Panting and desperately running from something, a bloody man with nothing more than a blazer and torn dress pants runs into a crumbling room and slams the door, leaning against it and clutching his stomach. Looking down, he could see that the stitches and bandages he had did not hold up for as long as he needed them to as he was bleeding heavily. His panting grew heavier and faster as he started to look around the room he was in to grasp his bearings and get a grip on reality again. All seemed well with the room at first, old hospital beds and medical tools strewn about as a great upset definitely transpired here. The man’s gaze fell upon a closed curtain though, and he was not in the mood for surprises.
Hurriedly shuffling over to the curtain to expose what was behind, he’d quickly form an even deeper frown as he found a fairly recently deceased human body with a knife jammed in one of their eyes. His knife. Without sparing a moment to mourn the body or even identify them, he’d unceremoniously rip the knife out of the head with a sickening squelching noise, undisturbed. The man even felt a slight sense of relief upon finding his knife, until he stopped to think about who could have done such a thing. Traitorous men, surely. He could not stand for that.
Just as he was about to exit the room, a couple of Power soldiers would also enter the room and find a grim and very unfortunate scene set before them. They looked between each other and raised their guns at the man, having been itching for an excuse to get this guy.
“Drop the knife.”
“There’s a murderer on the loose.”
“We’re looking right at him, aren’t we?”
“I’m ordering you to stand down.”
“We don’t take orders from mu-”
This was a waste of time. There were few things that the man hated more than lost time, and it was all so very precious by this point. Multiple runes on the knife would glow at once along with another appearing on his right arm that would also glow and the soldiers would open fire, only to be surprised as the man had disappeared.
Looking between each other, one would instantly get a look of horror on his face as out of nowhere one of them had the knife sticking out of their neck and the man standing behind them, using their body as a shield as he would punch the other soldier in the kidney, his arm being hard as steel in immediately making them double over.
Letting go of his shield and watching them fall to the floor and weakly trying to pull the knife out of their neck, he’d kick the knife and lodge it even deeper. The other would try to call out for help but couldn’t find the strength as they receive another punch, this time to the face and knocking out multiple teeth and slamming their head into the cold hard ground. It was a gruesome sight that the man had long ago learned to get over in his line of work, unlike many of his colleagues.
“Consider yourself the murderer.”
Having already spent far too long on scrounging and peons, the man would immediately get to staging the scene to make it look like the one beaten had done it with their own knife before suddenly getting extremely light headed and collapsing to the ground face first. He hadn’t noticed the bullet he’d taken, piled on top of the other injuries he’s been sustaining with little in the way of medical assistance aside from the basics the Power medics could give. Slamming his face into the ground, the man would black out.
Hours later he awoke, finding himself outside in the streets leaning against a wall. He immediately jumped awake, not at all remembering falling asleep anywhere near this area. No longer could he even stand though, his wounds only getting worse and leaving him far too weak to do much of anything but sit there. Looking down, his body had gushed plenty of blood and left him near death with no concept of how long he’d been sleeping or how he got there.
Then he heard it.
“Sluuuuuuuuuuuuurp-”
“What the-”
“SLLLLLUUUUUUUUUUUUURPPPPPPP”
The man would look up and see a completely unfamiliar face, simultaneously dressed so hideously but also being so unfathomably beautiful. Everything about them paled in comparison to their deep purple, midnight blue and black butterfly wings protruding from their back, almost looking to glow in the moonlight. Their hair went down to their waist and was layered with curtained bangs and was just as black as the sky behind them, and their skin looked like they had never seen a day of sunlight in their entire life from how pale it was, paired with dark brown eyes almost looking black. For clothes all they had was a black T-shirt that said “#1 FAN” in bold white text with fashionably torn black jeans and a generic destroyed black and white checkerboard belt, but having hideous neon colored bracelets all over their arms.
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“Oh. You’re awake. Cool. You uh… want a sip?”
They’d hold out their XXXL PAWG GARMANTUOUS GULP cup for the man to take a sip, shaking it a tiny bit after he doesn’t take it that instant. The man just kind of looked at them confused, then at the cup, then back at them. Was this some kind of trick? Did he die?
“... no bite. Alright, I guess I’ll get straight to the point then. This thing was empty anyhow, haha…” They’d throw the cup behind themselves onto the ground, shaking their head.
“You’ve got two choices, bud. Oh wait, let me do the thing…”
The stranger would hold up their hands and start doing a shadow puppet show with the moonlight as their light, the shadow right next to the man’s lap.
“Oh yeah, and don’t watch my hands. Look down! So, choice one. You die.” Laughing a little bit, they make a fox head with their hands that bites a little line in half, clearly meant to be the man who was completely at the mercy of them.
“I don’t like this.”
“...”
“Holy shit, you’re such a prude. Let me finish. Anyhow, pretty grim right? I don’t really want that option to happen, so I hope you pick the second one for both of our sakes!”
Continuing their little show, the fox would spit the missing half back onto the person, definitely not seeming like they were just doing this with only their hands. Nonetheless, the man didn’t look. The show would continue as the fox transforms into another person, getting a knife in the back from the first person. Now this was something the man could watch and understand.
“You kill everyone here!” The shadow representing the man would stab the other person several more times and proceed to stab several more shadow figures, with the stranger seeming to get way too into it for a moment before finally giving it up and having the shadow walk away with little strings appearing above its limbs.
“You can look up now. Anyhow, you get something out of this other than your life! If you pay close attention, you walk away. Very subtle I know. Even subtler, though - the strings. You keep your life and in exchange you also give it to me. Here’s what I know you really want though. I’ll have all the little monsters in here leave! You’ll keep your town, get whatever validation you’re seeking out of succeeding here and in exchange do what I want from time to time! Imagine how cool you’ll look if you’re the lone survivor of a mission gone wrong in a ghost town! Left to hold out all on your own for who knows how long, carrying everything on your back just long enough for reinforcements to finally show up and save the day in the nick of time!”
“I’d be a traitor.”
“I’ve been watching you for a while. Call me a fan! You don’t really mind being a traitor. I’ve seen the things you’ve done, even the things you think nobody ever saw…” A very long pause would follow this.
“Besides, all these Power lackeys are the same. They were all gonna turn against you. Just itching for an excuse! Really, I’m not gaining anything on this deal! All I’m doing is losing, and I’m doing it just for you as a fan. They’d have killed you eventually, and I promise nobody would show up in time for you to get saved. Their job is to die anyhow. Die for you. Not like you haven’t offed a couple yourself, huh?” They’d laugh a little bit, kneeling down and holding out their hand for a high five, only to be met by the same cold indifferent look they’ve gotten the whole time.
“I’ll take your deal.”
Visibly seeming a bit excited from the man coming around to their terms, they’d do some more shadow puppetry and create a fox head again with something in its mouth, but this time as they did that a smaller monster of Corruption would approach the pair from around a corner, holding a knife. His knife. Not only that, but as he took it, further back in its mouth were his glasses and his pin. It almost felt like this person had just been fucking with him.
“You’ll need those! By the way, I modified your glasses. Don’t worry about what I did to them, it’s more fun of a surprise for you not to know. I’d love to put all this in my collection, but I don’t think they’re ready for the museum yet… go get those poor bastards, tiger!”
Something about this felt very wrong, but the man couldn’t help but reason it all out in his head. There really was no other way, and he was already in far too deep to back out. No matter what they would all die, and while it may weigh a tiny bit on his conscience he’d find a way to live.
“Oh, and one more thing…” While they spoke the man put his pin back on, and while he was putting his glasses back on they’d finish.
“Don’t forget Bane, I’m always watching.”
As his sunglasses covered his eyes again, the mysterious stranger would disappear and the fox would run off. A part of him wanted to think it was some kind of hallucination, but looking down he’d realize his wounds were all completely healed albeit scarred and he felt good as new. Filled with renewed strength and energy he hadn’t had in what felt like an entire month, Bane would get up onto his feet and almost feel good about what he was about to do.