Gavin slowed himself and landed on the wall to the side of the hole Dan had made. Trying to stifle his own breathing, Gavin listened for any movement in the room. Things had died down outside, mostly due to the fact everything outside was dead. There was the occasional scream, a was extremely close to the mansion, seemingly falling from the sky. Meanwhile, someone set off an air horn down the street. Aside from that, only a few random gunshots echoed and nothing else. He heard a single set of footstep moving hastily around the room. Dan was probably waiting for him, seething mad, punching the air, just waiting for the "flying man" to show himself.
"Well, I probably should keep h-him-" Gavin slid down the wall, clutching his chest. He wasn't down, but Gavin wondered how longer he could honestly deal with a superhuman like Dan. Things like hunger and exhaustion become irrelevant in a fight if your enemy can't get hurt. Gavin on the other hand had at lest 7 bullet wounds, nearly got his neck snapped, his chest felt like crap, and he was running on the fumes of a banana he'd found in his old lunch bag. As Gavin sat there, letting himself breath for a moment, he wondered what the hell the military was doing. And what exactly happened to the rioters? The McNeil's couldn't have killed them all and he only remembered seeing a few clusters of people run off. He slowly pushed himself away from the wall, out over the room, and lined up with the hole.
"Might as well get the drop on Dan before he get's the drop on me." Gavin said, ignoring his other questions and simply wondering why Dan hadn't jumped back into the room to break his neck. Gavin fired his grappling hook through the hole and to the opposite wall.
"Hey Dan, remind me-" Gavin yelled to the next room. He reeled himself through, detached the hook, and shot through the hole. He found himself drifting over the center of the room. Gavin aimed his hook downwards, making a quick mental note to dive in feet first this time. "Which round are we on you angry son of a bi-"
Gavin stared down at the floor. Below him, where the ever imposing Dan McNeil was supposed to be was little whimpering face. Gavin slowly lowered himself and walked up to the child, kneeling down, lowering his hood and taking off his flight goggles.
"Um, hey little guy. What are you doing here all by yourself?" There was a quick click behind the boy and Gavin looked up to see a pistol in his face. He slowly rose and met the eyes of an elderly woman. "He's not alone." She weazed, her hand shaking a bit. Gavin looked behind her to see over a dozen women and children huddling together in a corner of the room next to a few barricaded windows. The boy looked up at Gavin, slightly confused.
"He has powers, isn't he like Uncle Dan?" The boy asked. He couldn't have been older than 5 years old.
"No, he is nothing like Dan! He's like the people outside! Get away from him!" The boy looked up, still a bit confused, but something about the words "people outside" caused him to jump away from Gavin and scramble towards the cluster of people.
"Haven't you tortured us enough? Now you people are sending in your own freaks to torment us even more?! When Dan get's back-" The woman grabbed her chest, breathing heavily. Gavin slowly started backing away from her and noticed a hole in the floor, slightly covered by a fallen bookcase. "That's where he must have landed." Gavin thought. "But wait, he knew I was in the adjacent room. Why would he just leave them here?"
"Uh-excuse me ma'am, but where exactly is Dan-" There was a burst of gunfire from beneath them and screaming. People shouting at each other before letting out a yell as Dan's voice boomed and the house suddenly shook from an impact. More gunfire and screaming made it's way through the house, seemingly rising up a flight of stairs. Gavin looked over at the walls wondering what the hell was happening but snapped his head back as the people in the corner let out a few screams. He noticed a lot of them were bleeding. A few of the children had welts, black eyes, and bumps on their heads, blood trickling through their noses. A few of the females were in similar condition, but a lot more seemed to be missing their pants, a number of liquids rolling down their legs.
"What the hell is going on?" Gavin mouthed before the door was kicked and Dan made his way in. With one hand, he was carrying a misshapen slab of concrete which he used to block the door. The pitter patter of bullets from a range of homemade, old, and shitty guns could be heard harmlessly clattering against the makeshift wall. Once he made sure it was in place, he turned to Gavin.
"Don't you move. Don't you fucking move an inch. I'm going to snap your neck, that much is certain. But if you let me, I might give you a few more precious seconds of air." Dan said, furious. He was covered in a blood and breathing heavily. But it wasn't pain or exhaustion.
The boy Gavin had first seen ran over to Dan, grabbing his leg and driving his nails into the superhuman's skin with all his might. Dan looked down at the little boy but pushed him away with ease, the same way a relative kindly urges a kid to go on and get in the car with mom and dad, telling him they'd have fun together next time. Gavin wasn't exactly sure what was happening, but he'd seen enough to understand.
"Alright, look. Maybe we can reschedule our little bout. I know you don't want them to get hurt and neither do I. I'm not sure what the hell's going on, but please let me just float back through the hole and-" Gavin was interrupted by the sound of a door in the next room being kicked in. Just as quickly, a pin was heard being pulled and a canister was thrown through the hole Dan had initially made. Gavin could only watch as Dan jumped for the canister before slapping on his flight goggles and watching the world fall apart.
