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Chapter Eleven
Turnabout
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“Later, if you can.”
“Huh?” Corey looked up, his hands still cradling the strange mask of his peculiar kidnapper. “Oh. I guess I should actually put it on then.”
“That would be appreciated,” Tone replied, his head sticking out the window as he attempted to drive Ren’s heavily abused car back towards what he assumed was Rook’s location. “I highly suspect that mask let him figure stuff out without any research on his part. Just like some kind of magical genie, just poof! And anything he doesn’t know he finds the answer to. If that’s true, he would never have sent that flying guy after Rook if he knew he’d lose, so we have to get over there before-”
“I don’t want it like this.”
“Huh?” Tone tried to look back in, but the road demanded his attention. “I don’t understand; what’s the problem?”
“This was his face.” Corey’s brows were tight, caught halfway between fury and despair, his eyes staring into the smooth, gently curved mask. “This face said all those awful words, did all those things to me. Threatened me with so much more. I can’t… I can’t wear this mask if he’s still out there. I don’t want him out there.”
“Trust me kid, we had a talk.” Tone replied, swerving slightly to avoid a broken branch in the road. “He’s not.”
“No.” Corey gripped the mask even tighter, the wood groaning under the pressure of his adolescent hands. “I don’t want him alive.”
Tone looked back in slowly, staring into Corey’s despondent, rage-reddened eyes with some level of vindication present in his own. “He’s not.”
Corey’s eyes slowly met his. One shortly after the other, the two Wild Masks turned back towards the road, driving in silence for a moment before Corey hesitantly slipped the mask on, resting it against the bridge of his nose. “…Uh… How do I…”
Tone sighed. “Well unfortunately there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach for using a mask, so you’re just gonna have to try stuff until it works-”
“LEFT!!” Corey suddenly bellowed, grabbing the top of the steering wheel and yanking it in his direction. The car screeched its tires on the asphalt before rocketing down the side street, leading clear away from the building Kohaku had been on before.
“Let ME drive, please!” Tone growled, correcting the turn as he tried to keep himself from exploding at Corey. “Where exactly are we supposed to be going?”
“We… Toei Subway, Asakusa line, Gotanda station!” Corey rattled off, vigorously shaking Tone’s shoulder much to his chagrin. “And we have to move fast, Tone, or Rook is going to die!!”
—
“You know, I’ve always thought these sort of things should be underground.”
The large amount of panicking civilians didn’t seem to help his argument very much. Perhaps they were slightly miffed at the massive, muscular stranger in a strange mask who just crashed violently into the street. Or, perhaps, it was the multiple parked cars that had been shoulder-checked into the crowd in advance by that same muscular stranger.
“But what do you think?” Rook continued, suddenly descending at high speed feet-first into the ground where the stranger was, his target having rolled backwards at the last moment. The road instantly cratered, reverberation lines splitting out from the center and causing chunks of road at the end of those lines to briefly pop into the air. “You’ve been awfully quiet since you realized you ended up on camera after those foolish shoulder checks. Now you’re stuck in the spotlight and nobody will forget your presence here.”
The stranger, ever smiling, shot forward at blinding speed only to have his throat meet the outstretched arm of Rook, who slid forward along the ground as quickly as he could. “Or did you finally figure out your little pain immunity hardly holds up to someone with no pain to smother at all?” He snarled, the load-bearing column he had smashed the stranger into buckling from the impact.
“Truth is, you thought you would have had an easy time going after me. I’m not as fast or as strong as you are.” Rook reeled back to avoid a swipe and kicked the stranger through the column. “But there’s one thing you bad guys always seem to misunderstand about the Wild Masks, and I don’t know if you’ll ever learn.”
“We’re just holding back.” He faked a knuckle crack.
Before the stranger could get back up, Rook slammed into him again, sending him tumbling into the wall. His smile only ever waned, it seemed, to show even greater contrast when he stretched it wide open again, as Rook’s third attempt at a ram was met with sudden resistance, the veins popping out of the neck of the stranger as his shining teeth beamed hatred into his foe.
Rook tried to fly backwards, but his motion dragged the stranger along with him, who landed a devastating haymaker powered by the added acceleration. Rook shot upwards to escape the hold, but he had barely ascended before the powerful hand of his opponent latched on to his mask.
Rook reappeared, but had to wildly flail to keep from falling backwards onto the elevated tracks. Looking back towards the stranger, his eyes widened at the large crow swiftly crushed to death in his massive, muscular grip.
“Me too.”
—
“But the car-!”
“Just do it!” Corey yelled over the wind, as the mangled window was easily pushed outwards, allowing him to easily step through. “All station personnel across the entire line are told to rush all trains through to avoid that station, no matter what!”
Tone hissed through his teeth. Undoubtedly Ren would kill him if he knew half the antics Corey had been through, and he would absolutely maul him to pieces if he had the ability to discern what Corey had suggested.
But now that he was practically shoehorned into doing it, Tone knew there wouldn’t be enough of himself left to bury if Ren ever found out about how his car really got totaled beyond recognition. Hope Corey knows how to keep a secret.
“Stay safe,” Tone mumbled as he undid his seatbelt, reaching across and tightening Corey’s as much as he could. As he came hurtling towards the station, he sent the car into an incredibly sharp turn, rolling it almost instantly, with just enough momentum to carry him out the moment he opened the door.
Flung barely high enough to clear the ledge, Tone stumbled into Rook, knocking them both onto the tracks. They wasted no time in righting themselves, but the rush did not appear necessary, as the stranger simply floated in midair, feeling the crushed crow in between his fingers, grinning ominously at the pair.
“Well? I didn’t waste so much gas barreling over here for you to gawk at us.” Tone taunted, gesturing for the stranger to come forward. “What are you waiting for?”
“I think I’ve done enough tonight.” The stranger grinned even further. “No, I’ll just stand here to make sure you don’t leave. Corey’s still in your car, correct? You budge and I’ll flatten it before you can breathe.”
The shriek of a train horn suddenly sounded. “You were clever, Wild Mask, but without the ability to teleport something with you, you’ll never save your friend. I’ll let my boss know the playing field’s been evened.”
The stranger’s smile waned slightly as he found himself staring just past the tracks. Taking a fraction of a second to process what had just happened, he barely had enough time to turn towards the sudden lights.
“Ah.”
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