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“I know what you are, demon. Just give it up,” Jacob Hopkins hissed, pointing an accusing finger at Luz.
Unfortunately, after returning from the demon realm, Luz had to deal with this crazy conspiracy theorist witch hunter wannabe. And it’s infuriating. Vee only recently created her new disguise, meaning she was safe from this loser however, Luz was not so fortunate. She couldn’t just willingly change how she looked to avoid Hopkins, who thought she was Vee. So now, here she was in some dank, musty basement, inside a cramped cage, and slowly growing more fed up with this idiot’s shenanigans.
How did he even capture her? Simple. She hadn’t slept since… she returned. She just happened to briefly pass out on a bench and wake up here. Luz couldn’t even believe he stooped so low to grab a random sleeping teen off the street. Then again, he tried to dissect her sister, so she really couldn’t put it past him.
“For the last time, I’m not a demon,” Luz replied, rolling her eyes at him. She had so much better to be doing, like building a portal, but apparently she wasn’t allowed to at the moment. “I’m as human as anyone else on the streets.”
“Lies!” He yelled in her face, sticking his head through the bars. Luz had to hesitate bashing his head on the bars, even if it sounded really appealing to do.
“Believe what you want dude, but you’re wasting your time at this point. I’m not a demon and I don’t want to hurt anyone,” She repeated for the umpth time. “Just let me go home and you can go back to living in your parent’s basement,” she stated, fed up with being nice to someone who didn’t deserve it. She wouldn’t make that mistake again. Luz had to hold back a smirk as she saw him light up at her comment. Good. Stay mad.
“I don’t live in my parent’s basement! I’m-“ Hopkins started to whine and Luz drowned it out, leaning her head on her palm as she leaned against the side of the cage.
Luz would rather be any place than here. She wanted to be back with her friends. She wanted to be back in the demon realm with Eda and King. She wanted to spend time learning new glyph combos, not worrying about the end of the world, visiting Bonesburrow with her friends, going on a date with her girlfriend. She just didn’t want to be here.
A soft thud and familiar chirping brought her out of her thoughts. She realized that Hopkins didn’t even hear it due to his own ramblings, and even if he did, she knew he wouldn’t recognize the chirping as not that of a bird, but of a familiar red palisman with a scar. Luz looked up and noticed a small window at the top of the basement, and through the small opening between the blinds, she saw Flapjack on the other side.
That’s right! Her friends were probably worried sick about her. They probably thought she went missing or died or something. Luz was so caught up in being annoyed by the idiot on the other side of the bars she was stuck behind and her want to return to the demon realm, she’d lost track of time and spaced out. Who knows how long she’d been here? Probably long enough to cause alarm, if she guessed. No matter, Flapjack knew where she was and would go inform the others, which meant things were about to get… interesting.
“Are you even listening?!” Hopkins yelled at her, noticing she was smirking up at the window. Thankfully, Flapjack flew off before Hopkins could spot them.
“Huh? Oh uh… yeah,” Luz attempted to lie, not even fazed that it sounded so fake. It didn’t matter now.
“Well then, I’ll make you listen, demon!” Hopkins yelled at her.
“And how will you do that?” Luz asked, keeping a monotone voice to cover her concern. While she knew Hopkins was more than a loser, she also knew he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her in the midst of his delusion.
“Oh, I have multiple ways! From what I’ve read, electricity works great on demons,” Hopkins grinned, pulling a taser from his stained desk.
Luz stared at the taser, trying to keep the nervousness from her face. She just had to hold out until her friends could come. She’s handled the demon realm, she’s handled fighting Belos on more than one occasion, she can survive a small shock… she hopes. Luz wracked her mind for a way to stall time and decided she could take a page from Hunter’s time as the Golden Guard: annoy him to death.
“Hm, you sure that’s a good idea, bud?” She asked in a smug tone. “Who knows what would happen?”
“I know what would happen!” Hopkins argued.
“Alright, let’s say you do; you really think that I don’t have anyone looking for me? Kidnapping is illegal and, as another human, I have friends who’ll be looking for me,” Luz shrugged nonchalantly. “And the moment they see you go ‘zap-zap’, they attack?”
That got him to pause, but only briefly. “You demons look out for one another so you can band together and kill humanity! If one of you things even finds you, they’ll meet the same fate! You demons don’t scare me. I’m not afraid!”
Luz looked at him with a deadpan before smirking with a condescending snicker. “You should be.”
“So you admit it! You’re a demon!” Hopkins yelled at the top of his lungs.
“I… never said that,” Luz responded, taking in a deep breath, raising her pointer fingers over her mouth. She exhaled and added. “I only said that you should be scared of my friends. Us weirdos stick together. Take this as a warning; you made a mistake targeting one of us. A mistake you’re gonna pay for.”
“As if,” Hopkins responded, resulting in Luz rolling her eyes. She can’t wait to see him be humbled. “I have state of the art-“
As if clockwork, the door slammed open with a loud bang, cutting him off from another rant. In the doorway stood a figure darkened by shadows, the light behind them creating a threatening appearance. The figure stood straight, holding a staff in his hands, magenta eyes locking onto Hopkins.
“Hey dude, took you long enough,” Luz teased her older brother figure, leaning against the side of the cage she was in.
Hopkins looked at Hunter, looking him up and down to judge him. “You’re just a teenager. You have nothing to do with this, kid.”
Hunter remained silent as he stepped further into the room, glaring darkly at Hopkins. In the better lighting from the computers in the room, the delusional conspiracy theorist noticed the teen’s inhuman appearance; from the magenta eyes, to his pointed ears. Hopkins rushed to his desk and picked up a knife, pointing it at Hunter.
“Don’t step any closer, demon!” Hopkins yelled uselessly.
Hunter rushed forward, not even an inch of fear at being held at knife point. In a flash of golden light, he teleported to Hopkin’s side before swinging his staff down on his arm, causing him to drop the knife and pull his arm back in pain. Hopkins stumbled back in shock, staring at the former soldier before picking up his taser and lunging towards Hunter. Hunter easily dodged, ducking down and kicking the back of Hopkin’s knees, causing them to buckle.
“I warned you,” Luz said smugly as she stared down at where Hopkins had landed in front of the cage. That gained a snort out of Hunter.
Hunter quickly glanced around the messy desk, cringing at how gross and disorganized it was, looking for the key to release Luz. He swiped it and turned around to face the cage only to hear Luz yell.
“Hunter, look out!”
Hunter ducked, just barely dodging the blade swung near his head. Hunter glared at Hopkins who had grabbed the knife he dropped and gotten back up. Hunter easily dodged the other attacks Hopkins tried though. Hunter made his way back over to the cage, transforming Flapjack back into his living form to temporarily distract Hopkins while he unlocked the cage Luz was being held in.
As soon as the lock was open, Flapjack returned to a staff in Hunter’s hands and Luz burst out, staring at the cage before asking “Why didn’t you just break the lock?” Hunter briefly facepalmed, not even thinking of the simple solution in the moment.
He was instantly brought back out of his thoughts as he heard Luz let out a bloodcurdling scream. Everything felt as if it was moving in slow motion as he looked to his left where Luz was as she fell to the floor, writhing in pain and occasionally jolting. Hunter’s gaze rose to Hopkins who was over her, holding the taser in one hand and the knife in another. Hopkins started to bring the knife down onto Luz’s crumpled form. Acting without thinking, Hunter yelled her name and moved to pull her out of the way, grabbing her arm and teleporting a few feet away but not before Hopkins managed to plunge the knife through his arm. Hunter gritted his teeth in pain, blood dripping down his arm from the wound. Thankfully, the knife was still in place, preventing excessive amounts of blood from spilling; at least blood loss wasn’t an immediate issue. He could focus on that later, he needed to get Luz and himself out of here.
Hunter quickly teleported away with Luz, getting enough space to quickly shift her unconscious form from his injured arm to his other, shifting Flapjack to the hand of his injured arm. Just as Hopkins reached them, Hunter was in better position to get away, teleporting short distances until he reached the exit of the building. From there, Hopkins was far enough away that Hunter could start sprinting back towards the woods, hopping onto Flapjack’s staff, and flying off under the cover of leaves back to the Noceda residence.