Chapter #5

Aaron didn’t dare open his eyes. He wanted to believe that this pain wasn’t actually real. It was all a dream, he trying imagining. But the pain in his back continued to seer in burning agony. Finally he decided it was safe to open his eyes.

Bad idea.

He found himself looking three stories down at the desecrated street below, ambulances rushing around to find survivors. Aaron looked over to see a large crater lodged in the side of a brick building across from him. Ruble began to shift as Marié Verdón appeared among the mess. She had accidentally morphed herself among the debris.

Trying to ignore the pain, Aaron stood up slowly and began walking toward Marié. Forgetting he was three stories up, his first step was a doozy, falling toward the ground. But luckily his gravitational powers kicked in and he became still in mid-air.

He lightly pulled at his collar, *Phew* Almost roadkill, he thought, staring down at the ground. He carefully stood up from where he was floating, slowly and unsteadily. He looked over to where Marié was and, without moving, began floating toward her.

As he reached her, he realized the large cut along her arm. He quickly, but gently, picked her up into his arms and they quickly descended to the ground below.

“Hey!...Excuse me!...She needs bandaging!” he finally roared at a police officer rushing by, who slipped and fell on his back from the shock.

“Alright, alright! Take it easy!” the police officer dusted himself off.

“Please, help her,” Aaron placed Marié onto her feet, where she groggily leaned onto the police officer, “I’ve got to go find the others!” he lifted off from the ground and flew down the street in hopes of finding his other friends.

~

Donovan’s eyes slowly opened to reveal a large, white room. He looked down at his hands to see tubes connected to him from different machines. The hospital! His mind jolted awake as he sat up too quickly.

“Hey! Whoa, take it easy Don,” Guilzini restrained Cedar from getting up another further, “This hospital is under OUR protection this time. Don’t worry. Rest for god’s sake!”

Donovan leaned back down on the bed slowly, eyeing Draco cautiously until finally he decided he could believe Guilzini was being mind controlled and relaxed a bit, “How long have I been out?” he asked hoarsely.

“Roughly eight hours since we found you this morning,” Draco cringed at his hand, wrapped in gauze, which had accidentally hit the bottom of his chair, “Woo! That stings,” he smirked, rubbing his injured hand.

“Eight hours?!” Donovan began pulling the tubes out of his arms and sat up again, “Screw healing then! We got to catch these b******s!”

“There’s always time for that later,” Draco stepped in front of Donovan before he could stand up, “Besides, we don’t have a lead on anything!”

Donovan looked up at Draco and grinned, “We know who the guy is now.”

~

“Seth Zarian?” Captain Wilson lit his pipe again, “Name isn’t ringin’ any bells.”

“I’ve dealt with a couple of his cases myself!” Donovan roared, the top of his head fully covered in gauze as he tried to cover it up by wearing his hat, “Pull up the records! He’s got to be under it!”

Everyone in the huge office room stared at Cedar and Wilson, who seemed to be staring each other down. 

Finally Wilson pulled the smoke pipe from his mouth and pointed it to a man who was sitting in front of a computer, “You heard the man! Pull it up!”

Without hesitation, the man quickly pounded rapidly on the keyboard, searching through crime records. The main screen on the side of the wall of the office room showed everyone what his computer was showing him. He typed in the name ‘Seth Zarian’ and hit the enter key. Pages flashed across the screen as the computer searched for the name. Suddenly a small, red box flashed on the screen with the words ‘NO FILE’ inside it.

The man who had been typing gulped before he turned to the chief and croaked, “There are no files on Seth Zarian, sir.”

“WHAT?!!” Donovan jumped at the man at the computer, only to be held back by Tracey and Draco, “The crime records have been tampered with! I made those files myself!”

Wilson just puffed on his pipe. His beady black eyes stared down into Donovan’s, searching for some sort of hint of truth or reason. Then he saw it. A glint in his eyes that told Wilson that Cedar wasn’t fully out of his mind. That meant…

Wilson frowned at the thought. Spies among the police force?! He would have to keep his eye open on this, but right now he had to make sure Donovan was aware of this. But he couldn’t risk Donovan staying here, he was becoming extremely antsy.

He gave a dramatic sigh before placing his hand on Donovan’s shoulder, “Son…I think it’s time you take a couple of days off. You need to rest.”

Donovan’s eyes grew wide in surprise. I’m being laid off?! Cedar couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

Or what he should be hearing…

His answer came as a small wink flashed in Wilson’s right eye. Cedar hesitated before continuing the act, “You’re firing me?!”

“Please, Donovan. Don’t take this the wrong way. You just need some time off.”

Donovan shrugged off Gantz and Guilzini and gave one last dark look at the entire room. Finally he turned on his heal and stormed out of the office room, Tracey and Draco following quickly after him. Wilson couldn’t help at smirking at the little performance, but quickly covered it up by whirling around and shouting, “Alright a-holes! Let’s get back to work! These b******s don’t catch themselves.”

~

“So what do we do now?” Leslie finally broke the silence inside the double-decker bus as it turned onto Chester Road.

Donovan just smirked, “Well we begin where we left off. We find these b******s.”

“But Cedar, the chief said you were off the case,” Tracey explained as she turned the steering wheel.

“That’s what we wanted them to think,” Donovan chuckled.

Aaron looked more puzzled then ever, “Wait. What did we want who to think?”

“The spies inside the police force,” Donovan answered calmly.

“What?!” Clare gasped as everyone stared in disbelief.

A long silence followed. Finally Donovan cleared his throat, “Well, we have Captain Wilson as an inside man. Now…we begin.”

“But where?” Catherine asked, hugging her husband who was still in shock from his brother’s appearance.

“We begin by clearing every warehouse, every slum, turn every corner upside down. They have a hideout. It’s our job to find it,” Donovan began the briefing, “We split into groups of three. It’ll be faster to cover ground that way. We need a system of communicating-.”

“I can help with that,” Roger interrupted, “We’ll just need to stop by my lab on the way.”

“Excellent,” the bus quickly turned onto another street. “Our meeting place is this bus, do we understand?” Donovan asked. Everyone nodded their head.

“Alright. Let’s do this!”

~

The dimly lit room reeked of smoke as the long table in the center of the room was piled with money. All six men sat on either side, collecting their share. Only one seemed to be not interested in the heap of dough. Kenny continued to just sit back and shake his head at the other five men.

“What the ‘ell?!”

Flanders tried catching the strange, purple rodent-like creature that was scurrying about on the table.

“What in god’s name is that?” Hugo looked disgustedly at Flanders, who continued to slap his hand on the table, trying to squish the rodent.

“I dunno! The thing just suddenly formed from my…” he paused, looking down at the toxic waste dripping from him, “…liquid?”

“Well contain the bloody animal atleast!” Rick Grundman roared.

“I’m tryin’!” Quinn snapped.

There was a sudden ball of fire that blasted into the rodent, giving off a high-pitched squeal.

“There. Problem solved,” Kenny smirked as he blew away the smoke from his hand. Flanders snarled at Kenny in reply.

The doors burst open at the far end of the room. Seth Zarian entered, wearing a different colored pinstriped suit.

“Gentlemen,” he tipped his newly fixed hat to them.

Jerry Ranzford rolled his eyes. He’s always gotta make an entrance, he thought.

Zarian walked over to the end of the table and spread his arms out wide, “Today…you are free, rich men.”

Chuckles came from the men sitting.

“I must be missing the humor in this,” Seth looked around sternly.

“Oh come on, boss,” Hugo tossed his money on the table, “You aren’t taking any of this money, meanin’ you got yourself a new plan. Besides, you can’t have us walkin’ ‘round telling people ‘bout yourself. We’re apparently now stuck wit’ ya.”

Zarian smirked slightly, “Apparently.”

Everyone began throwing their share back on the table. Mencelli jabbed his knife into the table angrily.

“Now, now. Let’s not be angry,” Seth calmly sat down and folded his hand together.

“Well what was the bloody money for, then?!” Kenny spoke up angrily.

“To gain your trust, ofcourse,” Zarian grinned, “That money is truly yours now, gentlemen. But there will be no need for any of it in our next greatest scheme.”

“Yeah? And what’s this idea of yours?” Jerry asked as Flanders began groping through the cash once more.

“World domination,” Seth announced calmly.

A long silence settled throughout the room. Most of the men just stared off into space, thinking. Quinn was hesitating to return to his money counting.

Finally, Kenny leaned forward in his chair, “So what’s the plan?”

“Right then! I’m going to need everyone’s help in this, especially-,” Zarian slapped Flanders upside the head for counting his money instead of listening, “-yours.”

“What about those retards who got in our way last time?” Rick growled.

“I’ll let my associates handle them,” Seth smirked, “Now, our first mark…Howie’s Steel and Lumber Yard…”

~