Splinterbark: For My Entertainment V2

[Lovetheangelshadow]

Chapter 1: A Last ShowCadric City Arena had been the beacon of entertainment formany locals of Cadric City. As one of the oldest still functioning buildings ofthe city, it had hosted all manner of sports, ice shows, and other venues ofentertainment. The high walls hosted the facades of archways not too unlike theRoman Coliseum and even hosted a pair of bronze athletes at the top section ofthe stairs welcoming all those to be thrilled, chilled, and scream their lungsout for sport. The only thing that was out of place with its exterior was thelarge LCD screen that was plastered to the front entrance along with the titleof FLG Systems Arena emblazoned in gaudy red neon lighting. Both additions hadlong been scenes of vocal contention from locals who argued that it ruined thetraditional façade of the historical building. In the end their discontent wasignored and the sign remained.

Two women and a child were waitingoutside at the base of the steps as the rest of the crowd was shuffling theirway inside. One was a dark haired woman tapping her fingers nervously on thepadded sleeves of her overcoat as she scanned the parking lot in the distance.The other was a blonde holding her six year old son with one hand whilenervously clutching her locket with her other. The mix of excited chatter ofchildren and parents as they pushed past them with little regard was not whatworried her. Rather it was the smaller crowd that was gliding back and forth infront of the drop-off roundabout area. Many were holding picket signs hosting picturesof animals in chains or crude drawings of evil clowns. There were one or twowith Bible quotes and other quotes from people she was not familiar with. Onewoman in particular was shouting through a megaphone and blasting disparagingremarks at the roving crowds of patrons. Her friend’s eyes kept snapping backto that crowd in particular.
“Do you think Arthur got lost, Vivian?” the blonde womanasked. Vivian didn’t seem to acknowledge her question until her friend shookher shoulder a bit violently.
“Vivian!” the woman repeated, this time noticeably louderthan even the protestor leader.
“Right…sorry Lenora. I can try calling him again. I knew Ishould’ve found the parking spot, but no he insisted no one else drives hisprecious van.”
“How can someone get so attached so such a beat up piece ofjunk?” Vivian glared slightly but just sighed and dialed her phone again. Acouple of minor dents in the roof and paint splotches don’t a junk car make.
The kid tugged at his mother’s skirt.
“Mama, when are we gonna see the clowns? I really wanna seethe clowns and the tigers and the lions and the…” He was pointing excitedly atthe screen above. On the monitor in bright reds and golds was the cursive logoof the Ronder Bailey Circus: the Flames of Laughter Spectacular.
“We’re going to wait just a little longer, Marco. UncleArthur is finding a place for the car. Remember what your papa says, some ofthe best things are for the patient. But if someone makes us miss thepre-show…”

“He’s coming, your highness. You can tell your prince thecoachman will be ready to escort him inside momentarily.” Lenora upturned hernose a bit with a ‘har har’ before giggling a bit. Vivian once again turned hergaze over to the disputing crowd.
“They have a right to fight for what they feel is just,Vivian”, Lenora miffed.
“There is a difference between standing for justice and justdo it because it makes you feel better and morally superior.” As if to proveher point the leader had maneuvered herself over towards their position. Shewas a bit of a heavyset woman with large wide mouth and squashed togetherbulbous eyes not too unlike a toad. Her dress was just so tailored to hide herunpleasant curves and her makeup made her appear older than she actually was.The woman practically pushed Vivian aside like she was a misplaced lawnornament.
“Lenora Altamiri, fancy seeing you…here. And here I thoughtsuch pedestrian form of venue wouldn’t interest someone of your class.” Sheseemed to put extra emphasis on the words pedestrian and class. Lenora justsmiled back.
“Well my son has really wanted to see a circus live and Ithought it would a nice change, Madame Tink.” The woman huffed and stared downat the boy. Marco clung to the back of his mother’s leg trying to put some kindof barrier between him and this frog woman.
“Catering to the lowers I see. And where is that godlygorgeous husband of yours, hmm?”
“Morgan is out in Egypt on business.”

“Humph, at least someone of your family has sense. How canyou support such an unjust means of entertainment? Animals should not be madeto perform for our amusement. Clowns are a disgrace. And don’t get me startedon Mr. Ronder…”
“Oooooh! Does he get into a wrestling match with astrongman?” a voice came from behind them.
“Ah good, the coachman is here. Come along Prince Marco,let’s go see some clowns”, Vivian announced half mocking and halfoverexagerating. Arthur scratched his head trying to figure out his wife’s toneand then just shrugged. Madame Tink grabbed Lenora’s arm as they made their wayup the stairs and she almost feel back on the first step.
“Think about what you are doing, Lenora. Don’t dirtyyourself with such common pleasures and…hired help.” Her last words seemed tobe directed at Vivian in particular. Arthur grabbed the woman by her lacecollar and jerked her hard up to his twisted angry face.
“Don’t…ever…call my wife hired help”, he growled threatenlyin her ear. Some of the members of the mob had made their way closer to theirleader. Arthur twisted Madame Tink around and harshly shoved her into theirarms. One of them yelled back and threatened to bludgeon him with their picketsign. Arthur was just about to roll up the sleeves of his bomber jacket whenVivian threw her arms between them.
“Arthur, no. Let’s go to our seats.”
“But…”

“Arthur!” She shot her eyes briefly towards the boy in theirgroup. “For Marco’s sake, don’t.” Arthur inhaled deeply and let his bodydeflate a little before following his wife up the stairs fully aware of thehateful glare Madame Tink was shooting at them.
Lenora had tried to get Marco to volunteer as they watchedthe preshow but each time he cowered behind the hay bale that served astemporary seating. The announcer was a tall though portly fellow dressed in along red and gold coat with silver tiger stripes along the sleeves and thesides of his white trousers. His handlebar mustache was the biggest contrast asit was jet black like the rest of his slicked down hair. The man seemed tocasually glance back several times at Lenora and winked each time making hershudder a little. She finally said she was returning to her seat up above inthe stands, though Marco didn’t want to leave. Even when slightly peeking frombehind the hay he was still enamored with the performers. Arthur volunteered toremain behind. As Vivian took her friend back to her seat, she asked if it hadanything to do with the ringmaster. Lenora responded with a small nod of herhead and finished with that she preferred to not go much further into it.
Down below someone was tossing a hard rubber mask tothemselves as the technicians placed the last few effects into place. The maskwas that of a sad clown which is more or less how they felt right now. Tonightwas to be their very first show of the season and the first time they went withthe theme of Flames of Laughter. They glared hard at every element of thestage. Their rehearsals had struggled for months to get the big act down andeven then the person felt it wasn’t ready for public showing.

“If you’re just going to stand there, at least look like aclown.” The ringmaster, Nathaniel Ronder sneered back at the person with a mildwaddle in his step. To them, Ronder reminded them of an over proud seagulldipped in curry powder.
“We’re not ready, Nathan. We shouldn’t have gone with thistheme yet.” Ronder’s face squished together as it morphed into an unpleasedcrab.
“This is your creation, my friend. You brought this to life.Here we shall show those…button mashing twats what real entertainment is like.Your mind has pushed the boundaries of what the circus can do.” The personshoved Ronder’s arm off their shoulder.
“I also want to not burn alive our audience and crew. Wecan’t afford any more accidents, Ronder. This shouldn’t even have passed thefire marshal inspection the way things are set up.” Ronder pretended to beinterested in his fingernails underneath his white gloves with a coldself-assured grin on his face.
“I have my ways. A few cut corners here and some money inpockets there has always paid off.”
“You didn’t…”
“Oh but I have. And the best part is, you can’t do a thingabout it little clown.” Suddenly there was a blasting of horns calling in thefirst chords of the show.

“And there is my cue. Remember, if it fails, it’s all yourfault. The circus and all these lovely performers will be jobless all becauseof you.”
Marco oohed and awed at the aerobatics and clapped in tuneto the clowns. He pointed excitedly at the elephants and shrunk back at thelions and tigers. Finally the big finale was about to begin. Hoops were beingerected as canisters of gas were being hooked up in record speed by thestagehands. Two aerialists were climbing to the top of the tent as the hoopsrose higher between the hanging trapezes. A circular platform was pushed to thecenter of the stage as flames began to erupt from the outer rim. A section atthe top rose as Ronder ascended from the fire and the music tuned to a steadydrum roll.
“Ladies and gentlemen of Cadric City! Tonight you have thehonor, nay the privilege, of witnessing for the first time ever our neweststunt of the season! Behold standing one hundred feet in the air our braveacrobatic knights must brave the rings of fire and save the damsel from theDragon!” The fanfare erupted as six elephants pulled from behind the corridortheir cargo. A mechanical dragon belching green smoke and fire came into viewas the elephants took their places around the ring. Each one was dressed in apurple and green scaly cape and boasting black headbands with dragon horns ontheir heads. The elephants trumpeted in unison as the rings above lit up. Thedragon was in the center and a large gleaming sword attached a platform wasabove its head.

“Now for your safety and the safety of everyone in thebuilding, we require absolute silence! Watch and revel in fear!” Ronder steppeddown and retreated backstage. The music cut out and the spotlights shone righton the first set of acrobats. Marco shivered in his seat as he saw the firstone leap into the air and grasp the trapeze. Then the second on the other sidedid the same. They swung in unison now and were just at the apex of theirswing. They both were about to leap and dive between the rings of fire to bringthe sword down upon the robotic beast when suddenly the doors of the arenaburst open and a loud harpy like shriek wailed, “STOP THIS INSULT IMMEDATELY!”The horrible impulsive clamor threw one off his focus and he opened his armstoo soon. The crux of his elbow caught on the edge of the ring and the flamesquickly entrapped around his costume. A stagehand was trying to move the safetycushion that had been at the base of the first ring knocked into the pole inhis panic causing the thing to begin to rock and tear loose from the gas pump.The other aerialist slammed into just below the flaming loop on his side and ittilted and crashed to the ground. It scratched the back of one of the elephantsand caught its cape on fire. The pachyderm began to stomp and shriek as ittried to escape the growing blaze. Forgetting it was hitched to a cart itpulled two others down to the ground along with the dragon that was stillcoughing out its fiery effects. The flames spilled out onto the straw andcrawled into the audience stands.
Stagehands andperformers were shooting back with the fire extinguishers with little avail.The fire had spread too far out. Half of the elephants had even burst out intothe backstage areas sending their flaming doom to the costumes, props, and eventhe tigers in their cages. A few unlucky people were trampled underneath asthey tried to get the panicked pachyderms under control. In the main stagepeople were frantically cramming through the exits trying to escape. In thechaos, Marco had been separated from his mother and had gotten turned aroundunderneath the sea of people and smoke. He wasn’t aware he had moved to thecenter stage. Suddenly he heard a loud crack above him and something large andheavy engulfed in fire collapsed on him. He was trapped and the flames were nowgracing his hoodie. The smoke was clouding his lungs and his eyes and he felthot and heavy. The last thing he saw was a sad clown mask darting towards him,and then nothing.

[Lovetheangelshadow]

Chapter 2: The Detectives’ New Assignment
17 years later…
Kings Island Prison-home to super powered criminals or others too dangerous to be kept in the Cadric City Jail. Surrounded by a deep icy cold moat and two miles of barren rock-the old fortress had kept many in and just as much out. At the moment there was a bit of a sizeable hole in the main entrance. Steel plates had been riveted in place to patch it until a new door could arrive. In the meantime several extra guards stood at the gate just in case.
Two detectives were inside the control room going over the footage from Metilla Gorilla’s breakout. There was some odd static interference from the camera that was pointed at his holding cell for five minutes before the feed came back online and the image of something black and gooey encompassing the beast causing it to break free of the restraints. One detective was a quite tall husky woman-not exactly fat or muscular but bulky enough to not be messed with. Thick waves of chestnut hair graced her wide face as she scanned each monitor with cold green eyes. Her partner was a bit shorter than her with a lean serpentine build. His face was sharp and eyes narrow with a small pencil thin mustache and goatee and heavy shadows around his eyes.
“What ya think, Bruce? Might be something on those few minutes-something nasty enough to turn downtown into an ape yard”, she bemused with a slight twang in her voice.
“It could be connected to the reports on monsters we’ve been getting in the past year. Supernatural stuff like this really hasn’t shown up in Cadric City in well over a decade and a half. Either way, Sierra, I don’t like it. How many convicts have not been accounted for?” This last question he directed at the guard sitting at the console. He typed in a few words into the search bar and four images appeared on the monitor.
“We’ve accounted for almost everyone save a small number. However, there hasn’t been any sign of them since the breakout two weeks ago.”
“Hmm, Boogie Betty, Crocodile Rock, Prism Beak…ooooh that’s not good”, Bruce read aloud.
“One, they have actual names, Bruce”, lectured Sierra.
“You’re asking me to place distinction. Whatever moniker they have and so called real names are the same.”
“Yeesh, you’re cold blooded. Okay we definitely know where at least one of these guys are likely to show up at. I’ll go put in a call and get extra security for LeBatte Industries.”
“For once you actually have a good idea”, Bruce teased which got him a slight backhanded punch in the shoulder from Sierra.
“The chief prosecutor is not going to be happy about that last name on here”, Bruce mused.
“Well I ain’t telling him.” Suddenly Bruce’s phone rang.
“Bruce Phyrus here. Commissioner? No, we’re not done here yet. But…very well.” He disconnected and waited for Sierra to finish her call.
“Looks like we’re done. Commissioner Kent wants us back at the station, posthaste.”
****
Neither of them were happy about this. At this moment the two of them would rather be scrounging in the tunnels of the Underground for a week than another five minutes with this slime. Deputy Mayor Foxwell stood pleasantly behind the desk of Commissioner Kent with a disapproving glare at the two of them.
“Are you sure THESE two can do the task? I thought I saw more competent looking detectives stuffing their faces in the cafeteria.” Sierra clenched and unclenched her right fist while using her other hand to hold that wrist in place on her lap underneath the table. Bruce tapped his left knee with his forefinger.
“Deputy Mayor Foxwell; this is Sierra Winters and Bruce Phyrus: two of my best detectives on the force. They’ve broken the case of the Kira murders, the Milt Street shooting, and the Wildblood disappearances. If you want the finest for what you want them to do, they’re your best choice.” Foxwell leaned in closer and flicked some cracker dust off Sierra’s shoulder.
“I suppose they’ll do. If they’re as good as you claim, then taking those vigilantes down shouldn’t take long.” The two detectives blinked at each other in confusion. Kent leaned forward and shoved forward a thin folder in their direction.
“We’re putting you on special assignment.”
“More important than dealing with the break out at King’s Island? The missing prisoners are…” Sierra huffed. Kent’s eyes seemed to flash and Sierra slunk back in her chair in apology.
“We are reassigning you to track down Silver Guardian and his unknown partner.”
“Well getting into regular contact with them would help a lot with the current situation at hand”, Bruce mused still on the line of thinking about the prison break. Foxwell slammed his palms onto the table.
“No, you snake face in a suit! You are going to arrest them!” Sierra jumped from her seat and grabbed Foxwell by his tie.
“You wanna repeat that first statement, ya pointy nosed politician?”
“Sierra!” both Bruce and Kent yelled as they pried the two apart.
“I should have your badge removed you Valkyrie faced broad! Commissioner Kent, do something with her! Have her fired!” Kent pulled him back and ordered him to sit down. With Sierra he commanded her to leave the office. Bruce was just sitting there pressing his forefinger in his bicep as he waited it out knowing it was currently the best option. When he finally emerged from the office Sierra pestered him with what happened in the half hour she waited outside. His yellow eyes glared back at her.
“It took some doing, but thankfully you’re not fired…yet. We’ve got work to do”, he finished while flapping the folder in the air.
****
The two were sitting in their joint office as they looked at the open folder between them and typing on their respective computers. On the side wall there was a map healy pockmarked by pinholes and strands of old thread. Sierra held a fistful of pushpins as Bruce read aloud what little information they had.
“So we know Silver’s first appearance was at Valdus Wyrmglade Academy”, Bruce chimed.
“So that means the Silver Guardian could be a teacher or some other employee”, Sierra responded as she shoved a pushpin into the map.
“You don’t consider the possibility he’s a student?”
“With that bod?”
“Let’s not leave out that option.” Bruce picked up a few pushpins from her and stuck them around various spots on the city map.
“And those are?”
“Silver Guardian sightings. Notice they seem to center the most around this school.”
“So, what? We pose and students and go ‘hello fellow school people, are you the Silver Guardian?” Before Bruce could respond their laptops pinged with an alert. Crocodile Rock had been seen at the jewelry district. Sierra grabbed her coat and started dashing out the door.
“Sierra where are you going? We’re supposed to be…”
“What, you don’t think an 8 foot stone gator isn’t going to attract a certain flying vigilante? I’ve got dibs on driving!”

[Lovetheangelshadow]

Chapter 3: Crocodile RockSapphire Row also known as the Cadric City jewelry district was a long street of small and corporate shops selling anything from homemade hair weaves, to the fanciest ruby necklaces, and even uncut stones under the table if you knew who to ask. Usually during the late afternoon and early evening hours this place would be packed with browsing high class shoppers and the seedier class, so naturally a rampaging granite monolith now tearing apart a sedan and hurling it at the half broken face of a retaining wall would clear everyone out. The creature stood tall and every inch of his form was densely packed with overblown muscles. The beast was a ginormous brute with a long crocodile face for a head. Long jagged spines ran along its back and its thick meaty tail pounded the ground in rhythmic fashion. Lengthy claws ripped away the metal framework of his makeshift weapon as easy as sliced cheese as he continued to chuck away at the two pests that had gotten in his way. An extensive ugly fanged snout snapped at the air barking for the two insects to come out and fight him.
Silver Guardian and Splinterbark had their backs pressed against the wall as debris soared above their heads. Splinterbark’s helmet was a bit cracked and the hand of her hook staff had been snapped in two. Silver was clutching his chest as three long scratches had cut a bit deep into his skin. He only had bled a little but it was enough for it to be uncomfortable against the chilly autumn evening air.
“Well this is a brilliant mess you have gotten us in to”, Silver barked over his shoulder.
“My mess? You’re the one who went in head first! And who didn’t know it literally meant an anthropomorphic crocodile made of rock and not a piano villain who quoted Elton John lyrics?! Even Golden wasn’t this reckless.” Splinterbark retorted back. She suddenly had to duck and roll to the side as one of the bricks from their shield wall came loose and almost conked her in the head.
“And need I remind you if that green bug of yours gets hurt, you do as well?” Frix was currently sitting in the collar of Splinterbark’s coat rubbing his arms. He was a bit bruised, but otherwise unharmed.
“Mia culpa, Silver Guardian. Apparently that thing CAN see me.”
“What was your first clue? The green glowing eyes and the funny markings on its torso…SHIT!”
The entire front end of another car had smashed through the center line of their safety wall. The bricks rumbled a bit already threating to collapse down on their entire heads. Silver threw his body between Splinterbark and the rubble as the partition came crashing down and completely buried them. Crocodile Rock cackled and slammed his tail in triumph as he gathered his bag of loot and proceeded to the next store down the block.
“All right you honkey cats, hand over the rocks or these fists are gonna play your song for a funeral!”
Splinterbark had managed to finally force one eye open. Silver had curved his wings above them to create a makeshift cavern that the brick had sealed them in. His form was shaking slightly trying to keep the wreckage from crushing her and Frix. Otherwise he would have just let it fall around him.
“Believe it or not, this is actually rather heavy”, he hissed. Splinterbark maneuvered just underneath his torso and with a hard shove both of them released themselves from the prison. She tapped her ear piece and shook her head.
“Yeah the thing is still broken. No way for Blackbird to give us some hints here.” Silver folded his arms and tched.
“I don’t need some one-armed guidance counselor to tell me how to win a fight.”
“Woah steady there, partner. Need I remind you that thing actually made you bleed? And you’re supposed to be the invincible one remember? We kinda sorta don’t know exactly what your weaknesses are here. I mean the Golden Guardian didn’t seem to have any weaknesses…”
“Say that name one more time…” Silver growled. There were several screams coming from the store just across from them as Crocodile Rock burst out the display window. A patron who had gotten too close was in his free hand and limp like a broken doll as the beast tossed it behind him. Silver rolled up one sleeve and started marching towards the monster.
“You try to figure out its weakness and I’ll keep him in one spot”, he ordered before sliding in between Crocodile Rock and his escape.
“Well well well if it ain’t the skyline pigeon! Where’s your tiny dancer friend eh?” Silver didn’t respond and just rose up his fists higher in front of his face. The stone reptilian placed down his bag and all rows of his teeth shone in the sunset lighting.
“Good thing it’s a Saturday night, ya little punk. Let’s see if you can brawl better this time.”
Crocodile Rock lunged first with his mouth fully opened and aimed for Silver’s head. Silver ducked but the beast had managed to snap his jaws on the ends on the angel’s hair. The beast slammed down on all fours as it landed and Silver’s body bounced behind him. The monster shook their head from side to side in increasing frantic pace jostling the angel around in their head in the air. With a free hand, Crocodile Rock wrenched the golden hair from his mouth and swung his enemy like a javelin and tossed him hard across the street. Silver’s body bounced and rolled before stopping by colliding into the support posts of the Sapphire Row sign. Silver punched himself up and flapped towards the fleeing criminal. He grasped the beast’s tail and jerked but made little impact on the heavy creature. Crocodile Rock turned his massive head around and snorted with amusement.
“Still standing eh? You’re spunky, I’ll give you that much.”
Silver deflected a punch to the face but the beast was fast and twisted its massive form so the full weight of his back pummeled the angel unto the ground. The spines dug hard into Silver’s wings and he shrieked at the feeling of a thousand pins in his back. Crocodile Rock curled over and then slammed once more again while Silver was still trying to get up off the floor and holding him flat under his massive girth.
“Too bad. The Golden Guardian gave me more of a challenge”, Crocodile Rock hissed in his ear. The Silver Guardian snarled and slammed a hard elbow strike into the beast’s lower abdomen. This somehow managed to make the criminal stunned just long enough to stagger back and pause. He didn’t even see the secondary uppercut to his throat followed by a series of rapid punches to his underside. The Silver Guardian then latched their hands onto the folds of crocodile’s neck and rammed them hard repeatedly into the center fountain. Before the stone goliath had a chance to even slide onto the ground, Silver chucked them onto their back and smashed their spines. Then he repeatedly began to pound the monster repeatedly in the stomach. The runes engraved on his stony flesh crackled and sparked as Silver pounded the creature until it crumpled to the ground. He let out a long choking cough before he finally stopped moving. Splinterbark finally got up from her spot with phone in hand.
“Okay it looks like there is a weak area in his abdomen where the runes are aaaaannnddd you already figured that out.” Splinterbark could clearly see the the fist sized cracks and crevices where Silver had struck even from where she stood. They were rather quite deep and she thought she saw some holes where light was shining through. The monster was still breathing but it interrupted with the occasional rough coughs.
Before she cold voice her concern, the wails of police sirens filled the air as several police cars surrounded the area. Silver grabbed Crocodile Rock by his tail and proceeded to drag the body closer to the cops. His proud smile was extinguished as the siren’s song was replaced by the loud clicks of guns being taken off safety and pointed directly at them. Bruce and Sierra were in front of the police force.
“Silver Guardian, Splinterbark, you’re under arrest!” Bruce informed them. “Hands up, now!” The duo slowly put their hands up in the air and Crocodile Rock’s body bounced a bit on the pavement as Silver had dropped him.
“What is going on here? We just took care of a felon and we are the ones under arrest?” Silver bellowed.
“Do you think they’re still mad about the news station?” Splinterbark asked him under her breath. Bruce and Sierra were the first to move in, pistols still trained solely on the two. Sierra examined the stone felon’s body and shouted into her radio for an ambulance and King’s Island techs.
“This guy is pretty messed up shape for a stone croc, Bruce”, she informed him.
“I think that answers your question perfectly well, Silver Guardian. Now come quietly to the station or we will use force.” Silver Guardian snarled as Bruce pulled the handcuffs from his coat.
“Pika!” Splinterbark suddenly shrieked. The area immediately became flooded with white light forcing Bruce to shield his eyes. He tumbled his body toward hoping to still grab the sizeable angel only to feel empty air before him. When the light finally died down, the two superheroes were gone. Sierra happened to look up and see a humanoid shape flapping away from them, but she didn’t say a word out loud. She just inhaled deeply as the ambulance maneuvered their way through and she proceeded to help lug Crocodile Rock’s body into the extra-large vehicle.

[Lovetheangelshadow]

Chapter 4: The New PolicyIt was rather early on campus the following Monday as Shelly’s mother dropped her off in front of the school. Her father had to work extra hours before opening the store due to the damage done to the wood carvings at the Dougal Regal Arms and Vivian was called in to work at the station. Today was Sam’s day off and he usually rode out of town to who knows where. Shelly had often asked and even tried to follow him once by hiding in his sidecar only to realize of course he wouldn’t have it hitched when he went off solo. Thankfully the campus’ library was open before the main classes to let students get in some last minute studying. And if nothing else, she figured Thomas might already be at the track outside despite the damage to the school field. She waved her mother goodbye just as a blue and neon green scooter had pulled in to the student parking lot.
Thomas pulled off his helmet and waved when he saw her.
“You’re here early. Looking to get in some leg day work this morning?”
“Daddy’s still got to fix stuff for Mister Dougal and Mom has to work early”, she informed him.
“Right, right, the Metilla thing. You’re in a good mood soooo that means you haven’t seen the news this morning?”
“Just because my mom works there, does not mean I’m that enamored with the stuff.”
Thomas held out his phone screen in her direction.
“This came out early this morning. Actually I’m kinda glad you’re seeing this before Reed…I hope.”
The two started walking together towards the library as Shelly watched the video. At the desk was Suri Monkrey and the weasel faced man she had seen at city hall during the gorilla seige. Already Shelly knew she was not going to enjoy this.
“Today with us we have Deputy Mayor Foxwell who is bringing us the first look of a new policy for our fair city regarding supers. Mr. Foxwell, you mentioned before the show of a new law regarding vigilante superheroes moving forward. Please, elaborate on that.” Shelly’s hand tightened on the phone case. She really really did not like that sickly sweet smile that woman was presenting. The deputy mayor adjusted his collar and Frix snipped out he reminded him of a little like a bird looking for a mate.
“As you know, our dear Mayor Ambrose is still in the hospital recovering from his terrible ordeal involving Metilla Gorilla. An ordeal, that we should remind our valued watchers, a certain grey winged pretender failed to keep from happening in the first place?” Shelly felt her grip shake a little and Thomas grasped her shoulder trying to reassure her.
“That is so not fair. How were we supposed to know about that break out with the ghostbuster ooze powers?”
“That’s not the part you need to be worried about.” He ran his finger along the time bar and forwarded it a few minutes. The video buffered a little before starting back up again.
“…hence I have brought to the minds of our great city council a Zero Tolerance Policy against Superheroes in Cadric City. We can’t have costumed freaks running around dispensing ‘justice’ while destroying our beautiful city. We cannot have our hospitals filled with the bodies of fools thinking they can be heroes and innocent people caught in the crossfire.”
“And what of the Golden Guardian? We have been told he has been eliminated but there hasn’t been any proof.” Suri inquired.
“Oh of course you’d want to defend him-someone who has protected this city for several years. But how do we know it wasn’t a ploy? Someone with that kind of power is too dangerous to be fully trusted and Silver is even worse. Don’t you currently still have massive damages to this very building because of his and that pink girl’s actions?” Suri shifted slightly uncomfortably in her seat as Foxwell kept wagging his finger in her face while continuing to spout shame in preserving the Golden Guardian. It made Shelly and Frix smile a little, but only just minutely. Thomas paused the video and slipped the phone from her hands. Now not fearing she could have broken his phone, Shelly stomped her foot.
“That’s not fair! We’re putting our butts on the line because the Golden Guardian isn’t here! We’re trying to protect this city and suddenly we’re the bad guys?” Frix hopped to the top of her head and stabbed his talons forward in the air.
“I say we demand an audience with this monkey woman and tell them to back off. Threaten the city’s safety if they don’t show us respect! Show them their weakness and necessity of our being!” Shelly waved her heads in the air before plucking him off her hair bow.
“Woah woah woah, that’s so not going to happen. Sure it’s tempting but…no I’m not being a coward here. Neither of us are bulletproof.” Thomas just stood there with a raised eyebrow. He had already been explained to about Frix’s existence and why Thomas could not see or hear him, but it was still a little weird to see Shelly talking to basically air in his eyes. All of a sudden Shelly swing a wide arc with her fist in the air and then reeled back griping her own cheek in pain.
“Fists aren’t going to help here. You got to be smart about this. Besides, it’s Reed I’m worried about”, Thomas remarked. Shelly clamped her left hand on Frix’s snout to shut him up and nodded. How was Reed going to react when he saw this? A flash of memory regarding yesterday made her shudder a little.
****
In the Altamiri household, the television had been on since before dawn and tuned in to the news. Marco and his father had just muted the TV as the station had repeated the proposed policy before retiring back to further interviewing the deputy mayor about how he intended to implement this new law.
“This isn’t good, don’t people have to like vote for something like this?” Marco questioned his father. Morgan just stood there, arms crossed and glared at the monitor.
“He’s been hoping for an excuse like this for years even before I came back to the States as the Golden Guardian. The thief finally gave him the opportunity he’s been waiting for. This is all that so called Silver Guardian’s fault. He’s destroying everything I’ve built. If you hadn’t lost the ring…”
“Dad, we’ve been through this. I didn’t lose the ring. I put it in my safe just like you asked and ensured it was locked! Look, wild idea here, but maybe we could like work with the Silver Guardian? Maybe offer some pointers? Just saying.” Suddenly Morgan grasped his son’s necktie and jerked it almost cutting off the air from his son’s throat.
“If I catch you being friendly with that crook…”
“Gakay gackay, yak mak ya point” Marco gasped. Marco was just heaving air back into his lungs when Lenora just now rolled into the room.
“I thought I heard someone choking. Is everything alright?” Marco forced a smile and assured her everything was just fine. No one had noticed Reed in the shadows of the alcove just inside the hallway. So his father was blaming him for this mess? A mess he had no control over? Well he was just going to have to prove his father wrong, wasn’t he?
****
Thomas and Shelly anxiously waited for their third as homeroom began to fill up. Reed looked less than his usual pristine self when he finally took his seat beside Thomas. Any other time Shelly would have been pleased with his loosing up his over immaculate appearance for once, but the dark circles and furrowed brow marring his face suggested anything other than relaxation.
“Think he saw the video?” Shelly mouthed towards Thomas to which his nodded slowly.
“I’m not as oblivious as I look”, Reed snapped. Both of them uttered an apology as they pulled out their notebooks for the morning’s reports.
“You saw the broadcast then”, he grumbled at last. Shelly looked around her. Everyone else was thankfully into their own thing and not paying attention.
“What are we doing to do? I really don’t like the idea of going against the police.” Reed did not respond and just kept tapping his pencil against the back of his notebook.
“My idea still stands”, Frix called out from the backpack.
“For the last time, no”, Shelly hissed.
“What did he suggest?” Reed queried.
“Coerce an interview to talk about our side of the Metilla Gorilla story. Or maybe something about display of force.” This somehow made Reed grin a little and chuckle darkly.
“So basically act like a supervillain? As entertaining as that idea is; I am trying to rise above the Golden Guardian, not sink below.” Shelly breathed a small inward sigh of relief much to Frix’s grumbling. The entrance of their homeroom teacher broke the conversation and things resumed as normal.
****
Sundown had long set upon Cadric City as Hunter bounded from roof to roof across the city skyline. So far he had not seen or sensed a single monster that night. This was not the first night he had encountered where there were no beasts in the year he had been doing this, but tonight something felt off. Like whatever gate to the place that had spawned these beasts had been shut off. Hunter groaned as he finally stopped for a breather on a restaurant roof and began to pick at the tarred gravel with the tip of his sword. Jinn finally caught up to her partner as he paced anxiously back and forth at quickening pace.
“Looks like there isn’t anything happening tonight. Or is your spooky sense not working today, hmm?” she needled him. Hunter pouted out his lip.
“We agreed to call it my Hunter Sense, thank you very much. And no it’s not broken.” Hunter then chanced to glance down below and a conniving grin spread across his face. Parked in front of the restaurant was a police van and two smaller police cruisers.
“That’ll do just nicely to stem the boredom.”
“What are you…HUNTER STOP!”
Her cries were far too late. Hunter had already done a backflip off the roof and slid down the restaurant sign before finally making a nearly soundless landing on top of the police van. He hung himself over the side and found the automobile empty. He cackled as he pulled himself back up and tapped his battle talons on the siren light. Small sparks of dark magic began to dance about his fingertips before he ran one long talon across the entire length of the housing. The siren lights growled to life as the bulbs began to spin first blue and then purple and back to blue again. Hunter spun on his heel and snapped his fingers in the direction of the cruiser behind the van and then to the one in front. Their light housings also began to spark to life and illuminate the street. Satisfied with the display, Hunter tapped his foot in rhythm on the roof of the car as Jinn was making her way down. Not even acknowledging her presence Hunter began to shuffle and slide into a tap dance routine with the sharp clacks of the heels of his boots gradually growing louder. She grabbed his arm and yelled at him repeatedly they had to leave right that minute.
His amusement was halted by the sound of four loud clicks of shotguns in surround sound and the yelling of “FREEZE!” The cops whom the vehicles belonged to had dashed out of the restaurant and somehow now had the larger of their firearms pointed directly at the witch and the devil.
“HANDS UP!” The duo did though Hunter was still smirking. He snapped his fingers and the lights cut dead.
“Okay, see? I turned them off. All is good right? No real harm done.” He stepped forward a bit and was met with a shot flying just above his head.
“Black Beetle, you and your partner are under arrest for violating the Zero Tolerance of Supers Act”, one of the officers informed them. It was impossible to tell under his helmet and visor but Hunter was genuinely confused.
“The what of what now?”
“That is what I was TRYING to tell you before you decided to play dance dance revolution on the police van”, Jinn hissed under her breath towards him. The four policemen inched closer with their guns still trained on them.
“Sneeze and smoke?” Hunter whispered to his companion.
“You’d better hurry it then.” Hunter suddenly let out a loud sneeze and a cloud of black smoke erupted around them. It spiraled upwards a bit before completely clearing out and the two were gone. One cop chanced to look up and saw Hunter running up the side of the apartment wall adjacent to the restaurant. He yelled for them to open fire. Hunter’s demonic reflexes allowed him to maneuver out of most of the shots until one got lucky and graced against his ankle. He lost his footing against the wall and began to backwards. He was stopped only by Jinn encasing him inside a bubble and hauling him up onto the roof.
“All units, Black Beetle and a witch dressed in blue and pink has been seen on the roof of the Avalon Apartments on the corner of Milt and Grizz. Suspect might be wounded in left leg. Requesting helicopter surveillance.”
The two were tucked in the shadow of the air conditioning unit with Hunter clutching his lower leg. Blood was trickling between his fingers and he was snarling at the fierily stabbing pain in his ankle. Jinn barked for him to quit grumbling as she plucked out one orb from the center of her staff and fished in her satchel for a different one. It took some shuffling but Jinn managed to procure an olive green sphere that she pushed into the center and waited for the staff to calibrate. The magic inside the center ring finally faded to near transparency and she forced open Hunter’s hands and place the staff against his wound. The orb shone faintly as small slivers of green mist dripped from the stone’s surface and melted into Hunter’s flesh. The buggy Beelzebub winced sharply as the wound closed and the fabric of his sock sewed itself back together. She punched him slightly in the arm once she was done.
“That is what you get for being a damn idiot just because you were bored.”
“How the heck was I supposed to know they’d actually shoot? They’ve never shot at us before.”
“Did you NOT see the news this morning?” He gave her a look as if her question was the dumbest thing he heard her say tonight. Jinn listed off the news broadcast briefly before Hunter told her he could hear footsteps coming up the stairs. He pointed silently to the left of them to another roof just slightly lower than where they were. Their best bet was getting into Cadric Park where they could disappear into the Underground.
Hunter unsteadily got to his feet and grabbed Jinn’s hand. She barely reacted before he took off in a running start and leapt into the air just as the cops had barged onto the apartment roof. The leap was a bit rough and the pair tumbled roughly against the graveled surface. Suggesting they could move faster flying, Jinn got on her staff and flew just behind Hunter. She still hadn’t convinced him to ride with her even when there was plenty of room. Hunter dove in between the two consecutive buildings and sidestepped parkour down into the alleyway below. They could hear a pair of sirens screeching towards blocking the way. The alley had only one entrance from the street before it deadened into a large patrician wall. This would have halted any normal human, but it was nothing as Hunter scaled the wall effortlessly like an ant on a tree. He had to cut his way through the cluster of garbage cans before finally going out into the street on the other side. The park was now just ahead of them. He whistled for Jinn and she emerged from where she had been flying close to the wall. A police cruiser had barreled around the corner and was trying to block them in the middle of the street. The insectoid imp was able to bounce over the vehicle as they disappeared into the Cadric City Park.
Cadric City Park was a dense area of forest-like running/biking trails, various playgrounds, and an open air auditorium. At night it was only sparsely lit and one of the less heavily patrolled areas of the city. The witch and devil crept low to the ground keeping out of the few streetlights in the area before at last getting to a statue of Valdus Wyrmglade. The statue was halfway overgrown with foliage and now in the fall it looked like he was being devoured alive by gnarled black tendrils. The statue had several hedges that surrounded it and a stone wall behind it also covered with greenery. Hunter and Jinn pushed one of these hedges aside showing a large grate under one of them. With some effort Hunter hefted the grate up and the two climbed down into the Underground below. The grate was deep in the darkest shadows of the park at night and unless you knew exactly where to look, you would not have known about it in the first place. The two had stumbled on it by accident last year while tracking a creature that had this nasty habit of attacking lovers in the park. Now down below, the pair finally had a chance to breathe.
“Well, things have certainly gotten interesting”, Hunter low key chuckled. His remark was let with a slap from his companion.
“Are you serious? We almost got arrested and need I remind you that you just got shot in the leg? You’re lucky it was just a graze wound. What if it had been worse?” Hunter just shrugged.
“So we have to be a bit sneakier. Honestly the monster hunting was getting a bit droll. Nothing like the threat of being captured to spice things up.”
“Argh, I don’t understand you sometimes, Hunter. Fine, go ahead and be a moron. I’ve had enough for tonight. I’m going home.” She was quick to fly off before Hunter could respond with some witty remark. He started walking off in the opposite direction before something made him pause. Some strange feeling made him suddenly worry for the pink pixie. He shook his head rapidly and rapped the palm of his hand against the side of his helmet to knock out such a sentiment. The only person he need to care for was himself.

[Lovetheangelshadow]

Chapter 5: Pre Show to TerrorClose second only to the Dougal name, LeBatte Industries was practically a household name to the citizens of Cadric City. They had their hands in many a technological pie from the complex and specialized biotech to the common smartphone. Even certain types of vehicles, private and public, had been outfitted from LeBatte tech. Their main laboratories were housed in the heart of downtown in the form of LeBatte Towers. The monolithic structure was practically the tallest building in the City and its most prominent feature was the Spire. The structure was a series of twisting iron branches that formed into the shape not too unlike an eye with a flat glowing disc in the center. It was also one of the most heavily fortified and secured locations in the city that some joked that rivaled Kings Island or even the Pentagon.
A figure stood across the street hidden underneath the shadows of the trees from Cadric City Park. They happened to glance their long pallid neck over their shoulder as they chanced to see two costumed figures, one dressed like a witch and the other some kind of bug, disappear into the park with the cops in hot pursuit. Curiosity was trying to pull them into following but they slapped their rubber face and forced themselves to look straight forward. They had to remember why they were here. And now they could take advantage of this opportune distraction. They clicked their heels together and the heels of their crimson boots extended into stilts. Still keeping to the section of the street that was not illuminated, they casually stepped over the barbed fence and then immediately shrunk down once over.
Like a roach they scuttled across the parking lot sliding between the few cars that were still there. They had to move fast and precise if they were to not be detected by the three cameras facing this lot alone. Still in the blind spot of the camera they counted each car between them and the outer wall. There were about four. This was going to be a bit trickier than they thought, but they could still manage. From underneath the lower flaps of their flame red coat, they procured a bird cage stuffed tightly with doves. They released one dove and as it frantically fluttered to freedom they leapt and rolled to the silhouette of the next vehicle. This they repeated two more times before they were just one row away from the building itself. The figure rolled back their left sleeve slightly and revealed a nozzle affixed to a bangle with colored dots. They twisted the bangle until a blue dot lined up with the top of their wrist. They then affixed a balloon to the nozzle and pressed their pointer and ring fingers against the palm switch. Once the balloon had been inflated to a satisfactory size, they deftly tied a string and let it soar across the three cameras.
They pressed their body tight against the wall and then began to scale it. The cameras were just at an angle they could conceal under. As they ascended higher they lightly pressed their hand against the windows until they found one to their needs. The thief pressed the pointed ends of their glove against the glass and twisted carefully as they cut a whole large enough for them to slip their arm through and undo the catch. Once inside they sprayed a bit of foam on the hole they had made and shoved the cut piece back inside. They waited a moment and then nodded that the temperature sensor had not gone off.
Still inside the room, they pulled out a map from the numerous pockets in their coat. Their objective was up one more level than they had calculated. So the bandit had to adjust. They peeked outside and traced a route on their map. The hall was empty for the moment and half the lights were off. As they ran down the hall to the stairs the lights suddenly flashed to life. Of course, they had forgotten they were on a motion sensor for energy purposes. Hissing underneath the mask they ran faster hoping none of the guards noticed their presence. They kept running even inside the stairwell until they made their escape to the upper floor. They had only stopped to take a breath once they were at the top. With one steady leap they latched themselves to the ceiling as they head footsteps approaching from the far end of the passage.
Two employees were conversing as they came closer to the costumed intruder. They were chatting away about that morning’s news from Foxwell and having quite the argument of opinions. The thief was glad that people rarely ever looked up and why would they with ceiling lights bright enough to accentuate the very pores on someone’s face. They stopped just below the intruder and one began to fiddle with their card key trying to get into the room. As they walked in, the rouge swung their body inside and landed directly behind them. They heard the slight flutter puff of the ruby coat and turned to face a peculiar sight.
The person was tall though it was aligned a bit to the right as if one leg was shortened. A long red coat concealed their form so it was next to impossible to figure out the gender of this being. The coat was a brilliant red with glittering yellow flames adorning the ragged and charred lower frock and sleeves. Concealing their face was a rubber clown mask. The bright blue tears had bubbled slightly and the frown had been melted and forced into a garish smile. Completing the look as a page cut red and black wig with a yellow top hat. One of the employees demanded to know what this gaudy clown wanted. When the clown spoke their voice came out like a mix of echoing distortion and static like a pitch lowered ancient radio.
“Hand over your keys if you please”, they gurgled. One worker began to sidestep to the wall and their hand was almost above the alarm handle. They did not succeed as a knife plunged into the back of their hand and pinned them to the table. The clown had not moved from where it stood. Instead they just wagged their finger shaming the man trying to free himself from the furniture. They then turned to the other operative and opened their left palm and twisted the bangle to the pink dot. A stream of confetti exploded in front of the employees face as the strips of paper clung to their skin. At first they laughed it off before they began to feel woozy.
“Sleepy time confetti: paper coated with a tranquilizer designed to be absorbed into the skin on contact.” As the worker crumpled to the ground in slumber, the clown helped themselves to the card still in their hand. They saluted to the other engineer who was trying to gather up the nerve to jerk the knife out before departing the room.
They had little time to wander now they had been spotted. The clown took long hasty strides as they traced their black gloved hand along the placards labeling each door. At last it came to the door marked “King’s Island Confiscated Tech”. They grinned a broken smirk as they slid inside. The room alone took up a sizeable section of the floor. Each shelf was stuffed to every inch with steel boxes of various sizes with their information written in permeant marker on a notecard. To any ambitious thief this room alone would be a golden treasure trove of weapons for their own use or to sell. As tempting as it was the clown ignored everything until it came to Section P. From there they sped read every card until it located the target of their search. They jerked the box off their shelf and wrapped it up in straps making a makeshift parcel for them to carry on their back.
No sooner had they hoisted the prize over their shoulders did the alarm suddenly blare out. The clown chuckled that it took them this long to cause a ruckus. They turned their bangle to yellow as they heard heavy footsteps rushing towards their positron. The clown also managed to snag one other item as they made their way towards the door. The door slammed open and a guard yelled out of the thief to revel themselves. The clown slid out with the body sized canister on their back and a balloon dog in their free hand.
“Don’t shoot”, the harlequin spoke as they let go of the balloon. A small fan at the base of the animal made it effortlessly glide towards the sentries. One fired two shots at the balloon creature and it exploded. Massive puffs of green gas exploded from the outset and the guards began to choke and cover their eyes as they began to tear up and sting. Using their stilt boots, the clown vaulted over the soldiers and chucked, “I told you not to shoot.”
The clown turned into another empty room and saw steel shutters had sealed up the window. From another pocket, they tossed a red ball and it splatted against the metal casing. The metallic shutter began to sizzle and drip onto the sill as a cavernous opening appeared. Peeking outside the thief spotted a sizeable pole that likely served as a conduit for electrical and cables. They fired the pistol at their hip and a steel top followed by a coiled cable embedded itself into the wooden pole. They pressed the handle against the exterior wall and pressed another button. A miniature explosion cartridge embedded another spearhead into the plaster making the steel line taught. The clown hoisted themselves along the cable with a staff and tried to slide down. They did not take into account the extra weight of their parcel and the cable strained and stretched down. The sudden slack made the end embedded in the exterior wall to snap off and the cable plummeted downward. They had just managed to wrap a small part of the cable around their hand as they swung in a downwards arc towards the barbed fence. They just barely cleared the fence with some small shock to the inside of one of their boots.
The security team had just pulled out in their own enforcer vehicles to see a figure riding a motorized unicycle and speeding down the main street. They were quick to pursuit the cycle and had almost surrounded it when it suddenly wobbled and collided into the sidewalk. Shining their lights onto the motionless body, one pulled back the coat to reveal noting more than a mannequin that had been strapped to the cycle with weights to give it balance. A couple of the officers barked orders to search the immediate area.
Tucked away in a side alley was a hobo dressed in a long tattered brown coat and porkpie hat. At their feet was a cardboard box with childish scribbles on it. A sentry happened to see the fellow and requested they halt as they attempted to shuffle away with their box. They asked the vagrant if they had seen a clown dressed in a red coat with a steel box. The tramp mumbled through jagged teeth that he saw a red flash going south, but he didn’t know what it was. The guard looked at the fellow suspiciously and their light moved up slowly to their face. Their illuminated appearance made the guard recoil back in horror and they hastily apologized before running down southwards.
The vagrant maneuvered their way to the outer edges of Cadric City to where several condemned buildings stood crookedly like ancient decaying gravestones. Drifters of all manners often slunked here and the tramp blended in just right. It finally stopped at the remains of a stationary shop and pushed the door in with little effort. They dragged their box up to the apartment upstairs and knocked on the few good doors in the building.
“Go away ya tramps!” A gruff voice snarled on the other side.
“Oooooohhh Harry, and here I made all this effort to bring you a present. Looks like I get it all to myself.” There was a rapid succession of unlatching of locks and the door thrust open. An older gentleman, roughly 60 years of age, with a plump balding head and stocky limbs shoved their face into that of the vagrant. He grabbed the box and jerked it inside with the visitor still clutching the straps tightly. Once inside the hobo closed and latched the door as the bald man tore away at the straps sealing the case like a kid impatient for Christmas. His beady gray eyes scanned with greedy fervor as he removed each piece that had been neatly packaged in form fitting foam. The man took little time in outfitting the armor within all the while making a chortle between a short and a giggle. Meanwhile the vagrant had turned out their coat, tore away the boot coverings, and spin the porkpie hat inside out until the crown extended back to its original top hat shape. They had long returned their mask back to their face after being spotted by the guard as it was not something they were pleased in sharing.
Once Henry had suited up he admired himself in the grimy mirror in the room.
“So you actually did it. Who knew it would take a clown to break in to that place? Did you happen to get anything else?” Henry could see their harlequin guest glare back with colorless eyes.
“Okay, okay, no need to get sore. You did your half of the bargain. There is just one problem.” He aimed a weapon mounted onto their arms and pointed directly at the joker.
“I changed my mind!” The weapon glowed as it warmed up but then suddenly cut out. Henry slapped their heavy glove on the casing and shook it snarling what was wrong with it.
“What did you do to my precious prism cannon you Circus Freak?” Circus Freak wagged their finger to shame Henry.
“I had a feeling you’d pull something like this. So I commissioned a little something extra to my initial order.” They revealed a small remote from their hand.
“Just a little cutoff switch. You follow my plan and we both get what we want. Deviate or refuse and I am more than happy to get you sent right back to King’s Island. Remember, I found you AND offered a foolproof plan for your revenge in exchange for a small time of your special services. Do we have an accord…Prism Beak?”

[Lovetheangelshadow]

Chapter 6: The First Sparks of TensionReed and Shelly were sitting in Blackbird’s underground office as the old gentleman pulled up several still images on the monitors. A few were a bit hazy but the bright red smudge clearly did not belong there in the white sterile walls of LeBatte Industries.
“These were taken from the LeBatte Tower last night.” Reed raised an inquisitive eyebrow and raised his hand in question.
“To answer your question, I have a few old friends who work inside the building. They…keep me informed on unusual activity.” Blackbird typed in a few keystrokes and a floor map popped up on one of the screens.
“The theft happened last night on the fifth floor. There isn’t much except for what is known as the Second Vault. Contraband supervillain tech is often housed there when they’re examining or experimenting with it.”
“Sounds more like a ticking time bomb”, Shelly commented, a comment that made Blackbird chuckle.
“Right now they don’t know exactly what was taken. But this is the best image of the culprit I could get.” The image was a bit imprecise, but clear enough to show a clown dressed in a fire red coat with a pageboy haircut and a clown mask.
“Great, we have gotten our own clown villain”, Reed groaned.
“Awesome, we’ve got our own clown villain”, Shelly piped eagerly ignoring the annoyed glare from both her partners. Blackbird turned off the feed and tapped his chin.
“I wish I could tell you two more right now, but I thought it best to let you know. After the breakout at King’s Island, there will be felons loose out now you need to be wary off.”
“Just like you warned us about the Zero Tolerance policy?” Reed snapped. Blackbird did not even look at him.
“You knew. You knew didn’t you?!” Reed repeated with a rising voice.
“I didn’t know how it was going to come about.”
“And you could not tell us? I almost got shot the other day in case you did not know!” Shelly pressed her hands against Reed and pushed him back trying to get him to calm down.
“Ahem, WE almost got shot. And only one of us is bulletproof, remember?” Reed grumbled a correction-halfhearted as it was.
“You better learn to control your temper”, Blackbird responded coldly. His eye turned cold as he rose up from his seat and stood at full height above Reed.
“Do you not think I know what you did to Crocodile Rock? I understand your feeling of pressure; but if you let that anger of yours control your actions you will go in directions you will regret. And if you don’t curb that problem of yours I will see you benched.” Reed barred his teeth a bit.
“I do not know what you are talking about. And the only problem I have is getting unfairly arrested by this ungrateful city!” Blackbird just stared right back at the boy without flinching. Something in that stare must’ve gotten through because Reed inhaled uneasily before breathing out and deflating in posture.
Frix tapped the underside of his rodential chin and grinned a bit. A pity this boy had not become his partner. The alarms suddenly blared and the monitors flashed a map and the console flashed a red light in the corner. Blackbird pressed the switch near the light and slightly static audio played on the speakers in the training room.
“All units in the Fletcher District. We have a 10-70 Code Four at the Altamiri Studios on the corner of Fletcher and Brown. All available units please respond.” Reed’s eyes went wide for a moment before he shouted the incantation. He had just barely completed the transformation when the radio went off once more.
“Attention all units, attention all units reports of a visual on a suspect. Hostage situation possible. Be warned, suspect is armed.” Shelly yelled for her partner to wait for her, but Silver was already flapping down the exit tunnel outside.
****
Altamiri Studios was a warehouse-like building located just on the edge of the downtown district and not too far away from Cadric Community College. Aside from filming local commercials for clients hiring Altamiri Advertising, the space was also often rented out to the various schools for student projects or out of town film students. Silver knew perfectly well the route to the studio even navigating the curved roads and narrow pathways that made Cadric downtown a living maze. His heart was also frantically beating against his chest remembering that Marco was supposed to be down there overseeing a recent project order.
The studio was half in a blaze as firefighters were trying to keep it from pressing forward. Outside the paramedics were pulling out people and passing oxygen masks to some coughing up smoke. Disregarding that stupid policy, Silver landed in front of a group he assumed to be in charge. An older man wearing a black and yellow striped fire coat was ordering the men to contain the blaze He noticed the Silver Guardian almost immediately.
“Silver Guardian, what are you doing here?” The tone was much more of in surprise than anger.
“I’m here to help. Has everyone gotten out?”
“We’re not sure yet. The fire started in the backstage area. We’ve got it steady but as soon as we get one thing doused out another flame starts up in its place! We did see someone inside with some kind of weird blaster but they keep disappearing in the smoke!” Silver glanced frantically over the fire chief’s shoulder. No one was being carried out to the hospital so there was not anything serious. However, he did not see Marco among them. He did chance to see the dark red Maserati in the parking lot so he was here. He announced he was going to see if anyone else was inside.
The quickest way inside was though the back way where the flames were the most concentrated. He could feel the searing heat against his skin and instinct made him recoil. Silver shook his head furiously repeating that he was the Guardian and the mantra was enough to force himself dive right into the inferno. The place was a blinding mix of saturated orange and black. As he exhaled, a porous puff of black smoke expelled from his lungs. He yelled out for Marco trying to anxiously hear for anyone else. A beam suddenly snapped above him and the hot metal pressed against his shoulder. He yelled out in reactive pain before realizing he could not even feel the hot metal. So he was fireproof-so far that was not one of his weaknesses.
Then Silver saw what he was looking for. There were two bodies on the ground just underneath a bridge prop. One was Marco who was barely conscious; the other was a woman wearing a Cadric College ID badge under her neck. Both were still breathing but barely. Silver gingerly scooped them up both in his arms and was trying to carry them outside to get help. Abruptly something hard struck him in the back and he almost fell forward on top of the very ones he was trying to save. It was nothing close to the pain he felt when Metilla shot him while under that black ooze, but Silver did feel just enough for it to actually cause discomfort.
Silver looked over his shoulder before another blinding light stuck him across the cheek and he dropped Marco and the woman. The angel squinted through the flames as a peculiar shaped figure emerged from the blaze. He was not a tall figure, but bulky and compact in stature. It was the armor-like carapace that stood out the most. He wore a metallic mask formed in the shape of some kind of predatory bird with one eye having multiple lenses affixed to it. Upon their chest was heavy armor plating with large triangular vents that hissed at regular intervals. Upon his back where two large green canisters filled with an iridescent fluid. Affixed to their hands were oversized gauntlets covered in large jagged crystals. Silver could not put his finger on it, but there was something familiar about this crystalline fowl. Suddenly one of the hands became encompassed in brilliant purple aura before a beam erupted from the radiance and shot straight into Silver’s Chest. The angel was pushed back a bit from his charge a couple feet but he stood firm.
“So, you can resist it too. I am…mildly impressed. A pity everything else is subpar.” Silver’s hand hovered above one of his holsters. A few well-placed shots would show this birdie just how subpar he was. A groan at his feet broke the rageful thoughts. No, he had to get these guys out. He stepped forward but the steel bird shot him in the shoulder.
“That boy isn’t going anywhere! He’s going to burn as I, Prism Beak, will it!” His canon charged up for another volley when the wooden prop behind him unexpectantly exploded and he shielded his face to protect against the shards.
“Silver Guardian! This way! I’ve got you covered!” Splinterbark was halfway between them and the gaping hole that led outside. If it weren’t for the dire situation they were in right now, Silver would laugh at how ridiculous she looked wearing an oversized helmet and fire coat over her tiny frame. She even had to pull up the ends of the jacket as she ran to keep up with Silver and his recused party. He glanced back briefly, but Prism Beak was nowhere to be seen.
Outside in the air Silver had both rescued hostages over his shoulder as he clumsily carried them over to the paramedics. Marco and the woman were rushed away as they had been in the fire for some time. Silver almost started to fly to follow his brother when another fire officer called for his name. He asked if Silver had seen the fire chief inside. Wheezing out a big puff of smoke he shook his head and looked in the direction of Splinterbark who was still dragging the ends of the coat along. She hadn’t seen anyone either besides the two victims and the bird faced guy. Apparently the fire chief thought he saw a strange person run into the building shortly after the Silver Guardian had and the chief had followed to get the person to stop. By now most of the fire had been washed out but it was still unsafe for anyone to really get inside. Silver glanced at the shrinking ambulance in the distance and then ran back inside the studio. He searched the soaking interior, pushing away debris that was still a bit warm and now coated in wet soot. By the time he emerged his white coat and silver feathers were stained with slimy ash and coal smudges. There was no trace of the fire chief. He did not even see a body. One wall he noted had a sizeable hole on the other side of the fire damage. Splinterbark remarked it was far too neat to be caused by the flames and there were three sets of footprints in the muddy walkway: one heavy and pointed, one set of large rubber boots, and one light with peculiar indentations in the heels. The prints disappeared as they had trailed to the concrete area of the loading zone. Only now the parking area was completely empty.
“It looks like the chief was led out. See anything where you are Frix?” Frix had hovered a bit above their heads and scanned the area. No sign of anyone else but them. Silver did not seem to be exactly listening to her as he took off in the direction of the ambulance while Splinterbark was looking in the nearby shrubbery for clues.
“Did he take off again?” Thomas was leaning against a tree well out of sight of anyone but her. She felt embarrassed that when the Silver Guardian had flown off the first time, she had to call Thomas for a ride. Her pink outfit looked absolutely garish on his cycle.
“Reed can be…difficult to understand sometimes. Though if it were my big brother I doubt I’d be thinking straight either right now.” Splinterbark shrugged but agreed.
****
Fletcher District Fire Chief Fredrick Bringer opened his eyes slowly. His body felt heavy and weak, but he could move somewhat. Prickly strands graced his fingers as he attempted to right himself. When his eyes finally got used to the dim lighting he realized in his hands was straw. The floor and ceiling were flat cold steel and thick heavy bars surrounded on all sides. From where he sat he saw traces of some kind of colorful decorative canopy draped over the top edges. A thick heavy padlock held the single door shut.
“Fredrick Bringer…fire bringer…amazed to see that you still have the heart and soul to still wear THAT COAT.” The final two words a distorted voice spat out with great venom and fever. Someone was approaching the cage with a flashlight in one hand and what appeared to be a covered dish in the other. Bringer squinted to try and see the oncoming person better. It was a clown dressed in a red coat. His eyes widened slightly as the mask came nearer and nearer. He had seen that mask before, but the memory refused to come forth.
“Who are you? Why have you brought me here?” Another large shadow slowly came from behind the clown and it growled. It was a tiger. A long jagged burn scar graced the length of its back and half of its face had been burned clean of fur. As it snarled it revealed a part of its lip that was missing and long glistening yellow canines shone though. The beast snarled at the clown’s side while its master gently patted its head and cooed for it to be calm. The clown unlocked the cage door and placed the covered dish inside before shutting it once more. Two pet bowls-one with water the other with a mix of food was on the tray.
“Eat up, Bringer. It won’t be as much fun if you perish before your other co-stars arrive.”
“What nonsense are you talking about? Release me at once.” He began banging on the cell doors rocking the cage on its wheels. The tiger gave the clown’s answer with a hard slap of its paw on the cell door making the enclose shake and the fire chief stunned.

“There is no need for such…primeval conduct. I’ve seen apes better behaved than you. And you are one to talk of nonsense after what you’ve done. Think on it, because once all the preparations are complete-you’re going to be a special centerpiece of my best show yet.”

[Lovetheangelshadow]

Chapter 7: Pride GoethIt was the lunch period the following day as Shelly was scrolling through her phone while making her way to the back table. Thomas called her name and waved her over to a center table top.
“Hey Shelly, thought I’d introduce you to some friends of mine: Michael, Kirby, Vincent, and Bret. Guys, this is Shelly-the girl the famous Alucard actually talks to.” Shelly raised an eyebrow with both confusion and annoyance. She accepted the handshake and the complements though she hardly saw the fact she and Alucard talked occasionally during lunch was that big of a deal. She quickly glanced over at Alucard’s usual table. He seemed to be completely engrossed in a math textbook. As the four conversed among themselves, Shelly kept looking through the text on her phone.
“Oh, looks like someone responded. Let’s see. Ha! I thought I recognized the guy.” She turned her screen in Thomas’ direction. The page opened was to a superhero forum. Shelly’s original post was a drawing of Prism Beak and asking anyone if they knew who the villain was.
“You drew that? You’ve got some talent there, Shelly. If the other thing doesn’t work out you get into the hero business another way”, Thomas praised her. Shelly shrugged and said it was just okay. She had to get most of the details via text from Reed since he had seen the perp a lot better than she did. She pulled up the screen and showed several comments underneath.
“The guy’s moniker is Prism Beak. Super armor and appears to have laser canons as weaponry. He’s also...”
“He’s also the first supervillain the Golden Guardian fought six years ago”, Reed interjected. The other four said hello with Reed responding with an uncomfortable greeting back.
“How is Marco, by the way?” Thomas asked.
“A bit of smoke inhalation and heat stroke, but he will be out in a few days. They said he is lucky the Silver Guardian got to him in time”, Reed remarked. Both Thomas and Shelly easily caught the hint of boasting in his voice.
“The forum says Prism Beak was arrested for arson and attempted murder. From the news link the intended victim was a…Morgan Altamiri”, Shelly piped up. Reed inhaled sharply at the mention of the name like it was some taboo name of an elder god. Thomas tried to subtly hint Shelly to drop it by marginally shaking his head and doing a quick slicing motion against his throat-it didn’t get through.
“You don’t say”, Reed remarked coldly.
“You’re not concerned?” Reed took a long sip from his water bottle.
“Nope.”
“Do you at least know why Prism Beak tried to kill your father? What if he tries to do so again?”
“I do not bother with my father’s business affairs. And he can take care of himself. He…usually does.”
“But maybe if we knew more, we could-“Thomas squeezed her shoulder and hissed under his breath for her to drop it. Shelly had to bite her tongue hard to keep from further needling. Frix grumbled out loud his disappointment for Shelly backing down. He stomped directly onto Reed’s plate and jabbed a claw at Reed’s hand.
“Listen you blonde dud, you know something about this.”
“Frix, get off my plate”, Reed grumbled under his breath hoping Kirby and crew didn’t hear.
“Or what, second rate angel?” Reed snatched the green imp and give him a hard squeeze in his hand. Shelly started choking and her pasta dripped out of her mouth as she gasped for breath. Thankfully Thomas’ pals were too busy checking to see if Shelly was alright to see hastily drop Frix from his grasp and shove his shaking hand under his armpit.
****
Altamiri Advertising was one of the largest businesses in Cadric City with several smaller subsidiaries under its banner both domestic and international. If you needed advertisement for a product, event, or cause-Altamiri was often the go to. Morgan was trudging a bit inside the Greco-Roman style doorway into the main offices. He had just left from the hospital after seeing his son. His son was conscious at least and would be out in a few days. As he entered the large forum lobby out of the blustery wind and cold he eagerly greeted everyone he passed by even if his heart wasn’t in it. He did not like the idea of owing his son’s life to that thief. Morgan paced anxiously as he rode his private elevator to the top office. Should he tell the silver rouge what he knew? He could use it to convince him to give Morgan back the ring that was rightfully his. How would he even get in contact with this Guardian?
His office was a sizeable oval space with a large bay window behind his desk overlooking Cadric Park. The walls were marble facades carved into scenes of various Grecian monsters being vanquished. He had barely seated his massive frame in his chair when the buzzer on his marble desk rang out and the reception desk said that a Madame Tink was here to see him and that she had an appointment. Morgan knew she damn well did not have one scheduled for today but he signaled for clerk down below to send her up anyway. The sooner he placated whatever whimsy she had on her mind, the sooner he could send her out and handle other jobs that required his specific attention. The second elevator slowly made its way up as he drummed his fingers on the desk just hoping this would be all over soon.
Madame Tink was huffing and puffing in annoyance when the doors finally opened. Next were two other people. One of Morgan’s own clerks with binders and paperwork and the other was Madame Tink’s own representative also carrying their own bundle of filing.
“Really, Morgan, darling-you have me use a contraption meant for employees?” I could have had you use the stairs you arrogant heifer, Morgan thought to himself. Madame Tink snapped her fingers and pointed to the sizeable sofa that was on the opposite side of the room. The assistant forced a smile and a ‘yes madam’ before trying with little success actually moving the furniture towards Morgan’s desk. She was seriously doing this now? was the aggravating thought running through his mind. The client chair he had for guests was a perfectly competent ergonomic chair. Seeing the subordinate now scraping the oaken claw feet across his pristine hardwood floor, Morgan quickly stood up and moved the accursed sofa himself.
“Why thank you for being so attentive to your clients, Mister Altamiri”, she cooed in a pathetic attempt of a seductive tone. She was now sitting perfectly center with her large Louis Vuitton bag on one end of the couch and the documents spread out on the cushions. She’s your client, Morgan repeated to himself until his growing annoyance subsided to manageable level. His employee handed him the files he had requested before disappearing into the employee elevator. Madame’s subordinate was made to stand after handing her the hefty stack of papers.
“How might I assist you, Madame?”
“Oh, as you know this year I am hosting the annual Golden Community Harvest in a few days. You know the one where we raise funds to rebuild derelict areas into livable housing for low income families? And if I might say it is the fine time for the Golden Guardian to just up and disappear on us. Such a selfish behavior.” Morgan’s nails clenched the tabletop even there was nothing to scratch on the stone surface. Madame Tink did not seem to notice regardless. She just kept talking.
“Oh I know that deplorable gorilla fellow, Marvin or whatever his name was, claimed he had the Golden Guardian taken care of but really-the Golden Guardian was a far greater being than some garishly dressed ape with a metal arm.” A brief flash of that black winged angel came to Morgan’s mind. He had fought difficult adversaries before but he had never met another who had almost the exact same abilities as him.
“Mister Morgan, please pay attention!” Madame Tink huffed. Morgan blinked and huffed an hmm? He hadn’t even realized he had spaced out. The portly debutante seated back down hard on the couch and slammed several folders onto Morgan’s desk. They were copies of the documents his company had already given her from the color charts to design drawings to time tables and pricings. He noted that several of the typed notations had been childishly scribbled out and written over in garish pink gel pen. The color charts had a combination of cheaply printed colored squares and paint swatches from hardware stores taped upon it. The original theme of gold, red, and black with a white base had been replaced by gold, pink, and green with the white base. Maybe for spring, but this did not give the feeling of fall.
“You see, with the Golden Guardian obviously not attending this year’s seventh annual Golden Community Harvest-we will need to make some minor modifications to the designs. I’m sure with your vast network and *ahem* talented employees can handle a few last minute changes? Ooh maybe you can get the Silver Guardian in contact for me?” Morgan hadn’t even turned the papers towards himself to know this was anything but minor. He, well more accurately the Golden Guardian, had started the Community Harvest charity seven years ago partially to help establish good relations between the Guardian and the city. He had aspired to do more than just punch bad guys; something Silver Guardian obviously was incapable of doing.
“Madame the Golden Harvest is supposed to be a symbol of hope in fall even with the upcoming darkness of winter. I don’t think…”
“Oh pashaw, I know how important it is to be just. Did I not single handedly put the Ronder Bailey circus out of operation for hurting all those poor animals?” A sudden flare of anger burst in Morgan’s heart. His hands suddenly latched around her throat in a choking embrace. As the woman gurgled for him to cease, he dragged her screaming body over the bay window and smashed her against the glass repeatedly. When the glass finally shattered he hurled her out the window and watched her fall twelve stories before hitting the streets below.
“Mister Morgan, please pay attention to when I am talking to you!” Madame Tink’s harpy shrill rang in his ears. Morgan inhaled harshly and shook himself awake. Madame Tink was still sitting there on his couch with all her belongings all over said settee and her face still scrunched up in that half smug, half annoyed countenance. So it had been nothing more than a daydream, some kind of deep ugly desire he enacted out in his head that felt all too real and hauntingly pleasurable. Sure he despised Madame Tink for several reasons but not enough to want her dead. Why was he feeling such things now? He had little time to think on it though as the assistant that had accompanied Madame Tink noted that someone was tapping on the outside of the bay window.
There was a window washer on the outside, but Morgan noted he carried no cleaning tools save for a single bucket. The washer then raised the bucket and pulled something out that he slapped onto the glass. Through the glass they could see a black metallic box with colored wires sticking out and a ten second timer. The washer saluted and then repelled off the washing rig to the floors below out of sight. Morgan grabbed Madame Tink and the assistant and pulled them down to the front of his desk. There was a loud beep and the glass shattered. The laminate glass had held off most of the blast by the window was still shaking from the high wind outside. Any minute now something could give and they might be in great risk of being sucked outside. Morgan’s fears were answered they both heard a loud whirring sound from somewhere above and a laser blast smashed against the broken window. The weakened glass busted outwards thanks to the gusts outside the three were jerked back a bit by the sudden vacuum. Morgan pulled Madame Tink’s arm over his shoulder to hoist her behind his back. Thankfully the wind was not quite enough to keep him from moving towards the private elevator. The door opened without any wait he had just managed to push the other two inside when another laser blast struck the back of his shoulder. It was only just enough to cut his suit coat and burn his flesh ever so slightly. He turned behind him, but there was nothing he could see from out the window. He could see another burst of colored light come at his position. Morgan rolled out from away the elevator controls and just missed being hit in the shoulder. Another volley of booms followed closely behind him as he hurled himself towards the stairway entrance.
Morgan made his way downward and Madame Tink was screaming into her phone something about assault and attempts on her life. Someone called his name and he attempted to mentally drown out the squeals from the porcine socialite. A clerk had a red and gold envelope in his hand and typed on the front was addressed to one Morgan Altamiri. Apparently the letter had been put inside his mailbox by the front desk by a peculiarly dressed postal man not less than ten minutes ago. He could not see the man’s face and they were in and out so quickly the front desk clerk barely noticed him. Morgan carefully tore off the top of the envelope and a card dropped out. It plopped onto the floor and a cutout of a clown bounced upward. Suspended on a spring the clown swayed back and forth as a few coughs of confetti sputtered out. Printed in black ink on the base was typed “Enjoying the show?” A photo slithered out of the corner of the parcel showing a picture of Madame Tink with devil horns drawn in bright red ink and a noose around her neck in blue.
“What was that, sir?” the clerk asked. Morgan quickly stomped his foot over the photo and dragged it underneath him while plucking the corner of the clown card from the floor.
“Just a get well card for my son”, was his excuse. He had the photo in his pocket by the time Madame Tink ceased hollering and was now slunking uncomfortably close to Morgan telling him how grateful she was for the rescue. It still didn’t stop her from slipping in asking for those changes. Morgan just grumbled he’d see what he could do before excusing himself to the cafeteria for coffee.
****
“You said the arson suspect might be someone named Prism Beak?” Blackbird repeated after Shelly had shown him the photo. Reed was not too invested in their conversation and instead was focused on target practice with his pistols.
“Yeah. I couldn’t find much else though. Aside from some vague magazine articles and incomplete wikis on what Prism Beak’s powers were, I couldn’t find anything too useful.” Blackbird typed in the name into his own computer but his own files turned up nothing much else than a picture and a brief description. The only other piece he turned up differently was that he was arrested for arson and attempted murder on Morgan Altamiri. Frix thought it ridiculous that in this day and age, not having someone’s life details all over the internet was rare. He had discovered how to use the search engine on Shelly’s computer last week and Shelly had to quickly scrub the search history before her parent’s saw.
“Even almost bankrupt until ten years ago, the Altamiri family still had a lot of political clout back then. It wouldn’t take much for them to have that kind of information swept under the rug. I still have a couple friends on the inside, but it will take time”, was Blackbird’s explanation.
“Hey, Reed! Ya know how your dad caught the guy six years ago?” The sudden question made Reed misfire his weapon and Frix was almost singed in the wing.
“I am sorry, can you repeat that?”
“Well the Golden Guardian is…WAS your dad, wasn’t he?” Reed forced an uneasy laugh at her inquiry.
“The Golden Guardian, my father? What makes you think that?” Shelly folded her arms and then pointed her finger against her nose.
“The guy we talked to at the Dougal party, remember? That guy with the major family resemblance to you? The guy who knew about your purification ability? What do ya think? I know I look dumb, but…” Reed transformed back from his Guardian self and frowned.
“So? It doesn’t change anything. And no, you do not look stupid.” Shelly shoved her forefinger in his chest as she cleared her throat loudly.
“I appreciate the complement, but if your dad knows about this guy, we could ask for his help in putting mister steel beak back behind bars before anyone else gets hurt. Hell, we don’t even know what your Guardian kryptonite is. Would be real handy to know what can and can’t like possibly kill you, ya know?” Reed’s face started churning a bright red and he folded his arms high above his chest.
“We don’t need my father’s help. He had to figure this stuff out on his own and if he can do it, so can I.” The declaration caught Shelly a bit off guard. He knew Reed could be stubborn but this was prideful even for him.
“Reed, you don’t have to…”
“Yes I do!” He forced his grimace into a half smile that was rather unsettling to look at.
“We can totally do this together on our own! We bring down Prism Beak and get the respect we deserve. Isn’t that what you want, Shelly? Don’t you want to be appreciated as a credible hero too?” He spoke with such rapid enthusiasm, Shelly couldn’t help but smile back a little.
“Yeah of course! We’ve got this. Buuuuttt….maybe try to pump your dad for information? Think of it as solving a mystery so we can think ahead of this guy. Pretty please, Reed?” Reed groaned at her request.
“Ugh fine. I’ll do it. Just quit it with those doe eyes of yours.”
Morgan was fussing the whole time while Lenora had him nearly pinned down and was dressing his shoulder wound with iodine and gauze. Morgan had mostly ignored the burn aside from applying a bit of aloe from the company medicine cabinet. After answering a volley of questions from the police that responded to Madame Tink’s calls, Morgan informed everyone he was going home early. It wasn’t until he had stepped into his house that he was aware just painful the burn was going to be as feeling finally came back into his shoulder. Lenora had naturally noticed and despite her paralytic state, was able to wrestle her goliath of a husband to her level to treat him. He grumbled and groaned and complained how much the antiseptic hurt.
“If you hold still it won’t hurt as much! Honestly Morgan, you’ve been like this since we first met in college. You’re not invincible.” Reed had been looking up from the textbook he was been reading on the family settee and used the book to hide his satisfied smirk. A cruel thought to have sure, but seeing his father in this moment of weakness satisfied him a bit. Morgan seemed to be aware of his son staring at him because he snapped “what are you looking at?” Lenora slapped the wound and made him wince.
“There will be none of that in this house and yes I am talking to both of you”, she snapped with a frosty tone that could have frozen Russia over. Reed grumbled a bit and then recalled what Shelly wanted him to fish for.
“So, how’s Marco? You saw him this morning, right?” Morgan’s frown softened a bit.
“He’ll be out in a few days.”
“Oh, so in time for the Golden Community Harvest diner? That is still going forward even without the…guest of honor?” Lenora interposed. Suddenly a thought went through Morgan’s mind. That thought turned into an idea and a self-satisfied smirk formed in his expression. He just realized the perfect way to get the Silver Guardian’s attention. He excused himself saying he needed to make a few business phone calls and strode quickly into his home office before shutting the door behind him. Lenora turned her chair over to her son.
“Reed, I know you and your father don’t get along, but could you not tease him right now? He’s under a lot more pressure than you understand.” Reed folded his arms and groused a ‘yes mom’. Of course she’d stand up for him. She always stood up for him and Marco. Just the spare kid-that was Reed Morgan Altamiri. Reed excused himself to his room saying to call him when dinner was ready.

[Lovetheangelshadow]

Chapter 8: Stakeout at the Golden Harvest “Well if it isn’t Mr. Nathanial Ronder. I was wondering where you’ve slunk to these days”, Madame Tink spat through her ruby lipstick at the Cadric City News building the following morning. Her plump figure was squeezed into a plum and green dress and Ronder had to tell himself he was not being spoken to by a walking, talking, cluster of grapes. Even in a more uniform setting his high collared shirt and black logo jacket still had that showman flair, notwithstanding with the added weight and thinning of hair. In the almost twenty years that had passed and the disaster that had been the Flames of Laughter, Ronder had gotten some luck in getting a decently high position in the Cadric News as a producer. Upon seeing the purple pulp he was starting to regret the rushed decision he made the previous evening. However, when Morgan Altamiri called in a favor; as rare as it was-he found it a boon to indulge it. If he hadn’t been so hasty, he might not have shoved in a talking segment for the host of one of Cadric City’s biggest charities.
“Ah Madame Tink. And what perfectly legal business are you out to destroy this time?”
“How are you accuse me of such a beastly thing? I only do what I feel is just. I hope you treat your employees with far more care here than your clowns; low class as they were.”
“At least I actually earn my living unlike a certain fat lipped potato.”
“Well I never”, Madame Tink jabbed as she waddled her way towards the dressing room for makeup. Vivian had seen the interaction and wisely chose to stay just around the corner until the woman had passed. When the woman had at last disappeared into the other corridor, Vivian started to make her way past Ronder to the equipment room. Something about watching these two in the same room gave Vivian an uneasy feeling of dread. She felt she had encountered this scene before but it was like some unconscious part of her wanted it to stay buried. This repressed part of her mind also really wanted to strangle Madame Tink for an unexplained reason. Vivian slapped the sides of her face and told herself to focus on her job.
In the afternoon Blackbird had yet to open the training room when his students arrived after school. Instead both Reed and Shelly found him scribbling on a chalkboard and muttering to himself. Written on the board was the name Prism Beak along with the fire chief that went missing’s name and Morgan Altamiri. From what was left and legible were half smeared away scenarios. Shelly sneaked to his side and picked up a piece of chalk and added Foxwell to the side with the names on it.
“As much as you’d like for that to be true, I sincerely doubt that he is a part of this”, Blackbird chuckled. He unlocked the secret door and let them inside. As they walked down Blackbird questioned them if they had seen that morning’s news report. Shelly admitted she really didn’t follow the news unless someone told her. Reed just yawned and mumbled a ‘no’. Once down below Blackbird pulled up the video with Madame Tink and Suri Monkrey. The title at the bottom was about the Golden Harvest Community Chest.
“Oh that’s the thing the Golden Guardian started”, Shelly said eagerly. “I’ve never been but dad tries to donate something every year. We’re not exactly classy enough to go to the party”, she then added sheepishly. “What about you, Reed? You go right?” Reed just rolled his eyes showing clear annoyance, but then looked a bit downcast at the end of the shrug.
“Not in two years. Anyway, what about it? It’s just some dumb excuse for the high class to feel good about themselves”, Reed responded bitterly. Blackbird forwarded the video and then played it.
“…shame that the Golden Guardian will not be the special guest of honor this year what with his disappearance and all”, Suri had finished speaking.
“True, oh so true Madame Suri. But what about that delightful young man, Silver Guardian. If we cannot have one angel, we still have another. A spare Guardian if you will.” Shelly noted that Reed twitched slightly at being referred to as the spare.
“I wouldn’t stand two minutes with that guy”, Suri hissed just as Blackbird paused the video.
“So, why are we looking at this?” Reed inquired. Blackbird pulled up the pictures of Fredrick Burner and another person-an older gentleman with a pinched nose and lip that made him look like a molting chicken.
“My contact managed to send me this. Our Prism Beak is one Henry Fowler. Former employee of the Altamiri Advertising Company. According to records he was fired for incompetence and possible embezzlement by Morgan Altamiri when he regained back the company ten years ago. Fowler set fire to several of the smaller holdings under the Altamiri Company before he was halted in an assassination attempt by one Golden Guardian.” Reed began topping his collarbone in rhythmic thought. The face seemed very familiar-maybe it had been one of his father’s stories of his battles? No, he had physically met this man before and somehow it made him shudder. Again he asked why Blackbird was bring up the harvest.
“Isn’t your family one of the harvest’s biggest sponsors?”
“Of course!” Shelly exclaimed. “It would make sense for a guy with a hate on your dad’s company would go after a big thing like this. So the Silver Guardian and Splinterbark are gonna make an appearance, right?” Blackbird smiled apologetically.
“Something like that.”
****
“When he said we should attend the party, I thought ya know like mingle with the big guys and chomp on hors d’oeuvres. Not slink in hallways like raccoons”, Splinterbark whined over Silver’s earpiece. The Golden Harvest was housed in the Feronia Gardens as it had been for the past six years. The event space was a massive greenhouse that had been modeled after the Roman temples. Climbing roses were expertly weaved around the stained glass windows of various forest like creatures and the gardens surrounding the building was one of the biggest tourist spots in the summer. Silver was seated on the crystal clear roof looking in. Splinterbark had been made to skulk about the service hallways. From his position he saw various police cars and the small hints of flashlights scanning the ground. This heavy patrol was not new-not since some crazy out of town villain had tried to rob everyone using a hot sauce gun. Reed couldn’t swallow anything less than the blandest of food for a week. Even if people had barely noticed his existence at this party, Silver really would have preferred to be inside instead of standing out in the October cold. He noted the traditional golden banners had been changed out for silver. When he mentioned out loud that maybe he could go in for a few minutes and Splinterbark reminded him they were technically still wanted by the police and only one of them was bulletproof.
Down below there was another radio conversation going on. Sierra was walking the grounds and was trying to not yawn into her headset as she chatted up with Bruce just to move things along.
“Like why couldn’t we go solve a murder in Flop Row? It would be easier than tracking down a magic angel guy and the pink power ranger”, Sierra chatted.
“Just be glad you’re out of the office. The chief is shorthanded with Prism Beak on the loose so he pulled us. Besides, the Silver Guardian is likely to show up here-what with that practically golden invitation on the news a few days ago. Just use that if Foxwell sees you.”
“Ooh deception? Sounds fun.”
“You do know we all can hear you two right”, someone else interrupted on the radio. Bruce could literally hear Sierra blush red.
Frix sat backwards on Splinterbark’s shoulder trying to keep an eye out for anyone that might spot them. It would not do him any good if Shelly got arrested. Splinterbark was back at the loading dock after a quick round through the serve halls. So far she had not seen anything outward inside. That was until Silver made a passing comment of a truck pulling around the back from his vantage point. All other trucks had arrived earlier delivering the catering and last minute alterations. He had to admit his father’s skill of dealing with these last minute changes was impressive to be sure. Splinterbark kept pressed flat against the wall as the truck was halted by the police. They opened the inside and there was nothing but several cardboard boxes and inside were smaller white and silver gift boxes. She watched as they scanned with metal detectors and nothing went off. Once cleared they let the truck pull all the way in and unload the now open packages onto the trolley carts. Splinterbark thought she saw one of the large shipping boxes move even after the box had been set onto the trolley. She was not the only one. On the opposite end of the dock, Bruce had also been watching this delivery with suspicion as well. Just as the packing cases were about to be wheeled into the main gallery, Bruce stepped out to ask for further inquiry. His attempt at further investigation was halted when he saw a flash of pink and white on the opposite side of the room.
“You there! Halt!”
Splinterbark darted into the hallway before the guy could even squeeze past the crew and follow her. Splinterbark didn’t realize just how fast this guy was even as he was barking orders into his own headset.
“Sierra, Splinterbark has been spotted in the west service hall! Keep an eye out! Silver can’t be too far away”. Splinterbark chucked a squishy red ball onto the ground and it burst all along the slick tile floor. Bruce skidded and slipped onto his shoulder. She didn’t look back and slid into one of the secondary halls that was behind the main auditorium.
“Silver, watch the gift boxes coming in. I don’t trust them”, Splinterbark called into her radio as she found a closet and dove inside shutting the door tightly and squeezing her tiny form behind the large garbage cart. She heard the footsteps run stop at the door and the jingling of the handle. Frix held it in place the best he could as he beat his small wings furiously to keep the deadbolt from moving. Finally the person on the other side had satisfied themselves that the door was locked and walked away while calling for this Sierra person if she had a visual on the Silver Guardian.
Inside main theatre the Altamiri family was surrounded by the crowds of Cadric City’s elite. Most had clustered into their own groups and were snacking on the hors d’oeuvres that the servers were passing around. Madame Tink was chatting up with just about everyone within two feet in her vicinity. She always kept the conversation on her until she seemed to get bored and move on to someone else. Her latest catch was Marco. Marco was still a bit pallid and winded from his flaming experience, but he wrested a pleasant smile and attitude as he made small talk the best he could with a weakened voice.
“A shame Reed couldn’t be here. Maybe I should have stayed behind. Or at least had Marco stay home”, Lenora noted. When they had asked him, Reed had politely declined and said he was over swamped with midterm studying. She did not think her eldest son shouldn’t have been out and about either. He had been lucky that the Silver Guardian had gotten him to the ambulance as soon as he did.
“I’d rather have him studying than waste time here. And Marco is strong. He’s fine”, Morgan answered. Lenora wanted to argue further until there was a musical fanfare over the PA system followed by a spotlight shining bright on three silver and white packages that had seemed to miraculously appear on the front stage where the band was. At first nothing seemed to happen as the chords continued to play over the speakers. Marco didn’t like the feeling he got from this and he signaled over to his father. Morgan nodded and moved closer to his wife’s wheelchair. He was not going to let anything happen to her this time. As soon as the last trumpet blared the top lid of the center present tossed upwards and a strange figure dressed in red popped out.
“Heeellloooooo Cadric City elite. Gather around gather around! For tonight we bring a generous gift courtesy of your Madame Tink. Oh yes, you all owe her for the entertainment you are about to witness. My entertainment.” The two packages behind him had their sides fall flat. On the right was a tiger with a half burned face who roared out its greetings. The other was a man in a heavy metal armor with two massive green tanks on his back.
Prism Beak fired the first shot directly above the heads of the crowds hitting just above the main door to outside. The stonework shuddered and collapsed in itself; blocking most of the officers that had been patrolling outside out. Sierra had just managed to get inside thanks to Bruce’s call. The shot made the whole crows go into a frenzied panic and were scrambling every which way to get out. The other policemen who had been stationed inside were now coming out from the two side doors from the back of the auditorium. The red garbed clown whistled tossed a rubber ball in the air. The tiger smacked it as it landed and exploded in a mass of confetti and glue. The tiger then leapt into the center of the room and snarled and hissed at everyone around it. It swung its massive paws as if to steer the mob like cattle towards the back of the building. The oncoming swath of people threatened to trample the imprisoned cops to death in their desire to escape. Sierra managed to heave her hefty form in between the horde and the police and used her girth like a barricade to keep them from being crushed like roaches. The other side suddenly became shrouded in putrid smelling fog that made them reel back towards the other doors. The police couldn’t see anything themselves but felt someone tugging at the gooey strands at their legs and a small voice saying “Sorry, that is so going back to the drawing board”.
Prism Beak’s eyes locked onto Morgan Altamiri. To hell with Circus Freak’s plan. He was not going to pass this up. Morgan had his back to him trying to push Lenora out to the side from the shattering flock. Prism Beak had fired the shot and it would have been perfect except for the loud clash of glass from above and the Silver Guardian blocking the strike with crossed arms. Circus Freak did not seem interested at all in the super angel but rather their sights were slowly turning towards their beaky partner. Prism Beak snarled and leapt off the stage as he fired another volley of prism shots at his hated target. Silver deflected with the side of his arm greaves and returned a few energy shots with his own pistols while still using his body to shield his father. A few of his shots went wild and came close to hitting a few citizens.
As the crowd had been trying to save their own hides, Marco had been the closest to Madame Tink and was trying to keep himself and the woman from being stampeded. He still felt a bit weak from the fire and almost got swept up by the mob when his body gave out for a moment. Madame Tink was clinging to his arm and her weight almost yanked him to his knees. He managed to get her to the outer edge where the buffet was when they both heard a dull roar. The tiger was creeping over to them. Marco tried to wrench his arm free from Madame Tink’s grip so he could grab anything to keep the big cat away. The tiger sprung at Marco and leapt smack into a wooden bat. Splinterbark’s outfit was rumpled something terrible as she had been battered a bit in that hallway.
“Sorry, had a bit of a hard time coming out of the closet! ….And not like that!” The tiger roared as its one good eye now locked onto Splinterbark. Immediately she knew she fudged up and dove under a table just barely missing having her head knocked off by one furry swipe. The tiger knocked the table back and found its front paw tangled in a tether strap. Splinterbark and Frix had tried to crawl away, but the beast seemed to be trained enough and used the wrapped up paw to pin her down on her back. With the other paw it tried to scratch at the pixie’s face. Frix grabbed its face and pulled back on the animal’s eyelids. Snapping them back made the cat reel but not let go of its potential meal. It could not see the green spite poke and kick at it-but it knew something was irritating it. It swiped at its face until a lucky strike hit Frix squarely in the chest sending Frix flying and bouncing along the floor. Splinterbark twitched and cringed as she felt every hit.
Marco, though weakened and honestly terrified, wanted to do something to help her. The Silver Guardian was busy keeping his parents safe so he couldn’t call to him. Madame Tink insisted the young man stay with her and keep her protected. It was the honorable and responsible thing to do, she tutted.
“Honor, what do you know about honor, Madame Tink? What do you know about responsibility? How many lives have you ruined for to make yourself feel morally better? How like you to make other’s stand in the fire line to save your own useless presence.” Circus Freak was now five feet in front of them tapping a red cane on the ground in ritualistic step. Their face was bathed in the shadow of their top hat even when they were almost in striking distance. Marco wrenched his arm loose at last and clenched them into fists showing he was not going to let the robed being come any closer. Circus Freak just stopped but did not pause.
“I have nothing against you, little cub. There is no need to harm yourself for this woman’s sake.” Marco thrust a straight jab at Circus Freak’s face and they side ducked effortlessly even using the palm of their hand to redirect the strike to empty air. The gust from the blow knocked Circus Freak’s hat off to the side and Marco got a full view of their face-or what passed for it. It was a mask-a clown back and large blue tears and a half melted smile. Something snapped in Marco’s mind. A memory of fire. Screams that were not human. And a face of a clown floating in the flames. He didn’t even know what these visuals that had seized his mind were. Suddenly his body ceased all motion as cold, paralyzing fear took the driver’s seat. He crumpled into a ball on the floor as the visions played over and over again in his head. Madame Tink folded her arms and huffed, “Some protector you turned out to be.” Circus Freak grabbed her arm and shoved the head of their cane in front of her nose and mouth. Gas hissed from the nostrils of the bronze lion head and Madame Tink collapsed into slumber.
“Yes, some protector you are”, they spat.
“Why won’t you die already?!” Prism Break screeched as he blasted the Silver Guardian repeatedly. Silver Guardian had both pistols out and firing back whenever he could get a breather. His volleys made minor dents in Prism Beak’s carapace but not enough to slow down the fiend. Finally the metallic vulture had enough and both tanks began to glow with a peculiar humming noise. The thick arm guards on Prism Beak’s fists clicked open allowing the large crystal spears to split open like big meaty claws. Energy began to spark and crackle at the tips before catching together in the center. The combined power generated into two sizeable orbs of light and fire before Prism Beak slammed his wrists together and erupted one steady laser burst directly at the gray-winged angel. The blast slammed the Silver Guardian hard and sent him reeling back against the glass wall. The stained glass cracked against his weight then began to melt onto his jacket. Silver tried hard not to cry out because he could feel it scalding even against his skin. It was not causing any real harm to him as far as he could tell-and yet he still felt the pain. Silver struggled against the blaze until he could steady his feet against the wall and push himself off. Melted glass pulled back on his feathers as he pushed ahead trying to close the gap between him and the antagonist. Holding one arm in front of his face to “shield” the brunt of the blast, Silver turned his pistol at one of the tubes on Prism Beak’s chest. The shot connected and one of the arm cannons immediately shut down. Prism Beak could have still kept it up until smoke began to belch from the vents on his chest and back followed by a small beeping noise. The aggressor halted his assault and cut off his laser. Suddenly free Silver tumbled forward in the air still caught in his own momentum. He managed to gain a small bit of control with his freefall by adjusting his wings to steer him to the villain. Silver’s sizeable weight pinned Prism Beak to the ground and almost smashed his gas canisters in the process. With Prism Beak stunned, Silver plucked him off the ground and was just about to tear off his suit when a sudden shriek for help distracted this task.
Splinterbark was barely holding the encroaching tiger back. She was restraining back the cat with her cant hook’s handle pressed tight against its mouth and single free paw. Her small muscles strained against the strength of the beast and she could now feel its breath on her cheek. Frix was trying to lodge loose a wood brick from Splinterbark’s pouch but it was being held hard against the floor from her and the tiger’s combined weight. Then a shot was heard and the tiger reeled back with blood spurting from its blind eye. Then two more shots impaled it in the chest and the beast staggered and wailed before falling over dead. Sierra, disheveled from being a meat wall, was holding her smoking revolver with a shaking hand. She staggered over to Splinterbark and bent down on one knee next to her.
“You alright?” she gasped. Splinterbark could barely answer when Circus Freak let out a terrible banshee wail. Madame Tink was beside them, unconscious and wrapped up tighter than shrink wrapped turkey. He effortlessly hoisted her over their shoulder and wagged their finger at them while still holding the cane in their palm.
“You are going to regret doing that”, they said in a low slow snarl. They pointed the head of their cane upwards and a small explosion erupted above their heads. There was a sharp crack of metal snapping above their heads and one of the heavy chandeliers from above plummeted down above their heads. Silver tossed Prism Beak aside and slammed his mass against the fixture in midair sending it crashing into the buffet area. A bit winded Prism Beak had maneuvered to his feet and was swaying over towards to where Circus Freak was. On his shuffle over, he saw the delirious Marco on the floor. An ugly toothy grin curled about his mouth as he aimed his one good blaster at the young man. The crystal hummed with power for a bit before suddenly cutting out. He banged the casing with his other arm but nothing seemed to make it work. Circus Freak hummed at him with a shameful tone before grabbing the vulture by his collar and jerked him in close before dropping a thick smoke bomb that concealed them completely. Silver flapped his wings furiously to clear the smoke within moments but the three were completely gone.
Silver lowered himself to Splinterbark’s side; still staring where the two villains once stood.
“I had him”, he uttered with disbelief. Splinterbark got to her feet and had barely touched his arm before he spun around to her and yelled, “I HAD HIM!” The color almost drained completely from Splinterbark’s face and she bit her lip hard trying not to cry. The Silver Guardian grasped her panic and gently put a hand on her shaking shoulder and asked if she was alright. She rubbed her sore shoulder and joked about getting proper armor for it. They both forced an uncomfortable chuckle before it was halted by the sound of a gun being released from their safety. Bruce had finally managed to get into the auditorium and ordered for Sierra to cuff them. His partner hesitated even with the palm of her hand on the metal bracelets at her belt. The Silver Guardian slowly curled his arm around Splinterbark’s chest to safeguard her though he wasn’t sure if he would be fast enough to stop a speeding bullet.
“Marco! Marco, are you alright?!” Lenora’s wheelchair sped between the officers and the costumed heroes that made both of them jump back to avoid her. Silver turned his back to Bruce and flew away with his partner in tow through the hole in the ceiling he came through. Bruce cursed but holstered his gun anyway.
Marco was slowly coming back to reality. The color was finally getting back into his face though his hands were still shaking.
“What just happened? Ugh…where’s Madame Tink?” Morgan had grabbed his son’s shoulders and shook him a bit asking if he was alright.
“Not if you don’t stop shaking me”, Marco wheezed a laugh. He admitted he did not even remember passing out.
“Mom….was I ever inside a fire before?” The color flushed from Lenora’s cheeks a bit and hastily suggested they get home. The two detectives suggested that they hurry up and report both the assault and disappearance even if it very likely meant they were going to be under fire.

[Lovetheangelshadow]

Chapter 9: One More Special GuestShelly’s arm was sore as heck when she woke up that morning. She had just barely shoved her outfit under the bed before flopping face down after Silver had taken her home. Neither of them had really talked to each other when they escaped or flew across town to her neighborhood. Numerous times, Shelly had attempted to lighten the mood but they all fell flat as nothing seemed to get even a cringe grin from her angelic partner. Silver was frowning the entire time and occasionally repeated how he had Prism Beak in his grasp. She had to admit her situation with the tiger was in large part her fault. She did not think her assault all the way through. She could have even used another stink bomb which would not have put her in that kind of danger. Either way there was one thing that was clear. They had failed to protect the people they had sworn to keep safe. Madame Tink had been kidnapped and who knows how many others got hurt during the mob stampede. Not to mention the two detectives who were going to arrest them regardless even if they had succeeded. Shelly made a slow scream into her pillow before she could finally fall asleep.
The weekend had passed and Shelly was unable to get ahold of Reed. None of her voicemails or texts got answered. She only started this when she heard her morning radio go off as part of her alarm. At first she was going to hit the snooze button one time as was her routine until she heard the words “Feronia Gardens” and “last night”. She forced herself out of her groggy stupor and turned up the volume just a smidge.
“While the Silver Guardian and his sidekick were able to prevent one Prism Beak from killing Morgan Altamiri-they failed to capture the villain and his clown companion as well was fail to prevent Madame Tink of being kidnapped. No ransom demands…” Shelly hit the off button hard.
“I’d like to see them handle supervillains themselves”, Frix huffed. Shelly told him to shush it and sent a text to Reed. She had a feeling that she needed to talk to him and quick. On the weekends, Shelly worked a half day at her father’s hardware store doing mostly odd jobs such as keeping the shelves stocked and the front of the store clean and spotless. During her break she checked her phone. None of her messages had been responded to. She did not want to seem like a pest so she texted Thomas instead. She got a faster response from him this time. No, Reed was not responding to his messages either and yes he saw the news. It was the same on the radio, television, and internet-every news outlet was focusing on the two’s failure of capturing the aggressors. He seemed even more worried about it than Shelly. He would try to get back to her since he was supposed to see Reed at work that night.
On Monday, Shelly met up with Thomas in homeroom. Reed was not there. When she asked about it, Thomas told her Reed did not show up for work that night and didn’t call in either. He was lucky he was still in his probation period for his job.
“It’s not like him especially since…well it doesn’t matter. How’s your shoulder?” Shelly rubbed her right shoulder a bit. It was still slightly sore but at least she could raise her arm without a minor stab of pain. She had a heck of a time cleaning her outfit too. Fine dust and something blue and sticky had been stuck to the pink fabric and took three washes to get it out. Reed was not seen at homeroom. Or English. Or math. Or even at lunch. Thomas called Reed’s house towards the end of lunch and got in contact with Reed’s mother. She thought he was at school since their chauffer had dropped Reed off at the school early. After school they went into Blackbird’s office. Reed was not there either and Blackbird had not been in contact with Reed all day. It turned out the two were not the only ones who sent messages to the blonde boy that weekend. Two more days had passed and still no one saw Reed. Twice they were told Reed had been dropped off at the school and picked up and yet no one saw him in any of their shared classes. Their answer came when Blackbird showed several internet articles he had found over the past three days. Each one was focused solely on the Silver Guardian. The winged hero was seen patrolling the city and stopping various crimes in progress. Neither of his friends believed it. Reed was skipping school to be Silver Guardian almost the entire day.
“What the hell were you thinking?” It was Thursday when Reed finally made an appearance in school. There were heavy dark circles under his eyes and his usual coif was sloppy. Even his typically pressed uniform was rumpled. He flopped half groggy over his desk and cupped his ears a bit when Shelly yelled at him.
“Could you not be so loud? I’ve got a splitting headache right now…” he moaned.
“The point is what the heck were you thinking skipping three days of school. And on midterm week?!” Thomas repeated Shelly’s question-this time lower so the whole classroom didn’t hear them.
“I was trying to find Prism Beak and that clown. Just add that to my list of failures.” His face fell flat onto the desk and he started snoozing. Both his comrades had to shake him awake before the teacher got in.
****
“The best detectives you have, you said. They’ll arrest the Silver Guardian you said. Well now we’ve got Madame Tink kidnapped by a damn clown!” Foxwell was yelling his lungs out in the commissioner’s office as his face was a bright tomato red.
“Sir, we had almost had them but the crowd went into a panic and”, Sierra explained.
“I don’t want to hear it! I want results! What is the point of a Zero Tolerance rule if we stretch it for a couple of costumed freaks? Are you trying to make me look like a fool?” Sierra was greatly tempted to respond with a ‘maybe’, but she decided to behave for her boss’ and partner’s sakes. The two continued to get the bulk of Foxwell’s wrath until Commissioner Kent could get the man to calm down and assure him they would do whatever was necessary for the arrest.
Sierra had gone and gotten herself the largest most caffeine laden coffee she could get out of the breakroom before she returned to the office. All the pins they had used to mark the Silver Guardian sightings had been removed and replaced with the photos of Madame Tink, Fire Chief Bringer, and Morgan Altamiri. A purple pin had been placed next to their photos on Altamiri Studios and Feronia Gardens.
“Did you just remove ALL of our work just now?”
“Yes”, Bruce said simply. Sierra chuckled a little. She loved his directness.
“I did some thinking regarding these recent appearances with Prism Beak and his partner.”
“So it looks like someone is getting nabbed at each place that involves the Altamiri Company. The fire chief was taken at the Studio. And the Altamiri company is a heavy sponsor of the Golden Harvest which is always held at the Feronia Gardens”, Sierra surmised.
“It does, doesn’t it? There’s a pattern here, I know it. This just feels very familiar.” He grabbed the phone and called Records.
“Hey Marcus can you do a favor for me? Cross reference Madame Tink and Fire Chief Fredrick Bringer. See if you can find anything that has those names together-even if it was a street brawl.”
“While he’s at it, bring up the Prism Beak file.”
“Yeah, you heard it. Add Prism Beak too. Okay okay full box from Hadies. Well don’t blame me for your falling into police movie stereotype. Ha ha okay-call me when you find it and I’ll pick it up.” When he hung up Sierra asked just how this was going to help with their Guardian problem. Bruce’s reasoning was that if they find Prism Beak-the Silver Guardian would not be too far behind to hunt them down. Sierra hummed and nodded slightly even if she didn’t like it.
****
“So you think this Ronder fellow is their next target.” Blackbird had a digital map on the main monitor of the super computer. There were location markers on the Altamiri Studio and the Feronia Gardens with Fredrick Bringer and Madame Tink’s pictures beside them. In the corner was a picture of Nathanial Ronder.
“Let’s just say I have a hunch”, was Blackbird’s response to Shelly. Shelly squinted her eyes at the three photos. Something about them seemed to ring familiar in her mind. Like somehow she knew the answer to the pattern, but it was not coming through. She had met Ronder once or twice in memory when her mother took her to work. What did this man have to do with clowns though?
“So do we need to follow this Ronder and wait until the clown shows up?” Reed questioned. Yeah that has so worked out well for you this past few days hasn’t it? Shelly thought.
“I think we need to be a lot smarter about this. Don’t forget about laser face. That guy’s got a hate on your family. I mean he almost killed your brother twice this month”, Shelly declared out loud. Reed tensed slightly when she mentioned Marco. She uttered a sorry in low whisper to him before resuming her normal voice. She tapped on both the studio and atrium and placed purple X’s on each of them.
“The studio is owned by the Altamiri Company obviously and is one of the biggest sponsors of the Golden Harvest Community Chest. So now let us think this out. Three days have passed and so far there hasn’t been any news of him disappearing yet. Maybe they’re waiting until he’s somewhere heavily involved with your family’s company?” Blackbird raised an eyebrow as if genuinely surprised by Shelly’s deduction. Reed was half asleep and missed most of it. She had to ask him a second time if there was anything that he knew that could narrow it down. He grumbled through half yawns that he again knew very little of what happened in his father’s business. It wasn’t entirely lying. Anything he heard was usually if his big brother did some major accomplishment or during the holidays for the local commercials. A lot of it was kept hush hush for obvious reasons until the production aired. Blackbird finally stated he might have an idea. He tapped a location on the city map on a building called Milton Auctions. From there he pulled up an internet article detailing that the second building to the Cadric City Arena was being put up for sale.
“Seventeen years ago the arena caught fire during a show accident. Most of the interior had been destroyed. LeBatte Industries bought the main arena and funded most of the reconstruction. However, there had been a second arena attached to the main one for smaller shows. The construction had never been fully completed and was mostly used as a backstage area for years. It has been falling apart for over a decade. Mayor Ambrose, before the gorilla incident, had proposed reconstruction of the second stage. Several private and public companies are bidding on this tomorrow night.” He pointed to two names. One was Ronder Bailey Circus and the other was Altamiri Advertising. Something flashed in Shelly’s mind. Again it was the feeling as when she saw Bringer and Tink on the map. She rapped her head with the palms of her hands as if that was going to pry it loose.
“The auction house is very close Cadric Park”, Reed observed. “Rumor has it there are several entrances to the Underground around and near there. It would be easy for them to escape.”
“Oh the plus side there won’t be as many people and not as many police to deal with”, Blackbird mused. He told them both to rest up for both their finals. As Shelly grabbed her bag to take to the elevator, Blackbird requested that Reed remain behind for a few minutes. Once Shelly was out of the training room, Blackbird commented, “I am quite aware of what you have been doing for the past few days.” Reed yawned and grumbled he was just trying to search. Blackbird made appear several internet news blogs all with ranging from blurry photos to semi unprofessional clear pictures. The Silver Guardian had halted a bank robbery, broke up a fight, among a few other minor instances of stopping crimes. Reed huffed that he failed to understand what the problem was. He was fighting crime, right? Wasn’t that what he was supposed to do?
“Reed, let me give you some advice. You’re both Reed Altamiri and the Silver Guardian. You have a responsibility to both.” Reed snorted in disbelief.
“It’s not like Reed Altamiri is good for anything” he hissed in a very low tone thinking Michael Blackbird could not hear him.
“You seem very sure of that”, Blackbird said and then snickered as the color flushed from Reed’s face for a moment.
“Very well, learn the hard way.” Then he grabbed Reed’s tie and jerked him with surprising force for a one armed old man. “Don’t skip any more classes because I can and will ground the Silver Guardian.” Reed groaned a fine and fixed his tie when he was finally released. He didn’t like the way Blackbird said for him to learn the hard way. At least when he was the Silver Guardian people actually acknowledged him-even if they saw him more of a villain.
****
Down below Madame Tink had screeched and bellowed for three days. She refused to eat out of the food bowls like some common urchin and each time Circus Freak entered the space she demanded to be released. Fredrick begged for her to be silent or at least stop parroting the same demands over and over again. It had gotten to the point where he begged the clown to use the knock out gas on Madame Tink or at least on him so he would not have to listen to her anymore. Circus Freak would just perform a little tap dance and tell him that it served him right. On the third day he once again appeared with the push cart of covered dog dishes. Once again Madame Tink refused ‘pedestrian food’ as she put it.
“And yet every time I return our bowl is empty. I am certain you are not using the spaghetti to cut the bars to your cage. Ah but you need not wait for much longer soon. Tonight we will be graced by one more special guest and then aaaaaaaaalllllll your questions will be answered. And then…and then…you will be a part of the best and final show of the Ronder Bailey Circus.” Then someone happened they did not expect. As Circus Freak was swapping out the bowls between the bars, Madame Tink had managed to grab the clown by their mask and slammed them against the bars. Circus Freak bounced back in defense and the strap holding their mask in place snapped in half. Madame Tink screamed in vile horror at the face that stared back. Bringer gasped and was trying to not wretch inside his cage. They smiled a half lipped grin as they got closer to the cage to retrieve their mask. All the while Madame Tink screamed for them to get away and pressed her hefty body against the back of the trailer. Her sudden weight almost made the thing tip back. Circus Freak rammed the cage level telling her it would not do if she got injured too soon before holding their mask back to their face.
Once outside he saw his partner removing the last dents out of his suit.
“I must commend on your ability. Hard to believe you were…terminated for incompetence.” Prism Beak managed to hoist one of his discharge canons at the clown, but he knew it wouldn’t do him any good. The damn joker still had his control over his precious suit.
“I could have had my revenge several times over by now! Why did we have to wait until this…auction thing for some dumb building some dumb mayor proposed to fix to fix another dumb mayor’s folly?” Circus Freak tilted his head like he was a wind up doll that need to be charged again.
“It is the art of the thing. Besides, I like to think of him stewing in his own juices before the curtain falls. And we did make a bargain, remember? One more actor for my show and I produce the plan you need to eradicate one Morgan Altamiri. Have I steered you wrong, yet?”
“You did keep me from killing his precious son-twice! I would have loved to see the gut wrenching pain in that man’s face. He ruined me and I wanted to ruin him the second I got that lucky break with that monkey attack. And you…”
“If you killed his son then you would have had all of the Cadric City police force AND the Silver Guardian down on our necks faster than a cotton candy in a child’s hand. Impatience is what caused your initial failure. Try it again before I get Ronder and I will gladly throw you to the wolves…Henry Fowler.” Prism Beak snarled but held back. It was just one more night. Just one more night in this rank building and having to suffer under the whims of the fool.
****
Circus Freak had moved their way downtown through the maze of the Underground. When they emerged to the surface-their surroundings was a barren dirt area. Despite being in a very public area, the place they stood was blocked off with massive wooden planks from casual view. There were fresh tracks of heavy tires in the dirt by their feet and they grinned. So, they were already here. They pushed aside a heavy board and squeezed themselves inside. Heavy piles of black ash kicked about their feet and as they went further down the sounds of drills and hammering increased. Once outside the tunnel they pressed their palms together in delight. Several black garbed workers were bolting together Circus Freak’s special death trap. Half sitting half leaning on a crate was a small man dressed in a long green coat and wore a top hat adored with time pieces, gears, wires. Large coke bottle goggled adorned their rat-like face as they tapped their buck teeth overlooking the project.
“Ah senor Circus, I trust you like what you see”, the little man wheezed in a thick Spanish accent.
“It is…beautiful.”
“Pah, a bit too pretty if you ask me. Villains these days. All flash and no form. Back in my day, we did our own weapon designs. But one must change with the times. What you order I shall build. Though I must say your specifications were…odd. I am not one to pry into the affairs of others-but do you actually have a specific purpose for this contraption’s appearance?” Circus Freak glared down at the midget of a man. His dismissing tone was far to reminiscing of Prism Beaks and it was getting rather annoying.
“Poetic justice. I am going to kill them-just as they killed us.”
“Revenge? Bah. A worthless endeavor. No profit in it. With that suit of yours I built you could have millions! Be sitting like a king! But nooooo-waste my time and talent for some imaginary…” The rat faced midget found Circus Freak’s hand pressing against his Adam’s apple and threating to crush it in an instant. The little fiend wheezed a chortling laugh at this hilarity.
“Oh please, do you honestly think you are the first bad guy to threaten my life?” The sounds of construction had halted in almost an instant and replaced with the clicking of guns being aimed at their head. The crew had been swift to trade hammers for firearms in almost an on the spot. The clown slowly loosened their grip and side stepped away from the green garbed gremlin.
“That’s a good clown. Be assured your death trap, camera array with crew, and transmission jammer will be ready when you are. I assume you will be ready soon. I don’t like to waste time when my crew can be somewhere else.”
“No. In fact, the last guest will be in their dressing room by tonight’s end.”
****
The guests had filed on the main lobby-partaking in the offered coffee and water and chatting it up with other bidders. Reed was inside the lobby as himself wearing a black blazer over his regular school uniform and leaning against the wall watching the people mingle about. He had been standing there for a good forty minutes now and he did not even get so much as sideways glance even as people’s walked very close to him to grab cups of water. He felt a little sting even if being just part of the background was the plan. In his earpiece, Shelly was humming the ‘Small World’ theme just low enough to be annoying.
“Could you sing something else or just not sing at all?” he hissed.
“Aw but Mission Impossible is soooo cliché”, she whined. “And at least YOU get to be inside with the refreshments.”
“Your job is to watch for anything suspicious outside. And as the Guardian blending in isn’t your strong suit”, responded Blackbird over the radio. Reed twisted his ring on his finger. The whole point of the Silver Guardian was to NOT blend in, he believed.
“Don’t even think about it, Reed”, Splinterbark sang in his ear. Reed looked around but he could not see his pink partner anywhere he stood.
“How…how did you?”
“You tend to hum that weird tune when you fiddle with that ring. Brrr, is there like hot coco in there because I seriously could use it.”
“Splinterbark…”
“I’m serious! I can’t even tell what’s suspicious anymore. Even the taco truck that just went by looks mistrustful Mmm….tacos…” Reed pulled out the earpiece and shoved it in his coat pocket when she and Frix started making drooling sounds. He saw his father approach towards the coffee table. The whole time he fixed his drink-he did not even look at his son. Still Reed scuttled to behind a potted fern just to be safe.
Suddenly he saw his father stand erect and shudder when someone approached from behind.
“Ah, Morgan, how nice to see you in the flesh. Usually you’re just a voice on the phone whenever you call our humble broadcast station.” Morgan’s eye twitched but he politely turned to face his addresser. Nathaniel Ronder had done away with the typical coat with the CCTV logo and was garbed in a gaudy rhinestone encrusted red coat and a tall top hat. He would have looked more in place at a theatre show or band concert than a serious event as was here.
“Nathaniel Ronder, surprised to see you here. I thought you were practically bankrupt after the fire incident.” Ronder casually laughed it off much to Morgan’s actual surprise.
“Oh just a little nest egg I have been cultivating for the past decade. I’m thinking of going back to real showbiz. Ronder’s Emporium of Spectaculars! The wonders of the circus all year round. A small theme park that might even rival Dominion Park. What do you think?” Morgan tried to not crush the cup of hot coffee in his hand or just splash it right in Ronder’s pudgy face. He rubbed his temples as if that was going to quell this dark vengeful and very tempting feeling.
“Morgan Altamiri, fancy seeing you here!” Reed watched in amazement as a third guest wrapped one massive bear arm around Morgan’s sizeable chest and squeezed. Morgan gasped and wheezed out a ‘let me go you red faced Viking’. Desmond Dougal laughed heartily as Morgan refilled the air back into his lungs and was stunned he didn’t spell any coffee onto his suit. The crimson bearded oaf then turned an eye to Ronder. There was something in his glare that even made Reed feel unsettled. He was a giant compared to the little man in the red suit and Ronder excused himself saying he thought he saw someone from Cadric TV.
“What…what did you…”
“Something those old pulp magazine stories called the ‘evil eye’. Ooooohhhhh. But slapping your family name on something outside your company ties ain’t exactly your style, Morgan.” Reed thought he saw something downcast in his father’s face-an expression he thought he was not capable of. Anger, happiness, determination sure, but actual sadness? He didn’t even see that when Reed’s mother was…
“I have no intention of ‘slapping my family name’ as you so jejunely put it. I want that extension razed completely to the ground until there is no trace of it and it becomes nothing more than a parking structure.”
“That incident still bothers you doesn’t it? Even after all these years?” there was no mirth in Desmond’s voice this time.
“I could have lost them. All because of that stupid woman and that….” Morgan realized he was rambling and saying things openly he’d rather not. He shook his head and hissed, “Speaking of, why are you here? Planning to build another one of your garish hostels?”
Desmond seemed to be able to catch on Morgan’s attempt to derail the conversation and shrugged quite nonchalantly. “Eh, thinking of branching out a little. Maybe dabble into the restaurant business.”
“And here I thought you were about to say a theme park with cartoon animals.”
“Ha ha! Maybe I will. Maybe let your company work out the public image? Too bad the location isn’t suited for it.”
“I hear you’ve been busy fixing your hotel after the incident two weeks ago. Impressive how you recovered in less than 24 hours while everyone else was in the hospital for a few days. What is your secret?” Desmond just laughed and credited having a strong constitution born of Scottish ancestry. Morgan voiced aloud he seriously doubted that. Then Desmond leaned in and smirked,
“You have your special secrets and I have mine”, in a devilish all-knowing tone. Morgan had little time to react to the claim because the bell sounded over the speakers and the two large doors to the auction room opened. Morgan brushed past Desmond and seated himself as far as possible. That man had a way getting people to talk freely to him and he hated it.
Everyone was seated inside the auction house’s auditorium. Reed took his place in the shadows of the window curtains glancing between Ronder and his father. It was a bit of a tricky task as there were balloon columns everywhere and kept blocking his view. Outside Splinterbark slipped into the backstage area to get out of the cold for a bit. Frix grumbled that he was still sticking to her right shoulder where the tiger had slammed them. The flashback of nearly being eaten by a big cat made Splinterbark shiver down to her knees.
“Don’t tell me that big feline actually scared a tough little thing like you”, Frix scoffed.
“M-m-me? Scared of a big bad cat that nearly ate me and I watched get shot literally two feet from my face? Nah, of course I’m totally not still freaking out.” As she stood there rubbing her arms, she thought she saw odd looking shadows on the opposite end of the room.
“Hey partner, I think I saw someone just come back here towards the stage. Reed, you still have a visual on Ronder? Reed? Hey, you there? Boss, is Reed alright?”
“I’m still getting a signal from his radio. I don’t know why he isn’t responding. Try to see if you can get a visual inside the main stage.”
Splinterbark tried to run to the doors that lead to the main area and smacked into something hard with her legs. The thing rolled back and knocked her feet underneath her and she slammed hard on the ground.
“Shelly! Shelly you alright?”
“I’m fine…my elbow broke my fall. Jeez what I hit?” Splinterbark pulled out a penlight at her legs. Rolling by her foot was a tank labeled with a picture of a balloon and helium printed underneath it. On the floor were several other tanks but were upright. An impish thought came to mind and she opened up one of the nozzles to pitch her voice. She had barely turned the nozzle when a slow whip of gas leaked out and she suddenly felt groggy. Not enough to knock her out but like that state where you do and don’t want to sleep at the same time.
“That is a weirdest helium I’ve ever inhaled”, she said out loud. Looked around there was an open box of balloons and a spool of wire with small piles of sand on the ground around them. Sleepy gas? Balloons?
“Reed! Reed, do you copy? Reed respond!” She tried to open the door marked stage entrance but it wouldn’t budge. She was about to use a pin to pick the door lock when she thought she heard an odd shuffling on the other side. Splinterbark lifted up her helmet a bit so she could put her bare ear against the wood. She could heard two voices and one of them was a bit distorted. This was going to hurt the heating bill, but Splinterbark had to hear what was on the other side. She traced her finger on a small part of the molding and focused her power right on that spot. The wood fell apart just enough to allow sound to come through but not enough for those on the other side to notice.
“…And why can’t I kill him now? He’s bloody right there!”
“In an auction house? You have no style. No sense of dramatic and ironic death. You want to destroy him where he destroyed you. A full and delicious vengeance. After all, there is a reason I chose that one place for my final show.”
“To hell with ‘dramatics’. I want it now!”
“You try and right back to the island you go.”
Splinterbark moved back from the door and yelled into the earpiece for Reed to say something. She knew he was going to hate her for this but she pulled out a police whistle she had bought from her father’s store. She had initially bought it to warn citizens or direct traffic-not to blow out her partners’ eardrums. She apologized to Frix and Blackbird and blew hard into the microphone. There was a sound of a microphone getting fumbled before a “Sheesh, you almost blew my cover!”
“Well next time actually respond when I call you! Hey, are there like a lot of balloons in there?”
“There is a lot of balloon towers in the auditorium stage. Why?”
“Reed I think those balloons are filled with-“ A large hand clamped around her mouth and she could feel the earpiece being ripped from her ear. Splinterbark jabbed her free elbow back and hit metal instead. In the dim light a crystal began to glow in front of her face.
“Well well well if it isn’t the little sidekick? Where is your partner?” Prism Beak moved the point on his prism cannon closer to her face. Suddenly he yelled out as shards of beech wood stuck to his unarmored legs. His grip loosened enough for Splinterbark to slide down between his arms and smacked the handle of her hook against his legs.
“You little brat! I’m going to vaporize you that not even your mommy will be able to fill your ashes into a mason jar!” Splinterbark rolled just out to the side of the garage as blast soared just above her back. She ran around the back of the auction house expecting Prism Beak to be right behind her. Much to her surprise she saw nothing coming behind her. She was certain Prism Beak couldn’t fly. Frix yelled for her to look behind her just as she felt a sharp prick in the thick fabric of her neck. The imp plucked it out and was nearly grounded under the weight of the dart. It had only just scratched her and already that same woozy feeling from the gas was beginning to overtake her. She fought hard against it even as the hard ground was spinning under her feet. A blur of red, white, and orange was gradually making their way closer to her. The image reached out a white gloved hand and held her upwards by her high collar.
“You’re a stubborn little monkey aren’t you? I should kill you for what you did to my pet but…”
“Oh just let me fry the brat. No one is gonna miss her”, Prism Beak’s voice grated in Splinterbark’s ears.
“Use your brain you blast happy harpy. If this little joey figured out where we were going to strike, the Silver Guardian cannot be far behind. And this time, I will be holding her hostage, cactus butt.”
“Shelly? Shelly, what about the balloons?” Reed panicky whispered into his headset.
“Something has gone wrong with the signal. Hang on I’ll see if I can get into the security cameras in there”, Blackbird returned before a sound of furious typing drummed in Reed’s ear.
“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. THANK YOU FOR COMING TO THIS BIDDING FOR THE SECOND STAGE AT OUR BEAUTIFUAL AND HISTORIC CADRIC CITY ARENA!” Foxwell’s booming voice drowned out the impatient whisperings of the crowd.
“As you know, our dear mayor had a proposal to finally fix the half burnt section of the arena which has remained derelict for over a decade. Unfortunately with other things such as blonde angel gods and the ilk they attract constantly berating this city, there just has not been enough in the city budget to do much of anything. And that is where you lovely people come in. The city is selling the property to do with as they please…within reason of course. Our dear mayor Ambrose would have liked to be in here himself but sadly is still recovering from the terrible gorilla incident not too long ago. An incident, I might add, a certain Golden and Silver Guardian failed to prevent in the first place.” The strong spotlights on the crowd prevented him from being aware of two very hateful glares from the auditorium.
“So before we begin the bidding a bit of background about the property…”
“Reed, I can’t find Shelly on the cameras”, Blackbird gasped in the earpiece. Reed glanced at Ronder and Morgan and then at the door.
“But…but what about…”
“She’s your partner, Reed. I’m putting in a call to the police, now. Go!” Reed grimaced but ran out the auction door and slammed it hard leaving Foxwell to yell out who interrupted him. After a quick transformation in the bathroom, Silver made his way outside and flew up above the building to get a better vantage point. He then saw something long and light brown on the ground around the back. Hovering down, his hand gripped around Splinterbark’s hook weapon with a frustrated and half groggy Frix pinned underneath it. He cupped his massive hands underneath the imp and shook him demanding to know what happened. Frix staggered on Silver’s arm as he crawled his way onto Silver’s shoulder.
“We found tanks of some kind of groggy gas and then Prism Beak caught us. That clown freak hit Shelly with a dart and grabbed her somewhere in the back door. He pointed a claw at the slightly open door marked Backstage.
“Sleeping gas…balloons…no! Damn it, how could I be so stupid?!” Frix squawked what the heck Silver was gabbing about as he shoved his way into the back door.
Inside Foxwell was at about the midway point though his speech when someone from the side of the stage began clapping loudly and whistling. The deputy mayor demanded to know who was interrupting him a second time. Circus Freak twirled their way on the right stage while Prism Beak came from the left.
“Quite a spiel you’re making, deputy mayor. You would have made quite a barker in the old days…if they actually existed. But I think we can speed up the effect don’t you think?” Circus Freak clicked a button and popping noises erupted from the sides of the seating area. The balloons began to burst and wheeze out their contents into the crowd. Many coughed and sputtered as they tried to get out before collapsing on the ground.
Circus Freak hopped between bodies until they located Ronder. Ronder was still a bit conscious because he managed to croak just what did the clown want.
“Oh nothing much. Just a little public revenge and you’re my last special guest.” A large gust of wind blew behind them and they released one grip on their prey to shield their face. The large doors burst open and a sudden suction pulled the gas out of the room. Then Prism Beak flew over their heads thanks so someone tossing him clear over the seats. Silver held one pistol directly at Circus Freak and announced they were not going to get away this time.
“Are you certain about that?” Circus Freak pressed a button and Silver heard a winch release above his head. From behind the curtain, Splinterbark was tied up above him and something like a small red box was attached her chest.
“Your choice Silver Guardian; either you get us walk and dispense long overdue justice or let your useless partner die in flames.” Silver stepped back a little and the clown was taking this as a cue to leave. They were about to exit the large doors when the large wall section around the doors cracked and collapsed into an impassible heap in front of them. Circus Freak snarled that they had warned them and pressed the switch. Silver had managed to rip the incendiary bomb from Splinterbark’s netting and took the brunt of the blast. As he was busy carefully using his gun to cut away her ropes, Prism Beak was blasting the debris away to enable their escape. Both had just finished with one party exiting and the other after them.
Splinterbark was still a bit bleary from the sleeping dart and it was only the rush of the chase, and the panic she was almost burned to death, which was keeping her awake. They followed the duo out into the park just as the police had started to roll in. Now they had the cops chasing after them! Silver was trying to fly down the winding pathway and avoid the trees. The two were moving surprisingly fast for lugging a tubby sleeping body behind them. Splinterbark was just holding on to Silver’s belt for dear life as best as she could and the drug was thankfully finally wearing off. Silver almost had his hand on Ronder’s body when a bullet whizzed from behind them. One of the cops had fired a shot and just missed. The abrupt noise startled Splinterbark and one of the oak trees heavy branches in front of them busted into shards blinding the angel and sending the trio slamming hard into the ground. Circus Freak and Prism Beak had blasted away one of the sealed grates that led into the Underground and were struggling to squeeze Ronder’s body through. Silver lurched himself from the ground and smacked Splinterbark’s hand away before chasing them down on foot.
Silver Guardian and Splinterbark still had a visual on the fleeing suspects. The tunnel was just small enough where he couldn’t fly and had to maneuver his hulking frame through the area on foot. Splinterbark was trying her best to keep up though she was still a bit woozy. She has pushing herself to keep up with his partner until she slipped on a bit of sludge on the ground and slammed hard on her right knee before she collapsed onto her face. She called for Silver but he only glanced briefly before resuming the chase. The footsteps of the police were coming in loud and fast. Frix called her over to an alcove that was steeped in shadows that was small but she could hide in. Splinterbark dragged herself inside the crawl space and clamped her hands over her mouth to keep herself from making noise. She could see the feet of the police running past very very close to where she was hiding. She shut her eyes until the marching died out and even then was too terrified to move. Then she heard the sound of a gun being released from its safety.
“Come out nice and slow”, came a woman’s voice. Splinterbark didn’t want to come out at first.
“Splinterbark, I know you’re in there. Come out”, the woman ordered again. Splinterbark slunked out and was staring right into the gun being held by Sierra Winters. Splinterbark’s knee was in pain and she was in full panic. She didn’t see Silver Guardian anywhere near or hear anything but the steady dripping water from a leaky pipe above them. She was trying very hard not to cry as she held her palms up to the level of her head. Sierra just stared at her for a long hard minute before sighing and putting away her firearm.
“Go on. Get out of here. There aren’t any officers if you run towards Templar Ave.” Splinterbark did not say anything and instead just ran. She was well out of the tunnel before Sierra heard Bruce come up from behind her.
“You let her go?”
“I…I couldn’t do it.”
“Foxwell isn’t going to like this.” He ran past her and out the tunnel even as Sierra was begging for him to stop.
Splinterbark had run to the end of the park lane and turned left down Templar Street. Suddenly a car swerved in front of her just as she was trying to cross and blocked her path. It was older model black car that had traces of a bird shaped decal being removed. The door swung open and Blackbird poked his head out tell her to get in fast. They sped off leaving Bruce behind before he could even see the car clearly or its passengers. They drove for a bit with Shelly sitting in the backseat silently until they were about a block away from her home.
“How…how did you find me?”
“You can thank your invisible friend, Frix.” Frix pipped his head from one of the many pockets in Splinterbark’s cargo pants and tapped the call registry on her phone. Blackbird then used it to lock on to her phone’s GPS. Splinterbark just stood there squeezing her eyes tightly and shaking like maraca at fiesta time. Blackbird put his hand on her shoulder and pulled her in to a gentle hug.
“Go ahead, Shelly. Let it out”, he said calmly. Splinterbark then proceeded to wail and cry her eyes out.

[Lovetheangelshadow]

Chapter 10: Fallout Reed had barely gotten out of bed and dragged himself over to breakfast. His whole body ached like one does from recovering from intense exercise. He was starting to wonder if these transformations were taking more of a toll on him that he thought. He never saw his father in an exhausted state, why did it feel like it was only happening to him? He was surprised to actually see the whole of his family sitting at the breakfast table even on a Saturday. With the upcoming holidays from rolling in, his brother and father would already be at work. Maybe his mother would be there to see him or she could be out. Seeing all three of them together felt…odd. And they were all staring at him.
“Morning”, he forced to say as he seated himself down. He had finally gotten some of the sleep gunk out of his eyes when he realized there were papers in front of his father and the school’s letterhead at the top.
“Reed, is there something you want to tell us?” Lenora started first. Not really, her son thought. Morgan was far more direct.
“We got a call from your school yesterday. You skipped three days of school, during midterms! Isn’t this why you were sent to the counselor in the first place? Because your grades were already slipping this semester? How are you getting worse? Are you even seeing this counselor? What are you really doing after school?” Reed did not respond. He had already heard this from his classmates and yet listening to this now made him shudder a bit and he gripped the skin above his collarbone hard.
“Morgan, please, yelling isn’t going to help,” Lenora tried to placate her husband.
“Then what is? What do you want me to do Lenora?”
“Maybe he’s having some trouble with school. Reed, do you need extra help?”
“Not like it matters”, Reed hissed under his breath, but it was loud enough for his father to hear.
“Not like it matters? You’re an Altamiri! And Altamiris don’t fall below the mark! Your brother never had this problem when he was at Valdus Academy. You have no excuse!” he bellowed.
“Dad!” Marco objected. Reed wanted to melt into his seat but barely moved from his slouching position on the table. This conversation was not anything new to him. Why can’t you be like your big brother, Reed? This was so easy for your brother, Reed. Reed wanted so badly right now to scream how much he was sick of hearing it. Gee, father, sorry I’m not an exact clone of Marco. Now he had to deal with being seen as second fiddle with the Golden Guardian. Then his own anxieties kicked in and he just shut down. However, he knew better. It wasn’t like him saying any of what he felt would change anything.
“Until your grades get back up, consider yourself grounded, Reed. You are only allowed out for school and work. You know, the job you insisted you get on your own. At least you had enough spine to do that.” Reed twitched at the last comment his father just had to jab in. Reed just uttered a ‘yes sir’ before he excused himself saying he was not hungry and was going back to his room. Marco had followed him upstairs where he found Reed half slumped over his desk as if he had tried to make it back to his bed and did not make it that far.
“Reed, you’re not going to say why you skipped school.” Well it was not like he could exactly tell him he had been unsuccessfully hunting for a pair of villains in a maze of a city like Cadric as a winged avenger thanks to a ring he stole from his brother’s personal safe.
“You used to be a lot more open with me. Look I know dad can be a little hard sometimes, but you’re better than this. I can’t stand up for you if you don’t trust me.” Reed was about to open his mouth when they both heard the buzzer downstairs ring.
“Huh, that’s odd. Who’d be ringing the door today? Ah jeez, I gotta get downstairs! Dad’s gonna kill me if I keep him waiting!” Marco ran out the door and down the opposite end of the hall towards the back of the house with Reed slamming the door behind him.
The Saturday afternoon had just begun as Thomas sped down the expressway though the outer circles of Cadric City. Shelly was holding on tight to his waist while trying to keep her helmet on. Finally he turned off and slowed down in a residential area.
“I really appreciate you inviting me to your club meeting at the rink”, she said through her muffled voice in the helmet.
“Hey, no problem. Nothing like a little adrenaline rush on the rolling rink to alleviate stress. *Aside from smashing abandoned buildings with a baseball bat*”
“What was that last part?”
“Uh…nothing”, he responded rather quickly.
“Wait, aren’t we rather far away from downtown?” She had finally opened her eyes wide enough to notice that where there should have been numerous buildings all huddled tougher or fancy historic statures, they were surrounded by trees and were driving uphill.
“Y-yeah, I gotta make a quick stop first. We’ll be there in a few.”
They had finally gotten past the hill of trees until Thomas pulled up onto the plateau. Before them as a massive Italian-style villa surrounded by a high iron fence. The gates had a pair of large ornate A’s in the Roman style. She had a gut feeling she knew exactly where this “quick stop” really was. Her grip on Thomas’ coat tightened with a small flare of anger hard enough to make him yelp a little. He removed his helmet and pressed the buzzer.
“Hello?” a female voice came over the intercom. Thomas looked up and waved at the camera.
“Hey, Mrs. Altamiri! Is Reed home?” There was a loud gong like noise and the gates opened enough for Thomas to pull in his bike. Shelly almost lost her hold as she was awestruck by the environment they were driving past. Statues of Greek and Roman heroes dotted the perfectly manicured lawn complete with fountains that seemed to spout their own colors in the autumn sunlight. Most of the flowers and bushes had been covered in preparation for winter. Thomas pulled up into the roundabout and hopped up with ease the long flight of marble steps to the large gilded doors. A woman in a wheelchair answered the door.
“Hello Thomas. Oh, who is this girl? Did we meet before?” When Shelly finally got up the stairs she recognized the woman from the hotel party. So she was Reed’s mother. Aside from the blue eyes-there was not much of a resemblance between the two.
“Oh, I’m Shelly Holmes. Nice to meet you Reed’s mom.” She then slapped her forehead realizing just how juvenile she sounded. Thomas was trying to suppress a giggle and Lenora’s face just flushed red for a moment from amusing embarrassment.
“Holmes…Holmes…I know that name. Is your mother’s name Vivian by any chance?”
“Yup”, Shelly announced proudly.
“I see”, Lenora responded a bit curtly. Shelly picked up on how abrupt the friendly tone changed so sudden. She didn’t think she had done anything wrong. And before the diner party at the hotel, she could have sworn she had never seen this woman before.
“Hey, is Reed in his room? We were just dropping off some school stuff on the way downtown.” Lenora snapped out of her glare and the kindly smile shifted right back into place.
“Yes, he should still be. I’m afraid you cannot stay long. He is grounded.” Thomas and Shelly looked at each other and nodded in knowing. They had to go down several doors in the upstairs hall before finally getting to the door that had an engraved placard that had “Reed Morgan Altamiri” in formal font on it. Thomas inhaled and exhaled a long sign before rapping on the door with the back of his knuckles. At first there was no response though Frix said he thought he heard a grumble akin to “go away”. Thomas knocked again. There was some shuffling and complaining before the door slowly opened.
Reed’s hair was not even his usual coif and ponytail and laid about in curly strands along his shoulders. Heavy dark circles were around his eyes and he yawned as he rubbed the sleep out of them. The only thing that actually looked neat was his polo shirt and slacks.
“What the hell, Reed? Were you up all night?” Thomas exclaimed.
“What do you want, Thomas?” Reed griped sleepily. Without saying much else, he backed up and opened the door wide enough to let them inside. Shelly took a pause to look around Reed’s room. It was surprisingly simple beige room that was only just shyly larger than her own. He had a loft style bed and desk on one side of the room. On the wall were a few posters with giant robots and a few older science fiction style anime she didn’t recognize. On a high shelf was a collection of robot models ranging from Lego sets to the Japanese models you buy to put together. Somehow that explained the Silver Guardian’s appearance so much to her right now. Reed slumped onto the chair at his computer desk and ran his fingers through his hair. Shelly thought he really was not looking well and he looked more ghoulish than Alucard.
“Reed, are you okay? You look really sick.” Reed just glared back at her.
“I ran into that explosive trap like an amateur. Damn clown had the whole section in the tunnel rigged. Dropped a lot of brick on my head. They were gone before I got out. But you did not come here about that, did you? I can practically see it on Thomas’ face.”
He hadn’t expected Thomas to suddenly grab him with both hands by his shirt lapels and rammed him into the dresser side of the loft bed.
“Do you have any idea what you did last night?! You left Shelly behind in that tunnel! You never leave your partner like that! Ever!”
“Woah Thomas, we don’t have to…” Shelly tried to interject, but Reed loudly sighed in annoyance.
“Shelly is perfectly capable of defending herself if she is somehow angry about that. She does not need you white knighting her.” Thomas’ grip tightened almost close to choking his best friend. Shelly gripped his wrist and told him to let go. Thomas released Reed and let him fall into a heap on the floor like he was garbage he did not want to deal with. When Reed finally got back to standing, Shelly jabbed her finger in his chest.
“And yes I am really really really pissed at you right now! You saw me fall and you left me behind!”
“….and?”
“I almost got caught by the cops! Did you forget you and I are wanted criminals? I would be sweating it out in jail right now if that lady detective didn’t decide to let me go! What the hell, Reed? Why? Why did you leave me back there? I thought we we’re partners!” Reed folded his arms and cocked his head slightly as he frowned back at her.
“Partners huh? Some partner you’ve been.” This time he nudged her in her shoulder.
“It was YOUR fault Madame Tink got kidnapped! It was YOUR fault they were able to kidnap Ronder! I had them in my grasp and both times you went and ruined it! And why? Because I had to waste my time saving you!” Shelly began to shake a little.
“I…I…didn’t…I’m sorry. I didn’t think…”
“Sorry? Sorry?! Those three could be dead by now and guess who gets all the blame? Me! Who do you think people blame for what happened at the news station? Me! Who do you think people hold responsible for Feronia Gardens? Me! And who do you suppose people are now criticizing for the auction house incident? Guess?! Every time something happens to this city-apparently it’s my fault! Not yours!” Thomas tried to move between the now trembling Shelly and the hyper-ventilating Reed buy putting his much taller frame between the two.
“Hold on there, Reed. You’re letting the media get under your skin. It’s not what…”
“You stay out of this, Thomas!” Reed bellowed as shoved his friend aside in shaking fury.
“Reed, please I…listen I know I messed up, but we might be able to fix…”
“No, you listen! What good are you? All you can do is what? Give people mildly annoying splinters? You’re worthless!”
“Now hold on there, Reed. That is going too far,” Thomas cried out. Reed did not seem to hear him and he was storming over to where Shelly was backing close to the door. She had never seen Reed this angry before.
“I don’t need you! I never needed you! No one even knows who you are so why don’t you just end your little dress up game as Splinterbark? The Golden Guardian did not need a partner, so why do I need you?” Shelly’s face turned from shock to anger.
“You…are…not…THE GOLDEN GUARDIAN!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. Reed roared and raised his hand to strike her when Thomas gripped his wrist and squeezed hard.
“Reed, I told you to stop!” He swung Reed effortlessly behind him and let him crash into the floor. All three of them just stood there, the air now thick with pent up anger from all parties. Thomas suggested they leave and left Reed to pick himself from the floor nursing a sore shoulder. He threw himself onto his bed and screamed into his pillow.
As Shelly and Thomas were talking down Lenora had just gotten up to the upper landing.
“Is everything okay? I was in the kitchen and I heard shouting.” Thomas and Shelly forced smiles on their faces and made the excuse that they got into a heated fandom debate. Lenora seemed a bit crestfallen at the answer. Thomas excused themselves and Lenora grabbed his arm as he tried to pass.
“Thomas, you’re his best friend. Do you know what’s wrong with him?” Thomas bit his lip even has he still held that artificial smile.
“I…I’m afraid not”, he lied.
When they finally got outside and was about to drive off when Thomas apologized profusely.
“I didn’t think he’d react like that. He’s never acted that way before, even when I broke his nose with my roller skates.”
“No, you didn’t know. And…he is kind of right.”
“Hey! Hey! Don’t think like that! It was your plans that beat Metilla Gorilla.” Shelly chuckled nervously.
“Thanks for trying to cheer me up.” Thomas deflated a little. Even though the heavy visor of their helmets his comment did not alleviate much.
“You want me to take you home?”
“Nuh uh, you promised me some stress reliving rush on the rink, remember. Come on, let’s go!”
****
Circus Freak had just finished loading the last crate onto the truck of their three special guests. The drug had worn off Ronder a tad too earlier than they would have liked and they had to listen to the man try to bribe to be released. It was made even worse with Madame Tink trying to do him one better by offering even higher amounts to be set free instead. Bringer finally told both of them to shut up and let him sleep-a plea that went unanswered until Circus Freak had enough and just gassed them back to unconsciousness. It could possibly make a slight delay in their plans since they would have preferred them to be awake for the final show.
Prism Beak was fueling up the tanks on his suit and watching his colorful partner do all the heavy lifting. Soon both of them would be out of this dingy warehouse on the outskirts. All the while the captives had been whining and complaining, several times Prism Beak offered to just evaporate them right then and there. And each time, the clown warned him that if he killed them-he would be the one taking their place in his show. Once Circus Freak had latched the doors to the truck, they plucked an envelope from the numerous pockets and handed it towards their comrade.
“And this is…”
“Our agreement? You help me capture my three guests and in return I give you a foolproof plan of vengeance on one Morgan Altamiri. A perfect piece of poetry.” Prism Beak snatched the paper and glanced it once over. He hacked a wheezy laugh and used one of his canons to burn the paper to the ground. Circus Freak just watched it turn to a fine powdery ask and yet seemed unfazed at the reaction.
“I don’t need your little ‘poetry’. Just point my gun at Morgan and vroom! One dead Altamiri.”
“And have you planned how to deal with the rest of security? The police? The Silver Guardian and his sidekick?” Prism Beak laughed hard enough to clutch his sides in slight discomfort.
“You honestly think I have anything to fear from that second rate angel or the little girl? If it were the Golden Guardian I might be worried.”
“Don’t underestimate them. You’ve only managed to escape because of MY help.”
“But you needed MY tech to pull this off! You couldn’t do this thing without me!” Circus Freak just shrugged. Not once had they raised their voice no matter how much Prism Beak shouted.
“Very well, go your own way. I cut your strings. And for the record, I never really needed you. I was merely doing you a favor. I owe someone else a far more impressive debt.” They hopped into the truck and drove off leaving their former companion inside the empty warehouse. Prism Beak just spat after them and then went back to working on something very special for the object of his hatred.

[Lovetheangelshadow]

Chapter 11: Devils, Tigers, and Secrets Shelly was having her knee wrapped up that evening by her mother. She had lost control of her skates and had collided into the barrier wall of the rink resulting in a slight sprain in her leg. Thomas was seated uncomfortably in the Holmes’ living room as he watched. Shelly had actually caught on to the basics pretty quickly, but then decided to push herself by going faster despite Thomas trying to tell her to ease up. It did not help a couple of his buddies from the roller derby club kind of riled her up by going circles past her. With her already in a self-depreciating mood thanks to Reed, it was easy to make her try to catch up. Not being able to handle faster speeds, she crashed hard. As president of the club, he was going to have a few choice words with them next meeting. Frix grumbled and clutched his knee yelling about how much in agony he was in even though Shelly was the only one who could see and hear him. If she did not want to seem like a lunatic, she would have right then and there chastised him reminding the imp that he encouraged her to speed faster and try and beat them. He had even started calling her a few choice words when she had started to lag behind.
Vivian had completed her first aid and offered Thomas a snack since it was getting late. She could even drive him and his bike home with the second company truck since it was getting dark or call his parents.
“No, I’m good, Mrs. Holmes. Mom is probably on her way to work right now anyway.”
“And your father?” Thomas paused and swallowed hard. This was the first time Shelly had really seen him even look crestfallen even if it was just for a flash. She did not appear to be the only one who caught his glint of discomfort at the question.
“Oh. Would you at least care for something to eat before you go? Sam is cooking tonight.”
“No I…I really need to get home. I got to have dinner ready for mom when she gets home. I appreciate it though. Maybe some other time.” When Thomas and his vehicle had disappeared around the bend, Shelly asked her mother an offbeat question.
“Hey mom, do you know a Mrs. Altamiri?” She mentioned that the woman asked if she was the daughter of someone named Vivian. Shelly said nothing about the less than pleased attitude the woman had when she confirmed it.
“Lenora Altamiri…I haven’t had personal connections with that name in almost fifteen years.”
“So you know her?”
“Used to be friends. Truth be told though I haven’t talked to her since her second son was born. We…had an unpleasant disagreement. Oh right, you’re classmates with her younger son right? What was his name again? Rodger. Ramses?”
“It’s Reed, mom.” Shelly giggled.
At the dinner table Arthur was scrolling through his phone despite Vivian telling him several times to put it away.
“They just filed a missing person’s report on Nathanial Ronder. Hey, isn’t the guy a producer at the station, hon?”
“He shouldn’t have even had that position after the fire incident. I’m amazed Madame Tink has been able to keep face after that”, Vivian grumbled.
“I wished she lost her face that day”, Arthur snarled. Shelly asked Sam what they were talking about and Sam just shrugged. It sounded like it was something that happened long before he came to Cadric City. Arthur stood up from the table and went into the living room. When he came back, he had his old red leather-bound photo album with him. Shelly had seen the book before. Her father had a way of keeping newspaper clippings of local crimes/mysteries that interested him from a bizarre larceny spree to monster sightings in Cadric Park. She had only seen the book once or twice to memory because Vivian forbade him to do it. He opened to a page where a singular article had been pressed inside the clear sleeves. The headline read “Ronder Bailey Circus Fire Spectacular a Blaze of Death”. The largest picture was the charred interior of the Cadric Arena’s second stage. The photos underneath were less than pleasant and he turned the book away from his daughter before she got a good look. Vivian complained at this but then said there was no use dodging the question his daughter was itching to ask.
“There was a fire at the last show of the Ronder Circus because one of the final acts went horribly wrong. I was there when it happened. Protestors led by Madame Tink had barged in and distracted one of the performers. The blaze nearly consumed the whole building. By the time they got the fire under control, both sections of the arena’s interiors were practically burned out.” Sam folded his arms and nodded.
“I’ve seen this kind of thing happen before. These kinds of events are like throwing a stone into a still pond. The ripples have consequences.”
“Consequences by eye. Madame Tink barely got a slap on the wrist. Sure Ronder went under the radar for a while…hey didn’t you have a pal who investigated the fire say that the reason the fire was as bad as it was because of safety violations?” Arthur inquired.
“You mean Julian Wyrmglade? Yea I think so. But I don’t believe it ever got published publically before he retired. His notes might still be in the vault though. He used to keep copies of his notes down there.” Shelly began tapping on her chin. She was now remembering that she had this conversation with her parents before. Though this was the first time of her ever hearing the name Julian. Maybe Thomas or Mr. Blackbird knew? It still did not help unless she knew the captives could be held. Once dinner was done, Shelly excused herself to bed early under the excuse of being tired after the midterms. There was something she had to look in to later that night.
The fastest way to get through to the Cadric City News building was the well-lit Feronia trail in Cadric Park. After hoping onto the light rail station near her house, Splinterbark hoped off at the Garden Station and peddled her bike hard through the well-worn trail. She was starting to be thankful for that six month public transportation pass the Valdus Academy had her mother pay. Frix still grumbled that they should have a proper vehicle for transport around this city. Well it was not like she could fly like Silver and Jinn or have a super jump like Hunter. She texted Blackbird if he knew anything about a Julian Wyrmglade or where the station would keep their archives. She didn’t expect to get a response-but with three people now kidnapped by Prism Beak and that freaky clown character- she had little time to dawdle. Useless was she? She was going to show that blonde brute just how useless she was. Wait that did not come out right in her head. Frix agreed with her. She did not need the Silver Guardian. Just the two of them could be the perfect team.
Splinterbark paused for a breather just outside the stone archway that marked the entrance to the Feronia Gardens. The low stonework fence had been heavily marked off with police tape though she did not see an officer in sight. A tug of curiosity pulled her steering close to the signpost and she walked inside. The doors of the atrium were still half open and much of the mess left behind from the party was still around. Splinterbark pulled a flashlight from her belt and scanned around. Her light fell to a pile of burnt ash and confetti. She remembered this was where the clown had disappeared with Madame Tink. She knelt down and saw that the ash had stuck to a clear set of footprints. The ground around them was still sticky too. Frix hovered low to the ground and commented the dirt smelled both smoky and sweet at the same time. The dust around was a fine powder that reminded her of old brick walls she used to help her father repair.
The pair then heard something clatter towards the back of the main auditorium. Alone in the dark the echoes seemed to increase in volume and Splinterbark thought she felt it against her chest. Frix muttered that they should leave while they still could. For once, her impish partner actually made a good idea. She did not have time to investigate every mysterious noise-not when she had a deadline to reach. After all, they were really only in this spot for a breather. She had to get to the news building and find those notes.
She had barely turned her foot towards the door when something burst out from the back doors of the main gallery. It was large and was sliding on all fours in her direction. Something else was following the massive thing that had just glided past her. This smaller shape’s armor gleamed in the moonlight and she could see two shimmering violet eyes behind a visor.
“Heya pixie!” Hunter chirped as he bounded past her to keep up with the dark creature he was chasing. The thing was trying to make it out the door until a crimson haze surrounded them and slammed them shut. The thing skidded to a halt and snarled at its pursuers. Splinterbark tried to squint to see just what it was Hunter and Jinn were fighting. In the excitement, she had dropped her flashlight and it rolled across the room. Her plan was to grab the light and maybe she could make it out the back. Frix whined that they could stay and fight this thing.
“Hunter doesn’t want us to interfere with his monster stuff again, remember. And once more, we don’t have time!” Splinterbark finally had her hand on the flashlight and held it low until she could find one of the two doors that led to the employee areas. Behind her she could hear Hunter teasing the roaring beast and the sound of the flooring scratching under its numerous claws. She knew she should have run, but inquisitiveness wanted to see what they were fighting. A quick peek wouldn’t hurt. Splinterbark gingerly turned her flashlight over towards the main wooden doors. At first all she saw as something black with dark purple stripes that seem to melt and shift over its oozy black fur. Hunter, as before, was actively jumping about and antagonizing the thing as much as he could get away with before even trying to strike back himself. Jinn was just trying to keep him from getting killed as each taunt the beast gotten ever closer to the bouncing beetle. Hunter managed to slide skid around the monster as it had nearly pinned him to the wall and jerked hard on its long serpentine tail. This cased the thing to turn its head almost completely around and the face shone right into the beam of Splinterbark’s flashlight.
The face was that of a tiger. Half of its face had been slashed thanks to Hunter and vicious onyx fluid was steadily dripping from the open wound on its cheek. Somehow light irritated the beast even more so than the terrible puns of the devil and it completely ignored Hunter as it bounded full force towards Splinterbark. At first the pink pixie had her bat in hand ready to smack it down but as it was almost upon her, she froze. The image of the other tiger from earlier began to burn in her mind. The memory of its hot breath on her face and watching it screech in agony as bullets riddled its body took precedent of any instinct of survival. Her whole body went numb with terror and she fell to her knees with her head covered in her hands. She let out a scream and there were a series of sudden explosions surrounding them. The main wooden doors and the two service doors burst into shards. Hunter yanked Jinn to the ground and covered her in his cape as the shards seemed to hover for a brief moment in the air before streaking across the theatre and stabbing the beast in the legs and sides. The thing just missed her as it landed just to her side and then broke though one of the glass panels to escape out into the park. Frix blinked at just what his partner had done. Had he miscalculated the extent of what magic he had left? He tried to praise Splinterbark, and yet she did not respond.
She was just sitting there on her knees and her arms crossed tightly against her chest. Splinterbark was staring straight forward at the ground and muttering incoherent ramblings about tigers and trying to escape. Hunter stormed over to where she was slumped as he was picking shards out of his cape.
“Hey, Pixie! I thought I made it clear for you to stay out of my way! Pixie? Splinterbark?” Splinterbark had not moved-not even the slightest hint of acknowledgement he was even there. It was as if she was stuck in place of that memory and she couldn’t break out of it. Hunter shook her by the shoulder, but not even that got a reaction. He inhaled deeply through his nose and then began to undo one of the straps on the battle gauntlet of his right hand. He was about to place his bare hand on her shoulder when Jinn gripped it and held it back.
“Hunter…you promised.”
“Would you rather we leave her like this?” Jinn was a bit astounded by this remark. There was no sneering, no arrogant jest, or smugness in his voice. There was genuine concern in those words-something she did not think he had been capable of especially with knowing just what he was about to do. She let go of his wrist and took a step back much to Hunter’s own bewilderment.
Hunter gripped Splinterbark’s shoulder and began to inhale and exhale slowly. A dark colored smog began to outline Splinterbark’s body. It swirled and churned, becoming thicker and thicker until she was practically cocooned in it denser than a London fog. As quickly as it built up it began to creep up Hunter’s arm and became absorbed into his skin. When the smoke finally cleared from both their bodies he exhaled with satisfaction; like taking a long drink from a cool slush drink on a hot July afternoon. There was a slight smile on his face and Jinn gripped her staff tightly as she watched. Splinterbark’s once ridged body relaxed and she almost fell on her face if Hunter hadn’t caught her. Once he had gently laid her down he cupped his bare hand over his mouth as he began to make terrible gurgling noises in his throat. He hacked up several times until he vomited a black pellet onto the palm of his hand. Small bits of ooze were dripping from the corners of his mouth as he filled his lungs again with air. He started at the pellet like he had other intentions with it before thrusting his palm towards Jinn and holding it out for her to take it from him. Jinn uneasily took the pellet and shoved it in her bag to dispose of it later.
“You chose not to devour her terror”, she stated as a matter of fact even if she still did not fully believe it. Hunter casually shrugged and that smug attitude plastered itself right back in his expression.
“Got no reason to. And you want me to be a good little bug, don’t ya witchy-poo?” Frix had been watching silently and intently this whole time. This boy…he was a…
“Where did the tiger go? Why do I suddenly feel drained?” Splinterbark uneasily stood up though she still wobbled in her stance.
“Well you did blow up like three doors. Since when could you do telepathy?” Hunter interjected quickly. Splinterbark rubbed the back of her head.
“Telepathy? What are you talking about? I remember the tiger coming at me and the sound of a crash, but nothing after that. The tiger! What happened to the monster?” Jinn tched and pointed at the big hole in the glass pane.
“Where do you think? Thanks to you, we have extra work tonight!” Splinterbark tried to cover her shocked expression but it was futile. She cupped her head in her hands and quaked.
“Oh no…oh no oh no oh no. I messed up! I screwed up again! Silver was right! I shouldn’t be doing this!” She was shaking as she called herself stupid, idiot, among other names.
“Splinter!” both Frix and Hunter shouted which made her stop. Hunter had his hands on his hips as he loomed over her.
“What did that blonde feather duster say to you?!” Jinn tugged on Hunter’s horns.
“Hunter, we do not have time for this. We have a big cat loose in Cadric Park, in case you forgot.”
“But…”
“Let’s go, Hunter! We’re losing nighttime thanks to her!” Splinterbark mumbled that he should go after the beast before it caused more damage. Hunter seemed reluctant to do so, but he followed his partner though the now very open front door.
Splinterbark shuffled towards her bike. She really did feel lethargic even though the night was still relatively young. She could hear the big clock from downtown chime the ninth hour in the distance. Frix reminded her that they still had a mission. How could they prove themselves if they gave up now? Splinterbark hesitated to follow his suggestion but they might as well. They were almost there anyway.
Two blocks later Splinterbark and Frix were at the corner of the news studio. Frix asked her if they were going to sneak in the same way as before. She was about to confirm when Frix noted that he thought he saw a car looking much like the one he had seen her mother drive. Splinterbark confirmed with the license plate. Her mother was pulling into the parking garage underground. But why would her mother be here? Vivian rarely ever worked the night shift or responded to late night emergency stints. Her mother was not a night person. Splinterbark hurried across the street and stayed within the shadow that her mother’s pickup truck cast on the wall. Finally she saw her mother digging for her pass key for the employee door. Vivian then paused and said,
“I know you’re there, Splinterbark. Pink is not exactly a stealth color.” Splinterbark stepped out sheepishly with her hook at the ready just in case her mother decided to call security or something. Vivian sighed as she pulled out her employee card.
“Researching”, she asked finally. Despite still feeling a bit faint and her knee still stinging as heck, Splinterbark forced herself to stand up tall and declare that she felt there was pattern to the attacks by Prism Beak and his unnamed partner.
“So, you’re not the only one. But what brings you here?”
“Not everything is on the internet?” Splinterbark remarked with a joking shrug. Vivian rolled her eyes and motioned for her to follow and follow close. The two headed directly to the elevator to head down to the archives. The two were silent as the elevator descended deeper underneath the building. Splinterbark was just hoping that her mother did not recognize her at close quarters. Granted her helmet covered her entire head including her hair and her outfit was a bit padded as to not appear as demure; it still did not ease the awkwardness she was feeling right now. If her mother showed any recognition-she did a very good job as hiding it. At last after two agonizing minutes they reached their floor. The archives was housed in a cement block just barely illuminated by yellow prosperous lighting. Rows and rows of track cabinets lined the walls with a few tables and chairs in the center. The furniture looked like it might as well have been from the city’s founding how old and slightly cracked they looked.
“What we’re looking for is going to be from 2006 between the months of June and August under the name of Wyrmglade. A lot of Julian’s research notes got scattered down here after he retired. Ready?”
An hour had passed as the two Holmes’ looked row upon now, shoving the track shelves aside as they perused through months and years trying to find the one thing they needed. As they searched, Vivian attempted awkward small talk with the girl, but there was little she could get Splinterbark to talk about. She was starting to wonder how this was the same girl who fought against Metilla Gorilla on her own until help arrived just a few weeks ago. Then again with her employers practically painting them with the same brush as the bad guys, she couldn’t blame her.
“Hey! I think I found it”, Splinterbark declared, perhaps a little too loudly. Vivian had to shush her and stared at the entry door. Thankfully almost no one really came down here in the last decade. The file Splinterbark had located was a thick folder bound with rubber bands with a stamp not too unlike the insignia she had seen at Valdus Academy. Underneath printed neatly was “Ronder Bailey Circus-Fire Incident: July 2006-Julian Wyrmglade”. They placed it on the table and the rubber bands practically dissolved in their hands as they slipped them off. Inside was a series of paper notes yellowed with age along with photographs, newspaper clippings, and plastic bags labeled “Interviews” marked in sharpie.
****
They were not the only ones looking at similar information. Bruce Phyrus was sitting alone in his office with a police folder in front of him. The archives staff made it very clear in a fifteen minute monologue how irritating it had been to find something so specific. Bruce managed to placate them with the sizeable box of donuts he had promised as payment. Sierra had gone home an hour before as she could barely keep awake without slumping face first on her keyboard and snoring loudly. She had been up a good portion of last night investigating the crime scene at Feronia Gardens and even backtracked to LeBatte Industries. Her efforts were not very successful unfortunately only managing to dig up what the already knew. She hadn’t exactly been on her usual track since catching Splinterbark last night. Bruce told her she better take a good long rest first before doing anything crazy. He brought up the Tyrannosaurus Ivanka incident and she groaned that it was “only one time”. Both laughed afterwards as she left the office.
Some of the records were photocopies from notes with the signature Julian Wyrmglade. He recalled working with the reporter several times in the past before he retired from Cadric News moved to Oracle City for reasons never known. It took some doing to get all the records in order. Julian never did have a logical organization system. There had been a massive fire on opening night for the Ronder Bailey Circus. Officially the report stated that it had been a stunt gone wrong. The circus company had been proved to have had inadequate fire safety precautions. 40 audience members had died in the fire while most of the circus troupe had been killed as the bulk of the fire had taken place in the second stage area. Eyewitness reports stated that someone had shouted at the peak of the stunt and several described a woman matching Madame Tink’s description. According to Julian’s notes, the show had a safety inspection before the show and had been approved by Fredrick Bringer. Julian had noted that Fredrick had an influx of income for a while suspecting bribery from the Ronder Company. Madame Tink had also been investigated by the police but neither she nor Ronder had been brought to trial for some reason. The rest of the notes was mostly speculation and what evidence had been collected was not enough for sufficient cause.
****
Splinterbark pulled out some of the photos of people running out of the burning building. She recognized three of the faces in one of the snapshots. It was her mother, father, and Mrs. Altamiri. In Mrs. Altamiri’s arms was a blonde kid with burns on his back. He looked a lot like Reed, but she knew it wasn’t as this child was at least seven or eight years of age. Reed had only just turned sixteen before the beginning of the school year. She had asked Thomas on a whim one day. Perusing the rest of the images, both Vivian and Splinterbark saw Ronder far outside the building just standing there-like he was just watching. Further notes showed that the Ronder circus had been faltering for some time now dealing with the changing times and a few unpleasant rumors about Ronder himself.
“Hmm I think I get why the clown guy would kidnap these people. But what would he intend to do with them? There hasn’t been any ransom and so far no dead bodies”, Splinterbark mused. She thought how Silver had not been able to locate them for three days.
“Maybe in the Underground? There is still a lot of places down there not exactly charted”, Vivian offered. It was a possibility Splinterbark thought, but it could take months or even years to find them. And something did not feel right. She thought about the fine dust mixed with soot that had been stuck to her uniform. Suddenly Vivian’s phone buzzed a gong sound and a news flash appeared on her screen. She had her phone set to Cadric City’s News App that alerted her to breaking news. When she pressed the home screen a video started playing.
The video was live as everyone looking at a phone, computer, or television screen tuned to the news was now looking at a red curtain with an off-screen stereo playing a brass band march. A few minutes passed before a masked clown popped up in front of the screen and twirled his cane.
“Greetings, Cadric City! We interrupt your daily complaining to bring you this special news bulletin! A once in a lifetime performance. A conclusion to a story certain people would like to see buried.” The clown pulled back the curtain with Fredrick Bringer, Madame Tink, and Nathanial Ronder tied to theatre seats and bound and gagged. The clown then turned the camera back to them.
“What have these people done to await such judgement? Tune in one hour, ladies and gents. Grab the popcorn because the show is really going to get fired up.” Then the curtain fell back again and a timer appeared in front counting down the minutes.
Bruce had just finished watching in the break room when he heard someone talking to the chief. They were attempting to trace the signal of the broadcast right now, but it could take time. Somehow the signal was all over the place making it hard to pinpoint. Bruce dialed Sierra’s number, but did not get a response. She might have been still asleep for all he knew. Or she forgot to charge her phone again. He grabbed his keys and headed out the door. Something in the video’s background gave him an idea where he might find the clown.
Splinterbark scrubbed the video several times since someone managed to upload it online. She was starting to out the pieces together and told Vivian she had to hurry. Vivian offered to call the police but then thought against it. Knowing Foxwell, the police could very well go after the super girl and not the kidnapper. Splinterbark hurried onto her bike and sped to the outer edges of downtown. Frix questioned aloud if she was going to call Reed. Splinterbark had her finger over Reed’s contact and the shoved her phone back into her pouch. They could do this without that foul tempered angel.

[Lovetheangelshadow]

Chapter 12: Before a Fall Reed had pushed the homework aside and yawned. He had finally gotten out of his frantic state after the events of that day. He was not entirely sure what to feel at this point. Why was she so mad at him? Shelly was perfectly capable of handling herself-he had that much faith in her. Still, she had made things worse for him. Didn’t she care about the pressure he was under? She wasn’t stuck under the Golden Guardian’s shadow. She wasn’t expected to automatically be a perfect copy. Why couldn’t Shelly understand? Maybe if you didn’t yell at her, a cold voice rung in his head. Maybe he was going crazy because he thought it sounded like his voice as the Silver Guardian. He paused but heard nothing further.
He made his way downstairs noting that was a bit late for dinner. His mother was sitting in the living room looking at photo album on her lap. He coughed a little to get her attention. She seemed startled at his appearance in the room and shoved the book between the couch cushions next to her.
“Oh Reed, I’m sorry. Are you hungry?”
“A…a little. Marco and father aren’t home?”
“No, and I haven’t gotten a call from either of them.” That was indeed odd. Even when he was still the Golden Guardian, his father always made a point to let them know when he was going to be home late. It helped them ease into not worrying about him as much when he was out. She had tried calling them five minutes ago but her call did not get through. Reed told his mother he was just going to help himself to some leftovers in the fridge before heading to bed early.
He had settled the growling in his stomach with a quickly done sandwich before locking himself inside his bedroom. As the Silver Guardian, he began to fly towards the Altamiri Company with great speed. All of his instincts told him something was wrong. As he flew the pieces were finally clicking in his head. Prism Beak had been a former employee his father terminated. Not to mention the fowl fiend had already attempted twice to kill Marco and likely tried to blast his father in his own office. How could be had been so lax about this? He should have followed them all day! He should have been there in case something happened. What if he was too late? Was that why they weren’t calling? Silver smacked himself with his massive hands and pressed forward. Focus on getting there as fast as you can, he slated himself.
Marco let out a big yawn as he filed the last of the paperwork away. He could think of better things to do on a Saturday night-like sleep. With everything that had been going on of late, he was desperate for a break of just doing nothing. Heck, he would rather be attempting to tutor his brother with the makeup exams than be here going over the final printed layouts of holiday department store catalogues. His father, on the other hand, was practically plunged into his work. Any personal talk Marco attempted was derailed back to the task at hand by Morgan. Marco was not too startled as this attitude was nothing new for his father. It almost always happened when Morgan overly concerned about something. And with everything that had occurred these past two months he did not overly blame him. Still, Marco could not shake the feeling something was off; like his father was and was not himself at the same time. He just could not pinpoint what it was.
Most everyone else except for a few staff members running the printers had gone home for the night. They had just assembled the last of the catalogues for packing when there was a peculiar whirring sound from the back of the room. The back of the wall began to smolder before a flame poked through the concrete wall. The blaze etched along the stone before it carved a jagged hole. The hole was blasted away with a hissing roar-sending rubbles of the wall at everyone inside. Marco and Morgan grabbed what employees they could and shoved them behind the massive printing machines trying to shield off the wreckage.
“Ooooohhh Morgan! Come on ouuuutttt! I know you’re here, you pompous, holy-than-thou, brute! It’s catalogue season after all!” Prism Beak slashed aside the heavy table that blocked his direct path, sending several boxes of packed items scattering throughout the room along with small wisps of embers. Morgan tilted his head to his son and pointed at the main door. Then he stood up and walked between the rows of printers; standing perfectly still with arms folded as if he was still in charge of the current situation. There seemed to be a bit of a difference in the armor than he had faced before. There was a large bulky casing on Prism Beak’s back though for what purpose he did not know.
“Henry Fowler, I see prison hasn’t done you much favor. Your suit doesn’t fit quite right.” Prism Beak unconsciously put his hand on his stomach that peeked out a bit from under the armor. He snarled and pressed against one of the cuffs from his arm cannon. The prism split apart and began to charge.
“You ruined my life! Thirty years of loyalty to your company and you just come along and throw me aside after everything I’ve done?!”
“Everything you’ve done?! You were an incompetent drunkard what somehow the previous management tolerated! Sure you were a brilliant printer, but I don’t tolerate undependability or leeches!”
“You are the one who is a leech! The best way to deal with leeches is to burn them to ashes!” He fired the charged blast just as Morgan just barely ducked to avoid it. He hissed as he felt a terrible burning pain in his shoulder. Prism Beak had managed to strike the same spot when he attempted to kill him in his tower office. Only this time it was deeper and hurt a lot worse. Prism Beak cackled and declared that Morgan was going to burn nice and slow just he had done when he was sent to King’s Island. The cackling was ceased followed by a big ‘oof’ and a crash behind him. Marco had tossed one of the used large ink cartridges at Prism Beak’s face. Smearing ink across his mouth, the metal fowl turned his sights to the younger Altamiri. He slapped a stitch on the right side of his chest and the heavy enclosure burst apart revealing two sizeable jets. The rockets flared to life and pushed him forward towards the boy. Marco howled in hurt as Prism Beak rammed his shoulder into Marco’s chest and slammed him against one of the printers. As Marco slumped down, Prism Beak trained his cannon right at his heart. Morgan was trying to get to his son, but the blast had shoved one of the wider tables in his path blocking him off. Prism Beak declared that nothing was going to stand in his way this time of taking the young man down for keeps and relishing in Morgan’s subsequent suffering.
His shot went wild as a hand had grabbed him and hurled the tin bird against the side wall. The Silver Guardian did not let up his assault as he rammed his fist across the pointed beak of Prism Beak’s mask; snapping it clean off. Prism Beak blasted the Guardian in the face to separate the two. The once released the villain looked about the room.
“Eh, where is that pink punk that hangs on to you? I’ve got a bit of a grudge to settle with that little snot.” The Silver Guardian removed both pistols from their holsters and fired two consecutive blasts; one at the ground before Prism Beak’s feet and another at one of the shoulder guards.
“It is just you and me. And this time, nothing is going to keep me from taking you down!”
“Funny, I was just about to declare the same thing!” He turned the switch and the rockets opened up again. The two crystalline chambers on his back shone even brighter than last time and he fired another large blast at the angel. Silver braced himself as the fire engulfed his form and hurled him through the front wall and out of the room. The flames had also graced the metal bracing in the ceiling and they began to melt above. Silver flew back in creating another hole in the wall and returned with a series of energy shots of his own. Half of his shots missed even has Prism Beak had barely moved from his position. He attacked with smaller shots and Silver deflected them with his gauntlets. Wayward laser shots struck the printers and girders causing more sparks to form and grow. The debris from Silver’s reentry had fallen in front of the main door. Morgan was trying to clear the path, but it was proving difficult with a bleeding shoulder. Marco was still half stunned and almost collapsed on wreckage as he tried to help.
The Silver Guardian was too focused on trying to get close enough to rip that stupid armor off. His own fire shots were becoming less and less accurate the more the fight drew on. Each blast from Prism Beak’s cannons was just enough to push him back. He knew the lasers did not do any real damage to his Guardian form, but they still hurt like little wasp stings that never let up. The only thing currently dominating his mind was taking this villain down no matter what he had to do to accomplish it. Prism Beak could clearly see the target of his hatred still inside the room but this Guardian was now vying for his rage. He managed to hit him point blank with his sustained double strike and kept the angel pinned down trying to vaporize this punk. Who did this sparrow winged brat think he was anyway? An alarm screeched on his armor again and he had to stop. Silver only staggered briefly and pushed himself off the floor to leap for the metal fowl. He almost had his hands on the left arm cannon. Prism Break scoffed as Silver’s fists slammed right into an energy shield. His stunned surprise allowed the ragefull bird to fire his rockets and use the bulk of his armor to collide Silver into a table of ink.
“What the heck? You’re pulling powers out of your a….”
“Oh boo hoo. You seriously didn’t know? Even the Golden Guardian saw that trick from a mile-“ He suddenly had to activate both shields and use his jump rockets at the same time to dodge being squashed by a slightly melting girder being slammed onto his head by the Silver Guardian. The track he had jerked from the ceiling to use as a blunt weapon had been one of the few good girders above them. There was a loud creak as one of the weaker supports melted through and began to bend before finally snapping and crashing down close to the door.
There was a singular loud scream among the growing flames. Time seemed to slow down in those few moments as the Silver Guardian turned around to the source of the shriek. The railing, now glowing hot from the ensuing flames, had pinned Marco’s left leg down. Morgan was trying to remove the rail but he could not get his hands close to the red hot metal. Silver still had the piece of railing he had torn off in his hands and he glanced up seeing the half twisted and crumbling supports above. What had he done?
He chucked his makeshift weapon aside and sped as fast as he could towards the father and son pair. Prism Beak barked at him demanding where he thought he was going and shot a volley of blasts at Silver’s back. The blasts twisted Silver’s wings from the impact just enough to cause the angel to crash face first into the debris that blocked the door. As he pulled himself out of the rubble he was starting to feel his strength sapping from him. He forced the thought out of his mind as he grasped the hot metal and heaved it up for Morgan to drag his son out of danger. Silver smashed his fists to clear the blockade even as he began to breathe heavily with each punch. He could feel himself really starting to slip. Any moment now he could suddenly transform right into Reed Altamiri; the worthless idiot who so stupidly thought he could be the beloved hero of Cadric City.
Morgan carried his elder son in his arms and hurried as fast as he could allow down the hall and out another door. Silver followed as close as his now aching body could allow him. Before they ran out, he had grabbed one of the few bottles of ink used for refilling the cartridges and tossed at Prism Beak’s face. He had enough accuracy for the ink to splash all along his visor and keep him blinded long enough for them to escape. The trio were now housed inside one of the closed offices. Marco was trying hard to not scream by biting his lower lip hard as he clutched his shin where the beam had scalded him. His flesh had been burnt almost clean and Silver thought he saw bone through Marco’s clenched fingers. Morgan was trying to wrap the wound with his coat while he kept glaring at the Silver Guardian. Silver just watched numbly even as he wheezed heavily trying regain strength to hold this persona together. Morgan then suddenly grabbed him by his jacket collar and shook him.
“You stupid, arrogant, thief! You’ve destroyed in less than a month what I spent seven years building. Are you happy with that you’ve done? Are you proud of yourself?” The Silver Guardian felt really small in Morgan’s clutches even if he would still be a foot taller if he stood up.
“I…I…I thought…I didn’t mean…I thought being the Guardian meant…”
“What did you think it meant?! Just punching bad guys with no consequence? Not bothering to keep the people who depend on you safe from the villains you fight? What did you think?” Silver tried to keep from shaking. He really did not want to let anyone, especially his own father, to know just how deep those words cut. His thoughts even drifted to how he called Shelly worthless who had practically been there from the beginning through all this. He really had messed everything up. Morgan let Silver drop to the floor and held out his hand.
“Give me back my ring. It’s clear you’re not worthy of its power.” The command actually did made Silver consider doing just that. He was just going to make things worse. Everything could just go back the way things were before. Cadric City would have its beloved hero back and he’d just disappear back into the background where he clearly belonged. Just as his left hand hovered over the ring to remove it-the ring sparked the palm of his hand. At first he thought it was because he was a bit exhausted that he had imagined it. He attempted again and this time it was no figment of his imagination. The ring glowed again and shocked his hand again like it was refusing to be removed. Why was that happening? Why was this thing so determined to stay with him? Are you sure this is something you want to do? It was that odd voice again. He knew he didn’t think it himself. He almost got his brother killed. He crushed his partner’s spirit. He was the one who kept messing up. Then a hilarious thought came to him and he laughed out loud-freaking out Morgan. The Silver Guardian stood up and pulled his hand back from the former Guardian.
“No”, he said simply.
“Wh…what did you just say?”
“I made this mess. I have to be the one to fix it. But…I am going to need your help”, he declared. Morgan was stunned by this response. He then glanced between his eldest son on the floor and then back at the guardian. His body clenched before relaxing in minor defeat.
“All right, Silver Guardian. What do you need help with?”
Prism Beak slammed several doors along the hall trying to find his prey. He spotted a few late night employees but did not bother with them except for demanding to know where Morgan Altamiri was. Most just dove behind their desks half expecting to be blasted in half. He yelled out that if Morgan did not show himself in the next five minutes he was going to burn this entire building down and anyone and everyone in it.
“Set up an appointment like everyone else”, Morgan huffed as he leaned against the large doorframe marked Loading Dock. He spirited inside the doors and locked them tightly. Prism Beak hooted at the idea that they thought some stupid metal door was going to stop him. He shot four quick bursts at the hinges and kicked the door down with one fell thud. The Dock was only lit on one side and the loading door was still shut. Morgan was standing on his own in the lit half.
“Hoo hoo, how stupid of you to try and not make an escape. You honestly thought that stupid angel was going to save you and your brood?” He turned his cannon to fire. Why wasn’t Morgan moving? Then he heard a peculiar ‘splooshing’ noise at his right. From the shadowed half of the room, something black and viscous splattered all over his chest and back. He pressed a hand to it and found it was something slightly sticky but not enough to like halt him in his tracks or anything. He wiped the black goop on his hand on his pants and once more aimed the canon. He fired one clean shot and Silver deflected it with one good swipe of his arm guards. Why wouldn’t this stinking sparrow quit already? Silver flapped upwards and carried Morgan with him out of Prism Beak’s way into the darkened half of the room. Did the brat think that a half darkened room would keep Morgan safe from his wrath? He still remembered where the light switch was and slapped them open after fumbling a bit in the shadows. With the room illuminated he could see Marco by the loading door but no immediate sign of Morgan or the Silver Guardian.
The first indication he was still here was when Silver rammed his shoulder at his back and had him fall face first on the ground. Snarling at the insult, Prism Beak fired again and again as the angel kept to the air and was flapping his wings hard to stay aloft in the dead air space. Then a shot struck the supports for one of the shelves and sent the heavy shelving hard against Silver’s back. He tried to stay in the air with this metal pressing him down, but the shelf was becoming increasingly heavier when it shouldn’t have. He only had a brief reprieve to gather some strength back before this. He was now slowly descending to the ground; struggling to get the shelf off his back and remain still airborne.
“Wearing out so soon, boy?” He knocked both of his arm guards together and aimed both canons at the falling angel. He knew he was going to win. It had only been a matter of time before he outlasted his enemy. Then his armor began to beep again. Prism Beak ignored it. He could hold on for a few more seconds longer to get this done. The beep droned on louder. He just needed a little more time. The cooling system should keep him safe. The room began to feel hot. There was no outside traces of fire. The Silver Guardian was on the ground now, panting and gasping for breath while trying to rise to his feet. Prism Beak was starting to feel something burning against his torso. He glanced down and saw that his armor had begun to glow red. The clear tanks were bubbling like an overheated pot of water and cracks were starting to form. Small foamy bits of fuel was starting to spill out and hiss against the hot metal. Impossible! The ventilation system should have stopped this from occurring. His hand pressed against one of the chest vents. It was clogged. The black goop from before had hardened into a solid rubbery substance. He tried to pull off his suit before he was cooked alive, but he was becoming too hot to have the strength to do it.
“Marco, now!” Marco wrenched down the fire alarm lever and the sprinklers came on full blast. The sudden cold on the heated armor made it crack. Silver heaved the shelf off his back and wrenched the suit off piece by piece until there was nothing but Henry Fowler in long johns. Silver dragged him out into the hall where Morgan held him fast with zip ties behind his back.
“How?! How did you beat me? What did you do to my armor?” Silver was too preoccupied trying to keep himself from reverting back to respond. To further interrupt any immediate answers the sounds of police sirens could be heard in the parking lot.
“You…you better get moving”, Morgan told him. Silver was dumbfounded by the remark, but he was going to take it before his father changed his mind.
It was a miracle he had managed to escape at all before he could not hold on anymore and in a flash he was back to plain old Reed Altamiri. He slumped onto the park bench completely covered in sweat and gasping the cold night air into his lungs. His whole body ached and just wanted to go completely limp. At least he wasn’t going to pass out this time. He just need a little rest. He pulled out his phone and saw that his message box was flooded with a mix of voice and text messages: from Blackbird and Thomas. He finally managed to filter out the text messages. Both parties were trying to ask him where he was and why hadn’t he responded. Then to check the news website Thomas sent several times. He opened the video link and saw the clown with the hostages in the background. And Splinterbark was fighting him alone.

[Lovetheangelshadow]

Chapter 13: Enjoying the Show? Splinterbark had pulled up alongside the bike racks in front of the arena. Though closed for preparations of the upcoming cartoon ice show, the sign ‘LeBatte Industries Arena’ virtually lit up the entire front entrance. On to the side there was a massive mural and the banner saying ‘Under Construction” that was starting to peel away just a bit. The façade had been erected for almost a decade now. The previous owners hadn’t bothered to do anything except clear up the debris on the walkways and parking lot and technically the second stage still belonged to the city. Splinterbark examined the façade and rapped her knuckles until she gotten a hollow noise. She pressed her hand against the wood and concentrated on shattering a hole just enough for her small form to pass through.
Both of them shuddered once they were past the barrier. The second building had been constructed as a smaller replica of the main arena. The brickwork had been blackened and liquid soot had dribbled down the air vents like dried wounds. Pieces of the roof had long fallen in with half melted-half twisted spires jutted out into the moonlit sky like a torn open ribcage. The stairway leading up was half cracked under their steps. Both Frix and Splinterbark shuddered. It felt like shoving their forms into some half eaten beast that lad been left to rot but nature never bothered.
“You sure this is where they are”, Frix questioned his partner. Splinterbark admitted she was not entirely sure herself, but it fit with what evidence she had. Knowing what the three were responsible for and the fact the clown mentioned having a special place for revenge, it seemed like the most logical thing for her. The toe of her boot kicked a piece of metal by the entrance door showing a recently broken lock. The interior was not much better. The air was stale inside the smaller lobby and the floor was completely black. As she walked, small puffs of dust and ash swirled up her pants and continued to stain her uniform. It felt cold and silent inside there. To think this was once meant to be a place where people would buy overpriced tickets along with overpriced food and overpriced merchandise. A place where children could be existed to see princesses dancing on the ice or boys get pumped up for smaller sports events. As they moved upwards to the seating entrances, Splinterbark’s imagination whipped up the feeling of heat and screams rang in her ears. Her legs began to shake as they climbed higher becoming more and more hesitant to go inside. She didn’t want to feel this way. She didn’t want to suddenly feel so terrified and helpless. She thought about the cat beast now loose somewhere around the city. How these people would not even be here in this decaying tomb if she hadn’t messed up. Reed’s words seemed to echo in greater reverberate here in this quiet crypt.
Her imagination was broken when there was another sound of paces coming up from behind her. A flashlight illuminated her presence and her body froze. The memory of her near arrest paralyzed her and she half expected to be in handcuffs.
“So, you figured out this place as well.” Bruce lowered his flashlight to the floor and slowly put his gun back in his holster. He walked up to the same step she was on with his eyes on the stadium entrance just two steps up.
“You’re not going to arrest me?” Splinterbark squeaked.
“You’re not off the hook, whatever your name is. But right now, I’ve got my priorities.” Both of them moved slowly up and peeked around the entryway and down to the stadium area below.
The stadium was completely lit by several spotlights hooked up to a pair of generators. Crude red and yellow banners were hung from what was left the trellises with ‘Ronder Bailey Circus Flames of Revenge Spectacular” stitched in gilded lettering. His three victims were strapped to a special spectator box with their legs and chests bound with steel straps. There was a large object covered underneath a tarp in front of them. A set of cameras were pointed right at them each directed by a trio of men dressed rather plainly but had their faces concealed by rather plain clown masks compared to Circus Freaks’. The clown themselves was sitting casually on the side of a podium tossing a control box to himself. Bruce pulled out his radio and whispered for dispatch. Only static responded. Splinterbark tried to call 911 and found no service on her phone.
Before they could even turn to run outside; steel bars slammed down on all the exits and loud calliope music blasted over the speakers. Circus Freak hopped onto the podium and gestured to guide one of the cameras to follow them.
“Ladies and Gentlemen of Cadric City, welcome one and all to the Flame of Revenge Spectacular!” As they walked over to their hostages, their stilts extended to bring the jester up to their height.
“Now permit me to present you our special guests. Nathaniel Ronder: former owner of the Ronder Bailey Circus. Madame Tink: debutante of this…fair city. And Fire Chief Fredrick Bringer!” Circus Freak leaned in to the camera.
“Now I bet you all are wondering, just what is so special about these three people? Simple ladies and gentlemen. Murder! Mass slaughter! Genocide! You Ronder pushed us to be bigger and better but to also cut corners. You bribed our wonderful chief here to approve the safety precautions. And let us not forget Madame Tink. Oh yes, the so called champion of morality of this city. I know your kind. Only doing ‘charity work’ to feel good about yourself because you cannot fathom how rotten inside you really are.”
“Preposterous! You have no evidence of your claims!” Ronder spat.
“How are you accuse me of not looking after the best interests of our people”? Madame Tink scoffed. Bringer said nothing. Circus Freak tilted their head almost 90 decrees and they could all hear a loud crack.
“Indeed, you had money and influence to cover things up. The law cannot touch you-but that does not mean you will not escape justice!” The cameras rolled back and the spotlights turned to a series of hoops and trapeze bars. The hoops suddenly went ablaze.
“I custom ordered something very special for the three of you. I shall leap across from rung to ring though these hoops of fire! Then from the final ring I shall land on this stand right here.” He pointed to a smaller podium next to the tarped object. Circus Freak yanked back the cloth revealing a mechanical dragon with three heads and each open mouth aimed right at each one of the hostages. Inside each mouth was large nozzle and a slight odor of gas was leaking from them.
“One solid landing will awaken the dragon and boom! You get just what you deserve. What you subjected to the people who just wanted to bring joy and laugher. To the people who just wanted to watch and revel in that happiness and hilarity. And you’re going to burn just…like…them!”
Bruce and Splinterbark had stealthily made their way down the stairs towards the bottom floor. The two of them crouched down behind the separating patrician during the middle of Circus Freak’s speech.
“Where’s the Silver Guardian?”
“Don’t know, don’t care.” Bruce raised an eyebrow and chuffed ‘that so huh?”.
“So what exactly can you do again?” whispered Bruce.
“Make wood explode with my mind.”
“Seriously?”
“….yes?”
“Well one thing’s for sure, we can’t let him…her…it get to that podium. I think I can disable the wiring to it. But not quick enough before the clown finishes that trick or those goons spot us.” Splinterbark grabbed her grappling tether from her belt.
“Leave that to us.”
Circus Freak had climbed to the top of the ladder and grasped their hands on the first rung hanging for them at the first platform. They bowed dramatically towards one of the cameras to follow them. The masked goon guiding the cameramen had their eye trained on the solo performer as Splinterbark crept low to the ground and placed a few wooden bricks at their feet. Meanwhile Bruce pressed against the back of the viewing box and released the safety catch on his gun. The three hostages had their eyes trained at first on Circus Freak as they began to swing back and forth to gain the needed momentum to make the jump. It was then unfortunate that Madame Tink had happened to see the tails of Splinterbark’s peat coat.
“Hey Pink Deer! What are you doing? Save us already!” The camera operator that she had been just behind looked down and grabbed her arm hard. The wooden brick traps at their feet burst into large oaken shards to make them jump. The one that had grabbed her snarled a bit when a few splinters had gotten into his socks but he still had not released his grip on her. Splinterbark swung and grabbed one of the larger spikes from the ground in her hand and jabbed it in the crook of his inner arm. She slipped down and rolled back to put some distance between them. The crook attempted to grab her again but then howled in pain as a bullet struck him in the back of the leg. The other two crewmen spotted Bruce aiming a smoking firearm directly at their chests. The two looked at each other and then one pressed against his ear. Bruce heard nothing but the goon’s nodding suggested that he was hearing something on an earpiece. The two picked up their fallen comrade and hightailed it out of there through the backstage entrance. Circus Freak had made it through the first ring of fire and was now hanging from the second rung. He saw them running and screeched for them to come back.
“I paid good money for the service! Get back here!” The three only stopped to look back and then kept heading to the exit. Suddenly all three of them fell to the ground-with a knife in each of their backs. Circus Freak was now swinging from their legs on the rung while polishing one more knife. They twisted around and tossed the blade right at Bruce. The knife caught him in the shoulder when he ducked behind one of the cameras for safety. Circus Freak hoisted themselves up back to their arms and leapt to the final rung towards the podium. An orange tether entrapped itself on their leg and jerked them out of midair. They landed with a loud clanking thud on the ground just a foot away from the podium switch.
Splinterbark wiped a small bit of sweat from her brow at that feat. If it hadn’t been for Frix guiding the tether, they would have had three charbroiled elites right about now. Circus Freak peeled themselves off the ground and scratched away the grapple from their leg.
“You are getting to be one annoying little heckler, you know that?” They tossed another knife from his coat and the blade’s handle burst apart sending its trajectory wayward. Snatching a sword prop nearby they charged at Splinterbark. The pink pixie caught the first strike with her hook but didn’t have the strength needed to disarm the harlequin. Circus Freak swung downward and caught their blade in the open flaps of Splinterbark’s coat. Splinterbark was just barely able to rip the fabric away even as Circus Freak punched her hard in the mouth. She barely had time to catch herself from face planting when they kicked her hard again in the abdomen and her body skidded across the floor. Splinterbark staggered to her feet-a bit grateful for the armor padding she had the foresight to add to her outfit after the whole gorilla mess. It didn’t stop it from completely hurting. Her injured knee wasn’t helping either.
“You’re stubborn, aren’t you? I thought you were interested in justice!”
“Justice…yes. Not…revenge. Not…stooping…to their…level.”
“I am NOT stopping to their level. I am not doing this for me! I’m DOING THIS FOR THEM!” they shrieked as they failed their arms to the burned seats around them. Circus Freak charged at the girl and attempted to strike her once again in the face. Splinterbark managed to brace herself and deflect the blow only for them to hit her in the side again. Bruce, though wounded, tried to raise his firearm even when the knife making it hard to raise it to level. Circus Freak seemed to be aware of this attempt and they turned their gauntlet cuff to red and tossed a small balloon at them. The balloon on the fan swished over towards him and burst with the lightest brush of Bruce’s shoulder. The sudden blast shoved him along the ground and only a box stopped him from flying across the arena.
****
The Silver Guardian flew through town in desperate attempt to find her. Splinterbark was not answering their phone and Blackbird said the video signal was scattered through the city. It would take time for him to track down its source. The live feed was playing from the front of CCTV’s large LCD screen that was usually slated for ads. Silver watched feeling helpless as Splinterbark was just barely defending herself from this mad clown. Why wasn’t she fighting back at her usual spirit?
“Come on, Shelly. You’re better than this”, he uttered under his breath even if he was aware she could not hear him.
“Soooo you just gonna hover there or actually play the whole knight in shining armor thing?” Hunter was standing upside down on a stone outcropping with Jinn hovering underneath him. Silver’s fist tensed but his heart wasn’t in it. Hunter nonchalantly dropped from his perch and strutted around the angel as casual as you please.
“Now it ain’t none of my concern because it’s not like I care or anything, buuut it seems a certain tin angel made a little pixie feel really really bad. Now she’s all alone fighting with barely any flame. Nothing but fear and doubt. I bet you’re so proud of yourself.” Silver snatched him by the neck and slammed him to the ground. He raised his fist above him but then left go in deflated reluctance. He didn’t like the indication but Hunter was right. He even plucked the bug-eyed Beelzebub from the ground and plopped him back to his feet.
“Yeesh, and Jinn says I have anger issues. And to think I was going to show you exactly where pixie is right now”
“You…you know where she is? Please, you got to tell me!”
“Dude, you just tried to snap my neck in half. Suddenly I’m not feeling oh so charitable.” Silver dropped to his hands and knees and bowed almost flat to the floor.
“I…I’m sorry. Please, I beg of you! I need…I need your help. You’ve got to help me save her!” Saying those words made him want to vomit. Hunter would have been the last person he wanted any assistance from. But he had no time and already his idiocy had nearly killed one person he cared about tonight.
“Hunter!” Jinn chastised. Hunter put his hands behind his head and whined in annoyance, “Ugh fine fine, I just liked the idea of this guy groveling at my feet. Get up, you dumb blonde.” Silver stood up and sniveled a little.
“Now then, if you’re done feeling sorry for yourself; do try to keep up.”
****
Splinterbark crashed hard on the ground when Circus Freak caught her by the small antlers on her helmet and jerked her to the floor.
“Where is that spark you had before you little imp? Where is that fiery passion you had at the auction house?” Splinterbark didn’t respond. Frix was yelling in her ear for her to get up and show this clown what for. She knew she should get up and do something; but for all she knew she was going to make it worse. She wasn’t good enough. No wonder Reed didn’t want her for a partner. The pink pixie was not even aware that Circus Freak held their sword just above her neck before there was a sudden loud crash from the ceiling above.
The Silver Guardian punched Circus Freak hard in the chest and sent them crashing hard into two of the cameras. The hefty pieces of equipment toppled onto the joker and effectively pinned them underneath the stands. Silver assisted Splinterbark to her feet and gripped her shoulders, perhaps a bit tighter than he intended.
“Oh thank god you’re alright.” He then shuffled her behind him and raised his fists as Circus Freak was somehow about to clear the debris of them.
“I’ve got this”, Silver declared to her. To his shock, Splinterbark rapped her cant hook in front of his chest and shoved her way in front of him.
“No. Go free the hostages and get them and the detective out of the building.”
“Seriously? You just got the crap kicked out of you and now…” Splinterbark grabbed his chin and shoved his gaze towards the captives.
“Silver! You can get them free from the trap faster than I can. If the clown gets to that podium, those hostages are toast! I’ll keep the clown distracted. Look, I know you don’t think I’m good enough as a partner, but can you just trust me on this?” Silver winced but then nodded.
“Fine, but if you need help-call me.”
“Here’s to hoping I won’t.” The two took off in separate directions. By now Circus Freak had freed themselves from the twisted metal and wiring. Their jacket was torn on one side revealing a metallic carapace underneath.
“Huh, that explained why you were able to lug lard butt so easily in the park”, Splinterbark observed. When the harlequin stood straight up, she could hear gears whirring in motion. Circus Freak grasped their sword and swung it down in a high arc above their head. Splinterbark caught it in the crook of her hook spear and rammed the handle of her weapon onto the ground. She then ducked and side kicked the staff to make it topple and made the clown ram face first onto the earth.
A sharp ripping noise split the silent air. Circus Freak turned their head up and the upper left side of their mask had caught on one of the wooden shards on the floor and had torn and peeled down; revealing what was left of a face covered in dark red burn scars. The singular eye that Splinterbark could see was glaring full hatred at her. Splinterbark herself recoiled back a bit since it was not something she entirely expected but held her combative stance once the staff was back in her hands. The clown snarled and spun their arm band to green. A stream of gas began to whiff out with Frix in the line of fire. Both the imp and pixie staggered as a small bout of sleepiness tried to win over them and she dropped the cant hook almost immediately. Circus Freak attempted to grab it themselves until a bat slammed right onto their wrist and shattered the control dial. Splinterbark swung her bat aiming for their head, but the effects of the gas she had already breathed in made her swing miss by and wide and slam against their shoulder instead. The strike barely made the jester topple thanks to her growing exhaustion and recent beating. All it did was twist Circus Freak a bit and make them stagger. They seemed almost pleased and amused from all this.
Meanwhile, Silver was taking a quick examination of the trap. A sharp prang of pain suddenly raced through his body. It was like every molecule in his form just wanted to fall apart. The sum total of the days of lack of sleep and the fight with Prism Beak was really starting to take their toll and it took all of his will to keep the Guardian form together and not pass out. The first thing he needed to do was to minimize the chance of sudden death before he could release them. Grasping the mouths of the dragons, he first turned their heads upward and away from the hostages. Then he proceeded to tear away the restraints that kept them planted. As he helped them down, it was now he saw the prostrated form of Bruce half pinned around the back of the view box. He was half conscious from the knife in his shoulder and his clothes were slightly singed thanks to the explosion. Silver gingerly picked him up and ordered for the rest to follow him out. Madame Tink complained the whole time why the Silver Guardian was not carrying her. In fact she put up so much off a fuss, she actually planted her weighty rear on a step and refused to move on her own. Silver bit his tongue to keep from cursing and unceremoniously hauled her over his shoulder before continuing their exit. He dumped her on the ground when they reached the top. He helped Bruce onto a stadium chair and began to pry back the steel bars. His body seizured for a moment giving him a painful reminder that he was losing strength. It was even more evident when it was actually a bit difficult to pull away those bars.
“Ugh what is taking so long? Are those muscles of yours actually good for anything?” Yeah, for making your face concave if you don’t shut up, Silver was tempted to shout. The bars finally pried free and Silver collapsed to his knees gasping hard. Then a thunderous clatter erupted from the stage. Splinterbark had her coat caught in one of the gears in the fire dragon and Circus Freak was attempting to run away with a tether tangled hard around one of their legs.
“I’ve got the hostages. Go get the clown”, Bruce stated. Silver scampered down the stairs though he was heading more towards Splinterbark than the fleeing jester. Just as he got down to the stage Splinterbark yelled for him to grab the tether.
Circus Freak was almost towards the backstage tunnel where there was an entrance to the sewer service tunnels down below. Their right leg almost gave out from underneath them as something yanked hard and began to drag them backwards out into the lit stage. Silver had managed to get his fingertips around the very end of the fabric and was now reeling them in like a large trout. Circus Freak struggled hard attempting to pull away. The loop around their leg was wrapped tight in a messy knot and they had thrown all of their knives that they had so they could not cut it. Then a thought came to them. If they were going to go down, they were going to take at least one revenge this evening. They pulled a small bomb out from their last pocket and chucked it towards the metallic dragon that Splinterbark had propped herself up against.
Splinterbark had seen the explosive flying in their direction and she tried to swing her bat to deflect it. The tip of her bat bunted the very end of the explosive making it bounce only just a foot back before discharging. The surrounding detonation caused the mechanical beast to split apart in two and one of the necks of the dragon curved downward and caught Splinterbark in the leg. Up above of the old roof supports that had been just barely holding on after all these years creaked and snapped from the soundwave of the grenade. Splinterbark braced herself as the beam sheared off and plunged point downward towards her back. There was a sound of shattering metal and then only sounds being the autumn air and the Silver Guardian’s panicked breathing. Splinterbark saw that the Silver Guardian had thrown himself between her and the girder and letting it crumple against his back. His wings had curved into something akin to a shield and he just crouched there like the adrenaline had paralyzed him for a moment. Then the two finally got up they saw that Circus Freak had completely vanished. They tried chasing him down the tunnel and found threads of the tether caught on a grate just outside the building wall.
They managed to barely get into the deepest shadows of the building before Splinterbark cried out in frustration and pounded the side wall with the back of her fist. Silver was just leaving against the wall gasping for breath and feeling like he was choking on his own saliva.
“Stupid stupid stupid! We had him! This is the second time I’ve ruined everything! I should’ve called you or Blackbird first! I should’ve checked…”
“Splinter…we’ll find…we’ll find them. Guy like that…doesn’t…quit that…easily. We’ll…we’ll…get…get…” He coughed up a ball of spittle and then collapsed before transforming back into Reed. He was completely unconscious; his body covered in sweat and he was still making that half cough half hiccup breathing noise. Frix noted that now that they were outside-her phone suddenly got reception and they should make a couple calls and fast as the sound of sirens was increasing.
Circus Freak was a long way down the tunnel. They could faintly hear the sounds of sirens above their heads and rapid footfalls behind them. They were not the heavy footed ones or the flapping of wings so it was not the Silver Guardian perusing them. These were quick and were shouting orders to seal off the area. They were mildly impressed with the speed and tenacity the cops suddenly had. They cursed under their breath as they kept trying to run deeper into the under city maze. The gears in their suit whirred and groaned slightly thanks to the damage from the Silver Gaurdian and it was making their running hard. All they had to do was get clear and find Electric Fixer and have a few words with him about service. Then a certain angel and rosy punk were going to pay. Another sound echoed down the tunnel this time-coming from the opposite direction. The steps were substantial and slow followed by an odd sloshing noise. Then a massive individual came into view. Their substantial bulk practically filled the entirely of the tunnel. The clown staggered back at this terrible creature coming steadily closer to them.
“Who…who are you?” they managed to stammer. The thing’s pointed muzzle upturned wide; showing numerous rows of long jagged teeth and a black viscus fluid dripping between the gums.
“Consider yourself…under new management.” Then the thing opened its mouth quite wide and lunged forward.
The police heard a single shrill scream before it suddenly cut off. Calling all their units together inside the tunnels, they followed to where they thought the sound was coming from. On the floor was half of a clown mask and several shreds of red and gold cloth sliding the small trickle of water gliding along their feet. There were spots of blood on the ground along with traces of something black and oily that was fizzling away before their eyes.

[Lovetheangelshadow]

Chapter 14: Splinter Guardian It was late Sunday morning as Reed had stumbled downstairs. He did not remember how he even got to his room since passing out at the arena the previous night. His whole body ached even worse now. And he thought his first transformation had been torture. When he finally got down into the kitchen he saw his family still at the table and deep in conversation.
“Dad, I’m 23 years old! You can’t ground me!” Reed pulled out a chair and sat down before groggily grabbing the cereal and just pouring it onto a paper towel and eating it one piece at a time. No one had turned to even see him.
“Honey, it’s for your own good. You’ve been through so much these past several days, a rest would be good for you”, Lenora pleaded.
“But the Roman Mall catalog and the Winterfest brochures…” Marco winced and grabbed his lower leg to steady it. It was heavily wrapped in bandages and the hospital had given him a pair of crutches to move around with.
“That’s why. I won’t have you push yourself with that injury. As long as you live here, you obey my rules”, Morgan declared. Marco threw himself over the back of his chair and whined like a salty teen who had their phone privileges revoked.
“Fiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnneeeee, well at least I can share the jail time with my good buddy, Reed. Ain’t that right, little bro?” Marco tilted his head towards his little brother who was still slowly chewing the cereal piece by piece. Morgan slammed his palm hard on the table and made Reed’s cereal pile fall into itself all over the table.
“And you! You are in enough trouble as it is and you go out partying?!”
“I…I did what now?” Lenora had her arms crossed and was frowning.
“Your ‘friend’ Thomas brought you home completely passed out. Or rather tried to sneak you in. What were you thinking, Reed? Did that girl talk you into it? I should have expected as much from Vivian’s kid.”
“Don’t talk about Shelly like that!” Reed yelled much to the surprise of everyone there. Suddenly realizing what he had just done, Reed now just wanted to shrink into the decorative grooves of his chair and disappear. Well going out to a party was a better excuse than ‘hey I went to fight a supervillain and almost got my brother killed’.
“Dad, please I think he’s had enough”, Marco pleaded before groaning in more discomfort again. Both of his parents turned away from Reed to help Marco back down.
“I’m fine guys. Just sore as hell. If it weren’t for the Silver Guardian it could have been so much worse.”
“Don’t get me started on that thief! He’s undisciplined, reckless…”
“And saved our lives! Is it that hard to give him some credit? You have to admit using that heat activated epoxy to clog up the cooling vents in Henry’s suit was pretty clever. Not too unlike how you beat him the first time.” Marco barked. Reed was unsure how to feel about this situation. Perhaps it was just that his brother was actually defending him after what he did last night. He cringed even worse knowing his last memory before knocking out was Shelly’s expression. He really had messed up and had no idea what to do now.
****
Reed had walked onto campus on Monday seeing Thomas and Shelly talking intensely to each other. He saw in her hands were the green goggles and she was twisting the strap between her hands. Frix was yelling on her shoulder in strong argument. The awful feeling he had in his gut from since yesterday morning felt even worse.
“Maybe take some time to think about this?” Thomas was trying to plead with her. Shelly gripped her goggles even tighter and was visibly trying to not have another outburst.
“The news said the clown’s bloody outfit was found. It…it must’ve been that cat monster from last night. The one that escaped because of me! Reed!” Shelly threw her arms around him and hugged him hard. Reed was immobilized where he stood; not entirely sure how to respond to this affectionate display. Then Shelly grabbed his shoulders and tried to shake him. It only made him sway slightly though-rail thin as he was.
“Don’t you scare me like that again!”
“Me? What about you? You nearly gave me a heart attack last night.” There was a bit of pause and awkward staring before they finally forced an uncomfortable chuckle with each other. Shelly then let go of his waist and drooped her head shamefully.
“You gave us a bit of a scare on Saturday, Reed. If I didn’t know you any better, I would have thought you had passed out drunk at a party”, Thomas interjected.
“You mean the party I supposedly went to?”
“Give me a break! Your mom caught me with a crowbar in her hand! You’d rather I tell her you stole your dad’s ring and was flying around as a swole angelic hero?”
“Announce it a bit louder so the whole campus can hear you!” Reed hissed.
“I’m sorry. I really messed things up”, Shelly finally muttered.
“No, I’m the one who…”
“Let me finish, Reed. You’re right. You were able to beat Prism Beak and would have captured Circus Freak on your own without my help. In fact, none of this would have happened if I hadn’t interfered. You don’t need my help.” Reed wanted to say something, but he was not even sure what he could say. Shelly then shoved her goggles into his hands. He almost dropped them in the open as it was not something he expected.
“You need a better partner than some cowardly little nobody.” The first warning bell rang and Shelly ran off to homeroom-leaving Reed planted firmly on the grass.
“What do you intend to do now”, Thomas asked him.
“I…I really wish I knew.”

The End

[Lovetheangelshadow]

Bonus: Tiger Hunt“I am telling you it just disappeared”, Hunter snarled as he and Jinn were making their way across the rooftops towards the outer edges of town. They had managed to track down the tiger beast inside the park shortly after Splinterbark had been sent on her way. It had also taken them almost half an hour navigating the dense underbrush of the park at night to find a black colored monster. Hunter could swear he could sense the beast nearby but every time he thought they were almost close the scent veered off in a completely different direction. At last they managed to corner the creature inside one of the many gazebos that dotted the park. It was noticeably different than they had last seen it. It’s once lean and powerful limbs were swollen to grotesque proportions. Its stomach was distended and bloated that it bounced on the ground like an overfilled water balloon. The only thing that remained even close to the same was the hate filled snarling face which now looked absolutely tiny to the rest of its engorged body. Jinn almost wanted to vomit how disgusting the monster appeared and how could it even have gotten to this state. Their answer came when the beast swung its paws upward and dislodged the roof of the gazebo. Using its tail as a third limb, the monster chucked it with clean force at the hunters. Hunter managed to slice it away with three successful swipes of his sword and let the pieces call casually at his side. He even pretended to flip his hair that was still tucked neatly under his mask. The cat snarled and bounced away with surprising grace and agility. In its wake were a pair of half-naked lovers now lying frozen in terror on the wooden platform. Hunter only glanced at them very briefly and it was enough for him to shudder. Normally he could ‘see’ and ‘feel’ certain emotions-usually things like fear, anger, sadness, or even envy. Emotions he found by accident he could take and absorb to give him a dopamine filled power rush. But these two had none of that. There was no trace of any such aura surrounding them even though they were obviously terror stricken. Could the thing they were chasing do the same thing?
Jinn called out to Hunter and told him to hurry. She flew over his head and he snatched one hand onto the back ring of her staff. The two were in hot pursuit of the swollen beast with Hunter warning Jinn of any obstacles hidden in the many shadows of Cadric Park. Suddenly the cat managed to squeeze its way into a thick grove of pine trees that were blocked off from the main trails. Neither Hunter could squish themselves into the thicket so Jinn flew up higher hoping they could spot the tiger up high and cut off its escape. Just reaching the top of the trees, Hunter let go and dropped to the tops of the trees. In his mind he could still feel the beast and it was heading southwards towards Cadric City arena. Like a grasshopper along the morning hills, Hunter leapt effortlessly from tree top to tree top. He could see the monster now running across the clearing; its blobby form perfectly silhouetted in the moonlight. Hunter pulled his weight against the last treetop and catapulted himself on top of the monster.
Hunter’s battle talons lodged deep into the flesh of the tiger and he cackled at his success.
“Got you by the tail this time! Let’s see if you fight better than you lose pounds!” Tentacles erupted from the beast’s sides and lashed themselves around Hunter’s legs and lurched him off its back. Hunter drew out his sword and managed to jab his blade into the tiger’s hind leg keeping him from being launched to the ground. Jinn came from above and swung her staff to dislodge one of the wrappings free from her partner. The thing staggered and its new lumpy flesh collided into Hunter’s side. Pulling free from Hunter’s sword it kept running. The tiger, once determined to kill them or draw their emotions as fuel, was now only focused on escaping.
Jinn pulled Hunter from the floor and he almost fell right back onto the grass again once she had managed to get him to stand up. He didn’t realize just how much engorged sized tiger could knock that much wind out of him. Hunter managed to shake himself back to normal and they followed. The tiger was downtown now heading towards the backside of the LeBatte Arena. As they continued to follow, Jinn paused.
“Is that Splinterbark?” The two saw the pink coattails of the pink pixie breaking a hole in the wooden mural and pushing themselves inside. Hunter shrugged saying it was none of his concern and followed the tiger around the back of the building. The tiger had shoved its way into one of the holes leading to the Underground. It took both of their efforts to pull the grate upwards to get inside. But then Hunter suddenly stopped. A horrible bone chilling feeling raced up his spine followed by a sudden terrible pounding in his head and he cradled his head in his hands trying to suppress it. These headaches he felt whenever a monster came to surface was not anything new and did not go away until he killed it; and yet this was something else. It was less annoying and actually causing terrible pain. Hunter fell to his knees and his whole body shuddered. Why? Why was he suddenly hurting so much?
“Hunter! Hunter, what’s wrong?” She was mortified when Hunter’s arms fell to his side and his chest slouched. Then he rose up to his feet looking absolutely dumbfounded.
“The scent…the scent is gone.”
“Gone? What do you mean gone?”
“Seriously woman? It’s poofed! Vanished! I can’t feel it anymore. It’s like it never existed.”
“Wait, a scent just doesn’t disappear. Maybe your ‘hunty sense’ is on the fritz? Also what the heck was that? You’ve never done that before.”
“Hunter Sense, thank you very much. And how the heck should I know. The only other time that ever happened was when I…let’s get to high ground. I need air.”
They had gotten several blocks away from the arena when Hunter saw the Silver Guardian staring at the screen on the CCTV news. On the monitor was Splinterbark fighting some kind of gaudy dressed clown and she was losing. Hunter’s face immediately turned into a frown. The thought of Splinterbark crying and calling herself useless came to his mind and he hated it. Then he remembered the emotions he had absorbed from her. He told Jinn to lower him down so he could have a few words with the Silver Guardian.
Once he led the Silver Guardian to the arena, Jinn asked him what they wanted to do. Hunter inhaled long through his nose and tapped the heels of his shoes against the back of the building. He then pushed himself off the wall and went back to the grate they were initially trying to remove. Something down there had to make the tiger beast vanish that quickly. Something down there had to cause him that much suffering. Someone took his rightful prey and made him hurt, and he did not like that one bit.
The tunnel they were inside was smaller than ones they were normally used to traversing. Hunter actually had to duck and still the top of his horns scraped the underside of the roof of the passage. Jinn used her staff to light the way as they slowly went deeper into the pathways. Then he could smell it. It was faint, but there was no mistaking it was the scent of the tiger they had long been chasing. He drew out his sword and gingerly moved closer and closer to the source. The tunnel finally widened up enough for him to actually stand up in and he paused. About ten feet from them was another creature. This one was even larger than the feline beast so much that its entire form fit the whole space of the corridor. Jinn was afraid to brighten her staff in fear of alerting the thing. Hunter squinted hard but even his own dark vision was almost useless, like the thing was absorbing auras surrounding it. From what little they could see between its thick legs and tail, was the remains of their tiger. Its body had been split open and the other monster was shoving pieces of its black oozing flesh into its mouth.
“You have been a very busy beast tonight. Young fear is quite…tender and pure. Don’t worry, you will go to your rightful place. I just need a little snack after such a long trip.” Jinn tugged on Hunter’s shoulder begging him for them to leave.
“Hey! That’s my beast you’re stuffing your face with!” Hunter shouted. The other creature turned and somehow easily managed to turn completely around in the small space like its very muscle was made of Jell-O. Neither witch nor devil could see the face clearly save for rows upon rows of teeth shining in the dark and the cat’s remains falling from its teeth. Hunter was now starting to feel that terrible shuddering cold terror strike him again, but he braced himself against it.
“Well what do we have here? A couple of costumed brats. You’re too early for Halloween.” It half walked half glided along the tunnel a few steps at first but then sped effortlessly across the path towards them. Jinn barely had time to erect a shield before the goliath collided into the pair and shot them clear across the tunnel. The duo tumbled and slid across the wet stonework until a service pillar stopped their travel. Hunter snarled and wiped a bit of blood from his mouth. The juggernaut bounded towards them and slid effortlessly across the narrow channel. Its massive mouth opened wide and tried to snap it on their heads. Hunter swung his sword wide across the interior of the creature’s jaw. The blade made a clean cut against the hinges of its jaw and it leapt over them clutching its mouth when it landed. It seemed actually more surprised that Hunter had wounded it rather than its jaw almost completely slack against its massive neck. The creature pressed its clawed hands against the open wounds of its jaw and pressed the bone back in place. It made a loud snap and in the dim light Hunter could see ooze pooling around the wound to close where he had cut.
The monster grinned cruelly and caught the two completely off guard. Jinn tried to force another shield, but the monster effortlessly smacked her away and knocked her hard into the side of the tunnel. She collapsed into a crumpled heap on the rubble at her feet and didn’t seem to move from it. Hunter stared at her slack jawed and then bellowed that he was going to cut the monster piece by piece. He jabbed his blade forward only for the hulking brute to melt to the side of the wall and just miss his strike. The fiend grasped Hunter’s wrist and jerked him down hard. Pinned to the ground, the monster leaned in close and took a long sniff of the buggy Beelzebub. Suddenly its eyes flashed from amusement to pure hate.
“YOU! THE ABOMINATION!” Hunter had no idea what this creature was babbling on about, but no one called him such an insult. He snapped his free hand open and let a column of dark fire erupt from it. The flames scorched the side of the monster’s face and it reeled back just somewhat enough for the insectoid imp to break loose. Hunter was able to free his arm and was just barely able to grab his sword that had gotten lodged between the crevices of the stone.
“Oh no you don’t, you atrocity!” The beast grabbed Hunter’s cape and began to reel him in like a large fish. Hunter pressed against the insectoid clasp and make it release from his neck. The sudden break forward almost made Hunter lose complete balance but he recovered on the second step. He gracefully turned and aimed for the monster’s legs in a long swooping motion. The behemoth leapt a bit and rammed his leg against the sides of the tunnel. Suddenly the monster’s arm swelled up like a balloon and back smacked his face hard. Hunter was still airborne when the creature caught and smacked him repeatedly with his tail until Hunter barely had any strength to get to his knees. Hunter dug the talons of one hand into the stone and tried to reach for the sword he had dropped. The monster gleefully snatched him by the horns and slowly pulled Hunter’s neck back with full intention to snap it.
“I’ll break you in two and show your beaten body before that unworthy…” There was a brilliant storm of light that filled the tunnel. Both Hunter and the monster screeched in agony as the light burned against their skin. Hunter then felt something drag him along the ground before he felt like he was flying through the air and further deep into the darkness of the tunnels. Then he was finally thrust upwards out into the open as he could feel the harsh evening air sting his hot sweaty face. Finally he could feel the cool caress of grass as they lowered to the ground. Hunter had his arms wrapped tightly around him as he inhaled and exhaled deep through clenched teeth.
“Hunter…are you alright?”
“That…hurt…” Jinn moved in closer and put her hand on his back. Hunter suddenly smacked it away and forced himself to his full height.
“You stupid witch! That really hurt!”
“Oh I’m so sorry, you horned hargot! Next time I’ll let you get pummeled into paste by an underground monster!” Hunter suddenly cackled and threw up his hands as if the entire experience had been one big joke.
“Oh god, the rush though. That fight was so exhilarating, like I was really pushing myself for once. I can’t wait the next time I…” Jinn slapped him hard across the face.
“Don’t ever think like that! If anything happened to you I…I…” Jinn but her lip hand and her staff bent slightly in her hands as she twisted the handle back and forth. Hunter pated her on her pointed hat with childish taunt.
“Aw, you do care about me.” Jinn’s face went red.
“I do not! I just…I…I don’t.” Hunter opened his mouth to say something but faltered. He saw the bruises on her bare arms and scratches around her neck and face. The gloves of her hands were burned and his sword was at her feet. He stood firm but his heart skipped a few beats knowing the witch carried his limp behind and his sword out of there. He flicked his wrists in the air in a dismissive jaunt; as forceful as it seemed.
“Ugh fine I’ll avoid whatever was down there…for now anyway.” The two slumped down on the grass for a bit and stared upward at the sky with their backs against one another.
“Do you think the Silver Guardian got to the girl in time?”
“Well if he screwed up that is his own problem.”
“He does seem to hate you for some reason.”
“Well how should I know why? It’s not like I actually care what people think of me.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed. Sometimes I wonder if you actually go out of your way to get people to dislike you.” She thought she felt Hunter tense slightly.
“Do…do you want to get something to drink at T. Crystalz before we go our separate ways for the night? My treat.”
“I could use a hot cider tonight after everything tonight.” They stretched themselves upwards to their feet and headed out together.