Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (Book 4)
Savage Vengeance (Book 5 - this story)
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 3
An Olympic long jumper wouldn’t have cleared the distance, or survived the descent without injury, but Sapphire Angel did both, leaping away from the balcony and dropping onto the stage without harm. She landed halfway to the gangsters, her boots thudding onto the platform. She bent her knees to absorb the force of the landing, but didn’t pause, exploding from her crouch and launching toward the two closest men.
The two gangsters pivoted at the sound of her landing, spinning toward her just as she reached them. She buried a foot into each man’s chest, propelling them onto their backs, as she whirled at the next two men. She drilled a punch to the head of the first, cracking his mask and flipping him off the stage, and sent a jab to the jaw of the other man — the giant — snapping his head back.
As the dazed giant stumbled, lost his balance, and fell, she turned toward Maximus Savage, who stood past the other gangsters, twenty yards away. His size and muscle mass made him appear to be ten feet closer than he was. They locked eyes, assessing each other for the first time. The unbeatable hero and the unstoppable villain. Time slowed as his glare enveloped her. She could sense the evil flowing from him, like lava from an angry volcano. I’ll hurt you, his glower screamed, as if he were sending his thoughts across a wire to her brain.
Sapphire Angel tore her gaze away from Savage as one of the other gangsters was back on his feet and charging her. She sidestepped his punch and whirled with an elbow, drilling him in his exposed throat. As he coughed and dropped, grabbing at his neck, she sensed movement behind her and pirouetted, lashing out with a kick. The heel of her boot crushed into the face of another man, who had approached from behind. The man flipped, somersaulting head over heels and tumbling from the stage, before smacking down onto the street.
Sapphire Angel quickly scanned her surroundings. Some foolhardy people in the crowd still approached the action, although slower now. And behind them, from the back of the crowd, new screams erupted. Something was going on back there — attacks from more gangsters, perhaps.
She couldn't worry about trouble at the back of the crowd. She wouldn't get there in time, and she had her hands full here. The giant and another gangster had regained their feet, so three opponents remained, including Maximus Savage. Her attacks had scattered the gang members, causing them to sidestep and retreat to avoid their tumbling comrades. Savage, furthest away from her, leveled a death stare at her. She would deal with him last. She needed to thin their ranks further, taking out the low-hanging fruit first, before getting tied up in what might be a tougher confrontation. If there were low-hanging fruit.
The giant and the other gangster crept forward, wary of the woman who had taken out two of their mates. She showed no such hesitation, leaping toward them. They froze, raising their arms in a defensive position, but she went low, dropping one arm to the ground behind her, and lashing out with a kick to the knee of the smaller man. His knee buckled on impact, ligaments shredding, as he howled.
But as her boot stuck home, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Before she could twist away, the giant crashed into her, his enormous frame flattening her into the floor of the stage.
“Oooph!” she exhaled as his full weight landed on her.
A triumphant grin crossed his face as he looked down at her. She lay under him, her silken tresses fanned out around her, her blue eyes blinking.
As he reared back one of his meaty fists, Sapphire Angel flexed her hips, like a gymnast performing a reverse handspring from a prone position. His expression changed from triumph to shock as she sent his massive frame somersaulting over her head. She leapt to her feet, but before she could locate her next target, a massive fist slammed into her stomach, just above where the blue and white of her costume met, the force lifting her off her toes.
It felt like a rocket had struck her — something she knew from experience. Pain lanced from her tender stomach, stabbing up into her chest and down into her hips. As she wheezed and her hands grabbed her abdomen, her brain tried to comprehend the force of the blow. Impossible. Harder than anyone had ever hit her. She fought to find air, her mind oblivious to the hair dangling in her face as her eyes searched for her attacker. They found him. Maximus Savage.
Just as she saw him, he swung an uppercut, connecting a fist under her jaw with the force of a sledgehammer. The blow obliterated her, lifting her clear from her feet as if she had launched off a springboard, and sending blistering pain echoing throughout her skull.
The crowd shrieked as she went airborne. She hung aloft for a moment before slamming down onto the stage, flat on her back, her senses rattled. Sapphire Angel coughed and shook her head as she lay with her arms limp at her side, and her slender legs extended straight out, unmoving. Her jaw pulsed in agony. A delicate moan escaped her lips as she fought to regain her bearings and locate Maximus Savage.
She spotted him as he hurried toward her from just a few feet away. He looked even bigger from her prone position, with his muscles straining the straps of his body armor. His face seethed with anger. Or hatred. Or both. She tried to jumpstart her thoughts, while another part of her mind tried to comprehend how one man could hit so hard.
A leer crossed his face as he reached her and raised a booted foot, ready to stomp the fallen heroine. As his foot descended toward her stomach, Sapphire Angel surged with determination, sweeping her leg sideways and taking his other leg out from under him. He toppled, but her reprieve was short-lived, as she had forgotten about the giant, who was back on his feet. He smashed a kick into her ribs, sending her rolling her toward the edge of the stage, her hair and skirt whirling about her. As she twirled across the platform, her ribs throbbing with each rotation, spectators on the street came in and out of her vision. They stood in place, having given up any pretense of joining the battle.
Sapphire Angel ended her roll at the end of the stage, flat on her stomach, with one arm underneath her and one arm dangling off the edge. Her silken hair dangled past her head, which extended over the lip of the surface. She pushed an arm underneath her body, flipped into a backward somersault, and leapt to her feet. Savage and the giant stood ten feet away, their eyes burning with fury.
The superheroine and gang leader locked eyes again. Savage spoke in the harsh voice of a lifelong smoker.
“I’m not sure how you get strength in that little body, girl,” he said with a sneer, “but I ain’t no fraud like you. I’m all muscle, and I’m gonna break you in half.”
She gave him a mock pout and pretended to wipe away a tear.
"I guess that's supposed to scare me, and make me run away crying?" she asked. "Keep trying. Meanwhile, I'll make sure you join Rocco Lynch and the rest of your failed team."
As rage flashed across Savage’s face, and the giant next to him growled, Sapphire Angel feinted as if to charge the two men, but stopped after one step and dropped into a crouch, sweeping a hand past her boot and coming up with a small cylinder. She flicked her wrist forward, and a thin cable shot from the end of the cylinder, whipping around the neck of the giant. The crackle of electricity filled the air as the big man's face twisted in agony. Savage watched, his eyes wide, as the brute convulsed and dropped to the ground.
As the cable snapped back into the cylinder, Sapphire Angel slipped the device back into her boot and twirled toward Savage in one fluid motion. He rushed toward her, and they converged, meeting in a blinding flurry of punches and kicks. Like heavyweight fighters, their blows exploded on one another.
The man was unlike any opponent the superheroine had faced. Although she blocked the blows, she staggered back from their force. She knew she couldn’t let an attack strike home, especially in the wrong place, or the fight could turn quickly.
But the vaunted heroine was unlike any opponent Savage had ever faced, and her punches and kicks staggered him, too. And Sapphire Angel was stronger and quicker. While she parried each one of his punches, he wasn’t as fortunate, and she slipped a jab past his defenses, snapping his head to the side. A moment later, she slipped another punch past him, walloping his body armor, which saved him from crippling damage, but the massive impact caused him to drop his arms. A third punch crushed his jaw, buckling his knees.
Savage stumbled back, his face contorted in surprise. He was learning the reality about Sapphire Angel’s awesome power.
She came at him with another punch, but Savage roared, bursting forward and throwing off her aim. As her blow deflected off his arm, he lowered his shoulder and smashed into the superheroine’s chest, his body dwarfing her petite form.
"Gnnnnnh!" she grunted at the impact, her arms flailing and her legs leaving the ground.
He drove her back to the edge of the stage, launching them both off the platform. They smashed to the pavement next to a crowd of shocked onlookers, Savage's muscular form bouncing off the heroine's petite body and landing next to her.
Sapphire Angel groaned and struggled to rise, reaching her knees, but Savage reached his knees first. He crushed a fist into her cheek, whipping her head to the side and sending her hair twirling about her stunned features. Again, her brain registered the impossible force of the blow. Still on his knees, he lashed with his opposite fist, snapping her head in the other direction. As she teetered on her knees, he whipped his head forward, smashing his forehead between her eyes. The heroine’s head snapped back, like someone had tackled her from behind. She toppled over and looked up at the clear March sky, which came in and out of focus.
Sapphire Angel lay flat on her back, her slender arms and supermodel legs out to her side as if someone had bound her to a cross. Her chest rose and fell as she sucked for air, her full lips quivering. With each breath, her thin costume clung to her flat stomach and firm breasts. The heroine moaned, willing herself to move. She had to move. She couldn't take another blow. Her necklace was saving her from the full effects of his assault, but Savage's attacks were outpacing the necklace’s ability to heal her. Her only saving grace was that Savage's headbutt had dazed him, too. But she feared if he recovered first, a few more devastating blows might overwhelm her necklace's ability to heal her. Or at least until it was too late.
As that problem careened around in her head, she sensed him coming, still from his knees. Savage lunged toward her, but she was already rolling to the side. He smacked onto the pavement next to her as she wrenched herself into a sitting position. She drove an elbow into the back of his skull, bouncing his head off the pavement. She repeated the strike once more, before teetering to her feet.
Sapphire Angel stood, while the prone gangster shook his head and spit gravel from his mouth, pushing his hands underneath him. He turned and rose to his knees as she whipped her foot toward him. She slammed the toes of her boot under his jaw, like she was kicking a football down Market Street and clear across the river. The devastating attack slammed his jaw together, cracking teeth and whiplashing his head.
He wobbled for a moment, his eyes foggy, and she knew she had finally struck a blow to turn the tide of the fight. She followed with a flurry, slamming a roundhouse punch into his temple and crushing her other fist into his cheek. Her second punch bounced off his mask, but dazed him further, sending fragments of teeth spewing from his mouth. She whipped a third punch under his jaw, clattering his mouth closed again and leaving him reeling.
Savage, his eyes desperate and trying to focus, snarled and sprang forward, lunging for her, but stumbled. The costumed woman sidestepped his attack and chopped at his throat, slamming his larynx with the edge of her hand. As he gagged and staggered toward her, she used his momentum, taking a handful of his shirt and flinging him forward. He flew like a wounded duck, sailing twenty yards ahead, arms and legs flailing.
Onlookers from the crowd had to jump aside as Savage slammed to the ground near them. They closed ranks, some turning to watch Savage, while others turned back in awe toward the stunning super lady. They had a front-row seat as their beloved heroine was about to take down the gang leader.
But the expanding crowd also blocked her view of Savage, twenty yards away. Sapphire Angel couldn’t see him, but heard screams intermixed with the crunch and thud of punches and kicks. Her heart sank as she realized what was happening. The gang leader was pulverizing helpless citizens. Sapphire Angel rushed forward, pushing through the crowd, but the sounds faded as she got closer. When she reached the spot he had landed, he was gone. Two men reeking of alcohol lay whimpering on the ground. Normal citizens.
Sapphire Angel stopped, her head swiveling.
“Someone help these two!” she yelled, before raising her voice even louder. “Where did he go?”
She heard screaming and spotted an undulation in the sea of people twenty feet away. Maximus Savage was trying to escape.
“Out of the way!” she bellowed, forcing her way through the throng of people.
Some onlookers stepped aside, while others stood dumbfounded, looking at the dazzling superheroine. Sapphire Angel pushed her way forward, rising to her tiptoes to look over the heads of the people in the mob, hoping to spot the escaping gangster.
She had difficulty spotting her prey over the crowd, but as she was about to lose hope, she spotted another ripple in the bystanders, ahead and to her right. Savage was heading toward the gap between the stage and the Hilton. She surged forward, navigating around spectators, giving some of them a gentle shove to the side. She spotted him as she got close to the side of the stage, where the crowd thinned. He was running up the sidewalk toward the alley behind the hotel.
She sprinted after him, but skidded to a stop as a dark figure bolted in front of her, arms coming forward. She reared back with a punch, but stopped short. It wasn’t a gangster — just a pudgy man in a black overcoat, holding out a pen and baseball cap.
“Can I have your autograph?” the man asked, his eyes wide.
She glared, twisted past him, and resumed her pursuit. Savage had disappeared down the alley. Sapphire Angel closed the distance in a blur, darting into the darkness between the buildings.
Her eyes adjusted to the darker environs, and she spotted him at the end of the alley, turning right into another alley. She sprinted after him, throwing caution to the wind. If he were meeting reinforcements, she could run into trouble. But the alternative was to lose her best chance to stop Savage before he got started in the city.
She reached the intersection of the alleys and veered right into the next alley. She continued running, but slowed, trying to catch sight of Savage. There was no sign of him. Two thoroughfares opened off one side of the alley, and a third off the other side. She ran to each one, desperation filling her. Still nothing.
She ignored the passage to her right, leading back to the main road, and darted into the first of the other two. After just a few seconds, she emerged onto Walnut Street, a one-way road heading toward the river. Cars packed the street, horns honking as they waited, stuck in the traffic caused by the rally. But there was no sign of Savage.
Voices called to the superheroine from several of the idling cars.
“Sapphire Angel!”
The costumed woman growled in frustration. She had lost him. The leader of the most dangerous gang in the country had escaped from her grasp. Gritting her teeth and fighting back tears of frustration, she turned and disappeared back into the alley.
Wayne Steele watched from the back of Market Square as terrified people raced past him. The muscular man clenched his fists at his side and his bald head turned bright red. He loved his city, and hated what these Savage Gang bastards had done to it.
An entrepreneur and real-estate developer, Steele was one of Pennsylvania’s wealthiest men. He had transitioned from a successful military career into the world of investments, real estate, and tech startups. Harrisburg was his home.
Steele, nicknamed “The Hammer” by those close to him, slipped his smartphone from his pocket and dialed a number. A man’s voice answered.
“The gang isn’t done after all,” Steele said in an even tone. “Make the calls and get the men on the first planes here. I won’t let these assholes overrun our city again.”
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (Book 4)
Savage Vengeance (Book 5 - this story)
I was constantly muttering “Oh my God” throughout that entire combat scene, just to let you know. It was so descriptive, and though it was a bit on the long side, you made sure I was entertained for every single second of it. And on top of that.....dang. Sapphire Angel didn’t even technically get defeated; Savage fled himself! Not bad for her first bout against him specifically! Then again, I don’t know how much better of an outcome this is.....if Savage had defeated Sapphire, it would’ve been so much worse, but if Sapphire had already defeated Savage, the novel would’ve ended right here.
I also had flashbacks to the meme-able “Area 51 raid” that people were planning a few years back. I kept asking myself “Why doesn’t everyone just swarm the stage and attack Savage and the others? They can’t take all of them!” Then again, they might also be worried about getting Sapphire caught up in the chaos, or getting hurt by the Gang members, or accidentally hurting each other. That, or they were just that engrossed in seeing Sapphire work her magic. And that one guy in the crowd that asked for her autograph when she was chasing down the leader of one of the most feared gangs around was hilarious; some much-needed humor during this sequence. xD
Is Wayne Steele going to be another “rival” to Sapphire Angel in stopping the Savage Gang, kind of like how Olivia Lockheed was in the previous novel? She about to “Steele” his thunder or something like that? ‘Cause that’d be entertaining to see. Or maybe they could become allies, too; again, that would certainly be a better “partnership” than the one with Lockheed.
Hope the mayor’s okay. And I still haven’t forgotten about the other antagonists from the previous story!