Numb [Sam]

*

Dire was laying in bed, sleeping like a baby, when there was hard rapping at the door.
He rolled over with a groan, "Who is it? If you are of no relevance, I will shoot you."

"F.B.I, open up! We need you."

He sat straight up, suddenly fearful.
How did they find him?
This place was supposedly untraceable.
Had the wards Errtu put on it worn out?
He'll never know.
He rushed over, about to open the door, when the door was kicked open right in his face.
The men rushed in, ready to find him and force him to come, but saw him on the floor holding his head.
Luckily, he was in costume, or they probably would have taken all of his guns and arrested him.
"Not the best greeting card but I'll bite, what do you want?"

A man helped him to his feet, "My name is Agent Daniels, and it is not that we want you, it's that we need you... We-"

Before he could finish, Dire started laughing. "You are really bad at convincing people to do things, did ya know that?"

The man just grimaced and continued, "We will explain on the trip, but the Ambassador needs you there now."

Dire just slumped and groaned, "I'm gonna kill the fucker that made me wake up this early..."

"Perhaps you'll reconsider when you hear who caused this, sir... Right this way."
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When Fort arrived to the Ambassador's headquarters, she was waiting for her.
She began leading her to his office.
"Thank you for coming on such short notice Miss... Vervliet, is it?"

Before she could answer,

"I hate that it must be like this that we meet, but this is a serious case. I hope you have contacted your friend to let him know we are sending for him as well."

Again, before Sam could speak,

"If you don't already know, you and your partner are being called upon by someone who knows you two by the Alias. I would presume someone you two put away from the past who escaped? We couldn't really find anyone on record of you two taking anyone to jail, perhaps it's someone you two thought you killed? It matters not to me, but you should consider just knocking them out. Anyway, thank you for your cooperation."

She continued briefing her as she led Fort through the twisted halls, never really allowing her to speak. As they neared the dark oak door of her office, she smiled.
"Welcome to the U.S Ambassador's office. It will serve as your briefing room today."

She opened the door, and sitting at the Ambassador's desk, The Demonic Dire with a plastic crown and a slushee.
He had his feet propped up and his exposed abs looked like there was a bit of ketchup.
The Ambassador looked at the man sitting in her desk with wide eyes before saying, "Sir, just what are you doing?"

Dire quit sipping his slushee to say, "Waiting for your slowpoke self. What about you?"

He would then see Sam and wave with a smile, "Hey, Sam!" He said before smacking his mouth, "I mean... Fort! That's what I meant... I don't know if the government knows your name or not, but they don't know mine so shhhhhh."

A man with no hair and a completely shaved face came in with a remote to the tv on the back wall and a folder containing some information.
"Alright everyone, we don't need to waste much more precious time. There was an anonymous letter sent to the police station local to the bridge that is proposed to be bombed..."
He put an image of the letter on the screen.
"We have no way of searching the whole bridge ourselves, so we have play the game for now. We believe that this may be an alien from the threat you two stopped the other day. S-"

Dire put his finger up, interrupting him.
"That can't be right. We pushed a-.... Er... Killed them all. There's no way there was any of them still alive."

"Perhaps it is their leader, he may have fled the scene. We believe that it could also be someone that you two may have dispatched before, or a terrorist group."

"I don't think a terrorist group would go with the anonymous tip thing... They would just claim it after the fact. This person wants us there. Probably knows that you will be monitoring it..." He said, putting his feet down, now interested.

"Perhaps, that is why we are not going to be there. We are going to have a bomb squad on the ground and we will have you on microphones, when he gives the location of the bomb... We will go to work. We are all counting you two to stop this maniac before they cause any damage... Good luck."
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After travelling to the drop off point on a roof, Dire fidgeted with his ear piece.
"I like it when you talk dirty to me..." He said seductively on the coms.

Well, your mic is working...

"I know you couldn't have forgotten our romantic evening together. It's not possible. You were head over heels for me!" He grinned.

Perhaps, until I learned that you were a low life mercenary who broke into my office for no other reason than for your own personal gain... Not to mention that the government STILL doesn't know who you are...

"Hey! I've been contracted to kill you, but guess what! I didn't just because of that evening. Don't ruin that."

Yes, and that you don't want the U.S government to be on your behind the rest of your life... Now, if we can move past this and be working partners again, Dire, I would like to see if Fort's com is working.

"You can figure out by her answer to this: Where do we meet this... Secret admirer?"

The cold rain of the stormy night was falling off his crimson caped cloak, protecting his otherwise uncovered abdomen. The rain whipped at him like little tiny knives trying to just barely cut through the skin.
The time read 11:40

*

If it comes down to the two of you, Dire dies first. Got it?

"Yeah, love you too, babe..." He said, rolling his eyes with the glowing red irises.

He looked around and tried to think of places that this person could be. Though he was joking around, he was actually panicking. They were running out of time. Standing here talking was not helping.
He looked around trying to find places that there could be visibility to all areas.
He looked down at his watch to see 11:55.
"Holy shit! We've spent WAY too much time here... Time for a shot in the dark."
He directed Sam's attention to the top of the news building that had a billboard that conveniently said "I'm right here!" due to the way it was nestled between two larger buildings.
He teleported on top of the building and drew his katanas.

When he arrived on top of the building, he saw... A kid?
He was holding a flip phone and he was standing on the edge of the building.
Dire couldn't really make out any of his details, but he knew that this was a kid.
How did he stay undetected?
"Oh. Hello Dire. Nice to see you."

"What're you doing, kid?" Dire sheathed his katanas, he had killed kids before... He's not gonna do it again.

"I'm exposing you for the asshole you are and make you make a hard decision... Kid."

Well.... Perhaps he was going to kill one.

As Sam made it over to the two, Alex waved as Dire clutched a pistol and a katana.
"Now, as you two know... I've wired this bridge somewhere... And the bomb will explode... And the train will go down. Now, you can either kill me now. Save the lives of a whole train. Kill a child." He looked to Dire.

"Or, you can go and try to save the train. Letting me go." He looked to Fort.

"The only way I will die, is if Dire kills me. If I see Fort move an inch in my direction, I blow it up anyways. I will only leave if Dire verbally agrees to allow me, a criminal and mass murderer go. See that camera over there?" He pointed to the camera on the vent next to them.

"There is a reporter who always comes in at 11:30 p.m to do his reports early, so he doesn't have to be at work all day. No doubt he is there watching. So he will see just exactly what you'll do, and the whole world will know... BUT. I will say, that you will have a slim chance of saving the train... So, what's it gonna be? Let me go? Or kill me?"

Dire couldn't keep his head straight. What if it were Nadia on that train? What if it were Jeannie on that train? Rozmer? Sam? Would he just let them die? He couldn't. Yet, he couldn't kill any more kids... This was just wrong...
He pulled the gun out, closing his eyes.
"Sam?"
The clock read 11:59

[[OOC: Sorry this is kind of anti climactic...]]

*

Alex looked at Sam and frowned.
He wasn't better than this...
Yet hearing it from her almost made him reconsider...
But he couldn't.
He wanted death, but it didn't seem as if Dire was going to grant him that.
"You'd live with the gu-"

"Don't talk to me about guilt! You are FAR from feeling guilty! But guess what! You are the most guilty one out there!" He said, feeling his rage boil over due to Dire not doing what he was expecting to.
He then looked at his watch and widened his eyes, "Oh, look at that... It's midnight. You waited too long, now it's time to pay the price."

Without hesitation, Alex pressed the button.
He had placed the bomb in a place where it would make it seem like there would be time to stop it, but no amount of strength of mechanical power could stop the train really.
Dire turned to see the bridge explode. The fiery ball was just on the corner, so the train would eventually just shoot straight out into the building closest to it.
Growling, Dire shot back at the kid's direction, but he was long gone.
He wanted to go chase him down.
He wanted to pounce on top of him and gut him.
Right in the middle of the street and hang him with his own intestines.
But he was trying to become a hero.
Who wants to see the city's hero mutilate a child in the middle of the street?

Dire ran off the building and jumped to the next, hoping that Sam was following and that he could get there on time.
Yet, even with his demonic speed, Dire couldn't make it in time.
He watched as, despite their efforts, the train plummeted down into the road in another big flame.
Dire just stared.
He had seen many mass bombings due to his hands, but this seemed... Different.
All at the same time, it was EXACTLY the same.
He stared for just one moment longer before he began to hear the screams.
The God-awful screams.
He ran down, stripping his cloak off, ready to get in there.
He stepped in, the fire not effecting him nearly as much as it should.
He grabbed a family of three, a wife husband and child.
He hoped Sam could help get the rest as he was running to set them somewhere safe.
The husband could pull his own wait, and he was probably stronger than him anyways judging his physique.
Yet the man limped along with his boy while Dire carried the mother/wife.
When he sat them down in a safer area, he looked at them.
"Stay here until the paramedics get here..."
He then ran to help anyone else he could find.

*

Dire saved himself from nearly getting blasted with the cold himself before saving other people from the cold and fire themselves.
Everything else happened in a blur to him.
The authorities arrived.
So did the paramedics.
They took over.
Dire sat down on a curb.
Head in hands.
He couldn't even look.
That was all him.
He should've pulled the trigger.
Since when did he care about the creds he got?

His thoughts were stopped when he saw Fort, the only person who would even look at him right now, come up to him.
He completely drowned out what she was saying, because he already knew what was coming out of her mouth.
"I've seen better days, I guess..." He said dejectedly.
"I plan to go to the hospital soon.""

*

Dire shook his head at the offer to fly the two there.
"Nah... I kinda need the walk..." He paused, "You can walk with me if you'd like though."

He pondered on Sam's question. He wasn't sure why that kid wanted him dead.
What had he done to that kid in particular.
Hell, he knew Dire by name.
He had NO idea who he was, though.
"Yeah, I could tell... I've done a lot in my life, but I'm not really sure who he could be..."

That was what frustrated him most of all.
He just couldn't figure it out...
Besides everyone in the world, who wanted to do this to him.
Dire was starting to shake.
He didn't know what to do.
He stood up and walked to the nearest street light.
As the anger boiled up inside him, he yelled out and punched it.
Leaving a fair sized dent in the pole, and a fair amount of damage to his hand that he would feel later.
"I should've pulled the trigger."

*

Dire listened to Sam speak, noting that she seemed to feel like it was on her shoulders too.
He was going to let it go, but decided not to.
"Hey, don't go putting the moral highground on me... I'm a mercenary. I kill for a living... It's on me, not you... You were the hero today..."

He heard the other question and kind of winced.
They WOULD have to go after him.
And it would be different.
"Yeah... Next time, I'll do what everyone expects me to do."

He looked up at Sam with tears in his eyes, "You know that really old cartoon about that squirrel?" He pauses for a second.
"Well the squirrel finds a coconut, and thinking that he found the motherlode of all nuts, he tries to crack it. Thing is, coconuts are hard to crack. So he spends the whole episode trying to crack that coconut... No matter what he does, it won't crack. FINALLY, after chucking the coconut over a cliff, it cracks. You know what's inside? Another coconut. I'm that squirrel. No matter how many times I try to do good, it blows up in my face. Then when I finally get around to the time I do good, I STILL can't do right... It's awful...

*

Dire looked down.
Yeah, it was easier.
Every time.
Yet...
The show went on forever.
It was such a long show.
"Sure, it's easier every time. Then I look at the flipside. When I need to be a hero, I'm a villain... When I need to be a villain, I'm a hero... It used to be that I wanted to be a hero, but couldn't help being the villain... Now... I just want to be the villain... Yet, I can't stop being a hero..."
Even as he said it, he knew that wasn't true.
He was trying so desperately hard to clean up his reputation, but it never worked.
It always came back.
"So... Yes. The coconut cracks easier the second time. Yet, in all the years of that show... The squirrel never did get to the center of that coconut..."
He hoped she could've gotten the fear he had without explaining it...

He began to walk, almost hoping she would follow. He had to apologize to some people.

*

With his head down, Dire continued to walk on with no regard of anything.
This was on his shoulders.
He hated that.
"Why do you believe in me so much? I just let a bunch of innocent people die..."
He broke off in tears again.
He felt hopeless.
All he wanted to do was help.

He stopped.
He looked down at his own katanas, and his two pistols.
He used to think they were wicked sick and amazing.
Now...
He just saw all the lives he took.
Innocent lives.
The amount that makes this massacre look like a scratch.
He was no different than the kid.
He really can't change.
He never can.
Never will.
"Ya know... If I could get rid of these powers in exchange for all the lives I've taken, I would without hesitation."