2 days later

Morning

Vermilion City Scrapyard

It's been quite a while since Theo's morning be so peaceful and quiet.

More often than not, he would start his day with a sweaty and naked Juno plus either Nichola or Pani sharing his bed.

He'd get horny and would unleash his lust on the sleeping Juno.

The other one would either join in willingly (Pani) or be seduced into a threesome (Nichola).

After 4-6 shots in his wives, the normal daily activities such as taking a bath, eating or playing with the children would finally commence.

Today, he couldn't help but feel very alone.

He was in a small underground room a few kilometers away from his now non existent factory. It was hastily built near the Hellhole District to make it easier for him to blend in with the many hobos in the area.

Obviously, he couldn't go back to his old apartment since it's being investigated by the authorities.

Not like there's anything there after it got obliterated when Theo detonated the massive incendiary bomb that vaporized both his factory along with everything that had a tunnel connected to it.

The authorities would definitely realize how massive Theo's scope of operation was, but they'll be hard pressed to find any clue of what his operation was.

Now you're probably wondering 'Why the hell is Theo still in Vermilion City?!'.

The answer was quite melodramatic.

He was saying goodbye to the city he loved with all of his heart.

This filthy, corrupt, god forsaken, man eating, shit hole of a mad house was where he was born.

Not literally, mind you.

He meant spiritually.

This was the city where he finally achieved his dream of making a harem for himself.

It was still considerably smaller than that of Vivi's, but a harem was still a harem.

It was here that his eyes were open to the truth of the world.

It was here where he found the conviction to do what was necessary.

Just like the thousands of nameless souls that came before him, it destroyed him and remade him into something so much more.

For all its faults, Theo was thankful for the harsh lessons taught to him by the most corrupt city in the Commonwealth.

As such, he took his time to really say his silent farewells to his beloved city.

Yesterday and today, he spent his time going to the many back alley food joints that he was a regular of and ordering the meals he was known to consume all the time.

Since the news has been covering his escapades for 2 straight days and since the staff knew exactly who he was, the communication between them were silent yet very deep.

After eating, both sides silently gave each other either a handshake, a pat on the shoulders or a fistbump.

It may not look like much, but this was a sign of great respect for those at the bottom of the foodchain.

Their silence meant that news of Theo's survival will never reach the top.

After going to last 5 of his favorite back alley restaurants and throwing up from over eating, Theo went to Lord of Vermillion's Happy Bee convenience store.

Much to his surprise, he found Lord sitting on a discarded concrete block across the street from the convenience store.

If you didn't know better, he looked like any preteen kid you find everywhere and most certainly not one of the greatest criminal minds in the city.

Lord beckoned Theo to take a sit on an old wheel, which the later did so, and threw him a few bars of a cheap yet exceedingly delicious dark chocolates.

Theo may already be sick to his stomach from eating so much, but there was always room for dessert.

"Lorne, looks like you pulled off quite a ruse there. Color me impressed." said Lord while munching on a bag of potato chips.

"You and I both. If even one of the S rankers were the ones the showed up, I wouldnt have stood a chance." replied Theo while relishing the chocolaty goodness. "Speaking of which, where did the big boys go?"

"Mars."

".... Really?"

"Yup. I'm not sure if some god is looking out for you, but the timing was weirdly spot on. About 2 weeks before your big day, a weird ruin of an ancient space faring civilization was discovered at the base of Mount Olympus."

"Well.... shit.... I bet every superpower wanted a piece of the pie."

"Right you are. One of the main reasons why the Jade Imps are so persistent at meddling with the Commonwealth's affairs as of late was because they're trying get the freedom dudes to focus their attention on Earth and not on Mars."

"Oh my... Then my shenanigans must have really pissed of the Imps."

"Indeed. By kidnapping Princess Xiao Ning, you made the Imps look weak and pathetic. And you know how thin skinned those yellow shits are."

"Yeah. The whole social media blitz might have broke someone who gave a damn about what a bunch of keyboard warriors think. They just targeted the wrong person."

"Pretty much. Anyways, back to the whole Mars thing. 2 days before your big day, the overzealous researchers found out the hard way that the ruins was not a temple as they initially thought. It was actually a prison."

"And let me guess, they accidentally freed the prisoners?"

"Exactly. Here's what the escaped 'convicts' looked like." said Lord as he passed a smart pad to Theo.

Stolen novel; please report.

The image was..... disgusting to say the least.

The creature was a gigantic fly that was about the size of a man with at least 3 pairs of pincers.

In the image, the creature was in the process of cleaving a poor soul in half despite the man wearing a space suit built for combat.

"What the hell is that?" asked Theo.

"In all honesty, I don't know. What ever it is, it got the attention of the S rankers. Pretty much all of them when to Mars and began kicking ass."

"All of them?! Damn..... These bugs are pretty much squashed."

"I hate to burst your fanboy bubble but that's not what's happening."

"What the hell are you talking about? Omegaman alone could wipe out an entire country if he wanted to. No way a bunch of space bugs can match him. If you add Crow's brains, Mechanicus' tech and the whole founding member's OPness, there's no way anyone can stand up to that!"

"Yet despite that much firepower concentrated in one spot, still hasn't returned from Mars. My spies inside the Hero Alliance Space Station said that based on their vital sign, they're all alive and well. "

"Hmm. So whatever those things are, they're giving Earth's mightiest heroes a run for their money..... Is this a world ending crisis? Are we screwed?"

"Common sense dictates that the answer is yes, this is an 'oh shit' type of scenario, but the evidence seems to be stating otherwise."

Lord took the pad from Theo, did some poking around before returning it to him.

On the pad was a video of someone running for his life.

There were a few in front of him and, based on the screams off camera, there were probably some poor souls behind him.

The clip was only 20 seconds long and it was mostly about people running towards the large exit.

At the 10 second mark, the camera feed suddenly went haywire. It was as if the man was blasted off his feet and bounced on the ground.

Once the camera feed came to a stop, it was painfully clear what happened.

The man's head was sent flying after those bug things sliced it from his shoulders.

But thanks to its relative position near at the exit of the ruins, it was able to capture something interesting.

One of the survivors tripped and fell just outside the exit. It was a bad fall and a sprained foot was all but inevitable.

The bug thing was on him almost immediately and was about to cut him lengthwise, but its pincers suddenly stopped a centimeter or two from the man's nose.

Said man fainted from fear and shock.

Despite having every opportunity of shashimi-ing the man, the bug turned its back and left.

3 seconds later, the video feed ended.

"So, what do you think?" asked Lord.

"A few questions. First: Why is there Earth level gravity in that Martian ruins?" asked Theo.

"No clue. As far as the reports are concerned, everything inside a 1 kilometer radius of that ruin has a higher level of gravity compared to everywhere else in Mars. It's still a bit weaker than Earth's but it wont cause any discomforts."

"So there's something inside the ruins that can control gravity huh.... Looks like we're dealing with an advance alien civilization."

"Yep. That's also the consensus among the superheroes and scientists. What else did you notice?"

"Yeah... I also noticed that the bug thing stopped exactly at the exit. I didnt see any form of force field or magic barrier on the vid. What's up with that?"

"Hahaha. Good catch. That's actually the main reason why I told you that this might not be an 'Oh shit' moment. Based on this and many subsequent experiments, it seems that those bug things do not attack anyone as long as they don't enter the ruins. The superheroes + scientist alliance even made a base outside the entrance and nothing has happened to them."

"Interesting. Maybe they're protecting something?"

"That's anyone's guess at this point. But that's exactly the conclusion the superheroes came to. You can pretty much guess what happened next right?"

"The superbros gathered the best of the best and went down the dungeon to discover what amazing treasure lies within?"

"Exactly. By the way, that was a day before your big performance and they still haven't exited the ruins yet."

"For real?! That's 3 days man! 3 freaking days without the worlds greatest defenders! Why in the hell are we not panicking yet?!"

"The world is indeed panicking, but the big wigs are hiding it well. The HAA is kicking the newbies' training up a notch. Military spending just sky rocketed. Terrorist nations such as those in the middle east and the Jade Empire is making moves while the big boys are MIA. And despite all of these, not a single news about it can be found anywhere in the world."

"Information control. Nothing new there. But doesn't change the fact the beacons of law, order and the Commonwealth way suddenly disappeared! It isnt an understatement that the world is in serious danger!"

"That's true, but when has it not been in danger? You've seen it yourself many times before. It's always in a world ending state, but the only thing that keeps the sheeps AKA the common people happy is that they do not know about it. And besides, the only thing that's missing is the world's biggest hammer. Remember that we, the people of the shadows, has saved the world many more times than the big boys have."

"Hmm.... That's true... but I cant shake the feeling that this Mars incident is somehow leading us towards the Nuclear War next year."

"I completely agree with that thought Lorne. I really do. If the nuclear holocaust is inevitable thanks to the absence of the S rankers, we must think of ways making this work to our favor. We must prepare for what happens before, during and after the D Day."

Theo went silent.

While he did have some vague plans for the future, he hasnt really thought of any of it too seriously.

The best one was probably the genocide of the Norscan Civilization.

By taking over their isles that was not in any single map, avoiding getting a direct hit from the nukes was all but assured.

From there, they could gather up their strength and take over the already weakened nations with little effort.

Sadly, that's the extent of his current plans.

"Looks like you have a lot of things to think about Lorne. Better get to it." said Lord as he offered Theo a handshake.

"Yeah. Looks like it." replied Theo while shaking Lord's hand.

"Stay safe and stay in touch my fried."

"You too Lord. Till we meet again."

-:-

30 minutes later.

And so he returned to where it all began.

Theo stood in front of a relatively busy mall.

It was small in size with only 2 floors and was more akin to an intersection with lots of shops instead of an actual mall.

There were families, office workers, students and the occasional suspicious looking individual walking about in relative peace.

But when Theo closed his eyes, he saw a different scene entirely.

He could see the rubble of a 5 story mall that was once a place where human sacrifice was performed.

When cornered, the cultist detonated a bomb that caused the mall to collapse.

Many innocent lives were lost that day.

While Theo would still see the partially squashed faces of those poor souls, he could no longer hear their voices.

He has avenged them by literally ripping the perpetrator limb from limb.

He made sure to prolong her suffering as much as possible.

He may not be able to bring those poor souls back to life, but he could at least let them revel in the vengeance he has inflicted upon the perpetrator.

He wasnt sure if it was enough to satisfy the spirits of the dead, but it was the best he could do given his abilities.

He walked into the mall and arrived in a small monument in the middle of the crossroads.

Listed on a decently sized metal plaque was the names of all the lives lost during that incident.

Theo clasped his hands and gave a prayer to those who died way before their time.

This action also steeled his conviction.

His ideal utopia of peace and order where humanity could reach their full potential was still very much beyond reach.

But that didnt mean it was an ideal not worth pursuing.

Someday, his dream will come true.

As Theo turned to leave, he saw something that pissed him off to no end.

A group of 5 late teen gang bangers approached the steel plaque and began spraying some graffiti on it.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing you shits!" roared Theo.

"We're 'beautifying' the place dumb ass. You got a problem with it? You got a problem with it? Hah?!"

The gang bangers surrounded Theo.

Naturally, the bystanders wanted nothing to do with the oncoming fight and did their best to seem insignificant.

"*sigh*... This world is filled with sheep and gutter scum." said Theo

"Hah?! What are you mum-" said the man before the entire front half of his skull was cleaved off by Theo's red hot left hand.

The left hand then proceeded to rip off the entire chest cavity of the one standing beside the first victim.

One of the gang bangers was able to react fast enough to draw a Colt Python revolver. An oldie but a goodie.

Before the gang banger could fire a single shot, Theo cleaved his hand off, grab the revolver and shot him in the head.

Theo quickly shot the other gang banger on the arm, and both legs. Naturally he was aiming for the arteries.

The poor slob will die in a matter of minutes or less.

The last one was shaken in fear. Clearly none of them expected such a violent push back to their vandalism.

"Clean it or die." said Theo as he pointed the gun at the last survivor.

Under Theo's watchful eye, the last gang banger ran towards a drinking fountain and drenched his own face towel. He then went back to the plaque and dutifully scrubbed the paint.

He did this a few times until there was not a single stain of paint on the memorial.

"T-there. I cleaned the thing okay?" said the gang banger with a clear hint of desperation in his voice.

"Yeah. Thanks." replied Theo before shooting the man in the head.

He transmuted the revolver to dust and left the scene.

"Looks like my dream will need a lot more blood and corpses."