"Oi Ni, do something interesting" Louis said, falling into step next to me.
"What?"
I was confused, but I wasn't surprised. I'd heard some strange stuff from Louis' mouth over the years and trust me, that didn't even make the top fifty.
"It's too quiet, just do something," he explained a bit further, eyes twinkling in the light from the nearby streetlamps. Layers of cloud hid the moon and all the stars, the lamps were the only source of light this late at night.
I rolled my eyes, tucking my hands into my jacket pockets. There was a cool breeze out, whipping through the trees and making my eyes water slightly, "you do something."
Apparently his solution to the silence was to kick everything he walked past, making loud banging and thudding with every few steps.
"Lou, what are you trying to accomplish?" Harry questioned in amusement, trotting in front and spinning around so that he was walking backwards. He was smiling widely, teeth glowing in the light.
Louis just grinned in response, sending a stray stone flying at a brick wall with the toe of his boot, "noise. Anything. I'm bored."
"Someone's gonna call the cops soon, saying that four guys are loitering around outside making a ruckus," Liam said with a laugh, "and guess what Nialler? The rest of us will blend in but with that blond tuft on the top of your head, you're toast."
I scoffed playfully, "shut up, you know you love it."
Suddenly a brief but loud, shriek pierced through the night, shaking any birds out of the surrounding trees. If we weren't in the middle of the city I probably would've ran for my life.
Instead I stopped still, as everyone else did the same.
"What the hell was that?" Liam blurted from beside me. I squinted, scanning every dark corner. There was nothing there.
Harry shook his head in confusion, "I have no idea."
"Get away from her!" Came a ear piercing yell, somewhere on my right. This was a guy, I was pretty sure.
"Something's going on," Louis muttered, shuffling on his feet. I was too, and to be honest I wasn't sure whether I was itching to run, or to help.
"We're the only ones out here, we can't just leave, come on."
Harry gestured for us to follow as he took off in the direction the screams had come from. I couldn't help but wonder what the plan here was. There were four of us, which was better than one I supposed but there could be any number of 250 pound thugs waiting for us wherever we were going.
I wasn't exactly the scariest looking guy either, I was more of a comic relief than anything.
I was quick though, and I rounded the corner first, coming to a soft stop as my eyes landed on the three guys at the end of the alley, shoulders back and fists clenched.
One, with a shiny bald head and strangely small ears, even from where I stood, had another guy in an arm-lock on the concrete. He was squirming, struggled against the harsh grip but I could tell he wasn't going anywhere any time soon.
"I'm calling the cops", Liam decided, digging his phone out of his pocket before he'd even finished his sentence. He plugged the emergency service number in and mumbled into the phone for a few minutes while I inched closer to the group. I just wanted to see what was happening before we leaped right in.
"Niall, stop, where are you going?" Louis whispered after me, grabbing onto my arm.
"Hang on Lou, I'm just looking," I answered in a hushed voice. He let me go with a nod and I crept closer and closer, until I could hear what they were saying.
"Get your hands off her, I'll fucking kill you!"
The guy pressed against the concrete thrashed about furiously and I winced, imagining what the ground was doing to any bare skin. I peered around the hulking figure in the middle to see that the last guy, he was wearing thick leather jacket, had a girl in a bright red cocktail dress shoved up against a building. She was visibly shaking and he was whispering something to her, I had a fair guess as to what his words were about.
I got closer still, and the guy on the ground saw me, his eyes widening. 'Help' he mouthed once, leaking complete hopelessness.
Next to me was a pile of old timber and I slowly wrapped my fingers around a piece, clutching it to my chest as I psyched myself up for what I was about to do. I glanced back to see my friends crouched against the wall behind me.
I pointed towards the pile of wood and they nodded in understanding, not wanting to try talk so close to the guys.
I mouthed a quick 'stay' back to them before I stepped out into the light, better to get it over with before I could talk my way out of it. I accidentally scuffed my shoe, and they all turned to look.
Oh god, what the hell was I thinking.
"Fuck off blondie, we don't mind leaving a body in this alley."
The one who wasn't presently holding someone against their will flashed a blade at me with a sinister smirk. A body? My body? They wouldn't kill, would they?
"I'm not going to just leave," I snarled, almost biting my tongue in shock at the way the words had come out of my mouth. Much more impressive than the squeak I had been expecting.
"Trying to play hero? It ain't gonna end well for you, I can tell you that right now." he growled, taking a step closer to me. He kept coming, knife raised in the air with that creepy ass smirk on his face and I couldn't help it, he got close and I instinctively swung out with the timber. I must've been on a hell of an adrenaline trip because after the loud crack his eyes rolled back into his skull and he dropped into a pile of limbs on the ground. The blade slipped from his grip and clattered on the concrete.
"What the fuck, kid? It's like you want to be murdered."
Little ears cocked his head to the left and then tossed the guy into the wall. There was nowhere to go, he couldn't run. And I couldn't even hear sirens yet.
"Don't talk to him like that you sick son of a bitch," Harry spoke up, moving out from his position by the wall to join me in the firing zone.
Leather jacket had his forearm pressed against the girls neck, "are you really the one with the leverage here, mop?"
He waved his own knife about as if it was merely a twig, "listen, we're not bad guys, so we'll give you one last chance to scram."
The thought of fleeing sounded pretty damn good, but I knew that we weren't going anywhere, not now.
I heard Louis' voice behind me, "I don't think so."
"Geez, how many boyfriends have you got back there?"
Liam emerged too, "enough to kick your ass. I just got off the phone to the police by the way, they'll be here to pick you up any time now."
"Then I guess we'll have to get this over with quickly then."
Little ears smirked like his unconscious friend had and next thing I know a fist slammed into the side of my face, making my head whip harshly to the right. Impulsively I lashed out with the wood, hitting bone from what I could tell.
It must've gone on for a few minutes.
I was hit a few times, but I felt like I did more damage with the piece of wood I was brandishing. It had a bit of length to it, so neither knucklehead could get close enough to use their knives. It was four against two, and even though they were significantly bigger we definitely had the upper hand. Liam and I were pretty much taking turns at one point, until I starting feeling a bit guilty and decided that Liam could handle it on his own.
I went over to the couple, slouched against the bricks fearfully.
"Are you two alright?" I asked breathlessly, crouched on one knee.
"We're okay, thank you," the guy nodded sincerely, his eyes burning with unreleased tears.
The girl forced a smile, "you and your friends are angels."
"We're not out of the woods yet." I shook my head, "come on, lets get you both out of here."
I helped them up and started leading them around the fight. I swept up the knife the first guy had dropped on the way, realising that it might be useful.
Liam, Louis and Harry had such a good hold on the two of them that they didn't even realising that I was stealing their catch from right in front of them.
I told the couple to wait on the street and ran back to the end of the alley.
Before I even realised that little ears was nowhere to be seen, there was a knife buried in my thigh. Red hot agony burned through my veins but I couldn't even summon a squeak as I stared at the kitchen appliance sticking out of my leg.
Somewhere in the process of being stabbed in the fucking leg I had fallen to my knees so I had to look up at Little ears to glare at him.
I surged forward angrily, the knife I had picked up off the floor penetrating skin.
See, it wasn't my fault. I was on my knees, arm level just happened to be a very unfortunate place for Little ears.
He screamed bloody mercy and copied my kneeling position before promptly passing out. With a knife hanging out of his dick.
Poor guy.
Two out of three to me then. I would've been more proud of myself if I hadn't been stabbed in the leg.
There was a thud as Leather jacket, the last one, dropped to the ground clutching his knee and bawling his eyes out.
"Jesus Christ, I'm unfit," Louis puffed, "but alive. Nice job team."
"Where's the couple?" Harry questioned, staring at the empty space where they'd been.
"I, uh, I took them to the street," I explained, swallowing through the waves of pain surging through my leg.
"So they're okay?" Liam added, making sure by the sounds of it. Apparently no one had noticed the steel submerged in my leg.
"Yeah," I murmured.
"What about you? You need a hand up or something, buddy?"
Liam drew closer with a tired smile. His face was beaten up a bit, nose bleeding. He held a hand out, still not noticing. I stared at it, my vision swimming faster the longer I looked at it.
"I think I need a hospital," I gulped, trying to blink the dizzy spots away. I could hear sirens now though, just a few minutes too late, stupid police.
"What, Ni, tell us what's wr- Oh god!" Liam exclaimed, getting into a crouching position in front of me.
"I stabbed a guy in the penis," I managed to blurt before I passed out.
***
"Niall! Thank god!"
I blinked wearily at the blurry figure leaning over me, "hi. . ."
"Yeah, hi" another familiar voice. My vision cleared suddenly and I recognised Harry's face.
"So you stabbed a guy in the penis huh?" Louis snorted and I turned to glare at him. I was in a hospital bed by the look of it, strong smell of disinfectant and all.
"Not my fault." I huffed, "please tell me they took the knife out of me?"
"No, they thought you'd like it left in as a memoir," Louis said with a completely straight face.
"Har har." I rolled my eyes and then winced, "ow."
My head was pounding, I could literally hear it.
"Yeah, you've got a concussion," Liam explained, "as well as 14 stitches in your leg."
"And you are all fine?"
Harry shrugged, gently prodding his black eye at the reminder, "apart from a few bruises here and there, yeah."
All of a sudden I felt like I was on a Ferris wheel on some sick kind of high speed setting.
"I take it dizziness comes with the concussion thing?" I croaked, feeling like I was about to fall out of the bed.
"The doc mentioned it I think." Liam grimaced apologetically, "here, drink some of this."
I eagerly downed the glass of water he gave me and sighed, tossing the blankets off to check out the hole in my leg. It was covered with gauze but the skin surrounding was a bit pink still.
"I can't believe you stabbed a guy in the dick," Louis howled, tears streaking down his face.
I groaned, closing my eyes, "you're next if you don't shut up."
Louis shut his mouth pretty quickly and Harry and Liam cracked up.
"I need to pee," I sighed, getting ready to get up. From what I could imagine it was going to hurt like a prick.
Harry bit his lip to keep from laughing, "there's a bedpan."
I shook my head defiantly, swinging my legs over the side of the bed with a grunt of pain. One, my leg killed, and two, the head shake probably wasn't the best idea, "no way in hell Styles, not even when I'm old and can't even walk."
I tickled the ground with my toes for a few seconds before hoisting myself upright, not expecting the major head rush that almost made me fall over. I probably would've if Harry hadn't caught me.
"Whoa, maybe the bedpan isn't such a bad idea," he murmured, or at least that's what it sounded like to me as my head cleared.
"Not happening," I said stubbornly. No way.
Liam hooked an arm under mine with a stern look, "then you're gonna have to let us help you because you aren't going anywhere but down on your own apparently."
"I think my leg is going to fall off."
I groaned pitifully as I realised how much the damn thing actually hurt. I had always thought the people in the movies were over reacting when they got stabbed but evidently it really did make me want to cry like a baby.
"Is he even supposed to be upright?" Louis questioned. I couldn't help but think that I probably wasn't. The longer I was on my feet the sicker my stomach got and the more my leg throbbed.
"Can I just piss on the plant?" I whined. Getting up had seemed like such a good idea until I'd actually done it.
"No, Niall you can't." Harry frowned, "that's gross, we're in a hospital."
I was too tired to tease him so I just let the opportunity go.
"Who's gonna know?" I slurred as we shuffled over to the connected bathroom. It was barely over a metre away from my bed but it felt like a fucking journey getting there and I found that I didn't even have time to pee, I ended up vomiting up last night's dinner for ten minutes before I could even start thinking about relieving my bladder.
"Okay, back to bed before the doc comes back and growls us for letting you out in the first place," Liam ordered once I had done my business and rinsed the pukey taste out of my mouth.
I smiled as he and Louis helped me back onto my feet, "yes, mother."
I flopped back into the mattress, which was surprisingly comfortable for a hospital.
My eyes closed without me even thinking about it and just before I was about to doze off I heard my name called.
"What?"
"You stabbed a guy in the penis."
"I'm gonna stab you in the penis when the hole in my leg heals up," I mumbled, half the syllables lost to exhaustion. I fell asleep before I got a reply.
I know this isn't quite what you imagined, or wanted, but superheroes didn't quite fit the rest of the book. So they were heroes, they saved people. I really hope you liked it anyway :)