Without hesitation I charged. Alejandro stood still while all of his crew ran towards me to intercept. The first unlucky soul received a punch that knocked him back into two of his other friends. Another ran towards me, but was hit in the face by a screen I created right in front of him, causing him to trip. With my good hand I blasted him before turning my hand to blast the three I had sent sprawling. However, this left me open to a punch to the jaw from one of the thugs.

I staggered only to be hit again by another, then another, then another. The six thugs started wailing on me from all angles until I was on the ground. My whole body was ready to give up when out of pure instinct, I released a flash of light that stunned all six around me. With this opening, I tried something new. I slammed my palm into the ground and fired a beam at the same time, causing a wave of energy to crash out around me that knocked down everyone around me.

I pounced on the first, headbutting him in the bridge of the nose without any dark energy before a punch to the jaw. A goon who had landed close by grabbed the back of my hoodie, but I lashed out with an elbow into his shoulder that made a sickening crunch upon impact. Still, I couldn’t care less about any injuries I dealt out right now.

The four remaining thugs were back up again, but I put down two of them with beams to the chest in a heartbeat. Before I could do the same to the others, one of them ran and tried to tackle me. Unfortunately for him, I braced my legs with energy, so I didn’t move an inch as he slammed into my gut. A beam right into his gut showed him why his plan was a bad one, knocking him out with his friends. I expected the last thug to be running at me, but instead he was running in the opposite direction. Unlucky for him that direction was Alejandro, who caught his fleeing friend with one hand and proceeded to drain the strength from his body.

I only noticed my heavy breath now as I saw Alejandro’s muscles begin to shine and his veins glowed with purple energy. My energy levels were dangerously low, nearly dry from what I could tell. I’d never used this much in one day before, so I had no idea how much I had left. Still, this might be my only shot at Alejandro. I wasn’t letting him leave alive. So I raised my hand and flipped him off. He rolled his neck, the bones cracking as he did, before I ran at him.

I roared at him as I threw a sloppy right hook that Alejandro dodged with ease. He swung his bat in response towards my ribs, but I raised my arm to block the blow somewhat, although my body still shook from the impact while my forearm and shoulder hurt like hell. I was really hoping I didn’t break both my arms tonight. Still, I soldiered on and fired off with a push kick to Alejandro that surprisingly made contact. However, Alejandro didn’t even budge from the impact and in response, just spat in my face. I really hated this fucker.

I fired a beam right at his skull, but he ducked out the way before swinging up at me for an uppercut. I barely jumped back in time before I lunged forward with a punch to the gut. This one shook Alejandro a bit, but he retaliated by slamming the blunt end of his bat into my chin. I nearly collapsed from the attack, dropping onto one knee in front of Alejandro. The bastard standing over me raised his bat above his head and brought it down with tremendous speed. I returned to my senses just in time to raise an energy lidden fist up into the path of the bat, splitting it in half.

“Little shit”, Alejandro growled before smashing his knee into my face.

I didn’t have the strength to block this attack and was sent rolling backwards across the street. My vision almost blacked out, but I came to my senses just in time to redirect a kick from Alejandro that would probably have broken my neck. My rage gave me enough willpower to bring myself to my feet and headbutt Alejandro right in his fucking face. This was followed up by an uppercut to the jaw that knocked him onto his ass, stunned at this resurgence of mine. I dropped onto him and punched him in the jaw. And again. And again. I began slamming my fists repeatedly down at him, Alejandro barely blocking my assault with his forearms. This asshole had stabbed me, crippled Ashley, poisoned my neighbourhood. At this moment, I was trying to kill him. I continued to wail on the fucker until I noticed my attacks didn’t have the same impact they had a second ago. I paused and looked at my hands to see they no longer were coated in smoke. I was out of energy. Alejandro noticed this too and grinned as he punched me square in the chest.

I was sent flying off the ground and through the glass window of a store we had been brawling in front of. My body coursed with pain as I lay amongst an ocean of glass shards. I slowly sat up and pulled myself to the frame just as Alejandro reached me. I threw what was perhaps the weakest punch of my life towards him that he didn’t even bother to block, just letting it bounce off his leg. His smile deepened into a sickening crescent as he picked me up off the ground with one hand.

I felt woozy as any power left in my body was drained out, my arms limp at my side. With his newly increased power, Alejandro raised me even higher into the air and began to let loose on my face. The first punch broke my nose. The second bruised my eye, causing it to swell over. The third knocked my brain against my skull, causing a moderate concussion. The final strike shattered my jaw and broke a couple of my teeth before dropping me unceremoniously to the ground

He brought one hand to his face and wiped off the blood streaming from his nose. “You broke my nose, you shithead. Still, you look worse than me”.

He placed his boot onto the back of my head and continued “You had heart. But that shit doesn’t matter in the real world”.

I couldn’t even mutter in response to him. It took everything I had just to keep my eyes open. I was going to die here. But I couldn’t. I had so much I wanted to do. There were people I was supposed to help. Faith. Kane. Ashley. I thought I was strong enough to win. Guess this was appropriate. This is what happens to fucking hero’s.

Alejandro raised his foot to crack my skull open all over the pavement, when there was a sudden screeching sound. Alejandro looked up mere seconds before the bonnet of the car slammed right into him. He was knocked off his feet and into the pawn shop I had previously broken into, disappearing out of my sight. It was around now that I lost the strength to stay conscious. The last thing I heard was a car door opening and promptly slamming shut before a voice growled “God damnit kid. You are one grade A dumbass”.

XXX

Alejandro sat down on his couch as he wiped the blood off his face. The little shit had broken his nose. Jade came over and handed Alejandro a bag of frozen peas which he promptly held to his face. “They’re waiting outside for you”, she said.

Alejandro was like “What do you want me to tell them? That they shouldn’t be afraid? That the problem is dealt with? We both know he’ll be coming back for more; metas always do. How can I tell them that this was a win?”.

Jade swept a strand of hair out of his face and said “Alejandro, they believe in you. Right now, they’re scared shitless over this guy and don’t know what to do. If you hide in here, it ain’t going to help their fear.”. Alejandro sighed and slacked his shoulders.

He stood up and dropped the peas. “Fine. Time to lay down the law”.

The door to his caravan swung open as Alejandro burst out in front of the gathered mass. They all turned to face Alejandro, who took a second to observe his Bloods. His family. “Look, I’m not going to lie to you because I respect you all more than that. This asshole isn’t dead. He’s hurting, but he’ll be back and likely with a vengeance”.

There were hushed whispers through the crowd, but they quieted down when Alejandro raised his hand.

“I know you're scared. But let me remind you we are the Davenport Slasher’s! The baddest motherfuckers in town! You joined us because you knew no one else would want you, but we welcome the outcast here. We are a family before anything else and family looks out for itself. So when I heard there was some guy beating on my boys, I went out there and beat the living shit out of him! When I saw what he’d done to John, Cameron, Jack and the rest, I broke his fucking jaw and made him swallow his teeth! Because I am Alejandro Alverez, the Leech, and no one in town is stronger than me! If they think this son of a bitch’s scary, they ain’t seen half of what I can do”.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

The Slasher’s were getting amped up and were now cheering and yelling for their leader. Over the rabble, Alejandro now yelled “We’re going to teach this town a fear it’s never known before! We’re going to let them know what a bunch of supposed no-good outcasts can do! We’re going to find this super and paint the town red with his blood! So boys, who should be afraid? Cause it’s certainly not us!”.

A triumphant cheer of approval came from the Bloods as they all began to chant “ALEJANDRO! ALEJANDRO!”.

Jade walked to his side, wrapped an arm around his waist and whispered, “The police have Bull. He’ll snitch everything if given the chance”.

Alejandro kept smiling, but whispered back, “Then I’ll take care of it. It’s about time this town learns my name”.

XXX

I had a nice dream. I’d dreamed none of this shit had ever happened and the biggest of my worries was my English essay due next week. Yet, when I woke up, I found that my jaw, ribs and head still hurt like all hell. “Shit”, I exclaimed.

“Shit about sums it up”, a voice responded.

I opened my eyes to discover that I was lying on the couch, still in my Dusk outfit albeit with a new coat of blood on it, while the faintest beams of light were streaming into what seemed to be a two-room apartment and sitting at the table, eyeing me up, was Detective Jack.

“Does it help my case if I say this isn’t what it looks like?”, I asked.

“The evidence is pretty conclusive, kid. You’re the vigilante that’s been tearing the Slasher’s a new one. Until they tore you one instead”.

I let my head hit the pillow and asked, “So what now? We’re not at the police precinct or a hospital so I assume you’re not arresting me?”.

“Last night, I found you lying in a pool of your own blood and teeth. Every night before that, I found a trail of broken bodies around town. If you were anyone else, I’d have thrown you in a cell without hesitation. But, you have two things going in your favour. You’ve had a shitty few weeks and you’re still a kid”.

“No offense, but you don’t seem the type to be lenient”, I remarked.

He grabbed a mug of coffee and handed it to me. I sipped only to cringe as I found it was black. Too bitter for me.

“Explain this to me kid”, he questioned. “A week or two ago you couldn’t give a shit about what happened to the Slasher’s. Yet now you’re parading around in a costume dispatching justice like those AHS bastards. So what the hell changed?”.

I laughed and told him, “You’re kidding right? My friends were gunned down in front of me. What more reason could I have?”.

Jack went to the window, opened the blinds allowing the room to be illuminated and said “So let me get this right. You didn’t care when you got stabbed, yet even that store clerk getting shot got you riled up enough to use your powers. It seems to me that you don’t care when you get hit, but you can’t stand other people getting hurt because of you.You’re angry that the world’s unfair and that people you care about keep getting hurt so you go out and do whatever you want to do, taking the law into your own hands”.

“That’s not-“.

“Last night, you shot a man through the chest and you don’t seem all that torn up about it! You destroyed half the high street in your brawl and ruined people’s livelihoods. You tried to kill Alejandro for some petty revenge. You’re still a teenager. You could do so much with your gifts, yet you waste them”.

“Why the fuck do you care”, I yelled at him, starting to get pissed now.

“Because I’ve seen this happen before kid and I know where it ends. You either end up dead or far, far worse than the guy you’re going after right now. And I’m not going to let that happen to you. You might not know this, but in the hospital while you were asleep, I interviewed your sister. She blamed herself for what happened to you, you know that? She made me promise her to keep you safe, she made me swear on my mother’s grave and I don’t plan to break that promise. So do I care about you, no, not personally, but I don’t want your sister to live in guilt for the rest of her life. This vigilante shit, it’s over. We have Bull in custody and he’s willing to talk. Alejandro’s done for. So go home Ronin. If I ever find you in that mask again, I’m putting you away. I don’t do second chances”.

I barely knew this guy and in one moment, the resolve I’d been so dead set upon suddenly left me and I had no response, no counter to what Jack had just told me. Only doubt.

He began to grab his jacket and keys before heading towards the door to the hall, fully ready to leave me with my thoughts. So before he left, I asked “Does my sister know I’m here?”.

Jack just stated, “No. You can dig yourself out of that mess”, before slamming the door.

XXX

Constable Lewis was overwhelmed by the work outload this week. Crime was bad enough as it was, but all hell had broken loose over the past couple of days, even for Greyhall. Still, at least things were getting back to normal.

A cup of coffee in his hand, he was walking back from the breakroom when a pair of detectives walked out of the interrogation room. One grunted and said “Wish the guy could stay awake for more than two minutes right now. Any confession he gives is dodgy at best considering he’s not in the best state of mind. Have to wait”.

The other detective pointed at Lewis and said “Hey! Run this by the Lieutenant”, as he handed him a stack of files. Lewis gritted his teeth, knowing he didn’t go through all the effort to join the police just to be an errand boy. He wanted to be someone his son could be proud of.

So, he nodded and began walking in the opposite direction of his department and towards the Lieutenants office. He walked through a twisting maze of glum corridors, passing a couple of off-duty constables on the way. ‘They didn’t have to be waterboys’, he thought. Still, he arrived at the office and went to open the door when all of a sudden…

BANG

An explosion of sound ran throughout the police precinct as there was some kind of incident in the other room. Every constable in the corridor froze as it echoed before the sound of yelling filled it’s void. A bomb? It sounded like it came from… the interrogation cells. The constables began running towards the commotion while Lewis shakily reached for his baton. Should he go for the armoury first? No. This was his chance. His moment.

Along with the four others, Lewis ran into the hall leading to the cells only to find it was in ruins. The entire outside wall had been caved in, leaving rubble and debris scattered around, and on the floor itself was the limp bodies of several police officers, including the detectives from before. Towering over them was a man in a leather jacket, black cargo trousers, combat boots, motorcycle gloves and a black and red striped, full-face mask that covered his face with only two slots for his eyes.

In one hand, he grasped the skull of a police officer who was at first squirming before he finally fell limp. One of the constables yelled “On the ground!”, as he ran towards the man who dropped the officer as they approached.

The officer wound back his arm for a baton attack, the man struck him in the chest with an inhuman speed and launched him into the air. A horrific snap broke out as he hit the ground as a bit of rubble hit him right on the hip. The other officers went to step back, but the man darted upon them and crossed the corridor in mere seconds. He grabbed each of them in one of his hands and slammed them into each other, a splatter of blood splashing out as both of their noses shattered. He raised them off the ground and dangled them there as they convulsed as their veins turned purple. Lewis backed up as the remaining constable reached for her taser and fired two prods into the man’s chest, unloading thousands of volts into him.

Yet, he barely flinched at the electricity as he tossed the constable to the ground before in less than a second, he slammed the woman down too using a single hand shove to knock her to the floor. The man seemed somehow faster than a second ago as he walked up to the frightened Lewis. He pointed to the interrogation room and said “Keys. Now”.

Lewis just nodded as he tossed him the keys. The man walked to the reinforced, steel door, kicking it down with little effort before walking right into the room. Less than a second later, he came out carrying a man three times his weight on his shoulders, the Bull. He went to walk out the hole in the wall he had made when Lewis stammered “Wh-who are you?”.

The man turned his head back and scoffed. He pressed his boot into the officers throat and growled “Call me Leech”.

XXX

I was still lazing around in Jack’s apartment, waiting for my injuries to fully heal. It still surprised me just how quick my healing factor was. Holding out my hand, I saw a glossy white light covering my wounds while my flesh tingled as my powers did their work.

It felt strange. Before this, I never wanted to be noticed. To be the hero. But now… I should have been the one to finish it. To finish him. Still, my freedom was more important to me right now. At least I could finally stop looking over my shoulder. I wonder-

“All units, The Bull has escaped. He was last seen with an accomplice going by the alias Leech, believed to be Alejandro Alverez. All available units converge on the Rusty Hinge trailer park in downtown Davenport”.

I felt a chill run down my spine. Alejandro had gotten Bull. He was getting away.

“Not again”, I whispered.

I ran to the couch and grabbed my blood-stained ski mask from cushions. I would need to replace this, but for now it would do. I pulled it on, along with my hood, and ran out of the apartment, heading up the stairs and to the roof. On the street below, sirens blared as police cars sped past. It was my first time in the mask during the day, so I spotted some people on the street below. Still, I let energy flood through my calves as I ran and just as I reached the edge, I leapt into the air and to the next building, following the path of the police.