[color=bc8dbf] [h1] [center]Flamenco[/center][/h1][/color]


Let me pose to you a scientific question. What happens when two hundred pounds of stupid, naïve ideals, and meat ploughs into an environment of delicate instruments and volatile chemicals? I ducked to the side. Shattered glass and burning chemicals flew through the air, hissing as it hit every surface from the ceiling to the floor.. Half put together weapons were scattered in the brute's wake. I stumbled to my feet, ripped my ruined headphones- they were my favorite pair motherfucker!- out of my ears, and stared down the bull in my china shop. Sheets of shoddy bent metal: iron scraps, sheet aluminum, some industrial steel covered his hulking body in some bastardization of a suit of armor in those fantasy stories. Every inch of him was covered, head to toe, the helmet was authentic at least. 

The Knight in all his bitch-ass glory. 

I couldn't help smiling despite the months of work he ruined. Running to the far side of the warehouse I skidded to a halt and started digging into the wreckage. "Round two motherfucker!?" I grinned, lifting up a crude acumination of an energy rifle. The Knight turned to face me. "I'm game. Cause I owe you for breaking my arm, cabrón."

"I owe you so much more for the trouble you've caused, the pain you've wrought."

Thick, coiled wire snaked out from the side of my rifle. The whole thing was piecemeal scrap put together from junkyard finds, jacked tech from some lab out in the mountains, and a few other wielded bits. Thing looked like something out of that post-apocalyptic game I played when bored out of my skull. Only this wasn't no fantasy toy. I grabbed the wires, found a few veins and inserted the long steel ends like I was setting up an IV. I hissed in pain but quickly forgot as the wires lit up like Las Vegas at midnight. My grin turned positively jolly when my adrenaline shot through the roof so hard I started shaking.     

"This dumbass." I couldn't help but chuckle. I stood up. 

"Bullets won't pierce me." His beady eyes narrowed behind his grill. "Face justice or I'll be forced to break both your arms." 

"This ain't some fairytale, ese. You some kinda dumb, thinking you can roll in here!? You don't get the  princess and you don't get to save the day."

He took a step forward. The ground shook under his feet. I nearly fell on my ass. "Last chance,"
Knight growled. “Come quietly. 

"Tomorrow you're just gonna be another body." 

The thing about firing a pressured beam at a human body wrapped in what can only be compared to treated aluminum foil, is it melts, fuses, then burns. The two millimeter beam pierced his armor covered belly like it was tissue and burned through the other side easily. He stumbled back and seemed to look down in disbelief as the metal rapidly cooled, fusing to his cauterized flesh. He looked up and for a second I thought I saw him whimper. That second I knew he never thought this could happen. I set my jaw, and knew what came next. 

I peppered his bulk with beams of plasma, like I was blasting the side of a building. By the time I was done, exhausted and feeling like my arms were going to give out, he was a pile of slag and smoking flesh. I slumped to my knees and set to pulling the needles out of my arm. The metal was warped from the heat but my skin seemed alright save for the weeping pinpricks decorating my arm. 

OoO

I stopped the footage and swiveled to give the tall skeleton staring down a smirk. “I don’t see how your client’s fucking up with Behemoth. The Knight was at least smart enough to cobble together some protection. Loco puta dives into hero work wearing stretched-to-hell shorts.”

Elizabeth Quelling, a seven foot tall, blonde woman with a serious stick up her ass, and more money than god just gave me a look that could cauterize an open wound. I’d seen the look enough to know she wanted to kill me, messily, but I gulped down my fear and kept my cocky grin in place. No customer was gonna rattle me. “The failings of my employees are my business. Where you and I are concerned I only want the situation to be dealt with. Kill this Behemoth, make it public- video tape if you must- but I want these so-called heroes to know that crossing Marrow Incorporated is bad for their well-being.” 

I arched an eyebrow at that. Hero’s had a habit of acting like a hive of hornets, squash one and the whole hive’ll be out for blood. I told her as much. 

“That is my concern, not yours.” She stood up, and in an instant the air turned bitter cold. “You came highly recommended, now back up your reputation Ms. Flamenco, and see to it this brute is turned to a smoking corpse.” I suggest you pack. I've set a plane to take you to Castleburg-"

"That place is goddamn hero central!" I jumped out of my seat, my veins glowing a neon rainbow as my temper flared. I enjoyed business from high paying customers but only morons did business in the middle of H.E.R.O.'s territory. "No way in hell I'm doing work there."

My body locked up, and my veins went back to normal, the air took a dip in temperature and I swore I could see my breath mist. Great bitch had ice powers. I started shivering. 

"Listen, and listen well." She leaned over the desk." I do not make requests, I give orders. Do as you are told, and be handsomely rewarded. Don't." She reached a hand across to lightly touch my cheek. What happened next I could only describe as agony. I couldn't even scream as pain lanced through my skull, my limbs went limp and I fell back into my chair. I nearly choked on my tongue and when her hand drew back I stared up her. My heart hammered and icy pit formed in my belly. I weatched part horror, part fascination as her veions started glowing like mine. She looked down at her arm like she was appreciating some new jewelry. 

"I don't believe you'll be needing another warning."  

She left my office with a twirl of her dress and the flick of her hair. I breathed a sigh of relief when the door closed behind her. I didn't care how much money they were paying me, I was blacklisting that bitch from life.