Second Sin: Little Red and The Wolf (Pt 8)- Last Minute Saves
--- Mercer ---
“Anyway, he’s fleeing the warehouse and I figured I should let you know to go ahead and call one of the Vigils, because I still have to secure the kids.”
“And what happened to you being able to just steal a car if he managed to get away?” Kennedy asked.
“Just remembered I have no idea how to drive a car.” He confessed in a morose tone as he tore a skeleton’s skull from its shoulders before punting the skull at another skeleton’s head.
“I’m sure.” Kinsley scoffed, as he grabbed another skeleton by its spine.
“I’m also not about to leave the kids here while there’s a bunch of covenant criminals willing to make the evidence ‘disappear’.” He added before throwing said skeleton at another causing both to fall apart into a pile of bones.
“Fine, I’ll see who’s nearby and send them after him.” Kennedy told him, meaning she’d probably hacked every camera in a mile radius and had already figured out what car Romulus was planning on using to escape. Meaning whichever Vigil she sent after him just had to catch the car. (And I just have to be gone by the time they get back here.)
“Right, and before I forget Romulus let slip that the creature he summoned was from the Mists.” He admitted, knowing that this was one of those ‘city-wide’ threats rather than just something he could handle in his free time.
“Fuck.” Kinsley cursed on the other side of the line as the sound of her typing accelerated. “He let slip anything else about it?”
“Not much, supposedly it’s a Royal but given how it’s loose and the city hasn’t been flooded in the mists…” He trailed off, shooting one of the skeletons in the face with his grappler and (nah, too much slack to use this in a fight properly.)
“He might’ve just tried to summon a Royal Entity and just gotten something tricky instead.” Kennedy finished, coming to the same conclusion as him. “The Mists aren’t exactly known for staying hidden for very long after all.”
“Yeah, though you should still give the Vigils a heads up about it just in case. Last thing we need is this thing to be playing the long game.” He reminded her as he wrapped the slack of a retracting grapple line around a skeleton’s neck. (Maybe it’ll still work as a binding?)
“Agreed.” Kennedy told him. “And I’ve got a response, someone is moving to intercept Romulus.”
“Mind telling me who?” He asked, as the skeleton’s skull was ripped off in a twisting mess. (Took too much effort to set up, but still fun to watch.)
Kennedy was quiet for a moment, likely figuring out if she could tell him before answering,“Swansong was terrorizing a gang safehouse a couple blocks over.”
“Ah, well if they’ve got him then I’ll just wrap things up here.” (And get the fuck out before they get here and I have to explain anything.)
--- Bell ---
Despite the sounds of fighting she could hear echoing through the warehouse, she decided that the kids were more important, and as such began trying to corral the small group of children out of the warehouse.
Key word being ‘trying’.
“Come on, we need to get you guys out of here.” She tried to tell them, earning no response from the kids who seemed to barely notice her. And upon taking a closer look at them she realized all of their eyes seemed to be glazed and empty.
(They must’ve drugged them to keep them docile…) It was something she was more than used to seeing given how the Labs used to deal with subjects who got too unruly too frequently.
She ran a hand through her hair as she looked at the kids, wondering (how am I supposed to wake them up?) since she very much doubted any of them had the metabolism and healing factor that had always brought her and her sister out of a similar state.
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“Right, okay… this makes things a little more complicated.” She admitted looking the kids over.
(I can’t just take them out one at a time or else I might lose someone, so that means I’ve got to corral them all out of here but how?)
She felt something whispering in the back of her head, before feeling something wrap around her shoulders.
Inhaling deeply, she forced herself to look to her side where a black skinned version of herself watched with pitch-black eyes.
She blinked and her other self disappeared.
“Right… can I trust you though?” She asked, knowing that it was always fifty-fifty on whether they’d work with her or against her. The entities she shared her body with seemingly having an agenda all their own, one they saw no reason to inform her of.
(...)
Her other selves may not have responded, but she could still feel it watching and waiting for her to act.
“Fine, but only because I need to get the kids out of here.” She knew it was a bad idea, but she also knew her other selves seemed to know far more than she ever could, even if they kept their secrets until the best moment to manipulate her.
Letting loose the almost instinctive grip she kept on her other selves she felt a chill spread throughout her body before spasming as something inside of her lurched. Her entire body twisted as she felt one of her other-selves stepping out of her corpse.
Gasping, she looked up at her other self and met its abyssal gaze before watching as it walked over to a nearby child and gently took their hand.
Her other self continued to stare at her, waiting for her to respond.
“Right… Okay…” She nodded, before pulling on her other-selves and undergoing another full body spasm as another of her selves stepped out of her, before being followed by another lurch and another self, and another and another until only one child remained without an escort.
“Fu~uck…” She gasped, breathing heavily as she tried to get her body under control once more.
Wiping at the tears forming in the corner of her eyes, she looked at the last child -a little girl with faint streaks of red in her hair- before stumbling over and taking her head.
Looking up she saw all of her other-selves staring at her before one by one they all turned and started walking the children out of the room.
(Here’s hoping I don’t regret this.)
--- Scarlet ---
Despite being oh so tempted to feed and turn this fight around, she was still scared that she might turn Mercer against her and so instead of feeding and numbing the boiling pain pushing through her veins she bit her lip and turned away from both the corpse and the fighting monsters hoping that she’d be able to escape while the beasts fought.
A bright flash of light from behind made her pause at the door to the room, before a glance over her shoulder revealed the grey beast looking around, the giant lizard having seemingly disappeared.
(It must’ve been de-summoned…) She realized upon spotting several motes of glowing light slowly flickering into non-existence.
The dark beast froze before glancing over its shoulder with one glowing yellow eye.
“Oh, come on…” She groaned, taking a step back as the growling beast turned towards her.
She got ready to run, but before she could take two steps the beast froze once more, its eyes going wide as it tilted its head to the side.
The beast shot off through one of the side doors, completely ignoring her in favor of whatever it was hearing.
“Fuck… that was close…”
--- Bell ---
As one all of her other selves seemed to freeze -(Scatter!)- before grabbing their respective kids and dashing off through the nearest doorway.
“W-what?” She blinked looking around and only seeing faint trails of shadow-y smoke.
She reached out to the chilling connection she shared with all of her other-selves and found that while they had all scattered, they hadn’t actually gone all that far. In fact (it almost looks as if they’re hiding…)
Her eyes went wide, and she picked up the dazed girl as best she could before running down the hall. A feat that was made all the more difficult by the fact the preteen was too large for her to reliably carry without half dragging the girl’s feet across the floor.
“Oh, why did I have to be the only Malcontent without super strength?” She groaned, as she struggled to maneuver the girl through a doorway while also opening said door.
A growling made her freeze.
Swallowing, her eyes slowly drifted down the hall where a large huffing grey beast stood in a half crouch with one massive clawed hand on the ground.
(Don’t move…) Her other-selves warned her as she stared into the beast’s glowing golden eyes.
She didn’t bother doubting her other-selves’ advice, not even breathing as she and the beast both stood frozen, their gazes locked to one another. Each waiting for the other to make the first move and begin the spiral of violence that was sure to begin with that first step.
Her heartbeat pounded away in her ears and- The beast shot forward.
She grabbed the girl and almost threw herself to the side before something impacted the wall next to her, cutting off her escape with a stumbling start as a gunshot tore through the hall.
Her eyes darted towards the beast just in time to see Mercer wrap a cord around the beast’s neck before using his weight to slam its face into the ground as his helmet lit up with a red skull and the words “Bad dog.” echoed through the hall.