Boundless, Diablo, and Glutton stood over Tears’s unconscious body. Diablo slapped him awake, holding almost nothing back while doing so. Tears screamed at being woken up so violently and painfully. His eyes frantically paced around as he desperately tried to understand his situation.
“Yeah, this guy looks familiar. This is probably Tears.” Zoey could remember some delinquent with a lip ring that looked similar to this guy.
“Who the fuck are you, mentally deficient motherfuckers!? Do you know who I am?! Do you know who you’re fucking with!?” Tears squirmed angrily with his hands and legs restrained by zip ties. “I’ll kill all three of you! I’ll murder your families! You won’t live safely in this city once I’m out of here!” He threatened viscerally.
“Diablo, Glutton, how do you think we should handle a villain like this?” Boundless was curious. She knew how she would handle it but was interested in how her students would go about it.
“Based on HQ’s file about this guy’s list of crimes, I’d say we should ruin him so that he can never hurt anyone ever again,” Diablo suggested with an eager smile and clenched fist.
“That’s going too far…” Glutton shook his head.
“Too far? He’s killed innocent people and made money from their suffering! A lifelong relationship with a hospital bed is charitable at this point.” Diablo argued.
Glutton took a moment to breathe and think. Thinking back to his reasons for becoming a hero. The words that Miss Devil told him long ago that stuck with him all this time. She didn’t teach them how to fight for the purpose of hurting people but to protect the weak and innocent. If a person like this, who thrives on the suffering of others, was allowed to be processed by the legal system when he had his hands in the pockets of the police department and maybe even the courts. What would happen?
“It just doesn’t seem like a heroic thing to do.” Glutton shared his opinion.
“Well, you can worry about living up to your standards of a hero all you want.” Diablo narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m going to give him the punishment he deserves for all of the innocent lives he’s ruined.” Diablo stood over the still screaming and cursing Tears.
“Wait!” Glutton stood in front of her with his arms stretched out.
“Are you seriously protecting this jerkwad?” Diablo couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
“I’m not protecting him! Just give me a moment to think!” Glutton requested.
Diablo punched Glutton across the face, knocking him off of his feet. “You can think all you want when we’re finished with the mission. This isn’t the time to be thinking about what kind of hero you want to be. You should’ve done that when you first put on the costume, idiot.” Diablo used the chance to break Tears.
Boundless watched silently at her students. She didn’t intervene at any point. Cindy didn’t hesitate to beat the shit out of Tears mercilessly. Tears’s threats died in his throat when he was being ground-pounded by a person more than half his age. With their deaths came the begging, pleading, and promises of wealth and servitude.
It was only when Diablo was planning to utilize some of her wrestling moves to break him in a more crippling manner that Zoey stepped in. She grabbed her by the collar like a little kitten and lifted her up. In the other hand, she picked up Tears’s barely conscious body. “HQ, it’s time for evac at Club Neon.” Zoey phoned in to Prometheus.
“Understood. We’ll be waiting outside.” Prometheus responded.
“Come on, Glutton,” Boundless told the boy with a bleeding nose.
Glutton glared at Diablo while Diablo just crossed her arms and turned her head as they all got on the elevator. When they made it to the top of the elevator, they were greeted by several gangsters pointing guns in their direction. Zoey dropped Tears and Diablo as she rushed to the nearest gunman.
Diablo and Glutton hid behind Tears’s body as bullets started flying. Zoey utilized her fighting skills and track skills together. It was a rare occurrence. She had to admit. Her fist slugged a guy across the face and dropped him while she continued running to the next person closest to her. The bullets flew behind her in an effort to keep up with her, ripping through the club’s equipment and walls.
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“Stop fucking firing! We’re over here too!” A gangster screamed before getting clocked in the jaw and crumpling like a puppet with its strings cut.
Zoey never stopped moving while taking out the men. The gangsters didn’t let up with the gunfire as their fear overtook the logical part of their brains. They didn’t see the other men they worked with while firing. They only saw the other men being taken down by a freak in a sparkling costume and knew that they didn’t want to end up like them.
Boundless ripped and tore through their impromptu formation like a hurricane. Her fists were undeniable. However, she didn’t just punch and then ran to the next person. Zoey has long since learned to do more than just punch in a fight. While she’s never been in stakes as high as this in the normal world, it was just a little step higher than when she was fighting delinquents some time ago.
Zoey uppercut a gangster in the jaw, and as he was lifting off of the ground from the force of her punch, she grabbed him by the throat and tossed him at the men still firing at her before rushing off to the next criminal. Her fist found itself at home inside the man’s stomach, and before he could spew his lunch, she grabbed him and tossed him at his friends. Zoey’s aim was accurate and strong. On more than one occasion did some of the thrown criminals get shot by their own friends.
But Zoey reasoned it was better than her being shot. It was fucking impossible to prevent deaths in a situation like this, with frightened idiots holding down the trigger and not thinking with their brains. She may be acting like a superhero, but that doesn’t mean she was a fucking miracle worker. Her life was more important than the lives of some scumbags willing to kill people on the orders of some man they barely knew just for money.
Gunfire was a lot harder to avoid than Zoey thought without relying on magji. Her high body stat, Dash, Endurance, and Focus, were the only reasons why she hasn’t had to resort to magji so far. Only when Zoey started to see the men shaking in fear did she suddenly realize something… She probably could’ve used Fighting Aura to avoid this whole situation in the first place! Terrifying them into dropping their guns and surrendering.
‘But this is way more fun, right?’ Inner Zoey argued.
‘Not when we have the kids with us.’ Zoey argued back.
By this point, seeing so many of their allies being taken down despite shooting at this maniac with several automatic weapons. The gangsters realized they were out of their league. They began fleeing the club while dropping the weapons on the scene. None of them wanted to suffer the same fate as the others.
The sounds of groaning and crying plagued the nightclub. Zoey motioned to the kids to come on. They dragged Tears as they came along behind her. She could feel them looking at her brightly, but Zoey didn’t get a big head over it or anything. It was natural for students to look up to their teacher. Although Cindy’s eyes might be glowing a little too brightly…
Outside the club, a black limo was parked out front. The window rolled down, and Little Imp popped his head out in his human disguise. “Get in!” He happily told them while unlocking the doors. Zoey helped the kids throw Tears’s body in before getting in themselves. As they took off from Club Neon, Zoey coughed to get her students’ attention.
“I want you both to know that you didn’t fail on your first mission, but you still have plenty to improve on,” Zoey told them straight up in teacher mode.
She looked at Jack first. “Glutton, a mission is not the place or time to be deciding how you want to enact your brand of justice. That should be decided beforehand. However, you did a great job in watching our backs, looking out for potential danger, and capturing an important target.” Zoey lectured.
Then she looked at Cindy. “Diablo, unless they’re being brainwashed or something, you don’t attack your friends. I understand your feelings, but that is no excuse for you to hit your friend. You should apologize to Glutton. Just because you have a difference of opinions doesn’t make it right for you to force yours on others because you have the strength to. You should have acknowledged Glutton’s concerns and focused on taking Tears away instead of forcing your own way. There would be time after the mission to do it still your way if Glutton’s way didn’t work out. You did a good job progressing in our martial art during the mission, but you need to keep an eye out more for potential danger like hidden weapons or making sure you have an escape route if you need to run.” Zoey didn’t hold anything back for her students.
“I’m sorry for hitting you, Glutton.” Diablo immediately apologized. “I’ll try to think more before acting,” Cindy told him.
Glutton didn’t say anything back. He just looked at Cindy before turning away. Cindy didn’t get angry that he didn’t accept her apology. Miss Devil taught them that you can’t expect people just to accept your apologies. If they don’t forgive you, they don’t forgive you. All you can do is just prove with your actions that you’re sorry and try to do better in the future.
For Zoey, playing superheroes was a lot more fucking dangerous than she thought, but she’s already come this far. Maybe it was because they went after the head poncho for their first fucking mission. Zoey felt slightly embarrassed now that she thought about it. She was still kind of a fucking dumbass even after all this shit she’s gone through. They could’ve just gone after petty crimes before working their way up to Tears. Hell, she could’ve gone after Tears solo without introducing these two to the hell difficulty of shutting down a drug empire. But maybe this experience would be good for them. Teaching was a weird ass skill.
“When Meditating later, think back to how you could’ve done better on this mission,” Zoey advised them.
“Yes, Boundless…” The two responded, properly reflecting on their actions during the mission.