Of Gods and Men

He’d been following the illegal races for a few weeks now, it was entertaining watching them race and the mad scramble when the police inevitably showed up due to the noise their cars made. None of the people here knew he was a cop and he had no intention on blowing his cover, it’d been an enjoyable break from everything else going on especially since he was in between jobs, perched on the bonnet of the car he’d ‘borrowed’ to come here not particularly wanting to bring either his cop car or his ute. The man had no morals and despite being a cop was fond of thieving from people and had no restraint when it came to hurting people that got in his way, he was good at hiding the darker sides of his personality when he needed to in order to survive but it was at events like this that he could allow himself to truly be himself. Having brought a V with him and sipping it while watching the various people and personally hoping for a crash since that was always more exciting, the blond man was quite content there out of the limelight as he wasn’t here to talk to people unless they were going to be interesting and not as bland as water.

A woman separated herself from the crowd that milled around the ready cars and made her way over to him, greeting him with a question, a grin wound its way onto his face quite quickly “You could say that, It’s more interesting than watching a pub brawl” he’d been going through a few race groups, last week it’d been a group of races that raced to see how fast they could go down a quarter of a mile on a straight piece of concrete road. This group however seemed to race between the various twists and turns of the cluttered city, the danger and the speed of it all appealed to him however most of his money went on his weapons, upgrading, maintaining and acquiring more of them. Most recently had been a hunk of blurite that he’d been working on turning into some bullets for his hunting rifle that he’d been tending to, “What’s the pickings today, some overly arrogant young men that haven’t yet realized that women aren’t to be underestimated on the streets?” taking a sip of his energy drink his blue eyes flicked over to a couple of young men he’d already picked out to be creatures although he hadn’t pieced together what they were quite yet. Piecing together what creature was what had ended up becoming a great game that challenged him and was useful to do for when he got jobs in.

Turning his attention back to her when she laughed, his easy grin remained plastered on his face, “beating those kinds of people is always the most enjoyable” shifting his weight to get more comfortable on the cold steel bonnet of the car “Watcher, I don’t earn enough to buy or build a car worth racing. So I’ve been drifting around various racing groups” finishing his drink and balancing the can on the roof of the can to be collected later the nickname she’d called him only added to his amusement. He’d only been in Mexico City for a couple of months after having moved down from America once he’d finished hunting a certain monkey that belonged to a circus and had been modified by a dragon. The modification had been painful but thus far was proving definitely worth it, James was looking forward to using his new skills to hunt and make more money off of creatures, listening to the distant rumble of engines as the participants of the current race finally showed up again beelining for the finish James looked over at them briefly as if assessing how much they were worth paying attention to, evidently deciding that they weren’t he returned his attention to the racer who’d joined him.

James laughed “Maybe we will race one day then” deciding that he quite liked this one when she cheekily asked him if he’d wish her luck, he sent her a smirk and gave a brief wave of his hand “I don’t believe in luck tiger” it was all statistics and patterns, things that were easily figured out in his quick mind. Watching her stride confidently over to her car after she abandoned her drink, she was interesting perhaps this would keep him from getting bored, in his opinion being bored was illegal and he knew very well that he became dangerous to others when bored and didn’t give a shit. One of the more recent race meets had ended with him firing shots in the air to watch them all bolt like rabbits, it would have been so easy to start picking them off and he’d been sorely tempted but had chosen not to, the last one had ended up being fun as a fight had broken out between the two men racing, there seemed to be less of that here but it was a lot more technical so all the more likely that there would be crashes. Hopping off of the bonnet he reached into the car he’d brought with him and picked out the radio, listening to some of the police jargon, satisfied that they had no idea just yet he slipped it back in through the half wound down window and resumed his spot on the bonnet lounging there quite comfortably, watching and waiting.

Watching the goings on and eventually just listening to the engines of the cars as they shot through the crowded streets in and out of traffic and avoiding pedestrians, he was always a little amused at how enthusiastic the crowd got when the first car crossed the finish line. He was never amongst them, always just sitting back and watching, as ever disappointed that there hadn’t been any crashes he checked his phone to check the time, it was getting late and the noise of the engines definitely would have generated complaints and would mean the police would be on their way soon. Reaching into his car again to listen to the radio quietly and finding out what he needed to know James climbed up to sit on the roof of the car all the better to watch the mad scramble as the sound of sirens started to fill the air from a distance. What a rabbit race it was, people dispersing as quickly as they could, jumping into cars and trying to escape at once which congested the road, grinning to himself from his perch not at all worried about the police since he was one of them and he could claim that he was doing research into the illegal races and that was why he’d been there. Of course in reality it’d been because he was so bored, bored bored and it was a fun way to pass the time, it was better than obsessively going over his weapons again half of which were illegal but the law had never really stopped him before and it sure as hell wasn’t about to start bothering him now.

He’d gone to various different race groups and finally was back at the one where the fun stranger had been, it seemed that this time she wasn’t racing, on his way over to her to start some more of the easy back and forth banter that they’d had last time. However, before he got over to her three cars smashed through the railing narrowly missing him, instantly things were more interesting, and a smirk curled up one side of his mouth. The noise of the metal scraping and being mangled was exciting peaking his interest, heading closer and managing to keep his emotions to himself, the car he came up to, had a man trapped within the metal wreckage of a car. Deciding that getting him out would mean that the man would owe him one for getting him out James got to work, breaking the glass of the windscreen properly he reached in and with a knife cut the straps of the harness that kept the man in his seat and yanked him out. Rougher than he probably should have been, James didn’t exactly give enough of a shit to be gentle, ignoring the yell of pain from the man, “Hospital visit for you” he could hear the sound of sirens coming closer and after listening was able to determine that it was an ambulance or two evidently someone had called for one while he’d been engrossed in pulling the man out.

Spotting the girl from last time with an unconscious man from another one of the wrecked cars, James walked over and dumped the man he’d rescued very unceremoniously onto the ground beside the unconscious one. Looking back at the three mangled wrecks his smile threatened to slip back onto his face “Well, that was exciting” remarking mostly to himself although for the woman’s benefit. After that things seemed to go quickly, ambulance EMTs collecting the two survivors and taking the third who’d died, police cars showed up and that was when he turned to the woman for a brief moment shooting her a look before he headed off wondering if she was going to come after him or not. Wiping his hands of blood on a tissue, not that fond of being covered in body liquids that weren’t his own, leaving the sounds of sirens and flashing lights behind him he ducked through a side street to find himself in a park that was abandoned due to the late time. Slipping his hands into his pockets, his gaze flicking up to the sky watching the clouds that reflected the colour of the various bright lights of the city, the park was still a mess after the day of the dead celebrations, petals and decorations were strewen about the place.

Hearing her footsteps and then her voice, James turned to look at her “James Huerta, and who might you be tiger?” he had a general idea thanks to being prone to listening in to other peoples conversations even if it was none of his business. Quite quick to get a general feel for people, she so far seemed like she’d be entertaining to know and spend time with, and entertainment was the thing that was one of the most important things in his mind. Being bored was a crime, a crime that always lead to him committing crimes, “not racing this meet?” from what he’d seen many of these street racers didn’t bother putting in roll cages into their cars unlike another group that raced over an 8th of a mile however they were likely going a lot quicker since they were in a straight line instead of in the winding roads and streets of the city. He kept his thoughts to himself, not particularly caring that much about the lack of a roll cage, it meant more accidents and injuries and that was great entertainment, the park was removed enough from the scene of the accident that the loud sirens and flashing lights weren’t bothering him.

Listening as she explained that she had a job she couldn’t afford to risk with young hotheads that couldn’t drive all that well “My money goes elsewhere” mainly on his weaponry and hoarding but that wasn’t something worth bringing up “I wasn’t able to get his name, note to self” he’d have to go find the young man later and put into words what the man now owed him. The man didn’t bother with any niceties of it being nice to meet her, those things were just a waste of time unless he wanted something from somebody and right now she was just someone or rather something of interest. “It’d be bad taste for a cop to race in an illegal race” not that being a cop stopped him from doing illegal things “Easy tiger, I’m not interested in wasting my time arresting you or your buddies, it’d make things a lot less fun” flicking her a wily grin he continued to head towards the part of the city where some food stands should still be open, unable to remember when he’d last eaten some ramen sounded pretty good right about now.

He snorted with amusement “Being bored should be illegal, at least the car races provide some entertainment especially the crashes. It’s quite amusing that the best way to stop being bored is to do illegal activities” speaking easily with his hands in his pockets making his way to the place he had in mind. Soon enough they were back on the streets and out of the park, reaching the square that was brightly decorated with lights hanging from some trees and stalls, the stalls were brightly coloured with big wording to draw people in. Spotting the ramen place he navigated his way through the small crowd of people and ordered something, once he had it he sat down at one of the wooden picnic tables that were scattered around the edges of the square, the wood was chipped and scratched with graffiti but still was robust enough for the purpose he needed it for. He didn’t particularly care if she joined him or not, he’d always been the type to look after himself first and not give a flying fuck about anybody else.

‘been in Mexico city long?’ the question was met with silence for a few moments “A couple of weeks, I enjoy a challenge and my past posting was somewhere with too much quietness” it was sort of the truth anyway, as much as she needed to know. The local authorities had taken some convincing to let an American onto their task force but he had a way with words, after he’d finished his food he stood and smirked “Perhaps I’ll see you around tiger, you seem like fun” with that she was awarded a brief carefree wave before the blond man turned about and walked into the crowd soon lost amongst the people wandering on their way to nothing from nowhere. It was about three weeks later when he was stuck behind the desk at the police station, there was an open newspaper on his desk where he was puzzling over the day's sudoku in order to try and keep himself busy before he started shooting people. He was halfway through it when the sound of his fellow officers, looking up in time to see two men handling a familiar woman in through the door a slight smirk lit up his features, finally some entertainment that was better than a stupid number puzzle. Closing the paper and pushing it to the side of his desk so he could write down the details of what his fellow officers had to say the reason for her arrest made his smirk grow “There's an empty cell over there, search her thoroughly before you put her in there boys, the last person you brought in tried to break out with a pick” although it’d be fun to detain her if she tried to escape it was admittedly more fun to poke at the egos of the two officers with her.

He just chuckled “You could say that, my night just got all the more interesting now you’ve shown up” watching the pair of cops as they searched her and then uncuffed her just before shoving her into a cell he gave a lazy wave as they left. “Oh my, it seems they’ve impounded your car as well, not exactly a good night for you then” he was very aware that it was known amongst street races that impounded cars were fair game for the workers to tinker with and take things off as they wished. It’d be interesting to see if she’d try and persuade him to prevent the ‘grease monkeys’ from doing so to her own car, either way the night had gone from boring to fun and once they were properly alone he folded up the newspaper before getting up and wandering over to watch her through the bars a clear look of amusement on his features. Loosely folded arms over his chest and blue eyes watching her, he wasn’t look at her as if she were prey or below him, more like a fellow mischief maker who’d wandered across his path. Not a hair was out of place, it was important to be that way, the world was narcissistic and thus it was wise to play by those rules, it was all just a big game that was easily played without any real emotional element needed from him. He simply didn’t care about anyone apart from himself, others were to be used or trifled with, he had a range of contacts but relied on himself most of all.