Hitcher

Sachin had been listening to Grace with some confidence. Maybe they'd get out of this.

And perhaps the moon was made out of cheese.

Then Danny blew the thug's brains out. Sachin suddenly saw what a half blown skull looked like in real life, in case he ever wanted to accurately draw it. Movies weren't very specific. They showed a neat bullet-hole. But this had the smell, the feeling (some blood hit him, not much), and the strange red mist from his brain fluids contacting with the air. The thug's formerly handsome face was now blown off on one side.

Sachin didn't barf. This wasn't because he was brave. It was because his brain was not fully understand what he was seeing. The man's head could NOT be blown off. That didn't happen to people like him. The most exciting or scary thing that happened to people like him was that he ran out of milk and the store was closed. People like him did not see half-blown skulls.

The thug gave a groan of pain. It was a long groan, the groan of a dead man. "The...hell...." he croaked, coughed once, then he was still. His remaining eye was still wide open and staring into the sky.

The remaining thugs did two things. Half of them ran for it, seeing that their leader was dead. The other half started shooting, seeing that their leader was dead. Sachin ducked as a bullet flew through the window and nearly hit him. If he hadn't ducked, and had been two inches higher, what happened to the thug would have happened to him.

The thug was dead, that much was certain, and was no longer a threat and a large portion of the other vandals were running scared, meaning there would be less to deal with. Although something Danny had not expected happened as well, the two other passengers were in shock or something resembling it and they were not reacting as quickly as they should have been. Gracie was just sitting there. She would get hit by a bullet if she did not get down soon. Grabbing her by the shoulder and pulling her lower into the seat so hopefully she would stay out of harm’s way and responded to her as well, “It’s fine, you are scared. Just try to get your head in the game.”

He was ducking down as low as he could and got as far out of the way of the bullets as he could but it still was not enough. A bullet pierced clean through his left shoulder and everything seemed to go quiet for a moment as he was struck with the intensity of the wound in full force but he quickly came to, knowing that he would only be a hindrance if he zoned out. Danny shot the pistol in the general direction of the thugs, he did not want to risk putting his head over the dash, and tried to see how bad the shoulder wound was. Watching his blood mix with the thug’s, the god hoped that this would be over soon because the last time he had been to war he had nearly been killed, it had not been a fun experience.

"No hospital needed." Sachin said, seeming shaken up. He placed his hand on Danny's wound and blue light shone around the area. The wound began to close, and the pain began to subside. Sachin chuckled. "And I always figured healing was a useless power." he smiled weakly and nervously, glancing at Grace. "Suppose it's a better one than I expected."

Then another bullet barely missed his head. "I'm not sure if I can heal headshots. Let's get out of this car now." he looked out the window. Hmm.... "You see that cluster of trees and bushes? I think it's just enough to hide a car...and it's pretty close to the road if a getaway is needed." Realization dawned on his face. "And running there is going to put us in the line of fire. We can run, but we might get shot. And I can't heal someone if they're already dead."

The feeling was indescribable, it was not hot or cool and it did not hurt or feel good, it was something the long lived man had never experienced, something he never got to say anymore. His wound healed, making it as though he had never even been shot there before, and something else felt different too. Danny knew what it was after a half second thought; his adrenaline was pumping faster than it had ever pumped before. The god had been in war before, most of them in fact, but he had only had the chance to fight alongside supers once or twice and never like this.

He reached into the glove box real fast and pulled out the bulk of an AK47 out of it, although he had to reach back in with his free hand to get the clip, and loaded the gun. Getting out of the driver side door and pulling Gracie down so she would not get shot, he looked to the two heroes and said, “I’ll use this,” he indicated the automatic rifle, nothing special but it would be nice and flashy, “you use this,” he then handed the boy his pistol. “I’ll lure them out and when you see them, shoot.” The plan was horrible and he knew that but there was not a lot else he could do.

“You’ve done a good job so far,” he said to the girl that seemed to be a little light headed, “we’ll finish from here though.” He then stood quickly and ran in the opposite direction of the hidden car, the one they’d be lifting in a bit, and shot his gun off randomly in the direction of the thugs. This was not the first time he had been bait before but the feeling was always the same, terror.

Sachin had watched Grace go to the car and knock the other man out in surprise. It happened too quickly for him to act heroic and tell her not to risk her life. Though what he really wanted to do was go back to his home in LA, hide under his bed, and whimper.

The heroes in his comics never had these issues. They faced all their challenges head-on and bravely. Cept Anish. Of course, Anish was based on Sachin... But he did eventually stand up to the archdemon Beelzebub himself. And he survived it. Compared to that, a bunch of thugs with guns were pathetic. When Grace patted his shoulder, he felt braver. He could handle this easily. Just a bunch of thugs with guns, nothing to worry about-

Then his ear was blown off by a bullet. Sachin winced in pain, but there was a mist of blue light, barely seen, and his ear began to grow back. He started firing at the highwaymen, but was sure not to actually hit them. Murder disgusted him, and he didn't need that on his conscience. He didn't know how he'd sleep at night, though Danny evidently didn't have that problem.

Then Grace came with the car. Sachin sighed in relief, then ducked as a bullet flew over his head. He opened the door and got in the shotgun seat. He then took a few deep breaths. "Sorry for being so useless." he told her. He then yelled "Danny! Get in the car!"

Danny heard the revving of an engine as it came to life and looked over quickly to see what was going on, seeing Gracie had gotten to her feet and was jacking the car that they were going to use for a getaway car. The girl was definitely a warrior, something Danny rather liked, and was driving it in no time while at the same time making a shield for protection. The boy was in the car faster than he seemed capable of moving and was yelling at Danny to get in the vehicle. Danny did not like being told what to do, being a god did that occasionally, but did as he was told and ran for the car and jumped into the backseat through the open window.

He did not get up until he felt the car was moving and had left those thugs behind. Once it was he sat up in the seat, in between the two front seats so he could look at the two people in the front. Leaning forward so he could talk to the two people more personally, first he turned to Gracie and said, “You did amazingly,” he then gave her a little pat on the shoulder. Then he turned to the boy, the happy look from before gone, “I saw that you were aiming too high to hit anybody.” It was not a question it was a statement and it was clear from the way he spoke, Danny was not happy. Not at all.

Sachin sighed, placing his head in his hands. "I don't kill people. That's not how I do things. You might be a God, and you might see things different than us humans. But for humans, killing is not what we do. For good ones, at the least. I don't need a murder on my conscience and karma." he said. He felt something at his feet, and picked it up. His face brightened. "My backpack!" He looked inside. "My phone, my laptop...and my drawings." He gave a sigh of relief. "Thank God."

When Grace said she was getting sleepy, Sachin shrugged. "I can drive for you Grace. Might as well be useful. I don't get tired as easily as normal people anyway. Must have something to do with healing away exhaustion or something." He saw her looking longingly at the diner, and smiled. He pulled out his wallet from his bag, and gave her a twenty. "You need any more, just say. You saved our asses today, and not enough money can repay that. Now, I can heal away some of your exhaustion-not all of it, I'm incapable of doing that-, or you can just sleep. Your choice."

Danny dropped the subject though he would not give the boy anymore responsibilities from that point further, putting his life in the hands of the inept was not a strong point of the god. His life had been on the line, something that had not happened for longer than he cared to remember, and it had gotten his blood flowing. This trip had been a good idea after all and he was glad for that at least, even if it had been more threatening than he would have liked but that was neither here nor there for the most part. The drive was longer than expected but they did eventually stop.

Once they were parked outside of a restaurant, something homier and it looked to be a decent place considering where it was located. Grace spoke of wanting something to eat so she could eat and the boy responded but Danny was already drifting away from the conversation. Opening the door of the car, the boy walked to the front door of the eating establishment in silence before turning back to look at the car that still held the two traveler. “You two can stay there but I am hungry,” with that said he returned his posture to the door and opened it easily.

Sitting in an empty booth, not a hard thing to find since the place was mostly deserted save a few people here and there. Danny simple waited for either his traveling companions or someone to bring him a menu either would be good. A thought then crossed his mind, his companions could leave him he did not want that but if they did he would go back to his world and call it a day, at least until next time they met. How he hoped they would not leave him though.

Sachin smiled back. "Thanks." He paused, feeling his stomach rumble. "Might as well eat something too." He got out of the car and walked into the diner. He sat down in a chair, and was promptly annoyed at the fact that there were almost no vegetarian options. He reluctantly ordered a pancake, and of course, some Coke. He started eating his food. "So, what do you guys intend to do in Chicago?"

bump.

The two supers sat at the table with Danny and the waitress arrived shortly after, asking for their orders and impatiently tapping her foot while she waited for the three to make their order. “I think I’ll just have a burger or something like that doesn’t really make a difference to me, and a glass of water,” he said as he handed the unopened menu to the waitress with the unpleasant attitude. The god never looked at her and simply assumed that she was your typical serving lady these days."I'll just dissapear for a little while," he said with a sigh. “What are you two going to order?” Danny asked the other two.

He had been surprised by the fact that they had sat with him, having thought that they would sit together somewhere else. Danny could not place the exact feeling but he got the uneasy feeling that he was the odd man out in this equation, the out of place variable. Looking out the window and drifting away from any conversations on hand he began to remember some of his past lives, nothing too important just the few peasant lives he had lived in the past. By all accounts he was completely boring and uninteresting, unlike the healer and the girl with him.