Part 778: Man-to-Man Talk

January 29th, 2021. Aevum.

It was not difficult for Jason to find Jerome. It hadn’t even been half an hour since he left the training facility, and he was a huge guy. He stood out in the barren city of Aevum, not that he could have hidden from the Wordsmith even if he wanted. Jerome had gone to a park filled with trees half a kilometer to the east. He had grabbed onto a tree branch and started doing pullups, but Jason had no idea how many he’d done by the time he arrived.

Jason teleported a few hundred feet away, then approached on foot.

"Jerome." Jason called out.

"The fuck you want?" Jerome snapped, glaring at him. "Finally coming over to ring me out, huh? Couldn’t stand I called your precious baby daughter a bitch?"

"Well, yes." Jason said calmly. He stopped a little ways away, watching as Jerome continued to pull his body up and down using only his arms. "That was uncalled for. It’s also not like the Jerome I know."

"Yeah? And how fuckin’ well do you know me anyway?" Jerome growled, looking away. "You don’t. Not one bit."

A moment of silence followed. Jason leaned back against a different tree while still facing the young man.

"You’re right. It’s only been a month or two since we met… depending on how you judge differing scales of time. But I do know that, despite your huge body and overwhelming strength, you’re usually a well-spoken young man with a kind heart. This is the first time I’ve seen you snap over something relatively minor."

"Minor?!" Jerome shouted, finally releasing his grip on the tree branch. He landed on his feet and stood up, striding toward Jason, only stopping a short distance away. "Daisy slapped my ears so hard I thought she burst my god-damned eardrums! That shit hurt! You got any idea how bad that hurt?!"

"I can… imagine." Jason said, mentally recalling a few thousand similar moments of insane pain he’d experienced in his life. "Is that it, then? You’ve turned into a big, whining baby because my daughter hurt you during sparring?"

"I was taking it so easy on her, helping her test out her new mind-bullshit, and she crossed a line." Jerome said, pointing an accusatory finger at Jason. "You always take her side because she’s your daughter. That’s the truth! Spoiled little Trueborn girl with a godly-powerful Trueborn daddy time-traveling from the future! Some people get all the luck and can act however they want! But for the rest of us, we’ve got a whole other set of rules we gotta play by! I guarantee if I did to her what she did to me, you’d be singin’ a different tune!"

Jason was quiet for a moment. "That’s really what you think, huh? There’s so much wrong with what you just said, I’m not sure know where to start."

He thought to himself before continuing. "You said Daisy is ‘spoiled.’ I assume that means you’ve had a hard life, then? Harder than hers?"

"Way harder!" Jerome said, throwing up his hands as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I grew up on the streets. I got the shit kicked out of me five times a day. Lucky I made it out of childhood alive! You think I was this strong my whole life? HELL no! I was stuck in the foster system, passed around like poisoned meat, hearing all sorts of nasty slurs and shit my entire childhood. They treated me like an animal!"

Jason stayed quiet, simply listening as Jerome continued. "I only got my powers a year ago. Before that, I learned to fight not cuz’ I wanted to, but cuz’ I HAD to! If I didn’t know how to fight, I’d be dead now. The fuck’s a privileged little white girl with Uncle Bigbucks know about that kind of life, huh? Must be nice, having a powerful Russian guy adopt her, put her in all the nicest clothes, feed her the best food. And her dad’s a fuckin’ GOD among men!"

Jason closed his eyes and massaged his forehead with two fingers.

"Daisy… hasn’t talked to you or the others from the Illuminati about her childhood, has she?"

"Sure she has." Jerome retorted. "How d’you think I knew about her uncle?"

"Right. That’s the surface level." Jason said quietly. He looked at Jerome with deep meaning. "You’re assuming a lot of stuff about Daisy. Those assumptions are dangerous. They’re also wrong. Very, very wrong."

The Wordsmith slowly licked his lips, searching for the right words. "Let’s get one thing out of the way, Jerome. You’ve had a terrible life. Based purely on what you told me, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone else. I don’t know you as a person all that well, and you don’t know Daisy, certainly not me, that well either."

Jason continued. "I have big plans for you, Jerome. But if you’re going to keep on lashing out like this without getting the full story, making assumptions, getting all self-righteous, then maybe you’re not a good fit for Aevum."

Jerome rolled his eyes. "And there it is. The black man gets yappy and you shut him down."

"It’s not about that." Jason said. "If my daughter isn’t willing to talk about certain things, then it’s not my place to speak in her stead. But in this one instance, I’m going to make an exception. Jerome, you already know I come from the far future. I’m sure you’ve heards bits and pieces of it here and there. But what you might not understand is the totality of evil that happened in that future."

Jason pulled away from the tree and stood up straight. At 5’10", he was a full head shorter than Jerome. He appeared physically weaker than the young man, certainly not as dominating, but Jason had a confidence about himself that could only come from a self-actualized man who knew exactly who he was and of what he was capable. He didn’t lose out to his far larger and more physically imposing verbal opponent at all.

"The future I awoke in was 100,000 years from now." Jason began. "It started with me exiting my cryopod, only to be chased around by a terrifying monster named Gressil. This creature was ravenous, and bloodthirsty, but also highly intelligent. I only learned later that he was a demon, like so many others, and the demons had completely enslaved all of humanity."

Jason proceeded to regale Jerome with a brief overview of his life’s story. The young man listened, his expression unchanging, his arms crossed. The tale was fantastical, but he’d heard parts of it here and there, so he wasn’t surprised by the details being filled out.

"That was when I met the woman who would become my wife for the first time." Jason continued. "Her name was Phoebe. Phoebe Berthold."

Jerome blinked. "What? Phoebe? As in… the white-haired lady you brought here a few weeks ago? The same one? She’s your wife?"

"In the future, she was my wife." Jason said quietly. "The Phoebe you know is her younger self. She does not know me in that way. We are, effectively, strangers. Her older, future self, was also Daisy’s mother."

Jerome blinked again. This was new information for him. "Wait, wait, wait. So you’re telling me you time-traveled back to the past, but you didn’t bring your woman along? Only your daughter??"

"My story is far from complete." Jason explained. "After I met Phoebe, a lot of things happened. I won’t bore you with all the details, but there were huge battles, and several years of relative peace. I had to fight the Black Witch, the first girl I loved, and I ultimately killed her due to her monstrous acts."

"After that, Phoebe gave birth to our daughter, Daisy. The era of peace followed, with humanity working to improve its circumstances, while my clone, Hope, went on to work alongside the military."

"…Then came Emperor Ose. She was one of humanity’s greatest enemies."

"…A huge battle followed. Betrayals, violence you can’t imagine. We lost a lot of good soldiers."

"…That was when the turning point came. Daisy revealed her powers for the first time. She was only six years old. She summoned monsters capable of leveling cities, Titans, and fought back against Ose."

"…The battle seemed to finally be turning around. That was when Beelzebub burst out of the ground and detonated his body in the skies above Tarus II. That was when Daisy died."

Jerome was taken aback. He lowered his arms from their crossed position. "She… died?"

"I thought she did." Jason said quietly. "In fact, she ended up time traveling. I don’t know how or why she did, but she did. She returned to the past, to this era, but twelve years ago, a little girl age six."

Jerome started to put some puzzle pieces together. "So you didn’t bring her back with you? She came here on her own, and you came later?"

Jason didn’t answer Jerome’s question immediately. "When Daisy arrived… even I don’t know the details. She hasn’t opened up to me about what happened yet. But what I do know is, she teleported around and was caught by the Russians. By the Russian government. They kidnapped her, bound her, and put her in some sort of… facility… where they began torturing and experimenting on her, trying to control her powers for themselves, weaponize her, and create other superhumans like her."

Jerome’s face warped in horror. "When she was only six years old?! Man, what the fuck…"

"I don’t know exactly how long Daisy was in those facilities, and I don’t know what she went through." Jason said quietly. "I know they injected her with needles, forced her to kill animals, beat her, did all sorts of other things that churn my stomach. I know she was in their custody for around two years. They made her kill other things, especially orphaned kids. They broke her mind and nearly turned her into a feral beast."

"Later," Jason continued, "she was picked up by ‘Vasily Sokolov’, the guy she calls ‘Uncle Vasily’. I know nothing about the man, but I fear his ‘rescuing’ her may have had ulterior motives behind it. I worry he is not as good a man as Daisy believes. When I have time, I’ll be looking into him, among many others."

Jason paused to allow Jerome to parse what he’d said. "While Daisy was here, in this era, suffering without a mother or a father to protect her, I was enduring a hellish future, watching as my friends and family died. In the end, even my wife ended up dead. I held Phoebe’s corpse in my arms right before I made the decision to travel back in time to change the past."

Jason looked at Jerome knowingly. "I’m not telling you all this to discount the awful life you’ve lived, Jerome. I don’t doubt it was hellish and awful. But knowing everything I’ve told you, do you really think Daisy is some spoiled white girl living a life of privilege? Is that the hill you want to die on?"

Any last bit of Jerome’s anger had long ago fizzled out. He lowered his head, feeling ashamed of himself. "No, mister Hiro."

"Good. That’s good." Jason said. "Come, sit with me. Let’s have a man to man talk."

"Um. Aren’t we doing that now?" Jerome asked, puzzled.

"That was just the prelude." Jason said, gesturing to the shady spot under the tree.

Jerome obliged. He sat beneath the tree, and Jason plunked down beside him.

Both men were quiet for a while before Jason broke the silence.

"I don’t know you well, Jerome, but I know you well enough to know you’re not acting like yourself. Even if you did think Daisy was some spoiled little rich girl, you would have held back and not spat such vile words at her. So what’s eating you?"

Jerome chewed his lower lip. He seemed uncomfortable. "I… I don’t know."

"Sure you do. Something’s bothering you." Jason said. "You put on the act of a tough guy, but I’ve met a lot of ‘tough guys’ in my time. Compared to them, you’re a softie at heart. Something must be chewing your ear to get you so worked up."

Jerome was quiet again, for a time. Then he sighed.

"It’s… it’s uh, it’s my girlfriend. Farrah. She ain’t talked to me for two days. She’s avoiding me. I think I fucked up, but I don’t know what I did wrong. I must’ve pissed her off, but I don’t know how."

"Farrah?" Jason blinked. "She’s not talking to you?"

"Nah, man. It was so abrupt. One day, we was fine. The next, we wasn’t." Jerome muttered. He hung his head, feeling lower than dirt. "I just… I love her so much. I don’t know what I’d do without her. Knowing I pissed her off, it’s making me doubt who I am… makin’ me doubt what I’m doin’ with my life."

Jason gave Jerome a strange look, but quickly glanced away.

"How did the two of you meet?" Jason asked.

Jerome thought for a moment. "Well, it was a little over three years ago. Before I got my powers, or she got hers. Farrah’s not like me. She has a family and shit. But they were… um… abusive. They were trying to arrange a marriage for her with some rich American guy. So she ran away when she was visiting the USA. Got lost on the streets, surrounded by some real bad guy. She was a pretty Persian girl, all alone."

Jerome shrugged. "I couldn’t let a nice girl like her get… you know… so I jumped in. Managed to fight ’em off, but got the shit beat out of me. She helped me back to my place… wasn’t much of a ‘place’ worth talkin’ about. Just some run-down abandoned room in Detroit."

Jerome mumbled a lot when he talked about Farrah, but luckily, Jason was able to make out all the words.

"So anyway, I told her she should go back to her family. Streets weren’t safe for a nice girl like her… plus she was way outta my league. I dunno. I guess she just liked me or something. She wanted to stay."

Jerome heaved a sigh. "Apparently her family were like conservative types or whatever, had been trainin’ her to be a ‘proper wife’ her whole life. She knew how to cook and stuff. Helped spruce up my place a bit. Made it more livable. Days turned into weeks, then months. She stuck with me even through the cold winters."

Jerome smiled slightly. "It was the first time in my life I didn’t feel like a worthless piece of shit. I even felt happy. I didn’t have to put on an act around her. Man, I ain’t badass. I’m hardened. There’s a difference. I had a shit life and had to grow up quick so the bigger kids wouldn’t kill me. But I never wanted any of that."

"After a year of livin’ with Farrah in the slums, I wanted to get out and do better, get a job, be a proper adult ‘n shit, but we were both only 16. Only jobs we could find were shitty ones working under skeevy guys. She didn’t have her papers, and didn’t want her family to find her. I didn’t have any papers at all. So we had to work under the table. Make a living illegally."

Jason nodded. It was, in the broadest sense, similar to what he’d surmised. He’d gotten a lot of the details wrong, but that was how these things went.

"Anyway, stuff happened, we managed to work our way up outta the gutter, and then we suddenly got our powers. That was when we was 17." Jerome said, doing the mental math. "Farrah woke up one morning with a new face. Scared the shit outta me. Scared the shit outta her, too. She realized she could change the way her face looked, and I realized I was feelin’ stronger than the day before. Accidentally tore the knob off our apartment door."

"Then the Illuminati came. Picked us up a month after we got our powers. Took us to their facility. Me and Farrah were real scared at first, thinkin’ they was gonna separate us, or ship her back home, but it all ended up workin’ out okay in the end."

Jerome tossed his hands in the air. "But now she ain’t talkin’ to me. I don’t know what I did wrong. It’s got me all fucked up, man. She means the world to me."

Jason licked his lips. He smiled and nodded. "Well, good news, Jerome. I don’t think she’s mad at you. Not at all. This is… probably my fault."

"Your fault?" Jerome asked, quickly turning his head to direct a suspicious look Jason’s way. "The fuck’s that mean?"

Jerome immediately seemed to think Jason had made a move on Farrah, but it didn’t take long for him to realize that made no sense. Jason had no interest in her when his future wife was right there. Jerome cooled down and waited for Jason’s explanation.

"I was talking to Farrah about her power." Jason explained. "I thought her shapeshifting seemed fairly weak, or like she wasn’t going far enough with it. So… I made a suggestion, and it seemed to work out for her. I just didn’t realize she would decide not to tell you, and hide from you. We talked two days ago, so the events line up…"

"What kind of breakthrough did she make?" Jerome pressed. "You’re being awfully vague."

"It’s up to her to tell you. Give her some space for a while." Jason said. "You two are always attached at the hip, but that’s not good for you or her. You can’t develop into individual people if you’re always reliant on one another."

"I mean… I guess you have a point." Jerome muttered. "You’re sure she ain’t mad at me?"

"I suppose she could be, but it’s pretty unlikely." Jason said. "She probably just wants some privacy while she messes around with her new powers. Give her some space. Work on yourself… and that anger problem."

Jason’s smile disappeared.

"I’m a pretty understanding guy, Jerome. I don’t let my anger get the better of me unless I’m pushed to my breaking point. Like I said before, I have big plans for you. But if you ever treat my daughter like that again, I’ll beat the shit out of you and throw you out of Aevum. You had the excuse of ignorance before, because you didn’t know her story and you made some bad assumptions. But even if you were right and she was just some privileged little girl, it was a bitch move of you to snap at her like that."

Jerome frowned. "If I was right, then that would mean she’d still broken the rules!"

"And who broke the rules first?" Jason countered. "The rules said no blows to the head, but you kept slapping her around and throwing her to the mat. You think that didn’t hurt? She’s a tenth your size soaking wet. You can’t say she broke the rules when you broke them first."

"You didn’t call time-out or anything." Jerome scoffed. "You were complicit."

"I was, because I could tell you were holding back." Jason said. "If Daisy had complained, I would have stopped the match. But my daughter is made of tough stuff. Even getting thrashed by you, she didn’t complain. You, on the other hand, suffered one hard hit and threw a fit. Like a child. You stormed out of the room like a 6-year-old would. That’s unacceptable."

It looked like Jerome wanted to say something, but he thought better of it and just looked away.

"I guess you’re right. Sorry. I don’t… know… what I was thinking." Jerome mumbled. "I always have to hold back. It ain’t fair when a guy fights a girl. If I win, I’m a woman-beater. If I lose, I’m a bitch who lost to a woman. If I hit too hard, I’m being abusive. I’m used to others seeing me as the ‘bad guy’ when it’s me versus any girl."

Jason nodded. "I get that. Though, in my experience, women might be the ‘weaker’ sex among ordinary humans, but I’ve met too many absolutely terrifying demonesses to think they fall into that category."

"Like Ose?" Jerome asked.

"Yeah. Like Ose." Jason said.

Another silence fell between the two men.

"When you said you had ‘big plans’ for me, what did you mean?" Jerome inquired. "Ain’t we just training to fight the demons?"

"It’s not as simple as that." Jason said. "I’m developing a strategy as we go along. I’m thinking of ways to improve the powers of all of you and develop equipment customized to boost your strengths. And for you, specifically, I believe you will become the leader of the Lowborn."

Jason frowned. "But not if you continue to fire off that mouth of yours. You lost a lot of respect from your peers today. Leaders have to be calm, stable, and in control. Irrational idiots quickly lose the hearts of their soldiers and end up abandoned. If you can’t act like a man moving forward, I’ll find another leader for the Trueborn."

Jerome closed his eyes.

"I’m sorry about what I said earlier, Mister Hiro. I’ll apologize to Daisy and the others later."

"That would be smart." Jason said. "Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to be on my way. I still have other tests to run on Daisy’s new MindCore."

Jason stood up, then looked back down at Jerome. "Don’t tell Daisy or Phoebe anything I’ve told you. This stays between us."

"Yes, sir." Jerome said with a nod.

Jason found it slightly amusing a guy three times his size was addressing him so respectfully, but it wasn’t unexpected or beyond the pale. He patted Jerome’s shoulder, then uttered a Word of Power before vanishing.

Jerome was left alone with his thoughts. He had a lot on his mind.