HOOD

The Promised Neverlands

     This guy. Baton Rouge. What the hell is up with this guy? I mean... in a week his gang became the hell-holders of Chicago. Their reign of pain, from where did it begin? Maybe I found a worthy opponent. Too bad I've been hit by an Electro-Magnetic Pulse. I watch as the others fall apart on the inside. They see their weaknesses. Unlike me, they don't have much practice dealing with weakness--handling difficult scenarios. What I do to process this is the right way a leader should.

     "Listen to me. We all need to work together to truly get out our this. Each our weaknesses get fixed by someone else's strengths. I can focus and keep control, just not of my movements. Not perfectly. Let's see what we can do as a whole. Together."

     The intercom makes a rumble.

     "I get knocked down, but I get up again. You are never gonna keep me down."

     I reply, sarcastically. "Oh, Danny Boy."

     "I like this one. Good with pop culture."

     "I fucking told you guys!"

     Ann looks at me. She speaks. "Now isn't the time."

     I look at her and reply. "How are you not asleep yet? Don't you have hypersomnia?"

     "How did yo-"

     "Logical reasoning. Don't worry about it."

     Danny Boy gets to the point. 

     "Give me money. Ten thousand dollars. Don't expect me to be weak and not do anything."

     He easily explodes one of the eight support beams on this building, shaking the entirety of it.

     It isn't that this is the same building as before; it's that once or twice I've bee around here.

     I speak. "Something's right. Something's better off. Without you."

     He instantaneously replies. "We could be better, now."

     I hate this guy.

     Obviously he isn't in this building, so we can't kill him. The best option is to escape, but what about the civilians? They'll all perish... I know... Falsetto...

    I speak up. "Hey guys? Could you do some talking? Preferably loud?"

    As they annoy the hell out of Danny Boy, he probably thinks I'm doing something, so he puts all of his attention on us. I know that Falsetto would have noticed us go offline. He could tell where we were by the reported explosion. He's on his way. He's going to disarm all of the bombs. I think each bomb is set to detonate maybe five minutes or so after he presses the button, which he anticipated that. He must also have a timer with him. While Falsetto gets to work, we keep annoying him. Not a perfect tactic, so I hope it works.

     I somehow managed to get everyone to start chanting pineapple. This is truly pulchritudinous.

     Finally, ten minutes or so later, he checks the bombs. All read disarmed. He can't do anything else to us, and since he was so focused on them, I took the time to pick the lock he had on the door. Basic. I lead them out of the building in the easiest way possible. It's much more complex than a building should be.

     We return some time later. Falsetto has us busy for the rest of the day. We return at 0015 the next day. Laine speaks as we enter.