Conflicting Lives- Chapter 8: The ACTUAL Patrol, And A "Small" Conflict

Conflicting Lives- Chapter 8: The ACTUAL Patrol, and a "Small" Conflict

Word Count: 3223

It was well into patrol, but Scythe and Joel could not get rid of the teasing comments of Voidling and iWork. It didn't help that they often did react very similarly (if not the same) to more than a few of them, only adding fuel to the fire. By now, neither Scythe nor Joel were saying anything to the other two in their patrol, and instead chatting with themselves.

They tried their best to ignore the two behind them, but when the four men heard a distant boom, the silence in the following moments spoke all that it needed to. With a simple nod amongst themselves, the four started rushing towards the area the sound came from, using iWork’s tech from Inventor to better help locate the origin point of it.

Without needing to say any words, Scythe ran over to Joel who easily picked him up and flew high into the air. iWork was close behind, helping Voidling in a similar way, the masked man instead holding onto a grapple-like rope that the winged man above him held onto.

The patrol made their way above and around buildings, the signs of what must have been an explosion become more apparent as they closed in on the source. The smaller and quieter explosion heard above the ever so faint laughter proved that, and she came into their view as they turned around the next building.

There she stood, in the middle of all of the chaos, living up to the name Wildfire as flames soared wildly in almost all directions. Her green skin illuminated with the orange of flames, Wildfire threw spears of flames towards smaller, lesser known heroes as they tried to land huts, to no avail. Luckily, she had her back turned to the patrol. Unluckily, a second villain was turned towards them, golden crown and crimson cloak glowing bright from the light of the flames.

As the cloaked villain leaned back to inform his partner of the incoming reinforcements, Scythe and Voidling dropped to the ground from the hold of Joel and iWork. As the four lined up and started to divide themselves into who would fight who, Wildfire’s voice rang through the air and over the sounds of the flames.

“Aren’t you glad I dragged you out here? Isn’t it just so fun to let it loose?”  Her voice was rimmed with mania, and when her partner in crime hadn’t responded, she continued. “Oh, is the great Red Winter too engrossed to respo--” she turned around, cutting herself off as her eyes seemed to sparkle with joy when she spotted the four heroes, “-- oh well just look at what we have here!

Four little heroes arriving just in the nick of time to save your friends!” She gestured to the scattered civilians, heroes, and police in the area as she spoke. “And here I thought that we wouldn't get the attention of the big guys, but I guess my little boom worked after all.”

Before she could continue, Voidling stepped forward, his armor helping to protect him from the small fires dotted around where the patrol landed. “That’s enough, Wildfire. You’ve done enough damage, and now it’s time for you and Red Winter to leave.” 

As he spoke, he drew his mace, the rest of the patrol pulling out their weapons and taking up fighting positions. iWork had his hammer out, but made sure to keep to a more covered and earthy area in case anyone needed healing. Scythe had a ryyk in each hand and had taken up a position of a straightforward and charge-like approach. Joel, with his battle axe in both hands, took up a position in the sky using his wings.

The expression on Wildfire and Red Winter's faces seemed to flip, a smirk growing on the cloaked wolf hybrid, a frown setting in on the zombie hybrid. “What a shame. I was just starting to have fun too!” Wildfire said in an annoyed tone.

Red Winter’s smirk only grew as he spoke, “I guess it's time to have some real fun then.” He turned to Wildfire. “Why not let loose on people who can actually put up a good fight?”

Wildfire found a smile returning to her face as she gleefully responded, “Oh, now that sounds wonderful!”

Red Winter charged towards Voidling, using his transformation abilities to become more wolf-like. Just as he reaches to swipe in a now werewolf form, Voidling raises his mace, blocking the attack and being pushed back.

In that same moment, Joel dives to where Wildfire is, dodging her spears of fire as they are thrown. Voidling starts to lose his traction on the ground from Red Winter’s continued blows, and iWork runs over to help him before Scythe can even fully react. iWork reached Voidling just as he is knocked backwards from the strongest attack against him, and Scythe comes up with a quick plan.

Slowly, he starts making his way towards where Joel is fighting Wildfire. He uses the light of the fires to his advantage, bending them slightly to help better conceal himself while also using his illusions to better blend into the ground and the flames around him.

Finally, he made it to where Wildfire and Joel were. He almost chuckled to himself as he realized the two were litterally playing with fire, then tapped Wildfire's shoulder, causing her to turn around. Seeing Joel get ready to launch yet another fireball, Scythe simply waved at Wildfire before jumping to the side. 

He had just barely missed the fireball as it came crashing down onto Wildfire. In the split second of quiet after the fireball landed, Scythe heard the clang of metal on armor as Voidling was pushed back as his mace hit his chestplate. Then as the flames fully clear, he decides to start up a conversation with Wildfire.

“Come on, you really chose to blow up a park instead of like, going to the gym or something?” He asked as he dodged one of her fire spears. She laughs as she responds, dodging a blow from Joel and reaching to attack Scythe, “Oh, don't be silly, you should know me by now!”

Scythe managed to dodge and grab Wildfire’s arm, but before he could do anything, she pulled him in, “I’m not one to shy from a bit of chaos.” A shiver ran down Scythe’s spine as she spoke, and he teleported away quickly as Joel dived towards her, axe in hand. 

Wildfire turned around just in time to see Joel diving towards her, and she quickly jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding getting hit. “You know,” Joel started as he dodged another spear of fire, “a certain someone visited recently bearing good will from you--” he moved to help Scythe as he prepared to throw a small ball of light at Wildfire “-- and it would be such a shame if she found out you injured Lux.”

Scythe threw the ball of light, but missed Wildfire as she dodged it, replying as Joel ran at her. “Oh, I won’t hurt him, “ she gestured towards Scythe, “but I don't mind hurting you.” She finishes just as Joel gets to her, ducking under his swing and pushing her elbow into his stomach.

Joel stumbles back and Scythe teleports behind him to help him regain his balance as Wildfire continues. “And besides, she was technically the one that suggested causing some chaos--” she threw a few more spears of fire at the pair of heroes “-- I just so happened to take it a bit literally, that’s all!”

Scythe took cover behind a nearby piece of debris, while Joel took to the skies once more to avoid the barrage of fiery spears. Scythe noticed that his flight was a little unbalanced, and that worried him more than he would ever admit, but he had to focus on what he needed to do next.

Wildfire and Joel kept fighting, and her voice rang through the air once more. “Besides, this gives a good opportunity to check in with you!” She stumbled a little as a ring of light began to encompass her vision.

It was working. When he was satisfied with the intensity of the light ring, strong enough to disorient her but weak enough as to not permanently harm her vision, Scythe came out of his hiding spot, running back to where Wildfire was standing. Joel sighed as he landed back on the ground, walking to a now slightly-stunned as he put his axe on his shoulder, admittedly a little amused at the stumbling state of the zombie hybrid in front of him.

“Why can’t you just let off steam like a normal person?” Scythe askes, delivering a light but firm blow to Wildfire’s shoulder with the handle of one of his ryyks. He stops the ring of light he made around her vision as she stumbled over, trying to be courteous as to let her catch herself.

She chuckles a little as she starts to stand back up. “Eh, it was worth it if I had a chance to annoy you guys. And if not I wouldn't have minded if I ended up with some other heroes showing up instead, just so i can beat their asses too.” She looked up at Scythe and Joel with a smile on her face, and Scythe felt something off as she spoke once more. “Plus, what’s the fun of doing something normal?”

Then Scythe noticed it, the sound of a large fireball falling towards the three of them. He jumped to the side just in time to look over and see the large ball of flame crashing down to where he just was. The heat was far more intense than he thought it would be, and he worried for a moment what shape Joel and Wildfire would be in after the flames died down. He wasn't really quite sure he saw them both dodge out the way before it hit.

“You never did answer my question either” a voice said behind him ,and before he could properly react he felt something push on his back and was shoved forward, barely managing to catch himself before face planting into the course and burnt dirt.

Quickly recovering, he turned around and saw Wildfire giggling to herself. Joel landed between the two, his clothes almost burnt off and his hair littered with small embers and ash, though he himself seemed to be completely unharmed. He looked behind himself to check to see if Scythe was ok before turning back towards the smaller zombie hybrid.

“I’m doing great, thanks for asking,” Scythe said sarcastically, walking forward to stand beside Joel. Just then, Red Winter appeared once more by Wildfire’s side, Voidling and iWork both taking up positions on each side of their patrol partners.

Apparently, Voidling and iWork had managed to push Red Winter far enough back to make him retreat, and he re-joined his partner in crime. “Are you alright, m’lady?” the cloaked villain asked, and Wildfire simply nodded, a smile growing on her face once more.

Scythe sensed something was about to happen, and looked over to Voidling only to find the masked hero looking back at him with the same confused and apprehension-filled look. He then turned to look at iWork beside him, who seemed to be focused on the gap between the two villains. In the same moment that he seems to see something, Scythe turns back to look at Wildfire and Red Winter, only to find a third villain standing between them.

“Well, well, well. Look what we have here!” Scarlet Moon giggled, her red moth wings fluttering behind her, eyes matching in color and almost glowing with excitement. “It seems this time I've been called in for the rescue, and how could I deny the pleasure of seeing four of my favorite heroes?”

Voidling stopped forward, keeping his mace firmly in his hands and speaking with a steady voice. “It is time for you three to leave. You’ve done enough damage, and you don't need to be causing any more.” iWork braced himself in case another battle broke out, and Joel started to stretch his wings in preparation to fly.

Scythe simply looked at Scarlet Moon, or rather Pearl, and she looked back. They held each other's gaze for a moment longer, then she looked back at Voidling. “I suppose so.” She put a hand on each shoulder of the two in front of her, and bright light started to emit from the trio. “I do wish I could have stayed longer though. Until next time, heroes.” She said, and a blinding light flashed, the patrol closing their eyes out of instinct.

When Scythe re-opened his eyes, the three villains were gone, and the surrounding fires were starting to lose their strength in Wildfire’s absence. He looked around at his fellow patrol members. Joel was rubbing his eyes from the bright light, Voidling was looking around and surveying the damage, and iWork was turned to Scythe. 

“Do you have any major injuries, Lux?” he said, reaching out towards his arm where he hadn’t quite realized he had a large scrape. “This doesn’t look horrible, but you should definitely get it cleaned before trying to heal it.” iWork continued, looking at the scrape closer through the dirt and dust stuck to it.

“Oh, uh, yeah I’ll do that.” Scythe responded, a little confused on how he didn’t see the wound before. The phantom hybrid looked at him with uncertainty. “I will, I promise! I’m just a little shocked that I didn't notice it, I guess.” he quickly added, and iWork looked a little more relaxed, though obviously not completely relieved.

He walked away from Scythe and to Joel, checking him over as well. Miraculously, he didn't have any damage to his person, but his uniform definitely needed to be replaced. Scythe could swear he heard iWork “lightly” scolding Joel. “You didn’t think to get your uniform in fire-proof materials? Come on, Stratos! Aren’t you a Blaze hybrid? You need a fire-proof uniform!”

Those were among the most tamed words of the scolding, but Joel did eventually manage to avoid the full-length of a scold by casually bringing up that Voidling might still be injured. iWork almost instantly stopped what he was saying, and begrudgingly walked away from Joel towards Voidling to make sure he wasn't badly hurt.

“Jeez, I almost couldn’t get rid of him.” Joel said as he walked towards Scythe, rubbing in the back of his head in slight embarrassment. Scythe chuckled and replied with a smile “I mean it is your fault for not getting fire-proof fabric, as someone with fire magic. That’s your own damn fault if you ask me”

“Oh, come on! You’re supposed to be on my side!” Joel pouted playfully, crossing his arm and looking away. Scythe laughed even harder, failing to apologize through all the giggling. Thankfully he was able to compose himself by the time Voidling walked over with iWork by his side.

“I want us to help where we can while we’re still in the area.” He said. Looking at Scythe and iWork, he continued” Lux, iWork, the two of you have Healing abilities, so I want you to check all of the citizens and bystanders to see if they need any help.” iWork opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again once Voidling put up his hand to stop him.

“Yes, I know I can heal too, but I want Stratos to come with me to clear the larger debris in the area to help clear up any major roads or paths that may be blocked.” He turned to Joel as he spoke, “Are you alright with helping clear, Stratos?”

Joel nodded, “Yeah sure. I can help lift and push stuff.” Voidling replied with an “Alright” before telling them all to split up and do what they need to do. Voidling and Joel went to the police and firemen that had arrived to check and see which areas needed to be cleared first, and iWork turned to Scythe.

“So here’s what I’m thinking. I have more disinfectant and cleaning things than you do for healing, I know that much, so I can start by cleaning any wounds, and you can then come in after and heal them with your ability.” He said. Scythe wondered how he thought of that so quickly, but he knew that iWork was a quick thinker, and the plan made sense anyways.

So he nodded, “That sounds good. What if it's a deep or large wound? Do we want to try and do anything different or extra?” He asked. He was genuinely curious, and didn’t quite know how much he could heal without running out of stamina, or risking his illusion fading, but he didn't really want to say that aloud and just hoped iWork understood.

He thought for a moment before responding. “If it's deep or large enough, I can do some initial healing after cleaning it. I understand your concerns, and if you think you’re getting too tired feel free to come and tell me or to step away for a moment.” He looked at the surrounding civilians before continuing. “There doesn’t seem to be many injuries, but still let me know if anything happens.”

Scythe nodded, appreciative of iWork’s concern. The phantom hybrid started walking towards the civilians, taking out his cleaning supplies and checking in with everyone. Scythe simply followed behind, stopping at anyone that iWork cleaned the wounds of, and made small talk while healing them, trying to be as kind as possible even when he did feel tired and ready to be home.

After about 45 minutes, everyone who needed assistance was helped, and enough debris was cleared to make the necessary roads and paths accessible to citizens. Voiding called iWork and Scythe over to where he and Joel were standing.

“Great work today guys. Go home, and rest. I’ll get a patrol with some of the other heroes to come and survey the area to make sure everything is still alright, but we all need some rest.” Scythe felt himself relax, and he took a deep breath as the masked hero continued. “You all did amazing today, both on the clean up, and in the fighting.”

The three younger men nodded, and iWork and Voidling walked in one direction, Joel and Scythe in the other. Joel didn’t even need to wait for Scythe to look at him before he knew what the enderman hybrid was going to ask.

“Yes, I'll take you back to your dorm. But you’re feeding me dinner and calling Cleo and Pearl to hang out too.” the winged man said, spreading his wings and holding his hands out for Scythe to hold onto.

Scythe laughed and grabbed his arms, still laughing as he replied, “Deal, and thank you, Stratos.” Joel rolled his eyes and flew into the air. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Also, it is so weird for you to call me Stratos, even if we’ve been on countless missions together.”

Scythe laughed and looked at the cityscape in front of him. “It is weird calling you Stratos, but we were still around the public eye so I didn't really have a choice.” Joel muttered a “Fair enough,” and flew back towards Cursia.

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