Every villain needs a henchman

Chapter 25

Every villain needs a henchman

Nom withdrew his vision back into his apartment, and turned to his guest. "Well, did you see what you wanted to see?"

A normal person would have been thunder struck. An average human would have been shocked into a catatonic state or blind panic, by the very thought of such a horror, being revealed before their eyes. It was what Nom hoped for, perhaps then he could spare Tollen, but he was not such a person. Even without Nom's gift, it would have been obvious. Even a psychopath like Nom, could see that Tollen was disturbed. But despite that being clear, he was somehow still moving forward.

"Nom." Tollen said. "Why would you do such a thing?"

Nom raised an eyebrow. "Because it is just." He explained. "Am I damning poor Pham to an eternity in some hell? Am I pissed because he failed to believe in the correct bronze age god? Will his suffering last more than a few days? Will his suffering last longer than that of his victims? No, the most prolonged fate that I have cast thus far, will cause that person suffering for no more than a year or so. Our so-called 'justice system' regularly casts people into a real-world damnation for scores of years." Nom had to pause a moment to calm his tone.

"Humanity is a living organism. It is diseased and rotting from the inside out. Just like a surgeon facing a massive onset of gangrene, I am amputating diseased tissue." Nom finished.

"Are you?"

"Did you not just see Pham? Do you doubt that he will die exactly as I described?" Nom chided.

"No. I am beyond doubt."

"Well then, what are you asking me?" Nom said, his patience wearing thin.

"Are you cutting out the dead wood of society, or are you simply taking an immense gift, and using it to settle a few old scores?" Tollen asked.

"What score did I have to settle against Pham? The man never harmed me."

"Simple. He was a part of the machine that elected that Nazi. Morally, you found that crap Pham pulled along the border abhorrent, but it was not a crime against you or your family. Remember when you first came to District A? Remember how you were mentally crushed? Your family chose to decay into meaninglessness, rather than cleans itself of the toxic growth, represented by your two uncles?

"You said that you had found a new reason for living. That was being a part of the social welfare state. Enabling it, even on so basic a level, meant that you were making society a better place. Then this Pham, your next-door neighbor, and the rest of Oakland County got together. For the first time in thirty years they swung Michigan to the dark side. Michigan cast its electoral votes for El Douche, a man who subsequently slashed our budget and mission. Even if you hadn't been driven insane, and then forced out of the office by Mrs. Cobb and Santiago, you would have been laid off by this time, just like everyone else who hired in with you. Your new meaning of life? Poof! It would have been in ashes, just like your father's family."

"Pham was the face of your new enemy. He was the incarnation of the GOP. The force that annihilated the good you had built your new life around." Tollen said.

"All you are saying, is that I took revenge on an enemy. Fine, I did that. And no, it can't be undone, even if it could, I won't let it be undone." Nom said with finality.

"I don't care if you undo it Nom. I'm saying that you are being petty and selfish."

"Come again?" Nom said, a dangerous tone creeping into his voice.

"You took out an insignificant election volunteer. You haven't changed a thing. The TEA Party and the Nazi in Chief are still there. You took out the problem that District A had with its management. But, you did nothing to make it possible for the remaining workers to help the people of Michigan who so desperately need us. You took out an entire church in Texas, what was that ten thousand people?" Tollen asked.

Nom shook his head. "No, eleven-thousand-one-hundred-twenty-three. That is, if you include those who will die, by the time my justice on them is finished in a few weeks. I spared anyone under the age of twenty-four, since that is when our brains finally mature." Nom said.

"You took out one of the biggest churches in America. A church brainwashing innocent children. A church so vile, it wouldn't even help the people in its own congregation left homeless after a hurricane with some basic shelter. Why the hell are you back here in Michigan, Nom? To settle old scores? Why did you meet up with your family over the last few days?" Tollen asked.

Nom seemed to be losing his fire.

"Yes." He said with a sigh. "I met up with my family. And I did what my grandfather should have done years ago. I threw the trash out into the 'outer night'. He could have banished them. That was outside of my powers, but I did far worse."

"None of them even know yet. But I am watching them every waking minute. Thodigs is dying, he will show the signs in a few months. I gave him a special form of mercury poisoning. Thank the nonexistent god for CFL light bulbs. I was able to crack the bulb above his plate and contaminate it. A normal person wouldn't have even been bothered much. Sure a few neurons might die, but nothing significant. Thanks to organic chemistry there is a special highly stable yet toxic mercury compound. It takes an unimaginably small dose to be lethal. The carbons help it slip into his brain, where over and over again it will destroy his axons. His brain cells will lose their ability to talk to each other. It is slow. Oh so very slow. Months of undetectable damage building, until the first visible symptoms manifest. By that point no one will be able to save him. He will die by Christmas in one of the more terrifying long-term deaths I can imagine."

"Chegabod. Well, he wanted so badly to be the eldest son. He has gotten his wish. Inspired by the childhood disease progeria, I accelerated the telomeres in his cells. Now he is aging at an accelerated rate. Over the new few months, he will age years. Over the year, decades. He will be dead before the next summer, having finally seen the deepest wish of his heart come true. But not before I take my greatest revenge."

"Chegaboud sees himself as the true heir of our family, a line that casts itself back into history for almost a thousand years. He thinks that line will continue on through him. Well, he is wrong. His children will not live out the fall. They will die within a few months at the most. Another positive aspect of his progeria is that he is sterile now. He will be unable to replace his kids in the little time he has left. He will live long enough, to see all that he had dreamed, hoped, and wished for, turn to dust."

"I may be petty, but I have cleansed my family. I would do it again, if given the same chance." Nom said the last with a sigh of finality.

Tollen seemed crest fallen. "But Nom, don't you see? You have a chance, a chance no human since Genghis Khan has had, to remake the whole world in your image. If you can cull humanity instead of your family, then you can fix it. Poverty, war, suffering you could end it all!"

"I don't even know how to begin something like that." Nom said.

"Sure you do." Tollen said. "Start at the top. Populism is the current symptom of our diseased humanity. The President and his conspirators are causing the most damage. So cull them. Do whatever it is you do and remove that portion of humanity so that the rest of it can start to recover."

"That would do nothing." Nom said. "Do you think I haven't been spending almost every waking moment on this? They would come back. They always do. Take out Hitler and McCarthy rises to take his place. Who would have thought that after World War Two and the Red Scare that populism would rise again, yet here it is." Nom said.

"So what causes populism?" Tollen asked.

"Can't say for sure, but I have been thinking about it. It seems that every time a society has a surge in conservative ideology that populism rises. Conservatism is usually led by a select group of oligarchs or people who wish to become oligarchs. They find propagandist savants to draw in the most stupid and ill-educated dregs society has to offer."

"In most cases I've looked at, from mid evil Europe to Muslim terror to the American Bible belt, it is religious fundamentalism which is the glue those propagandists use."

"The fundamentalist religious forces in their respective lands, push for a conservative revival of a non-existent pure past. This causes a decline in the societal value placed on education. This causes a mass proliferation of morons. Moronic views are seen as being more valuable, for their uneducated street smarts, and blind acceptance of moron dogma."

"In step two, the oligarchs bypass the religious and seek out the unconverted masses. If the poor buy in, they become convinced that they too can eventually become like the oligarchs. The wisdom of a blue collar failed business man on economics is seen as better than people who hold PhDs in the subject. Populism grabs the elections.

"End result: the oligarchs get richer, the poor get poorer, and the dumb get dumber. The advance and progress of society is checked if not destroyed. Whether it is religious clerics in Iran getting rich on power or billionaires on Wall Street, the process is the same, only the currency is different. After all, 'Greed is good.'" Nom said.

"I think you have your answer." Tollen said. "To fix most, but obviously not all, of society's problems what could you do?"

"Kill off the cult of stupidity in the west and religion in general. First eliminate the current monster in a massive public show of force. Shock and awe." Nom said feeling his energy returning.

"That's right." Tollen said. "You thought I was the one tilting at wind mills. It turns out that it was you."

"Come again?"

"You let your problems over the last few years consume you. Here you are man with a true power. You choose to spend it on the petty issues of a mere individual, when you could be molding nations. Wait… Are you even really human anymore?"

Nom nodded. "I've been wondering the same thing. I keep hearing an old verse in my head: 'I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds.'"

"What was that?" Tollen asked.

"A Hindu text, quoted by Robert Oppenheimer, as he watched the first atom bomb being tested."

"It seems right; you have become Death. You don't seem to have any limits other than your imagination and will." Tollen said.

"I cannot give life." Nom said. "I tried that already, and failed."

"So, don't make a mistake. If you do, then realize that you are a surgeon. One working on a massive body called humanity, not on individual people." Tollen said.

"It would be like killing one good cell, to save a whole body." Nom mused.

"Exactly."

"I'll do it." Nom said.