's going to explode in the next ~five seconds. Namely, he walks over to his daughter and locks her in a bear hug while apologizing to her that he let her be harmed. Onslaught hugs him back.
Revenant is actually slightly saddened on the inside. His relationship with his own father was… complicated, especially once Archvile got himself involved in their family life. And, see? Here it is. A truly nice family, having their nice family moment right in front of him.
Then Destro decides to remind him that he treated him as pretty much his son and pulls Revenant into the hug. Absolutely and completely against his will (although he doesn't fight it, it's not like he could win).
Ugh. This is going to get awkward very, very soon.
***
Proper meetings should be done while sharing a meal. That's what Destro seemed to believe in wholeheartedly his whole life. You could learn a lot about a person from seeing their choice of food, how they treated the waiters and even how they ate.
So, they moved the meeting to the same place as where they were hosting the party. Except this time, there was food rather than alcohol.
Destro is big. And eats quite big in return. To be honest, they were all rather hungry after the party, so…
On one side of the table, Destro and Onslaught (he isn't separating them so shortly after their reunion, even if they were separated for only a few days for her and probably minutes for him). On another, Revenant and Decay.
Humility, thankfully, left to make sure that Clockmaker doesn't blow anything up. This lets them be a bit more open about stuff without letting the AI learn too much out of it.
Revenant narrates the story. A very brief summary of the events after Destro's death. Including his change of a villain name. Destro doesn't say a lot, just asks some questions. Then a less brief summary of events that happened in the real world.
To be honest, Destro's ability to maintain a friendly smile no matter what happens is impressive. As expected from a politician of his caliber. But even he wavers for a moment after hearing that his whole word was a lie.
"Revy seems to have issues with getting over it." Onslaught comes to the rescue. "But I think that he's being a dumbass. Even if we were made that way, what does that change? We're already pretty much back together, because even if our love was fake, we are still the same people that we fell for." She sighs. "Talk some sense into him for me, daddy."
With how well Destro controlled himself, they'll never know if he had even a momentary episode of doubt towards his paternal feelings towards his daughter. The one that wasn't apparently his daughter just… an independent person that had being his daughter written into her character backstory.
Because then, he immediately snaps back into his doting father mode.
"What do you have to say about those accusations, son?" Destro then asks, glaring with a tiny bit of well-acted hostility towards Revenant.
"Okay, first off, I'm not your son." Revenant replies. "I'm not even technically engaged with your daughter anymore, although if she has anything to say about it, this won't last for long." Onslaught gives him a mischievous smile from the side. "Second of all, considering our world to be something that never happened makes things easier when you killed as many people as I did."
It came out a bit more bitter than he intended it to. But… to be honest, it's slightly easier that way. He can pretend that it wasn't all him. The old him didn't care, the new him that was reunited with Onslaught has…
…. issues with that.
"Well, my daughter dearest, I'm afraid that he has a point." He says as he lightly strokes her head. "We want him to get over that and be Analyst more than Revenant, are we? Wonderful choice of a villain name, by the way, intimidating and has a solid meaning behind it, one referencing your goal as a villain."
Ugh. He isn't having that talk with a guy who picked his villain name from old comics made to popularize a children toy line.
"Daddy!" Onslaught seems betrayed and pouts towards her father. "How could you do that to me?! I'm not talking to you anymore!"
Destro looks down at her, clearly weighing options in his mind, before deciding to go for it. New world, new him and so on, probably.
"Uhm, Onslaught?" She was very serious about being referred to with her villain name. Even by her family. It was better than 'being' her powerless civilian self, probably. "You do realize that I knew that you were acting, I've just pretended to fall for it because it made you happier?"
Onslaught, clearly enough, didn't. The discovery was a major shock to her, as it was to Revenant to a degree. He always found it a bit odd that Destro of all people fell for it, he did imagine that it was his Doting Father Mode interfering with his ability to think, but…
"So you knew that I was… err.. manipulating you, errr, a bit?" Onslaught is clearly shrinking a little. "Pretending to be an… errr… I think the right term is 'daddy's adorable little innocent angel'?"
"Yes." Destro replies. "But I said nothing mostly because I knew that you weren't doing it for any malevolent reasons, and actually thought that it was making me happier. A way of supporting me, too."
Fair. A large part of Onslaught's issues with her own 'uselessness' was that she couldn't help her beloved daddy in his work. She felt like a liability, and wanted to at least make him smile honestly as often as possible.
"Oh." Onslaught seems to have just lived through a major shocking revelation and was clearly not sure what to do about it. Then she makes a decision. "Looks like I won't have to tone it down with my public thirsting after Revenant's booty, then! Great!"
Revenant sighs, glances at the now frozen Destro, and then looks back at his girlfriend.
"Judging from the look on his face, your father knew about you playing him around with your smiles and by playing your disability card as often as possible…" He says. "... not about you being a big closet pervert, Oni."
"Well." She ends up shrinking again. "That's awkward."
At least she had enough self-restraint to not say anything more than the 'thirsting' part. That would be even more awkward. Then again, it's her father, supportive or not, speaking of stuff like that in front of him is… well, awkward as stated,
This word is being a tad bit overused right now. It's just that type of moment.
"Don't worry about it, Destro." Revenant decides to intervene. "This is more or less a minor thing, all things considered. She loves you, and that's what matters, yes? I mean, it's not easy being a single father, especially when you're also an SSS-Rank supervillain. I know something about it from experience. I didn't mention it earlier, but I, errr, I adopted a girl myself. And, well, she's an adorable angel." Her smile was one of the few things that could warm his heart even before Onslaught came back to life.
Despite continuously having pangs of guilt that he adopted her just to abandon her sooner or later, once death finally comes for him. He made some preparations to ensure that Decay and his wife would take care of her, but…
He looks forward to being able to interact with her without the guilt and self-doubt.
He smiles while thinking about it even now. Except, that's when Decay groans in the background, interrupting it. Revenant glances at him questioningly.
Destro is still processing the shocking twist. Oh, if only he knew how much of a pervert she actually was.
"Permission to speak." Decay replies dryly. "Since you forbid me from talking with Destro, despite allowing me to be here."
"For a good reason." Revenant replies. "You remember what happened when he decided to get to know you a little? You know, Onslaught's soon-to-be brother in law? And when I was stupid enough to not oversee it?"
"Hmm?" Destro wakes up a little. "What exactly happened? I don't remember anything weird about that family bonding event." Of course he doesn't consider it weird.
"Yes, it was perfectly fine." Revenant replies as dryly as possible. "Until I saw the transmissions from Washington D.C during the coup. You know, from that random camera, showing the confrontation between you and Invincible in front of the White House. The one where you stood there and told him, I quote: 'Oh, you're approaching me? Instead of running away, you're approaching me?'. Care to elaborate on the source of this quote?"
Decay, the unrepentant traitor, chuckles in the background. Even Onslaught had an impish grin on her face.
"Well, in my defense, Invincible bluescreened for maybe three seconds before responding with, and I quote, 'I can't beat the crap out of you without coming closer!'." Destro replies. And yes, this happened. On live television. Ugh. "Real man of culture, that one. You know that he almost slammed the Resolute Desk into me on instinct? After I punched him through the Oval Office, and he flew back while I charged so we met there? But I shouted that it's a cultural relic of the United States of America, so he apologized, put it down, left the room, then after maybe five seconds returned with another desk and hit me in the face with it. Big respect."
… no one ever mentioned that part to him. It wasn't recorded either. He isn't sure what opinion he should have about it. But somehow, it completely fits the description of a fight between those two America-loving himbos.
Destro probably played along because the assault on the White House was a diversion, supposed to occupy Invincible until Demagogue captures the Capitol and convinces the congressmen (with her charisma-enhancing individuality) to support the coup.
Officially, the coup would fail, the attackers repelled. Unofficially, the president would last only for a few more days, before the Congress would impeach him over letting the coup happen in the first place. The same would happen to the Vice President. And the third in line was the Speaker of the House… who at this point would be a supporter of the PLF.
Since the last elections happened recently, it meant at least three years of total control over the Government.
Regretfully, it didn't work.
"Yeah, I'm going to ignore that new intel, and focus on something more important." Revenant replies, before glancing at Decay. "I'm going to regret it most likely, but… what is it about?"
"Boss, I regret to inform you about that, but it really fits the theme of this family reunion thing." Decay says. "Chronoshift isn't an angel. She's a demon. She's been doing to you what Onslaught was doing to Destro the whole time. But to an even greater degree."
Revenant blinks at him.
"What are you talking about?" He then says.
"She got influenced by you and wants to be a supervillain like you when she grows up." Decay replies. "When she asked you to let her use her 'villain name' it wasn't her wanting to stick to the theme of the people around her. It's because according to the law she already is an E-Rank supervillain."
"She's twelve years old!" Revenant shoots back. What sort of slander is this? And it comes from Decay of all people?! "What sort of crimes could she commit?!"
"You want a list? Fine." Decay replies. "She organized a crime ring in her school, the one that's very strict about food available to the students, which smuggles in unhealthy food and sells it to less business savvy kids during the breaks."
Revenant blinks at him. It's… it's certainly bad, and he didn't expect her to do something like this behind his back, but… it's also not particularly criminal, nor is it supervillainous.
"That's not…"
"When her class president threatened to expose it to the teachers unless they straighten up their behavior, she had some delinquents from the local area intimidate him into silence, by offering to use her individuality to restore their cigarette butts back to their unburned state if they do so." Decay continues. "It worked, by the way. The class president actually started helping to cover up her behavior just to not become targeted again."
Revenant stares at him. Well, this was an act of villainy by law, since she used her individuality to do something criminal but… uhm. Chronoshift did it? His adorable daughter did it?! It couldn't be true, right?
"This gave her an idea on expanding her business." Decay continues on. "She organized a much bigger local crime ring that delivers thrown out electronic trash that she then restores with her individuality to sell on the internet. You had your henchmen escort her to and from school, so she sneaks out of the school during the break to do a mass restoration of everything that her own henchmen gathered. She also tasked a sixteen year old delinquent from a local high school with selling stuff for her and organizing the deliveries. At least partially because said person had a minor intelligence individuality, allowing her to name them her villain lieutenant and dragon. Goes by Plottwist, apparently."
Revenant's mouth opens wide, but no words leave it.
"She then discovered that there was a mostly buried and forgotten pre-Days of Fire landfill at the edge of the town." Decay continues. "So she had her henchmen dugout antique stuff from it to recover into a less destroyed state and then sell it. As the area was used by a group of delinquents of another high school as a place to hang out at and do drugs, it led to a minor gang war over the area, which continued until Chronoshift struck a deal with her opponents and made them a part of her operations. They were actually earning enough money to rent a small warehouse near the school so that they could restore more stuff at the same time and sell it more efficiently."
Revenant is now not just slackjawed, but is also growing increasingly pale.
"Also, she took advantage of Glassmaker dropping by your house, you know, the North American Empress of Crime herself, to come up to her and asked her how does one obtain drugs for sale, because she has an infrastructure for it and wants to 'diversify her income sources', a phrase she probably heard from you." Decay continues. "She also asked if having multiple people pursuing you romantically to do 'weird adult stuff' is normal for supervillains, probably out of seeing Hypothermia and Kitsune being big simps for you. Thankfully, Glassmaker thought that you were testing her somehow and told Chronoshift to come back and ask her again once she's older or ask her father. That's about the whole thing."
"That's…" Revenant blinks. Then he realizes something. "Wait. How do you know all of that?"
"Uhm." Now it's Decay that shrinks a little. "I mean, she found some antique videogames and computers with them installed in the landfill, and… some of them were actually incredibly unique! She got me a Nintendo NES console, do you have any idea how hard those are to be found nowadays?"
"She bribed you." Revenant stares at him with a righteous fury of a disappointed dad who just discovered that their underaged daughter almost became a head of a drug cartel because of her uncle being highly irresponsible. "She bribed you." He runs out of words to say aside from repeating the same phrase.
"Errr, yes." Decay admits. "But I also made sure that the police or heroes didn't discover them! Although, uhm, it turned out that she was only giving me half of the stuff, amassing the other half in case I needed to intervene in something and… I kind of ended up having to do it."
The stare he gets grows more hostile.
"Nothing super serious!" Decay freaks out. "I mean, some kid in her school said that her dad is a bad father by raising her up like that, so she… uhm… beat him up. Broken nose, three teeth out, bite marks on his shoulder, sprained ankle, some… errr… well, she hit him where it really hurt, too. The school wanted to see her parents over that, and she had me…. well…. She had me act in a way suggesting that she was a daughter of some Top Hero that I was standing in for the school visit due to their job, so that they would look at her behavior through the fingers. And, errr, it worked. That's all. I promise."
Revenant stares at him, then looks down at the table. A few seconds later he can feel a very large hand on his shoulder. He looks up to see Destro standing right next to him.
"Revenant, my boy, I understand what you're going through." He says with his well-trained smile. "Single fatherhood is just like that. Sometimes you discover that your twenty-one year old daughter knows what sex is. Sometimes you discover that your twelve years old daughter is a supervillain that was leading a minor gang war behind your back."
The realization still didn't fully settle in. Having those words spoken once is just another slap of existential dread into his face.
"But you have to think positively!" Destro then says. "Your daughter showed a true entrepreneurial spirit and leadership qualities, earning money through exploiting other people at such a young age! And while not only deftly dodging the abominable tyranny of taxes but also waging war upon those who dared to try to take her source of income away from her! So you didn't raise a criminal. Despite being a lone father in such straining circumstances, you've raised a girl that loves you enough to beat up people that badmouth you and is full of AMERICAN SPIRIT! You're a great father. And never forget it."
Revenant inhales loudly.
"Sometimes I can't tell if you love or hate America." He says to Destro, who lets his Political Smile warp into a mischievous smirk, one that he saw so often at Onslaught's face.
"Why not both?" Destro replies. Decay and his goddamn memes. "Anyways, are you good? It had to have quite an impact, I know from experience."
"Yes." Revenant nods. "I think I still need a moment to fully process it and I'm going to have a very serious talk with her once she's back alive, but… I'm alright for now. Yes." He is very much unsure of it, but…
The biggest issue is how out of place it felt in light of the story as a whole, with Chronoshift pulling this off right next to… well, her father. Did their story somehow swallow-in a fanfic? It really felt like someone's crack fanfic.
He wasn't sure how much he could trust his own intel if one or more fanfics were mashed into the whole thing.
"Well, one thing is certain." Onslaught grins at him from the other side of the table. "I absolutely love her! She's just straight up adorable! Do you think that she was practicing villain monologues before the mirrors when he wasn't looking?"
"Yes." Decay replies before Revenant can say that it's not possible. "My wife came upon it happening, once. Apparently took most of the lines from Sunday cartoons supervillains."
Onslaught squeals loudly with sheer joy. Revenant shivers once more at the realization of the true depth of his parenting failure.
"Oh, I love my soon-to-be daughter soooo much!" Onslaught then adds. "Daddy, your granddaughter is awesome!"
Destro seems to have just been emotionally floored by realization that he kind of has a granddaughter now (not yet in Revenant's opinion, but it's not like they care about it), and that she was basically a younger version of Onslaught.
The horror. Or, joy. Depending on whom you ask.
Destro sits back on his seat, clearly busy trying to process the revelation. Revenant is also busy trying to process the revelations. Decay would have made a reference to the ancient meme about two spidermen pointing at each other, but he fears that Revenant would find a way to throw him out of the window despite the clear lack of those in the vicinity.
"Alright." Revenant recovers first. "I think that before this meeting ends, we've got to establish some framework concerning our future work relationship. Because the last time we've talked with each other, I was something close to your personal assistant as the head of the People's Liberation Front. But you missed the rather significant amount of time when the entirety of the People's Liberation Front was merely one of the member groups of the Villain Alliance of America. Demagogue was one of my executives, just as she used to be one of yours."
Destro sighs while leaning back in his seat.
"Wanting to avoid organizational friction, logical." He admits. "I do admit that seeing you order people around is… strange. The concept of me working for you is even stranger. Then again… I missed several years of developments, and having me updated to them is going to take a while. Besides, I assume that you're planning to resurrect not just former PLF guys but also those from other suborganizations of the VAA?"
"Yes." Revenant admits. "Individualities are quirky things, each of them a unique asset that we're going to need. Aside from people that I hate way too much or I know that they cannot be controlled, like Archvile or Jormungandr, I intend to bring them all back. Heroes too, if I can make sure they won't try to do anything funny."
"Well, I guess that I'm going to have to embrace the weirdness of following your orders, then." Destro (slightly) surprises him. "PLF members might choose loyalty to me over you, but the other groups won't do that. And you're right that we're going to need everyone we can. Even the people that I'd prefer shot to death. What do you want me to do?"
"I need someone to deal with the civilians." Revenant replies. "Those we've already encountered, and any potential future encounters. You'll probably end up having to be updated by Humility about the present international laws, cultural things and so on. Pretend to be the head of the PR department of our 'mercenary unit'."
"Makes sense." Destro nods. "I can do that, no problem. I also double as a melee combatant, right? Analyst would have summoned me early, but I have a feeling that Revenant would take the more logical choice and pick Demagogue if he only needed a politician."
"Yeah, we really need to muscle-up." Revenant admits. Destro grins lightly. Is it over the semi-accidental pun about muscles? "The next person we'll bring is going to be Hypothermia, for the same reason. Then probably Overhaul for healing, resurrections and general medical care. From then on, we'll probably have enough of a core group to risk summoning a handful of people whose loyalty is a bit less… solid, but whose individualities we truly need."
For now he ignores the look on Onslaught's face when she hears of Hypothermia being brought back to life. It was going to be… emotional. Both loudly and quietly. And, once again, he was going to be dragged into it, despite having no idea how to deal with any of that himself.
Goddamnit, his emotional side is a mess. He is really out of his depth whenever he can't rely on his rational side instead.
"All while being on the lookout for potential signs of whatever hypothetical threat they might be, based on your suspicions about the Presidential Guard." Destro adds. "Which is based mostly on conjectures that I would most likely ignore if it wasn't coming from a person whose judgment I value greatly."
"Yes." Revenant nods. "That's the plan for now, yes. We need to reinforce this position, get some additional firepower, make sure nothing surprises us and then start trying to map out the local area, if only to find out if there is any way up. Hopefully before the Truthseekers or the Transhuman Alliance realize that we're here."
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