Harvey Brooks was a man of little wealth but big tastes.

His parents were lower middle class so most of their money went to bills and other necessities. Harvey and his sister never wanted for food growing up, but they also didn't have all the newest things like some of their friends had. He promised himself when he became an adult that his pockets would be overflowing with money.

However life had different plans. While he was studying abroad in college on an academic scholarship, he met a beautiful girl who soon became the center of his universe. When he had to go back to the states she came with him. Not long after they married and had two wonderful healthy sons. Harvey was a skilled engineer and his wife was a respected translator for many businesses. Between the two of them they lived a pretty comfy lifestyle.

Then the outbreak happened.

It wasn't long until the military came knocking on their door. Since his wife was not originally from the states, her and their kids were rounded up and shipped off to one of the detainment facilities. Harvey was allowed to remain but he wished more than anything to be with his family - no matter where that may be.

He talked to every possible person he could with influence over the detainment process, but the situation with the virus had become so escalated that the only person who could approve any type of release was way above Harvey's pay grade to talk to.

When the facilities became overrun with enhanced Reapers he had decided to go there himself. Protocol was to not tell the families which facility their loved ones were taken to in order to avoid exactly what Harvey was out to do; but Harvey's trade put him in touch with some very important people. So he knew the exact facility his family was at. When he arrived though…it was already too late.

The entire facility was up in flames. It was like a bomb had gone off. Humans and Reapers alike were strewn all over the ground in a mangled mess. He found one of his sons with a giant opening in his neck as if a Reaper had torn into him. The other child was…in more than one place throughout the area.

He never actually found his wife. But he did find a scrap of what he believed to be part of the dress he last saw her in next to one of their kids.

That was the end of Harvey Brooks, the lovable family man and hard worker. Now he was Harvey Brooks, the hate filled and spiteful drunkard. He had relocated to Capital City when things settled down and now spent his days half blitzed and roaming the streets. He stayed in a one bedroom apartment that he could barely afford off of the government stipend he received. He was bitter, jaded, and depressed.

Harvey used any chance he could to use the hybrids as his outlet for his deep seeded feelings. He knew that they were just as downtrodden as he felt on the inside and that none of them were truly responsible for his family's deaths. But everytime he looked at one of them all he could ask was why. Why did they get to live? What did they do to deserve such a fate?

So he ridiculed them, spat at them, and even hit them in a few cases. That and the alcohol temporarily relieved the raw emotional pain that made up who he was. This was all he lived for now.

Harvey was on another one of his walks through the city. A beer in one hand and the other strung up in a sling that went around his shoulder.

On one of his many tirades against the hybrids he had been blindsided and thrown into the street. He landed right on his arm and it caused a clean break. The only possible culprit was the little hybrid girl he had been putting in her place beforehand. But there was no way she had that type of strength. All the same, he demanded that the local military take extreme action to right this wrong.

It didn't take much convincing.

He was about to pass by a supply store on the East side of town that was a little more lenient when it comes to hybrids than other businesses. Just so happened that one was walking out of the store as he was coming up on it. The man was walking towards Harvey when he stepped a little further to the side for him to pass. "Excuse me."

Harvey looked down at the badge around his arm and he could feel the anger start to rise back up inside him. He purposely walked closer towards the man so that he bumped hard against him, almost knocking him over. Harvey was a rather large guy so he could easily throw his weight around.

The man stopped and looked at Harvey with a look of astonishment. Harvey stared him down hoping he would give him a reason to take things further. "What? Got a problem?"

"...apologies." The man begrudgingly composed himself and hurried off.

"Hmph. Damn halfie."

Harvey continued past the supply store. As he passed the alleyway next to the store something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He quickly looked to the side to see what was in the alley - but there was nothing there.

"Swore I saw something. Beer must be starting to get to me."

As he continued towards home he still couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching him. He would see something but it would be gone the second he actually tried to focus on it.

It was starting to freak him out.

He picked up his walking pace just a bit.

The sun was starting to set when Harvey finally made it to his apartment complex. It was right on the border of the West and South part of the city - the Southside being where a lot of the hybrid ghettos were. He walked in his building and went down the hall to his first floor apartment.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

He put his key in the lock-

*tmp*

Harvey did a 180 in record speed. Again, no one was there. He had had enough of it.

"If someone is fucking with me you'd better wisen up right now. I'm not one to be messed with, ya hear me?! I'm Harvey fucking Brooks damn it. Best believe that." Whenever he got a little tipsy his language was usually the first thing to degrade.

He turned back to his door and finished unlocking it. He quickly slipped inside to get away from any prying eyes.

Later that night, after his bountiful dinner of frozen pizza and more beer, he laid up in his recliner watching TV. Just like any other night.

*tap*

Harvey perked up. "Did I just hear something?"

*tap*

Harvey looked around the apartment. Where is that noise coming from, he wondered.

*TAP*

He jumped out of his recliner and went to the window where he believed it was coming from. He looked out but didn't see anything there. His window faced towards the parking lot. All he could see were a few large dumpsters that were completely full and like a single car from the lucky person who lived in this dump but could somehow afford to have a car.

"Ugh. This beer is making me fucking paranoid. I think it's time for bed before I drive myself nuts here." He closed the blinds and turned off the tv.

As he walked in the kitchen a strong scene caught his nose. "What the…what the hell smells like death in here?" Harvey sniffed around and quickly found the culprit. The dinner he hadn't finished from several nights back had begun to rot in the trash can.

Harvey decided that he should probably purge this from his apartment before he went to bed. Didn't want that smell to start spreading throughout his place. Pulled out the bag, tied it off, and out the door he went. Since the back dumpsters in the parking lot were full, the closest thing was a smaller dumpster that was in the alley next to the building.

"Told them fuckers we need a street lamp out here. Dark as all get out." He grumbled to himself as he walked out the front door of his building and rounded the corner to the alley. The apartment building was situated next to an abandoned store that had a caved in wall from the war. Nobody has gotten around to fixing it just yet.

He spotted the dumpster halfway down the alley.

*Rattle* *Rattle*

Harvey looked in front of him and saw an old can tumbling across the ground.

"That…that must've been the breeze blowing it around. Or one of these damn dumpster diving animals around here."

There was no wind that night.

Harvey tried to flip open the lid to the dumpster, but gravity just brought it right back down. "Can I just not have an easy night for once?" He asked out loud as he flipped it up again.

While Harvey was busy messing with the dumpster, he failed to notice that someone had entered the alley behind him. A cloaked figure blending in with the darkness.

They stepped forward towards the unsuspecting Harvey. They weren't trying to conceal their footsteps as they approached, but Harvey was making enough noise that he didn't even notice. As they got closer they grabbed a loose brick from the collapsed wall and held it firm in their hand.

Harvey finally got the lid open and he threw the trash inside, not bothering to close it back after that battle. "Finally." He turned back around -

*BAM!*

Harvey didn't know what had just happened. He had blacked out for a brief moment and stumbled backwards. He could feel something wet running down from his temple.

"W-w-hat.." He looked up and saw the cloaked figure standing only a few feet from here holding a brick. He could see a dark liquid on the edge of the brick where it had hit him.

"Who..who the hell are you? Have you lost your damn mind?!"

The figure stepped closer and a sliver of moonlight caught their face. They wore a hood around their head and he could make out a mask on their face. It was hard to tell with the low lighting but…it looked like a question mark.

"Are you the freak that's been messing with me all day?"

"...."

"Fucking psycho. You wait until I tell the military about this. I don't know who dressed you up early for Halloween, but I'm not one to be messed with."

The masked person stepped even closer.

Harvey backed up two steps. "Hey, don't you hear me? If you don't get out of my face right now you're going to be the next person shot up in the street."

*BAM!*

Harvey didn't see it coming. The person had struck him again with the brick so fast that he never even saw the hand motion. The pain from his head was starting to become blinding.

"S-s-t-oP.."

The masked figure ignored his plea. He struck him again.

And again.

Harvey fell to the ground a bloody mess. One of his eyes was heavily damaged and there was blood pouring from the top of his head.

"You….you deserve this." The figure spoke.

Harvey stared up at them with his hands outstretched. "P-please…I..I didn't..I didn't do anything.."

"Liar!" They brought down the brick again and Harvey went quiet. All that could be heard was the ragged sound of his labored breathing.

The mysterious assailant bent down over Harvey's battered body as they held the brick up high.

"Because of you, an innocent little girl was murdered! And why? Because she's a hybrid?"

*BAM!*

"She was more human than you'll ever be!"

*BAM!*

"More human than ANY of you!!"

*BAM!*

"You don't deserve to live! You don't deserve to enjoy life when she was robbed of it! You only deserve death!!"

*BAM!*

"You wanna know who I am?? I'm your fucking justice!"

*BAM* *CRACK*

They stopped their assault as they saw their handiwork before them. Fluids leaking over the pavement. No sound could be heard from Harvey anymore.

The person fell backwards and landed on their rear. Splatters of blood covered their cloak as well as their mask. A slight tremble could be seen in their body.

"....."

They could only remain silent as Harvey's still corpse lay before them. He was almost unrecognizable at this point.

They slowly reached up and removed their mask.

Zero's petrified face laid underneath it.

He had returned to the city with a steeled resolve to handle this his way. The way his predecessor couldn't. But now that it was done, he was no longer sure if this was the answer. His heart was racing and the realization of what he just did was setting in.

He just savagely murdered a man.

Zero looked down at his bloodied mask. The gruesome question mark staring back at him.

He felt sick.

Nora had thought of him as a superhero. Someone that could go around saving those in need. But do superheroes crack open skulls with a brick, he asked of himself. He then thought back to the homeless man mentioned in the journal. The military was supposed to be there to protect EVERYONE. Not just the favored and fortunate. Yet they only deal out justice to those who they think deserve it.

.....

"Then what about us? What about our suffering? Who is gonna stand up and right the wrongs against us?"

Zero slowly brought himself to his feet and slipped the mask back on. He took one last look at Harvey.

"Justice isn't clean. It's messy, chaotic, and brutal. It's only seen as righteous because they're the ones on top."

He turned away and began walking down the alley. His blood ornate clothes showing the weight he has taken upon himself.

"The other Zero couldn't do it because it was too heavy a task. But they'll soon find that I'm not that weak."