Chapter 6
The moment that Regulus was teleported back to the base, he screamed. He stormed into his room and shoved everything near him to the ground. He broke the lamp in his room and stomped on the glass, making the shards smaller. He went to his desk and threw everything off, leaving the room wrecked. He kicked his bed frame a couple times and then screamed some more. He was so angry that he started hitting himself. His back, his arms, his head. He took out all of his rage on himself. He grabbed his burnt face and scratched long lines down his cheeks. He rolled up his sleeves and scraped his nails down his forearms, leaving strips of blood in his wake. He was so enraged that he didn’t notice the tears streaming down his face.
His body felt like it was on fire, both because it previously was and because of the harm he had done to it. He closed his eyes and felt every aching part of his body. He focused on the ringing in his head from the many punches James had thrown at him. He was pretty sure his nose was broken. He concentrated on the blood seeping from his nostrils and lips. He licked it, it tasted like metal and defeat.
Regulus concentrated on the pain in his arms, where he had struck himself and where James had burned his skin. He brought it to the front of his mind and sat with the burning sensation for a while. It helped him feel calmer, the only problem was that the rage was giving way to something else. He wasn’t sure what. Loss? Sorrow? He hated it.
Of course the moment he had gotten back on his feet, his brother just had to show his face. Regulus would have preferred if he never saw Sirius again. Maybe it would make the stinging of his heart go away. The feeling of betrayal. Every time he saw his brother he remembered that night, when he became an only child.
Regulus couldn’t control his breathing. His breaths were short and shallow, he felt like he couldn't get enough air. He curled in on himself, holding his arms to his head and bringing his knees to his chest. He’s experienced these before, panic attacks. His heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest. He couldn’t talk. He had so many thoughts going through his head but he couldn’t focus on a single one. It was like a tornado of thoughts, and he was in the middle of it, being carried away to the deepest recesses of his brain.
He clenched his arms and once again brought his nails down on his skin. He brought them up and down, sawing away at the skin. He tried to take deep breaths, inhaling whenever he scratched up, and exhaling whenever he brought his nails down. He closed his eyes to try to focus better but he couldn't get a handle on his breathing. He switched from scratching to pulling at his hair. He twisted his long hair and pulled, taking a few strands out. He dug his nails into his scalp and pulled up. He tore up his hair and head, and only when he was sure he was going to become bald did he stop.
He brought his hands to his chest and started willing his heart to calm down, but that didn’t work so he tried to claw his heart out of its cage. After a while of punching his chest, he got a hook on his breath. He inhaled and exhaled as if he had never done it before. His entire body was shaking. He grabbed his arms again to try to steady himself and breathed in once more. He was chilled, his veins felt ice cold. But he kept breathing. In and out.
Eventually Regulus was able to shift over to the bed. He felt better now that he wasn’t stuck in place, but he was still shaking. Regulus took in a deep breath and flopped onto his mattress. After laying there with his eyes closed for a while, he brought his arms out in front of him and took a look. Parts of his skin were burnt, but that wasn’t from him. He zoned in on the parts that he had scratched off. They were goey and had blood covering the parts of the skin he dug too deep into. They were discolored and some of the lines were puffing up. Regulus trembled from the adrenaline. Looking at the mess he had made, all he felt was resentment towards himself. How could he be so weak as to hurt himself? Only cowards tried to run away from emotions like that. What kind of man was he that couldn't even face his brother without falling apart? All he had done was prove that he didn’t have control over his emotions and couldn’t handle defeat without turning on himself. No normal person would have mutilated themselves over what happened. Regulus was a failure.
And this wasn’t the first time, whenever Regulus got frustrated he would take it out on himself. He grew up with parents that took out all their problems on their children and he had to fight against himself not to follow their lead. The people close to him didn’t deserve that, whereas he did. He deserved all of the hurt he got.
Regulus got up and walked to the mirror. He rubbed under his eyes and tried to determine whether or not it looked like he had been crying. He put his hand up to his face. It was slightly trembling. He willed it to stop, and after a few minutes it did. He took in a deep breath and then left his room.
Regulus walked through the hallway, looking at his friends' rooms. He entered the living room where he saw Barty, Evan, and Marlene. Evan was sitting on a stool, facing Marlene. Marlene was sitting on a tall chair with a first aid kit open on a table next to her. She had her hands on his face and was dabbing wet cloth on his new black eye. Barty was laying on the couch, laughing about something. As he walked up he tuned into the conversation.
“I’m just saying, you got your ass handed to you by a girl.” Barty laughed.
“Who cares if she was a girl? Girls are strong.” Marlene chimed in.
Barty rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, girls are tough. Still, you could have paused time and killed her or something. If I had your powers, all of my fights would be over within seconds.”
“I don’t kill people.” Evan replied. “And I did use my powers, she went down. But as she got up again she challenged me not to use them anymore and- I- I don’t know. It’s like I had to listen to her.”
“So you lost because of a dare?” Barty burst out laughing.
“No. It was like I didn’t have a choice. As soon as she said it, I couldn’t even consider using them, they had just shut off. I still got in some pretty good hits though, sliced her up. But she knew her way around a weapon.” Evan said.
“But you lost.” Barty pointed out. “Everybody was so quick to follow Marlene back, we didn’t even get the ray. I rocked. The dude I was fighting was another shifter and I almost killed him. Marlene made me come back before I could though, buzzkill.”
“Everyone else was hurt. You’ll survive.” Marlene said. “And I’m done here.”
Evan got up. “Thanks.” He said, and then walked into the hallway and went into his room.
Barty noticed Regulus. “Wow mate, you look like shit. You lost too?”
Regulus sat down in front of Marlene and she grabbed his face. “Just the face and arms?”
Regulus nodded. Barty laughed. “What kind of powers did he have to get you so good?”
Regulus ignored him. Marlene wet a cloth with some kind of disinfectant and put it on a wound. Marlene was their healer, which helped a lot as they couldn’t go to the hospital whenever they got hurt. Marlene’s magic worked by speeding up the natural progression of a wound. So she could speed up recovery by weeks in a matter of minutes. This helped with cuts, lacerations, and broken bones. But first she had to clean it so it didn’t get infected. Many times she has had to set a broken bone in order for it to heal right. However, if a member of their crew were to lose a limb, Marlene wouldn’t be able to grow it back. Or if somebody got a disease, she could speed it up, but not cure it. Some healers could, but those were usually reserved for important people, mainly heroes.
Once Marlene had cleaned his face, she began touching it. Regulus sucked in a breath as searing pain shot through his head. Another thing about Marlene’s power was that it hurt. A lot. So the team held off on using her until it was absolutely necessary.
“Come on, what happened? I won’t laugh, I promise.” Barty said, already struggling to keep that promise.
Regulus chose not to acknowledge Barty. He closed his eyes and grit his teeth, enduring the healing process. Once he could tell that the worst of it was over he asked Marlene if Dorcas and Pandora had seen her already.
“Yeah, neither of them got too hurt. I think they both went up to bed already.” Marlene responded.
“Barty, go find everyone. As soon as I’m done here we’re going back out.” Regulus said.
“What? Regulus you’re barely healed, where could you possibly be going?” Marlene asked, flabbergasted.
“We have to go back to the museum.” Regulus didn’t understand why this would be a question. They failed. Failure is not an option. “Complete the mission at all costs. We still need to retrieve the Ray.”
“He’s right,” Barty finally chimed in, “Our superiors won’t care that we got a little banged up. They aren’t known for their sympathy, you know”.
Barty left to presumably gather the rest of the crew. Marlene did not seem pleased but she made no more attempts at dissuading them.
“We’ll be fine, what are the chances that we run into two HUF teams in one day. Don’t worry.” Regulus reasoned. He hoped his words sounded reassuring. Marlene didn't reply. She simply finished the healing.
–––
“Alright, the plan is simple” Dorcas briefed the team in the van that was parked at the end of the museum parking lot. “Regulus, you go in and find the Lava Ray. Evan will find and subdue any security. Barty will walk the perimeter keeping an eye out for any visitors. Pandora and I will stay here to direct operations. If anyone sees anything even slightly abnormal call back up immediately, Marlene will be here and ready to extract you at a moment’s notice.”
This was pretty standard operations for them. Unless they knew they would have to engage in combat, only one or two of them would initially attempt their objective. Regulus assumed that Dorcas decided to put Barty on lookout duty because of the unfortunate interruption they ran into last time they were here.
“Yeah, yeah whatever.” Said Barty, nonchalant as always. He put his hand in the center of the huddle as if they were some sort of sports team. “Bad bitches on three!” Everyone else just rolled their eyes as Barty raised his hand, counted down, and cheered. “Let’s go!” He roared.
Regulus, Barty, and Evan all set out for their assigned tasks.
Regulus merged with the darkness to easily slip under the door undetected. He headed straight towards the Pompeii exhibit. Based on the intel he received, this museum was currently holding an ancient piece of igneous rock from the island in pompeii. He is to retrieve said rock and return it to headquarters so that their scientists can extract the instructions to build the Lava Ray from it.
To be honest Regulus doesn’t understand half of the bullshit COV has him doing, but it isn’t his job to understand. His Job is to get results, and that’s what he does.
Regulus spots a security officer walking across the floor in front of the Pompeii exhibit. Before he can even blink, the man is on the floor, tied up and unconscious. Evan stood over the man before signaling Regulus to continue on.
Regulus walked into a large room. There were pictures of mummified remains and a diorama showing an erupting volcano along with dozens of people running from it. In the middle of the room was a rock in a locked display stand, with a plaque stating that it was taken from the eruption site at Pompeii. Regulus merged his hands with the shadows of the box and easily slipped into the display. His finger emerged from the shadows and he unlocked the box from the inside. Once the box was open, Regulus brought back his hand and took the rock.
He touched his com, turning it on. “I’ve got the rock.” He said.
Dorcas’ reply was immediate. “Great job. Come back and we’ll regroup in the van.”
Regulus walked out, looking at the displays as he went. Taxidermy animals, caveman models, and outfits from the Qing dynasty. Regulus walked up to the front door and took a second to marvel at the giant T-Rex built out of fossils. Regulus had always wanted to go to a museum, but his parents never took him. They lived a comfortable life but hardly shared it with their kids. They wanted Regulus to be tough, they said. Ready to lay down his life at a moment's notice. Not hung up on the luxuries they couldn’t bear to go without. They raised him to be a weapon.
Regulus slid under the door and walked up to the van. He opened the door to find Evan and Barty back from their jobs. Regulus gave the rock to Pandora. As soon as she touched it she confirmed that it was indeed what they were looking for.
“I saw the scientist creating the ray.” Pandora said. Pandora had exceptional powers, she was able to see snippets of the future, as well as turn back time five minutes. Once COV heard of a child capable of time travel, they had to get their hands on her. They adopted her and put her through hundreds of tests, trying to figure out how reliable she was. Her predictions were always true. If Regulus was raised to be a weapon, then she was raised to be a nuke. However, growing up without human interaction caused her to be a little… odd.
“Perfect.” Dorcas said, and then began driving back to the base.
“That went a lot smoother.” Barty said.
Evan laughed. “It’s crazy how efficient we are without heroes breathing down our necks.”
Regulus wasn’t amused. “We let those heroes jeopardize our mission. They walked away, alive. That can never happen again.”
“Maybe yours did.” Barty chuckled. Regulus glared at him.
“He’s right.” Dorcas stated. “We’ve never come so close to failing. We’ll need to train harder.”
“The girl I fought shot out plants!” Pandora chimed in. “I snuck a sample.”
“Well, use it to figure out how to defeat her.” Dorcas said.
Pandora smiled, “Actually, I was just going to see if it grew away from her. I want to see if she is the main life force.”
Marlene watched Dorcas’ eye twitch. “She can probably do both.” She said, trying to compromise.
“Blah blah blah, plants. This is boring. Let’s talk about something more interesting. Like should prostitution be legal. I think if you want a quickie and someone else wants a quick buck, it’s perfectly fine.”
Dorcas rolled her eyes. Barty always brought up controversial topics to sow discord through the group. Evan usually fell for it.
“That’s such a gross way to put it.” Evan said, already riled up, “Prostitution comes with a lot of different issues that you can’t even begin to imagine, Barty. There is so much abuse in the field of sex work.”
“You say that like I should care.” Barty pointed out.
“You should care. Many women are forced into it, because they have no other choice. Especially with the way that society treats women as though their only asset is their body-” Evan began.
“Is it not?” Barty cut him off. Evan gasped and plunged into a full on rant.
“You don’t really mean that, do you?” Marlene asked. Barty laughed.
“He’s just trying to get a rise out of Evan.” Dorcas sighed.
Regulus stared out of the window, ignoring his friends. His thoughts kept coming back to Sirius and his shit apology. If he was sorry, then he shouldn’t have betrayed him. He could be as sorry as he wanted, but it wouldn’t change the fact that he fucked up Regulus’ life. Regulus scoffed, imagining what Sirius thought would happen after his apology. Did he think Regulus would accept? That they would join forces? That Regulus would leave the only life he knew to be with a traitor?
No way, Regulus didn’t like the Death Eaters, but he liked them way more than the heroes. At least they knew they were bad. The heroes do evil things but pretend that it’s all for the sake of “Justice”. What is justice, anyway? Is it justice to put a man behind bars for stealing to feed his family? While a Health Care CEO gets to sit behind a desk and make millions off of denying families necessary medical procedures? The heroes protect the rich while leaving the weak to get picked off one by one. Regulus hasn’t seen any of the so-called “heroes” serving in soup kitchens or helping to house the homeless. What about the common man?
Since HUF is not a government organization, they need donations to stay afloat. But those donations are given to them by the elite. Regulus has seen it time and time again. The difference between the rich and the poor. Black people are gunned down on the streets and it’s seen as just another day. Nothing they could have done. The heroes aren't even deployed to look for the murderer. But the instant a CEO is killed, there is a nationwide manhunt, with every hero searching for the culprit.
Regulus knows how corrupt HUF is, that’s why he feels no qualms taking a hero’s life. To be fair, he doesn’t feel anything while killing a civilian either, but he takes joy in hurting heroes. It’s like a big middle finger to the system. People only want to be heroes for the money, anyway. That’s why it’s such a popular occupation.
Regulus let out a laugh. It’s not that he isn’t evil too. Much more evil than the heroes. That’s not the problem. The problem is the way society treats the two. Heroes and Villains are two sides of the same coin. But one is seen as good and the other bad. Regulus would rather do bad things and know that it’s bad, then do the same things and believe it’s for the greater good. That’s just lying. Regulus hates liars.
Going against your family and leaving them without a son is fine if you’re a hero like Sirius. But Regulus would bet that if the same thing happened to James fucking Potter, he wouldn’t feel as good about it. Regulus squeezed his hand into a fist, his nails piercing his skin. Potter stole his brother. But he’s a hero so it’s fine. Maybe Regulus should steal someone he loves in return. How would James feel to bury his mother in the ground?
Suddenly, Evan flew into Regulus’ lap, breaking him out of his thoughts. He looked up to see Barty strangling Evan with his bare hands. The next moment, Barty was on the ground with Evan sitting on top of him.
“So we’re using our powers, huh?” Barty said. His arm contorted into a whip and he smacked Evan on the face.
Evan kicked Barty’s leg and moved off of him. Barty and Evan began going in a circle, sizing each other up. While they did this, Regulus used his shadow to grab ahold of each of their shadows, rendering the two unable to move. Barty flailed his arms, but he couldn’t leave the spot he was stuck in. He tried to whip Evan, but Regulus pulled him further away.
Evan stopped trying to fight and resigned himself to sitting on the floor. Barty scoffed, “You would.”
Evan’s head shot up. “What do you mean by that?” He said.
“You would give up right away. You have no fight in you.” Barty said, sitting down as well.
“I have plenty of fight in me, I just know when I’m not going to win.” Evan countered.
“Aw, that scared to go against me?” Barty smirked.
Evan said, “Not you, dumbass. I just know that once Regulus has my shadow, I’m not moving until he decides I can.”
“I’ve decided that you can once your dumb fight is over.” Regulus said.
Barty sighed, “You ruin everything.”
“We’re here anyways.” Dorcas interrupted.
Evan and Barty both looked at Regulus, waiting to be released. Regulus groaned. “Fine.” And let them go. They both immediately fought each other to be the first one out of the van.
“Idiots.” Dorcas said after them, getting out herself.
“Boys will be boys.” Marlene interposed.
Regulus got out of the car and came face to face with Pandora, who had been waiting for him. “Do you want to watch One Punch Man with me?” She asked.
Regulus walked right past her. “No, I’m going to my room.”