Red
Leaning up against the balcony railing of an old and decrepit abandoned warehouse, Red tapped on the side of his helmet, causing the heads-up display to magnify his view several times and present a much clearer image of what he was observing through the window of a similar building a few blocks away. Roughly a dozen armed men stood waiting around the building, and while just this alone was enough to cause concern, the real issue at hand was what was occurring inside and was what Red had been waiting for the entire evening.
Two men, dressed in suits and ties, approached a large unmarked wooden box that had been hauled in by several of the armed men previously. They seemed to eye each other warily, likely looking for any signs of a potential betrayal or otherwise any other concerning behavior. One didn't have to be well-versed in the ways of crime to understand that these two men were in the process of making a large-scale illicit deal, one that Red was here to stop.
Seeing that the two men had relaxed in their body posture ever so slightly, Red reached down towards his wrist and began to press on the display located there. After a few swipes and turns with his fingers on the interactive controls, the crisp sound of audio from within the large open room began to pour into Red's ears through his earpieces.
"You sure you weren't followed?" one of the men, his black hair slicked back in a manner that reminded Red of the stereotypical Italian mobsters of several prominent movies. He appeared to be in his later forties and had clearly been running around the crime-ridden streets for some time based on his crinkled skin that was dotted with several scars.
"Yeah, my boys checked the whole block. There ain't nobody around except for some bums who are too drunk to even tell what day it is," the other man replied. He was fairly young for someone in his current position, appearing to only be in his mid twenties from the looks of his appearance. His dirty blonde hair hung messily from his head, complimented with a scraggly looking attempt of a goatee surrounding his mouth. Looking around nervously for a few moments, he pointed with his thumb towards the wooden box below. "This the stuff?" he asked, uncertainty in his voice.
The older man nodded, patting the box with his right hand. "You bet your ass it is. Power-enhancement formulas, all manufactured to be taken in liquid form and stored in vials big enough to for a solid dose each. 'Superhero Steroids', as I like to call 'em. They're in hot demand right now all across the U.S, so much that I doubt even this batch will last you more than a week," he replied in a gravely voice that denoted the man was likely a smoker. Surely enough, the man reached into one of his pockets with his left hand, a movement that made the younger one flinch for a moment before he saw the man was just reaching for a pack of cigarettes.
"Do they work?" the younger one asked as the other placed one of the cigarettes in his mouth, which caused him to let out a low chuckle as he pointed his finger towards the end of the cigarette. In an instant, a large bout of flame erupted from the end, which caused the young man to let out a startled yelp as he backed away from the intense heat.
"Oh yeah, they work," the older man replied, smoke pouring from his mouth from the cigarette as he looked down with amusement. "Now, about the price..."
At this point, Red shut off the audio feed via his wrist display, having heard enough already. Stepping back a few paces, Red took a running start towards the balcony, using the railing as a stepping block to leap onto the roof of the adjacent building. His landing was muffled by the tar roof below, and without pause Red continued this process until he was at the building right next to the warehouse in which the drug deal was taking place. Aiming his wrist towards a low-hanging steel beam visible through the large glass windows in front of him, Red sent a grappling hook shooting through the old glass, shattering it into pieces as he swung into the building.
As he swung down, the two men below let out a collection of startled curses as bit and pieces of shattered glass rained down on them from above. Before they could react any further, Red pointed his legs forwards and delivered a crushing kick to the older man, sending him flying several feet into the other man and prompting the both of them to crash into a steel crate several feet away in a crumpled pile.
Releasing the grapping line, Red heard the sounds of shouts coming from outside, followed by the sounds of the metal doors being slammed open as the guards from outside began to pour in to see what the commotion was about. Reaching at his hip, Red pressed on the center of several of the rederang devices within his hands and immediately spun them in the direction of the oncoming threat. Landing at the feet of the group of armed men, a series of loud bangs erupted as the flashbang rederangs went off, disorienting many of those present. For those few who were still coherent, their vision was suddenly obscured as dark smoked billowed out around them, causing them to begin coughing harshly as they struggled to breath with the heavy smoke filling their lungs.
As one of the men tried to stumble his way out of the cloud of smoke, he glanced up to see a pair of bright blue eyes staring down at him. The frightening image was like something out of a horror movie for the man, as he tried to let loose a terrified scream. Before he could, however, a sharp crack could be heard as Red delivered a crushing punch to the man's face, knocking him unconscious and sprawling towards the floor. Red wasted no time in moving onto the rest of the men, his vision and breathing undisturbed thanks to the internal breather and enhanced vision display provided to him by the exosuit he wore. The armed guards stood little chance against the flurry of punches, kicks, elbows, and other types of blows that were delivered to them by Red who showed no mercy for the helpless men who could do little more than stumble around.
As the smoke cleared, the only person that remained standing was Red, who looked down at the sight below him with a bit of disgust. If these men had at least some semblance of tactical thinking, the outcome could have been much different for them, at least to the point that it would have been an actual fight instead of what was little more the a seal clubbing.
I suppose this is what you get when you arm a bunch of gangbangers with AKs and sawed off shotguns. The second they get those things in their hands they think they're unstoppable. A small groan next to him caused Red to turn his head in the direction of the noise. Below him one of the men, seemingly barely on the edge of consciousness, reached his hand out shakily towards the direction of the rifle that had fallen down onto the floor besides him. Underneath his helmet, Red let out a small
tsk as he kicked the rifle away from the man's reach before following up with a kick to the man's ribs. The man shriveled up as the air left his lungs, and soon went still as the last bit of energy maintaining his consciousness faded away.
With this last man dealt with, Red turned around back towards where the two men had initially been speaking. He planned on alerting the police and sending them this way to deal with both the criminals and the contraband they had attempted to deal, but not before first getting a few samples to bring back to the Tower so that he could get some analysis on them with his own hands. However as his eyes glanced over towards where he had kicked the two men earlier on his arrival, he suddenly realized that one of the men, the older of the two, was missing.
"Looking for me, you little shit?"
Spinning around, Red didn't have time to react as a ball of flame smashed into his chest, the impact sending him sprawling several feet backwards onto the ground. When he finally settled, Red let out a deep gasp as all the air that had been in his lungs had been forced out by the sudden attack. While he didn't feel any substantial pain, his upper torso felt as if he had just got done laying in the hot summer sun. A large red box appeared in the corner of his heads-up display, indicating that that his chest plate had taken severe damage from the surprise attack.
The sound of slowly approaching footsteps caused Red to turn himself around so that he could look back in the direction the attack had came from. Staring up at the figure walking towards him, Red saw the man with slick black hair staring down at him with murderous intent, his right hand filled with burning flame as he appeared to have yet another attack waiting to be launched. A sliver of pink liquid ran down the side of his mouth as he tossed two empty vials onto the ground below him.
"You know, I've always been told it's a bad idea to get high off your own stash," the man said in a rumbling voice as flames began to flicker in his eyes. Realizing what was about to happen, Red forced his body into movement as he rolled backwards to try and attempt to get back on his feet. It was just in time, as the man's eyes opened wide while he cocked his hand back like a pitcher about to sling a baseball. "But I'm starting to think I might just develop an addiction for this kind of stuff!"
As the man screamed out, another fireball was launched from his hand and was sent hurling towards Red, who barely had enough time to dive out of the way of the oncoming flaming projectile. As the fireball impacted into a metal crate behind him, a small explosion erupted causing the affected steel to bend from the sheer intensity of the heat. The fact that the first impact the man had landed on Red hadn't killed him outright was a miracle in itself, one that he could only attribute to sheer luck and the talent of Alexis.
Once more getting back onto his feet, Red's mind began to race as he tried to think of what to do next.
There's no way I can take another direct hit like that. Getting in close is probably a no go as well. Glancing over towards the ground where all of the unconscious men were, Red's eyebrows furrowed.
If this goes on any longer, odds are some of them are gonna get burnt to a crisp too. Not to mention the building itself. While Red had little in the way for empathy for these drug-dealing criminals, he knew that he couldn't allow them to die thanks to his own negligence.
Looking up at in the corner of his heads-up display, he counted the remaining rederangs indicated. He mostly only had the standard ones remaining, the only special ones being a single disorientation device and the other containing a small explosive pack within. While these two special ones could provide a means in which for Red to escape if needed, he knew that they wouldn't be able to take down this particular opponent unless he got especially creative.
For the time being, Red reached for several of the standard rederangs and tossed them in the direct of the man, hoping to at least buy him a few moments to think up a plan as he began maneuvering away from the direction of the unconscious men. In an astounding feat of reflexes, the drug dealer raised up both of his hands and shot out several small waves of flames towards the oncoming projectiles, sending them flying off course and scattering onto the ground in damaged conditions.
"That's not enough to stop me, hero," the man shouted at Red as he pointed his hands in his direction once more. "Now just stand still and let's get done with this already!"
Ducking underneath the balls of flame, Red tossed another pair of rederangs towards the man as he made his way over in the direction of the far side of the building. This time the man simply dodged out of their way, albeit with one coming dangerously close to his head. The sight of this seemed to cause the man a bit of anger as he decided to close the gap between the two, sprinting full-bore towards Red with a pair of fireballs in his hand waiting to be launched.
Red watched as the man tossed these two flaming spheres flew towards him, barely able to dodge out of the way and coming so close to one that he could feel the heat emanating from it even through his exosuit. Glancing upwards, he realized he had finally gotten to where he needed to be and tossed his last remaining standard rederang towards the charging man. Reaching out with his outstretched hand the man actually caught the flying object in mid-air, the intense heat from his hand having melted the projectile to such a degree that its effect was little more than if Red had thrown a metal marble at him.
However Red had yet another rederang that he sent spiraling through the air, having waited a split second to throw it in order to take advantage of the split-second distraction the first one provided. Indeed it managed to slip past the man's attention until it was too late for him to react, however it had not been aimed towards him. Rather it had been directed at the ground directly below where he was running, releasing a deafening boom and blinding flash of light that caused the man to stop in his tracks, unable to either see nor hear anything.
Pointing upwards with his left wrist, Red's final grappling hook shot upwards towards a bare low-hanging support beam that was not connected to anything else. The moment the grappling hook secured itself, Red was pulled into the air towards it. As he flew upwards, he retrieved his final rederang, pressing the center button and slamming it into the small horizontal cranny within the iron beam and releasing himself from the grappling hook in the same motion.
By the time this happened, the man had somewhat regained consciousness and noticed Red flying helplessly through the air. In a fit of rage the man shot out yet another flaming projectile towards the falling figure. Red, unable to do little more than change the position of his falling body, turned in the air in an attempt to avoid the attack. He was partially successful, with only the trail end of the projectile managing to impact into the undamaged back portion of his armor. Still the impact caused Red to let out a pained scream as he crashed down into the ground below with a harsh thud.
The man would've capitalized on this and finished Red off right then and there, had it not been for the sound of an explosion above him. Still somewhat disoriented from the earlier concussive blast, it took a moment too late for the man to realize a portion of the support beam had been blown off by the exploding rederang placed there moments ago. Before the man could move an inch, the heavy iron metal slammed into his chest, sending his sprawling onto the ground below. For a brief moment flames flickered in his hands as he tried to push the metal support beam off of him, but his vision soon went dark as he fell unconscious, the support beam trapping him onto the ground below.
Meanwhile several feet away, Red too flickered on the verge of unconsciousness as he found every breath to be a pained struggle. The exosuit had mitigated most of the damage of both the impact of the fireball as well as the fall, but even then Red was in a great deal of pain as red warning lights flashed on his display screen. The sound of screaming sirens could be heard in the distance as police had been apparently alerted to the sounds of the fighting going on, there presence no doubt certain to be there within a few minutes.
As he lay there on the ground, Red suddenly felt a pair of hands pull him up from the ground and pull his right arm over a shoulder so that his weight could be supported. His body refused to react, the only movement it providing was his head turning around to see a figure wearing a black mask that covered the lower portion of their face and a hoodie that covered practically everything except the eyes, which shone in a dark and majestic shade of blue. Underneath his helmet Red's gaze hovered over those eyes, something within them telling him he had seen them before.
"Who...are..." Red tried to ask the figure, but his words soon fell to the side as his mind turned into a haze. He was finding difficulty in even keeping his eyes open. Unable to speak, his right hand weakly reached towards the back of the hood of the mysterious figure carrying him towards the exit, the person seemingly too preoccupied with the physical demands of carrying the limp Red on their shoulders. Once the hood fell down, Red's eyes widened as he realized who those eyes had belonged to.
"Is...abella?"
Glancing down towards Red with a concerned look in her eyes, Isabella reached into the pocket of her hoodie and retrieved a small taser gun from within. Before Red could say anything further, she thrust the prongs of the device into an unarmored portion on his right thigh and pressed the activation trigger on the side. Electricity surged through Red's body in an instant, stiffening up his entire body before the trigger was released, leaving Red slumped forward and unconscious.
"Sorry, Red. Just trust me for now," Isabella spoke softly to the now unresponsive Red, pulling the hood back over her face once more as she headed towards the exit.
The muffled sounds of a television caused Red's to stir awake from where he was laying. His eyes barely opened, Red's first thoughts were that he had fallen asleep watching television in his room. He attempted to sit up from where he was in an attempt to reach over to where he usually placed the remote, when suddenly a surge of pain caused him to jolt awake as he let out a pained wince and muttered curse as he laid back down onto the bed below him. His eyes now wide open, Red realized the ceiling above him was not that of his own room.
"Finally awake, eh?"
Red's head snapped over in the direction of the voice that rang out from the darkness. Although the lights were dimmed drastically, Red could recognize the blue eyes staring at him through the darkness. Immediately the memories of what had occurred flooded back into him, causing Red to once more attempt to jolt up from where he was laying. He was successful this time, albeit with a pained grimace. Seeing this, Isabella stepped towards him in the darkness and placed a hand on his shoulder as if to stop him from moving any further.
"Calm down, Red. You're going to end up tearing off those bandages if you're not careful," Isabella said in a calming yet firm tone of voice. Looking down at where her hand was placed, Red realized he was bare chested with the exception of a string of bandages that had been wrapped around his torso and upper back diagonally. Reaching down at the blankets that covered him, Red saw that the lower portion of the under suit he wore on his legs were likewise gone, having been replaced with a pair of plan grey shorts.
"I had to remove your clothing so that I could make sure you didn't have anything burnt into your skin. You're lucky, as whatever you were wearing seemed to do the job in keeping you from having anything worse than a first degree burn on the affected areas. Besides those and a few bruises, you came out fairly unscathed given what you were up against," Isabella spoke up, seemingly quick to explain her actions.
Red, however, didn't seemed pleased in the least with the answer. "So let me get this straight," he said, an irritated tone in his voice. "First, you prod me with a taser gun. Next, you kidnap me to...wherever we are. And finally, you strip me naked and dress me up like some aide at a nursing home? Sorry if I'm sounding rude here, but you'd have to excuse me if I said I'm thrilled."
Isabella's mouth turned into a likewise irritated frown as she pointed towards the corner of the room, where Red with his recently adjusted eyes could see the tattered remains of both his exosuit and his undergarments. "Feel free to try them back on once we're done here. In the meantime, however, we need to talk."
Red raised an eyebrow at Isabella's demand. "Talk? Talk about what? On how to get consent before you start ripping off someone's clothes? Because oh boy, do we need to have a talk."
Isabella let out a frustrated groan as she pulled her hand back from Red's shoulder, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she stared down at Red.
"No, that's not why I brought you here," she replied.
Red stared back, a doubtful look on his face as he continued to mock her. "Is it about becoming a Mormon? While I'll give you props for the new strategy, I hate to break it to you that I'm still not interested."
Isabella let out an even louder groan as she facepalmed in irritation at Red's response. "Jesus, you're such an ass Red." Shaking her head for a moment, she seemed to regain her composure as she stared back at Red, taking a deep breath before continuing. "I need your help, Red."
Red's eyes went wide for a brief moment before his expression turned into that of confusion. "You? An agent of Lycan, the same group that tried to kill not only me but my entire team, want me to help you?" Red shook his head in disbelief. "I think I must have hit my head too hard, Isabella, because you're not making any sense to me right now."
Isabella bit the bottom corner of her lip, a nervous habit Red recognized she had. "I know I'm asking for a lot here Red, but it's important. Besides," Isabella paused as she reached into the pockets of the jeans she was wearing, pulling out a pair of vials with the pink liquid that was undoubtedly the superpower-enhancing drug from before. "I have intel on a few things I know you're wanting to know. I'm more than willing to share, that is as long as you help."
Red stared at the two vials for a few moments before turning his gaze back to Isabella.
"No deal. I'll find out on my own. I don't want anything to do with Lycan, which includes you, Isabella."
His response seemed to shock Isabella for a brief moment as she looked at him in disbelief. For a brief moment a sense of anger was visible in her expression, before eventually something seemed to calm her down as her previously balled up fists relaxed. Closing her eyes and taking another deep breath, Isabella's expression turned into something Red never expected to see.
Sadness.
"Frank's dead, Red. And I want to find out who the hell is responsible for it, but I can't do this alone." Reaching out with both of her hands, she placed them on top of the left hand of Red. He could feel the small areas of her otherwise soft hands that were heavily callused, no doubt the result of countless times spent handling weapons. Wrapping her fingers around the top of his hand, she gave him a small squeeze as she looked up at him, her eyes moist as she seemed to struggle to hold back tears.
Red sat there in silence for a few moments, contemplating on what to do. The fact that Isabella was asking him to do this was beyond belief. There was no way of knowing if this wasn't some sort of elaborate trap laid out by Lycan in order to either kill or capture him, and even if it wasn't Red held no desire to help the organization that was the bane of his existence. He also understood that if anyone from the Young Bloods knew he was helping Lycan, there would be no room for understanding. For a brief moment, he considered refusing the request once more.
However as he looked into the pleading eyes of Isabella, he realized that he couldn't do that. He hated Lycan, that fact didn't change. However he also understood that Isabella was asking this because of the loss she must have felt with the death of one of the few people that arguably had been her only family for the majority of her life. Red knew this feeling as it had been something he too had felt for the members of the Five back when that had been part of his life, and it was an emotion that he knew he felt for those a part of the Young Bloods.
"Fine, I'll do it."
Red's reply caused Isabella's eyes to widen in surprise. Evidently she hadn't expected this, even though she had gone to such lengths to try and persuade him. A large smile formed across her lips as she reached forwards and hugged tightly onto Red, only to reel back as Red let out a reflexive wince from the contact. Stepping back, she cleared her throat, clearly attempting to try and regain her composure after her brief moment of overwhelming joy.
"I-I see," she said, stuttering slightly before her face turned into that of a more serious expression. Before she could continue, however, Red raised up a hand to interrupt her.
"Only if you agree to these three conditions. First, no killing. Second, you give me all the information you know, not only about the drug you have there but on anything you know about the attack in New York City. And finally," Red paused for a brief moment before speaking once more, "I want you to help me track down the identity of one of my teammates that was formally in the hands of Warwolf. You meet these three conditions and I'll help you with whatever you need."
Isabella raised a curious eyebrow at the last request, but nonetheless shook her head in agreement. "You've got a deal."
Letting out a small grunt, Red shakily got onto his two feet so that he could stand and face Isabella. Crossing his arms, he let out a small sigh before staring in anticipation at Isabella. "So, what's the plan then?"
A smile once again appeared on Isabella's face, although this one differed greatly from the one from before as this one was filled not with innocent joy but with malicious anticipation.
"We're finding the person who did this, and we're going to make him pay."
Red looked at Isabella for a few moments, before shaking his head slightly. "You'll still be following condition number one, right?"
Isabella nodded, the malicious look on her face seeming to grow even stronger as she cracked her knuckles slowly. "Oh yes, I will. But everything short of that, I'm planning on doing it all."
Red felt a small shiver run up and down his spine as he heard these words.
"You know Isabella, you can be pretty damn scary some times."
Isabella nodded, not denying for even a moment the statement given to her. "Trust me, you haven't even seen the worst of me yet," her tone filled with venom as she spoke.
And at that moment, Red believed her for all it was worth.