The Silence of a Somber Day

Fog

        "Are you two in position?" Tempest asked over the communication device. He had borrowed some extra gear from the vigilante duo for their mission, including an earpiece that was underneath his hood. It was the perfect time for work to be done. It was a few hours before dawn, just enough that the early birds weren't up yet. It was a little past midnight, where most of the late owls had tucked themselves in bed. The world was at its quietest, when the most amount of people in the Holy Lands would be asleep. Tempest had been taught that was the perfect time for a raid. He had been on a few, gathering information or destroying resources for major mafia clans. This wasn't exactly the same thing, but Tempest would follow the same regulations that had been rigorously taught to him.

        "I am!" Yellowjacket chirped. A few seconds later, Enderman awkwardly gave his reply, "As am I." Tempest noted that they would need to work on confidence for Enderman. For now, however, they had a drug to steal.

The plan was rather simple. Tempest and Yellowjacket would go inside the building as a distraction, getting all the guards to focus on them. When the attention was diverted, Endermen would teleport into the building using his power, grab the appropriate drug, and leave immediately before anything went south. It wasn't a foolproof plan. There was a chance that a professional hero was there, and that Yellowjacket couldn't take them on. There was a chance the drug was under more security than Tempest had speculated. There was a chance that Enderman wouldn't be able to get to the drug. Worst of all, Tempest would probably be found out. With the security cameras, eyewitness accounts, and the fact that people were arriving in Spawn, it would be a pain in the ass to convince anyone that Tempest had nothing to do with the robbery. The only highlights were that the Holy Lands were not under the Heroes Association jurisdiction. Moreover, most people that lived there saw Tempest as the true hero because of the work he had done in the area during the few hours he was on duty but didn't have a mission. Hopefully, he had earned enough good karma for XD not to find out. If he got one more strike on his record, he would never return from his exilement.
Tempest pulled out his hand gun, the cold black metal resting heavily in his palms. Tempest held it steadily forwards, firing off a single bullet at the man standing guard outside. He had been fumbling with his keycard, and he dropped it when he saw something shiny hurtling at him. The man's face twisted in pain as the bullet pierced his forehead but in a second he was a puff of smoke instead of a solid body, his clothes and personal belongings disappearing with him. Tempest could only pray that the other hero that used Spawn was on a mission so it wouldn't be blamed on Tempest.

Tempest army crawled the remaining distance from the tree he was at to the front door. Tempest jumped up slightly so he was on his knees instead of his belly against the ground. His gun remained in his palm, and he raised it once more as he opened the metal door with the key card the man had dropped. Tempest was crouched down as he made his way inside. He didn't see anyone but he heard a few people darting about in the adjacent hallways and above him. Tempest lifted up the map he saved on his communicator. He tapped the surface to see the schematics of the building. He tapped one of the buttons to get a dotted red line to appear. It guided Tempest from where he was to the location he was headed.

He followed the path, pressed against the wall for assurance. Tempest stopped when he heard approaching voices. Tempest waited for them to get close enough. Right as the two guards were turning the corner, Tempest kicked up both legs in a handstand to hit them both in the chest. They stumbled back, one falling and dragging the other down with him Tempest pulled out his knife. The glowing red metal slashed them both in their throats. One gurgled a threat at Tempest before dissipating into smoke.

Tempest continued his path, getting no more interruptions as he found the room he was looking for. Tempest kicked the door in. He watched as the technicians and the handful of guards turned to face him and his grand entrance. Tempest didn't hesitate to shoot the first one in his line of sight. That was enough to jumpstart them all into action. Tempest sighed at the work that was laid before him.

Tempest twisted his body while lifting his leg to slam his foot in the jaw of the first man to approach. As Tempest rounded the turn, his knife made contact with someone's eyes. Tempest pushed the corpse forward, and the body disappeared right as the knife made contact with another guard's chest. Tempest couldn't celebrate because the man he had kicked had come to tackle Tempest to the ground. He lost his grip on his knife and gun as a punch rounded into his stomach. Tempest gave a quiet cough as he felt his organs yell at him for the hundredth time in his short life. Tempest pushed the man onto his back, readying his own punch. Instead, someone grabbed Tempest's arms, pulling them behind his back. Tempest squirmed against the grip as the man that had tackled Tempest stood up. Tempest calmed his breath as he was beat down. A punch here and kick there knocked the wind out of Tempest, sure, but here was where Tempest succeeded and the man did not. Tempest's constitution was better than the man's stamina.

The man hunched over with a heavy breath, fingers coated in Tempest's blood. The bloodied former hero pretended that he was passed out. The man came closer, grabbing onto Tempest's hair. Tempest felt his head being pulled up. In that instant, Tempest lifted both his legs to slam them both into the man's stomach. He stumbled back while grabbing his torso. Tempest used the opposing force that pushed him in the opposite direction to flip over the one that held him captive, bringing him to the ground on his back as Tempest landed on his knees. Tempest stepped on his captor's neck as he pulled out his secondary gun to shoot the man before pulling the gun on his captor. He stared at the man with calculating eyes. "I can trust you, right, mate? I need you and your buddies to not mention a word. I was never here. Blame it on anyone else. But it wasn't me." His captor stared at him before giving a rather sad smile. Tempest rolled his eyes as he shot the last bullet of the night.

Tempest stood back up. He pulled his hood back up as he held his stomach to alleviate some of the pain. There was definitely going to be a bruise, and his stab wound was certainly bleeding again, but Tempest knew he would survive. He had been through far worse, both before and after becoming a sidekick.

Tempest checked over the computers as he looked for a vial of the Holy Water (in case Enderman hadn't gotten one). He stopped when he saw an interesting file. Tempest didn't know that a new villain had surfaced across all of the lands. Tempest did more investigation using passwords that normal people wouldn't know to learn all he could. Some drug dealer that had been seen working with the Syndicate on one occasion, during some showdown at the Cult of Red's banquet. There wasn't much more to that other than the Muffinteers were the ones on the case. Tempest swallowed thickly. He would have been a part of that team. He could have found this drug dealer, and dealt with him in a timely fashion.
Tempest sighed distractedly. This wasn't the time or place to reminisce about better yesterdays. This was temporary, he reminded himself. It had to be. Because if it wasn't... Tempest didn't know who he was if it wasn't temporary.

Tempest left the room without the vial. He was able to catch the tail end of Yellowjacket sword fighting with one of the random guards.

Yellowjacket delivered a blow similar to the one that Tempest had given him during the last time they trained together. Yellowjacket turned to him with a brilliant smile. "Enderman got the stuff! We can go now, Big Man!"