Stuck Together

Chapter 8

---------- Percy's POV: ----------

The man in front of me stood tall, his shadow loomed long against the ground, making him seem even more imposing than I'd initially thought. He was big, rivaling Frank in build and about as tall as Jason was. The gun he held in his hand was clearly not the most terrifying thing about him.

Cold white slits in his red mask stared at me with an unrelenting anger, his hand, although gripping onto the gun in his hand didn't seem too tight. Slowly I lowered myself, grabbing the knife off my belt and preparing to leap to either side. My movement though seemed only to prompt the man, his body flinching as if he'd been frozen as his mask looked directly at me.

"Ace huh? You must be what Joker's been MIA about." I clenched my jaw. This man had been looking for me for a while. My stomach churned as I decidedly kept my mouth clamped shut, I couldn't trust myself to not let it spill that I didn't want to actually fight him and rather wanted to protect my parents. I needed silence now to keep myself alive. A short huff came from the man, "Not a talker? That'll change." I felt my body move harshly to the side as his finger pulled on the trigger, a loud pop filling the room as my body hit the floor.

While it was true that I didn't want to fight this guy, it was my family or him.

My muscles kicked in as I pushed myself off the floor and raced in a circular pathway around the man. He kept shooting, bullets hitting and bouncing off of the various pedestals and glass cases, breaking the glass and leaving shattered pieces everywhere.

He seemed intent on dealing with me from afar, but in order to keep myself from not getting shot I needed his gun away from him.

Stopping abruptly and barely missing a bullet he'd aimed ahead of me, I took the chance to race towards him. He took a swift step back, turning the gun on me but I'd make quick work of the space between us and with a toss of my body weight, I managed to slam my shoulder into him. I felt his arms tighten from beneath me as we both hit the floor, the sounds of both our weapons dropping still audible above the sounds of our body weight hitting the floor.

He let out a curse as we rolled in separate directions, both of us on our feet as soon as we could.

"What did Joker even offer you huh?" He asked, his anger palpable. He stuck his hands up, preparing to fight me.

"What does it matter to you?" I asked, not able to keep the retort from slipping out.

The man unleashed a punch that I swiftly blocked, attempting to utilize the punch as a way to harm him but I found he matched me and blocked my attack as well.

"Just wondering why anyone would ever align with someone as disgusting as him." He replied. His attacks begin in rapid fire, each punch a sharp sting to my forearm. I tried to keep my distance, to allow myself the time to attack properly and defend myself all the same, but the man was quick to close the distance, and the muscles I'd noted earlier were quick to unleash their strength onto me. It's no wonder Joker needed someone to keep this guy at bay, Joker wasn't exactly matching in strength here.

I blocked what I could, managing to slip a few hits to his jaw and sides which would give him a short anger boost before he'd slow down again, clearly I was doing some damage though, which kept me motivated to continue.

His attacks were relentless though despite my own hits to him. On one of his punches he landed a pretty harsh one to my side, causing me to stumble back, my hand going to my side that was absolutely going to bruise. I looked up at him, my eyes wide.

I couldn't stop thinking.

It was strange.

Whenever I fought before I only had to think about the people I was saving because my enemies were inhuman, monsters, or if I didn't, my mind was blank, but now? Now I was thinking about too much, I was missing simple punches and my legs felt like lead. I couldn't stop envisioning what would happen.