RTK_Apollo t1_j6hkwoh wrote
“You didn’t seriously think I would let anyone but myself be the one to kill you, did you?”
Gabriel couldn’t help but sigh as Hemlock strode into the warehouse lights. With a gas mask and hood covering all but her citrine eyes, her sprayed-green Enhancement braces tightened with each step. Gabriel watched her carefully; even though Hemlock had reformed under Lionheart and his avocation, she still referred to him as her “enemy”. It still puzzled him that after months of probation and teamwork, she spoke about him like that. Maybe he would get to it after this fight…
As she moved forward, the collection of wolf-masked goons that surrounded Gabriel readied before him. Some raised guns while others raised fists, with a few raising eyebrows. The ringleader, a man with a neon pink-accented mask pointed a finger at the young woman.
“Oi, Vile! This is our Lionheart to hold. You take another step and my boys will ruin your get-up!”
Hemlock stopped and leaned on her hips, a gloved hand raised casually as she paid a quick scan on the group in front of her. “I won’t need another step to take out you, mi dulce niño. And he’s not even a Lionheart for god’s sake!”
“Wait, you all thought I was with Lionheart?”, Gabriel lied, “I am most definitely not associated with those clowns”. Gabriel attempted to raise his hands in protest, but the ion-induction bonds around his wrists prevented such an action.
“But we saw you running along with that hero days ago!”, one of the goons yelled, his gun swiveling past his friends with no respect to safety.
“Yeah, that Fae chick!”, another added, his fists dropping as he turned toward Gabriel.
“Uh, that’s private association, not corporate”, Gabriel, his eyes set slightly panicked behind his mask. “Besides, I’m literally marked as Vigilante under Cali government. Do you guys not do research on the people you kidnap?”
A slow muttering broke out between the group, with Gabriel noticing one goon slap another upside the head. With a frustrated yell, the ringleader clapped his hands together thrice.
“Would you shut it, team?! We have here the greatest hero in California and we are here arguing on his official statuses? He will bring a grand ransom, whether he’s dead or alive.”
“I prefer you don’t do the former?”
The ringleader growled and turned back toward Hemlock, raising his own gun toward her from a hostler in his belt. “Well, Vile, do you have any last words to mutter?”
Hemlock laughed, her head far back from amusement. As she looked back toward the group, her eyes glowed gleefully as she raised a spread hand. Even Gabriel felt a twinge of old fear as gears moved in the Enhancement brace on her shoulder.
“I do, dear wolf. Seraph is my foe, and you will never be that for me”.
RTK_Apollo t1_j6hkxzq wrote
(Part 2)
Gabriel bent to the floor as a cloud of yellow smoke flushed from Hemlock’s hand, enveloping the front line of goons. As some began firing blindly, Hemlock leapt from her position and bounded toward the ringleader with a laugh. With a drop to the ground, the ringleader’s mask lit from pink to a deep red, a visor of light materializing from the eyes. As shots rang out, Gabriel watched as the warehouse lights swung from side to side from the chaos below. As he tracked the light, he teleported to the illuminated ground behind a group of goons. Still not free from his bonds, he took one of the wolf-gangsters’ hands and threw them over his shoulder. As panicked shots rang out around him, he teleported again and caught another goon with a clothesline. As he began to teleport from gang member to member, he took note of Hemlock taking another group on her own. Enhancement braces firing with every punch, she sent a goon flying into a crate-filled shelf. As she continued to fight, the ringleader sent shot after shot toward her, his visor focused intently on the bands of Hemlock’s suit. Gabriel could only process the fight for a second before another goon sent a balled fist at his face. Gabriel weaved easily and slammed both fists into the goon’s stomach, teleporting behind another as a shot rang out. Gabriel barely focused on his whizz of the bullet before sending a side kick into the goon, slamming him onto the ground with a groan. A gang member swung a large knife downward at Gabriel as another shot toward him rang out. With another teleport, he caught the swing mid-air whilst pulling the bullet away from the armed goon. As he pulled the goon to the ground, he pulled hard toward the blunt edge of the blade. The bonds snapping, Gabriel looked toward the man with the gun and jumped toward it. His fist around the weapon in an instant, he crushed the barrel and hooked the goon to the ground cold.
Gabriel looked back toward Hemlock and saw her fighting the ringleader far-range. One Brace laid strewn on the floor, broken from bullet holes riddled at the bend. The ringleader’s visor still glowed, the red deep as he aimed his gun toward Hemlock. She sent out a wave of gas, disrupting the visor with a static noise. As he cursed with a snack toward his ear, Hemlock leapt toward him, the other Brace tight with power straight toward his side of his skull. Gabriel teleported with a readied fist, instantly moving to catch Hemlock’s brace with a grunt. The metal crunched as pressure moved down his arm, Gabriel straining to stop the fist. As the ringleader raised his gun once again, Gabriel sent a elbow into the man’s mask, cracking both the visor and mask eyes. The ringleader fell to the ground, a silent groan emerging from his mouth. Gabriel stood straight toward Hemlock and teleported to and fro her. In his left hand, he held her other Brace and tossed it to the side. Hemlock growled and pulled off her hood and mask, revealing curly brown hair tangled down to the side and a thin scar from the side of her mouth. She crossed her hands as Gabriel strode toward her, fists clenched to his sides.
“Get it over with, Seraph. Just another arrest for me, hmm?”
“I told you a thousand times, Hem. We’re done with the villainy, we do not aim to kill with any punch! You’re on probation so you could become a hero, not so that you go back to being a Vile! And what is with you saying that ‘only I can kill you’?”
“It was Lionheart orders, to distract the goons. Scripted and all. Maybe they want to show the Vile part of me so they could say I never changed after all so when I do go back to before-“
“You are not going back to the way you were before. No when, no if’s. You just charged your Braces to the point of severe injury, and sent some goons flying into metal, and…”
Hemlock crossed her arms and looked down, her hair sending shadows down her face. Gabriel looked at her and sighed. Removing his cowl, Gabriel crouched and looked at her face from below. Her eyes remained unfocused, her forehead wrinkled with regret.
“Hey, Melissa. It’s okay, alright? You’re not a bad person, no one who doesn’t want to be will be. You will make mistakes in this line of work.
“When do they stop, Gabe?”
Gabriel opened his mouth, shut it, and spoke.
“They never do, Melissa. They never stopped after I began 5 years ago. They never stopped after our first fight three years ago. They never stopped after any other fight of mine. I’ve grown up with this job, and I never stopped making mistakes. And you…you’ve been working as a gang enforcer for the entirety of your teenager years. You will make more mistakes than me, Melissa. And that’s okay”.
Melissa looked at Gabriel, her eyes teary from thought. With a breath, she looked toward the roof of the warehouse. Gabriel stood with her, his hands loose to his sides. He stood silently, a patient gaze on Melissa as she took breath after breath, second after second. After a while, she looked back at Gabriel. With a strained smile, she opened her mouth, shut it, and spoke.
“I’m okay. I’m okay. I’m okay”.
“You are okay. I’m proud, Hem”.
Melissa’s smile grew wider as she wrapped her mask back on her face. Flipping back on her hood, she examined the area around her.
“What time will law enforcement arrive?”
“10-stat. ¿Tú ayudas limpiar?”
“Por supuesto, Seraph. I made a mistake last time though, with the bond-ties?”
“Don’t worry, I still make mistakes with those too”
Gabriel and Melissa laughed, and went back to their job of heroes once more.
Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments