Avenging Justice 3:

To Infinity and Anti-Life

Part V

Earth, New York, New York City

The day was rather calm, with construction still ongoing in the distance. Much of the damage from the alien invasion had been fixed, but there were still scars. Still the people went on, in their own way and filling the atmosphere with their presence. Police sirens, the wail of ambulances, honking taxis and way too many stereotypical, "I'm walkin' here!"

The spirit of New York was alive and well, and that was a relief to a certain web crawler slinging through the air. Below two nervous people watched Spider-Man as he swung by. They didn't want to draw his attention just yet. They were here to do a job for the big guy. If they hadn't been so desperate, they would have asked for half the payment up front. Instead, they had agreed to do it, with the assurance this would be a quick in and out.

From beneath their long coats, they each pulled out a crowbar and went down the alley half a block up. There were no windows here, and the big guy had advised there was an exit that spilled out into that alley. They were supposed to break in, loot a green case, and make a quick run back to the docks. They should have asked more questions.

Much to their surprise, the door easily popped open, with little effort. They rushed inside, the lights in the large room they entered were off. As such they could only see the parts of the room illuminated by the now open door. Even with that, they soon determined this was going to take a while. The two thieves immediately went looking for the lights, and it should have disturbed them how quickly they had found them.

The lights came on, and immediately amongst all the brown cases, was one green case. With all the grace of an inebriated rhino, they raced towards the case. All around the room was too quiet, nor did they hear the door slowly close. With the lights on, they didn't notice the decrease in ambient light. Nor the silent footsteps of much better thieves, who had been waiting on someone to spring the trap. However, that didn't change the fact that these two were meant to take the fall, they were expendable.

Grabbing the green case quickly, the were taken by how heavy it was. However, these two just wanted to get back out. So, they both took the weight and began their flight, only for their legs to be pulled out from underneath them. The green case tumbled to the ground, its lid opening and another container on the inside remained closed.

Both men went to grab at their legs, and came back with bloody hands. Metallic barbed braids dug into them and a recorded message played from the green case. Even as they fought, the braids dug further in. Both men screamed in agony, as other metal braids wrapped around their throats. Their screaming became gurgles, but they were left alive. Why became apparent as a door opened and several people exited, three men, two women.

"I was hoping it was that Devil guy or the maybe that flame guy," one of the men said.

One of the women, "Yes, I would like that too. Gives me so many options to play with them."

Another man reached down and grabbed one of bound thieves. Looked over the petrified man, then slammed his head to the floor. Then did the same thing with the next man. He then walked off unimpressed. Meanwhile the second woman, pulled out a nasty looking combat knife from her belt. The look in her eye was not a good one, and there was madness in them.

"The boss wants examples made of thieves," the third man motioned with authority. "You have an hour, then they need to be strung up, their corpses will send the message that needs to be sent."

The second woman's eyes gleamed even bright, and she moved towards the bound men. Her knife moving through her hand, as if it were part of it, an extension of her. She reveled in the terror on the faces of two men, bound at her mercy. She was going to enjoy this, the sound of the cutting, the wetness of the blood, and the smell of copper. Except she was smelling something very foul now, where was that coming from?

The others might have thought the smell was coming from two scared men, but she knew something was off. As if to accentuate that, a viscous white cloud quickly spread quickly around them and around the green case. The woman slashed out, knowing there was someone nearby. She was rewarded when she felt herself being flipped. What surprised her, was that her normal reflexes didn't stop her from hitting the floor hard. Very few could do that to her, and one of them ran around in a red leotard with sais.

She was up, and just caught a kick, but it wasn't enough. A follow up sent her into a nearby series of crates. Meanwhile the green case left the ground and just as efficiently was gone from sight. By now the others had caught on and were in pursuit, going their own separate ways. With little success, they searched.

Unlike with the two they had just caught, there wasn't a beacon leading them, a sprung trap. No, they were actively having to search, much to the amusement of their newest intruder. She sat up, hiding behind several crates. There was still the exit plan, but things had gone a little off plan. These five were better than her boss had expected. She should have had a full thirty seconds before the door closed back. Now she needed a distraction, and she had the perfect idea. The boss had paid for at least one vial, she'd still have three after this.

The thief threw another smoke grenade, aim true. It fell by more crates on the opposite side of the warehouse, and then she leapt. White smoke and a loud bang caught the attention of the five people, only one thought to look somewhere else. However, it wasn't enough, and the thief disappeared. She landed softly, opened the case, and the case inside.

She found five vials, there were only supposed to be four. One was probably poison. She pulled that one and flung it, and grabbed another vial. The one she chose as the "poison" one smashed, and instantly the acid inside began to eat away at the floor. It would also bring attention, so she had to be quick about this. Taking one of the other vials out, she quickly slammed it into one of the restrained men and then closed both cases.

The thief whisked herself behind more crates, as the five came back to investigate. Much to their surprise, one of the intruders burst from their bounds and then ran away. Two went to follow, while another checked on the remaining man, and the final two continued looking for the thief. To the one left behind, it would be unfortunate. As the last thing they saw was the bound man's face coming level with theirs, before the warehouse floor rushed upward to meet their face.

Key card in hand, the thief rushed off, meanwhile the man she injected was bumbling about. Leaping up, he passed over rows of crates, and hit a reinforced window. All he could think of was escaping. He smashed against the window, something else hitting the window with him. Something was off and things were too foggy for him to focus. He just needed to get away, he was even having a hard time with his name, his friend's name. Then the reinforced glass exploded out.

The two enforcers chasing him, followed suit and landed hard on the ground outside. What they were greeted with wasn't the man though, but two women. One dressed in a green and purple leotard type costume, and the other a black biketard with stylized flames on it. Immediately the one with flames on her costume was surrounded in plasma, lighting up the area.

"Why can't anything go according to plan?" Fairchild asked as she leapt at the one on her right.

Elle smiled, "Well we did hear they were hiding a serum here, maybe they'll tell us after a few rounds."

Fairchild's target took her hit and then sent a back hand, that barely even registered to green clad woman. The other one aimed a chain at Elle and sent it out to test her. Much to his surprise, the chain nearly melted as she put her hand up to catch it. Even though the reinforced gloves, the man nearly dropped the chain from how hot it got. The bright plasma ball coming at him nearly took him out, as he felt the immense heat and electrical charge.

As the man with the chain, or who once had the chain, got back up, Elle's foot connected and he saw stars. Then a second, this time to the ribs, took his breath, followed up by two savage punches. The fourth managed to knock him out, and Elle looked over to see Fairchild holding hers up, and then slammed him into the pavement thrice. Neither of the two were moving, but they would move again, only in jail.

Someone had called the cops, as Fairchild heard police sirens at the same moment as Elle. Both women left hurriedly. Meanwhile inside, the remaining two gathered up the unconscious third, and fled as well. Kingpin would take care of the two outside, and possibly the one that was suckered punched by whomever had broken in. Their only hope was that he was feeling generous, or the remaining two may feel his wrath as well. That was something best to be avoided.

Two blocks later, both Fairchild and Elle stopped. Neither was feeling the run, though Elle knew she would have before the change. Since then, things were both better and worse. Better because she had a new family, worse because that family and her were constantly running. They had come out tonight with the promise of being able to stop that, but probably not now.

"Damn it!" Elle growled. "What the hell happened back there? How'd the cops get tipped off so quickly."

Fairchild shook her head, before looking for her backpack, "I don't know. Maybe someone got there before us."

"I swear, if I had any other luck than bad, I'd have none," Elle slammed clenched her teeth.

Fairchild gave her a quick hug, "Come one, let's get dressed before anyone notices us."

Elle nodded, she knew her friend was right. She pulled on her cargo pants, and threw on the button up blouse over her biketard. Fairchild had put on a knee length skirt, shirt and jacket over hers. Both would pass now for normal everyday denizens of New York, at least till they could get back home. Then they'd full change, unless something else came up again.

Just then Fairchild's phone rang, and she looked urgently at the screen. The screen read, "A Righteous Man." Instantly she answered, a worried look on her face. Quickly it was replaced by a relieved one and she hit the screen to put the call on speakerphone. The very familiar voice of their contact came from the device.

"Ladies, I understand that there was a bit of trouble," the voice said. "The police have the two men you stopped in custody."

Elle explained, "We got there as quickly as we could…"

"I know, this isn't on you two," the voice explained. "I need to explain more, but not over the phone. Meet me in an hour at this location. Just you two."

Fairchild smiled, "I'll have Rainmaker keep the others in line. An hour it is."

The call ended and both women looked relieved. Elle fell to the surface of the rooftop while Fairchild began to look something else on her phone. The smile that came over her face though was priceless, and she shoved the phone into Elle's face. A deposit in the team's bank account, they'd have eating money and possibly rent. Maybe this day wasn't so bad after all!

Fairchild helped her back up, "Well, let's get something to eat, since we're so rich now."

"I could go for so hibachi, or that new Vietnamese restaurant," Elle said.

Fairchild's face lit up, "Oh yeah! That's the one, and we'll not tell Grunge, you know how he gets."

"What he doesn't know, won't hurt him," was Elle's reply as they made their way down the building.

Across the city, a man in a white suit and green question marks waited. The sound of his thief coming up didn't surprise him. The two boneheads he had sent in ahead of her, were meant to give her a quick in and out. They weren't hard to come by. Someone of her talents, though, not as much. As such her fee was equally high. Though he didn't have his fortune, not yet, had managed to secure quick funding.

Wiping his hands again on a nearby towel, how was apparent, as blood stained the towel. His "new" people had quickly disposed of the bodies, leaving him to take care of the gore on his hands. He wasn't adverse to work like this, though it was best left for others to do. However, now they knew what he could do, but he was still a big enough mystery to keep them from overthinking. He didn't want them doing that, for it usually meant more "examples" that needed to be made.

"I take it the job was a success?" Big Question asked.

The thief put the case in front of the big man. This was the inner case, she had found the tracker in the green case. So, she had gotten rid of it, albeit she sent it to a worthy person. The woman had just berated a woman getting off her shift, for smelling like meat. Like the worker could help smelling like the food her restaurant served. Maybe a good scare by whoever was after the green case would straighten the rude woman out.

She answered back, "Nothing I couldn't handle."

"Good, as for your payment, it is in the bag over there," he pointed towards a bloodstained bag.

She gingerly picked it up, opened up the bag and found the cash. She had preferred something more portable, but money was money. Luckily the blood stains on the outside hadn't stained the money on the inside. The job was done, so it was time to get out of here. She had noticed the blood on the man's hands, and she wasn't wanting to be connected to anything related to that.

"Nice doing business with you, Big Boy," the thief said as she turned to leave, only to stop abruptly.

The Big Question blocked her path, grabbing her arm before she could react. She felt a piercing pain in her shoulder. Looking over, she recognized one of the vials, but it was connected to another syringe. She tried to pull back, but everything felt like lead, her head swam. All she wanted to do was give into the darkness, but she fought to stay awake. It was a losing battle, as her vision began to darken.

She did hear one last thing though, "Consider this a bonus to your pay, if you survive. No hard feelings."

The Big Question motioned and two more of his new people came out from the shadows. He instructed them to take her to a room below and make her comfortable. Seeing the lust in one of their eyes, he made it abundantly clear that anyone who touched her, would be made an example of. It would be a slow, agonizing example. One might think this was out of some deep hiding altruism or goodness. No, he just wanted to see if he could use her again in the future. It would have been an absolute waste of potential to make her an enemy. Once he got over this one, she may even be grateful, and grateful pieces held value, could be used more than paid help.