CONTAINS CONTENT:
Action violence, brief language.
{{Unedited}}
“Chamber,” Vincent said, and he took Tala’s hand and gently pulled her until she was standing with him. “This young woman… is too valuable to me, right now. Can you please take her back to the rental, and protect her?” Chamber smiled at Tala, whose face was still tear-streaked and red. She was shaking and covering her chest with crossed arms. “Tala is only nineteen,” he explained. Then he smiled at Chamber, “this will be one of her first serious fights.”
“Yeah. And I don’t like the bastard,” she sniffled, referring to Cory.
Chamber chuckled, “Who does?” he posed. She wiped her nose and a small snicker escaped between her lips. “Would you like a hug?” Chamber asked. She nodded, and Chamber embraced her, his big arms making her disappear. She was small, like Marielle. Vincent eyed him, Chamber reading his expression as he returned with a look that said don’t worry, I won’t do anything. Just comfort.
Vincent nodded his approval. “Get her out of here, keep her safe,” he reiterated. Chamber agreed.
Chamber pulled back, and curled a finger under her eye, catching a tear. “Let me take you somewhere safe,” he explained.
She squeezed Vincent’s hand gratefully as the two parted ways.
He knew that this didn’t make up for losing Tala in any way, but he also knew that Tala from his home dimension did not belong here, fighting this battle, and she certainly didn’t want to be taking barking commands from Cory.
Vincent was certain that some of the others from his dimension felt the same.
This entire operation was all Cory’s show, and Cory had threatened them, lied to them… he understood now more than ever that one of the ways that Cory was keeping control over them was that he told them all that Vincent had the cure; without explaining to them that Vincent was only carrying the cure which had healed his body. Cory was the one- along with his sister, who it was derived from. Sure, Vincent had made the final product, but it was flowing in Cory and Finola’s blood.
Vincent was making his way back to the others as the commotion seemed to be dying down. He was determined to go and help Austin; after what had just occurred, his guilt demanded he somehow make up for it.
Once he crossed into the courtyard, which Liam had now entered as well so he was standing and aiming with the others- Marielle, Sasha, Sabine, and John, Vincent ran up to Marielle and put his arms around her for a moment. “I’m going to go make sure that Austin gets back to us,” he whispered into her ear. She gave him a brief approving smile, and continued to watch.
When Vincent began to make his way back towards the building that Austin had been climbing down, he was glad to see Tayane with Wingman in her hands, stretched out towards him like a dirty diaper. Wingman’s little arms were crossed over his chest, and he was glaring at Vincent like he was waiting to be punished.
Vincent laughed.
“What do we do with the little devil?” Tayane asked.
“Did you get the defuser?”
She swiveled her hips towards him, revealing it in the back of her pants. Vincent chuckled and shook his head, “just let him go. He’ll go back to Gekko.”
Tayane gently put Wingman down, and he gave them both what looked to be the bird- although it was hard to tell considering that his little metallic gloved hands were more like fins and there were maybe three fingers?
He squelched away, and disappeared off to the right somewhere. “Go help them,” Vincent said, gesturing with his head to the others.
“Let me borrow one of your guns?” She beamed. “Please?” He smirked at her, and crossed his arms, tightly over his chest. “Please?” She twiddled her thumbs, “Ah, come on, man… Please?” He shook his head. She walked away sadly, “I said please…”
“Go help them,” he reiterated.
She obeyed, throwing a “yes, I’m pumped!” over her shoulder as she left.
Vincent ran down the alley, coming to the ramp leading away from the apartment building. Austin had obviously gotten caught in some of the debris and rubble as it avalanched down towards the street and slipped a bit.
When Vincent got to him, he was just finally getting to the street, sliding down the last bit of the way, and brining some rolling pebbles with him.
“Are you okay?” Vincent asked.
Austin nodded, exhaling. “It was dumb, I shouldn’t have come after him. Felt like a distraction or-” as Austin said this, four different men came from the four corners surrounding them. “Spoke too soon,” Austin sighed, under his breath.
Vincent pulled a card which turned into Tour De Force, and dropped Trademark with the other hand, to the left and slightly under some rubble.
Austin removed a glove, and stood, aiming his left hand while the right held his pistol. He realized quickly, however, that as far as abilities went, he was pretty much done. He’d done too much running around and climbing through windows and leaping up staircases, and so on. He’d have to rest a minute before anything came out of him.
“Okay…” Austin and Vincent stood back-to-back. “Why?”
“Marielle,” Austin whispered, realizing. “Guys- Vincent and I are being attacked. They might be trying to keep us away so that they can get Marielle. Keep her safe until we can get back to you.”
“Copy that,” Sabine replied.
“You take the two on the left, I’ll take the two on the right?” Austin asked, their shoulders smacking for a moment.
“Done,” Vincent smirked, then all hell broke loose.
One bullet, and Austin was out of ammo. He still had the one in his arm, but he was saving that… it was for himself, after all.
Apparently, these guys were better trained, because they all came charging, seemingly knowing where they were supposed to go, as they split; two taking Austin, and the other two going for Vincent.
Vincent fired Headhunter twice – one bullet hitting one of them, but the heavy was wearing armor of some kind – and he pulled it back into his arm wanting to save whatever was left in it.
Austin took his knife from his belt, ready.
Once one of the masked men did the same, the two began a knife fight, dancing around one another, with Austin also dealing with the other guy. He grabbed the grunt on the right’s wrist, pulling the man in toward him, and used that same arm to smash into the face of the lacky behind him with his elbow. Disarming the first – who was on the shorter side was easy – and he broke the assailant’s blade away from him. Now he had two knives, and after a quick whirl between the two, he spun both blades around in his palms, and slammed both behind him into the attacker’s stomachs.
Both went to the ground in agony, and then out.
Vincent was keeping his two at bay a bit, but Austin noted that while Vincent could definitely fight, melee was not his strong suit. Vincent was strong, and bigger in the upper half than Austin was, and this meant hard, fast blows… However, the Frenchman wasn’t a highly trained government agent like himself.
There was a moment where Austin thought… let him fight his own battles… if he dies, he dies. But he shook that thought out of his head, flicked his hair back, and joined the fray with fervor, putting himself against Vincent’s back, and taking on the second of the two attackers.
“You’d never know this,” Vincent said between punches, “but we’ve actually done this before… fought back-to-back, I mean.”
“You mean you and Tundra?”
“Oui.”
These two goons were definitely more highly trained than the other two, and both Vincent and Austin had to work to stay standing.
Vincent’s opponent pulled his blade out, and Vincent jerked back as he was lunged at, the gleaming silver tearing through the air. Vincent lifted a fist, and knocked the man, who was blonde and a good three inches taller than he was, back with a good blow. He crashed to the ground, but was up again in a flash, albeit missing his knife; no time to find it.
Vincent was already on him, and the two began a series of throws and dodges. One of Vincent’s blows connected hard into this man’s face, and blood rocketed from his mouth, and all over Vincent.
Once the attacker hit Vincent hard enough to knock his glasses off, however, the game changed. Vincent pulled Headhunter again and the attacker dropped, and jutted his foot out, kicking Vincent’s feet out from under him. Vincent could still see, but depth perception was a bit wacky. The attacker was able to kick Headhunter from his hand. It skidded and landed a few feet from Austin’s left boot.
Austin noted this, and decided it was time to stop playing. He pulled his assailant into a bear hug, whipped him around, and promptly broke his neck. Dropping the corpse and summoning every last bit of strength that he could muster, he lifted his shaking hand and sprayed frozen air at the blonde giant attacking Vincent, causing his right foot to freeze to the ground. The man was stunned, and tried to jerk it back to no avail.
Austin picked up Headhunter from the ground and fired it into the man’s chest before Vincent reached for it, drew it back into his flesh, and Austin toppled to the ground, utterly spent. He took a few deep breaths, then turned onto his stomach and crawled slowly over to the wall of the apartment building, and leaned back against it. With his wrists hanging over his knees, he put his head back and stared at the sky for a moment, trying to catch his breath.
Panting as well, and sitting down next to Austin, Vincent flicked the blood off his right hand. Austin did the same, rolling his wrist and the two sat, side by side for a moment, breathing hard and saying nothing.
Both men listened for the others, but only heard a bullet here and there. The fight had nearly died down, which was good news; both had to rest.
After a moment of forcing their calm; Austin blinking several times as he was seeing gray at this point, Vincent pulled a portable humidor from his inside pocket and pulled out a cigar. There was a single match on the inside and he struck it, lit it, putting a stogie between his lips, and took a giant drag.
He held it in for a moment, slowly letting his head smack against the wall behind them and eventually breathed it out in a cloud around his face. It dissipated quickly, and he stared at nothing for a moment before taking in another deep, satisfying drag.
Swallowing, he offered it to Austin, who took it with a shaking hand. He didn’t smoke, but right about now, he’d have taken a tarantula if it’d been offered to him if he thought it would make him feel anything at all.
He’d smoked a few cigars in his life; he was in a friend’s wedding when he was twenty-one, and that was the first time. One again when a woman that he knew a year later had a baby; he’d been praying it wasn’t his. It wasn’t, he celebrated with a Rocky Patel. And the last time when he was at a Halloween party. He had gone as Hugh Hefner. He walked around all night in a velvet red robe, a glass of alcohol in one hand, and a lit cigar that he smoked in the other as people in the party called him “Heff” left and right.
He’d called all the pretty ladies, “Sweetheart” and had grabbed at them all night, especially if they were in playboy bunny outfits. Several of his cocky friends kept commenting that he’d “get laid” that night. “Of course, Austin Rancor gets laid like- what every night or something?” One of his drunken roommates said, lifting a glass; guy had been a real meathead. But he was right; Austin did. It was one of the few times that he’d gotten laid and it had been with multiple girls at once. Two? Or had it been three? He was so drunk; he could hardly remember.
None of that seemed real, now. In fact, it seemed stupid to him.
He looked over at Vincent, who was staring into space. Austin broke the silence with a joke, “Thanks, it was good for me, too.”
Vincent scoffed to hide his deeply throated chuckle. “Oh, yeah,” he said sarcastically as Austin took a drag, and held it in just as Vincent had done. He let it out slowly, eyes fluttering closed. “Thanks,” Vincent eventually said, referring to Austin’s forcing his abilities to save him despite his exhaustion.
Austin nodded and tried to push his hair back, but discovered the pistol in his hand. He’d practically forgotten that he was still holding it. It’d become like a second appendage. “You’re welcome,” he whispered, putting the gun aside, and shakily combing his hair behind his ears; the cigar still in his left hand. He took one more drag and handed it back to Vincent.
“Think you should know,” Austin began, he looked to Vincent, still trying to control his breathing. “I do not consider myself Tundra.”
“That would be a good thing, brother,” Vincent replied, blowing smoke into the air.
Austin swallowed and looked down at the mess that he was… bruises were already forming; dried blood was browning under caked on white powdery dust.
There was a pause, “Were… you and Tundra close?”
Vincent nodded and rubbed a hand over his hair, pushing it back from his eyes. “At one time. For a variety of reasons- one of them Marielle. One of them being that we worked well together,” Vincent nodded. “He was my brother. He was my friend. I loved him.”
“What is that guy’s story, anyways?”
Vincent shook his head distantly, “We’re not going to talk about that right now.”
“Can we talk about it a little?”
Vincent looked off, “He has every reason to be irate with me.”
“You stole his wife…” Austin said, knowingly. “I know that part.”
“It wasn’t exactly as simple as all of that, Austin,” he looked down into his own hands for a moment.
“Marielle said…” Austin almost couldn’t form the words, “Marielle said that- that he raped her? Abused her?”
Vincent’s eyes grew distant, dark. “You would hold her against a wall, or a corner, and freeze her skin until she was forced to go through you just to get away.” Austin gagged, and squeezed his lips with the palm of his hand. “If she tried to tell you no, you’d hit her… black eyes, frostbite burns… I think you broke her rib once.”
“That is… deranged.”
“We all thought so, too.”
“Why didn’t any of you help her?”
Vincent shook his head, “We tried… from time to time, anyways,” Vincent explained.
“Why did she stay with him?” Austin pressed.
Vincent scoffed, ironically, “that’s the simplest question to answer of all of them, Austin…” he met Austin’s deep blue eyes again, “she loved you.” He took another drag, and tried to pass it to Austin again. He lifted his hands, refusing this time; his stomach in knots. “It was a long time before we knew everything- you-” Vincent pursed his lips, “you were not always like that. You were a playboy, a cheater, but… then you became something else.”
“What did he become, Vincent?” Austin pressed, desperately.
Vincent was silent, obviously wrapped in a memory or dark thought. His eyes grew deadly. The only thing he said after this was, “You can’t let him get her.” He met eyes with Austin, they were so serious that it shook him. “Do you hear me? You die first.”
Austin nodded, a look of curious terror moving through his expression. “Will he kill her?”
“No, Austin. He’ll chain her to a wall and rape her every day for the rest of her life.” He took another drag. “In front of me.”
Austin had to literally hold back vomit for a moment; his eyes burned with hot tears that he refused to let fall.
After a minute, he shook his head, and forced himself to breathe calmly, again. It was a weird train of thought that occurred as he counting slowly to ten, then exhaled, and did it again. I want Marielle… she can help me be calm again…She can find my pulse and guide it back down… I need her… Oh, God… I’m him, aren’t I?
He shook the thoughts out of his head, and took the cigar back, taking another puff. It tasted mildly fruity, with a strong, sweet tobacco aftertaste. He gave it back, and rubbed the sides of his temples.
“Pounding headache?” Vincent asked.
Austin nodded, and lifted his open left hand across the left side of his face, “It’s like gunfire is still going off… two inches from my head.”
Vincent sighed and swallowed, “Do this,” he said, holding the cigar between his teeth for a moment. Vincent demonstrated by pressing both thumbs in under the semi-circle bones under his own eyebrows. He closed his eyes, and took in a deep breath. “Count to ten slowly.” Austin copied what Vincent was doing. “No, no, breathe slower.” Austin did that, too, and both breathed together- in…out…
“Thanks, that’s helping. Where did you learn that?”
Vincent smiled distantly. “You.”
Vincent handed him the stogie again, and he took another long, delicious puff. There was a long, pregnant pause. Austin spoke, “I’m sorry about all of this…”
Vincent exhaled slowly, “It’s okay, Austin,” Vincent said dismissively. “It’s just my dumb luck that it seems like no matter what dimension I go to, we’re both in love with the same woman… and neither of us are willing to yield on it.”
Austin looked distant and sniffed, the blood splattered across the side of his face, browning now. “She deserves you, not me.”
“I mean, I agree with this,” Vincent chuckled dismissively. Austin rolled his eyes. Vincent took in a long, loud breath as Austin took another drag, and passed the cigar back to Vincent. “I think that the only way that we’re going to resolve this… is to just let it alone and let her work herself out,” Vincent looked at the sky distantly and exhaled a laundry list of emotions, thoughts, and feelings. “I’m tired of running, I can’t keep skipping dimensions every time you come between us.” Austin felt a pang- of what? He wasn’t sure. It seemed like jealousy at first, but then relief. Austin always came between them? Did that mean that he was going to get Marielle in the end? That almost scared him. “Let’s let her choose…and let’s not let it come between you and I.” Vincent put the cigar between his lips, and stuck his hand out to him. “We fight together. Side by side if need be. Die if need be. And if it’s clear that she chooses one of us, we do what we can to let it happen and not continue to interfere. Brother?”
Austin stared at Vincent’s hand for a moment like it was a shark slowly approaching. He looked like he was considering whether this was going to be a trick or not, like when a friend hides a buzzer in their palm. But after a moment and noting the look in Vincent’s eye, he reached and took his hand, shaking firmly. “Brother,” he agreed with a nod. There was a pause as they stared at the blue sky. “You said you loved me?”
Vincent swallowed hard. “I do love you, Austin.” He kept his eyes from Austin’s strong gaze. “I’m aware that these are not things that men say to other men. But you were like a brother to me for a long time.”
There was a long, drawn out pause as both men continued to try to come down from the adrenaline high, and breathe evenly. “She’s not your wife, you know,” Austin dared. “You’ve pulled a Jimmy Stewart in Vertigo, here,” he said, and his voice briefly sounded like Jimmy Stewart’s. Vincent cocked his head and narrowed his eyes at him, “you found a woman to replace your wife. You manipulated her into your arms, and here we are.”
“You really are a cock sucker, you know that?” Austin shrugged as if to say, ‘I’m not exactly denying this,’ and Vincent had to fight a laugh. “You’re forgetting one thing, Austin… in Vertigo, Judy Barton was in fact, Madeline,” he replied.
Austin swallowed, anticipatory silence hanging in the air ready to burst with realization. “You’re still wrong, Vincent,” he whispered. Vincent narrowed his eyes at him again during the pregnant pause. Austin flicked his gaze to Vincent. “Neither of them was Madeline.” And he left that hanging in the air for Vincent to decide what to do with as he took another puff. “Madeline Elster was dead the whole time…And he was left with neither of them,” he added to really drive the point home.
Vincent didn’t further this part of the conversation. “Well, it’s okay, Austin. There’s still you and me,” he chuckled silently, pushing his glasses back up his nose.
“Oh?”
“Oh yeah, our love story starts soon, in fact,” he scoffed sarcastically. Both men chuckled at the ridiculousness of this.
“We uh… run off together in another dimension or something?”
“Oh yeah… totally disregard Marielle, all of this,” Vincent gestured to the torn walls, falling debris. A pipe rolled out of one of the floors and smacked the ground with a hollow gong sound. There was smoke billowing from the warehouse down the alley where Sasha’s laser arrow had torn through, and another a few streets back was also on fire. To top off the horror of it all, an ugly rat that was most definitely carrying plague ran by.
Both lost their wits and began laughing uncontrollably. Austin’s side hurt. “Oh, there’s the plot twist that I didn’t see coming.”
Vincent took another drag, “It’s bullshit.”
“I know!” Austin was in stitches; holding his aching ribs.
Both men continued to laugh for a moment until the seriousness of the situation poked its head into their mental space again.
Silence engulfed them again. “I almost killed you a while ago,” Vincent admitted bluntly.
“I know,” Austin replied in a tone that almost reflected compassion.
Vincent rolled his head in Austin’s direction, “No, I don’t mean Tundra… I mean you.”
Austin turned towards him, his expression unchanging, “I know,” he repeated. Vincent looked away, adjusting his glasses. “I saw the bullet,” Austin added, taking another drag. A pause came and left as quickly. “What made you change your mind?”
“Love?”
Austin nodded, he understood this. “You can’t hurt her… in any way…” he said.
Vincent swallowed and looked down, taking what was left of the cigar back, and breathing it in deeply. “I don’t know that she’s in love with you, my friend. But she loves you,” he said, distantly. “You’re her best friend,” he looked even more distant. “Her confidant…” he flicked the cigar’s ash onto the ground, “her partner,” he explained, hating every word.
“She’s made it pretty evident to me that no matter what happens, she’s going to choose you.”
Vincent hummed in his throat. Then finished the cigar. “Like you said, she deserves me,” Vincent replied darkly.
Austin nodded, “I know what I am, Vincent.”
“Yeah… but I know what you want to be and that’s dangerous.”
“To you?”
“To my marriage.” He stood, and thrust a hand downward to help Austin up. He pulled him to standing, and the two locked eyes for a moment… they hated each other? They loved each other? Brothers? Both felt the pang of confusion in that instant.
Vincent pulled Austin in against his chest, and gave him one, hard pat on the back. “It will end how it ends,” he said, confidently.
Then he turned and went back towards the others with Austin following.
Vincent was a good twenty feet ahead, but as they got closer to others, Marielle’s voice, like a distant, detached whisper broke into his thoughts.
-Au-Austin?
He paused a moment, but once he realized it was her, he continued, and tried to appear nonchalant in cause Vincent looked back at him.
-Au-Austin… It was a little clearer.
-What’s going on?
-Are you okay?
He paused, smirking. Did she care about him that much? Of course, she did, but damn did it feel good to hear her ask. He continued to saunter forward. -I’m fine, darling.
-Austin?
–Austin… His eyes fluttered for a moment in pleasure. He’d never stop loving the way his name sounded in her mouth, and in her mind.
-Why aren’t they stopping the attack? They’ve lost. Something about this all feels wrong to me. Are they trying to get me that badly?
Austin swallowed and paused for a moment, then lifted his hands near his temples. He had no actual compunctions that this action did anything, it just always felt right to do in this scenario. -Show me, darling. He whispered. Nothing happened. He said it again, in a huskier, more pleading tone. -Show me, darling.
He closed his eyes, aware that this made him vulnerable, so keeping his secondary thoughts on noting how long he’d be standing there.
He could see where she was looking. She gestured with her head upwards towards a window. -There’s an attacker up there, that keeps dodging our fire.
-I’ll get him.
He thought about trying to be a hero for a second, and trying to go after this guy alone, but knew that that would mostly be to impress Marielle. He called out to Vincent. “There’s a guy on like the fourteenth floor of the building next to where Liam was hanging out, and he’s giving them some trouble… want to go show him who’s he’s dealing with?” Austin asked.
“Let’s do it.” Vincent replied, turning that direction.
“What if this is Tundra?”
“We might be able to take him… or he might rip both of our throats out…” Vincent added as both approached the tall office building.
They paused for a moment, looking up at it. “Marielle asked a good question… are they just… trying to get her? Why haven’t they stopped, yet? They’re done.”
Vincent put a few fingers to his ear, “how is everyone doing back there?”
“We’re okay,” Wei Ling replied. “Still being attacked, but in slow progression.”
“Why?” Liam asked.
Vincent shook his head, “they have some other objective. I just don’t know what it is, yet.” He turned to Austin, who was looking into the building with his hands on his hips, “Ideas?”
“There was an ambush at the bottom of the ramp- you and I fought them off… they could have just been trying to stop me from getting the defuser.”
Vincent stroked his chin for a moment, “No…” He saw a blur inside the building’s foyer; innocent childlike eyes, red hair, and a perfect smile. “It’s something more sinister.”