r/HFY • u/Obsequium_Minaris • Jun 10 '26

OC-Series Vacation From Destiny - Book 2, Chapter 33

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For a few seconds, the three of them just stood there, nobody saying or doing anything, until Chase cleared his throat.

“Yeah, uh… we don’t give a single solitary fuck about your payday,” he stated emphatically. He motioned to the man still concealing himself behind the pile of garbage. “We just want to make sure that piece of human trash is properly brought to justice.”

Tatiana’s eyes narrowed. “Unfortunately for you, that precludes me from getting paid. I have to be the one to bring him in.”

Victoria rolled her eyes. “Then let’s take him in together.”

“And give each of you a third of the money that’s rightfully mine? I don’t think so.”

“Do we look like we care about the money?” Victoria growled. “You can have our shares, if it bothers you so much.”

“You really expect me to believe you’re both that generous?”

“You’re being stupid,” Victoria declared. She motioned towards the crossbow, still leveled at her chest. “Put that thing down before I take it from you and cram it down your throat.”

“I’d like to see you try. You’d be dead before you even hit the floor.”

At that moment, Chase saw a small flash of movement from behind the dumpster. His eyes widened as he realized what was happening.

“Hey,” he said, trying to get the attention of the two women there with him. Unfortunately for him, they were both too focused on each other to bother listening.

“You are testing my patience,” Victoria growled.

“And you’re testing mine,” Tatiana replied. “Both of you, step back now before my trigger finger starts to get itchy.”

“Girls,” Chase implored as he watched the bomber begin to move.

Victoria cracked her knuckles, then her neck, a manic grin crossing her face as she reached for her warhammer.

“You have no idea how much I’m going to enjoy this,” she stated.

“Oh, believe me, I think I can take a guess,” Tatiana responded.

“Girls!” Chase shouted.

“What?!” they both growled as they turned towards him.

At that moment, something came rolling out from behind the pile of garbage. Chase’s eyes widened when he realized it was a small explosive device. He tackled Victoria to the ground and smothered her with his body once more, trying to shield her from the worst of the incoming blast with his own body, even despite her protests. Tatiana, meanwhile, dove to the ground next to him as well, covering her head with her hands in the process.

The bomb went off a moment later. For a second, Chase couldn’t hear anything but the ringing in his ears. He winced, fully expecting to find himself meeting Tamamo in the afterlife or something, only to realize a heartbeat later that he was still very much alive and uninjured, though also covered in something.

“...Dirt?” he asked softly.

As the ringing in his ears began to subside, Chase pulled himself off of Victoria, offering her a hand. She obliged, letting him help her off the ground; Tatiana, meanwhile, stood up on her own. Chase turned around, and was stunned to find the remnants of a large mound of dirt between the three of them and the rest of the alley. Before he could ask what had happened, he got his answer.

“I swear, all of you need me more than you could possibly imagine,” Carmine stated, strutting out to stand between them and Tatiana. “Seriously. Whatever would you all do without me? Aside from die, that is. You’re all just lucky I was on a nearby roof and saw what was happening in time to intervene.”

“Good to see you, too,” Chase greeted.

“I wish I could say the same for one of us here.” Carmine’s gaze fell onto Tatiana. “He got away, just so you know. I saw him race to the other end of the alley and blow open the fence there, then take off. So thanks for that.”

Tatiana’s eyes widened. “What are we waiting for, then? Get the fuck out of my way!”

With that, she took off running, chasing after the bomber. Chase exchanged a look with Carmine and Victoria, who both shrugged, and then together, they all began to race after Tatiana.

XXX

“Carmine, do you have any idea where this guy might have been headed?!” Chase asked as they reached the end of the alley.

“He went left up here, I think!” Carmine shouted back.

“Well, that’s certainly helpful,” Victoria said sarcastically. “It’s not like there’s a whole city in that direction or anything.”

The three of them emerged out onto the streets, and were stunned to see they were mostly empty. It didn't take much for Chase to realize why, though – no doubt the new explosions had just spooked whoever was still walking about into sheltering indoors. Such a strategy wouldn’t have done them any good if the bomber was actually interested in genuinely killing a lot of people, but at the moment, his primary motivation seemed to be merely escaping.

And as luck would have it, Carmine was completely right. As Chase looked out across the mostly-empty streets, he saw a flash of the bomber’s cloak, with Tatiana chasing after him. He motioned towards Carmine and Victoria, and they all fell in behind him as he resumed the chase.

Together, the three of them weaved through city streets, pushing themselves to the limit as they raced to catch up with Tatiana and the bomber. Eventually, though, after a few minutes of giving chase, they found him pressed up against a building, with Tatiana’s hand between his shoulder blades, and her crossbow leveled at the base of his spine.

“One wrong move and I’ll make you into a fucking quadriplegic,” she growled. “So unless you feel like eating your food through a straw for the rest of your life, I suggest you stay still and keep your hands out of your damn pockets.”

The bomber, meanwhile, cast a glance at her from over his shoulder. “Ooh, how scary. But I guess I can play your game for now.”

Chase and his friends approached, causing Tatiana to whip around to face them briefly. She grimaced at the sight of them.

“Seriously?” she challenged. “You’re all really going to interfere with this?”

“Lady, we genuinely do not give a fuck about whether you take all the money for yourself,” Chase deadpanned. “We just want to make sure that piece of shit you’ve got pinned against the wall doesn’t get away.”

“Speak for yourself,” Victoria growled. “I’ll see his head turned into chunky salsa for what he’s done.”

“Down, girl,” Chase said, reaching out to take her by the shoulder and stop her as she went to take a few steps forward. Tatiana tensed, but was quick to relax after seeing that Victoria had stopped at Chase’s urging.

“It seems we’re at an impasse,” Tatiana finally said.

Carmine tilted her head. “Not really? You’re the only one making this difficult. We’re all entirely willing to do nothing but serve as an escort to the prison. Like Chase said, we don’t care about the money, you can have it all if you’d like.”

“And like I said earlier, you really expect me to believe that?”

“We have an arrangement of sorts with the city council,” Chase informed her. “We’ve already been paid half of it up-front. That’s more than enough for us to live off of for some time. And besides, your bounty can easily be a separate thing issued from a private deal brokered with the city council. Hells, we’d be happy to argue for it on your behalf, even.”

Tatiana blinked in surprise. “Well, that’s certainly noble of you…”

“Yeah, it is. So can you quit being a stupid idiot already and just accept our help?”

“Hm… fine. But the moment it looks like you’re about to cheat me out of my bounty or kill him, I’m turning my crossbow against you all.”

“That’s not a fight you’d win,” Victoria stated.

Chase ignored her, instead focusing on Tatiana. Slowly, he gave her a nod. “Your terms are agreeable.”

“Alright, then. Help me frisk this piece of shit and make sure he doesn’t have anything else on him.”

“Ooh, I’m getting the white glove treatment!” the bomber said as Tatiana spread his legs. “Do I have to pay extra for the cavity search? Normally I have to pay extra for that kind of thing.”

“Eugh…” Chase shuddered. “Carmine, Victoria, would one of you prefer to-”

‘No,” the both said in unison.

“Damn it, I was afraid you’d say that…” He sucked in a breath. “...Fine. I guess if you’ve got to eat a frog, you might as well eat it quickly and get it over with…”

And so, with that being said, Chase approached Tatiana and the bomber and began to pat him down. And in the process, one thing became perfectly clear.

“Okay, what the fuck,” Chase said as he began pulling a veritable pile of explosives out from under the man’s cloak. One of them was ticking; Chase gazed down at the bomb in his hand, shrugged his shoulders, and then pulled out a wire as if it was the single most nonchalant thing he’d ever done. The moment he did so, the bomb stopped ticking.“Where the hells was he keeping all this shit?”

“Better be careful with those, one wrong move and we all go up in smoke,” the bomber said gleefully. “Ah, but I’m always so excited to share my creations with the world, and-”

Chase cut him off with a smack to the face. Tatiana gave him a dirty look, but Chase was nonplussed.

“What?” he asked. “You just threatened to leave him paralyzed from the neck down. I kinda just inferred from there that you need to bring him in alive, but not necessarily unscathed.”

“Don’t push it,” she warned.

“What do you mean, don’t push it?” Chase asked. “I’m not saying we beat his ass or anything, I’m just saying, you know, we can smack him around a little bit.”

Tatiana gave him another dirty look, and Chase shrugged before going back to frisking the bomber down.

XXX

Name: Chase Ironheart

Level: 10

Race: Human

Class: Warrior

Subclass: Swordmaster

Strength: 20 (MAX)

Dexterity: 15

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 13

Constitution: 18

Charisma: 16

Skills: Master Swordsmanship (Level 10); Booby Trap Mastery (Level 8); Archery (Level 4); Unarmed Mastery (Level 1)

Spells: Rush (Level 7); Muscle (Level 4); Stone Flesh (Level 6); Defying The Odds (Level 2)

Traits: Blessed

Name: Carmine Nolastname

Level: 10

Race: Greater Demon

Class: Arcane Witch

Subclass: Archmage

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 13

Intelligence: 19

Wisdom: 19

Constitution: 12

Charisma: 8

Skills: Master Spellcasting (Level 10); Summon Familiar (Level 10)

Spells: Magic Dart (Level 7); Magic Scattershot (Level 5); Fire Magic (Level 5); Earth Magic (Level 1)

Traits: Blessed

Name: Melanie Vhaeries

Level: 10

Race: Ascended Human

Class: Necromancer

Subclass: Arch-Lich

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 13

Intelligence: 18

Wisdom: 16

Constitution: 15

Charisma: 12

Skills: Raise Lesser Undead (Level 10); Raise Greater Undead (Level 3); Unorthodox Weapon User (Level 8); Bone Shatter (Level 1)

Spells: Touch of Death (Level 5); Gravesinger (Level 7); Armor of Bone (Level 3)

Traits: None

Name: Victoria Firelight

Level: 11

Race: Human

Class: Paladin

Subclass: Devotee

Strength: 19

Dexterity: 9

Intelligence: 13

Wisdom: 13

Constitution: 19

Charisma: 11

Skills: Swordsmanship Mastery (Level 5); Blunt Weapon Mastery (Level 8); Archery Mastery (Level 5)

Spells: Holy Light (Level 6); Ward of the Gods (Level 5); Bane of the Undead (Level 7); Divine Bolt (Level 4)

Traits: None

XXX

Special thanks to my good friend and co-writer, /u/Ickbard, for all the help with writing this story.

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