A Simple Misunderstanding

Edge was wandering around the city of Los Angeles, having no leads as to where or what to look for. Pretty soon he was going to have to get up and leave. He scoured this city from top to bottom with no leads to anyone who would be qualified to help him. The only thing constructive he has accomplished in the time he has been here was helping out police with common thugs. It was a good thing he wasn't dependent on food anymore, as he had no money to buy it. Edge held his hand up to his chest. Although he wouldn't be able to feel it through his armor anyway, it was still a weird feeling to not have a beating heart. He didn't even breathe anymore. Everything in his body was kept going by the micro robots inside of him. It scared him of how dependent he was of them. Although they allowed him to keep all of his brain function and then some, it also came with the price of what he guessed was about half his character. He know longer had any longing for the things he used to love. Now it was all about saving his future and helping others along the way.

Edge snapped back to reality at the sounds of sirens. A high speed police chase through this part of the city? That would be a danger to most people nearby. It wasn't a busy part of the city, but Edge did not want anybody to be injured because of some reckless driving. He was able to spot the car trying to make its escape from the police, making sharp turns onto sidewalks forcing people to dodge the car, most of them making dives to do so. It wasn't yet dark outside, and there were quite a few people in this area, though it wasn't as busy as downtown. Edge quickly got up and behind those green eyes that he used for a temporary disguise lay a genius cyborg mind that was quickly calculating the course of the car, and was able to determine it would be making a sharp turn due to it going out wide. Two children were in the way of its path, but Edge doubted that the man cared. He took off, a red haired blur to anyone near him. Just barely was he faster than the car, but it was enough to reach the children before the driver finished his turn. He dove and tucked the two kids under his arms, and turned so he landed on his back with them landed harmlessly on his chest. They couldn't have been older than 8 years older, and yet their lives were about to take an awful turn for the worst. Edge barely dodged the car himself, but in that moment he didn't worry about himself. A hysterical lady came rushing outside of her apartment, screaming to where Edge hardly made out what she was saying, but didn't want to find out. He was happy enough that he saved two loves, he didn't need another reward on top of that.

Edge took off, just matching the speed of the car, but was more agile and was able to cut through alleys to close the distance. He reached for his bow under his disguise, which would have seemed to come from out of nowhere to other people, and gave it the mental command. Expand. With that thought the handle formed a bow and the string connected itself to both ends. With another mental command, Edge retreived his explosive arrows. Quiver four, open. A small hatch for a quiver opened on his back, and Edge gave it the appearance of a normal quiver on his disguise. After a final turn, Edge loaded an arrow onto the string, stopped, and fired an arrow at the back tire of the speeding car. The small explosion came immediately after contact with the tire, and gave it a large hole. The car tried to keep going, but was cut off from the front by more police cars, and was unable to turn due to the flat tire. Happy with this outcome, Edge retracted his bow and quiver and placed them back within his armor. Retract. Quiver 4, retract. Edge started to walk away, wondering what his next destination was.

Los Angeles, the city of angels. Otherwise known as the city with a crime rate that was a bit too high, or that’s what he thought the city was. He decided to see if the city held any persons of interest that he might target next. He had his revolver in its holster, and his SMG under the jacket. He decided to come with a bit more extra ammunition, that day, which meant bringing a shotgun. Not the big sized ones, those wouldn’t fit inside his jacket and he’d get dozens of strange looks and probably get arrested. That wouldn’t do. He had brought what was supposedly named the ‘Super Shorty’, but it was just a portable shotgun to him. He had purchased a few online because of the appeal of being able to carry around a 12-gauge shotgun without any problems. He was wandering around the streets of Los Angeles without a particular place to go or to be. That’s what he usually did when he visited states. It wasn’t too dark out, yet, and he wanted to go find a place to stay for the night. Though, he didn’t mind just spending his night out in a bar or something. He wasn’t in a particularly busy part of LA, and he considered hailing a taxi and getting to downtown as it was relatively boring there. The only thing that kept him there was a redhead. A redhead, whom when he got one fleeting glimpse of his face, had green eyes. How could he not follow him around, right?

Then there was the sound of sirens. Police sirens, nonetheless. It was a car chase, and the reckless driver who was trying to escape the police had almost crashed into him, but he was able to jump out of the way in time. He wasn’t going to get involved with the police and whatever car they were chasing, for he could end up being exposed as a man with dangerous firearms on his person. Sure the driver driving around like a maniac was a threat to all civilians who were just walking around the quiet streets, but one could not do much other than to tell people to look out and to dodge the car. The redhead seemed to have other plans, though, and as a true blooded stalker, he had to find out what. Then, the redhead dashed off, much too quickly for a normal person. Even Audrey himself knew he was a fast runner, but never in his days could he outrun a car. He gritted his teeth and had to hold himself back with quite a bit of forcefulness to be able to not just draw a weapon at the redhead. He was a superhuman, definitely. Someone at that speed was not normal. He slowly picked up his pace and started running after the man. He wasn’t fast enough to keep up completely, but he was at least able to keep the blur of red hair in sight. He slowly pulled himself to a stop when he noticed that the redhead had grabbed two children and pulled them out of the way of the swerving car. Huh, so not just a superhuman. A superhero.

Edge ran off again and Audrey mustered all his energy to chase him. He kept a safe distance between them, not out of choice, though, he just wasn’t fast enough, and he didn’t want to use a sharp burst of energy and end up losing him once he slowed down. No, he had to pace himself to keep the man and the car within sight. From what he could see, the man pulled a bow from out of almost nowhere, and he watched as the man aligned his arrow and shot the tire of the speeding car. The police cars blocked the car from making any exits, and the flat tire meant that he probably couldn’t go too far anyway. As Edge started to walk away, Audrey followed. He kept himself as quiet and as discreet as possible. This man was a superhuman that had just chased and stopped a car with a bow that came out from seemingly nowhere. He also had red hair and green eyes, which was an offence on its own. He couldn’t just pull out his revolver here, though, there were police cars. Even if they were preoccupied with the manic car driver, he didn’t want to risk anything. He also didn’t want to have to pay off any police to pretend it never happened. So he just quietly followed and decided he’d strike when it wasn’t as open. “Sally-Marie, looks like you’ll get a chance to see the light today.” he muttered, patting the side of his jacket that held his SMG.

Edge made his way from the unfolding scene, not wanting to attract any attention. Most of the people who were outside were directing their attention towards the police apprehending the reckless driver. Edge wasn't going to stay around to get anymore details about the man, nor was he interested to find out what other crimes he might have committed. It wasn't his job in the first place to help; he was just doing a good deed. Now it was time to let the people whose job it was to do that said job. Edge was rather unhappy with the police's ability to handle the situation. If he hadn't been there to help those children, who knows what would have happened to them. To serve and protect, that is their mission. I guess we are kind of similar then... 

Edge made some turns down alleys and side-roads, purposely avoiding the area he came from to avoid any detection. It wasn't in his best interest to have people recognizing him on the streets, high fiving him for being the local hero. Superhero saves the day again! Edge truly longed to be called a hero. He knew in his heart that he was an abomination though. His goal was to save these people, not to be like them. Edge was a cyborg, not a superhuman. Not even a human.

It was getting darker, Edge had been wandering around for a long time already. Perhaps it was time to leave this city, as there was nothing here for him. There wasn't any need for him to sleep or rest, the nanobots could keep him going on forever. Edge doubted he even had the ability to sleep anymore. It troubled him. There wasn't any need or longing to do these things that made him human, but it just made him feel weird that he didn't. If he ever finished his mission, he might just have himself demolished.

Edge was getting into a rougher part of the city. It wasn't rough in the sense of gangs and muggings. It was rough in the sense of desperation. Very few people here had anything. Edge would attract very little attention here, aside from having an unusual combination of red hair and green eyes. He didn't even plan on having those features, he chose his disguises at random based on his previous ones. He always tried to stay apart from his past disguises. All he had on was a simple t-shirt and some plain looking jeans. Although it wasn't a gang related neighborhood, these people were desperate enough to steal from somebody if they thought it could help them pay for water or get food on the table. This place was depressing, even to a cyborg.

Oh, but Edge had already attracted the attention of this sociopathic gunman who had decided to devote his night to following the cyborg. Whatever stunt the man did, apparently he did not want to be congratulated or treated like a hero because of it. He kept the distance between himself and Edge close, but not too close. He didn’t want to come off too stalkerish, but he didn’t want to lose the trail either. He wanted to find a nice, quiet place, where he could pursue the person he thought was a super human.

Edge was headed through alleys, away from the main area and where they had come from. Audrey thought it perfect, because this way, they were further away from people who could report any mishappenings. It was getting darker too, which helped him out with the sneaking a bit, since it meant that he could at least hide in the shadows. He was considering his options on how to approach the man. He could just call him out and talk, or he could pull out his gun and let the gun talk. Sally Marie was itching for some conversation, after all. He mentally listed down all the things he would do if this man was actually his wife’s murderer. Though, while following the guy, he remembered that his wife was killed in Chicago, and a mugger with super powers wasn’t going to be able to get to Los Angeles, right? Who knew, but what he did know was that the murderer did not have super speed. Whatever, the guy he was tailing was a super, and all supers needed to go down.

They were entering a sad, depressing part of the city of Los Angeles. Audrey couldn’t help but feel a bit bad for the people. They looked at him with hopeful, yet jealous eyes, and he decided that it was the expensive suit he had on. He tossed a few dollars at one he found the most pathetic and pitiful, and carried on following the red head. He suddenly felt a hint of nostalgia while walking through the sad place. Like he was back in Chicago, in the dirty part of the city, watching from afar as the kids his age played and attacked each other. He wondered for a moment, what had become of those ruffians anyway?

Once he thought it was quiet enough, and that there was going to be very few witnesses, he pulled out his revolver and clicked the hammer. It was the easiest way for him to attract attention, because of the all too familiar sound of a gun. The revolver was also the most easily accessible of his guns, anyway. “You.” he said, making his voice as loud and as clear as he could. He wanted it to sound serious, and maybe a bit menacing. “You’re a super.” he didn’t usually just approach something he didn’t know like this, but the man had red hair and green eyes. Red hair and green eyes made him do drastic things without thinking them out properly in advance.

Fear was one of the emotions that the good doctor purposely took from Edge, and fear was definitely not something he was feeling at that moment. This man's heat signature had been the only one near that incident with the speeding man that lingered, and it turned out that he had indeed been following Edge. Edge led him straight into a place that he believed would allow this man to confront him if he were in fact trailing him. There were almost no witnesses out at this time, and even then none would be calling police. If he needed to have a showdown with this man, this would be the place. Edge turned around to face the man, keeping up his facade of being a regular human. He could tell that this man held no super powers of his own, but seemed to be in peak condition for a human. He also held a loaded firearm at Edge.

 There were many abandoned buildings on one side of the street that had been taken down in a fire years before, and nobody bothered to rebuild them. On the other side were tenements where Edge considered off-limits as there were currently people inside. Behind him was an underpass and a small area with lots of pillars holding it up. Edge took these few seconds to plot out vantage points if there was going to be a battle. No ordinary human was in that good condition, and no ordinary mugged wore suits like that. This man obviously had a vendetta for superhumans, but Edge doubted he could convince him otherwise. He had witnessed Edge's earlier feats, and the look in his eye could only mean one thing.

Edge stared at the man from behind his fake green eyes, and moved at a great speed for having been completely still. The dash to his right took him behind the abandoned buildings. He wanted to end this confrontation without a fight, but he also wanted to stay out of a disadvantage. Edge stayed low and out of sight, but able to read the man's heat signatures through the building. In this way, he was now the hunter. "I will ask you now to please turn around and leave! You will gain nothing from this confrontation! Edge grabbed his bow, preferring to end it with one shot of his foam arrows. Taking a life was not something he wanted to do today. Expand. Quiver 2 open. His bow once again expanded to take on its full form, and Edge's small quiver of high density foam arrows opened. He loaded one arrow onto the bow string and stayed down, waiting for any reaction from this mysterious man.

Fear, however, was something that kept the heart pumping at a steady rate. Something that Audrey appreciated because it kept him alert and aware of his surroundings. Maybe he wasn’t afraid of a lot of things, but the recklessness and the life-threatening situations did get him excited enough to keep him going. The area where he did confront Edge was great, or at least he thought it was. When the man turned to face him, he had the time to properly analyse his face and put it up against the man who had murdered his wife. No, this wasn’t the man. The shade of green was different by a small margin, but maybe it was the light; or lack of thereof. His face was different too, as well as his stature. That was definitely something to consider. Unless the superhuman he had been hunting had gotten plastic surgery to change his face, this was not the man he was looking for.

Audrey still had his revolver up, pointed at the cyborg. He wasn’t disappointed that the man wasn’t the one he was searching for, though. He already had a feeling it wasn’t, and all the things he had witness told him that it wasn’t. Audrey was not going to deny what his brain said was fact. Despite that, he was not going to let this man go off alive. He was a super human, after all. Audrey started considering the strengths he had against the redhead and the weaknesses. He thought back to the stunts the redhead had been doing earlier, and how he pulled a bow from out of nowhere and shot with a pretty high amount of accuracy. Not only that, the shot was able to completely flatten out a tire. Maybe Audrey was a bit worried, but he had his guns, and that should be enough. Bullets were faster than arrows, weren’t they? The redhead was also faster than him, definitely. If he ran for it, he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep up with the assumed super human.

Then the man moved, much too quick for any ordinary human. It caught Audrey slightly off guard, and he quickly chased after him. They were behind the abandoned buildings, and Audrey suspected that the other man was hiding. He slowed down in order to neatly put his revolver back and pull out his SMG instead. More bullets for a faster target, was what he decided. “Turn around and leave?” he asked, “From this confrontation, I could be able to sweep off another super from the dirty streets of Los Angeles.” he said, adjusting his grip on the gun so he felt perfectly comfortable with it. He continued walking around, eyes darting around from side to side to figure out where the man had decided to hide. “Come on out and fight me like a man!” he shouted, which was probably not the smartest idea he ever had. There was just too much animosity in him for superhumans that he couldn’t even contain it.

Obviously this man wasn't thinking clearly. Although it made no difference to Edge since he had his heat signature locked on, it wasn't a good idea to scream out for someone to fight them like a man. His position would have been compromised. Edge doubted that the man knew where he was, but didn't want to take that chance. Edge edged his way around the building, planning to take this man from his blindside. The sun had fully set already, and Edge would use this to his advantage. The street was now almost completely pitch black. There were some lights from across the streets in the tenements, but there were no street lights and the moon was blocked by the underpass. 

Edge might have been able to have just ran away at that point, but he was curious about this man. He had followed Edge a long way and now he wanted to find out his agenda. This man was too intent on his death for Edge to just leave. It would be bad to have a man so willing to kill him just walking around. Maybe if he could explain to him that he wasn't a metahuman. He was just cybernetically enhanced. What drove this man to the point where he would be so determined to kill him just because he were a superhuman? Edge knew the man had witnessed his acts of heroism earlier, but that did nothing to keep him from stalking and confronting him.

Edge worked his way around the building to get around to the back of this man. He pulled back on his arrow and was ready to send his arrow containing highly dense expanding foam. As long as he was able to get him caught in it, the battle would be won if the man didn't have some secret powers within him. Even if he did, it would get Edge to show them if he got caught, so it would be a win-win. Edge crouched and snuck around the last corner, and fired his arrow at the ground in between the man's feet. As soon as the arrow was let lose into his bow be ran back to enter the burnt house. The house was ridden with holes, giving him chances to fire from within, but also to possibly be spotted. Edge was a fearless hunter, and he had the upper hand in a place like this. As long as he kept away from the tenements across the street and avoided long corridors that would lead to a firefight, he felt confident in his ability to win this battle.

Now that the sun had set, Audrey found it a bit harder to see, what with the lack of street lights and such. The darkness might help, if Audrey found out a way to utilise it. He could slink into the shadows if he needed to, and even run away if he wanted to. He needed to know what this man could do. See if this guy had any tricks up his sleeves he should record. He knew, however, to stay on his toes. The man’s disappearance, which he assumed he was hiding, coupled with the darkness meant that he was a formidable foe. Especially since Audrey knew that the man had a bow with him.

He knew there’d be a slight disadvantage on his side. After all, he was just a normal human, and the redhead was a super one. He’d have to strategise and play his cards right. He needed to know more about this man, and why he’d go out of his way to save two children who were in the path of a deranged driver. How the hell did he know that it was going to hit them anyway, the car was going in unpredictable swerves, and even he wasn’t able to calculate where it would turn to so quickly.

He took a deep breath in and held it, listening very closely to his surroundings. He wanted to be able to hear any shifts or any movements of any kind. He wanted to be able to hear anything that could give away the location of the red haired man. He couldn’t let himself be distracted, not even by the sound of his own breathing. The darkness meant that he didn’t need to close his eyes to focus, though he could make out the vague shapes of things around him. Then that’s when he heard it. Something he familiarised from when his uncle tried to teach him archery (He failed miserably). The sound of an arrow being let loose, which he would have normally thought about scientifically. He’d have to do that later. He knew it’d be aimed at him, or somewhere around him, though he did not know the specific area in which he was targeted.

To be safe, he quickly jumped away to the side. He wasn’t a clumsy man, so he didn’t just fall onto his stomach or anything. He ended up just cartwheeling back onto his feet and moving away. He examined where the arrow had hit, moving closer to inspect the foam that had erupted from the arrow. “Interesting.” he muttered to himself, but he didn’t have time for inspecting and thinking about it. He then started running in the direction the arrow had come from, he couldn’t run too fast, since he wasn’t sure where the person had gone. He guesstimated and predicted where the man would have gone and just decided to check out the inside of the old burnt house. He didn’t know if this was really the place the person had gone inside, but it was a start.

Edge hid within the dark shadows of the  house's second story, stalking his prey. What would possess a man to go to such lengths to kill somebody that Edge doubted he knew very well. Many possibilities ran through Edge's head, but he didn't believe any of them until he knew for sure. More than anything, it was curiosity that kept Edge in that house. He sneaked with the stealth of a panther, stalking his prey and getting ready to strike. Quiver 2, close. Edge hugged the shadow, preparing his next attack. He doubted that he would be able to do much with his arrows alone, and planned a joint attack to hopefully leave this man unarmed. At that point there might be hope for Edge to end this confrontation peacefully. Quiver 1, open.

The small bundle of cryogenic arrows revealed themselves to Edge. Before he took one out, he placed his bow on his back and took out his swords. The light that appears from them would be a great distraction for Edge. Hopefully it would be enough to let him get the drop on this man. Edge set the swords down on the ground, still being careful to not make any noise. The energy from the sword wouldn't make any light until they fully expanded, making a great trap. As Edge moved away from the spot he placed his swords, he retrieved his bow off of his back and got out one cryogenic arrow. Quiver 1, close. Edge placed the arrow on the bowstring and started to put his plan into motion.

Sabers, expand. With that mental command, his sabers expanded, making a bright light from another position. Edge was hoping it would throw him off, unless the man's eyes hadn't already adjusted to the dark of the house. Letting go of the string, the arrow sailed through the air, its mark once again the space between the man's feet. Liquid nitrogen would be released from the arrow tip, spraying in a 2 foot radius. Bow, retract. Edge sprung into action, placing the bow on his back as he dove over the railing. Sabers, return. His hands were held out for the sabers to return to, and he completed his dive into a flip as he felt them return to his grasp. Being in the air was a bad position for him. This man obviously had good reflexes, and a high fire rate weapon wouldn't be good for Edge if the man's aim was just as good. If no bullets found his head, Edge would be able to play dead or shrug it off. The pain would definitely throw him off. All the years of skateboarding still meant nothing in terms of resisting the pain of a bullet wound. That still hurt like a bitch.

Audrey slowly made his way round the burnt building, taking slow, quiet breaths, as to keep himself calm and to not distract himself. The darkness wasn’t something that really assisted him much, but he would have to deal with it for now. It was a game of hide and seek, apparently, but the question was, who would catch who? He adjusted the grip on his SMG, wanting to be able to shoot at the slightest evidence of movement or other persons in the building. Continuing his walk around the building, he found himself mentally noting down his need for night vision goggles for the future. He knew, at the moment, he had the lower hand, unless the other person could not see either, then they would be on fair ground.

At the first notice of this bright light, he quickly aimed and fired his SMG at where the light was coming from. The gun shots, however, distracted his hearing. That meant that hearing the releasing of the bow was harder, which overall resulted in him reacting a bit too late to the arrow’s fire. He tried to somehow dive out of the way, which he succeeded in, but with the foot nearest to the ground pretty much got itself frozen. There was that all too familiar sting of something getting a little too cold, and he couldn’t help but take in a sharp breath. He hadn’t expected for that sort of radius. Maybe two feet wasn’t the biggest radius, but the light show had definitely done the trick to distract Audrey. He had already decided in his mind that if he hadn’t shot at the lightsource, he would’ve been able to dive out of the way safely.

From his position on the ground, he started firing the rest of the bullets in his SMG in a sort of circular motion, to try and cover the area in front of him. Hopefully, that would pose a good distraction as he pulled his foot out of the ice. The awkward position meant that he had to bash it with the butt of his SMG, before quickly rolling onto his feet and standing up again. His foot was a bit numb, but he was going to have to grin and bear it. He blamed himself for his own trigger happiness about the whole situation. Hopefully, the numbness of his foot wouldn’t hinder him too much. He had a fight to win, after all, and he was determined not to lose to any odd lousy super human.

Audrey was going to have to concentrate. No more random shooting and wasting of ammunition. From his observations, the man had two kinds of arrows at least. One that released some sort of dense substance, and another that released what he thought was liquid nitrogen. Either that, or something else that was great at flash freezing feet. He put his feet into a much better stance than just standing around, ready for any sort of attack. He quickly reloaded his SMG and proceeded to try and stop the numbness in his foot with a little bit of bouncing. He couldn’t run, because then he wouldn’t know where the super was, but for now, he knew the general area of where he was, because of where the arrow was fired from. At least he thought he knew, anyway. All he needed was the man to come into view, then he could shoot him a few times, and it’d be done. He just needed to wait for the right moment to strike, instead of just shooting randomly.