Broker

Chapter 26

The hounds barked and snarled, leaping from car to car on the deserted street. Their sleek bodies and shiny black fur gleaming in the unsteady glow of the streetlights. Drool dripped from slack and hungry jaws, teeth like razorblades tearing through metal like it was paper. Above, the lurker watched its pack’s progress with glowing eyes. A sudden movement drew its attention and it slipped back into the gloom of the building it had perched on. There was a snap then the whistle of something moving faster than the human eye could perceive. One of the hounds was lifted off the ground with the force of a terrible impact, it yelped and hit the ground, skidding a few feet. A shiny black arrow protruding from its flank.

“Go!” A young man shouted from an alley, a black hood over his head concealing his face. He clutched an intricate bow in his hand made of a dark looking metal. He held the bow up, reaching forward as if to draw the string back and another arrow formed between his fingers. He took aim as the hounds rounded on him, rage in their eyes. Four of them lunged at him, their teeth bared only for an enormous hammer to come down hard on the head of the leader. It didn’t even have a chance to whine as its head was pulverized.

The man holding the hammer, shirtless and wearing a ski mask, barked out a laugh and spun his body. He gripped the end of the long handle of the weapon and brought it up against the side of the nearest hound and with a noisy crunch it was sent flying into the nearest car, dead. The other two hounds didn’t hesitate, they turned on the new threat and charged him, one clamping its jaws around the handle as the big man brought it up to defend himself. An arrow finished that one off with a thud.

“Hah! Nice!” The hammer wielder barked.

“One more, Sledge!” The bowman shouted, drawing another arrow, “Don’t get distracted!”

Sledge rolled his eyes and kicked, hard, catching the last Hound in the jaw and sending it up into the air. He fixed his grip and brought his weapon up into the air before pulling it back down with a roar, finishing the last one. “I’m fine, Bandit! Quit nagging me!”

Bandit frowned beneath his hood and stepped out, glancing around, “There’s usually more in a group.”

Sledge flexed his arm and grinned at him, “Maybe they went back where they came from, afraid of all this!” He laughed.

A noisy bang sounded down the street, a momentary flash of blue light accompanied by the yelps of several hounds. Sledge turned to look in the direction and slung his hammer over his shoulder, “Show off,” He said with a frown.

In the distance, a young woman stood with her hands outstretched and a determined look on her face, a white domino mask the only thing concealing her features. Sparks of blue light danced around her fingertips before swirling into what looked very much like a magic circle, it bloomed with intensity before several darts of blue light launched from it, striking a final hound several times and leaving it defeated on the ground. She let out a breath and stood amongst the group of dead creatures, brushing her aquamarine robes off with disgust.

Bandit walked up next to Sledge, “Just be glad she joined our group,” He said with a shrug, “I just wish we had a proper healer.”

Sledge snorted, “Whatever mister gamer, let’s wrap up and get lost before the cops show up.”

“Right,” Bandit said with a nod and cupped his hands over his mouth, “Bluestar you good over there?” He shouted.

Bluestar looked up from the corpses and waved at him, “I’m fine!” She called and began walking over. “Any others?”

“I’m checking now!” Bandit called back and hopped onto the nearest car, turning in a circle, his eyes turning black as he scanned his surroundings. He paused and frowned, “Hm.”

“What? What’s ‘hm’?” Sledge asked as Bluestar got closer.

Bandit held up a hand and started to trace his gaze up the side of a building, his eyes narrowed and then widened. He took a step back and slipped off the top of the vehicle, moving slowly backwards, “Guys… we should go.”

Sledge looked up, following his line of sight, “I don’t see anything.”

Bluestar did the same and held out a hand. Bandit whipped his head in her direction, “No! Don’t! It’s a Lurker!”

A ball of light appeared between her fingers and shot out before he could stop her, it hurtled through the air and exploded, casting brilliant blue light over the roof of the building. The three of them could only look up in horror at the massive creature that seemed to materialize out of nowhere. Its huge body tensed as its powerful jaws opened in a bloodthirsty snarl. It threw its head back and let out a terrible howl before leaping off the side of the building and landing with a terrible crash on the street below.

“Fuck it!” Sledge shouted, “Bring it on!”

He hefted his weapon and let out a roar, Bandit threw out his hand to try to stop him but it was no use. Sledge had crossed the distance in a matter of seconds, his weapon already in a full swing. He brought it up into the air and it crashed into the massive beast’s head. The creature’s head turned with the impact and a low grunt of pain rumbled from its throat. Sledge barked out a laugh, “See? We can hurt it-”

A blur of black followed his triumphant shout, there was a noisy crunch, and Sledge’s torso was just… gone.

“Sledge!” Bandit screamed and drew his bow up, “Damn it!” He fired a pair of arrows at the beast that was looking down at the new corpse with a small amount of confusion, as if it were surprised the big man had died so easily. The two arrows slammed into its side followed by a cascade of blue bolts of light. It let out a roar of pain, holding its arms up to protect its face as a teary eyed Bluestar rained fire at it alongside her comrade. It darted to the right, Bluestar’s attack following it as it sought cover behind a truck.

Bandit turned to the alley behind them, “We need to go, now!” He shouted at Bluestar.

“But-” He cut her off by grabbing her arm and pulling.

“Don’t argue with me here!” He shouted and pulled her towards the alley, running as hard as he could. “We just annoyed it!”

She followed him down the alley, glancing over her shoulder as a furious roar ripped through the street, “What about-”

“That thing’s too fast for us long-range people to deal with, it’ll kill us!” Bandit insisted pulling her towards the end of the alley with all the strength he could, his face was pale and his hood had fallen back revealing the black-grease smeared face beneath. She frowned but kept her mouth shut only to stumble as a loud crash sounded above them. They both looked up, mid run, into the eyes of the lurker leering down at them from above. 

Bluestar pulled her wrist from Bandit’s hand and stopped, facing the creature, “It’s not gonna let us get away!” She shouted and threw her hands up. A magic circle forming over her fingertips.

“Bluestar!” Bandit shouted and then ran back to her side, cursing under his breath as he drew his bow up to point up at the creature. It let out a howl and leaped down towards them as a partial dome of blue light exploded into existence above them. It hit the dome with a thud and let out a cry of pain as sparks began to dance on its limbs. It tried to pull its limbs away from the dome only for a stream of crackling energy to pull it back down. 

“Shoot it!” Bluestar barked, blood dripping from her nose and Bandit began to fire one arrow after another into the nightmarish thing. It screamed and brought its limbs up again, snarling before slamming down on the barrier between it and its prey. Bluestar winced and set her feet, concentrating with every ounce of strength she had. More arrows flew past her and through the barrier, pelting the lurker and leaving its front side looking like that of a porcupine. One arrow in particular struck home, though, and dug into its eye.

RAAWWOORRR!

It howled in agony and stumbled, sliding off the side of the barrier. It thrashed, slamming its limbs frantically at the blue shield. Cracks began to form and Bluestar coughed, blood dripping from her lips. Bandit looked at her in horror, “Blue-” He couldn’t finish his statement, the sound of breaking glass followed by a furious bellow was the only thing he heard before he was knocked away. He hit the ground and slid, scrambling to his feet in time to see Bluestar crumple to the ground while the lurker loomed over her, fury in its one good eye.

“Damn it!” He croaked and drew one more arrow, “Don’t you fucking hurt her!”

FWOOOOSH!

The sound came from nowhere, one moment, nothing, the next, a column of fire crashed down on the back of the beast. Its entire body erupting in a conflagration. Its howl turned into a high pitched scream as it threw its head back to look up at the new attacker. Bandit covered his face, the heat enough to feel like it would burn him from this distance. He tried to scream Bluestar’s name but his voice choked in his throat, the heat was too much! Then, just like that, the flames vanished. He pulled his arms back and gaped in wonder at the ruined corpse of the lurker crumbling to pieces in the middle of the alley. 

“Holy…” He breathed and then scrambled to his feet, “Bluestar!” He shouted and darted towards the blue-garbed figure laying on the ground a few feet away from the body. He slid to a stop and knelt next to her, “Blue… are you?” He touched her shoulder, there were no burns. He blinked as she coughed and shuddered, curling into a ball. “You’re alive, oh shit,” He laughed wearily, falling onto his rear and coughing.

“Oh, there were two of you, didn’t see you there bud, sorry if the heat got to you,” A voice called out from behind Bandit. He whirled and got to his feet once again, drawing his weapon only to freeze. A man was standing there in ostensibly the most comic-book accurate get-up he’d ever seen. A full jumpsuit that even went as far as to include a cowl to cover the top half of his head. It was red and orange with a fiery design on it that would have looked corny if he hadn’t just cooked a lurker alive.

“...Firestorm,” Bandit breathed.

The hero rested his hands on his hips and grinned at him, “You guys did great! You really held in there,” Firestorm said brightly.

Bandit lowered his weapon and looked at the ground, “We lost Sledge and Bluestar is really hurt.”

Firestorm glanced past Bandit and out of the alley where the lower half of Sledge still knelt grotesquely. He let out a breath and shook his head, “Damn, I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner,” He said and glanced towards Bluestar, “Lifesaver is on the way, we were in town. I ran off ahead when I heard the lurker howl.”

Bandit felt all of his strength leave him but he forced himself to remain standing, he hung his head, “Thank you.”

Firestorm walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder, “You gave it your all, man, that’s what matters. Bluestar put on one hell of a show, too. What’s your codename?”

“Bandit,” The young man croaked, his shoulders trembling.

“I’ll remember it,” He said as another person slid to a stop outside the alley behind him, a man in a white plague-doctor’s mask and lab coat. He had his hands on his knees and was heaving, taking in big gulps of air.

“Firestorm… you… asshole…” He choked, “I… hate… running…”

Firestorm turned with a brilliant smile, “Oh hey Lifesaver! You’ve got patients.”

Lifesaver looked up and Bandit could almost feel the man scowl behind the mask but then he looked to Bandit and Bluestar and stiffened. “The guy has broken bones but nothing serious, the girl needs help quickly,” He said hurriedly and stalked forward, rolling up his sleeves. He was past Bandit in an instant, dropping to a knee next to Bluestar. He held out his hands and silver liquid began to drip from his fingertips splashing onto Bluestar’s body.

Bandit watched the creepy looking power for a moment before glancing back at Firestorm who seemed happy as a clam, “She’ll be fine,” Firestorm said with a nod and pat him on the shoulder. Just then, a jolly ringtone filled the alley and the fiery hero paused, he reached into a hidden pocket on his outfit and pulled out a phone. “Woah!” He gasped and grinned sheepishly at Bandit, “Sorry, gotta take this.”

Bandit watched him in confusion for a moment and turned away, going to sit down next to Bluestar. The silver liquid was flowing across her body and concentrating on her chest and throat before slowly seeping through cloth and flesh. She let out a gasp and trembled before relaxing, her chest rising and falling normally. Bandit let out a sigh of relief as she opened her eyes a crack and looked at him, “Did we win?”

“Yeah, we’re okay,” Bandit croaked, taking her hand, he looked up at Lifesaver who was still focused on healing her. “Thank you.”

“It’s what I do,” Lifesaver said dismissively.

“Hey guys!” Firestorm called, walking back over and putting his phone away, he rested his hands on his hips and struck a pose, grinning ear to ear. “How would you like to do something really heroic?”

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