The Starling Saviour

Chapter 39

And I knew I couldn't go back to normality after this was over.

I kept to the shadows of the city, the black outfit I had hastily put together concealing my face from surveillance and nosy onlookers. No one needed to know I was out finding the vigilante, and no one ever would. Well, almost no one.

Using a device from the SCPD's storage unit, I tracked down the van that had took the Hood, ending up at a crumbling garage on the edge of the South Boulevard district of the city. It seemed the perfect place for a hideout, it's peeling paint just one of the many unappealing features of the location.

It was odd, me searching for the Hood when he was the one who usually searched for me. I had to repay him for helping me out of bad situations, as well as out of honour on behalf of the whole city. It was my duty, as a Starling citizen and a vigilante veteran.

Using my gun as a guide, I quietly crept around the ruin of a building, ready for trouble. My fighting was surely rusty and my shooting was probably inaccurate, but my valour enabled me to forget about all of that. My mission was simple, and I could only carry it out if I was focused and impulsive.

As I ventured further into the building, I started to hear voices grow louder, each utterance sounding arrogant and baiting. Finally finding the wall that separated me and them, I kept to the outside, hidden from plain sight. Not knowing where to go, I looked for a vantage point as I tried to listen in to what they were saying.

'You have no idea what you have done to us and our family,' I heard a male voice growl with resentment and anger.

'And for what?' A female voice added to the conversation. 'Your quest for revenge?'

'Your father failed this city,' the Hood spoke up in his low monotonous voice. 'He had to pay.'

'Well, Hood,' the guy spat. 'You're gonna pay for what you did to them!'

I cringed as I heard the sound of a knife entering the vigilante's flesh, but his silence was the thing that made me shiver. It was as though he was invincible, torture a trivial thing for the Hood.

'Oh, so you think you're tough?' The woman suddenly lost it at his resilience with a rather nonsensical phrase, as though his strength had greatly offended her. 'Well we'll see about that!'

Before anything could get any worse, I ran into the room without a second thought, not being able to take their torture any longer. Sliding on the floor, I took out two of the four members of the group, each falling with a single shot.

Perhaps my aim wasn't that bad after all.

'And who are you?' The man opposite me sneered. 'I didn't know the Hood had... Competition.'

'I'm not here for a fight with this vigilante,' I said in a domineering tone, pocket knife in one hand and my shotgun in the other. 'I'm here to fight you.'

'I know, sweetie,' the woman smiled sarcastically. 'We're always prepared.'

My victims stood back up without a scratch on their bodies, their shadows covering me. Feeling a dart enter my back, the drug on the end of the dart created a numbing sensation, causing me to lose my balance. Whilst I fell, I dragged my pocket knife down on the rope that bound the vigilante to confinement.