Witnesses

Chapter 9

The Armory

"I am so, so, so unbelievably fucked right now." Miles muttered as he strapped his sniper rifle onto his back. It was a dangerous weapon, meant for hunting a variety of multiversal opponents much like his other weapons, but he doubted it would matter for this foe.

"How's he so dangerous anyway?" Hawthorne replied as he grabbed a communicator from a cabinet. "I've never seen you this nervous."

"He can kill anything, and I mean anything, with one shot," Miles said as he picked up the file that was left for him. "And he's immune to most abilities."

"Then how are you expected to kill him?" Hawthorne said incredoulously. "That makes him virtually impossible to kill."

"I don't know," Miles said grimly. "He's superhuman, and he killed one of God's avatars, right along with the Devil's too."

"What?" Hawthorne asked, and Miles nodded.

"He used to be that universe's Angel of Death," He said, before a calculating look took hold. "But...maybe I have a trick of my own."

"Like what?" Hawthorne demanded. "You can't really be–"

"If I can separate him from his revolvers, I might have a shot." Miles replied. "And I have a ton of tricks up my sleeve."

"Any that will let you bring down a former Angel?" Hawthorne asked, and Miles nodded.

"Definitely yes. Perhaps my time manipulation won't be completely useless." He said, then opened the file. "Last seen in Percy Jackson's universe. Probably out to try his hand on other gods."

"Great." Hawthorne muttered. "But one more thing. Why are you so scared of Miller?"

"Other than the fact that he's my superior who could damn well erase me from existence if he felt like it?" Miles asked.

"Yes," Hawthorne said. "If it were anyone else threatening you, you wouldn't care, but this man actually has you nervous. Why is that?"

Miles was silent for a long moment before he replied. "Because he was the man who brought me in."

"What do you mean?" Hawthorne asked, and Miles shook his head.

"When we get there, I'll tell you." He began to walk toward the portal. "Take us to Percy Jackson."

"Right," The operator said, and the two Witnesses soon found themselves on a New York Street.

"Ah, the Mist." Miles said as he looked around. "Convenient stuff."

"You're gonna tell me now?" Hawthorne asked, and the gunslinger frowned.

"Yeah, I've got the time," He said. "Now where was I?"

"He brought you in." Hawthorne replied as they walked up to a bus stop.

"Ah yes." Miles snapped his fingers, but grimaced as he recalled bad memories. "This had been some years after we'd killed the Hopkinses, and a lot of people had ended up getting reason to want us dead."

"You told me this already." Hawthorne said, and the gunslinger shot him a look.

"I'm getting there," He growled. "Now, at the rate we were going, we were getting shoved out of the country, so we planned one last series of scores before leaving the country. The plan was to hit banks around the East, before pulling out to someplace in South America."

"But it didn't go according to plan?" Hawthorne asked, and Miles nodded grimly.

"Not for me," He said. "For my group, I got paired up with a partner of mine, Chester Clay. He and I did the killing business together, and we ended up getting along fine, at least, at the time."