The Descent Chapter 6: God's Face Part 1

Full Novel Synopsis: Sequel to 'The Spiralling', itself a sequel to the Kick-Ass (2010) movie. However, this novel can be read on its own. After Big Daddy died, Mindy was driven mad, subdued by Dave, and locked away in an Institute after killing all who she deemed responsible but Dave. Will she recover? What will happen next to a New York without her nor the Motherfucker? Elements of the Kick-Ass 2 (2013) movie and comic series will be taken in.

The Descent

Chapter 6: God’s Face Part 1

After dropping off Mindy back home, I was supposed to head back out and do my cardio regime, but something was bothering me. The Buzzard. As unspectacular as he was, he’d struck a match in me leading to my superhero powder keg. I’d been on hiatus (for the most part) for the past year, and now I had Mindy to look out for. I had to keep her out of everything even vaguely related to her past as Hit-Girl – To become Kick-Ass again would risk Mindy losing it again. Seeing me in costume might as well be a shortcut to her vendetta.

“Go to your room and rest, Mandy.” I lead her gently in the direction of her room. She gave me a sweet smile, indicating her understanding. In the meantime, I had something else in mind, “Shower at 7 and come back to me for a new bandage, okay?”

“Okay…” Mindy replied in her usual meekness and went to her room.

I went into mine. I made sure the door was shut for what came next. Sitting behind my desk with my desktop computer before me, I started searching for superheroes who were still active. Unsurprisingly, the Buzzard was one of them. Then there was this scantily-clad woman with what looked like a modified pool cue, calling herself the Nightbitch. One of the most unconventional names I’d ever heard of. The next name that came up on Google was an African-American physics professor who calls himself Doctor Gravity. His logo was a white Rutherford-Bohr atom – I somehow remember that term in school – with 3 electron orbits around the nucleus. He seemed very serious about his role with his red-and-white uniform and what was introduced on his Facebook page as the Zero-G Device. It was silver and sleek with some pink LED and a matching glowing keypad near the handle. After some thoughts, I accepted it as a real device – with superheroes roaming the streets, everything else sure wasn’t far off. Hey, it’s already 2011.

Ever since Mindy was put in an asylum, I’d been a recluse to the Superhero world. I was always alone, even when there were talks on the internet about teaming up. I’d never watch the news for the past year, and I didn’t even bother with the internet much. ‘Superhero’ was a word that disappeared from my list of search terms. Now that I feel like going back out there, I would have to start from the ground-up once again. I couldn’t help but to think of Hit-Girl, and Big Daddy, and what could have been. I’d killed my own career as Kick-Ass, not that that was what I was thinking when the latter was burning alive. I couldn’t help but to think that I had done more harm than good. The Father-and-Daughter duo would have been fine without me, especially Mindy. The innocent lives that had fallen to her insanity were blood on my hands just as much.

Looking around my room, I realised just how bare it was. Before Mindy came in, it was absolutely cluttered, the walls full of posters, the shelves comic-books Even the bed and floor was padded with them. Now, it was just a void. It was just brown walls and plaster. With all the extra time I had freed up from being a comic connoisseur, there was even time for me to do some spring cleaning. Now, my room resembled something out of a cheap motel. It was bare, Spartan without the muscles. Somehow, it became an imagery for where my life was heading. I didn’t want it to be filled with nothing and regret. I didn’t want it to be depressingly silent, lonely. Kick-Ass it is. I’ve decided officially there and then to make a comeback.

If Mandy had been Mindy, I would have tried teaming up with her, if she would even want to, considering that it was my fault she lost the ultimate team in the first place – her and her dad. Now, I would have to start scouting again, or, like Big Daddy and Hit-Girl, let them come to me. I reopened the superhero profiles.

There were no other superheroes on the first page. For the time being, they were the most talked-about of them all. Between the 3 of them though, I trusted Doctor Gravity the most. I’d already seen the Buzzard, and Nightbitch sounded… off. After refreshing the search page, I saw Hacksaw and The Enforcer, but they didn’t look like team players. They must have read either Batman or The Punisher.

Doctor Gravity, hands down. I sent him a message on Facebook, told him my intentions about meeting up. It wasn’t as easy as I first thought it would be. I had to get into the Kick-Ass feel again, and my message had to be awesome enough to reflect that. The last few forum entries and chat I saw of Kick-Ass were of people remembering me as the first who started it. It was historically untrue, as Mindy and her father were already kicking Mafia ass big-time, but it was close enough. Somehow, my message had to reflect that. I became engrossed with that one message when…

“Dave… I’m done showering. My knee still hurts.” The door swung open, and Mindy came in. I jumped before closing my laptop quickly. Looking at where Mindy was, I could tell from the angle she looked at me that she could have seen what was on my screen. Thankfully, she could have only seen it for a brief moment, but it didn’t make me feel any better. The eye is a powerful thing – especially Mindy’s. Even if she was practically deprogrammed by Dr Paul, I wasn’t sure if his procedure had reached the way she used her eyesight back then.

“You forgot to knock, Mandy.” I said, making sure I was calm this time. I’d done enough bad brother routine for the day. I hate seeing her cry – It reminded me of everything that happened, everything I did wrong, everything that went wrong for her... That was her superpower now, and my Kryptonite.

“Oh, I’m sorry…” She apologised. She didn’t cry, but she was giving me the look of a kid in trouble, as if she’d just smashed a window or something. To put it into perspective though, my dad and I made knocking on the door to someone’s room a huge deal – we figured it as a safeguard for Mindy whenever we decide to experience the luxury that we could no longer have lying around with her in the family.

“It’s fine, Mandy, it really is!” I tried to lighten the mood, “Go sit on my bed and I’ll fix you up.” She smiled awkwardly, still recovering from making her mistake, and went to my bed, “Do you want a Barbie bandage or Hello Kitty?” I’d bought those for her just in case.

“Hello Kitty!” Mindy exclaimed excitedly, all seriousness forgotten.