The Guardian Vesuvius: Chapter 3: The Fools Errand
"Through life you will find that your love, like everyone's, is scattered between the people you care for and everything that means something good to you. However, once or twice, you'll find something that you hold so dear it commands your entire love, and then some you never knew you had. Something so precious that it could never be replaced. Something you couldn't imagine losing and then living without. Something that you feel should never be lost. It could be anything, a person, a place, a group, an object or a feeling."
"Think about your special something. Everyone has one. If you haven't found yours yet, think about it now and you may realise what it is."
"What if you learnt that your special something was in danger, that you could lose it and never get it back, or it would never be the same? What would you do to protect it? What would you do to get it back? What would you do to whatever took it from you? Is there anything you wouldn't do?"
"How far would you go for your special something? What would you brave, dare and risk? Is it worth it?"
"This is your special something... no matter what...."
"It is worth it!"
Misaro had managed to make his way safely home. It was just as well, really. The saddened boy had paid no attention to anything on the way there, anything could have happened to him. He was far too taken by his conversation with the mysterious man, who he thought to be the answer to his wish and the answer to Fayth's horrid life. It seemed, he thought, that the closer a dream is to coming true, the more it hurts when it all falls apart. The last thing Misaro needed was more hurt. Yet, despite being told so bluntly to forget it all and walk away, how could he possibly do that? He needed to help Fayth, he had to, so strong were his feelings that his heart would give him no choice.
Finally arriving home, Misaro went up to his room. As usual all the curtains were drawn. They were rarely opened. He did, however, always leave his bedroom window open, so that his mother could see him, so that there was nothing between him and her. It brought him a strange ease; it made the room cold but made him feel warm. Tonight, though, he was near inconsolable. Everything he had left was being destroyed. He didn't switch on any lights in the house. In total darkness he clambered into bed, weak, distraught and defeated. He could only cry. "Fayth... after loving you for nearly all my life, or at least the part of my life I care to remember, how can I just walk away now? I was never able to walk away... I can't… now, more than ever... I will never stop trying to look out for you. That man was right, I can't save you... but it's not within me not to try. Still so stupid, so very, very STUPID!!!"
There was a strange draught suddenly through the window. In his state, Misaro hardly noticed it, until a familiar voice sounded out in his room. "You won't make any difference talking to yourself and crying, you know." Misaro shrieked and shot up from his bed. He turned to see the shadowy figure, sitting on the windowsill. In his panic, Misaro struggled to find the light switch, taking a few tries to get it. For the first time a good amount of light shone upon the enigmatic figure and his curious visage was fully unvieled. He wore tattered clothes. He seemed young, but he was enormous, tall and well built. His ripped cape was waving outside the window. His stare was cold and frightening. Unlike before, though, his hair had fallen to his shoulders and across his face. It seemed that when he was fighting it rose a little. His stomach, neck and arms were plated with strange armour and a thick, heavy looking sword was strapped to his back. Curiously, the sword had several handles on its hilt. Misaro was so taken by his powerful and strange appearance that it was sometime before he managed to speak.
"Y-you... what are you doing here? Didn't you say…"
"Forget what I said, that's not important. Listen to what I'm saying now." The figure looked, unblinking, at Misaro. His eyes were sharp and deadly serious. "You like this Fayth girl then, do you?" Misaro was still shocked by the figure's arrival but he nodded, like the answer to that question was so natural to him he could do it in his sleep. Vesuvius's stare was fixed. He hardly moved at all, contrary to Misaro who was breathing heavily and shaking all over. "How much?!!" He sharply asked.
" W-w-with all my heart... with everything I am. More than anything else in the world."
" Would you die for her?"
" Yes, I would." Misaro was so afraid, but he could answer these questions confidently even to this daunting man.
The figure scowled at the boy and raised his voice. "Don't give me any of your love crap, kid! I really mean die. Would you end your life for her?!!"
"YES!!! "
The man sighed and looked outside. His face seemed wrought with doubt and concern, like he didn't think he should be there. "...I've been thinking. Maybe we can help Fayth".
Misaro froze for a moment. Things were moving far too quickly for the fragile child. One moment this man wouldn't look at him for more than a second, and certainly didn't hang around him, saying Fayth was beyond their help and he was just to forget about it. Now the man he was looking for had come to him to tell him that they could help Fayth. They.
Once all this sunk in Misaro stopped shaking, His shocked expression slowly transformed into the first genuine smile in a long time. Misaro cried in joy rather than in sadness. He gasped and put his hands over his mouth. "Really? You mean it? ...Thank you so much... You have no idea how much this means to me. Thank you, thank you so, so much"
"Hey, I'm not doing this for you, okay! So save your thanks." The figure quickly glanced at Misaro, silencing him. "Now listen. You must NEVER tell ANYONE about this, about me, do you understand? Not even her!" The figure's tone seemed to get more and more serious with every word he said. What he said seemed to be of the utmost importance to him. Noticing this, and, of course, willing to accept any conditions in order to help Fayth, Misaro nodded his head. The shaken boy started to relax a little and decided that he should introduce himself to the man, hoping he would get his name in return. "Umm, I'm Misaro, what's your n…"
"You DON'T need to know that!!"
Misaro jumped as the figure raised his voice. " I... I'm sorry, I just thought that... that…" Misaro looked to the ground, embarrassed to have asked a question that the figure reacted to in such a way.
The figure closed his eyes and shook his head, giving a loud sigh. "You're so pathetic. My name is Vesuvius." Misaro smiled. He may have been about to say something but Vesuvius was quick to continue. "Now, listen closely, kid"
Misaro sat upright on the bed and listened intently, incredibly eager to hear Vesuvius's plan. "Is there anyone else in this house?"
" No... no, I live here alone." Misaro was troubled deeply by this. He did his best to mask it but it was plain to see.
Vesuvius nodded slightly, then looked around outside. "I see. That's good, it will make things easier."
Misaro looked down and whispered to himself. "Easier? ...not for me... "
Suddenly Vesuvius swung the rest of his body outside. Misaro was strangely upset to see the man he was so recently afraid of leaving again, especially since he hadn't actually heard any of the plan. "Ah! You're going? "
" Heh... I'm not sticking around here, kid, I have things I need to do. Besides, I can't very well help Fayth from here, can I?"
Misaro smiled. "No… of course not. So I guess I'll see you soon then, huh?" Vesuvius did not answer as he left. Misaro's smile slowly disappeared, left alone again and in the dark, clueless to plan. His natural misery set back in. "But.... what am I supposed to do?"
Now far from Misaro's home, Vesuvius leapt nimbly from rooftop to rooftop with incredible agility. He seemed to show next to no effort as he flipped, climbed and jumped across the city's roofs. In fact, the only things he was concentrating on were his thoughts. "Zanados wouldn't like this at all, but I just can't sit by and let this girl's torment continue like this. I mean... this is what we're supposed to do, right?" Vesuvius came to a stop outside a large, expensive looking house. Hiding behind the chimney of a nearby rooftop, he looked down and counted the dangerous looking men moving within and outside its fenced perimeter. They wore the same suits and ties as group that had attacked Fayth in the alley. Satisfied with the odds, he readied himself to move towards the guarded house. He scowled in anger. These men were truly despicable for being even slightly involved with what was happening to Fayth. He slipped on his strange gauntlet and it clicked into place. "Sorry, Zanados, my mind is made up. I won't let Fayth suffer anymore." In the blink of an eye, Vesuvius disappeared from the rooftop.
The men patrolling the house were tall and broad. All were armed and there was a fair number of them. They seemed relaxed, though, and were talking amongst themselves. Obviously who or whatever they were guarding wasn't often attacked. At the back of the house, the conversation of a group of three was suddenly disrupted by a suspicious rustling in the bushes. The three men turned quickly, taking out their guns and pointing them at it. After watching the bush for a while one of them moved slowly towards it. Once he got within reach of the bush, he violently thrust his gun into it, pushing aside branches to look inside. Finding nothing, he turned back to the other two men, only to find that they had both been knocked unconscious. The remaining guard started to panic, pointing his gun forward and frantically checking all around him. How could the other two have been knocked unconscious without a single sound?
Vesuvius dropped silently behind the trembling guard. An instant later the man fell to the ground, sharing the same fate as his team-mates. Vesuvius stood over the three bodies, clenching his teeth and fists hard. Even in the quiet whisper he spoke in, the anger in his words was evident. "People like you should not be allowed to live. You were fortunate to be dealt with by me, any other guardian would have made this much more painful for you." Vesuvius made his way onto the roof of the house. He headed over to a sunroof and peered inside. More armed guards littered the room, taking it easy.
" Ha! Want to relax, huh?" Vesuvius laughed to himself, "Well, let me send you to sleep." Vesuvius drew an arrow from his pack and his gauntlet came to life again. This time it began to move into the form of a crossbow. He loaded the arrow onto the bow and aimed, not needing long, he was obviously extremely adept with it. Breaking the general silence in the room, the arrow smashed through the sunroof and hit the floor, the cone shaped head of the arrow shattering and releasing its contents. The guards in the room had barely noticed the sunroof shatter before they had all fallen into a deep sleep. Vesuvius smiled as he checked that all the men had taken in the gas. He jumped down through the new opening and quickly moved up against the wall. The gas had no affect on him, all part of his training. He quickly glanced around the room. As he suspected, the room had no windows to the outside. He sneaked up to a door and took a deep breath.
" Ok... let's do this."
He turned and burst through the door. Several men, waiting for him on the other side had assembled after hearing the glass smashing. They opened fire through the flying panels of the door. The bullets and debris raised a cloud of dust. The sound of the bullets ricocheting of metal rang out from the dust cloud. Confused as to what exactly had come through the door, the men stopped firing and waited for the dust to clear. The dust settled to reveal nothing. One of the men called out to the intruder. "Hey! You made a BIG mistake coming here! Don't you know who owns this place? You better get away from here, now!"
Vesuvius suddenly leapt in through the doorway, but the group's reaction time was way too slow. Vesuvius had already ploughed his fist into one of them by the time they managed to start shooting at him. He started to twist and spin rapidly, deflecting the bullets off the metal armour panels on his body. The guards stopped firing again, this time in sheer awe of what they just saw. Not wasting the opportunity, Vesuvius kicked off the ground and shoulder-barge
d into the chest of one man, who tumbled back into a pillar in the centre of the large room. Vesuvius was back in front of him straight away. He grabbed on to the thug's shoulders, lifted his legs up and rested his feet on the man's chest. He let go of his shoulders and pushed off him with his feet, slamming him once more into the pillar and knocking him out of the fight. Vesuvius flipped over and landed on his feet, in a crouched position. Another man turned to shoot him but Vesuvius rolled forward to avoid the shots, drawing his sword he spun on his back on the floor. He smashed the flat edge of the long blade into the man's ankles, knocking him clear off his feet. Vesuvius then changed his grip to a different handle on the sword, pointing upwards. He swung the sword in arch over him, striking the man with it in midair and crashing him into the floor, Vesuvius used the force of swinging the heavy sword to pull him to his feet. He moved towards the last man, deflecting a final two gunshots off his armour. Once within arms reach, he brought his gauntlet arm round and uppercut the man in the gut. He flew up off the ground, struck with such force he nearly hit the ceiling, and fell with a heavy thud to the marble floor.
Vesuvius put his sword away and was about to move on, when suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his arm. He had been too focused on the fight to notice that a bullet had gashed his arm. The wound was deep and bleeding heavily. Vesuvius winced and grunted as the pain flared up.
"Gah! I didnt think I would manage that one unscathed, Dion will definetly make fun of me for this."
Vesuvius gave a little smile as he set aside the pain. Shaking his head to get back his concentration, he moved on to the next door. With a mighty kick he smashed the door through. It was the room he was looking for. He smiled. "Heh... this is close enough to the centre, the perfect place to leave my little present." He finished what he had come to do then quietly left the way he had come in.
Even though his wound hindered him, he was still able to make his way back to the rooftops. He near enough collapsed when he reached his previous hiding place, exhausted and in agony. He sat up and looked back at the house. "3... 2... 1..." Several explosions tore through the night's silence and darkness, completely destroying the house and reducing it to a burning wreck. A smile of satisfaction lit up Vesuvius's face. "I'd better make myself scarce before a crowd starts to gather." Vesuvius inspected the gash on his arm and pulled a worried face. "Looks like I'll need to be more careful. This guy has more guns working for him than I thought."
Vesuvius stood up to leave. His hair slowly fell down across his shoulders and started to flow more freely, the wind flapping his cape about his shoulders. "No matter... my plan is in action now. It's started and there's no going back. I hope you're ready to act on your words, Misaro."
Thank you so much for reading *cuddles*
Chapter 4: Anger and Agony
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