Ace Dragon dusted himself off, taking a deep, intense breath. His emerald eyes locked onto Lance, who, for a fleeting moment, saw the glowing eyes of a true dragon of legend. Lance, briefly startled, shifted his grip and charged at Ace Dragon after releasing a wind slash. Craig managed to manoeuvre out of the wind slash just barely cutting into his side. Wincing in pain, he caught the descending black blade with his forearm as it cut deep into flesh, Ace Dragon launched his assault. A side kick to the left knee, a jab to the stomach and a knee to head. Lance took each blow, his helmet cracking but refusing to go down.
Ace Dragon snarled as Lance snagged his sword out of his arm and he yelled out in pain. Lance snuck in an elbow to his face and swung out an air slash but right as that happened Ace Dragon pulled out a full body release. Disengaging his entire body and relaxing all of his muscles he fell to the floor completely avoiding the wind slash. At the exact moment Lance realized what happened, he was sent flying with a double kick into the steel walls of the warehouse.
Craig took this brief moment to look at his numerous wounds and held onto his damaged arm, struggling to move it. He used his good hand to check his side that was cut, it was painful but shallow compared to his other wounds.
Not good. I took one too many hits, and I don't know if my healing can handle it. Those wind slashes are too dangerous and that blade changing makes this difficult. I can't win in a stamina battle; not with this and the running. I need to think. Craig looked around at his surroundings noticing all the damages around the warehouse and then he heard an ominous creak.
Lance dug himself out of the wall. This guy's probably as strong as me and fast enough to keep up with my slashes. His hand wandered to the crack on his helmet. With one kick he managed to do that and send him flying. Whoever this guy is, he's insane at hand to hand. I don't know if I can handle him at close range. However… Lance's eyes wandered to the slash wounds at his opponent's side and his heavy breathing. A sinister grin emerged behind his mask. …I have the range advantage plus he's getting exhausted. If I just pile on the wind slashes… The blade at his whim changed from rapier to a longsword. I will win.
Ace Dragon braced himself as Lance launched another wind slash. Leaping high, he latched onto the rafters with his claws, swinging up. "Hey uh Mr Slashy guy. I don't know if you noticed but you missed me, again." Ace Dragon said with an irreverent grin. Lance's eye twitched at this remark before he took a breath to try to calm himself before trying again. "Shut it!" he muttered as he released a second wind slash towards the beam that Ace Dragon was on before he leapt to another.
"Y'know your aim is as good as your fighting skills." he taunted from another beam. Lance growled and balled his fist in frustration. "Quiet!" He said as he launched out a barrage of wind slashes towards the rafters while Ace Dragon leapt from beam to beam and launched even more taunts. "Wow, your aim is sloppy!" "Did I give you brain damage back there?" Ace Dragon said, failing to stifle his laugh. "Shut it and face me like a man!" Lance roared. "Anger management classes are absolutely in your future." Lance fully snapped before launching out one last wind slash towards the last beam and Ace Dragon flipped over it, bouncing off of Lance's head and rolling towards the door.
Lance turned for one final slash, but Ace Dragon pointed up. The roof creaked ominously. "You really gotta work on that anger, man. Tried yoga?" he quipped, opening the door. Lance loosened his grip, realizing he'd been outplayed. "I hate you," he muttered as the warehouse collapsed.
Ace Dragon looked at the debris with pride, a genuine smile forming before pain forced him to retract his hands from his sides. "Ow. He really knew how to bring the house down." Craig laughed at his own joke before stopping due to the pain. He then observed fallen debris again and contemplated how Lance is probably feeling under there. Maybe I don't have the right to say ouch right now… Craig tried to look around for him in the rumble and managed to dig him out. Ok alive just knocked out, that should be enough. Craig then noticed his sword was stuck in the rocks. He walked over and attempted to pull it out with all of his might but it resisted him. The sword was fully stuck in the stone. Craig looked on at the sword with a hint of wonder with his mind wandering to the gift he was given.
"Meow." came from outside the rubble of the warehouse a tuxedo cat looked on. Craig's attention shifted and he looked at the cat then the rubble then the cat again before putting two and two together. "Oh, my bad little guy." Craig muttered as he approached the cat. The cat nestled its head in his hand and Craig picked him up with his good arm. "Mary always mentioned she wanted a pet cat." Craig sighed as he held the cat underneath his good arm.
Police sirens blared, and officers with guns drawn surrounded him. "FREEZE!" they shouted. Ace Dragon exhaled, annoyed. The officers barked contradictory commands."Look, don't shoot me. I'm injured and holding a cat" The cat meowed in response. Not now! He mumbled to the cat. Ace Dragon turned around slowly as he covered the cat's face. "and there's another guy unconscious buried in the rubble right now. Let's just all be calm and-" An officer fired, and Ace Dragon dodged, creating a dust cloud. Craig had managed to escape the gun fire and police with the cat safely as he watched from the top of a nearby building. They found the unconscious Lance with his mask still on. Some officers tried to remove the sword from the stone but they all failed; the others moved toward Lance and removed his helmet. Craig observed the officers looking around sporadically and one of them stepped away to make a call, probably to get an ambulance or report to their superiors.
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Craig climbed through his window carefully, dropping his satchel onto the room's carpeted floor. He let the cat down, which immediately leapt onto his bed. He walked over to the door to grab some food, but as he cracked it open, he noticed his father was there. Shit. He closed the door back and changed out of his costume into his regular clothes. He picked up his bike and satchel, putting the cat inside to its chagrin, before he moved to enter the building normally.
Craig took a deep breath before opening the door to his apartment and acting like everything was normal. He put away his bike as normal and stepped into his dad's view "Hey da-" Craig was suddenly pulled into a tight hug he could not escape from. "Craig I'm so glad you're ok." Papa Warren said in between deep breaths. "I know you don't have a phone but I was worried when you didn't come home and then that stuff came up on the news and I was just so worried, son." Craig relaxed his arms ignoring the pain from how tight the hug was before wrapping his arms around his father. "Dad I'm fine I didn't get wrapped up in any of that."
The older Warren loosened his grip, his dark circles looking even more pronounced, his eyes red from tears. He pulled away from the hug and wiped at his eyes with his sleeves. "Is Mary alright, Dad?" Craig asked softly.
"I called Megan's mother as soon as I could. Mary and the other girls are perfectly fine. I tried to urge Mary to let me pick her up but she insisted she stayed and I couldn't resist the puppy dog voice." he said with a faint smile and a light chuckle.
Craig returned the smile, feeling a wave of relief wash over him. "That's good. Mary can be pretty stubborn when she wants to be." Papa Warren ruffled his hair with a laugh as he moved over towards the kitchen. "Come on, I'll cook up something just for the two of us tonight. I think I can make some ramen or something quickly."
Craig smiled softly. "Sounds perfect. " Suddenly the cat popped his head out of the satchel with a meow to his dad's shock. Craig gave a weak laugh. His dad gave a warm grin to the small feline. "I can find something for the little guy. Your mother always said she wanted a cat and Mary always asks if we can get a pet." The cat meowed in satisfaction and joy at the prospect of some food before leaping out of Craig's satchel. His new feline friend would probably fit right in.
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Craig dug around in his satchel for a bit tearing up his room looking for his camera before work. He flinged open drawers, tossed clothes, and dug through his sheets. No camera.
"Shit." Craig groaned. That camera was essential to his job without it that raised the chances of him getting let go from maybe 50% to at least 90%. He took a deep breath, relaxing his muscles as he let himself fall onto his bed covering his face with a pillow before yelling a handful of words that would make Lance, Nathan and maybe even a few Oscuro mobsters blush.
Craig considered diving back into the night to go look for it but after seeing his father almost have a heart attack earlier, not the best idea…it'll have to wait. Craig dragged back up his sheets onto his body and felt the weariness from his fight finally pounce on him before his eyes shut completely and he began to snore like an elephant. A good night's sleep was the prize of true winners.
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Lance woke up in the hospital with a killer headache. He looked around confused before it all came back to him, the sensation of the warehouse crumbling onto him and the smarmy sarcastic voice of that Ace Dragon. He rushed to get back up but the pain sat him back down in the cot. He snarled in response before slamming his fist against the bed. "DAMNIT!" He slammed it fist down again and again yelling again and again. Soon the door to his room creeped open. Lance stopped his tantrum as the door opened and he watched carefully, reaching for the metal pan on the desk. A large dark bald imposing man in a black suit walked into the room with a thundering step. Lance's face contorted from contained rage to exposed terror. "Hello, son." said the imposing man as Lance dropped the metal pan and tensed up in his bed.
"F-Father." The bald man pulled out a chair and sat down at the side of Lance, and held his hands together. "My associates found you in rubble, said you had a warehouse dropped on you by a masked vigilante. They also reported you destroyed my gym a few hours earlier.." Lance gulped in response. "Y-yes father, the guy said he was that L-lizard guy on the news. H-he said his name was Ace Dragon. I'm sorry about the gym I was-"
The bald man put his finger to his lips as Lance immediately shut his mouth. "It's alright son, you're not in trouble, not with me."
Lance raised an eyebrow confused. "Am I in trouble with the law?" The bald man began to laugh as if that was the funniest thing he's ever heard in a while, as it echoed throughout the room, shivers went down Lance's spine before he relaxed and ignored the initial unsettling feeling that encroached him. "Son, I said you're not in trouble with me. However, we need to address the victims." "So I'll go and issue an apology to them? What should I s-" Lance said. "It was a gas explosion." the bald man said sternly. Lance gave a confused look in response. "No, I did all of that, that was all me-." The bald man gave a singular commanding look before Lance crept further into the bed. "It was a gas explosion. They don't know about Reshen, they don't need to and more importantly I don't want them to." The bald man stated. "What's a Reshen?" Lance inquired. "Don't worry about what that is for now. But how would you like to spend some time with your dad at work?" The bald man began to rise again. Lance smiled. "R-Really? What would I do?" The bald man had a proud look on his face. "All you need to do, son is pick up your sword again, keep a few secrets, and be my knight, my Black Knight." Lance smirked and pulled himself up higher on the bed. "So then when do I start?"