My not stopping to think undoubtedly saves me valuable action time. But T.V is so much faster to react with his eyes, and even with the brief window of hesitation that flashes through them, Neil is not subject to such. Even worse, my impaired limb has me moving and firing at a much irregular rate than I would otherwise.
The result is an immediate dispersal of the hostages, as though they know instinctively that we scarcely have any of this under control, that it’s now or never.
Neil’s spray of bullets meets mine in the chaos and many, myself included, do not come out unscathed. The panicked patrons enter our crossfire, dropping like dolls. More death than I’d like, but to Neil’s sadistic pleasure it’s all he could want, that and the new bullet lodged in my thigh.
In less than a quarter of a second, the deck is stained red, bodies twitching, people screaming and my rifle out of bullets.
“Stop this and come with us now, Vern!” T.V screams, his hand pushing against Neil and his swiftly reloaded weapon, “You said you wanted these people to be free, but what you’ve done now has killed them instead. Drop the rifle and come with us, now.”
The urgency in his voice is hard to miss, the sound of that engine, what by now I’m certain is a motorboat, is loud and clear. It’s haunting, the uncertainty of what it carries here.
As far as I know, it could be nothing, nothing at all, but as long as he keeps demanding for me to turn over, to come with them with that look of panic in his eyes I have to believe it’s not good for him.
Although the number of things that aren’t good for a person like T.V are few, I can list off a few. The Suppressors, it could be that while we chatted away one of these now-deceased security officers was the least bit competent and called the proper authorities.
Barring that it could be a rival gang, a meta more powerful than he or a gang he has explicit orders not to cross. A gang like Letharguy’s or even The Lynx, especially Lynx. But The Lynx aren’t as civilized enough to not cause absolute chaos and howl all the way here. It’d be as obvious as daylight if it were them.
Then maybe...maybe it’s the Question? I almost snort at this speculation.
If it isn’t any single gang rival then it could be a vigilante, or as they call themselves, Superheroes.
Colourful masked crusaders of justice...some version of justice anyway. But this is as likely as the Question coming to save my sorry ass. Xoxia may be a cesspool of metas but most of them are conscripted to the service of the Suppressors, especially the powerful ones.
The Mayor doesn’t let any power run around his city unchecked. It’s a common theory that many of these Superheroes are put down when they refuse to be recruited. Fortunately or unfortunately, that isn’t to say we don’t have any left.
Gritting through the pain I forgo my thoughts of a saviour and let the rifle drop to the deck as I do, exhausted and now crippled in two limbs. Whatever that motorboat holds the sound has come to a crescendo as it starts to pass by us, clear to see, or in my case, hear.
No one stopped. All that optimism for nothing.
“Go get him.” T.V orders.
Neil scrunches up his face, his nose wrinkling with distaste and dissatisfaction as he sets his weapon aside, albeit reluctantly. I won’t be killed, at least not today. I have a hunch that if I am to die it will be at the hands of Steve himself.
That doesn’t inspire much hope for life either. Death from Vertigo is a thing, and Steve doesn’t hesitate to employ it on the ones he most despises.
A category I'll fall into if he believes for a second that we cannot be aligned and I am a threat...a viable threat. Am I a viable threat?
The thought amuses me even with a new bullet in me.
“Get up you.” Neil grunts, dragging me up by my slung arm while T.V watches. I barely stifle a scream. As much as I’ve failed to present myself as a powerful and dangerous meta-villain thanks to my powers failing me, I’d rather not have T.V see me as a vulnerable child either.
“Take it easy would you.” I manage to say through the pain of my arm and my thigh forced to take on pressure they can't handle at the moment, “Wouldn’t want to give me a reason to despise you any more than I already do.” I spit the thinly veiled threat all while staring him in the eye.
He flinches and a flash of satisfaction bursts within me. For years I’ve longed to stand over Neil and punish him as he did me. It’s quite the opposite right now but the possibility of my hatred finding its outlet has increased with T.V bringing me back to the gang as its third prospective main meta.
Even though it’s all theory, I completely outrank Neil right now.
His eyes harden and he leans in, whispering seething words in my ear, “Don’t think I’m blinded by your lies, I know you’re as powerless as ever.”
You have no idea how true that is right now, do you?
Without much protest, I drag my feet with Neil’s reluctant help over to T.V, “How are you going to get me over?” It’s hard to suppress my amusement at the man. He’d crossed over here from the other ship on a ladder like a circus monkey and now he has me with a bullet lodged in my thigh.
He doesn’t flinch, “I don’t have to.” He takes hold of me and nods to Neil who just stands there for a while, lost in thought or waiting for further illumination on what the nod means, “Ugh, go take command of the ship, get them to turn it around.”
As sound a plan as that sounds, thinking about it, I would like to leave this ship, or at least, have Paige far away from T.V and Neil.
With Neil gone to take the helm, it’s me and Neil. He sets me down by the deck, a deck soaking with blood. I don’t have much choice but to sit in the fluid and stare back at Paige, desperately trying to pause time.
I sense I’m being watched and look up to find T.V smiling down at me, “What’s so amusing?” I groan.
“Oh, nothing much really...just, Neil may be right. After all, I came in after you expecting a challenge, expecting to be fought back...yet here you are, captured with little fuss.”
This is what little fuss looks like?
“I can’t help but wonder...where is this dangerous meta-villain the news is so insistent about? The one the Police have such a hard-on for. You aren't holding out on us again, are you, Vern?” His smile vanishes as he presents the accusation. I turn away.
Gritting my teeth, both pain and frustration I answer him, “Trust me, if I could help it you would be dead and Neil would be screaming.”
He laughs heartily, “Good.”
The mirth in T.V doesn’t last long though. The ship shudders abruptly.
“Can’t even get a single thing right.” He groans, sneering at Neil’s incompetence.
Not a second after he says this I spy a figure in my periphery. Turning my focus to the figure, or as I see it clearly now, figures. I find a familiar shape among them.
“Rey?"
“You should have more faith in your subordinates, T.V.” a long, slender man with a strange head declares. Walking out of the lower levels of the ship, Rey follows close behind this man.
T.V stands straight, his shades taken off in a swift motion, “And what business do you have here...Frasier.”
Frasier? Frasier...that’s...the lieutenant. Invincibill’s Lieutenant.
***
Tall, slender, snug in a tuxedo particularly fitting for the location, and with a distinctive metal cane in hand, one that has a copper, bronze sheen to it.
One could ignore all these features on this person and yet still recognize him. Frasier’s most defining trait after all, is that his neck is eternally propped up to stare at the stars. The man has shades on, shielding his famously blind and damaged eyes from the light, a simple surgical face mask covers his lower face.
It is by these features alone I confirm T.V’s words, this man is indeed the elusive Lieutenant to Invincibill’s.
What is he doing here? Why is Rey here? What’s going on?
Questions race through my mind, questions without anyone to answer them. T.V stands tall, straightened from his previously lax stature, answering the dangerous presence of the man before him as he steps forward, “You couldn’t have business with my little one here, do you? It’ll be best for everyone if you hopped onto this ship cuz you missed your alarm.”
The chill in his voice is back, but there’s an edge to it, an edge that guarantees violent action at the slightest drop of the unknown. Every word is a threat, or as he’d put it, 'a wise suggestion'.
The mysterious Frasier only moves a step to the right in response. Austin has spoken about this, the reason this man is so revered even though he would be treated as a freak of nature anywhere else is his power, or non-power.
As far as the rumours go, there’s no confirmation that the Lieutenant is a super-powered individual, that is, there’s no confirmation he’s a meta. Other rumours place him as an alien but the overwhelming majority clear him as a man who with the aid of technology trained his senses to extreme points, to the point of precognition.
For the Lieutenant, a single step has been calculated over a thousand times to fit T.V’s aggression.
“I suppose it isn’t best for everyone then,” he speaks in an oddly modulated manner as an old respectable senior would. You’re forced to listen. “I am here for that young man you’ve injured, I’d advise you to step away.”
At this point my attention gets drawn to the door Paige and I headed to, Neil comes out of it with his hands held up beside him and his body stiffly led back onto the deck. Behind him with a large pistol to his head is none other than Austin.
I can tell T.V sees this and is fuming without even looking up at him to check, his leg beside me begins to shake, adrenaline no doubt pumping at how he’s been cornered.
“I’ll blast you and your little lackeys to hell.” He says matter-of-factly, “Take a look around you huh? Want to end up smelling like bacon?”
Thunk!
The sound of Frasier’s cane smacking the deck startles my bloodshot and tired senses, the pain I feel from the gunshot has simmered down. Although by this point alone I know my life's in danger from blood loss.
“That would be unwise, you must know that I am much, much faster than you are. In every little way that matters.” Frasier, the Lieutenant says, “Make one odd move against me and you won’t even know what hits you. Besides, I’m sure you and I can at least agree you do not want to go around starting a war without Steve’s permission.”
A pregnant pause falls upon the deck after he says this, with each second we eye each other cautiously, Rey with his weapon already trained on T.V, and Austin set to execute Neil once the time comes.
T.V considers the threat of war. It’s true, a single clash like this - between one of the most important figures in the respective gangs - can ignite a whole righteous and bloody war. From what little I paid attention to in gang politics, this is something any sensible gang leader isn't in a rush to start.
And Frasier, the Lieutenant. With his face to the sky and covered by a mask, I can’t begin to get a read on him, but by T.V’s trembling, I know he believes himself outmatched and outgunned. There’s no bluffing out of this.
“Give me Neil.”
“Start crawling,” Frasier answers immediately, leaving no room for negotiation.
T.V mulls it over a bit then stops trembling, a decision made. Suddenly I sense his eyes on me and I look to meet his them, “Don’t think this is the last you’ll see of me or Neil. Steve is going to be wanting you even more now that you’ve aligned yourself with Bill and Frasier here, spare us the chase and come willingly...or else…” His eyes trail off to something, I follow them and at the end of it, I find Paige, still sitting unconscious and propped up on the wall.
He looks back and smiles.
With that T.V begins to climb and Austin follows, pushing Neil forward so he can tag along with him.
Once they’re both off of our ship and on theirs, only then do we begin to remotely relax. Austin scrambles to one of the dead patrons nearby and rips their clothes, using that he begins to wrap around my thigh, tying a strong tourniquet around the pouring wound.
“We need to get him out of here!” He yells back to Frasier who hasn’t moved an inch.
The Lieutenant hobbles forth with his cane, Rey making a way for him to 'see' me and heads off to attend to Paige as I weakly pleaded with my fingers that he does.
Standing in front of me the Lieutenant still says nothing, head facing the blue sky I still can’t grab an inkling of what he could be thinking.
Austin yells again, “Sir!”
Frasier shuffles his weight and taps his cane, an action that calms Austin down.
“Whether we help him any more than this is up to him, Austin.”
“W-what do you mean?”
“He’s on his way out of Xoxia isn’t he? On a path Rey, your captain set for him as a way to repay the debt owed for helping out with the operation thus far.”
Austin nods, his eye pleading.
“Then he should get to decide whether he makes it out as is, whether he continues this journey or stays behind.” His tone turns from elderly to diabolic rather quickly as he adds, “And I’ve just saved him and his miss, I’d say he’s indebted to me now, any other favours like carrying him, or even her back to safety will further indebt him.”
“What are you saying!” Austin breaks in, fed up with all the doublespeak, “What do you want?”
Despite the blatant disrespect the Lieutenant doesn’t so much as flinch at Austin's fuming, rather he leans in on me, “I have a job offer.”
