Prey or Predator - Just Who is Whom?
"He is Flash Grenade. Or was."
Train immediately perked up in his rickety stool as he heard the name. Sven's face was as if a sign in neon lights saying $200,000 was shining behind it. Eve just stared calmly across the worn dining table for the man to continue.
"He used to just go around blowing up trains and all that. Quite a rascal, but kind hearted if a little misguided. He was the leader of the Volts, a gang that ran the poor and neglected parts of this city. He used to stop by here all the time to nick a roll of bread while dropping off a bag of cash from the latest money train. He never harmed a soul though, always having his gang members 'kidnap' all the passengers before blowing up the train. All the stolen money was circulated through the neighborhood. Those bastards running the city were taxing us so much that even the most prosperous business was on the brink of bankruptcy. Flash saved all of us.
"Around 3 week ago, he…changed. It was his first kill. He bombed a passenger train. Then his gang members trashed the neighborhood in one terrifying night, breaking all the windows and holding all the citizens at gun point. He then blew up city hall. The higher ups were furious of course, but couldn't do anything, since all the sweepers and local police were part of his gang or supporting it. They decided to isolate the city from all commerce. Anyone who tried to flee Rotenburg was shot by the gang. There was no mercy in the resulting blood bath. Those of us that have survived are already running out of food."
Depression settled like a thick fog in the moldy building, and silence reigned.
"Where is this Flash?"
Sven and Eve started. Train's voice of unemotional and cold. His eyes were glowing an unearthly gold and the aura around him crackled with murder. The little boy, previously peacefully asleep on Train's lap, whimpered in his dreams.
Scared for his life, the man cried, "He runs his gang from where city hall used to stand!"
Train's face softened, and his eyes reverted to a warmer brown, but the aura still wavered around him. He smiled, a sight both comforting and frightening at the same time. "Don't worry ojiisan. I'll bring the Black Cat's bad luck to this Flash!"
And with that, he dumped the little boy into the man's lap, and swept out the door.
Now that Eve was outside again, she could vaguely sense sinister eyes staring at her and her companions from near-collapsing buildings. Determined to appear as casual as Sven, she stared resolutely ahead of her at city hall. Or the mound of ash that was left of it anyway.
"Yo Flashy! We have some business with you!"
Eve mentally slapped Train upside the head. What kind of idiot was he, announcing himself to the enemy?
Suddenly, the shadows detached themselves from the walls and they were surrounded.
Train grinned, and Eve couldn't help but grin with Sven back in response. She sprouted wings and took to the air, before turning her hands into hammers and diving down at the enemies, picking them off one by one. She suddenly felt a foot on her back, and spun around to face the impish grin on Train's face, as he used her for a foot hold the vault over the heads of a murderous bunch of cronies. Eve steamed. How dare he! She hit her next victim harder then he deserved, observing as he crashed into one window, through the door of the room, and out the other window of the adjacent room. Eve shrugged. So what if she had anger management problems?
The winds suddenly picked up and all Eve had time to do was turn her head before she was picked up by a hot gust of air which consumed her in flames before it threw her clear across two buildings to crash land onto hard cement. The last thought she had before she blacked out was a shamefully unintelligent OUCH.
Sven groaned. It hurt everywhere. Wondering what accident Train had gotten him into this time, he recalled the battle with the Volts and the explosion. It didn't help that hehad carriedexplosive bullets on him.
He struggled to see where he was, only to find that he couldn't move. Not even his eyelids would open to his dismay. It was so quiet. If he was a prisoner, he expected some bloody tortured screams at least. Sighing, he resigned himself to stare at the back of his eyelids, worrying about his companions.
As it happened to be, Train at that moment was chained to a wall 2 feet across the dank dungeon floor from Sven, shouting bloody murder at him. Above Sven was a young lithe man with platinum blond locks and red eyes, his spiked boots planted on his chest. Train could not help but feel a stab of unease at the empty depth in those eyes.
A flat monotone voice cut through Train's cursing. "You will cease and desist that rambling Train Heartnet. In a moment, you will be released from your chains. If you resist or try to escape, you will find your friend crushed under my heels. Understand?"
"What do you want?" came Train's predictable answer.
There was a pause, as if Flash was awaiting a signal of some kind. Then he replied, his voice as dead as ever, "Creed-sama wishes to see you."
"CREED! That BASTARD!" Train's eyes flashed gold, his aura stretched to consume the entire room. Though Sven, even in his state of paralysis, flinched, the blond man above him remained unmoving.
A sudden sting in his right shoulder and Train stopped mid-rant. He could not talk. He could not move. His breathing even seemed unnatural. In his limited vision, he saw a bee turn into a puff of smoke.
A Tao user! The one from the tower!
A warping of space appeared before Train, and Ekidonna stepped out, eyes unnaturally flat. A bandaged person came after her, and took out a piece of parchment.
"Cutting seal!" With a wave of the paper, Train's chains were cut, and he collapsed bonelessly onto the ground.
Shiki stepped through the portal, and Flash obediently picked up Train and followed, leaving Ekidonna to step through and close the portal.
All the time, Sven lay on the dungeon floor, unaware of what had just transpired.