Chapter Three: Firestarter
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"Where'd you go? I followed you all the way here, do you really think you can hide?" Finishing his climb up the stairs, the flamethrower-bearing Cobra scanned the hall.
The Fear rubbed the back of his head, which was starting to throb a bit from it's sudden connection with the wall. "Goddammit, Fury, what the hell are you doing here?!"
The man in question turned to him, as if just noticing he was there. "You! You're behind this? I should've known..."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," he grumbled, pushing himself up. "Behind what?"
The Fury paused, but did not lower his torch. "You mean to tell me that this...thing I've been following isn't your fault?" he deadpanned.
The Sorrow helped The Fear to stand the rest of the way. "What's he talking about? There's nothing here besides us."
"What 'thing'? There's nothing here."
"If you're not part of this, just stay the hell outta my way. Whatever this is, it's invisible, and that makes it even more dangerous," The Fury narrowed his eyes. "Don't move."
The Fear froze. "Fury, don't you DARE--"
Whatever he thought was going on, he was obviously pointing a flamethrower in their direction. The mercenary quickly shoved The Sorrow away from the spot, taking a dive himself as the heat shot over his head. Before he could sufficiently yell at the enraged man, he noticed the weapon wasn't aimed at him anymore.
It was aimed menacingly at The Sorrow, who was currently sprawled out on the hall floor.
"Move!"
The ghost barely had time to look up. Flames shot out and The Sorrow screamed.
Before any more damage could be done, The Fear slammed into the silver-haired man, sending them both out of the fire's reach. The Sorrow cried out as he was pinned painfully under the other for a moment, before the Spider Soldier scrambled to his feet.
"Put the fucking gun DOWN Fury!"
He did not. "Don't think I won't go through you to get to this thing, Fear," he warned icilly. "It's been tormenting me for a month! This ends NOW."
He opened fire again, this time on the very-visible mercenary. Lightning fast, The Fear dodged the blaze, kicking himself off the wall as another blast tore through the air.
The black-haired Cobra landed behind The Fury, attempting to disarm him. But the pyromaniac yanked the flamethrower out of his grasp, clenching fiercely at his wrist and pulling.
The Fear was flipped over his shoulder, flying into the door of his apartment. The weak lock buckled under the force and the door swung open, leaving him sprawed in the doorway, momentarily dazed. This was more than enough time for The Fury to lock on him.
With a yell, The Sorrow was up and running, rearing back and slamming a fist into The Fury's stomach. Caught off-guard more than in pain, he fell back. Sorrow grabbed the flamethrower and pointed it danger-end at Fury's face. Amazed, Fear stood up, taking the weapon from him. Adrenaline giving way to normal reasoning, the ghost felt his legs give out on him.
The Fear exhaled, looking between the two of them. "Now...can we have a conversation, or should we keep blowing shit up?"
To the other Cobras' surprise, The Fury started laughing. They watched him for a moment, casting each other a confused glance.
After a moment to compose himself, the Flame Soldier locked eyes with The Fear. "You're protecting someone. Who is it?"
Before he could answer, The Sorrow added a question of his own. "How was I able to hit him?"
He decided the smaller man's question should be answered first. "It's probably a lesser degree of being aware of you. He can't see or hear you, but he can sense you, so you two can physically connect."
The Fury frowned. "You sound like a goddamn textbook. And you didn't answer my question."
"It's Sorrow."
Whatever he'd been expecting, that obviously wasn't it. "What?"
"Fear..." The Sorrow muttered.
The mercenary continued on, ignoring the ghost. "Sorrow's the one you're sensing. He's dead. But he--"
"A ghost?" he couldn't tell from the tone whether Fury believed him or not.
"More or less, yeah. I'm the only one of us who can see him for some reason."
"Uh...Fear..." Sorrow persisted.
"So you mean to tell me that you're bein' haunted by Sorrow's ghost?" he stood up, crossing his arms.
He shrugged. "Yep."
The Sorrow tried once more. "Fear!"
This time the orange-eyed Cobra responded. "What?!"
He pointed to the doorway. "Your apartment's on fire."
Wide eyed, he turned around, gaping at the flames dancing around his apartment. They'd already burned through the majority of his front door, spilling inside to destroy the interior. He jumped up to go inside, possibly find something to put it out and salvage what he could, but something tripped him. He crashed back onto the rough carpet of the hall only to find The Sorrow's arms wrapped tightly around his leg.
"What are you doing? Let me go!" he struggled, but the ghost held tight.
"No! There's nothing you can do, it's too big! You're just going to hurt yourself!"
"I'll be damned if I'm just gonna sit here and watch it burn! LET ME GO!"
Something connected painfully with the back of his head. He closed his eyes against the pain and found it entirely too difficult to open them again.
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The first thing The Fear thought when he came to was that he was looking at one hell of a headache with all this head trauma.
He opened his eyes slowly, staring into the concerned face of The Sorrow. "Are you alright?"
With a growl, he put a hand to his head. "What the hell...?"
He could hear sirens in the background. Fire trucks most likely. Were they still in the building? He sat up, immediately regretting it as his head began to spin. But it let him look around. They were outside, on the building's grounds. The Fury stood beside them, watching flames consume the apartment complex.
The Sorrow knelt beside him. "Well, now what do we do?"
"Get the hell outta here before the cops find the guy with the flamethrower, that's what." He stood, and after a moment for the world to stop spinning, grabbed The Fury by the arm. "C'mon, let's go."
The pyromaniac stared at him, as if considering fighting him. Then he shrugged, tossing his finished cigarette onto the sidewalk. "Whatever."
The Sorrow got to his feet as well, grabbing The Fear's knapsack that had gotten tossed near him when they'd taken the mercenary out of the building. "Where are we going?"
The Fear frowned. As good a question as that may be, he refused to seem out of control of the situation. Even if they all knew the truth. "We're going back to that diner. That way we can figure out what we're gonna do."
"O-Okay..."
The diner was going through its dinnertime rush when they entered. Fortunately the waitress they'd scared the previous night was nowhere to be found. The Fury took the booth across from The Fear. The Sorrow, choosing the less of the current two evils, scooted in next to The Fear.
The Fury glared at the mercenary. "Alright, so why's Sorrow hanging out around you?"
The black-haired man glanced boredly at a menu. "Well, he's a ghost, right? Apparently I'm the only one who can see him, so I'm trying to help him find The Joy."
He raised an eyebrow. "Since when do you help people for the hell of it?"
"Hey!"
"Well, based solely on your past ethics, I'd say he's got a point," The Sorrow said with a small smile.
"Oh thanks a lot..." he rolled his eyes, tossing the menu back on the table.
The Fury turned to where he knew The Sorrow was sitting, his tone slightly annoyed but not quite homicidal. He was in a good mood now. "Did you find what you were looking for?"
Sorrow blinked. "Tell him I don't understand."
"He doesn't understand."
"He was obviously tryin' pretty damn hard to find something. Every time I'd turn around, something else was torn apart or rummaged through."
"I didn't do any of that...I tried to talk to him and he attacked me, so I gave up and moved on."
Fear relayed the message and Fury frowned. "How long has he been with you?"
"About a day and a half. Why?"
After a quick mental process, The Fury growled. "If it wasn't him, who the hell was it? I followed this thing all the way over here for two days."
The Fear blinked. "You've got some time on your hands, don't you?"
"Look who's talking."
"Do you think it's another ghost?" The Sorrow thought aloud.
"Could be..." the mercenary replied, "It's invisible. There's not really much it CAN be."
"We should keep a lookout for it, I suppose."
The black-haired man turned to the newer member of their party. "At any rate, there's not much we can do about it now. We'll look into it. In the meantime, let's focus on finding The Joy. Hell, she may even know what to do about your invisible stalker."
The Fury raised an eyebrow. "What's all this 'we' stuff? Who says I'm doin' anything with you nutjobs?"
"Dude, you toasted my apartment."
"Right. My bad."
"Ah, speaking of which..." The Sorrow interjected. "With your apartment currently in ashes, where exactly are you planning on sleeping tonight?"
He sprawled out on the table. "Aw man..."
"You don't have any friends you can stay with?"
The Fear glared at him. "I'm a part-time assasin. What kind of friends am I gonna have?" He sat up suddenly, remembering something.
The knapsack was on the ground beside him. He squirmed under the table, opening it up and pulling something out. With a grin, he slammed the wallet on the table.
"Moving time kids."
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Property damage is ALWAYS fun!