Second Chance

Chapter 3: Claws

"John what happened! You went silent all of a sudden" Isen started to panic from Johns sudden silence.

Out of Precaution, John took out the ear piece and hid it away in his pocket to muffle the sounds of Isens voice as he couldn't risk responding in the moment, opting to take cover in an alleyway. What caused John to go silent was the approach of a familiar black van that looked similar to the one he saw at the intersection when he went out to the convenience store. But then John remembered something else...

"A black van showed up minutes after the initial contact and fight started..."

He recalled how Isen described a van pulling up to his fight bringing reinforcements to take out the vigilante trio, that van matched what John was seeing right now.

'This could just be a coincidence, but is it possible that Isen was running from the van that drove past the school when I was on my way back to the dorms, or was this van searching the area for him?' John thought to himself.

'It doesn't matter, the present is more pressing than figuring out something that might not even be related' John reasoned.

As he was thinking this, the van pulled up to the destruction in the street and came to a stop, audibly turning off. A single person, and by their stature it was a woman, came out of the van in a long black trench coat with a mask covering the lower half of her face, leaving her eyes and hair exposed. She was also wearing a distinct black hat that reminded John of something you would wear to the beach to block out the sun. Regardless of that, John could tell that she was someone who meant business, and probably one of the combatants in the earlier fight.

'If I'm going to get anywhere I need to confront this woman and try to get some answers from her" John thought.

Before stepping out from the alley, John took the mask from his pocket, reassuming the role of the Joker once more with his eyes shinning through the holes. However, something rang in Johns mind right before he could reveal himself...

"Try and use your ability to dissuade a fight...'

His fathers words decided to remind him of his original intent when coming back to Wellston, to show self control and maturity with his ability. So he would try it. With this, he revealed himself from the shadows and immediately caught the attention of the woman in the distance. He began walking towards her ability activated and all hoping that the sight of this and his masked appearance would have an effect on her will to fight.

Unbeknownst to John, the woman he was attempting to intimidate was a veteran fighter and a hunter of vigilantes, if anything, his attempt at not starting a fight only lit a greater desire to clash in the masked woman.

"What's this? Another vigilante at the same scene of the fight where three others fell not just a few hours ago?" The masked woman said with amusement.

Not being within hearing range, John continued to walk when he heard something so loud from his pocket he couldn't resist talking it out to listen.

"JOHN DON'T APPROACH HER!" Screamed Isen.

"SHES THE ONE WE FOUGHT!" Isen followed up.

Realizing that Isen and Adrion must have successfully hacked into the areas surrounding street cameras, now seeing what was happening, John continued to walk towards the woman. However, he was walking faster and faster with each step, throwing away his earlier decision to try and reason with her, and had the intent on fighting first asking questions later.

The masked woman noticed his speed increase and decided to match it. Now both were closing the distance at an alarming rate. What caused John to almost come to a complete stop was the activation of her ability. She was sporting two flaming hands with long sharp claws by her side with glowing gold eyes.

'So this is the claw lady... something about her seems so familiar' thought John.

'Wait, it can't be, that makes no sense, but their auras match!" John realized.

'This woman is connected with Arlo, but I can't say anything and risk involving him or exposing my relation to him and the school as a result. I guess I'll have to deal with her the way I deal with him!" John decided.

Regaining his legs, John charged at the woman, and she matched him swinging her right hand directly at his head. Yet John reacted to this first strike, sliding under her flaming claws now looking at her from behind. The woman quickly reacted to her miss, whipping herself around and sending another strike at John with her left hand.

Copying her ability, John gained some level of fire resistance so he was able to grab her wrist from mid air with both hands. He forced her hand up and used the strength he acquired from both her and Isen's abilities to twist her whole arm back by using the pressure point in her wrist. Now being in a position of dominance as she was not able to break his grip on her arm at the risk of him dislocating her shoulder, John swung his leg at her off balance position, crashing the assailant to the ground.

Although brutal, John had to make sure she couldn't get back up and continue to fight him, so he pushed harder on her arm until he felt the total dislocation of her shoulder. Rendering her arm useless, and providing her with a painful warning that John meant business too.

"Let's start with your name, and I hope you choose to answer because you aren't really in the position to ignore me" John threatened.

"Volcan" replied the woman.

"Good enough. Now why don't you tell me what happened to the vigilantes who fought here earlier" John demanded from Volcan.

"And why would you care, are you trying to play some sort of hero now?" Volcan mocked.

"HA, hero?" John spat. "You have no idea how little I have in common with heroes!" John continued.

"Now answer my question, where did the vigilantes go that were hear earlier?" John question Volcan again.

At this point John was beginning to lose his temper with Volcan's non compliance, so he decided to give her a little more encouragement. John grabbed her other arm and placed it into the same position he had her other in seconds ago, once again threatening her with more pain if she decided to keep playing games.

Then he realized something, he still had the USB chip from Isen and if there was a GPS in the van she came in he wouldn't even need her.

"Scratch that, answer me this instead. Is there a GPS in that van?" Asked John.

"..."

"I'll take that as a yes!" John answered happily.

Taking no time at all John pulled Volcan into a headlock to knock her out, removing her from the equation altogether. He dragged her to the van and tied her up by her own jacket in the back as he thought she may be useful later depending on the situation. Plugging in the USB and radioing back to Isen and Adrion as the coast was clear to resume talking.

"The situation has been handled, did you see on your end that I found a GPS?" Asked John.

"Yeah, but how did you get Volcan to talk?" Inquired Isen.

"I asked her nicely" replied John.

"I know what that means" Adrion said on his end, shaking his head.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Next time on Second Chance...

"JOHN REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE, REMEMBER WHO YOU WERE IN NEW BOSTIN!"

'But I want to forget what I did, how could I use it now to help others?'