Johnny and Daisy's boots hammer against the concrete, the rhythm echoing off the narrow alley walls.
Johnny skids to a halt, his eyes narrowed, scanning a dark gap between the buildings.
"What's the matter?" Daisy asks, her hand hovering near her side.
Johnny points into the shadows. "Let's check in there."
They burst out of the alley into a quiet neighborhood.
The afternoon sun bleeds across the walls, but the warmth is hollow. The street is a graveyard.
Bodies of citizens.
Mothers, children, fathers—lie tangled on the pavement. The air smells of copper and cold stone.
Johnny crouches, his fingers brushing the cooling skin of a young boy. He smiles bitterly, his voice rough like gravel.
"Our world has taught us to see this as normal."
He stands, his hand dropping to his holster. "He's here."
Daisy scans the perimeter. "But I don't see him."
They move forward, boots crunching on glass and grit. "Keep looking. He's close," Johnny warns.
A loud, jagged laugh erupts from the shadows behind them. They spin.
A man in a tattered bunny costume stands there, the fabric stained and matted with blood.
He tilts his head playfully. "Hello, friends... What present do you bring? Hope it's fun."
A low hum vibrates through the air. One-biskae solidifies in Daisy's palm, the black aura licking at the air.
The man places his palms on his cheeks, shaking his head. "Oh… that axe. Fun. I think I'll keep it as a gift."
Johnny's voice cuts through the man's playfulness. "Not if you're alive to see tomorrow."
Baa.
A silver flash.
The bullet tears through the man's stomach, spraying blood across the pavement. Chunks of flesh and costume stuffing scatter across the ground.
Daisy walks closer, the axe lowered. "So soon?"
Johnny holsters his gun. "That was a joke."
They turn to leave, but a wet, tearing sound stops them.
The air behind them ripples like a disturbed pond. They pivot, but the Rabbit Man is already a blur.
His fist hammers into Johnny's stomach. The impact is a wet thud, air exploding from Johnny's lungs. Johnny is a projectile, crashing through a brick wall and disappearing into a cloud of red dust.
Daisy lunges. One-biskae whistles, carving a path through the air.
She leaps back. The air in front of her shimmers like heat over a desert road.
Desperation covers her eyes.
What kind of rhythm is this? How do I read it?
A foot sweeps through the dirt.
Daisy jumps, landing at the mouth of the alley. Before her eyes can focus, the Rabbit Man's hand is on her head.
The world tilts. Everything spins into a nauseating blur.
Daisy's knees slam into the concrete with a sickening crack.
This trick… he's manipulating my perception.
Daisy tries to push herself up, but the hand on her head feels like a mountain. The man laughs, a sharp, sarcastic sound. "You can't get up, love... stop trying to fight."
Johnny erupts from the ruined building, bricks cascading off his shoulders. A coil of wind snaps around him and fades.
The Rabbit Man skips back.
Daisy retches, black blood splattering onto the pavement.
Damn it… I'm reckless again.
She coughs, her hands trembling as she wipes her chin. The world is a drugged haze.
It's poison. My sight is failing.
Johnny's gun barrel presses into the Rabbit Man's jaw.
Poof.
The man is gone before the trigger clicks.
He's standing in the alleyway, inches from Daisy.
Johnny fires twice.
The silver rounds chew into the brickwork, showering the man in grit.
The Rabbit Man closes the distance.
Johnny leaps backward, his back hitting a building.
The Rabbit Man pauses, his head tilting.
The perception antidote… it isn't working on him.
Johnny closes in, raising his gun.
The man's foot lashes out, aiming a heavy kick at Johnny's gun hand.
Johnny reacts instantly, pressing his spine against the stone and pulling back.
The Rabbit Man's punch crashes into the building where Johnny's head was a second before, cratering the brick.
Johnny slides behind him.
Baa.
The building face explodes as the silver bullet slams into the masonry.
The Rabbit Man stands to the side, his palms open, laughing.
"You're a maniac in a rabbit suit," Johnny grunts.
The man spins like a whirlwind.
As Johnny twists to evade, a boot catches him across the cheek.
Johnny staggers.
A fist follows, driving upward. Johnny hits the ground and rolls to Daisy's side.
He looks at her.
Daisy is on her knees, staring blankly at the pavement.
A pool of black blood spreads across the concrete.
This is serious. She's badly hurt.
Johnny stands, but another punch is incoming.
He blurs, fading and reappearing a few inches away, his hands touching the alley floor.
His breathing is a ragged staccato.
I have to target him carefully.
The Rabbit Man lunges.
Johnny doesn't move back.
As the punch hits Johnny's chest, his palm clamps over the man's fist.
He twists his body mid-air.
Momentum snaps violently.
The man breaks free, skipping back.
As Johnny's feet hit the ground, his focus narrows. His breath slows. One eye closes.
Baa.
The bullet grazes the man's stomach, drawing a fresh spray of red.
The man groans, doubling over.
I see. A focused mind amplifies the bullet.
Johnny blurs.
The pistol's muzzle presses hard against the man's spine.
Johnny stands between the man and the building.
The man swallows, his playful tone gone. "Mind telling me anything you want in return for sparing me?"
Johnny chuckles, the sound cold. "You're on the losing side now that you're talking calmly."
The Rabbit Man points at Daisy. "If you promise to spare me, I'll tell you how to break her free."
Johnny digs the gun deeper into the man's back. "Move."
The man kneels by Daisy and places a hand on her head.
After a few seconds, Daisy gasps, her lungs drawing in a ragged breath. Her eyes clear. She stands, steadying herself.
"You got him!" she says, her glare returning.
"Tell me who you are," Johnny demands.
Daisy reaches out and yanks the matted rabbit head off.
She tilts her head at the face beneath. "You look old!"
The man smiles thinly. "Despite the torture I put you through, you still behave carefree."
"Speak, or I pull the trigger," Johnny says.
"I'm an agent sent by the Secret Society to test the Legend's strength and report back."
One-biskae snaps to the man's neck, humming with a violent, black aura.
Daisy's eyes ripples with deadly energy. "What was that thing you used on me? The poison."
The man's eyes shake.
This power. Was she hiding it?
He looks at the edge of the axe inches from his throat.
"It's called the perception antidote. Created specifically for Legends. The organization uses it to fight your kind."
"Where's the device?" Johnny asks.
The man pulls a small, round clock from his pocket. "This—"
The air ripples like a leaf in the wind.
Johnny and Daisy leap back towards the alley entrance.
Figures materialize in a circle, sealing off the street. They wear white masks marked with black numbers.
A figure with 004 on his mask steps toward the Rabbit Man.
Slap.
The Rabbit Man's head spins, then falls, rolling across the concrete. "Traitor must die," 004 says.
Figure 003 raises a larger version of the clock device into the air.
Johnny's mouth falls open.
His breath turns shallow.
He collapses. Daisy hits the ground a second later. They lie unconscious in the dirt.
Figure 001 leans over them. "Society is better off without Legends. Their powers are chaotic. If we let them, they'll turn the world to ash... like they once attempted before. Antara is the current living witness to their wrath."
001 stands. "The world needs those who enforce order."
A beat.
"Take them. We'll extract their blood… perhaps obtain a useful subject for our research."
"Not going to happen," a voice cuts through the alley.
Mami Shallow materializes in their midst. Heaven's Wrath, her golden baseball bat, rests on her shoulder.
"I always had the feeling something would go south."
A massive gravitational force slams into the area. Window panes shatter. Brickwork cracks and falls. The weight of the air is suffocating.
001 looks up, his mask tilting. "What's this power? Who is this woman?"
Mami smiles. The gold of her bat glints. "Call yourselves Secret Society, law enforcers?" She chuckles bitterly.
"Society, my butt. Where were you guys while the society was crumbling? Now you come out of nowhere claiming to be the law, huh?"
Her eyes glow a blinding white. She swings Heaven's Wrath down. The sun catches the edges of the metal.
"Let's see how you fare against a true Legend."
The bat expands, its shadow growing long and heavy.
The concrete beneath her feet shatters under the sheer weight of the weapon as it grows.