Second Wind

Chapter 8: Impound Clearing

She needed to pick them out one by one carefully, knowing that if she recklessly barges in and attacks them, it would be history for her. Seeing how she was able to gun down one of her opponents, she decided to see just how many of them were left...which required her to take a closer look at the impound. Spotting a smaller bush near her current cover which was a bit closer to the impound, she slowly got herself out of cover, moving as carefully as possible so that she would not make any noise which could alert the mobsters of her location.

At the last step, she immediately lunges forward as she threw herself right into the bush in front of her, shrouding herself within it in an instant while one of the mobsters, wearing a cat mask, immediately looked towards the shrub that she now hid herself in, noticing a bit of dust around the area. They took a step closer towards the wall so that they could inspect it a little closer, but their concentration ends up getting broken by Pigeon who yells at him.

"What the f**k are ya lookin' at?!"

"I think I saw something over there, not sure what it was, though..."

"Ugh, it must be some damn creature who skittered around or something. Just keep looking for who shot him, dammit! I don't want any time wasted!"

Cat merely gives them a nod, letting out a sigh afterward before looking away from the shrub, allowing the vigilante to let out a sigh of relief as she continues assessing the situation. There looked to be seven in the posse, including the one which she had taken out. She now had to figure out a way to deal with the other six who were now desperately trying to hunt her down, unaware of her current location. All of them looked to have spread out in hopes of searching her while one of them, who wore a goose mask, was keeping the owner restrained and to the floor as they kept their pistol to his head, ready to fire at a moment's notice.

Her goal was pretty clear - make sure that the owner doesn't die, and to make sure that the people threatening him do. In one moment where no one was looking at her general direction, she quickly got herself out of cover before rushing towards the left half of the impound wall in front of her. The one with the tire wall. However, her footsteps meant that the six remaining mobsters were now aware of her presence as Pigeon immediately yelled at a random mobster, who was wearing a mosquito mask, to quickly check on the noise as they pointed towards the footsteps' general direction.

"I hear something! You go check what it is! And you, go outside and see what's going on!"

They seemed to have told Cat to go outside, as they ended up being the one that got themselves out of the impound as they started their search for the vigilante. As for Mosquito, they made it to the very end of the impound, looking to find the source of the footsteps. Blake, having eavesdropped the entire conversation, knew that she had to act quickly or risk getting herself surrounded, which could definitely doom her on the spot. Knowing that Cat was now hot on her tail as they sought to find her, she quickly made her way to the other end of the impound, where the tire wall continued stretching out through the extreme south of the general vicinity.

She was also quick to notice that there was a metal door integrated into the barbed wire fence at the opposite end of her - whether or not the tire wall kept going on at the eastern end of the impound was uncertain, but she knew that she had to hope that was the case. While she kept herself hidden behind the fence and tires, she soon heard two pairs of footsteps. One pair sounded like walking, but the other sounded like running...and it was getting louder and louder with each second that went by. Knowing that she might not get spotted due to the tire wall functioning as a makeshift veil for her to exploit, she took a deep breath as she got her gun at the ready, waiting for her to strike as soon as her victim shows themselves. Time seemed to have slowed to a crawl just as she placed her finger on the trigger while she kept her pistol on standby. She needed to make this swift and efficient, knowing full well that she could not afford to make a huge ruckus involving this entire debacle. At that moment, she also quickly remembered that no one must know her identity - in an attempt to deal with this, she quickly pulls her hood over her face, masking her complexion considerably in the process.

As soon as she saw a foot step forth in front of her field of vision, she quickly c****d her gun forward as a cat mask suddenly popped up before her followed by the mobster's upper body, and at that moment, before they could even react to her presence before them, she swiftly took a shot as the bullet fired hit its mark, striking Cat square in the neck as the shot caused them to stumble backward, immediately grabbing onto their throat before collapsing into the floor and convulsing about in place, unable to act, and no doubt, unable to live in a few minutes.

With Cat taken out of the picture, she could now focus on the other five that were left on her sights - however, the shotgun meant that her presence had also been alerted to Mosquito, who yelled out to the rest of their posse about the gunshots that they had heard behind the tire wall.

"Guys! I hear something behind the impound! Someone go check what it is while I check through the door!"

Once she overheard Mosquito's words, she gritted her teeth as she noticed a shot being fired directly at the door, implying that Mosquito was shooting down the lock so that they could get the door to open - sure enough, that was exactly what happens, and when the mobster kicks the door open and rushes out, she quickly switches her pistol to full-auto before quickly c*****g it at them just as they look at her. The gangster ends up getting showered by her bullets in one clip, with her shots proving to be more than enough to take them out. Only four remain, but when she hears two pairs of footsteps on both ends of the impound, she knew that she needed to make an escape in order to get away from them - it was best to confront them some other time. Seeing that the blown-open metal door was her only chance of escape, she quickly rushed to the door as she burst through it once she got herself there in time, with the vigilante barely managing to escape by a split second as the two mobsters quickly showed up behind the impound just brief moments after Blake threw herself through the door and behind the tire wall.

When they noticed Mosquito and Cat's bodies laying on the floor with bullet marks evident on their persons, they quickly looked at each other for a brief moment before immediately yelling out towards the impound to alert the others on what they had seen. As for Blake, she had hid herself into the corner near the western section of the tire wall, continuing to eavesdrop on everything that was being yelled out while she was reloading her pistol with a fresh new clip, all while keeping herself hidden and out of view by shrouding herself within some out-of-service and semi-dismantled motorcycles that were scattered behind the small office block of the impound.

"Hey, everyone! We found two of our guys here! They must be close!"

As soon as one of the mobsters, who wore an elephant mask, gave the remaining two active mobsters within the impound the information they felt they needed to hear, the vigilante eventually got her weapon locked and reloaded as she switched the pistol back to its former semi-automatic state. Elephant and the other gangster who was with him quickly looked towards the door as the other goon, who possessed a moose mask, gave them an approving nod upon realizing that Elephant planned on heading back into the impound, believing that the vigilante may have escaped into the area - that seemed to be the most sensible option, given how she had already dealt with three of the seven which came to deal with the impound owner, and she might probably plan on finishing off the rest.

Needing to take the risk, the two simultaneously went through the ajar metal door, with Elephant in front and Moose at the back so that they could quickly retaliate should they get ambushed. When the vigilante spotted the two step through the door, her eyes widened with momentary panic as she quickly forced herself down to the ground, keeping herself hidden within the rusty motorcycles and bicycles as she finds herself uncomfortably close to the two mobsters, with the vigilante being directly opposite them.

Despite Blake's best attempts to hide herself from the pair that were actively trying to seek her out, Moose was quick to notice something hidden amongst the ruined motorcycles as they poked Elephant's shoulder from behind to notify them on what they thought they saw whilst also whispering to them.

"Something's up...I think I see something in there..."

"...check on it."

Moose gave them a nod, and with that, they separated from Elephant as they began to slowly approach the unrepaired bikes, keeping their pistol on the ready so that they could ambush the vigilante as soon as they could see her. Blake, on the other hand, was quick to realize that her cover had been blown, and that she needed to react quickly or risk getting herself shot at, which was something that she was not going to entertain at all. With little time to think of a plan to diffuse the situation that was growing more tense by the second, she closed one of her eyes before slightly poking out her pistol between the bicycle rims - however, she was not aiming at Moose, who was beginning to close in on her. As soon as the masked mobster saw the tip of Blake's pistol slightly poke out, they quickly took aim at the motorcycle that Blake was hiding behind. However, before they could do anything else, the vigilante took the shot as Moose felt their entire body instinctively seize up at that moment.

However, they soon realize that they were not the one who was shot as they began hearing Elephant letting out a pained yell as they quickly looked behind them, realizing that they had been shot in the knee. Intending on fully exploiting this moment of vulnerability from the duo, Blake swiftly gets herself out of cover as she shows up right in front of Moose, taking aim at them right as they quickly shifted their attention towards the vigilante - much to their misfortune, they were not able to react quickly enough as Blake lands an unerring headshot right between Moose's eyes, effectively taking them out as they collapsed onto the motorcycles behind them, causing an unavoidable noise as the bikes fell down against each other like dominoes before dropping to the sandy ground underneath them.

Only three remained, and one was hurt quite a bit due to the distraction that she pulled off so that she could get Moose's attention off her. Her focus was now fixated at Elephant, who used the little time they had to alert the last two gangsters of the vigilante's current position.

"They're here! Behind the building! Quickly get-"

Before they could even finish their sentence, however, Blake quickly silenced them by firing another shot, this time right through their chest as they were effectively dispatched via the shot to the heart. However, she soon realizes that she needed to get moving, seeing how she now heard two pairs of footsteps heading towards her general direction. This also meant that the impound owner had been left behind as well - she could only hope that he was not shot dead. Nevertheless, she quickly made her way towards the metal door behind her, with both Pigeon and the final mobster, who wore a bear mask, noticing her as soon as she got herself out.

Because of this, they quickly fired their weapons right towards the metal door, attempting to at least catch her with a stray bullet so that she could be weakened by the shot. In reality, however, Blake was already far from the firing range as she made her way back to the entrance of the impound to check on the impound owner's well-being. Once they fired every single bullet they could muster out of their guns, Pigeon quickly stepped out of the impound through the metal gate to see if they had managed to get her, while Bear continued to stand in place and reload their pistol in order to keep watch of anything that could possibly happen within the vicinity.

Upon realizing that they had been firing at virtually nothing and that Blake had made her escape a long time ago, Pigeon, who was already at their wits' end, finds themselves intensely frustrated as they took their pigeon mask off before throwing it down to the ground in a fit of rage, revealing the face of a rather young adult woman with blonde hair and hazel eyes. She quickly headed back inside the impound as she returned to Bear, who had returned to the impound to keep the owner restrained after they had gotten their pistol reloaded - she would do the same for her own weapon, and when she returned to the impound entrance, she took one good look at everything around her before quickly shifting her attention towards the impound owner before approaching her.

The man was clearly terrified out of his mind at this point - to say that he was close to passing out from all the panic and terror he was experiencing was not exactly an exaggeration, either. He was on all fours, cowering in place and placing his arms over the back of his head while his head was placed down to the ground. Pigeon, who was already in an enraged mood, forcibly pulled him back up as he struggled to keep himself standing upright - no doubt because of his excruciating fear. The mobster kept her grip on his collar before placing the barrel of her pistol against her forehead as she yelled at him, displaying her rapidly whittling patience.

"Alright, you old coot. No more playing the fool. WHERE ARE THEY?! DID YOU SEE THEM?!"

"I don't know...! I heard footsteps in here just not too long ago, but I didn't see where the person was heading to! They must still be inside...please don't kill me!!"

Pigeon, finally having something to work with, let out a rather exasperated groan as she pushes him backward whilst letting go of his collar. He ends up losing his balance and falling down to the ground with his back hitting the soil. As for the two mobsters, they chose to not pay any attention tot he impound owner, knowing that it would be pointless to continue interrogating him - he was, no doubt, clueless with everything that was happening here. Bear looks towards the various motorcycles that were behind them for a brief moment before shifting their attention back to pigeon as they call out to her, intending on posing an idea.

"I think we'll have to split up. I check the motorcycles to see if they're hiding somewhere and you check the office block and see if they're hiding themselves there. That sound good?"

"You insane? That sounds like suicide - you saw those gunshots? It's like they're incapable of missing their shots...not to mention really good at picking us apart one by one...we have to stick together. It'll at least keep our rates of survival a bit higher."

Bear could understand her reasoning behind her disapproval over the idea, but if they were to stick together, the vigilante would be able to escape them, or worse, take them out while they are distracted with each other. They were stuck with quite the predicament. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Blake was taking refuge in the office block all this time after managing to check on the impound owner, and after seeing his cowardly state, she overheard the footsteps towards the front of the impound before heading into the block, not wanting to risk her position by hiding within the motorcycles again, as she did before.

The vigilante occasionally looked through the entrance door, which possessed a translucent window situated at the upper part of the door as she constantly spied on them via keeping watch of the mobsters' silhouettes. While she was able to hear their voices, it was hard for her to hear what they were saying due to how muffled their voices were behind the door. All she knew was that she needed for them to be out of sight, and more importantly, far away from her. However, seeing how there were only two of them left, she knew that she could not let them escape, or else they'll definitely report this to their boss, which will only make her later endeavors more difficult down the road.

Outside of the block, the two mobsters momentarily looked towards the motorcycles on their right before Pigeon let out a defeated sigh as she came to the conclusion that it was pointless to continue tracking the vigilante. Believing that perhaps it would be wise to report to the boss about what had happened, she spoke to Bear about what she thought they should do about this predicament.

"...I think they've escaped. I don't know who did this and why, but this definitely needs the boss's attention, seeing how the stranger killed everyone else. What do you think?"

"That sounds wise. We need to get going if we're going with your suggestion, then."

After coming to an agreement, Pigeon took one good look at the impound owner, who seemed to have passed out from the sock - looks like he could not keep his mind straight anymore amidst everything that was going on. Finding his display of vulnerability and weakness pathetic, she merely spat at his general direction before getting a move on, beckoning for Bear to follow behind her. As Blake watched the two leave through the mirror, she knew that she had to act quickly - she could not allow them to escape the impound alive.

As the two mobsters headed towards their bikes, Bear suddenly came to a halt upon hearing the sound of a door creaking open behind them. At that moment, they quickly tapped Pigeon's shoulder to grab her attention, successfully doing so before pointing towards the office block door, which was now ajar as the two stared at the open door. With the possibility of Blake still being within the impound now back on the table, the two quickly made their way back to the general area as the two began to approach the block, their guns on the ready in case something were to happen.

Once they found themselves standing right in front of the slightly opened door, Pigeon quickly grabbed onto the doorknob before swinging the door open and quickly pointing her gun directly at what was in front of her, with Bear doing the same - only for them to be staring at virtually nothing. All they saw was an office table with two chairs in front and behind it, facing each other. There were some shelves containing files and documents on both sides of the wall, but they were not worth investigating or looking into. Pigeon raised an eyebrow, her suspicions only raised by the lack of anything that she was seeing before her. She looked over towards Bear, who only responded by giving her a side to side head shake - an indication that they had no idea what was going on as well.

There was only one thing they could do.

Step inside and investigate further.

Pigeon motioned to Bear to head inside first, who obliged as they moved past her and stepped into the building to take a closer look and see if there was anything which could hint the vigilante's location. It seemed as though there was no one else here other than the mobster themselves, given how small the office block space was. In response to the lack of findings, they lowered their firearm down before letting out a sigh and shifting their attention back to Pigeon to tell her everything that they could find.

"It doesn't look like there's anything here. Must be a faulty door or something."

"How the hell is it a faulty door? It just suddenly creaked open when we were going to leave this place!"

"I really don't know...maybe it's a coincidence or something?"

"Nah, that goddamn prick must be playing a game with us...trying to get in our heads..."

As soon as Pigeon said those words, a gunshot was heard once again as it rang into the air - the noise was more than enough to make her seize up in response as she quickly placed her finger on the trigger, but with her unsure on where the bullet was fired from, she continued keeping her pistol down as she quickly yelled instructions towards Bear.

"Get yourself ready! They must be close!"

However, she was met with no response as Bear remained completely still - something which warranted frustration from Pigeon as she yelled at him with an even louder tone of voice.

"I said get yourself READY!!"

After being screamed at by her, she finally got a response from them - but not the response she was looking for.

Just mere moments later, Bear fell forward and collapsed onto the ground as Pigeon instantly backed away from them, a stunned expression on her face as she soon found out just why they just dropped like that in the first place - they had been shot in the back of their head. With this incident confirming that the vigilante was still around, she immediately stormed into the office block, closing and locking the door behind her soon afterward as they looked through the translucent window to see if there was anyone there. While she continued looking through the window, a realization soon dawned on her as her eyes widened with terror.

They got shot from behind.

...she was here.

A voice suddenly spoke to Pigeon, and at that moment, her entire body just froze up as she slowly looked towards the table in front of her, which looked to be the presumed source of the voice.

"Looking for me?"

As soon as those words were spoken, Blake suddenly revealed herself as she surged out from underneath the table, taking Pigeon completely by surprise as the vigilante kicked the table towards her - the toppled table ended up hitting the lone surviving mobster square in the waist, causing her to lose her balance as she knocks herself against the locked door, dropping her firearm in the process. Seeing her moment of weakness as an opportunity that she could exploit, Blake quickly drew her pistol before taking aim and firing - while she was not able to take her out in one shot, she was able to hit her left shoulder blade, stunning her even further as she gripped onto her wound before falling down into a sitting position as she leaned up against the door behind her.

While the gangster was desperately tying to pull herself together, Blake soon approached her, staring down at her before c*****g her pistol towards her. Pigeon let out a defeated sigh as she stared down towards the ground, finding herself cornered with no way out. Despite her misfortune, her curiosity meant that she really wanted to know just who her adversary was - that curiosity soon manifested itself.

"Who...the hell are you..."

"Psh, do you really want to know?"

"...you motivated by that vigilante or something...? You do know what happened to her, right? And you know what WILL happen to you if you get caught, right...?"

Hearing Pigeon's attempt to threaten her caused Blake to let out a laugh, much to Pigeon's surprise as she soon mustered out her words in a clearly frustrated manner.

"What's so funny?!"

"What's funny is that you think I care. News flash -I really don't. They can't kill me twice."

"Kill you...twice...?"

"...that's right."

With that, Blake pulled her hood down, revealing her face to the mobster as she stared at her in shock upon realizing who she really was.

"Impossible...how...how are you still alive...?"

"I'm honestly not. But you're not going to let anyone know about this."

"W-Wait, no-!"

Before she could even finish her plea, Blake would've already taken the shot, this time not missing her target as Pigeon was shot right in the head, taking her out in an instant.

The impound was, at least, cleared out.