Chapter Text
Vedal walked through the streets with purpose, the streets blurring around him as he walked.
The familiar feeling that someone was following him tingled down his spine, but Vedal ignored it. There were more important matters at hand.
His thoughts drifted back to the writing on the wall. It was… unorthodox, to say the least, to leave a warning in blood instead of just sending the henchmen directly to him, but Vedal supposed that Leon might just have gotten the idea from some old mafia drama.
As he walked down the streets of district 16, the surrounding atmosphere became more and more seedy as the sparse population of reputable businesses that somehow survived in the district declined, being replaced by gang owned bars, stores selling all kinds of illegal goods, and brothels. And at the center, there it stood. The beating heart of the district, in all its corrupted glory.
The Snake Eyes Casino.
It was four stories tall, had a glass facade that likely had been elegant 15 years ago, and it looked as if someone had vomited neon lights over it.
Approaching the large front door, Vedal pushed himself into a group of tourists, letting their excited chatter cover him as he entered the casino.
Inside was everything one would expect from a high end casino. Cardgames, dice, roulette, slot machines - if it was categorized as gambling, it was here. And amazingly, the whole casino was, at least on paper, legal.
There was no rigging in the Snake Eyes Casino, or at least no one suicidal enough to accuse them of doing it.
Vedal pushed himself through the crowds of gamblers, thrill-seekers, and other such types, coming to a stop at an elevator flanked by two security guards.
As Vedal came near, the two reached for their weapons, but Vedal quickly raised his hands. “Chill out guys, the Don is expecting me, I think. The name’s Vedal.”
One of the men continued glaring as the other tapped on his earpiece. “Yo, boss, there is some purist twink here who says you are waiting to see him. Says his name is Vedal.”
A short pause followed as the guard listened to whatever answer was given, before he grinned. “Alright, twink,” He said, jabbing a thumb towards the elevator. “In you go. The boss is overjoyed to meet you.”
The Programmer chuckled nervously. “Yeah, I thought so…” He stepped inside the elevator, and one of the men followed. As the metal doors closed, he had the vague notion that someone had just closed his coffin and was starting to nail the lid shut.
As the elevator reached floor 4, the doors opened once more and Vedal was led through clean concrete hallways. As he walked, Vedal took glances into the rooms they passed. Leon had built quite a sizable operation for himself. While he saw nothing strictly illegal, most of the room being used for offices, he doubted that Leon needed all this just for paperwork.
Eventually, the guard pulled open a door and motioned Vedal to go inside.
The programmer obeyed, entering a room that was a vast contrast to the concrete halls from before.
The walls were lined with wood, and a lime-green carpet covered the floor. Don Leonardo Bossi was sitting at a desk that most likely cost more than Vedal’s entire apartment and looking at a painting that the programmer vaguely remembered as some old classical painting.
He looked over and gave a light grin as he saw Vedal. “Ah, Vedal. So, you’ve com-e to your-e senses after all…”
“What can I say, your message was… very convincing, Leon.” Vedal said, trying to sound far more nonchalant than he felt.
“Good, I’m-e glad that you-se finally had a change of heart.” Leon’s expression suddenly darkened. “Now, Vedal, tell me, where are my men?”
“What?” Vedal was confused. “Leon, I have no clue what you are talking about.”
“Don’t bullshit-e me, rat!” Leon’s face displayed fury. “I-e sent two of my men to you, and they haven't been seen since they entered your apartment!”
“You… what?” Vedal asked incredulously. Did he miss something? Two people can’t just disappear like that without leaving a trace, right? “No, wait, there is no way that-”
Leon slammed his desk, shutting Vedal up. “You know, Vedal, my offer was-e genuine. You could have been someone. But-e no, you and you idiotic streetrat pride chose to fuck with me. Well, I’m-e gonna show you what happens with people who fuck with me.”
With a nasty smirk, Leon snapped his fingers and the door behind Vedal burst open, several burly men in suits entering the room, submachine guns in hand. “Gentlemen, if you would be so kind as to get rid of this rat? And please, do it outside, I’d hate to get the carpet dirty.”
Before Vedal could utter another word, he was already seized by several iron grips and dragged out of the room.
Outside the window Evil watched wide-eyed as Vedal was dragged away. She thought she had been lucky to find Vedal again after he had disappeared into the crowded casino, but now he was dragged away again, this time to certain death.
With a muttered curse word that she was sure could earn her a scolding from both Vedal and Neuro, she jumped out of the hidden little spot she had found between the tangles of neon lights, and after another second that felt way too long, her feet found solid ground again. Or, well, solid wall.
She ignored the jerk with the ugly grin, vowing to feed him to the spiders once she managed to convince them to form a monarchy with her at the helm, closing her eyes, and after a second of uncomfortable shifting in her face she opened them again to a world full of darkness. A nearby blob of warmth drew her attention, but it was just the jerk from earlier. She focused, searching for a bigger warmth signature in the area, ignoring the red glow of the lights behind her and the crowds below.
There. The warmth of multiple people, moving in the direction of… alright.
Evil closed her eyes again, opening them to light having returned to the universe, and scampering up the building to the roof.
She wasn’t nearly as good at urban navigation as Neuro, but one thing she had learned from her sister was that buildings of this size always had one thing. Vents.
And access was almost always on the roof.
As she scrambled up the wall, ignoring the depths below her, she thought she could make out the familiar clacking of Neuro’s hundreds of legs, but she ignored it, as it was likely just part of her wishful thinking. If only Neuro was here right now…
Evil shook her head, her tail moving around anxiously. No, she could do this. Vedal needed her.
As she pulled herself onto the roof, she checked for Vedal’s heat signature again. After a second, she spotted the group again and moved closer to their location.
Suddenly, strong arms wrapped around her, and Evil’s mind went into overdrive. She squirmed in her assailant's arms, her eight feet flailing in the air as she yelled: “Let me go you brute!”
She wouldn’t let it end like this.
She couldn’t let it end like this, not when Vedal needed her help! She tried the kick and bite, but the grip on her was unrelenting.
“Mreow!”
Evil froze as the sound rang out behind her. “Neuro?”
The arms released her, and Evil whirled around to come face to face with her sister. “Neuro, you scared me, you overgrown insect!” She exclaimed in annoyance, before remembering the situation. “Quick, I need your help. Vedal is in trouble!” She hurried over the rooftop, stopping when she noticed Neuro hadn’t followed her.
Neuro chittered in something akin to confusion, tilting her head as her blue eyes glistened in the light of the sun peeking over the rooftops.
“Listen, there was this message on the door and there are people threatening Vedal and he went to talk to them like the idiot he is and they are going to kill him and-” Evil paused, noticing Neuro hadn’t so much as batted an eye, her ears flicking slightly.
“You… don’t seem surprised. Did… did you know about this? Why didn’t you say anything?” Neuro reacted to Evil’s words by lowering herself to the ground, her tail swishing through the air.
Evil took a step back. “What? No! We can’t leave! Didn’t you hear me, stupid? They are going to kill him!”
“Meow!” Neuro retorted, not getting up. Her tail moved about more agitatedly, and her eyes slightly narrowed.
“I don’t care what you think, Neuro! If you don’t wanna help, then I’ll do it myself!” With that, Evil turned around and marched over to a nearby air duct.
Suddenly, a cacophony of clicks was heard behind her, and Neuro rushed past her, cutting her off and angrily hissing at Evil.
The spidergirl glared at her sister. “Neuro! This guy saved my life, fed us, gave us shelter and clothes, and all we did was be a nuisance! We owe him! So, if you wanna run away like the fucking coward you are, be my guest, Neuro! But I’m going to go save him, and you will not stop me!”
Neuro recoiled, her eyes widened. For a second she looked uncertain, her hundreds of legs tapping in place. Then, she huffed, her ears lowering, and she slunk behind Evil, freeing the way.
Evil sighed. “Thank you, Neuro.” She closed her eyes again, and looked at where Vedal had been dragged off to.
She gasped, turning to Neuro with wide eyes, shouting “We have to hurry! I think they’re gonna execute him!”
Two hands grabbed her, and suddenly she found herself on Neuro’s back. She wrapped her hands around Neuro’s stomach and pressed her body against her sister as the four-armed girl ripped off a ventilation grid and dove into the ducts.
As she returned to looking for Vedal’s heat signature, indicating the direction for Neuro with light tugs on her shirt as she raced through the narrow tunnels, she found only one thought on her mind.
‘Just hold on a bit longer, Vedal!’
***
Vedal wasn’t entirely sure what he was feeling as he was dragged through the hallways.
Of course he was scared, after all, he was most certainly going to die.
But more than that he was confused. He had no idea what Leon was talking about, and his brain seemed to be firing all cylinders, trying to come up with some kind of explanation while it still could.
Lastly, he felt guilty. He had promised Anny and the others that he knew what he was doing and that he could take care of himself. He had promised Evil that he would be right back, and then left without another word. His mind flashed back to her distraught face as he locked the door on her, and a stone settled in his stomach.
She would hate him, wouldn’t she? And she and Neuro would have to go back to living on the streets, and all that time he spent slowly getting her to open up to him would be for nothing…
At last, the men dragged Vedal into a small room. He noticed the tarp fastened on the floor and walls and couldn’t help but grin.
At least he would be easy to clean up after.
He was forced to his knees, and one of the guards pulled out a pistol, leveling the barrel between his eyes.
“Hey, bro, aren’t you guys supposed to ask me for my last words, or let me eat something before I die?” Vedal half joked, half pleaded although he knew it wouldn’t make a difference.
To his surprise, the man actually lowered his gun a little. “Oh, are we?” He looked to his colleagues, one of which gave a shrug.
It was silent in the room, safe for a light rattling in the ventilation.
Another guard spoke up. “Well, I think we are supposed to. At least, that's what the movies I watched said. Except for when they dump the guy in the ocean.”
More silence. Vedal shifted in place a bit, his nerves blank.
The fourth guard groaned. “But that’s so much work! Can’t we just not and say we did? It’s not like anyone will really care.”
“Fair enough.” The first guard said, lifting his gun again.
“Wait wait!” Vedal squeaked, eyes wide as the guard’s finger tightened on the trigger, the barrel cold upon his brow. Out of the corner of his eye, the ceiling grate rattled, then exploded off its hinges with a bone-shaking bang.
There was a muffled grunt as the pressure on his shoulders vanished abruptly. A flash of chrome spun upwards as the pistol discharged, the spout of fire momentarily blinding him, the bullet cutting a grove through his hair. Dazed and disoriented, he found himself was flat on his back, his ears ringing and his vision filled with a pink T-shirt with a name stamped across it in overly-cheery lettering. Somewhere off to his left, a defiant hiss cut through the air, a long, sleek body standing between him and the remaining guards. Shaking the stars out of his vision, his eyesight cleared to find himself staring into blood red eyes set in a very familiar face.
“Vedal, are you ok?” Evil cried, trying to pull him to his feet as Neuro snarled at the guards.
Vedal staggered to his feet. “I…I’m fine. What are you two doing here?”
“We’re here to save you, you idiot!” Evil tried to tug him over to Neuro, but Vedal’s eyes widened, tackling Evil to the ground. Her indigent retort was left unfinished as the guards reacted to Neuro the same way humans have reacted to unknown and threatening things since the invention of the flintlock pistol.
Deafening cracks of gunfire filled the room as bullets tore through the air, missing Vedal and Evil by a hair, but a screech and a spray of blood indicated that Neuro had not been so lucky. Her insect body squirmed as she slumped to the floor, red splotches of color forming on her formerly white shirt.
“Neuro!” Evil squirmed out from under Vedal and bolted for Neuro, Vedal, unable to stop her, watched on in stricken dismay as the guards took aim again.
However, Neuro was faster. Gone in the blink of an eye, she lunged forward and slammed the closest guard into the far wall. Her now clawed hands already digging into his arms and legs, newly sprouted mandibles tearing into his body, squelching and cracking reverberating around the tiny room as they rent flesh and bone alike, sending blood and membrane flying in all directions all while the once-a-man thrashed and screamed a horrid, drawn-out screech filled with pain and terror, the sound of a dying animal.
The room was silent as everyone stared in horror, too stunned to move.
After a few moments, the man's screams faded, and Neuro let go of the mangled body, letting it hit the floor with a wet thud as she turned to face the room. Neuro skittered, tilting her head as red dripped from her mandibles onto the floor, splattering the tarps with thick red drops.
However, the thing that shook Vedal the most were her eyes. Instead of the usual playful glint or even angry flash of her blue irises, all that he could see was his own reflection staring back at him, from icy cold eyes as black as obsidian.