Follow them

“Fucking hell…”

Cole figured that he'd follow long enough to get a position, double back and get Raven. With her powers and his directions; should be able to stop whatever was happening before it got out of hand. That should work right? Maybe?

He started to move towards the side passage the group had gone down, stopping only to take care of a small idea that came to him. He looked over some masks at a nearby kiosk before leaving to follow the strange men. The shopkeeper took barely any interest in a window shopper as he was trying to sell to someone else currently.

The gentleman didn’t notice the missing shadow from one of his masks.

"Can you copy this?"

"Eh?"

"This?" Raven asked holding up a can of juice.

During a break in his training earlier today, Raven wondered if it would be possible, or at least easier, for Cole to borrow the shadow of another object. At her request, he tried and was left holding a rather hazy black image of a can. He turned it upside and shook, not surprised that no liquid came out.

"Not sure how useful this is." Cole muttered as he closed his hand, crushing the shadow copy. The can Raven held started to reform it's shadow afterward.

"Clothes, masks ,weapons , distractions; you can do a lot with this. And it might save you time and energy than making it yourself" Raven said as she took a long sip from it.

"I'm unsure if you can copy the effects of said item, like say a grenade or flash bang, but simply using a shadow of something else as a building block or starting point should help stabilize your power. Till you get better at forming shapes." The heroine explained, "Now.... can you do the same for your gloves?"

Turns out she was right. If he was going to do anything stupid, having a mask to hide could be useful. Depending on how this went down.

Ducking down the side passage, there was only one place to go, the emergency exit up ahead. There was the bathroom and the employee doors; but the little spark from something on the door looked important. Cole wasn’t an expert, but it looked like someone cut out the connection to the alarm. Giving it a test, the door did open silently.

The exit lead out to a back alley. The sky was rather dark from the time of day now and the thicker clouds. Rain was coming down harder. Cole craned his head around, looking for a sign. A scream echoed across the walls. Fearing the worst, Cole took off towards the source, his heavy boots making splashes in the slick wet concrete.

Coming around a corner, the boxer skidded to a stop before backing up a few steps. He tried his best to keep out of sight and observe. The mom and daughter were in the ground, tied up with zip ties and gagged. Mom was panicking while her daughter seemed out of it. Three men, at least he thought there were men, were around them, talking low to each other. He couldn’t make out what they were saying.

“Doesn’t really matter…,” Cole muttered as he pulled down the shadow mask over his face and stepped around the corner.

“Hey!”

“The hell is this?” Gale muttered as he scratched the side of his head before thumbing at the new comer, “Ay, boss yah seeing this? I’m not crazy here.”

“Some guy wearing a mask thinking he’s a big shot?” Slate answered back as he took in the approaching figure. Some kinda weirdo wearing a mask and rain coat. Was there a party or event nearby?

“Let those two go! The hell kinda asshole kidnaps a family in broad daylight?” The figure called.

“Yup. I see him.” the brown haired man grumbled as he fiddled with something in his coat pocket. Insurance he was told. Still there, good. “Oi, dunno who you are,” Slate called out, “But if you’re smart, turn around, go back to shopping. And forget we were here.”

“Better have a good reason to ask that. If I’m going back inside it’s to lead security back here.” Cole announced as he took a few firm steps forward, “Let them to. Now!”

Slate played the numbers in his head. Chances of them getting away, vs dealing with guards. Along with if the guards would be smarter or dumber. And his employers disdain for attention. No, it would be better to just deal with one person than getting into some big dust up or news story. With a sigh he lazily waved his hand as he turned to one of the other two.

“Gale. Take em.”

Cole dashed forward the moment the 'boss' started to talk. He had about half an alleyway to go, but he wasn’t going to let these guys get ready. They didn't seem to have any weapons in their hands, but he wasn't sure about their pockets. Better to rush in before they fished them out. One hook and this first guy would drop like a bag of…

Snap! Thwack thwack wack!

The hell?

Cole wheezed as he felt sudden impacts on his lower rib cage. Like someone had hit him with several low angle rapid fire jabs. But but he wasn’t anywhere near the guy yet. How the hell was he getting hit...

Snap! Thwaaaack wack.

Another two blows, this time high on his other side one slamming into his shoulder hard. The sudden attacks threw off his charge as he stumbled for balance.

“Check and mate buddy” the one named Gale called out as he held up his hand, finger's pinched together.

Snap, snap snap. Three more meaty thwacks. A hard right, gut blow, uppercut. A well placed combo, fitting for the ring. If the attacker was anywhere close to actually give it though. The little fuck was still like 40 feet away.

“The actual fu…” Cole thought to himself before another snap was heard, resulting in one last hit slamming into his unguarded face..

The blow was enough to end it. Cole rocketed backwards, tumbling over some left out trash cans from some store or another. The would be hero landed with a wet and sickening splat as his body bounced hard on the concrete. The rain fell down around his crumbled body. The tied up mother just bowed her head, worried for her own safety and her daughter's if this is what the trio would do to someone trying to help.

“Really? Huh. Thought that’d be harder.” Gale muttered as he dusted his hands and turned back to his compatriots, “Wanna be good guy dealt with. Let’s get outta this rain. Getting sick of being soaked.

“Oi he’s not dead” the third figure stated, as he started to move towards the body, his hands starting to glow,“Gimme a sec.”

“Didn’t yeah hear the crunch? He’s not getting up and if he does, not in time to do anything about us. Take a chill Pill Edge.” Gale shot back as he folded his arms behind his head.

“You know the boss. No witnesses.” Edge answered back, poking hard with a finger into Gale's chest, “So it you wanna tell him you left someone..”

“Hey don't touch me." Gale snapped, swatting the hand away, "Boss man hates witnesses. He hates attention more. Carving the poor guy up like he’s turkey dinner is just gonna attract more of it than some hobo or drunk breaking his neck on a fall. I know what I’m doing yah insane wacko.”

Slate grumbled as the two started to argue. They both had point…, but they couldn't really spend a lot of time here discussing the whole thing. At the very least, they had to make sure the ‘hero’ wasn’t going to be a problem. Something about this was starting to feel off to him. Just had to finish this off and get a paycheck...,

Wake Up

An eye cracked open, reveling red and black swirls.

****

A fist slammed the ground, leaving a small crack on impact.

Kill

The figure started to stand, keeping his head low and his breathes slow and deep.

“… hey I hate to interrupt you two…, but Gale? Your dance partner is getting up.” Slate announced as he pointed his arm out, making sure it fell between the two arguing twits.

The two turned to follow and saw the guy..., well getting back up. After a fall like that and several hits? Should at least be rolling on the ground moaning in pain. Edge mocked the thinner man as Gale sighed, and stretched his arms. The sound of his bones cracking as he loosened up cut through the rain.

“The hell…. Okay okay I’ll go take care of it. Geeze fucker built like a line backer or something under that jacket?” Gale whined as he rotated an arm, steeping foward again to finish the job, "Gimme a sec and then Mr Butcher can have a crack at him. Just make it clean this time. Dude's probably pretty meaty."

“Has a point.” Slate thought as Edge grinned and leaned against the wall.

Gale wasn’t one to be terrible blood thirsty, nor himself. That's why Edge was along for the ride as sometimes you just need a corpse made. Gale was more uncaring than anything; if the punches landed bad or he knocked someone out a window, eh it happened. The risks of a job like this were understood by all, but Gale wasn't going to just suddenly start outright craving in skulls.

That said, Gale didn’t pull his punches. His punches were something akin to baseballs or bricks hitting someone, more so if he ampped them up which he'd done, twice. This 'hero' shouldn’t be moving let alone getting back up. At best, he should have had a cracked rib or shoulder joint damage and even if that wasn't the case, the hard landing should have knocked him out.

“Something’s wrong here…” Slate thought as he checked his insurance once more. The baseball sized orb was still in his jacket pocket. He'd hate to waste something like this on some rando..., but if he somehow got through both of the others..., better end it then and there.

Gale took a few steps before attacking, his hands held up before him. The same snapping sound rang out as Cole felt the impact slam into his body again. Cole didn’t seem to care beyond just spinning back a bit. Gale grinned and let out a chuckle, but it faded when this wanna be hero took up a weird stance.