Riley Ross

"How dare you fucking say that?!"

The Empress raised both her hands to grab Bernard's collar, but he casually leaned and stepped back to avoid her, perhaps a mistake to do with someone already angry at you for saying something completely explicitly out of hand.

But of course, Bernard even doubled down on his words.

"The chance of Riley inheriting his mother's illness is around ten to thirteen percent—and that is not taking into account the father's mental history, which we know absolutely nothing about," he sighed while backing away from The Empress, "I know that you have already bonded with the child, Ada… but that is a thirteen percent we can't risk. I'll do it. It will be painle—"

And before Bernard could finish his words, a soft clanging noise whispered in the air as The Empress lunged at him with her fist; the golden rings around her arms clinking against each other.

Bernard, instead of dodging away or moving back, crouched forward and leaned down. He then lifted his leg back and raised it, and then hooked The Empress' charging arm. He then planted both of his palms on top of her feet, making her completely lose balance—but before she could fall on top of him, Bernard pushed himself up, all the while still gripping her arm with his leg, and then spun in the air.

He moved like a snake, almost—or maybe a spider. The Empress dropped to the floor face first, and with Bernard almost on top of him, her head in between his thighs as he had her pinned down.

"Stop it, Ada. We're supposed to be discussing this like civilized people."

"What civilized people would talk about killing a child?!" The Empress struggled to get up, but Bernard tightened his grip on her arm.

"You'd be surprised how many. Even nature itself culls those who they think would threaten the many."

"Then…" The Empress's lips trembled. She turned her head as much as she could and glared at Bernard, "...why didn't you do it with your daughter?"

"Diana and I do not have any history of mental illness in our family. This is going to happen, and it would be for the best."

"How. Fucking. Dare. You?"

And soon, The Empress's eyes started to light up, and the rings wrapped around her arms started to clink and dance wildly.

Bernard immediately freed her from his grasp, swiftly tumbling back several times to get away from her as fast as he could. But before his feet could land back at the last flip, The Empress's fist was already only a foot away from smashing his face in.

Bernard couldn't even react anymore. But still, a sudden glimmer flickered in his eyes. And almost instantly, his view of The Empress' fist was blocked by something white—his armor.

The feet of his armor pierced through the floor, planting itself there before meeting with The Empress' fist.

The violent rippling caused the air to tremble. And then thunders, both from The Empress' fist and Bernard's armo,r flying faster than the speed of sound, erupted. The floor instantly shattered, and the armor was flung back from the ground—not before, of course, wrapping itself completely around Bernard and flying him away from her reach.

This didn't matter at all, however, as The Empress was once again in front of him—and this time, the fist connected right onto his face. Fortunately for him, he was already wearing a helmet.

But once again, it didn't matter. Multiple skirts of wind erupted from The Empress's fist, and he was violently thrown away across the hall, and even the wall did not stop his momentum at all as he flew straight outside the tower.

Megawoman was about to step in to stop them, but Bulwark summoned a golden wall of light to block her.

"It's fine," he sighed. "This is the first time they are letting out what they are feeling, Megawoman. Let them."

Megawoman blinked at Bulwark before casually stepping forward. Bulwark's solid light construct stretched without any resistance at all, before ripping into pieces as she went right through it.

"Are you sure?" She then asked as she watched The Empress fly out to follow Bernard, "I know Adaeze would stop before this becomes too uncontrollable, but I don't trust that Whiteking guy."

"Bernard is…" Bulwark glanced at his construct first as it disappeared, before following Megawoman's eyes and looking at the hole the two made in their expensive meeting hall, "Bernard is dangerous, but he values his friends and family. He tries."

"Huh. They're coming back." Megawoman took four steps back, and as she did so, Bernard's shadow flew back through the hall and dropped straight to where she had previously been standing.

Several explosions thundered from the outside until The Empress emerged from the hole, a series of tiny cracks snapped from behind her; the floor cracked beneath her feet as she landed, and she did not waste any time at all to rush toward Bernard.

But once again, Bernard did not dodge or fly away, and instead met her head on. He spun in the air, before meeting The Empress' punch with a kick.

But as soon as his foot and her fist met, his knee bent, and his entire armor shattered instantly.

The armor, however, instead of being blown away into pieces, slowly attached itself around The Empress's hand. And as if it were alive, it started crawling around her arm and toward her shoulder.

At the same time, Bernard stood right on top of her fist, and then lightly hopped before spinning in the air and landing his hand on top of The Empress's head. He then pivoted on top of her, before landing beside her and then grabbing her arm—and the rest of his armor crawled toward it.

And now, with both of her arms covered with Bernard's armor, several boosters started popping out from its surface and then fired—bringing The Empress to her knees and chaining her down on the cracked floor.

"Y—" And before a guttural scream could escape her lungs, Bernard stood in front of her before crouching down and embracing her.

"It's okay, Ada. It's okay. I'm sorry, okay?" He whispered into her ear, "Please, your emotions are running a little high right now."

"Fuck you," The Empress gritted her teeth.

"I deserve that. But you have to calm down or you are going to kill me," Bernard calmly said as he slowly backed away from her. "Alice was my friend too, although I have to admit she was more Diana's friend. But still… she also meant a very great deal to me. Maybe I was… a little rash when I said to put down the boy."

"You are," The Empress' voice groaned, and the veins on her neck etched themselves out as she glared Bernard in the eyes, "He's not some animal that needs putting down, Bernard. He's a little baby boy who needs our help. Now, get me out of here so I can take that boy as far away from you as possible."

"I'm not going to do anything to the boy, I promise you," Bernard sighed before moving toward one of the chairs that managed to survive The Empress's wrath. "We are going to have a discussion about who will be taking care of the boy."

"What…?" The Empress's eyes twitched as the armor chaining her to the floor started unlatching itself from her arms. She stood up, flinging it away as she narrowed her eyes at Bernard, "What do you mean? We've already discussed that in length. His grandmother doesn't want him, and we all agreed that I would be taking care of him from now on."

"That was before we found out the boy has powers he obviously can't control." Bernard shook his head, letting out a loud sigh as he glanced at Bulwark, and then Megawoman.

"That doesn't change anything," The Empress stood in front of Bernard, "I'm still the one who's most fit to take care of him—and unless you forget, I am the only one who was willing."

"In our group, that is."

"Huh?"

"The way I see it…" Bernard stood up and started pacing across the hall again, "...We only have three viable options that we can do at the moment. One is, as I said, to… euthanize the boy."

"Tch."

"I'm not saying we're doing that," Bernard raised both his palms in surrender as The Empress glared at him again. He then took another three steps around the hall, placing himself right in front of Megawoman, "Or someone not from our organization will take care of him. I can't think of a better, or more suitable custodian than you, Megawoman."

"Th…" The Empress wanted to say something and even reached her hand out to them, but completely shut her mouth when she realized that… he might actually be right.

Megawoman, however, only returned Bernard's gaze before sighing and shaking her head.

"I'm not fit to be a mother."

"Nonsense…" Bernard bowed his head before taking a step back, "You already have a baby girl, no?"

"...I really don't like you at all, Bernard Ross."