Antipode
Chapter 1
"Full bar tonight, huh?" A man in a black cloak leaned over the counter towards the bartender. "Suppose you're making quite a bit of cash tonight."
The bartender, an a mostly bald man in his mid-fifties didn't turn towards his speaker. "I told you once. I don't talk about my customers. Especially not to scum like you."
"Now that's not fair.." The cloaked figure pulled out five twenties and laid them out on the counter. "I'm just trying to make a living. We all are. This just appears to be the job best suited towards my...abilities."
The bartender turned towards the cloaked figure and raised an eyebrow. "John, you know I don't sell out that easily."
The cloaked man sighed and pulled out another five twenties. "There. And you know I hate that name."
The bartender looked at the money for a second longer, and then took it, pocketing it quickly. "Fine. Who is it you're looking for?" He paused for a second as he looked around the bar. "If it's a regular, I want another hundred."
The cloaked man shifted around a little, and pulled his hood down, revealing himself to be a young tanned white man, his dark blue eyes shining with a certain amount of smugness, also shown in his smile as his long brown hair, kept in a ponytail, was still mostly concealed by the hood of the cloak.
"Here.." John pulled out a small picture from his cloak, laying it on the table. "I'm looking for this guy. Calls himself Inferno. Apparently he's a wanted arson."
The bartender picked up the picture. It appeared to be a white man, maybe 6'2 in height with short spiked blood red hair. He was wearing a grin that no sane man wore.
He grimaced at the thought of what the man could do inside his bar, recognizing him. "I...see. He's been hanging out here with a crowd lately." He pointed towards a table in the back of the room, surrounded by a large crowd, mostly women. "He thinks himself to be a real ladies man apparently. Started up a few fights with some jealous men." He then turned towards John, frowning. "I suppose if you're after him he's another one of those..."
John held a hand up, grinning. "Watch yourself there. You're talking to one of them right now you know." John turned to face the bartender, his blue eyes now gleaming with mischievousness. "Tell you what, since we go back some, I'll try to limit damage to your bar, and I'll even pay for what I can afford."
"What you can aff-" The bartenders eyes widened. "Oh god, I'm never going to see this bar again after tonight, am I?"
"No promises old man." John smiled and patted the stunned man on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll be gentle. Well, as gentle as I can be."
The bartender shook his head. "Yeah, never seeing this bar again."
"Probably not." John agreed, grinning.
- - - - - - - -
Inferno was sitting at a table, surrounded by a dozen women and the few men who could stand him, a group that was becoming increasingly small lately. If he knew how soon that was about to change, he'd be pissed.
He was currently entertaining the table with stories of his latest crime, bragging about how he destroyed a local court.
"Wait wait.." Inferno grinned madly as he remembered the details. "After I burnt down the court, I noticed the Judge fleeing, I suppose he was working late, so I gave chase and.."
Inferno found himself interrupted as a man with brown hair suddenly tore through his crowd, and slammed a hand down on his table, laughing.
"Hey there!" The brown hair man greeted Inferno with a cheerful grin. "I've been looking for you! Inferno right?"
Inferno brought a slight growl to his voice as he glared at the stranger. "So you do know whose party you're crashing." Inferno rose to eye level with the stranger, examining him. "I'll give you some credit, either you're an idiot, or you're brave."
"Can't it be both?" The stranger asked with another laugh.
Inferno chose to ignore the comment, and reached over to grab the man, pulling him over the table some in the process. "Say what you want and leave, unless you want your family to be finding charred pieces of your body in the morning."
"What I want?" The stranger looked past Inferno, his face seemingly lost in thought. "...Oh right! I'm here to collect a bounty on you. If you would quietly come with me, that would be great!"
Inferno stared at the man. Clearly he was more insane than he himself was. After a moment of silence, he broke out laughing, releasing the stranger, and fell back into his seat, covering his face with his hands.
"He says he's here to collect a bounty on me!" Inferno laughed harder as he fell over in his seat, banging the table with a hand. "That's priceless!"
The stranger frowned as he placed his hands on his hips, indignantly. "I'm being serious you know. You better come with."
Inferno sat back up, his laughing slowly starting to die down, and he let out a long sigh as he finished. When he did, he smiled at the stranger cockily. "Heh..since you made me laugh, I'll give you one warning. Run home bounty hunter. You don't want to deal with this."
"Duly noted." The stranger smiled rather calmly. "I suppose this means I'll be doing this the hard way now?"
Inferno's smile disappeared as he stood up again, all traces of humor now lost as he frowned angrily. "Kid, you don't know who I am, do you?"
The stranger nodded. "Of course I do. You would be Inferno. The infamous arsonist with a rather violent streak across these areas. You've brought this town down to it's knee's before you with no effort. No one in these parts would dare test your power. Right?"
Inferno's frown grew larger. "..You doubt my power then?"
"Doubt?" The stranger laughed. "I've seen plenty of idiots like you think they're untouchable because they have a little bit of power." The stranger leaned over the table, grinning viciously. "Most of them were even better than you I would bet."
Inferno twitched. "...A little bit of power huh?" He grabbed the table, and pushed it aside. An impressive feat considering it was bolted to the ground. "Idiot even?" Inferno took a step forward towards the poor unfortunate soul who just incurred his wrath. "Let me tell you something. No one is stronger than me. I am the strongest of my kind alive. I am not going to sit around and let some fool claim that someone alive is more powerful than MEEEEEEEEE!" With that last word, a sudden burst of fire surrounded Inferno's body, as the bar was suddenly evacuated with a speed most would find impressive.
The stranger merely grinned. "Flame on?"
Thats it. Inferno gathered most of his fire into his left hand as he drew it back. I'm going to burn him so bad that even his bones will be unrecognizable.
- - - - - - - -
John jumped to the side as a fireball went flying past his head. Hoo boy. That last one really pissed him off. I have got to remember that one for future flame users. Another fireball nearly hit him in the head as he jumped aside again. Assuming I don't let this one give me the worst sun burn of my life of course.
"FUCK YOU!" Inferno screamed. "I'M GOING TO TURN YOU INTO THE NEXT BURNING MAN!"
"Burning Man isn't for another five months." John pointed out helpfully.
"GO TO HELL!" Inferno retorted, flinging another fireball at John.
John smiled sweetly as he ducked the fireball. "You know, it might help if you take your time in aiming instead of flinging them around wildly."
"FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, FUCK YOUUUUUUU!" Inferno suddenly threw both hands above his head, a fireball noticeably larger than the previous ones gathering in them as he started to laugh. "NOW, BURN TO ASH!"
Oh...well that's not good. John frowned. Sorry old man, I think I might have lied on my promise. If I try to pay for this, I'll go broke.
As if hearing his thoughts, suddenly the bartender jumped up from behind the counter, and grabbed the nearest fire hydrant, spraying it everywhere. "God damnit John! I thought you said you wouldn't let this happen!"
"Actually, if I remember right, I said I'd be gentle." John threw his hands out in front of him. "I never promised the other guy would be."
"TAKE CARE OF HIM BEFORE HE BURNS MY GODDAMN BAR DOWN!"
John merely nodded. He closed his eyes, as if concentrating on something. After a few seconds, he opened them again and grinned. "Materialize."
As if reacting to his command, something started to grow out of his hands. His flesh grew distorted as it twisted, and even changed from meat to metal. As it finished, a rather large gun, resembling a rocket launcher sat in his hands. He lifted it up onto his shoulders, taking aim as Inferno was finishing up gathering his fire.
"BURN BABY!" Inferno shouted as he drew his hands back, readying to throw his fireball.
"Really, burn baby? That's why I don't like dealing with you fire types." John squeezed the trigger, releasing a net from the gun on his shoulder. It flew out at such a speed t hat when it hit the target, it knocked him back a few feet as it wrapped around him. "Such generic catchphrases."
Inferno howled out in rage as he lost his fireball, the net surprising him so much that it it dispersed harmlessly. He struggled on the ground, trying to break out of the net wrapped tightly around his body. "FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! F-"
John walked over to Inferno and kicked him in the head. "Quiet you. I've had a fairly bad evening. Having fireballs flung at me and all. To top it off I have this annoying migraine now because of all your screaming."
Inferno started to laugh suddenly as his body was enveloped in flames, burning at the net he was in. "JUST WAIT UNTIL I GET OUT OF THIS FUCKING NET! YOU'RE DEAD!"
John sighed, then flipped a switch on top of the gun. An unmistakable crack sounded from the net. Suddenly Inferno started to scream out in agony as the flames retreated back into his body, he jumped around in the net, his convulsing body trying to break out of it for a good minute before John finally flipped the switch again. Inferno passed out, the only sound in the bar now being the bartender taking care of the few fires left from the stray fireballs.
"...Jesus Christ John. What the hell did you do to him?" The bartender looked over at the smoking man with a raised eyebrow. "The way he was screaming you'd think he was in the chair."
"Not a bad analogy." John muttered. "Electric net."
"Shit.." The bartender finished tending to the last fire and sighed as he sat back. "Well, I still have a bar left. Despite some fire damage, the place is holding together relatively well." He shook his head. "John, no more taking care of bounties in my bar. I don't think she can take much more of it."
John laughed, and then grabbed the unconscious man, tossing him over his shoulder. "I'll keep that in mind old man." He turned away, and then raised a hand over his free shoulder, waving to the bartender. "Catch you around. Lets do this again later."
A/N
Well then, here comes a new idea I wanted to work on. And just three chapters into my other fic and I'm already on another story. I'm such a whore.
Well, as you can probably tell, unlike my other story, this ones an original story. And also unlike my other story, I have this series somewhat planned out. So hopefully, the story won't ever feel kind of forced, unlike Chapters 2 and 3 in my other story.
But don't get me wrong, I'll still be working on Addiction, although it'll probably be getting a lot less attention than this story. I enjoy the possibilities I have with this story, and I would like to explore them all.
As always, let me know what you think, and tell me how you think I can improve.
P.S. Not all chapters will be this short, I'm going to start trying to do around 10,000 words a chapter.
