literature

87. Gunshot

Deviation Actions

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Literature Text

Gunshot


The parking lot was badly torn up, asphalt and pavement gouged and vehicles overturned and burning, crumpled and damaged beyond recognition.

On one end, Caleb's Little Heroes stood in varying states of exhaustion, breathing hard and looking fairly battered. Not far from them, Gabriel stood on unsteady legs, arms held up defensively as he glared at the four of them. His clothes were torn and dirty, smudged with mud, oil and grease.

In the distance, the faint pop-pop-pop of gunshots provided background noise to the battle that had come to a mutual cease in oder for both parties to rest for a bit.

"Nobody warned me he could drain energy. Why didn't anyone warn me he could drain energy?" Mike griped under his breath, tapping at one of the watches he wore, "Hell, I could have warned me he could drain energy if I'd been able to pull information on him! I've only got enough to keep me sane and send me back to the Void; I blame all of you for this!"

"Less talkie, more restie." Timmy panted tiredly, shooting the wanderer a mild glare.

"He's not even supposed to be able to drain this kind of energy! How the hell did he do that?!"

"Energy is energy. But I can't expect a fleshling bug like you to understand that concept." Gabriel snapped, rolling his eyes, "As long as I can tap into it, I can pull it towards myself. Didn't Caleb tell you that?"

"There's still stuff he doesn't remember." Danny managed to say between breaths, ignoring the puzzled looks Timmy and Wren gave him for speaking civilly to their enemy.

"And instead of helping him with that and getting him back to normal, you're busy trying to beat the daylights out of me." Gabriel growled, blue eyes glowing as he glanced aside at the direction of the gunshots. More had sounded, but they didn't seem to be getting closer to them. "You stupid fleshlings have no sense of priority, you know that?"

"I'm getting sick of him calling us 'fleshlings' and 'bugs'." Wren griped, tightening his hold on the Wonder Fork, "Let's just finish driving him off and go home!" The four of them rallied for another round of fighting, Gabriel lowering his arms to smile wickedly at them, teeth bared. Wings unfolded, weapons mounts opened along his arms and legs, and he lifted into the air, readying himself to open fire.

One more gunshot went off in the distance, and Gabriel jerked his head back, turning sharply to glare in the direction of the sound, blue eyes glowing bright again.

"He's distracted! Now!" Timmy declared, throwing one hand out to cast one of his improvised spells as Danny lifted his own hand for a Ghost Ray, "Lustrare-!"

The blonde android rushed forward, roaring in a fury as he pulled a fist back and aimed to pound it right into Danny's head. The halfa yelped, leaping aside and knocking his cousin right off his feet while the wanderer and the chef darted away from the ruckus and circled around to get a better angle of attack, blade and fork lifting for their own blows.

There was a snap that sounded like it came out of nowhere. One of Gabriel's wings seemed to leap right off his back, flying wildly off as its power fluctuated and sending the android crashing into the pavement, digging out another groove in the parking lot.

"What the heck was that?!" Wren exclaimed in surprise, looking around to see which of the other Heroes scored that hit.

"Gah! Stupid fleshling bugs can't even keep things to themselves!" Gabriel fumed as he pulled himself out of the trench and reached one hand back to grip at his shoulder, "And you wonder why I can't wait to kill you all?!" He grimaced, eyes darting to each of them before hanging his head and sighing harshly. "Well, I can't very well let Caleb see me like this. No one likes a filthy android king, after all." he griped loudly enough for them to hear, "I'll let you off this time, but rest assured, fleshlings, that next time I will be the one to kill you." And in a flash of light he was gone, leaving behind the broken wing.

"That was... weird." Timmy remarked in confusion as Mike went over to poke at the wing and pick it up -'Ooh, souvenir!'-.

"Yeah. Really weird." Danny agreed, strange expression on his face as he floated over to the patch of pavement they had been standing on before that bizarre skirmish took place, "Gabriel doesn't do close range combat if he can help it. He's like Caleb there. So why would he suddenly jump right at us?"

He paused and blinked as he spotted a few pieces of shrapnel that didn't belong to the broken wing or any of their weapons. Danny reached down and picked them up, bringing them close to his face for a better look and getting a whiff of a strange scent. Puzzled, Danny turned and held out the bits of metal to his cousin.

"Hey, Tim-Tim, what do you make of this?" he asked. Timmy tilted his head, then reached out to pick out a piece and sniff at it himself, rubbing his fingertips over the metal.

"It's a bullet. Pretty big one, but I don't know the exact kind." the brunet replied with a shrug, setting the piece back down in his cousin's hand, "What's that got to do with anything?"

"I think this is what shot off Gabriel's wing." Danny told him as the others drifted closer to hear him. Wren folded his arms over his chest, eyebrow lifting.

"Lucky shot. Where did it come from?" he asked and Mike jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

"My guess would be it was the shot that was fired before Gabe dove at us." he commented lightly, and Danny glared at the bits even harder before looking back at the patch of pavement again, thinking back to how everyone was oriented before that lunge scattered them.

If they'd been standing there just a second longer....

"That's even luckier!" Timmy remarked in surprise, eyes wide and blinking rapidly, a hand lifting to his mouth, "Danny, if you hadn't crashed into me when Gabriel tried to pound you into ghostly pancakes, this bullet would have wound up in your brain!"

"Yeah." Danny agreed in an odd tone, closing his hand over the shrapnel as he shot a glance towards the broken wing in Mike's possession, "Lucky me."
From the prompt list.


A battle with Gabriel ends on a strange technicality.


Mike and associated devices C: :icontitanofelements:
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EvilVixen05's avatar
Aww... GROUP HUG! gathers everyone up, including Gabriel and hugs them all