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Leap of Faith

One of the things I was most adamant about was making it clear that although he was the primary antagonist, there were sympathetic qualities to Volpes. This piece from Marsel-Defender back in April of 2022 was a perfect vehicle to tell a story showcasing this.

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Like any other day after closing up shop, Volpes had returned to the once-abandoned warehouse he had flipped into the headquarters of his operation. With Captain Azurium, and soon the precinct, under his thumb, and his financial difficulties a thing of the past, he was finally free to start expanding his operations.

His home city-state, Oplentis, had been mired in corruption and mistreatment of the poor since before he had called himself Volpes, back when he was a frail, young kit, and that was no less true now. Though he was taking strides to address and correct this problem, he knew all too well that for many his plans could not come to fruition soon enough.

Many like his most recent recruits, human twins Fredrick and Francine. He found them on the streets, rendered homeless by their landlord looking to lease their residence to a higher bidder. The promise of a hot meal and a warm bed was more than enough for the two of them to make the life-changing decision to become titans and join him in his mission.

Frederick had taken to the formula as well as any other man under Volpes’s command, bare-chested as none of his old shirts fit on over his broad, defined torso. His naturally green eyes, much like his sister’s, had taken on an almost otherworldly shine as a result of the process. And though his olive skin was once marred by the scars of a rough childhood, his evolution had caused all of those aches and pains to vanish alongside the evidence they ever existed in the first place.

As for Francine, she had blossomed in her own right, as large and powerful as her brother, if not more so. Though the process had consumed much of her body fat, including that of her breast tissue, she could not quite be called flat. Preserving her modesty and femininity was a top that kept her secure without restricting her movements. Letting her hair grow long, she had fashioned herself into an amazonian beauty in her own right.

But as the alchemist experienced for himself, fortifying the body and mind is no salve for a wounded heart and soul. When Azurium came to him with reports that they had difficulty adjusting to the training, even after the potion had cemented their loyalty, he had already known the cause.

Sure enough, the two were in the barracks at the rear of the warehouse, sitting upon their cots. Their body language told the whole story. Though the red-headed twins had grown enormously as a result of their new patron, they looked to be shrinking into themselves. Both of them huddled next to each other, keeping close despite their fidgeting. He didn’t need the confirmation, but nonetheless, Volpes could hear their hearts racing.

Rather than keep them in their agitated state, the fox-titan made the first move. “Do you mind if I have a seat?” Conditioning long since taken hold, the twins quickly acquiesced. Looking up, Francine was the first to respond.

“Ma- Master!? Of course, by all means.” She scooted over to give her patron room to sit next to them.

Taking his spot on his follower’s cot, Volpes began to lean in towards them both, hands clasped together. “I hear the two of you have been having trouble adjusting, and I wanted to check-in. Some of us can be… rowdy, and if anyone has been giving you problems I want to know.” While he knew that wasn’t the real issue at hand, it was a good start towards helping them broach it.

Unsurprisingly, in unison, they shook their heads. Frederick was the one to take the lead. “N- No, Master! We’ve been treated well by everyone. It’s just-”

“Just what, Frederick?” The siblings’ glowing emerald eyes made contact, and they both nodded at each other wordlessly.

“Are we worth it? The people here are fighters, builders, and eggheads. How can we possibly measure up!?”

Hearing it from his recruits, the alchemist chuckled to himself. “What? You don’t think you’re the only ones who came here from squalor, do you?”

“What do you mean, Master Volpes?”

He pointed to a ratkin-titan. “That is Henry. Before he became our tailor, I found him drowning his sorrows at a bar, after debt collectors seized his property.” Moving his finger to another of his people, a dragonkin woman working a makeshift forge, “And Merideth lost everything after her husband was carted away on false charges, never to be seen again. Neither one of them had any form of training or skill before they came to us.”

Francine’s eyes widened, her jaw slack.“You mean…?”

“Yes. We took them in and we taught them, or gave them the tools to teach themselves, as we’ll do for you once you complete your soldier training under Captain Azurium.”

“That’s so generous, but for us? We just-”

Already, they had begun to retreat back into their shell. The alchemist pondered for a moment before an idea crossed his mind. “Come with me.”

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Following their master, the twin titans found their way above the living quarters in the warehouse, on the upper floor of the building. At the end of the dark corridor shown the bright noon sun, through a glass window. Their master turned to them before telling them what he had in mind.

“It is a delicate balance making a secret headquarters in an abandoned warehouse. However well maintained our facilities are, we must ensure that all outside appearances are to the contrary. The locals won’t rat us out, and the precinct is under our control, but there are always prying eyes. It would be simple to just break this window and be done with it, but do you see that building on the other side?”

Looking down, quite a distance away, they saw the roof of the storage unit they had reappropriated along with the warehouse. Frederick couldn’t fathom what his Master intended. “What about it?”

“You can leap from here to that roof. Any of us could.”

“Are you out of your mind, Master!?” Francine was beside herself.

“Not at all. The day I became Volpes, I cleared a jump just like this with ease, and before that, I too was a nobody. Let me show you.” Without any further thought, Volpes crashed through the window, debris flying forward alongside him. Any reasonable man would have feared the cuts and injuries from the glass, but even in mid-flight, robe flowing in the wind, Volpes’s wounds were expelling the shrapnel that embedded itself within his flesh, knitting themselves closed as if they never occurred in the first place. Making no effort to cushion his landing, the titan slammed his body into the roof, leaving shockingly scant evidence of impact. Looking back, he could see the mix of fear and amazement from the siblings.

“We can’t do that!”

“You can! Trust yourself, the way I trust you.”

“What if we fall?”

“You won’t. I’ll catch you.” The longer he spoke, the more he knew his brainwashing would compel them to face their fears. “You have each other, and you have me.”

Again, like before, they stared directly into each other’s eyes before nodding to each other. As their master demonstrated, they too took a leap of faith. And though they fumbled and tumbled as they landed, with decidedly less grace, they did indeed land on the roof of the storehouse, safe and unharmed. Opening his arms wide, he beckoned the two to join him for a group hug. Wrapped his arms around them, he beamed a genuine smile as they reciprocated.

The moment the titan made physical contact with his recruits, the pleasure centers in their brains began to fire, engraving this moment, the moment their master went out of his way to aid them, into their minds forevermore.

“You did it.”

Breathing in and out, they spoke in unison. “We did it.”

“Remember this day, and remember this lesson well. Whatever you thought you were before, you’re titans now. There’s nothing you can’t do. Not anymore.”

Francine smiled, as did her brother, and she expressed their gratitude. “Thank you, Master. You have no idea how much this means to us.”

He could only laugh. “Oh, I do, my friends. I know all too well how important this second chance can be.”