FALTER

CHAPTER 8: Heroes and monsters.

Two teenagers lurked under the bleary light of a fading street lamp. The younger of them was guarding his companion's back as the latter fiddled with the lock of a door hidden in the shadow of the alley. Adrenaline pumped through every turn of his veins as he turned his face slightly to whisper a question to his friend.

"How much longer is it gonna take?"

The older teen grunted in anger and dropped his keys.

"I don't fucking know, dude. Never done this shit before. The keys should've worked.... "

He muttered as he bent down. The younger one went back to his watching duties. He scanned the street left to right and realized calling it a street was really stretching the definition. A car could fit in but it would've had no more than an inch to spare on each side. The property walls on each side showed their age through the peeling posters placed on top of crumbling bricks. There were three sources of light, the one beside the alley providing the bare minimum required for the other kid to go back to trying every key in the lock.

An exuberant voice rang out from above.

"Larceny doesn't look good on an university application, guys."

Both the teenagers looked up to see a monster perching on the lamp post. The light blazed as bright as possible, as if to hide the figure but there was no concealing the long, yellow scarf twisting and flowing in the breeze of the early morning or the shiny trifecta of antennae rising over his head.

The keys clanged to the floor again as Falter gracefully dropped down to ground level, his bulbous eyes deceitfully 'glowing' at them. Both of the teenagers were speechless, but that didn't stop the older of the two from swiftly pulling out a pocket knife. Apparently having studied Falter's armour from before, he immediately swung his arm out to the side and stabbed the hero through the exposed cloth on his hips. Trying to ignore his eyes watering in pain, Falter sighed and looked at the kid as he pulled the knife back out.

"Why'd you have to do that?" His fist shot out and a second later, the assailant fell to his knees, blood gushing out of his nose, as the consciousness slowly left his eyes.

The younger boy jumped forward onto the street with a yelp. His hands shaking, he also reached towards his belt.

Falter held his hand out. "Stop it, kid, you can't-"

"No! You-" He made a gutteral yell as he pulled out a pistol and fought through his adrenaline to aim it squarely at Falter, who was now walking forward, clearly unimpeded by his injury. The boy saw Falter looming taller and taller above him until the barrel of his gun tapped against his chest. The light from the post was decreasing each second, leaving much of the horrifying face above him to his imagination.

"Do you really want to use that?" The voice coming from the helmet was no longer tinged with joy. It sounded like a knife raking over the hard earth, making the child's heart beat faster than ever.

"I, I.." Splutters were all that remained of the words he was trying to form, but he held his gun steadily at Falter's torso.