Sixth Sin: The Blooming Beasts (Pt. 6): A Standoff

  --- Mercer ---

  Thinking fast, calculating the odds of disaster, and in turn bringing his innate assholery to the minimum value he was capable of when dealing with someone wearing a V insignia he decided that the best way to handle this was to be as blunt and upfront as possible.

  “Heya, Himbo! Didn’t see you there!” Which was fair given how the man was a vigil and one of Mercer’s eyes was kind of fucked. “Anyway good thing you got here when you did!”

  “Really?” The blue Vigil, Safeguard the Guardian Vigil asked, eyes narrowing as he crossed his arms. “Because usually when you see a Vigil you try to shoot them in the crotch.”

  He could feel the villain in his arms looking at him.

  “To be fair… I mostly do that to Virtue… That annoyance cannot be allowed to reproduce, and bullets feel oddly more merciful than using a brick.” He confessed, subtly dragging the man towards the line of Blooming Beasts. “Also I’m less likely to hit him if I throw a cinder block at him.”

  “Downsides of being a non-Deviant.” Safeguard smirked, mildly amused at the threats to what could be considered the man’s younger brother even as his eyes were locked onto Mercer’s movements.

  “Eh, powers are for wussies.” He shrugged, before grimacing behind his mask at saying the Vigil’s private mantra. Or rather the slightly edited mantra after Hard Knocks the third female Vigil had joined.

  Safeguard didn’t call him out on it but the absolutely smug look on the man’s face told him exactly what the Vigil was thinking. (And I don’t like it.)

  Needing to change the subject he instead poked the villain in his arms with his gun. “Anyway, given how all Vigils are creepy stalkers with no sense of privacy or personal boundaries, I’m not sure how much of this guy’s plan you heard?”

  “His wife is about to kill a lot of people using plant monsters like these.” Safeguard nodded, as Mercer noted said monsters backing away slightly from him and the villain.

  “Plant monsters like these that are currently all over the city.” He corrected, just to make sure the scope of this was understood. “We’ve apparently got just a couple of hours before they wake up and flood the city so you might want to do something about that.”

  Safeguard put a hand to his ear. “You catch all that Nightwatch?”

  He assumed the answer was something like ‘Yes.’ given that whole creepy stalker with no sense of privacy thing.

  The vigil that was actually here with him gave him a look, before repeating back whatever Nightwatch was saying on the other end. “Cross referenced shipments to all gardening and flower shops that have done business with this garden over the last month.”

  “That might narrow down the core outbreak points but it won’t deal with anyone that got a plant thinking it was something cute and harmless.” He pointed out. “That’s how I got dragged into this mess after all.”

  “You garden?” Safeguard skeptically asked.

  (No.) “I’m allowed hobbies.” He shrugged.

  The vigil rolled his eyes. “We can’t catch every plant but we can minimize the damage and put out an alert to be careful. Hopefully that will at least cut things off before this can escalate into a hell night.”

  (And this is why I quit the Vigils only thinking of how to react. Not how to fight and kill.)

  Needing an excuse for knowing what he knew, he jabbed his gun into the floral man’s jaw again, forcing him back a few more steps, the Blooming Beasts growling even as they moved. “You mentioned your wife was taking care of another obstacle. What obstacle is that?”

  “I’m not going to tell you where my wife is.” The man warned him point blank, his tone making it clear that that wouldn’t change. “In fact, now that you’re both surrounded by my plants why shouldn’t I have them rip you both apart.”

  “Because they probably can’t.” He confessed, earning a confused look from the man. “So, the beasts didn’t rush us when I grabbed you. I’m guessing that’s some kind of protective instinct. I mean you can still have them rush Safeguard, and pull a tentacle hentai on him.”

  “A what now?!” The Vigil blinked.

  Ignoring him Mercer continued. “But that just leaves me to break your kneecaps and escape to track down your wife. Which shouldn’t be too hard given how I just have to look for a number of plant monsters already roaming the street and I’ve got my own people who are better than Nightwatch to do that!”

  Admittedly all of those people were extremely niche and situation specific rather than a general boon like Kin-Ken, but he was trying to prove that he was a strong independent mask who didn’t need a genius in the chair, damn it!

  “Meaning we’re in a standoff.” The villain noted grimly. “Either of you try to leave my monsters rush you, and if I have them rush you one of you might catch my wife.”

  “Eh, technically all I have to do is walk you to Safeguard and then use you as a meatshield to escort us out.” He pointed out, nudging one of his fallen grapplers with his boot.

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  “Then I’ll just disable their protective programming and have them attack me alongside you.” The man growled. “It’s not as if I have much to live for past this point anyway.”

  “You’ve plenty to live for.” He disagreed. “I mean, right now it’s mostly being my human shield and possible bargaining chip with your psycho wife but hey that’s two whole things right there!”

  “Mercer!” Safeguard hissed.

  “What you want me to lie about my intentions with the man?” He frowned. “That’s not very heroic.”

  Safeguard closed his eyes and took a frustrated breath. Both of which lasted just long enough for Mercer to have his grappler retract its cable.

  “Anyway your wife doesn’t want you to die just like you don’t want your wife to die.” He assured the villain at their rope’s end. “After all, if neither of you cared, neither of you would’ve disabled the ‘do not protect’ command inside of your Blooming Beasts.”

  The man’s floral mask snapped to him. “What?”

  “Oh, it makes perfect sense if all of this is a raging grief against a lost loved one. I mean, neither of you is willing to lose the other after everything that happened. Not if you’re working together like this rather than having a very messy divorce where only one of you goes psycho villain.” He explained. “In fact as long as you’re in danger they actually won’t come near us.”

  To prove this point he picked up the relatively -to him- light man and moved him towards the not so feral flora that proceeded to make way for him. “The fact that I can pick you up also kind of underlines the point that you’ve really got no say in any of this anymore.”

  “That… That can’t be right…” The floral villain rasped head darting between all of his minions, before he yelled. “Attack the one holding me!”

  None of the Blooming Beasts did so.

  The villain’s head snapped to safeguard, and Mercer gave the man a shake. “Ah, ah, remember our little standoff.”

  “You’re right… None of this matters.” The man told him. “You’re still trapped here with me and my wife still might get away.”

  “Depending on what your final obstacle is.” He reminded the man, quietly adding that, “I mean, it’s not like your final obstacle is a couple of hunters who kill monsters for a living. Or that you and your wife have a plan that might get you both slapped with retroactive kill warrants, deeming you both monsters.”

  “You know where she went…” The floral villain gasped, just low enough that Safeguard wouldn’t hear.

  “Like I said, my informants are good. Just missed out on the dynamic duo angle.” He confessed, eyes sweeping the area even as he subtly slipped a boot under his grappler. “Now your choice really boils down to this: Do you want to leave your wife alone with the two hunters whose home you’re breaking into or do you want to let a hero go talk them down before your wife gets a bullet through her head.”

  The man in his arms was thinking, mind racing as he tried to figure out which fate was worse. Which was more likely to end in his wife’s survival.

  Not that Mercer really cared what the man was thinking or decided, he just needed to stall long enough to reposition while finding his shit. (And now that I’ve spotted my other grappler…)

  He kicked the one at his feet into the air, letting go of the floral villain just long enough to grab his grappler and slip it onto his arm.

  Unfortunately, the moment he quit touching the villain all of the Blooming Beasts began rushing towards him.

  “Stop!” He yelled, wrapping an arm around the man’s neck once more and causing all of the feral flora to freeze. “Good plants.”

  On the other side of the area Safeguard let out a frustrated growl, shield half raised to rush in and help him with the Blooming Beasts. “What was the point of that Mercer?!”

  “Needed my grappler if I want to get out of here and get moving.” He admitted at normal volume. “You know, deal with that impending invasion of feral flora that’ll cripple the city if it lasts too long. Killing so many children just like this guy’s kid.”

  In reality he wasn’t one hundred percent sure how powerful the plant’s protective instincts were, and he didn’t want to test them without at least one grappler on him to make a break for it. (Good to know, they can’t touch me while I’m touching him.)

  Which is why he didn’t even bother hiding it as he physically dragged the floral villain towards his other grappler, completely unafraid of the numerous Blooming Beasts currently growling at him and getting as close as they could without hurting their master. Once he had both of his grapplers secured and re-equipped he turned back to Safeguard watching him and the beasts with a tense stance.

  “You do know there were easier ways to handle that, right?” The usually kindly vigil growled.

  “I do, but I needed to set up and test some secondary stuff.” He shrugged, once he’d brought the villain that had nearly given up to the other Vigil. (Such as how I should be able to shut down the flora at Tris and Kur’Silo’s place by putting a gun to their boss’s head.)

  “Secondary stuff?” Safeguard repeated with narrowed eyes.

  “Yeah, such as making sure this guy will make for a good shield upgrade when I throw you both to the ground.” He nodded, visibly tucking something into the villain’s suit.

  “What?”

  The hero barely had time to react before Mercer threw the floral villain at him, and no time at all to react to the light concussive round that sent both of them flying into a tumble on the ground.

  All around him the Blooming Beasts began to rush towards him as he fired his grappler into the air, hooking it onto the support beams near the roof. Several of the feral flora climbing on top of each other to futilely try and reach him as he soared above them.

  Knowing that he was on a time table, and now no longer caring for stealth or property damage, he went ahead and fired a concussive round into the glass ceiling shattering it and giving him an out as the glass fell and impaled the Blooming Beasts below him.

  (Alright, hopefully that is enough of a mess to keep Safeguard from following me while I go and actually get shit done.) While he wasn’t one hundred percent against accepting one or two of the vigil’s help when things became an absolute unrepentant clusterfuck straight from hell itself, he was very much against them finding out any more about his network in the way than strictly necessary.

  Unfortunately, he was also fully aware of how capable and determined a Vigil could get, and knew that if he wasn’t fast Safeguard would track him down after interrogating the villain. (Meaning I just need to deal with whatever repentant clusterfuck from limbo is currently in the way right now.)

  The fact that he could already see a number of overgrown plants creeping and crawling over half of the way did not fill him with much hope on the matter. Especially when he saw just how many were currently covering the hunter sibling’s library. The entire building covered in massive vines, the evil eyes of the sun flowers staring out madly as various other feral flora littered the streets.

  (Yeah… That’s a full on siege…) Exactly the thing they were trying to prevent…

  What's the plan?