Echoes of the crackling of fire bounce off tunnel walls, covering low murmurs.
The last Karl caught of the other two was the concrete of the sewers giving way to cityscape as Dream made the reluctant choice to not let Wilbur bang his head on an overhang. And for all of Dream's stupid decisions, Karl does appreciate the inclusion with the sharing of the address information. Though he may or may not have already known it.
Still, Karl repeats it to himself under his breath, braced against the wall as he fastens a mic to his collar with a camera on the brink of death in his other hand, the two rings he's now wearing clattering against the metal.
The devices are long past any repair or functionality. But the enforcers don't know that. And what they don't know is exactly what Karl plans to use to hurt them.
'Plan' is an overstatement. He has no weapons and even if he did, taking on gods know how many enforcers is a longshot. His main asset here is his identity, being a confounding variable in their mix.
The enforcers have a plan though. They're here to kill him. Kill Sapnap. After Valorant's very vocal mounting disagreement with Shlatt's ideas, his run from the Hero Tower, its no surprise. The chaos and bloodshed above ground would do nothing but help with the cover up of the murder of a Hero.
Terror runs through him at what he might find around the bend.
Enforcers aren't allowed to hurt civilians.
A mantra to coax his shaking hands.
Enforcers aren't allowed to hurt civilians.
"Broadcasting live from under L'manburg city," His footsteps loud to announce his presence.
He sees- he sees Sapnap on the ground, his hands up in surrender-breathing, and if it weren't for the adrenaline he might have collapsed right there from the relief. His eyes begin scanning the man before he even realizes, looking for any injuries. Karl has to force himself to not meet the–no doubt shocked–gaze of his fiance, if he did, he doesn't think he'd be able to keep this going. And instead turn to the enforcers.
There's a gun pointed at Sapnap's head. Two bodies litter the floor. And three enforcers stand behind the first one. Karl is certain there's more crawling in the sewers, searching for Dream and Siren.
Immediately the one closest to him places a palm on his chest, shoving him backwards. But he notices the movement isn't fast, its hesitant.
"Woah woah woah," Karl says, stumbling more than he should from the push. "What are you doing?"
"Don't you touch him!" Sapnap bristles, arms gone from surrender. Karl sends him the quickest glance. Just trust me, he tries to convey. "Leave the civilian out of this."
That word seems to strike true. Hands retract from holsters, the one gun still stays–its safety off. The eyes remain on the camera in Karl's hand currently pointed at th ground, but the enforcers have froze in place. He really seems to have puzzled them. Karl imagines the windows error sound in their minds.
They have to complete their given mission. The secret mission. They can't hurt civilians. Especially cannot get caught bring seen hurting civilians.
"Martha one second!" Karl puts his hand to his ear, talking into an earpiece he doesn't have. "Uh see- see I'll turn it off." He says, pressing a button that does absolutely nothing. "See- red light's not there. Its off." He points to a little light that hadn't been on since at least an hour. Since the camera fell to floor after Dream slammed Karl into a wall–the first time–and scared the interns off.
The enforcer that shoved him nods his earpiece.
"Okay okay, ill take it off." He says, injecting as much nervousness into his demeanor as he can.
"Shut up Martha." Yelling into it one last time for realism before it joins the burning clutter on the floor.
"Being the new guy," I've worked for 6 years. "They sent me to go and uh, report on these- the sewers." Karl explains, taking slow, jittery steps forward, keeping up the façade of the unlucky civilian. "There was a tip?"
"There was supposed to be a fight between Valorant," he gestures to Sapnap, catching sight of panicked face. "And Siren?"
Karl suddenly reaches the enforcer, standing a bare metre away, a hand reaches out reflexively to push him away–but hesitant. Karl's hand clamps down onto the enforcer's wrist with what he prays was not suspiciously too much force.
A wave of pain washes into his mind. He's never used his powers on enforcers. Karl's never even heard an enforcer talk or do anything of their own volition. He grits his teeth to keep his composure against the weird mental restraints sending him a migraine.
"And I may be just a little lost and I could use some help." Hitting them with the classic. "My boss, he's a real angry guy." He doesnt have a boss. "And I don't want to get-"
He hopes Sapnap gets where he's going with this. And when he looks for a split second, he sees Sapnap's brows raise in understanding and preparation.
"I don't want to get-" Karl swings the camera upwards and into the enforcer's face, shattering it and giving him a few dozen shards to pluck out.
Fist clenched, knuckles going across Karl's own face. Or?
A hand reaching for the holster.
But Karl gets there first; snatching out the gun. His anger condenses into a single shot that he fires into the enforcer's neck. The barrel trained on Sapnap swivels, distracted.
"-fired!" Karl shouts out the trigger of their three's personal code before hitting the deck as fast as he can as a blast of fire knocks the rest of their feet.
The flames haven't even dissipated before he's rushing through and when he does properly meet his eyes–theres a whirlwind there to decipher. For now Karl tries not to cough his lungs out and intertwines the hands and vows to whatever god to never let go as he hauls Sapnap to his feet, pulling him towards where he knows the exit that the others used is.
"What were you doing here?" Sapnap asks him, but there's no anger, only relief and pain and fear and so much emotion.
Karl opens his mouth to respond-
Thin black glints in the smoke, whistling as it swing down-
Karl pulls Sapnap out of the way, hissing as a baton slams into his back and hot pain erupts, mingling with his migraine. Shit.
"Oh gods Karl how many are you-"
Himself. Sapnap. Fear in both their eyes, so obvious even behind the Hero mask-
He snaps to where the perspective was from, for a split second a sheen of gold appears. Faster than any verbal warning Karl could give, Sapnap shoulder-slams a figure into the wall, hissing from a wound under his arm. Shit shit shit.
Karl feels the adrenaline weaning. And in a blink, the tie to the enforcer fades.
Except its not enough, and pain spikes behind his eyes.
View of a door, the handle jiggles and open to an apartment he's seen Sapnap in.
Staring at the back of a green hoodie, hands inside a coat.
He mutters and apology to Wilbur before-with a snap, that tie severs as well. The pain fades to a dull ache as Karl hoists their intertwined hands over his shoulder, pulling them out of that tunnel.
He pauses to kick over a stack of alcohol bottles he's placed and he continues on after hearing a burst of fire. All bottles found in one tunnel, who knows how many there were in the whole place. In this city though, he can't even blame the people.
"What were you even doing here?" Sapnap asks, taking the moment to pull out a simple smoke mask from his suit.
"Some of us," Karl takes it, pulling it over his face with his free hand. "Have real jobs." And though he can't see his face, he can feel a smirk in response.
"Karl," Sapnap says, seriousness suddenly having found him. Karl doesnt like it.
"Uh uh, no stopping- no- If you make me report your- death, I will use the drooling picture for the memorial."
"Not the- Karl." He tries again. "Karl, we can't go home."
"Then where are we going?"