First Sin: The Runaway Experiment (Pt. 1)

--- Scarlet ---

She woke on the ground. Not an unfamiliar experience, nor one she had particular issue with, given how it was her norm at this point.

Her thoughts were fuzzy, most likely a concussion. Not an unfamiliar experience, nor one she had any real issue with, given how many she’d gotten over the years.

Her hands were cuffed together. Again not an unfamiliar experience, though one she took serious issue with, given how she’d just slipped her chains not even a week ago.

(Don’t go back…) A raspy whisper called. (Get up…)

Malice flooded her veins, sending heat surging through her as her eyes snapped open.

A quick flex of her wrists proved that the cuffs, albeit weaker than the usual, were still strong enough that she’d have to work to break them. (Damn it!)

Growling her attention darted to a guard just starting to turn around, and she felt her teeth beginning to itch as she lunged forward and bit through the heavy cloth wrapped around their leg and into the flesh beneath.

Sweet, sweet crimson filled her mouth and she felt the last of the fogginess from her concussion begin to fade as her Malice did its job of stitching her back together.

The guard’s screams meant as little to her as hers did to them, and instead of pulling back she swung her hand up and dug her fingers into the guards back, even as the Malice burned at her fingertips growing claw from flesh.

Pulling her arm back she threw the guard over her and into the wall behind her before rolling onto her feet with a snarl as she caught sight of the four other guards in the room.

(RiP tHeM ApARt!)

Another surge of Malice sent a wave of pins and needles creeping up her arms as her skin slowly turned to the leather starting with her fingers.

One of the guards raised a gun to shoot her.

She was faster than their finger as her teeth bit into the guard’s arm and one of her shoes hit their face hard enough for her to feel a crunch beneath her foot as the guard flew back, a chunk of their forearm missing in one of those spots that got very bloody if you were missing the piece that went there.

Swallowing, she felt the Malice begin to cool even as she felt it continue to work.

One of the guards caught her with a stun baton, something she was far too used to for the electricity to actually slow her down. Which is how even with electricity crackling across her skin she was able to pull her arms back far enough to swing with enough force that the jaw of the guards helmet went flying off with a spattering of blood as they dropped to the ground.

Crouching down, she rushed forward before grabbing onto another guard and sending every ounce of electricity she’d just been hit with into them. Of course, given how they didn’t have her healing factor that amount of electricity was more than lethal.

Turning to the last of the guards, she found herself growling as she caught sight of the glowing red eyes of her reflection on the guard’s helmet.

They stared at each other for a moment, before the guard took a step back while reaching for their gun, and she lunged at the show of weakness!

Using her strength she kicked out one of the guards legs as she forced them off balance long enough to rip away the armor protecting their neck.

Rearing back she felt all of her teeth sharpen into four dozen daggers before ripping into the guard’s throat and tearing out with her teeth as she heard the door to the room open.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Snapping her gaze to the intruder, she expected to find another guard trying to cage her away again. Instead she found the harmless man who’d spent the last few days following her around and bugging her about every little detail, such as whether she was eating enough or had somewhere safe to sleep.

--- Mercer ---

“Didn’t I already tell you to fuck off?!” The silver eyed teenager growled, as the last of the red in her eyes slowly faded. A sign that he’d learned from his Uncle meant a young Malcontent didn’t see you as threat.

(Which given the situation is honestly really naive of her…)

“Yes you did.” He admitted, tucking the gun away. “But then someone blew up my apartment, and that’s something I take exception to.”

“Well they’re all dead, so I don’t know what to tell you.” The teenager bit back.

“How about your name?” He’d been trying to get that out of her for days, but apparently this girl had more trust issues than his old man’s paranoid ass.

“Don’t got one.” The girl snarled.

“Alright, then what am I supposed to call you?” He asked, honestly getting fed up with this, but unfortunately a cannibalistic Deviancy was something he had to get a handle on before Vigilance took it as an excuse to start sniffing around the Way again.

“I don’t fucking care, just so long as it’s the last thing you call me on your way out.” The teenager told him before turning back to her latest meal.

Knowing that line of questioning was dead, he instead took notice of the girl’s cuffs. (Not the strongest thing around but definitely enough to keep a B Rank Bruiser contained.)

“You need help with those?” He offered, knowing how to break the things easily enough after he ran Sanctuary out of his district. (Never got why Vigilance let’s those fuckwads stick around.)

“What, you want a piece?” The Malcontent scoffed, pushing the mercenary's body toward him before pulling it back. “Well too bad, they’re my kill.”

“I meant the cuffs, not the corpses.” He sighed.

The teen froze before shaking her head. “Fuck off, I can get them off myself.”

He crossed his arms. “Then why don’t you?”

“Fuck you that’s why.”

“Sorry, I’m married and monogamous.” He shot back.

“What?” The girl blinked, thrown off by that as he’d intended.

“Look, if you want to get away from whoever is after you then we need to get moving.” He told her, using the moment of confusion to take control of the conversation. “The fact that they brought you here instead of wherever they’re actually based means the people who hired these mercs are on their way here to pick you up.” Admittedly there was also a decent chance they hadn’t reported their capture yet, (but given the lack of basing here, they probably wanted to do the drop off as fast as possible seeing how many Heroic Masks are in this city. So still most likely true.)

“Good.” The teen nodded. “Been looking for them anyway.”

That… made him frown. “You’re looking for the people you’re running away from?” (Please tell me this isn’t some stupid vengeance thing.)

That isn’t to say he minded vengeance. (Just stupid vengeance. Proper vengeance requires planning.)

“I’m not running.” The girl scowled at him. “I’m… repositioning.”

He very much doubted she knew how to do that tactically. “Meaning?”

“I need them off my trail long enough for me to find their base, so that I can kill all of them.” The teenager explained as if he was an idiot.

“Alright, and I’m guessing that means you already interrogated all of these guys then.” He checked as he kicked one of the corpses.

The girl froze again, this time for notably longer than before.

“You know I’m fairly good at killing people myself.” He admitted, unashamedly because with his body count, (damn straight I’m good at killing bad guys.)

“You?” The teenager asked incredulously, causing him to frown because most people were flat out intimidated by his scars, especially the scars.

(Wait, didn’t uncle Sam mention something about Malcontent sensing intentions real easy? Something about a passive empathy or some shit.) If that was the case, then no wonder she didn’t think him a threat, he had zero intention of hurting her, given how she was just a kid in his eyes.

“Yeah, me.” He nodded, honestly a little insulted that someone didn’t think him -the Demon of Saint’s Way- a threat. “But more importantly to your situation I’m also good at finding people who don’t want to be found.”

“Really, and how exactly do you intend to find these guys when I can’t?”