~Formay, Police station~
Oxzy had a frantic call from Milo, the sheriff yelled at him to come, that paired with the usual siren. The siren meant that the station had turned it on when they encountered Pierce.
The villain.
The hero was already tired for the day. He had just gotten back and intended to feed his cat before taking a nap, but he knew he had to go. He set his things down and jumped into action. He ended up just listening to the call from Milo, not needing to talk back. The officer buzzed off the call. Oxzy quickened his pace.
He made it in time to see a black dust storm start to fade. It faded when the hero noticed the villain right away, standing straight on a wooden panel hanging a few feet above the ground. The villain's eyes looked right at the hero, as if waiting for him. He was waiting for him.
Just seeing the piercing glare from the evil man's brown eyes, Oxzy growled under his breath. He really didn't want to deal with him. But he knew he had to—he was the hero, after all. The villain waved at the oncoming hero, paying no mind to the fire bursting from behind him.
"Son of a bitch..." Oxzy cursed once again. "I can't just have one good day, can I?"
"Finally!" Pierce yelled out, waving back and forth before putting his hands down. "Come and play with me. I'm getting bored."
Even though Oxzy didn't want to give in to him, give in to what Pierce wanted, he had to do it, sucking up his anger before it could burst out. Oxzy swung his hand back before moving it forward in the villain's direction. The villain dodged the spraying attack, moving sideways and down off the panel. The spike flew past his head, hitting the broken wood that was once behind him.
The spike of ice that came from Oxzy made the sheriff jump. He jumped back in fear, looking up to see that the villain and hero were locked in a jumbled fight. Milo had seen this fight too many times; usually, the villain had the upper hand. The reason was that Pierce would destroy things around him to keep the hero occupied. The hero would try to counterattack while making sure the buildings didn't fall. It didn't always work out for him, in most cases.
"Milo! Milo, sir, help!" Jamisen yelled out to him, trying to get his fellow officer out of the fire. It had only crawled up to his thighs before Jamisen could fully put it out.
"MILO!"
The yell finally caught the sheriff's attention. Milo looked away from the fight that had held his eyes to look back at his two friends. He ran over and helped put out the last of the fire on Ronny's feet. The sheriff pulled off his belt and put it above the wound to help stem the burnt, bleeding flesh.
Ronny cried while trying to stay awake, tossing around and yelling about the pain. "We'll get you help soon. Just hang on." Milo pulled hard on the belt, looking up to Jamisen, who seemed not to know what to do. "Call an ambulance," he ordered.
Jamisen looked around, hearing an oncoming boom followed by the villain's maniacal laugh. He turned back to his sheriff. "Right now? T-The two are fighting! They won't come until it's over, along with the firemen!"
Milo cursed, looking up in the fight's direction. More bursts of fire echoed out, the villain throwing rubble toward him. Oxzy dodged it, moving through the air so the debris wouldn't hit the buildings. The fight was slow; they barely struck each other, aside from Pierce knocking the hero over a couple of times.
Even if Jamisen wasn't the smartest right-hand man, he was right about the ambulance. Since the two had been fighting so often lately, new rules had come with it. When a fight started between them, help wouldn't arrive in the area as long as debris and other things were being thrown around. It made the job dangerous and risked further destruction of equipment already damaged once before. So, the rule had been made after learning from past "mistakes."
The sheriff had to wait until the fighting ended to get his friend help. But he couldn't wait that long.
Milo stood up, dashing down the stairs and out the crumbling door. He heard Jamisen yell after him. Ignoring his fearful friend, Milo kept running toward the fight. Rubble tumbled around him, though he didn't have to dodge much since most of the debris landed near the edges of other buildings.
The sheriff looked up again, shielding his eyes from the dust, trying to see what was happening. He couldn't make out much, only that the hero was moving around on the ground to keep parts of buildings from crashing and breaking further. The hero turned and ducked, using a bright blue line of cold crystals to hold up debris, and Milo could see sweat pouring down his face.
Milo turned, trying to look at the villain, but Pierce was too hard to see—constantly in the air or atop buildings, surrounded by black dust. Milo gave up trying to spot him and moved closer to the hero, who was on the ground near an open light shop.
Being so close to the hero, Milo could see him more clearly. The sheriff ducked out of the chaos, hiding by a post, close enough to call out for the hero's attention.
Oxzy was leaning halfway down, using much of his energy to keep debris from hitting the buildings and his surroundings. He was still standing, sweat falling from his pale face and mixing into his curly black hair. He took a deep breath.
He had to get this over with. Pierce was only playing with him.
A "whisper"-like shout came from his left. Oxzy turned toward the noise, hoping to find nothing, but instead met the eyes of the shaking sheriff. The man leaned against a post out of Pierce's view, his blue uniform messy with dust littering his blonde hair. Oxzy was about to yell at him to leave before getting injured, but Milo beat him to it.
"You need to finish this! Get him to stop, some way, quickly, so we can call an ambulance!" he yelled, his voice as fierce as his expression.
He didn't have to say it twice. Oxzy was already thinking of ways to end this. He was growing tired, and he knew this couldn't last much longer, or things would be destroyed even further, leaving someone in need without help.
His train of thought was interrupted by a soft chuckle from in front of him—dark, almost pitiful. The hero growled in clear annoyance; Pierce was already on him.
A flurry of black, sparking dust flew at the tired hero. Shielding himself as best he could, Oxzy took the blow on his arms, flying backward and hitting the light store behind him. Luckily, he hit the bricks and not the glass. His back let out a loud crack as bricks rained down from above.
The move was fast, leaving no time for Oxzy to cry out. His back felt shattered, his body slowly collapsing onto the broken bricks beneath him, more falling from above.
They struck his head and shoulders on the way down, making him groan and wince at the pain surfacing throughout his body. Hot blood ran down his head; his arms and legs felt weak, his spine possibly broken. The hit was clearly meant to bring him down—had he not been distracted, he could have seen it coming and taken it with far less damage. But he had been distracted, and now he paid for it in pain.
The dark chuckle sounded again. The hero slowly opened his eyes, ignoring the blood, to see the villain walking toward him.
"Uhugg..." Oxzy internally groaned in annoyance, knowing what was to come.
"Should have seen that coming," the villain called out menacingly. He kept his steps steady, moving closer, his eyes never leaving the hero's glare. "You're getting stupider and stupider—probably because of all the people here." He stopped a foot away from the hero, leaning down to get a good look at the man below him.
The hero fought back the urge to move away, taking in the sinister look Pierce gave him. The sadistic eyes and smile—Oxzy could never get used to that.
"You might someday bore me. But I doubt it, seeing you like this..." The villain licked his lips, eyeing the hero's bruised body and stained face. "Excites me beyond belief."
"Mmhg...!" The words seemed to freeze Oxzy; he couldn't move from the pain, and this wasn't the first time Pierce had said such things. It just felt... personal...
A short but loud shot came from behind the two. Pierce moved sideways, feeling a burning sensation rocket through his right shoulder from behind. Turning to face where the shot came from, the villain only rolled his eyes on seeing Milo standing a few feet behind him with his gun raised at his chest.
He either missed, or did it on purpose.
"Back up slowly, Pierce!" he yelled out with a forceful bellow.
The sheriff tried to seem strong, not scared at all of what he knew the villain could do to him. The spiky red-haired man sneered at him, turning in his direction, the pain numbing, matched only by his anger.
He was interrupted by a small "inconvenience." His feet stomped hard underneath him as he walked closer to the sheriff. Milo, in turn, took a few fearful steps back, shouting out in a shaking voice with a few warnings. Pierce let it all fall on deaf ears.
Blood fell from his shoulder. The bullet had almost fully penetrated him, his eyes never losing their full angry fury. While he stepped closer, his thoughts turned to ways of torturing the officer. So many delighted thoughts crossed his mind, giving way to a dark, malicious smile.
Milo gave one more shout, paired with another gunshot.
It missed—this time not even touching the villain, who was only a few feet away. Milo looked at him in shock, the gun shaking in his death grip.
Pierce gave him a smile, his hand moving at such speed that the sheriff could only feel a hot pressure on his face before the villain knocked him away. Milo stood still, shaking, his gun pointing forward at where the villain no longer stood.
The ground beneath the human officer shook hard, making him fall, his gun flying from his white, shaking hands. He landed on his back, scrambling away toward the post in fear of what was happening.
Oxzy had managed to get his body up from the rubble. The shaking ground came from an oncoming barrage of tree trunks sprouting from a small tree at his left. He forced it to grow at a rapid speed, hitting the villain away from the officer and back to where he had once stood.
Pierce recovered quickly, landing on his hands and knees to give the hero a look. Oxzy turned back to him, holding his ribs with a slanted body, glaring at the villain, who returned the look. He didn't know what he was hoping for next; the hero just needed to get the villain away and be done with it.
After a few more seconds of staring at each other, Pierce let out a snicker. "Got energy left? How fun~" His voice itched with annoyance.
Oxzy stayed silent, giving the villain a hard glare as the trunks of the tree he'd grown rose from behind him, shielding the officer still on the ground from the villain's gaze. Pierce, in turn, looked at him with mock surprise.
Even with blood and bristling pain coursing through both of them, they took threatening steps toward one another. Blood littered the ground beneath them, staining it, their eyes locked with each step—gray-blue and brown clashing against each other.
A smile crossed Pierce's dusty face. He stopped first, only a foot from the hero, his arm outstretched and the tree inching forward. Oxzy followed, stopping just short of the villain but keeping his stance ready for any sudden movement.
"You always surprise me." He gave Oxzy a half-lidded look, swinging his arm back and into the air. Before Oxzy could react, a burst of dust emerged out of nowhere, enclosing the villain in a heap, and before the hero knew it, the evil man had disappeared.
It was followed by a low, soft crackling of fire. Yet no fire was to be seen—only the sound surrounded the tired, wounded hero. He let himself fall to the ground as the tree trunks shielding the now-standing officer disappeared. Milo glanced around him, seeing the street in ruins, though nothing else seemed broken.
He took out his call patch, giving Jamisen the go-ahead for an ambulance. With that done, he put it away and looked around again, turning toward the hero. The only badly damaged building was the light shop—bricks had fallen around a deformed tree whose unhinged brown trunks circled it, holding it together.
The sheriff finally caught sight of the hero. Oxzy lay on the floor, holding his ribs, his face full of discomfort. Red smears of blood covered his clothes, paired with torn skin peeling from his bones.
"Mghh..." Small moans of distress escaped his chapped lips. He stayed on the dusty floor, waiting for nothing and no one.
Milo sucked in a breath, looking down at the man—pity and guilt washing over him. He rushed to Oxzy's side, moving his arm to help him into a sitting position.
"Ahh...!" Oxzy let out breaths of pain, wanting to curse at the officer trying to help him.
He bit his tongue, letting it happen. "Breathe, Oxzy, breathe," the sheriff said softly, offering gentle instructions.
"Mghh..." Oxzy felt like he was suffocating with every breath. It was painful, but he knew it was the smarter choice.
Milo called Jamisen again, ordering an ambulance to his location on the streets where the fight had taken place, to get help for Oxzy.
The hero stopped him, grabbing the call patch and pushing it away. Milo didn't resist, though he gave the hero a puzzled look, trying to understand why he refused help.
Finding his voice, Oxzy closed his eyes as he responded. "There is no need... ugh—I can heal myself... This isn't the first time." He coughed a few times, trying his best to get to his feet.
Curses and small groans escaped him as he failed, falling back and nearly toppling to the ground. If not for the sheriff beside him, Milo caught him before he could injure himself further. The sheriff wasn't much taller than the hero, but he was sturdier and stronger from his training, able to support the hero more than Oxzy expected.
With his arm around the hero's body, Milo moved his other hand from his call patch to help Oxzy lean his weight against him. Milo held him tightly to his side, looking around to consider his options.
He didn't know what to do now. His instinct was to call for help, as he would for his own men—but the hero refused it. Milo could tell this wasn't the first time Oxzy had done so. After almost every fight, the hero ended up injured. Sometimes it wasn't this bad, but when it was, Oxzy would simply run off to heal alone. He never asked the town for assistance—nor did Pierce, which was, in its own way, understandable.
All Milo knew was that he needed to bring Oxzy somewhere safe enough to heal. But he didn't know where Oxzy lived. No one did.
The officer let out a frustrated sigh, unconsciously tightening his grip on the hero.
"Ahg!" Oxzy yelped in pain, a burst of cold spikes nearly shooting toward the sheriff in reflex. Milo pulled back, holding the hero more gently this time as he eyed the small crystal spike that had stopped an inch from piercing his body.
He felt a flicker of unease holding the hero, looking down to see the man hunched over, now fully leaning his weight against him.
"Hahh... Mmmurg..." Small whines escaped Oxzy, shocking the sheriff even more. He had never seen the hero like this before.
A feeling surfaced within him—for some reason, he looked at the hero with astonishment, as though he had realized something shocking. The hero was acting human: weak and hurt, right in front of the sheriff.
He had unknowingly hurt the hero, almost getting himself killed in the process, as he hadn't expected Oxzy to do something so "uncontrolled." He felt a bit unsafe, but knew that if he kept his grasp soft yet sturdy, the hero wouldn't feel pain from him and would be on his feet.
But now was the time to decide what to do. Milo had no clue, so he sucked in a breath and looked at the hero. "Oxzy. What do you want to do if you refuse help from your people?"
What he said wasn't wrong—it baffled him why the hero would listen to and obey everything the people, and he himself, told him to do, and Oxzy would simply do it. Only when it came to this matter was Oxzy stern and quick about the outcome: not getting help from his townspeople, going back to recover on his own. With that, Milo didn't feel like prying. For some reason, he felt an urge to simply respect that decision, even though he could easily have forced the hero to come with him through his command. He didn't want to.
Maybe it was pity, or guilt. But he just did what Oxzy told him to do next. Keeping his grip firm yet light, Milo carried the hero to his police car and drove him where he wanted to go. Setting him down gently, Oxzy let out a few winces, trying to hide them, though he knew Milo had already heard and seen everything.
A moment of silence passed between them, Oxzy keeping his gaze down as Milo secured him before coming to a stop. The silence alone made the hero feel uncertain, even after asking for the officer's help.
"You're surprisingly good at hiding things, hero," Milo said, prompting Oxzy to turn toward him. The hero gave the sheriff a look both questioning and intrigued. "Well... in some cases, I understand now, at least. But this is the first time I've seen you act... human."
"I am not human," Oxzy replied quickly, causing Milo to turn to him in confusion. "If I were, I would not have been made with the abilities of life..." Oxzy sighed, turning away from Milo's close face. The sheriff didn't know how to respond, so Oxzy asked him to take him to Parrway on the streets, saying he could make it home by himself from there.
Milo was still unsure, but he did as he was told, standing up and walking to his car door. During the ride, he couldn't help but feel a familiar tightness in his chest when he thought about the hero and how close he'd been to him. He knew what that feeling was, so he hid it and ignored it as best he could.