THE BLACK ARCHER
in
DARKNESS RISING
Bowman lifts himself out of the sewer and replaces the manhole cover. Looking around, he realizes that he's come up somewhere in Little Tokyo. '$#!|', he thinks, pulling himself up to his feet. Bowman still doesn't know whether he stopped the Enigma or not, still doesn't know who came out on top. Add to that the fact that he's now in the one part of River City he's been avoiding since his return and this is turning out to be one bad evening.
Bowman rummages around in a dumpster, finding a ripped overcoat that should serve his purposes. He discards the remains of his neofleece and the tattered shirt that reopens a few scabs as he pulls it off. He glances at the rooftops, thinking back to just the previous night when he was leaping around up there, wishing his busted rib would let him do the same tonight. 'Crud', he thinks, 'I'd probably just attract the attention of the japanese demon that's all the word on the street anyway.' A shiver runs up his spine as he thinks of that rumor, and of the fight that sent him to his own personal hell, and he pulls the collar of his new overcoat up and heads out into the streets.
Bowman makes it out of Little Tokyo without running into the Oni. Unfortunately, he doesn't make it much farther before he runs afoul of a group of angry young men. Apparently, he's in their territory and they make him painfully aware of this breach of ettiquette by pushing him up against a wall.
"You really shouldn't have done that," growls Bowman, reaching a new low in anger but glad for the opportunity to let off some steam. Blackness swarms across his body, obscuring his face and clothing.
"What the &*©
"Goddamnit, aren't there any normal people left in this city?" yells one of the thugs as he rips a streetlamp out of the concrete and hefts it like a stickball bat. Bowman stops for a second in surprise and then yelps as the guy whose hand he broke chomps down hard on his leg. Hoping that it wasn't just a one-time thing, Bowman tries to create a bow out of the darkness like he did earlier. It works and Bowman fires into the head of the man who's teeth are working their way toward his femur, knocking him off and forcing him to relive the worst moments of his decidedly grungy life.
Bowman sees stars as he finds out that the first rule of superheroing is (or at least should be) never take your eyes off the guy with the streetlamp. He goes flying toward the back of the alley, crashing into a dumpster. Unfortunately for the thugs, this gives Bowman the distance he was hoping for. He fires a few shots at the thugs and then leaps over the fence at the back of the alley, while his ribs and leg scream at him to go home and lie down for a few days.
Bowman leads the thugs on a merry chase through the neighborhood, managing to pick them off one by one until there are just two left. One is the guy with the streetlamp and the other has been hanging back. Bowman leads them into a parking garage and then loses them. The two thugs split up to go looking for him.
The guy with the streetlamp, Rocko, paces up the row of cars, smashing the roof in on each as he goes by. "You hidin' in there?" he asks just before smashing each one. Just as he hefts the streetlamp to smash a Mini, Bowman slides out from behind a Beetle and says, "behind you."
Rocko spins around just in time to take a pair of darkness arrows in the chest. He hits the ground hard and the streetlamp rolls out of his hands and over the side of the parking level. "$#!|", exclaims Bowman as he rushes over to the edge. Looking down, Bowman notices a pair of young women walking hand in hand below the falling streetlamp. '&*©<, this better work', thinks Bowman as he fires an arrow at the streetlamp, trying desperately to encourage the darkness streaming out behnd the arrow to maintain its integrity while getting the arrow to wrap around the streetlamp like a bolo. He tugs, hard, on the makeshift line and falls backward as it snaps in his hands. He rushes back to the edge to see the two young women, shocked but fine, and the streetlamp a good ten feet to the left of where it would have hit without his little trick. He breathed a sigh of relief.
The two young women shouted and pointed at him and Bowman smiled and waved at them. "Don't worry, ladies, all in a night's--gaaahhhh!" Bowman's moment is ruined as the last thug slams into him from behind, knocking him over the edge. Bowman quickly turns around and fires an arrow back at the thug, wrapping it around him. He tugs on the line trailed behind it and slows his fall just enough to land with the wind knocked out of him but uninjured, then gives another yank to pull the goon down.
Bowman saunters over to the goon, who must certainly be unconscious, only to be knocked back by the goon as he gets up and makes a mad dash for the river. Before Bowman can stop him, he leaps off of the bridge. Bowman rushes to the side and manages to grab the line of darkness that still trails the goon before it slips over the side. He braces himself and holds on as the line goes taught.
"Hey, quit it!" shouts the goon, as he splashes about wildly in the water.
"You might as well give up, you'll tire and drown eventually otherwise. Say, who are you guys? Where did you get those powers?" asks Bowman as he tries to think of something he can do while both hands are occupied holding the line.
"We're the Southsiders. We rule the Southside!" He makes the sign of the devil, "and we got these powers from the Loanshark, pal, so I ain't in no danger of drowning so long as my account stays paid up!" And with that, the goon manages to snap the line of darkness, disappearing into the water and sending Bowman sprawling backward.
The two young women look at the rather bedraggled Bowman skeptically. The taller woman quips "All in a night's work, huh?"
Posted by Bill at July 30, 2003 06:16 PM