“Don’t make any sudden moves, or we’ll shoot them both,” the Lesser barked at Xard, a group of them all pointing their guns at the two hostages. One of the victims was a woman who had been abducted for their experimentation. The other was an elderly Feyj, and he didn’t seem to be concerned about his predicament in the slightest.
For the past month, the two vigilantes had worked their lead. First, they’d found the dealer who had sold the drugs which led them back to their supplier, that led them to the manufacturer, which led to another manufacturer, and up the chain it went—all run by the Red Eyes Gang and their subsidiaries.
But that hadn’t been all the pair had been doing, which is why it had taken them longer than if they’d just solely pressed the lead. As they traveled around the western hemisphere, they went from town to town—quiet farmsteads to major cities—stopping crimes, solving cases, and just generally helping anyone they came across who could use a hand.
As each day passed, with countless more successes and just a few more failures, Feyj really grew into his own as a vigilante. Soon he had just about the same amount of respect from the citizenry as Xard, along with the same amount of tolerance from the police. In that month, the two of them saved so many more lives that they’d put even saints and doctors to shame.
Their work went well beyond the original scope of their time together. Xard had planned to just have Feyj tag along for a few weeks as part of one of his usual journeys, but their return date to the compound kept being pushed back as their investigation kept digging deeper. Eventually, they agreed that they’d only call it quits when they’d finally brought down the drug production entirely, and with it would come Feyj’s retirement as a vigilante to enjoy the rest of his days in peace—or more likely just have Drim trigger a rebirth.
But they probably took a bit too long on their investigation, and Feyj’s body paid the price that all would come to pay eventually. Ever since his early 70s, he started to slow down, day-by-day. Even a Fiend couldn’t escape the ravages of time, not fully. He was still certainly better off than any human of that age, but most of his added benefit had deteriorated.
And about a week ago, there’d been a bit of an incident. When Xard went to grab Feyj’s arm to pull him into the air, the arm had just broken instead—snapped clean into two pieces. The Fiend regeneration still healed the break in a few hours, but it took much longer than a body that was still young. By the time it was done, there was virtually no point—just shy of midnight where Feyj’s wounds would be completely healed anyways.
The incident, though, essentially benched the elderly man from any further action. For the past few days, he’d been serving on the sidelines alongside Dette, helping Xard from a support role by monitoring crimes. Even with his body failing him, his mind was still sharper than virtually anyone else alive, and damned if he wouldn’t do everything in his power to be of use.
When it finally came time to raid the main drug testing and manufacturing facility of the Red Eyes Gang, Feyj had reached the ripe old age of 89. Xard, as the more experienced vigilante and due to his position in the Fiends For Hire, probably should have made the call and ordered Feyj to stand down from the mission. However, he just couldn’t deny his partner the chance to see it through after all their hard work and everything they’d been through together to get there.
Though along with Feyj’s aging body had come increased stubbornness. His willingness to follow commands dwindled by the day, insisting more and more that he knew the better method. After the accident, Xard had been expecting the two of them to have a full blown argument about his sidelined position, but Feyj had relented, even though accepting it had clearly been hard for him.
That had given Xard hope that during their infiltration Feyj would follow his order to simply follow behind the redhead and not do anything too reckless. But at some point, Xard had turned around and his partner was nowhere in sight.
Finding him again wasn’t too difficult. He just followed the commotion. When Xard entered the room, he found Feyj and the woman, along with about a dozen Lessers, all armed with their guns pointing at the pair, with a few changing over to their new guest. From there, Xard quickly pieced together the situation.
There was a chair with restraints in the middle of the room and a woman in a lab coat on the ground in front of it. He wasn’t quite sure if she was dead or not from his position, but there was no visible blood or injuries. Feyj had most likely knocked her out and set the other woman free. By the victim’s zonked expression and complete lack of awareness as to where she was or what was going on around her, it was easy to guess that she’d been the test subject of their drug experimentation.
How the Lessers had swarmed them so quickly was a different matter. The most likely event was that the entire act had been caught on camera, but Xard couldn’t scout around for the devices, not wanting to take his eyes off the situation in front of him for even a second.
In this case, it seemed his fame had betrayed him. He heard the word ‘Artillery’ muttered a few times and any guns pointed at him quickly aimed away, back at the two hostages. As for Feyj, it was possible they knew who he was, but they at the very least understood that he was a Fiend. Only three of Lessers had their guns pointed at the woman while all the rest were clinging to Feyj with one arm each to restrain him.
Xard had no way of knowing if Feyj had tried to resist them at first and had lost due to their disparity in strength, or if he hadn’t even attempted. Either way, it was doubtful he’d be able to break free on his own. So how to get out of this… The threat they made was a serious one.
If The Artillery tried anything too rash then the woman would die. As for Feyj, well that was another matter, but they couldn’t risk the woman’s life. Xard was only confident he could take out two of the assailants targeting her. The third had purposefully positioned himself directly behind her. Even with all the focus in the world and unlimited time to aim, he wasn’t confident it was a shot he could make from where he stood.
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“Turn around and leave immediately,” a Lesser started making more demands, ones that didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but they were likely panicking in the face of their imminent destruction. “We’ll follow you outside. Once you’re gone, we’ll let them go. We’ve already called for backup. The entire gang is on their way here, so don’t think you can take us all on!”
That last part sounded like a bad bluff. While it was possible they could have summoned every Lesser on the premises, there was no way on Rathe they could coordinate such a move, even if their organization was well managed. The vigilante knew that the Red Eyes Gang had members and factions all over the world, to a scale that was blown out of proportion to any other criminal organization, but it still wouldn’t be enough.
If Xard really wanted to, he could destroy the entire building in minutes. And while this manufacturing plant/experimental facility wasn’t exactly hiding out in the sticks, it wasn’t close enough to mainline civilization that they could get any sort of meaningful reinforcement within an hour regardless of what transportive methods they used.
All he had to do was take out this small band of mawhgers and their mission would be a success. There was a chance more hostages could be around, but they’d get to that issue when it arrived. And the Lessers had made no threats about harming anyone else, so he had to put it out of his mind as a possibility.
“Listen to them, partner,” Feyj insisted, but then shot Xard a subtle smile and a wink. “We need to make sure that this woman gets out of here safely. But you don’t need to worry about me… I don’t have much time left anyways.”
“Quiet old man!” one of the gang members pressed the barrel of their gun into Feyj’s face in a poor attempt at intimidation.
“You can go ahead and shoot me, if you want,” the threat didn’t bother the old Fiend in the slightest. “I’ve lived a good life. I’m happy with what I’ve done, what we’ve accomplished. And it’s all thanks to you, my partner, my friend. You made it a life I’ll never forget, and I trust you’ll do what’s right when I’m gone. Stick to your convictions to the bitter end.”
“But I do have one small confession to make. You see, partner, I’ve lied to you ever since the beginning, since that very first day that we set out on our adventure. My gun… was loaded the whole time.” His eyes went monochrome. “Calculating trajectory…”
Dammit, Feyj! Xard’s mind screamed at him, not letting the words slip from his lips and alert the Lessers that something was happening. He thought briefly on how he could stop the Fiend, but immediately rejected any possibilities. Instead, he got himself ready for the inevitable chaos, not letting the man’s last wishes go to waste.
Faster than any keen observer could see, Feyj flicked his wrist. It was basically the only part of his body that wasn’t restrained, and it was all he needed. The Fiend snatched his gun out of his waistline, pointed it into his own stomach, and pulled the trigger.
A spray of iridescent blood shot out of his backside along with the bullet. The bit of shrapnel continued its trajectory, right into the brain of the Lesser hiding behind the woman.
Xard blasted into action the moment he heard the gunshot, not allowing himself a moment’s hesitation. He whipped up both hands and fired energy out of each pointer finger, right into the heads of the other two Red Eye’s members threatening the woman. With all three incapacitated, the immediate threat to her life was removed, but the evildoers would undoubtedly target her again as fast as their arms could move.
The now rampaging redhead took one step to better adjust his position and then he sent a vertical line of continuous energy surging forward from his navel up to the top of his forehead. It became a wall of protective force that separated the woman from the rest of the Lessers. If they were quick and smart enough, they could still aim under it to shoot her, but they wouldn’t get that chance, and Xard was keeping it at that height for a reason.
He spun slowly to the left. The relentless torrent of energy carved through the flesh of the first enemy it came into contact with, disintegrating their torso and everything above until only their legs remained—slumping lifelessly to the floor. Sheer terror grew on the faces of every other gang member, a vision that Xard likely wouldn’t forget any time soon, but he also felt no pity for them.
They didn’t have time to escape, though a few tried to fire at him as if that would help them at all. Their lives were gone in seconds, only their stubbed legs left behind as the memory of who they once were. The back wall, or what was left of it after the barrage, had become coated in a fine mist. It was probably for the best that the woman was too far gone to process any of her surroundings, or she’d need a lifetime of therapy after what she just witnessed—well, more than she’d already need.
Their deaths could only be called a massacre, and what followed in that facility during the next few minutes couldn’t be called much better. Only two Lessers were left alive. One of them was a victim being used for experimentation, and the other surrendered and threw himself at Xard’s feet, begging for mercy. That was enough to pull The Artillery out of his rampage, and he spared the teenager’s life, but blew out her knee so that she couldn’t do anything stupid.
Xard emerged from the building a few minutes later, coated in blood, not having thought about using his Curse to clean himself. All the victims slowly marched in front of him, the more lucid ones supporting those whose minds were otherwise occupied.
“Yeah, it was a success,” the man spoke over his comms. “There’s a group heading your way, Dette. I’ll leave them to you. They’ll need a lot of assistance, but you know what you’re doing… Yup, I’ll meet you back at the safehouse. I need to pick up some diapers and some formula along the way.”
The flight back to the safehouse was slow and steady, not wanting to wake the baby Feyj that was coddled close to his chest. After Dette returned and confirmed the results of their mission, Xard returned to the compound and passed the child off to Niloy, his next caretaker, until he was old enough to take care of himself.
Since the vigilante had been gone for much longer than one of his usual trips, he stuck around for an equivalent amount to make up for it, catching up on meetings and his other responsibilities. Xard didn’t see Feyj again that entire time until finally one evening just over a week later.
The young boy brushed past his former partner in the hall, barely even acknowledging his existence. His face was probably covered in a bit more makeup than a child at that age should be wearing, but it didn’t seem to bother him. He ran past Xard’s room to the next one over, a bundle of art supplies in his arms. Feyj burst open the door and pleaded, “Kada, teach me how to paint!”