Broken Hero

Chapter 5

Eclipse sighs as she slips out of the shadow realm just in time to hear Dart whining at Vinyl. “Where the hell is your bitchy girlfriend now?”

“Calm your t**s, Dart. I’m right here.” Eclipse shoots him a glare as she joins them.

“Blackout!” Vinyl screeches as she throws her arms around her neck. Eclipse rolls her eyes as she pulls her off.

“I just saw you at the mansion.” She chuckles.

“Blackout? You're with them?” Warfalcon’s shocked voice causes her to turn towards him.

She flashes him a cocky grin, trying not to look at Volt.

“Well, duh, I have been for several years now.” She snickers, “What? You never connected the dots between my appearances and how important documents went missing a couple of days later?”

His face fell a bit as the all too familiar look of disappointment crossed it, but he redirected his attention as Piercer and Sylvana sprinted towards the government building behind them. He raises his foot, but Eclipse moves faster and slams into him. She smirks as he falls back and Vinyl’s song fills the air, causing the surrounding flora to move and obey her commands. Vines and flowers snake over the ground towards Volt and the handful of young heroes. Eclipse sees Gold Claw running towards her out of the corner of her eye, but Dart intercepts her. His slick poison causes her to slide into a wall, making Eclipse wince inwardly as she dodges Warfalcon’s fists.

“You’re OK with this?” Warfalcon growls as he throws a right hook towards her face, forcing her to step back.

She smirks back at him. “Of course, I am. It's part of the job, remember?”

He seemed to pause, taken aback by how casually she dismissed him. “You know... after you started working as a villain, I never gave up on trying to convince you it was wrong. Even when you fought back against me and terrorized the people around us, but now?”

“You should have given up years ago. I did.” She chuckles as she dodges his kick.

Sirens filled the air, causing everyone to stop for a moment. “Damn, they’re early.”

She hears Dart mumble under his breath and then a clicking sound that sends a feeling of dread to the pit of her stomach. Eclipse looks over her shoulder, her fears coming true as she sees him pointing the Hero’s Bane gun at Volt. Her heart stops for a moment, but nobody else seems to notice as Warfalcon dashes towards her again. Without time to do anything else, Eclipse catches his hand and flips him on his back. He hit the ground hard as she stumbled back, slamming into Volt just as a loud bang filled the air. Pain rips into her upper arm, causing her to cry out and turn towards Dart with a growl.

“What the f**k are you doing?!” She grits her teeth as she glares at him, struggling to stay on her feet.

He growls back, crossing his arms. “You’re the one who got in the way!”

“Can it, you two. We need to get out of here now!” Piercer snaps at them as he and Sylvana run towards them, “Blackout, get us out of here, and we will get you fixed up once we are at the mansion.”

Eclipse bites back a smirk, “Can’t do that, sorry.”

“Ugh, fine, Vinyl. Use your plants.” Piercer sighs. “And hurry, please. My Poison isn’t as effective as it should be.”

Dart growls as Eclipse smirks, grateful that she had thought about slipping something into his drink that morning. Vinyl nods, giving Eclipse a small pat on her uninjured arm as she moves past and opens her mouth to sing. Eclipse snaps her fingers quietly as she takes small steps back, moving away from the other four as Vinyl suddenly struggles with her voice.

“Not you too!” Piercer exclaims exasperatedly. “Guess we’re going to have to...”

He groans as the sirens get louder and police cars screech to a halt behind him, along with a sleek black car. “Damn it, the president’s guard came with them.”

“It's about time, too.” Eclipse sighs, wincing in pain.

A familiar face exits the black vehicle, heading towards her as the four Syndicate leaders look at her in shock.

“B... Blackout?” Vinyl’s face falls as she lets the man approach her.

Eclipse ignores her as she looks at him, “Hey Doc, thanks for coming.”

“Of course you'd be the i***t who needs fixing up.” The academy’s doctor rolls his eyes at her as he motions for her to take off the trench coat.

Eclipse glances over her shoulder at Warfalcon’s shocked face. “I know I slammed you into the ground a little harder than I meant to, but you still have a job to do, you know?”

Silver marks ran over her shoulder and upper arm from the hero’s bane, and the sight seemed to snap him out of it as he got up and walked past her. “You and I will be talking about this later.”

Eclipse waves him off as Doc orders her to sit down.

“I’m confused...” Volt appears at her side, looking down at her curiously.

Eclipse tries to give her a small smile, wincing instead. “I know, and I’ll explain everything later. Right now...”

Volt slowly nods in understanding before running to help Warfalcon.

“I’m going to need to get this bullet out.” Doc hands her a hard plastic bar to bite down on while he digs the bullet out.

With the bullet removed, her healing factor slowly took effect. It wasn’t as strong as it normally would be due to the poison from the hero’s bane, but it was enough to keep her alert as it began to close the wound.

“Alright, you should be good to go now...” Doc finished wrapping her shoulder.

Nails dig into her opposite shoulder before she can reply, paralyzing her as Gold speaks from behind her.

“Don’t worry, Doc. I’ll take care of her.” He nods and moves away before Eclipse can protest. “So, you became a villain to get away from me, huh? Too bad it didn’t work.”

Something sharp pricks her neck, and the world suddenly tilts before going black as she feels herself being pulled backwards.