by M&CNICFYYY2K
He killed Alfhild. He killed her. He killed my partner, and I didn't do anything to stop him.
He grins and looks at me. "Oh, come on. Don't look so grim. You do appreciate the irony of it, don't you? I mean, her code name was Burn, and she went out with a ball of fire. Talk about self-fulfilling prophecies."
He starts circling around me, as if I was a damn statue. "And don't get me started on you! Your code name is Snap... you're the son of the fastest man on Earth... and right now you have the speed of a dead snail." He stops and stares at me, his grin gone. "I could punch you to death right now, and there's nothing you could do about it."
He takes a cigarette from a guy's jacket and uses a woman's frozen hand to hold it, as he searches her purse for a lighter. "See, that's why I don't have a code name. They're just asking for trouble. If someone has a job for me, they ask for 'that guy who can stop time.'" He puffs on the woman's face, and her static eyes turn red. "I don't like to bullshit around."
I'm still leaning back from his punch, but he straightens my back and pats me on the shoulder. "Ah, don't worry, kid. I'm not gonna kill you, too... as long as you deliver a message for me, that is." He stands in front of me, his eyes menacingly fixed on mine. This guy is a nutjob. "Tell your bosses this city hasn't been theirs for a long time. They're not the only ones who pulled their shit together and got organized. We're recruiting too, and there's already hundreds of us. Keep sending your rookies, and we'll keep returning them in body ba--" His serious face cracks when he rolls his eyes and he chuckles. "Okay, that's what my bosses told me to say. Now here's something extra from me: Tell 'em that if they feel like coming down from their tree-house up in the sky, the least they could do is send someone worth fighting. Don't send kids to do a man's job, for crying out loud. That's just cruel to all of us."
He takes one last smoke and puts out his cigar on my neck. It's as painful as I remember. "Okay, I'm gonna go get what's left of your partner, so you can show it to your bosses. Then maybe you can keep her. You know, as a keepsake. I don't need to tell you not to move a finger while I'm gone, do I?" He's gone up the stairs, leaving me alone with two-hundred other statues. Even as I double my efforts to move my body, I wonder what the point is. He doesn't seem to be planning to kill any of the hostages, and he already said he wouldn't kill me. Capturing and turning him over to the law wouldn't make that big of a difference, especially since there are hundreds like him out there. Punching him wouldn't bring Alfhild back.
Though it sure as hell would feel good.
I look at my right hand and notice the fist I started minutes ago has just finished forming. That took a while, but at least it means I can still move. That's when it hits me: hey, my eyes can move normally! I'm still reeling from that realization, when I hear the sound of someone tapping on a window. The sound is so faint you normally wouldn't be able to hear it in a busy place like this, unless you were standing next to the window, but thanks to the unnatural lack of activity it echoes through the floor.
They tap again. I'm halfway through the slowest neck movement ever... when I see her there, floating outside the window in her jet-pack. I wanna scream her name, but I remember the "A" from the last time I yelled is still ringing in my ears. She's holding something and pointing at it, but from this distance I can't tell... Is that her walkie-talkie? Oh, shit, my left finger is still pressing the talk button. I remove it as fast as I can, and her voice starts coming out of the small speaker.
"Will, I heard everything. We gotta butt-fuck this motherfucker."