NOVEL NEXT Chapter 78 - Fallout
"We gotta call Phoenix," Sydney said urgently.
"No, we have to call the cops," Emma said.
"We aren't involving the police. This was an accident, and Violet's life shouldn't be fucked up just because of a single mistake," Dappur argued.
"A single mistake? Dappur, she just FUCKING KILLED SOMEONE!" Raf shouted uncharacteristically. He feels that strongly about it. "This isn't property damage, or even causing an injury. She just murdered a person, a human being!"
"I know, but-" Dappur started to say.
"ENOUGH! STOP FUCKING DEFENDING HER!" Aubrey screamed.
Sydney and Dappur recoil from her outburst. Aubrey's full of rage; she hasn't properly processed Jean-Luc's passing. And she won't for a while. There's a decently high chance she never recovers from this. This might break her permanently. Unlike last time, I'm not appearing to show her a silver lining and give her powers. She will have to fully deal with her grief, and there isn't any random encounter with a Cowl like Daeshim to give her the gift of amnesia. This Friendsgiving will likely haunt her for the rest of her life.
"Aubrey, relax," Sydney said
"Fuck you, Sydney! The fact that you would continue to defend her after what she did is sickening. You two are fucking cowards, and it's pathetic that you put your friendship with her over what's right. Call Phoenix if you want, but I'm calling the cops, too," Aubrey said, reaching for her phone on the table.
"Sorry, girl. Can't let you do that," Sydney said.
Sydney flicks her wrist, and a gust of wind blows through the room, knocking the phone out of Aubrey's hand. Before Aubrey can do anything, an even stronger gust knocks her onto her ass and then sends her sliding across the ground straight into the wall. The wind starts causing furniture to slide, and it knocks all the bottles and glasses onto the floor, shattering them. Anika screams, and I see Vivienne give me that look again. I shake my head. It's still not time. Next to me, Sy isn't fearful like I thought he'd be. He's more shocked at the developing scene.
"Hey, I need you to take Shanice, Emma, and Anika and get out of here. I'll try and give you an opening, but you need to be ready to take it," I said seriously.
"Are you sure?" Sy asked.
I thought he'd try and argue to stay with me. Good on him for understanding the seriousness of the situation. Sydney using her powers against Aubrey has made this shit storm even worse.
"Yes."
"Got it," he replied.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Sy start to sneak behind the couches toward the two girls. Good, he can handle this. Aubrey and Raf aren't enough to handle Sydney and Dappur. The power and combat experience are too vast for them to overcome. Vivienne can't transform without exposing everything, so the only support she can provide is hand-to-hand. Can her skill and experience beat Dappur's ability? Having anyone else help Vivienne will only make him stronger. He's trained extensively in martial arts as well, so it's a bit of a gamble. I trust her; if I tell her to do it, she will.
"I'm not going anywhere, Eryk," Emma said to me.
"Yes, you are. I need you to watch over them and make sure they don't get silenced suddenly," I said assertively.
"I don't care about them, and I'm not leaving you," she said, glaring up at me defiantly.
"I'll be fine. I am in no danger, but for us to take advantage of this clusterfuck, those three need to survive and contact the cops. Also, you can't be here when the Heroes' Union and the cops show up. Now do as I say, Emma," I commanded her.
"Fuck. Fine, but be careful. That feeling of being watched came back during dinner. I'm positive that someone's been spying on us. Keep your head on a swivel," Emma said, pulling me down to her height and kissing me deeply. Then she drops down to the ground and crawls behind the loveseat to wait for the others.
"Sorry, Aubrey. I didn't want to do that. As long as nobody tries anything, I won't have to do anything," Sydney apologized.
"They didn't answer my call," Dappur said to her. "I sent them a text trying to explain the situation and that we need help ASAP."
"I wish I could say this was a surprise, but it isn't. You three were always tighter with each other than with us," Raf said.
"Don't be like that, man. This is extenuating circumstances," Dappur said.
Aubrey is struggling to her feet, bracing her arm against the wall to keep standing. She adjusts her weird-looking sunglasses and scowls at her two teammates. This is a betrayal of her and her ideals. She yells to Raf, telling him to wall them off. Raf doesn't even blink at her order, immediately running to his right, away from Sydney and Dappur. A glowing red line follows behind his footsteps as he activates his ability. The other two realize what he's trying to do, and Sydney raises a palm toward him. An unbroken whiskey glass soars through the air and smashes into her forehead, shattering into shards. Sydney yelps in pain, almost falling over. What a throw, Aubrey.
One of the pieces leaves a gash in her head, and she uses the palm that she was aiming at Raf with to try to apply pressure to the cut. Blood flows from the wound, dribbling down her face and covering her right eye. Raf pivots to the left, running all the way to the wall. He's successfully cut them off and left the exit open for everyone to escape through. Dappur rushes to get to the only open part in Raf's ward, but Sy, along with Emma, Shanice, and Anika, are already out the front door. Good, they're all gone. Raf goes to intercept Dappur, realizing that he messed up and didn't completely wall them off.
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Dappur beats him there and gets through the gap between the ward and the wall. He tries to move past Raf, but he doesn't let him. What will you do now, Douglas? Will you raise a hand against your teammates? Raf puts his hands up in a boxer's stance, but after sparring with Vivienne for the last few months, I can see his footwork sucks. He's likely never been in a fight before. That's bad news for him, because Dappur is trained in multiple types of martial arts. Raf throws a sloppy jab at Dappur, and the more experienced Cape takes a single step back, causing Raf to stumble. Dappur gets in close and drives his fist straight into his gut, knocking the air out of him and dropping him to his knees. Raf puts his hands on the floor to try to steady himself and then vomits out all the contents of his stomach. And now it's time to get involved.
"Vivienne," I called out.
"On it!"
Vivienne makes great strides across the room, vaulting over a couch and then jumping off an ottoman to land in Dappur's face. Even without her powers, I know she can handle this. Seeing the shock on his face at her entrance brings me no small amount of joy. She throws a couple of jabs his way, and he weaves around them. He smirks, confident that he's outclassing her, but he doesn't realize that those were all feints. You're the one who's outclassed, Doug. She isn't your equal; she's superior to you.
"C'mon, pretty boy, show me what you got," Vivienne taunted him.
"Be careful what you wish for; I've been training my whole life," Dappur said confidently.
Dappur dodges her next punch, trapping the outstretched arm against his ribs tightly. His jab hits her square in the mouth, splitting her lip and knocking her head back. Vivienne swings her other arm at him, and he grabs her wrist before it gets near him. If he wasn't already stronger than her, his powers made it so. It's clear that his power isn't omniscient because it hasn't made him a superhuman beast to scale to her Shifter form. With both arms tied up, he believes that he has the upper hand. So he isn't ready for her to jump into him and smash her forehead into his nose. A sound eerily similar to the crunch of double-fried chicken rings out. Doug grunts in pain, releasing Vivienne. She takes the opening to cock her leg, pivot in place, and kick him in the chest. He gets knocked back into his ass, and she spits a glob of blood onto him.
"I've been fighting my whole life, and experience beats training every time."
I run over to Aubrey, putting her arm around my neck to help her stand. She has some marks that'll definitely bruise, but other than that, she doesn't look too worse for wear. Of course, that's only physically; she's currently glaring at Sydney and Dappur in a way that makes it clear they'd be dead if she had heat vision instead of Tinkertech. Is this the face that Davis Allen made as he killed all of our classmates? This type of primal rage seems like it would be more at home on a ferocious wolf than on a human's face.
"You okay? Does anything hurt?" I asked.
"They can't get away with this. These rotten sacks of fucking garbage are just as guilty as she is," Aubrey spat, ignoring my questions.
"Sy, Shanice, and Anika all got out of here; one of them definitely called the cops, and once they're here, we can tell them what happened. They aided and abetted a killer. She won't get away with killing him, Aubrey. She'll get what's coming to her, I promise," I said.
"Damn fucking right they won't. I swear to god I'll see those two sent to an Omnimax prison for the rest of their fucking lives. I'll hand-deliver the butcher's bill to Violet, and mark my words, she'll pay the god damn price," Aubrey said, practically snarling.
Those are some strong words to use. Does she intend to kill Violet? I've thought that her mindset hasn't been right since the docks when it comes to justice and Neuvohuman's abusing their powers. Tonight is the type of traumatic event that further exacerbates a problem. Marcus dying radicalized Aubrey; there's no telling what Jean-Luc's death will do to her. His death at the hands of Violet and then the fracturing of her team are likely going to cause her to abandon the union. If she somehow kills Violet, the Heroes' Union will come down on her head hard.
Raf gets up off the floor, holding his stomach in pain. Dappur kicks into the air, using the force to land on his feet. His nose is broken; her headbutt smushed it nearly flat, and blood is streaming out of both nostrils. His whole shtick is being unbothered and nonchalant, but he's upset. How many injuries have you actually sustained? How many scars do you carry? I might have been in more fights than him, and that's pathetic. Vivienne shuffles in place, beckoning for him to make a move. She's toying with her food.
Dappur falls for the bait and tries to roundhouse her, but she deftly avoids it. He uses the momentum from the roundhouse to switch legs and fire off a back kick. It hits Vivienne's crossguard, and she pushes him away. Dappurs transitions it into a handstand front kick that hits her in her right shoulder. She lets out a painful grunt as Dappur tries another one, but she braces for it, grabbing his leg. The look on his face is priceless as he realizes his flashy fighting has only given Vivienne control over his leg. Dappur cries out in pain from each punch she delivers to his knee. She repeatedly hits it till her hand is red and her blood is on his pants. Sydney is still covering the cut on her face, but she tries to run around Raf's ward to help. Before she can, Vivienne uses both hands to grab Dappur's leg. Spinning around, she throws him over her back into the ward. Vivienne runs over and stomps on his chest once before she addresses Sydney.
"Stay right where you are, or I will do a lot worse than break his nose," Vivienne shouted.
"You wouldn't," Sydney said.
Vivienne stomps as hard as she can on his stomach, causing him to gasp as blood sprays from his face. It looks more severe than it actually is, but Sydney doesn't know that. She's not a frontliner, and she likely doesn't know that the blood is from his broken nose getting into his mouth. When she knocked the wind out of him, she made him spray red spit.
"Try me," Vivienne threatened. "Your friend attacked and killed someone. Then you two tried to use your powers to attack us; I could get away with a lot under the umbrella of self-defense. I could fuck up his face to the point that God couldn't Mr. Potato him back to what he looked like, let alone a doctor. You willing to take that chance, bitch?"
She's not even bluffing. She's really willing to do that. Her girlfriend being put in danger has made V quite angry. I wouldn't be surprised if she goes after Violet later on as Vesuvius. They fucked around, and now they're finding out. I can't help but smile at the events of tonight. What a wondrous development this has been. The wall behind Sydney glows bright orange for a moment before it melts away completely. Sheathed in white flames, Phoenix comes floating through the hole they just made.
"What. Happened. Here?" They asked.