Insult

“Give them to me.”

Frankie wasn’t really that afraid, all things considered. Whatever happened, she always came out on top. She knew Anti could’ve just tranq’d them both and swiped the bag before they even knew he was there, so the fact he was showing himself meant he just wanted the satisfaction of them knowing he took it. The guy was as pitiful as ever.

“Yeah… that’s not gonna happen. So-“

The tranquilizer shot into her shoulder. Frankie fell down to the ground and passed out in an instant.

“FRANKIE!”

Anti pointed the weapon towards the other target, tugging on its back as another syringe was loaded into its long, smooth barrel.

“Will you resist?”

“I…”

“Your sister will freeze in the snow. Nobody else is here to see.”

The cold breeze howled. Katie’s hands tightened on the bag.

“This game isn’t worth fighting for, girl.”

Her lip quivered.

“If you hand over what you have willingly, you can forgive yourself for what you’ve done to our park.”

Her brow furrowed.

“Don’t be an idiot. I know your plans. Do you really think it’s possible to see every park in the world before you curl up and die?”

She smashed the heavy, metal-filled bag over the robber’s masked head. Grunting, he briefly collapsed, still holding a tight grip on his gun.

“SHUT UP!”

Furious, her heart beating, Katie raised the sides of the travel bag in both hands. If this is what he came here for, he was about to get it.

Anti had only just barely started to move when the heavy thing stomped the back of his head into the snow. His thick mask saved him from injury, but not the pain of the impact. The tokens stung on his skull as she slammed them down into him three- four more times.

As she swung down for a fifth, the operative rolled out of the way at the last moment and aimed his weapon of choice. Aligning its sights in a well-trained, swift movement, he fired at center mass. It was by complete accident that Katie blocked the shot- the needle entering her bag as she raised it instead of her. But once again realizing from the close call that one hit meant game over, she decided she had to go all out.

Covering as much of herself as possible, becoming small behind her bag, she recklessly charged towards her attacker, almost pushing him to the ground in a hurried surprise assault. But the man’s strength was too much to overcome with mere confidence alone.

He grabbed the cache, tossing it to the side, as he stuck the gun straight up to her face and squeezed to pull the trigger. But the thing’s long barrel was easily pushed aside with him holding it out so far, allowing Katie to slip past and tackle him right back to the ground as he fired the syringe uselessly into the air.

She hadn’t considered what she’d do at this point, so she defaulted to what anyone would do in the situation- like Frankie had rained snow down on Wilton from atop him, she pounded on his mask and armor until her hands bled, kicking his arm down in hopes she could knock the gun away or at least keep it pointed somewhere else.

Her childish efforts didn’t last long. Coughing up spit, she was effortlessly grabbed by the throat in his gloved hands, thrown off him like a pesky bug. She hit her head in the snow, groaning and sniffling as the helpless feeling of the fight overwhelmed her.

Anti was quick to cycle his pistol and point it back towards her, regaining full control of the situation.

“That was almost entertaining.” He steadied his breathing. “Sorry, I forgot you were a terrorist for a second there. I should’ve known you were nothing more than a violent, dirty brat.”

Katie didn’t miss a beat, refusing to back down as she lifted a pitiful stick from the snow and brandished it as a weapon. The move was unexpected for sure, but the small branch did little to the rogue as she wailed out and screamed, smacking it against his head repeatedly. Anti realized she hasn’t learned her lesson yet and promptly delivered a roundhouse kick to her stomach.

Unarmed, sobbing, and back on the ground, Katie seemed finally defeated, fallen face-first into the now-bloody fluff. He approached her calmly, and held the tranq to her back.

“Just a precaution.”

Only suddenly, the wind howled in a burst of sideways snow, causing even Anti to flinch as the precipitation unpredictably increased to dangerous levels. Suddenly finding himself in an unexplained blizzard, he was pushed back, his gun flying out of his hands and his focus lost in light of the bizarre occurrence.

“Who…”

She appeared from the foggy white of the kicked-up snow, stepping forward in her regal dress. She bore no expression on her face, but her hands were tightly sealed into powerful fists.

“You’ve endangered my subjects. You must be punished.”

Fighting through the crawling pain on her belly, Katie looked up to see the elegant MASCOT Egelfride standing across from Anti on the snowy battlefield, prepared to fight in her and her sister’s names.