The
Diary of Morris Oaks Part 3
By Zack Bouis
I got the new one day as
I showed up at my house. My daddy had been killed. I was in shock,
I didn’t want to believe it, I mean things had been going so well
for us. He had been working security at a bank downtown. The place
was pretty well stocked with cops working security for the place,
when some guy busted in with his own personal army and gunned down
everyone in sight.
After that, a lot of dad’s friends from the department
came by to "give their condolences," I wasn’t much interested in what
they had to say, about how sorry they were, or how they really felt
for our loss, or, he was a good man and a credit to the force. None
of that mattered. I didn’t take any notice until one of them started
talking about the guy who had busted into the place. I went to him
and I eventually got him to show me the security tapes from the bank.
He acted all friendly, like I was just some curious kid who wanted
to see what went on in "the grown up world," now I wasn’t gonna say
anything about that, since I needed him to show me the tapes but it
still pissed me off.
I saw the bank’s security tapes, It starts off
with everyone walking around the bank going about their business,
and the security guards walking about all normal like, I notice my
daddy walk by the camera too. Then suddenly the doors fly open and
5 guys bust inside the place guns going like crazy. The first three
were dressed in normal grey military duds, and one wore all this fancy
looking equipment and had his face covered, and the fifth one... well
the fifth one scared the hell out of me. He wore dark armor with a
spider web drawn across his chest, he had a long flowing cape that
swirled around him cause he moved so fast, and he wore a helmet like
the ones you see some Arachnos soldiers wear. It was black and came
down just enough to cover his eyes, with two black spikes going just
below the line of the helmet so that they looked like fangs. This
guy was the first supervillain I had ever seen in my life. He looked
like he could of been one of Recluse’s top men but he didn’t have
any powers, he only used that assault rifle he carried and ordered
his troops around as he tore through the place gunning down all the
people in the bank.
I saw him go after the cops in the bank. He would
pick out the targets and his men would back him up. The first cop
was drawing his gun as they came in the door and the leader put a
round in his head, and while he was falling backwards, the troops
that were tagging along behind the armored guy put down another cop
as he was trying to call for backup. One man standing in front of
the tellers got out a call for backup and by the time he drew his
gun, the head guy rushed forward lifted the poor cop clear off the
ground and slammed his back into the tellers desk until it snapped.
There wasn’t any sound on this tape of course, but I could tell that
that man was screaming.
Then with a little jump in my gut I noticed
as the armored bandit turned on the only cop left in the room. My
daddy. My daddy drew his gun faster than the crook could get his up
and fired off three shots. Catching all of them off guard one hit
one of the soldiers following behind the leader, dropping him to the
ground dead. The other two shots went straight for the big man in
the armor. One hit the Arachnos style helmet and just bounced off,
the other put a long cut in the man’s cheek.
They were still caught
off guard so my daddy was diving for one of the stone pillars for
cover, when suddenly, it happened so fast the camera almost didn’t
catch it, the leader man spun around and blew off my daddy’s gun hand.
While he was on the ground, defenseless, the armored man and his goons
came up to look at him. He said something to him, before unloading
his clip into my daddy’s chest. I had to look away, ‘cause water was
starting to fill up in my eyes. Needless to say, the gang of crooks
got away with the money.
Afterwards, I went to all the cops I knew
at headquarters, I asked everyone who had any info and even snuck
into the Police Department one night to look at the file on the killer.
The criminal’s supervillain name was Red Fang, once one of the top
soldiers for Arachnos, but he was betrayed by someone in his team
and forced to go rogue. No superpowers, but was an expert on weaponry
and had his own little private team of mercenaries. I thought to myself,
"maybe that’s what they can say in the eulogy."
I took up the only
thing I really knew. Guns. I went to the gun store that I had my job
at, my plan already formed, and as I stepped into the place I noticed
the owner was lying on the counter, a bloody handkerchief in his hand.
I was already feeling too much grief, to really feel sorry for the
guy. If anything I found kind of amusing that someone else I knew
would die in the same week as my daddy. I locked his body in the back
room and got to work. I picked up the largest hunting rifle in the
store. Built for big game, some rich asshole would probably take this
on a lion hunt, or to shoot elephants for the ivory. It was probably
the most penetrating weapon we had in the store. I loaded it and pocketed
some ammo. I also tied some sort of assault rifle on my back and put
on a belt holster for two 9 millimeters. I decided I was going to
want some kind of a disguise, so I put on a brown cowboy hat that
was hanging on the wall and tied a brown bandanna around my mouth.
Yeah, I was ready.
I started tracking Red Fang, I had never done this
sort of thing before but it took weeks, The Rogue Isles might be small,
but I had to follow every time he moved from an area, and it could
take me days to find out about it when he did. I had to use contacts
who knew of his movements and since I had no history or reputation
in the underworld it was difficult to get information. Eventually
I caught up with him in Sharkhead Isle.
I made friends with a few
Scrapyarders living on the beach. I stayed in one of their huts for
a couple of days until he showed up. He was walking along one of the
cliffs above the beach. He didn’t have his mercenaries with him. This
was my chance.
I had him in my sights as he walked along the ridge,
I had the crosshairs aimed just below his head, ‘cause I knew that
helmet was capable of stopping a bullet and I was hoping to take him
out at the only unarmored part of his body, his neck. I fired the
weapon, and he was thrown forward and landed on his face. I was exhilarated,
I had finally done it, I had carried out my revenge! But, that was
only to last a split second, as I saw him stand up and I realized
my mistake. The bullet had just missed his neck and hit his helmet.
With the force of the gun, hitting him in the back of his head was
enough to throw him forward, but, he hadn’t died, and now he was coming
straight for me.
I threw away the rifle and pulled out my SMG and
started unloading it at him. In his general direction is more like
it. I had lost track of him as he came down the cliff and after firing
off those shots I now had no idea where he was. My instincts gave
it away and as I heard the movement of the sand and smelled the sweat
covered metal I swerved around only to meet his gun butt with my face.
I took a step back dazed from the blow, but I hadn’t dropped my weapon
and was able to think enough to know that he could have killed me
by now. He’s probably making it a point to get me on the ground, injured,
so he can say something badass to me before he I die. Using that I
manage to raise the gun and fire off a round but he’s able to dodge
it and delivers a sharp, armor plated, elbow to the side of my head.
I could barely stand now. I numbly tried to swing the gun at him and
he tore it out of my hands and threw it behind him. Gaining a little
bit of my focus back I go for the two pistols at my sides. As soon
as I have them out I get a strong uppercut to the jaw. I fall back
and slide along the sand a few feet. Quickly I look up and I’m able
to get a shot off at one of the joints of his armor. I’m able to get
a bullet in the little space between his shoulder and chestplate.
In the moment that he’s distracted with that I stand up and point
a gun at him but suddenly he swings his gun out in front of him like
a club and manages to knock both 9 millimeters out of my hands. By
the time I realize it he’s got the assault rifle pointed at my heart
and I stand there with my arms up. The scariest thing about this man
to me is how I can’t see any emotion in him at all. His body is covered
entirely in armor and his face is covered with that Arachnos helmet.
He’s the one who decided to draw this out into a fight when he could
have killed me at the start, and here I am about to die anyway.
He
says, "The world is going to be mine, little man, and there is nothing
any teenage kid with a gun who thinks he’s a hero is gonna do about
it."
I hear the gunshots echo in my mind as everything else is blocked
out. Everything except some little voice inside my head that keeps
repeating, "Hero?"
"Hey there’s some kid here who’s almost dead."
"Don’t take him unless you want to carry the body back."
"Chief that’s
wrong, we’re supposed to be here to help people."
"Hmmf."
"He needs
medical attention we can save his life if we get him to the hospital."
"Look out how he’s dressed he’s probably a criminal."
"No he’s right,
take him."
"Alright then, its your call, this is against protocol
though."
Those were the voices I heard in my sleep before I woke up
in a clean white hospital, laying on the most comfortable bed I’ve
laid on in my life. I wanted to drift back off to sleep when I saw
someone sitting at the foot of my bed.
I was startled but he looked
like he was glad to see me, and like he’d been sitting there for a
while. He was wearing a suit, had short blonde hair in a military
sort of cut and, I noticed, he was unarmed.
"Good morning," he said
looking me straight in the eye. I didn’t respond.
"I found you shot
up in the Rogue Isles, Sharkhead, and I was able to bring you back
here for medical treatment."
I decided to speak to him, "Where am
I?"
"You’re in Paragon City, in the Steel Canyon Medical Center,"
he was a nice guy but I’ve got to say I’ve never really seen anybody
smile quite that much.
And then it hit me, "I’m in Paragon City?!"
"Yep."
"But..." I thought I would have something to say to that, some
objection, or complaint, or worry but I didn’t. I had about a million
questions going off in my head right now though.
So I started to ask
them. This guy had been a medic with a Longbow squadron who had managed
to sneak into the Rogue Isles through Siren’s Call and were being
led by some swordsman hero named Gray Wolf. They were hoping to arrest
one of the Arachnos Arbiters but had to scratch the mission at the
last second and decided to pick me up. I decided to trust this guy
and told him about me. About how I grew up in the Rogue Isles and
how my daddy was killed by the supervillain Red Fang, who was the
one who had shot me up when they found me.
This guy didn’t know anything
about Red Fang but he stopped by to visit me every day for the two
weeks I spent in the hospital after that, along with some of the other
LongBow operatives who had been there that day. I never did get to
meet the Hero who led the team though. I was told that Gray Wolf was
the one who told them to take me along and I was grateful for it.
No one came to visit me on the day I was allowed to leave the hospital
but there was a gigantic looking gun at the end of the bed along with
a belt with pouches full of all sorts of weird gadgets and even a
brown cowboy hat and bandanna. I think they knew what I was gonna
do.
I left Steel Canyon and took the train to Atlas Park, and throughout
it I couldn’t help but be amazed at how different this place was from
the Rogue Isles. Sure, we both had tall buildings but here everything
was so clean and efficient, where as in the Rogue Isles you could
almost smell the corruption in the place. Sure there was the crime
problem but I didn’t have any problems going from Steel to Atlas and
even if I had I don’t think it would have stopped my amazement in
the slightest.
I walked into City Hall and headed for the Hero Registration
desk. The lady there saw a muscular, teenage boy wearing a white tank
top, with a cowboy hat and bandanna, and a gigantic gun slung over
his shoulder. In the Rogue Isles she would think I was going to holdup
the place. Here she asked me what my Hero name was going to be.
At
that I thought back through it all. I thought of my daddy, the Rogue
Islands Policeman, who gave his life in the line of duty. Yessiree
he was a member of RIP, the Rogue Islands Police, but I thought about
the other meaning of those three letters, Rest In Peace, and with
the silent prayer to my father completed, I told the lady,
"I’m...
The Peacemaker."
END