It didn't take Electron long to locate the abandoned shooting gallery, and he quickly descended towards it. He could not, however, see Andy anywhere. "Andy?" he called out. "It's me, Electron. I'm here to protect you. Please come out so we can talk. I just want to help you."
Andy's voice rang out from behind one of the stalls. He sounded very emotional. "I never wanted any of this to happen!" he said. "If I'd known how all of this would pan out, I would have stopped them, I swear!" Andy hesitated, unsure whether he wanted to hear the answer, then asked, "Matt's dead, isn't he?"
Electron nodded. "I'm afraid so," he said.
"Oh God..." said Andy. He sounded as though he were on the verge of tears. Electron slowly rounded the stand Andy was hiding behind, and found him slumped against it, holding his head in his hands. His revolver was clutched tightly in his right hand, pointing off to an angle. Electron crouched down in front of the terrified man, and suddenly found himself unable to believe that such a man could possibly have committed such a horrific crime.
"I never meant for any of this," Andy sobbed. "That woman... she's coming to kill me, isn't she? She's coming for me."
"If my hunch is correct, then yes," said Electron. "She'll be here soon. But don't worry. I'll be right here with you, waiting for her. When she comes for you, I'll stop her. I'll make sure she sees justice for what she's done to your friends. But I want you to do something for me in return, alright?"
Andy looked up at Electron with tearful, pleading eyes. "You want me to turn myself in?" he asked. "Alright. I'll do it. I'll tell the cops everything."
Electron nodded. "Thank you. That's all I want from you."
Andy nodded, and put down his revolver. "So... now what?" he said. "We just wait for her to show up?"
"Pretty much," said Electron. "And when she does, I'll finally put a stop to all of this. I promise. Nobody else is going to die today."
Electron had no idea how long he sat in silence with Andy, waiting for the Iron Maiden to arrive. It could have been fifteen minutes, it could have been three hours. All he knew was that the tension made it feel unbearably long, and when the metal-clad figure of Jasmine Dailly finally did appear in the distance, it was almost a relief to him.
"She's here," Electron whispered to Andy.
Andy didn't find this as much of a relief as Electron. "Oh God," he gasped. He instinctively seized his revolver once more, clutching it for dear life. "How did she know we were here?"
"Your wife, I imagine," said Electron.
"That... dumb bitch..." For all his harsh words, Andy's bravado had completely evaporated in the face of death. As Electron stood up to confront Jasmine, tears began to stream down Andy's cheeks.
"Don't worry," said Electron. "I'm going to end this." Electron stepped out from behind the shooting stand and started to make his way towards the ever-advancing Iron Maiden. "Jasmine!" he called out. "You have to stop! This is not the right path!"
"This is the only path I have left!" came the reply. "The police have done nothing! I've learned that the only way for justice to be served is to serve it yourself!"
"What you're doing isn't justice, it's murder!" said Electron. "It's making you no better than them!"
This seemed to strike a nerve with Jasmine, who raised her swords in anger. "Don't you ever, EVER compare me to those racist low-lives!" she yelled. "They murdered my husband in cold blood, just for the colour of his skin!"
"And I'm not saying that's right," said Electron, "but what you're doing isn't right either. This man needs to stand trial and be held accountable for his crimes. If you kill him, Jasmine, your husband will never face justice."
Jasmine came to a stop about fifteen feet away from Electron, and the hero thought that perhaps she had listened to reason after all, and decided to abandon her misguided crusade. Then a moment later Jasmine let our a cry of rage and sprinted towards Electron, her swords ready to swing. Electron was quick to react, and as Jasmine slashed wildly at him, he activated his electromagnetic barrier and the swords harmlessly deflected off of thin air.
Jasmine made a few more harmless swings before realising that she was wasting her time attacking Electron; her real target, Andy, had panicked and started to flee. She darted past Electron, sprinting after the man. Electron frantically sprinted after her, and after a moment's charging, he fired an Ion Beam directly at the small of her back. Although the metal armour absorbed most of the charge, the force of the blow was still more than enough to send her tumbling to the floor, her blades spinning out of her hands.
As Jasmine climbed to her hands and knees, scrambling to pick up her swords again, Electron hurried over to her, knelt down beside her and placed anew electrified hand on the backplate of her armour. To her horror, Jasmine now found herself immobilised.
"The hell have you done to me?" she asked. "Let me go!"
"I'm using your armour's electromagnetic shield to hold you in place," said Electron. "You're frozen. Now, it's time you finally gave up on this. It's over. The police will be here shortly to pick you both up."
Seeing that the Iron Maiden was incapacitated, and solemnly accepting his fate, Andy had turned round and was starting to walk back towards them. Jasmine snarled with anger as she watched him approach. "This man killed my husband!" she yelled, tears starting to well in her eyes. "He has to die!"
Upon reaching Jasmine, Andy fell to his knees before her, still despairing. "I'm so sorry," he said. "I could have prevented all of this... if only I'd done something that day…"
"What the hell are you on about?" barked Jasmine. "You did do something that day! You killed-"
"No," said Andy, shaking his head. "No, I didn't. But I may as well have done."
"What really happened that day?" asked Electron.
Andy took a deep breath, and began. "That day, the four of us, we were... we were out on a fishing trip, like we do every now and again," he said. "We were just sat up at the wharf together, with some fishing rods and some beers, you know, just to... just having fun. We didn't set out that day to kill someone, honestly-"
"But you did!" Jasmine interrupted.
"Let the man finish," said Electron.
"Uhh... right," said Andy, startled. "Well, uhh... we were chatting, like always, and John and Kevin started telling some kinda racist jokes. They do that all the time, I didn't think anything of it, I mean, they're just jokes, you know? We didn't realize your husband was there, but he must've overheard us, 'coz all of a sudden he comes over and tells us to stop. Matt's like, 'Sure,' but John, he's had a couple more beers than the rest of us, he's pretty pissed. He's like, 'why don't you fuck off back to Africa, ni-'" Realising the company he was in, Andy cut himself off at the last second.
"Anyway, the guy gets pissed, starts ranting about how scum like us are why racism still exists, and why people like him can't walk the streets without fear of getting shot... John and Kevin told him to fuck off, and then things just kept getting more heated. There was a fight... well, it weren't much of a fight... I don't even remember who threw the first punch, but the next thing I know, the guy's on the ground, and John and Kevin were laying into him. Matt has horrified, he tried to pull them off him, I swear, but I just... I just stood there and watched..."
Andy's face filled with genuine regret. "I just stood there and watched them kill him. I'm not sure whether they meant to... but they only stopped when they realized he wasn't breathing anymore. John looked up at Matt and I... Matt was on the floor, they'd knocked him away after they tried to stop them... John said to us, he said, "We're in this together. Nobody talks, nobody mentions this to anyone". Matt wanted to tell the police, but Kevin said they'd just arrest him too, and that was enough to scare him outta doing it. Maybe I should have talked to them myself, maybe I should have-"
Andy cut himself off suddenly, and heaves another sigh. "It doesn't matter," he said. "Your husband's dead, Mrs. Dailly, and I can't bring him back. But you can't bring back the friends you took from me either. Matt... he was innocent, he was trying to help! And you killed him anyway! And you would've killed me just the same if it wasn't for Electron!"
As Andy finished his recollection, a deathly silence fell over the shooting gallery as the words sank in. Slowly, Jasmine's expression turned to shock and horror. "Matt tried to... help my husband?" she repeated in a stunned whisper. "But... I was told that-"
"I swear, I'm telling the truth!" insisted Andy. "I was there, after all! Whoever told you it was all four of us got their facts wrong! I won't deny I've done some terrible things, but I'm not a murderer!"
As the truth sank in, Jasmine grew more and more horrified until she could barely stand it. Her knees and elbows have way beneath her and she collapsed to the ground, her eyes wide with shock. "My God," she gasped. "What have I done?"
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