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 55
Sapphire Angel dropped toward the water, and toward certain defeat and possible death. But her brief grasp of her opponent’s wrist had altered her trajectory, and instead of tumbling away at an angle, she dropped straight down — within reach of the bridge. She lunged out in desperation, extending for a spindle below the railing.
She grabbed the bottom of one of the rods of thin metal, her fingers wrapping around it. This time her hand didn’t slip, and she lurched to a halt, her momentum swinging her legs under the bridge, several feet above the water.
She didn’t pause, but flexed her arm and kicked her legs back like a gymnast, reversing direction and launching herself up. She somersaulted up over the railing and landed back on the bridge near Megan Lawlor, several feet away from the gangsters, who looked at her with stunned expressions on their faces.
The outnumbered heroine took deep, panting breaths, surveying the scene, and giving her head time to settle. After all her efforts, she had only taken out three of the men. Five gangsters, including the biggest one, still faced her, fanning out in front of her. She had to fight back a creeping sense of despondency, which was tinged with alarm. This might be too much, even for her. And then what? Would they kill her? That might be better than the alternative.
Sapphire Angel stole a quick look at Lawlor. The newswoman lay slumped against the railing and looked to be in bad shape. Her skin had turned a ghoulish blue with splotches of white, and her lips were shivering and swollen. The sight of the woman sent a jolt through the costumed woman. These evil men had done this to Lawlor, and Sapphire Angel was the only one who could save her. The heroine's head cleared.
She set her jaw in determination and charged forward. She approached the men, but at the last moment, she stopped, dropped to a knee, and slid away from them, toward the opposite railing. As she slid, her hand swiped past her boot and grabbed her cylinder, and her wrist flicked toward the closest man, shooting the cable toward him.
His eyes opened wide as the cable whipped around his arm, and a moment later she grunted and pulled, sending him sliding on his feet toward her, like an out-of-control locomotive, with his free arm windmilling. And then he was on her. She dipped her elbow as he crashed into her petite form. With a yell, she extended her legs and straightened her back, flipping him over her head and over the railing. The cable worked free from his arm and snapped back into the cylinder a moment before the sound of a splash filled the air.
She didn’t pause. Sapphire Angel charged forward, flicking her wrist again and sending the cable toward the next closest man. She pulled back her wrist before the cable reached him, causing the cable to snap with a crackle of electricity a few inches in front of his face. When the cable fell away, her boot followed in its place, driving into the exposed portion of his stunned face. As he staggered back, she twirled, swinging up with an elbow, and catching him under the jaw.
The crushing blow lifted the man from his feet, and as he tumbled back in the snow, the agile heroine sprung at another attacker, who was charging forward. As he put on the brakes and raised his fists, she drove the heel of her boot into his knee. He cried out, and she chopped the edge of her hand into his exposed throat. He dropped as his eyes went blank.
Before she could appreciate an opponent at last going down with ease, a fist clubbed her in the back, sending her stumbling into the path of a man standing near the railing, and causing her to drop her cylinder into the snow. It was the gangster she had elbowed in the face, and in a split second, she registered the dazed look on his face as he tried to recover from her earlier blow. Instead of trying to stop her momentum, she shifted from defense to offense, lowering her shoulder and driving forward, flipping him over the railing behind him. His scream ended when he hit the water.
Within seconds, she had felled three of the five remaining gangsters, her sheer determination turning the tide of the encounter. But it had cost her, as she sensed her stamina waning. Sapphire Angel bent with her hands on her thighs as she sucked deep breaths. Her damp hair dangled past her face, and she was soaking wet, with her costume clinging to her body. Moisture glistened on her slim arms and legs. But it didn't matter how she felt, or that she was trying to take on the world’s toughest gang only days after suffering a head injury. She had to finish this, one way or the other.
She stood erect to face the last two men and placed her hands on the alluring curve of her hips, where the blue and white of her costume met. One man was a regular gang member, if there was such a thing, and the other was the huge behemoth, who had called himself Smash. They stepped sideways away from each other, forcing her to swivel her head to look from one to the other. Their position would make it easier for them to flank her, but it also put each of them a step or two from the opposite railings.
Sapphire Angel sprinted down the center of the bridge, toward the opening between the men, and stole a glance at the smaller of the two men. His face twisted in confusion, probably assuming she was trying to flee. As he and the big man pivoted in the snow, ready to chase her down, she twisted, finding traction in the snow and coming at the smaller of the two with a flurry of punches. All the while, she listened for the big man closing from behind.
Her momentum and the sheer strength of her blows drove the smaller man back two steps to the railing. She ducked under a counter punch and lowered her shoulder into his midsection.
She roared as she drove into his massive frame, feeling her entire body jar as they slammed into the railing. He teetered but didn't go over the edge. Out of instinct, she ducked. A fist from the big man whistled over her head from behind, smashing into the other man and flipping him over the railing.
Sapphire Angel somersaulted away, to her right, stopping and spinning as the smaller man screamed and hit the water below. She looked up at Smash, the remaining gang member, who stood ten feet away. His mask revealed the lower part of his face, exposing the snarl of an animal.
“You look tired, superheroine,” he growled, his lips curling. "I’m gonna break you in half."
Sapphire Angel frowned, called for a reserve of energy deep within her, and whirled into action. She leapt at Smash, feinting as if she were going into a twirl, and lashed out with her leg at his midsection. He fell for her misdirection, moving to intercept a twirl that never came.
Her foot crushed into his stomach, sending him back through the air. He landed in the snow on his back, but leapt to his feet before she could reach him. She came at him anyway, swinging with first a left, then a right punch. He got an arm up to block the left blow, but was too slow for the other blow, as the right punch struck home to the side of his face.
He staggered to his left, slipping and losing his balance, and leaving his head angled toward the ground. She lashed up with her knee, connecting with his nose and sending him staggering backward. She continued to come at him, her brain registering concern that her blows hadn't finished him. Either he was extraordinarily tough, or she was tiring faster than she thought.
She swung another punch. He didn’t attempt to avoid this one, instead moving toward her with a punch of his own. She hadn’t expected him to move closer, so her punch was off target, landing only a glancing blow. His punch, though, smashed into the side of her face like a sledgehammer.
This punch made any other blow she had received pale in comparison. It crushed her, spinning her three times in a circle, her skirt twirling about her, and sending her stumbling through the snow, trying to stay on her feet. She shook her head, stunned, as the big man charged her with a deafening roar, enveloping her in a tackle. He was nearly twice her size, and drove her backward and down into the snow, landing on top of her.
She wheezed, catching her breath and blinking, looking up into his face as he straddled her, his knees on either side in the snow. He wore a malevolent grin, and once again a flicker of despair rose in the superheroine.
Smash reared back to deliver a crushing blow. She twisted underneath him, and his knuckles grazed the side of her temple, snapping her head to the side. A moment later, his hands wrapped around her throat, and he popped to his feet, hoisting the petite woman into the air.
He held her a few inches out in front of him, his features clenched as he squeezed his hands together. She wheezed for air and her eyes opened wide, her despair morphing into a moment of panic. Would this be how it ended? Not saving the city, but strangled to death?
Because of their height difference, her feet dangled almost a foot off the ground, kicking futilely back and forth. She tried to kick the brute, but was too close to him to put any force behind it. The pressure on her throat increased.
Sapphire Angel had been in this position once before, six months earlier, against a combatant smaller and weaker than Smash. Could she turn the tables like she had then? As she struggled to get oxygen to her battered brain, she forced her tiring body into motion, raising her arms and grabbing Smash's wrists. Their eyes met as his face twisted in a snarl.
She pulled, and elation flooded her as his hands moved ever so slightly, easing some of the pressure on her neck. She might be tired, and he might have the leverage, but she could do this. Sapphire Angel gave the monster a wink before she gritted her teeth and pulled, holding his gaze. She watched his eyes widen in disbelief as she tugged his hands from her throat, inch by inch.
He tried to twist his wrists out of her grasp, but she was too strong for him. Although she dangled in the air, now she was the one in control, and her neck was free from his grasp. Desperation flashing in his eyes, he swung his arms toward the railing, but she realized what he was doing, and released his wrists and dropped to her feet. He raised his fists together and started to swing down, but she was faster, lashing out with a high kick and catching him under the chin.
His head snapped back, and she came in with a flurry of punches. She connected with one after another, snapping his head back and forth. She drove a vicious jab into his face, between his eyes, and he flipped onto his back.
His arms scrabbled under him as he tried to rise to his knees, but she came in with a sweeping kick, like a football placekicker. The hard toe of her boot crushed into the side of his head, cracking his helmet-like mask. He groaned and tried to get to his hands and knees.
Sapphire Angel moved in to finish him off. Her last flurry had driven him back to the peak of the bridge, leaving her standing between him and Megan Lawlor. The anchorwoman moaned behind the heroine.
The costumed woman took a quick step toward the man, but stopped as she noticed movement beyond him at the other end of the bridge. She looked up to see another person standing there, in the gang's telltale mask and black body armor. The man with the scar. The man Stanley had lost in the snow. The leader. And now she knew why they had lost him, and what he had been doing. He hoisted a weapon over his shoulder — the weapon carried by the first man she had taken down. The weapon she had thrown out into the snow. He had found it. The rocket launcher.
She tensed, but the leader seemed to be frozen by indecision. She realized his dilemma. Smash, the big man, lay between him and Sapphire Angel. If the leader fired the weapon, the blast would take out Smash as well.
As she took in the scene, Smash pushed his arms underneath his body and raised his head. “Waste her,” he croaked. “Don’t worry about me.”
What happened next only took a split second, but moved in slow motion for Sapphire Angel. The launcher spat a burst of smoke and flame as it fired a projectile. Sapphire Angel could have jumped free to save herself. But Megan Lawlor was behind her, and would never survive the blast.
The heroine’s mind flashed back to her previous encounter with a rocket eighteen months earlier. That might have been the closest she had ever come to dying. For all she knew, this one could kill her, especially so soon after her bout with a severe head injury. And even if it didn't kill her, it almost certainly would incapacitate her, with two gangsters ready to finish her off. But she wouldn't leave Lawlor to face certain death.
The superheroine's subconscious took over. She didn’t try to avoid the missile. Instead, she leapt directly toward the projectile, opening her body, with her arms and legs spread wide.
It exploded as it struck the middle of her chest.
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (this book - Book 4)
Phew! All right, we’re good! I was worried when Sapphire got thrown over the edge of the bridge, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from her and her agility. That comeback was truly something else, and I was on the edge of my seat all throughout her fight with Smash and his men. If she’s going to go down.....at least she’s going to go down when she decides to, not when some other people best her. .....I’m just kidding, she’s not going to go down.
See.....that’s the thing, with that ending for the chapter. I really can tell that you’re trying to create suspense and make a really good cliffhanger, I really can.....but I’m just really not feeling it. I’m not feeling it because, well, she’s Sapphire Angel, the main character. I mean, at most, she’s probably just going to be knocked unconscious and probably brutalized, but I know for sure she’s not dying. Then again, you could throw me a curveball next chapter and it turns out she does die, at which point I’d legitimately be shocked. And then I’d be wondering who’d replace her, if anyone. Or it could severely injure her and leave her out of the action for the rest of this book AND most of the next book, with someone like Conner, Ethan, or Stanley being the main character for most of Book #5 instead. Speaking of Stanley, hope he’s still okay. Hopefully Lynch didn’t find out about the van and secretly send another hidden squad of Savage Gang goons to find and disable it.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, because Sapphire Angel has plot armor due to being the main protagonist (which is actually common in lots of media), any kind of suspense you try to pull with her doesn’t really have much weight. Put someone else in that situation, though, like Conner, Ethan, Stanley, Mrs. Devor, Olivia Lockheed, etc., and I’d REALLY be freaking out. Or, heck, have her in a bad situation as Beth, when she’s NOT immune to most weapons.
No offense, really; I have a character in the PCU who’s practically invincible besides a very specific substance molded into a very specific form (hint; you’ve already read about them.....or HER, I guess), so it’s hard for me to write about tense fights with her. Combat situations when her life is actually at stake, you know?
I’m still wondering how Sapphire is going to get out of this, don’t get me wrong; it’s just that I know for sure she’s not kicking the bucket. Guess I’ll see for sure!