The Last Robotica (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thefolksbetween) wrote2010-08-07 04:40 am
thefolksbetween) wrote2010-08-07 04:40 am
#5 - New Cancer: Claudio Kilgannon
Who: Claudio Kilgannon
What: #5 – New Cancer
When: The Riots on Aug 3rd
Where: Siren’s Port -![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sirensport
Rating: R - language, blood, violence.
Note: Mentions Trauma and Jinx with actual lines from a thread of Jinx's. Also refers to a thread of Claudio's right after. Jubilee, Kenpachi, Cohen and others maybe have been mentioned in minor detail. Events described may or may not have happened exactly as listed, but it was fun to write.
~*~
It was no wonder why the natural citizens of this city felt the Newcomers were a new form of cancer. A nasty blot on an already nasty city.
‘Newcomers go home’, they yelled or wrote on the walls of businesses and the apartments. How long did one stay a newcomer anyhow? He had always wondered about that. Hadn’t he settled into their society well enough yet? He’d been there for months! A job, pulling his own weight, paying rent, paying for food and living a normal life.
Nearly normal at least. It was more normal then anything he was going to live on Shylos Ten.
None the less, it was moments like this that made him realize why they would always be considered a new cancer on this city. The riots that broke out didn’t even have anything to do with the newcomers this time and was more to do with the two sides warring with each other.
Some of them got caught up in the mess was all.
Mr. Cohen closed down the theatre to secure it the moment people started to riot in the underground mall. Not only did the theatre go into lockdown but the mall itself did as well. Something inside Claudio had snapped at that point, deciding none of this mattered to him.
Invisible and intangible, he slipped out o the building, past fights, past security of the mall cracking down on people, past a broken window or a local club, past the food court and the food fights that broke out there. There was someone screaming about gas, and someone else screaming fire.
For some reason none of that mattered to him. No one could touch him here anyhow and so he wandered on, slightly dazed as he headed out of the mall and up the ramp (closed or not he didn’t care, he went through it) and out into the world above. The world above was worse of course. The fight started up here somewhere. He found himself wandering a bit away from the entrance to the mall and just... watching.
These people called them a cancer but the simple violence they displayed all on their own seemed more harmful then a handful of lost people who didn’t even want to be here. A woman screamed, trying to run with her three children all while a flaming bottle crashed in front of them, causing the kids to scatter, like baby ducks being attacked by a large dog, they took off in three directions and away from their mother. For a moment he thought to go help. Mathew. Maria... he though of his little twin siblings suddenly, knowing his mother would have been in a rage over something like this.
He didn’t bother to help though. His mind jumped to a young man, no older then himself he was sure, running up the side of a building at top speed, pausing and turning to face down towards the street at three stories or so. It wasn’t surprising anymore to see people do things like he was. Standing on the side o a building and defying gravity didn’t seem that impressive.
It was the gut wrenching yell that startled Claudio more. “Die AGI Scum!” and although Claudio agreed fully with that statement, he didn’t exactly agree with what happened next. It was actually rather frightening to watch the boy place two hands together in a triangle and... did he scream? He couldn’t tell, but a visible wave through the air ripped and rippled down, growing as it rode the air waves down. As it hit the ground level it was at least ten yards wide! Thirty people suddenly dropped to the ground, as if a huge invisible hammer struck them, shoving them to the ground instantly.
He bare witness to one boys face hitting the ground so hard that blood flowed with ease. Three others fell in on each other, and though it appeared the one on top was unharmed, the ones under him seemed to have stopped moving.
When he realized that the ground around the mass of people had been indented in a wide circle was the moment he moved on. Still invisible, still intangible and still ignoring the people that rushed past him, or through him. No one saw him and that was fine by him.
Pulling out his NV he wanted to check on people. It hit him that Trauma might be having some... issues with the fear that rose up in the world suddenly. He’d check to make sure he was alright first, then head... where? Home? Maybe to Trauma’s work. He could sit there invisible and just... chill. Safe and sound in a locked building.
It was as he signed on and saw Jinx talking though, excited about the riot that his mind went even more distracted. “You can’t be serious...” he stated to her in reply, only in voice. It was clear they were both out here in this mess.
“Having a good time, Dio?” She asked, sounding far too chipper about this. It was clear she knew he was out and about in the mess too. He was about to reply... only to look up and watch as clearly a car was coming at him.
At him?
A car?!
His eyes went wide and he forgot suddenly that it wouldn’t bother him. Something about that internal fear of speeding objects coming at you shouldn’t be considered irrational. Time seemed to slow down as he watched the blue car come barreling towards him. His heart stopped a moment as did his breath. It felt like he was in slow motion as he started to duck, dropping down to get lower, hands coming up to cover and protect his head. Though as he moved he sat it... saw it hit him, his eyes visibly catching the leather seats that flew through him, the stirring wheel, a cola cup that tumbled inside, the flooring, suddenly the engine raced past... no, through him.
He gasped as the front bumper and license plate came through last. He just had a car run through him, in the sky no less, not on the ground, not driven. It flew through him back first! Turning swiftly, heart racing, eyes huge he saw the car start it’s crash, the back bumper hitting the ground first, flipping it over the pavement ass over front and down again. It bounced, crumpled and rolled over.
While it was in movement he saw two people get hit, flung to the side, and as it came to a top he was sure it rolled over three others. The shock of the fact that a car just flew through him had hit him so hard that he stayed crouched there, utterly calm.
To the device he spoke. “I’m not sure the fact that a car just flew past...” no, that wasn’t past him at all, was it. That was god damn through him... “that a car just flew through me is exactly a good time!” He hissed, feeling annoyed suddenly. Mumbling he added. “I’m glad I’m who I am...” and that being invisible was keeping him alive.
He stood, looking back as the fight broke out bigger, just past the car. Someone as screaming at the car, trying to pull someone out from under. This was chaos.
“A car just flew past? Like actually flew? Because that might have been me.” He heard the pink thing say over the NV, a mild sound, hard to catch on the air with all the rioting. There was glass breaking of a shop near by as well.
He spoke, calm at first. “Was it a dark blue car and...” he paused, suddenly connecting things. That fucking car could have been thrown by Jinx? So those people under it... and if he hadn’t been the way he was... it could have been him instead? He suddenly barked loud... “Damn it Jinx! Why are you throwing cars!!” Someone as small as her shouldn’t be throwing cars in the first place! Even I this one wasn’t by her doing; the fact of the matter was she was enjoying this riot! She was enjoying the chaos and people being hurt!
Something beyond annoyance was starting to grow in him now. Trauma had spoke up, but it was a bit too late. He was still barking annoyances at Jinx, and even though he knew that she might just be walking around smashing windows and having destructive childish fun he found himself hating this place even more.
A cancer. They were in fact a new cancer on this already sick city. They weren’t helping it, they were making it worse! People like Jinx and Kenpachi who liked a good bit of violence and chaos, who liked to join the fight. They were making it worse, not better!
Trauma was trying his hardest to settle the boy down, and it was helpful for a moment, but things he heard from Jinx, the joy she was getting form this made him feel ill. Why were people like this? Trauma mentioned not to get him killed, paying rent. Jinx said money didn’t matter, it was fine. For some reason that bothered him, from both of them. That Trauma could take this so lightly, and that Jinx brushed him off so lightly in return. He knew, rationally that she was just being Jinx; bitchy and snide comments. She didn’t really mean it... did she? None the less it hit him really hard.
People were screaming, running, fighting, breaking windows and tipping cars, someone just took a street sign out and swung it like a bat, beating three people in one go. A woman and her child were fighting three men, the shouts from them ringing to the tune of ‘AGI Whore!’ and though he hated AGI himself, something about it hit him even more wrong then anything his friends were saying.
“Get somewhere. I know you can’t get hut, but testing that theory is not a great idea when everyone’s got powers too and they’re pissed as hell.” The boy was trying to get his attention, to get him out of there, right. He was right though, that he shouldn’t stick around a place like this. Go, get out of there. Get inside somewhere or go home. Something. But... that woman. She was just trying to protect her child. Those men were pushing her around. Jinx was making stupid comments that was pushing him as well. Be a bad boy or move out huh? Fine. Fuck it.
“Why? Not a bad theory to test...” He said to Trauma in a bitter tone.
“I can think of smarter ones.” Was the only reply form the boy, but he didn’t really hear it. He was moving now. The strap to the NV hung around his wrist, keeping it there as he moved, no longer holding it. The NV bounced off his side as he faded in from invisible to reality. He headed towards the woman, reaching his hands out to grab one of the men bullying her.
Bullies. He hated bullies, hated them. He hated them in school too. He hated how annoyed he would get when they picked on him, and how he wanted to bash their faces in when it happened. Hated the feeling of his anger raising up so fast but knowing he couldn’t do anything on it. Hated how Newo always stepped in to defend him. His girlfriend...ex... stepping up to defend him. Telling the jocks to step back and protecting him. He hated it when she saw him like that, angry and defenseless all at once.
God, he hated bullies. He hated the fact that he felt his room mate was one, and that his friends at the other house were bullies too.
He hated how the city thought of them. Thought of then just like he used to think of the jocks at school. They were a cancer on the school. And now, so was he. If they thought he was like that... then so be it. He’d do what he could to prove it wrong.
His hands on the one man he yanked him back, a startled yell of “Holy fuck, where did you come from!” could be heard clear enough over the NV. He should have turned it off. He should have stopped talking to them and turned it off.
There wasn’t time though. That woman was already hurt, bleeding.
Claudio heard them both, both his room mates yell at him. Yell his name. He should have turned it off.
His hands yanked on the man, tossing him back, stepping forward to grab the other man. Breaking up this small and insignificant little fight out of hundreds. But it was something. His NV swung with his arm, hitting the other man he grabbed for, knocking it hard. There was a scuffle, and Claudio found himself ass back on the ground. He had no clue that the NV turned off, nor did he care. Fuck it all, he was pissed and not going to stand back in the crowd anymore.
“Let her GO!” He roared, standing, tackling the other guy at the knees. A satisfying crack could not only be heard but felt as he did. Crashing into the turned over car near by he shoved the third man into the car and knocked him out. All three were down for the count. Gasping he turned back, seeing the woman clutching to her child, blood running down her arm and chest where she had been stabbed. She looked well into shock and wasn’t moving. Turning he yelled at her. “Move it already! Get the hell out of here!” And started towards her.
Grabbing her arm he pushed the two of them forward, getting them going, walking, trotting, starting to run now. “Get out of here before something else happens--” and that’s right when it did. As he got her to the next street there was a huge line of police in riot gear coming towards them. Cans of gas or fog came rolling in, being shot from over head. Riot masked men were yelling to stop, to go home, to stop fighting, all while raising batons and clear shields against the others charging them.
He realized that he wasn’t standing now though. There was something that had hit him as he spoke to the woman. The woman that was lying in the middle of a gutter, gasping, her head cracked open. The child was crying still, screaming, grabbing at her mothers dress and pulling. Someone else charged in, scooping up the child and taking off. Fuzzy as his head felt he watched in slow motion as the man took off like a flying streak, taking the young child with him.
Sadly the first thought that came to his mind wasn’t that he must be dying, or that woman was dead, or ‘no, stop, bring her back’ but...another auction to be...
He fucking hated AGI.
When he looked back to the woman she had stopped moving, a riot guard coming in just ahead of him, baton raised. He was yelling something, but Claudio didn’t hear it for some reason. He looked down, a large black rubber bullet with a wide patron fell off hi chest as he moved. “F-Fuck...” he gasped suddenly, breathing again. Had he been hit? He didn’t feel like he was bleeding or anything...
Then the hit came in, smack across the face, a clank of wooden baton with a back swing form the officer. Claudio found himself falling to the side, forward, face and hand landing with a hard thud o the ground more. Shit... Fear suddenly welled up. His ears were ringing; there was fog all around from a smoke canister, and people running, in and out. Something hit him again, I the back of the head and shoulder. He scrambled, starting to get up to run.
He shouldn’t be here. This had nothing to do with him. That woman didn’t even make it out of this. If she had died earlier or now would it have mattered? He didn’t do anything to help at all—He was hit again. “Fuck!” He yelped, hitting the ground again. What the hell was going on! He wasn’t part of this. He shouldn’t even be here!
It wasn’t exactly planned, and it wasn’t exactly something he thought about, but as the baton came in again, the man yelling at him (what was he saying?) Claudio reached up and grabbed it. Something inside roared again and he couldn’t take it any more. He grabbed it and twisted, pulling it out of the mans hand and standing all at once. his words seemed slow to even him, as if he was yelling it in slow motion. “You’re suppose to be helping!” What the hell was their problem!? They were making it all worse!
“You’re suppose to be saving people!” He yelled as his hand threw the baton at the other guards past this one. From there he wasn’t sure why, but he stepped forward, hands grabbing the riot shield, ripping it form the mans hand too and flinging it away. “You should be stopping it! Not adding to it!” He cried, actually crying, though he couldn’t feel that at all.
The strange sensation of power ran through his body, through every muscle, like it did that one time just before Cecil told him to leave. He was scaring those in the camp. He wasn’t fitting in. Leave.
Jinx wanted him to lave too, didn’t she?
His hands were holding on to the front of the mans bullet proof vest, grabbing his gear belt and heaving him up, lifting him of the ground. He could feel his body responding with ease. It was so simple to lift this weight! Like the priest so long ago. Months ago. A year ago. It was a year ago. He had lifted the priest off the ground and shoved him away too... just like this man. Threw him yards away and into the other men.
Gasping, something else hit him, another rubber bullet, but this one got him in the face, cocking him back and tumbling to the ground. He had been moving backwards at that moment anyhow so the force wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but it was enough to hurt, a lot. He felt to the ground after tumbling to a stop and spit blood. “Shit... shit... shit...” he repeated over and over in a higher pitched panic.
He shouldn’t be here. He shouldn’t be here.
And then he wasn’t.
Closing his eyes he winked out of existence, going invisible and untouchable once more. Just... going away, disappearing. The only sign of him still being there was the large amount of blood he spit out on the ground. Someone yelled something about him still being there. Get him! But he was already up and running, panting, panicking.
I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be here.
It wasn’t until later that he calmed down enough to... think. And even then he didn’t bother thinking too hard. He wasn’t going back to the apartment. Jinx was no doubt having his shit packed up tonight, and Trauma...
He didn’t even want to think about what Trauma was going to say to him.
It might be for the better anyhow... he told himself, walking the street to Jubilee’s place. He helped her fix this place up. Came over before or after work with pancakes and coffee from a local dive. Painted and fixed things here and there. His payment? He could stay any time he wanted. It was partly his place too.
All he asked for was a place on her couch when he needed it, or if it was closer, or... anything. That was where he was going.
It had been a while since he slept there though, and as he flopped down, bloody and bruised on the couch, he thought better of just staying unannounced. No one was home though. Normally he stayed hidden anyhow, sleeping in power mode, but right now he was so tired, so pained that he didn’t think he could hold it out.
It wasn’t normal for a body to be laying half dead on her couch, was it. He called, using the NV to post a short note. If anyone needed him, he was here. If anyone cared... they could contact him there.
He didn’t expect Trauma to speak to him.
He didn’t expect to see him that mad either.
It was a conflicting feeling he got form it all though. The fact that he upset the boy that much that he’d break out in utter powered anger mode like this. Others talked to him, checked in. People made sure he was alright, but none of it really mattered as much as hearing the boy being pissed off with him did. Pissed off and... worried?
He spent some time laying there talking to him after, just... dazing. Maybe he should have gone to clean up or see a doctor, but he didn’t care right now. Things hurt more inside his head then the physical parts anyhow.
And by god did he want to cry.
He didn’t want to be a cancer on this city. He didn’t want to be a bully. He didn’t want to be bullied either. As much as he didn’t want to have people see him like that... like he never wanted Newo to see him like that... he was glad to realize how much at least one person worried about him.
Glad to know that he didn’t need to be alone again.
He never handled being alone well.
What: #5 – New Cancer
When: The Riots on Aug 3rd
Where: Siren’s Port -
sirensportRating: R - language, blood, violence.
Note: Mentions Trauma and Jinx with actual lines from a thread of Jinx's. Also refers to a thread of Claudio's right after. Jubilee, Kenpachi, Cohen and others maybe have been mentioned in minor detail. Events described may or may not have happened exactly as listed, but it was fun to write.
It was no wonder why the natural citizens of this city felt the Newcomers were a new form of cancer. A nasty blot on an already nasty city.
‘Newcomers go home’, they yelled or wrote on the walls of businesses and the apartments. How long did one stay a newcomer anyhow? He had always wondered about that. Hadn’t he settled into their society well enough yet? He’d been there for months! A job, pulling his own weight, paying rent, paying for food and living a normal life.
Nearly normal at least. It was more normal then anything he was going to live on Shylos Ten.
None the less, it was moments like this that made him realize why they would always be considered a new cancer on this city. The riots that broke out didn’t even have anything to do with the newcomers this time and was more to do with the two sides warring with each other.
Some of them got caught up in the mess was all.
Mr. Cohen closed down the theatre to secure it the moment people started to riot in the underground mall. Not only did the theatre go into lockdown but the mall itself did as well. Something inside Claudio had snapped at that point, deciding none of this mattered to him.
Invisible and intangible, he slipped out o the building, past fights, past security of the mall cracking down on people, past a broken window or a local club, past the food court and the food fights that broke out there. There was someone screaming about gas, and someone else screaming fire.
For some reason none of that mattered to him. No one could touch him here anyhow and so he wandered on, slightly dazed as he headed out of the mall and up the ramp (closed or not he didn’t care, he went through it) and out into the world above. The world above was worse of course. The fight started up here somewhere. He found himself wandering a bit away from the entrance to the mall and just... watching.
These people called them a cancer but the simple violence they displayed all on their own seemed more harmful then a handful of lost people who didn’t even want to be here. A woman screamed, trying to run with her three children all while a flaming bottle crashed in front of them, causing the kids to scatter, like baby ducks being attacked by a large dog, they took off in three directions and away from their mother. For a moment he thought to go help. Mathew. Maria... he though of his little twin siblings suddenly, knowing his mother would have been in a rage over something like this.
He didn’t bother to help though. His mind jumped to a young man, no older then himself he was sure, running up the side of a building at top speed, pausing and turning to face down towards the street at three stories or so. It wasn’t surprising anymore to see people do things like he was. Standing on the side o a building and defying gravity didn’t seem that impressive.
It was the gut wrenching yell that startled Claudio more. “Die AGI Scum!” and although Claudio agreed fully with that statement, he didn’t exactly agree with what happened next. It was actually rather frightening to watch the boy place two hands together in a triangle and... did he scream? He couldn’t tell, but a visible wave through the air ripped and rippled down, growing as it rode the air waves down. As it hit the ground level it was at least ten yards wide! Thirty people suddenly dropped to the ground, as if a huge invisible hammer struck them, shoving them to the ground instantly.
He bare witness to one boys face hitting the ground so hard that blood flowed with ease. Three others fell in on each other, and though it appeared the one on top was unharmed, the ones under him seemed to have stopped moving.
When he realized that the ground around the mass of people had been indented in a wide circle was the moment he moved on. Still invisible, still intangible and still ignoring the people that rushed past him, or through him. No one saw him and that was fine by him.
Pulling out his NV he wanted to check on people. It hit him that Trauma might be having some... issues with the fear that rose up in the world suddenly. He’d check to make sure he was alright first, then head... where? Home? Maybe to Trauma’s work. He could sit there invisible and just... chill. Safe and sound in a locked building.
It was as he signed on and saw Jinx talking though, excited about the riot that his mind went even more distracted. “You can’t be serious...” he stated to her in reply, only in voice. It was clear they were both out here in this mess.
“Having a good time, Dio?” She asked, sounding far too chipper about this. It was clear she knew he was out and about in the mess too. He was about to reply... only to look up and watch as clearly a car was coming at him.
At him?
A car?!
His eyes went wide and he forgot suddenly that it wouldn’t bother him. Something about that internal fear of speeding objects coming at you shouldn’t be considered irrational. Time seemed to slow down as he watched the blue car come barreling towards him. His heart stopped a moment as did his breath. It felt like he was in slow motion as he started to duck, dropping down to get lower, hands coming up to cover and protect his head. Though as he moved he sat it... saw it hit him, his eyes visibly catching the leather seats that flew through him, the stirring wheel, a cola cup that tumbled inside, the flooring, suddenly the engine raced past... no, through him.
He gasped as the front bumper and license plate came through last. He just had a car run through him, in the sky no less, not on the ground, not driven. It flew through him back first! Turning swiftly, heart racing, eyes huge he saw the car start it’s crash, the back bumper hitting the ground first, flipping it over the pavement ass over front and down again. It bounced, crumpled and rolled over.
While it was in movement he saw two people get hit, flung to the side, and as it came to a top he was sure it rolled over three others. The shock of the fact that a car just flew through him had hit him so hard that he stayed crouched there, utterly calm.
To the device he spoke. “I’m not sure the fact that a car just flew past...” no, that wasn’t past him at all, was it. That was god damn through him... “that a car just flew through me is exactly a good time!” He hissed, feeling annoyed suddenly. Mumbling he added. “I’m glad I’m who I am...” and that being invisible was keeping him alive.
He stood, looking back as the fight broke out bigger, just past the car. Someone as screaming at the car, trying to pull someone out from under. This was chaos.
“A car just flew past? Like actually flew? Because that might have been me.” He heard the pink thing say over the NV, a mild sound, hard to catch on the air with all the rioting. There was glass breaking of a shop near by as well.
He spoke, calm at first. “Was it a dark blue car and...” he paused, suddenly connecting things. That fucking car could have been thrown by Jinx? So those people under it... and if he hadn’t been the way he was... it could have been him instead? He suddenly barked loud... “Damn it Jinx! Why are you throwing cars!!” Someone as small as her shouldn’t be throwing cars in the first place! Even I this one wasn’t by her doing; the fact of the matter was she was enjoying this riot! She was enjoying the chaos and people being hurt!
Something beyond annoyance was starting to grow in him now. Trauma had spoke up, but it was a bit too late. He was still barking annoyances at Jinx, and even though he knew that she might just be walking around smashing windows and having destructive childish fun he found himself hating this place even more.
A cancer. They were in fact a new cancer on this already sick city. They weren’t helping it, they were making it worse! People like Jinx and Kenpachi who liked a good bit of violence and chaos, who liked to join the fight. They were making it worse, not better!
Trauma was trying his hardest to settle the boy down, and it was helpful for a moment, but things he heard from Jinx, the joy she was getting form this made him feel ill. Why were people like this? Trauma mentioned not to get him killed, paying rent. Jinx said money didn’t matter, it was fine. For some reason that bothered him, from both of them. That Trauma could take this so lightly, and that Jinx brushed him off so lightly in return. He knew, rationally that she was just being Jinx; bitchy and snide comments. She didn’t really mean it... did she? None the less it hit him really hard.
People were screaming, running, fighting, breaking windows and tipping cars, someone just took a street sign out and swung it like a bat, beating three people in one go. A woman and her child were fighting three men, the shouts from them ringing to the tune of ‘AGI Whore!’ and though he hated AGI himself, something about it hit him even more wrong then anything his friends were saying.
“Get somewhere. I know you can’t get hut, but testing that theory is not a great idea when everyone’s got powers too and they’re pissed as hell.” The boy was trying to get his attention, to get him out of there, right. He was right though, that he shouldn’t stick around a place like this. Go, get out of there. Get inside somewhere or go home. Something. But... that woman. She was just trying to protect her child. Those men were pushing her around. Jinx was making stupid comments that was pushing him as well. Be a bad boy or move out huh? Fine. Fuck it.
“Why? Not a bad theory to test...” He said to Trauma in a bitter tone.
“I can think of smarter ones.” Was the only reply form the boy, but he didn’t really hear it. He was moving now. The strap to the NV hung around his wrist, keeping it there as he moved, no longer holding it. The NV bounced off his side as he faded in from invisible to reality. He headed towards the woman, reaching his hands out to grab one of the men bullying her.
Bullies. He hated bullies, hated them. He hated them in school too. He hated how annoyed he would get when they picked on him, and how he wanted to bash their faces in when it happened. Hated the feeling of his anger raising up so fast but knowing he couldn’t do anything on it. Hated how Newo always stepped in to defend him. His girlfriend...ex... stepping up to defend him. Telling the jocks to step back and protecting him. He hated it when she saw him like that, angry and defenseless all at once.
God, he hated bullies. He hated the fact that he felt his room mate was one, and that his friends at the other house were bullies too.
He hated how the city thought of them. Thought of then just like he used to think of the jocks at school. They were a cancer on the school. And now, so was he. If they thought he was like that... then so be it. He’d do what he could to prove it wrong.
His hands on the one man he yanked him back, a startled yell of “Holy fuck, where did you come from!” could be heard clear enough over the NV. He should have turned it off. He should have stopped talking to them and turned it off.
There wasn’t time though. That woman was already hurt, bleeding.
Claudio heard them both, both his room mates yell at him. Yell his name. He should have turned it off.
His hands yanked on the man, tossing him back, stepping forward to grab the other man. Breaking up this small and insignificant little fight out of hundreds. But it was something. His NV swung with his arm, hitting the other man he grabbed for, knocking it hard. There was a scuffle, and Claudio found himself ass back on the ground. He had no clue that the NV turned off, nor did he care. Fuck it all, he was pissed and not going to stand back in the crowd anymore.
“Let her GO!” He roared, standing, tackling the other guy at the knees. A satisfying crack could not only be heard but felt as he did. Crashing into the turned over car near by he shoved the third man into the car and knocked him out. All three were down for the count. Gasping he turned back, seeing the woman clutching to her child, blood running down her arm and chest where she had been stabbed. She looked well into shock and wasn’t moving. Turning he yelled at her. “Move it already! Get the hell out of here!” And started towards her.
Grabbing her arm he pushed the two of them forward, getting them going, walking, trotting, starting to run now. “Get out of here before something else happens--” and that’s right when it did. As he got her to the next street there was a huge line of police in riot gear coming towards them. Cans of gas or fog came rolling in, being shot from over head. Riot masked men were yelling to stop, to go home, to stop fighting, all while raising batons and clear shields against the others charging them.
He realized that he wasn’t standing now though. There was something that had hit him as he spoke to the woman. The woman that was lying in the middle of a gutter, gasping, her head cracked open. The child was crying still, screaming, grabbing at her mothers dress and pulling. Someone else charged in, scooping up the child and taking off. Fuzzy as his head felt he watched in slow motion as the man took off like a flying streak, taking the young child with him.
Sadly the first thought that came to his mind wasn’t that he must be dying, or that woman was dead, or ‘no, stop, bring her back’ but...another auction to be...
He fucking hated AGI.
When he looked back to the woman she had stopped moving, a riot guard coming in just ahead of him, baton raised. He was yelling something, but Claudio didn’t hear it for some reason. He looked down, a large black rubber bullet with a wide patron fell off hi chest as he moved. “F-Fuck...” he gasped suddenly, breathing again. Had he been hit? He didn’t feel like he was bleeding or anything...
Then the hit came in, smack across the face, a clank of wooden baton with a back swing form the officer. Claudio found himself falling to the side, forward, face and hand landing with a hard thud o the ground more. Shit... Fear suddenly welled up. His ears were ringing; there was fog all around from a smoke canister, and people running, in and out. Something hit him again, I the back of the head and shoulder. He scrambled, starting to get up to run.
He shouldn’t be here. This had nothing to do with him. That woman didn’t even make it out of this. If she had died earlier or now would it have mattered? He didn’t do anything to help at all—He was hit again. “Fuck!” He yelped, hitting the ground again. What the hell was going on! He wasn’t part of this. He shouldn’t even be here!
It wasn’t exactly planned, and it wasn’t exactly something he thought about, but as the baton came in again, the man yelling at him (what was he saying?) Claudio reached up and grabbed it. Something inside roared again and he couldn’t take it any more. He grabbed it and twisted, pulling it out of the mans hand and standing all at once. his words seemed slow to even him, as if he was yelling it in slow motion. “You’re suppose to be helping!” What the hell was their problem!? They were making it all worse!
“You’re suppose to be saving people!” He yelled as his hand threw the baton at the other guards past this one. From there he wasn’t sure why, but he stepped forward, hands grabbing the riot shield, ripping it form the mans hand too and flinging it away. “You should be stopping it! Not adding to it!” He cried, actually crying, though he couldn’t feel that at all.
The strange sensation of power ran through his body, through every muscle, like it did that one time just before Cecil told him to leave. He was scaring those in the camp. He wasn’t fitting in. Leave.
Jinx wanted him to lave too, didn’t she?
His hands were holding on to the front of the mans bullet proof vest, grabbing his gear belt and heaving him up, lifting him of the ground. He could feel his body responding with ease. It was so simple to lift this weight! Like the priest so long ago. Months ago. A year ago. It was a year ago. He had lifted the priest off the ground and shoved him away too... just like this man. Threw him yards away and into the other men.
Gasping, something else hit him, another rubber bullet, but this one got him in the face, cocking him back and tumbling to the ground. He had been moving backwards at that moment anyhow so the force wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but it was enough to hurt, a lot. He felt to the ground after tumbling to a stop and spit blood. “Shit... shit... shit...” he repeated over and over in a higher pitched panic.
He shouldn’t be here. He shouldn’t be here.
And then he wasn’t.
Closing his eyes he winked out of existence, going invisible and untouchable once more. Just... going away, disappearing. The only sign of him still being there was the large amount of blood he spit out on the ground. Someone yelled something about him still being there. Get him! But he was already up and running, panting, panicking.
I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be here.
It wasn’t until later that he calmed down enough to... think. And even then he didn’t bother thinking too hard. He wasn’t going back to the apartment. Jinx was no doubt having his shit packed up tonight, and Trauma...
He didn’t even want to think about what Trauma was going to say to him.
It might be for the better anyhow... he told himself, walking the street to Jubilee’s place. He helped her fix this place up. Came over before or after work with pancakes and coffee from a local dive. Painted and fixed things here and there. His payment? He could stay any time he wanted. It was partly his place too.
All he asked for was a place on her couch when he needed it, or if it was closer, or... anything. That was where he was going.
It had been a while since he slept there though, and as he flopped down, bloody and bruised on the couch, he thought better of just staying unannounced. No one was home though. Normally he stayed hidden anyhow, sleeping in power mode, but right now he was so tired, so pained that he didn’t think he could hold it out.
It wasn’t normal for a body to be laying half dead on her couch, was it. He called, using the NV to post a short note. If anyone needed him, he was here. If anyone cared... they could contact him there.
He didn’t expect Trauma to speak to him.
He didn’t expect to see him that mad either.
It was a conflicting feeling he got form it all though. The fact that he upset the boy that much that he’d break out in utter powered anger mode like this. Others talked to him, checked in. People made sure he was alright, but none of it really mattered as much as hearing the boy being pissed off with him did. Pissed off and... worried?
He spent some time laying there talking to him after, just... dazing. Maybe he should have gone to clean up or see a doctor, but he didn’t care right now. Things hurt more inside his head then the physical parts anyhow.
And by god did he want to cry.
He didn’t want to be a cancer on this city. He didn’t want to be a bully. He didn’t want to be bullied either. As much as he didn’t want to have people see him like that... like he never wanted Newo to see him like that... he was glad to realize how much at least one person worried about him.
Glad to know that he didn’t need to be alone again.
He never handled being alone well.