A History of Violence

Chapter 05 [https://www.rellawings.com/superluminal/chapternum/chaphead_5.jpg]

Dateline - April 2008 - San Isidro, California USA [https://www.rellawings.com/superluminal/datelines/san_isidiro-april-2008.png]

Albert stared at the family television set perched on the edge of the seat of his recliner.

“This is News Nine San Isidro. Covering the attack of the S-Plus Supervillain, Gravitas. Things are looking grim as the old courthouse has become the epicenter of a foul attack. Now to Vicki Valentino, our correspondent safely hovering above the city in our News Nine copter.”

The scene cut to a view looking down on downtown San Isidro, where tall distinctive Victorian-style skyscrapers rose into the sky. Smoke and dust was rising from various parts that the camera zoomed in on to display the devastation.

“Thank you, Sam. We’re live here. It’s looking as bad as you said. Look at all this damage!” Zooming in on another site, the camera showed how much of a shambling the courthouse had become. “Oh, my—This is a tragedy! The surrounding areas are being relentlessly pulverized by the surreal gravity powers of this villain.

“His killing has been indiscriminate. Everyone should stay far away from downtown, at least until the Society of Sentinels have driven out, but there’s no sign of them yet. The death toll continues to mount, let’s see the numbers—Wait——YES! He’s here!” The camera caught Vanguard zooming onto the scene.

“There he is! He’s like a blur! A whir of freedom! Follow him, Charles!” Vicki yelled. The camera panned desperately to find him. Finally, it focused below on a street where he’d landed.

“We don’t have any microphones nearby so we can’t tell what he’s saying, but it’s certain that he’s challen… oh! He’s down there, too!” The camera panned again to show Gravitas, himself.

Albert gripped the arms of his chair, his fingers going white while his face reddened. Leo cheerfully flew through the living room. He ignored the television as he squealed and crashed his figures together.

“I’ve got you this time!” Instead of Leo’s usual high-pitched voice, the boy’s words came out oddly gruff for him, his voice going as low as he could make it. Even so, Leo could only produce something—still extremely shrill.

With a double take, Albert paid a smidgen of attention to what his son was doing to notice that this time his son was holding the figures of Vanguard and Black Angel. “You won’t win this time, Black Angel! A-Ha-ha-ha-HA!”

Albert smiled despite the seriousness of the situation playing out on the television. He was strongly considering throwing his son into their car’s backseat and driving far away, except his wife was surely somewhere out there. Without Yvette knowing where they were, he wouldn’t leave.

“SHIT! Look, Leo!” Albert yelled. A plume of dust spread on the screen as buildings came down one by one in clouds of dust as the two clashed.

Looking blankly at his father, Leo turned his eyes first to his father and when he looked at the television set and finally noticed what was going on, he blinked.

“Huh?” His head tilted and his jaw dropped. “Oh! SO COOL!” He squealed, dropping the three figures he held in his rush across the floor to press his face up against the screen. “A supervillain here in our city! And—OHHHHH!” He looked over his shoulder at his father’s face, beaming. “It’s your favorite, too, Daddy! VANGUARD! YAY!!!!” Leo whooped.

Albert stared despondently, swallowing hard. His eyes latched onto the figures on the screen, or at least what he could see. The camera had zoomed in on Vanguard. He muttered under his breath, pleading with the pillar of justice, “Please protect her—I beg you—"

Tears filled his eyes even as wonder continued to fill his son’s. Leo hadn’t noticed Albert’s silent prayer. The focus moved again to show the desolation. Among these were shots that reporters had snapped, demonstrating how bad things were. Among these images was that of a totaled ambulance with a great deal of blood dripping down from the silver fender and more spattered across its white-painted hood.

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Days after the disaster, once the Society of Sentinels had taken down Gravitas, a weary paramedic stood on Albert’s doorstep and rang the Walker household's front doorbell.

When Albert opened the door hesitantly, his eyes locked with the man’s and Albert licked his chapped lips. “God, please no——Don’t tell me—”

The man nodded somberly. “I’m sorry. She’s gone… I’m so sorry. She was a veritable paragon. One of the actual heroes of this city.”

Leo ran up to the door and stared up at the newcomer man standing outside and greeted him with a cheerful smile, “Hi!!!”

He stuck his hand out like his father had taught him to do with new people to make a good impression.

The man chuckled mirthlessly before his expression became troubled, tinged with something deeper. “Oh—it’s very nice to meet you.”

He forced a smile, taking Leo’s hand while Albert stared into the distance with eyes that had been bloodshot with worry, but now tears streamed down his cheeks.

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It had been several weeks now since that man had shown up and made his daddy cry.

Leo didn’t understand why that man, someone who had seemed so nice, had done something so mean.

It was unfathomable why his mom still hadn’t come home from work. Daddy wouldn’t explain why. Didn’t she normally come right back after going to work? She’d never failed to return to make dinner for them.

It was far more shocking and incomprehensible for little Leo when his father suddenly hurled the action figure of Vanguard he’d bought Leo directly into the family television’s screen to break through the glass. “DAMN IT!!!!” Albert screamed.

And Leo watched, trying to figure out the meaning of his actions. For a while, his father would only scream and cry, paying no attention to his scared child.

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More weeks went by and Leo continued to watch his dad’s deterioration. He didn’t feel like playing anymore. Vanguard’s action figure’s face was kinda melted now.

The most important thing he’d learned in those days was to always leave his dad alone when he started drinking that smelly brown stuff.

Leo wasn’t sure what it was, but it sure smelled terrible and a sniff of it kinda made him feel dizzy. He also knew that it made his dad super mean.

His dad would yell and scream at nothing apparent a lot now. And if Leo ever got close to him while he was like that, nothing good happened.

“Daddy, I’m hungry… Can we please eat…?” Leo tried asking diffidently one day when his daddy hadn’t had any of that funny stuff for a while. Leo’s stomach had turned inside out with how hungry he was getting, so he risked it.

“FUCKING SHUT THE HELL UP, LEO!” his father roared at him.

Leo cringed and cried as he waited for his father to calm down.

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The next time Leo asked his father for food, Albert hurled Leo across the room in a fit of anger. He had learned to walk softly around his father all the time and even hid, but he couldn’t just stay hungry.

Meanwhile, Albert continued his drinking to forget for a short time. As a lawn-care contractor, he made a great deal less than she had. He couldn’t balance the finances without Yvette’s supplementary income. Albert was seriously thinking he couldn’t handle taking care of a child. It wasn’t long before he went from simply ‘self-medicating’, as he’d put it, to drowning all his sorrows and worries in alcohol.

Now and again, he would crawl out of the bottle long enough to remember Leo and his own biological needs when his boy had the nerve to peek at him. At those times, he would get tv dinners from a nearby convenience store and try going through the motions of being a father. There was nothing else he could do.

Things were good at those times, but inevitably Daddy would start shrieking again, “DAMN YOU VANGUARD! FUCK YOU! I WISH YOU’D DIE!” Having vented his anger, Albert would commit himself to another intensive session of drowning himself in liquor the rest of that night.

When Leo started bothering his dad again, thinking that it was okay when he wasn’t drinking, particularly when Leo had eaten after weeks of nothing and it seemed like his father was feeling better, he received a rude awakening. Because he was wrong. The moment he approached his dad, acting like normal, Albert struck him again by reflex, drawing blood.

Stolen novel; please report.

After a few more incidents, it dawned on Albert what he was doing to Leo, but now he couldn’t turn back.

He started looking for his hiding son, but when he found him, Leo wouldn’t look at him, having withdrawn deep inside himself. He knew he couldn’t trust himself around Leo.

Not only was Albert disappointed in himself, to justify what he’d done to Leo, he also told himself that his only child was nothing but a disappointment, assigning some of the blame on Leo for what he was doing.

His son was a baby. An utter wimp. And worst of all, he wanted to be a girl! That was pretty clear to him at this point.

The world had dealt Albert the worst hand ever.

Albert’s addled mind came up with a solution that seemed fine to him. Knowing how dangerous he was getting to be, Albert decided that if Leo wasn’t anywhere he could see him, if the kid couldn’t come out of hiding to bother him, he’d be safe. So Albert brought out Yvette’s mother's old chest that he’d inherited, not that he gave a damn, even if it belonged to the love of his life. Doing this was fitting, downright poetic, he thought.

Yvette used to keep her dresses in there—

This stray notion had crept in and he’d rejected it at first, even slapping himself for thinking about it, but after a while it satisfied him. He couldn’t shake off the idea. Unable to give up Leo, Albert committed to his plan.

‘Was he really going to do this?’

Of course he was. What else was he supposed to do?

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Leo looked up into his Goonie’s with tear-filled eyes as he mumbled, “I don’t get it, Auntie—”

“Maybe not now, but you’ll understand better when you’ve grown up,” Goonie pulled Leo into her lap and hugged him.

Quinn looked away angrily, the corner of her mouth crinkling.

“What—what—” Leo sobbed. “What should I tell all my friends when they ask—?” He trailed off, tears falling onto one of his legs.

“What did you tell them back when you explained why you weren’t in school for so long?” Quinn’s innocuous question earned her a withering look from Goonie.

Leo shook his head, chewing his lip. He moistened them with his tongue before saying, “That we went on a trip—”

Goonie sighed softly. “Leo, you don’t have to justify yourself to anyone.” Kids shouldn’t have to deal with such heavy matters. “It was right to not tell them something so personal.”

Leo shook his head uncertainly. “It's not like I don’t wanna tell, but——it just won’t come out.”

“Then from now on, just tell them about us when they ask!” Quinn declared, jumping up. “We’re your family.”

“But, Mom—” Leo crumpled.

Goonie shook her head subtly and stroked Leo soothingly.

“Leo—” Quinn crawled up on the sofa with them and hugged Leo with her mother. “Leo——just remember that we’re here, too. We’re here for you. We understand, and—and we love you lots. And, I am your older sister and what I say goes. Don’t forget that!”

After a little while, Leo nodded and turned to hug Quinn and Goonie couldn’t help laughing, patting Quinn’s hair.

Dateline - August 2012 - San Isidro, California USA [https://www.rellawings.com/superluminal/datelines/dateline-aug-2012.png]

(Author's Note: This portion of the chapter I wrote just tonight over the last hour or less. More editing may be required here, but it was thought that this should be expanded and a new scene added.)

The day Leo turned ten years old, strange things started happening to his body that he didn’t understand, nor liked.

At the tender age of ten, he hit puberty. Maybe it was due to early trauma or genetics. Little downy hairs sprouted from his chin and his voice started to crack.

These symptoms experienced happening so early for him gave his Goonie pause and alarm.

“Goonie!” Leo cried, running into the arms of his loving aunt, tears flowing while his emotions swirled within.

Quinn watched from across the room concerned, holding a guitar in her lap as she picked through the chords. The rock song she was playing slowly changed into a mysterious sounding song from the fifties era, ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun.’

Annoyed with her daughter’s sarcasm, Laguna glared at Quinn who continued to play the song with a small smile.

“It’s okay Leo. What’s happening to you isn’t a huge deal. Trust me. We’ll take you to a doctor and I’m sure we’ll have things figured out and resolved.” She stroked Leo’s head, running her fingers gently through his blonde locks. “I love you.”

Gazing up into Goonie’s eyes with wet eyes, he wiped at his eyes, not understanding the lyrics of the song that Quinn played. He looked over his shoulder and smiled brightly at his adoptive sister and then back at Goonie.

“Thank you for cheering me up.”

Quinn’s playing still gave Leo shivers and the sound of her music gave him as much courage as his Goonie’s words and gentle touches.

The three promptly went together to a doctor’s office and Goonie made Quinn leave her guitar behind with a firm eye.

Leo sat on an examination table with his legs kicking idly in the air, but his face looked a bit queasy. The doctor frowned after having received the results from the on site blood test labs and his eyes met those of Goonie.

“His hormones are spiking for a strange reason. It's advisable to medicate and stabilize them, but even though this may not directly harm him, his esteem and mental health could be at risk without intervention. This is most likely what we term a ‘precocious puberty.’ It can rarely occur from the age of eight.”

“Oh my. Is it truly so serious?” Goonie looked at Leo with a growing alarm and crossed the floor to Leo, who was biting his lip. While he didn’t understand the meaning of the doctor’s words, his tone filled Leo with anxiety and again his eyes became dewy.

The doctor continued, “I’d like to have you go to a hospital so they can run some tests on his brain, an MRI, namely. He may have a tumor or an injured brain.”

Goonie nodded, comforting Leo and Quinn’s eyes widened as her heart skipped a beat and she started feeling guilty for her earlier teasing, thinking that her little brother might have cancer. She rushed to her feet and sprinted across the room, throwing her arms around Leo.

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Going on to a hospital, they had a series of tests run on Leo, but unlike at his doctor’s office, the answers wouldn’t be so swiftly forthcoming. They would be made to wait a week for the results. Laguna arranged installments of payment for the several thousand dollar’s worth of healthcare that Leo had received, keenly feeling the financial stress.

Leo wasn’t happy when Goonie told him what puberty meant. He sat listlessly and one day, he snuck into Quinn’s space in the old office while she was out with friends and looking through her things, Leo’s eyes slid past the music instruments and posters that normally captured his attention to the standing closet that Goonie had purchased for her daughter’s clothes. He slid open the doors, gazing for a long moment at Quinn's brightly-colored trendy clothes.

Spotting a rare dress in Quinn’s collection of garments, with effort Leo lifted it in his hands, thinking about Quinn’s words to him what felt like forever ago now, My clothes wouldn’t fit you—besides, you’re a boy.

You’re a boy.

Clutching the dress to his chest, Leo started crying uncontrollably, unintentionally rubbing his wet face against its fabric.

“Uwaaaaaaa!” He sobbed for a long period, his grief unknown to anyone at this moment. His heart was heavy as though someone had wrapped chains around it and hooked a heavy weight off them.

After a gale of his weeping passed, Leo’s face firmed and knowing that Quinn would probably be upset with him, he pulled a pair of panties from the drawers he rummaged through and in short order, he had undressed and put them on and as though his heart was unlocked, the gales that battered him down, assailing him now lifted figurative wings beneath.

With a broad grin, he ran, holding the skirt up so that he wouldn’t trip.

Despite his best efforts, he made such a racket with his silly running and when the skirts slipped from his grasp, he tripped and landed face first onto the carpet. At that moment, the room’s door slammed open and Quinn froze, staring at Leo, wearing her least favorite dress. The dress had bunched up and upon seeing something that actually bothered her, Quinn yelled, “LEO!”

Leo looked up into Quinn’s eyes, quailing at the anger in his cousin’s voice. “Take off my underwear, you little cree… ugh…” Quinn firmly took herself in hand, shaking almost as much as Leo with anger.

Rushing to his side, she said with an annoyed expression, her anger tempered by Leo’s possible terminal condition. She never forgot that her little cousin might be fatally ill, something that could take him away from her life.

With a grumble, she ran her fingers through Leo’s hair and pulled little Leo to her. “It’s not right to wear someone else’s underwear. That’s kind of gross, isn’t it? Think about how private and personal that is and how you… you invaded my privacy, Leo. I won’t tell Mom about this maybe, but I want you to take those panties off, okay?”

Leo unfroze, looking into his sister’s eyes with remorse. “I… I’m sorry… I… I’m sorry…” He sobbed softly.

“Damn it… it’s okay…” Quinn nuzzled at Leo’s hair. “I don’t hate you. Really.”

“I.. I just… I wanted… I want to… be like you…” Tugging at a hair on his own chin, Leo’s crying became more frantic.

“Oh jeez..” Quinn’s eyes were fastened on her little sibling and her lips twisted. “You little punk.” She hugged him all the tighter. “I knew it. You’re a girl, that’s why this hurts you so much. Okay fine. That pair of panties I’ll never wear again. You can keep them or throw them away or whatever and I hate that dress so you can keep that too. Don’t put any more of my clothes on, okay?” Quinn decided to be somewhat magnanimous.

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The family was relieved when word finally came from the hospital and the doctor. He spoke with Laguna over the phone, announcing that Leo showed no sign of having any tumors, nor brain damage despite his father’s abuse.

A regimen of drugs were prescribed to stabilize and halt Leo's precocious puberty.

Everyone felt better, knowing that Leo would be alright, although despite Quinn’s promise, Laguna did find out about the incident when she caught Leo wearing Quinn’s dress in his bedroom.

(Author's Note: This is the end of tonight's extra content I added to this chapter. Finding the note I left in the manuscript, I decided I'd been putting off writing this part. I hope you like it. If you read the original on Scribblehub, you won't find this in that edition, like many other newer scenes.)

Dateline - October 2012 - San Isidro, California USA [https://www.rellawings.com/superluminal/datelines/dateline-oct-2012.png]

Leo sat in his room wearing the same dress, playing with the figures he treasured, the ones that they’d salvaged from the trashed interior of his former home. Naturally, his most valuable possession of these was Mistral’s action figure, a very beautiful woman with lovely silver-white tresses, a headband that lacked the detailing on the real thing, and a leather dress-like costume that screamed of her proud Native-American heritage.

When he was younger, the villain that was represented by his other treasured figurine, Black Angel, seemed pretty cool to Leo, at first as much as her nemesis for the villain’s striking appearance and beautiful black wings, but his interest in Mistral only deepened while his interest in Black Angel waned when he learned of the bad things she did. Because no hero was one without someone to fight.

After some consideration, Leo kept Black Angel’s figure, but as he grew and became wiser, a knowledge-hungry tyke who idolized the superpowered, he was gradually less and less able to appreciate this figure as much as his hero’s.

She was at least pretty like Mistral. Unlike most heroes and their villains, it felt like Mistral and Black Angel somehow complimented each other, and he wasn’t sure why he felt that way. Thus, Leo still appreciated the black-winged figure, even if she was supposed to be really evil. The factory that made the figure did a good job of bringing her life with a permanently smug, better than you kind of expression. The look a bully had on his face whenever he looked at you.

While playing and thinking, Leo was listening to the radio. The news channel had been talking about the current balance of power between the heroes and villains, but at the moment, they were discussing his most favorite hero in the entire world!

“Black Angel is planning a huge attack on Quebec! But this time, Garou, the Wolfman Guardian of the North, is at the scene by the side of the Canadian weather sorceress, Mistral!” the reporter announced. Hearing this breaking news, Leo began putting two and two together. The answer he came up with was closer to five, though...

“Kaback? KABACK!!!” Leo yelled and moved his figure of Black Angel to attack Mistral.

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