Catcall Part 4

Despite what the name may say, effort has never been my forte. After all, with speed like mine, it wasn't exactly hard to see that in comparison, most people were "slow" in more ways than one. And I wouldn't be much of an admirer of the greats like Lupin, Robin Hood, and Zorro if every theft was as messy as this.

No, if I had the chance, I would always pick the quick and easy path that keeps my face in mint condition. So, I should pretty much hate the state I'm in now by all means. My look at this point got covered in ugly mounds of sweat. My suit got decorated in thousands of wooden chips, and even my muscles were starting to ache.

Yet despite all this, I was grinning like I didn't have a care in the world. The feeling was so strange, so new, so powerful that for one of the few times, my powers acted on their own, creating an almost blinding hurricane, symbolizing my resolve as time slowed down to the point where the world felt like it was moving knee-deep in molasses.

In this state, I temporarily had all the time in my world. So with my mind working as fast as a supercomputer, I found the reason for this feeling rather quickly. Mainly because it was so primarily simple, for a good portion of my life, I saw what being safe and sterile would bring me. I saw certain perfection right in front of me; hell, I even got forced into it.

And I honestly did try to like it; I must've tried fooling myself hundreds of thousands of times. Yet I just couldn't deny it after a while. I hated every single fucking second of it! So frankly fuck safety, fuck serenity, and fuck going the easy path! A life without nerve is a life that I don't want to live!

So I don't care how ugly things get; I don't care how many challenges this war I have in store for "him" is because my victory will just get made all the sweeter when I show who has, the better nerve! With all that in mind, I didn't hesitate, not any longer! A touch of regret implanted in my heart as soon enough I threw Eternus straight into a Ricochet who was in mid descent while hitting all of his pressure points violently enough to hear tears and cracks.

With him out of the way, I "walked" over to the support rack holding the shooters and gave each beam a delicate "touch." By the time I got done, my muscles felt like they were on the verge of tearing, forcing me to slowly accelerate to the point where time started to move forward. Once that happened, I appreciated every fine detail of the mess I made.

Eternus promptly got launched like he was fired out of a cannon, crashing into Ricochet so hard he barely stopped their now shared momentum as they sailed off to the end of racks. At that same time, the structure holding all Gum, Port, and Frag got utterly demolished. Leading them to crash heavily in a pile of half-destroyed boxes as their harsh cushion.

I was almost about to take a sigh of relief until I heard a sound that sent what little strength I had to overdrive. It seemed that sense of determination got shared with the entire group as Fury managed to cut through my bola! However, before she could fall and trigger her transformation, I saved her at the last second. And like deja vu, we both engaged in another exchange of dialogue.

"Nice play, Fury, but this game is mine."

"Oh, well, I had to try," she said as I knocked her out in one gentle chop to the neck.

I kept the security of the place in mind and their expected recovery time with this new information. I did not doubt that The Cons would follow my example and make a clean getaway. But maybe it was because of my stressed-over mind or my newfound respect for the enemies who had far more nerve than I, but I couldn't let our next meeting be a chance again.

So using one of the many damaged boxes, I carved out a tiny message and hoped that my thieves in arms would humor my request.