'What's going on…'
Snow fell in a flurry. Faster than what the usual eye could perceive, but to Kage it all felt slow. A slowness that he felt familiarly entwined to. The adrenaline was seeping out from him.
Apartment windows glowed with movement. Although none could have heard the commotion in this alleyway, the usual sense of dread crept over Kage. He gazed at his wristwatch. Ten minutes had gone by since they entered the alleyway. It had taken too long, but why?
'I can't feel my hands. Where are they at?'
The pavement was bitter cold. Kage realized that he was in fact kneeling in the snow just in front of the chain-linked fence.
'There's one of them.'
His left fist had just raised by itself but shot down toward the pavement. Then his right fist rose repeating the same motion as his left. They looked oddly reddish, bits of the material on the gloves were coming undone exposing the knuckles. Control over these appendages had been passed to another baser instinctual obligation.
*RAGE*
Echoes of his surroundings gradually returned to him. But a faint sound could be heard before that of beating snow and honking horns. It was a mesmeric chant. Soon this chant felt as if it came from his own lips.
'That's right. My mouth's open.'
Finally, the chant could be understood growing in volume while his ears adjusted to its booming pitch.
"weak…
...weakling…
...no…
...weak…
...not…
...weak…
I'M NOT WEAK!" Came the bolstered ravenous voice from his lips. An animalistic expression with bared fangs and howling spittle brought to life the fight in his words.
The fists pounded again and again into the man's face drawing gory fluid developing the painting before him. The leftovers whip back to the mask covering his face all the while the gloves had torn due to the punishment dirtying not only the cloth but the skin beneath. Fluid seeped down in long saliva like strands. They were like snakes whispering their secret sins.
Suddenly a force began to lift him away. The person locked his elbow behind him while Kage attempted to throw back this interrupter. His elbow was caught with a familiar arm capturing them together before he could manage a counter. Daniel had seen the violence but was unable to subdue Kage until his own opponent had been rendered unconscious.
After wrenching Kage away from the man's body, he stuffed him into the snow hoping that the cold would wash the rage away, but it had not. Kage was screaming with tears in his eyes. Words unknown, garbled by saliva becoming incomprehensible to Daniel's ears.
He was a trapped beast desperately fighting for its life. The look in Kage's eyes were ferocious and without meaning as if a base emotion now controlled his body without thought from his mind.
Kage lunged once more toward the bloodied head, nearly toppling Daniel onto his rear as he fought back.
"C-C-Calm yourself! He's done! Y-you got him." Daniel wheezed out the last words in fear of his breath being too far gone to resist another lunge from Kage. Fully preparing himself by stressing his arms, maintaining them in a stiff fashion Daniel was surprised by Kage's sudden relaxation.
His arms went limp while the burst of energy had dissipated with even the look from his eyes returning to a pensiveness. With Kage no longer moving the situation left Daniel to consider that the skin to Kage's knuckles had been torn due to the beating. Gazing from his hands to the man's face, what was left could only be described as a sludge of blood with pointed bones jutting from jagged angles sprinkled about with sliced strands of hair. Daniel exhaled a stressed breath with a prayer thanking that Kage's ability only worked on objects. No thought given to the potentiality of a lie mixed in with that initial statement.
For a second, Daniel had thought that the story from his friend was simply a lie but tossed it away. Kage would never lie about something so easily debunked.
Before Daniel could process the theory, the sudden croak of his friend wrought him to the present. "Is hE DeAD?" A glance chilled Daniel's spine. Tears edged at Kage's eye with a stream already flowing from the other. The boy's body had begun to visibly shake while the complexion underneath the black outfit had grown a sickly pale.
Inching closer to the man's body Daniel surveyed the mess. Not long after had the snow piled up covering much of the wounds. Daniel bent down placing a hand on the man's chest and an ear to his torn lips…
…
…
…
'How long have I waited? Seconds? Minutes? Oh God, has it been an hour already? Why haven't I heard anything?'
Then, just when Daniel was to turn and report the dreaded news, a rasp of wind echoed from the man's lungs. By some miracle, in part Kage owed to God, the man had survived. Daniel, wide eyed, looked toward Kage for guidance. He then saw the state Kage was in as well. Large beads of sweat were perspiring from his forehead while the limpness had continued. Something was wrong with him.
The wound from the blade. 'Hadn't it been poisonous?'
Adrenaline shot through Daniel's nerves. If it was between this man and his friend, he didn't give a damn about the crook. He dashed toward Kage's side about to throw him over his shoulder calculating the fastest route to a hospital when he hacked back, "Take care of the man, there should be a booth by the bar. Use it then bring me to my apartment. I have some meds there…"
With a last look at the slumped over figure of Kage only having his lower back touch the stone wall, Daniel trotted off into the storm left with the sound of vomit coming from behind.
The bar from before had closed its doors kicking its inhabitants away in fear of the continued actions from the two men whom Daniel and Kage had assaulted. Even with this precaution, Daniel spied the glow of the Military Police from within. They came as cleaners with little worry for the wellbeing of the impoverished, solely to ensure the whole dark business would be silenced before subtle rumors were spread. The lower districts became ripe with crime, on a day like this much will occur especially with such vast snow wiping away the evidence. Kage planned for this, deciding that today was Daniel's best bet at training with little to no evidence left behind. However, Kage had not realized the extent that such fighting would impact Daniel's psyche.
He marched through the snow, now ankle deep, both arms caressing his torso provoking some measure of heat. Yet, his eyes shone a horrific tale of despair. Kage had not appeared well at all and whatever little medicine he could possibly have back at his apartment would not fully aid him. From the glimpse he had gotten at Kage's wounds they were deep enough where the poison had in all likelihood spread to most of his body by this point.
Documentaries ran through Daniel's mind. Evolved could be poisoned but only by the most lethal of concoctions while others would demonstrate only minimal effects. Considering the small dosage accompanied by immensely drastic effects including that of vomit, nausea and Kage's dizziness which stunted his movement, Daniel quickly concluded the potential of the poison being tetrodotoxin found mainly in the sex glands of pufferfish. They had to find an actual doctor before the poison settled in his system. Daniel felt his eyes glaze over while the surroundings only dimmed and blurred. The courage he demonstrated in the presence of Kage had all but evaporated leaving nothing but his original form.
A stuttering coward of a child. Only now did he come to grasp how over his head he had gotten. He swiveled about staring back down the long alleyway he had come from. Even in this flurry he could make out the outline of Kage's body, but he now held both hands to either side of his head pounding it as harsh wailing tore from his mouth. His hero was devolving into a monster before his eyes.
Daniel threw his arms from his stomach then sprinted across the street praying a car wouldn't come speeding from the right nor left. The phone booth lay just twenty paces from his first step on the sidewalk. It brilliantly lit up what would otherwise be a grayed horizon. Inside was another person.
A sickly green fisherman's hat poked with bait stuffed low blocking his eyes, a pencil mustache curved downward emphasizing the thinness of his lips now skinned by the wind. Daniel hastily approached the booth then rapped his knuckles against the glass hoping to hurry the man along.
The person took a shot over his shoulder to be met by the masked man covered with blood over his black clade figure. Dropping the phone, the fisherman jumped from the booth sprinting his way home. In confusion, Daniel saw his reflection realizing his mistake. He removed the mask so as not to draw any more fearful looks then took the phone and redialed the helpline giving the street address only to hang up before the woman on the other end had a chance to reply back.
'Had he spoken for too long?
Would they be able to catch him from just that?'
Daniel forced these thoughts away, taking off for Kage, sliding the mask back on. When he returned another person was crouched over Kage, a hand to his friend's mouth. The person soon became an elderly woman with her auburn hair tied together in a bun by some tossed thread. Reaching in the back of his pants Daniel withdrew a mock gun with the orange tip sliced off. Another measure Kage took in the event they needed a bargaining chip.
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Daniel yelled at the woman in the deepest tone he could conjure, "NOW!" The woman backed away a short distance, enough so that she could gauge Daniel while able to take Kage as a resource if needed. Daniel stood just beside Kage's right foot. Holding the toy gun in both hands he meant to cover the plastic shine it would give off from light. The woman was shorter than Daniel had imagined with a hump to her spine. She had both hands weakly raised with veins bulging. Dressed in rags and torn drapes she was judged as homeless by him. Just another scavenger from the lower districts.
"M-Move. There's n-nothing for you here, so get!" Daniel fought off not only the stuttering as well as the urge in his hands to shake.
'It's a fake gun. It's fake, she just has to go away. No one will get hurt here.'
He told himself over and over again. Despite this, the feeling that he could end her life with a single twitch toyed with his mind.
Cool breath danced from the woman's mouth, "Your friend's not in good shape. It would be best for him to go to a hospital. There's one just a mile or two away, I'm su-
"SHUT UP! N-No need to be concerned. J-Just go your way and we d-d-do the same." Daniel's eyes kept glancing down at Kage's body. He had grown even paler with vomit clung to his lips while rattling breaths echoed away.
The woman took a step in provoking Daniel to grip the gun tighter, she stopped. "Listen, it seems you prolly can't go to a hospital. How 'bout you follow me and see the cutter we got close by. Otherwise, the more we talk and stare the less likely he," she pointed at Kage, "be allowed to live."
"Can he help with poisons? Those that harm Evolved?" The shaking began subtly.
She took a step even closer, "I believe he can help. He's dealt with lots of problems before. He won't tell either. Dealt with lots of odd folk, yes, he has. No reason not to help you." Her own hands were shaking but Daniel surmised it was due to the cold. Without warning she then turned her back trudging to the opposite end of the alley.
Pursuing her a few paces Daniel called out, "WHERE YOU GOING!"
Not even turning she yelled, "IT'S GETTING COLD. YOU EITHER FOLLOW OR… WELL... YA KNOW." Daniel's eyes clouded in thought danced from her back to Kage then to the gun. Tossing it in his pants, he slung Kage over his shoulder and jumped after the woman placing his bets on the underlying sympathy he caught in her raspy voice.