tell me, would you kill to save a life ; 14/14
iii. rebirth
“I have eyes on him, the … Eye?” Chanyeol says, in a hesitant voice.
Kyungsoo chuckles next to him, and Jongdae flashes him an amused smile. It’s almost scary to see Kyungsoo laughs when he’s wearing his costume, since the mask on his lower face and the one covering his eyes freeze his features most of the time. The only physical sign that he’s laughing is in his eyebrows shooting up from behind the white mask and, coupled with the angry look carved in said mask, the effect is quite… disturbing.
“Thank you, Inferno,” Dahye’s voice buzzes in their earpieces.
“Sorry,” Chanyeol sighs. “But honestly… The Eye? Couldn’t you go with a better code name?”
“No, mister I have red hair so Inferno will sound so good. I’m the Eye because I see everything. And by everything I mean even you scratching your balls.”
“Fuck” Chanyeol curses.
There’s some ruffling on the other side of the line, soon covered by Jongin’s chuckles. Jongdae lets out a sigh.
“Come on, guys,” he says, pressing on his own earpiece. “Focus. Don’t forget who we’re dealing with tonight.”
Jongdae glances at Kyungsoo, pleased to see that the latter has shifted back into his serious mode. On the rooftop across from them, he catches both Jongin and Chanyeol’s silhouettes crouching down in the darkness. Chanyeol’s hair is far from being discreet and because he refused to have a hood in his costume, it catches every glare coming from the streetlights. Just like everyone, Jongdae likes teasing him about it, but he must admit that Chanyeol does look good in his Inferno suit. The same red is painted all over the inside of his cape, and when he swoops down on his prey, he looks like a phoenix.
Oh. That would have been a much better code name.
“He’s moving” Jongin says.
Jongdae catches Jongin’s bird-like profile peeking out and he holds back a smile.
“I saw. The Eye?”
“Yes, I confirm. He’s heading north.”
Jongdae and Kyungsoo exchange a look. After days and days of trying to catch him, it looks like tonight everything is finally going smoothly. Kyungsoo makes to get up, but Jongdae catches him by the wrist and shakes his head. Kyungsoo frowns at him, suspicious.
“Inferno, Heize, I want you both after the guys he was talking to. I’m sending you Nameless.”
Kyungsoo pulls out from Jongdae’s grip.
“What?!” he hisses with outrage just as Chanyeol’s voice goes, “Uh that still sounds ugly to me” in their ears.
Jongdae presses a hand over Kyungsoo’s mouth before the latter can protest again - and blow up their cover by doing so.
“He’s too dangerous, and you know it. Now stop sulking and go stop some bad guys.” He pauses and smirks. “And Park’s right. It does sound quite ugly.”
Kyungsoo pulls away again, but this time, he doesn’t protest. He glares at Jongdae though, in a very aggressive and intimidating way and silently straightens up, his cape flapping against his ankles. Jongdae watches him as he joins the fire escape staircases in a few strides, then follows his descent carefully. Kyungsoo starts mumbling when he’s halfway down.
“Ugly,” he says. “I just don’t want a code name. It’s less ugly that freaking Alpha and stupid Inferno.”
Jongdae rolls his eyes but keeps their frequency clear, just in case. He gets closer to the edge and glances at the gloomy square down below. The four men they’ve been watching for the past half hour are still there, and from the sound of it, they’re bragging about the ‘deal’ they just made. Jongdae would snort if he wasn’t feeling so nervous. He looks for Chanyeol, Jongin and Kyungsoo and finally catch them moving slowly in the darkness of the alley. He thinks he hears Dahye holding her breath in his earpiece.
Jongin is the first one to jump out of the darkness. The only streetlight left in the square barely lands on him that he has already swooped down on one of the men. The three others jump backwards with a yelp, and Jongin looks up at them, still crouched down on his first target’s chest.
“Who the fuck are you?” one man says. “Hey, why are you wearing Heize’s costume? Isn’t she supposed to be a chick?”
He pulls out a gun from his belt. Something flies past him, and Jongdae’s heart misses a beat as he catches Chanyeol’s blade obviously missing its target and landing on the grass a few feet behind the armed man. The latter opens fire.
Jongdae hastily gets back up on his feet, ready to jump from the roof, but Dahye’s voice stops him.
“Wait!” she orders, and he does, even if he really doesn’t want to.
He looks down. Both Kyungsoo and Chanyeol have come out of the darkness now. Chanyeol has disarmed the leader and is currently tackling him. Kyungsoo’s gangster already has his face pressed against the concrete as Kyungsoo pulls hard on his arm, and Jongin is easily dodging the last man’s messy punches. Something floods Jongdae’s heart that is not quite pride, but also not only relief.
“I’m keeping my eyes on them,” Dahye says. She chuckles. “Pun intended. Now, go north.”
Jongdae’s heart leaps into his throat. It’s his turn now. Adrenaline immediately floods his veins and he welcomes it with pleasure as he dashes off towards the edge of the roof. A simple push on his legs has him flying over the dark alley and landing smoothly on the other roof. He can already hear him, so close, so relaxed. Jongdae has to tone down the feeling of victory already taking over him though, because he knows better than anyone else how difficult it is to actually stop him. They’ve been trying for the past few months after all.
He immediately forks when he lands on a third roof, and when he reaches the edge, he doesn’t jump over the alley this time. He opens his arms wide and lets himself fall. His cape swells and flaps above his head, and for a very short second, Jongdae feels like he’s flying. He lands smoothly on the concrete, one knee down, and immediately looks up, his target just a couple of feet before him.
Byun Baekhyun stops dead in his track. His eyes scrunch up under his shiny black locks as he smirks. His long fingers curl in the air. Jongdae straightens up, his heart beating wildly in his chest.
Baekhyun glances over his shoulder, but another silhouette lands in the alley behind him, blocking his only way out. Baekhyun lets out a snicker as Sehun waves at him.
“Well, well well,” he says in his teasing voice. His eyes go from Jongdae to Sehun, and his smiles widens. “Alpha and Black Hood, all for me. You’re spoiling me, guys.”
He stretches his two arms with quick and sharp gestures, and two longs blades slip out of his sleeves, Baekhyun’s fingers closing around them.
Jongdae and Sehun exchange a look over Baekhyun’s shoulder, and even though Sehun’s lips are hidden by his mask, his eye smile is quite revealing.
Game on.
The little girl scrunches up her nose at her doll, her eyes filling with tears. Now, Lilac is all soaked and she smells funny. Furious, the girl kicks the puddle, and the puddle ripostes with a splash of muddy water over her new dress. Her mommy will scream at her so much for that, but the girl doesn’t care. Lilac has been avenged and it’s all that matters. She tears up when she realizes that Lilac’s pretty pink hair is now of a disgusting shade of brown though. She needs to run back home and ask mommy to put Lilac in the washing machine - even if Lilac loses her smell after that. It’s not like she hasn’t already lost it anyway.
The little girl makes to rush back home, her hands shaking and her mind rambling about Lilac’s uncertain fate. She’s a well famous doctor after all, and she knows that Lilac must go through surgery as fastest as possible if she wants to survive. Lilac is lucky though, she is the best surgeon in the country!
Just as she’s about to walk away, the little girl hears a familiar song. Confused, she looks around her, but the portion of street she’s in is empty. She frowns and listens closely. Yes! She knows that song! She takes a few more steps towards what she thinks is the source and freezes when her shoes stop on a manhole. She presses Lilac against her chest.
The song does sound familiar though, and it picks up her interest, so much that it makes her forget her fear. She crouches down and brings her ear closer to the manhole, only to realize that the singing has stopped. Disappointed, she straightens up and presses Lilac against her cheek before remembering, when the soaked doll leaves a frozen kiss on her skin, that she has to rush back home to save her precious toy. She dashes off, humming the song, and finally realizes, with great pleasure, that she does know the lyrics.
“Look for the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities, forget about your worries and your strife!” she sings out loud, and quite out of tune.
She doesn’t care though. Singing Disney songs has always made her happy.
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Thank you to everyone who made it through! Don't be too harsh, it sucked and I know it haha
Titles for each chapters come from DC arcs.