Aberrant: The Middle Children of History - Shadow of the Tiger

[Exile]

The bar was in the ass-end of Singapore. Ayato hated it already and he'd only just stepped inside. The man he sought was in the corner, nursing what looked to be his twelfth beer of the evening at seven o'clock.

Ayato calmly walked over to the table and noded to the gentleman.

"Tobias "Sunstreak" Catch." The man set his bottle down and looked at the second generation nova with a firery glare. "Who the fuck is that?"

Ayato shrugs. "Word has it that twenty years ago he was one of the best speester sharpshooters there was. Then he got laid out like a punk by a guy who looked like a bipedal tiger."

The nova's left hand raised and unconsciously touched the eyepatch covering his left eye. Now that he was closer he could see the scars running down the left side of his face and could guess he was blind in one eye. "Long the Tiger." If it were possible to speak a name with enough hate and venom to kill everyone on the planet, Sunstreak spoke with it.

"So you know the bastard."

"Sit down boy, and pay for a few rounds and I'll tell you about him."

Ayato does so and about ten beers later, he's heard how Sunstreak had gotten taken out and unmasked by Long. In the process Long had severed Sunstreak's right hand and clawed out his left eye, leaving him a broken Elite, a broken man.

"What about you boy..."

"Exile."

"What about you Exile, why are you concerned enough about someone like that sonovabitch to hunt someone he wrecked down?"

Ayato looks at him and his eyes seem to darken. "Because that sonovabitch ran out on my mom and me before I was even born and I want to make him pay."

Sunstreak looked at him for a second, then shook his head. "Leave now."

Ayato got up and started walkin away, but he felt Sunstreak come up behind him, he felt the blow coming. A massive fist slammed into his jaw and knocked him out onto the street. He got up and popped his jaw, shunting away the pain. "That's the least you'll get for you parentage Exile. Your dad maimed and crippled his way nearly to the top. Anybody else woulda probably wasted your punk ass, but I see it in your eyes. You hate the furry fucker too. You might be the one person who can actually give that cat a dirtnap. I won't wish ya luck, but When the time comes, give him a few for me."

Were it Long standing there, Sunstreak would have been dead after the punch, but Exile let him speak. He turned and walked away into the rainy night.

"Yet again the Shadow of my Father overtakes me, and thwarts my efforts. This was a waste of time."