Bring The Heat

39. 50 Men Down (GOJS ARC 10)

Robin looked down onto the street below. Empty... the sweltering sun beat down on the roads of Jewel Street relentlessly.

"God, I'd hate to see this place in summer."

Ben grunted and walked up behind her.

"Ok, let's go over the plan again. Once we reach the border, there'll be men waiting for us. It doesn't matter where we go... there'll probably be at least 10 in every alley, building, and roof. If we can slip out without our guns, that'd be great; but we'll probably have to fight our way out. They WILL follow us. With how the situation right now is, we can't lead them back to the compound. We'll have to kill any trails, ok? This... is gonna be hard."

She turned to look at him. He looked determined... there was no fear behind his eyes.

"I still think we should get Mint out."

"No, no. I know Mint... she used to be part of my gang. She'll be keeping out of trouble. If she really wants to leave, she'll wait for us to leave and for this whole thing to blow over, then slip out silently. Let's not put her in any danger. But if we find her on our way out... more firepower couldn't hurt."

Robin nodded, understanding that Ben was right. Mint had the street smarts she needed to get out of here.

They went to the bottom floor of the building, and stood behind the door for a second as Ben peeked out one last time. Robin took a shaky breath. This was the perilous last stretch... as terrifying as it was, she was going home. She could see Wren, and BM, and Rebound, and everyone... she just had to fight like hell.

Cold, calculated, calmness washed over her. She closed her eyes... breathed out... opened them... and headed out the door with Ben.

All around Jewel Street hung tortured, paranoid silence of waiting for something to happen. The two turned down the long road leading far away to an alleyway that would take them straight out, and stopped in their tracks. Quite far down in their path, a menacing figure in a wide-brimmed hat and black overcoat slowly patrolled the street. It was hard to make out who it was through the heatwaves dancing on the horizon, and so Ben and Robin approached cautiously, hugging the row of buildings on their side of the road. As they got closer...

"Oh my god, that's Mint!" Robin whispered excitedly.

The two left the line of buildings and jogged over to her, trying to discretely pull her aside to join them. Once they got within 15 metres of her...

"Mint! We're getting ou-" Robin began to call, before being cut off by a bullet shooting through her torso.

She gasped, and fell back, looking down at her injury. Blood pooled around her quickly, and a strange purple flare seemed to be fizzling in her gunshot wound.

"NO!" Ben yelled. He began to form a gun from his arm, but was interrupted by what felt like a heavy punch to the gut, folding over. Robin convulsed on the ground as she felt the same strike, the purple flare now fizzling out. What the hell? Neither of them had been shot, or hit, or anything! What was that?

Mint now approached them silently, and threw her hat and overcoat aside. Malicious black embers emanated from her skin, surrounding her. Robin gasped, recognizing what was going on. She swiftly filled her wound with a crude plant repair, and yelled out to Ben, who was still recovering:

"She's possessed! If we can snap her out of it, she'll be-"

Robin felt a pistol's barrel press against her temple. Oh... oh fuck. She... couldn't think of anything to do! But just as Mint was about to blow Robin's brains out, a sharp disc shot through her wrist, slicing her hand clean off.

She flinched, but didn't demonstrate any sense of pain, and looked up to see where the disc had come from. Ben stood across from her, still clutching his stomach from the hit, but forming another disc from his arm.

"You'll hate me for that... but Robin can make you a new one when this is over!"

Thinking quickly, recovering from shock, Robin slapped Mint's ankle, wrapping a thick vine around her feet and tieing them together. Mint fell back heavily, struggling on the ground, before spotting her gun lying next to her. She quickly pried it from the grip of her own cold, dead hand, and aimed at Robin... but she had been too slow. Metal had already formed a barrier of steel in front of her and himself.

Damn... Mint had learnt how her ability had worked, and the flare spread would only happen to living organisms, and only if she shot a living organism first. If she shot the barrier, it would just be a typical ghost bullet, too weak to penetrate or topple it... and then she looked down at the vines around her feet. A living organism...

Shielded behind the steel barrier, Robin and Ben contemplated their next step. But then, both suddenly got slugged in the back by some mysterious force, sending them falling forwards! Robin fell onto the barrier, bringing it down with her, and clattered to the ground. She looked up to see Mint standing over her now, and pointing her pistol straight at her head.

Robin screamed, and quickly shot up a desperate vine, smacking Mint's hand aside. A bullet shot straight into the ground next to her head... of course! Though Mint had her gun back, she was using her non-dominant hand, which would be holding the gun more weakly!

Ben stood up swiftly and tackled Mint before she could try to kill Robin again. Except now, his head had been covered in a speedily crafted metal helmet, with a small visor for vision. He knew that if he could protect Robin, she could heal any non-fatal wound he sustained. He just needed to take bullets where he could...

A flurry of bullets glanced off of Ben's helmet as he tangled roughly with Mint. Robin quickly jumped to her feet, and ran up behind Mint as she smashed her pistol into the side of Ben's helmet, dazing him, and kicking him back. Before she could turn, Mint found her arms snapping to her shoulders, tied strongly around her neck and back with vines. She could break them if she pulled, but... that would only tighten them around her throat!

Robin held Mint as she struggled against the vines, allowing Ben to recover and quickly smack her over the face with a flat metal sheet.

"We just need to shock it out of her, or bring her near death! Try-"

Robin was cut off by Mint leaning back heavily, dragging Robin into her as her pistol discharged into Robin's shoulder.

With a yelp, Robin fell back, clutching her shoulder as it fizzled with a purple glow. Ben went to attack Mint again, but fell back as she let off a flare bullet into the both of them. She followed up by shooting Ben in the foot, causing another flare spread that stopped an approaching Robin in her tracks with another flare bullet.

Both Robin and Ben fell to the ground, bleeding from their wounds, as Mint stood over them.

Mint looked down at them... people she cared about, now so weak as they cried out in pain... but it felt powerful, to be so powerful. It felt good. The black flames burned not with heat, but victory, pride. She liked it... and for that feeling, she'd do anything her master said.