The walk was brutal, even if it was only a couple of miles. Powers give you a lot of benefits, but they don’t do shit for making you strong. Well, unless that’s your power, I guess. But, personally, I had the physique of a horse that’s about to become Elmer’s glue.
I’d barely made it ten minutes before he was messaging me again.
Now there was no hope of me leaving the city before he knew I was trying to escape. I turned on my phone, desperate to try and book an Uber or something. That was just a waste of time, though. I couldn’t afford one even if someone was driving in this part of the city.
I pushed on, forcing my aching body to take each step forward. The station wasn’t too far, and he didn’t know where I was headed. Even if he figured out my plans, there was no way he could catch me in time.
I felt another barrage of messages come through.
I gave up trying to bargain for any more time. I’d been the one they sent after rogue henches far too often to think he’d fall for anymore bullshit. So, I tried my best to sprint towards the travel station. It was more of a run for three seconds and hobble for twenty seconds situation, but it was the best that I could do.
I ignored the onslaught of threatening messages as I finally reached the station. I pulled on the door handle, but it refused to budge. I looked around for help, only then noticing just how abandoned this place was. There was a small blue box overflowing with pamphlets, and I hesitantly grabbed one. Even though I could guess what it would say, I still read it.
“Greetings, valued customers of Wildberry Station! We are sorry to announce that the station will be temporarily closed due to the current lockdown. Once the super fauna herds pass, we will be open for travel once more! Thank you for your patience and understanding in these difficult times!”
I smashed my fist against the door, doing more to hurt me than the glass. I cursed at everything I saw, even if it didn’t matter in the end. There was no hope for me. I never thought about leaving South Rain, so I’d completely tuned out news of the latest lockdown.
No one comes in or out during a lockdown, it’s one of the few rules that even villains can’t break. Whatever gave humanity access to the system also gave it to the wildlife. The herds out there would mutilate me far worse than the Disciples ever could.
I collapsed against the door, my legs giving out alongside my hope. My studio apartment was likely being torn to shit, my former gang was now hunting me, and I was covered in my own vomit. If there was ever a low point in my life, it was that very moment.
I let myself cry out the frustration, cursing at the floating Dendra ships above. I was trapped in a city with a bunch of homicidal maniacs, and even now, Polymeniac was still threatening me through the system.
After I got the tears out, I forced myself to stand. My body was burning, I smelled like I reached third base with an outhouse, and my gang was going to hunt me. But there was one thought that kept me going. Why would I make it easy on them?
There was one benefit to having gone to the station, even if it was closed. It was only two blocks away from Church street. Now, I didn’t care at all about the dilapidated church that the street was named after. If I went to the old God for help, I’d have a whole rap sheet of sins to pay off first.
What mattered was that the street was Surge Gang territory. Surge Gang was one of the largest rivals we had, and there was no way they would send henchmen without permission. There was already enough bad blood between the two gangs, and doing that would be asking for another war.
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As I stumbled through the streets, I decided to take off my signature mask. While most people hadn’t seen my face before, they would recognize my mask. If Surge Gang henchmen spotted me, I’d be gunned down without a way to fight back. While I stuffed my mask into the duffel bag, I pulled out a few twenties.
I found what I was looking for just a few streets down. It was a sleazy motel with a handful of half-naked women smoking outside. I ignored their calls for my attention and headed into the main office, hoping that my appearance wouldn’t cause any problems.
“No bums inside, get out or I’m calling the cops.” The man barely looked at me.
I took a breath, trying my best to pretend that everything was alright. “Woah, dude, wrong guy! I’m not a hobo or nothing, some chick from the club just puked all over me. I only want somewhere to shower and sleep right now, then I’ll take an Uber home in the morning,” I lied.
He put down his paper, finally paying attention to me. “There’s an upcharge for the mess. Hundred right now and you’ll get a room.”
I slapped the money on the counter. “Thanks, man.”
He threw me a pair of keys, labeled “Room 4.” I headed off to the new shithole that I had the honor of calling home.
My first night in that motel was rough, and Polymeniac’s threatening messages weren’t helping. They weren’t even anything insightful, it was just him threatening to find and kill me. But he eventually had to sleep, letting me get some rest early in the morning.
Part of me had hoped that I would wake up and everything would be fine. That there was a chance I’d be back home from a night of drinking, dealing with the latest hangover. If I was really lucky, maybe I’d be back in my childhood. Woken up by the scent of pancakes that my mom would make us on the weekends.
Instead, I woke up in my underwear, sore, and in a roach infested motel room that stunk of vomit. I groggily checked my phone to see dozens of unknown numbers talking about what they’d do to me. It seemed that I was considered responsible for everything that happened last night.
But, I guess they weren’t wrong. I was the only super there, the only one that had half a chance against a hero. Sure, I would’ve likely died, but there was still a chance. When I ran, I gave up any hope that they could’ve made it out of there alive.
I dragged myself to the bathroom and got dressed. Soaking the clothes in water and scrubbing off the vomit didn’t do much to clean them, and they were still damp despite me leaving them out overnight. I still put them on, because I didn’t exactly have any other options.
I pocketed a couple hundreds from the duffle bag, stashing the rest under the filthy mattress. If housekeeping managed to get their hands on my money, then I’d be in even deeper shit. With some cash in hand, I headed to the main office.
There was someone new at the front desk, some girl, which was a lucky break. I wasn’t certain what excuse I’d give the old man from last night. I quickly paid to extend my stay, avoiding any questions about myself. Hopefully I would only need to stay here for a few days at most, but I wasn’t going to get my hopes up.
Since I was staying outside of Disciple territory, I’d bought myself at least a few days before they found me. Even if they didn’t send any henches here, someone would eventually find me. I just needed to figure something out with the time that I had left.
I was still a super after all, and supers play by different rules. A normal henchman would be better off just shooting themselves, but I still had options. None of them were great, though I wasn’t in any position to be picky.
I could run over to hero territory and snitch. While I knew enough to get me some protection, it just wasn’t something I could do. Some moral codes become hard coded into your mind.
There was also the idea of trying to join a rival gang. Even if I was a super, I’d be hard pressed to find anyone wanting to take me in. Not only was my power lackluster, but I was now an enemy of the most powerful gang in South Rain City.
There was some merit to the idea of joining another gang, though. But I didn’t need to join another group, what I needed was the protection it provided. If I could just get some strong allies by my side, then the Disciples of Agony would have to realize I wasn’t worth the fight.
I desperately tried to think of any non-affiliated supers that I knew. Personally, I didn’t know a single one, but I liked to keep track of any supers that I heard about, especially ones that were local. If I could just find a super who would fight the Disciples with me, then maybe we’d have a chance together.
That was when I remembered him. The incident only happened a few weeks ago at Summit Park. Some henches got into an argument, and for some reason, they decided to gun the guy down. Those dumbasses didn’t realize that he was a super, and he ended up killing a few of our own.
Issue is that the survivors didn’t know the first thing about him. They could only confirm that their bullets bounced off of him and that he wore all white clothing and gold jewelry. We didn’t even know what his powers were, he only needed a gun to kill the henches.
But that was the closest thing to a lead that I had. If he was still pissy about the shooting, then maybe we could work something out. So I headed down to Summit Park, hoping to either find him or find somebody who knew him.
I spent half an hour walking around that park, searching for anybody that matched his description. Eventually, I gave up trying to find him. There wasn’t anything waiting for me when I got back to the motel, so I sat down on a bench and watched the ducks.
I couldn’t tell you how long I spent staring at those damn birds. They didn’t even do anything interesting, they were just swimming around and quacking. There was something there about how they were free, able to fly anywhere, but I’m not poetic enough to think deeper on it.
The only thing that snapped me out of it was when a man sat next to me on the bench. I didn’t pay any attention to him until he started speaking to me. That was when I noticed it, his fluffy white hoodie and pants, accompanied by countless gold chains and rings.
“Yeah, I like looking at the ducks too,” he turned to me. “But you weren’t looking for ducks, you were looking for me.” His voice had traces of an accent that I couldn’t place, and there was an odd joy that floated behind his words.
He was a short bastard, forcing me to look down to look him in the eye. His blindingly bright outfit was the first thing I noticed about him. That deranged look in his eyes was the second.