A/N: I was crying like a maniac as I was writting this piece of crap from the dark abyss. I really don't know where in my mind that this came from, but I just happened to find myself writting it out of the blue at 3:00AM. I love how it turned out; I write best when I'm tired as Hell. I even tried a different type of mood to write in for this one.
Character death in this one, so read at your own risk. Well...the death happened before this FanFic even begins, so it's basically the aftermath of Talon's worse mistake that has changed his "brighter" future.
Anyways, at the end of this horribly sad one-shot, is a sneak peak of ACiD: Chapter Five, which is still in progress. I haven't been on much to be writing. Explanation when the full chapter comes out.
I'm putting a try not to cry challenge here! Leave a review if you cried and what you think of this?
It was dark and raining, like a horrible cold shower. And it was late night (early morning). 2:00AM, to be precise, when the call came in. It was an unusual time for MAD to be pulling off another stupid scheme, lead by Talon as usual. But not too unexpected or surprising for HQ.
After an undercover HQ agent gave an alert to a sleeping Chief Quimby, that Talon was out to rob a legal gun shop of all its guns, located down in the heart of Metro City. Urgent, almost like an amber alert, but not quite.
And because Chief Quimby was too tired to call up anyone else other than Inspector Gadget, Penny, and Brain, the mission was given to them.
That would be the worst decision of his career, but how was he supposed to know that? Exactly.
But Chief Quimby wasn't the one that made bad decisions; so was Talon.
Now the MAD agent was on collapsed on his knees, holding a corpse that he wished was alive. But it was lifeless, all because of him. Salty tears stung his brown eyes as they blended with the rain running down his face from his hair.
He never cried in front of anyone. But he wasn't crying in front of anyone that was alive, so his reputation wasn't ruined yet. Thank goodness for that, but did it really matter now?
She was gone. Forever. All that was left of her was her soulless body, that was laid peacefully in his arms. Blood was everywhere: on her uniform, her hands, his hands, and the wet cement.
The one person that wanted to make him change his mind and reconsider his career choice, was gone. The one girl that was there for him, through thick and thin, was gone. The HQ agent that made his day more exciting and fun, was fucking gone! She's dead! Finally dead, but too soon. Way too soon!
It wasn't supposed to end like this. Not with a loud bang. No, it was supposed to end with them coming together as one! Kicking butt together while fighting at each other's lips daily! Snuggling and laughing together; sharing and caring for each other.
He was supposed to leave to MAD, start all over again at HQ, with her by his side…
Now, he found no reason why he should change his life around.
He was a murderer. An accidental murderer. A murderer who was regretting his life choices and previous actions that changed the course of his possibly brighter future.
He'd been a murderer for years, now. There was a reason that Grandma Claw didn't like him. But that wasn't important now.
The gun that had brought this all against him was destroyed, after being thrown against the wall at high level of force. Force mixed with anger, sadness, and regret: the recipe for suicide.
But he wasn't going to let suicidal thoughts and choices over take him. He was going to sit in his own fault and failure, and force himself to deal with the consequences of his actions: heartbreak.
His beating heart hadn't felt this shattered ever since he accidently killed his parents after setting off a grenade in their mansion. How he got away, that was a mystery. All he remembered was standing in front of the entrance of a different mansion.
Where was his victim now, though? In Heaven? In Hell? On her way? Definitely on her way to Heaven, obviously. She was an innocent soul following her dream. She followed her dream even though her role model. Detective Data, had become a MAD agent.
She was true of heart. Pure gold. She didn't deserve this.
But Talon had given it to her. He shot her in her pure heart. It was an accident. But how was it an accident if he purposely pointed the gun to her chest…?
He thought that there weren't any bullets in the gun. He thought the gun in his hand was empty, having grabbing it from the display shelf in that store to shove it in the sack of stolen firearms.
Just as he grabbed that certain gun, Talon's name was called by that sweet, familiar voice. The sweet voice that sent him on a train of adrenaline.
He turned to her, looking her in her determined, blue eyes with the burning passion he hid so well.
"Check it out, Pretty Penny!"
He remembered greeting her before pointing the gun straight at her chest. He took no offence to the look of horror in her eyes as he pulled the trigger.
Then, the loud bang nearly blew his eardrums.
The gun dropped out his hands as he saw her fall backwards, on the shop. Her body rolled a few times before coming to a stop. No moaning or choking sounds came from the HQ agent. But a yell of despair came from the MAD agent.
All during this, her Uncle and mutt weren't around. You'd think that the sound of a gunshot would bring them around, right? Nope. Inspector Gadget must've gotten himself in a tight situation this time, holding Brain up from going to investigate.
The realization that you had just murdered your crush was really hard to take in without going into denial. It was too hard. The second he couldn't find a pulse, he went into denial.
He tried to convince himself that he didn't pass his CPR training. He tried to convince himself that she was just asleep, in a deep sleep.
But he fell out of it. The tears were so strong, too strong. They were stronger than they had ever been in the fifteen years of his life. And that was too much for him.
He wasn't the strong villain who'd always win or kill someone in the end. Everyone at MAD and HQ knew that, and would always think of him like that if he never proved himself.
But had he just proven himself?
He just murdered an HQ agent. The second best HQ agent next to Inspector Gadget. The best female agent in HQ since Detective Data's rebellion.
What Talon had done was despicable, and the aftermath would never be worth it to him. Never.
Uncle Claw and MADcat would definitely look at him differently from now on, but he didn't want that. He was used to the loving disrespect from the two of them and realized that he didn't want that to change, no matter how much he told himself that he did.
That was the way it was, and it should've stayed like that.
Now, he looked down at the lifeless body of his sweet Pretty Penny. The tears had seized somewhat, allowing his vision to unblur for a few minutes or until they came back.
The emotionless expression shown on her face told him that she didn't feel any pain when it happened. Her eyes were shut; her long lashes giving her an alluring appearance even though she was dead. The pale colour of her skin contrasted with the darkness of the sky and streets, giving off a kind of paranormal glow or essence. And the way her lips were relaxed in a line.
The tears came back as he thought about how he should've taken the chance to kiss her when she cornered him in HQ, when Brain and MADcat's brains were switched. She saw him staring down at them, before she redirected his gaze with her finger.
He should've taken that opportunity, just like he should've taken every other opportunity that he had obviously missed throughout their encounters on missions. But now he couldn't…
Or could he?
It was risky, even though she was unresponsive, but...it couldn't hurt her now. And he was too hurt himself to even care. There wasn't any possibility of him becoming more hurt from kissing the corpse of his crush.
He leant down and gently put his lips against hers.
But it wasn't anything that Talon had expected it to be.
Her lips were stiff, cold, and unwelcoming. He thought they'd be the complete opposite. She couldn't kiss back, and that was something that Talon never wanted to happen in his first kiss.
He pulled back from her cold lips and his cries of sadness and regret became louder and deeper. Her name could be heard between the sobs, along with useless apologies and confessions of love, all in a cracking, teenage boy's voice.
But crying over her wasn't going to do anything to change things. Nothing could change anything right now. His slim chance of joining HQ was gone. He was done for. Forever MAD, as Inspector Gadget would say.
He brushed Penny's bangs away from her eyes, but they flung back to their previous position. They were the only thing on Penny's body that wasn't frozen stiff.
Talon stood up with the lifeless body in his arms, carrying her bridal style back into the gun shop. Kicking shards of shattered glass aside, he laid the girl down on the floor, against the shelves. He made sure that she looked comfy, or somewhat...something.
Nothing could come to mind but write a short note to Gadget and the mutt. A really short note.
But then another thing came to his mind. He'd need something to remember her by...
Looking at the corpse for the one hundredth time, he realized that maybe taking her Code-X was the only thing he could take apart from a piece of her clothing.
Dislodging it from her wrist, Talon felt his tears fall and stain the sleeves of her uniform. But he didn't let that get to him and so he put her favorite device into his bracer.
Grabbing a random pen and sheet of paper off the cashier desk, Talon wrote a note, placing it in Pretty Penny's hand.
He glanced at her for the last time...
Before leaving without the bag of stolen guns.
So, did you cry? Don't be ashamed, even I cried.
Here's a sneak peak to cheer you up, but I doubt that it will.
Maybe I was too hard on her? I mean...I was in a situation just like that and..she was there for me even though I punched right across the damn face! She even helped with cleaning my wound. But I tricked her into giving me that morphine and Oxy...whatever its called! God, there's nothing good in me! I really am MAD!
But that's a good thing! That means I'm fit to be the future leader of the MAD organization! I'll be perfect at creating demolition and taking over the world! Screw Penny and Pretty Penny!
