"See you later, Marko," Kevin said and left.
Marko stood in the University's front yard, watching Kevin's receding back, feeling a mixture of pride and betrayal.
"What happened?" A sudden voice came behind him.
"FUCK!" Marko jumped in shock. He turned around and saw Felicia appear behind him without a sound.
"Can you please stop doing that?" Marko pleaded with a hand on his chest. "Someday, you might give me a heart attack."
Felicia ignored his antics and instead asked, "What did Kevin say that you look like someone who got a wedgie but is still forced to say, 'It feels good'?"
"Nothing, he is just going to Peter's house for dinner," Marko said, looking upset.
"Dinner at Peter's, huh?" Felicia said with narrowed eyes. "I wonder when they became such good friends."
"He is not going to have dinner with Peter but his aun—," Marko replied absentmindedly, but he suddenly stopped himself as he looked at Felicia's cold face. He knew he stepped on a landmine.
Felicia's eyes narrowed even further. Marko took a step back in fear, thinking she might just pounce on him.
"Explain," Felicia said in a menacing voice.
Marko was about to do as he was told, but who knew from where he suddenly grew a bit more backbone. He thought that it was wrong for Felicia to ask about Kevin's personal life, and he should give her a piece of his mind.
"Felicia," Marko started hesitantly, "Don't you think you are behaving like a crazy stalker?"
As Marko said, he suddenly felt proud of himself, finally finding the guts to stand up to his oppressor. Even when he stood up to Vince, he didn't feel so proud. He thought he was doing Felicia a favour by making her realise that her behaviour is toxic and unethical.
Marko looked at Felicia expectantly. Somewhere in his brain, he actually expected gratitude. Applause. Maybe even a 'thank you for helping me grow as a person.' He even started rehearsing a speech about how magnanimous he was, which he would say after she thanked him.
…He was a fool.
"What did you say?" Felicia asked in a low voice. The voice was so cold it seemed to come from the very depths of an abyss.
Marko felt a chill run up his spine. The bravado went up in smoke.
"I, uh, I, I, uh," Marko stuttered, trying to make a coherent word. "N-no, no, I-I didn't say that to you. I was, uh, sleepwalking. Yeah, sleepwalking. That was some gi-gibberish I said in my sleep. H-how can I say something like that to you?"
Cold sweat covered Mark's face as he looked at Felicia in terror.
Felicia looked at him deeply. Then, finally, she just said one word, "Speak."
Marko looked like a death row prisoner granted amnesty.
Marko didn't say anything irrelevant after that that might lead him to go home with a black eye, a broken tooth, or both.
Marko's expression returned to the initial pride and upset he was feeling before Felicia scared him.
"Kevin has been going to Peter's house for dinner for the past three weeks regularly, once a week." Marko then looked at Felicia's darkening eyes and added with hesitation, "Peter only joined them for dinner for the first time, for only a few minutes, then he left for something important. From then on, Kevin and May were the only ones present at the dinner."
That was also why Marko felt those mixed emotions. On the one hand, he was proud of his friend for going after a fine milf, but on the other hand, he was upset that Kevin hadn't told him about the dinner dates beforehand. Only today did Kevin say anything to him about it.
SNAP
Marko was surprised when he heard a sharp snap. He followed the sound and saw that Felicia had snapped the pen in her hand in two pieces.
As Marko looked up at Felicia's face, terror filled his heart as he cursed Kevin and all his past generations for making him deal with an angry lioness.
…
Another part of the city:
Frances was patrolling her turf. Together with her were three more of her subordinates. One was Mike, her first lieutenant and the leader of the gang she had taken over by force, who walked to her right. The other two were new faces—a guy in his early twenties and a girl in her late teens, who walked to her left.
"Boss, all the business owners in our new territory are informed of the change in regime and the new protection prices," the girl walking half a step behind Frances said with respect. She looked like a secretary following a CEO.
"Good job, Lucia," Frances nodded. Lucia almost beamed—then forced her face back into professional calm.
"Did anyone make a scene?" Frances asked casually. She didn't really care even if anyone did. There were always some hard-headed idiots. But they would always listen after a perfect dose of threat and violence.
"The liquor store owner refused." Lucia's smile sharpened. "So I sent Daniel to explain things. He agreed very quickly."
Frances glanced back. Daniel gave a respectful nod. Frances nodded slightly and kept walking.
Lucia discreetly looked towards her brother and winked at him, who gave her a stern look in return. Lucia stuck out her tongue and looked back to the front. Her face immediately changed to the serious secretary mode.
Lucia and Daniel were siblings who joined their gang after Frances took over their second street. Daniel had been part of the gang that once ruled the street, but had no loyalty and was just there to make ends meet. Instead, hatred would be the right word.
The gang leader used to hit on Lucia, but she always ignored him, which, as expected, constantly bruised his fragile ego. He wanted to use his position as the gang leader to force himself on her, but held back because of Daniel, his best fighter. He knew if he offended Daniel, he might not only lose the siblings but might end up dead, too. Being afraid of his subordinate, of course, damaged his already fragile ego even more.
The constant rejections finally wore the leader's patience down, and in the end, he ordered the rest of the gang, who were loyal to him, to hold back Daniel so that he would have his way with Lucia in front of Daniel and then kill both.
The plan succeeded: Daniel was captured by the rest of the gang; he fought back but was caught by surprise and overwhelmed, and the leader had cornered Lucia.
Everything was going to plan, it's just that he had never expected that the owner of the street adjacent to his, who had just recently taken control, would so soon and so suddenly target a new one and attack their crib.
Frances easily defeated those gang members, and when she saw the state of Lucia and Daniel, she killed all those gang members in cold blood.
That's when Lucia got her idol, and both siblings joined Frances's gangs.
Lucia and Daniel's family was poor, but still held on. Daniel, from a young age, was aggressive and was punished many times for fighting in school. Most of the time, it was to fight bullies who bullied the siblings.
The siblings lost their parents when Daniel was in his senior year in high school. Daniel refused to be separated from his sister in different foster homes, so he never contacted the relevant authorities. Moreover, their neighbours in the poor neighbourhood didn't bother to do that either.
Daniel decided to take care of his sister himself, dropped out of school, and picked up odd jobs so his two-year-younger sister could finish school. But a high school dropout had few prospects. He slowly got entangled with local gangs, working as their hired muscle.
Lucia was always the smarter one. She knew about her brother's sacrifices, so she never complained about anything and finished high school. But gave up any further education to help her brother and took a job as a cashier in a convenience store.
When the siblings joined Frances's gang, Lucia had a feeling it was bound to grow big. She adored Frances. She felt she got her female idol, a successful female leader. She refused to stay a nameless grunt and wanted both siblings to climb the gang hierarchy early when the gang was still small.
Lucia knew she was actually useless in the gang. She knew that Frances had let her into the gang partly for Daniel and partly out of pity. But she refused to let that hold her back. She observed the gang and realized that while Frances was like a battlefield general, conquering territory after territory, she was not good with logistics.
Frances could fight thugs, she could conquer turfs, she could intimidate headstrong business owners who refused to pay protection money to some upstarts, but she didn't bother with paperwork; she didn't care who owned, how much they owned, when they should pay, and was happy to let the subordinates take care of that. That could continue for the short term, but in the long term, it would cause problems.
Of course, no other gang member, including her, had the guts to say that to Frances's face.
Lucia understood at that point what she could do to improve her standing in Frances's eyes.
She wrote everything down, organized it, mapped the turf, tracked payments, owners, problems, and assets. Then she handed it all to Frances.
Frances had flipped through the file once and had said, "You're in charge of this now."
And just like that, Lucia became Frances's unofficial secretary—by being the only one in the gang smart enough, and brave enough, to do the job.
Mike's jaw tightened when he heard the exchange between Frances and Lucia. He knew what Lucia was doing, and that rang alarm bells in his head.
'She is promoting her brother,' Mike thought grimly.
Mike felt he was slowly losing power in the gang. His only advantage was that he was one of the first members of the gang and had been made lieutenant directly, but he knew he could take advantage of it for only so long.
He considered himself Frances's right hand, but with the sudden presence of Lucia, he felt that position was in danger.
He knew that Lucia wanted her brother to rise to become another lieutenant. For that, whenever there was any need for a gang member for some gang work, she always at least took her brother's help to help him pile up achievements. Not only that: when they had attacked the third street, Daniel had fought the fiercest after Frances. That left another positive impression of him in Frances's mind.
Mike was thinking about ways to solidify his position, but when he heard what Lucia said next, he nearly popped a vein.
"Um, boss?" Lucia said hesitantly.
"Hmm?"
"Um, I have a friend," Lucia proceeded carefully. "She is your fan and wants to join our gang. Can she join?" Then she hurriedly continued, "I promise she will not be a deadweight."
"I will decide after meeting her," Frances said, her tone non-committal. Sure, she wanted more members for her gang, but she couldn't let just anyone join it.
But Lucia was already satisfied with that. "Thank you, boss," she said with a bright smile.
Mike felt his blood pressure rising. 'The gang has just started rising, and this bitch has already started creating her faction.'
Mike also had his subordinates in the gang, but he knew they were too unreliable. Many of them, even if they had initially accepted Frances's leadership, still resented being a woman's subordinate.
Only with the recent wins had his subordinates begun to respect Frances more. But none of them thought long-term; they were happy with the status quo. He couldn't depend on them to help him grow his position in Frances's eyes.
'Not to mention there is still one of them who is still resentful for being ordered by a mutant,' Mike thought, his expression dark.
Mike knew he had to do something. But first, he needed better subordinates.
Just like Lucia, Mike walked half a step behind Frances. He looked at her as she walked on the other side of Frances. Lucia felt his gaze and looked back at him.
They looked at each other with an emotionless gaze.
Sparks of rivalry flew between their eyes.
The group kept moving and soon came across a convenience store. It was on the third street they had conquered, and both Lucia and her friend worked there.
Through the glass doors, they saw a few hooligans who ganged up on a staff member and were harassing her.
"That's Mary," Lucia said with worry. "She's in danger."
Frances had already increased her speed as she moved towards the store; the others also hurried after her. Her grip tightened on the baseball bat as she looked at the idiots with brains filled with water who dared to harass someone in her turf. She had replaced the stick with a baseball bat, thinking it felt better to hit someone with a bat than with a stick.
"Boss, she is the one I mentioned," Lucia added as they reached the door.
Frances didn't bother replying. She opened the door and entered the store. Her subordinates followed behind.
Frances was about to start smashing their bones, but stopped. She thought it was a perfect opportunity to try something she had thought about before.
"LET HER GO!"
Frances shouted. But it was no ordinary shout. She had used her powers, and instead of just screaming, she infused her shout with extra impact.
The result was obvious. The shout disoriented them. They clutched their ears.
Frances was about to beat them up, but stopped as she noticed something. Their eyes showed intense fear. It was not the generic fear of a human facing a mutant. The fear felt different. It was primal. Their limbs trembled as their legs gave way, and they knelt helplessly.
"No, stay away from me!"
"Please… someone help…"
"No… no more… I can't…"
"I'm sorry! Whatever I did, I'm sorry!"
"Please—don't punish me—I won't do it again!"
Frances looked bewildered at the group with their faces covered in tears and snot. She had no idea of what was happening.
'This is new.'
But she soon got her answers.
Congratulations!
You have awakened the power, Emotion Inducement!
Frances had awakened another of her mutant powers.
'Hehe, boss gave me a new power. He must be delighted with me,' Frances thought excitedly, but kept a straight face outward. Her heart was fluttering in her chest.
On the other hand, her subordinates looked at her with even more awe.
Mike clenched his fists. He was even more determined to maintain his position and prove his worth to Frances.
The hooligans were defeated before the fight even started. But then everyone realized Mary was standing near the hooligans and had been caught up in the attack.
Lucia looked at her best friend and found that she had already fainted in fright. She gasped, rushing to her friend.
Frances thought it was a pity, but didn't care much. For her, her boss had bestowed on her a new power, so she was going to celebrate and didn't care if the girl would develop some kind of trauma.
'Weaklings break. That's life.'
But because Lucia had recommended her, she added, almost as an afterthought:
"If she can recover within a week and still wants to join the gang, she can ask me."
Translation: If she survives her trauma and still wants in, she's got guts.
Frances turned on her heel. "Finish the patrol yourselves."
…
— Kevin —
It was already evening when I arrived at May's house after completing a few fares and attending the dojo.
I rang the bell at 6:57. Three minutes early. It was about maintaining a balance between respect and not seeming desperate.
The door opened, and May appeared dressed in a soft blue sweater.
"Kevin!" May exclaimed cheerfully upon seeing that it was me at the door. "Right on time, as always."
"How can I afford to keep a beautiful woman waiting?" I joked with a smile.
Oh, stop it," May laughed, swatting the air. "You always tease this old woman."
May gave me a light, friendly hug, and I returned it. Then she stepped aside to let me in. I passed by her, maintaining a respectful distance.
"I am telling the truth," I said on my way inside.
May just smiled and shook her head. "Enough jokes, young man, go wash your hands, I have made lasagna."
I did as I was told. After drying my hands with a nearby towel, I went back into the kitchen and helped May set the table.
At the first dinner, I had offered to help her set the table. But May was against it, saying that I was a guest and I should just sit comfortably at the dining table.
I remained adamant in my request, and in the end, she finally relented. From then on, it had been my job to set up the table.
By the time I was done, May brought two plates with lasagna and placed them on the table. My portion was clearly bigger. I got the big bowl of green salad from the kitchen and put it in the middle of the table.
We sat facing each other. After repeating the same thing three times already, we had already settled into a rhythm. So everything felt easy and not forced.
"It looks amazing, May," I praised her without holding back. "Peter is so lucky to have such a caring aunt."
"Thanks, Kevin," May blushed slightly. "It's been a while since I made lasagna. I got a good deal in the supermarket for the ingredients, so I thought, Why not?"
I smiled, picked up the spoon in the salad bowl, and first served May. "Thanks, Kevin."
Then, I put a considerable portion on my plate.
"I always thought kids didn't like their veggies," May joked. She was now used to me eating a large amount of salad.
"I am not a kid, May," I laughed. "Moreover, I respect both meat and veggies."
We both laughed, then we started eating in comfortable silence.
After a few minutes, I decided to break the silence.
"Will Peter be joining us for dinner?" I asked casually.
"No, he texted ten minutes ago. Something about Mr. Jameson needing a few more shots of Spider-Man," May said, looking worried. "Why does he have to do such a dangerous part-time job? I have seen him hurt more than once, no matter how good he tried to hide it."
Then, the worry morphed into anger, "And that man, Jameson. Does he even know what work-life balance means? Making my poor boy work to the bone for such meager pay."
I didn't interrupt her as I let the worried aunt let out her frustrations. Like a good listener, I listened quietly while nodding occasionally in between.
May continued talking about how Jameson was an evil boss who didn't care about his employees' well-being and always exploited her poor nephew. Or how Peter missed dinner almost every day, often eating late into the night.
Her voice contained anger and worry.
"I don't understand," May said, looking frustrated. "Can't he take a regular job? Like a retail job at a store, a librarian, or maybe at a community centre."
"I think lab work is dangerous, but I feel even a job as a lab assistant is better than what he is doing right now. And I know he loves science."
The rant continued as we ate our dinner, lasting until we finished.
Only after we finished eating did May realize she had been talking nonstop throughout dinner. Her eyes widened slightly in realization, and she immediately quieted down.
"I am sorry, Kevin," May apologized immediately, feeling remorseful. "I didn't want to bore you with my ramblings. I am sorry for ruining your dinner. You must think I am some old fool talking about useless things."
"What are you saying, May?" I continued with conviction, "You didn't bore me. Rather, I feel honored that you shared your feelings with me."
"You are not some old fool. You are a great aunt. A great parent. And a great woman. No, instead, I feel proud to be acquainted with you, and I am sure Peter must be proud of you as well."
I gently placed my hand on her hand. "Please never consider yourself less."
I conveniently ignored the slight flush on her cheeks and then removed my hand.
"Thanks, Kevin," May said sincerely, with faint tears in her eyes.
I helped her with the dishes, then we sat together and had a small scoop of ice cream each. The conversation after that was light and generic.
Finally, it was time to leave.
"Text me when you reach home." May's voice came from behind.
"I will," I agreed and left.
I had just sat in my taxi when my phone started ringing.
I smiled, looking at the caller's name.
*********************
Discord: https://discord.gg/qSpYWXu2