One Mean Ghost
Your Ghost Host from the West Coast
[ Dante de la Cruz | 19 | Vigilante(ex)/ Titan]
"My name? When did this become a damned interview? Whatever... My name is Dante de la Cruz. My hero alias? Deadman No, I am not fucking Ghost. That is an overused CoD level cliche that I absolutely refuse to be a part of. Call me Ghost, and you're a Deadman. See what I did there? .... Of course not.... Damn humorless pencil pushing..... Anyway, I guess I've got many names people have given me. Deadman is my favorite so far, but I've also been called Reaper. Seriously... The fuck is with everyone naming me after these edgelord video game characters?! We can say my alias is a work in progress. Happy now?"
Appearance
"Why the hell do I need to describe my appear-... Oh wait, I remember now, because I keep disappearing every time your paparazzi wannabes try and snap my picture. Ha! Take that you bureaucratic bastards! Speaking of which, ain't it a bit awkward talking to air? I'm flipping you off right now, too bad you can't see it to appreciate it!
Fine fine, I'll describe myself to you, but only because you asked nicely.
I'm Spanish, and if you pictured Antonio Banderas back in his Desperado days, you'd be pretty close. Except my hair is a bit longer. Not crazy long, but it reaches mid-shoulder blade. Well, and the facial hair. Yeah, screw the clean shaven look. I don't really like to call it a goatee, but basically I've got the Tony Stark thing going on. Yes, I am one sexy son of a bitch, and that's just from the neck up!
What else... What else... Oh, I'm about 6'03" last time I checked, and I'm not saying I'm a gym rat, but I do work out. Great excuse to get out of the house ya know....
My Outfit?
..... Let's not talk about that.... Self-made costumes are not NEARLY as glorious as all those Spider man reboots would have you believe.... Still want to know how Deadpool got his look... His costume, I mean, not the face that looks like Picasso trying to paint a sharpei.
If there is one good thing about this whole Titans thing, it's that I can get a costume professionally made. No more dimestore Punisher shirts and ski masks for this guy! ... Stop laughing....
I'm pushing for something black, hopefully with some red accents. I am NOT an edgelord! Those colors just look awesome together! ...Fuck off.... Ideally with some sort of body armor in key places and plenty of places to store weapons.
..... Why do I need body armor if I can phase through shit?
Simple. I can't ALWAYS be intangible. And getting shot hurts. A lot. Yes, I know from experience. No I do not want to try it a second time."
"Oh ho! You haven't already got a good enough handle on my glowing personality? Well, I guess you could describe me as an honest, hard working, all around nice-.... PFFFT! BAHAHAHA I can't believe you were actually writing that down! Have you been listening at all?!
Let me put this bluntly, you're a dumbass, and I am an honest to goodness smartass. But, through it all, I guess I'm still a good guy for the most part. I mean, I ain't gonna go around stealing candy from kids or pushing old ladies into traffic anytime soon. I have some morals. Nah, I ain't gonna go around hurting people who ain't done shit to me or anyone else. I prefer to go after those sick fucks that think it's all right and good to kill people because they got the money and power to get away with it.
They may be able to bribe their way out of the courts, but I'll be damned before they can pull that shit on me!"
Let me put this bluntly, you're a dumbass, and I am an honest to goodness smartass. But, through it all, I guess I'm still a good guy for the most part. I mean, I ain't gonna go around stealing candy from kids or pushing old ladies into traffic anytime soon. I have some morals. Nah, I ain't gonna go around hurting people who ain't done shit to me or anyone else. I prefer to go after those sick fucks that think it's all right and good to kill people because they got the money and power to get away with it.
They may be able to bribe their way out of the courts, but I'll be damned before they can pull that shit on me!"
History
"You really want my life story? I thought your information brigade would have been all over that by now... Eh, at least this way I can set the record straight on a few things. If I'm gonna tell this, I gotta start with my parents.
My dad's name was Gabriel. Gabriel de la Cruz. His parents, my grandparents, immigrated here from Spain before settling in San Francisco. Figured half the state spoke Spanish anyway, so it'd be easy enough to adapt I guess. Well, Granddad was smart and made sure he had some "startup" money when he came to the states. Got himself a damn nice spot in downtown and set up a family style restaurant. No, it wasn't Mexican food. We're from Spain, there's a difference.... They served stuff like Paella and Bocadillos. The good stuff.
When Granddad decided to retire, he passed the place down to his two sons. My dad Gabriel and his brother Santiago. Well, that was the plan anyway. Dad decided to join the Marines and do a few tours of duty before he wanted to settle into the more quiet life of a restaurant owner. He did his time, came back, and started helping Uncle Santiago with the family business while he learned to readjust to civilian life. It was a bit of a process, going from being a soldier to civilian, but Uncle Santiago was able to get dad through it.
Now, this is where shit starts to go downhill.
I don't gotta tell you that crime got bad in San Fran back then. It seemed like every other week a new kingpin took control. Every time that happened, a new group of thugs showed up at the door with their hand out expecting their cut. Either you paid in cash, or an "accident" would happen to your business. Well, Dad and Uncle Santiago had a good enough business where they were able to make the payments. It cut into profits, but eh, it was the cost of doing business as far as they were concerned. At least that's what Santiago always told my dad to calm him down. But each successive group wanted a bigger and bigger cut.
Uncle Santiago probably figured as long as they were making payments, things would eventually work out. Probably thought the cops or the damn "Justice" League would get off their asses and actually do something. Fat chance.... There wasn't any publicity in it for them....
Anyway, things just kept getting worse. At first, the gang violence stayed in the slums, but it started to spread to the better parts of town too as more businesses either closed down or refused to pay for protection. One night... Well... It hit close to home.
...Too close...
According to police reports it sounded like a warzone decided to open up just down the street. Dad was just getting ready for bed after cleaning up, and Uncle Santiago was taking his dog for a walk.
You know... I still wonder if he saw any of it coming... Never got a chance to ask him since all this shit happened well before I was even a twinkle in Dad's eye. See, Uncle Santiago.. Unlucky bastard, "somehow" wound up right in the middle of everything. Police tried to cover it up and say it was a drug deal gone bad.
Bullshit! Bull. Fucking. Shit.
Truth was Dad finally got fed up paying those low life bastards protection money and sent them running with their tails between their legs. Considering there were no other bodies at the scene, it doesn't take a damn genius to realize my Uncle was supposed to be an example to my dad. I mean for fuck's sake, why the hell do you need to shoot a guy 47 times if not to make an example of him? Even shot his dog... His fucking dog!
And the police cover up? That just showed that those who were supposed to "protect and serve" were on the take.
That was the last straw for dad. You know, they say a wise man fears but three things. A night with no moon, the sea in a storm, and the rage of a gentle man. My dad never started anything. But he sure as hell wasn't going to let this one slide. This shit was personal now. Sold the restaurant first, and used the money to buy some... supplies.. Black market weapons, some body armor.
Yeah, you see where I'm going with this.
Dad decided that if the police or the Injustice League weren't going to do anything about this, he would. Took some investigative work, but he eventually got descriptions of the three guys that were there the night my uncle died.
Police found their corpses all with the number 47 carved into their chests. Each one had been shot 47 times in non-lethal areas before being left to bleed to death. Yeah, my dad was one cold son of a bitch. Can't really blame him though. They killed his brother.
But dad wasn't gonna stop there. Hell no. Those three were just low level enforcers. If he wanted to actually make a difference, he needed to cut off the head of the snake. That's how the Angel of Death was born. Oh yeah. He had the criminal underworld in San Francisco collectively crapping themselves. It got so bad those thugs had to call in their police connections to try and arrest dad before he put a bullet in all of their asses.
Of course, those cowards on the take weren't about to stick out their own necks. Probably figured dad would just as soon cap them as the bad guys if he knew who was who. So they sent a new detective straight from the academy after Dad. Probably were banking on the fact that she was both innocent and a woman and that would keep dad from doing anything rash.
And they were right.... Dammit...
Seras was a no nonsense cop. Everything was by the book from the way she dressed to the way she addressed others. Despite perpetually being so damned straight laced, she was a phenomenal detective, I gotta give her that much. She had to be to track down my dad, who had managed to keep his actual identity secret. Still not sure how she managed to track him down so fast, but my guess is those criminals on my dad's shitlist steered her towards him. Self preservation and all that crap.
She eventually had him cornered in an alleyway, but both had guns drawn on each other. Now, my dad was one crazy motherfucker, but he wasn't going to shoot probably the ONLY good cop San Fran had. So he surrenders. Tells her to take him in. Needless to say, she's shocked. Probably was fully expecting a fight, to be honest.
As she's slapping the cuffs on him, she finally decides to ask him why he's killed so many people. I doubt she was expecting the answer she got. He told her about Uncle Santiago, how it started off just trying to avenge his brother. But now, it was like being in the military all over again. Only this time he didn't have his dear brother to help him transition back to a normal life.
Ready for a twist?
She let my dad go. Yeah. Just like that, after all the work she put in, she took off the cuffs. Her only condition was that he give up being a vigilante and go back to a normal life. Still have no clue what the hell was going through her empty skull when she volunteered to help him transition back to being a civilian....
And I still have no fucking clue why he agreed...
Yep, that's right. My dad, the Angel of Death, hung up his guns because some police girl asked nicely. Move over M. Night Shyamalan, I'm the new king of plot twists. Yes, I'm being sarcastic...
Fast Forward a few years and, surprise, love has sprouted! Yes, that police girl Seras? That'd be my mom. Hey, you asked for my life story, I didn't say it was all that riveting and original.
So now, it's 28 years ago. For those of you history nerds that are probably going to read this stuff after this idiot finishes proofreading it, It's hilarious because he's even writing down my insults. I wonder if he'll edit them out later?, Anyway, you history nerds know that 28 years ago marks a very significant time for the denizens of San Francisco. On that day, 345 people were killed by one person, who himself was later killed. Well, among the dead were my mother, who was one of the first responders on the scene, and my dad, who picked up his guns again after watching her get killed on live TV.... Only to later get himself killed.... A for effort?
Now, I'm 19, and my parents died 28 years ago, so how in all holy hell is am I sitting in front of you, you ask? Well... Honestly I'm still a bit fuzzy on the details myself. Something about a White Lantern.... emotions...blah blah blah look it up yourself if you're so damn interested. Point is the 345 "innocent" people who died were brought back to life. Thankfully, including my parents.
Apparently, getting killed hammered home their "love" for each other, because they got married not long after that event. You'll see why I said 'love' sarcastically later... My parents had two kids not long after that. Those would be my older brother Ricardo and my older sister Lorena. My brother was born not quite a year after the wedding, and my sister was a year after that. My parents took a break from having kids for awhile before I came along about eight years later. Sounds like we're all a big, happy family, right?
Ha! If you believed that you're as gullible as you are stupid...
Now, my dad managed to get a job as a security guard. He thought about joining the police force, but he didn't want people digging too much into his past. Somehow he'd kept his identity from being discovered, and he wanted to leave his Angel of Death moniker in the past. How no one figured it out, I still don't know. You'd think that whole 47 chest carving thing would have given it away... but eh... it's history now.. Probably any cops that had a guess didn't dare say anything about it because it'd show they were on the take....
That meant dad was working more nights while mom worked days. I'm sure you can see where there's a disconnect here. Rather than address the issue, my dear mother simply ignored it. She had someone to look after the kids during the day while she worked, so all was fine, or so she told herself.
Now, I'm still in diapers at this point, so don't try and go blaming me for any of this shit.
Some new face decides to join the force. And Mr. New Guy decides to start hitting on my mom. Now, you'd think a married woman with three kids would tell him off or something, but no. Nah, she enjoyed the attention. Started out as harmless flirting but before long she was sneaking out to see this douche every chance she could.
Now do you see why I said "love" sarcastically before? She was cheating on my dad. And, given he was able to track down criminals who prided themselves on secrecy, how long do you think it was before he found out?
Yeah, didn't take long. Dad didn't want to believe it. He would ask her questions about her day, stuff he already knew the answer to, and she would lie right to his face as he was rocking me to sleep.
Confronted with a home life that was becoming more and more alien to him, I guess it's no surprise dad fell back into his old habits.
Yeah, I mean he went back to hunting down those criminal bastards. The smell of gunpowder and blood was more familiar and welcoming than life at home. Only now he'd been out of the loop for almost a decade and he was more than a little rusty. He lasted about a month before that rust caught up to him.
He was found dead on the side of the road with his throat slit and the words "Fallen Angel" carved into his chest. Yeah, one hell of a way to go... I'd still bet money he went out like a badass and took several of those assholes with him.
So yeah, if you ever wonder why I'm not all that close to my mom, this is the start of it.
Ricardo told me after my dad died, my mom lost it. I guess she realized that the reason my dad was out there that night, the reason he died, was because he knew about her affair. Pretty hard for her not to figure that out when he had a note in his breast pocket saying as much. Granted it was a little hard to read through the blood... Of course, mom didn't tell us any of this. She said he'd died on the job when some drunk fuck pulled a knife on him. Lying bitch....
She changed then. Instead of coming home at night to sleeping kids, she was now a single mom with no clue how to handle her kids on her own. So, she became one of those "shouting" moms, especially with my brother. Of course, that only caused him to rebel. By the time he was fourteen I was almost six at this point, for those keeping track at home, he was basically a full blown delinquent. Given mom worked, my sister practically raised me at home. When my mom came home, she always had something new to complain about. The house wasn't clean enough, the dishes weren't done... Every night it seemed like it was a shouting match between my mom as she reached for the wine bottle and my brother, who was the only one of us that dared stand up to her.
One night... It got really bad and I got caught in the middle of it. I just wanted a damn glass of water, but my mom and brother were at it again. She apparently was belittling my sister again and my brother was having none of it. He finally called her something I can't recall, and she threw the wine bottle at him.
I yelled at both of them to stop it, as loud as my young lungs would allow, and when I opened my eyes, the wine bottle was suspended in midair along with the silverware that had been upset from the table when mom flipped out. I think all of us were too shocked to move until my concentration broke and that bottle shattered on the floor... Mom looked terrified, my brother looked impressed. I had mixed feelings....
That was the day mom realized I wasn't a normal human, and her focus shifted completely off my brother and onto me. Should have just let him take the bottle to the face... Would have saved me a load of grief....
Until then, I had avoided her anger by just staying out of her way, I was still a little kid, so it wasn't hard, but now she actively sought me out. Now, keep in mind I'm still a little kid, and now I'm suddenly the target of all the shouting I'd heard growing up instead of a listener. Back then, it scared me so much I just wanted to disappear.
And that's exactly what I did.
I gotta say, the look on my mom's face when I vanished in front of her eyes the first time was abso-fucking-lutely priceless. That's when I started to realize I didn't have to be her rage magnet. If she started yelling, I would just disappear until she calmed down. I'm fairly certain it pissed her off, and that was all the more reason to do it!
Then again, I did find out the hard way that being invisible wasn't the same as being intangible. If she threw something at where I was, it would still hurt. At least, it did until I figured that intangibility stuff out.
Now, dumbass, I'm pretty sure even you can see the pattern here. Most of my powers manifested almost solely because I wanted another way to get the holy hell away from my overbearing, alcoholic mother. Other abilities I came to realize later, largely through curiosity and accidents, but that's not the point here.
As the years wore on, I followed right in my older brother's delinquent footsteps. It was only natural. I looked up to my brother because he was tough and didn't take shit from mom. Only I had powers to make things more interesting. Bullies suddenly had their pants around their ankles in the middle of the playground, teachers had tacks appear on their seats where none had been before. But I swear I was never caught peeping in the girl's locker room.
Oh yeah, I was a mean little bastard. Which probably makes you wonder why the hell a jackass like me would have any inclination to be a Titan.
That came around about three years ago. Ricardo was home on leave from the military and felt like having a drink. Mom was out of wine at the time, so he suggested raiding mom's stash. You see, from the time we were kids, mom had a locked safe in her room that we had never once seen her open, but had heard her open some nights. In particular, she would open it on nights she was out of booze. So, logically, we figured there was booze in there.
As you can probably guess, a lock don't mean shit to someone who can phase through it.
Only, I didn't find alcohol. What I found was stuff on my dad. You see, mom never told any of us about his Angel of Death phase, and she made sure we saw no news about how his body was discovered. She told us he was a cop before and had retired to be a security guard so he could have more time with us kids... Lying bitch.....So my whole life I had thought my dad was a cop turned security guard that just got jumped at a bar while on duty. She didn't even mention his military history.
So, you can imagine my surprise when suddenly the whole truth about my dad and how he died was eloquently laid out in the dossier I pulled from the safe. Turns out, mom had spent quite a bit of time tracking down who specifically had killed my dad. Only, she couldn't do a damn thing about it. He was untouchable. Enough money and influence no cop would dare try and arrest him. So I guess that explained the alcohol...
Now that I knew the truth about my dad, I knew I had to hunt down his killer. Only I had no intention of letting the bastard stand trial. Not after all the hell he'd caused my family.
After a few more reaches in the safe, I found dad's old sidearms, kept immaculately clean for some reason and more than a few bullets. Guess my mom kept them as a memento... So, I had weapons, I had my powers, and I had a target. It was time to follow in my old man's footsteps.
I stopped by the store to get a ski mask on the way to this guy's penthouse suite. Just a little extra precaution. Didn't want any cameras getting a good look at me, ya know. Getting in was easy. I mean, let's face it, when you can fly right up to the penthouse and go right through the window, it's pretty damn easy getting in. I didn't expect him to have so many guards though....
They all emptied their guns at me before they finally realized it wasn't doing anything to me. Dumbasses.... Made it pretty easy to pick them off while they were trying to reload. I'd never fired a gun before, but even an amateur can hit center mass at point blank range.
I'll admit, I didn't expect that much blood. It was like a fucking slasher flick, just crimson blood on EVERYTHING. Didn't help that just about everything this idiot owned was white....
Now, when I got to this guy, the idea came to shoot him 47 times. Only, I didn't have that many bullets even at the start, so, well... It was a nice thought at least.... I didn't exactly plan all that much...
I'll admit, I'm a bit embarrassed at this next part. Now, I got this guy on his knees begging for his life. I'm dropping the most badass vigilante monologue you've ever heard, and when I pull the trigger.... 'click'.
....Yeah, I didn't think to keep count of how many bullets I'd burned on those henchmen... Not exactly my proudest moment....
Now, this guy is laughing at me. Yeah, this fat fuck that was just begging for his life thinks I'm a fuck-mothering comedian. He kept laughing alright, right up until I pistol whipped his stupid face. That reminded him exactly how screwed he was. Even if I was out of bullets, I could always just bludgeon the fucker to death and he knew it. He went right back to begging for his life after that. Like a bitch.
I'll admit, I was shaking. I'd never killed anybody before, but now I had a pile of corpses behind me and now I was faced with the prospect of really getting blood on my hands....
Or... I thought they were all corpses....
Apparently I somehow missed one of their vitals at point blank range, Again.... Not my finest hour.... and this fucker got back up, picked up a knife, and tried to go assassin's creed on me! Only reason he didn't catch me is that boss of his couldn't resist trying to make some smug remark just as Mr. Assassin's Creed tried to plant his knife in my spine. Never been more glad I can phase on a reflex.
As you can expect, the knife passed through me and now I was facing off with this guy who.... was bleeding a lot less than you'd think for someone I know for damn sure I shot... Turns out this was the only guy in the room that thought to wear a bulletproof vest to work today.... Just my luck....
Now, I'm thinking, okay, no problem, he's got a knife, but that can't do shit against me while I'm intangible. I didn't stop to think that this boss guy had money, and money can buy power. Maybe I should have considered that just maybe he hired someone that was a little more than human as a bodyguard. Well, I didn't consider it. It was my first time! You can't expect me to consider EVERYTHING! I'm not Batman for fuck's sake...
Well, turns out, this bodyguard was a meta-human. Not unlike myself. Normally, you'd call this leveling the playing field, but given the gap of experience.... I was more inclined to call Hacks.... Especially when this fucker opened his mouth.
Imagine nails on a chalkboard, put through a line of no less than 20 megaphones, with your ear to the one on the far end. You've seen the Simpsons, right? I've watched a lot of American Idol and other stuff in my day, and I've heard some pretty ugly sounds come from people who think they can sing, but this guy.... A voice that bad should be outlawed...
It was so bad I could't focus and it snapped me out of my intangibility. Yep, definitely not my night... I guess my one saving grace is that the dumbass chose to bring a knife to the fight instead of reloading a gun. Then again, he probably wasn't expecting his boss to be stupid enough to tip me off in time to dodge that stab... If he tried to reload I definitely would have heard him first...
So, what followed was basically me running like a bitch, cursing like a drunken sailor, and getting my ears violently hatefucked every time I tried to go ghost... The one plus is that apparently this guy couldn't run and scream at the same time... I guess I should also be thankful I had an excellent cardio program to keep out of his reach when he WASN'T screaming like a damn banshee...
I guess after this went on for a few minutes, he got tired of chasing me and decided to throw his knife at me. Honestly, on anyone else, it would have worked. If I tried to ghost, he'd scream, I'd be stabbed, and I'd be dead. I could see him taking in a breath as he let go, so he fully planned on making it impossible for me to ghost through it.
So I didn't.
The second he released the knife, I held out my hand and took control of the knife with my mind. It was a clumsy effort, and that thing spun in midair a few times before I got the thing pointed back at him.... Once I got it facing the right way though, one flick of my wrist and that knife went straight through his throat. I think the only reason it worked is because I caught him by surprise... Finally, I didn't have to listen to any more of that fuck-mothering devil screeching....
So now, I'm trying to catch my breath, and I hear a 'bang'.
Mother of all fucking hell getting shot in the back hurts....
Turns out, Mr. Head Honcho had taken the opportunity to shove some earplugs in his head and had casually meandered over to the corpse pile I made when I entered. I was so busy with Mr. Banshee that I didn't even notice him taking the time to pick out a gun, reach into one of their pockets for ammo, and reload. Fucking cheater....
So I go ghost just as he tries to pull the trigger again, and thankfully this one passes right through me. Even still though, I'm hurt pretty fucking bad. I can barely move because of the pain, let alone fight back. Then what does this guy do? He starts monologuing. Yeah, I'm bleeding on the floor and he starts yammering on about how 'it was a good effort, but futile in the end' or some bullshit like that. He walks towards me, keeping that gun on me as I lose my intangibility. Hey, it is hard to focus on that shit when you've got a damn bullet in your spine!
So he strolls right up to me and puts that gun to my head. And all this time he still won't shut the ever loving hell up. He talks for so long he doesn't notice I'm pulling that knife out of his flunky's neck behind his back. It's taking everything in me to keep control of this thing in spite of the pain, mind you. I couldn't keep up my ghost form, so needless to say I was struggling.
So now comes that most stereotypical of bad guy lines 'Got any last words, kid?'. So I told him. "My name.... Is Dante de la Cruz... You killed my father... now prepare to die...." ....What's so damn funny?... Why the fuck are you laughing?! This is some serious shit right here!!!
ANYWAY, He starts laughing. Probably thought I was spouting some empty bullshit until that knife stuck in his back. When he flinched, I yanked that gun out of his hand and shoved it in his screaming mouth. I could see the fear in his eyes then. Yeah, all that pride and bluster he had just a second ago? It was now replaced by pure mortal fear.
"Adios" I pulled the trigger and splattered that fucker's brains all over the wall.
It didn't go quite as smoothly as I had hoped, but either way, dipshit was dead, and now I had to find my way to the hospital and think up a plausible alibi for why I had a bullet in my back. Still don't quite remember what bullshit story I gave them, honestly. I just remember being shocked they actually bought it.
The hard part was actually getting to the hospital. With the pain messing up my concentration, there was no way I could just ghost out of there and to a hospital. I'd lose it before I got back to the ground. So, I had to take the walk of shame. Yeah, I'm bleeding out and I gotta try and sneak out of this place before anyone decides to investigate. Even if there was sound proofing I'm pretty damn sure someone heard that fucker's screaming....
Getting to the elevator was easy enough, but wouldn't you fucking know it, we had to stop on just about every single floor on the way down, and all the while I had my back against the wall hoping no one would smell the blood. Now, I'm sure you're wondering why no one caught me. Easy, I'd just go invisible long enough for them to get on and turn around. Once they were on no one seemed to notice I would just randomly reappear. I guess I should be thankful for Angry Birds being a distraction...
Once I got to the first floor, I was able to make myself invisible just long enough to get outside and down the road. By now, I'm dizzy from bloodloss and I'm barely keeping myself awake... I still don't quite remember how the hell I made it to the hospital in one piece...
After that eventful evening, I was looking forward to some peace and quiet in the hospital. I see you snickering there, you already know that ain't happening! In comes my mother, sobbing her damn eyes out...
Look, I'm going to spare you the whole tearful sob story and give you the abridged version. I told my mom I knew everything, and she told me the reason she'd been so hard on me all this time was because she didn't want me to end up like my dad. I told her to her face that it was her own fault dad died, and that caused more tears... somehow I felt like the bad guy...
Turns out, my mom had been suffering with that knowledge ever since it happened, which is why she turned to drinking. She ended her affair and refused to get close to anyone after that. As she explained it, she was always hard on me and my brother because, as she puts it, we were both so much like our father she was terrified she'd lose us too. Look how that turned out, huh?
It was.... an emotional talk...
We're on better terms now, granted that's not saying much.... At least it's better than how it was at least. I mean, she doesn't shout as much. She actually seems like she's trying to act like a mom.... I'm not saying I forgive her for all the hell she put me through growing up.... But it's a start... She's still my mom after all...
Obviously, I didn't give up the vigilante thing. I guess being one of the good guys felt nicer than being a delinquent that everyone hated. Not to mention it meant being more like my dad. Not long after I got out of the hospital I found out talking to the dead is something I can do, and I became sort of a spirit detective. The dead knew who killed them, I hunted down the killers. I guess stuff like that caught the attention of your higher ups, and they came looking for me.
The rest? I guess that's history now."
My dad's name was Gabriel. Gabriel de la Cruz. His parents, my grandparents, immigrated here from Spain before settling in San Francisco. Figured half the state spoke Spanish anyway, so it'd be easy enough to adapt I guess. Well, Granddad was smart and made sure he had some "startup" money when he came to the states. Got himself a damn nice spot in downtown and set up a family style restaurant. No, it wasn't Mexican food. We're from Spain, there's a difference.... They served stuff like Paella and Bocadillos. The good stuff.
When Granddad decided to retire, he passed the place down to his two sons. My dad Gabriel and his brother Santiago. Well, that was the plan anyway. Dad decided to join the Marines and do a few tours of duty before he wanted to settle into the more quiet life of a restaurant owner. He did his time, came back, and started helping Uncle Santiago with the family business while he learned to readjust to civilian life. It was a bit of a process, going from being a soldier to civilian, but Uncle Santiago was able to get dad through it.
Now, this is where shit starts to go downhill.
I don't gotta tell you that crime got bad in San Fran back then. It seemed like every other week a new kingpin took control. Every time that happened, a new group of thugs showed up at the door with their hand out expecting their cut. Either you paid in cash, or an "accident" would happen to your business. Well, Dad and Uncle Santiago had a good enough business where they were able to make the payments. It cut into profits, but eh, it was the cost of doing business as far as they were concerned. At least that's what Santiago always told my dad to calm him down. But each successive group wanted a bigger and bigger cut.
Uncle Santiago probably figured as long as they were making payments, things would eventually work out. Probably thought the cops or the damn "Justice" League would get off their asses and actually do something. Fat chance.... There wasn't any publicity in it for them....
Anyway, things just kept getting worse. At first, the gang violence stayed in the slums, but it started to spread to the better parts of town too as more businesses either closed down or refused to pay for protection. One night... Well... It hit close to home.
...Too close...
According to police reports it sounded like a warzone decided to open up just down the street. Dad was just getting ready for bed after cleaning up, and Uncle Santiago was taking his dog for a walk.
You know... I still wonder if he saw any of it coming... Never got a chance to ask him since all this shit happened well before I was even a twinkle in Dad's eye. See, Uncle Santiago.. Unlucky bastard, "somehow" wound up right in the middle of everything. Police tried to cover it up and say it was a drug deal gone bad.
Bullshit! Bull. Fucking. Shit.
Truth was Dad finally got fed up paying those low life bastards protection money and sent them running with their tails between their legs. Considering there were no other bodies at the scene, it doesn't take a damn genius to realize my Uncle was supposed to be an example to my dad. I mean for fuck's sake, why the hell do you need to shoot a guy 47 times if not to make an example of him? Even shot his dog... His fucking dog!
And the police cover up? That just showed that those who were supposed to "protect and serve" were on the take.
That was the last straw for dad. You know, they say a wise man fears but three things. A night with no moon, the sea in a storm, and the rage of a gentle man. My dad never started anything. But he sure as hell wasn't going to let this one slide. This shit was personal now. Sold the restaurant first, and used the money to buy some... supplies.. Black market weapons, some body armor.
Yeah, you see where I'm going with this.
Dad decided that if the police or the Injustice League weren't going to do anything about this, he would. Took some investigative work, but he eventually got descriptions of the three guys that were there the night my uncle died.
Police found their corpses all with the number 47 carved into their chests. Each one had been shot 47 times in non-lethal areas before being left to bleed to death. Yeah, my dad was one cold son of a bitch. Can't really blame him though. They killed his brother.
But dad wasn't gonna stop there. Hell no. Those three were just low level enforcers. If he wanted to actually make a difference, he needed to cut off the head of the snake. That's how the Angel of Death was born. Oh yeah. He had the criminal underworld in San Francisco collectively crapping themselves. It got so bad those thugs had to call in their police connections to try and arrest dad before he put a bullet in all of their asses.
Of course, those cowards on the take weren't about to stick out their own necks. Probably figured dad would just as soon cap them as the bad guys if he knew who was who. So they sent a new detective straight from the academy after Dad. Probably were banking on the fact that she was both innocent and a woman and that would keep dad from doing anything rash.
And they were right.... Dammit...
Seras was a no nonsense cop. Everything was by the book from the way she dressed to the way she addressed others. Despite perpetually being so damned straight laced, she was a phenomenal detective, I gotta give her that much. She had to be to track down my dad, who had managed to keep his actual identity secret. Still not sure how she managed to track him down so fast, but my guess is those criminals on my dad's shitlist steered her towards him. Self preservation and all that crap.
She eventually had him cornered in an alleyway, but both had guns drawn on each other. Now, my dad was one crazy motherfucker, but he wasn't going to shoot probably the ONLY good cop San Fran had. So he surrenders. Tells her to take him in. Needless to say, she's shocked. Probably was fully expecting a fight, to be honest.
As she's slapping the cuffs on him, she finally decides to ask him why he's killed so many people. I doubt she was expecting the answer she got. He told her about Uncle Santiago, how it started off just trying to avenge his brother. But now, it was like being in the military all over again. Only this time he didn't have his dear brother to help him transition back to a normal life.
Ready for a twist?
She let my dad go. Yeah. Just like that, after all the work she put in, she took off the cuffs. Her only condition was that he give up being a vigilante and go back to a normal life. Still have no clue what the hell was going through her empty skull when she volunteered to help him transition back to being a civilian....
And I still have no fucking clue why he agreed...
Yep, that's right. My dad, the Angel of Death, hung up his guns because some police girl asked nicely. Move over M. Night Shyamalan, I'm the new king of plot twists. Yes, I'm being sarcastic...
Fast Forward a few years and, surprise, love has sprouted! Yes, that police girl Seras? That'd be my mom. Hey, you asked for my life story, I didn't say it was all that riveting and original.
So now, it's 28 years ago. For those of you history nerds that are probably going to read this stuff after this idiot finishes proofreading it, It's hilarious because he's even writing down my insults. I wonder if he'll edit them out later?, Anyway, you history nerds know that 28 years ago marks a very significant time for the denizens of San Francisco. On that day, 345 people were killed by one person, who himself was later killed. Well, among the dead were my mother, who was one of the first responders on the scene, and my dad, who picked up his guns again after watching her get killed on live TV.... Only to later get himself killed.... A for effort?
Now, I'm 19, and my parents died 28 years ago, so how in all holy hell is am I sitting in front of you, you ask? Well... Honestly I'm still a bit fuzzy on the details myself. Something about a White Lantern.... emotions...blah blah blah look it up yourself if you're so damn interested. Point is the 345 "innocent" people who died were brought back to life. Thankfully, including my parents.
Apparently, getting killed hammered home their "love" for each other, because they got married not long after that event. You'll see why I said 'love' sarcastically later... My parents had two kids not long after that. Those would be my older brother Ricardo and my older sister Lorena. My brother was born not quite a year after the wedding, and my sister was a year after that. My parents took a break from having kids for awhile before I came along about eight years later. Sounds like we're all a big, happy family, right?
Ha! If you believed that you're as gullible as you are stupid...
Now, my dad managed to get a job as a security guard. He thought about joining the police force, but he didn't want people digging too much into his past. Somehow he'd kept his identity from being discovered, and he wanted to leave his Angel of Death moniker in the past. How no one figured it out, I still don't know. You'd think that whole 47 chest carving thing would have given it away... but eh... it's history now.. Probably any cops that had a guess didn't dare say anything about it because it'd show they were on the take....
That meant dad was working more nights while mom worked days. I'm sure you can see where there's a disconnect here. Rather than address the issue, my dear mother simply ignored it. She had someone to look after the kids during the day while she worked, so all was fine, or so she told herself.
Now, I'm still in diapers at this point, so don't try and go blaming me for any of this shit.
Some new face decides to join the force. And Mr. New Guy decides to start hitting on my mom. Now, you'd think a married woman with three kids would tell him off or something, but no. Nah, she enjoyed the attention. Started out as harmless flirting but before long she was sneaking out to see this douche every chance she could.
Now do you see why I said "love" sarcastically before? She was cheating on my dad. And, given he was able to track down criminals who prided themselves on secrecy, how long do you think it was before he found out?
Yeah, didn't take long. Dad didn't want to believe it. He would ask her questions about her day, stuff he already knew the answer to, and she would lie right to his face as he was rocking me to sleep.
Confronted with a home life that was becoming more and more alien to him, I guess it's no surprise dad fell back into his old habits.
Yeah, I mean he went back to hunting down those criminal bastards. The smell of gunpowder and blood was more familiar and welcoming than life at home. Only now he'd been out of the loop for almost a decade and he was more than a little rusty. He lasted about a month before that rust caught up to him.
He was found dead on the side of the road with his throat slit and the words "Fallen Angel" carved into his chest. Yeah, one hell of a way to go... I'd still bet money he went out like a badass and took several of those assholes with him.
So yeah, if you ever wonder why I'm not all that close to my mom, this is the start of it.
Ricardo told me after my dad died, my mom lost it. I guess she realized that the reason my dad was out there that night, the reason he died, was because he knew about her affair. Pretty hard for her not to figure that out when he had a note in his breast pocket saying as much. Granted it was a little hard to read through the blood... Of course, mom didn't tell us any of this. She said he'd died on the job when some drunk fuck pulled a knife on him. Lying bitch....
She changed then. Instead of coming home at night to sleeping kids, she was now a single mom with no clue how to handle her kids on her own. So, she became one of those "shouting" moms, especially with my brother. Of course, that only caused him to rebel. By the time he was fourteen I was almost six at this point, for those keeping track at home, he was basically a full blown delinquent. Given mom worked, my sister practically raised me at home. When my mom came home, she always had something new to complain about. The house wasn't clean enough, the dishes weren't done... Every night it seemed like it was a shouting match between my mom as she reached for the wine bottle and my brother, who was the only one of us that dared stand up to her.
One night... It got really bad and I got caught in the middle of it. I just wanted a damn glass of water, but my mom and brother were at it again. She apparently was belittling my sister again and my brother was having none of it. He finally called her something I can't recall, and she threw the wine bottle at him.
I yelled at both of them to stop it, as loud as my young lungs would allow, and when I opened my eyes, the wine bottle was suspended in midair along with the silverware that had been upset from the table when mom flipped out. I think all of us were too shocked to move until my concentration broke and that bottle shattered on the floor... Mom looked terrified, my brother looked impressed. I had mixed feelings....
That was the day mom realized I wasn't a normal human, and her focus shifted completely off my brother and onto me. Should have just let him take the bottle to the face... Would have saved me a load of grief....
Until then, I had avoided her anger by just staying out of her way, I was still a little kid, so it wasn't hard, but now she actively sought me out. Now, keep in mind I'm still a little kid, and now I'm suddenly the target of all the shouting I'd heard growing up instead of a listener. Back then, it scared me so much I just wanted to disappear.
And that's exactly what I did.
I gotta say, the look on my mom's face when I vanished in front of her eyes the first time was abso-fucking-lutely priceless. That's when I started to realize I didn't have to be her rage magnet. If she started yelling, I would just disappear until she calmed down. I'm fairly certain it pissed her off, and that was all the more reason to do it!
Then again, I did find out the hard way that being invisible wasn't the same as being intangible. If she threw something at where I was, it would still hurt. At least, it did until I figured that intangibility stuff out.
Now, dumbass, I'm pretty sure even you can see the pattern here. Most of my powers manifested almost solely because I wanted another way to get the holy hell away from my overbearing, alcoholic mother. Other abilities I came to realize later, largely through curiosity and accidents, but that's not the point here.
As the years wore on, I followed right in my older brother's delinquent footsteps. It was only natural. I looked up to my brother because he was tough and didn't take shit from mom. Only I had powers to make things more interesting. Bullies suddenly had their pants around their ankles in the middle of the playground, teachers had tacks appear on their seats where none had been before. But I swear I was never caught peeping in the girl's locker room.
Oh yeah, I was a mean little bastard. Which probably makes you wonder why the hell a jackass like me would have any inclination to be a Titan.
That came around about three years ago. Ricardo was home on leave from the military and felt like having a drink. Mom was out of wine at the time, so he suggested raiding mom's stash. You see, from the time we were kids, mom had a locked safe in her room that we had never once seen her open, but had heard her open some nights. In particular, she would open it on nights she was out of booze. So, logically, we figured there was booze in there.
As you can probably guess, a lock don't mean shit to someone who can phase through it.
Only, I didn't find alcohol. What I found was stuff on my dad. You see, mom never told any of us about his Angel of Death phase, and she made sure we saw no news about how his body was discovered. She told us he was a cop before and had retired to be a security guard so he could have more time with us kids... Lying bitch.....So my whole life I had thought my dad was a cop turned security guard that just got jumped at a bar while on duty. She didn't even mention his military history.
So, you can imagine my surprise when suddenly the whole truth about my dad and how he died was eloquently laid out in the dossier I pulled from the safe. Turns out, mom had spent quite a bit of time tracking down who specifically had killed my dad. Only, she couldn't do a damn thing about it. He was untouchable. Enough money and influence no cop would dare try and arrest him. So I guess that explained the alcohol...
Now that I knew the truth about my dad, I knew I had to hunt down his killer. Only I had no intention of letting the bastard stand trial. Not after all the hell he'd caused my family.
After a few more reaches in the safe, I found dad's old sidearms, kept immaculately clean for some reason and more than a few bullets. Guess my mom kept them as a memento... So, I had weapons, I had my powers, and I had a target. It was time to follow in my old man's footsteps.
I stopped by the store to get a ski mask on the way to this guy's penthouse suite. Just a little extra precaution. Didn't want any cameras getting a good look at me, ya know. Getting in was easy. I mean, let's face it, when you can fly right up to the penthouse and go right through the window, it's pretty damn easy getting in. I didn't expect him to have so many guards though....
They all emptied their guns at me before they finally realized it wasn't doing anything to me. Dumbasses.... Made it pretty easy to pick them off while they were trying to reload. I'd never fired a gun before, but even an amateur can hit center mass at point blank range.
I'll admit, I didn't expect that much blood. It was like a fucking slasher flick, just crimson blood on EVERYTHING. Didn't help that just about everything this idiot owned was white....
Now, when I got to this guy, the idea came to shoot him 47 times. Only, I didn't have that many bullets even at the start, so, well... It was a nice thought at least.... I didn't exactly plan all that much...
I'll admit, I'm a bit embarrassed at this next part. Now, I got this guy on his knees begging for his life. I'm dropping the most badass vigilante monologue you've ever heard, and when I pull the trigger.... 'click'.
....Yeah, I didn't think to keep count of how many bullets I'd burned on those henchmen... Not exactly my proudest moment....
Now, this guy is laughing at me. Yeah, this fat fuck that was just begging for his life thinks I'm a fuck-mothering comedian. He kept laughing alright, right up until I pistol whipped his stupid face. That reminded him exactly how screwed he was. Even if I was out of bullets, I could always just bludgeon the fucker to death and he knew it. He went right back to begging for his life after that. Like a bitch.
I'll admit, I was shaking. I'd never killed anybody before, but now I had a pile of corpses behind me and now I was faced with the prospect of really getting blood on my hands....
Or... I thought they were all corpses....
Apparently I somehow missed one of their vitals at point blank range, Again.... Not my finest hour.... and this fucker got back up, picked up a knife, and tried to go assassin's creed on me! Only reason he didn't catch me is that boss of his couldn't resist trying to make some smug remark just as Mr. Assassin's Creed tried to plant his knife in my spine. Never been more glad I can phase on a reflex.
As you can expect, the knife passed through me and now I was facing off with this guy who.... was bleeding a lot less than you'd think for someone I know for damn sure I shot... Turns out this was the only guy in the room that thought to wear a bulletproof vest to work today.... Just my luck....
Now, I'm thinking, okay, no problem, he's got a knife, but that can't do shit against me while I'm intangible. I didn't stop to think that this boss guy had money, and money can buy power. Maybe I should have considered that just maybe he hired someone that was a little more than human as a bodyguard. Well, I didn't consider it. It was my first time! You can't expect me to consider EVERYTHING! I'm not Batman for fuck's sake...
Well, turns out, this bodyguard was a meta-human. Not unlike myself. Normally, you'd call this leveling the playing field, but given the gap of experience.... I was more inclined to call Hacks.... Especially when this fucker opened his mouth.
Imagine nails on a chalkboard, put through a line of no less than 20 megaphones, with your ear to the one on the far end. You've seen the Simpsons, right? I've watched a lot of American Idol and other stuff in my day, and I've heard some pretty ugly sounds come from people who think they can sing, but this guy.... A voice that bad should be outlawed...
It was so bad I could't focus and it snapped me out of my intangibility. Yep, definitely not my night... I guess my one saving grace is that the dumbass chose to bring a knife to the fight instead of reloading a gun. Then again, he probably wasn't expecting his boss to be stupid enough to tip me off in time to dodge that stab... If he tried to reload I definitely would have heard him first...
So, what followed was basically me running like a bitch, cursing like a drunken sailor, and getting my ears violently hatefucked every time I tried to go ghost... The one plus is that apparently this guy couldn't run and scream at the same time... I guess I should also be thankful I had an excellent cardio program to keep out of his reach when he WASN'T screaming like a damn banshee...
I guess after this went on for a few minutes, he got tired of chasing me and decided to throw his knife at me. Honestly, on anyone else, it would have worked. If I tried to ghost, he'd scream, I'd be stabbed, and I'd be dead. I could see him taking in a breath as he let go, so he fully planned on making it impossible for me to ghost through it.
So I didn't.
The second he released the knife, I held out my hand and took control of the knife with my mind. It was a clumsy effort, and that thing spun in midair a few times before I got the thing pointed back at him.... Once I got it facing the right way though, one flick of my wrist and that knife went straight through his throat. I think the only reason it worked is because I caught him by surprise... Finally, I didn't have to listen to any more of that fuck-mothering devil screeching....
So now, I'm trying to catch my breath, and I hear a 'bang'.
Mother of all fucking hell getting shot in the back hurts....
Turns out, Mr. Head Honcho had taken the opportunity to shove some earplugs in his head and had casually meandered over to the corpse pile I made when I entered. I was so busy with Mr. Banshee that I didn't even notice him taking the time to pick out a gun, reach into one of their pockets for ammo, and reload. Fucking cheater....
So I go ghost just as he tries to pull the trigger again, and thankfully this one passes right through me. Even still though, I'm hurt pretty fucking bad. I can barely move because of the pain, let alone fight back. Then what does this guy do? He starts monologuing. Yeah, I'm bleeding on the floor and he starts yammering on about how 'it was a good effort, but futile in the end' or some bullshit like that. He walks towards me, keeping that gun on me as I lose my intangibility. Hey, it is hard to focus on that shit when you've got a damn bullet in your spine!
So he strolls right up to me and puts that gun to my head. And all this time he still won't shut the ever loving hell up. He talks for so long he doesn't notice I'm pulling that knife out of his flunky's neck behind his back. It's taking everything in me to keep control of this thing in spite of the pain, mind you. I couldn't keep up my ghost form, so needless to say I was struggling.
So now comes that most stereotypical of bad guy lines 'Got any last words, kid?'. So I told him. "My name.... Is Dante de la Cruz... You killed my father... now prepare to die...." ....What's so damn funny?... Why the fuck are you laughing?! This is some serious shit right here!!!
ANYWAY, He starts laughing. Probably thought I was spouting some empty bullshit until that knife stuck in his back. When he flinched, I yanked that gun out of his hand and shoved it in his screaming mouth. I could see the fear in his eyes then. Yeah, all that pride and bluster he had just a second ago? It was now replaced by pure mortal fear.
"Adios" I pulled the trigger and splattered that fucker's brains all over the wall.
It didn't go quite as smoothly as I had hoped, but either way, dipshit was dead, and now I had to find my way to the hospital and think up a plausible alibi for why I had a bullet in my back. Still don't quite remember what bullshit story I gave them, honestly. I just remember being shocked they actually bought it.
The hard part was actually getting to the hospital. With the pain messing up my concentration, there was no way I could just ghost out of there and to a hospital. I'd lose it before I got back to the ground. So, I had to take the walk of shame. Yeah, I'm bleeding out and I gotta try and sneak out of this place before anyone decides to investigate. Even if there was sound proofing I'm pretty damn sure someone heard that fucker's screaming....
Getting to the elevator was easy enough, but wouldn't you fucking know it, we had to stop on just about every single floor on the way down, and all the while I had my back against the wall hoping no one would smell the blood. Now, I'm sure you're wondering why no one caught me. Easy, I'd just go invisible long enough for them to get on and turn around. Once they were on no one seemed to notice I would just randomly reappear. I guess I should be thankful for Angry Birds being a distraction...
Once I got to the first floor, I was able to make myself invisible just long enough to get outside and down the road. By now, I'm dizzy from bloodloss and I'm barely keeping myself awake... I still don't quite remember how the hell I made it to the hospital in one piece...
After that eventful evening, I was looking forward to some peace and quiet in the hospital. I see you snickering there, you already know that ain't happening! In comes my mother, sobbing her damn eyes out...
Look, I'm going to spare you the whole tearful sob story and give you the abridged version. I told my mom I knew everything, and she told me the reason she'd been so hard on me all this time was because she didn't want me to end up like my dad. I told her to her face that it was her own fault dad died, and that caused more tears... somehow I felt like the bad guy...
Turns out, my mom had been suffering with that knowledge ever since it happened, which is why she turned to drinking. She ended her affair and refused to get close to anyone after that. As she explained it, she was always hard on me and my brother because, as she puts it, we were both so much like our father she was terrified she'd lose us too. Look how that turned out, huh?
It was.... an emotional talk...
We're on better terms now, granted that's not saying much.... At least it's better than how it was at least. I mean, she doesn't shout as much. She actually seems like she's trying to act like a mom.... I'm not saying I forgive her for all the hell she put me through growing up.... But it's a start... She's still my mom after all...
Obviously, I didn't give up the vigilante thing. I guess being one of the good guys felt nicer than being a delinquent that everyone hated. Not to mention it meant being more like my dad. Not long after I got out of the hospital I found out talking to the dead is something I can do, and I became sort of a spirit detective. The dead knew who killed them, I hunted down the killers. I guess stuff like that caught the attention of your higher ups, and they came looking for me.
The rest? I guess that's history now."
Abilities
"Well, first off there's my Ghost Form which is when I'm intangible, can fly, and basically be a ghost. Something I discovered rather recently is I can sometimes possess people who are weak willed, or those who are asleep. Basically, Body Possession. Granted, even though I know I can do it, I still haven't quite figured out 'how'... I did it once as a complete accident and haven't figured out how to do it since.. And like I said before, I have some Telekinetic abilities, and can turn invisible. Which I totally never use to sneak into girls' changing rooms.... I've also found out I can do some minor telepathy, but that's mostly just to talk to dead people. I've still not quite got a grasp on communicating with the living. Basically, ghost stuff and stuff associate with ghosts."
Weaknesses
"Do I really have to tell you this stuff? I mean seriously? Fine... My biggest weakness is all my abilities require concentration. Break that, and I can't do my stuff. Also means I can't really use all my abilities at once. My telekinesis isn't all that great. I can move small stuff fine, but compared to pure telekinesis users I'm nothing special. I really only get good at moving a few things I'm familiar with. That's all I'm gonna say. Can't risk you assholes turning on me."
Equipment
"Oh the fun part! Give me two of everything! Oh, you mean what to I have now? I have my dad's old sidearms, some throwing knives for telekinetic usage... Well, that's all for now. I'm still waiting on my last order to come in and then I'll have some more to add to this list."
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