May 9th 2107 12:17 am

For the Lord God hath abandoned us,

and the Angel of Death has arrived to cast judgment upon them

In the fields of Iowa, the wind swept across the grass like it always had before a dark mist appeared from nowhere. From the dark mist, three men came out of it, wearing the same outfit; An advanced 22nd century set of military armor that covered them head to toe. The armor was slick, jet black, and the helmet had a visor that blocked their faces but allowed them to see.

If someone was none the wiser, they would be mistaken for aliens sent from another world to destroy humanity. The leader stood before the others, gazing down from a hill at Fort Eisenhower, the country's biggest military base. Roughly a two hour drive from Omaha, and Cedar Rapids. It was the size of a small city, where the military developed and tested numerous new weapons.

Their leader took out a pair of binoculars and scouted the base from the vantage point, aided by the lights of the fort, until he found the central operations hub, a four-story dark gray concrete structure.

Once he spotted it, he pointed it out and ordered his subordinate to create another dark mist to teleport them, but the other of the three interrupted the leader.

“Jean, are you absolutely sure you want to proceed? There is no turning back after this.”

“Markus I’ve explained the plan before, we’ll get in and out of a trace with Andrew’s power and everything will be fine.” Jean took off his helmet for a moment and gave him a reassuring look “I’m not the reckless type, especially under the pressure I’m in right now.”

He put on his helmet and motioned for Andrew to create his mist again, and they stepped in and out of it on a rooftop adjacent to the central operations hub. Soon after they exited the mist, the sound of alarms going off pierced their ears . The intercom blared out their presence and location as they walked to the edge of the roof, being met with the sight of a few guards pointing their rifles at them.

“Hands up in the air and identify yourself!” One of the soldiers said.

Jean raised his left hand and through his own genetic ability, set it on fire; Only it was not regular fire but was black in color with strands of white mixed in. When the soldiers realized what was going on, it was too late to fire back as he incinerated them to little more than charred flesh and bones.

They dropped down and walked over the remains of the dead soldiers and towards the building, butchering anyone who dared get in their way.

They reached the outside of the operations hub but before they could enter the building, Jean was ambushed by a woman who blasted him with ice to which he effortlessly dodged. The woman in question was a specialized superpowered soldier or informally a ‘hero’, trained specifically to fight in a war.

“So the dogs of the government have finally shown up,” he said.

The three got into defensive positions as they were encircled by a group of 12 heroes . They all wore a standardized military outfit that was an elastic military camouflage suit with the torso being covered by layers of thin fabric designed to protect against bullets and stab wounds.

They began channeling their various powers such as fire, lightning, earth, metal bending, etc.

Andrew pulled out two curved swords from sheathes he had attached to his back while Markus formed throwing knives that he held in the spaces in between his fingers

“Damn idiots think they stand a chance, should have brought at least 100 of them, then maybe we’d be in trouble !” Andrew said.

“Keep your arrogance in check and follow my orders.”

“Ah the way you speak to us like you're 50.”

“Strike to kill!” Jean said, before manifesting a saber made out of blackflame in his left arm.

They all charged at the encirclement, with Jean grabbing the arm of the woman who attacked him and cutting it off before stabbing her through the head. He then turned and incinerated several more heroes.

Andrew teleported behind a hero and sliced off his head, doing the same to several others.

Markus threw his knives and pierced the skulls, hearts and throats of his targets. One of them was still alive and charged at him, lighting in her hand. Markus then clapped his hands together and formed a long, and sharp iron spear before using it to impale her..

The three of them stood there, the putrid smell of the corpses they had just made infesting the air. Jean motioned for them to move inside the building, kicking down the glass door and annihilating any man or woman that stood in their way, eventually reaching the room they were seeking.

It was a large room containing dozens upon dozens of servers locked away in glass crates. At the end was a man who was using the central computer in that room. Andrew teleported behind him and knocked him to the ground. He then pulled out a USB and plugged it in.

“Get the weapons schematics and classified intel.”

“I know alright.” Andrew said, using the navigate through the central computer. “Damn OS is confusing as all hell, get ready to defend me, we might be here for some time.

Soon after, the man he had just knocked to the floor began laughing.

“The hell are you laughing for?” Andrew asked.

“ I transferred 90% of this base’s data and files to dozens of other bases across the country. Most of the shit still in there is absolutely worthless to you. ”

The three went silent as the man just kept laughing. Andrew pulled out one of his sabers, before Jean grabbed his arm and stopped him from killing the worker.

“Killing him serves no point, just finish downloading the data and leave. Perhaps there will be something of worth he didn’t transfer.”

Andrew sheathed his sword but not before kicking the guy in the stomach. He then pulled out the USB after it was finished downloading the remaining data.

“Come, let’s go, we're finished here.” Jean said.

The three came together and Andrew enveloped them in a mist, teleporting them far away from Eisenhower.

6 hours later

It was a foggy morning and Jean was standing on the roof of a building on the outskirts of New Orleans. He was dressed in casual clothing and his face was an exhausted mess from the lack of sleep he got. His phone started ringing and he picked up to see it was Andrew calling.

“The analysis came back on the files we retrieved from Eisenhower.”

“Anything useful?” Jean said.

“Nothing we wanted.”

“What?!” He said, a clear horror in his voice.

“Relax, it isn't only bad news, he also found something that he said might catch your attention, take a look.”

Andrew sent a message to him which he read, it was around a few files out of the couple thousands they had managed to retrieve from Eisenhower. Upon reading the contents, his horrified expression quickly changed to a smile.

“So God has given us something far more valuable than a weapon.”

“I agree but we can’t do anything with this now, the masses will never believe us. ”

“Give me a few months' time, and I promise you, I'll bring this country to its knees.”

Chapter 1:

The Son of the Shadows

May 14th 2107

He was sitting alone at a table in the school cafeteria, trying to enjoy his homemade sandwich when he was pushed off.

Landing on his ass and wincing in pain, he said. “The hell did you do that for, Micah?!”

Micah was a tall, light brown skinned kid with curly black hair and dark brown eyes. He was not really athletic but nonetheless popular and had tormented him, Gabriel LeFatome, ever since Freshman year and continued to do so even though they graduated in a month.

“Sorry, apparently they took my regular table for some stupid function so I’m just borrowing yours for me and my friends.”

Behind him was his dumb blonde girlfriend, the 4th he had this year, and his somehow stupider friends who all gave Gabriel scornful and jeering looks.

He got up, every part of him wanting to take this prick’s face and smash against a wall until it was little more than an unrecognizable pile of twisted bones and flesh but instead he quickly packed up his lunch and left the table. After all, Micah’s daddy was the superintendent so he was basically crown prince of this shithole he called school. He left the cafeteria, hearing the jeers and giggles of on looking spectators from around the room.

School passed and he took part in the evermore so boring and robotic lessons from his uninterested and uncaring teachers until 3:00 hit and it was time to leave. He walked out of the glass buildings, the weather outside being foggy and depressing. Before he left, he spotted Sarah.

To him, she was Miss Universe with her gorgeous brown wavy hair, clean and fair skin, and light blue eyes. Prom was next week and to his knowledge, she was with no one so he mustered up the courage and asked her to it. What followed was her hysterical laughing that caught the eyes of everyone leaving and gave him the message of ‘Get the hell away from me loser.’

He just got in his black sedan and had work to do as a waiter so he left for it. After around 30 minutes of moving through busy New Orleans traffic when he got to the restaurant. It was an Italian restaurant with soft vintage lighting and large circular tables with flowered cloth. He got changed in the restroom and spent the next two hours serving mostly impatient, uncaring, and rude customers. After he was done, he was asked by his boss, Tony Ayers, to come and take a seat in his office.

As soon as he took a seat in a wooden chair, he was told “Gabe, I’m letting you go.”

“What the-why?”

“Well it’s nothing to do with your performance, you’ve been an excellent worker and member of our team. It’s just, how do I put this? Well I found someone with superspeed, would be amazing at servicing waiters.”

Gabriel was left stunned and speechless before violent rage began building in his body.

“It’s nothing personal . Just know today is your last day working for me and I already sent a check for the last two weeks of work to your home.”

As he went to leave, Ayers said “Oh by the way, keep the outfit.”

He turned around, only giving him a neutral, blank expression, burying his intense desire to set the restaurant ablaze. He simply walked out the door, changed out of his work clothes, and began to walk to his car, his body pulsating the entire while.

“You’re lucky I didn’t break your jaw.” he muttered under his breath as he walked down the streets to where his car was.

As he was walking down the streets, he noticed a group of men with signs across the street from where he was standing in front of various shops and businesses.

They were of different races and all of them looked disheveled, and dirty with the signs they carried reading ‘Construction worker out of a job, will work for food.’ or something along the lines of ‘I have a family, I will do any job .’. He very quickly figured out what happened to them as it was the exact same thing that he just went through.

The folks over at Baton Rouge have loosened hiring laws recently forbidding favoritism of the superpowered ; wasn’t fair to deny people born with those abilities the right to use them they said.

It was awesome until employers realized that with people who could construct entire buildings in a few minutes around, who the hell needed those useless construction workers? or electricians, or accountants, or even regular waiters? Of course, not everyone had the misfortune of losing their livelihoods, some just had to downgrade to working for shanty town pay just to compete with those who could do what they did 1,000’s of times faster , until their bosses got rich enough to hire superpowered replacements.

Gabriel imagined being among those men, begging like a stray dog to a society that could give less than two shits about them, begging like a pathetic puppy with no teeth.

“Damn idiots, don’t they realize that this pointless? We lost the game the moment we were conceived.” He thought.

He just kept walking to his Sedan and came back to his home in eastern Metairie. His house was a nice large suburban home with the walls painted white, and the grass green and the roof gray. When he came back, he noticed the Gray SUV of his soon to be brother-in-law Derrick, and his older sister Cassandra.

“Right, they said they would be visiting from NOAH.”.

He parked in his driving lot and was about to go inside until he remembered what his boss said and went to mail where he took out the aforementioned check and held it in his hands. The check felt like being handed a participation trophy while bearing witness to a winner getting a crowd of adoring fans to carry him on high while they parade their golden trophy. He tore it to pieces before louding yelling, cursing, and stomping on the torn pieces. He kept doing so until his younger sister, the long black wavy haired and blue eyed Caroline , rushed out the door and called out his name, obviously startled by what her brother had done. He stopped what he was doing and picked up the pieces of paper and simply walked.

“Gabriel, what was that about?” She said.

He ignored her questions, too embarrassed to answer as he stepped on the dark hardwood floor of the house. On his right was his family dining room where he, his two sisters, and his mother would eat the nights they were all together. On the left was the living room where Cassandra, a blue eyed wavy haired brunette, and Derrick, a blond with blue eyes, sat on the beige sofa. In front was the staircase to the second floor. He just walked up the wooden stairs of the house, ignoring any further questioning from his sisters and Derrick about what had happened, and just went to his room.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

His room was a relatively large bedroom that was neat and tidy with a made bed at the bottom right corner, and no clothes laying on the floor. The window blinds were open exposing the light from outside coming down on Gabriel’s room. On the left near the entrance to his room was a bookshelf containing a bunch of old manga like Chainsaw man, Attack on Titan, Bleach, etc from a century ago. He just laid down on his bed and took a nap for a couple of hours.

“Gabe! get your ass down here, me and Derrick cooked dinner and Mom’s coming home soon.” Cassandra said.

He groaned and got up to go get freshen up in his bathroom. Before he went into the bathroom, he briefly looked at a family portrait hung up on the wall. It was taken on the beach ten years ago and their mom, a blue eyed brunette like Cassandra, was holding the five year old Caroline in her arms. Meanwhile an eight year old Gabriel, smiling brighter than he had in years, and a 12 year old Cassandra stood underneath their dad, Lionel. He was around 5’11 with black hair, and light brown eyes that looked crimson often. He had his father's eyes, unworthy of it as he was, alongside his mother's hair color. It was the last portrait they took of their family before their father was killed in the line of duty as a hero.

Both of his parents were heroes but not just any heroes, no they were the LeFatomes. His dad was the Nightlance, someone who could manipulate the shadows around him to defeat his enemies, and his mother, Maria, the Lighting Valkyrie, was the most powerful lighting hero in the country. His grandfather too was a famous hero who sired the legendary LeFatome family and so was his paternal aunt and her husband as well. Cassandra inherited a combination of both of their parents' powers and was an absolute generational prodigy set to marry another prodigy, Derrick. Caroline inherited purely their father’s power. And there was him, the child who was powerless, the child who was held to a standard that he could never have even come close to meeting since the day he was born, the absolute failure and embarrassment of the family.

He went to the bathroom and attempted to freshen up by cleaning his mouth, combing his untidy hair, and washing his sunken low energy face. He spent ten minutes freshening up yet and managed to look somewhat presentable though the look of defeat was still present on his face.

He went downstairs and saw that his sisters and Derrick were eating dinner and gave him a seat with a plate of food, and they saved a seat and plate for their mother when she would come back from work soon.

“We made Spaghetti Bolognese.” Cassandra said, a smile on her face.

Gabriel formed a small smile upon hearing that. That meal, especially the way their mom made it, was the family's favorite food so he sat down and began digging in, the brief bites and swallowing being the only joy he felt the entire day.

“So Gabe, is there anything you want to talk about?” Caroline said, sitting opposite of where Cassandra was.

Any joy Gabriel felt was immediately crushed upon that question which caused to reflect on the day's events. The entire table looked at him with concerned looks on their faces, waiting for him to give any kind of answer. He hesitated to even utter a word about what happened today, but the awkwardness of the long silence forced him to speak.

“Yeah yeah I’m fine alright it’s just I didn't have the best day that’s all. Just a boring day at school and a tedious shift at work.”

“And that’s why you ripped up your income check?”

Gabriel went red as he stammered in his mind to think of something to say.

There was another long awkward moment as a silence came upon them before Gabriel abruptly segwayed to a mundane topic. They talked for some time, the awkwardness still lingering like a faint sickness. . He had gotten good at hiding what he was truly feeling, always brushing off every slight against him with some lighthearted comedy and just deflecting to another question. Outside of close family, most people presumptions about Gabriel would be that he was a cheerful fellow.

Their conversation was interrupted by the ringing of the door. Cassandra went to get it and greeted their mom. Their mom, greeting her children and Derrick on the way, went upstairs to change into a home attire which was blue jeans and a black shirt. After which she joined the conversation sitting across from Gabriel at the other end of the dinner table. To her right was where their dad would sit when he was still with them.

“So what were you all talking about?”

“Nothing in particular, just dancing from topic to topic.”

Their mom began eating her meal. Cassandra, this is really good.

“Well it should be. After all, you taught me how to cook.”

“Good point but I’m just glad I can eat a nice meal after the nightmare at work. Working with Curtis on the Eisenhower case is really dragging my brain across concrete.”

“So are you close to figuring out who those terrorists that attacked the base are? The government has been really quiet on details about the attack.” Gabriel asked.

“ I can’t divulge anything about that . All I will say is that these bastards are a particularly tricky bunch to track and find anything about. It was like three phantoms attacked Eisenhower.”

“What do you mean by phantoms?” Gabriel said.

“Like I said, highly classified so I can’t say a word.”

“You want to know who I think it is? It has to be Brazil! Think about it, they must want revenge after over 25 years!” Caroline said.

“Are you an idiot ? Brazil is one of America's closest allies. Take a geopolitics class!” Cassandra said.

“Enough the both of you, no politics over the dinner table. Besides I would rather talk about something else other than what’s been the obsession of the news for the last few weeks. Say, the both of you, do you have detailed plans for your wedding?”

“Well we haven’t planned but we have a couple of ideas.” Derrick said.

Cassandra, as if on cue, went on a long tirade about how she imagined her wedding would go. For Gabriel, he hadn’t gotten used to this person, all girly and feminine. She could’ve been confused for his older brother when they were younger given the way she acted, before college especially. He loved that about her, and they used to bond over martial arts, manga, and other things. But then she got older, her powers developed, and she spent more time with their mom training to become a hero and ever since she brought home Derrick from NOAH, she started to act like this. It would be disgusting for him to feel anything other than the greatest happiness for his sister as she took great joy in this life of hers. Yet beneath his smile, he felt a deep sense of discomfort, anger even.

Their mom got giddy at the news, a smiler wider than the Pacific forming across her face. Funnily, this wasn’t how she normally was, well at least to him. To Gabriel, she was always a bit of a nagging hardass, always pushing him to do things and be better. For Carol and Cassandra though? She was more often than not softer on them to his knowledge at least.

“So after the wedding, will you be staying or moving away?

“It depends on wherever we can find work as assistants after we’re done with the current case.” Cassandra said.

“Well I heard that your uncle Falco agency is short on manpower in New York. If you also need it, I can make some calls and get lots of opportunities anywhere you want to go.”

“Mom, you know I don’t like nepotism! Besides, I trust our skill will speak for itself.”

Gabriel scoffed but not loud enough for anyone else to hear. He would sacrifice an eye to be in that position, but for the prodigies, they had the right to take it for granted.

“Gabriel, is something wrong?” His mother asked.

“No? Why do you think that?”

“Well it’s just your face.”

Gabriel then just laughed it off, making a joke about how he was thinking about a dark movie scene.

“You know, I think I’m going to go to bed.” He said.

“You have a good third of your plate left.” His mother said.

“Oh I’ll just save it for tomorrow.” Chuckling, he packed up his leftovers before going up to sleep, half answering all of his moms questions.

When he closed the door, he laid on the bed. He began remembering when he was ten. That was when his father died and after the funeral, he vowed that he would become a great hero like his father. The years passed by and Gabriel wasn’t manifesting either of his parents abilities which should have happened long ago. His mom took him to the doctor where after a genetic test, he was told that due to a rare condition, neither of his parents powers would ever manifest, meaning he was powerless.

He then fantasized what it would have been like if he had inherited his father's power. The crowds cheering his name as he effortlessly defeats a villain and saves a pretty girl with the largest smile on his face.

When he snapped out of his fantasy, he could only remember what he was, the failure. The reality caused tears to start running down his face much to his own shame.

1 month later June 20th 2107

It was early in the morning, and Gabriel got up. He was met with the sight of his highschool diploma which had a ribbon for his exceptional engineering ability. He got out of his bed, made his bed neat and tidy, changed into a pair of a dark gray slim fit shirt, and black shorts, and went downstairs to eat breakfast.

He walked down the dark wooden stairs and saw his mother in the kitchen. They greeted each other and went through some small talk, and got to the topic of his post graduation plans.

“So have you decided what you wanted to do?”

“It’s only been two weeks, for God sake can I please get a break.”

His mother lightly slapped him across the face “First off, no blasphemy. Second, you’ve gotten invitations from Caltech, MIT, Harvard, UPenn, UNC, and the likes. How haven’t you figured out what you want to do?”

“Well it’s just… you know I thought by now I would be, well.”

“You’re still on about that? For goodness sake, move on with your life already!” She sighed “If you’re so insistent in going down the path of a hero, go to NOAH and develop technology for heroes. Good money and you’re doing a service to society. ”

Gabriel didn’t show it but he was offended by the idea. He would never accept being some lesser known nobody. Nobody gave a damn on who helped a hero, only the ones actually doing the heroics.

Their conversation was interrupted by a phone call from his mother’s phone. His mother picked it up, and soon he could hear his mother's voice visibly tense. When the conversation was over, she turned around and had a stern expression on her face; she was never like this at home.

His mother rushed to her room. Within five minutes, she was dressed in a suit and without a word rushed out the door and drove away .

It wouldn’t be until evening that he would get any answers. His mother came home at 6 pm,still dressed in her work suit. She called him down to sit in the dining room and sat across from him. When he sat down, he noticed his mom had a rather peculiar look. She was always a decisive woman in everything she did; she had to be, part of the job of being a hero, but now, she looked conflicted to say the least.

Before he could ask questions his mother stopped him. She then took from her purse a set of papers, an NDA.

“What the… an NDA? What’s going on?”

“If you want to know, sign that and I’ll tell you everything.”

Gabriel began skimming through the NDA.

“There’s nothing answering your questions there.”

“You taught me to read through a contract fully before I sign anything.”

His mom just chuckled a bit. Gabriel then picked up a pen to sign it.

“Are you absolutely sure you want to do this? You know the consequences will be dire if-”

“I know what an NDA is, I’m not five.”

His mom lost focus for a moment, looking away for a second. It’s strange seeing her this, all emotional; the last time she was anything other than stoic was the death of his father.

Gabriel finished signing before handing the papers back to his mom.

“Now can we talk about what’s going on. I mean this morning, you rush out the door, and now you’re acting like this. What happened?”

“It had something to do with the terrorists that Eisenhower.”

He was taken aback for a moment, confused that he was even hearing this information.

“What about it?”

“It's related to Peter Szayel.”

“Dr Szayel?! Wait that can’t possibly be right, there’s no way he was involved with-”

“He was blackmailed, blackmailed by the terrorists. They asked him to construct a USB stick capable of containing 10 petabytes of data.”

“That much? “

“We don’t know what exactly they needed, if I were to guess given the information shared with us, weapons schematics and classified intel. Thankfully an engineer was able to transfer most of the data before it could be stolen.”

“That would have been reassuring to know, so much for ‘the most transparent administration in history.’.”

“I’d usually be one to agree with you, but this time I think the government has its reasons.”

“Such as?”

“I’ll start from the beginning. Roughly two months ago, Szayel was approached by a man who referred to himself as ‘Hermes’, a representative of an organization called the Legion.”

“The Legion? For we are many?”

“It’s some radical terrorist organization where one of their goals is powerless equality and they tried to use that to convince Szayel to join them. When that failed they resorted to threatening blackmailing him.”

Gabriel looked away for a moment., contemplating the powerless part. “Equality for the powerless huh? The scum probably don’t give a damn about people like me, otherwise their first instinct wouldn’t be to attack a military base.”

He then looked at her “Why Szayel? That would a stupid amount of attention to themselves? They could have easily gone for some lesser known figure.”

“I don't know, I guess they're either arrogant or Szayel is that much of a genius.”

His mother began to answer either directly or indirectly all his questions. Szayel was still being blackmailed by the Legion with Hermes visiting him once a week every Friday shortly around work. Hermes almost certainly participated in the attack on Eisenhower, and Gabriel had assumed that his ability of “Nigh instant teleportation” according to Szayel was one of the main reasons why the government was being extremely secretive about the thing. Today, Szayel went to Luke Curtis' agency in New Orleans to testify about his situation.

But that still begged the question.

“Why tell me all of this?”

“Curtis developed a plan with Szayel. With Hermes visiting him once a week, we have a way to contact the Legion. So if he were to introduce someone to Hermes, such as his assistant, he could be directed to joining the Legion.”

“You want me to be a spy? … why me?”

“Well I think you already have the answer.”

Gabriel began to think before figuring it out.

“I’m the perfect candidate; Young, able bodied, good enough at engineering to be assistant to a genius like Szayel, and most importantly powerless. There would be no need to create some fake, bogus backstory as I would be convincing as is. I would fit perfectly into place.”

“Curtis was the one who suggested you to me, even asked that I talk with you about this.”

“Really? But I have absolutely no experience as a spy.”

“I told him that too and he said that you could learn it quick enough. We aren’t asking you to be James Bond, we’re asking you to know how to gather intel quickly and quietly.”

“Surely there has to be other candidates right? Like their guy can’t just be someone fresh outta high school.”

“There is, and they could at the end of the day be chosen over you. .” His mother then gave him a stern look. “You’re an adult now, and I can’t stop you from choosing your own path in life. But understand that this is not a child’s game or some story where the good guy is guaranteed to win no matter what. You can die, and it will likely be agonizing.”

“I understand the risks perfectly, but I am a son of the LeFatome family, this is my destiny.”

“Then promise me this. If you go down this path and if you are chosen, promise me you’ll come home safe.”

“There’s no need to promise, I’ll make sure it happens.”

His mother then formed a subtle smile.

“That sounds like something your father would say.”

“Well where do I start?”

His mother then gave him a list of directions. The next morning he got up, went to the Curtis agency, also known as the Duskbreaker agency. He went inside, asked to see Curtis and met him in person, from there he was directed to take a series of tests to which he passed with flying colors.

He was then given a job as an agent of the Curtis agency and soon after was selected as the agent who would infiltrate the Legion. After which he was given an extensive 30 day training seminar to prepare him for his job.

The plan was rather simple, Gabriel would become Szayel assistant who would then be introduced to Hermes. If everything went to plan, he would be directed to someplace to join the Legion.

A day before his job as Szayel assistant; the day when the operation officially began, he visited the statue of his father erected in New Orleans after his death. The statue bore a face almost identical to his, and it had its first raise up in the air. On the statue base was an engraving.

“In honor of Lionel LeFatome II, the Nightlance. ‘May your shadows watch over us even after your death.”

Gabriel held his hand to his heart.

“Father, I’m finally able to follow in your footsteps. It might not be in the way you wanted, but I promise you, I’ll do right by you and earn my name!”