Ch. 76 - The Gambit

At the Central Park in New York, a bunch of families were either camping or having a picnic. Just when the atmosphere is full of joy and happiness, it was suddenly disturbed when 2 white vans suddenly came skidding in and a bunch of men in different kind of clothings busted outside the doors of the vans with guns in their hands.

"What's that?" Just when a blonde woman was about to remove her sunglass to take a clear look, a gunshot rang, followed by more gunshots.

*Bang!*

*Bang!* x100

Raising the rifles in their hands, bullets came pouring outside the barrels, hitting everyone in the Central Park without any shred of mercy.

"Good! After this, we'll proceed to the Brooklyn Bridge!" The leader of the men in guns, said after changing magazines and was about to continue shooting at the remaining innocents when the gun on his hand suddenly flew up, followed by the guns of the rest of the mens.

"What?" The man stared in shock as the rifle in his hand suddenly disappeared and when he tried to find the source, he was met with a heavy pressure that squashed all of his bones without any mercy, just like how he showed no mercy when he rained bullets at the innocent.

"You vile demons!" Momentum came flying in as she closed her fist, making all of the gunmen's heads explode like watermelons.

*Splash!*

*Splash!* x19

As one head exploded, the others soon followed, making the grassy ground painted in red while the survivors stared at this in shock.

This was the first time they saw Momentum, New York's Superhero to be this ruthless.

However, instead of being scared at Momentum, they felt like they saw hope in Momentum. After all, if it wasn't for her, then all of them would probably be dead by now, joining their dead families who lied on the ground.

"She's late." One of the victims, a boy, muttered in despair as he turned to glare at Momentum.

"You're late! If only you've gotten here sooner then my parents would have been alive by now! This is all your fault!" The boy pointed his finger towards Momentum and yelled at her.

The others, who were thinking the same, can't help but also voice out.

"Yeah! Why are you late? Aren't you a hero? You're supposed to save everyone!"

"If only you've gotten here sooner!"

"You're not a hero! You can't save my son!"

As the voices started drowning the area, Momentum slowly backed away as her eyes showed fear and helplessness.

As soon as she heard that there was a shooting here, she immediately abandoned everything that she did just to get here but instead of receiving gratitude, all she got is blame.

"Y-You're wrong. I tried my best to get here as soon as I ca-." Momentum tried to refute them but, she was soon rebutted by them.

"Tried! Don't try! Do it! That's what your job is, you're supposed to be here on time!" A blonde woman whose face screams Karen, pointed her finger at her while slowly marching towards Momentum, as if trying to intimidate her.

As Momentum was being drowned by insults, she suddenly remembered what Doflamingo told her when she first started her Superhero career.

[Flashback]

"I know you chose to be a hero but I want you to know that it is you who chose this, to protect this city. They might find you amusing for a while, the people of this city. But the one thing they love more than a hero is to see a hero fail, fall, die trying." Sitting on his chair, Doflamingo gave his advice to Matilda as she was trying out her new outfit.

***

Not only that, but she also remembered what Benjamin Parker used to tell her whenever she stumbled upon him. That time, she was downed because the Government wanted nothing but to control her and that time is where she also received her haters from her hero work.

[Another Flashback]

"What's wrong dear?" Sitting in the bench, Matilda was startled when she heard a voice beside her.

"Wha-? Mister Ben? What is it." Matilda looked at her side and saw Benjamin Parker, one of the workers in the Park.

"From the look of your face, I could see that something is troubling you. Speak it out, child. There's nothing wrong telling what you feel to someone. Though, if you feel uncomfortable, please forget about me, I'll leave." Ben said with a smile before preparing to stand up and leave.

"...If the people hated you for doing what you wanted, would you stop? Or would you still try?" After a moment of hesitation, Matilda asked him.

Ben stopped from his tracks and sat back down on the bench.

"It depends on what you wanted to do. If it is something that goes against their morals, then naturally they'll hate you for it." Ben scratched his beard and said.

"I helped some people a few days ago but instead of thanking me, they blamed me instead." Matilda couldn't just tell him about her Momentum persona, so she created a lie that is pretty much similar to her current situation now.

"Sometimes in life, there will always be people out there who will hate you for whatever you do. But hearing what you said you like helping people?" Seeing Matilda nod her head, Ben continued.

"You know, I always use to say this to my brother whenever he wanted to help some people but expected something in return."

"I always tell him that..."

***

"...With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility." Momentum muttered the words that Ben told her that day. Until now, she hasn't forgotten such wise words.

Hearing the words befalling to her, Mometum gathered air to her lungs before yelling out loud.

"ALL OF YOU SHUT UP!" While at that, a shockwave was produced from her voice that blew the air over the direction where she shouted out as the hair of the survivor and the bloody grass was blown over as if some strong breeze flew past them.

"YOU ALL SHOULD BE GRATEFUL THAT YOU ALL ARE STILL ALIVE BY NOW! I'M NOT GOD! I CAN'T SAVE EVERYONE LIKE YOU ALL EXPECT ME TO! I'M ONLY HUMAN!" Momentum poured all her pent up feelings into this, making the survivors and those who heard it outside the Central Park stop in shock.

At the same time, something invisible bursts out of Momentum's body as this invisible wave suddenly put pressure over the survivors, making them gulp in fear.

"I-I can't move my body!"

"What's going on?"

While some are frozen, some also fell on their knees, trying their best not to make their faces kiss the ground.

Momentum then realized what she has done, so she immediately calmed herself down, before casting a disappointed look at the survivors before flying away, not wanting to see their faces anymore.

Although this might ruin her reputation among the citizens but as long as she can do what she likes, she will never stop even if no one appreciates it.

Momentum doesn't know what will Doffy's reaction to this but she hopes that he will understand and forgive her.

"I'll just explain it to him later. Right now, my priority is to save the people in trouble." Momentum muttered to herself before speeding up in flight, trying to catch up in time in order to avoid further casualties.

***

While Momentum was busy scouring the streets filled with armed men, Doflamingo, who was wearing his Gambit suit, prepared himself to go out while he was listening to an earpiece where Alice is connected, telling him the locations of where the mass shootings are.

[Currently, there is a van speeding towards the Statue of Liberty, I suspect that this are the ones who will try to start a fire.] Alice said, through the earpiece while Doflamingo already portaled himself to the location.

Right as he landed on the ground on top of the Statue of Liberty, Doflamingo looked down despite the birds and clouds blocking his view but with his observation Haki, he managed to perceive the happening below.

He saw 5 men coming out of the van, with rifles and even an RPG in their hands.

"Are they planning to blow out the Statue?" Doflamingo had a bad premonition and immediately guessed the reason why they brought an RPG in this place.

"I need to stop them!" Doflamingo said to himself before assuming an assassin's Creed pose and jumped from the head of the Statue, free-falling across the sky before landing on top of the van.

*Boom!*

*Wee* *Wee* x10

Because of the heavy weight, slamming on top of the van caused the van to alarm.

"Superhero landing." Doflamingo grinned and muttered to himself.

Luckily, he was wearing a mask this time in order to avoid the Shield and the Hydra into knowing his new identity.

And what is the design of the mask you may ask? Well, it is pretty much similar to Rorschach's mask except that the black fluid thingy is glowing in white slightly.

"Good morning gentlemen. Mind putting your weapons down and surrender peacefully?" Doflamingo, now known as the Gambit, said in a calm and peaceful manner, making the armed guys look at one another before turning back their eyes at the Gambit and raised their rifles, raining down bullets on him.

"As expected. Gandhi is wrong. Sometimes, peace is never an option." The Gambit said before his cards suddenly filled the gaps between his fingers and he was dodging all the bullets that came after him.

"Luckily, I already engraved some runes on each cards." The Gambit muttered as he threw the cards towards the armed men.

Just when the armed men and the onlookers thought that Gambit is an idiot for throwing cards at armed guys, the said cards suddenly exploded upon collision with the armed men.

"Surprise!"

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