Chapter #6

Night fell around Limerick as crime-life awoke. Alleys and warehouses crawled with them and Midnight Lounge seemed to be the meeting place of all these criminals. Many of the men wore black, kept collars up and wore low brimmed hats, whispering in hushed voices so no one could hear their schemes. The bartended didn’t care for the small talk, just the cash that rolled in.

But tonight was going to be a little different.

A sudden knock at the door alerted everyone inside something was already wrong. Small talk ended completely as everyone’s attention turned towards the door.

The bartender cleared his throat after a small pause, “It’s open.”

The door suddenly blasted off its hinges and hit the floor. A young man stood in the doorway wearing a dark brown fleece, sunglasses, jeans and a hat usually an elderly man would wear.

“Gents! Tonight is not your night,” Henry Fredrickson smirked as electricity began jumping around his hands.

There was a loud shuffle as everyone began drawing guns.

“Hey, now wait a minute!” Henry exclaimed, “Do you all have a license for those?”

His eyes began to glow yellow and sparks began flying from his hands. A large dome of electricity began to surround Henry and the doorway. Guns began going off, bullets banging into the force field, though not one could get through. 

“Ok, it’s all yours, Aaron!” Henry yelled over the gunfire.

Aaron jumped into the room, eyes glowing dark blue, slamming his left foot into the floor. A force of grvitational energy was activated and everyone inside the room was lifted up into the air, then thrown down to the ground, most of them knocked out cold. One of the men, short and hunched, started towards the back door. 

“Martin! Stop him! That’s our guy!” Aaron shouted.

Out of the shadows, a black creature stretched out and grabbed the man before he could escape, then absorbing him back into the shadows.

“Come on!” Henry rushed out of the building, followed quickly by Aaron. As they turned down the alleyway next to the Midnight Lounge, they saw the creature let go of the hysterical man and shapeshift back into Martin. 

“Who the hell are you guys?!” the man stammered, back against the wall.

“Let’s stick with us asking the questions,” Henry lifted the man off the ground with one hand, “that sound ok?”

The man quickly nodded, “Are you Leonard Banks?”

“Lenny. My friends call me Lenny,” he chuckled nervously.

“We’re not your friends,” Henry glared, “So I hear you’re big into eves dropping.”

“Heheh, w-who told you that? Did Guilzini put you guys up to this?!” he looked around at the other two faces.

“What do you know about Seth Zarian?” Henry got to the point.

Lenny’s eyes grew as wide as saucers. He struggled frantically to get loose, “No way! I don’t know nothin’! I’m already in deep s**t, man!”

“You’re going to be in even more s**t if you don’t tell us about Zarian!” Henry’s fist began to spark.

“Alright, alright! You freak! Stop it!” Lenny spazzed, “Look, all I know is that he now owns these places. He’s scaring the s**t out of all of us. His gang were in here last night, talkin’ ‘bout stealing some steel and stuff, I don’t know. I’ve only heard rumors of where his place is. Some say some luxury building he owns, I don’t know. I don’t know, man!” 

“Alright…thanks,” Henry placed him back on the ground. Aaron quickly made Lenny gravitated to the wall and the impact of the wall against his head knocked him out cold.

“Alright, back to the bus,” Martin moved quickly out of the dark alley, the other two quickly at his heals.

~

“We got nothing,” John told Donovan as his group got back onto the bus, “Sorry detective.”

Donovan gave out a long sigh and readjusted his hat before replying, “It’s fine. Aaron’s group hasn’t returned yet. Maybe they have something.”

“Cedar listen to this!” Tracey turned up the radio announcement.

“-been a break-in at the Howie’s Steel and Lumber Company where atleast four hundred pounds of steal, wood, copper and other assorted materials have been stolen. The manager tells us that a group of thugs had attacked his company, having odd sorts of ‘powers’ and running off with most of the material in the lumber yard…”

“This just happened?” Donovan asked quickly.

“Apparently, sir,” Tracey acknowledged.

“Damnit! Where are the others?!” he looked out the windows impatiently.

“Sorry to keep you all waiting,” Aaron climbed up into the bus, “But we found Lenny and he knew more then he probably should have-.”

“Later!” Donovan hurried Henry and Martin inside, “There’s been a break-in.”

“Something to deal with steel?” Henry asked.

“How did you know that?” Donovan gave Henry a confused look.

But before he could answer there was a massive explosion on the right side of the bus, making it tip over onto it’s side, along with everyone in it…

~

Draco sat up slowly as the dust began to clear. He looked around to see Donovan, Henry and Aaron tending to a wounded Roger Verlin. Catherine was checking on the other’s who seemed all to be knocked out cold.

Draco crawled over to the group through the debris, “Is he ok?”

“Yeah, his head’s pretty banged up and there’s glass stuck in his right arm but I think he’ll be ok,” Donovan nodded at the groaning scientist, “I need you guys to check on what the hell happened out there. I’ll tend to these people,” he nodded to Mrs. Allsworth, who was leaning her husband’s head upright, “He’ll be fine. I need you to go help these gentlemen.”

“Yeah alright,” she kissed John’s head before standing up, “How are we getting out of here?”

“We go up and over,” Draco pointed to the windows above them that had lost their glass during the blast.

“Wait,” Roger wheezed, “Take this. It will help to stay in contact with Detective Cedar,” he handed Guilzini a COM link.

“Thanks Verlin. Hang in there,” Draco nodded, placed the COM link in his ear and began to climb up and out of the window. Aaron, Catherine and Henry soon followed.

A large hole in the side of the brick building was the first thing that caught Guilzini’s attention as he helped Catherine up through the window. He climbed down and saw pieces of metal scattered in places. 

“Definitely a bomb,” Draco talked into the COM link, “Small. Probably not meant-.”

“Draco?” Henry interrupted, “We got company.”

Guilzini pulled out his gun before spinning around. But what he saw was the oddest part. 

There were two men. One wore red and black tights and an under-armor shirt with straps of grenades across his chest. His face was hidden by a ski-mask and goggles. The other one was fully wrapped in some sort of gauze or paper except for across his eyes.

“Wow! Look! The circus is in town!” Aaron laughed, “Why don’t we get costumes like that?”

“Feel the wrath of the Ticking Timebomb!” the man in the ski-mask threatened. He looked over at his partner and cleared his throat.

The mummy man gave a huge sigh and stepped forward, “And I’m the Phara-Oh dude this is stupid!”

“You guys even came up with names?!” Aaron sounded jealous, “We should totally do that later!”

“Well, sorry mate. There wont BE a later for you,” Timebomb pulled the pin and chucked a grenade at Aaron.

“Now that’s not very nice!” Aaron’s eyes glowed dark blue as the grenade suddenly swerved and orbited around Aaron. It then flung itself back toward the two men.

The mummy man shot a long string of gauze at the grenade. It wrapped itself around the tiny object and the man used the gauze to fling it back over to Aaron. 

“Oh, didn’t see that coming!” Aaron said nervously.

Suddenly Henry’s eyes glowed yellow and a force field formed around the four companions, the grenade bouncing off of it dully and then exploding into pieces. The explosion was strong enough to still knock all four people back onto the ground. 

Henry groaned as he sat up, “New plan. Let’s NOT taunt the man who has explosives!”

“Sounds good,” Catherine dusted herself off.

“Head’s up!” Draco yelled as another grenade flew over to them.

A ball of fire shot out and blasted against the grenade before it got to them, exploding into small sparks. They looked behind them to see John climbing down from the top of the bus.

“Nice timing,” Henry sighed in relief.

John smirked but then made a confused look at the two men down the street, “Who the heck are these guys?!”

“Good question. Let’s go find out, shall we?” Guilzini cocked his handgun. He walked out toward them, gun raised and aiming at their heads.

“Alright, fun’s over. Who do you work for?” Draco yelled out to them.

“Oh quit the crap, Guilzini. You know damn well who we work for!” the mummy man roared.

“So what? He wanted you two to stall us while he goes and steals sticks and crowbars?” Draco chuckled.

“Heheh, you have no idea what he’s planning right now,” Timebomb cackled, “I think we’ve done enough today. Let’s get outta here. Don’t worry though, mate. This isn’t the last you’ll see of us.”

With one quick motion, Timebomb threw down a bomb at his feet and smoke steamed out and clotted out the entire street. As soon as the smoke cleared, the two men were gone…

~

“This isn’t good,” Donovan murmured as he continued smoking his pipe in front of the fireplace.

They had returned to Roger Verlin’s household after their startling run-in with the two odd masqueraders. The house was clustered with newspaper articles, magazines, and other assorted papers. Most of the people were in the dining room eating, while Guilzini and Cedar discussed what had transpired earlier.

“He’s recruiting. And that’s not our only problem. What did he want with those materials that he stole today?”

“I don’t know Cedar, but those two idiots we ran into this afternoon were definitely the spies inside police headquarters,” Draco acknowledged, “They knew my name.”

“They must have been the ones who deleted the Zarian files,” Donovan sighed heavily.

“They could have also issued the experimentation on us back at the hospital,” Guilzini realized, “Who knows what else they could have altered.”

Donovan massaged his temples with his hands, “This is getting out of hand. We need answers and we’re not going to find any here,” he sighed again and then stood up slowly, “We should go and tell the others.”

~