Ballhead

Taiga tug on the omvogod’s pointy teeth. “Does this hurt?” He asks, tapping his fist against the ivory.

”No.” Dave responds.

”Where’s the cavity then?” Taiga floats to his top teeth, and taps again.

”No.”

”Where’s the cavity then?” Taiga taps the teeth to the side.

”No.”

“Where’s the cavity then?” Taiga reaches out to another tooth before hesitating, then he reaches into his mouth and taps his own tooth.

”AGH!” Dave chomps down in pain and impales Taiga through his stomach. Then Taiga walks out of his mouth.

”Found the cavity.” He grabs a long rope and drags Modu out of a tiny pit of water.

“Are you feeding me?” Modu asks.

”Yea.” He tosses Ashlen into Dave's mouth. Dave chomps down then Taiga gets impaled immediately again, then…

Taiga opens his eyes as something metallic and hard gets shoved in his mouth.

… He looks around his bedroom to find two people he didn’t know standing besides his bed, and… Modu, pointing a gun inside his mouth.

“Hey, I was just dreaming of you.” Taiga says.

“Where’s your ringphone?” Modu asks.

Taiga lifts his finger up from under his blanket, blinking a couple times before looking at his surroundings again. Okay, I guess this isn’t a dream anymore.

“Here.” Taiga shows Modu the ring.

“Open it. Go to where you stored the footage.” Modu demands.

“What footage?” Taiga couldn’t help but say.

Modu glances at the men then nods. “Left forearm.” One of the men immediately grabs Taiga’s arm and holds it horizontally to the ground while the other man takes out a hammer.

“Okay! Okay! I’ll delete it!” Definitely not a masochist, already got a taste of that yesterday.

“Too late, this is your fault for trying to get funny with us.” Modu taps two fingers together in a cross shape.

“Take a joke mate, be less boring please. Flashlight.” Taiga closes his eyes, his shoulder emits a loud pop as he contorts out of the hold into a knee to Modu’s stomach, and all the goons are blinded at the same time. A gunshot rings out next to Taiga’s ear, instantly deafening him. Can’t tell if I just got shot, but I’m still alive so…

“Off.” Taiga reorients himself, opening his eyes and finds himself between Modu’s legs on the ground. He looks up then quickly propels a headbutt into Modu’s groin before scrambling underneath his bed, grabbing the blanket and tossing it over himself, which causes one of the men to miss and grab the blanket instead of him. He darts out from beneath the bed and dives straight out his window, shattering the glass and dive bombing straight off a twelve meter height.

Taiga lands on his chest, driving all the air out of his lungs, a blunt force shock rippling through his body as he curls into a ball from the raining glass.

“Eghh huugh Heeee Ughhh.” Taiga forcefully tries to expel breath as he staggers off glass-laced concrete, covered in blood. That was cool, but maybe getting my forearm broken wasn’t that bad.

He hammers his shoulder back into place with his good arm then begins running. As he does, he begins smiling. Nah, that was fun, don’t regret a thing.

One of the men vaults out the window shortly after, landing deep down on the glass shards then chasing straight after him.

Huh? Why are you so brave? I thought you guys were going to panic then trip down the stairs trying to chase after me while I make my escape. Isn’t that what’s supposed to happen? Taiga looks over his shoulder then begins pumping his arms harder, but the man behind him had to be some sort of competitive sprinter because he was able to catch up and tackle Taiga immediately.

“Damn it! You competed in running or something?” Taiga snarls as the two get tangled up.

“I was actually a running back. Unlucky since you’re pretty quick too.” The man compliments Taiga.

“Ah, come on, don’t be nice to me! When you’re—“

The man manages to pin Taiga to the ground, holding his arms together. “Sorry, just my job. Don’t hold any particularly harsh feelings towards ya.”

“Yea? Don’t you think you’re a bit overqualified here?”

“Hey, if you’re impressed and want to commission me after this. I’ll get you my card.” He loosens his grip on his arms, giving Taiga an opportunity to escape but…

He’s just too likeable… Taiga thinks to himself before relaxes his arms.

The bodyguard tightens his grip on his arms again as soon as he does. “Just checking if you were going to pull something funny. Do contact me though, even just to get a drink or something. I’m E903 on the blue net.”

“What is this, a date?” Taiga couldn’t help but smile at his loose attitude.

“If you want it to be.” He looks behind him as Modu staggers down the apartment steps. “You shoot him or something?” He asks Taiga.

“Well, he certainly did get shot when we were in the submarine alone together, though uhhhhh I didn’t pull the trigger.”

“You’re gonna learn that you can’t play with a man’s pride like that.” E903 shakes his head. “Alright, time to shut up.”

Modu staggers over to me with a heinous expression on his face. “Not so fortunate now are you?” From the way he was walking it was clear that… Nah not going to describe that. “Alright, the deal’s changed. You will die tonight. How you will die will be up to how you respond. A quick shot to the head, or hell on earth.”

“Can’t you just kill me to make sure the videos never release? Don’t know why you need me to delete them so badly…” Taiga complains.

“Shut up! I can’t trust anything you say!” Modu’s face could be seen completely flushed even in the darkness.

“Just kill me mate. I promise the videos aren’t going to magically upload as soon as I’m dead.”

Modu chuckles. “You look so calm. You really think you’re making it out of this alive are you?”

“I am.”

Modu contorts with rage then cocks his gun. “Okay, just remember, this was your idea.” He points the gun straight at Taiga’s face.

Modu stares at Taiga, desperately searching for any hint of fear, but beneath Taiga’s eyes was absolutely nothing but confidence in the situation, he was going to survive.

“You really are insane.” Modu sighs then–

“Hey Modu, do you know that guy?” E903 looks to the side, interrupting the situation.

”What?” Modu and the other thug look to the right. Taiga turns curiously as well.

Someone in an Atmosuit was approaching them. A heavyset but simultaneously sleek high-technology suit that melded into the dark. Each step they took was completely mute against the ground despite the bulky design. The design was in the visage of the original atmospheric diving suit, able to resist the colossal pressures of the deep ocean. This technology was typically considered military-grade, and the only others who could ever hope to obtain it were wealthy underground organizations.

But the most notable feature was the helmet, an outdated Atmosuit design that used a round ball with a round visor as the helmet. Something that looked like it walked straight out of a history book.

“What the hell…” Modu mumbles before turning to them. “What do you want?” Modu asks.

“The boy.” The Atmosuit responds in an androgynous, indistinguishable voice. “Just leave.” They say after a short pause.

“Tell me why. Who are you?” Modu demands.

“I just want to protect him.” The voice says.

“Um, yea, actually who are you?” Taiga raises an eyebrow as well.

“Huh?” The person in the Atmosuit exclaims at Taiga’s interruption. “Why would you say that in this situation?”

E903 chuckles at the interaction before looking downwards. “Hey, we should probably get going soon, I just intercepted a police call, someone here called the police.” He shows Modu a screen.

“How?! I thought you blocked all outgoing signals from this apartment complex?”

“Someone saw us, ran outside the range, then called them I guess.” E903 shrugs. “It’s not a physical barrier. Like I said, this usually only buys around five minutes of time.”

“Okay then, I’ll finish this quickly.” Modu trains his gun back at me. “I don’t care anymore. You win, if I go down with you because of the evidence then congratulations.”

Modu pulls the trigger.

*click*

And the gun misfires.

Modu blinks a couple times in disbelief then drops his shoulders and simply sighs.

He aims at Taiga again, however as a shadow grows from their flank, Modu jumps away as a giant plume of dirt erupts at his location, revealing the person in the atmosuit with their fist in the grass.

E903 immediately lets go of Taiga and backs away. Damn. He mouths, impressed by Taiga’s ungodly luck.

The atmosuit scoops Taiga off the ground, shielding Taiga as multiple gunshots ring out through the middle of the apartment courtyard. The hunk of metal then launches across the apartment complex with the acceleration of a sports car, escaping with Taiga in arm.

“Alright, I’m out. Good luck with that kid, come on Rando.” E903 pats Modu on the back as both of the thugs soon disappear, leaving Modu alone by himself.

As the person in the Atmosuit slows down, they drop Taiga down at a park nearby. This was around the time early joggers and commuters would start appearing, so they were particularly cautious.

Taiga tightly grabs his hand with the other as he drops down from their massive arms, trying to quell his trembling. No matter how confident he was in his luck, he knew that only a miracle was the reason he was alive right now.

“Damn… Maybe I am blessed.” He murmurs.

”That just sounds arrogant to say. Although, in this case you may be correct.” The Atmosuit replies.

”Did you want to watch someone get shot in the head or something? Thought you were trying to protect me?” Taiga then says.

“Hey! I just wasn’t expecting for… I’m sorry. I should have acted sooner.” The other person apologizes.

“Ah.” Taiga rubs his head sheepishly. “I shouldn’t be trying to be funny to someone who just saved my life. Sorry, I’m an ass sometimes.” Taiga also apologizes. “By the way, what’s your—?”

”Do you have anywhere to go? Or are they going to continue coming after you?” The person in the Atmosuit ignores his question. “I overheard some of the conversation. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it sounds like you have some evidence that could land him some charges?”

Taiga nods. “Yep, that’s pretty much it, also I don’t know what to call—“

“Great, then go to a nearby police station, present the evidence, and you should be under witness protection for a—”

“Hey!” Taiga smiles. “What’s your name?”

…

“I can’t tell you that.”

“So you’re not part of any sort of law enforcement right? Some sort of vagabond that happens to have an Atmosuit?” Taiga leans in uncomfortably close. He had no idea what situation led to this person rescuing him, but he wanted to be involved nevertheless. He hadn’t felt this excited in years; this was something new, something interesting, a quandary outside societal norms.

“Uh… Look, I can’t tell you much. Just that I saw you in trouble and decided to help, don’t ask any more questions.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t have any affiliations with the law or anything like that.” Taiga reaches out to try to touch their helmet, but they immediately back away, even through the massive suit of armor their body language conveyed discomfort.

“Okay. Remember what I said about witness protection. Goodnight… Or good morning would be more accurate.” The person in the Atmosuit turns to leave, fading into the darkness beyond.

Then Taiga calls out, one last time.

“What’s your dream?”

…

“It wouldn’t matter to you.” They say after a short pause. “Also, thank you for what you did last night.” Then they disappear.

“Huh? The hell I do?” Taiga mumbles as he begins walking back in the direction of his apartment.

However it wasn’t even five minutes until an officer drove up and approached him.

”Hey, so, we got a call about a guy covered in blood walking through the neighborhood, there were also some gunshots reported near around here.” The officer cautiously approaches Taiga.

“Yep, both of those situations involve me.”

“Yea… So if you don’t mind. I’ll probably have to detain you for the time being.”

“I mind a bit, but do what you gotta do.”