"I'm telling you Pende, this is a bad idea." Zack said for the umpteenth time.
Pende, as usual, ignored him and continued walking forward into the dark alley. Zack sighed and followed behind. This was their fourth alley of the night, and Zack wasn't even sure what Pende was actually looking for here. When he had asked, Pende had just dismissively said, "It's where we can find the vigilante" without explaining exactly how he reached that conclusion.
The previous three alleys certainly hadn't been fruitful. The first one had just a few garbage cans with no visible human, the second one had an old, blind man who seemed to be amputated below the knees singing in some weird dialect that Zack couldn't understand and the third one just had a bunch of burned corpses dumped in it. The stench of the third alley made Zack almost vomit, but Pende seemed unaffected by all three.
And most of all, still hopeful.
And now they ventured further into their fourth alley of the night, with Zack hoping against hope that it wouldn't be worse than the previous three.
Pende moved in front, cautiously darting his eyes about for any sign of activity. Only after having satisfied himself that there was no one about, did he moved forward and give the signal for Zack to do the same.
"Will you please explain why you think Poison Bloom would be in these alleys?" Zack whispered.
Pende shrugged. "It's where I would be if I were her." He made no attempt to lower his voice, in fact it seemed to Zack that he was speaking louder than usual.
"Why?" Zack asked again, somewhat exasperated. Pende's thought process was so different to his that he could never follow it.
"Because even the tyrant's own soldiers don't venture into these alleys. Disease and garbage is rampant here, and most of all there is no one to oppress here. Anyone who lives in these alleys has already given up on life."
"Then why do you think someone like Poison Bloom would be here?"
"I don't think she lives here. Hell I doubt any woman can actually live here. I just think this is where her hideout is."
"Her hideout?"
"Where she keeps her mask and other parts of her armor. I believe she is someone in the town itself, but since she goes to the effort of trying to hide her identity, she must be from some important family in Odania. Maybe even someone from the Mayor's personal guard."
"Can't she just be a psychopath?"
Pende laughed. "It's easy to label someone a psychopath when you don't understand their actions."
A noise from infront interrupted them. In an instant Pende was on high alert, he motioned to Zack to stay silent and he nodded. The noise seemed like a low pitched moan coming from in front of them. Taking care to make very little noise now, Pende started walking slowly forwards towards it.
If only he had remembered to be quiet before.
Zack thought ruefully, but it seemed that whoever was making the noise up ahead hadn't noticed any sound yet. The low pitched moan continued, sometimes increasing in intensity.
Zack followed behind Pende, taking care not to make too much sound himself. As they came closer to the source, they could discern what was making the sound and for the second time that night Zack almost threw up, while Pende just stood grimly taking in the ghastly scene in front of them.
A few metres ahead of them was a garbage can that had been overturned. A woman was lying on the floor beside it, seemingly unconscious. On top of the woman there was a short, ugly and naked man who was thrusting his cock through her torn frock into her vagina and making moaning sounds as he thrusted. The woman had a garbage bag tied around her head, so Zack couldn't see her face, but from the slow, rhythmic rising and falling of her chest, he assumed she was alive. And judging from the fact that she was not resisting or even shouting at the rape, he also assumed she must be unconscious.
"Hey." Pende said simply and gruffly, causing the short man to jump up. He looked back at them irritatedly, still thrusting inside the unconscious woman.
"What ye want? This lass is mine! I captured her." He said and spit on the floor in front of Pende.
Pende stepped forward without saying a word and in a flash thrust his two fingers into the man's eyes, blinding him instantly. He shouted out in agony and stepped up, his cock still dripping with semen and erect. In a single motion, Pende kicked upwards and crushed the man's penis, causing him to double over in pain. Even as his eyes bled out, he clutched his cock.
"AAARGHH." His screams of pain sent a chill down Zack's spine. Even though this man had just been raping an unconscious woman, he couldn't help but feel a little remorse for the pain he was going through.
"Now, anything more to say?" Pende said cooly, even as the now blind man continued screaming in pain.
And then it happened.
It was so sudden that only Pende knew it was coming. He looked upwards and jumped back right as a snake came shooting down through the screaming man's neck, silencing him forever.
Pende looked up again with a smile at the intruder who had shot the snake.
"You must be Poison Bloom." He said with his wolfish grin.
Zack would have recognised that black mask and green armor anywhere, but now silhouetted against the moon, Poison Bloom looked more threatening than ever. As always he couldn't tell her expression because the mask covered her face but it seemed that she was livid from her eyes.
She jumped off gracefully from the top of the building where she was and landed beside the unconscious woman. She looked down, and with a quick motion, cut the garbage bag that had been tied to her head. The bag deflated around her head, and Poison Bloom slowly removed it from her face with her sword. Zack saw that the woman was very pretty, with golden locks of hair that fell around her face in a disheveled fashion, no doubt due to the way in which she had been knocked unconscious.
Zack didn't recognize her but it seemed Pende did, for he let out a low whistle and then said, "Isnt that the daughter of Count Gastovin?"
Poison Bloom threw a small blanket over the waist of the unconscious woman to cover her bottom which had been exposed in her assault and then turned and faced Pende.
"And what is it to you if it is?" She asked coldly.
Pende shrugged, maintaining his wolfish smile. "Nothing nothing. I just find it interesting that the tyrant cannot even protect his niece from being raped in Odania."
"The tyrant cannot protect anyone." Poison Bloom spat out. "And besides the Garbage Snatchers are a blight in Odania completely separate from the Fermi Ja."
"The Garbage Snatchers?" Zack asked confused.
Poison Bloom looked at him for the first time. If she recognised him from their previous encounter, she certainly didn't acknowledge it.
"Yes, they hide in garbage cans, and wait for women to pass by. Then they jump up and 'capture' these women by tying a garbage bag around their heads to prevent them from screaming and then slowly knocking them unconscious. And then they...." Here Poison Bloom trailed off and looked bitterly down at the woman on the ground.
"You say that they are separate from the tyrant but is that really so?" Pende asked.
Poison Bloom looked sharply towards Pende but didn't respond.
"No answer?" Pende raised his eyebrow once and then continued, "Well let me provide the answer then. The Garbage Snatchers are allowed to roam freely because the tyrant's soldiers only target threats to the Mayor, not threats to the citizens under him. They would turn a blind eye if one of them were raping their own wife in an open street. But if the Mayor suspects that someone in the city was even dreaming of overthrowing him, then these same soldiers would immediately go up and arrest the poor fellow, maybe even light them on fire for the sin of dreaming."
Poison Bloom was silent throughout Pende's outburst, but now she spoke in a voice cold as ice, "I am aware outsider, probably more than you know, of the effects of the Mayor on Odania.
"And who are you? You stand here preaching about the atrocities of the Mayor but what have you done to prevent it? Have you fought against the Garbage Snatchers epidemic of Odania? Have you fought against the soldiers trying to arrest a poor innocent man or woman? No I bet you have not." Poison Bloom spat out the last part, her voice laced with venom and accusation.
"And you think killing a few soldiers, preventing a few arrests is all it will take to bring down the Mayor?"
"No but it is a start-"
"It is nothing. NOTHING!" Pende roared out. Poison Bloom looked at him, and for a moment Zack was afraid she would attack them right then and there.
But she didn't. She just kept looking at him icily, and Pende returned her stare.
"So what do you suggest we do? Lay down and allow our beloved town to go to ruins because of a single tyrant?" She asked at length, her voice still icy.
Pende shook his head.
"There is only one way to save this town."
"And what is that?"
"Killing your father."