[Frank: A lot of cars just flew down the street, they might be reinforcements.]
[Frank: WHAT WAS THAT]
[Frank: SHIT JUST WENT FLYING OVER THE ALLEY]
[Frank: I JUST CHECKED, WHY THE FUCK DID THE BUILDING EXPLODE]
[Frank: ARE YOU STILL ALIVE???]
[Me: Calm down, we lived. If you’re out of the car, check if anyone is standing around the building]
[Frank: Everyone who was crowded around got thrown across the street. A lot of these guys are definitely dead.]
Okay, at the very least, there wasn’t the threat of reinforcements mowing us down the second we escaped. But, I had no clue how we were going to get out. Even if most of the safehouse went flying, there were still literal tons of wreckage trapping us.
“So, if we blew up a smaller bomb, it could clear the debris out of here,” suggested Reload, as if that made any fucking sense.
“No, that would just kill us. Maybe you do need a Throm.”
I tossed him one while I pulled out my pistol. I made sure not to hit the pool table as I fired towards the sky. Once I turned off the flashlight, I could see streaks of light bleeding into our small patch of hell.
[Me: Frank, you need to dig us out of the rubble.]
[Frank: You have got to be kidding me]
[Me: Nope, now get us out before we’re crushed to death. We’re near the back, come close and we’ll call out to you.]
Now, was I confident in Frank’s ability to get us out? Not even a little bit. But we were trapped without any other options. I’d done a lot of stupid shit lately, but I wasn’t going to try and dig my way out of here like a mole.
On the bright side, Reload felt a lot better after taking a Throm. Seeing that, I decided to take one myself, in case I also had a concussion. After a few minutes of waiting, I heard Frank calling out for us.
“Hey, are you guys down there?” he shouted.
“Yeah! Think you can get us out?” I shouted back.
I barely managed to hear him let out a sigh. “I’ll try my best.”
He went to work, slowly removing the pieces of rubble that pinned us down. And despite the danger we were in, a chilling sense of stillness washed over me, calming me down. I’d been the one in charge, taking control of every situation, for far too long. It sucked to be powerless, but it felt damn nice to not be the one responsible for how something turned out.
Frank wasn’t anything special when it came to ordinaries. He was a great guy, but he was the type of person to go to the gym on New Years and the day before a date. Without any strength or construction experience, it would take him forever to get us out.
I just needed him to be faster than two things. He needed to get us out before more Disciple members arrived, and before the cops pulled up. Even if we could blame the bomb on one of the dead henchmen, Reload and I were still villains in the middle of a gang safehouse. It wasn’t going to look good for us.
“Taker, I can’t do this!” Frank called out to us.
Reload chanted in response. “Frank! Frank! Frank! You can do this, man, don’t doubt yourself!”
“No, I don’t think I can,” he panted. “There’s too much rubble and I can’t pick up most of it.”
“It’s okay, Frank.” We weren’t going to get out of here. I realized something. I didn’t feel relaxed because I wasn’t responsible, it was because there was nothing anyone could do. I accepted our situation. “Just get out of here and go to the motel. Don’t worry about us.”
Frank left, his footsteps slowly faded away. He was our only hope, and he wouldn’t be enough. I wanted to find a way out of here on our own, but there wasn’t a single idea that wouldn’t just kill us.
Reload looked me in the eyes, barely visible through the small hints of light. “We’re fucked, aren’t we?”
“Yeah, we are.”
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It was one thing to be trapped, but it was just embarrassing to be trapped while your enemies walked above you. Another group of Disciple henchmen arrived soon after Frank left, freaking out over the safehouse. They stood around, calling someone with more authority to try and figure out what to do.
We were going to be freed by either the city or the Disciples. I weighed both of the options, and unfortunately, the Disciples were a better choice. While they would definitely torture us if they caught us, at least I knew what to expect. I had more confidence in breaking out against them than the city, which would just shove us into the local Villain Containment Facility with heroes standing guard.
“Hey, jackasses!” I screamed out.
I heard the footsteps stop, the henchmen stunned to hear a voice from the rubble. One of them called out. “Who are you?”
“It’s Ricky, I was in the basement when shit went down! Get me out of here before I get squished!”
“Shit, alright. We’ll work on getting you out.”
Reload knew to keep quiet as we waited in our small pocket of safety. The Disciples would do whatever to stall the police, but they didn’t have more than a few hours at best. Even if Villain Territory was abandoned by the city, it was bad optics to not look into a building that violently blew up.
We just needed to be freed by the Disciple henchmen, then we could fight our way out. Reload passed me an automatic rifle, alongside two new pistols. Then we waited as they slowly made headway, the henchmen manually carrying away chunks of debris.
After nearly an hour, someone started to lift up the pool table. We had to break off the legs so they could pull it out, but it was finally tossed to the side, letting us see the ship-filled sky. But as our savior looked down at us, Reload emptied his magazine until there was nothing but a red mist hanging where the man’s head was.
We climbed out of the hole, only needing to move up a few feet before we reached the surface. By the time we popped up, the other henchmen had their guns drawn. But there wasn’t a soul out there that could match Reload’s trigger finger.
He shot down three of the henchmen before they managed to return fire. It was hard to fight in the cramped dug out, my body stiff and aching from the time spent underground, but despite that, we were in a better position than the henchmen.
We managed to shoot down nearly a dozen henchmen in a matter of seconds. That was when the rubble started to violently shake, threatening to collapse and drag us back underground. Reload and I shot each other a panicked look, desperately scrambling to escape the pit.
I wasn’t going to risk any chance of being trapped underground again. When I finally got on my feet, I was able to see what caused the miniature earthquake. Quarry stood a few feet away, each step he took caused the debris to shift underneath him.
He charged at me, and I started to shoot every damn bullet I had at him. As he ran, each step moved the ground beneath me, making it near impossible to aim. Not that it mattered, even the bullets that hit couldn’t scratch his stone covered skin.
“Wait, we can—” My desperate negotiation attempt failed, with Quarry’s oversized fist smashing into my chest.
I flew through the air, crashing into the nearest building a few feet away. Everything hurt. I couldn’t feel my chest, and my back cried out after hitting the brick exterior. With nothing holding me, I started to fall, catching a glimpse of Reload being taken out with one strike that sent him flying.
I put my arms out, hoping to catch myself before I hit the ground. All that did was snap my wrists as I collapsed against the asphalt. That was the last thing I remembered, as everything went black while my body screamed in agony.
I woke up in a panicked sweat, my heart beating so violently that my lungs must’ve owed it money. My hands tried to go for my phone, but they were held back by cuffs mounted to the wall. I was caged inside a dimly lit cell, smooth blackened metal on every surface. They’d stripped me, leaving me with nothing but my underwear.
I tried to pull against the cuffs, hoping to break them, but there was no give. There wasn’t anything in sight to use [Give] or [Take] on, just the bars in my cell standing out. After struggling for a while, I finally started to calm down.
If they let me live, then there had to be a reason. I looked down at my chest, which looked like I got my ass kicked by an elephant. That was when the pain came back. Every breath hurt, my insides likely crushed and mixed around.
I tried to take my mind off of my body, looking around the cell I was in. It took me a second to place where I was, having to search for where I remembered these walls from. Unfortunately, when I remembered, I realized it was the worst case scenario. I was in the prison underneath the tower of agony.
Talking to Reload helped take some stress off of the situation. He was a dumbass, but he was someone who I could joke with even when death was on the horizon. But it was time to talk with someone less lighthearted, my second lieutenant.
Shit. I’d been out for nearly a day. At least that meant the worst of my injuries would be healed.
I was happy to have her by my side, even if she could be intimidating at times. Almost all of my half thought out plans would need her help. As long as she was nearby, we had a fighting chance. Now that I was able to take a breath and think through my options, it was finally time to get moving.
“Hey, fuckheads, I’m awake!” I screamed out to the empty halls of the prison wing.