Third Sin: Swansong of the Second Night (Part 5): Chasing Virtue and Deceptive Vices

--- Mercer ---

Virtue uncaring about his deep past traumas -(Truly inconsiderate of him.)- swung his staff once more, this time chaining it into a flurry of blows that Mercer avoided by steadily taking a step back every time the teenage Vigil took a step forward.

“Well as fun as this is I think I’m going to go ahead and call it.” He drew his gun and vaguely aimed low with one hand while pointing the other behind him.

Virtue showed his own trauma off by leaping out of the way and partially covering his crotch with one hand. All while making an amusing ‘Eep.’ sound and ignoring the fact that Mercer’s finger wasn’t even on the trigger.

Swaying his gun in Swansong -(The more competent Vigil.)-’s general direction he said, “Don’t forget someone has to stay to guard the children and prisoners.” before firing his grappler down the street and jumping as he had it retract as fast as possible.

Which was honestly nowhere near as fast as it would’ve been if the secondary motors were working.

(That might be a problem.) He couldn’t help but grimace behind his helmet as rather than launching himself over a building and maneuvering from there he was forced to start swinging down the street.

That wasn’t to say he couldn’t still escape Virtue (probably) but it would involve more outsmarting the brat than actually outrunning him given how he was limited to swinging angles rather than any sharp turns or changes in direction.

(Note to self: Next time you have to replace the grapplers, prioritize the zip motors. Speed is more important than precision with these things.)

This point was underlined when Virtue went flying past him, having used his own -fully-functioning- grappling equipment to launch himself via the various street lamps.

Gritting his teeth, Mercer spun and launched his line down a side street, curling his arm into it as the sudden change in momentum pulled through his arm trying to rip it out of socket. Half way into the curve of this swing he fired his second line at another building on the opposite side of the street to keep from swinging himself into a building.

(Alright, now how to actually escape?) He asked himself, knowing that breaking line of sight just once or twice wasn’t going to be enough to escape Virtue. (Especially not if-)

“You know you wouldn’t be in this situation if you didn’t feel the need to antagonize him.” Kennedy sighed, opening her end of their line.

(-Night watch is helping him…) He frowned before an idea occurred to him. (And I know how to kill two assholes with one bullet.)

Not cutting his line at another intersection, he softly changed his direction while also taking a moment to glance back and see that Virtue wasn’t even a hundred meters behind him.

“But you goody two shoes make it so easy to mess with all of you.” He whined opening his end of the line, figuring that she was tracking him one way or another.

“And you make it so easy to hate you.” Kennedy told him rather bluntly.

“Nah, you guys love me.” He argued, knowing something none of them did. “I keep things interesting.”

“The city is more than interesting enough without you.” Kinsley scoffed. “We’ve all got more important things to be dealing with than whatever garbage you’re trying to stir up.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

(If only you knew how much crazy I’m keeping capped in the Way.) He chuckled to himself. “Fu~uck, you know that attitude is why you’re going to have a heart attack by thirty. You guys need to learn how to have fun with this whole Mask thing.”

“This isn’t a game.” Nightwatch coldly reminded him. “There are lives on the line every time we go out.”

“Ugh, you sound like the old man.” He couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “Didn’t you used to be one of the rebels?”

“Didn’t you used to take this seriously?” Kennedy countered.

“Yes, and it was the death of me… Or one of them anyway.” Admittedly it was a big one, but… “Don’t worry, Vigilance beat that out of me before it could kill me again.”

He could feel Kinsley’s grimace at the reminder of just how he left the Vigils. (Serves her right.)

Knowing he was starting to near his destination, he aimed a little higher than his previous grappler shots, connecting to a small signal tower rather than the usual building ledges. From there he extended his line as he swung into his street turn, enough that when Virtue made the same turn by grappling the same building, the younger mask flew past him and Mercer's own boots could connect with the building on the opposite side of the street.

A building he proceeded to kick off to change the angle and momentum of his swing so that he’d go flying into the alley next to the original building with a low enough velocity. One low enough that with a few steps along the side of the alley wall, he was able to disconnect his grapple lines and hit the ground with a quick roll into a running start.

“Look Mercer I get that the way things ended wasn’t the best but,” Kinsley began after a moment of him running through the alley.

More precisely the moment before he extracted the live comm from his helmet and ran into the traffic waiting for a nearby light. Making sure to toss the comm -(Nightwatch and Virtue are absolutely tracking.)- into the windshield of a nearby car as he cut through the street.

With their means of tracking him distracted, he finished crossing the street and made his way into the building of his actual destination. Once inside he entered the lobby elevator where he faced away from the security cam and removed his helmet before pressing a specific floor button and then the one below it a moment later.

Tapping his foot impatiently he watched the elevator’s floor number slowly tick away. (Come on, come on, I don’t have much time…)

The elevator doors opened on the first floor before closing as he slid his helmet back on and reopening as it reached the actual floor he was aiming for.

Quickly stepping out of the elevator he made his way down the hall to a specific door he clearly remembered the owner of failing to lock behind her earlier.

As quietly as he could he made his way through the apartment picking up one or two things he knew were stashed in the bedroom before sneaking behind said apartment’s sole occupant. A red headed woman with a hand over her tired face.

A woman whose wheelchair he proceeded to pick up with her in it.

“W-what the fuck?!” Kinsley cursed in shock as she whirled around to face him. “Mercer?!”

“Hello.” He greeted dropping her wheelchair and quickly handcuffing her to said chair at an angle where she couldn’t undo the wheel lock without freeing them first. “Just stopping by for a quick errand.”

“Wh-what the hell are you doing?!” Kinsley yelled at him as he removed her comm and made his way to her computer.

“Using your computer’s backdoor to the Vigil’s lair to delete Virtue’s footage for the night.” He explained, quickly going through her files while looking for specific icons.

“You handcuffed me to my chair you asshole!” Kinsley spat at him.

He couldn’t help the snort of amusement that escaped him at that. “You’re a Vigil, if you aren’t free in thirty seconds I’ll be deeply disappointed in you.” He pointedly did not call her out on the fact that she already had one hand free. “Besides we both know what’s in your internet history, and why you have those.”

“Wh- N-no, these are not for me to wear!” Kinsley screeched in embarrassment, stalling her for a few extra seconds.

“Oh, I know they’re for your -non-existent- boyfriend, but the first rule of safety is knowing how to properly use those.” He lectured her as he began deleting the most recent files from Virtue’s cam. “But since you’re single I figured you should practice on yourself before using them on someone else. With a friend nearby to help if you hurt yourself.”

“Wh- I- Fuck you!” Kinsley stuttered out in clear embarrassment as she threw a pair of handcuffs at him.

“I appreciate the offer, but this ship has sailed.” He told his former crush as he caught the cuffs. “I am now happily married, to someone who knows exactly how to use these… as well as every other toy you had in that box.”

“Why are you like this?” Kinsley whimpered.

“Daddy issues.” He admitted.