It would be a lie if Theo said that he wasn't a bit salty that Dorothy has found someone else. He did genuinely love her at one point.
However, he also accepted that this was inevitable.
In all honesty, he has been having a hell lot of fun with all the larger than life events being thrown his way that he completely forgot of Dorothy.
He didn't fall out of love of her, his feelings for her was simply not important compared to the more pressing matters.
Was he hesitating to aim his gun at her?
In all honesty, no.
This actually surprised how apathetic he was to potentially maiming her.
Mind you, he was most certainly not going to kill her. He may no longer cared for her physical well being, but he did care for her enough to ensure her continued existence.
As for her new boyfriend Mr. Doe, Theo wouldnt mind killing him, but he did promise to spare his life.
And besides, the point of confronting the Superheroes was to create a large enough smoke to take the heat off the Volsung Norscans so that they can perform their ritual that would grant the Alial Milza's ships stealth.
The ships themselves were still in a small unmarked port up north and would leave once the ritual was complete.
Till then, Theo drag this little conflict into the city and cause a massive ruckus.
With his Super Shotgun on his left hand, a Beretta ARX160 with a 100 round double drum magazine on the right, 4 grappling guns on the mechanical arms on his backpack, and his ever trusty power armor, Theo performed the very last maneuver the 2 superheroes expected.
He turned around and ran away.
Naturally, this confused the hell out of Dorothy and Wraith.
Theo was an S rank Supervillain while the 2 were both B rankers.
He should have wiped the floor with them in a matter of seconds.
However, Theo knew that the rank system was filled with bullshit.
Dorothy was an expert in CQC while Wraith could send debris at speeds that rivaled that of tank guns.
Theo might have a fair bit of upgrades on him, but he sure hell wont stand a chance if he went up against them in a straight up fight.
And besides, he had to make a large scene in the city proper.
It was time to make that happen.
As Theo ran for the edge of the building, he used the super shotgun to do a no look shot directly behind him.
This destroyed a piece of concrete Wraith sent flying his way.
He then jumped off the 5 story building and used the grappling gun to ease his landing.
As he sprinted away, he immediately changed to a running backwards form and used the ARX160 to shoot down Dorothy's crow shaped shurikens.
Much to his surprises, these ones exploded with a force similar to a grenade.
He thanked god he shot those in mid air. While these might not have killed him if he got hit directly thanks to his power armor, the shock would have been enough to break bones.
Theo ran towards the parking lot of his factory while dodging and shooting down whatever the 2 could throw at him.
He eventually got to his destination and boarded 1 of 2 Ford F-150 pick up trucks that were conveniently fully gassed up and were conveniently left behind by Theo's logistics force.
Theo slammed the pedal to the metal and drove like a mad man high on every drug imaginable.
He rammed the relatively thin chain gate open and navigated his way through the congested area of the second class district which he called home for the past few years.
Due to the tight nature of the streets, his driving speed slowed down considerably, thus allowing the superhero duo to catch up.
It payed off to install a tracking device on every vehicle he owned.
With that in mind, he went into a street that could barely fit 2 cars side by side to make it a bit harder for the 2 to locate him.
However, there was a downside to taking this route.
Because of chaotic the construction of the low class district was, there were hardly any rules and no one to enforce them.
One of the most common rules that were broken was parking a god damn delivery truck on a small road.
Theo would have loved to give the asshole who own this a piece of his mind (and maybe his fist), but it was in the middle of the night. Even he had enough respect to not disturb everyone's beauty sleep.
As such, he tried to carefully squeeze in what little space that was available.
When he was half way through, his spydrones spotted danger approaching.
He bashed the windshield and jumped out of the car.
Not a second later, said car exploded with a loud boom.
"Welp. So much for not disturbing the neighbors."
On top of a nearby house was Dorothy with her exploding shurikens.
Since she used the roofs to travel in a straight line towards him while his speed was slowed into a crawl, it was inevitable for her to catch up to him so quickly.
As to how she was able to find him, that was a mystery.
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They probably had outside help of a magical or chi kind.
If it was science based, his spydrones would have detected it instantly.
Well, no use crying over spilled nuclear waste.
Time to get this party started.
"Why the hell did you use explosives in a residential area you crazy washboard!" shouted Theo as he made a swift retreat.
"WHO YOU CALLING A WASHBOARD YOU SEXUAL PREDATOR!" Dorothy roared back as she threw more explosive shurikens.
"It's obviously you!"
Despite her increased throwing output, Theo shot every last one of them with extreme precision.
Suddenly, Theo executed a left spinning backfist, bashing a flying mailbox into a nearby building.
"Damn it! Do you have eyes in the back of your head?!" said Wraith.
"Go through a few hundred life or death situations and you'll be able to do it too." replied Theo while still shooting down Dorothy's shurikens without looking.
Theo ran into an alleyway between the houses that had enough space for a single person.
Now you might think that this was a tactical error. He was literally a fish in a barrel with no space to maneuver.
However, this could also be said with his enemies.
When Wraith tried to follow him in, he immediately jumped back out as a hail of bullets was sent his way.
From the roof tops, Dorothy tried to hit Theo with an explosive shuriken.
Theo shot it down which caused an explosion that punched through the walls of the buildings.
The threat of collateral damage made Dorothy reluctant to use said explosives while he was in the alleyways.
Theo abused this by keeping to the alleyway maze while using his spydrones to listen to the police radio.
After about 5 minutes of running around with a strange stalemate between the opposing side, he finally heard what he was waiting to hear.
Responding to the series of explosions in the area, the police of this dilapidated district had to respond albeit with great reluctance.
He sent out one of his spydrones to scout where the police were gathering.
Using Jabir's database, he confirmed how many of them were corrupt to the bones.
Fortunately, all of the respondents had ties with the criminal elements of the Hellhole district.
He thank the gods for the scrumptious meal and jogged towards where the lowlifes were gathering.
It was about another 5 minutes before he arrived at the designated location.
They were gathered on the main highway with 2 SWAT vans that contained 6 personnel each and 4 standard cop cars with 4 officers each.
A good 28 in total.
Not a bad catch if he says so himself.
Based on the communications his spydrones intercepted, it seemed that Arsenal and the police were coordinating their efforts.
Arsenal might not be able to give Theo the righteous beating he deserved, but he could at least have someone else deal with it.
Very resourceful.
Theo stopped at the corner before the alley's exit and began doing some weapons check.
At this time, Dorothy landed a couple of meters away on a corner he just went through. She was joined by Wraith and both remained out of sight.
"Theodore Lorne. I'm pretty sure you already know it but you're surrounded. Surrender and you will be treated with respect." said Wraith.
"Let me ask you this my friend. Do you seriously think I'd give up after all I've done?" replied Theo.
"Well...... no."
"Good man. This is my last day after all. I'd rather go out with a bang than a whimper."
"Huh? What do you by your 'last day'."
"Quite simply, my number's up. My tale in Vermilion City ends here. And I'd like to leave a mark that this city will forever remember me by."
"H-hey dude.... I'm not sure if I'm hearing this right but it sounds like you're about to die."
Theo was intentionally silent for about 3 seconds to build up tension.
"*sigh*.... I'm really going to miss this city. It might be a shit show of murders, violence and all manner of insanity, but I lived here for a good chunk of my life."
"T-Theo? What are you talking about?" said Dorothy with a clear hint of worry in her voice.
Theo ignored her and proceeded with his pre-determind script.
"Hey Wraith, Dorothy is a really good girl. Better than I deserve. I hope you do what I failed to do and make her happy for many years to come."
"Huh? Of course I'll do that, but you're not making any sense here. You're like some movie character making his last speech before he croaks." said the equally confused Wraith.
"HAHAHA! That's a fitting analogy if I say so myself."
Before the 2 could answer, Theo rushed out of his cover and rushed at the police.
As expected of one of the most incompetent police force in the city, the cops were late to react to his sudden appearance.
With the super shotgun still equipped, his left arm extended into a super heated whip and cleaved 4 SWATs, 6 normal police and a squad car completely in half.
The enemies dove to whatever cover they could find.
3 of them dove behind a single squad car.
Theo used his still extended whip arm to hit the car on the side, causing his arm wrap around the corner and flattened the skull of one of them with the super shotgun.
He then pulled the trigger to fire the first round into the poor sap next to the first victim, causing him to pop like a balloon.
The last survivor tried to get away, but his got shot in the ass. And since the super shotgun used bunker buster rounds, the man's upper body and legs were sent 10 meters in different directions.
While this was happening, Theo was playing whack-a-mole with his other opponents.
He wasn't spraying everything with lead.
In fact, he did the opposite.
He held his fire while moving slowly to a nearby squad car for cover.
The moment anyone tried to take a peak, they got a bullet right between the eyes.
Dorothy and Wraith tried to exit the alley to attack Theo from behind, but they were met by a firestorm courtesy of Theo's flamethrower.
Theo ran and jumped over a squad car and began playing tag with the corrupt cops with his flamethrower.
5 were caught in the initial burst of flames. And since Theo's flamethrower used something akin to napalm, the poor souls futile attempts to put the fire out by rolling on the ground only did nothing to prevent their demise.
6 of the survivors ran for their lives which made it easy for Theo to blow their brains from behind.
Theo dove behind a squad car to avoid a sudden explosion caused by Dorothy's shuriken.
He tried to fire back but was immediately forced to run for his life when Wraith sent a SWAT car flying at 100kph his way.
He may not die from getting hit by it thanks to his Ankh belt pumping him with life saving omnigels, but the feeling of breaking every bone, muscle and internal organs was absolutely something he rather not experience ever again.
Dorothy and Wraith's entry to the battlefield emboldened the 10 remaining survivors. They open fired at Theo, forcing the later to run from cover to cover to avoid getting pinned down.
Theo held his fire and patiently waited until Wraith sent another car flying his way.
He activated one archon battery, caught said car and threw it at the corrupt cops, turning 4 of them into pancakes.
This made Wraith hesitate, thus allowing Theo to feed 2 more enemies with a lethal dose of lead.
To relieve the pressure from the cops, Dorothy charge forward while throwing explosive shurikens at Theo, all of which were shot down.
Smart move.
She believed that Theo was very reluctant to hurt her due to their past relationship. As long as it was against him, she was an invincible shield.
However, this was a mistake.
While Theo was indeed fond of Dorothy, this only ensured that she and Wraith were going to survive any encounter they had against him.
This did not mean that they'll walk out of it unharmed.
And Dorothy learned this the hard way.
She quickly closed the gap between them and threw a powerful spinning heel kick into Theo's side, completely forgetting that his scout armor was built to withstand a direct hit from an RPG.
Theo discarded his super shotgun and caught her leg with his left hand.
He used the ARX160 on his right hand and repeatedly bashed Dorothy's free leg.
The girl desperately punched him in the face but it was to no avail.
Eventually, her leg was bent and broken into many angles.
"STOOOOOOOOOOOOPPPP!" roared Wraith as he charged at Theo with a shotgun borrowed from the cops.
He couldn't use his power without hitting Dorothy, thus was forced into melee.
Theo let go of Dorothy, grabbed the super shotgun and blew off one of Wraith's arm.
He quickly reloaded then blew off the other arm for good measure.
Enraged by this, Dorothy used her good leg to lunged at Theo.
He caught her punch then quickly ripped her entire arm from its socket.
Once again, he reloaded his super shotgun and blew her good leg off.
He took out an instant injection containing a small amount of omnigel from his utility belt and used it on Dorothy.
It wasn't enough to regrow her limbs, but it was more than enough to close her wounds.
Naturally, he did the same to Wraith.
He grabbed the two and dragged back into the alley where they were safe.
"As promised, you 2 will live. But I would like you to consider what you're willing to lose when you guys decide to go up against me again."
Without waiting for their response, Theo left the 2 to hunt the remaining cops and give Vermilion City a show that they'll remember him by.