Drew hit the pavement on the full length of his shoulders. He felt the grooves of the asphalt and the myriad street grit brand his skin through the thin cotton of his t shirt. In trying to get away he had let them grab his jacket and shuck it off his arm, something that gave him a few seconds to put space in between them, but left him shivering, hurt, and covered in dirt. He then felt a foot slam into his side and send all the air out of his chest. His side went concave and he rolled away clutching his side. Rolling onto his back he saw the shimmer of lights against the river on one side and the sleepy lots of abandoned junk shops in the Flats. He didn't know the name of the guy trying to kill him. Form the bulge at his hip, Drew knew he was armed and wondered why he hadn't just finished it.
"The fuck were you thinking, huh? You should have just kept walking." The guy wore a bright red sweater with the OSU logo on it and bright blue jeans that looked painted on. He had the look of a campus bully in in a 50's teen beach movie and the physique to match. He ran up to Drew and kicked him again sending him rolling into the embankment of withering plants and still biting thistle. He hurt all over and felt the boots of his assailant nudge under arm. "Stealing from me! Do you know where you are? Who I am?"
A car drove by and the guy crouched down trying to hide Drew's frame with his own. The attacked pressed his hand against Drew's chest and pushed down slowly, pushing him into the thicket until the boughs had no more give. When the headlights faded, the guy sucker punched him the side of the head and it made Drew's head pop into angry sounds and black circle. 'Isabela," he gurgled, "can you...do...this, please."
His attacker cupped his hands around his ear. "What did you say?" Then the air crackled as a shard of light shot past his eyes and the arched back to stab him in between the shoulder blades. "Oh, FUCK. What was that?" He reached for the shard and it burned his hand when he touched it. Isabela came out of a half crouch from under a streetlight. She was exhausted having held there for three minutes refracting the world around her so she was invisible. Drew called it "active camo" and he had showed her clips form all sorts of movies and shows where it was a thing. She thought is neat trick and appreciated she could pull it off with her clothes on. But, it left her an achy hurt like a bad cold. She just wanted to end this and save Drew.
Isabela had been practicing her voice, something of a modified teacher voice that could paralyze 5th graders in the next room over, and maybe could work on the non elementary age. It sounded OK, at least in her head
"Tony Georgia! Get the fuck away from him!" She said and then flung another shard at him the nicked his thigh. Isabela was horrible at throwing things, something apparent the one time she had to cover for gym class and whipped a ball somehow perpendicular to her entire body.
He ran at her and she also bolted back into the radius of the streetlight where she flared the half circle of lumens behind her and made him trip onto the pavement. His nose cracked under the weight and he dove into a prone fetal position. "My fucking face! What the fuck!?"
Isabela dug into every resolve she had to pull up from achy legs and make a short sword she pressed to Tony's neck "You are going to pick yourself up and walk back to the restaurant. The money my friend over there has is ours and we are going to give it away."
"You are thieves. Fucking thieves," he said in a wet guttural snarl
"I know people who work at your place. Who have other jobs and thanks to people like you cannot make ends meet. And you shaft them on tips and fire them when they call off sick and stare at their asses and you can just take the fucking L for this one time, ok" Isabela felt venom rise in her voice and any twinge of self doubt evaporated. She pricked him with the tip of the sword in the side of the stomach. "Do you understand?"
He bellowed and shook his head. "Ill call the cops. I saw his face!" She once again poked him with the sword and reached it up so a pinprick of blood arched up in the streetlight.
Isabela had not put much thought into this and felt her chest tighten. Drew had liberated the cash from the safe. Just where Jessica said Tony skimmed all the cash tips into. Must have been a year's worth. And then he just ran.
Ok, Drew had robbed them, but it was for a good cause. And then Tony chased Drew into the Flats far from the array of restaurants by the river and into the sleepy store fronts that sold safety equipment and marine supplies.
"If you talk, I swear we will come back and kill you."
Tony had one hand to his side and the other to his face. Both were slick with sweat and blood in an oily red. "Fuck, ok. Just leave me alone. I'll kill you that is what I will do." He then began to mutter. 'You are that vigilante bitch. I can't believe you are real, what the fuck. You know this is Cleveland. Not fucking Gotham"
Drew hobbled over to her side. Her voice did soften "Oh, you are ok?" She saw Drew did not have his jacket or hood on him but did still have the gaiter around his mouth. That should do, she thought
He wheezed. "Mostly." he said motioning to Tony "Lets take his phone and wallet. Take the SIM card out and then toss the rest"
"Fucking thieves!" Tony turned up into a sitting position and tried to get up. Drew kicked him down with a single hit to the chest. "Shut up! Can't you see we won!?"
Isabela made the whole world around Tonys head a bright white where he couldn't see. He screamed from his single helmet prison while they grabbed the money and wallet and phone and ran.
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