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The figure, a kid judging by their silhouette, turns and runs.
“Kill that guy.”
Prowler doesn’t hesitate. Without wasting a second he is in pursuit. His quarry is fast but has no skill or grace in their movements. Even without his night vision he is sure he could track them by the sound of their movements and frantic breathing alone.
They bolt through the tunnels, over the gate, and onto the subway tracks. Prowler is hot on their tail.
The tunnel floods with light, a subway. Prowler turns to the side, cold steel passing a breath away from his skin. Did it kill them?
No.
There.
His prey is somehow stuck to the ceiling by their fingertips, struggling to break free. They’re like Spiderman. Prowler spreads his fingers, sharp claws flashing. It was good they had stumbled into his path; better to be rid of a threat while it was still small.
His prey tears themself loose from the ceiling taking crumbling pieces of concrete with them.
Another subway approaches.
The child looks at the subway, then back at Prowler. They decide that that the forty-ton metal vehicle hurtling toward them is the lesser threat.
Prowler follows. He will not rest until he witnesses the trespasser’s death with his own eyes.
Whether it’s by his hand or the train doesn’t matter.
His quarry lunges out of the tunnel and onto the platform just as the subway enters the tunnel, Prowler right on their heels.
They dodge in front of the train, he leaps over.
He grabs the back of their shirt and slams them into the ground. They struggle desperately as he pulls his hand back for the finishing blow and…
Stops.
Prowler… no... Aaron stares in shock, hand still raised. The lenses on his mask widen.
The child laying before him, eyes pressed closed and breaths rabbit-fast, is non-other than his nephew.
“Miles?” Aaron breathes out in disbelief.
The boy’s warm brown eyes, so much like his brother’s, snap open. There is no recognition in them, no love, no humor… only fear.
Fear of death… of the monster before him… of Aaron.
“No, no, no,” Aaron whispers, voice distorted and metallic.
Before he can formulate his next action, Miles twists out of his grasp. He doesn’t move as the boy bolts up the stairs.
The subway in gone now.
Aaron stares blankly at the place his nephew just disappeared.
Mile’s fearful face is there every time he blinks. The face of a child who just watched a hero get killed. Who ran for his life toward a moving train because he had no other choice.
Who was almost murdered by his own uncle.
Who is only fourteen.
Aaron’s hands shake.
What now?
He can’t kill Miles. Kingpin won’t accept failure.
The tracks rumble as another subway approaches. He stands slowly.
Aaron… Prowler… He has a job to do.
No one will hurt his nephew. Not as long as he lives and breaths.
Sharp metal claws flash.
The subway comes to a stop and the passengers disembark onto an empty platform.