“Guys, someone started shooting at me!” He shouted, throwing the phones onto the bed and using his arm for emphasis. “I was loading the phones into the car when some guys started shooting at me! I tried firing back, but there were too many of them. They tried chasing me, but I managed to lose them a few blocks back.”
“Take a Throm, and try to calm down.” I tossed one to him. “‘The Disciples have put our pictures out and they’re offering a bounty for each of our heads. I wanted to let you know, but none of us had a way to contact you.”
“That does not help me calm down, in case that was meant to be a nice chat,” he replied.
Frank was usually the nicest out of all of us, so it was a bit shocking to see him acting aggressive. Even if it was in his own Frank-like way. “Yeah, that wasn’t very calming. But that’s because we’re not in a calm situation. If they chased you until a few blocks back, then they know our general location.”
Frank’s bullet holes were already closing up, and he seemed to be calming down. “Okay, so what are we doing? Are we going to try and set this place up as a defense?”
“Fuck no. If the Disciples and their new super friends came here, we’d get slaughtered.” I turned to the group. “Tóxica, Frank, you two are going to load up everything worth taking into the largest car we have. I want us on the road in ten minutes.”
Tóxica headed towards the storage room, carrying Frank with her despite his protests about being carried. Once they were gone, Reload turned to me. “Are we not going to help them pack? I have some shit I want to bring.”
“We’ll grab it on the way out, but we have something more important to do.”
Reload was a gun fanatic, he knew more about them than I knew about supers. But his explosive knowledge was lacking, which was a shame. Thankfully, he knew just enough to help me rig the motel rooms before we left.
We set up both of our rooms, the meeting room, and the vault room with explosives that would go off the second someone got inside. Whether they opened the door or smashed it to pieces. I would’ve asked Tóxica and Frank if we could set up their rooms, but we barely had enough time to set up four of the rooms.
While we set up explosives for whichever assholes decided to go after us, Tóxica and Frank filled a Mexican food truck with everything we owned. Unlike the ice cream truck, barely any of the internals were removed, making it uncomfortable to fit in the back. But it gave us just enough room to fit our things in.
After we packed up everything that would be going with us, I headed into the main office. I saw the daughter of the motel owner sitting behind the counter, messing around on her phone
“Hey, we’re leaving,” I called out to her.
She looked up, confused, “What? What about the deal with Vance?”
“Don’t worry, he won’t come back. Also, don’t try to go into any of our old rooms, we have bombs set up to go off the second someone opens the door.”
“Huh?”
“I really can’t get into it, so don’t ask any questions.” I tossed a stack of hundreds into her hands, which she nearly dropped onto the ground. “If anyone comes asking for us, tell them our room numbers and say that we were threatening you in exchange for the rooms. If they ask where we went, tell them that we drove off in a gray ford fiesta. Tell your dad that there won’t be any returning this money, and that I’m sorry for the trouble.”
Before she could respond, I was already headed off to the food truck that was slowly pulling out of the parking lot. I jumped into the open back doors and shut them behind me, giving Frank the go ahead to get us out of here.
While it wasn’t exactly inconspicuous, it was still better than shoving everything into the small trunk of a car that would go down after a bit of abuse. Frank was sat up front with Reload, both of them dressed up in different clothes than normal and covering their faces.
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Tóxica was in the back with me, currently trying her best to shove a sloshing cooler into the fridge. While she was struggling with that, I looked over what would be our temporary base of operations. It was cramped, still smelled of meat and spice, alongside having no insulation for the cold. Not the worst.
Tóxica shut the fridge with a heavy slam. “Where are we going?”
“My first thought was going into Hero Territory, since the Disciples would have less influence over there. But that would put us at risk with the heroes, and I wouldn’t doubt that Agony has a few cops working for him. We’re going to try and camp out near the industrial section, to keep us away from any people.”
I could see a look of concern flash on her face for just a moment. “Don’t worry, we won't be anywhere near Contract. We’re going to hide out closer to the wall, still in Surge Gang Territory.”
“Okay.”
We sat in silence after that, just holding onto whatever was sturdy as we drove through the streets. Tóxica had been working with us for a while, and she even saved my life when I was captured by the Disciples. But there was still so much distance between us.
“Hey, Tóxica,” I turned to her. “How come you agreed to work with me? I know that I agreed to help you with Contract, but it’s not like you wouldn’t have had other options.”
She remained quiet for a few moments, before responding. “You freed me. I spent ten years of my life in the arena, doing whatever that man ordered of me. I owed you a debt, so I wished to repay it.”
“If you don’t mind me asking,” I took a deep breath. “How did you end up in the arena?”
She didn’t respond to me, just standing there in silence. But right as I was going to apologize for overstepping, she spoke up. “My father sold me. Contract approached him, and our family needed more money and less mouths to feed. I still do not know much of the outside world, but I am very happy to have the chance to see it once more.”
I wanted to ask her about where she went that day, when we attacked the Disciples safehouse, but I froze when I saw her. Tears silently fell down her face, sparse but visible, with Tóxica biting her lip to keep quiet.
I looked away, pretending to not see. “Whatever revenge you want, we’ll get it. You’ve greatly helped us, and we will happily return the favor.”
Tóxica didn’t respond to me, and we continued our ride in silence, dimly lit by the shuttered windows on the back doors. I had gotten so used to seeing her murderous side, the one that would tear through swarms of henchmen with her bare claws, that I had nearly forgotten that there was a real person underneath it all.
I had no idea how long we spent standing in the back of that food truck, the bumping road being the only reminder that we were still moving forward. Eventually, the truck lurched to a stop that caused my knees to buckle. I heard Frank and Reload get out of the car and walk to the back.
Reload opened up the door, blinding us with light. “Damn, is there no light switch back there?”
“I don’t know, no one showed me where it is,” I answered.
Tóxica and I walked out and surveyed the new place that we would be calling home. We were squeezed into the back of an alley, with barely enough space to fit the truck. Two buildings suffocated us on both sides, which would hopefully make it harder to spot us. There weren’t any other cars around, despite it being midday. This was as abandoned as you could get in the city.
Frank walked up from the front, handing out phones to all of us. “Okay, so we have a couple phones, but try not to break them. They’re all prepaid and I added us to each other's contacts.”
“Thanks,” I said as I got to work on setting up my phone.
As Reload and I were messing around on our phones, I noticed Tóxica just shoved hers into her jacket pocket. I almost said something, but stopped myself when I remembered that the other two were there with us.
I hadn’t thought about it earlier, but it made sense that she had no knowledge on how to use a phone. It would be best if we all had a way to talk that wasn’t the system. Tóxica and Reload could only message me, not each other, and none of us could contact Frank without a phone.
If we were going to be in more trouble than before, we needed to make sure we weren’t caught by surprise. After I finished logging into my accounts, I called over the rest of my team.
They all walked up, surrounding me as I sat down on the food truck. I took a deep breath before addressing them, building up every ounce of confidence in my body,
“Before anything else, I just want to say thank you. Thank you all for deciding to have faith in me, trusting me to get us through whatever is up ahead. Right now, we’re in more danger than ever before. Not only will the Disciples be hunting us, but they’re building themselves up with an army of henchmen and supers.
“But they can build whatever army they want, with a hundred villains on their side. Because none of it will matter. We will be the ones still standing at the end. I know what they can do, and it’s nothing compared to us. We’ll tear them down, piece by piece, until they’re begging for mercy. That is my promise to you all.”
I had no idea if we would live to see tomorrow, let alone that we would win. If they managed to get enough supers to their side, we would be dead without exception. But that didn’t matter. Even if everything was hopeless, you still needed to make your own hope. Force it into existence with everything you have.
That is how you have your small group of friends cheering for you in an abandoned parking lot, while you’re sitting on the bumper of a Mexican food truck.