1.7 Guardsmen Part 12

As Darkness goes crashing into the ground behind Guardian, she looks up to see Gears flying in the sky, holding a large gun in his hands.

The gun looks to be roughly a metre long with a trigger on the end and a large barrel at the front with a massive sphere connecting those two parts of the weapon.

“What is that?” asks Guardian over there comms.

“My BFG,” replies Gears, the fury plain to hear in his voice even with the voice distorter, “In case I ever needed something dead.”

He plans to kill Darkness?

Darkness did threaten Joan, the person he loves. Do you disagree with his decision to slay this man?

No. Strangely enough, I have no qualms with bringing about the end of this foe today. Should I?

No.

“I am with you on this one,” Guardian tells Gears.

“You dare to-” Darkness starts to say with a slight huff in his voice, but Gears just opens fire again as soon as he hears the villain speaking.

The orange beam blasts into Darkness’ chest. When the explosion has clear, the supervillain is on his knees with the ground around him destroyed. Darkness looks battered and hurt with his black spandex costume damaged in several spots, either melted or burnt away.

A barrier of black energy begins to form between Darkness and Gears, but the vigilante opens fire. 

The orange beam smashes through the barrier and the remaining energy of the attack hits Darkness again, causing the villain to cry out in pain.

As Leo prepares for another shoot, the Darkness vanishes in a flash of darkness.

As Guardian turns to look for the villain, she spots him above Gears, panting heavily. He lashes out at Gears, smacking the BFG out of the vigilante’s hands while grabbing Gears around the neck.

“I am not so easily beaten,” pants Darkness as Guardian flies at the falling gun.

Suddenly Darkness yells out in pain and lets go of Gears as he falls out of the sky even as Guardian reaches out and snatches the BFG out of the air.

“My mind is not so easily broken,” Gears tells Darkness as the stunned supervillain tumbles the air.

Before the supervillain can hit the ground, Guardian fires the BFG at Darkness. The orange beam strikes out and sends the villain flying away.

Guardian hangs back as Gears lands next to Darkness.

I’m going to wait here. Gears might need someone to cover his back.

Good idea.

***

Gears walks up to the battered and beaten man.

He tried to kill Joan!

Guardian stopped him.

He tried to kill her!

I know, but we need to be reasonable about this.

Why?

We can always kill him if things go poorly Heart.

“Let’s talk,” says Gears to Darkness as the villain covers himself in the black energy again.

“About what?” huffs Darkness.

“About those I love and the lengths I’m willing to go if it means keeping them safe,” snarls Gears.

“What do you mean?” inquires Darkness.

What do we mean! We’ll show him what we mean!

Calm down Heart.

We need to prevent this or future situations from happening.

And if he doesn’t go along with what we want?

We kill him.

Good.

“You just tried to kill my girlfriend and then you tried to kill my partner,” growls Gears.

“And what exactly are you going to do?” demands Darkness, “Kill me? With what?”

“With my Nuclear-Powered Ray Gun,” answers Gears.

“Nuclear-Power Ray...” repeats Darkness, his voice trailing off, “You would use weapons of mass destruction against me?”

“To protect my family?” replies Gears, “Without hesitation. Would you not also do everything in your power to keep your loved ones safe?”

And that terrifies me.

Indeed.

Would we really sacrifice innocent lives to keep Joan and our family safe?

Yes.

“I see,” mutters Darkness, his expression hidden by his ‘Cloak of Darkness’ as he calls it, “And yes, I would do anything I could to protect my family.”

“Then imagine what other parahumans would do to protect their families and loved ones,” says Gears, “And the destruction that would be done to civilisation and the planet in the process.”

If Darkness and we alone went at with neither of us holding back, we could easily destroy North America.

That is a sobering thought.

Indeed. You hear that Heart?

I do Lion.

Darkness is silently before replying a moment later, “So what this have to with what happens now? I assume you have some sort of plan to stop that level of destruction that somehow involves me?”

He is quick on the uptake.

Darkness is the leader of what is currently the most successful supervillain-run criminal organisation. He isn’t an idiot.

“Yes, I do,” answers Gears, “I got my team, you got your Syndicate. If we agree to a sort of code of conduct between us, we have try and keep things civilised between us. The equivalent of the laws of wars for superheroes and supervillains to follow basically. To limit the chaos and destruction in the conflict between us just as the laws of war limit the chaos and destruction in warfare.”

“That is acceptable,” replies Darkness, “I’ll tell my people to cancel their attacks on the rest of the Fowler family.”

“There was more than just this attack,” says Gears, his voice hardening.

If any of them are harmed...

We need this deal Heart!

“Yes,” answers Darkness, “I have my chosen followers attack Miss Fowler’s parents her brother and all of her sisters minus the oldest. I will say that none of them have been killed and that Mr Fowler and young Abigail have both gained powers.”

That is interesting to know. I wonder why powers they have gotten.

We shall find that out later.

What is even more interesting is that over half of the Fowler family has powers now.

Hmm, that is interesting.

“So young Leonard Geary,” says Darkness, “Let us discuss the particulars of this Code of Conduct for Capes and Cowls as I shall call it.”