The Hero's Ideology

When Geoffrey first adorned himself in his homemade suit of green, gold and white, he swore an oath: to do whatever it would take to preserve the collective good, to defend innocent lives if they were in imminent danger, and never to lose sight of what he believed as an individual. Likewise, when Kurayami Nakamura swore himself as an agent of Death, he vowed to take the lives of the unjust, the wicked, and the criminally negligent. All in the name of justice. And all for the sake of preserving the world from the destruction the Watchers of the Cosmos foresaw when they opened the Ark of Enlightenment. 

Nakamura’s conviction led him to take up his scythe and comb the city of Cleveland, Ohio on the evening of June 20, 2016 for a young, inhuman woman who was last seen scampering the streets by night; avoiding bounty hunters who took jobs from several of the nations top researchers to hunt down and capture her. The few who encountered her failed in their attempts to seize her, for her powers proved an efficient tool in helping her fend them off and escape. Not even Uranometria and Luna Moth stood not a chance against the young woman, Millianna’s powers. However, much to her surprise, he proved more formidable than most. Over the past fifty years, scientists tried engineering superhumans of their own. None came close to forging a manifestation like her. Despite this, Uranometria possessed artificial power drawn from plasma energy, which complimented the power Millianna was born with. She overpowered and defeated him during their  only confrontation in an alleyway by night three days prior to Nakamura’s arrival. That evening, under the silver light of the waxing gibbous moon, the confrontation garnered the attention of a young man who kept watch over the city by night. Newspaper companies within city limits called him the Crescent Crusader, as he usually appeared between the hours of eight at night and six in the morning. The few witnesses who saw him snapped blurry cell phone pictures and shared them with both the press and social media. Each one depicted a young man who wore green and white. Good quality photos in comparison to most featured gold markings on his suit. 

Millianna took notice of the mysterious superhero who dominated the media, and did her best to avoid confrontation. But her bout with Uranometria made it easier for him to track down and stop her for questioning. She slipped in and out of the sewers, crammed quietly through alleys, and lept from rooftop to rooftop until she found herself standing before the boy. They met under the moon atop a commercial complex near the heart of the city. Chills circulated through her body when her eyes met his. 

“Look buddy,” she said, preparing to throw two blasts of plasma energy from her bare hands. “Stand down, and see that no one knows of my presence. And I won’t hurt you.” 

“I assume you just took out one of the nation’s best bounty hunters?” he asked. She gave him a puzzled look, as his voice sounded a bit higher than she expected. Geoffrey stood at five feet, eight inches, and had long, black hair styled similar to a k-pop star. “Let me guess, Uranometria?” She nodded with a raised eyebrow. He studied her. She had locks of golden hair, and wore a jean jacket that had a few rips and stains. Underneath, she wore a light dress with a medium-length skirt. And around her neck, she wore a pendant with the crest of her homeworld colony. “You’re the inhuman, aren’t you?” he asked rhetorically, having seen low-quality pictures of her in the news. “I’m not the only one who manages to get crappy pictures snapped of me in action and featured in the news. Frankly, you were a bigger subject in the science community. A lot of researchers want to-” before he continued, she shot a blast of plasma energy that knocked him on his back. Then she disappeared into the shroud of night’s dark atmosphere. 

This first encounter between Geoffrey, the Crescent Crusader and Millianna, the inhuman fugitive, took place on June 17. Media coverage of her fight with Uranometria shortly before meeting the boy captured Nakamura’s attention. At the time, he found himself in the Midwestern United States, harvesting the souls of people who practiced injustice for their own gain. He came across footage of the fight and, having studied the inhuman for the past few weeks, determined he had to confront her as soon as possible to remove her threat from the world. 

“Even if I spare her,” he thought. “Scientists will use her blood samples to engineer superhumans that will ultimately play a role during Ragnarok.” Hitching a ride from three eastbound truck drivers, he made a three-day pilgrimage to Cleveland. Due to a few necessary detours to evade police pursuit, he arrived in the city under the silver light of a full moon. Immediately, he set about to combing the streets in search of Millianna. A mere fifteen minutes passed before he stopped in an alleyway where she stood still, facing his direction. 

“I knew you’d come for me,” she said, almost robotically. Usually, Nakamura would remove his blue raven mask from his face to calm his prey before advancing to kill. But Millianna did not seem as frightened or phased by his appearance as he anticipated. Most of his victims trembled at the sight of him wearing his trademark raven mask. He kept it on as he slowly walked in the young woman’s direction. She kept still. The eyeholes of his mask allowed her to gaze into his dark pupils. Slung over his back was a short scythe, featuring a bloodstained blade that glistened in the moonlight. Millianna shut her eyes and shook a bit before kneeling before him as if he were a god. “Do as you will.” Nakamura suppressed his confusion, then swung his scythe. Steel repelled the blade with a clinking sound. The weapon fell from his grasp. Millianna got to her feet and opened her eyes, which glowed brighter than before. He took a few steps back as the android manifestation advanced upon him. “Can’t kill me now,” she scoffed. “I’m already dead.” 

Geoffrey watched from a rooftop and waited for the right moment to enter the scene. Just before descending to the alley for the next kill, he gave his decision more thought. Killing Millianna two nights before kept in line with his oath to defend the collective good. Shortly after his defeat, a messenger of the Cosmic Watchers visited him to warn him of the intruder he just encountered. 

In his prophecy, he also warned, “The Ark also predicted the coming of a young man who assumed the role of Death’s agent. If Abeloth rose to power, he would sit at the round table in his divine palace during the post-apocalyptic age.” Geoffrey took a moment before descending to reflect upon the young man he was becoming, and the threat which Millianna’s android manifestation neutralized. He already seized a loophole in fate itself by restoring the young woman’s life in the form of rebuilding her as an android with no trace of her original superhuman blood. This act helped him cope with the overwhelming guilt that came with taking the young woman’s life. If he seized another loophole, it would prove consequential in a new context. The Messenger referred to the young man by name, and gave a description of his character. However, he followed up the description by warning Geoffrey not to lose sight of the thing he was about to tackle head-on. This aligned with his promise not to lose sight of what he as an individual believed. From this, he determined that killing Nakamura would cause him to fall into the lust of taking the lives of others; thereby becoming the true agent of Death. At first, he told himself that killing Millianna helped him get over the initial stress that came with murder. But he decided her death, unlike Nakamura’s, was necessary. 

He looked over the ledge of a building rooftop to see Millianna’s android manifestation prepare to extinguish Kurayami’s life. Quickly, he climbed down and fended her off. Per programming, she shut down when he muttered an emergency override quote. Then, Geoffrey turned to help Nakamura to his feet. 

“Are you okay?” he asked him. 

Nakamura rose to his feet, “You must have killed her before I had the chance to. But why did you rebuild her as an android?” 

“Guilt.”

“I’ve killed hundreds more than you have. All in the name of doing what was ultimately right. I never brought anyone back no matter how guilty I felt.” 

“I’m not like you.” 

Nakamura glared with confusion, “I thought because you killed her and brought her back to set me up was because you were. I thought you just beat me to the job and just wanted to execute the will of Death.” 

“No,” said Geoffrey. “I’m against that. Millianna never knew you’d come for her. When my friends built her, I made sure they programmed her to say these things to you. I only knew who you are because of a prophecy I was told of. It spoke of the agent of Death.”

“I am he.” 

“And I would’ve been your successor had I killed you.” 

Nakamura sighed. “Why didn’t you? It’s probably for better.”

“Not the way I see it,” Geoffrey argued. Behind him, Millianna reactivated herself and advanced towards Nakamura with Geoffrey. He held him still while she knelt before him. Opening her mouth to reveal what appeared to be a mouthhole constructed from a gun’s barrel, she emitted a sedative gas. Before falling into a deep sleep, he heard Geoffrey tell him, “I believe justice is served when the person is kept alive and punished by serving time rather than having their life extinguished altogether.” He faded into a deep sleep as Geoffrey said, “A villain would believe otherwise.”