This is the second part of the last chapter. A fight scene, some reactions among other things, hope you like it.
By the way, in an effort to satisfy my crippling need for closure and engagement, I'll start writing shorter chapters. In exchange they'll probably be posted far faster, I'm hoping for one chapter every two weeks or so. Starting next chapter
I am completely fueled by attention, so if you're liking things so far don't forget to like and comment.
Chapter Warnings: Language, Blood, Violence, Extreme Violence, Gore (?), Fucked up situations, Grammar Mistakes (?).
Arc 1: Humble Beginnings
Around 10k words.
- Adam Grayson -
The first man he saw was hastily running up the stairs from the second floor to the third. By the overalls he wore he was one of the dock workers, quite young by his appearance. Adam didn't recognize his face from any of the videos he saw.
But that wouldn't save him from his anger.
The man's trek came to a sudden halt when he saw something suddenly appearing in his vision. There, right in front of him, was a big figure with a tall, bulky frame donning a red mask, looking down at him with such a rage-filled stare that made him let out a curse in fright, "Jesus!"
Licking his lips hastily, the man quickly tried to recover his nerves as he asked, "Who the fuc-"
But he didn't have time to finish his question as the Masked figure quickly acted.
Grabbing the man by his hair, Adam savagely bashed his head against the stair's metal railing, sending blood spraying out as his nose instantly split and broke. The man let out a pained wail, wildly trying to grab the hand that held him down by his head.
But Adam didn't let up, bashing his head on the railing again and again, sending only the metallic noise of beating metal ringing through the warehouse until the metal was positively bent and no more sound came from the man as he stopped moving.
With barely a grunt, he threw the unresponsive thug back down the stairs. His body fell like a ragdoll until it reached the bottom of the stairs, where Adam could see a few gathered men staring at the scene in shock and surprise.
He could count at least ten men gathered there, but he knew that there were many more around. Among the ones gathered, most of them were warehouse workers, some unarmed and some holding various types of heavy tools – crowbars, knives, pipe wrenches and the like – but there were two of the armed guards there, one with a handgun and the other with a rifle.
Adam's deliberately slow steps rang out through the warehouse, walking down the stairs until he stopped stock still in the middle, eyes red in fury as he looked down at the confused men below him, looking between him and the unconscious man bleeding down at the bottom of the stairs.
Taking a sudden step down, the sound rang out heavily through the warehouse as he looked at the people below him. "I know what you did."
Some of the gathered men took a step back in pure reflex, fear more than clear in their faces.
No one moved, either because of fear or confusion he didn't know.
Reaching out behind him, Adam tightly grabbed one of the knives he stowed on his lower back – One of the spoils he looted from his last fight. "What you did to those kids… you'll pay for it."
Taking another step down, his voice was filled with pure unadulterated hatred, coming out in a deep gravel as he growled out aggressively, "So go ahead, make my day…"
The men gathered below him finally snapped out of their daze, shouting out "What the fuck?!" "Shit, It's Hood!"
While some of them were slower to react and stood still, most of them charged straight at him, crossing the remaining feet between as they tried to reach the bottom of the stairs. At the corner of his vision, however, he saw the two armed ones take aim at him.
He wasn't good at throwing knives, but he didn't have to be to do what he wanted, he just had to make the other man miss.
Adam quickly threw his knife at the one holding the rifle with overwhelming strength, the makeshift projectile crossing the distance between them like an arrow despite the wide breadth between them. While the knife didn't pierce the man, his shots still went wide, ringing out just above where his head was as the man fumbled to get out of the way of the sharp knife.
Without giving anyone time to react, he quickly thundered down the rest of the stairs. When he was near the end, he gave a mighty jump, leaping across the body at the bottom of the stairs and transitioning into a savage drop kick at the closest of the charging men in one smooth move.
The kick connected with the man's thorax with a loud thud and a light crack of his ribs, sending him flying to the ground, clutching his chest with desperate dry heaves while Adam fell into the ground with a grunt.
Adam wasn't a fool; he knew from his very recent experience that fighting against multiple enemies was extremely difficult and dangerous to pull off.
He had to take out the ones with the guns first, starting with getting off of the ground.
Before the men could capitalize on his felled state, Adam quickly sent a brutal kick towards the knees of one of the thugs that finally reached him. The limb gave out a sickening snap, completely bending the wrong way as the man fell back with ear-piercing screams, clutching the disfigured limb as he twisted in pain on the ground.
Adam, meanwhile, jumped up from the ground with a kick up before anyone could react, immediately having to block a crowbar with his forearm the moment he righted himself up, letting out a groan from the force of the hit.
He quickly countered the hit with a lightning fast shoulder throw, the impact letting out a heavy thump before Adam followed up with a savage stomp to the man's head, his crowbar clattering uselessly to the ground as the man let out sickening gurgles through his bloodied mouth.
His momentary distraction cost him however, when one of the men swung his heavy pipe wrench directly to his head, the heavy swing hitting his helmeted temple and making him stumble in place. Even with his helmet covering his head, his vision still swam with dizziness as he let out a pained growl.
Turning around wildly, Adam quickly grabbed his electric baton from his jacket, using it to block another swing of the man's heavy wrench. Shoving the heavy object aside before swinging his baton at the man's head with great ferocity, the baton hit with a heavy metallic clang, drawing blood from the man's temple as he let out a pained sound.
Not satisfied, Adam quickly pressed the baton against his neck, activating it and sending the high voltage electric currents running through the man as he convulsed in place, spit coming out of his mouth.
From the corner of his eyes, he could see that the two armed men were not idle as they had their weapons aimed at him, waiting for just the right moment to shoot, and it seemed that they finally found it.
Thinking quickly, Adam swiftly slipped away from their aim, being careful to put the remaining men between him and the armed guards as he violently kicked the still convulsing man towards the two of them, making them fumble momentarily as the heavy man fell over them.
Suddenly, Adam let out a hiss of pain when he felt the stinging sensation of a knife between his ribs, followed by a hit to the back of his head that made him stumble on his feet as he tried to maintain his balance.
In the short span that it took to regain his stability, he was stabbed a few more times, letting out a growl of pain before he quickly turned around with a vicious spinning wheel kick, hitting the man with the knife straight in the jaw as he fell back down like a ragdoll. The other man that hit him was holding a crowbar, and was charging towards him with his weapon raised high.
Thinking quickly, Adam let out a lightning fast low kick at one of the man's moving legs, causing him to trip in imbalance. Without losing time and in one smooth move, Adam quickly kneed him in the face as he fell down, blood gushing out of the man's nose as he fell to the ground, knocked out cold as his weapon clattered away.
At the corner of his eyes, Adam saw that the two armed men finally managed to disentangle themselves from the body he threw at them, so he took care of putting the remaining men between him and the armed men as he dodged and weaved his way until he finally reached the armed thugs.
They tried to point their weapons at him, but before they could even do anything, he quickly grabbed the handgun with his left hand, pointing it away from him as a shot rang out above him, pulling the man close and delivering a brutal elbow to his face that caused the man to fall to the ground with a shout.
Yanking the gun from his hand, Adam used its handle as a hammer to pound the falling man into unconsciousness before he, in pure reflex, turned around, dodging a wild crowbar strike before using his leg to trip the offending man, descending upon the fallen thug with his baton.
Repeatedly striking the man's face, each ruthless impact reverberated through the air, accompanied by the metallic clatter of the baton against the man's skull.
Then suddenly, the deafening sound of a shot rang out through the warehouse, and he felt a hot stinging pain on his left side.
Hissing in pain, Adam quickly turned around, throwing the gun he was still holding in his hand at the man currently pointing a rifle at him. The man shot in reflex, but he still used this distraction to do a flying knee at him, which connected with a loud thud and finally dropping him unconscious.
Putting his hand on his side with a hiss, he could feel the hot blood pouring out from his wound, if the shot was just a bit more on his side…
Fuck.
Adam could already hear the loud shouts and commotion of the numerous men surging from all around the warehouse, having clearly been alerted by the ruckus happening inside and coming straight towards him.
Fuck.
He was already beginning to feel tired, breathing deeply to try and catch his breath. He had to-
"Behind you!" The sudden voice of BadBoy startled him right out of his thoughts, his deep altered tone filled with urgency.
Without even seeing, Adam swiftly side stepped, turning to see the overhead stab he just dodged.
Using his baton to defend against yet another stab, Adam's voice came out exerted as he struggled to defend himself, "You're late,"
Adam parried yet another strike before BadBoy answered, "Well, I had to make sure they wouldn't be able to call reinforcements."
Dodging a wild swing, he answered, "Great, but that still leaves the men inside the warehouse."
He swiftly sidestepped, getting on the man's side before he kicked the side of his knees, breaking his leg in two with a sickeningly loud snap, bone showing and blood flowing as the man fell to the ground with a loud wail of pain before Adam kicked his head, knocking him out cold and silencing his unstoppable wails.
Not that it would make any difference in the end.
The loud noise of the heavy boots hurriedly stomping on metal were the first thing he noticed, followed by the sight of the many, many men converging from all around him, coming from the stairs to the first floor or the doors on the sides of the warehouse.
"They're coming. You should get away while you can, I've unlocked the third floor's doo-"
Adam quickly interrupted BadBoy's line of thought with a deep, succinct growl of, "No"
"Adam, please, be reasonable," BadBoy's voice had a clear pleading tone to it, "There's practically an army coming, you should get away while you can."
Adam stood firm, his eyes narrowing into slits as he glared at men before him, "I will not run. I refuse to let these vermin walk away. I saw them, what they did. I have judged them, and I've found them…"
Anger was no stranger to Adam; it had lived with him for as long as he could remember. But the pure, raw, seething hatred that ate him from the inside now was new – unparalleled – something he had never felt before in his life. It was a primal, scorching thing that he didn't know if it scared him or not.
And it was aimed directly at the thugs in front of him.
Adam had a gift for remembering faces, and as he scanned the crowd of the charging thugs, he recognized nearly all of them from the disgusting videos he'd seen.
The cries of the children, the terror in their eyes, their agonizing sounds… it all replayed in his mind fueling his hatred even more.
He could barely recognize the sound that came out of his mouth as human, "Unworthy."
For a brief moment, time seemed to slow, and Adam's heightened senses absorbed every little detail, mixing itself together and giving it to his mind as a macabre gift to calculate the most efficient and excruciating ways he could hurt these men.
A sinister fire was lit inside of him, and he didn't know if feeding it would have consequences down the line, but at the moment he would happily use it to fuel him.
He couldn't afford to be still, against multiple enemies, speed and aggression were his greatest tools. He had to inflict as much damage as possible to cripple the enemy and quickly move on to the next. He couldn't give them time to use their numbers against him, or let himself get into a position where he was attacked from different directions.
It seemed simple in theory, but he'd still be putting himself between enemies and most definitely get hurt in the process.
As time seemed to crawl back into normal, Adam quickly steadied himself, pushing past his pain and fatigue. With a guttural growl of anger, he charged straight into the mass of thugs.
He took down men left and right, never stopping in one place for too long. His arms were a blur, each punch, kick and swing of his baton landing with lethal precision and strength, his attacks often breaking bones or leaving his victims bloodied beyond recognition.
He didn't stay in one place for too long, weaving between his enemies with a ferocity that left a trail of broken bodies behind him.
The violence and savagery brought on by Hood was a difficult thing to watch for anyone looking at the scene from the outside. Blood sprayed the floor and the metal shelves around them, mingling with the cries of pain that filled the air.
But it wasn't like everything was in his favor, for every wound he inflicted, he received three more in their place. Gunshots, stabs, blunt damage and much more than he could see marred his flesh and body, each one slowing him down just a bit more than the last.
Gunshots rang out around him, the armed men not even caring about their allies anymore, some bullets grazing his flesh or penetrating him, but he still didn't falter. He kept moving – kept fighting – but the endless waves of men were wearing him down.
Adam was a great fighter, far more skilled than anyone in this warehouse, but there was a point where not even quality won over sheer quantity. For every man he incapacitated two more took their place.
All of this effort left him breathless and battered as he struggled to keep up.
Suddenly, a stray shot tore through his left leg, causing him to let out a guttural groan of pain as he fell to one knee. Before he could recover, an opportunistic thug swung a pipe wrench directly to his injured side, the dull metallic sound almost made him miss the burning sensation within his lung and the metallic taste of blood on his mouth. Broken rib.
The subsequent blows came quickly, taking advantage of his state.
Adam struggled to defend himself, managing to deflect some attacks with his baton, but there were just so many that he didn't even know where they were coming from. He was surrounded, outnumbered, and his vision was starting to blur from the pain.
He couldn't let this go on anymore. Every second stayed down was a death sentence. He needed an edge, a distraction.
Through gritted teeth and a pained voice, he shouted, "BadBoy, can you-" A blow to his head cut him off, "do something-" he defended a stab with his baton, before swinging it in an electrified arc, "about the armed men?!"
BadBoy answered him with a hurried tone, his keyboard clacking loudly as he answered, "I'll try something! Watch your ears."
Suddenly, the warehouse was filled with the shrill sound of ringing phones.
The thugs paused, confusion spreading among them as they fumbled for their devices before the ringtones stopped abruptly.
Adam had seen a lot of fucked up things in his life, but the deafening sounds of multiple explosions blasting through the air, followed by the red mist of blood and mutilated body parts flying in all directions was not a sight that he would easily forget.
He felt the hot blood splash into his mask, a few of the droplets getting into his mask's eye slits and around his eyes.
Adam touched the blood on his mask, staring at it with a numb curiosity. Blood was nothing new to him, but this felt… different somehow,
They're dead…
"Jesus, BadBoy…"
The horrified and pained screams were what brought him back to reality. Blinking away his thoughts and putting his feelings aside for now, he quickly wiped his fingers on his jacket as he assessed his situation.
The explosion had left the thugs in complete disarray, the men still standing clutching their ears in pain as they stumbled around in stunned confusion.
Now would be the perfect moment for him to get away, he already got what he came here for, retreating now would be the smartest choice he could make here. He already had the information he and BadBoy needed.
It wasn't like making these men pay would undo what they did, or even stop the Maggia to keep doing this altogether.
What he was doing now was nothing more than pure violence to satisfy his urge for vengeance for what they did.
But still… it was not enough.
It would never be enough, for as long as even one Maggia man still stood healthy and hale.
Allowing even more of his anger to consume him, Adam felt the strength surge within him as he thundered forward, grabbing a stunned thug by the neck and waist. He heaved in effort as he lifted the thug over his head, bringing him down on his knee with a bone-cracking snap.
The thug's scream of surprise and pain was cut short as he laid limp and motionless on the ground.
The thugs' attention snapped back to Adam as he staggered in place.
He couldn't stop. Not now.
He charged again, targeting the armed men first, his movements were a blur, the only sounds were a blend of grunts, screams, and the loud sounds of guns going off.
His baton connected with a thug's nose, a wet crunch echoing as blood sprayed. Another man went down with a gurgling choke as Adam's elbow crushed his windpipe before using him as a human shield against a stab. At one point the fight even transitioned to the third floor when he threw one of the thugs down the stairs.
But as the fight went on, Adam knew that he wouldn't be able to sustain himself if he kept going on like he was. Even with BadBoy assisting him in his fight, his injuries were slowing him down and his admittedly impressive stamina was starting to flag even through his anger-enhanced boost.
That's why he decided to use a technique he had only theorized about after his last fight. He'd use his absorption powers while he was fighting.
He stole health and stamina from his enemies through every little bit of contact with them, no matter how quick or meaningless it was. A grapple, a punch and every other possibility he could he used to drain them and heal himself.
The difference was already affecting him, he could feel it, even small as it was his breathing was already starting to get easier, less heavy and forceful. His aching body was hurting less and less as he kept fighting.
But the fight came to an abrupt halt as BadBoy's voice rang in his ear, uncharacteristically loud and desperate, "Shit! Above yo-"
A sudden gunshot rang out, and Adam felt a searing pain in his head.
The upper right side of his mask shattered instantly, the bullet ripping through the balaclava beneath and grazing his flesh. His vision swam, the impact feeling like a hammer blow directly into his brain. Hot blood trickled down his temple and into his right eye, the persistent ringing in his ears nearly deafening as he staggered in place.
Suddenly, an arm snaked around Adam's neck, locking him in a tight chokehold. He gagged; his air supply cut off as he struggled against the grip. The pain in his head was clouding his thoughts, and he tried to stun the man using his electric baton, but someone ripped his weapon from his hand as they struggled to hold his arm down.
Desperation gripped Adam as he grabbed the thug's arm with his free hand, his fingers digging in with a vice-like grip as he channeled his absorption powers, feeling the thug's energy flow into him while he struggled to keep him down.
Fuck! How do I get out of here?
Looking around him frantically, Adam sought anything that could help him, but his mind came out empty. His breath came out in ragged gasps, vision starting to black out from the lack of oxygen…
In the darkest corners of his psyche he knew the many ways and possibilities he could do to set himself free. But if he listened to it, even for a second, that would mean-
His thoughts were abruptly interrupted when he felt one of the thugs grab his mask and balaclava, yanking it hard as he tried to forcefully rip it out of his head and expose his face to them. Adam trashed violently all the harder as he struggled to get the man's hands out of his mask.
He tried to resist it, but it was getting harder to do so.
If they find out who I am, they'll do the same thing to Kate and Cass as they did to those kids…
Adam roared as fury surged through him, struggling all the harder against the thugs holding him down. His right hand was still pinned and the only reason he hadn't blacked out yet was because he kept siphoning stamina from the thugs holding him.
But his victory was short lived when, suddenly, a rifle butt smashed into his head, sending a jolt of agony as it hit his recently unarmored and injured side. He growled in pain, his vision swimming.
The rifle-wielding thug quickly aimed the weapon at his head, smashing its muzzle on his helmeted forehead as he desperately shouted, "Hold him! Don't let him up!"
He could hear BadBoy's voice through the earpiece, but it was a distant murmur with his mind lost in a haze of pain and anger.
Time once again seemed to slow down as he stared at the men surrounding him, he could feel the last shreds of resistance slip away from him.
Morality meant nothing for vermin like them. Why was he even holding himself back anyway? These people didn't deserve his mercy.
People…? Pfft, No. I should stop denying myself already and face it. They are nothing more than…
Scum.
With a surge of brutal clarity, Adam quickly shoved the thug pointing the gun in his face with a powerful front kick. The man let out a scream of surprise as he fell backwards, gun firing just above his head and hitting one of the other thugs behind him.
Wasting no time, Adam swiftly brought his left foot closer to him, retrieving his sheathed trench knife from his boot.
The seven-inch blade glinted menacingly in the warehouse's dim light.
Without even thinking twice, he savagely plunged the knife into the throat of the thug holding his right arm down.
The blood sprayed out in a grisly arc as he wrenched the knife out of his throat. The man let out wet gurgles, letting go of his arm to desperately clutch at his ruined throat in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding as he fell backwards, eyes wide with terror as he looked at Hood.
Without losing time, Adam swung his head back, smashing it into the face of the man choking him. The grip on his neck loosened, and he managed to twist free, quickly mounting the stunned thug before driving the knife into his skull repeatedly until the man's head was nothing more than a pulpy mess of blood, bone and grey matter.
Panting, Adam stood up, feeling a surge of power emanating from his solar plexus for the third time in his life once more.
His powers evolved again
But he didn't have time to reflect. The remaining thugs eyed him with a mix of fear and hatred, their own exhaustion evident as they caught their breaths.
"Fuck man, doesn't this asshole ever die?"
Static crackled in his ear, his mind finally clear enough to understand BadBoy once again, "The rest of the dock workers from outside are coming, I'm trying to slow them down but not everyone of them has explosives like the ones here had."
The warehouse doors burst open, and even more thugs poured in, weapons at the ready as they shouted in confusion at the sight in front of them. He took advantage of the brief respite to catch his breath, but it wasn't long before they charged at him once more, the armed guards quickly shooting at his general direction.
He was tired, he was bleeding, he was hurt.
But he still had one ace up his sleeve left.
As the men charged, Adam's eyes flicked to the parked trucks and the scattered gas canisters and ammo crates surrounding them, noting the close proximity of the highly flammable items and the thugs with a morbid giddiness. An idea sparked in his mind as he reached into his back pocket.
Putting on the kinetic glove he'd looted from his last fight, he adjusted his stance, preparing for a straight cross punch. The glove whirred ominously before he simply… let go.
A colossal shockwave surged from the glove, running forward like an unforgiving wave. The sheer force shattered all the warehouse windows, and everything in its path was completely obliterated. Metal shelves twisted and broke and the wooden cargo boxes splintered into a million pieces.
The deadly mix of men, gas canisters and ammo crates ignited an even bigger and deadlier explosion. The scene was a gruesome sight of body parts, fire, and debris raining down like a sinister, bloody rain. He could see mangled limbs, heads and guts scattered and flying everywhere as all those men died a most horrible death.
The deafening sound temporarily deafened Adam, but he refused to look away. Observing the inferno happening in front of him with an expressionless, stoic face.
When his hearing came back, the first thing he heard was BadBoy's protesting voice, "Jesus, warn me before you do that will you?"
He ignored BadBoy's comment, choosing instead to focus on the one remaining man he could see. Both of his legs were nothing more than bloody, mangled stumps as he desperately tried to crawl away from the destruction around him, leaving a bloody trail behind him.
Adam gripped his trench knife so tightly his hand had turned white, his arm shaking with effort as he followed the bloody trail slowly. His heavy steps caused the man to halt his desperate crawl, a whine of fear escaping his lips as he stopped.
With pained effort, the crippled thug turned around to face him, "P-Pl-Please, you're a hero, right? Take me to jail!" His voice was hoarse, and at Adam's silent, hateful stare, he grew even more desperate, "Please man, I need help!"
Adam's breathing was loud and harsh, cold mist escaped from the sides of his mask as he struggled to contain his fury. Until he couldn't hold it anymore.
To the thugs' false hope, Hood let go of his knife, but his hope was short-lived as Adam jumped at him a moment later. His fists met the man's face with brutal force, instantly caving in his skull.
"Men get arrested. Dogs get put down." Adam growled, before he continued his savage assault.
The man's face became nothing more than mush and brain matter, warm blood and bits of flesh covered his hands and were splattered on his mask when he ended his assault.
He finally stood up, taking the carnage around him with a critical eye. The fire was starting to spread through the old warehouse at an alarming rate, the stench of burning flesh and blood was starting to get suffocating.
Looking up at the warehouse's ceiling, he let out a loud exhale.
It was all over.
Where the fuck is my baton…
- BB -
Adam's gaze was fixed on the burning wreckage of what had once been the Maggia warehouse. The flames were spreading quickly, hungrily licking away at the surrounding docks as they cast an eerie, orange glow that danced across the water's edge. He remained motionless, his face a mask of stoic indifference that betrayed nothing of the tumultuous thoughts he felt inside.
The acrid stench of burning wood and rubber were mingling with a more nauseating scent – burned flesh. It made his stomach churn.
The wicked warmth of the fire warded off the cold chill of the winter night.
What did I do?
The thought echoed in his mind relentlessly. Killing someone… it didn't feel like he thought it would.
It felt…
He didn't even know what he should be feeling. Disgust? Sadness? Apathy?
Truth was, he was exhausted. He didn't have the time nor the right state of mind to think about the ethics behind what he did right now.
Still staring at the blazing inferno in front of him, Adam's voice was cold as he finally broke the silence, "Did they trace the connection back to you?"
BadBoy's answer was a simple, "No."
It was the first he had spoken for quite some time now. BadBoy wasn't exactly a talkative person, but he wasn't the silent type either. He always had something to say, either something dry or sarcastic, or some deliberately mysterious comments, but he wasn't silent like this.
In any other moment, Adam might have probed further, but he didn't have the energy for it tonight. He acknowledged BadBoy's answer with a noncommittal hum before continuing, "What did you find?"
BadBoy's voice wavered in a rare sign of unease as he answered, "It- Not much. Everything was encrypted. The only unprotected data was from their local server. The… videos we saw. Everything important was on the main Maggia server, and I couldn't get past their encryption."
The pit in his stomach grew even more, and the faux-leather of his battered gloves groaned in protest as he tightened his hands in anger.
So, all of this was for nothing.
Although Adam remained silent in simmering anger, BadBoy was able to see through him as he quickly added, "Don't worry. I managed to copy the files before they drove me out. I'll find out more about this, just give me a few days."
He kept his gaze locked on the flames, the fire reflecting in his eyes as he sighed, "We may not have that much time."
There was a pause in their conversation, with BadBoy giving him time to contemplate for a while before he interrupted again, his altered voice soft as he spoke, "You should get out of there quickly, police are coming and they do not look happy."
As much as he wanted to, his night wasn't over yet. He couldn't get home injured like this again, he still needed to tend to the rest of his wounds, and find out more about this new upgrade he got.
He just hoped the scar on his head wouldn't be too obvious.
As the distant wail of sirens grew louder, Adam turned his back on the burning warehouse. The warmth of the burning building was the only thing that bid him farewell as he limped away slowly.
And in the distance, he could still smell the odor of burning flesh…
- BadBoy17 AKA Clara Lille -
What the hell did she get herself into?
Clara sat in her dimly lit room dumbfounded, staring at the many flickering monitors surrounding her with an unreadable expression. When she decided to do something about the Maggia, this was certainly not how she thought it would go.
Things were supposed to be simple. Adam would go in, get her an access to their servers, and get out before anyone realized that something was going on. Simple, easy. That way the Maggia wouldn't even know about their existence or the fact that they were after them.
It would give them time to have a more well-thought and thorough plan of action.
But now, one of their bases was on fire, all of their men were dead, the Maggia definitely knew about them, and she couldn't even decrypt any of the information they were after in the first place.
It was needless to say that their plan had, quite literally, gone up in smoke.
But… she couldn't blame Adam.
Clara knew, better than anyone, that the Maggia was involved in some really dark and depraved stuff. But to think they were involved in something like… like that? It was beyond vile.
So yes, she understood why Adam snapped, why he did what he did, hell she even supported it
But it was undeniable that what happened made their lives a thousand times more difficult now that the Maggia was aware of them.
A significant part of Clara was pleading with her to jump ship and to flee from the impending shitstorm as fast as she could.
The Maggia didn't get to where they were now by being merciful or understanding. They were old and powerful, but they were faded out, forgotten, weak.
It was only recently that they had a meteoric rise, after their current head "got rid" of his competition and assumed the position of leader, and their rise was marked by a trail of blood and bodies, slowly but steadily getting stronger and more powerful behind the scenes.
Hiding wasn't a bad choice, in fact it would be the most logical choice, disappearing was something she was good at.
But… she couldn't. Wouldn't, not after everything she'd seen. Not after what she'd done.
It was why she was helping Hood after all. Guilt.
But she didn't have time to dwell on her past, she had to think about her future.
You know, finding out that the vigilante that was fucking over the Maggia was a sixteen-year-old kid was funny at first. Until she found out more about him.
Adam's life was marked by trouble and turbulence – parents died early, anger management therapy, countless visits to the hospital, a lot of run-ins with the police and more. If it were not for the involvement of some very powerful friends that helped keep things under wraps and his record clean, he'd most certainly have ended up in juvie a long time ago.
Funnily enough, he was best friends with the daughter of Bishop Security's CEO and queen of the ctOS.
But she never wanted to put him in danger like this, it was why the two of them agreed to use stealth in the first place.
Her entire body ached from stress and nerves alone, and she didn't even fight. She could only imagine what Adam was enduring right now. Her guilty conscience got even heavier as she recalled his wounds. Just remembering the number of injuries, he took was enough to make her cringe.
But he was still standing, he took all that punishment and shrugged it off like it was nothing. In fact, in her eyes it seemed that the more he was hurt, the stronger he got.
And by god he was strong. Seeing what he did to those men, more often than not with his own bare hands, sent a shiver down her spine. He was more beast than man.
It was so strange seeing the dichotomy of how he normally acted compared to when he puts on the mask.
Just from looking at the resolve in his eyes, she knew he would do anything to stop the Maggia.
Clara just hoped that her past wouldn't catch up with her. She didn't want the same treatment as those men.
But a gnawing fear still whispered to her that it wouldn't be enough. Adam was strong, there was no denying that, and Clara was more than just a good hacker, she was one of the best that DedSec had and she wasn't shy to admit it.
But still, going up against the Maggia with just her and Adam was… suicide.
The level of security that the Maggia had was beyond anything she'd encountered, surpassing even ctOS, and that was saying something.
She had to tell DedSec about this, if today was anything to go by, she and Adam would definitely need all the help they could get.
But first, she'd need to erase and cover his tracks again, she could already see the many "secret" agencies start to sniff after him like moths to flame.
- Yuri Watanabe -
Things were so much easier when she was just a lowly grunt.
Standing among the burning wreckage, Detective Yuri Watanabe felt the weight of her new badge like she never did before.
Red and blue lights from the police cruisers cast a haunting glow over the scene, blending with the angry red lights of the fire trucks. The dim yellow lights from the distant street posts did little to soothe the oppressive atmosphere. Despite being almost daybreak, the night still clung to the docks.
Everywhere she looked, there was devastation. Almost everything was either charred beyond recognition or utterly destroyed. The air around the place was still thick with the stench of burnt rubber and metal, a disgusting mix that almost clawed at her throat, and as she looked up, she could still see dark clouds of black smoke drifting slowly in the night sky, almost as if they refused to leave.
The warped remains of tools, dock worker materials and barrels were scattered around the burnt down docks, their forms barely recognizable. The cars, trucks and other vehicles were reduced to skeletal remains, their paints blistered and blackened by the fire, some of them still churning out the remains of smoke through the air.
The old, three-story warehouse collapsed in on itself, the remaining structure barely holding together as precariously bent metal columns threatened to bring down the rest of the walls.
The ancient nature of Hell's Kitchen had only served to fuel the fire even more, even catching onto some of the neighboring buildings.
Luckily, the firefighters managed to control the fire much quicker than she'd expected, usually these kinds of fires took hours to be controlled. Apparently, it was thanks to some new tech that Stark gave to them when he was in one of his charitable moods.
Yuri remembered Captain Stacy grumbling about the FDNY getting new toys while the NYPD didn't. But now she couldn't help but be grateful.
Her stomach churned at the sight of charred corpses and dismembered limbs strewn across the blackened ground. The smell of burnt flesh was so overpowering that she almost retched, but she managed to pull herself together before anything happened.
She'd thrown up before, back when she was still a rookie cop, and she wasn't about to let it happen now. Not here, not when she still had to prove herself as a detective.
It was all a grim sight.
It wasn't long ago that Yuri passed her detective's exam, one of the youngest to do it – not that she was bragging, but she definitely was. She'd been so ecstatic, it was a step further on her path to right her father's wrongs, and her chance to prove everyone that she wasn't like her corrupt father.
But now? Now all she felt was gnawing apprehension.
What kind of rotten luck did she have to have this as her first case?
Things started simple enough, just an investigation about a street fight, the case barely even had a folder to speak of. Back then, "Hood" was just a whisper, some sort of urban legend.
But, as the months passed, it quickly escalated into all of… this.
And that's not even mentioning the entire media circus happening around the situation, the moment they smelt the blood on the water, they came descending into the police like goddamn sharks. Yuri never thought she'd get so sick of seeing her face on the news as she was now.
The brass was breathing down her neck and telling her to get results before the press tore the NYPD a new one. Thankfully, Captain Stacy was able to keep them off her back, if only for a while.
Yuri cast a scrutinizing gaze around the place. There were many ctOS drones buzzing overhead, documenting and monitoring the entire place all the while their integrated crime prediction systems analyzed the crowd for any possible matches with Hood.
She made a mental note about a possible altercation. This region was always… problematic for the police.
She sighed heavily, her breath misting in the foul, cool air as she approached the forensic officer in charge. The woman was hunched over a table, examining a pile of burnt items – hard drives, cameras, and other things she couldn't recognize.
The officer was studying the items in front of her with intense focus and didn't hear her coming up from behind her.
"What do we have?" Yuri asked, her voice terse and filled with her usual no-nonsense tone.
The officer jumped, letting out a startled noise and knocking some items off the table. She turned quickly, her face flushing with embarrassment as she met Yuri's gaze.
Her eyes widened as she recognized Yuri before she apprehensively shook her head, "Uh… nothing, ma'am," she stammered, "We couldn't find anything with the equipment we have on site."
Yuri frowned, glancing at the charred remains on the table. She knew that the computers and servers inside the warehouse were obviously damaged, but it wasn't like this was the first time that forensics had to work with damaged goods. In fact, more often than not they were able to recover most of the files even after the hard drives were damaged.
Seeing Yuri's expression, the officer quickly added, "Uh, we managed to recover and access the remains of the hard drives, but all the data inside them were completely wiped out, like it never existed in the first place. We'll send them to the labs to see if they can recover anything, but we're not optimistic about it."
Yuri let out another sigh, "Great," she muttered under her breath as she rubbed her temples.
This case was getting more complicated by the minute, as if her day wasn't good enough.
She turned back to the forensic officer. "ctOS cameras?"
The woman was getting visibly nervous now, "Nothing."
Yuri's frown deepened.
Hood was a slippery bastard, and extremely good at evading cameras, but he was never good enough to escape the ctOS surveillance completely. She'd relied on those feeds to track his movements and study him; it was how she managed to triangulate the general area that he operated on.
If he'd figured out how to slip past one of the few ways that they could track him, then her job got a lot harder than it was.
But she had to move on and, despite knowing the answer to her next question, Yuri asked it all the same, "Blood samples?"
The officer, now looking physically uneasy, stammered, "O-Only from the victims, ma'am."
Yuri let out an annoyed grunt of acknowledgement as she thought about her situation.
It was a common theme by now, despite the fact that Hood left buckets of evidence and blood on the crime scenes, they could never identify him. No matter what kind of machines or tests the eggheads at the lab ran, they could never identify any sort of DNA or anything else from his blood.
"Crime prevention system?" she asked, more out of duty than hope.
Contrary to some of her co-workers, Yuri would never trust the robots that ctOS used to tell her who was or wasn't a criminal. But as it was, any information was better than what she had now.
Which was nothing.
The officer in front of her was clearly getting more and more apprehensive of Yuri as she once again spoke, "Still nothing," after a moment she hurriedly added, "Ma'am."
Typical. Her face contorted into one of angry disgruntlement as she let out another frustrated grunt.
Before she could turn away, the officer quickly interjected, "B-But we managed to find this."
From the mishmash of items on the table, the officer pulled out a tiny, half-melted camera with red rims around the lens. Yuri narrowed her eyes, examining the device.
This is new…
Hood wasn't one to have fancy gadgets. He was more of a hands-on man, preferring to beat down criminals with his own hands. He never relied on technology like this.
Was he changing tactics? If so, why now?
The officer interrupted her thoughts, "We managed to pull something out of it."
Yuri's eyes widened in surprise; the way things were going she fully expected to get nothing out of this whole situation. But she was finally getting somewhere.
"Show me," she demanded, her tone sharp.
The officer quickly plugged the damaged device into a laptop, her hands trembling slightly.
A grainy image flickered onto the screen before a video began playing, it was choppy at best, and distorted at worst. It was enough, though. The image was clearly shot from a very elevated position, it showed the interior of the warehouse from what seemed like a third-floor vantage point.
The video went on, showing the warehouse workers carrying huge wooden boxes, loading them into parked trucks with hurried efficiency. Yuri narrowed her eyes at one of the open boxes. The distance and poor quality of the image made it hard to discern the contents, but they looked dangerously like guns.
The suspicious armed men patrolling the area clearly showed that whatever was happening here wasn't related to the usual warehouse either.
There was something strange going on.
Then the next thing she saw was a wooden desk, flying out of the windows of the third floor's office with surprising speed before it crashed into the first floor into a million pieces.
Then Hood appeared thundering down the stairs as he took down his first victim. As the video played, the altercation continued with Hood's usual style: brutal and efficient.
She couldn't deny that whoever Hood was, he was extremely skilled at what he did. He was one of the most formidable fighters she'd ever seen. Every move he did was fluid and precise, executed with such ease that it seemed like he wasn't even trying.
His tolerance for pain was almost inhuman. Bullets and blows barely slowed him down, and, apart from some specific times, he simply shrugged it off like it was nothing. She had long since theorized from seeing his other videos that he must use drugs to help him physically, maybe PCP, adrenaline or other strength enhancing drugs.
But then, it happened. The moment someone tried to take off his mask, it was as if a switch went off inside him. And then, a massacre.
Yuri shuddered. Hood was violent, there's no doubt about that, but he always left his victims alive. Crippled for life and in a lot of pain, yes, but still alive.
He wasn't one to kill. Or start fires for that matter.
But then… this happened.
She quickly glanced at the burnt remains of the warehouse, the innumerable charred bodies and dismembered limbs being meticulously examined by the forensic experts.
Until now, Hood was just a guy that beat up criminals. Was he wrong in doing justice with his own hands? Yes, but even still, he was simple. Predictable, if only particularly difficult to catch.
His previous actions were obviously unplanned, with him targeting random criminals and such. So how did he jump from that to this?
What was she missing?
With all the information she had on Hood, even as small as it was, she was confident to say that he wouldn't go all the way from Queens to Hell's Kitchen just to attack a random warehouse for seemingly no reason.
No, this was clearly a planned operation… But why? What was his goal? What was he searching for?
Absolutely nothing about this fit her guy's usual M.O, nothing.
Everything she managed to find out about him only served to sprout even more questions, and none of them were answered.
A light switch suddenly went off in her head.
Before he went on with his rampage, Hood said something to those men. It was highly unusual, he wasn't one to speak much, so what he said immediately stood off to her.
I know what you did
What you did to those kids…
Dogs get put down
The intensity in his voice was palpable, even though the grainy recording. She could still hear the absolute overwhelming disgust in his voice when he said it. Yuri could only imagine the terror of the men on the receiving end.
It was easy to connect the dots after that.
It wasn't a coincidence or random chance that Hood was here. He was after something, and whatever it is he found, he really didn't approve of. Hood found something that drove him to break his own "no killing" rules.
She had a guess on what he found, but she still needed to know more, and fast.
She stepped away from the officer, trying to find a quiet spot to think as she absentmindedly noted that the recording, she watched would probably end up leaked online somewhere, like it did before. She suspected that it was someone from the department, there were a few fans of Hood here.
Back to the case, the only link she could make was from Hood's previous victims. Most of them were inconsequential, small-time thugs or members of minor gangs. It was his last "big fight" that stood out to her. After pulling the records of the eight men he hospitalized, she discovered that all of them had one thing in common: they were all part of the Maggia.
And them, Yuri knew intimately. They were the ones who paid off her corrupt father after all, just like they disposed of him when he was no longer useful.
From her research, this warehouse had zero connections to any organized crime, nor any major or minor gangs, there wasn't even one tax out of hand. This place was completely clean, the NYPD database had nothing that either condemned or put this warehouse in their watchlist.
But that couldn't be true. The video was proof enough – armed men, guns, clear organization between them. It wasn't every warehouse that had large-scale servers like this one either. It made no sense in her mind why this place wasn't even in the NYPD's radar like this.
Her gut told her that something strange was going on.
This place is clearly important, but why?
"This is a mess," she sighed, rubbing her temples.
What kind of mess had Hood stumbled into? What kind of mess did she get herself into?
People wanted answers, and they wanted them yesterday.
Chief Irons was livid, and Yuri was the perfect person for him to target, being the detective in charge of the case and all.
But she could handle the fat bastard. She wouldn't have become a cop if she couldn't deal with people like him. No, the worst part was that the goddamn Interpol was sniffing at her case.
Apparently, this warehouse was flagged during one of their ongoing investigations, and they sent one of their agents to look more deeply into it. They promised her that they wouldn't interfere in her investigation, but Yuri still didn't like the fact that she would have someone looking over her shoulder at everything she did.
"Detective Watanabe?"
A smooth, mature feminine voice broke through her thoughts. Yuri turned to face the speaker, narrowing her eyes slightly as she recognized the woman approaching her.
Speak of the devil.
The woman was clearly of Asian descent, possibly around 5'7 or 5'8, wearing a blue collared uniform shirt that was honestly quite snug around her impressive bosom and toned arms. Her utility belt had a speaker microphone clipped to the top-left side of her shirt, and the shiny badge on her left breast marked her Interpol status.
But really, what actually caught Yuri's attention were the thickest pair of legs she had ever seen. The standard-issue dark blue pants were begging for their lives as they stretched to their limit, trying desperately to accommodate the massive tree-trunk sized masses of muscle.
It was almost unfair to Yuri how the woman managed to look professional, classy, and hot all at once.
Yuri quickly blinked away her surprise and composed herself. "Call me Yuri," she said sharply. "You must be Officer Chun-Li?"
Chun-Li offered a smile, her voice carrying the slightest hints of an accent as she answered, "I am, but please, call me Chun-Li." She extended her hand, and Yuri shook it firmly, noting the impressive strength in her grip.
Yuri was never one for small talk, so, wasting no time on pleasantries, she got straight to the point as they released their handshake, "Don't take this the wrong way, Chun-Li, but why are you here? I said I'd forward any of my findings to you."
Chun-Li didn't seem offended, instead, she laughed softly, the sound almost musical, "I just wanted to see how things were going," she said calmly, "I don't know about you, but I like to get a feel for my cases with my own eyes, you know?"
Yuri slowly looked at her, before she simply nodded, "Right."
"Good!" Chun-Li said happily, clapping her hands together before she gestured with her head, indicating they should walk and talk. "Now, what information do we have about the warehouse?"
Yuri may be apprehensive of the woman, but she just sucked up her thoughts in the end. Chun-Li was just doing her job, after all, just like she was. "Nothing that would suggest this," Yuri said, frustration clear in her voice. "Their paperwork is cleaner than my house."
They continued walking, and despite going back and forth on the case as they did so, Yuri still managed to notice that as they did so, Chun-Li kept leading them towards a silent, more quiet area, free from prying eyes, ctOS surveillance or cameras.
Chun-Li suddenly stopped, putting an arm in front of Yuri and glancing around to make sure they were alone. She touched one of the gadgets on her utility belt and then her ear before nodding in acceptance.
"What do you know about the Maggia?" Chun-Li asked, her voice low and serious.
Yuri looked at her curiously for a moment, surreptitiously preparing herself for any sort of problem before she answered, "Old school mafia, very strong in the city back then, but they're fading out quickly now. Why?"
Chun-Li gave one last look around, and then she began explaining.
As Yuri listened, her mind raced like it never did before as she processed everything Chun-Li was saying.
Jesus, things were a lot more complicated than she could ever imagine.
It was only minutes later that the two of them ended their little talk and went their way with promises to keep each other in touch, and, as Yuri gave one last look at the warehouse, she couldn't shake the eerie feeling that this was only the start of a very destructive, bloody, season.
Hood had found something here, something worth killing for. And she knew that she had to find him before more bodies started piling up.
I would like to apologize for any dip in quality compared to the previous chapters. I have lost my job recently and I am desperately searching for a new one, so I haven't been able to focus much on revising my chapters as I want to.
AN:
I wrote the fight scene on Adam's POV, which was… I don't know, strange? I don't know why, but I feel it is easier and better for me to write his fight scenes through someone else's POV. But I wanted to show you guys how his line of thought work when he's fighting, so there it was.
Adam's last speech at the first POV was obviously inspired by Rorschach's scene from Watchmen. I hope I did it justice.
For those that don't like fight scenes, the next few chapter has some character development and some deep, meaningful interactions between Kate and Adam
By the way, this chapter was supposed to be released a lot earlier. But as I said, life got in the way. Hopefully the next ones will be released faster than this.
Random fact: Squid brains are doughnut shaped, and their esophagus runs through it. If a squid eats something too big it can get brain damage.
If, for some reason, you want to support me, here's my Ko - Fi thebedguy
There's nothing there, no advanced chapters or anything, this is just here as an option so don't feel obliged to do anything please.