Chapter 10: A Timed Battle

With her partners preoccupied, Tequila fights off against Diamondback alone in order to buy them some time.

While our opponent was momentarily preoccupied, Xavier took the time to walk over to me and scan the blood that was dripping out.

"Hmm, I think I've identified the chemical compound to the toxin he put in your blood," he said. "If I hurry to the lab upstairs, I can synthesize an antidote. I've made several good ones in under half an hour before, so this should be a cinch. Just hold on."

With that, he hurried out of the room. Diamondback started to pursue him, but Tequila was quick to step into his way.

"Hang tight, Jasper. I'll handle this guy," she said, her voice dripping in confidence. "Just try to think about something else, okay?"

"Okay, b-but... look out for those... boots. H-His spurs are p-poison-tipped," I panted in response.

"Boot spurs," Tequila groaned. "Why did it have to be boot spurs?"

Following our brief exchange, I could only crouch there on the ground, panting a little as I watched my wife engage in a heated brawl with the man who poisoned me, all the while trying my best to ignore the white hot pain spreading throughout my system. For a while, Diamondback kept leaping towards Tequila in an attempt to coil around her again, only for her to sidestep or kart-wheel out of the way as he repeated the process numerous times. There were even a few times where her dodges would force him to slam into the walls, though he would quickly recover from this.

The next time he attempted to pounce on her, she knocked him back with a punch, momentarily leaving him on the ground and open to attack. She took the opportunity to switch her boots to cleat mode and stomp on his groin a couple of times. I couldn't help but stare in wonder at how he didn't scream, but rather hissed in pain; almost as though he was trying his damnedest to stay in character. He then retaliated by latching onto her leg, and it took a bit of shaking and a stomp to the face to dislodge him.

Hissing once more, Diamondback rolled to his side and quickly got back to his feet, before backflipping a few yards away and landing in a kung-fu stance with his fingers spread out. Only then did I take notice of his nails, which had been grown out to an absurd length, and were filed into points to give the illusion of reptilian claws. Even his tongue had been surgically altered to look like that of a snake's, and he never missed the opportunity to flick it around whenever he hissed.

Without warning, he leapt towards Tequila again, and though she managed to dodge him again, he kicked off the wall and didn't miss this time. He landed on her shoulder and hissed again, before attempting to swing his claws at her face. However, she blocked his attack with her armored forearm. Like with the spurs on his boots, there was no safe way to tell whether or not his claws were poison-tipped, but it seemed as though Tequila wasn't willing to take any chances.

As Diamondback attempted to scratch her again, she switched her gloves to heat mode and pressed them onto his sides, causing him to cry out for once during the whole fight. After a few seconds, the pain proved to be too much for him as he leapt off, holding his now sore sides. This gave Tequila the opportunity to nail him in the gut and face with a few more scalding hot punches before he was forced to step back once again, taking a brief moment to wipe some blood from his lip. He quickly attempted to nail her in the face with a high kick, but this was quickly blocked with another kick. With her boots in skate mode, Tequila made use of several kicks to block each and every attack that Diamondback threw at her. Growing frustrated, the latter let out a war-cry and used his parkour skills to leap from wall to wall, dodging every attempted punch or kick that the former threw out.

Once he could tell that his opponent had been worn out a bit, he pounced on her and made use of his flexibility to wrap tightly around her in attempt to suffocate her. She resorted to slamming her back against the wall in a desperate bid to loosen his grip, only to find herself pinned to the wall instead. Raising his boot once more, Diamondback adopted a cocky grin as he attempted to slash at her neck, the only thing holding him back being the resistance of Tequila gripping his outstretched leg.

Knowing that she might be in trouble too, I did what I had to do. Summoning a small burst of energy, I took out my pistol and, after properly aiming, fired a bullet right between their heads, missing the both of them completely. This was enough to distract Diamondback as he let her go and slowly sauntered over towards me.

"Huh, how peculiar. Most of my victims usually go down much more quickly," he said. "Bah, whatever. I guess there's nothing wrong with a second dose!"

But before he could reach me, Tequila hurried up and kicked him in the back of his legs with her bladed foot, and while he was lying face down on the ground, she took the opportunity to step down onto the back of his neck. Making a desperate move, Diamondback attempted to swipe at her leg with the spur on his boot, only for her to quickly move her leg out of the way. As a result, he ended up slashing himself instead, and the effects immediately took their hold. All he could do was hiss in agony and lay there, writhing helplessly on the ground.

"Ugh, if and... when I recover from this... I-I will mercilessly... m-murder you... c-coño loco!"

At the same time, Xavier barged back in, holding a needle-tipped syringe full of white wine-colored liquid. Without hesitating, he injected the serum into my neck, not letting go until the whole dosage was injected into me. The antidote seemed to start working instantly; I found myself quickly able to stand up again, and the more I stretched my legs, the less wobbly I became when I walked. Even my vision was starting to become less blurry, similar to the effect you'd get when upscaling an old video game into a higher, more modern resolution.

Now that I was back on my feet, I stepped over towards Diamondback's barely breathing carcass and knocked him onto his back with a swift yet powerful kick. He could only moan in response.

"So now that all that's out of the way, what say you tell us where your boss is going?" I asked.

"He's... h-he's called a meeting. Everyone else c-c-competing... for the b-bounty... is expected to show up!" Diamondback replied, panting desperately.

"And where is this meeting?" I inquired further, readying my foot again.

"I-It's at... the... the MGM... in... V-Vegas..." he weakly replied. "In... n-not even... a day... from... now..."

At that, he finally succumbed to his own venom and passed away right there in front of my friends and I. It was then that I heard another cough from behind me. Looking back, we noticed Mike slowly struggling to get back onto his knees, having apparently fallen back under after the beating I'd given him earlier.

"Ohhh no, you don't!" Xavier rushed ahead of me and tackled him to the ground, before yanking him back up by the scuff of his neck. "Guys, help me out here."

---

With that, I grabbed Mike's legs to prevent him from fighting back as we made our way back upstairs. When we got back outside, we were surprised to see a couple of police cars already parked out front.

"Ah, you three. What brings you folks here?" one officer asked.

"We've found out who hired these assassins, and we're pursuing him. We initially followed him here, but he left a trap or two for us," I explained.

"Yeah, well we've been called here because a couple of suspicious people were seen sneaking into this building, alongside one of the assassins that was hired to kill you," another cop butt in.

"And we've already taken care of him," Tequila replied. "He's knocked out downstairs, and he shouldn't bite."

"In the meantime, though, we've got this guy for ya'," Xavier shoved Mike in the cops' direction. "He admitted to helping Gonzalez rig the system all those years ago, which is basically funding a crime, and the guy who hired the assassins has been using him as a cover for quite some time now."

Then, Tequila smirked and pulled out a handheld audio recorder, playing back a recording of what Mike had told us earlier.

"Whoa, I didn't know you carried something like that on you." I pointed a finger in shock.

"Every author worth their table salt carries one of these," Tequila replied. "Just in case I wanna record any ideas I get for a new book. Plus, it doesn't take up as much room as a notebook and it saves trees too."

"I suggest freezing his assets so he can't pull anything like that again," Xavier said, turning back to the cops.

"Oh, and be sure to inspect that lump in his right ear," I quickly added.

"Don't worry, folks. This guy'll be locked up for life," the first cop assured us as Mike was shoved into the backseat of the car.

"Wait, what? No... NO... NOOOOOO!" he panicked as the trio drove off.

Without wasting any more time, my friends and I hurried back to Xavier's car and drove off, changing back into our regular clothes beforehand.

"Say, uh, Tequila? So right after you forced Diamondback to kill himself, I couldn't help but hear him say something. Do you have any idea what it was?" I asked.

"Let's just say it's Spanish for something you should never, ever call a woman," Tequila simply replied. "No matter the circumstances."