Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (this book - Book 4)
VIOLENCE WARNING: The two stories in the Savage Gang saga, and especially the second story, involve a gang practicing extreme violence toward everyone — women, the elderly, the protagonist, etc. The stories contain mature sexual content and violence as well. I am placing this warning on all chapters, including those without such violence, so you can choose whether to continue.
CHAPTER 54
The bridge appeared beyond a growth of barren brush, materializing across the frozen water as a dark, blotchy shape. Sapphire Angel’s boots sank into the snow as she eased forward for a better look, but she couldn't make out any details through the driving snow. She needed to get closer.
The heroine angled toward a spot where the land hooked out, curving out into the frozen lake. The bridge spanned from left to right across her field of view, its midpoint directly across from the small peninsula. She crouched and eased even closer, keeping a tangle of brush in front of her.
The bridge was wide for a footbridge, designed for wedding parties to fit across its width for post-ceremony photographs. A waist-high railing ran along each side, sloping to match the arch of the bridge. Black spindles extended from the railing down to the base of the bridge, spaced wide enough for Sapphire Angel to see through them and view the occupants of the structure.
Megan Lawlor came into view first through the spindles, her bright red shirt standing out from the white background. The bastards hadn’t even given her a coat. Lawlor was no longer standing, but lay slumped over, her legs curled beneath her and submerged in the snow. Her hands extended above her head, tied to the railing, and her head rested against her outstretched arms. She wasn’t moving.
Lawlor was by the railing farthest from Sapphire Angel, at the apex of the bridge. The gang members stood four on each side of her, halfway between the newswoman and each end of the bridge. They faced away from their prisoner, their focus obvious — they were watching the ends of the bridge for Sapphire Angel’s approach. The men were massive, but one man was largest of all, and stood with the group to the left. It was the behemoth who had been part of the ambush in the alley.
Sapphire Angel weighed her next move. She could try to lure the men from the bridge, but they might not take the bait, which would spoil any chance of surprise. As she studied the men, she had an idea. She might be able to use the bridge, and the water below it, to even the odds and shorten the fight. It was a risky gamble and might backfire, but she was short on options. She would face them on the bridge.
But which side? She could circle to her left, toward the closest end of the bridge, and take on the behemoth while she was fresh. Or she could backtrack and circle all the way around the lake, approaching from the other end of the structure, and take out some of the other gangsters first. Either option put Lawlor at risk, as the men might use the newswoman as leverage against the superheroine, to force her to surrender.
There was a third choice. It would be more dangerous, but would put her in the best position to protect Lawlor.
In a heartbeat, she made her decision, emerging from behind the bush and bursting into a sprint. She ran toward the tip of the small peninsula, her eyes on the bridge stretching out from left to right in front of her. As she reached the edge of the frozen lake, she sprang forward, leaping out over the ice, sailing toward the bridge.
She cleared the railing, touching down in the snow two feet from Megan Lawlor. Upon landing, Sapphire Angel's feet slid in the snow, but she reached out as she skimmed across the surface of the bridge, grabbing the far railing to steady herself. The gang members stood ten feet on either side of her.
She had accomplished her first goal, which was to put herself between the men and their captive. But within a second or two, all the gangsters on the bridge would detect her presence. Already a handful of them had turned, their brains processing her sudden appearance.
Sapphire Angel didn’t spare a glance at the captive woman, who lay slumped against the railing. The heroine’s instincts took over, and she darted to her right. She needed to thin their ranks before they reacted.
She leapt, feet-first, toward two gangsters who stood at the end of the line, near the railing, and who had reacted the slowest to her appearance. The heroine rose high in the air, her feet slamming into their chests just as they turned toward her. They slipped on the slick surface and teetered backward, grabbing for the railing as her feet touched down. Before they could steady themselves, she drove her fists into their chests, the fantastic force of the blows flipping them over the railing. With matching screams, they fell from sight, and a moment later a cracking noise and a splash filled the air.
They had fallen through the ice of the lake. In a split second, a mix of hope and worry rushed through Sapphire Angel. This plan — using the lake to take her opponents out of the fight — might work, if she could avoid the same fate herself. But she didn't want the men to drown, and, with the recent weather, the ice wouldn't be thick enough to support any efforts to climb out of the water. She had to hope their extraordinary strength kept them afloat, without freezing to death, until the fight ended. Then Stanley could call in the police, who would pluck them from their icy cell, or she could do it herself. Of course, if the gangsters defeated her, they would pull their own comrades out of the lake, and she might meet her end at its bottom.
She didn't have time to dwell on the possibilities. She needed to hit hard and fast, and hope her quickness and the slippery conditions would keep the gangsters from converging on her in unison.
Sapphire Angel turned away from the railing, just in time to twist away from a punch aimed at her head. The errant attack left the man off balance, causing him to slip and stagger away from her, flapping his arms like a bird. She pushed off the railing with one arm, sending herself sliding across the slick surface of the bridge like a skater. As she slid past the man, and he tried to pivot on the snowy surface, she crouched onto a knee and swung both fists into his knee, aiming at a gap in his body armor.
He cried out in pain and fell, but as she slid to a stop, the fourth gangster on that side of the bridge crashed into her, enveloping her in a tackle and bearing her down into the snow.
“Ugh!” she cried. She hit the surface and slid a few more feet under the brute, who rode her stomach like a toboggan, straddling her with his arms gripping her shoulders. They came to a stop, with snow covering some of her body.
As he reared back for a punch, she twisted her head, and his fist whistled past, burying itself into the snow. She heaved up with one hip and pushed with one arm, using her superhuman strength to topple him off her. As he fell, she rolled to the side, leaping to her feet and springing away.
Just in time. Two men from the other end of the bridge arrived, reaching the spot she had just vacated. But her luck ended there, as she landed with her back to the man with the injured knee, who had risen on a shaking leg. With a roar, he wrapped his meaty arms around the surprised woman's slender torso, hoisting her and squeezing.
Her eyes bulged out in shock, and she gasped as he crushed her in a bear hug. Never had she felt such strength in an opponent. She flexed her arms, but before she broke free, two more men came into view, charging toward her. One was the behemoth. The second man slowed to allow the massive man to get into position for a devastating blow. The brute swung a roundhouse punch, but slipped, and Sapphire Angel ducked her head. His off-balance blow crashed into the face of the man holding her. The grip around the heroine loosened, and she burst her arms outward, freeing herself.
Her feet hit the ground and she drove both elbows back, slamming into the armor-covered abdomen of the man behind her. As he grunted in pain, she squatted, flexing her legs and driving backward like a bulldozer. Her body slammed him into the railing, and he flipped over its edge with a scream, joining the two men in the frigid water below.
The behemoth was rising, having fallen to one knee after his slip. She reached behind her with both hands, grabbed the railing, and kicked out with both feet, slamming into the man’s chest with the force of a battering ram. His feet skidded out from underneath him and he catapulted backward, hitting the ground and spinning in the snow, careening into three gangsters as they charged forward.
A fourth man avoided the carnage, reaching her a moment after her feet touched down. This time she was the one who slipped, and before she could raise her arms in defense, his massive fist crashed into the side of her face, spinning her into the snow. She landed facedown, her soaked, silken hair hanging in her stupefied face.
She blinked as she lay stretched out in the white fluff, lifting her head and trying to shake the snow off her face and the cobwebs from her mind. The jumbled feeling in her head was all too familiar. As she forced her elbows beneath her, the attacker’s meaty hands seized her ankle, pulling her to him. She yelped in surprise and pawed at the snow, trying to stop herself, but he gave a massive tug, heaving her off the ground and flinging her through the air like she was a shot-put.
Sapphire Angel twirled sideways through the air like a sideways top, her hair and skirt flapping about her, as she careened toward the giant, who was back on his feet. When she reached him, he swung both hands down like he was chopping wood, driving his fists into her side and knocking her from the sky.
“Ggggunnh!” she cried, first from his blow and a second time as her lithe body slammed into the snowy surface of the bridge.
The tide was turning against her, with attacks coming from all sides, leaving her head spinning like it had a few days earlier. As she groaned and put her hands underneath her, she tried to swivel her hips to get to her knees under her. Her supermodel legs moved back and forth, slipping in the snow, and looking as if she were swimming against a relentless current. She didn't make it to her feet. The big man seized her wet hair with one hand, and, before she could raise her hands, he drove a fist into the side of her face, below her eye.
A sickly smack echoed through the snowy night air, and Sapphire Angel’s head snapped sideways. Speckles of light blinked in her vision as a groan escaped her wide lips.
“That’s why they call me Smash!” the giant bellowed, as a familiar dizziness overwhelmed the senses of the battered heroine.
Her brain registered only disbelief — disbelief that one man's punch could affect her so much, and disbelief that she was losing to the gang. She needed to rally. For herself. For Megan Lawlor. For the city.
She tried to raise her arms, which hung lifelessly at her side, but the signal didn't make it from her brain to arms. One of Smash’s hands wrapped around her delicate throat, and the other engulfed her slender thigh. Finally she reacted, swatting at his arms with her hands, but in her dazed condition, it was like she was trying to brush crumbs from his clothing. Sapphire Angel gasped as he hoisted her to his waist, then over his head, in one fluid motion. She hung in his grasp, looking up into the falling snow and trying to get her bearings, as her arms, legs, and saturated hair dangled toward the ground, swaying beneath her.
The battered superheroine groaned, vaguely aware of the man holding her aloft like a trophy as he walked. But walking to where?
As he cocked his arms and titled back, her brain cleared and she realized what he was doing. He was going to throw her into the icy water, to share the fate of his comrades.
As the big man’s arms shot forward and he sent her airborne, a burst of adrenaline shot through the superheroine, jolting her to awareness. Her right arm flashed out and she grabbed the brute's wrist, but her gloves were too wet, and her hand slipped free. She tumbled over the railing as Smash roared in triumph.
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (this book - Book 4)
Okay, scratch that, then. The big dude was not, in fact, Rocco Lynch. It was, in reality, Smash. You can tell how well I did in reading comprehension back in the day. xD
Where’s his sibling? Surely he could’ve helped out.
About that fight, I felt like it was remarkably well-done. I feel like it was a matter of whether or not Sapphire was going to let the fatigue and the temperature get to her, and that it was a neat representation of how someone tends to get worse at something if they’re doing that “something” over and over in incredibly tiring and debilitating conditions. She handled them well starting out, but then Smash and his reinforcements just had to show up.
It may be a stretch, but I’d have wagered that if the snowstorm hadn’t hit and Sapphire Angel’s fighting scenario had been clearer as a result, then she would’ve had a bigger chance at successfully taking down Smash and the rest of the people at the bridge.
I’m having trouble recalling; does the necklace help her tolerate severe temperatures? We know it gives her some strength, as well as protection from pain and immunity to gunfire. And ever since I read that she could survive a rocket launcher back in Book #2, I feel like it’d take a lot to actually try to bring her down if facing her head-on, and not using clever, crafty, backhanded tactics like Tristan or Mantis and Valik.
When they called him “Smash”, they weren’t kidding. Imagine what “Grab” is going to be like. xD
......Ahhh, who am I kidding? Sapphire’s going to be just fine! .....Unless the Savage Gang members whom she chucked into the water managed to stay afloat until she herself got thrown in. In which case they might all just gang up on her and finish her right then and there.
Maybe the sentient car can become the new Sapphire Angel!