Second Wind

Chapter 21: A Place to Hide

She was supposed to be in the neighborhood a lot earlier - those spies took a lot more time off her clock than she had wanted. She could only hope that no one else was after her now. Nevertheless, after spending a few minutes driving down the Evergreen Road, she finally found herself where she needed to be.

Warrendale.

Although she wanted to do a little bit of investigative work so that she could learn of where the Pathfinder were operating in for their weapon manufacturing, she knew that it was too late for that right now - it was already relatively late into the night, and the streets looked completely barren and lifeless. This neighborhood in particular looked a bit more developed compared to the likes of Brightmoor, but then again, this place was a hotbed for developing weapons, so perhaps it made sense for this place to be more built up. To be more...polluted. This place did NOT look lively at all. At least Brightmoor had a quaint feel to it, but here? That was so not the case at all. All the more reason for her to make her business here a short one.

First order of business - find a place for her to stay in...at least until the weapons are dealt with. That sounded easy enough...if she knew her way around this place.

Looks like she really needed some help.

With that, she momentarily stopped herself by the sidewalk before whipping out her phone in order for her to find the closest place that she could stay in. She could also find some abandoned house or something, but her need for a comfortable place was long overdue. After taking a few minutes to look through her options, she finally found the place that she was looking for - there was a motel south of the neighborhood, right at the very border of Warrendale itself. Perfect. Now that her destination was set, she quickly hit the road once more as she made her way to the motel, with the vigilante using the GPS on her phone as a form of guidance. Thankfully, the journey was not a long one - it only really lasted her ten minutes, and when she spotted the motel that she was looking for, she quickly parked beside it by the sidewalk before walking up to the front door, with the vigilante pulling her hood over her head to cover herself while she was on the move.

As soon as she showed up, she immediately sensed that something was off.

Although all of the lights were on in the ground floor, there was no one inside at all. Maybe she came in too late? Well, that was clearly not the case, seeing how she was able to push through the glass doors with ease - if she really did show up outside of operating hours, then the doors would presumably be locked, rendering her unable to enter the building. But seeing how she was now inside...that thought was quickly thrown out from the table. She took one good look at the lobby around her as she felt the atmosphere that her surrounding area exuded.

The walls and ceiling were painted beige, which was a strange color, but then again, she was no art critic. The floor was made entirely out of resin carpet, which was even more strange - most motels would usually go for simple tiling. There was a small receptionist desk to her right, with the desk possessing a telephone, a bell, and a book and pen on the countertop. To top it all off, there was also a couch which could seat three people and a singular chair on her left, opposite the desk. Just ahead of her was an elevator that she could use to access the motel's upper floors, though there was a flight of stairs next to that elevator which functioned as a secondary option for guests to use. Once she took a good look at the lobby, she let out a sigh as she walked up to the receptionist's desk, even though there was literally no one there at all. She blankly stared into the wall for a brief moment before looking down at the bell and hitting its top as a ringing sound resonated throughout the ground floor.

At first, no response. After a minute had passed and virtually no one had responded to the ringing, she began to repeatedly tap the bell as the noise repeated itself like a broken record player - as soon as she heard someone come downstairs through the staircase, she finally let out a sigh of relief as she pulled her hand away from the bell whilst cracking a smirk on her face.

"About damn time...you really shouldn't keep your customers waiting, you know."

However, then came a sudden turn of events - as soon as the footsteps ceased, she immediately heard the sound of a gun c*****g soon afterward, causing her eyes to widen in an instant as she glanced over to the side, her body now frozen in place. When she looked who was behind her, she found herself staring at a Pathfinder mobster, who was wearing a rabbit mask, aiming their gun right at the vigilante's back. Realizing that she had now gotten herself into yet another problematic situation, she let out a sigh as she closed her eyes before speaking up.

"...I was just looking to stay here, man. Why you gotta aim that gun at me for?"

"Who told you about this place? Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"Man, no one told me anything...I found this place through the GPS. And I'm just a normal bystander...and did you not hear what I just said earlier involving why I'm here, dude?"

"Don't try and patronize me, unless you want your back filled with lead."

"...point taken."

"Now, turn around."

"Hey, can't I just-"

"I said turn around. Or else I'll shoot you down whether you're harmless or not."

Realizing that she needed to find a way to turn this confrontation around, she took a deep breath before tilting her head to the side, with her body getting ready to make the swerve.

"Well, if you wish..."

As soon as those words were spoken, she quickly bit her lower lip before swinging her entire body around at a swift pace whilst raising her right leg up into the air, causing the vigilante to kick the goon right at their arm, which proved to be more than enough to disarm them on the spot as they dropped the gun onto the floor. However, her sudden movement meant that they were able to prematurely fire on the spot, and while the bullet did not hit her in the spine, it did end up striking her in the hip as she abruptly stopped her swing in response to the pain that she felt on her side while her leg momentarily dangled mid-air. While the goon was left reeling from the kick that they had received, Blake quickly mustered up all the determination that she could manage in order to deal with the pain she was currently suffering from before immediately stretching out her hovering leg, causing her to strike the thug once again - only this time, it would be square in the chest as they let out a wheeze, indicating that the air had been knocked right out of them at that moment. As the goon collapsed onto the floor whilst trying to catch their breath, she promptly brought her foot down to the ground before whipping out her pistol and aiming it right at the downed goon.

Knowing that she needed one less person off her hair, she took the shot without even a singe of hesitance as she fired the bullet right into their head, effectively killing them on the spot as the bullet drove right through the mask and between their eyes. With her assailant defeated, she gripped onto the wounded hip for a while as she let out a pained groan before slowly moving her hand away from her bleeding injury. After taking a moment or two to adjust to her wounded state, she quickly made her way towards the staircase as she made her way up to the first floor in order for her to take a closer look at what is really going on here. By the time she arrived, she found herself staring down a rather short hallway with room doors evident on both sides of the wall.

Realizing that she had to see if anything was going on behind those doors, she began her gradual stride down the hallway, with her attempting to open each and every door that was presented to her - her attempt at an investigation was ultimately short-lived upon realizing that every single door within the first floor was locked. Knowing that it was now pointless to continue lingering within the first floor, she quickly made her way towards the second and final floor. As soon as she got past the final step of the staircase, she immediately heard something fall to the ground as it dropped onto the resin carpet. When she momentarily looked down to the floor, she found something that caught her attention in that instant.

A bloody bullet.

Upon learning what it was, she picked it off the floor as she took one good look at the bullet itself - where did this even come from? And then, at that moment, something hit her which caught her completely by surprise.

She could not feel any pain on her hip.

When that realization dawned on her, she quickly looked over to her side, and while she saw a bloodstain on the side of her sweater, she quickly realized that the wound had somehow vanished whenever she pressed her palm against the supposed location of her injury. By some strange machination, her relatively fresh wound had completely healed in a matter of minutes. This was something that left her completely frozen in place as she tried to comprehend what had even happened, but before she could think about what had occurred any further, she was finally snapped back into reality by some muffled noises along with the voice of a woman talking. Judging by the tone that she had, she sounded incredibly pissed off, which was never a good sign at the moment. Although she wanted to rush to the source of the noise and get herself involved, she knew that such an act would be unwise, given how she did not exactly know just what could be lying ahead of her. The fact that one of them attacked her implied that there may well be a group of gangsters here...she can only hope that such a possibility is not the outcome.

And so, just to play it safe, she merely inched herself towards the source of the noise, making sure to keep her footsteps as quiet as possible in order to not alert anyone else of her presence. While this was going on, she was also attempting to eavesdrop on whatever was going on - a task which grew less difficult the closer she got to the source of noise.

"I want you to listen very, very carefully...you've been overdue on your payments to us for a while now. You know what happens if you're late in coughing up the money, pal."

"P-Please...we've been trying to scrounge up as much money as we can, but...it's just so difficult for us to pay you back without any business here...please understand..."

"I don't really care what your excuses are, you d**k. You either pay it up now or I'm gonna make sure you drop dead on the spot."

"N-No, don't! Surely there's something we can do! Just give us a bit more time, I beg you."

"Can you not stick up to your sorry excuse of a man? Both of you got yourself into this, and in doing so, you both were fully aware about what were to happen if you were even lagging behind by an inch. We've given you a lot of chances too, but you clearly did not use them to your advantage. And so, here we are."

"B-But...we just can't do anything...we have nothing left..."

"Nothing but your lives. Which I'll take if you don't give me everything you got."

"W-We..."

"I'm going to count to three, and if you don't agree to my terms, I'll shoot you and take your wife off to some place where she'll never be found again. And let me tell ya, you REALLY don't want her to be there. They've been starving for women for a while now..."

"N-No! Don't do this, please!"

"One."

"Just give us another chance!! I'll give you everything I have, even this motel!! Just let us go, I beg of you!!"

"The motel ain't money, buddy. Two."

"Oh god, someone help us!!! SOMEONE!!! ANYONE!!!"

"Thr-"

Before she could even say the word and finish the man off, she was suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door as the thug remained still for a brief moment before letting out a frustrated groan - and so, the married couple were given a bit more time as she walked up to the door before twisting the doorknob and opening it, all while posing one question in a rather miffed fashion to the person on the other end of the door as she swung the door open. Sure enough, she was part of the Pathfinder, with the woman's animal mask of choice being a panda.

"You really ruined my moment, you know. Didn't you hear-"

She was suddenly interrupted by a loud gunshot which completely caught the woman by surprise - in fact, it took her a second for her to fully process the fact that she had been shot in the stomach by the figure who knocked on the door, which was revealed to be Blake herself as the vigilante kicked the wounded goon down to the floor, causing her to fall back first against the resin carpet whilst dropping her pistol onto the ground. With the woman now completely at Blake's mercy, she stomped her foot against her chest, causing the thug to let out a pained wheeze while her body started violently shaking in place - a sign of her wound being more fatal than she had hoped. As the Pathfinder gangster stared at the vigilante which towered over her, her eyes widened slightly upon realizing just who she was gazing at as she mustered a few words out.

"N-No...i-it's you..."

"Yeah, that's right. It's me."

With those words being good enough to be passed off as parting words, she aimed her pistol right at her head before taking the shot, putting her out in an instant. Now that the situation had been diffused, the vigilante looked up at the couple who were opposite her - judging by their current expressions, they were utterly terrified. Their legs and arms were bound up, rendering them unable to move properly. There were also a cloth under their chins as well, implying that they were gagged at some point, too. While the duo shivered and cowered in place, the wife attempted to beg for mercy from Blake while the husband was flat out in tears at this point.

"D-Don't hurt us..."

Upon learning that the couple viewed her as a threat, she let out a sigh as she pulled her hood down in order to reveal herself to the two, hoping that her act will be enough to help them calm down.

"Hey, relax. I'm not here to hurt you. I'm sure you don't know who I am, but I'll give you the introductions later. For now, can I just have a motel room for myself?"

"W-What...?"

It was safe to say that the two were now confused - however, they were at least relieved to hear that they were not going to be attacked again, which was something they could definitely appreciate. Now that they are aware that she is not hostile to their lives, they finally managed to calm themselves down as the husband, who had managed to regain enough composure for him to stop weeping, asked the vigilante for some help.

"P-Please untie us...we'll...help you once you do..."

"...eh. Sure thing. It's not like I wanted to leave you guys here like this, anyway. But you gotta tell me what happened here before I showed up, you got that?"

"O-Okay..."

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30 minutes after the incident, the trio would be downstairs at the hotel lobby, with the vigilante on the singular chair while the couple were on the sofa. The three looked to be conversing to one another, no doubt about what had occurred in the motel and the reason behind the Pathfinder's involvement in their lives. After spending some time talking to one another, Blake attempted to recap everything that had been said to each other, with the vigilante hoping that she understood everything from start to finish.

"Okay, so...let me get this straight. You two opened this motel together, but the Pathfinder were doing everything in their power to stop business from reaching you, right?"

"Yeah...it was awful. Back then, this place used to be reasonably busy...we always tried to provide for travelers that would come here from time to time. And then, a few months later, the government collapsed and everything was plunged into chaos...when the Pathfinder took over, business dried up due to the gangsters running rampant and terrorizing everyone on the streets. Because of it, we could not keep the doors open for very long..."

"...so you had to look towards the extreme."

"...yes. In the end, we were forced to plead for the Pathfinder's help, just so we could keep the place open. However, business did not improve for us regardless, and their demand for money increased rapidly each month...we could never keep up, and because of this, the gang began to actively threaten us. Which led to what had happened just minutes ago...had you not showed up, I would have died, and my wife would have been subjected to an ungodly fate..."

"Damn..."

"So...you have our utmost gratitude. You said you wanted to stay here, right?"

"I mean, yeah, but-"

"Please, say no more. Stay here for as long as you need to. No charge required."

"H-Hey, you're kinda pushing it, you know. You said you needed the business. I'm willing to give it to you. I know I saved your lives and all, but I'm still a customer here that's asking for a service that demands payment. I'm gonna be staying here for a while as well, so to stay for free...I don't think I can live with that kinda guilt. Taking advantage of others has never been my style. So whether you like it or not, I'm gonna stay here and I'm gonna pay for everything. You got that?"

The couple was left rather speechless upon hearing the vigilante's insistence to pay for her stay here, and admittedly, her words had them momentarily overcome with emotion as the husband responded to her with a rather strained tone of voice, as if he was on the verge of breaking down into tears again.

"T-Thank you...bless your heart, woman..."

Admittedly, amidst the heat of the moment, the wife was wondering about this one thing - why did she want to stay here for so long? With her desperately wanting answers, she posed a question to Blake, though she did try to be respectful to her as well via her relatively reserved and polite tone.

"I hope I am not being rude, but...can I know why you want to stay here? You said that you were going to stay here for a while...I think we should know why that is the case."

The vigilante could only let out a chuckle in response to her question before answering her back.

"You really wanna know, huh? Alright then, I'll tell you everything..."