Bring The Heat

89. Those Who Cut and Those Who Bleed

-(DV'S OLD HIDEOUT, DEEP IN JEWEL STREET)-

The abandoned shopping center was swallowed by the night as the sun sank below the horizon. The only thing Corey could hear anymore was the sounds of his own feet, clacking as he wandered between Ingrid and his desk.

The poor girl gasped for air, a metal clamp around her throat, which gripped her neck and pulled on it, making it incredibly strenuous to breathe.

"Hm... this should do the trick." Corey mumbled to himself, picking up a syringe containing a faint golden fluid. As he approached Ingrid with it, she let out strained cries of disagreement, but they fell on deaf ears. She was not a person. She was Corey's little doll to play with.

Ingrid's groans slowly grew quieter and quieter as the fluid coursed through her bloodstream, and her body seemed to relax; listening closely, you could only hear the faintest sucking of air coming from Ingrid. But though she sounded peaceful, Corey chuckled to himself, knowing that she wasn't. The muscle relaxant only made it ever harder for her to breathe, which she could only just barely manage if she kept entirely still. She was suspended in the brutal state of suffocation, right on the edge of it, but getting just enough air to stay awake.

"And now, the grand finale! This one is a much stronger dose. It should paralyze you entirely..."

Picking up the syringe and wandering towards the torture table, Corey found that Ingrid's only protest was the weak hiss of air she let out, which she subsequently had to catch after. In that case, she must not mind!

There was a rustle from the rafters above.

Corey froze, and swiftly spun his head around to the ceiling... but in this darkness, he couldn't see anything. Well, it was probably his mind playing tricks on him!

"Say goodnight, Ingrid. 'Bonne nuit'! This is the en-"

Suddenly, Corey was slammed against the ground as something massive crashed down on top of him from above. Before he could react, a violent pain tore through his shoulder, and then the middle of his chest - dematerializing his entire torso, Corey stood and shook violently as something that gripped at his head rolled off onto the floor in front of him.

Rebound.

"You stabbed my sister, you fucker!" he seethed, grabbing the nearest object (a syringe full of strange fluid) and preparing to attack Corey again.

But he was cut off quickly as a gun was shoved into his face.

"Drop it." Corey ordered, gesturing to the syringe in Rebound's hand. He looked down at what had clattered to the ground in the struggle; a big kitchen knife. It was this that had been plunged into his shoulder and chest. Furious that he had been attacked by such a brute, Corey grunted.

Rebound followed Corey's command; he dropped the syringe. But then it bounced off of the floor, launching up and into Corey's hand that held the gun! Corey felt his muscles relax completely, and the gun fell from his grip instantly. He shot his other hand down to grab it, but Rebound got a hold of it first, shoving him back and shooting him in the gut as he recoiled!

Corey screamed as the bullet tore into him. To stop the spread of the paralysis, he dematerialized his arm - at some point, he'd find a more permanent solution. Right now, the issue was the angry teenager with the gun!

Dematerializing his whole body, Corey barely dodged the bullets that flew right through the air once occupied by his chest. A stab in the left shoulder and chest, an unusable left arm due to paralysis, and a bullet in the gut... he'd let this brat get the upper hand, and he knew what to do with it.

As Corey disappeared, Rebound cried out in rage.

"DON'T YOU DARE HIDE NOW, YOU PSYCHOTIC CUNT!" he screamed, lurching forward and swinging at the air, "I mean, that's how you do it, right? You hide away like a coward, and wait for the perfect moment to STAB SOMEONE IN THE GUT? THAT'S HOW YOU DO IT, HUH?"