Shawna followed his gaze. “What the…”

“He’s tracking your phone. I…”

There was a thud behind them as Shadow stood there. The thud was a body that lay on the ground.

“All this over a fucking broad. You absolute piece of shit.”

“Look I can…” Shawna walked towards him.

“Shut the fuck up bitch.” Shadow snarled.

“Hey. Don’t talk to her like that. Or I’ll…”

“Or you’ll what?”

“I can beat you, you know. Our battle just an hour ago proves it.”

“Beat me once, shame on me. Beat me twice, not even possible.”

Shadow advanced.

Heath was prepared for this. The battle. He had planned out for the final battle whenever it would happen but not at that moment. For now, his plan had been to escape, allowing Shadow to take Shawna back to safety.

But what he was not prepared for was for Shawna to be out of the reenforced cage and in harms way.

Instead of attacking him, Shadow went for Shawna.

Heath realized what was happening and pushed her out of his way just in the Nick of time. He caught a blow to his shoulder and felt pain shoot through it. Dislocated. His ability depended on limb movement. He was at a massive disadvantage now.

But he didn’t care about that. “Shawna. Run!”

Shawna hesitated. But shadow turned towards her and she retreated. Her adrenaline blinded her to the fourth occupant of the room. She tripped over the body, looking into the vacant eyes of a man. From his dress it was evident that it was the dreaded Dr. Death. It was also evident that he was quite dead which was kind of ironic in an Alannis sort of way.

Shawna cursed under her breath, horrified at the sight.

Shadow moved towards her. Heath ran to intercept him putting his hand on Shadow’s shoulder. Shadow spun around quickly, took Heath’s hand and launched him across the room over Shawna’s head.

Shawna looked at Heath with tears in her eyes. She turned to Shadow. “Please stop! Let him go. He means no harm.”

“No harm? You know how many times he has escaped me the little bastard. Not anymore.”

With a burst of speed, he was next to Heath again. He wound up, and Heath saw a flash of something. The next thing he felt was wetness on his stomach. Followed by sharp pain. He heard Shawna scream.

He looked pleadingly at Shadow, utter defeat in his eyes.

Shadow smirked. “No witnesses.”

And darkness overtook Heath.

The mayor burst into his office, raging. “You fucker. Who is that?”

Shadow smiled. “Who?”

“The man you just presented to the media as Dr. Death. The public doesn’t know but I’m privy to a lot more details. That man wasn’t Dr. Death. He was someone else.”

“Oh really? Weird that Dr Death hasn’t come forward to refute that statement then.”

“What did you do?”

Shadow picked up the remote and turned the tv on. There he was, giving an interview on local news. “Look it went against everything me and the Mayor stand for. But the death toll and the damage was unacceptable. I…” Shadow pretended to wipe some tears. “I don’t like it either. But Dr. Death had to be stopped.”

The mayor looked at him. “Yeah I’ve seen that crap. What of it? I know that the damage wasn’t unacceptable. It got to that level because you didn’t stop him. You didn’t do your job. You were not at the site till almost an hour later. The media might be blocked from fight zones but I can still see all.”

“You notice your approval rating mayor?”

“My what?”

“Your approval rating. It’s up 20 points. It’ll likely subside a bit. But the election is in 1 month. I reckon this is enough. We’ll of course go out together and express grief and regret. Promise to have better monitoring so nothing like this ever happens again. Our policy of non lethal force continues. This was the one exception.”

The mayor paused. He opened a link on his phone. His approval rating was up 21 points now.