November 30, 1993

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"That's fucking impossible!" Mark's brass knuckles slid off the surface of Bane's mask leaving a hairline score along its surface. The creature's head didn't even move with the force of the punch.

Penelope launched herself at Bane from behind, slamming into his back with little impact. She recovered in a back handspring, charging at him again as Mark continued to aggress on the inexorable giant one inch after the next. Penelope leapt, and managed her legs up and over the giant's shoulders, locking them around Bane's head and neck. She used her forward momentum to propel herself forward, pulling Bane off balance, and throwing him sideways as she recovered her landing in a roll that left her skidding to her feet beside Mark.

"Fuck me, he's heavy." Penelope was heaving, breathing hard. "Solid as a rock."

Bane pushed himself back onto his feet, reaching for his pistols. Mark rushed, instead of retreating as the monster drew his weapons. Before Bane could fire, Mark's heavy brass knuckles slammed into Bane's fingers, and a wet crack echoed through the woods near the MacAllen ruins. Bane dropped his pistols, and Mark pushed forward relentlessly, an upper cut, a right - and then left - cross. Each time he struck, Bane's head tilted a little more to the left, the right, backward in response to the uppercuts.

Mark felt the adrenaline pimping through him... and the PCP. The boost helped, and he put his weight behind the barrage of punches.

We're it anyone else - anyone at all - this would be over.

Even as he pressed his attack, he was acutely aware that the giant was not close to finished. Penelope darted under, and in-between the assault, drawing a small blade from each her hips, slicing at Bane in small cuts, and stabs as she danced around the violent onslaught until the monster was unable to retreat, Bane's back to a tree.

Mark kept his attack, but with the fight at a standstill, the beast cornered, Penelope was unable to get through the timing of the steady strikes, and had to back off. Bane began swatting his punches away, taking a slow steady step, one step at a time, deflecting Marks heavy handed hay makers, and straight punches like they were nuisance flies. After six paces in retreat, Mark was closing distance on the solid pine. He would be cornered, and of that monster cornered him it was all over.

Suddenly Bane was struggling, choking, blood spilling out from under his expressionless mask, Penelope on his back. Her small twin blades were planted deep in the monsters throat, and she was sawing outward from the center of the giant's massive throat, around his neck. Mark used the opportunity to pivot out of Bane's path, sidestepping the masked creature. Mark hesitated, worried if he did anything to interrupt Penelope's coups de gras he would compromise her safety - and their success - and he was unwilling to do either.

Before Mark could manage another thought, Bane dropped to a knee, and reached over his shoulder with impossible speed for a thing of its size, and clutched Penelope's hair. Penelope screamed, holding onto her small knives as the giant pulled at her by her hair, plucking her off his back. Her blades left deep identical scores along Bane's throat to the sides of his muscular neck on either side. Bane threw her, and she went overhead fast, and hard, hitting the tree behind Mark into. Mark heard the crack, and felt the impact through the earthy forest floor. Penelope shook violently a moment, and was still.

"Fuck you!" Mark rushed Bane, twin knives still stuck in the sides of Bane's massive neck. He swung, and despite his wounds, Bane was on his feet, dodging with smooth, graceful instinct.

Pain is no excuse for defeat.

Penelope groaned in quiet, raspy breaths, foamy spittle spilling over her lips, as Mark swung - missed - swung, and missed again.

Bane spun on his massive foot, and backhanded Mark. Mark was big - and heavy enough to handle himself in most fights - but the force of the strike drew stars into his field of vision, the world an explosion of agonizing sparkling light as he felt his boots leaft the soft forest floor, he was airborne what seemed a long time, before landing with a heavy, painful thud.

Bane drew the blades out the side of his bloodied neck, and stared at them. He glanced down at Mark, back to the blades, and then Mark again. Bane dropped the small blades, and took a steady step forward.

Mark lay on his back, his jaw broken, the pain only just bearable enough to roll into his side, and begin the slow push for his feet.

Buzzkill... and then some.

Bane reached for his hips and drew his own blade, a long, polished - albeit bloodstained - dagger. He was slow to advance on Mark as the rogue hunter stumbled to his feet. Bane rushed forward, raising his blade and bringing them down with all the force he had.

The force was not enough, not strong enough, not fast enough.

A loud gunshot rang through the air, and pain exploded into Bane's gloved hands, right first, and then left.

Bane stared at his hands as the long blades spun to the forest floor with pieces of his fingers.

He stared a moment longer, and drew up his gaze to see her, the girl from the river.

The girl who served him up a witch without remorse.

Why would she stop him now?

"Let them go. Please don't make me put you down." Gina said, matte black Desert Eagle pistols smoking in each her hands.

Bane narrowed his eyes, and planted a foot on Mark's chest. Gina aimed, and fired a shot past Bane's right ear.

Gina's eyes were close to brimming. "Please. Let them go. They're my fault. They wouldn't be here except because of me."

Bane stared at Gina, eyes now wide, hostile. He pointed at her with the remnants of his mangled right hand, turned it palm up, and closed his fingers tight. Bane dropped his arms at his side, blood running out of his hands over the forest floor in rich, heavy crimson droplets.

"Maybe, big guy... but not today."

Bane stared at Gina a long while, turned and and began walking away from the fight.

Bane looked over his should once, only once.

This is not over.

✟ ☧ ✟

Gina covered her tracks the entire way back as the forest thinned to woods, and then a field that led to the main road.

As she set foot in the asphalt she heard a screech, and saw a pale owl land at the top of a sign post.

"Oh, shit." Gina drew one of her two pistols and aimed it squarely between the eyes of the black eyed owl.

The owl only stared, bobbing its pale feathered head in slow repetition first to the left, and then to the right.

"This is not the time for this. I could have killed you. Let's call this even."

The owl stopped mid motioned and stared a moment longer before spreading it's wings and taking off into it's silent flight.

Gina exhaled, unaware until that moment she was holding her breath, and she was startled by the sound of her own breathing. Mark was in bad shape, limping back to Bishop's with Penelope dangling limp and broken over his shoulder - but at least she was alive.

Gina could not imagine the agony he would feel when the drugs wore off, and immediately regretted getting involved.

Cameron was going to be so pissed off.

It was not every day you broke whatever tenuous trust you had with unstoppable monster. She had her suspicions, but suspicion was not enough a reward to risk attempting to get close enough to Bane to try and stop him for good.

Especially if it did not work.

Gina shed her over shirt, and tucked it into her belt, enjoying the Misty air, and light sprinkling rain on her skin.

There was no telling now how many more of these she had left.

She continued down the main road, the fields, and woodland thinning away to more populated, familiar territory. It felt safer, and though she knew that sense of security was only too false, she enjoyed the lie.

The lie was the only thing keeping her from looking over her shoulder.

She knew he was not there, but even as she walked, she imagined his bold green eyes fixed on her, his grimace hidden behind that terrifying mask.

Gina cleared her throat, and hurried her stride. She told herself it was to get out of the rain, but she knew she was lying to herself again.

He was out there, and he was pissed.

The more she replayed her decisions, the more she felt regret.

Gina's pace picked up, and as faint thunder crackled through the cloudy night sky, her pulse quickened.

Gina ran.

✟ ☧ ✟

The telephone reception was dodgy at best.

Gina stood on Cameron's balcony, overlooking his garden. She stifled a yawn, awake now far longer than she preferred; too energized from her fight with Bane to sleep.

Too tired to do much anything else.

"Are you fucking insane?"

"Cameron, I didn't go to kill him. I went to recover my team. Mark and Penelope are douchebags, but they're still hunters."

"Rank amateurs at best, and at worse they put into jeopardy everything I hold dear."

"Your oder's secrecy is fine."

"You could have been killed."

"We're all going to die in this business, Cameron. Probably me before you. I don't have the resources you do, and I don't have the support... but it won't stop me from doing what is right."

"What is right? Do you think wealth, or status makes me right? Do you think some vengeful crusade is right?"

"You can be such an asshole. I'm not on a vengeful crusade. Okay, so my ex-piece-of-ass cast against me. That's not a reason to hunt them down. The fact that she had that kind of power at her disposal? That's a reason. That kind of power in frivolous hands is a good reason."

"Is love a frivolous reason to influence another person?"

Gina made a disgusted expression, and spit off Bishop's balcony. "Love isn't a forced effort, and if it has to be, then it isn't love. It's control. It's a violation."

"That's fair. Is yours a vendetta, or justice?"

"It's a cause, and that's a start."

"... a start?"

"...and it's worthy. War is even a frivolous reason to use the kind of power they have."

"Absolute power corrupts, and all."

"Common sense should tell them not to use it at all."

"So then the sentence is death."

Gina sighed. "Sometimes we kill them. Sometimes they kill us. I don't want to fight, Cam. Not with them. Not with you. Not with anyone."

"What else can you do, G? This is who you are now. It's who you chose to be."

"This isn't who I am. It isn't who we are. It's a job... a dirty job, but just a job. I'd rather lay in bed all day with you, with a soft, warm blanket. Take long naps. Bathe in a large tub with you. Anything is better than this!"

"This is life, G." Cameron's voice faded into static a moment, and then it was back.

Gina felt heat in her cheeks. "No, this is a burden laid down on us. It is a responsibility to act as a religious law. We need to be careful not to be Pharisees."

"You need to be more careful, then. Don't go on dangerous expeditions alone. Don't Make it your personal mission to crusade without a partner."

"You're the only partner I want."

"The feeling is mutual."

Gina mimicked his voice in a childish tone. "The feeling is mutual. I'm sore. Come home, and bathe me. Put me to bed. Tend to me like I was one of your own."

"You are."

"Don't tell me, Cam. Show me."

"As soon as I get home, I will. I promise."

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