Bleeding Heart Part Seven
Part One | Previous Part
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The car quietly drives down the street, headlights off and radio on silent. The police radio, though, is crackling- occasionally spouting off updates from the dispatch team and from the police station.
Bagi is humming; Cellbit is trying to figure out what song it is.
It's just under an hour until midnight, and Cellbit is trying not to think about the fact that somebody is going to die tonight and that they're going to die because of him.
Abruptly:
"What's wrong?" Bagi asks.
"Um," says Cellbit, "nothing. Fuck you."
He huffs so hard he blows a chunk of hair out of his face, grumbles, crosses his arms, and leans back into his seat. He slumps until his seatbelt is halfway up his stomach. His knee bounces nervously. His fingers twitch and tap against his elbows.
His phone is in his lap. He's turned the sound off, but he'll know if- when the call comes in. He'll just know.
Bagi hums. "Mhm. You're just hanging out with me at work because you want to."
"Exactly."
She nods. "Even though you hate my job and everything I do, and you always tell me that you'd rather die than sit in a police car again, and you called me after a week of ignoring me, and we both got visited by superheroes today."
Cellbit's nose wrinkles. "Not heroes. Mine was just annoying. She broke into my apartment, you know."
"Yeah, mine showed up when I finally got my lunch break. I literally sat down to eat in my car, and BAM!" Bagi slams her palm against the outside of the steering wheel. "Lavagirl is opening the door and sitting in the passenger seat! What the hell?"
"What the hell," Cellbit repeats, emphatic.
Then, he frowns and gives his sister a look. "You ate lunch at three?"
Bagi rolls her eyes. "Fuck off, you probably didn't even eat lunch."
"Hey! I ate!"
"Coffee doesn't count!"
"Okay, mom."
Suddenly, Bagi slams on the brakes.
Cellbit is sent flying forward so hard with an embarrassing yelp. His seatbelt, definitely in the wrong place, cuts into his stomach so hard that it knocks the air out of him. His phone launches off of his lap and onto the floor, landing face-down.
"What the fuck!?" he wheezes, doubling over trying to pull his seatbelt away from him; it doesn't budge, auto-locked from the abrupt stop.
Sweetly, Bagi asks, "Oh, no, did that hurt? Maybe you should try sitting like an actual adult sometime."
"Are you really calling me immature right now?" Cellbit asks, looking up at her in sheer disbelief. "You could've killed me!"
"And you could act your age. You're 26. Act like it."
With that, Bagi smiles, adjusts the rearview mirror, and starts driving again.
26, Cellbit thinks. He's 26.
But, looking at himself in his reflection in the windshield, he feels simultaneously so much older and younger.
Eventually, the seatbelt loosens up again, and Cellbit sits back up straight. He grabs his phone off the floor, checks to see if anything broke, lets out a relieved breath when he sees that it's fine. (And he visibly relaxes when he sees that he didn't miss the call.)
The car turns, left towards the baseball stadium.
Bagi starts humming again; Cellbit still can't figure out what song it is.
It's fifty minutes to midnight, and somebody is going to die.
Cellbit puts his phone down. Props his elbow up on the door's inside handle. Balls his hand into a fist, rests his head against it.
It would be so easy to tell Bagi. He already has a lie ready: Hombre Misterioso has been bothering him since they failed to kill him, and they told him that they're planning on striking tonight because they thought he wouldn't tell. Cellbit hasn't said anything out of fear, because he's a powerless civilian photographer who can't possibly fight back against such a terrifying villain, but now that someone is going to die, he has finally mustered up the strength to tell the authorities.
It would be. So easy.
Bagi is a police detective. Technically, she isn't supposed to be on patrol duty- that's normally relegated to uniform officers. But Cellbit had called her just over two hours ago asking if he could do a ride-along, and so she volunteered to go patrolling.
She has a gun. She has handcuffs. She has a police car. She has mysterious powers that Cellbit refuses to even begin to think about.
The car stops at a light.
Bagi taps her fingers against the steering wheel to the beat of her song. Her mouth is pulled tight- she's stressed, even Cellbit can tell that much.
It would be so fucking easy.
Instead, Cellbit sighs, rolling his head on his fist so he's looking out the window.
"I got Bluebird," he quietly says. "She started talking about my parents."
Bagi takes a moment, but she asks, "Yours, or-"
"Both."
His answer is short, angry. Not angry at her, though, and she seems to know it. After all, this is how he sounds every time someone talks about them. She's learned by now that she isn't the one he's ever upset at; it isn't her fault that their parents were the way they were.
"Oh," Bagi says.
Another moment, then: "Lavagirl did, too. Talk about mine. I told her to get out of my car before I arrested her."
Cellbit snorts. "What for?"
"Arson. She was melting the car seat."
Cellbit can't help it. He smiles and shoots his sister a glance out of the corner of his eye.
"What, are you calling her hot?" he teases.
Bagi responds by leaning over and smacking his shoulder hard.
He yips and presses himself further against the door. "What?"
"Stop trying to distract me!" she snaps. "I'm trying to empathize with you!"
"I would never try and distract you."
"Lie," Bagi immediately says.
Cellbit rolls his eyes.
Bagi's so-called power makes her a superhuman lie detector. But Cellbit isn't convinced that her power isn't actually just being super annoying.
She's more annoying when he argues with her, though, so Cellbit gives up for the moment and explains, "Mine kept trying to tell me that we're going to get killed because of..." (He sucks in a tense breath, lets it out slowly.) "...our parents."
Bagi nods. "Yeah, that's what mine said, too. I told her to fuck off."
"Did you?"
"Literally, yes! I just told you that I was going to arrest her!"
"You'd probably like to see her in handcuffs."
"Cellbit!"
Another slap.
Cellbit laughs, sitting up and giving Bagi a teasing look.
"I've seen the way you watch her on tv," he taunts. "It's gross."
"You're gross," Bagi huffs. But at least she's smiling now. "Fuck you. You aren't much better, you know. I saw the way you looked at that guy in the hospital."
"Hm?" Cellbit innocently asks. "I was on morphine, who was that?"
"Oh, you know."
"I know that I'm pressing charges against Bluebird for forced entry," Cellbit says, expertly diverting the conversation to something much more important. "I closed the door on her, you know. But she forced her way in and wouldn't leave when I asked her to. That's trespassing."
"Make a report in the morning. Even if Cucurucho shuts it down, the news'll hear about it. She's new, who knows how well she'll do if the press starts turning against her?"
Bagi's smile is crooked and the exact same as Cellbit's used to be when he killed. Once upon a time, Cellbit refused to believe that they were related. Now, he can't stop thinking about how similar they are.
Cellbit nods, playing along. "It would sure be a shame if Baghs or Max heard about it."
"Imagine that. If she got on the Daily Quack's bad side, she might be forced to retire by the end of the year."
"Really? It's August. No way she'll be done in four months."
"She might be if Gordinho Gostosinho talks about her."
Bagi laughs. She cackles, even, like the absolute witch she is.
(When Cellbit first decided that they were related after all, he briefly thought about asking her to join him. Not because he knew that their... politics aligned, but because he thought- and he still thinks!- that she's dangerous.)
Cellbit's phone is in his lap.
The police radio calls out a robbery on the opposite side of town.
The car turns towards downtown. Cellbit vaguely recognizes the area from when he took Roier's photos for him.
Cellbit, not quite in the mood for evil laughter, settles for a rude-sounding chuckle.
This is why he wanted to be with Bagi tonight. Not because he wants to rat Hombre Misterioso out, but because he wants a distraction from the murder about to happen. Man-Bear is due to die in less than an hour, and it's all Cellbit's fault. But, if he's with Bagi, he doesn't have to think about that. He can think about other things, like ruining Bluebird's life, or Bagi's absolutely depressing taste in women.
"I need to have this back at the station at one," Bagi says after a full, solid minute and a half of laughter. "Let's get something to eat after. We can have a sleepover."
Cellbit raises an eyebrow. "In your apartment? Absolutely not."
"Fuck you! It's way nicer than yours!"
"Excuse you, mine is perfect. Yours smells like shit, like, literally all the time."
"Those are candles, what the fuck? What is wrong with you? They're lilac."
"They're gross."
"Says the guy whose apartment always smells like burned food. Learn to cook, idiot."
"Oh, come on, I-"
Cellbit cuts himself off with a choked sound as his phone vibrates in his lap.
He looks down at the screen. Unknown number, but he knows the number. He knows it, and it's time.
"What's wrong?" Bagi asks.
When Cellbit doesn't respond, Bagi repeats, "Cellbit, what's wrong?"
Something tickles at the back of Cellbit's brain, itching down his spine and into his throat.
"I need to take this," he chokes out.
With a shaking hand, he accepts the call. He raises his phone to his ear, and he waits.
And then, they speak:
"Seven-fifty Asado Street. Ten minutes. I'll see you there, mi enigmito."
And then they hang up.
Cellbit stares down at his phone.
It'll take Bagi fifteen minutes to cross the city even if she has the siren on and the lights flashing. Even breaking every traffic law known to man, Q City is so big and so maze-like that Asado Street is fifteen minutes away.
Cellbit doesn't need to see a map to know this, he knows Asado Street by heart; his adoptive mother worked in a clinic there. She delivered babies. Cellbit used to go to work with her when he was too sick to go to school. He would lay on a couch in the faculty break room and read. The street sign was right outside the window.
"Cellbit?" Bagi asks, breaking Cellbit out of his thoughts. "Tell me, what happened?"
"It's Roier," Cellbit immediately lies, moreso hearing himself talk than actually talking. "Hombre Misterioso is by him. Asado Street. He thinks they're going to kill him."
It's a lie, but. They're early. Hombre Misterioso is early.
(His throat burns.)
Bagi immediately flips a switch on the console. The car's siren starts blaring, and the world outside lights up red and blue.
She steps on the gas.
Cellbit puts his face in his hands. His fault...
-
Now, Cellbit doesn't have anything against murder. He just doesn't want there to be any more blood on his hands than there already is; he's retired, he can't be a killer anymore, he can't. What kind of father would he be?
If Man-Bear dies, it isn't Cellbit fault. He won't be the one killing him. But... it will be Cellbit's fault, because he has the ability to end it all. He's had the ability to end it all for two months.
He doesn't care if Hombre Misterioso kills people. He does care that Hombre Misterioso is making him an accomplice. They know that he can't just tell people that the city's most wanted supervillain has him on speed dial. They'd want to know why he didn't report Hombre Misterioso to the police the second the first phone call ended. Why didn't Hombre Misterioso finish killing him in the first place?
Cellbit is caught between a rock and a hard place.
He turns Hombre Misterioso in, and he risks his own secret identity getting revealed. He'll be taken away from his family. His personal connections will be investigated, and nearly all of his friends and family will have their identities revealed. Richarlyson will be taken back by the government. He'll end up back with the Federation. Cellbit will end up back with the Federation, and they won't give him up as easily this time.
But. But Cellbit is done with all of this: villainy, killing. He loves the fact that Hombre Misterioso is a serial killer, but he can't get his hands dirty anymore. He's a father. He can't set a bad example for his son, Richarlson is already too involved with the Order thanks to his other parents and his various uncles and his aunt.
All Cellbit wants is to be normal.
But, of course, he never gets what he wants.
-
Bagi pulls up to 750 Asado Street just in time for her and Cellbit to watch an enormous black bear go flying out of a sixth-floor window. It crashes down onto the sidewalk, landing on all fours.
And then the bear stands onto its hind legs and shrinks slightly.
In the flashing police car lights, Cellbit can see a teal suit forming around the bear's body. A motorcycle helmet appears over its head and face, and huge, flashing claws pop out of its upper paws.
"Man-Bear," Bagi breathes.
"He's alive," Cellbit gasps.
Well, actually, of course he is. He's Man-Bear, he's borderline unkillable: a genetically-engineered half-man, half-bear hybrid capable of lifting a tank and outpacing a racing car. His claws can shred through solid steel, and his jaw strength is enough to snap a human spine with just one bite.
Man-Bear is one of the Federation's strongest. He's definitely the strongest hero that Hombre Misterioso has targeted so far.
What are they thinking!? Even with the weird super speed and the sword, they're just a person.
Man-Bear roars, throwing his head back and puffing his chest out.
"I need to call backup," Bagi says.
She reaches for the police radio, but Cellbit grabs her wrist with a panicked look.
"Roier," he desperately says, eyes widening pathetically. (Bagi thinks he has a crush, he can use that.) "We have to find him."
Bagi's eyes soften. "I will. But we can't just leave Man-Bear alone."
As if on cue, Man-Bear yells as a familiar figure steps out from the apartment building's shadows.
"Shit!" Bagi hisses.
She shakes Cellbit off and unhooks her gun from off of her belt.
"I'm going for Roier," she tells Cellbit.
She looks at him, dead serious. "Did he say where he was?"
Cellbit, focused on Hombre Misterioso, shakes his head. He tries to look as scared as possible, and he mostly succeeds.
Hombre Misterioso flexes their wrist, twirling their sword in their hand like some sort of demented medieval knight. Their cloak billows behind them; the only hint of the front of their body visible is the police car's lights reflecting red-blue-red-blue from the eye lenses of their gas mask.
Man-Bear lunges towards them.
They dodge expertly, ducking to the side and swinging their sword upwards.
Man-Bear takes the sword cutting into his flesh like it's a paper cut. He sweeps a hind leg out and knocks a leg out from under Hombre Misterioso.
Hombre Misterioso cackles so loud that Cellbit's bones rattle within his body. They tumble to the ground and somersault out of reach of a pounce.
And the fight is on.
"Fuck," Bagi swears.
She unhooks her seatbelt and pulls her hair back into a tight ponytail and clicks her gun's safety off.
Cellbit moves to undo his seatbelt, too, but Bagi grabs his wrist and stops him.
"Stay here," she orders. "Your shitty self defense classes won't help here."
"I can help look," Cellbit tries, even though he knows that Roier isn't here, but he can't let Bagi know that Roier isn't here because he knows that she's better at finding people than Cellbit could ever dream of being, and, and-
And, with a flash, he's handcuffed to his seatbelt.
"If he starts losing, call for backup," Bagi says. "You know how the radio works. And Bluebird is bound to show up soon, she'll help."
"But-"
She smiles tensely. "Don't worry, I'll find your boyfriend. Just... stay safe."
With that, she leaps out of the car. The doors thunk! locked, and Cellbit is stuck. In the car. Watching his sister run stupidly into the closest alley. And watching Hombre Misterioso kill a man.
Cellbit groans in frustration. He then yells in frustration and violently shakes the hand cuffed to his seatbelt. He kicks the dashboard.
What kind of a stupid fucking cop leaves a civilian behind, handcuffed, just feet away from a hero fight? When the villain involved has attacked him before? And (supposedly) hospitalized him?
Is she stupid? Is Bagi stupid? She's related to Cellbit, so she must be.
Wildly, Cellbit yanks the car's glove compartment open just in case there's somehow something in there that can help him get uncuffed. He knows there won't be, but he has to keep Bagi distracted.
Why did he even answer her? When she asked? What was wrong? Why did he answer?
His attention snaps to the fight when Hombre Misterioso lets out a pained, garbled scream.
They're pinned against a telephone pole with several claws stabbed clear through their shoulder and into the wood. Their sword is still somehow loosely held in their hand, but Man-Bear's jaws are inches away from their throat and rapidly closing in.
Wait-
Sucking in a sharp breath, Cellbit lets out as loud a scream as he can:
"Roier! Run!"
(Just in case Bagi can hear him. Just in case.)
He wants a distraction, he wants a distraction, he wants-
"What?" Man-Bear rumbles, head snapping in Cellbit's direction. His helmet glints red with blood in the lights; his muzzle is covered in the stuff.
Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Hombre Misterioso swings their leg upwards. And then they knee Man-Bear right in his junk.
Man-Bear roars, recoiling just enough for Hombre Misterioso to slip off of his claws and dip into the shadows.
Cellbit rattles his hand desperately. He used to be able to get out of cuffs by dislocating his thumb and wrist, but that was years ago. Maybe he could...
Grimacing, he presses his hand into the sharp edges of the cuff until he starts to draw blood. Not too much, but enough for a potential lockpick. This, at least, he can still do.
The fight continues outside. But Cellbit lets them keep at it. He's busy.
Eyebrows furrowing in concentration, Cellbit guides his blood into the cuffs' lock. His tongue pokes slightly out of his mouth; idly, not realizing he's doing it, he licks his lips.
His concentration is suddenly broken as the police car jerks and rocks with the force of an entire human being being thrown against it.
Cellbit accidentally lets out a yell as he's jerked around.
Glass shatters and crumbles inwards into the car's back seat as Hombre Misterioso groans and shifts, trying to push themselves back to their feet.
But then Man-Bear charges. And then Man-Bear plows into Hombre Misterioso, and the car crumples like a can under their combined weight.
Cellbit pulls himself away from the back as much as he can, but he still feels his cuffed arm get pulled completely out of place.
He bites back a scream, but he lets the instinctive tears fall. He can fix this later.
"What the fuck!?" he yells.
"Sorry," Hombre Misterioso chokes, voice faint and voice modulator popping uncertainly. It's going to give out soon. "This guy sucks, right?"
They cough as Man-Bear takes a step back to prepare for what has to be a finishing blow.
They're going to give out soon.
And they're going to take Cellbit and this shitty police car with them.
(Fucking Bagi!!)
This is fucking personal, now.
Grunting, Cellbit readjusts himself in his seat so that his feet are up against the passenger-side window. The seatbelt digs heavily into his skin, he can feel himself bleeding and bruising.
He can hear Man-Bear's heart beating.
Cellbit grits his teeth. And then he kicks with both feet.
The already-cracking glass gives out from under him easily. Fresh air floods into the car, and it's there. It's in the air: blood.
"Ouagh," Hombre Misterioso moans.
Cellbit rapidly sits upright and leans his head out the window. He glares at Man-Bear, who, finally, seems to have realized that there's a civilian in the car he's actively destroying.
There's a gaping hole in the side of Man-Bear's stupid suit, it's right below one of his sponsors' logos. And, on the fabric, Cellbit can see blood. It's seeping, slow thanks to Man-Bear's ridiculous healing factor.
"You," Cellbit glowers.
Hombre Misterioso freezes in place, mid-slide to the ground. Their sword, falling from their hand, is just as stuck in place: mid-air.
"Sorry," says Man-Bear, definitely not apologetic, the bastard. "Let's do this quick, eh? Then we can talk."
Cellbit's eyes narrow.
He reaches his free arm out the window, extending his hand towards Man-Bear like he is asking for help getting out of the car.
Seeing that Hombre Misterioso isn't moving and probably assuming they're dead, Man-Bear takes a step forward to do his duty and save a civilian life.
One step.
That's as far as he gets.
One step.
In one swift, familiar motion, Cellbit closes his hand as if he was holding a rope, and he pulls.
Like scarves coming out of a magician's sleeve, red strands stream out of Man-Bear's side and wrap around his thick neck.
It's over in a flash. Just in that one step.
Not because Cellbit has pulled all the blood out of Man-Bear's body, nor because he's successfully strangled him with his own blood, but because there's a flash of iron from behind Man-Bear's body and a desperate robotic scream.
Man-Bear falls.
Behind him stands Hombre Misterioso, swaying on their feet. One of the lenses of their mask is cracked, their cloak is torn, their entire body is soaked with blood.
"You called for Roier," Hombre Misterioso weakly says. Their voice modulator is almost all static at this point, their words barely discernible.
"You dislocated my fucking arm!" Cellbit shouts.
They shrug. "I knew you'd help me, anyway."
"Self-defense. It was. Self-defense. You guys were going to kill me!"
"I suppose you coming here was self-defense, too?"
Cellbit goes silent.
Hombre Misterioso goes still.
"Cellbit!" Bagi screams.
She sprints towards the car from down the road, at least a full block away.
As soon as she gets within shooting range, she aims her gun right at Hombre Misterioso's still body.
Pathetically, Cellbit whimpers, "My arm... I think it's broken..."
"I told you to call for backup!" she snaps.
"You left me here to die," he moans, eyes fluttering shut. "I almost died."
"Hombre Misterioso, drop your sword and put your hands up."
"Bagi..."
"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law-"
"-Bagi..."
"-You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you. If-"
"-Maninha."
Just like that, Cellbit's door is being pulled open, and the cuff is being unlocked.
He's pulled into a hug; he smirks into the leather of Bagi's jacket.
"They're gone, anyway," Bagi whispers. Her hand raises to cradle the back of his head. "And I'm older, asshole."
"We don't know that."
Cellbit fakes a cough to change the subject. "Did you- did you find him?"
He feels Bagi's head shake. "I'm sorry. But I'm sure he's fine! Hombre Misterioso seemed more interested in Man-Bear."
Cellbit fakes a sniffle. "He's dead. Man-Bear. I watched him die."
"Poor you."
Somehow, she doesn't sound sympathetic.
Cellbit pinches her side. "Fuck you, I'm traumatized!"
"And, you're hurt."
Slowly, Bagi backs out of the hug.
Cellbit's eyes open, and he's immediately met with a flashlight being shone into his eyes.
He yelps and shuts his eyes again.
"It's my arm that's fucked up!" he protests. "Not my head!"
"With that big head of yours? You probably got a double concussion."
"Is that even a thing?"
"Do I look like a doctor?"
Cellbit groans, "Just put my arm back in place and take me home."
"Nuh-uh, hospital."
In a flash, he's sitting up and shaking his head, eyes wide and panicked. "No! No, no hospitals. Bagi-"
She huffs, more than used to this. "-Cellbit! There's blood in the car!"
"It's not mine!" he argues. His heart hurts, it's beating so fast in his chest. "Just take me home and call Pac! He's a doctor!"
"Yeah, no, he has a doctorate. You need a doctor."
"I need a sister who actually cares about me," Cellbit snaps. He tries to stand, fails, sits back down with a wince. "I don't- Bagi, please!"
Bagi bites her lip. She knows why he doesn't like hospitals, but she doesn't understand. She never could. She never will, no matter how hard she tries.
Eventually, she relents. Her head hangs, but she nods.
"Fine," she grumbles.
Cellbit's chest stops squeezing as tightly.
He can't feel his arm.
He smiles weakly, anyway.
Forcing himself to his feet, he stumbles forward into Bagi's arms. With his one good arm, he hugs her, because he can. Because, hey, his arm might actually be broken, and there's a dead man less than ten feet away from them, but he's alive. Somehow, he's alive.
"This is all your fault," he murmurs, right into her ear. "Should've taken me with you."
She hugs him back, of course.
"Fuck you," she warmly replies. "Stay home next time."
He barks out a laugh. She giggles along, not quite understanding why he's laughing.
Stay home, hah. No. No way he's going to be able to do that now. Not now that he helped Hombre Misterioso kill. Not now that Hombre Misterioso is convinced that Cellbit secretly wants to help him.
There's blood on Cellbit's hands. The real question is how much more he can take before he breaks once and for all.
-
A/N: Let me know what you think in the tags or in my inbox! I want to hear your theories, thoughts, opinions, everything!
