The Descent Chapter 8: Old and New Friends Part 3

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 8: Old and New Friends Part 3

I took me a few hours to get there, including the daylight I was burning to get very lost, but eventually, I was there. I’ve decided to visit an old friend, Aldan Bonitus, or the Grandmaster. I owe him at least that much after what he’d done for me. If it weren’t for him, I would have been buried right beside my mother.

His home was a simple two-storey suburban heaven, white picket fences before white walls, freshly mowed lawn. I could see an open garage with a relatively modern car in it – at least Aldan was moving on with the times. Opening the gate to his lawn, I entered his property and pressed the door bell, trying to keep the nervous concoction in my stomach where it belongs. It was like waiting in a darkened cinema for the next X-Men sequel to start. The door swung open, and what stood before me wasn’t anything I expected.

There was a look of recognition in his eyes, but when he opened his mouth, no words came out. It wasn’t surprising. After Mindy was safely committed into the Jameson Psychiatry Institute, we’d only met a few times, or maybe just twice, with my mask off. I gave him my name the last time I visited him in hospital. We lost contact after that – he must have gone about re-establishing his life. His daughter, Nevaeh, was all he talked about whenever I was with him, but I couldn’t remember most of what he said to me – back then, all I could remember was Mindy and my own follies.

“I’m Dave Lizewski, or Kick-Ass.” I offered, jogging his memory. He had far more wrinkles than I remembered, less buffed up, less muscular. He used to have a frickin’ claymore with him all the time, but now it was replaced by a walking stick that he had to actually lean on at all times. A lot could change in one year – for a minute there, my mind went creative, hoping it won’t be me next the following year.

“Ah yes, my old friend.” He said as he smiled sheepishly, as if it took some effort to, “Please, come in, come in.” He stood aside, making way for me to enter his home, which I did. Taking one slow step at a time, he lead me to his living room, a quaint old place with a wooden floor and green wallpaper, and invited me to sit down. I couldn’t help but to eye him worryingly all the time, and wonder what the hell happened to the indomitable swordsman I used to know. It was like seeing Wolverine in a nursing home.

When we sat down, my eyes were still wide with surprise. It was impossible to get over his transformation. Aldan picked up on that the moment he settled down and put his stick aside. At least his mind did not age at the same rate, “I’m afraid age has caught up with me, Lizewski. Just like my father before me, and the heroes before our time, I’m afraid time is something my sword cannot shun.” I didn’t know what to say, not before, and certainly not after. My wide eyes were all I could communicate, so I let Aldan continue.

“The injuries Mindy inflicted upon my flesh cuts deep.” He said. He certainly did not lose his way of speaking. “Her eastern blades had weakened my heart, not to mention reduce my food of choice down to porridges.”

“Oh… God, Aldan.” I finally uttered, the only thing that could come out of my mouth. I couldn’t squeeze even a drop of something smart and rational out of my brain at the time when I needed it all. Surprisingly, the Grandmaster was the one being rational despite being the victim – not that he would consider himself one, if I know him well enough, “I’m so sorry you’d have to sacrifice so much to save Mindy.”

“Nay, I should be the one to yield an apology.” He turned it around, our topic of discussion giving him some strength, as if he was going back in time, to back before he was stabbed in the chest and guts, “I was no master of the handgun. I could have killed Mindy when I let fly upon her. It flutters my heart to this day.”

“You didn’t know it was Mindy, remember?” Reminiscing on the past with him, I remembered the scene as well as if it was just now – It was raining with a thunderstorm coming, standard Hollywood stuff with a not-so-standard situation. I thought Mindy, who was taking the identity of Demoness at the time, was about to end me with her swords when I heard gunshots instead. Opening my eyes, I saw her on the ground, with Aldan not so far away, hands on a smoking mafia enforcer’s pistol, his blood forming a rough circle under him.

“Aye, I remember. I believed her to be my own daughter instead. It makes no difference, for I rue that day as the day I let fly upon a child, a mere girl who hadn’t even understood the monthly pain of womanhood.” His eyes were gazing at something before me, as if he was watching an invisible television ahead of me. He snapped out of it soon after, “And how is your charge, Mindy Macready? I trust that she’s fine and well?” There was no doubt that I could believe him. It took me some time to notice, but he remembered Mindy’s name better than mine. Upon her being mentioned though, I felt like Aldan himself, old and bruised, even if things were turning out alright.

“Man, where do I start?” I didn’t know it, but I had a hand on my head, pulling, just pulling gently on my hair, as if it helps, “Doctor Paul wiped away everything that was Mindy Macready. How else could I say it? No more guns, no more swords, no more swearing, no more crimefighting, but worse of all, no more her. She left the institute a completely different girl. Mandy Lizewski. I see Mindy’s body, but no more her.” I rambled on, trying fucking hard not to wet his carpets in front of him. My grandest achievement of the day, a feat harder than manning up during Titanic.

“You… You have my sympathies, Lizewski.” I could tell that he was reacting the same way I was when I first heard about it. Shock and awe, straddling on the tightrope of belief and disbelief.

“How’s your daughter? What’s her name again?” As I was fighting an emotional battle inside, I couldn’t remember anything of much else.

“Nevaeh is well and good. I could tell from her eyes grief for her mother, but she smiles whenever she is by my side.” Aldan was back to watching that invisible television before me again. He reminded me of a wise old sage from old Chinese movies, “I fear the day my body no longer holds, as there and then, her grief would be complete, and as she professed to me, so will her destruction.”

Which was when I realised that I’d never seen his daughter before, not when I was with him in hospital, and not now – his daughter was probably out, with friends or something. I didn’t feel like pressing the issue, what with the tone feeling worse than Titanic already.

I felt like shit even before I changed into my Kick-Ass costume in his bathroom and started my patrol.