Nightfury: The Vigilante

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Three thugs ran through a dimly lit hallway. They had sub-machine guns in their hands, but their weapons had run out of ammo.

For the first time in their life, ever since they joined their gang, the thugs were scared. No, not scared. Terrified. Years they have spent doing almost every crime imaginable, without the fear of law or anything in general. But tonight? Tonight they were terrified of what's going to happen to them. They were terrified of the thing that's chasing them.

Suddenly, three gunshots were heard. Two bullets zipped past the thugs, but one of them fell down with a pained yell.

"Hey! My leg is hurt. Give me a hand!" The fallen thug proclaimed.

One of the other thugs was about to go towards him, but the other one stopped him.

"Don't! Leave 'im be. He'll only slow us down." The other thug said.

The thug glanced between him and his fallen comrade, but ultimately nodded and they both ran away, leaving the injured guy behind.

"No, no, hey! Wait! Hey! Come back! Come back!" The thug yelled out, but the others didn't stop and soon they were out of sight.

The thug let out a frustrated groan and slammed his fist on the ground in frustration. Just then, he heard footsteps. Footsteps coming from behind him and gradually getting closer. In a moment all the anger and frustration in his head disappeared as he realized the situation he was in.

With a desperate attempt, he tried to crawl away, despite his aching and bleeding leg. His breathing got rapid as he heard the footsteps coming closer and closer and closer.

Suddenly he felt a hit on his ribcage and he collapsed down with a pained gasp. He was then flipped over and something slammed down on his chest, knocking the wind out of his lungs as he gasped and choked on air.

Looking up, his eyes widened in fear and terror as a dark figure loomed above him and his blood went cold. He was now pinned down by the Devil itself, and he was at its mercy. There was nothing that he could do to save himself, other than beg and plead.

"No, no, please..." The thug begged, but there was no one to hear his pleas, as the figure aimed the barrel of its gun towards him.

The last thing he heard was a gunshot and blood splattered on the floor.

...

Astrid sighed as she wrote down the final notes.

"Thank you for your cooperation." She told her latest witness as she rose from her seat,"I'd like to contact you in future in case of further investigation."

"Sure, Miss. I will be more than glad to help." The person humbly replied.

Astrid left the place and headed for her car. Getting in the driver's seat and putting in all her notes and other interviewing equipment in the storage. Holding onto the steering wheel, Astrid let out a frustrated sigh and slammed her head down on her hands and let out a groan.

The search wasn't going smoothly. Not at all. She had interviewed every person recorded to have witnessed or been involved in some way to Nightfury's work. But so far, nothing remarkable has popped up. All her interviews have boiled down to pretty much the same thing.

"He's ferocious.","He's dangerous","He fights criminals","He's making the city safe","He is a menace","He's a psycho","He is a hero", etc. These were essentially the remarks of almost every one. Many people held a rather positive view of this vigilante, the others were mostly neutral. There were a few people who saw Nightfury in a negative light.

She raised her head up and was about to drive out when her phone rang. She pulled out her phone and noticed it was from work.

Receiving the call, she placed the phone against her ear. "Hello?" A few moments went by as the person on the other side spoke and Astrid frowned,"Where?.... Alright. I'll be there soon."

Putting her phone down, Astrid sped out of where she had parked and drove towards her destination.

...

The place was, for lack of better term, a literal hellscape. Most of the thugs found there were already dead, and the ones who lived were badly beaten and injured. The whole place looked as if a hurricane had swept through it.

Astrid looked around the crime spot along with other police officers. Her eyes swiped over everything, taking notes and also discussing the situation with the police officers and forensic experts present there.

This place belonged to "Vipers", a criminal gang rumored to be working for an even larger and more dangerous gang, "The Outcasts". But this whole place was taken down by one single person in just one night.

Seeing what the Nightfury is capable of, Astrid couldn't help but wonder,"Just what the hell are you, Nightfury?"

...

Astrid walked through the hallways of B.S.D.I HQ, towards her destination, the morgue. Ever since Astrid, and by proxy B.S.D.I, has gotten involved in the case regarding Nightfury, any and all findings regarding the case have been sent to them by the police, in exchange of them keeping the police informed regarding the development of the case.

Amongst all that were also the bodies recovered from the safe house/base of Vipers, which found their place in the morgue. And Astrid was now on her way there in order to learn anything the Medical examiner may have discovered.

Reaching her destination, Astrid entered the facility, looking for the Medical examiners who maintain everything in this facility, and soon she found herself face to face with her.

Minden Melland, a young medical examiner in her late twenties. She was amongst the medical examiners who maintain the morgue and she was the person handling the bodies recovered from the crime scene.

"So, Minden, what have you got for me?" Astrid asked.

"Nothing much really, but I've made some observations," Minden replied.

She then brought a bowl, and with the help of tweezers picked up an object, a piece of bullet, from it.

".45 ACP, jacketed hollow point." the Medical examiner said, holding up the bullet,"Based on how deep it penetrated in the body, I'd say it was fired from quite some distance. Everyone who was shot was always shot at either chest or head, with few having been also shot at legs and hands and arms.

Other than the bullet wounds, several of them were beaten badly. And by badly I'm talking about nasty bruises, fractured and some outright broken bones, crushed trachea, fractured Jaws, skulls, etc."

The ME put down the bullet and took a deep breath. "Whoever did this, that person is deadly. Very, very deadly. I don't know who this Nightfury might be, but I'm starting to see why the criminals fear this guy so much."

Astrid glanced at one of the dead bodies, her face having a solemn expression.

...

Astrid was staring at the board in her office.

She was still somewhat unnerved after witnessing the aftermath of Nightfury's rampage with her own eyes for the first time, but she shook off those feelings in order to focus on the work at hand.

The notes and other stuff regarding previous cases were removed in order to make space for hanging notes of her latest case. But admittedly, there wasn't much.

Astrid had read every file, every report available containing anything about or related to Nightfury. She has gone through every existing recording of this vigilante, from Security camera recordings to anything found on him. Talked to every person having witnessed his actions.

And so far the only thing she managed gather were a rough physical description of the vigilante, a guy around or above 6ft height and slim build, and a rough sketch of the masked figure of vigilante, given by one of the people she interviewed, and a few pictures of Nightfury, taken from the video recordings of him.

All of it now hung on the board with Astrid's gaze locked onto it.

Her mind raced as she tried to figure out patterns, trying to predict the next move of her target. Her eyes burned with determination as she stared at one of the pictures of Nightfury, this one more clear than the others and showing the "face" of the masked vigilante.

Astrid frowned, her resolve holding strong to bring him to the hands of law, no matter what.