Stray

𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙊𝙣𝙚 - 𝘼𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙣𝙤 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧

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5:34am.
A pang of the metal roof shingles made them cringe and freeze briefly as they jumped down swiftly onto a lower-level rooftop. Stinging pain settling back into their arm that had been ruggedly bandaged from the previous day's happenings, but the anxious pit of the unintentional loud bang didn't last too long. Sound flooding up from the below alley.
"Keep quiet! Give me whatever cash you have on you!" A messy-haired woman in tattered clothing gripped a handgun, a young girl pressing herself into the brick wall stood pleading at the other end of the weapon. But the woman only rested her finger on the trigger, giving it a few tense squeezes, which acted as the lurking figure's call to action. Planting their hand on the cold metal in front them, they smoothly rushed forward and over the railing of the rooftop, stepping between the gun and the girl with their tail whipping behind them. The situation in itself was conceptually intimidating, but it didn't seem to scare anyone but the woman holding the gun. She rolled her shoulders forward, curling in on herself and further tightened her hold on the weapon which was shaking in her heavy hands.
      The masked individual glowered along the barrel of the gun and stayed locked on the unkempt woman who could only seem to peer right back. Their predatory eyes being the only uncovered part of their face made it all the more unsettling. "Get lost." A filtered voice finally challenged as they slowly snaked their fingers up to wrap around the long end of the pistol and steadily coax it from her hands.
      "Who are you to tell me what to do?" The woman's voice wobbled like laminated paper because by now her instrument of intimidation was no longer in her grasp. How entrancing it was to see a sanguinary circumstance turn reluctant when the instigator no longer held the emotional states of others within controlled clutches. But it didn't take a response as in the early morning silence the attempted mugger found herself stepping backwards and quickly stumbling out of the alley and out of sight.
     With the woman now long gone down the street, the masked person turned slightly to peer down at the young schoolgirl over their shoulder. "Head home" They muttered, shoving the commandeered weapon into a small pouch built into their pants as the girl nodded slowly but made no action to move.
      A small sense of responsibility tugged the one-time savior in the direction of affirmation and reassurance, but rationality reminded them that the leisurely period of early morning stealth only lasted so long. Time was limited to get the weapon to the police station without being spotted or causing a scene.
     After a moment of standing against the wall, a single sharp exhale concluded the girl's processing period, and she slowly made her way out of the alley as well leaving the heavy-eyed figure unattended. While this should have been their one and only meeting, the girl's rushed heartbeat which had echoed so weakly in her savior's twitching ears dragged them to accompany her.
With a quiet sigh that filtered through the mask, they jumped up to grab hold of a higher bar and pull themself over the roof's ledge. They let out a miniscule squeak as they nearly toppled forward, catching their shoe on the cement edging. The girl walked unsteadily below and despite the running mental commentary that reminded the masked person of the dwindling morning period, they watched over her in secret until the moment she stepped foot into a small creme colored house.
      By now noises from early risers from around the neighborhood made them all the more aware of how quickly the morning was deteriorating. They glanced down impatiently, sighing upon seeing it was now 6:19 am. Usually, officers would begin clocking in at around 6:30 so there wasn't much time left to get across the city in time. The price of humanity certainly acts as a hinderance.
But there was no time for such thoughts. Within a moment, they were rushing to the other end of the city, the gun burning weighing in their pocket and cold wind stinging their face.
At this pace it took around 10 minutes until they wound up in front of the large glass doors of the police station, panting quietly as short spurts of warm breath filled their mask. The cold only elevated the need to leave. Still catching their breath, the masked individual pulled the small handgun from their pocket. The body of it still warm from being held close to their thigh.
A single car in the parking lot of the station rushed their motions as they bent down to set the gun in front of the door. But they were knocked of their balance and stood quickly as the door opened and the bottom of the cold glass bumped their arm, leaving the gun on the floor
The tired looking detective looked skeptically over the masked figure with sharp eyes as they stepped backwards and built a low growl in the back of their throat. "Stray.." The man hushed, his voice creating a steam cloud around his face as he opened the door wider and reached down to collect the gun.
      The figure in front of the detective tracked his every move until he stood up and stepped back inside, holding the door open. "Come in" He gestured smoothly for the wolf figure to follow as they stood inspecting him. But eventually the two walked out of the cold, though Stray remained close to the door and kept a fixed distance between themself and the detective who now stood at a desk and bagged the pistol. "Where's the gun from?" He questioned quietly, his drowsy voice and clothing shuffling as he picked up his mug of light coffee filling the silence of the empty station. Stray gave a short answer through the filtered security of the mask, restlessly glancing around as the warmth of the room quickly eased their shivering.
     The interactions between the two were always limited, a very few select times that Stray had witnessed the detective during an investigation. But now they stood uncomfortably with an aching arm, quietly recalling the woman's appearance and the young girl's address to allow the man to finish filling out the sheet in front of him. So far Tsukauchi had expressed the smallest bit of surprise or confusion within the circumstance, but it became clear that his head was clearing. Waking up out of the early morning fog. After a final sip of his coffee, the detective set his silver mug down beside the form with a quiet clink and walked towards where Stray stood.
     The masked vigilante backed up quickly, a guttural growl filling the air causing Tsukauchi to now lay his hand on his gun and once again cue the wolf into action. Rushing around him and narrowly evading his grasp as they propelled themself towards and squeezing out of a partially open window. The detective rushed to the station door after them with a string of curses but upon stepping out, the criminal was no longer in sight.

      Stray could hear the distant detective's voice call out to them in frustration before retreating back into the station and allowing the door to click shut. The wolf sat with their back against an old wooden fence in a nearby apartment building's front lawn, checking behind themself repeatedly a few times through small holes in the wooden panels. Tsukauchi had given up. It had been a few years at least and no one had apprehended the vigilante by this point, but that failed to make it any easier to narrowly escape the trouble that followed the wolf everywhere. Unfortunately, the trouble didn't seem to be over yet. As Stray pulled themself up and picked chunks of grass from their tail, a deafening crash ricocheted through the streets, making cars scream from parking spots. The sky in the distance quickly filled with thick, suffocating smog and the expansive noise was replaced with screaming and bustling that echoed into the vigilante's ears.
      They took off racing towards the screams of many. Each stride becoming faster and allowing the wolf to tear through the crowd forming around the building. The cold was no longer stinging at their skin from the speed, the heat radiating off of the approaching destruction burning the air.
     A few nearby heroes were standing outside. Accomplishing nothing but crowd control due to the precautions and regulations put in place by the commission. Perhaps other heroes with appropriate quirks would show up quickly enough to collect the corpses from inside. But of course, the masked figure who couldn't keep themself away from trouble shoved their way to the front of the bystanders and past a hero who yelled after them as they scampered into the quickly deteriorating building. 

      Stray was met with a wall of fire that engulfed them in excruciating heat, their watering eyes squinting to keep the red dancing embers out. There was no way to navigate amongst the debris-ridden skeletons of what used to be offices so the wolf pushed all physical sensations out of mind and let themself stumble blindly through the fire towards the first voice they heard. An older woman clutched a sobbing toddler in her arms, coaxing the boy as she backed against the wall to prevent the two being swallowed into orange and blue inferno. Upon seeing the vigilante she cried out a weak plea and Stray scooped up her son, yelling at the woman to follow directly in their footsteps.
    With a shaking, snotty child now cradled in their charred arms Stray guided the two amidst the flames towards a halfway collapsed exit.
   The small boy screamed sharply as a beam fell from above in front of the wolf. They pushed forward, tightening their hold on the boy as he reached up to hug their neck. "Are you death?" He asked with his head buried in their clothing. The wolf had to focus solely on his fearful voice to hear the question. Continuing to trudge over flaming debris and lead the mother behind them, they reached the almost collapsed exit and helped the mother through first. As Stray handed the woman's son through the small exit they held onto him a moment longer, "Sometimes. Not today." and let him go.

   Now the first two were out but there were various voices calling out for someone. With a dwindling supply of oxygen, Stray bounded through flames which licked at their tail and legs like sandpaper, locating and guiding each person to an escape out of which they rushed to safety and medical attention. More heroes had by now gathered outside the building to accompany the victims rescued from the searing death that awaited them inside. Rumbles and plumes of more smoke stifled the breathing of the wolf inside as walls continued to collapse around them like a demolition site. The victims who were still breathing were all retrieved in the amount of time it took a team of first responders to come tearing down the street with their screaming sirens. The breathless wolf was now left to finally get themself out of the building, but with exits collapsed and flames completely engulfing the walls they only stumbled around clutching their arm. Consciousness slipping away into painful static and blistering aching lungs brought the masked wolf to shout out desperate curses as they violently clawed at a collapsed archway. With a scalding arm, Stray pressed their cloth mask closer to their face in hopes it may provide some sort of filter to combat the wheezing hyperventilation.
      Voices outside the building shouted that everyone was out, but a different voice shouted back a contradiction while Stray backed up and rushed forward to bring their shoulder against a concaved pile of cement repeatedly. Fire crept up behind them, steadily singeing the fur across their tail and blistering the wolf's heels with every backstep. Each excruciating charge against the wall let outside light filter through spaces in the rocks and resulted in various cries from behind their mask. A final step backwards and rush forwards sent the tortured wreck through the concrete pile with cement pelting down after them. The loud crash made Stray's ears ring like a dog whistle ad brought footsteps rushing to the back of the building as the wolf laid paralyzed and slowly gave into the sickening pain of burns all across their body.
     There was no movement of Stray's body that signified life besides the occasional heave of their chest as a blurred hero in dark clothing dropped to crouch beside them and shouted unintelligibly behind himself at another blurry figure.

This was trouble the wolf would not pull themself out of.