“You know, what I’m about to say isn’t much of a practical advice or even a secret technique to help you along the way but rather…

How can I say?

We Criminal Masterminds are… particular. Sometimes that means we develop particular tastes as well.

One of mine is the appreciation of unexpected.

Unexpected comes in many forms and colors. The canvas of everyday life is splattered with it, after all. Some find it good, others find it terrifying, and others simply take it as a part of life and ignore it.

I? I find it curious.

So, I’ve always had a like for the unexpected. Not every day works out the best for me. But when it does…

What can I say?

It’s such a wonderful thing…”

 

• ••••

 

Lawrence wanted to laugh and cry, all at once.

The man before him looked all but an easy opponent. His body was built like an iron temple. And he had been running around with that thing on his shoulders.

A fucking sledgehammer.

Lawrence used his Evileye of Truth. What he saw in this person- Jhonathan’s status wasn’t exactly reassuring.

Summon an incredibly heavy battlehammer that can break through almost everything.

So it was a battlehammer. Technicalities. Who cared about those? Lawrence didn’t. He did, however, care about that battlehammer’s meaning on battle. The power per-se wasn’t nearly as tricky as meta abilities usually were. Don’t get caught by the massive lump of steel and it’ll be fine.

Simple? Sure. Easy? Not a chance in hell.

He was ready to bet Jhonathan had a few features based around putting that hammer to good use. Probably at least one that let him ignore the weight, seeing how he rested it casually on his back when a normal person’s neck would have hurt at the weight.

So, all in all, he was pretty much fucked up.

That didn’t mean his rage was gone. On contrary. The person in front of him was the cause of all the trouble he had been going through since… Hell knew how long. His house partially destroyed. His subordinate and protegee potentially hurt. And the baker sisters, who kept his peaceful oasis running, kidnapped.

Yeah, listing up all the things that this person had caused wasn’t doing any good to his anger. Fortunately for Lawrence, his instinctive fear on the hammer was helping him keep his cool. At least for now.

There was no chance in hell he would win this fight.

So he did what he knew best.

Blow smoke around.

“Jhonathan Jo- Ahem! Jhonathan Chase! I wish I could say ‘pleased to meet you in person’… Sadly, I’m not fond of lying. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Jhonny frowned. “Of all the type of villains, I had the luck of running into the circus clown. What a fine piece of work.”

“That’s rich coming from someone sitting in their high skyscraper, feeling like a benevolent God while you wage war against the Mafia. And forcefully remodeling entire neighborhoods on your way. I would call you a megalomaniac, but I suppose that would be going too far on megalomaniacs.”

“A vigilante? Should’ve guessed it, what with your theatrics.”

Lawrence wanted to smile. It was working, if barely. Jhonathan was man of few words, but he was tickling the right spot, at least for now. If this kept going, maybe Mika could help the sisters escape…

!

Without sudden warning, Jhonny launched himself towards Lawrence. Fortunately, hammer aside, he was a normal, if bulky, person, which meant Lawrence could keep track of his movements. Unfortunately, ‘hammer aside’ wasn’t an option.

The swing was coming from above. The gamer inside him told Lawrence the basics in a fight. If it’s a vertical slash, sidestep. If it’s horizontal, jump or crouch. Of course, it was much easier to do when facing a literal robot that knew nothing but that.

Jhonatan wasn’t a robot. And he certainly knew more than just swinging his hammer around. The moment Lawrence sidestepped and aimed towards his back, he used his built-up momentum to shift the downward swing into an empowerd lateral kick.

It was far from perfect. Jhonny wasn’t a martial artist. He wasn’t even a warrior. But experience and creativity are powerful tools, especially when paired with raw strength.

And a battlehammer. Let’s not forget that bloody battlehammer.

Battlehammer which would literally turn bloody if Lawrence didn’t move out of his way right now.

He crouched. Jhonny’s leg blew air on his forehead. On the good side, he had avoided getting a massive kick the head. On the con side, he was on the ground, and had lost all his balance, breaking his posture. Fortunately, the extra momentum forced Jhonny to move aside. His hammer might have been light for him, but physics still applied. Or so Lawrence hoped.

He safety rolled backwards, something he could do now do without risking to break his neck thanks to the Conqueror’s Spark.

Quite a Conqueror I am!

By the time Lawrence was back on his feet, Jhonathan was already back and ready for more.

Lawrence took a deep breath. Breathing was starting to hurt already.

Something most people didn’t take in consideration was that physical exhaustion was a really big deal on things like melee fights. Sure, trained people wouldn’t get tired at the first two or three swings.

Lawrence wasn’t trained.

The fight continued. At first, it looked to Lawrence like he could keep dodging for a while. He didn’t have to actually beat Jhonathan. In fact, he believed it was impossible to the current him. But his top priority wasn’t defeating him, it was making enough time so that Mika and the bakers sisters could run away. So he kept avoiding one blow after another. Some of them, he didn’t completely avoid however. His hyper-focus on the hammer had made him think it was all that Jhonathan had. That had earned him more than a few punches and kicks already.

And after five minutes of fighting, Lawrence was a mess.

He was sweating profusely. His ragged breath barely supplied him enough oxygen to keep going. The brusises were starting to ache badly. His hands and legs were getting heavier by the second, and even his focus was getting a little dizzier. No matter that he was partially good at dodging, he wasn’t made for fighting.

He shouted.

“Mikaella!”

No response. She was already out of danger.

Good.

Now it was time to get himself out of danger as well.

“Calling your allies already?!” Jhonathan ran at him, battlehammer following suitely. “Not quite… dramatic now are we?!”

Lawrence scoffed. “I need not my allies. And now that they are relatively safe…”

His brain frantically ran throught every single sliver of knowledge, experience of creativity Lawrence could have that helped him out of the situation. The others were safe, yes. But now it was fear for his own life driving him. And he wasn’t good at handling that.

Finally, his mind came to a stop. He was going to try something. A last resource, if you may.

If it worked, he was saved.

If it didn’t…

He wouldn’t be the first corpse for Jhonathan to bury.

Lawrence planted his feet on the ground, and with all of his might and faked authority, he raised a hand.

“Enough!”

Jhonathan came to a stop. He realized his mistake, and was about to get at it again.

Lawrence wouldn’t let him.

“I said… ENOUGH!!!”

Lawrence pushed it, at his limits. He felt it. The Conqueror’s Spark constantly wove a fine mantle around him. It was probably the reason for his boosts. It was also this mantle that moved when he used his quasi-mind-control ability.

It stretched, so far Lawrence swore it was about to break. The backslash hit him hard enough that he had to bite his tongue and clench his teeth not to scream.

But it had done the job. Jhonathan had obeyed. He was momentarily stopped. Partially due to Lawrence’s influence on him. But that wasn’t much. It would probably break if he tried to fight it.

He was impressed. This man had stopped him right on his track. He didn’t feel forced to either. It wasn’t the same as with some power. He had willingly stopped.

Or so he thought, anyways.

What kind of dangerous trick would this person pull up next?

Lawrence smiled. It was an eerie grin, shrouded by an unsettling darkness. Twin amethysts stared at him from behind the abyssal veil.

Jhonathan’s hairs stood on the end of his neck.

And then, Lawrence spoke.

“I surrender.”

 

• ••••

 

Mika kept running even after getting away from Quickbrick Company’s offices. Even after leaving the docks. She ran and ran until she reached for a familiar enough place. A terrible-smelling hideout with a strangely toilet-shaped hole on the roof.

She was literally dragging the baker sisters with her.

Once they had stopped bumping with every kind of obstacle the ground wanted to put in them, and internally cursing Mika for nearly breaking their backs, they took a large breath. They were both hyperventilating due to previous events, and oxygen wasn’t exactly raining insde their lungs. Not that it should, on that matter.

Once stable enough, and to Mia’s surprise, it was Emma the first one to talk.

“Mika! Why did we run?! That person had a giant hammer! And the-the gentleman, he came to rescue you, didn’t he? I don’t- this is-!”

Mika shook her head. She was tired, and she felt bad about leaving the Chief behind too. But her reasons were not the same as Emma’s.

“Don’t worry. The Chief is gonna be fine.”

“The Chief is…? What kind of logic is that?!”

“Calm down Em.”

Somewhere in the time they had spent together baking cookies, Mika started calling Emma and Mia by… Em and Mii. Not exactly the most creative nicks. Emma liked it back then. Right now, she wasn’t so sure.

“Listen, we have to go back. We have to-!”

“And do what?” Mika asked.

Emma looked at Mika. She wanted to answer something. Anything. This person had come to save them. And they had abandoned them. She wanted to say that she could do anything… But could she, really? She was a baker. No, a waitress. Normal people were hard enough to fight. What could she do against a literal bear with a sledgehammer?

Warhammer.

She wanted to retort anything at all, even if it wasn’t smart.

Then she caught a glimpse of Mika’s face.

She wasn’t sad. She wasn’t worried. In fact, she wasn’t even nervous. She was simply… Resigned. She looked like she had given up to a little detail. That definitively wasn’t the face of someone concerned over a friend.

She was slightly bothered.

Mia had noticed as well. She had stayed silent up to this point, but she was curious.

“Hey Mika…”

The girl turned back.

“What makes you so sure this… person will be alright? And who is he anyways?”

Mika smiled. It was an awkward smile. The Chief would have a lot of explaining to do when he got back…

Oh well, what could she do?

For now, she could make her new friends understand how cool the Chief was.

“That was the Chief. He is my Chief. And he beats up the bad guys. He also gives me cookies. And he’s like, really cool and stuff.”

Thanks! That was a lot of nothing explained right there! Both sisters nearly snapped.

“But who is he?”

Mika cocked her head.

“The Chief is… the Chief.”

The baker sis sighed. This girl was no good. They wouldn’t get anything good out of her.

“Well, can’t you at least say why you feel so confident the Chief will be alright?”

“That’s easy!” Mika smiled.

“The Chief is the Chief, after all!”

Mia sighed. Emma simply gave up on getting anything on Mika’s side. The identity of the Chief remained a mystery. She was also sure by now that he wasn’t Mika’s father. The way Mika looked at him wasn’t a daughter-father relationship, but more of a… hero-sidekick relationship, maybe?

Emma facepalmed. Of course! That was it! It had to be! The so-called chief was a hero, and Mika was his sidekick! It all suddenly made sense. His gentlemanly suit, his fortunate appearance, even Mika’s confidence on him. Of course! That was the way a little girl would look at a hero!

Not that Mika was a little girl, but that was beside the point.

So he was a hero, huh? Well, he should be a newly formed one. Almost surely appeared the last Wakening Season. How she knew was simple: there simply was no way someone so eye-catching would remain hidden for so long! Which made it all even more impressive. The last Wakening Season had ended… not even a week ago. So this person was, at most, a month old in the heroign world.

And yet, he was so…

Heroic.

And good looking.

And gentlemanly.

And her heart was fluttering again.

Nononoonononon! Back on track Emma! Back! On! Track!

She slapped her cheeks.

Mia noticed that as well. She cocked her head first. Then she facepalmed. Then she smiled. And then she grinned evilishly.

Oooh, I smell something…!

“Mika, how long do you think it’s going to take before the Chief comes back? A day? Two”

“I’d say in a four, five hours? Hard to guess.”

Both sisters, shook their heads. Mika was clearly exaggerating. They had been running in circles for quite a while, true. Mika said this was to ‘avoid being tracked down’. She also purposefully avoided some alleys, mumbling something along the lines of ‘Felyne King of Destruction’. The final result was they spent three to four hours between one thing and the other.

Even so, that man didn’t look like a joke. It would certainly take more than four to five hours for the ‘Chief’ to come back.

Mia sighed.

“I don’t think we can get any realistic estimates from Mika…”

“I hear you Sis… It feels like she switches between genius, crazy and a little girl constantly… Do you think it has something to do with the Chief?”

“If so, probably for the better. There’s something else going on here… I don’t think we want to find out, though.”

“Right…”

“So? How much do you think it will take before your mysterious charming prince comes?”

Emma’s face reddened like a beetroot. “Wha-Wha-What is that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, he’s certainly a good-looking person! Even behind the mask… He behaves like a true gentleman as well. Fufufu, this one is worth fighting for, dear sister!”

“S-S-S-S-Shut uuuuup!!!” Emma waved her hands around, trying to push her devil sister’s penetrating gaze away from her. This went on for a couple of minutes, when Emma sighed.

“I’m giving him two days. Even that is impressive per se. I don’t think he wants to risk his sidekick… Or us. Maybe he’ll hide for a day or two?”

“And we’ll do what? Stay in this place playing hide and seek until then?”

“Mika thinks that’s the best thing to do for now.”

“Huuuh…” Mia sighed.

“Let’s pray your charming prince arrives sooner than expected. I don’t even know why we were kidnapped in the first place… But I bet we’re collateral damage. If those men came after Mika and her Chief, I’m sure they’re up to no good… And I’m sure they won’t hesitate to tie up loose ends, even the bad way around.”

Emma nodded, though she shivered a bit at the thought.

“Hah! Well, even so, that doesn’t mean he can be here that soon! Four to five hours? Hilarious!” Mia smiled.

“Hilarious, indeed. I can’t help but laugh at Mikaella!” Lawrence said.

“Right?” Emma smiled as well.

“Yeah” Lawrence said.

“There’s no way he comes so soon! Right?” Mia said. He voice sounded mechanical now.

“Right!” Emma said. Her voice was husky.

“THEN HOW?!?!?!”

Lawrence smiled. Yes, Lawrence smiled.

“That is little important now” he said. “Nevermind that. For now, I must assure your safety.”

“No? But I want my answer?!”

“Indeed! We all want answers! Isn’t life one big question?” We winked. “Now follow me, ladies!”

He smiled even further.

“There is a most certainly important conversation ahead of us…”

Emma could barely hear him. She was melting. One second they were talking about him, and the next he was here, with his smile, and his cape, and his eyes, oh my god his eyes! They felt like they could sink in her!! She felt she was dancing between clouds and…

And…

And she suddenly tripped.

It all happened in slow motion.

One second, her face was rushing to the ground thanks to the oh-so-known gravitational pull.

The next, a jet-black cane gently smacked her and saved her from kissing the highly anti-hygienic stone floor, and probably dying of God knew how many different nasty disseases.

The man smiled gently and spun his cane around merrily.

This was going to be a long day.

And she didn’t mind it at all.