by Max Jager
Bandit grunted as he tried move from where he was, only to discover that his arms and legs were tightly bound to a chair by a number of metal chains. He grunted as he struggled to free himself from his restraints, but as soon as he struggled, he was shocked by electricity, causing him to scream in pain and agony. He panted as he watched Wake smirk at him.
"How do you like that?" asked Wake, "That's another one of my brilliant inventions. You see, those chains have a built in sensor that detects when force is being applied against them. When said force is applied, yet another mechanism installed in the chains causes electric currents to run through them, resulting in what I imagine to be a rather painful sensation for you."
"You…bastard…" said Bandit with rising anger as Wake cracked his knuckles, "You and Red…won't get away with this…"
Wake chuckled before he responded.
"I think it's safe to say we already have."
His eyes widened when he saw Wake reach for his ribs, and struggled to free himself from his restraints, only to scream upon being shocked once again. He screamed even more when Wake put his hand on his ribs, and pressed his finger into one of them with such incredulous force, it broke immediately.
"I'd watch what you say if I were you," said Wake as he watched Bandit suffer, "At the moment, your life is in my hands."
He broke another one of Bandit's ribs, and Bandit screamed in agony as he remembered words Wake had spoken to him before.
"Zor… Prey… Even Red! You got lucky fighting all three of those so called men, but now, your luck has completely run out!"
"You…bas…tard…" said Bandit as he panted painfully, "As soon as I get out of this chair…I'm going to kick your ass!"
He yelled in pain as Wake broke yet another one of his ribs.
"You just don't listen, do you, kid?" he asked with a smirk.
"Brayne, a fourth of my body is already covered in scar tissue. What difference would another scar make?"
Evidently…a lot… thought Bandit as he watched Wake reach into his pocket.
"You should be thankful, kid," said Wake as he brought his handgun out from his pocket and pointed it at his shoulder, "Red would probably want me to torture the hell out of you instead of killing you. Don't you see? I'm doing you a favor by allowing you to…savor life's pleasures a bit more before I grant you the mercy that is death."
He pulled the trigger, and Bandit screamed in anguish as the gun's bullet penetrated his shoulder.
"You're not so special! You may have done some pretty big things in the past, but now, now you're just a kid who bit off more than he could chew!"
"You son of a bitch!" yelled Bandit furiously, "I don't know what you and Red think you're doing, but you need to stop it now! This whole thing went too far a long time ago!"
"Stop?" asked Wake as he pointed his gun at Bandit's kneecap, "What do you mean, kid? This whole thing has only just begun."
Bandit screamed once more when Wake shot his left kneecap.
"A mercenary, eh…? Hm… You know I'm thankful for the offer, Abe, and I really am…but…you already know my answer… Ruby never wanted that life for me. She did her best to take care of me so I wouldn't have to do or go through things like that."
Unwilling to go through the pain of his torture any longer, Bandit yelled in pain as he struggled to free himself from his restraints, despite the fact that his struggling resulted in his continuous electrocution.
"You may not see it now, kid," said Wake as he watched Bandit suffer, "but what I said before is true.Red and I…we want to improve the Ice Lands…but we can't very well do that if you intend to stop us…can we?"
Bandit grunted in great pain as he ceased his struggling. He had managed to stretch the chains that bound him a considerable amount, but not enough to free himself from his bondage. On top of that, his vision was gradually becoming hazy, for he was beginning to lose consciousness.
"You can't defeat me, Bandit," said Wake as he walked towards the window, "You're the strongest opponent I've faced in a long time, I'll give you that, but…you can't beat me, kid, and you never will."
Bandit looked at Wake furiously as he gritted his teeth.
"We'll see about that," he said menacingly as he watched Wake open the window.
"No," said Wake matter-of-factly, "We won't."
He pointed downward, and a confused Bandit looked down to see what he was pointing at. It looked like a metal box, but he had no idea what to make of it, for he had never seen such a device before.
What the…? What is that supposed to be?
"This here," began Wake as he reached into his pocket, "is one of my favorite inventions. It's a time bomb, and it's one that carries more firepower than you could possibly imagine, far more than those simple nail bombs and Votolom cocktails you Icelanders created. In fact, I bet just one of these bombs could send this entire building crashing to the ground… Let's find out together, shall we?"
He watched as Wake brought a small device out of his pocket. Wake pressed the button on the device, and Bandit watched in confusion as the number fifty-nine flashed onto the screen of the metal box Wake had pointed at. It did not take him too long to realize that he was looking at a timer, but it took him slightly longer to realize just what would happen when the timer reached zero.
He instantly began to struggle to free himself from his constraints, but he was electrocuted once again, and Wake watched with amusement as he was continuously electrocuted for the next thirty seconds.
"You can't run, Bandit," he said smugly as he began to climb out of the window, "and if you keep struggling like that…you'll die an even more painful death. Just let it happen, kid. There's no way out. No one can stop the things Red and I have planned for this land. Considering how against us you seem to be…you should just be happy that you won't be around to see them."
Wake laughed as he jumped out of the window, while Bandit ceased struggling to free himself from his bondage. He was terribly exhausted; in fact, he was on the verge on unconsciousness. He closed his eyes and panted, and gritted his teeth bitterly as he thought about whether or not his life would end right then and there…
…when he heard a small groan. He slowly opened his eyes, and his eyes widened when he saw the woman he had come to save in the first place lying before him. He gasped when he realized that his life was not the only one in danger, and quickly looked at the timer on the bomb to see that the bomb would kill them both in twenty more seconds. He closed his eyes for a moment, before he began struggling to free himself from his bondage once more.
Outside of the compound, Wake and his men quickly ran from the area, and Wake looked at the compound with his characteristic smug smile.
"Rest in peace, Bandit," he said to himself, "or rather, rest in pieces."
He laughed maniacally as he continued to walk away from the area.
Bandit screamed in extreme pain as he stretched the chains that bound him to their absolute limit.
Come on! he thought as sweat dripped down his face, Come on! Come…on!
He grunted when the chains finally broke apart, and slouched forward in extreme exhaustion.
He gritted his teeth in pain. He managed to free himself from his bondage, but he did not have the strength to get up and escape the compound. That strength quickly came back, however, when he looked over at the timer and saw that he had six more seconds to act. Despite being massively bloodied and injured, and despite the incredulous pain the bullets lodged in his legs caused him, he quickly jumped from his seat when the timer read five seconds, grabbed the woman when it read two seconds, and hit the deck and shielded her body with his own when he realized that there was probably only one second left.
Unfortunately for him, he did not have one second left.
He had zero.
The bomb exploded, and Wake and his subordinates watched from afar as the entire building came crashing to the ground.
"Holy…!" yelled his subordinates in complete shock and awe.
"It's over," said Wake as he continued to walk away, "No one could have survived that."
Rubble now replaced every inch of the compound.
Dust and dirt flew in the air all over the area, while multiple fires burned throughout.
All life seemed to have been extinguished, but in the midst of all the wreckage, the two people who had been inside the compound clung to life.
The woman was gradually waking up from her unconsciousness, while the man struggled to get a large piece of wood off them, for due to his injuries, he had lost most of his strength.
Shit…! he thought as he slowly lifted the wood off himself and the woman, Come on…! Come on!
After a few moments, he managed to get the wood completely off them, and used the last of his strength to throw it aside.
Truly exhausted, he fell on his side, while the woman groaned as she looked around, then over at him.
"You…" she began emotionally.
Tears began to fill her eyes as she slowly realized what he had put himself through to save her.
"You…"
"Don't…" he said tiredly, "…Don't…speak… Save your strength…"
Tears streamed down the woman's face as she looked at him with incredible admiration.
"You… You put yourself through…hell…to save…me… You've…saved my life… You… You saved me…"
The man took a deep breath as the woman gently placed her hand on his face, and blushed a bit when she knelt down and kissed his cheek.
"Thank you…" she said with a small smile.
He was completely surprised by the woman's actions, for out of all the people he had ever saved, no single person had ever looked at him quite so gratefully, so thankfully, as though he was their savior, their messiah. He did not usually condone affection from women he did not know, but upon realizing just how much his actions had impacted her, he placed his hand over her own, and returned her small smile with one of his own.
"Let's go home."
The Runaway
Bandit gasped when he found himself surrounded by bright white light.
"What the…?" he said in shock, "Where am I…?"
He squinted as he looked around for any clues as to where he was, when he saw a figure walk past him after having come out of nowhere. He initially could not see the person very clearly, but when he managed to get a good look at the person, his jaw dropped and his eyes widened in complete shock.
"R… R… Ruby…?"
Ruby did not look at Bandit when he spoke, and to Bandit's surprise, she proceeded to walk away from him.
"Wait!"
Bandit tried to run towards Ruby, but he quickly discovered that he could not run as fast as he normally could. In fact, he found himself running in slow motion.
"Ruby!" he cried out, "Hey, Ruby! It's me, Ruby! It's me, Bandit! Ruby! Ruby!"
Ruby did not stop, however, and continued to move away from him.
"Come back!"
Despite his pleas, however, Ruby continued moving forward, and Bandit was forced to watch as Ruby walked so far away, she disappeared from his sight.
Bandit gritted his teeth in anguish as tears welled up in his eyes.
"No… No…"
He held his head as he closed his eyes, and let out a terrible scream of pain and sadness.
"Ruby!"
Bandit's eyes widened when he suddenly awoke from his nightmare. He was about to scream out Ruby's name, when he realized that what he had just experienced was just a dream. Tears fell from his eyes as he panted heavily, and he turned onto his side as he pulled the bed sheet of his bed up so it covered his whole body, save for his head.
Oh…God…he thought, extremely distraught.
He did not want to cry, but he could not quite pull himself together, and ended up sobbing a bit as he thought of the precious mother he had lost not so long ago.
"Bandit?" he heard a voice ask.
Realizing that he was not alone in the room, he quickly wiped his tears away, and looked towards the entrance of the room he lied in to see the woman he had saved earlier that day. He was about to say something, when he suddenly felt incredible pain in various parts of his body.
"Ah!" he yelled in pain as he blinked back more tears.
The woman, Emily, placed her hand on him in an attempt to calm him down.
"Hey, hey, hey," she said with concern, "Take it easy. You're okay, Bandit. You're in the hospital."
"Wha…? What happened?" he asked, confused, "I… I don't remember anything that happened after saving you from the explosion."
"That's because you passed out while we were walking towards the city," she responded, "Even though you managed to take the bullets in your leg out, the pain you felt was probably too great for your body to bear. I did my best to drag you the rest of the way back, and I sent my mother to the mercenary headquarters so she could inform your friends of what had happened to you. They should be here any moment now."
He attempted to get out of bed, when he suddenly felt pangs of pain all over his body yet again.
"Don't move," she insisted as she pushed him back into bed, "You're in no condition to go anywhere. You received a number of injuries, including multiple broken bones and bullet wounds. Unbelievably, the doctors say you're gonna be fine, but that doesn't mean you can do whatever you want. You need to stay here, no matter what."
Unwilling to listen to Emily's advice, he proceeded to try to get up yet again, but this time, Emily held him down, and because of the condition he was in, she was actually capableof keeping him down.
"I don't care how tough you think you are!" she asserted, causing Bandit to widen his eyes in shock, "I don't care how quickly you can heal! Right now, you are in no condition to move, so you're going to stay here, even if I have to pin you down!"
At first, Bandit looked at the woman with a disgruntled expression, but slowly smiled when he realized how serious this woman actually was.
"…Okay…" he sighed, "…You win…"
The woman smiled as she spoke.
"Aw," she said, "That's cute. You make it sound like I wouldn't."
Bandit sighed and shook his head at the woman's tenacity, but he continued to smile nevertheless.
"Bandit!" he heard voices say suddenly.
Emily stepped aside, and Bandit watched as his friends rushed into the room and to his bedside with great concern.
He closed his eyes and sighed as they did so, for he knew it might have been a better idea to infiltrate Wake Noran's compound with them, as opposed to without them.
"Are you okay?" asked Mary worriedly.
"Bandit…" said Abe with concern.
"Hey, man…" said Brayne sadly, "How are you feeling?"
Bandit groaned before he responded.
"Crappy," he said with a slight smile as he looked at Rachel, "But I feel a bit better now that I've seen you guys."
Rachel was visibly upset, and Bandit knew it was because his reckless behavior had almost gotten him killed, that reckless behavior she had always told him to keep in check.
"Okay, I admit it," he said as she walked towards him, "I messed up. I shouldn't have tried to deal with the situation on my own… I'm sor…"
He gasped in surprise when Rachel silently leaned forward and gave him a loving hug.
Rachel…
"I don't care about that right now," she said calmly as she ran her fingers through his hair, "The important thing is that…you're safe…"
While Rachel hugged Bandit, Brayne looked over at Emily as he spoke.
"Thank you," he said with a smile, "for dragging this knucklehead of ours to the hospital. It couldn't have been easy for you, and we couldn't be more grateful for your help."
"It's fine," said Emily, "It's the least I could do for him."
"Don't diminish your role," said Mary with a smile, "Taking care of Bandit Lane is no easy task."
"Hey," said Bandit with a small smile, "I'm lying right here."
"What
were you thinking going after this guy alone?" asked Abe.
"You knew nothing about what he was capable of," asserted Mary.
"I…" began Bandit, "I thought…"
He could not think of a good way to explain himself, but Rachel intervened before he had to think of one.
"Let's back off him, guys," she insisted as she released him from her embrace, "He needs to get some rest."