Jacob's life wasn't getting any simpler. In fact, it was only getting harder.
Over the next couple of days, Jacob kept to his word as the self appointed protector of Midtown, and boy was it needed. He wasn't sure if it was his own deeds or merely the continuation of an ongoing trend, but the Serpents were coming in force into Midtown and causing havoc. Most of it was simple vandalism—throwing bricks through windows and slashing tires—but they were never shy about hurting people. Worse yet, the police were even more disorganized than normal after the sudden disappearance of police commissioner Doyle. The chain of command was working hard to get someone in charge, along with investigating his disappearance, but this only meant that police intervention was even more slow arriving. Before long, Jacob was the lone guardian fighting off the hordes of thugs. In one instance, an all out brawl broke out in the streets as the Serpents were grabbing every able bodied man, and even a few women and children, to be beaten senseless in a show of mindless brutality. It was a hard fought fight, but through luck and a little finesse Jacob had ended the riot in as few casualties as possible and no deaths.
Fortunately, Jacob was literally suited for the job, as the Serpents lacked fire arms. Billy clubs, knives, bats with nails in them: their entire arsenal was strictly close range, which made Jacob, as Midknight, more than a match with his indestructible armor and shield. However, even with his enhanced speed and strength, he couldn't be everywhere at once, and the attacks were numerous across town. More and more property was being damaged, and more and more folks were losing their homes, unless you counted being in a hospital. The Serpents also had a particular love for molotov cocktails, dubbed venom tossers, which meant more burning buildings for Jacob to rush into and save people. To make a bad situation worse, there were more than a few times Jacob had to run for the hills because the police chose to prioritize him whenever they did arrive. It was old before, Jacob thought, but now it was getting ridiculous. But at least they would arrest the Serpents he incapacitated and left on the streets.
But it wasn't all doom and gloom. For those that had no place to stay or simply needed a safe place where they could recover, Jacob would direct them to Paradiso. Lance was all too happy to receive them, and he ensured that every soul that came to rest there had a place to stay. Howard was likewise present and ready to offer his services.Suffice to say, there was a great need for a psychiatrist amongst those assaulted, but Howard was nothing if not patient, seeing each person one at a time and for as long as they needed. Deborah was likewise working with them, getting any and all interviews she could. While she was still on probation, this didn't stop her from trying to make sense of the senseless violence. She and Howard were doing the grand bulk of the talking, but that left the doing to others.
When Jacob wasn't running off to play hero or at least wasn't going outside of the typical range the Luminos could go, Merrick and Nina took it upon themselves to offer a little help. After all, while it wasn't necessarily a secret to most midtowners, it didn't look too good that an eight year old child was running a homeless shelter. Therefore, Merrick took it upon himself to be the unofficial owner of the establishment, having Lance write up some fake documents to rebuff any snoopers and law officials. Merrick also put some of the men now living there to work. After all, Paradiso was still in a state of disrepair after being mostly empty for four or so years, and the figuratively and literally poor Lance could only do so much. So, those that were willing to work were organized in teams that would specialize in various areas of disrepair. One man was actually a liscenced plumber, albeit retired for the last half decade, but he remembered his craft and soon hot water became the norm rather than the miraculous. A few other men and even a few of the women offered to assist Lance's repair business to help build more revenue, and soon he had a full assembly line going. Lance soon found himself with more and more free time, thus he often aided Nina with her job.
While Nina wasn't suited for construction, this left her a job that she adored more than anything: childcare. There were plenty of children who had lost their homes, and keeping them occupied, much less happy, was too taxing for any caregiver or parent. But Nina had a leg up thanks to her powers of empathy. She was fast to find the likes and dislikes of the various children now running around, and with the help of some volunteers she made a number of fun activities for them to do from scavenger hunts, to special crafting projects, and she even had them put on a little talent show one night. Without question, it was the most life Paradiso had breathed in some time, and little by little she was returning to her former glory as the crown jewel of Midtown. A beacon of hope in a world drowning in sorrow.
Thus, on this crisp Wednesday after a breakfastless morning and a lunchless afternoon, Jacob was all too happy to stagger through the blessed front doors of the old building and collapse into an easy chair someone had brought for the makeshift den on the far corner of the gymnasium. Jacob gasped for breath, his everything hurting after several days of nonstop action. Gloria then appeared, fanning him with a handkerchief even though Jacob couldn't feel it.
"You're looking like the candle with two burning wicks, my dear." she tittered in a grandma tone. "You really should take it easy. You're looking positively blue."
"Tell that to the Serpents." Jacob croaked, his throat dry as a bone.
He was also itching at his chest, catching Gloria's attention.
"Are you well, dear?" she asked.
"Just...itchy." Jacob grunted. "Chest kinda hurts too."
"Does that happen often?" Gloria pressed.
"Just recently." Jacob replied. "Like, it's not outright pain so much as discomfort. Kinda makes my breathing wonky too, but it passes after a while."
"You've been pushing yourself very hard lately." Gloria said. "Running around and fighting those brigands when they appear. Maybe it would be wise for you to take a break for a day or two, or maybe just stop altogether. You're no use to someone if you're dead."
"Gee, overdramatic much?" Jacob muttered sardonically. "It's just a little chest discomfort, likely from stress. Also, may I remind you, the big reason these chuckleheads are running about is because I dethroned their big poobah. I'd be more surprised if there weren't consequences."
He grunted, and he rose back to his feet.
"Uncle Laramie always taught me to never quit the things I start, and that I'd have to accept things as they came. Admittedly, he wasn't the best at practicing what he taught, but that's all the more reason for me to keep going. For better or for worse, it's my fault all of this is happening."
"Oh my dear boy." Gloria tutted somberly. "That isn't true at all."
She floated over to him, and she moved about so that she was looking him in the face.
"Jacob, never believe that you are at fault for the wrongdoings of others. I applaud your willingness to fight on the behalf of the weak because it reminds me of your father. But never, ever, should you feel indebted to act on something. Let thy sins be thine own, and let others sow their own foolishness."
Jacob offered her a small smile. Gloria had become more attentive since the morgue, often sneaking in a kind word when she could and doting over him. She was starting to feel more like the grandmother she apparently was.
"Speaking of my father," he said, "do you think that...maybe..."
Ever since the day they had properly met, Jacob's heart had burned with the question of his father. While Nina had given Jacob an idea of what his mother was like, all three of the Luminos had been slow to speak of Jacob's father beyond the idea that they had let him down. All that did was make Jacob more curious. He wanted to know more.
Gloria was quick to catch on, and she turned to the other side of the gymnasium. A group of children were assembled near a makeshift puppet stage, and she could see the faint shape of Nina as she pretended to gather some things for the act. Gloria grinned.
"I think we can. Come along, dear."
She guided Jacob over to where the children were sitting, legs crossed, and she prompted him to do the same. Jacob, though confused, obeyed, and he found he was now sitting next to Lance. The boy was, for the first time since Jacob met him, completely clean. In fact, his clothes had been washed and mended, though his suspender was still missing a button. Jacob assumed this was a preference rather than a lack of materials. He was busily clacking away at a laptop and didn't seem to realize that Jacob was there. Maybe it was the exhaustion eating away at his usual inhibitions, but Jacob couldn't resist. He licked a finger, and, very carefully, he reached over and jabbed it into Lance's ear. Lance shrieked like a banshee and bounded nearly a full foot into the air. Jacob caught his laptop, and he wore a jester's grin as the kid landed flat on his back with a comical splat. The bespectacled boy glared up into Jacob's blue and green eyes with utter venom and scorn.
"I suppose you enjoyed that?" he growled.
"Deliciously." Jacob chirped as he helped Lance sit up.
Jacob now had Lance's laptop in his lap, and he could see numerous lines of code running across the screen.
"What're you trying to do? Break into the matrix?"
Lance took his laptop back, and he resumed typing.
"I connected a wireless attachment to your uncle's blackbox." he said without looking up. "Now that my workload has been reduced, I've finally been able to work on it. I must say, your uncle was some sort of genius. Maybe not necessarily four digits IQ like yours truly, but this encryption definitely would've stumped a lesser man."
Jacob blinked.
The black box from under the van. He'd completely forgotten about it, though the memory didn't bring him pleasure. Next to that van, this information was likely the last tangible piece of his uncle that remained.
"Have you learned anything?" he asked.
"Regrettably, not much." Lance replied. "The issue isn't my intelligence, I know what needs done. I simply lack a powerful enough computer and hacking software to properly de-encrypt the information stored. There's a fair chunk of files on here, likely attained from years of gathering. I'm actually impressed. Any idea what he could be working on?"
Jacob shook his head.
"He had something in a steamer trunk, but I was never allowed to see inside. It had this weird lock on it I couldn't figure out."
"Electric or combination?"
"More like...a puzzle, I guess. Kind of a slide puzzle. I was never good at those."
Lance nodded thoughtfully.
"And where is that trunk now?"
"Either burnt to a crisp, smashed to pieces, or stolen by the people that brutalized him."
Lance flinched, regretting his question. He stopped typing, folded his laptop down, and he gently touched Jacob's shoulder.
"I can't say it gets any easier." he said mournfully. "Abuela...she was my everything too. My only thing, really. It still hurts...knowing I can't see her anymore. I think it's her smell I miss the most though. Cinnamon, because she was always baking."
Jacob offered his own little smile to the small boy, and he pulled him into a half hug.
"Guess we orphans gotta stick together, eh little buddy?"
There was something of a spark in Lance's eye. Something Jacob hadn't seen before. However, before he could say anything, a hush fell over the children as Nina stood to her full height behind the puppet theater box.
"Good afternoon, children." she greeted warmly with a smile. "Have you all been good today?"
"Yes, miss Nina." the children chimed in unison.
"How nice." Nina gushed. "It's time for our story for the day, and this time I have a very special one planned. But first, like always, I need help making the magic happen. First, we close our eyes."
The children all closed their eyes, Lance included, though Jacob remained observant.
"Cup your hands like sunday prayers."
The children and Lance all cupped their hands with the palm of their left covering the knuckles of the other.
"Whisper a wish."
Jacob would have had to strain his ears to hear everyone, but in the quiet cacophony he could have sword he heard Lance mutter hermano in Spanish. Before he could ask him, he saw Nina raise her hand with fingers outstretched. Threads of light snaked outwards and spread out towards the children's cupped hands, creating small lights inside.
"And then let it go."
The children all opened their eyes and opened their hands. From within emerged sparkly dragons, unicorns, horses and gryphons all seeming to be made of stardust. They danced around the children's heads, making them laugh and reach out to catch them. One by one, the tiny creatures vanished, and now Nina had their full attention.
"Today's story," she opened, "is titled A Kingdom of Light."
She ducked back down behind her theater box, and more light began to show. The children watched in silent awe as the light casted shadows, depicting three figures.
"Our story opens with three wise rulers. One of thought," a man with a long beard, "one of heart," a beautiful woman with long hair, "one of power," another woman only older and more regal appearing. "We shall know them as the wizard, the lady, and the queen. These three came from a wonderful and fantastical world, where all thought made reality. A glowing, glittering kingdom of indispensable potential."
The shadows danced and swirled, reshaping into abstract constructs and strange designs that spun and danced through the window of the theater box. The children cooed with delight and laughter, though they fell silent again when a shadow swept over the display.
"But peace, like a porcelain doll, is easily shattered. A terrible force erupted upon the kingdom, scattering its people and forcing our three to flee."
What Jacob was looking at he couldn't comprehend. Yes, they were monsters, clearly, but their shapes and forms, even the ways they moved were so jarring and alien. There were depictions of them eating people and even the land around them, smashing and destroying all in their wake without mercy. He could actually hear a few of the children starting to cry.
"The three followed a sacred star to an all new land. A land of the physical, and sadly the destructive."
The three returned, this time seeming to hide as a band of surly looking folks set upon one another with axes, hammers and swords.
"It was a time of violence. Of darkness. When brother was against brother and law gave way to the sword. The Queen looked upon the chaos, her heart already heavy from the loss of their home."
An image of the Queen appeared front and center while the Wizard and the Lady were kneeling before her.
"We cannot allow this to continue, the Queen declared to her fellow rulers. We have seen what this kind of destruction yields. The devastation it sows and yields. We who have survived such disaster, it falls to us to make things right. If we can work our will, then perhaps not only may we find our home anew, but we can help these troubled ones find a kingdom of their own."
The scene shifted again, now showing three hands joining together.
"So the plan was made. The three rulers would erect a knew kingdom, one of thought and body. The best parts of their people and their newfound neighbors. But for this to work, they needed a vassal. A champion to act in their stead and meet among men as one of their own. They needed...a hero."
The image now showed a baby swaddled in cloth before he became a young child guided by the hand by the Wizard.
"The Wizard would be this hero's teacher, instructing him in their ways as well as teaching him to defend himself."
Now it showed the young boy as a young man, swinging a sword as the Lady fashioned more weapons, a throne, and a strange looking cup from an anvil.
"The Lady crafted relics from the last vestiges of the three rulers' home. Weapons to defend and special trinkets which could test worthiness and valor."
Now it was showing the Queen, or rather her silhouette as she sat in the tower of a castle shrouded in mist.
"The Queen's duty had already been done, for it was from her loom did the hero sprout, but one day they would meet and she would bestow upon him their greatest secret."
Jacob bit his tongue to hide a gasp as the Sterling Star appeared in the golden swirls.
"A stone of immense power. The power of the very world in which the three rulers first arrived. With it, the hero would become a veritable titan amongst his peers. The pinnacle of his people and beyond. But only he had proved himself."
What followed was a flash mob of armies fighting, dragons being slain, giants humbled, and fair damsels being rescued. The hero, his visage ambiguous, was surrounded by a coterie of brave men, likewise ambiguous, who stood arm in arm as true brothers and comrades.
"It was a truly glorious era. Valor and honor were the currency with which man purchased their pride. It was perfect. Perhaps too perfect. Just like a porcelain doll."
The image changed again, but this time it was a much more somber scene. It depicted a woman, lying prone on the floor, with another man standing over her and the hero standing before them.
"Many were the worries that burdened the hero's brow. The three rulers had placed so much upon him with more to impart, but none could have known the great pains in his heart. His only solace had been in his lady love, only to discover her love was not true. She had forsaken him for another; his most trusted."
The lights now showed the hero sporting a lengthy beard, a humped back, and a slow gait as he marched along a dusty road.
"Forsaken and heartbroken, the hero forsook all he knew, even the promise to meet the mother that loved him not. WIthout love, there was no life, and the hero was lost to despondency. That is, until one day..."
Now the image showed a new woman, and Jacob gasped to see colored lights where her eyes would be: one blue and one green.
"A lonely innkeeper, her family lost to sickness, likewise nursed a shattered heart, but also a will unbreakable."
The hero appeared beside her, the two taking one another by the hand.
"Whether by fate or a force far greater, the two were drawn to one another."
Now they were kissing as the light formed a heart around them.
"Indeed, it was the greatest force of all. Love unbridled. They were two halves of a whole long since parted without knowing, and in turn..."
The hero and the innkeeper could now be seen holding a baby, the sterling star resting upon his chest.
"There was happiness in the land once more. Sweet and tender with the promise of a brighter tomorrow. But, like the porcelain doll, promises are so easily shattered."
The light vanished completely this time, and in its place was a horrid, inky darkness within which were the vague shapes of people being tormented and terrified.
"In the wake of the hero's disappearance, a horrible evil fell upon the land. An evil so great that it would devour all that stood in its wake. A heart as black as coal and an eye that burned like the sun. They called him...Balor."
This one eyed thing, Balor, continued to rain destruction upon the land, until it reached a hill where the hero stood.
"With wife and child sent to safety, the hero embraced his destiny once more with sword in hand and love in his heart. He challenged the beast in full, and he struck!"
A glowing white sword appeared in the hero's hand, and his tiny shape leapt through the air, brandishing the blade across the Balor's chest. It writhed and its screamed before striking the hero back down.
"The battle was won, but the losses were many. The hero had given his every strength to protect the people, and in turn he was forced to sleep. So sleep he continues, even now children, and the Balor too still lingers. Such evil cannot be destroyed, regretfully, but neither too can good. Should ever the evil rise again, it is assured that the hero will rise. Or, if not he, then his son."
Jacob once more bit his tongue as the gold turned to silver, and a depiction of himself, as Midknight, stood tall and proud as his scarlet cape fluttered behind him. The children ooed and awed, and one or two looked back at Jacob with knowing eyes. With that, the story was ended, and the children got up and walked away. Only Jacob and Lance remained, Jacob's lip planted sharply between his teeth. Nina stepped out from the theater, and she made her way over to them as Gloria reappeared.
"Did you enjoy the show?" Nina asked.
She was literally glowing with happy expectation as she awaited Jacob's honest reply. Jacob could only stare at her blankly for a long time, unsure how to settle his thoughts. He finally looked to Gloria and cocked his head.
"So...you were going to tell me about my dad?"
Nina visibly deflate while Lance facepalmed, and Gloria offered Jacob a pout.
"Dear, the entire story was about your father? Nina was being a bit vague for the sake of the children, but surely you're not that dense."
"But that didn't tell me anything!" Jacob insisted. "Or, at least, it didn't tell me anything that made a lick of sense. I mean, some of it...no, none of it made any sense. What was with all the swords and sorcery? The heck kind of Tolkien nonsense is a Balor? Then there was that bit with the wizard teacher and a lady that gives my dad magic items. I mean, what, was my father King Arthur or something?"
Both Nina and Gloria looked down on him. Jacob looked from one to the other, waiting for some sort of prank, but it never came.
"Uh, guys, that's not funny." he said.
"I don't recall making a joke." Gloria said. "Your father was King Arthur, or Artorious as I wished to name him. There was a handsome roman general that had my attention back then. But my host and her husband had other ideas."
Jacob's eye twitched.
"Your...host?"
"I couldn't exactly carry and give birth to a child in the conventional sense." Gloria said. "Fortunately, lady Ingraine was most hospitable and happy to assist me. I needed only meld with her symbolic layer, and...well, I need not explain the copulation method your species utilizes. After all that, voila! A child born of humanity and the Light."
Jacob felt something in his head break. He wasn't sure if it was his sanity, his sense of reason, or simply his brain snapping in half, but suddenly he felt very sick.
"I need to go lie down." he grunted.
He struggled to his feet, one of his legs having fallen asleep, and he staggered away and up the stairs. Nina and Gloria watched him go, Lance getting up and following after when Jacob fell down the stairs.
"I knew he wasn't going to take it well." Nina muttered with a shake of her head. "Did you really have to bring up the...copulation?"
"He's fifteen." Gloria defended. "I'm sure he'll be fine. Besides, he would have found out eventually."
"I'm inclined to disagree, but I suppose it doesn't matter." Nina said. "Was it really wise to bring up Balor, though? I mean, just thinking about that horrible creature..."
"I know." Gloria said, looking out a window toward the setting sun. The first few stars were starting to peak into the spreading violet of the sky. "Let us continue to pray that he remains in the past where we left him. Then again, what was that you said about evil?"
Nina shivered, and she rubbed at her arms.
"Evil cannot be destroyed, and it will always rise again."