Love-Love || OLD DRAFT

three - two

When I reached her, Garnet was bleeding. She sat against a wall, her hand pressed to her shoulder which was staining her grey costume red.

I knelt down by her side. Water laid in a puddle on the floor, all around her. "What happened?" I asked.

"I -" her breath came out laboured, "they shot me."

I grit my teeth and briefly looked at her wound. I knew they would never attack a Super, let alone a Super that was my ally without any provocation. "Where's the money?" I said.

Garnet looked down at her lap. "It's... with me."

The water at my feet steamed as I felt my anger rising.

Garnet sensed it. Of course she did. "I - I'm sorry," she said, panicking.

I ignored her apology. "The one who shot you, are they alive?"

"I - yes."

I didn't wait for a second longer. We were still in the so-called rendezvous point, hiding in one of the long-abandoned houses. I pushed to my feet and walked out through the front door.

Gunfire rang out from all sides as they open fired. The concrete in front of me rose to create a shield around me.

I knelt down and placed my hand on the ground slick with water. I closed my eyes and a new sight opened up to me. I felt their movements through the earth - there were fifteen of them; I felt the vibrations of the guns as they travelled all the way through their feet to the ground and to my fingers.

I curled my hand into a fist and the ground beneath each one of them rose up and wrapped around their throats, choking them till they fell down, lifeless.

The gunfire stopped instantaneously.

I let the shield fall and inspected the wreck. There were more than fifteen people dead, meaning Garnet hadn't gone down easy. Of course, I wouldn't expect anything less from her. A huge water tank laid broken on the ground, beside the dead men, and I figured that was what might've given Garnet the bright idea to kill these people.

Idiot.

I walked up to the nearest dead body and knelt down to go through his pockets. Anything that might give me an idea as to whom they worked for could -

I froze in my tracks as I found his ID. He was a cop.

Before I could dwell on it further, a gush of wind threw me off my feet and hard onto a nearby car.

"Now's really not a good time, Storm," I hissed as I fell to my knees.

"Yeah?" a familiar voice sounded from above. "Tell me 'bout it."

I felt my ears pop as the air pressure suddenly dropped all around me. Bouts of wind started hitting me from all sides and I realised what he was trying to do. I was never one to run from a fight, but this time, I knew I had to leave.

The ground opened up below me and the moment I fell, I closed off the top. I ran through the earth into the building Garnet was hiding in. The tunnel opened up right next to her and I helped her climb down. Neither of us said a word as we made our way back to our hideout.

I threw my mask off and stormed up to get the medicine kit. When I returned, Garnet was sitting on the couch, pulling off her costume. She flinched with every movement but I knew she was trying to hide most of the pain from me.

"Let me help," I ordered, sitting down next to her.

"It's fine, I can -"

"It's fine, you've done enough," I growled. That shut her up.

I pulled the fabric off her bleeding shoulder and examined the wound. I had dealt with enough gunshot wounds to know this one wasn't life-threatening. She was lucky.

The only thing I could hear in the room was Roux's heavy breathing as I cleaned the wound. My hands were shaking from me trying to suppress the flames from combusting from my fingertips, and it became particularly acute as I took the forceps to pull the bullet out.

I closed my eyes and took deep breaths. I would need a steady hand for this, but at the moment, my hands were anything but.

"Ridge," Roux said softly. I opened my eyes to find her looking at me with guilt clear in her face. "Let me." She stretched out her unharmed hand.

I didn't want to listen to her, didn't want to give her anything, but I knew to hand her the forceps was the correct thing to do. I was in no condition to help her further. The charring carpet at my feet was proof enough.

I gave her the forceps and got to my feet, stepping away from her. She didn't say anything. She simply gritted her teeth and got ready to pull the bullet out of her shoulder.

I turned around and walked out of the room. This was bad. I took out my phone and stared down at it. What I was expecting, I wasn't sure. I didn't know how they would react to this. It was a bad move. A stupid move. I wanted to be angry at Garnet - I was - but more than that...

I dropped my phone as I felt sparks tingle my fingertips.

Fuck, not again. Not now!

I took in deep breaths and looked over my shoulder towards the room where Roux sat, stitching herself up having dug the bullet out. I knew I shouldn't be leaving her alone like this, but fuck it; I needed a distraction.