Chapter 80 - If I Fell...

The Hornets looked at each other, then at Ekyt. He attacked furiously, not stopping to see the damage left in his wake.

Klein (ShyWanderer43) and Amy looked on silently. Finally, Klein surprised everyone by talking: “That’s not like him, is it?” It wasn’t really a question. Linda shook her head. “Something’s happened…”

Ekyt smiled cruelly as he walked at the last three remaining upright. He pulled his mask off, revealing a black eye, a cut lip, and a nice cut under his other eye that was bleeding pretty good. “You think this is your town? Wise up. You’re as welcome here as I am.” One made the mistake of attacking. Ekyt picked the man up off his feet and pushed him against a wall. “Don’t make the mistake your friends did chief.” Ekyt let him drop. “You get your gang out of here, or you’ll be eating through a straw, on all fours, get my point?” Apparently he did, though he sputtered incoherently. “Fall back! Go! Out of the city! You heard the man…the NICE man!”

A cheer rose from the crowd. Happy, Linda trotted toward him, but he was gone-? “What the…Where did he go?” Linda pondered that while Kurt, Tiffany, Flash, and even Shadow chased the bad guys out of town. Frowning, Linda picked up the mask he had dropped, wincing at the amount of blood stuck to it.

Ekyt dropped into the sewers, following the route he knew to get back to his hotel room. He climbed up a maintenance tube and kicked out the heating vent in his room. He tossed his clothes aside and laid fresh ones out. He walked into his bathroom and turned the water on for the tub. He couldn’t stand up any more.

Linda kicked open the door to his room and spotted his discarded clothes. She knocked on the bathroom door. “You in there?” Silence. “C’mon…” Silence. “I’ll call the cops.”

Ekyt climbed down the vent, jumping the last couple of feet. He slid his staff into his bag, collapsing it. He was standing in an abandoned part of the sewer system. He would have stayed, but the subway was too close. Instead, he took a few weapons and a change of clothes out of his bag and stowed it away behind a loose couple of bricks.

Linda charged the door, and saw the heating vent was ajar. Cursing, she leapt down it. She landed, and saw…nothing. Not a hint he had been here. How did he do that? And why?

Tiffany and Kurt were slumping in their seats, exhausted from chasing the hornets out of town. “HOOO-LEEEE!” Kurt jumped up on the table. “What?” Tiffany saw the manhole cover below her was ajar. She kicked at it. “OW!” a familiar voice said, followed by a curse. Ekyt pulled himself up, a bump on his forehead. “Pardon me.” He said slowly, not breaking eye contact with either of them. He then found the nearest fire escape and climbed it, ducking behind chimneys and over the roof tops. Tiffany turned to Kurt. “Don’t say it.” Kurt said. Tiffany grinned.
Linda came up through the manhole cover next. Tiffany pointed at the rooftops. Linda sighed angrily and jumped up. “If she didn’t love him, she wouldn’t be chasing him across the city.” Tiffany muttered.

Ekyt leapt across one more gap. He stopped momentarily. He was hidden behind a billboard. He hid a spare staff under a loose piece of wood. Then he looked sadly at the city and jumped off the billboard, hitting the ground running. He zig-zagged into the forest and climbed a tree. He put his whole bag up there. At the bottom, Ekyt used a rock to make a small “T” on the tree.

Linda followed his foot prints to find a- tree? First a billboard, then a tree?” She kicked the tree angrily. A sai (Martial arts weapon) fell from the tree, sticking in the soil near her feet. “What is he doing?” she saw a gray canvas bag hanging from a limb. “He’s starting to scare me…”

Flash (Flashthehedgehog) wandered by. “Geez, you look lower than a snake’s belly!” he said with a jovial flick of his hat. (I’d like to take the opportunity to mention Flash’s incredible story: http://www.fanart-central.net/story-43362.html ) “Well, I think my ex-boyfriend has gone crazy; he’s squirreling away weapons like some kind of wacky squirrel!” Flash didn’t seem surprised. “It takes all kinds. I wouldn’t read into it too much Linda, in all honesty. He’ll turn up.” In a mock, sing-songy voice, Flash chanted “His love will carry you away!” “I’m not in love with him!” she yelled. Flash stopped, smiling at her in spite of the seriousness of what she just said. “It seems to me you just chased him all the way out here.” He started with another song. “You are the wind beneath my wings! LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!” Linda shook her head. Flash could be the most brilliant person at times; and then, this.

His job finished, Ekyt walked around the back alley. He bough a pizza place from Ray. Renaming it “Crust ‘n All Pizza, (Your choice for quality pizza- Birthday’s, Barmitzvah’s, weddings, bachelor parties, and every other occasion. We deliver! Call 754-7492. That’s 754-PIZA!). Ray friend, Wayne, who was good with trucks, renovated a conversion van for deliveries. Ekyt thanked him and sat down, amazed.

“I’ve gone from vigilante to pizza maker. I lost that girl…” Some words from a Beatles song ran through his head:

“If I fell in love with you would you promise to be true,
And help me understand?
‘Cos I’ve been in love before, and I found that love was more,
Then just holding hands”

Ekyt put on a hat that covered his hair, and a set of glasses made with thick glass so that they broke up the shape off his face. He stowed his coat and weapons into a cupboard, exchanging his white shirt for a shirt with a pizza on it. The shirt had a pillow-like lump in front, giving Ekyt a huge “stomach,” and his shoes made him taller. No one would be able to recognize the worthless vigilante he once was…

Not until duty called…

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