Third Sin: Swansong Of The Second Night: End of The Night

--- Mercer ---

The computer behind him let out a ping declaring that it had finished deleting the last of Virtue’s footage from the night. Not that that prevented them from recovering the files with one of their numerous redundancies, but it still bought him a decent time. (And time is always a welcomed friend.)

“Oh, would you look at that! It seems like we’re going to have to end this weeks safe sex seminar early.” He told Kinsley with a sad nod as he started towards the hero entrance/exit. “Now don’t forget what we’ve talked about and I’m sure you won’t die a desperate virgin, Kin-Ken.”

He moved to the side as Kinsley shot at him with her gun. “Side Note: You should probably put in a few more hours in the gun range if you want to try for any gunplay. If you aren’t careful you could really hurt your partner with that thing.”

“That’s the idea.” Kinsley ground out.

“My-my, you are a sadist.” He admired, fully aware her shot had been non-lethal rubber and was likely a way of stalling him until Virtue returned either after realizing she’d gone silent or because she’d hit some kind of emergency signal while he was busy. “Sadly, as I’ve already informed you, you’re the only single lady in this room and I am far too faithful” (and spiteful) “to be a part of this affair. So I must take my leave, foul temptress!”

Having properly established how much of a drama queen he was he made his escape as the secret entrance (finally) finished opening, and he dove out of it into the open air of the city streets he’d grown up in.

--- Scarlet ---

“Ugh, how long is Mercer going to be?” She couldn’t help but ask as she continued to pace a hole in the floor.

“Depends on how persistent the Vigils are being, but he can only stand them in small doses so he’ll probably be back soon.” Dewolf answered, an arm still protectively wrapped around his less than cognizant daughter.

“Who the fuck were those assholes anyway?” She growled.

“They’re the local heroes, the Vigils?” DeWolf said slowly as he gave her a curious look. “Vigilance’s personal team and probably family.”

“And that’s supposed to mean something to me?” She asked, narrowing her eyes as he caught his tone.

“Just that everyone in America -Hell probably the world,- knows who Vigilance is, given how he’s one of the heads of the Hero’s Guild.” DeWolf explained.

“We’ve um, we’ve been… away for a… while.” Bell offered, the closest she was willing to explain that they’d spent the last… (Fuck, I don’t actually know how long it’s been…) in the labs being run through all sorts of ungodly experiments.

“Right…” DeWolf sighed, before shaking his head. “Not my place, so I won’t ask.”

She nodded, before getting things back on topic. “If they’re heroes, why was that guy giving us such a hassle behind Mercer? He was working with the other two, but that guy looked like he hated him from the get go.”

“That’s… complicated.” DeWolf grimaced, before looking around the room as if he thought Mercer had somehow snuck past all of them without being noticed. “Again, it’s not my place to talk about, but for all intents and purposes Mercer was a Vigil until he cut ties.”

“But w-why would he cut ties?” Bell frowned, her eyes briefly drifting to Scarlet before going back. “You said they were family. You don’t give up on family.”

She felt something warm at that.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

DeWolf on the other hand clearly felt something uncomfortable with the way his grimace seemed to tighten. “It’s a little more complicated than that.”

“Complicated how?” Bell pressed, her eyes actually flashing black.

DeWolf leaned back in his seat and stared at the ceiling for a moment before sitting forward. “Complicated in the ‘earned himself a kill warrant’ kind of way.”

It was her turn to grimace at that. Even if she had essentially been living under a rock (a lot of them) she could piece together what exactly that meant. Namely because one of the lab's early methods of dissuading them from escape was to explain just how easy it was for a Malcontent to get a kill warrant of their own.

Which honestly was probably why she wasn’t as intimidated by that detail as she probably should be. (I’ll probably end up with my own before I die…)

“What exactly did he do?” She found herself asking.

“He, uh, he killed a man, a very bad man, on national TV.” DeWolf explained.

“While wearing the Vigil’s emblem.” They all jumped, turning their attention to Mercer as he entered the room. “He seemed particularly pissed about that little detail, given how he fought me for it.”

DeWolf flinched. “Uh, Mercer I was-”

“Legitimately don’t care.” Mercer shrugged as he walked past and crouched in front of DeWolf’s daughter. “Now more importantly, your kid doing any better or she still out of it?”

DeWolf watched Mercer for a moment before sighing. “She’s about where she was when I first found her.”

“Betty’s clinic is open, and they should have one of the good Arcane on by now. They’ll be able to sort you two out.” Mercer told the werewolf.

“Uh, right… I’ll go do that.” DeWolf nodded, before picking up his daughter and leaving.

With the werewolf gone an awkward silence fell upon all three of them as Mercer just stood there.

(Shit…) She grimaced, wondering just how deeply they’d pried into something he didn’t want them to.

“S-sorry… about… that?” Bell tried to awkwardly apologize.

“Hm?” Mercer looked between the two of them. “What? Oh, that? Yeah, no. Legitimately don’t care. Everyone knows I shot the mayor and kicked Vigilance’s ass. Literally, you could ask any ten year old in the Way and they’ll tell you that. They’ll also tell you I kicked the shit out of every bounty hunter that invaded the way over the next few years.”

“Then um, if you’re not upset why are you, uh…” Bell made a gesture towards Mercer’s… everything.

At which point she realized that Mercer was swaying ever so slightly as he stood there.

“Oh, yeah. I haven’t slept in the last… forty-eight hours… I think? I mean I could ignore it a bit longer after visiting Betty’s clinic but she gets mad at me when I use healing to skip sleep.” Mercer shrugged before standing still for another minute. “Mm, honestly, I think I’m going to go upstairs and crash before I collapse in some alleyway… again…”

“Again?” She found herself asking with a morbid sort of curiosity.

“Yeah…” Mercer nodded. “The kids of the Way like poking me with sticks when they find me passed out in random locations.”

“Okay… That’s uh, that’s a thing…” She admitted, with a glance towards Bell because (I have no idea how much a non-Malcontent is supposed to sleep. It’s got to be more than four hours without a healing factor, right?)

Mercer was quiet for a moment. “I think without the adrenaline I’m starting to micro-sleep again.”

“Uh-huh, uh, what exactly are we supposed to do here?” She hissed to Bell.

“Find a room to crash in.” Mercer told them, before turning towards the stairs. “That’s-a what I’m-a gonna do.”

Her and Bell were both quiet for a moment as they watcher Mercer make his way up the stairs and to the rooms above.

“Uh, should, should we be worried about this?” Bell asked her.

“I… I have no idea…”

--- Mercer ---

Dropping his gear haphazardly onto the floor, he kicked off his socks and shoes before falling face first onto his chosen mattress. Completely unbothered by just how run down the place was given some of the places he’d had to sleep as a homeless kid.

He’d long since gotten used to needing to skip a night of sleep here and there -usually by cheating and paying an Arcane to use healing magic to top him off- but that didn’t change the fact that it did a number on him and if he were anyone other than a brain damaged Vigil it would probably take a heavier toll than a normal person could handle.

(Well, at the very least since I’ve dealt with this week’s crisis I should be able to take a few days off to sort everything out with the girls… who I guess are living with me now… Well, that’s going to be a bitch to explain to Julie…)

After a moment, when he found himself awake even after two days without sleeping, he cracked open his eye and saw the first rays of daylight streaming through his window. He then promptly rolled over while pulling his jacket over his head and told the world, “Fuck off, day. I just spent the last two nights saving your ass so let me sleep.”