Turning around as a light filled the warehouse, Luz saw that Abomination and Toxin were standing on the walkways near the ceiling and looking down at Mr. Hardcore.
"Evening, Mr. Hardcore." Toxin said with a teasing wave.
"Ladies, surprised to see you here. Are you here to possibly help or would you like a repeat of the last time you tried to fight me?" Mr. Hardcore asked them as he put the thug's phone in her pocket.
"Trust me, it won't end like that this time." Abomination said.
They jumped down and landed on each side of Mr. Hardcore. This would be a difficult situation... if he didn't decide to bring her old Wrist Grapplers with him. They were both fitted with a small dart launcher that could fire a dart that could knock someone out for ten minutes. He fired at them, but they dodged it, surprised by the new attack. He used the opportunity to fire a line at the sky light, sending him to the roof.
"He's good." Toxin said.
"He's getting away!" Abomination said, "Come on!"
Mr. Hardcore jumped off the roof and landed on another roof, where he started running.
'I don't have time to lead them in a wild goose chase, so I'll just have to risk it and head to the Commander's hideout!' He thought as he pulled out the second thug phone.
Maybe it had a map or address of any building outside of town. One of the few places the guy was recently at was out of town, it was at least a start. He started to head East trying to get away from the two vigilantes. Toxin was about to chase after him again, until Abomination stopped her.
"Wait, if we hang back and watch from the shadows, He'll lead us to the place he's found."
Mr. Hardcore continued to run until he found himself out of town. there were a few buildings, it looked like it was once a factory of some kind.
"Well, let's see what I can find." He said, looking inside from a window, "That's a lot of armed men."
He heard movement from behind him and pulled his gun out. He pointed it behind him and saw Abomination and Toxin.
"Easy, big boy. We ain't here to fight." Toxin said as she put her hand up.
"Or flirt." Abomination said as she elbowed her partner.
"So you followed me to find the boss of the thugs I wiped out? Smart." He said as he put his gun down but kept it out, "So, if you followed me all this way, are you at least going to help me?"
"Of course. Like it or not, we all want to protect Bonesborough, even if your methods are grimmer than ours." Toxin said as she walked up to Mr. Hardcore. "So what do you say? Will you work with us?"
"I have no problem helping." He said, before pointing at Abomination, "But what about her? Is she willing to work with me?"
Abomination looked at him, though you couldn't tell through her visor, she was annoyed by the fact that Mr. Hardcore has a point.
"I am... willing to work with you... just this once." Abomination said.
"We both know this is gonna be more than once." Toxin said before shaking hands with Mr. Hardcore.
"Whatever, so what's the plan besides a suicidal frontal assault?" Abomination asked with snide.
"Do you really think I'm all brawl?" Mr. Hardcore asked.
"Yes/Kind of." The vigilante team said to him.
"Well, you're wrong." He looked and saw something, "You two don't do much with intimidation, do you?"
"No."
"Then listen. What I did at the warehouse, was an intimidation strategy. If you can't see what you're fighting, then you get nervous." He said, "Stick to the shadows. Strike quietly, and quick. Only when they notice that they're losing people, cut the lights and attack freely."
"Like ninjas." Toxin said with a nod.
"Yeah, like ninjas." He said with a nod. "I've developed might vision myself from using this tactic plenty of times but I'm not sure what you two can do about it. Unless you have a magic spell for it?"
"So, you've learned about Bonesborough's secret side in just a day." Abomination said to her.
"Yeah, let's just say I've done some... digging." He said, "Now go, I'll look for the fuse box."
"Please, allow me." Abomination said as she turned to the fuse box and shifted her abomination suit to form a large needle over her right arm.
"Alright, wait for my signal." He said, "Toxin, come with me."
The two went in and hid in the shadows. Hardcore started to use sign language to order Toxin.
'Take the ones on the left. I'll handle the ones in the right.' He signed.
Luckily, Toxin was able to understand and signed back to Him.
'Got it.' Toxin signed before giving a thumbs up.
He put his hand up and counted down from three, as the two of them walked to the perfect area to strike. On one, Toxin glided over, tackling one into the dark shadow, while Hardcore used his grappler to catch another one and pull him up. He took out his knife and started stabbing the thugs neck while his other hand covered his mouth.
'Sleep.' He thought as the man slowly died before he pulled the knife out.
Looking in from the window, Abomination saw the action had began and thought this was the single.
'Lights out.' She thought as she sliced through the wires above the fuse box, shutting off the lights before she jumped into the house.
Hardcore felt comfortable in the dark, but then he saw something... the thugs were putting Night Vision goggles on.
"Shit. They got night vision goggles!" He warned Toxin and Abomination.
"Then let's see how they do with this." Abomination said, making a light spell, almost the size of a beach ball.
The sudden bright light blinded the armed men, leaving them open.
"Go!" Hardcore said, "Take them out anyway you can."
The trio charged at the thugs and began taking them out with swift strikes or brutal force! Toxin pulled out her needle and stabbed several thugs in their pressure points, making them go into system shock before passing out! Abomination created a multiple tendrils with fists at the end and sent a barrage of punches to knock out more! Mr. Hardcore pulled out his razor bat and hunting knife, dual wielding them to bludgeon, slice, or stab them to death!
"There's too many!" Toxin said.
"Keep fighting!" Abomination said.
Mr. Hardcore looked around, seeing something that might help.
"Guys! On my signal, jump to the lower level!" He said.
He shot his wrist grappler at a gas can and pulled it back.
"Now!"
Toxin and Abomination jumped as Mr. Hardcore opened the can and threw the gas around. He used his knife and dragged it across the metal floor, creating sparks and setting the gas, and the thugs, on fire. He jumped down and landed with a roll, patting the fire that got on his jacket.
"You never leave gas near a pyromaniac." Mr. Hardcore said, "I think that's everyone. Does anyone live near here?"
"No, it's a factory that went out of business in the 2008 recession." Toxin said, "The closest town is over a mile away."
"Good, because I'm burning this place down when we're done. Find anything that looks important then get out. We'll meet up later in the week." Mr. Hardcore said.
"Where's the meeting place?" Abomination asked.
"I heard of a place run by Edalyn Clawthorne, we'll meet on that roof." Mr. Hardcore said to them.
"Wait, the Owl Lady? The most powerful witch in all of Bonesborough?" Toxin asked, "You want to meet at her shop?"
"Yes. Now go do what I said, I need to hack the computer." Mr. Hardcore said.
Abomination was offended by this and was about to object before he just walks off to find the computer to hack.
"Alright, let's get this thing opened."
The phone in his pocket vibrated and he looked at it.
'Already on it'- Skara.
"That girl is something else." Hardcore mumbled.
Said girl herself was currently in her room, sitting on her bed with her laptop on her lap. She had been tracking Luz by the first phone she grabbed from a thug and used a small drone to see where she went. Now all she had to do was work her hacking magic.
"Let's see. Seven anti-hack programs, untraceable firewalls, and several ways to avoid people from breaking in." Skara said, "Amateur hour. They never expected the girl that built a working computer when she was three to hack in."
It took Skara two minutes to break in.
"I am the queen of hacking." Skara said to herself before she sent a text to Luz.
'It's done.' - Skara
"Good."
Hardcore put a hard drive into the computer and started downloading the files off it. Meanwhile with Abomination and Toxin, they looked for anything of importance like physical files, hidden plans, and MAYBE hidden bug out bags.
"There's a whole filing cabinet here." Toxin said, "There's bound to be something in there."
She pulled out one of her small throwing needles and started to pick the lock.
"There has to. And hurry before the fire he caused to burn those thugs' spreads." Abomination said as she crossed her arms. "So, what do you think of him?"
"Mr. Hardcore? He's brutal but effective. Honestly, I'd want him to be a part of the team." Toxin said.
"I need to see a little humanity in him before I willingly work with him again." Abomination said.
"Is someone butt hurt that they can't find out how to ask out Luz?" Toxin said.
Toxin managed to unlock it and they grabbed the files, placing them in a bag they summoned.
"Shut up! We just met her. It's too soon to be thinking about that." Abomination said as she blushed under her mask.
"Then why haven't you shut up about her, yet? You've been talking about nothing but Luz since yesterday. You even talk in your sleep about her." Toxin said as she zipped up the bag full of files.
"Just finish gathering this and let's go." Abomination said, walking away to look for more information.
"Head over heels." Toxin said.
Abomination/Amity would never admit it until she spent more time with Luz and made sure she returned her feelings.
'I am not going to embarrass myself like that.' She thought to herself, 'Not again.'
Hardcore pulled the hard drive from the computer. He has a lot of work to do to see what's in this.
"Alright, got this. Now to make sure this place burns down." He said.
Moving away from the computer, he went back to meet with Toxin and Abomination as the former had a duffel bag full of files.
"Alright, get out of here and do whatever you can with those." He said, "I'm going to make sure nothing in her will work again before burning the place."
"How are you going to do that?" Toxin asked.
Hardcore put his bat over his shoulder and walked over to something that looked breakable... and smashed it.
"Anymore questions?" He asked them.
"Must you always find a way to be unnecessarily violent?" Abomination asked.
"There's no such thing as "unnecessary violence." All violence has meaning, and now, mine is smashing up shit that might cause problems in the future." He replied as his carried on smashing.
"Now, you can either help, or you can go." He said.
The two vigilantes' left and let Hardcore continue his destruction. Later, he watched as the building burned to the ground. Still, he couldn't let ALL the tech go to waste. he looked at a hard drive that Skara might like. Now all he had to do was convince her moms to go on a double date with Skara's parents and leave them alone.
'It can't be that hard, can it?' Luz thought as she smashed through a locked door.
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