Payback Part 2

At first, I thought that this place was just as bug-filled as Enternus' medical couch, but I should've known the truth as soon enough, a small storm of common house flies started to swarm right in front of us until it collected into a human-like silhouette. The silhouette in the half-minute to come soon took the shape of a short, pot-bellied middle-aged man with a slicked-back cowlick while dressed up in torn-up jeans and covered in a navy blue trench coat.

His face had an angular shape with a slanted chin and a 5'o clock shadow. I don't know how this man did it, but I swear he must have worked that attire together to win some hidden award for the slimiest looking human being on the planet. But that all paled in comparison to his inhuman eyes.

Despite the light purple pupils, if you zoom in enough, you'll see that they are segmented like ommatidia, revealing the actual bug that he is. Every time I looked at him, it felt like he was trying to see some new angle to exploit. Still, that didn't stop him from engaging in his fake pleasantries.

"Sorry, I'm fashionably late. Bug spray was a nightmare," he said in his familiar gravelly voice.

"Hi Buzz, how are you doing, buddy?" Fury said happily as she aimed in for a high five.

Unfortunately, all she contacted was thin air as Buzz realized that his left hand was missing. With wide eyes, acceptance Buzz reaffirmed his composure.

"Good to see you again Fury, give me a second, some pieces of myself got lost along the way."

Seconds later, a tiny cloud of flies appeared to reform a left hand that he twisted on. Once we heard a snap, he crouched to the ground in pain, revealing that the hand was bruised and battered.

"What's wrong Buzz, did you get in another fight? Do you need any-"

"Buzz can take care of himself Fury, let's just get this done," I said as a sense of uneasiness washed over me at the sight.

Fury wordlessly obeyed, moving back as Buzz collected himself.

"Don't worry, Gum, I promised I'm not getting chased this time," he said matter of factly.

"Look, I'm not saying I don't trust you, but I don't trust you. Like at all. But we are people of our word, so here you go," I said as I gave him the cred card.

"Aw, I wish I could take this generous donation, but I'm going to need a little insurance, especially with the information I've dug up."

At that moment, Fury tried to hand him the insurance obediently. Still, a familiar cold feeling of alarm washed over my body, forcing me to hold her back as I questioned the shifty shameless man.

"You don't get the insurance until you tell me the info," I said more seriously.

"Huh, you think you can press me? That's cute, Gum, really, but that's not how this works."

"That's how it's going to be unless you don't want this."

In an instant, my hand opened up Fury's case to reveal our secret insurance: a great steaming dozen of freshly baked ooey gooey chocolate chip cookies. Instantly Buzz's eyes grew mad with avarice as his tongue salivated the ultimate prize. He tried to reach out like a mischievous puppy, but before he made contact, I snapped the case shut and grabbed a cookie for myself.

"Now, now, let's not get hasty. I'm sure if we bargain, we can come up with a suitable-"

Before he could respond, I crushed one of the cookies with my bare hands and sprinkled the crumbs on the street. Then, in an almost cinematic slow motion, I saw the crumbs dissolve into nothingness amongst the miniature puddles like they were raindrops hitting concrete.

"Fine, fine, I'll tell you what I know, just please stop, you sadistic mad woman!" he said desperately.

"Tell me what this new info is now, or else the cookies get it!" I said demandingly.

"Okay, okay, no one has to get hurt!"

With that, I let the insurance go and saw the flock's worth of flies stuff himself like a pig as he gorged himself on each cookie with a euphoric smile on his face with tears in his eyes. The action itself almost made me throw up my food.

I know the lower levels weren't exactly the best destination for good food, but maybe Fury's cooking and my upbringing had left my taste buds to higher standards. Either way, I didn't want to stick around any further between Buzz's aura and his context clues.

"The info Buzz, now!"

"Right, right, sorry. First off, congrats on the successful heist between the money and Omna. You've guys have sent the entire underworld into a buzz, no pun intended."

"I feel like there is a huge but coming," Fury said in bracing disappointment.

"Unfortunately, I didn't know until now that your little skirmish had awakened a new unknown player. I wish I knew sooner, but you know how Krimo works. This city has more secrets than clean clothes. He calls himself Damage, and it seems to me he's been slowly making himself the king of the crap that is these lower levels. And he doesn't tolerate anyone stealing from his private stash. Robin Financial was a front for a giant money-laundering scheme/protection racket. Between Omna's appearance and your theft and you just caused him a world of pain that he wants to unleash on you."

At that moment, my heart raced faster than a bullet train as unwanted flashes of my past started to attack me from left and right. But even then, I still had the resolve to deny all.

"Okay, but we wore masks and covered our tracks digitally. What stuff do they have?"

"Quite a lot, actually, especially with this."

With a simple motion of his phone, all hope left my body as I saw an all too realistic hologram of a scarred-up Eternus. Then, realizing the eyewitness influence and Fury's outburst, all the dots clicked into place as my now paranoid body started to slam Buzz into the other side of the wall by the throat, fully willing to follow Port's example!

"What did you tell them, Buzz?!"

"Can't breathe, can't breathe!" Buzz said excitedly as she gripped his throat while gasping for precious air.

Before I could go any further, Fury stopped my advance, her bright orange eyes hardening.

"Stop Gum, let's hear him out. He wouldn't be telling us all this if he was going to betray us," Fury said without a hint of aggression.

Deciding to take her offer, I let go of Buzz as he once again regained his fake composure.

"I didn't tell him anything, Gum, I swear! They don't even know I'm here," he said hurriedly.

Seconds later, that statement proved to be a fucking lie as out of the other side of the ally, we heard a presence that had my head swinging like a pendulum when I thought I left long past.

"BUZZZZZZZZZ!" a mysterious woman said in anger.

At that moment, Buzz cut all losses, running almost instinctively towards the fringes of the Rapids. However, I remained in place, frozen in abject fear, realizing that years of work may have just landed me exactly back to the worst mistake of my life.

"Not again! Not again! Not again! Not again! Not again!" I said while wanting to crawl out my skin.

I almost thought the mistake was about to finish where it left off, but Fury made the right move again. As soon enough, she grabbed my hand and forced me to catch up to Buzz's pathetic sprint.

"Um, Buzz, would you mind telling me who's your lovely friend and why are you running?"

"Okay, so maybe I overestimated my expert getaway skills. And maybe, just maybe, I overestimated my poker face when they showed me Eternus' face."

"And you thought it was a good idea to come here knowing that fact!" I said in almost volcanic rage.

"What part of overestimate do you not understand?!"

Before I could chase after Buzz myself, Fury saved me a second time pushing me out the way of a thrown body. Whoever the man was, I felt sorry for him as he tumbled across the ground like a ragdoll. Then, with the crowd finally dispersing out of panic, we could finally see our potential opponent.

She was a rather buxom and burly Caucasian bruiser lined with ripped-up black pants, fingerless gloves, and a closed-up black vest with collar-lined light brown hair. She wore a gold oriental medal with a fancy large "D" on it to tie up the outfit.

However, what was alarming was her abilities which were on full display. Her whupping bovine-like tail naturally drew me to her hooves, but what got my attention was her Amazon-like build and short auburn wavy fringe with large horns that can probably skewer me like Chicken Yatadori kebab.

"We weren't done talking, Buzz; I'm sure Damage will love to hear what you have to say about those cat burglars. But, easy way or hard way, I don't mind at all," the woman said in a violent excitement while cracking her knuckles.

"Would no way suffice as an answer, Taurus? I'm sure we can come to some kind of arrangement."

"And betray Damage? Bad idea, and I'm about to show you why!" she said aggressively while in a wild charge!

At that point, we let our actions do all the talking; as we let the beast destroy every table, tent, and trinket, we jumped over as we ran for dear life. Taurus speed was easily beyond human, but from her sheer size alone, I could tell she was clumsy, giving our fortunate souls just enough time to dive out of the way as the woman tripped over a half-rotten fruit that soon draped an entire tent over her angry body. This gave us just enough time to hide amongst the rubble of The Rapids.

"So, what's the plan, Gum?" Fury said, prepared and ready.

But at that moment, I was nothing more than a blubbering mess, just like the night that took everything.

"What plan is there, Fury?! We can't fight her; our powers aren't strong enough to beat either her or you if things get bad. We can't beat her; we need to run," I said in abject terror.

In tandem with that, stray energy shot shredded through our brittle cover, nearly ending one of us as we saw Taurus from inside the tent slowly rip through it with a barrage of energy blasts. When the smoke cleared, my eyes grew wide with despair as Taurus came in decked out with twin energy pistols!

"You've got to be kidding me!" Buzz said in utter frustration.

"You can't hide from me scum; I can hear and smell you! Now come out now and surrender; I'm fine not bringing you to Damage in one piece," she said with a creeping bloodlust.

And with any courage I had left had vanished. For the first time in a long time, I had finally stopped to face the music and got forced to answer for the mistake that I ran from every day. Because there was a time, I was amongst those very same skyscrapers that apathetically looked over us.