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clickerflight · 1 year

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The Lion and the Mouse - Part 3

Master list

Part 2

This is where the lion comes in >:3

Content: Villain whumpee, vigilante whumpee, hero whumper, tiny whumpee, bruised, blood, split lip, broken ribs, cramps, hogtied, gun, no shots fired

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Vigil returned to the base after a very nerve wracking day of pacing around his safehouse and not doing much else. He had thoroughly checked his shoes and there was no Kai to be found. He felt sick to his stomach, imagining that an ant had gotten him and started the endless death cycle, or that he was small enough that he was well and truly dead now. He should have gone with the first plan. Sure, there was more of a chance of getting caught, but at least he could have been certain that Kai was in his sleeve.

He glanced at the corner where Kai was supposed to wait for him and unsurprisingly found nothing. So, he trudged on into the base, trying desperately to think of where Kai would have gone. If you were a tiny man, where would you hide?

The vents would make sense, but they were probably too cold and Kai didn’t have any clothes. What if he had froze to death? Or starved to death? Or-

“Morning, Vigil,” a dark voice said from behind him.

Vigil turned and found Leshy staring at him with a death glare. “Oh, morning. Sorry, I was thinking about what we were doing today. I wasn’t really told-”

“You’ll be sparring with me today,” Leshy informed him. “In the 5th training room. Be there in an hour.”

Leshy stormed off as Vigil said, “Oh, okay, then.”

Vigil knew what was coming. He wasn’t an idiot. He was going to take a beating for taking away Leshy’s toy because the hero was as childish as Vigil’s youngest niece. Thankfully it would be just a beating since everyone seemed to believe his story of ‘I stepped on it by accident.’ They even watched the footage and Technical agreed that it was an accident.

Still, Vigil couldn’t keep back the creeping fear that he was going to be discovered.

He was slow to get ready, changing into his sparring uniform with loose pants and a sleeveless top, but he was still there on time as he wrapped his knuckles.

Leshy was waiting for him, shoes already off and hands wrapped. Vigil finished quickly, slipping off his own shoes and socks before standing at the other side of the training room.

Without a word, the two took up positions and got started. Leshy was powerful, attacking in huge overpowering bursts, obviously used to having teammates step in when he needed a break. Vigil, who often worked alone, was smoother, drawing out the fight to exhaust the hero. Leshy got his second and third wind, but after that, Vigil was quick to snake an arm around his neck and push him to the floor, holding him in a pin as Leshy struggled to get out.

After a moment, Leshy relaxed and Vigil let him go, standing up and shaking out his arms.

“How many rounds?” Vigil asked as Leshy got up, rubbing his neck.

“Two more,” Leshy replied, digging in his bag for something. Once Leshy was ready, the two faced up again. Leshy attacked with less vigor, drawing it out a little more and matching Vigil’s pace. Vigil kept up well enough, but Leshy, now that he was applying his energy correctly, was much harder to deal with. Leshy jabbed with steady punches and grabbed for Vigil a couple of times, so close that Vigil nearly went down.

Then it happened. Leshy moved in, forcing Vigil to step back and with the speed of a striking snake, Leshy hooked his legs out from under him and was on top of him, trying to get him in a pin. Vigil moved to get out, more flexible than Leshy, but Leshy was much stronger than him. Vigil tapped out when Leshy pressed his arm to Vigil’s throat hard enough to cause spots. But Leshy didn’t move. Vigil tried tapping out again, the sound of blood pounding in his head rising in volume alongside his panic, but Leshy didn’t move, instead reaching back and grabbing something from under his shirt. Vigil caught sight of glittering metal, and then a gun was at his head, a couple of clicks sounding as the safety was turned off and the gun was cocked.

Leshy let up on Vigil’s throat a little and he gasped for air, the spots clearing away, but he didn’t move to get out of the pin as the warm metal stayed pressed to his forehead. Leshy seemed to be waiting for Vigil to speak so, once the pounding faded and the silence had stretched on tensely for a few minutes, Vigil relented.

“Leshy,” he said in a warning tone.

Leshy’s grin was something that belonged in nightmares, wide, toothy, and feral. “Did you let my pet go on accident, really?”

“You saw the tapes, and how I reacted when you killed him,” Vigil replied with a fair amount of disgust. “You’re stupid if you think I did.”

His pre-planned excuse had apparently hit just the spot of believability as Leshy relaxed slightly. “Thank you for the honesty, then, but I’m afraid we don’t have any villains to take my frustration out on, and Technical said that if I hurt one of the sidekick’s again I’d be off the team forever. Course, I didn’t get his permission for this, but I don’t mind asking forgiveness once I feel better.”

Leshy got off of Vigil, still pointing the gun at his head. “Roll over.”

Vigil did so carefully and put his hands on the back of his head like he knew the next order would be.

Leshy chuckled. “Good dog. You’re all trained and everything.”

Vigil growled, ready to turn again and prove Leshy wrong, but a knee came down in the middle of his back and sticky, calloused hands wrenched his arms behind his back.

“None of that, now. I promise I won’t kill you. This beating won’t be anything like what I hand out to the villains, even. Just enough to relax, you know? And if you breathe a word of this to your pretty little union, I’ll leave this team and find you again. I know how you fight, now. I don’t care what toys you have. I will take you and I will beat you until I break you. Plus, I won’t have any obligation to keep you alive afterwards.”

Vigil forced himself to take deep, slow breaths. Just withstand a beating or two. He could do that. He’d done it plenty of times before.

“Get up,” Leshy said, standing back and presumably pointing the gun at his back.

Vigil rolled to his side and did so slowly, watching the gun move with him to stay pointed at his face.

“Move your arms to the front,” Leshy said, grinning with each command he gave.

Vigil took another slow breath before stepping through the cuffs one leg at a time till his hands were at his front.

“Good. Now, arms up and close your eyes.”

Vigil did, and the gun was placed on his chest. If he was shot at this range he knew he’d be dead. The gun pushed him back a few steps before he was backed against a wall. There was a clinking sound and Leshy’s hot breath on his face. Vigil turned his head, trying not to breathe in Leshy’s air as the man locked something into his cuffs, keeping his arms above his head.

After a moment, Leshy’s presence was gone and Vigil opened his eyes, watching the man go and toss the gun back into his bag, cracking his knuckles as he returned.

“I’ll betcha I can bust your lip in the first try,” Leshy said with a sadistic smile.

Vigil’s flesh crawled with each word, but he did not respond as Leshy said, “Guess there’s only one way to find out.”

…………………………………..

When the lights went out, Kai was ready to venture again. He stepped out of the vents and went back to the kitchen. He was taller now. Not big enough to need his new cloak yet, but getting there. He was back to the size he’d been before Vigil crushed him and glad for it. He still wouldn’t be able to reach the rungs of the drawers, but it was better being bigger.

He scavenged up crumbs again, delighted to even find bits of turkey that had fallen to the floor. He was feeling much better now after having eaten and the chance to get water and sleep. He’d even found a leaky water fountain when he’d been traveling through the vents and had his fill there.

He ate on the way back to the vents, planning where he was going to go from here. He might start traveling into rooms, seeing if he can find tools. He’d need another cloth to be his bag and blanket when he switched to wearing the one he had now, and he’d need something sharp and some string.

After thinking about it, he decided a bathroom would work best for finding what he needed. He quietly ate the rest of his food in the vent, deciding who would be the best for this. He could still get in and out through vent gaps so that wouldn’t be a problem, though it was getting to be a squeeze, so he’d need to decide quickly.

Nautilus was a very sound sleeper and more prepared than the rest. Plus, he might have a razor blade hiding around. Kai remembered him talking about how he groomed his facial hair the ‘proper’ way.

So, Kai navigated the vents, looking out through the grating to be sure he knew where he was. Soon, he was at Nautilus’s vents. He squeezed through and, after climbing the slats, he reached the knob that would open them a bit farther. He tried for a minute, but he was still too small to really do so. Still, he managed to crack them a bit more by hanging his weight on one side before falling to the floor. With that done and crossed the bedroom. It didn’t take forever, but it was still a good trek. In the bathroom he looked up at the counter. There was a stack of washcloths that he could already see, solving one of his problems. The issue would be getting up there.

The shower curtains were slid to one side nearer to the counter, and thankfully the outer layer hung outside the tub. His hope that Nautilus’s ‘proper way’ of doing things would mean he would have a second curtain like this.

So, Kai grabbed hold of the curtain leaving his bag on the rug in front of the sink, and climbed. He was tired by the time he got to the counter, and his hands and legs trembled, but he had the strength to fling himself onto the counter, wincing when the movement caused one of the curtain hooks to move and squeak slightly.

There was no sound from the bathroom so Kai grabbed a washcloth and dragged it over to the edge. It was heavy and annoying. He contemplated leaving it here for another night, but he got it over the edge and that was that. He’d have to deal with it now. Some poking around revealed a small container of dental floss and a pack of razor blades. He soon pushed them over the edge of the counter, letting them land softly on the rug below. He looked around one more time to make sure there was nothing he’d want to grab on the way out and leapt for the curtain, sliding down it much easier than climbing up.

He had to make three trips across the floor to get each of the items to the vent, and the floss pack nearly didn’t go until he figured out how to pop it open and get the roll of floss out of it. He shoved the container behind a box under the bed so it wouldn’t be found and disappeared back into the vents, happy with his night of foraging.

Once he made it back to his patch of vent, a quiet place with a small blockage of what had been a mouse nest at some point that kept it a bit warmer. Kai admired his new tools, excited about each of them. He was still too small to wield the razor blade, but he was already thinking about tying it to a stick and having a little weapon, or at least something he could kind of use to grapple things with.

He spent the rest of the evening napping and braiding the floss into rope that would hold him as he got bigger.

…………………………………..

Vigil still hung in the training room. He didn’t sleep, merely staring at his aching feet as blood dripped from his open mouth. His mouth and lips were badly cut. Leshy had indeed been able to break his lip on the first punch. And the second. And the third.

Vigil couldn’t really breath through his nose. It hurt too much at the moment, so he let his mouth hang open and drip onto the floor. He blinked slowly, his face aching. His ribs hurt too, but he was good at ignoring them. They felt bruised, not broken. His shoulders had burned for hours as he hung there, but now his arms just felt numb and cold as the blood had a harder and harder time pumping all the way up to his fingers.

The lights turned back on, but when he lifted his head to see the doorway, no one was there. He lowered it again. The lights must be on timers, then. He wondered how long he’d have to wait before he saw Leshy’s smug face again.

The answer was not too long. Leshy came in with a smile. He had a glass of water in hand and Vigil watched him approach, glaring through the sweaty hair that had fallen into his eyes.

“Morning,” Leshy said with a huge grin.

He held the cup to Vigil’s lips and Vigil got in two swallows before he had to snort to keep water out of his nose and the rest was dumped on his head, ice cubes and all.

He gasped at the shock of it, shaking his head to get the water out of his eyes as Leshy laughed.

“Come on, big guy. You’ve got this,” he said, backing up to set the cup down. “Just a couple more days. I have to go out on a mission later, so I’ll be nice and let you down…. What do you say?”

Vigil’s lip curled at the patronizing tone, but Leshy’s stance grew firmer and his eyes set in a cruel expression, waiting for Vigil to speak.

“Thanks,” Vigil spat.

“Not so hard now, is it?” Leshy said with that same nightmarish smile. “I need to get my warm up in before I let you down. Be ready.”

And with that, the beating started. Leshy had a weapon this time, a metal pole he twirled around in pretty showy circles before slamming it into Vigil’s legs or ribs. By the time he was done, Vigil definitely had a broken rib or two, and his knee ached, not broken, but something was definitely damaged there.

Leshy turned away, as though to leave when he whirled around, slamming the pole into Vigil’s stomach. The Vigilante coughed, nearly losing the water he’d swallowed earlier. Leshy watched, smiling as Vigil coughed and bent over as far as he could with the way he was hanging.

He reached up and undid the lock, letting Vigil fall to the ground, curling around his stomach and ribs.

Leshy undid the cuffs around Vigil’s wrists, pulling them to Vigil’s back and relocking them. He locked the chain around the metal pole before cuffing Vigil’s bare ankles to the pole as well, hog tying him effectively.

“There, that should keep you here,” Leshy said, ignoring Vigil’s sharp gasp as something immediately started cramping in the left leg. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”

And with that, Leshy left again.

Vigil writhed in agony as the cramp turned into a charlie horse, and he grunted and pressed his face into the floor, letting the pain of those bruises act as a distraction. It was hours before it faded away, and Vigil was left sweating and shaking on the floor, his not so numb shoulders complaining about the position and his injured knee joining in.

After a few hours he heard the door open and there was a soft squeak.

Vigil twisted his head to see one of the sidekicks, the younger one, he was pretty sure, standing there. They stared at each other for a moment before Vigil opened his mouth.

“Please, help,” he whispered. “I won’t tell him it was you. I’ll say I got out on my own.”

The sidekick stared at him, frozen and silent.

“Please,” Vigil said again, putting some urgency into his voice.

The sidekick dashed in, giving Vigil some hope before it failed as the sidekick grabbed whatever he had been sent in for and left just as quickly, shutting the door behind him.

Vigil slowly set his face back down on the floor with a low sigh. “Fair enough,” he murmured, and he closed his eyes against the fluorescent lights, ignoring the mirrors that lined the one wall, repeating back his misery to him.

Part 4

@whumpsday