Pursuit of Justice (1x1 Mitheral and Industrial Lace)

[Mitheral]

One of the steadiest contributors to Atonella’s Private Investigations was an NYPD CSI intern named Kevin Brady. How a man his age had managed to accumulate the funds to pay for the services of any PI had taken a little investigating. His father had been a detective falsely accused - according to Kevin - of being on the take from the mafia. Before the case could be cleared his father and partner had been shot. He father hadn’t survived. The case eventually went cold and was never closed. That was 7 years ago when Kevin was only 16. Kevin now worked for the partner’s division.


As it turned out Kevin’s father had managed to leave some money to his son - despite Kevin’s mother laying in a hospital on life support. Kevin had managed to put the money to excellent use, managing a college education with superb performance, purchased and converted a large warehouse into an apartment, personal gym and forensic lab.


Kevin had hired API about 2 years ago. He had been a severe young man with no real sense of humor - all business. He had finally “given up” several months ago and Terminated Antonella’s services, though the time he had kept her on retainer had given her business a good start. But she was hitting a dead end with very potentially fatal consequences if Antonella pushed any harder. She had received a Cuban cigar - a very high end brand - packaged up as a gift. It was dressed up like her and the tip severed. She suspected that kevin must have received a similar threat for that had been the day before he ended her employment.


That didn’t stop him from offering the services of his forensic lab. While hardly on par with the big labs of NYPD of the FBI, he offered his help so long as he wasn’t already working the case. All she had to pay for was a very modest sum - and often for superior results. He even taught her more about canvassing.


Not long after that there had been rumors of a costumed vigilante named Dark Knight that had begun roughing up the same gangs and mafia that Antonella had been investigating. Not long after that had come the inevitable rumor of Dark Knight being chased to and gunned down off the Brooklyn Bridge. Police had investigated, but found no blood, just LOTS of casings. Dark Knight had made it to the railing of the bridge and likely about to jump. It was a fatal distance anyways. Even if they missed he was likely dead.


Fearing the worst Antonella had checked on Kevin. It seemed plausible that either he WAS Dark Knight or had hired the guy. And as if to worsen her fears, kevin was nowhere to be found. He showed up a few days later with some BS story about having gone out of town. But he seemed fine. Still, he was clearly hiding something. He had made light conversation until getting very serious and telling Antonella not to pursue his case any further. There had been almost a look of guilt in his eyes.


++++++++++


Tonight Antonella was doing everything Kevin had asked him not to do. Work had been slow. And when that happened she would often pick up a case she hadn’t been able to complete. Oh she couldn’t afford to waste a lot of resources. But time she could spend when she had it. She had picked up an informant who simply called himself Random Stranger. Whoever he was he was far better at tracking the flow of money than Antonella had ever been. Of course, the source of the information was probably hacking.


Tonight was all about a big gun smuggling meet between suppliers and a fairly dangerous gang. In fact, it was way too dangerous to intervene. And bringing in the police would have turned the neighborhood into a war zone. This was military grade hardware. It had been hard as hell to track the shipment. Truth was she had guessed. She only knew that serious hardware was coming. And she had a good idea who might provide. She had staked out a ship as it arrived, watched containers being removed and the behavior of who opened it and the security involved. She very simply hit the jackpot.


From there it was a matter of tailing the vans that brought the firepower to the trade. The first meeting would be a taste of what was to come - not a full shipment. It was impossible to tail them all the way to the region where the meet ought to take place. She couldn’t guess the exact meeting place. That was likely set up at the last minute. But she knew the turf of the gang and where they would NOT meet up. So she had to track them by flanking them at a distance paralleling their movements.


The technique almost worked. But what actually happened was very much the unexpected. She drove right into the war zone she had been afraid of. She had just entered the edge of the battlezone. There were 4-5 story building all around her. The main source of the battle was to the right where a group of FBI agents and their cars were being shot up. At least one agent looked familiar - like she had seen him on TV for some press release. They had half a dozen snipers on 2nd 3rd and 4th floors and some two dozen thugs on the ground pinned them down badly. From the left was another sniper atop a building. (The gang was controlling the bldg on the right.) At least one agent was already down.


... And as she arrived her front windshield exploded into glass fragments. She had caught the muzzle flash of a rifle on top of a building to her left partly by chance, partly by simply having keen eyesight. A second shot took out her front left tire and she found herself fighting the steering wheel. The sniper was too far away to take out with a pistol, so all she was left with was trying to stay alive.


Kevin had been perched on the I-beam framework of a new high rise nearly a mile away when his eyes caught the muzzle flashes and heard gun play. He stretched out his cape and launched himself into a glide, picking up speed to free fall velocity (120 mph) quickly, then pulling up to make distance. As he approached he spotted a car - Antonella’s (he recognized the tags) - being shot up. He decelerated as hard as he could at the last moment and dropped in on the front of her hood, his cape billowing out.


The body armor of this costumed nutcase resembled Batman - though not as bat-like. Antonella saw no signs of the rope or wire he had swung in on. Had he jumped? He had the car hard enough to leave dents and rock the vehicle. Then she saw his cape react to being shot. It wasn’t some thin satin like material, but heavy, like the blankets used by bomb disposal techs. It was a ballistic cloth - and it wasn’t quite stopping the bullets. Her jerked a few time, obviously hit. But he never quite slowed down.


Kevin’s voice was unrecognizable through his voice scrambler. It sounded deep and menacing. “Move. I’ll cover you.”


His sudden arrival on the scene had shocked the sniper into hesitation. The costumed nutcase had dropped in out of nowhere. That hesitation gave Kevin the time he needed to spin around off the hood to the ground to keep interposing himself between Antonella and the sniper. In the same action he removed a flash bang from his utility belt and heaved it some 50 yards and 6 floors up at the sniper. His cape billowed out behind him blocking Antonella’s view, but providing excellent cover. Kevin didn’t actually expect to hit the sniper, but damned if the grenade didn’t bounce off his chest and fall right at his feet.


“I meant to do that,” he thought to himself.


He was already spinning back around to face Antonella. “You have a rifle back there?” He heard the brief hesitation in the automatic weapons fire. So he didn’t wait for an answer. “Someone over there needs help. I’ll draw their fire.” Behind him the flash bang went off in the sniper’s face. “Snipers on 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors of the building to the right side of the street ahead. Automatic weapons though, probably AK’s. Do your thing; I’ll do mine.”


With that Kevin spun and leapt nearly three stories into the air, landing on fire escape and leaping again. By the third leap he was already on top of the buildings and leaping clear across the street toward where the sniper was dazed. All Antonella could make out was Dark Knight’s silhouette. Kevin landed next to the man and dragged him over the side of the building toward the pavement below, his cape billowing out to slow his fall - far better than it should have. Kevin let the man drop the last 20 feet but kept the rifle, slamming into the pavement nearby. He shoved the muzzle of the rifle into the concrete bending it and dropped it.


He was now on the far side of the scene from where Antonella would be entering. And that was exactly what he wanted. He wanted to draw the attention of the gangbangers. Any weapons trained on him wouldn’t be aimed at either Antonella or the feds. He made note of his grenades - 5 flash bangs to go. Plenty. He walked and stood directly under a streetlight. For a brief moment the gunplay dwindled off. Then it started to rain bullets all around Kevin. He wrapped his cape in front of himself protectively. He wasn’t bulletproof. And he was already going to pay for a few of those shots.

 

[Industrial Lace]

"Mierda!" Antonella shrieked in her mother tongue. While the events that surpassed in the last few minutes was enough to drive anyone bonkers. Even then, she believed herself to be a senshible person and seeing a 'cape crusader' descend from the sky and protect her. This wasn't something from marvel, as far as she knew. She also hoped it wasn't some sick twisted punk'd either.


'Rifle?' The mention of it has her scramblimg her head to form a solid thought. She didn't have one on her, just two pistols on her. Cursing silently she listened intently when the caped freakshow said. 'Just great' she groaned seeing the guy go off and cause a distraction.


To be honest, he could have just catwalked his way over there and he'd cause quite the distraction. Yet this wasn't the moment for dry humor. Antonella removed one of her guns from its holster. With a final glance to the caped crusader, she made her way on the opposite direction. Muscle memory kicked in and she practically did not even think.


Her eyes trained on her surroundings, she didn't think twice when a gangster went to shoot her. She shot first hitting the gangster on the shoulder. With a groan of pain the gangster went down and she gratefully accepted the gun he 'presented' to her. With a better arm on her, things were going on her favor.


Shouts were heard around her and she realized they were speaking Spanish. 'Go to the left'...........'Kill that freak.' They all shouted commands all around her. Antonella grateful to know the language followed what they said and intercepted some of them. It was as if they were shouting for her to go to them.


A bullet grazed her shoulder and she dove down, shielding herself with a concrete column. 'The snipers,' she groaned to herself. She had completely forgotten about those. With a small grunt she tied her otherwise loosened hair gaining better visibility.


A hand wrapped onto her arm, out of instinct Antonella didn't ask question and went straight for the punch. The man groaned and she saw the glint of a badge. 'Oh he's a friendly.' Antonella realized cursing under her breath.


"Oh crap, sorry." Antonella spewed. "But this isn't the time. There are snipers on the right buildings, floor two to four. The smugglers speak Spanish; their accents are mixed. There are Columbian and maybe Cubans who also speak Russian." She reported; introductions can always come later, after the gun bash of course.

 

[Mitheral]

As soon as the gunmen started to shoot their muzzle flashes highlighted their positions very nicely. From her initial position arriving on the scene Antonella had a poor position to take aim at the most of the gangbangers on the ground - except for the ones she had just shot which had been trying to flank around the building to get on the FBI’s back side. She could see the automatic weapons fire was shredding the cars of the feds. The feds had to have walked in on the smuggling operation unexpectedly to have incited such a response. (The FBI office in NYC is the largest in the US. The reprisals are going to be off the charts.)


Antonella’s best choices for initial targets were the men firing from sniper positions from the 2nd and 4th floors. She never did see a man on the 3rd floor and could only assume one of the FBI agents had got lucky - or the gangbanger had come to his senses and left the scene.


As soon as the gang started to open fire on Dark Knight he took off sprinting toward the building the gang had been using at what looked like a car’s highway speed. In truth it was a bit slower, but in the small area it looked faster than it was. Then he did the truly impossible. he turned hard to run parallel to the building while jumping and hit the side of the building with his feet still moving. He was running sideways on the building for nearly 25-30 yards before coming back down to the sidewalk again close to the positions of the gang bangers on the ground. His speed was so fast that the remaining gang members started turning their weapons on him. In fact, he was moving so unexpectedly that they fired more where he had been rather than where he was or would be. Dark Knight restricted his attacks to disarming, simply grabbing the weapons and ripping them out of the hands of the wielders. He had already demonstrated a strength that would have allowed him to hurt the thugs badly, but demonstrated restraint - something that didn’t sync well with the rumors about his activities.


The blitz attack was so effective that the gang started to beat feet in seconds, a fact for which Kevin was grateful. His body was sore all over. Most of the shots had missed, but not all. His body armor might have stopped those that hit, but not without considerable pain. It was all over in seconds. Antonella was able to pin down the men on the upper floors - some simply withdrawing now that the tables had turned. She never did find a body of any of the gunmen she had hit - but there was blood, enough to mean the thug would need medical attention soon.


The battle on the ground ended with Dark Knight holding a thug off the ground in one arm glowering at him and the Feds now turning their weapons on him and ordering him to drop the man and stand down. But Kevin had no intention of sticking around to answer questions. Instead he responded by dropping the thug as ordered.


“The bug you found wasn’t mine. You still have a killer out there. If I hear anything, I’ll find a way to contact you.” Then Kevin silently leapt upwards two floors at a time and vanished over the roof. It took Antonella a moment to connect the dots - where she had seen the lead FBI agent. It had been a recent Press statement about an investigation of the “Vampire”. Someone had killed a fan of a band called Innocent Blood using a method suggesting a vampire was responsible. Kevin had mentioned working the case, though he couldn’t offer details. Dark Knight had apparently gotten into the sights of the FBI.


+++++++++++++++


In the back of his mind Kevin worked out the logistics of what was going to happen at the scene he had just left. He held nothing against the FBI; they were just doing their job. He was a suspect. They would have been well within their rights to shoot when he failed to stop. But his short speech had been enough to save him additional pain. He mentally berated himself for allowing Antonella to get shot - even if it was just a graze. He should have seen the thugs flanking around the building - or expected it and warned her. But at least he had managed to draw most of the fire off the feds.


He expected Antonella to be tied up at the scene with the FBI as backup arrived - probably at least 30 min, if not more. She would need tending for the bullet graze. And she’d have to answer questions for punching a fed. That would buy him plenty of time to get to his apartment - shaking any tails - to change, grab his car and return to the scene of the crime. His car was a former police car he had bought on auction when he was 16 - with Ryan’s help. Kevin had spent more than a few hours nursing the car back into shape. After 7 years the car had gone through more than a few repairs - including a new engine and transmission - but still looked great. He had made a few improvements along the way during his college years. Oh it was no batmobile, but it would take punishment that it originally would never have survived. He only wished he had the technical skills to do better.


When he arrived the tow truck had yet to arrive. He flashed his badge and asked what was going on, asking if they needed CSI on the scene or not, admitting he was an intern. His picture had been taken against a blue background rather than a red, indicating he was a civilian and not commissioned to carry a firearm. He wasn’t a cop. Oh he knew everything a cop would know, but his parents had wanted him to follow a less hazardous career path. His father had been tickled with his interest in science.


He played innocent as he pointed out Antonella and told the officer manning the perimeter she was someone he knew. Then he asked he could park and check on her. Police brotherhood being what it was, the officer gave him a nod and gestured. Kevin parked and walked over to get Antonella’s attention.


“Wasn’t that your car over there?” he asked. “Crap, what happened? You think insurance is going to take care of it?” He let her respond, allowing for any rants, raves. or lamentations she might have to run their course patiently. Then he spoke up as he studied the damage. “I can probably fix most of it. I could probably even replace an engine - though it looks like they missed the engine.” He looked up. “I have a two car garage. My apartment is a converted warehouse. When I say garage, I mean auto mechanic’s garage. I even have a hoist to pull an engine. I rebuilt my own car starting back when I was 16. Ryan kind of helped. I’ll have to move my motorcycles around.” He used the plural. “I only ride one. The other …” he grinned. “I really need to sell that one. It has taken enough abuse.” He laughed a little. “Even repaired it makes your car look like it ready to drive off the lot. It was my first dirt bike. It is a miracle I never broke every bone in my body.”


In all the time Kevin had ever known her she had never actually been to his home. Behind his light mood she could sense a much darker one - one that he clearly didn’t care to discuss in front of Feds except to say, “I thought I said we weren’t going to pursue the investigation any further.” His eyes were on the thugs and their turf as he said this - then her shoulder. He forced himself once more into silence. Then he resumed being polite and helpful. Her wound wasn’t even visible as her clothing covered the bandages well enough.


Well, Antonella didn’t need the hit to her insurance - medical or auto. So Kevin’s offer was hard to pass up. It wasn’t long before he had a tow truck there.

(Note: Kevin’s apartment isn’t as stand alone as the building above, but the four story section is about twice the size.)


Kevin’s apartment was a four story building, large enough that it seemed unlikely that a simple intern could afford the entire site. And Kevin didn’t even admit to anything until much later. He asked the tow truck driver to back the car into one of the garages - which sported pretty decent security, if not convenience. (He didn’t use a remote access.) He opened both doors, parking his own car quickly so he could get out and move his motorcycles. He owned a Kawasaki Ninja - his fast street bike - and a dirt bike that fit his description perfectly. It was heavily scarred from so many wrecks that it was a miracle Kevin was alive. He looked over and grinned like a fool while he moved it. Truth to tell Kevin had loved the dirt bike for the simple fact that it levelled the playing field a bit when competing against other kids.


Once Antonella's car was safely tucked away he offered to show her around. As eager as he was it was hard to say no. “Keep in mind that it’s a work in progress. The place isn’t anywhere close to done. I mainly concentrated on a place to sleep, eat / cook, the garage, my gym, library and lab. And many of those are still pretty rough looking. They don’t all have real walls yet, just insulation and sheets of plastic to manage any dust. I don’t get many visitors. Even my sister doesn’t really visit. And don’t expect a lot of my so called library and lab.


Once they entered his living area the first thing to hit Antonella was that Kevin’s kitchen and dining area might be bigger than her whole apartment. He actually had a pit barbecue - indoors. He was greeted by a kitten that looked like it had been dunked in tye dye and left to starve in a dumpster.


“Hello Schroedinger!” Kevin smiled. He looked at Antonella laughing. The kitten was mewing plaintively. “First order of business, feed the bottomless pit. I really need one of those contraptions Doc used in Back to the Future. I’d check him for worms, but I’d more likely find wormholes.”


Once he had the cat scarfing down food he offered Antonella something to drink - but he had nothing alcoholic anywhere in the house. In fact his refrigerator was filled with good food - healthy food - and it was clean. It was everything a normal bachelor’s kitchen shouldn’t be - though it lacked anything resembling a woman’s touch. No signs of a girlfriend taking care of his place.


He led her back to the dojo. This was very possibly the most impressive part of the apartment but built very oddly. His pel wasn’t a single pel, but four. And they were designed to strike back. It was at this point that Antonella recalled she thought she had spotted some bruises on Kevin’s neck. However, here in better lighting she saw no signs of a bruise. He had been walking a little stiff before. That too seemed to have improved. To complete the facility there was a case filled with practice weapons or nearly every common or police sort.


Next was the pool - indoor and heated - the size of a YMCA pool, complete with diving boards. He basement included something he had forgotten to mention - an indoor gun range. He had a variety of direct fire weapons - nearly everything an police officer would ever use.


The gym was one of his favorite areas. He had skimped on frills, but the place was reminiscent of the TV series Arrow. He even had the cool workout set. (Video) His gym took up a good fourth of the building. He was grinning. “And now you know why I don’t work out at the station so much.”


After the short tour they had ended up back in the gym. “So … you actually saw Dark Knight … in person? What happened?” He had spoken with the FBI agents and overheard comments by some of the gang members that hadn’t escaped. He listened to Antonella’s account, but raised his eyebrow skeptically. One of the feds had confirmed the part about Dark Knight running Matrix style on the side of the building. He had to fight back a smile, which might have come off as disbelief. He could only respond with, “Does he fly and wear a red cape too? Maybe he has a big S on the front of his shirt?”


But his humor couldn’t remain too long. “He’s been digging into my father’s case. He half expected what went down tonight. Someone is shipping in military grade hardware. My father was digging into a case long ago about a money laundering operation. I think it’s related to what happened tonight. Imagine an organization big enough to be more than the dark reflection of NYPD. We have divisions: Organized Crime, Vice, Homicide … But we are dedicated to stopping all that. So imagine an organization dedicated to doing the crimes. Then add in the significance of military grade equipment. It is a case for Homeland Security. Thing is, I’m not sure who to bring the case to. Not Ryan. I know he’s decorated, a hero cop, but …”


Kevin’s face darkened. “Ryan is high on my list of suspects. I can’t be sure, but he is the one person my Dad may have confided in. My Dad wasn’t shot by any member of the gang. He was assassinated. I just can’t prove it. And Ryan, I just can’t be sure he wasn’t allowed to live on purpose. I have a sickening feeling he was the one on the take. He has underworld connections. He used to work undercover.”


He paused, then tried to force himself back into a lighter mood. “So … Lois Lane … what did you think of Superman?” He leapt up a couple feet to grab onto the crossbar of the Arrow exercise ‘ladder.’ With what looked like ease he jumped a rung and winced from a twinge in his back. There was a small clattering noise as something small and hard fell on the mat. He dropped to the ground and grimaced. “Okay, maybe not such a great idea.” For that brief moment the muscles he rarely ever showed off became readily apparent. He was ripped – moreso that any lab tech ought to be. But he looked like he was in pain.


The sniper with the high point vantage position had been using armor piercing rounds – cop killers. Only now were the rounds Kevin had taken to his back were working their way back out. Laying on the floor under the crossbar where he had been starting to exercise was a badly deformed slug – of an armor piercing round – the same caliber used to nearly kill the FBI agent and had almost put an end to Antonella’s own life. The round had gone clean through the FBI agent and his vest.


Kevin’s breathing stopped for a moment as he turned slightly sideways in the direction of Antonella’s attention. “I guess that may take a little explaining.”

 

[Industrial Lace]

"For the last time; I am not a gangbanger." Antonella huffed at the FBI agent who was playing a round of 20 questions and seemed to be on repeat. "If you were going to ask why I am here I'll tell you.


"I am a Private Investigator; but before that I was US Coast Guard. I specialized in smuggling rings and human trafficking. My name is Antonella Ortega, if you looked into database you'd probably find my records; with information like the time I got myself smuggled into a human trafficking ring to bust it. This isn't my first gig, and when guns are blazin' with snipers around I don't have the time to ask questions and shoot later." Antonella ended pointedly giving a nod as they finished patching her up. Which was around the time she saw Kevin. Did they call him in?


"My car?" Antonella asked to whip around and groan when she saw the poor remnants of her vehicle. "Fix it? Sure if New York has a 'total car replacement because you were in the middle of a gangbanger fight'." She groaned out with sarcasm.


When Kevin talked on repairing it, she almost shut him up kissing him then and there. But she didn't since it would be too weird and make her look interested. She obviously didn't need bullshit like that on her case. Even then she accepted the offer with a nod as they went off leaving the annoying agent behind.


*******


"I can see its a work in process. If you need help putting up drywall I've done it before." Antonella told Kevin as she looked around with a low whistle.


It was practically a violation waiting to be measured. Even then the parts that were finished were amazing. Especially the kitchen, it seemed to be a room begging for actual use with entertaining friends. She doubted that Kevin would even think on doing such a thing. Which gave her a bit of envy that she quickly trampled down.


She smiled at the kitten which made Kevin look much sweeter. It was almost comical, for he was all about busuness; to be sweet on the tiny thing. She accepted the water bottle Kevin offered and noticed how full the fridge was. Perhaps a foodie? That would be her thought in seeing how the fridge was full and not having things like leftover chinese takeout, or pizza.


"With a thing like this I see no reason for a gym membership." She commented seeing the dojo. The pool caught her attention most, since moving to New York she's had less chances to swim and keep in her state. Back home she would have swam three miles on a daily basis; five given that it was a slow day. Everything else looked awesome too, but not like the pool.


"In person? Dude stopped me from getting killed, sounded like he gargled marbles, and walked around like if he was lost on his way to a comic con." Antonella said with a dry chuckle. "No red and blue, all black; minus the skin. He was a white boy."


"The gang today; they seem familiar to me. Three years ago there was something like this; but i was in better attire and in my element." Antonella confessed with a frown. "We managed to catch two of the gangs leaders, and some underlings. It was a gang operation that had some ex Columbian cartels; and Cuban mafia. They usually have connections with Russian mobs too. Since in Cuba you can go to Russia for education. I can find info on that Ryan guy. I have my brothers to pull my strings. I can always talk too, Spanish to Spanish."


"Lois Lane?" Antonella chuckled. "Nah, I am more of a Comissioner Gordon without the 'stache and boobs. He was weird but got the job done." She added as Kevin got on the salmon ladder, then fell off said ladder.


"Explaining to do......what do you think?" She asked looking at Kevin with a raised brow. "Before that tell me that you have a first aid kit." She added as well.

 

[Mitheral]

(In case you have trouble keeping up with names, Ryan Kelly was the partner of kevin’s father. He is also now the commander of Kevin’s division. And Kevin’s sister still lives with the man. Now if Ryan is a dirty cop ...)


(Also, Ryan spoke Japanese, Latin, a little Greek, but learned Spanish in a matter of weeks after meeting Antonella, using her to practice. At the time it sounded like he was trying to impress her. He was only 21.)


Kevin tried to mentally kick himself. He knew how long it took for rounds to work themselves back through their entry points. He could easily have timed things to avoid this very problem. Or he could have dug them out earlier and been done with it. But he had also wanted to check on Antonella and make sure she got home safe. Still … what would Freud say?


“Not sure I have a good one. Excuse me.” He peeled his shirt off. There was a small reddish burn on the front of his chest that caught Antonella’s attention. It looked fresh. He smiled gently noting that she had seen it. That one managed to bounce off my spine, tear through my right lung, bounce off my front ribs - to get stopped by my frontal armor. Let me tell you, it was hard not to show how painful it was burning my chest. I guess it must have been the adrenaline.” He jerked a little as another round started to work its way out of his back.


“I can handle the lighter calib --” he stopped and looked at Antonella. “But I guess that isn’t the explanation you are looking for. Tonight I was just out on a patrol. I was looking for that arms shipment. I really wanted to keep that stuff off the streets. But I was at the wrong site with things went down. In a way this was my fault. What I am trying to do is track the money - more specifically the money laundering.” He grimaced as the last round finally worked its way out of his back and clattered to the floor.


“C’mon, you may as well see the rest - well, most of it. To the batcave.” He chuckled. “I used to love Batman when I was a kid. And I needed an answer to that question: who ARE you!”


He led her back to his Library / Study - not the one accessible to any regular guests. No this one had to be accessed by way of a secret alcove similar to the fire poles in the old Batman TV episodes from the 60’s - minus the pole. He sighed. “You’ll have to trust me. He held his arms open to hug her. Once she accepted he pulled her into the alcove and they fell. The landing was gentle though.


“It is not who we am behind a mask, but our deeds which define us,” Kevin spoke to thin air. “Albert?” He chuckled a little. “We have company.” (Yes, he said Albert, not Alfred.)


Lighting in the room began to rise to the level of a command center and a male voice responded. “Good evening sir. I trust all is well.”


“Not sure yet. We are about to find out if I am crazy. The jury is still out. I’d like to introduce Antonella Ortega … nickname Tony.” Kevin set Antonella down on her feet gently.


“Good evening Madam. Please state your full name - pause - and nickname for voice recognition...” Albert was clearly a program. He lacked the personality of a real AI.


+++++++++++++


The place was laid out like a command center, but very skeletal in terms of equipment. One thing he did have was a LOT of flat screens and his own server farm housed in what looked like bulletproof glass. There was a small section devoted to comics among the bookshelves amidst which was a Batman exhibit and boxes of various trophies – a few martial arts trophies sticking out the tops. Judging from the dust starting to gather he didn’t seem in a hurry to show off his prizes.


What was displayed was a police badge – his father’s no doubt. That was unusual in that the badge should have been collected and retired. Someone had pulled strings to get it for him.


One wall had been cleared and covered with corkboard where an organizational chart of multiple criminal groups had been started. And they all tied upwards to an unknown. The chart was very professionally done - using much the same notations a police detective or intelligence analyst might have used. "I gave up on that chart. The wall was too small. What I really need is a wall of flat screens." He gestured to the other wall. " Now much of this you already know. I started with a single crime. And this is what I branched out to. When it started to blossom out, I started tracking everything - wherever money flowed past suspected criminal fronts, I am following."


"I started from a money laundering scheme about seven years ago - the one my Dad was tracking." Kevin brought up the organizational chart, then clicked his way through leads until he came to a police case. It was an IA investigation into Det. Shawn Brady - my father. IA had been tracking periodic deposits into the man's accounts. But before they could close the case, he was shot and killed. He was never formally charged. *I* know he was innocent. And I think you know it too."


Kevin lapsed into silence for a moment. “I never wanted to stop retaining your services, but it got too dangerous. And these abilities of mine had been surfacing for a very long time. I got a threat from the mafia regarding my investigation. They as much as said they’d kill you.” His jaw was taut at the memory. “So I created my alter ego. I had watched the movie Kick Ass and had thought the guy nuts. But I had come to realize that the investigation was just getting started - and far more epic than I realized.”


Kevin paused, knowing full well what might be going through Antonella’s mind. "I'm not just guessing or taking it on faith. I may have started there. Now, that faith has been upgraded to a hunch. Det. Mitchel Cantrell, the IA agent who ran the investigation had meetings - I believe with my Dad - BEFORE the first deposits were made. In other words, I think IA knew my Dad was going to go 'bad' before he ever did. My Mother was dying in the hospital. He was a prime candidate for taking bribes. So I think IA approached him and asked him to help them gain access to all ... this." He gestured to the wall.


Then Kevin started pulling up his files on Cantrell. Now this was where any estimation of Kevin improved. As much as Kevin trusted Cantrell - a senior man in IA - and was sure the man was honest, he had researched the man and tracked his movements. Mitchel Cantrell had gone to his brother’s funeral recently. It had been a triple burial, for his sister in law and niece had been among the deceased.


Not even giving the matter a second thought Dark Knight opened up the file on the criminal investigation of the death of Mitchell’s brother, an Interpol agent. The image of the crime scene was frightening, for the man’s car had been ripped apart – literally torn in half, and partly melted. The man himself was scorched, his body ripped into a dozen pieces and his skull crushed. According to the report he had managed to empty his gun. But there had been very little trace of residue.


Then Kevin clicked on the related bombing of the man’s home. The revenge had been terrible. The image was of the corpse of a girl. There was literally a charred 2 x 4 sticking through her, her body blackened by the bomb blast that had blown her out onto the front yard from the front door. She must have been standing in front of it when it blew. The girl was of course, Mitchell Cantrell’s niece.


“Only one member of that family is unaccounted for - his eldest daughter - Diana Cantrell. She is missing, but a person of interest by Interpol. It is very likely that she was a witness.


“There’s more, but I think you have some idea what I am getting myself into. I have learned of money transfers around the times of these attacks - as well as the death of my father - in which some of the account numbers match up.”


Kevin finally turned to Antonella. “You never gave up the case.” He tried to glare, but all it did was make him look worried. “The FBI was working a completely different case - the Vampire case. It just happen to walk them right into the same place the trade was going down. The hardware that was being smuggled in is military grade - but I am guessing you figured that out too.”


Kevin still seemed a little guarded. There were those who might have accused him of interfering with investigations. But then considering that he had been told repeatedly the investigations were closed, he considered that point null and void. The real risk was that in the course of his investigations he would cross lines of a legal investigation and render any evidence unusable in a courtroom.


“You hungry? Regenerating works my metabolism on overtime. Oh, and if my talking starts to wear you out, I don’t sleep much - several hours a week is all I need. And if you get really tired, I have a spare bed here just in case my sister ever throws a tantrum with Ryan and shows up out of the blue.” He looked at Antonella sharply. “She doesn’t know about any of this and I’d prefer to keep it that way.”


He shut down the command center and offered a hug to Antonella once more. “And Albert is short for Albert Einstein.” He smiled, a bit subdued from his earlier mood. The AI program didn’t sound remotely like the German scientist, so Kevin’s claim was a little dubious. “Uhm, there is another way out, but it is a pain to use. After all I had to get all this gear in here somehow. Back up the chute is the quickest way. I don’t fly exactly. I sort of walk on air. Not quite the same thing. But it does make it possible to glide fast. In this case, neither is necessary. Mind your arms and feet.” He drew her onto a platform the size of a manhole cover and drew her in tight. “Up, up and away?” The platform, again voice activated, moved as he grinned. “Okay, I stole from comic books a bit.”


He made himself a couple sandwiches and a gumbo soup, and offering Antonella much the same.


“In a way it is a little bit of a relief to actually tell someone about all this. I am hoping I don’t find a task force waiting for me tomorrow with a white jacket that has wrap around sleeves. I’m not crazy. And I don’t do B&E to get my information, or wiretap. Yes, I do surveillance; I plant tracking devices. I snap pictures. I don’t follow a lead without probably cause. When I DO finally bring all this to light, I want it to stick. And you are likely to wonder where I got all the account information if I don’t use illegal means. The answer to that is an informant. That’s how I got the Cantrell data. I hate to admit it, but I don’t even know who my informant is. But he .. uhm .. gave me a profile on you. I mean I even saw your elementary school records and baby pics. To be honest it was a little unnerving. He also warned me you were still on the case.


“Your car … I have someone that can help me with the custom work. Police have been putting the guy - John Hughes - through a wringer under suspicion of running a chop shop named Momentum Custom Auto Center. But they have found nothing so far. However, the guy does rub elbows with organized crime - including the same people I am investigating. He’s been applying to get a Customs Inspection license. And he’s been a guest at a private mafia nightclub owned by the DeSimone family... Ryan has a membership there. It’s one of those places police don’t go because they might find themselves face to face with a politician or rich VIP sort. You’d never get in unless you were working there. And I’d never get in … period. Anyways, taking your car there would be a good excuse to get a closer look at the place - with legitimate business. There’s a bookstore across the street there I want to check on to see if they re-opened yet. The old owner passed away and left it to a teenager. If it stays closed much longer people are going to start breaking in and squatting.”


“You still hungry? I can fix more if you like? I still remember those tacos you brought me that one time. Or were those burritos? Chalupas? I can never keep them straight. They just all taste good.”

 

[Industrial Lace]

"You've lost it." Antonella began deeply incredulous of the idea thay Kevin was the batman wannabe. That was until he dropped her into the 'bat cave'. With shock she looked around the room her eyes widening the more she saw.


"Mierda..." She gasped as the so called 'Albert' spoke. "Um.....Antonella Ortega, nicknames Tony." Antonella introduced herself with a frown. She looked around and found it. Bingo, she thought as she found the comic book shelves. He was as much of a nerd than she thought. Which brought a small chuckle.


Charts were too small......what was he pinpointing? The entire illuminati? No it was much lamer; money flow. It made sense and something she had while not done had heard one of her brothers do. When Kevin spoke on her danger she raised her brow slight


"I'm no Wonder Woman or Captain Marvel; but I can hold my own. Only thing I haven't really done is fly a plane or sniped. But i can learn; Mr. Darknight." She said a bit sourly, it stung having her deemed as 'weak'. She could hold her own, always have. To have that questioned annoyed her more than she could say.


She let her annoyance slide, just enough; to see what Kevin showed on screen. It was like a debriefing. She looked at the horror scenes without a second glance. Even at the coast guard; she's seen her own share of horrible images. Objectively she saw everything; some of the images and the explanation sounded sound.


When he mentioned she hadn't let the case drop she snorted a laugh. "Of course I haven't. I don't leave a mission halfway." She spoke resokute without giving it so much as a second thought.


"Not just military grade; some Russian was mixed in. It wasn't all Smith & Weston's." Antonella said with a pout. When Kevin spoke on his sister she gave him a pointed look.


"She is a teenager Brady. They always find everything." Antonella said both out of common sense and personal experience.


"A bit? Sweetie I'm waiting on a justice League's worth on catchphrases." Antonella scoffed at the up, up, and away.


Antonella accepted the offered food and ate half expecting to get pinched and wake uo in a hospital frin the gunfight. But it seem like it would happen anytime soon. Giving the benefit of the doubt she listened until she heard of her profile.


"Hijo de.....you be happy you don't know who gave you that. I'd taught him what he's missed. Like how in Cuba I was charged helping my brothers castrate the pigs." Antonella said in outrage. Her hands balled to fists.


"The car......on one condition: I go too." Antonella said. It was a take it or leave it stance. No compromises or in-between's.


"As for food; I call dibs making. I'm dying to get ahold of the kitchen." She said on a lighter mood getting up.

 

[Mitheral]

Kevin failed to suppress a grin. As much as he liked the idea of being a good host - he had never had company over - he hoped Tony could cook even half as good as her mother. While he had never actually met Antonella’s family, he vividly remembered the food. She must have thought he was always starved the way he had eyed it.


He helped her at least find everything in the kitchen. While organized, it was organized for him. And many of the cooking utensils were in the wrong places. He clearly didn’t use it half as much as he ought to. If anything it seemed almost criminal to have a kitchen like this and not ….


“Well, my informant contacted me - out of the blue. At first it was just a tidbit - a meeting taking place between a drug supplier and a local dealer. No, I didn’t try to stop the buy. I went after the source. I am more interested in the flow of money. It is the money laundering I want to target. But yeah ... all that is dangerous. And I do not really like the fact that my informant knows who I am - and not vice versa.


“My informant doesn’t contact me directly. It is always encrypted texts or emails that self erase sent to a burner phone. But he has never spoken to me - ever. MY informant is on a whole different playing field from you. He says he’ll contact me when there is reliable intel.” Kevin tried to suppress a smile, but failed. “As to why give me such a detailed report? I have no idea. I get the impression that if the data is out there electronically, he finds it.”


Kevin’s informant had the exact same MO as Antonella’s. A burner phone had been left next to her regular phone - while she slept. Somehow her informant had managed to enter her home unseen - with absolutely no signs of a break in. But the information was always precise and as accurate as anything she had ever come up with on her own - usually better.


Random Stranger. That was what he called himself.


Kevin reached up with his hand to pull a piece of glass that had been missed from Antonella’s hair. “It hasn’t been easy being a … freak. I had to stick to solo sports. And to be honest, I stopped competing in sports once I realized just how different I was. It sort of took the fun out of it. I feel bad enough as it is for all the trophies I did win.


“You know, I’ve been thinking. I have a ton of space here. If you want to stay here until we are sure this smuggling thing is not an issue - like I said, I have room. I probably have better security here than you do. I am still wondering if doing the Matrix thing today was such a good idea. I sort of reasoned that it would draw all eyes to me. But part of me, I think, wanted to show the world that I wasn’t just some idiot in a costume.


“Stay the night at least. I don’t really sleep, though I could probably use a little bit if I can force myself to sleep.” He smiled a little sheepish. “My senses are sort of out of this world. I’ll hear every sound you make. Rest of my senses are just as heightened.” He glanced down looking through the table, his eyes widening, then looked up smiling. “Black, my favorite color.” He turned beet red and cleared his throat. He looked just a little mischievous.

 

[Industrial Lace]

"You get info from him too? He's the one who just dropped out of the blue and told me 'bout the smuggle." Antonella said as she picked up her hair into a bun and attacked the fridge pulling out everything she'd need.


"Oh please I've seen more perserve freaks and they are plain John Doe's who care not for mortality." Antonella promised Kevin with total honesty. At keast he did something good with his stuff; a Batman instead of a Joker.


Eyeing a few fillets of fish she knew what to do. She pulled out the fish, tilapia or bass judging by the look. She also pulled out cilantro, onion, corn, peppers, tomatoes, flour, and oil. Gleefully she began to put a pot to biol water, to blanche the tomatoes. While that was going she was chopping everything into a fine dice and separating it. She scored her tomatoes and dropped her to the boiling water and worked on making her tortillas.


It was simple; a portion of flour with water, salt, and oil. With that mixed she worked on separating it and thrn rolling then out onto the desired thickness. Once the tomatoes were ready she placed them in ice water and removed the skin; going onto chop that too. She moved with a dance in her step; even giving almost a twirl as she hummed and cooked.


With the salsa done, and the tacos ready. Antonella now focused onto the fish; giving it a quick touch on seasoned flour and grilling them onto a skillet. After the fifth complaint where everythung was organized she groaned.


"Brady I am going to show you how to organize everything." She vowed with humor but also some annoyance as she finished preparing the fish tacos and serced it on the china he had. It was simple; taco, fish, aioli, slaw, then the salsa. A small lime wedge was on the side as she presented the plate and went into washing.


"I'll stay if I can swim in that pool." Antonella sounded hopefull. She was almost ready to strip right then and there and dive in. Especially with what happened she needed the destress. Life owed her that much at least.


'Black?' The thought ran through her head as she looked down and placing her fingers on her pants tugged it down an inch. There it was: her black panties. She laughed out loud at that shaking her head.


"Batman.....I thought you were married to your work." She joked going back to washing and organizing everything impeccably.

 

[Mitheral]

“Oh crap,” he thought to himself. “They really are black?” He had simply made an educated guess. She wore darker clothes to work - probably mainly to avoid dirt and grime showing up when out doing field work. But he had been trying to do a version of the interview scene in the first Christopher Reeves Superman movie. And pink hadn’t seemed to fit Antonella’s style. Black … was just a guess. It had just been one of those mischievous moments.


“Sorry, didn’t mean to embarrass you,” he lied with obviously feigned innocence - though she didn’t seem all that embarrassed. He cleared his throat again. When she had tugged at her pants and laughed his thoughts were completely derailed. It took several seconds for her question about swimming to register.


“Swim?” His brain had stopped working for a moment. “Uhm, yeah … sure. Oh, I should warn you, it isn’t a standard pool. I don’t keep it chlorinated. It is salt water - like the ocean. I do periodically drain and clean it. But … I don’t really like chlorine. It bothers my skin a bit more than it does most people. I am sort of adapted to the water.


“Shower and bath are connected to the master bedroom.” He paused. “Huh, I guess I need to get a guest bath built. If my sister ever does show up, I’d have to share. She might find that a little awkward. Uhm … towels … someday I need to remember to buy more. I guess I really haven’t made this place guest-ready. Tell you what, if you see something missing, make a list.


“If you like, we can drop by that auto shop tomorrow. Owner’s name is John Hughes. He has one employee, an ex con with a fairly decent rap sheet - chop shop work. He was a little protective of his employee too. He threatened a lawsuit, lawyers, harassment charges against Ryan. We had probable cause given that we chased a stolen car right to the vicinity of his shop before losing him. Whoever drives for him is apparently an extremely good racer. Hughes has connections to local racing - on both sides of the law. But noone has yet to pin anything on him. My informant is researching him I’d lay odds. So I expect to hear something soon.”


He stopped, again realizing he was talking shop. “I’ll make sure you have towels. Otherwise, just let me know if there’s anything you want. And … “ he looked at her finally, fighting to look her in the eyes, not down. “I’m glad you’re okay. And I’m not married to my work … not completely.” Then he grinned and blushed. “I’m not married to anything. No kids, just a kitten - adopted.”


He tried to help with the cleaning, but found himself in the way half the time as Antonella rearranged his kitchen. As much as he hated to admit it, he was still a little sore from getting shot so many times. At least by now even the burns had healed. He realized that much of the pain was from the internal burns where the hot lead had buried itself deep inside him.


Once they were done he escorted her back down to the pool. When they got down to the pool he balked and looked at her. “Uhm, it just hit me. What are you going to do for a swim suit …?” He had a feeling that was going to go down in history as one of his dumbest questions ever.

 

[Industrial Lace]

"Embarrass?" Antonella said the word as if it was cute. She was a person who had large amounts of self-confidence and never really cared as far as nudity or the like.


As Kevin spoke of his heated sea water pool her grin grew. "I've lived on an island, peninsula, boats most of my life. I'll need more than salt water to complain about."


Then with Kevin listing off things he hadn't thought through; guest bath, towels and the like. Antonella couldn't tell whether the thing was idle talk since *he* felt embarrassed. Or it was just stuff that he now realized he should have done. He jumped back into talking about work and she raised her brow slightly. When he claimed he wasn't married to anything she had heer doubts.


"Brady; no one recreates a batcave unless you're ready to marry the job. Maybe a fortress of solitude would've worked better." Antonella teased placing a hand on her hip momentarily before going into organizing.


Kevin tried to help a couple of times; which was met by 'shoo's and a raised brow or too. He would've hinder the organizing than help it. Antonella wasn't being mean, it was just that he organized it the first time and it was atrocious. She didn't leave another mess onto second chance. With everything placed where it belonged Antonella threw her pontyail back and smiled at her work.


When Kevin began escorting her to the pool she began to take of her clothes. Blazer and top were firstand her shoes also discarded casually. She placed the top onto the shoes in an effort of being nice. Then she tugged her pants off of her; and let her hair go loose.


“Uhm, it just hit me. What are you going to do for a swim suit …?” Kevin began to ask but it was too late.


Antonella had already sprinted to the pool and dove in. The pool didn't even cause much of a splash as she swam in it. A fish to water she moved with little effort. When she finished one lap she poked her head out by the edge and rested her arms on it. A smile on her lips while she pushed her wet hair from her face.


"You coming? Or do I have to get you?" Antonella teased a broght smile.

 

[Mitheral]

Kevin stared mutely for several moment, forgetting to breathe. His experience with women was clearly nowhere near Antonella’s comfort level with men. He was already feeling way out of his league. He had spent his 23 years of life very much a workaholic. It wasn’t that he couldn’t get a girl if he tried. He had simply never found the time or had been too obsessed with his father’s case. So maybe he was married to his work.


“Yep, dumbest question in history,” he murmured. “Realizing he’d said that loud enough she might have heard it, he clarified a little more loudly. “My question, not yours. Uhm … give me a minute. Wallet and stuff.” He was trying to make excuses, delaying the inevitable. Damn it, he did NOT want to look like he was chicken in front of this women - and was doing a damned lousy job of it. On the other hand he didn’t want her to see his obvious and very non professional interest.


It was an interest he had harbored for nearly two years - ever since they had met. Back when he was 21 he had thought their ages a little too different - something he’d been used to from his college days. He had entered college at the young age of 14 with a full scholarship, a fact for which his parents had been very proud. By 19 the prodigy had earned his PhD in Forensic Science, specialized in chemistry and physics with a background in criminology.


He excused himself for a moment and came back dripping wet looking a little chilled to the bone. He’d obviously taken a cold shower. But he’d removed his clothing and wrapped himself in one of those fine robes you steal from major hotels and casinos. He held up an extra couple robes and a couple beach towels along with his neatly folded clothes and smiled. Once he set them down he walked over to the water, a mischievous smile on his face. His confidence had begun to return.


He walked to the very edge of the pool and grinned. Baiting her just a little he reached out with his right leg and touched the water with his toes. “Brr?” Then he squinted his eyes and stepped out … and stood on the surface of the water. He didn’t sink. With that he started laughing and sat down cross legged … still on the surface of the water.

 

[Industrial Lace]

Wallets....oh boy. Antonella laughed at Kevin as she went back into swimming laps. He was so flustered almost like a quiet freshmen in college who bargains more than he's delt. Well her own colkege days were pretty uneventful; no crazy parties or the like. It was done with work and sometimes a mission or too.


She heard a rustle and looked up from her laps and saw Kevin. Very wet and with a fancy robe. A snorting laugh left Antonella at the sight; it was looking at a semi-drowned fancy cat. It wasn't body concious; that she was sure of. Did he really take a shower before coming? The thought was highly comical to Antonella.


"No fair." Antonella gasped as Kevin stood on the water as if still on the concrete floor. A mild pout formed on her lips but she then got a bit devious and shrugged.


"You know; your place is big enough. Maybe you should invest in a billards table...that way we can have a game of strip pool and then have a swim.....that is if you can." Antonella suggested with a smirk to then turn and go backbinto swimming laps. Going around Kevin as he sat on the water.

 

[Mitheral]

Kevin just grinned. “I’d find a way to cheat - not that I need to apparently. And swim?” The tone of his voice suggested she had given the slightest bruise to his male ego - though he hardly seemed upset about it. “I can outswim you any day - or night.” He realized he was running on borrowed time. The cold shower was already starting to wear off. “Watch this.”


Kevin stood up again and took a couple steps before diving into the water - robe and all. He had planned on it getting wet - hence the extra robes. As soon as he broke the surface of the water he took off swimming underwater like a dolphin, accelerating to dolphin like speeds toward the low end. This was so he could keep speeding up in the turn as he rounded the pool toward the low end continuing to speed up. The deep end of the pool was marked at a 30 foot depth. He faded into the depths, barely a blurred form for a moment, then suddenly arced up and out of the water spinning in the air to face her as he did so. Not thinking his robe billowed out just as his cape did, revealing … everything. He nearly busted it as he tried to close the robe back up as he landed on the edge of the low dive.


When the board stopped rocking, he laughed. “Well, that was an epic fail.” He rolled forward to slide into the water, peeling the robe away and tossing it onto the side of the pool. Then he swam over, and shot up in front of Antonella to wrap his arms around her. “Strip pool, huh?” He was grinning. “I’d say we’d both be trying to lose.”


Antonella could feel Kevin trembling. He wasn’t half as confident as he tried to sound. “You know, I wanted to do this a long time ago.” His face became serious. “I tried to keep things professional back then. I figured you wanted it that way. But … uhm … I can’t say I never thought of this and ..” He failed to find the words for a moment, then smiled, “strip pool.” He chuckled at that. “Yeah, I had - “ he paused, then corrected himself, “have … a crush on you. I never really stopped. I sort of asked Random Stranger to keep an eye on you and let me know if you ever got in over your head. Glad I did.”

 

[Industrial Lace]

Antonella went to the side of the pool as she saw Kevin dive in. Lazily she saw his acrobatic act and was about to call him flipper..... until he went out of the water. There she laughed aloud. Louder when he crashed onto the low dive; that she felt a bit bad and covered her mouth to stifle the laugh.


"Loose, I play to win." Antonella teased a giggle leaving her lips as she was in his arms. Her head tilted slightly as she listened to his confession. A brow raised as she listened to everything to press a kiss onto his neck.


"Well; then Dark Knight. Sounds to me that you've been in a wonderful wedded relationship with work. Now its time that I teach you how to take time off from that." Antonella teased between kisses. "That is; if you aren't afraid." She added with a chuckle.

 

[Mitheral]

Kevin normally never slept more than an hour a night. Thanks to Antonella he woke up late in the evening next to her a little confused as to where he was for an instant before the nights activities came back to him. Part of him wondered if she realized just how inexperienced he had been. It had been a first. He had more than embarrassed himself in the process and was grateful for a superhuman metabolism that got him through it all.


Kevin had been more tired than usual thanks to having to heal from multiple gunshot wounds - and the evening’s activities. He just listened for nearly an hour before finally forcing himself to go and work on his personal dragon to slay, the files he had been sent by Random Stranger, or RS as he usually signed his work.


Part of him wanted to go and check on Keiko, but he felt compelled to stay. He’d have to check on her soon though or she might backslide. That was something he was going to have to explain to Antonella. Last night hadn’t seemed like the right time to bring that up. Antonella had clearly had a very different agenda in mind. In fact, the whole evening had been according to her plans he suspected.


He went back to study the picture of the dead daughter of Cantrell’s brother. That had been the younger daughter, Diedra. Also found at the scene had been a toy bow and practice arrows. The oldest daughter, Diana, was in her 20’s and had won archery competitions. It didn’t take much imagination to guess that the one member of that family that was now missing might have been a witness.


He reviewed once more the car - ripped apart as if by superhuman strength. Most would assume that the killer had been in a powered armor. But according to RS the heat had been generated by an assassin codenamed Hellburner. And Hellburner worked with others like himself, including a man literally made of iron - who for lack of an imagination called himself Iron Man. The thought left a pit in Kevin’s stomach. For so long he had always wondered if he was alone - unique. Then he had met Keiko. Now - looking at the pictures - he half wished he were unique. For he had a very bad feeling that it wouldn’t be long before Hellburner and the others would be on their way to the US to deal with Dark Knight. He was looking at his own death scene. He grimaced as he mentally kicked himself the situation he was now in with Antonella.


He received an email from RS around midnight. It was an update on the background check on John Hughes. He checked out - even with a really thorough check. But RS was more than thorough. He referred to “according to sources” - even RS had sources - the driver of the stolen car had professional race car level skills. Further, the car had been insured by one of three companies insuring stolen cars in the area. And the companies didn’t seem to really exist except on computers.


When morning came around he had breakfast - complete with coffee - waiting. He already knew what Antonella liked. They had talked over meals more than once in the past. That was when it hit him that the food she had brought him might have been an attempt to get his attention long ago - and might have been made by Antonella herself. Last night’s dinner certainly suggested the possibility.


They both had the day off - or at least he did unless called in. Antonella was her own boss and in between jobs. Kevin had snapped a lot of digital images of her car to take to the auto shop with plans to take the car in as soon as John Hughes had an open bay.


He started off the breakfast with shop talk. “Something hinky about our chop shop and the source of its cars. Momentum may be a front for a sting op. So … we need to be careful how we approach this. John may be working undercover. The stolen cars have been traced financially to the same accounts as the one making payoffs to my father. I think it may be an undercover Interpol operation. It would make sense if he was trying to get in good with Customs if he wanted to watch for incoming contraband. But to get in good with the mafia, he would been to establish a cover. I just can’t figure out how he makes the cars disappear in under a minute.”


Kevin finally gave himself a mental kick. “And .. Good morning. Last night was … really good. And I should have started with something like that before I started talking shop.” He gave a wry grin. “I’m a work in progress.” He grinned a little broader. “And you are welcome to work on me again --” He winced. “That didn’t come out right.” His head sagged. “You know what I mean. Well, I sort of DID mean it like that, but more politely than --.” He sighed again.


“I made breakfast for two.” He forced himself to avoid topics of work for the duration of the meal - which left him with very little to talk about he discovered. Antonella was right. He was a workaholic. But once the meal was over he again broached the subject of her car.


The address Kevin took Antonella to was a rougher neighborhood. On one corner was an old Rare and Used bookstore that was closed and boarded up with a sign that said Closed for Renovations and another that said Under New Management. In front was a car that looked like the clunker sort a college student might drive. The door was propped open by a young man (late teens or early 20’s) who resembled Daniel Craig (James Bond) in his younger days. He looked as though one side of his face had been scalded recently, though it would heal up soon with no lasting effects.


Across the street was Momentum Custom Auto Center, the suspected chop shop. The street was filled with squad cars and tow trucks as they were towing of 3 cars that looked like they had driven through a gauntlet or hail storm. Every window and tail light had been busted out. Oddly, the rest of each car appeared undamaged. The scene had drawn a small crowd that was pointing and shaking their heads. John Hughes and his employee, Eugene Parks, were finally settling down after answering questions by police.


Kevin parked in front of the bookstore and nodded at the guy at the bookstore. “Hey James. What happened to … “ he gestured to the side of his face.


The young man smiled. “Oh, that. Just an accident.” He looked directly into Kevin’s eyes. It wasn’t the whole truth, but close enough. “No, I don’t own a restaurant in need of being extorted and have a grill to have my face pressed down on.” He laughed, but that sort of thing wasn’t uncommon around this neighborhood. “Oh … your book came in. I know we aren’t in business right now, but you paid in advance. Once I get a new manager - one who really knows book restoration, we’ll re-open. So .. who’s your …” he stopped and looked at Antonella.


Kevin cleared his throat again. “Oh, Antonella Ortega. Uhm, Antonella, this is James Stevens. He owns this place. The previous owner passed away. Good man. James, her car got shot up the other day. So we are going to check with the auto shop about getting it fixed up.”


“Sure, I’ll go find it and bring it over to you. Jennifer is crashing right now. She was probably half asleep through that whole mess over there.” James smiled politely. “Jen’s a night person. She doesn’t do mornings unless the world is coming to an end.”


+++++++++++++++++


Eugene Banks still looked nervous as a polecat. He was a John Henry looking African American, standing over six and a half feet tall. He dwarfed Kevin. But he looked as though he had been hit by a Mack truck. There were no injuries of note. But he looked shaky and every now and then his hand went to his chest. His eyes kept darting around as if he thought the place was haunted.


John Hughes looked more annoyed than anything else. The police had chewed him out for trying to get the place cleaned up so he could open for business. They had actually threatened to charge him with Obstruction. He was actually laughing at them and asking if they planned to charge Eugene with Interfering With the Path of a Bullet. That had Eugene coughing a little painfully, but highly amused, as he tried to laugh.


“Why don’t you guys NOT try to play detective and let real detectives have a crack at it? Speak of the devil. Brady!” John motioned Kevin over.


The instant he spoke the name of Brady’s father the uniformed cops all turned to look at Kevin. There was no mistaking the animosity. Kevin was, in their eyes, the son of a dirty cop who had gotten his own partner nearly killed. Kevin bristled a little, stiffening. But he did his best to ignore the cops. “John, I told you before; I’m not a detective. I’m not even a cop.”


John was still groused a bit. The cops had really badgered Eugene, insinuating that he had been part of an inside job. They had threatened drug testing and time spent at the station - until John pointed out that they had no grounds. Eugene wasn’t on parole. He was a free man.


“John, these guys give you any more trouble and I might know a soon to be attorney. While I won’t recommend him, I am guessing he’d steer me right and get us a good recommendation. And I happen to know someone in IA.” He pitched his voice for the cops and turned toward them. “So … guys if you are done, let the man open his business. I brought this lady here to get her car fixed up. It got shot up saving some Feds calling for backup.” That got the cops to start looking a little less abusive and working on moving out. To Antonella they were a good deal more respectful.


John looked over Kevin’s tablet as the images of the damage were played, trying not to stare at Antonella. Mostly John nodded - at the pictures. When the show was done he smiled. “Well, the good news is that neither the front grill, nor top of the hood ever got shot. So shouldn’t be any damage to the major mechanical. Looks mostly like cosmetic work. Yeah, I can get it done.” He smiled at Antonella.


John’s own pictures hadn’t done him justice. He had those good good looks one expected of hot shot pilots and race car drivers. He was the sort of man who could charm a girl with a smile. And he had the confidence to pull it off that Kevin lacked - perhaps a little too much confidence. He had no issues with hitting on Antonella by doing everything in his power to hold eye contact. And he was obvious enough about it that Kevin actually bristled a little.


Still looking more at Antonella than the images John spoke, “Yeah, I think I can expedite this one and have your engine purring in no time.”

 

[Industrial Lace]

Antonella rolled over in bed to find herself on an empty bed. With a light moan the woman got up and really didn't have anything new to wear. 'First order of business; pass by the apartment and get the essentials.' With that thought in mind she put on a robe that was lying abandoned on the floor.


She lightly tied it around herself and did a couple of yoga stretches. It seemed that after what happened, Kevin went back to the work relapse. Not that she expected anything else on that. Well to be honest things played to the tune of her fiddle. She personally expected nothing to happen; so the night wasn't gone.


With her yoga stretches completed; she went to the bathroom and thankfully saw an extra toothbrush. Done with that she noticed her clothes. Kevin must've placed them for her to wear. She skipped out of the blazer and rolled her button down sleeves; keeping the shirt untucked with her slacks. She kept two buttons open on top; showing her cleavage a bit. Antonella looked into her purse and pulled out a comb and brushed her hair braiding it casually and touching uo with a bit of eyeliner and makeup.


Feeling presentable Antonella walked to the kitchen finding Kevin there as she thought. The aroma of coffee hit her first and she went to it like moths to a flame. She grabbed the cup and the second she was going to say goodmorning Kevin began to talk about work. With a sigh she crossed her legs and listened. When he said good morning she couldn't suppress a smile.


"A work in progress. Querido you are an entire project." Antonella said with a smile. Which grew to a cheshire grin when he said work on that again. "Don't worry; if it's up to me. I'll be tapping it soon. We have plenty of time too with your energy. But I call the shots next time."


*****


"Hello there James. Just call me Tony. When I have a bit of time I'll drop on by and look at that face. I know a couple of products that are wonderful on burns." Antonella said with a cheeky smile. When Kevin bid goodbyes and they were leaving Antonella waved with a 'bye James'.


******


"Bye boys; go play with your radio as we talk business." Antonella told the cops with a smile as they began moving out. She flipped her hair lightly and winked at the cops while she got closer to Kevin while they turned to the two gentlemen before her.


"Oh that sounds great. I can do more to boats than to a car. I'm lucky I can do an oil change and a tire change." Antonella said with a relieved smile.


John tried to give the impression of interest. But Antonella kept the eye contac5 while placing a hand kightly on one of Kevin's stiff shoulders. She laughing lightly at the mention of purring.


"Purring? I'd appreciate it but to be frank." Antonella said leaning in a bit, but never removing herself from Kevin's side. "I'm more of a growler." She said innocuously with a devious smile.

 

[Mitheral]

Engine purring …. really? The innuendo annoyed Kevin a bit. But he continued to keep his anger in check. He had no official claim on Antonella. For all he knew last night had just been about sex, though he hoped not. If Antonella wanted to take the guy up on his offer there was little he could really say or do about it. Really Kevin didn’t want to hate John. The guy otherwise struck him as a decent guy. It was hard to imagine him as working for mafia. Then again, maybe that was what made him so effective.


The next few hours were spent with Kevin and Antonella getting her car over to the shop. John went over the car briefly and confirmed his earlier estimates. He asked about just how ‘like new’ they wanted the car to be. Kevin just smiled and told John to ‘surprise her.’ John just smiled and said that it ought to take about two days - mostly to acquire parts, match the paint. At worst he expected a third day. The actual labor time wouldn’t be bad though. The worst damage was the wheel as the brake drum had been damaged. Then Kevin dropped a minor bomb and told John about the armor piercing slug they had removed from the wheel.


John was a little subdued after that. Kevin was supposed to be a CSI intern. But there was something about how Kevin had spoken that made him wonder. How much did the guy know about his nightly activities? How much did he know about his attempts to infiltrate the mafia? Did he know about his family? Cantrell?


Well there was no way anyone was ever going to tie the stolen cars to him. And even if they ever did, the charges would never stick - though charges for evading the police, speeding and reckless endangerment might apply. But he really didn’t care. And as to speed, he had to laugh. He was used to 200+ mph. 90 was nothing.


(Figure they have from about Noon to 8 PM to have fun and grab some sleep before the next scene. Zoo, shopping, whatever.)


As evening approached he asked if she preferred to hide out at his place again or sit at her apartment. It would be easy enough to run by her place and pick up necessities. The haste with which he spoke told Antonella that he had an agenda.


He had waited until he felt comfortable they weren’t being listened in upon. “I need to head to my other job. I need to check on a friend and make sure they are okay. Sort of homeless and living in a shelter with some mental problems. I sort of owe them. The reason I am telling you all this is that if you want to keep me honest, you ought to get some sleep or grab more coffee. The place where my homeless friend lives is off the grid as it gets. So if you ever need a place to hide out, you need to know where that is - and my friend needs to meet you.”


Kevin had trouble talking Antonella into a short flight. But he didn’t want to just leave his car unattended in the area they were heading into. Now if it had been winter this trip wouldn’t have gone so well. But he had Antonella get changed so that she had a swimsuit underneath her clothes so she would have something to wear when they arrived. The Atlantic waters would still be damnably cold, especially as deep as they would have to go. He explained that he was going to be taking her underwater - at night - into pitch blackness. Then he broke out one of his old costumes, made using a scuba suit. This one had lots of bullet holes in it. He looked blankly at Antonella and shrugged. “Better than nothing? This one was from before I got smart and got me some real armor.” (It probably isn’t. Odds are Antonella has her own scuba gear. But the bullet holes are funny as hell.)


Once in the area Kevin led Antonella down to the water. The spot wasn’t too awful far from the Brooklyn Bridge - a few miles south. "Wait here. I have a scuba excursion tow thing. You know those things you hold onto that pull you through the water? I keep an O2 tank on it. Pretty long underwater swim and it gets a bit chilly. Oh wait, you probably know how to use this stuff better than me.


“Uhm ... the place I am taking us to isn't mine. I am honestly not sure how my friend is going to react. She (it was the first time he had admitted his friend was a she) is kind of reclusive. And I don't know how to prepare you for her. Let us just say she saved my life. Now I can hold my breath easily. My friend understands English, but she is can't speak. And she isn't human. She is both primal and highly intelligent."


“I have something for electronics like cell phones too – and anything else small that can be damaged by salt water. I always keep a few bags on hand.” He reached into his version of a utility belt and produced a plastic bag. Only it was the usual plastic bag the average citizen would have had on hand. It was an evidence bag.


The trip wasn’t very long – deep enough to make ears hurt a little and long enough to make any normal human lungs ache. But with an O2 tank it was nothing. And Antonella had far longer without a tank. When they came up Kevin told Antonella to stay near the edge of the water. It was still a little dark. They were in an underground harbor – right next to the submarine. Submarine? Yeah, it looked a bit like the Nautilus, straight out of the Jules Verne novel. It looked as though it hadn’t moved in half a century or more.


“Keiko?” Kevin shouted. “I brought company! She’s a friend.” Kevin was honestly not sure whether Keiko would freak out at an unexpected guest. “Antonella stay low. I better check on her. She usually greets me.” He waited for his guest to get situated then moved in.


Kevin found Keiko’s lab a mess. It looked as though she had flown into a rage and torn the place up. His eyes scanned over the chemical equations and structures all over the blackboard. Her latest experiment was spread from near where she normally had her heavy microscope and clear across the room where it had shattered against the wall. “Oh Keiko,” he spoke softly. “Keiko? It is just another way that won’t work. I’ll help you clean up.” He waited. He hoped she hadn’t taken off into the water.


He walked over to a locker where he had stored an antique gramophone. After her first fit of rage like that he had decided to hide it for times like these. He carefully wound it up and placed the needle on the record. It was an old recording of Pachibel’s Canon in D Minor, probably a record that had been played at many a wedding. After nearly a minute he heard her stir. Then Keiko moved in like a silent predator. She was practically mesmerized by the music. Her eyes closed as she listened and swayed a little, the agitation of her tail slowing down to something suggesting a recovery of her human mind. As the music stopped her eyes opened and she sniffed the air.


Kevin nodded. “She’s a friend. Let me introduce you.”


Keiko looked my some lab accident where a human had been crossed with a salamander and a flying squirrel. While her general form was humanoid and female, she had the wings of a flying squirrel, but built somehow differently – with more musculature. She had a long prehensile tail that ended in a spike. He webbed hands were likewise tipped with deadly looking talons. Her eyes were dolphin like. Her skin was amphibious, but softer like a salamander, rather than a dolphin.


Keiko (Talon) moved forward and sniffed, making a gesture of firing a gun. Kevin nodded. “Yeah, she’s a private investigator that I hired once.” Kevin looked at Antonella “I think she has sonar like a dolphin. So no point in hiding things from her. She’s the one who pulled me from the water when I got all those holes in the suit.”


The base looked like something built back before WWII. It was a treasure trove of antiques. The submarine had that antique look to it. What labware Antonella could see from across the cave looked like old museum pieces. The lighting was archaic.


Keiko cocked her head from side to side as she studied Antonella. She opened her mouth slightly to reveal sharpened teeth suitable for ripping apart flesh and gave a faint squeal a little like a dolphin, while sniffing the air. Then she backed off and leapt clear to the roof of the cave to grab onto girders that supported the lighting system, almost vanishing against the rock. Then she glided back down to land by the gramophone, picked it up and carried it back to the locker. Then she returned to the blackboard. It was scarred with claw marks where she had taken out her frustration.


She flipped the board over to reveal the other side which was still undamaged. Then she found some chalk and began to write. "I am Keiko." She paused and thought, then smiled faintly as she added. "I hope you like sushi."

 

[Industrial Lace]

The day continued with no other innuendo or otherwise. Antonella never left Kevin's side minus the obvious bathroom breaks. She kept quiet enough while she looked around with mild interest. It was impeccable, to the point of having Antonella being impressed which annoyed her. There was nothing she could see to find the part that made things seem......illegal.


They had a bit of free time so Antonella convinced Kevin to stop by her place as she quickly packed a couple of clothes. Nothing super fancy; and confortable at that. When she heard of a friend on behalf of Kevin her interest was captured. She didn't think a workaholic like him could maintain a friend. They needed to have frequent social interractions....and it took Antonella two years before anything went passed a work stage.


As he explained Antonella couldn't help thinking a fortress of solitude with another one like Kevin himself. Everything seemed fine until it came to flying. It wasn't that she's never flown; there were chopper rescue missions. Yet it didn't rule out her fear for it. Refusing to admit a weakness she steeled herself refusing to look anythere other than her lap; her hands grabbing the chair's arms for dear support.


When they were done Antonella looked a but pale and weak as she saw the ocean. She didn't listened to Kevin while he tried to explain the gear. She was halfway working on it.


"Ya think?" She asked with mild sarcasm at her use of gear being something that needed no explanation.


The swim was uneventful; for lack of better words until the submarine....which clearly looked like it needed to be in a museum than in use. When Kevin told her to stay put she did. Craining her head around to see better. Music soon filtered the air with Kevin talking and Antonella made a face. Music?


When Antonella saw 'Keiko' she initially freaked. Yet it was the type of fear that planted you like a statue. Than yell in sheer terror. After freak out; there was awe. She didn't pay attention to what Kevin said. Her attention engrossed by Keiko; her eyes opened more when she saw teeth. Mentally, the jaws theme hit her. That is when she left and came back showing a chalkboard. She read the writing and was hit with hysteric laughter.


"Sushi....? Yeah, its great." Antonella said when her laughter died down. "I'm Tony." She said with a chuckle.

 

[Mitheral]

Kevin smiled. “I got a little careless. It was back when I was just getting started at this. I didn’t have the armor I have now.” He patted Antonella’s arm, avoiding the potentially suggestive areas as though they were traps that might take his hand off. “Just the old scuba suit. Back then ordinary bullets were still pretty dangerous. I got chased down and surrounded at the Brooklyn Bridge. I made a run for the side, but got myself mowed down as I went over the side.”


Keiko was writing. “Not water. Catch.”


Kevin faced Antonella standing at full height. “The other night wasn’t the first time I had bullets work themselves out of me. His stance was just a little flirtatious. He talked back over his shoulder not really watching Keiko. “Took a few for Antonella the other night. Might need to put her up here for a bit if things get bad again if that’s okay.”


Keiko’s eyes locked in on Kevin’s body language and she stiffened, her own eyes starting to squint down in anger. Her tail started to lash like an agitated cat’s tail. Instead of writing anything further the woman pointed at the word sushi and stalked toward them.


She ignored both Kevin and Antonella, moving right past them to dive into the water. But it was clear that even Kevin recognized the foul mood his friend was in. And to his credit he distanced himself a little from Antonella immediately. Judging from Kevin’s reaction, he hadn’t even thought of Keiko in that way. His mouth had dropped open as he watched Keiko disappear. Then he looked nervously at Antonella. Silently his mouth formed the word, “Oboy.”


Keiko returned after several minutes flying out of the water with the speed and grace of a dolphin to land on the dock. She had an eel skewered on a claw. She walked back along a short corridor going into the base and entered what was clearly the kitchen and busied herself. She made it clear she didn't want to be followed when she slammed the door shut behind her. Finally she came out with three plates. She carefully set the plates down – all but one – which she allowed to drop the last few inches in front of Antonella. The sushi on Antonella’s plate was in disarray even before the plate hit. Everyone else’s plate looked picture perfect. The message was very clear.


Kevin decided enough was enough. He took his plate and swapped it out with Antonellas, staring at Keiko sternly. Keiko’s tail was waving about in agitation. Jealousy was one thing though. Poor manners were another. And Kevin wasn't entirely sure the plate wasn't poisoned. It dawned on him a bit later that Keiko might not have cared about him either. But he had counted on her caring enough not to let him kill himself. There were no attempts to stop him from chowing down. But Keiko’s tail slowed down and after that she averted her eyes.

 

[Industrial Lace]

"The armor you have now....which was still penetrated by cop killers." Antonella added more for Keiko's sake, than her own. "You look like a Doc Keiko....what do you specialize in?"


The question was a guess by all the formulas and the like. She hoped that Keiko did stuff that can combat a cop killer bullets. Or to have a formula to do that. She could always ask Alan to come up with the material and assemble it for her.


Antonella felt like groaning aloud when she saw how agitated Keiko got. This wasn't going to end pleasant. At least Kevin got it in his head to distance himself a bit. But any sane woman would still be able to tell there was a connection with them. Keiko came out and saw the eel skewered and couldn't help a dry chuckle. 'Ohboy isn't even scratching the surface'. When she saw the sloppy plate she couldn't help a wry smile. Yet she glared at Kevin when he switched the plates. Without thinking she tugged onto his ear and switched the plates back.


"That was rude Brady." Antonella chatized with a raised brow. "Keiko specifically prepared that for you. It's not nice to overstep time that went into your specific plate. Besides, I'm not looking at an eel face or carcas. So it's great." She said with a smile; she was being honest. Antonella expected the eel carcas; to not get it was great.


"Its also not fugu. So relax." Antonella said with a tired wave as she began to eat as if nithing happened.

 

[Mitheral]

Kevin frowned. He wanted to put his foot down, but Antonella’s sense of humor took some of the anger and pain out of him. The reference to the eel face had done it. In fact, that had caught Keiko’s attention. Angry as she was, she couldn’t help but think she had just missed a perfectly good opportunity. She stood up abruptly and scampered off - only to return shortly with a plate that had the head of the eel wrapped in a sort of origami flower made from scraps of her lab notes. This she set down ever so delicately in front of Kevin with the eel head staring at him. Her tail twitched still just a little agitated.


Kevin huffed a little, but couldn’t help but shake his head and start to laugh a little. Then he sighed and shook his head. “Remind me never to get both of you really angry at me at the same time. Keiko, we’ll talk later - after we’ve both had a little time.” He paused. “Antonella’s the one I mentioned before - the one the cigar was made to resemble. That’s why I may need a safe place for her. “


He finally looked back and forth at both of them. “Guys are idiots.”


When the meal was done Keiko moved to try to gather all the dishes herself - just to cheat Antonella of the chance to help. The kitchen was a mess really. It had last been updated to perhaps 1950’s standards. Ity was poorly equipped. Kevin had clearly been bringing supplies. There was a trash barrel half full of used contractor bags. These had clearly been used to bring stuff in dry. There were net bags hung everywhere with various things - mostly for making sushi - or other seafoods. There were also some pigeon and seagull carcasses that looked like they had been skewered and eaten raw.


To one side of the kitchen was a small rum barrel labelled “Kevin’s stuff” with “and he can have it!” written in Keiko’s handwriting. The stuff in question was protein mixes and such. Keiko caught Antonella’s eyes and wrinkled her nose. For the first time she spoke. She pointed at the barrel and spoke in a shrill voice. As to what she said, Antonella could only guess, but it sounded derisive. And … it was in Japanese.


Kevin had said that Keiko couldn’t speak. And here she had just spoken, albeit in Japanese. Kevin clearly hadn’t realized Keiko had any feelings for him. Antonella knew for a fact that wasn’t exactly unusual. There had been a sketch artist that Kevin used who had also clearly had a thing for him. But as usual, Kevin’s mind was usually on work. Kevin wasn’t the sort to lie - especially about something like Keiko’s ability to speak.


So why could she understand Keiko - and Kevin could not?

 

[Industrial Lace]

"Now that is entertainment." Antonella laughed wrily when she saw the eel head. "Elegantly wrapped too."


“Remind me never to get both of you really angry at me at the same time. Keiko, we’ll talk later - after we’ve both had a little time.” He paused. “Antonella’s the one I mentioned before - the one the cigar was made to resemble. That’s why I may need a safe place for her."


"Oh Kevin, you do watch yourself. I can't account for Keiko; but I'm not the best person to anger. Even with your super powers." Antonella nodded with a smile to then laugh when Kevin said 'guys are idiots'.


"Oh doll, you'd think all men would know that by know. But nope, they are just how they've always been." Antonella shrugged actually glad he admitted it.


Antonella followed into the kitchen and whistleded lowly. If given half the chance; she'd give the place the clean up it needed. She laughed when she saw the barrel, wondering what argument happened to have it labled like that.


Then she heard something. Antonella paused and looked around first; believing it to be something from her imagination. Yet she rarely made stuff up. Curious she looked at Keiko again her eyes blinking as she concluded it was the only other person who could have spoke.


"Mind repeating that in English? Unless you know that or Spanish...I got nothing." Antonella told Keiko; still unsure if it even was her.

 

[Mitheral]

Keiko stopped and cocked her head at Antonella not quite comprehending the reason for the question. Then it hit her that somehow this woman had heard her. Even Kevin couldn’t do that despite his aquatic adaptations. Even better, it was easier to understand Antonella’s higher pitched voice that Kevin’s deeper one. As much as she didn’t want to like this woman who had taken the only male contact she had had - the very same one whose life she had saved - she desperately wanted human conversation.


“You understand me? English is not native for me. I am Japanese. How do you hear me? Kevin cannot.”


Keiko’s words, while shrill, weren’t painful to hear. But for the first time Antonella realized that there might be something unusual about her.


“Oh, I said it tastes like …” she hesitated and stuck out her tongue to give an expression is dislike and slapped her bottom. Then she remembered something Antonella had asked. At the time she had been angry at the newcomer. She looked down at herself. “I forget to put on clothes. Kevin get many white lab coats for me. When I got angry, I tore mine up. But I have extras. Used to bother kevin to see me like this. You ask before if I am something .. Doc? Doctor?”


She shook her head. “Research. Accident. I make experiment to heal burns with hybrid amphibious tissue grafts. Graft spread on me. Accident. Spread until I am this. Cannot change back. I find this place and hide. When I save He see my work, ask questions. Then he start finding me things, books. Book he bring today maybe help. He help translate when he speak better Russian. Book Russian.”

 

[Industrial Lace]

"Yeah I hear you loud and clear....as for the other part I have no idea." Antonella said honestly with a shrug. She was as clueless as Keiko seemed on the fact she understood what the woman said.


"They're that bad?" Antonella asked with a face of her own to then laugh. "Yeah I guess he can have it all for himself.".


"Ok not a Doctor....a professor...scientist. Ph D than MD got it." Antonella nodded as she heard what happened to Keiko to look like that. "Oh that's a bummer. Then again its a whole Hulk kind of thing...just less green and smashes."


When she heard about the Russian book it dawned onto her that the book Kevin got today was actualky for Keiko. 'No time for jealousy; you're a big girl Tony.' She chatised herself as she pondered lightly.


"i don't know Russian....but there's always Google. Especially Google translate; not entirely exact but close enough." Antonella offered a hand resting onto her hip.

 

[Mitheral]

Kevin had asked to retain Antonella’s services, this time to do a stakeout. When they had returned to the surface world he had learned that the Feds had new leads in the Vampire case.


Feds and police had been searching for more members of the gun smuggling gang that had shot up one of their officers. While it was an unrelated case, Dark Knight had attacked the gang shortly after sunset. His costume had been upgraded to include real batlike wings. And the thugs the police had interrogated swore he had fangs.


The really odd thing was that all this had happened while Kevin - the real Dark Knight? - had been in the submarine cave.


The new Dark Knight had laughed maniacally while attacking the gang calling himself Batman. He had tossed the men around like rag dolls. A few even claimed that he had dragged their guys into the shadows and vanished. But as interesting as the story was, Kevin was not amused. He had a copycat.


Kevin had loaned Antonella his car - with all the reluctance of a man fearing for his pride and joy. He had tried not to be too obvious about it, but asked her not to get his car shot up. He may as well begged her not to put a scratch on his “baby.” At least he didn’t call it that. But he did look a little anxious.


Thing was, Kevin wanted to tail John Hughes. But he needed to find this Batman. And he couldn’t be in two places at the same time.


Locating DeSimone’s wasn’t too hard. It was a large enough nightclub that it was literally an estate complete with wall, gate and valet parking. But it was a private club - membership only. There was no way to even see inside the compound. If John had left in another car she was never going to know. But surveillance hadn’t picked up on his car leaving. Unlike on a normal stakeout, Antonella didn’t have to wait long for the unusual to happen.


A woman rose up into the car right through the floor to sit in the passenger seat. She was dressed in a purple costume - spandex that covered her entire body seamlessly every bit as well as in a comic book. Her mask looked like Rorschach's from the Watchmen movie. There were no actual holes for eyes, nose, or mouth. And when she spoke her voice sounded ghostly. She held a small electronic device that she activated as soon as she was ready to speak.


“Uhm, Antonella Ortega, I am Random Stranger. This gadget is a jammer. I need this conversation to be private. I have enemies that want me dead. I was a witness to a double homicide. They are the same organization that ordered the hit on Diana Cantrell’s family - the same ones who killed Detective Shawn Brady - Kevin’s father. What I am not sure of right now is who you are staking this place out for - the man you know as John Hughes … or Detective Ryan Kelly. They are both in there. Ryan Kelly has been a regular for years. He works for the mafia. No, I can’t testify to this. But I happen to know who shot and killed Detective Brady and wounded Det. Kelly. The man never misses. If they ever found out I was still alive, he’d be contracted to hunt me down and kill me.


“John Hughes is also on a death list - still. If anyone figured out who he was they would put a contract on him. Diana Cantrell’s father help stage John’s death and the establishment of a new identity. These people killed John’s parents and younger brother. John was supposed to be an off books Interpol informant once he infiltrated this group. But now he is completely on his own with noone to call for backup. If you ask me, he is in over his head. Even if he tracks the people down, there is nothing he could do to stop them - and he has noone to inform.


“Now if you are tracking John, I know where he is probably going next. This is Saturday … and he almost always races on Saturday nights. Illegal street racing. The locations change every night races are held. The location is sent out to burner phones registered with the bookies. I happen to have tonight’s location. I saw them getting set up to race. I knew even before most of the racers. Now if I am right, John should be on his way out in the next 10 minutes. If you have questions for me, you have a few minutes.”


 
Backpost - Funeral of William Bell


James Stevens was a little surprised at the size of the turnout for William Bell’s funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. There had to have been well over three hundred people, nearly all of them unknown to him. One arrived with his own squad of what James assumed were Secret Police. And there was a small group of French nationals, some Canadians, and even a few men James suspected were mafia, and a former Police Commissioner.


The casket was transported via a horse-drawn limbers and caissons. A caparisoned, riderless horse, symbolizing a fallen leader, followed the limbers and caissons. It fell to James to deliver the eulogy. It was a task he now fell hardly up to. He’d scarcely had time to prepare as it was. And now, to do so at such an elaborate event …


James rolled his shoulders forward as he set himself to the task. He almost felt disconnected from himself as he spoke, his voice almost an octave deeper than he was accustomed to. And more surprising was that his voice never broke. It wasn’t half bad, a well-written piece of literature. But then James had always found English an easy subject. Bell had exposed him to all the greats.


James shuddered numbly as a line of three uniformed men with rifles fired in single shots in perfect unison in perfect formation. Three times they fired, and then finished the time honored tradition of a three volley salute. They had referred to William Bell as “Commander.” However, according to Bell, James had known him as Chief Petty Officer.


Finally they gave the Final Salute and played Taps. One of the officers presented the folded flag to James, who had been recognized as Bell’s only next of kin. It was irregular as no formal adoption had taken place. But it had been a last request made while he was in hospice. And he had gone as far as to put it in writing.


About all James wanted to do after that was shrink and take to the skies screaming. But he maintained his poise and dignity while a few hundred people came around to shake his hand and say how sorry they were for his loss. Then, rather quickly the crowd began to dwindle as many had lives to get back to. Soon he was left alone with his grief.


+++++++++++++++


James’ parents didn’t push him to speak. They had both lost parents and remembered well the pain of losing someone so close. They simply waited for him to return to the car. Then they started the long trip home. After about 20 minutes James spotted a grocery store and asked them to pull over to let him out there. He saw them exchange glances in silence.


“I’ll be fine. I’m not 11 anymore. No getting lost in storms.” He smiled at the memory of his first attempt to help during a tropical storm that hit the Keys when he was just a kid. He’d tried to go out into the storm to rescue stranded people and pets, but got blown so far off course that he’d gotten lost and had to call his mother to come find him. “I just need to think awhile.”


While his mother looked concerned, his father nodded. “Just call us if you change your mind. You can get back to the school?”


James nodded, “Yes Dad. All good there. I’m just going to pick up a bag to protect this.” He patted the flag he’d been presented at the funeral.”


His mother’s face contorted with a hint of the pain she felt for her son. But she nodded, then offered a suggestion. “Get some heavy freezer bags. We’ll wait in case they are out. If so, we’ll get you to another store.”


“Thanks Mom,” James said. With that he got out and walked in. He found the bags, and then looked for some straws. A few minutes later he walked out and back to the car. It took him a few minutes to open the box, and place the flag inside. Then he stuck a straw in and sealed the bag as much as he could. Finally he did his best to vacuum seal the bag and finished sealing it.


His father pulled a roll of duct tape out of the glove compartment. “Fixes everything.”


“Thanks,” James finished the job and paused. He looked back at them. “It should only take a maybe 3-4 hours to get there I think. I’ll try to remember to call when I get there. But if I forget … you may want to call in 5 hours if I haven’t.” And with that he excused himself, and then stepped out and started walking away.


Backpost - It's a Date (James Stevens and Jennifer Webb


James needed some lighter activities, especially in preparation for the Will reading. He had excused himself to go change into something more formal. He’d invited Jennifer along as well, but found her still not quite ready. Instead he found her in the kitchen making pureed borscht that she loved so much.


“Were you not coming? If you are we need to hurry a little.” James prodded.


“Oh … crap. Uhm, yeah. Sorry,…” She looked at her brunch.


“I’ll get that. You go change.” He grabbed a full frontal apron so he didn’t mess up his suit. “I know how to make your soup. My food is already made.” As soon as she was gone he shook his head with a smile and started putting everything away. Then he went to the fridge and pulled out the sandwiches and soups he’d already made in advance. He started the soup heating while he checked the portable heating coil. Carefully he started packing the silica aerogel lunch pack as the food finished heating. Once the lunch pack was filled he slipped it into the freezer bag with a flexible solar panel chosen to fit the job and plugged the heater connection into it. He smiled, satisfied with his “picnic basket.” He hefted it a little and frowned. It was a bit heavy for his taste, but would have to do. At worst they could stop somewhere and grab a bite. Finally he stuck the whole assembly into a real picnic basket for show.


+++++++++++++


Upstairs Jennifer was frantically going through clothes trying to pick something out. James had spent so much time with his studies lately he had barely had time for her. Fact was Jennifer had missed spending time hanging out. Of course, they had both been busy studying. But still… She wanted to look nice. She imagined the reading would be in some stuffy legal office.


She didn’t have a single dress to her name. She had stopped buying anything loose ever since she started hanging from ceilings. Blue jeans were hardly appropriate. Spandex? Not a chance. Her choices were pretty limited. Most of her clothes were made for someone 4 inches taller than her human form – and for someone with six arms.


+++++++++++++


When Jennifer finally arrived, James was tapping his feet and looking at his watch. But that didn’t stop him from locking his eyes on Jennifer’s human form. She spent so much time in her kali form. He was grinning appreciatively despite himself.


Jennifer thought it odd that James was in such good humor despite the whole reason for their trip. She had expected him to be near tears. But if anything he seemed to be stronger emotionally than ever. She had met Bell several times and had admittedly taken quite a liking to the man herself. And he had certainly studied her as well. She had little doubt that the old man had suspected there was more than friendship going on between her and James. When she had shook her head and said no, Bell had simply asked why the hell not. The way his eyes had twinkled had left her grinning. Perhaps James behavior was exactly as she should expect.


“C’mon, we’re keeping the limo waiting. It isn’t cheap I’m sure.” He shook his head impatiently.


“Limo? What limo? Wait. We aren’t … ? And what is the basket for?” Jennifer started to get a little suspicious …. Again.


“Lunch. We’ll be dropping in on Central Park. I thought it would be a great place for a picnic.”


“I can’t believe they are going to let us use the limo for a taxi.” Jennifer was now paranoid. Her eyes squinted at James suspiciously.


James struggled to keep from smiling and giving away his deception. “I talked to the Dean about it. Can’t say he was thrilled with the idea or wanted to give his blessing.” _Because that would be an outright lie._


James had a tough time getting Jennifer to stop asking questions. She was still ‘not believing’ even when he got her out the front door. Once outside he stopped and smiled. He pulled the freezer bag out of the basket and handed it to Jennifer, tossing the basket aside. “Hold this please.” Then he pulled her around to look her in the eyes. “Do you trust me?


She hesitated. “Yyynnnnooo.” She was more than a little suspicious. But James just stood there looking her in the eyes. “Okay … maybe. Whyyy?”


“This is going to feel a little funny.” He stooped a little and moved to pick Jennifer up in his arms. He was in excellent shape and Jennifer wasn’t that heavy. But he still had to apply some effort. “You ready?”


Jennifer blushed a little. “What for? Is this, like, practice for … uhm, ?“ She hummed a wedding bell tune and batted her eyes at him.


James blushed a little himself and almost choked. “Uhm, not quite.” Then he started shunting both their masses at the same time while shifting his momentum upwards. While it was a little awkward, he did managed to end up with their center of mass close to normal eye levels. So far so good.


Jennifer squeaked as her eyes bugged out when the world around her suddenly grew. The trees loomed miles overhead from her perspective


“I wanted you to be the first to see this.” James finally confessed.


Jennifer’s heart was pounding. Then finally she realized James had put one over on her – again. She punched him softly. “You rat! We aren’t taking a limo. And when were you going to tell me you could do this?”


He laughed. “Right now. I am telling you. I did tell you the Dean didn’t want to give his blessing,” he laughed. “Of course they aren’t going to let us use the limo as a taxi. However, you have the next best thing. That would be me. But stick with me and I’ll work on that jet idea. Guess I should make it a two seater.”


The one part of James last statement that caught her ears was “stick with me.” She almost said something but realized James hadn’t even noticed. He almost certainly would eventually. He had a tendency to notice details as well as Sherlock Holmes.


Suddenly they shot into the air. At first she expected all the hard work on her hair to be undone in an instant, not to mention having the clothes she wore torn apart by wind. But the breeze she felt was calm as James somehow created an air pocket about them. And his strength seemed to increase geometrically the smaller he got. Only the picnic bag didn’t shrink. This she held onto with a minor effort. With a smile she realized he had planned this last night. After all, how had James been able to protect the sandwiches? Soup was easy. But sandwiches tended not to survive long in the refrigerator.


Backpost - Just before Kevin and Antonella dropped by at the Auto Shop


John and James had just returned from visiting the closed down book store. At first John hadn't been especially enthusiastic. But there was something about James Stevens that reminded him of his kid brother. And just how much so became evident when the guy talked about authors like Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs. The shop had few in the way of comics, but the guy still seemed to love those too.


While far from enthusiastic about having a kid in his place, James had been talking real money when it came to leasing part of the garage space - and pay for some practical hands on. He wanted to do the work himself, but simply lacked the knowledge. And well money was money. The kid clearly wasn't interested in competing with his own garage.


About 30 minutes after they had returned, John heard the sounds of supped up muscle cars - street legal stuff mostly. But he caught sight of one of the cars and knew trouble when he saw it. One of the gang's members had brought a car in for some custom work and claimed the work was shit - and refused to pay. He'd drawn a knife and John had put the man down. Now trouble was back in spades.


Of course, the man he had put down stood to the rear. None of the others were tiny. Each one stood over 6 feet tall and had to be strong as oxen. Odds were most had seen time in a prison once or twice.


James read their stances and immediately assumed a more attentive position, ready for trouble. As geeky as the kid had once been, he was not afraid to take a punch. In the past few months he had begun to fill out a little with something resembling real muscles. Still the members of the gang dwarfed the kid.


Their leader, Ganz, stepped forward. "My boy says you screwed up the repairs and you wouldn't return his car. He wants a second opinion."


John waved James back telling him to go into the customer waiting room. Meanwhile John's employee Eugene Parks turned the corner from the vehicle bay having heard the raised voices. He had come over to see what was going on. John glanced at him and signaled with his eyes. Eugene was a big man, built like a truck; he had been a former prize fighter and maintained his rock solid form. Unobtrusively Eugene grabbed a large pry bar that was the size of medieval sword and held it behind his back. He had seen these guys around the area and they were trouble.


John wanted to roll his eyes but that probably wasn't the best thing to do in front of these guys. He knew the type... "Your boy, “he paused, "took exception to our refund policy." He said gesturing at the wall where the policy was clearly displayed. "Time and labor was put into that car..." He said but his tone sounded like he may have been better off skipping that particular work.


"I run a business here..." He added, "I can't do work for free."


Ganz nodded at a couple of his men and they started closing the garage doors. They turned to do his bidding.


"Kid and girl can stay." Ganz looked Jennifer up and down. "She might just liven things up a bit.


James bristled, but Jennifer laid a hand on his shoulder. She leaned over and whispered in his ear. "It's okay. Leave it."


James leaned over and whispered even lower. "I know. Halon." But his expression didn't change - except for the mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "You don't want to go there man. I have been in more fights than you can imagine."


That just got a laugh out of the men. James didn't really expect more. But it was true. Then again, he never claimed to have WON those fights.


"Well, you may have put work into the car, but it was a lot of shit. You're going to hand over the keys - or we are going to have to explain our quality guaranteed policy."


John sighed, "Look... I offered to deduct the cost of the parts... I wouldn't have made a thing on the job." He frowned, "Instead your guy threw a fit and tried to hit me." He stared straight at the gang’s leader, "Pay for the cost of labor and I'll gladly let you have the car back." He tried to wave James off but the kid didn't seem to get the idea. He could see the way some of the big dudes were eyeing the girl. He did not like the way they were looking at her. As if she was some kind of piece of meat. He ground his jaw and stepped in front of the two of them. "This is between the two of us. Leave these kids out of it." He said firmly. He gestured behind him as if to shove James and Jennifer out of the way.


He saw the expressions on the gang members faces, "If that doesn't satisfy you... maybe we can come to other sort of arrangement?" He suggested.


Well these guys hadn't drawn weapons yet. James did NOT want Jennifer in this mess. And as brave a front as he wanted to show, her safety came first. She wasn't knife or bullet proof. John’s mechanic, Eugene took one step during the tenseness and the attention of two more of the main six turned his way.


That was the moment James seized. The gang didn't care about paying. They just wanted the car and they were willing to kill for it. The only reason they hadn't was that they didn't have the keys. James could only guess it had some sort of enhanced security - or was locked up by such. Either way, he and Jennifer represented nothing but leverage. With them gone, only the mechanic would be at risk - and James had a plan for that already - though even he thought it was lame.


He grabbed Jennifer and used her as a obstacle to push off of, spun around and put a foot in the chest of the man closest to them, sending the man into another, using the momentum to push off.


The change in direction put them behind a car before the rest could react and they simply vanished. Four men moved rapidly as Ganz barked orders to get them and not let them escape. That left Ganz and three others for Eugene and John. The garage doors had closed and now running was less an option. Unfortunately the gang wasn't smart enough to think of that fast enough and the door to the customer lounge bounced open and slowly closed. _Divide and Conquer,_ James thought. Then he dropped Jennifer off out of sight and had her start spinning some webs.


John hadn't hired Eugene for his fighting skills; that had just been a bonus. The man was strong and an excellent mechanic. He was also much smarter than he looked. John's heart sank when James pulled his little maneuver but he was surprised at how fast the kid had moved. James was definitely faster than he looked. A smile came to his face, one of reluctant admiration. Kid had some guts... reminded him of his Brother. He was sure being reminded of his kid brother a lot lately...


With that he turned his attention to the leader, Ganz. As he moved to throw a punch he noticed the guy going for his gun. John grimaced and turned the movement of the punch into a dodge. He wasn't nearly as fast on his feet as he was in a car. He had learned some techniques to defend himself which had surprised Ganz's man but without his suit or his car... He'd have to rely mostly on luck.


He rolled to hit a switch on the wall that deactivated the lights. He hoped this would disorient the Gang members and distract them in order for Eugene to get clear.


Ganz and the other man watching John took pot shots at him, but too late to do any good. Eugene was less fortunate, for he was a lot slower and right out in the open. One of the men pointed his gun and fired.


To John's horror Eugene slammed backwards and bounced off the car in the bay there and collapsed. Only John's rather unusual visual acuity caught the faint movement of a tiny object just in front of where Eugene had been standing - and something small - perhaps a few inches in length - move away at slow bullet speeds.


An instant later the yellow emergency halon activation lights came on the alarm began to blare. Someone had tripped the manual activation. In several seconds the halon would go off and oxygen would start getting sucked out of the room. But it would also fill the room with a dense fog. That would even the playing field fast.


This was an interesting turn of events... just what was that that had knocked Eugene back like that? John figured that sort of fall must have rendered him unconscious. The sound of the alarm and the flashing of the emergency lights would disorient the thugs further. He had selected priority targets, intending to take their leader down and the others and then once that was taken care of... make sure his man was okay.


Moving quickly, while the men were distracted John closed the ground between him and Ganz. He went for a sweep at the back of the man's knees to knock him flat and hopefully disarm him. He added a punch to the pressure point under the man’s arm for good measure.


One of the men went to turn his gun on John as he charged, as did another, but something - with looked like silk threads glistening in the yellow light - yanked the guns away and off toward the small storage unit and locker room. That part of the garage didn't reach the main roof. It had once been an office for the last business that had been there. Someone was up there in the darkness. In one flash of yellow light, John caught sight of a woman's head with sunglasses on.


Small objects began flying around the room bouncing harmless off the men. It was just bottles of oil, small wrenches, and the like. Then the items got larger as a plastic drum half full of rags shot across the room - attached to a silk thread. It bounced unnaturally as this time John saw what had slammed into the drum hard enough to knock it about. It was the small figure that had stopped the bullet. This time it was closer and he could tell it was human shaped.


John then moved over to the wall as fast as he could to slap a panel inset into the wall. This would override the gas and shut off the emergency lights. Once the thugs were down.


John was breathing quickly after this exertion. However he wanted to bash some more heads for all that they had done. He did not like being threatened or having other customers threatened in his own shop. His eyes looked intense as thoughts of revenge flooded his mind.


John had turned away from the halon for no more than a second when it went the sirens started up again. As he looked about for another man to go after, he saw one suddenly start getting slammed about by the tiny hero. The hero struck with all the force of a rubber bullet but it was more than enough. Another one running toward John tripped on something - another thread. They still had no clue what was hitting them.


Between flashes Eugene's body vanished. John barely caught sight of the miniature hero - much larger now moving toward the customer lounge. Another flash of light - and the door rocked opened, closing slowly on its own. Suddenly all the garage doors started rattling at once. The door to the lounge slammed shut. John saw why. There were threads attached to each one and the woman atop the locker room was yanking on them.


Cursing, the gang was starting to panic. This was just too damned weird. They headed for the customer door entrance - which swung inwards. The woman couldn't hold that shut. At first the door stuck shut and they bunched up. Again John had time to shut off the halon.


Then the door opened. As the gang made it outside the windshields, headlights, tail lights began to explode. Then one of the cars started up on its own and shifted into gear - reverse. It was as if the car was driving itself ... badly. Like the driver couldn't really see where they were going.


Then tires started blowing. John could see the cause. It was the tiny hero.


After that the gang was too damned afraid to get the cars. They started off down the street on foot. A couple of bottles of oil were tossed after them, and then finally stopped.


John opened the garage doors and watched, grinning as the gang took off running down the street. He was half tempted to shout something after them but he decided against it. That would certainly teach them... He felt his anger dissipate. He was laughing too hard to hold on to it.


Now... he wondered if what he suspected was the truth... Otherwise it was some really good tricks... Those kids had disappeared all the sudden.


He went into the lounge to check on the two kids and his employee. Where had Eugene gotten off to? "You alright big guy?" he asked the lumbering mechanic.


As soon as the commotion had suddenly stopped the kids - led by Eugene - who was trying to keep them back - poked a cautious head out. Eugene looked red faced, like he had been gut punched hard. Jennifer was jumpy, reacting to every slight movement. James looked like he had just passed through a hurricane. His hair was disheveled, clothing torn. His hands looked burned as did the side of his face. It wasn't extremely bad - more like a scald. But the kid tried to look as if nothing was wrong.


All three looked at the scene of devastation where the gang's cars had been left behind. "What happened?" James asked.


Eugene was shaking his head. "Felt like I got slammed into by a Mack truck and gut punched at the same time."


John shook his head... his eyes narrowed suspiciously. But then he sighed and shrugged, "It appears the shop has some ghosts..." He said his tone slightly facetious, "They didn't appreciate those characters muscling themselves about." He chuckled, "They sure taught them a lesson those thugs are likely not to forget." He eyed James pointedly. "What happened to you?" He gestured at the scald on the kids face.


One thing that Eugene could do was take a punch... though this was not any normal punch. "Why don't you lay down on the cot for awhile Eugene... I can take care of the rest for today." He suggested.


"I'll bring you some beer." He added smiling.


Eugene waved it off. "I'll be fine. Let me walk it off. I don't know how the guy could have missed." His face went a little ashen at that thought.


James smiled. "Well, if he hadn't, you'd never get to show me that John Henry impression you were doing with that pry bar. At least that move you made bought Jennifer and me to escape. I won't forget that. I owe you one."


Eugene didn't seem to realize exactly what he had done. But he smiled anyways. He was just glad everyone was okay. "Hell of a mess."


James' stomach rumbled. "Yeah ... tell you what. Something just reminded me I haven't eaten yet. I'll help clean up. I can start on the broken glass. Jennifer can order us some food."


Jennifer was fumbling in her purse. She pulled out lotion bottle with a green goo in it and opened it up. She glowered as James didn't hold still for her. It was, of course, aloe.


James finally noticed. "What? Oh. Thanks."


Only then did John realize just how messy the shop was... it was as though a miniature hurricane had torn through the inside of the shop. He tsked but even though it meant a lot of work he smiled. So... the kid wanted to lease some space huh? John was of half a mind to let him do more than that... he didn't want to let on what he thought he knew, at least not in front of Eugene. However, the way he was looking at the kids they might have thought he was up to something.


"I appreciate the help cleaning up..." He said nodding though there was an odd tone to his voice as though he meant more than he said. "I really do. This shop is a wreck... such a bitch to clean."


"Let me pay for the food, at least." He added looking closer at Jennifer. Yup... those sunglasses. Boy the girl was twitchy... He backed off almost as quickly as he had moved to look at her. He held up his hands to show he meant nothing aggressive by the movement.


With four people working it didn't take so long to get the place cleaned up. Even with Jennifer yawning constantly, James was a diligent worker. It was how he had started at the bookstore.