“Good Morning! And thank you for tuning into this very special edition of GTV, Today is June 6th 1980, and I am Allen Davis. We have gotten reports of a hostage situation in the First Novae City Bank, perpetrated by none other than the infamous Houndz Gang. You all know what that means, wherever the Houndz gang appears Arcadia is bound to show up and take them down, In her first GTV morning appearance, Arcadia XII!”
The trailer seemed emptier than usual, still as suffocating, but the lack of the makeup crew hovering around her made Emma relax a bit more. She groaned as she pulled her strawberry blonde hair back into a ponytail and looked herself in the mirror in front of her. As much as she hates dealing with the makeup crew, they do a good job in her opinion. She leaned back in her chair and spun her domino mask on her index finger. She never understood this whole pomp and circumstance she wished she could just go out and stop the crime without fifty cameras on her at all times and a team of announcers in her ear.
“It’s almost time Arcadia, are you pumped?” As if thinking about them summoned them the radio in her ear came to life, and one of the more annoying ones began to bug her.
“Real thrilled. Just tell me when we get to the thirty-second mark, so we can finally start,” She responded over the mic. Despite her annoyance she was in fact somewhat excited today would finally be the day she would take him out. She stood and put her mask on. Now she was no longer Emma Crowley, she was Arcadia the Twelfth, and she will take down every criminal in front of her.
“Thirty seconds,” The radio chirped again. Emma cracked her neck and opened the door to her trailer.
“Alright Arcadia, we are live. The Houndz Gang was last seen entering the First Novae Bank. The police have it surrounded blocking off the area, none of the gang members have left or even tried to leave.”
Emma put her finger to the receiver.
“Is he there?” she asked
“Yes, Cameras confirm that Tyler Houndz is there. He is just standing there by the looks of the security camera. We don’t know what he is planning be careful.”
“Yeah yeah, he won’t get away this time.”
She let go of the receiver and rushed toward the bank. Running toward the bank she made a sharp turn and ran a block around until she came up the backside of the bank near the fire escape. She jumped up the stairs two at a time barely landing every time. Emma opened the skylight and slipped in. Hopefully the camera wouldn’t follow her in and ruin her plan any further. In fact, she did not even wait to give the camera guy a chance to follow her in. She jumped down to the upper levels of the bank and half walked half crawled along the top to see if she can get a good angle on the situation.
The bank was full of men and women in red and black clothing, most of them wearing red bandannas and a red shirt with a white wolf’s head printed in the center of them. She made slight note of them, but they weren’t her main goal. The hostages were all corralled in the far corner one of them spotted her and was about to call out, but she put her finger to her lips and the man nodded.
She kept completely silent until she saw who she was looking for, out of a back room a tall man, with snow-white hair and a large scar over his left eye. He wore round sunglasses and covered the rest of his face with his gang’s bandanna, along with the red and black clothing he wore in unity with his gang he also had a long black trench coat with a red liner.
This is why she agreed to this stupid morning show in the first place, a chance to take this scumbag down and put him away for good this time. He stopped walking once he reached the center of the room, and looked up at a screen. Emma wondered what he was looking at and slowly made her way around the upper ring until she could see it. The TV was set to GTV and the camera was pointed directly at her.
He leaned his head back and glanced at her.
“Houndz! It’s time to hunt!” he called out.
The gang members all let out howls and began to rush the stairs.
Emma cursed under her breath and began to run, at first toward the other set of stairs on the other side of the room, but she was cut off by more gang members. Seeing that that plan would not work she took the riskier option. She made a beeline toward the railing of the second floor and using it as a launching point she jumped over it. As she put her weight on it the railing buckled, and she fell down to the first floor. She hit the ground hard. A couple of gang members ran to her and tried to pick her up, but she was only dazed for a second. When they drew close to her she jumped up and tried to toss one to the ground using their shirt but the second she pulled, it tore. The punk growled that his shirt was ruined and swung at her. She easily deflected this and backed up trying to put distance between them. While stepping back she stepped on the handrail that fell with her and tripped.
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“Having a bit of bad luck are you Arcadia?” Houndz said.
He slowly walked up to where she laid on the floor and stood over her. “A shame, this is usually more fun when we actually fight and trade the usual banter, how I ‘Will not get away this time,’ or ‘You will pay for all of your crimes,” he shrugged. “You know what let us make this a more fair fight, just you and me for old times’ sake, what do you think?”
She only responded with a yell and jumped up and swung wildly at him. He easily pushed away all of her blows as all of the gang members back away forming a circle. She was angry; Angrier than she had been in the longest time but all she could do was swing ineffectively at him. She could swear he was smiling under his mask, the son of a bitch was enjoying this. Her blows slowed down as she tried to think of a more effective way to take him down. He took this slow down to begin his counter attack. He began a left hook and Emma was ready to block but her arm would not raise. The hook connected and she saw stars. She stumbled back from the blow and her vision blurred. Houndz ran up to her and gave her an uppercut to the gut. She fell to the floor and cured into a ball.
“That was disappointing, I guess my new toy was too much for you. I will have to tone that one down for next time,” he turned to face the security cameras that were recording for GTV, “Don’t worry citizens of Novae City, your dear precious Arcadia the Twelfth, will be just fine. Just a bit of a wounded pride,” he crouched over Emma and whispered in her ear. “I will see you again soon Miss Crowley, do try and not go down so easily next time.”
He calmly walked out of the bank along with his gang. Emma cursed in-between gasps for air.
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Sam rolled his shoulders despite resting them since two weeks ago for some reason they were still very swollen, they were getting better but not fast enough for him though. The slight but constant headache was not making matters any better either. The coffee machine buzzed and he grabbed a mug. He drifted through his hallway his mind scattered thinking of all the possibilities of how that could have gone but none that would satisfy him. During his daze he caught a glance at the time and decided to try to take his mind off the consuming thoughts. He grabbed the remote and flipped on his TV.
The TV flashed colors and the morning broadcast of GTV began to play a young woman apparently Arcadia XII in white and sky-blue spandex stood. Her arms crossed, she cracked her neck and stood ready to take off toward the bank. Sam raised an eyebrow and leaned forward in his seat watching the TV intently.
Sam watched as she barely made a sound climbing the fire escape, and he was surprised on how she could pull that off. Guessing by the route she took she might be trying to go for the element of surprise, but being on camera and shown on almost every TV in the city probably ruined that long ago.
He stood from his chair and made his way back into the kitchen, placed his cup in the sink and grabbed his wallet and keys. As he passed the TV again he noted that she was about to jump through the skylight. He wished he could finish watching the show, but he was going to be late and that is the last thing he would ever want, especially today. He shut off the TV and crabbed his black suit jacket. He adjusted his black tie and sighed, he had to look good for his best friend’s funeral.
Sam sat silently as Frank’s father delivered his eulogy, he felt guilty that he could not focus on what exactly he was saying but his headache mixed with the storm of thoughts in his head made it almost impossible to stay focused on anything for more than a few words. Eventually he gave up and looked up at the sky, he was not sure whether or curse the sky for being a clear sunny day when he felt like he did or be happy that his friend could be remembered on a day like this. The services ended, and he stood to leave when he was pulled away by the family. Frank’s mother pulled him in for a big hug and nearly crushed him as she was almost twice his size.
“Oh, thank you for coming Sammy, it would have meant a lot to Frank.”
Sam nodded weakly and tried to excuse himself as he turned to leave Frank's father blocked his path.
“I understand what you are feeling. We have lost a son, but you also lost a brother. We just wanted to let you know that we don’t blame you for not being able to save him, you tried your best. You were also able to save so many other lives that night too. No matter what you think you are a hero Samuel Rhodes. We know that Frank would not have wanted to be saved if that meant everyone you saved that night would have died in his place. Remember that and if you need any help at all please call us.”
He hugged Sam as well and pat him on the back.
"Thank you both, I know you… I… I still... I’m so sorry.”
Sam coughed and felt his eyes burning. “I have to… go,” he ran from them toward his car. He did not deserve their praise or their kindness, he failed them. Because he was too slow. He stopped at his truck slammed his fists on the hood. He let out a cry of frustration before he completely broke down however the pain in his head exploded and his vision left him replaced with nothing but pain and a mass of swirling colors much like gasoline in a puddle of water.
He fell to his knees as the combination of the stimuli bombarded him, the rest of his body going numb, only the colors and the pain existed anymore. It felt like an eternity before it faded back to the normal dull thumping pain he had gotten used to over the last couple of weeks. With his vision back he slowly stood and leaned on his truck for support.
“I need to go see a doctor.”