“From the beginning, since the moment you met Fira…you’ve been playing into my hand.”

Levi grimaced. He backed away, shaking his head, then slapped his leg in frustration. “Aw, come on, man! Let me turn off the lights. That reveal would’ve been so damn cool with the spotlight!”

The old man blinked at him. He took a deep breath. “I truly did forget just how awful it was to hold a conversation with you.”

Levi sighed. He looked at the light switch, then at his hand. Lifting it dramatically, he declared, “If your hand causes you to harm your neighbor, cut it off!”

“You know the Bible?”

“My name is Leviticus Johnson, you know.”

“Uh huh.”

Levi clapped. “Come on, now, man, let’s not get off-topic. So. From the beginning, Fira was a plant? Or rather, a creation of yours? Then what was that nonsense about her being from an Exclusion Zone?”

The old man tapped his head. “Implanted memories, obviously.”

“Oh, right. Obviously.” Levi rolled his eyes.

“I was sure, when you went into hiding, that it would only be temporary. Foolish me, to count temporary on the span of a mortal’s life. When you were still hiding, ten years later, I needed to bring you back into action. What better than to show you a maiden in distress?”

“Right. I was gonna let her die until Jet Engine crashed that apartment building down, though,” Levi informed him.

The old man chuckled. “There would have been a second attempt, and a third. I was merely fortunate to draw your attention on the first.”

“I mean, reasonable. Put enough supers in front of me, and my fingers are gonna get itchy. I’m gonna want to kill. So…what’s next? What did I do for you, that no one but I could accomplish?” Levi asked.

The old man shrugged. He spread his hands. “Exactly what you did: cause chaos. Distract from the real issues. As long as you were active, I knew you’d draw the supers’ attention, and true to form, you did just that. From your prank with running the herd of horses into the city, to the whole plot to murder various supers, you drew just enough of the supers’ attention that they didn’t smash my little plot to bits.”

“In other words, I was an industrial-grade smokescreen,” Levi reasoned. Pursing his lips, he tipped his head left and right. “I’ve been used for worse.”

“Her ‘brother’ was…not meant to escape. That was an oversight on my part, one that I swiftly rectified. But, despite everything, he set you on this path, so perhaps I should thank him? Such a loyal child,” the old man said, smiling.

“I’m not sure you want me here. Like you, personally, probably do not want me anywhere near you,” Levi explained, gesturing between the two of them.

“But that is where you’re wrong.”

“Am I?”

“Yes. Because if you’re here, you’re powerless to do anything about our true plan—the plan to take control of this city, once and for all! And with no Alpha, the supers will fall apart. He was the only one who could alert and rally all the supers in the city. Now that you’ve so nicely killed him, the city is defenseless!”

Levi cleared his throat. “Yeah. About that. So…I rallied the supers.”

“I—what?”

“Yeah.”

“You killed Alpha!”

“In retrospect, it was kind of a weird thing to do, yeah. Got my ass killed, too.”

The man glared at him, then took a deep breath. “It matters not! Even if Alpha were present, I had contingencies to take him down…or at least distract him!”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Me again?”

“Yes, you again. Shut up.”

“Sorry. Should I turn the lights off?”

“If you mention the lights one more time—”

“Sowwy.” Levi made a cute face and held his hands up, wrists limp like cat paws.

A vein throbbed in the old man’s forehead. He took a forcible breath and rubbed his temples. “Right. Where was I?”

“It matters not, blah blah, Alpha and me,” Levi filled him in, reverting to his usual expression.

“Ah, yes. Yes. I had contingencies. Contingencies upon contingencies. And now that it has all come to pass, there is no stopping my plan! Even rallying the supers will only buy you hours. Central City is doomed!”

Levi cleared his throat. “Why?”

“Huh?”

“Why? Alpha’s gone. Why do you still want to destroy Central City?”

“The corrupt supers—”

“Okay. Fund me. No need to go after the average Joe and burn the whole city down with rampant Gates.”

The man’s face burned red. “Who cares? Who cares if the city burns?”

“Uh, the average Joe, generally,” Levi commented.

Snarling, he jabbed a finger at Levi. “You. And Alpha. And ALL OF THEM! You were all our property. Why did that stupid guinea pig Alpha end up as king, while I scraped together pennies working a nine-to-five? Forgotten? Thrown away?

“Fuck you all! Fuck this whole city! If it isn’t mine, as it should rightfully be, then it shouldn’t belong to anyone!”

Levi cracked a grin. “There it is. That’s what I wanted to hear.”

“Is it?”

“Well, I came here to kill you, after all. So you know, having the moral high ground makes me feel better about myself afterward,” Levi explained.

The old man cackled. “You can’t kill me.”

“I think you’ll find that I very much can,” Levi said, advancing toward the man.

He backed away. “If you kill me, no one will know how to close the Gates! I’m the only one with the knowledge. I haven’t published any of my research. It’s all on an encrypted solid-state hard drive that only I know the PIN to, that destroys the data on the third incorrect entry!”

“I would one hundred percent forget that PIN immediately and destroy all my own data, if that was me,” Levi commented.

“Haha! But you are not me! As long as I live, the data to destroy the Gates I spawned lives! The second I die, it dies with me!”

Levi looked at him. “Yeah, but like, are you going to tell me the PIN, or are you going to hold it over my head forever?”

The man looked at him. A sudden, horrible thought came to him, and his expression soured. “You’re going to kill me, aren’t you.”

“I told you I came here to kill you,” Levi said. He approached at a slow pace, tossing the knife in one hand. “Honestly, the monologue bought you a few more minutes. If I were you, I’d keep monologuing. I was enjoying it, and you know, as long as I keep enjoying myself, you keep living.”

“That’s not how monologues are supposed to work,” the old man said, backing away. “I’m the one who buys time with the monologue!”

“The problem is, you thought you were the villain, but in this scenario, you’re the hero,” Levi said, advancing toward the man.

“You’re not even going to try torture?” the old man asked.

“Do you want me to?” Levi asked.

“Not really.”

Levi shrugged. “I could, but you seem like a tough nut to crack, and I’ll be honest, I love the city, but I personally want you dead. Between what I want, and what’s good for the city, I’ll always pick what I want.”

The old man backed away. “I’m one of the few who knows how you were made! I’m one of the few who knows Alpha’s secrets!”

Levi continued to advance. “Alpha’s dead, and I know someone else who knows my secrets. I’ll be honest, secrets are best kept by as few people as possible.”

“The Gates—”

“Let’s be honest, you’re just stalling for time with that bullshit. You never meant to give me the PIN. Case in point—you’d give it to me right now if you really wanted to live,” Levi reasoned.

The man paused. His back against a desk, he thought desperately, his brows furrowing. Levi slowed, deliberately giving the man a little more time to think about his impending demise.

“I…I’ll give you money?” the man tried.

“Money? Give me the PIN, motherfucker!” Levi said, closing in on him.

The man laughed. “You fool! There is no PIN! All the information is stored in my head! You can’t kill me!”

Levi grabbed the man by the shoulder and looked him in the eyes. “I get that you’re getting delusional because you’re about to die, but seriously, man. I am going to kill you.”

The man laughed. “Are you? Are you? You keep talking instead of—”

Levi slit his throat.

Startled, the man gagged. He put a hand to his neck. Startled eyes stared at Levi.

Levi threw his hands in the air, exasperated. “Man, I don’t know what you expected. I told you I was going to kill you. I said I was only leaving you alive because you amused me. You can’t be surprised by this.”

The man gestured.

“The information? Yeah, I know. It’s a pity. But look! You said torture wasn’t going to work! I believed you! What do you want?”

An eye roll.

“Yeah, I mean, no one’s going to say, ‘yes, sir, torture works great on me, please go ahead,’ but like, man, I ain’t into that shit, you know? It’s boring and it takes forever. I’d rather just be done with it.” Levi shrugged. He patted the man on the shoulder. “Sorry, man. I think a hero would probably have kept you around for that information, but, you know. I’m a villain, so.”

The man fell to his knees. He crumpled.

“Done? Alright. Well. Let’s go ahead and get back to Maury. Gotta figure out how to solve those Gates, after all.” Levi turned to go.

His phone rang.

He frowned, pulling it out. “Maury doesn’t know this number. Who is it? Someone calling the person I stole it from?”

It rang again. An unknown number.

“Guess not. Telemarketers? Ooh, telemarketers.” He answered the call.

“Hello, Levi,” a familiar voice greeted him.