The Independants/Rap Sheets/Birth of a Warrior

From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

New Thebes, Talos Island, 10 years ago

No matter how hard he tried, he simply couldn't shut it out or make it go away. Huddled in a dark corner of his room, his face, shame and anger buried under covers that might have hidden him from view, but did nothing to mask the pain of the stinging bruises and welts that criss-crossed his back, nor did they block out the sounds insidiously slipping through all-too thin walls as they snaked down from above.

He wanted to scream, to cry, to howl out his helplessness and pain to the world, to shout so hard as to not only drown out the noises he knew he couldn't escape but to bring down the attention of every supposed hero in the city, but no sound, save that of a few, muffled sobs escaped his throat.

"I tried Penny... I tried so hard..." He muttered to himself, voice nearly drowning in agonised torment, as he pulled the blankets tighter around his head, trying in vain to keep the sounds, and reminder of his utter failure as a brother from reaching his ears.

It was all for nothing though, he couldn't block his ears any more than he could stop his mind from picturing what was happening above him while he cowered in the darkness like a kicked dog or stop his screaming nerves from reminding him of the pain that racked his body, the only reward his attempted heroism had earned him.

He had tried standing up to him, for Penny's sake. Had tried defending her, like a big brother should, had tried to keep her safe from the monster that neither of them could escape, and all it got him in return was a beating worse than any he had ever suffered before.

In his minds eye he could still see her, beautiful brown hair framing her face, eyes wide-open in terror, a silent scream caught in her throat as she watched the belt of the monster descend over her brother's back like a whip, again and again as he curled up in a ball on the floor, afraid to meet her eyes knowing only too well what was in store for her, once the monster had grown tired of putting him in his place.

The sounds from the room above grew louder, and the images that came unbidden to his mind more vivid still. He felt sick to his heart and would have thrown up again if there had been anything left in his stomach to void. His body trembled as he dry-heaved and found himself hoping against hope that the monster had finally pushed it too far, that he would die and finally be able to find some form of escape that way, and was, immediately afterwards, overwhelmed with yet more guilt over having even entertained the thought!

He was all Penny had, and even if he was powerless to defend her, like a good brother should, he still had to try... for her.

Then, after an eternity of agony, the noises stopped, replaced not long after by a loud snore that *almost* but not quite blocked out Penny's muffled sobs. And as he had for more nights now than he would care to count, Jason Alexander lay sleepless in the dark listening to the snoring of the monster that called himself his father, and the quiet tears of the little sister he, once again, had failed to protect...

Talos Island, Elysian Fields Cemetery, 7 years ago

It was raining hard that morning, as if heaven itself mourned what had happened by opening its floodgates and drenching the pitifully small gathering of people there.

Jason didn't notice. Water was creeping down his collar and pooling in his shoes, and his unruly mob of brown hair clung flat to his head like a drowned rat. The priest was reading aloud from some passage of the scripture, but the words barely registered with Jason, and why would they? He was all alone in the world now.

His piercing, blue-grey eyes were focused on one thing, and one thing only, the small coffin waiting to be lowered into the depths of the Earth, taking with it the last remains of the only person he could remember who had ever meant anything to him. His lips moved, but no sound came over them as he silently repeated the words that had become an almost mindless mantra to him ever since that day he had come home to find Penny gone without a trace, and which had only grown stronger days later when the police had finally showed up at his house and asked his father to come with them - something the young boy had feverishly dreamed and hoped would happen for as long as he could remember - to help them identify a body!

"I'm sorry Penny... I'm so, so, sorry!"   They said her body had been recovered from the waters off the coast of Helen Point, and that her body had been too badly damaged from the impact with the rocks, and the lengthy stay in the water for any conclusive examination. There had been an investigation of course, but if nothing else, Penny had always been excellent at maintaining a facade of normality, with anyone but Jason, and since nothing resembling a suicide note was ever found, his father had already gone through her room and removed her diary the day she had vanished, the police ruled her death accidental.

"ACCIDENTAL""

The word burned in Jason's throat like a lump of fiery coal, made his stomach twist and turn into knots and filled his mind with liquid, white-hot flame. Even if the rest of the world blinded itself to the truth, he KNEW what his little sister had been doing on the cliffs of Helen Point that day, and why she had jumped.

Feeling the fire burn just behind his eyes he focused his gaze directly on the coffin, as if willing himself to stare straight through the white-painted wood. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't turn his gaze from the coffin, couldn't bring himself to look at the monster in man's clothing standing nearby, pretending to be mourning the daughter he had killed, bit by bit, day by day, over more years than Jason dared try to count, until only the empty shell that broke itself against the cliffs had remained.

And yet, as much as Jason hated the monster, as much as he loathed the vile creature that had called itself his father, Penny's father, there was someone else he hated more. Someone even more repugnant and deserving of the pure burning disgust that filled his entire being; the one who had let her down, again and again. The one who had failed her at every turn, had failed to protect her like he should and who had only made her pain and suffering worse for it. Himself.

"ACCIDENTAL!"

The monster had killed Penny, he had allowed it to happen, and no-one would be punished for it. No policemen would come to drag the monster away in chains, no heroes in brightly coloured costumes and capes would barge through the door and bring the monster to justice, no shadowy vigilante would avenge her death in a darkened alley and no omnipotent and benevolent god would strike down the devil, or his helper, for their sins.

He knew it then, as he stood there in the rain, alone in the world with his pain and self-loathing, drenched to the core by the tears of heaven and consumed from the inside by the fire of his rage and guilt that he had nothing left to hope for, nothing left to live for now... except himself.

And as the coffin was slowly lowered into the open grave and the final words of the priest drifted towards an uncaring, yet weeping, sky and he felt the heavy hand of the monster land on his shoulder, Jason Alexander knew at once what he had to do...