Gunfire erupted in the hall, the booming sounds echoing off the enclosed hallway of the bank. Four men wearing full face masks with skulls plastered over the masks and their body armor were armed with fully automatic rifles and proceeded down the hall shooting at anything that moved. The four shooters charged down the hall not giving the security guards protecting the vault a chance to fire back. They hid at the end of the hall leading to the bank vault, hiding behind tables they had propped up for cover. More gunmen were in the lobby of the bank, keeping hostages pinned down until they could rob the vault.
All the guards could do was pray for a miracle, something that would save them from a grisly fate at the hands of the murdering psychopaths. That miracle came in a form they didn’t expect.
The roof in front of the gunmen suddenly burst open and down descended a figure clad in green armor that looked like he belonged in a fantasy novel. From shoulders to toe he wore a heavy green plate mail. In his hands, he grasped a large silver hammer with a handle that was three feet long, the head of which curved back into a spike and the pommel was square and flat. His face revealed he couldn’t have been older then eighteen, but his stern expression glared at the men in front of him as the light in the hall gleamed off his bald head.
His code name was Siege. He was feared by criminals and for good reason.
One gunman mustered the courage to fire. Siege lunged forward and let the bullets bounce off his chest plate. The bullets ricocheted into the walls as Siege grabbed the man’s gun with one hand and pointed it upwards. Bringing his hammer out wide with the other hand he smashed the gunman in the ribs sending him into the wall.
The other three opened fire on Siege, and Siege ducked his head down low. Grabbing his hammer with both hands Siege rolled forward underneath the gunfire. As he stood up Siege swung out the hammer wide and knocked the guns out of their hands. They were stunned and Siege took advantage of that.
Siege jabbed forward with the butt of his hammer and hit one gunman in the stomach. He followed up by throwing his elbow into the man’s face knocking him out, and then he turned to the next one. The man was bold and threw a punch at Siege but Siege grabbed the punch and held the fist in place. Leaning forward Siege headbutt the man and sent him to the floor instantly. Then he turned to the last attacker and saw he had picked his gun back up, and shakily he pointed it at Siege.
“Get back or I’ll shoot! I’ll do it!” the gunman shouted. Siege’s stern expression lightened for a moment. He lifted his hammer up and twisted his body around. The gunman got more nervous and started yelling more at Siege, but Siege ignored it.
Twisting his body back he threw his hammer with the full strength of his body at the gunman. A few shots were fired before the hammer hit the gunman but a sickening crack interrupted the sound of gunfire. His body hit the ground in a thump and Siege walked over to pick up the hammer.
“Your back might be broken, but you’ll live,” Siege remarked to the gunman as he wheezed for breath. Looking around, Siege made sure all the criminals were alive before he moved on. Content that they were he moved to the lobby of the bank to deal with the situation in there.
Siege was a ruthless fighter, he wasn’t afraid to cripple his opponents to stop them. It was how he was trained. When he was a boy he had been picked by an ancient order of warriors who trained and prepared for a prophecy that foretold the end of the world. They believed it was their duty to stop it, and a recruiter for the order saw the anger that was in Siege as a child.
He was born to a wealthy but negligent couple and ever since he was a child he felt ignored. The recruiter was at a fundraiser Siege’s parents threw looking for talent and upon seeing Siege as a boy he could tell Siege was the kind of warrior they’d need.
For ten years Siege was trained by the order to be a skilled focus fighter. However, when it came time to complete his trial and become a full member Siege left them. He never told anyone why, but ever since that day he fought crime in the city of Vinton on his own. Siege decided to use the skills he learned from the order to help the city he was born in, anyway he could.
However as Siege walked into the bank lobby to take care of the remaining bank robbers, he remembered the drawback of working in this particular city. The coworkers.
“Siege, how you doing buddy?” he heard another hero named Jet ask. Siege could only grumble in response. Jet was a little more than a year younger then Siege, and his weapon of choice was a large greatsword he had nicknamed ‘Little Jet.’ The teen had a set of bouncy brown hair and liked to wear unzipped hoodies, no care to wear a uniform or any set of protective gear when he fought crime.
He drove Siege crazy. Jet had a devil may care attitude that argued with how Siege was taught, and the two clashed every time they worked together. Though he couldn’t deny Jet didn’t get the job done, the five gunmen in the bank lobby were all unconscious. Siege quickly realized Jet had help however as another teenage hero who called himself Hunter walked into view.
Hunter was a boy of African-American descent who wore a suit jacket and fedora when he went out on the streets. Admittedly it worked for him because he kept his trademark dual pistols as well as a stash of different lethal and non-lethal ammo hidden within his jacket. He was more known for information gathering, as he wanted to bring down the gangs through the legal system. However Hunter would go out and fight crimes like this one when the situation called for it, and he was just as good at it as Siege and Jet.
“You took care of the four who went for the vault?” Hunter asked, and Siege nodded in response.
“Nice! Up top!” Jet said as he went for a high five, but Siege walked past him. Saddened, Jet looked to Hunter with puppy dog eyes and with a helpless chuckle Hunter high fived him.
Even though Siege preferred working alone, the three of them had worked together before and they proved to be a formidable team. Despite the fact that Siege and Jet didn’t see eye to eye, Hunter managed to counterbalance the two. The city’s specialized task force for dealing with attacks like this, the VPS or Vinton Protection Service, was as of late less than effective and the three managed to pick up their slack.
“Wait! Wait!” The three turned around to see the bank manager running towards them. He was clearly panicked which grabbed their attention. He stopped in front of them, and the wide sweaty man had to catch his breath for a few moments.
“Please, you have to stop them, they left here with everything!” Siege and Hunter exchanged confused looks for a moment.
“That’s impossible, they never reached the vault,” Siege stated.
“Not the money, we were holding some possibly volatile materials here until it could be transferred to better storage,” the manager explained between wheezes.
“Volatile? What do you mean by volatile?” Jet asked, not actually sure what the word meant.
“I mean…explosive,” the manager hesitantly said, and Siege lunged forward and grabbed him by the collar.
“How much did they take? Why was it even here?” Siege demanded to know. Siege knew it was rougher than he had to be, but it was how he always got results.
“We were keeping it here because the VPS thought criminals wouldn’t think to find it here. And they took, well…all of it,” the manager responded hesitantly, worried Siege would throw him across the room.
“And how much is all of it?” Hunter asked as he put a hand on his hip, not impressed the manager wasn’t telling them everything they needed to know.
“About enough to level a city block,” the manager squeaked out, and Siege dropped him to the ground. The three teens all turned to regard each other, each knowing they needed a plan.
“Okay, we should really get that back. Any idea where to start looking?” Jet questioned, and both him and Siege looked to Hunter. If any of them would have an idea where to go, it would be him.
As Hunter brought out his smartphone, he explained, “Alright, well those guys weren’t the Brigand gang or the Wintu, so we can rule that out. My best guess is they were working for an old washed up individual agent, Bones. I’ll track the recent history I have of him making calls or ordering anything and see if I can triangulate a location.”
“You can do all that from your phone?” Siege asked in surprise, and Hunter nodded. He was always managing to surprise and impress Siege, and Siege knew Hunter was a valuable ally.
"Wait, how do we know it was that old supervillain Bones?” Jet chipped in and Siege looked at him with narrowed eyebrows.
“How about all the skeleton decals on the thugs we took out here?” Siege asked, and Jet made an ‘oh’ sound as he realized that made sense. Siege shook his head, he rarely considered Jet valuable at all.
“Alright, I think I got something. Let’s get out of here,” Hunter said, and as the sounds of sirens neared the bank all three agreed. They had no problems with the police but the last thing any of them wanted was to be arrested for being fugitives.
Once the three were outside the bank, they met up on a nearby rooftop. Hunter was still playing on his phone, reading the information his phone retrieved from his database at home. Jet and Hunter stood around waiting for Hunter to finish so they could move on.
“So, Siege. How’s it going?” Jet asked.
“Fine.”
“Cool. Cool. So uh…how about those guys we beat up huh? That was fun.”
“Hrm.”
“…good talk buddy,” Jet finished, sighing at the futility of trying to connect with Siege. Siege knew Jet meant well, but the difference in attitude between the two was too much for Siege to handle.
Hunter finally puts away his phone and walked over to the two, breaking the awkward silence. “Alright, I’ve managed to track where they took the explosives to,” Hunter stated. “So I guess that’s where we’re headed?” Jet asked, to which Hunter nodded. The three then took off in a mad dash, Hunter leading the charge with Jet close behind him. Siege kept his distance, however, preferring not to be a part of the pack. It took them about fifteen minutes to reach the building Hunter tracked the truck too. They discovered it was an apartment complex and the three stood outside for a few minutes debating how to tackle the situation. “Is he planning on blowing up the whole building? Or is this like his base?” Jet asked, and Hunter pondered this for a moment. “Hard to say, either way, we should proceed with caution,” Hunter said. “Either way we should go in there and bust some heads,” Siege chipped in and walked over to the building. “That’s thinking I can get behind,” Jet added, making Hunter sigh. The three walked through the complex’s parking lot and noticing something Hunter silently signaled for the two to follow. They took cover behind a parked red van, and a look around the corner of it revealed the black truck. It was parked at the buildings loading bay, and as one guard stood to watch two others carefully carried a box full of the explosives inside the building. Hunter quickly loaded one of his pistols with non-lethal rubber bullets. Taking cover behind the hood of the van, Hunter popped up and opened fire on the two carrying the explosives. He hit them on their shoulders, and it took all their willpower not to drop the explosives. They hurried inside and the guard opened fire on Hunter, making him crouch down back low. Then Jet and Siege ran around from both sides of the van and dashed at the gunman. He attempted to hit Jet first but Jet ducked and weaved with an agility the guard couldn’t compete with. When he shifted his attention to Siege, the bullets bounced and ricocheted off his armor. Siege reached the gunman first and rammed the head of his hammer into the gunman’s gut, and as he wheezed over for breath Jet jumped in and punched him across the face. The man collapsed and the three took the moment to regroup. However, their time to relax was short-lived as a look into the black truck revealed it was empty. “That’s not good,” Siege commented, and Hunter scratched the back of his head as he sighed. “Nothing can ever be easy, can it?” Hunter lamented. “Well, no point in waiting around. Let’s go find the bombs!” Jet declared, but just before he could dash off Siege shouted, “Wait you, idiot!” Jet screeched to a halt and turned to regard Siege. “We charge in there like idiots we could get blown up with the rest of the building. Or we could scare them into detonating the building and killing everybody inside,” Siege explained. “Think for once in your life you moron.” Jet looked downwards in a moment of shame. “My bad,” he said. It was that attitude Siege couldn’t handle. Hunter exchanged an awkward glance with Jet, and letting out a gasp of air Hunter stated, “Alright well if we find one bomb that’s set to blow I can probably trace a signal to the detonator. So…let’s do that.” Siege nodded and walked into the building, with Hunter following quickly behind him. Jet waited a moment, then followed. The three made their way through the building, checking the apartments for Bones’ men and the explosives. On a few occasions, the apartments were still occupied by their tenants forcing the three to awkwardly apologize and begging them not to call the police. Siege and Jet followed Hunter’s lead as they sneakily took out any of Bones’ thugs they come across. Quick hits to the head or neck would drop the gunmen like flies, and Jet and Hunter moved quickly and silently enough to never be noticed. Siege, on the other hand, had to wait as the two would dispose of the thugs. His armor was too heavy and any movement he’d make would be compromised by the sound of clanging steel. It was how he was trained, however, and it was how he liked to operate. Nothing would ever compromise that. After checking several apartments, they finally found a portion of the explosives set in the corner of a living room. Hunter and Siege dashed over to it and examined the wiring. Taking his phone out of his pocket with several other cords, Hunter got to work tracing the signal. Jet, however, seemed to be the only one to notice one important detail. “Hey what do you guys think that number is counting down to?” Siege and Hunter looked curiously at Jet for a moment, and then both turned to see where Jet was pointing. The explosive’s timer only had ten minutes left on it. “That’s…crap,” Siege remarked as he stood up. “Okay, I got the signal. Follow me!” Hunter said as he ran out of the room. As Siege ran past Jet and Jet turned to run with him Jet commented, “Isn’t that what we were doing already?” Siege only grunted in reply, and the three broke into a mad dash through the apartment complex. Only a few of Bones’ men stood between them and their objective, and they took care of them quickly. They ran through hallways and upstairs in their sprint, but after running for five minutes Siege thought they’d never reach their target in time. However Hunter screeched to a halt in front of one apartment, and examining his phone quickly Hunter stated,” Alright, this is it.” Siege dropped his shoulder and charged the door, breaking it down. Wasn’t he just giving me crap for acting like that?” Jet asked Hunter, but Hunter quickly dismissed him. As the three ran into the apartment, they saw a lone figure standing with their back to them. He was shorter then Siege expected and clad in all black. Slowly the man turned to face them, revealing skull face paint covering his face. In one hand he held the detonator, but otherwise, he seemed unarmed. “I expected someone to try and stop me. But not a bunch of children,” Bones said, his voice sounding like sandpaper. Siege and Jet got ready to charge him, but Bones raised a hand and warned them back. "Ah, ah ah. All it takes is one push of this button and the explosives go off. Only I know how to stop the bombs from going off,” Bones explained. “Want to tell me why you’re doing this so I have a better reason to beat the snot out of you?” Jet asked. Bones smirked and began to pace. “Simple. Recognition. I want the gangs in this city to know me, notice my presence. Take me seriously in the realm of gang warfare. Because I will leave my mark on this city, and I will…wait. Where did your friend go?” Bones asked, interrupting his speech. Siege looked to his side and saw Hunter had vanished. Noticing Jet’s smirk, Siege realized what had just happened. Clever, Siege surprisingly thought to himself. Hunter was suddenly behind Bones and with a quick kick, Hunter knocked the detonator out of Bones’ hand. Then Hunter punched him across the face and Bones’ stuttered backward in shock. He felt two powerful hands on his shoulders then and Bones was suddenly in the air as Siege flipped him over his head. Bones crashed hard onto his back and Siege was quickly on top of him, pinning him to the ground. “Ha! You’re an awful bad guy, every good supervillain knows you never monologue!” Jet stated with a laugh. “Deactivate the bombs!” Siege yelled, ignoring Jet. Bones only smiled in response, and Siege punched him hard across the face and while Hunter remained composed Jet gasped a little at the force behind the punch. “Do it!” Siege shouted. “You’ll have to kill me,” Bones said, and the three were taken slightly aback at this. “I know you idealist types won’t kill me, so I programmed it so the only the bombs will deactivate will be if my heart stops beating. Otherwise, they’ll blow up and we all die.” Siege eyed Bones carefully for a moment. “You’re lying. There’s another way,” Siege said. “Are you really willing to take that chance?” Bones shot back. Hunter quickly loaded his gun with lethal ammo and pointed it at Bones’ head. “Siege move,” Hunter instructed. Jet was shocked to see that and moved to stop Hunter, but Siege wouldn’t budge. “No. He’ll deactivate the bombs,” Siege remarked. “He’s’ right, we can’t take that chance. Siege, move!” Hunter yelled again. “No! He’s going to deactivate the bombs without us killing him. You know why?” Siege asked the two. Turning his head back to Bone’s and staring intensely in his eyes, Siege explained, “Because if he doesn’t deactivate those bombs, I will find a way to make sure he and I survive. So I can spend every day for the rest of his life beating the holy hell out of him, so he’ll know the mistake he made today taking innocent lives for his own gain. I’ll make sure he never forgets what he did, and I’ll never stop punishing him for it.” A silence fell over the room, Hunter and Jet both staring in surprise at Siege. Bones’ looked nervously at Siege for a moment, sweat beading down his face and ruining his face paint. “You’re…you’re not serious,” Bones’ said, trying to call Siege’s bluff. “No one dies today,” Siege said so resolutely no one in the room could argue with him. Hesitantly Bones’ reached into his pocket and pulled out a second trigger. Siege watched him so intently that as Bones’ hit the trigger there was no doubt the bombs were deactivated. Then with a vicious hit Siege knocked Bones’ out cold. Siege stood up as Hunter holstered his gun and pulled out his phone. Hunter took a few moments to call the police and inform them there were explosives they needed to deal with as Jet walked over to Siege and looked over the unconscious Bones. As Hunter hung up his phone he walked over to the two. “It would have been easier, and safer, to have killed him,” Hunter remarked, and then he walked out of the apartment. Jet looked at Siege for a few moments, but then followed suit. Siege stood in there alone for several moments, thinking about what had just happened. It was the one thing that betrayed the years of his training which taught him to be ruthless and thorough. He would never kill. Later, Siege was on a nearby rooftop waiting for another call to action. It was what he did, how he lived. Just because he had saved many lives that day already didn’t mean he was done yet. However, he heard Jet approaching him from behind. “Hey, can I ask you something?” Jet asked as he walked up behind him. “If you have to,” Siege responded. “When you fight you’re probably the most ruthless person I’ve ever seen. Like you break bones and give concussions like it’s Christmas and you’re Santa Claus,” Jet commented, and Siege nodded for him to continue. “But… you wouldn’t kill Bones. Why not?” Siege let out a long sigh. It was a good question, and one he asked himself every time he was faced with a decision like that. “I was trained by an order of warriors as you probably know to be this ruthless. However when I set to graduate and become a full member of the order, the last training exercise was not what I had in mind,” Siege explained. “Our elders had a theory that the so-called ‘Destroyer’ was in a small hamlet with about a population of fifty. They didn’t want us taking any chances, they wanted us to kill everyone there.” “And?” “I couldn’t do it. When I saw that the townspeople weren’t so different from me, just people, I couldn’t kill them. But it didn’t stop my comrades. So shortly afterward I abandoned the order and came here to make my own way. And whenever I’m faced with a situation like the one with Bones I remember what my comrades would’ve done, and why I need to be better than that.” Jet and Siege stood there for a while as Jet digested that information. “Why do you need to be better?” Jet asked as he looked downwards. Without missing a beat, Siege responded, “I don’t know. I just have to be or there’s no point to me doing this at all.” Jet and Siege stood there for a few moments longer, and Jet took his leave. Siege continued to stare over the city he had decided to protect. He always wondered if he had made the right choices in his short life. He wondered if he shouldn’t have left the order and if he should have just taken Bones’ life. However, he knew deep down his decisions were inconsequential. As long as his resolution was as strong as the steel that made his armor, he couldn’t make the wrong decision. And he had resolved long ago that under his watch, no one would die. His iron will wouldn’t allow it.