–Undisclosed Location, 10:13 AM–
Vincent looked through the message transcript three times, muttering under his breath as he read what had happened two hours before. *She nearly ventilated one of the comm officers? Heh. He must’ve deserved it. Well, I hope our primary objective is still alive.* He flipped through the sheath of four closely-typed pages, and on the last one he saw the mission status. The page had only a few lines on it, but they declared good news for once.
The first line held the entire mission’s status in a simple abbreviation, and Vincent had deciphered it almost instantly. "Well, we retrieved the primary, and she’s still alive. That’s a good thing. Sadly, the martinet’s still out and about, and the rest of the mission’s been scrubbed. That’s gonna throw a wrench into our plans." Vincent stood up, opened the door to the corridor, and started walking down to the elevator. As he passed a discreet-looking door, he paused for a few seconds, then turned and opened the door.
The room was dark, as it had been for the last two days. The only evidence that someone lived in it though were the two footlockers at the foot of the bed, and a small, tattered bear sitting on the pillow. The only other sign was that there was no dust in the room. Vincent sighed slightly as he closed the door and continued onwards to talk to the boss.
–Near Meridiana High School, 10:52 AM–
Mikae was righteously pissed. She had miserably failed her math test, her English essay turned out to be crap on a stick, and the boys at the school acted like sharks on raw meat when they saw her limping from the bruise on her leg. She had been forced to resort to threatening three of the dumber ones with a baseball bat before the guys left her alone.
"God! Why does everyone fall all over themselves to try and be helpful? I’m known for taking care of myself, and everyone just disregards it. Screw it." She was currently sitting beside an old oak tree imported from the northern US., and she was irritated enough to put some dents in the hardwood with her fists. Looking around at the schoolyard, she grimaced as she probed the sore spot on her leg.
*Damn. I’ll be sore for another day or two, but I really can’t do much about that. Still, I’d like to know what was going on up there.* Mikae stood up, using the tree for support and sighing in irritation at the prospect of having to limp almost seven hundred yards to the front of the school, with a bunch of sex-hungry boys trying to help her so they could get into her pants later. Still, she started to move, but was abruptly stopped when a strong pair of arms wrapped themselves around her midsection, pinning her arms to her sides.
Struggling to get free, Mikae used her enhanced strength to her advantage, and slammed both elbows into her captor’s sides simultaneously. Against a normal person, the impacts would have shattered his or her ribs, as well as sending some extremely painful shocks through internal organs. However, her captor was definitely not normal. The only response to the powerful blows was a muffled grunt, and a third hand clapping a cloth loaded with chloroform over her face.
Involuntarily taking several deep breaths, Mikae felt the powerful sopoforic take effect, pulling her inexorably into unconsciousness. As her eyes closed, Mikae’s last thought was that her mother would kill her.
–Meridiana High School, 11:45 AM–
The lunch bell rang, and the students in Adrian’s class tore out of there at close to mach six. After the small dust devils and flying papers had subsided, Adrian stood up, walked out of the classroom, and went over to Lucas’ class. Inside the old biology room, Lucas was busy trying to avoid catching jungle rot from a very angry, very large Komodo Dragon that had been imported several months ago from the Komodo Islands.
Adrian, utterly nonplussed by the sight of a chair being crushed into an unrecognisable mass of metal and plastic by the dragon’s sharp teeth, stepped into the room, knocked out the huge lizard by punching it on top of its head, and pulled Lucas out of the way of the creature’s collapsing body.
"Whew! I thought I was a goner. Remind me to install a heavier door on that cage, okay?" Lucas carefully lifted the heavy lizard up and placed it back in the reinforced cage that was its home until the zoo had the belligerent creature’s exhibit ready. Adrian sighed under his breath, then looked at Lucas.
"Well, while you’re feeling euphoria because you’re still alive, can you tell me if you’ve seen Mikae anywhere? She was supposed to be in class today, and she’s not the type of person to skip school."
Lucas scratched at his jaw where he had cut himself shaving, then responded. "I saw her taking out some anger on that old oak tree near the football field, but I was busy and didn’t see her come back into the school. Maybe we should go over there and check it out." Adrian nodded, and went outside with his friend. They walked towards the oak tree, occasionally breaking up the random extortion being applied to the junior students by Lori’s gang.
When they got to the tree, Adrian noticed that one side of the tree was pretty heavily dented and scraped, like a car had smacked it. Just at the foot of the tree however, was something that caused Adrian deep surprise and consternation. Bending down, he picked up a small piece of paper and the earring that was beside it. Adrian carefully opened the folded paper, and read aloud the short notice inside:
"‘We have your child. If you don’t leave fifteen thousand dollars, in small denominations, next to the oak tree by tomorrow, we’ll send your child back to you in small denominations.’ Damn. I recognise this earring at least. Mikae’s been wearing that ever since her first run-in with me." Lucas looked up when he recognised the uncharacteristic anger in Adrian’s voice, and saw his friend looking at the earring. Lucas also investigated the simple metal stud, and saw that it was covered in blood, like it had been ripped out.
Lucas blanched slightly, then reread the note. "Shit. We have either a kidnapper, and that hasn’t happened at this school for almost twelve years, or one of Jose’s thugs decided on getting him some fresh meat. Well, maybe we should kick the crap out of him."
Adrian looked at Lucas like he had grown another head. "Very funny. First off, he has a hostage, and that hostage is about as powerful as I am. Secondly, I don’t think I’d be able to find her in less than a day, and they said they’d kill her. Finally, I think some professional help would be in order. I’m going to call someone who has some experience in matters like this."
"Who would that be?" Lucas looked slightly aggrieved at the idea of Adrian once again sticking his neck out too far, but kept somewhat quiet.
"You probably know him. After all, he nearly took my head off during the detective incident." Adrian smiled darkly, then walked off, holding the paper in one hand, and the earring tightly enough to draw blood from the points on the diamond-shaped stud. Lucas remained at the tree, examining the dents. As he stretched his arms to work out the kinks, he caught a whiff of something and decided to follow his nose. The faint smell brought him to a copse of trees near the school, where he found a discarded bottle and a cloth reeking of chloroform.
–Police Headquarters, 12:02 PM–
The cell phone beeped twice, and when the person couldn’t grab it quickly enough, it started a rendition of Mighty Mouse’s ‘Here I Come to Save the Daaayyy!!!’, causing the owner of the phone to grin sheepishly as he was suddenly targeted for the ridicule of the other detectives for the rest of the month. He flipped open the cellphone, and quickly answered.
"This is Enrique."
"Hello Enrique. We have a situation at the High School."
The tone of voice set him off, and he instantly waved the other members of the room to silence. "Really. Can you tell me what’s going on?"
"One of the students was abducted, and a ransom note was left behind. The kidnappers are demanding fifteen thousand dollars, otherwise they’ll kill her."
"I’ll be right over, with several officers. I might get a few of the new boys over as well so they can help out as well."
"New boys? You are talking about that special team that was brought in a little while ago right?"
Enrique chuckled, sounding like a rusty door being opened. "Yep. I’ll be over at the school soon." He hung up, looked at the other detectives, and told them what was up. The response was instant, vehement, and sprinkled with enough foul language to knock out a convent of nuns. Most of the detectives got their jackets so they could also check out the crime scene, but Enrique was already halfway down the stairs, dialling a number to tell his captain what just happened.
In less than twenty minutes, the school had been shut down, several police officers had cordoned off the area where Mikae had been abducted, and Enrique was questioning Adrian and Lucas about what they had seen.
The three men were sitting in Adrian’s classroom, and Enrique was looking out the window at the crime scene. Turning back to his two acquaintances, he tried to smile, but the only effect was to make his face look almost like one of those angry gargoyles that had terrorized the city a few years ago.
"So, when did you realize that this student was missing?"
Adrian sighed slightly, then nodded towards the bulge in Enrique’s coat pocket. "Maybe you should take the tape recorder out of your pocket, turn it on, and leave it on a desk so there’s better sound fidelity."
Enrique smiled slightly, then pulled out two tape recorders, one of which was already on. "Way ahead of you. Now, back to the question."
"Well, I noticed that she hadn’t come back from the five-minute break between classes at ten-fifty, but I just thought she was slowed down because of her bad leg."
Enrique’s right eyebrow shot up, and he looked squarely at Adrian. "Bad leg? How do you figure that?"
Adrian frowned slightly, but continued. "She was limping when she arrived at school, and had to beat back the random swarm of sex-hungry boys with a baseball bat so she could be left alone. From what I’ve known of her, Mikae is the type of person who’d rather bleed to death than ask for help."
"That could be a problem. How’s her mother taking it?"
"I don’t know. Mikae had been abducted once before, and a mutual acquaintance helped her out of that mess, but Mrs. Kreubens seems to be accustomed to the danger in the city, and she might be confident that her daughter can take care of herself."
Enrique nodded, scribbling a few notes down on a pad of paper as he listened. "Well, we’re going for a total dragnet through the city, and I don’t think the people who did this will get too far. We’ve also called in the spec-ops SAR specialists, and they’re easily as good as navy SEALs when it comes to tracking someone or something. They also used that earring you found to get some cellular samples of our missing person.
"Apparently, they’ll be using the sample to track her specific chemical signature through the city, and they can recover her as soon as possible." Adrian and Lucas looked slightly relieved at that bit of news, then fell into concerned despondency once more.
–Inside Jose’s Mansion, 4:47 PM–
Mikae groaned as she opened her eyes, and, seeing nothing but a dim green glow, she decided to try and stretch. That was when she realized she was neck-deep in trouble, and chained to a wall as well. *Oh shit. Well, it looks like I’m gonna be shuffling off the mortal coil sometime in the very near future. Hopefully, I’ll be able to take someone with me.* Her arms had been bound to a sturdy- looking rope hanging from the ceiling by several feet of what looked to be galvanized steel chains. Her legs had been tied together with the same chain, and the cold air made her wonder if the bastards had stripped her naked as well.
Looking down, she saw that she hadn’t been stripped naked, but her jacket and shirt had disappeared, leaving her clad in only her cargo pants and bra. "Hey! Get me down from here!" Mikae struggled against the heavy chains, but whomever had strung her up like this was obviously skilled, as nothing gave way to her strength. She stopped struggling when she heard a malicious chuckle echo up to where she was suspended, and instantly started swearing under her breath.
"Well, if it isn’t the errant Cyber-killer. How are you X-1?" Jose had stepped into the light below Mikae, and he was gesturing for two Fixed Ideas to move what appeared to be a glass tub into position underneath her.
"Come up here, and I’ll show you. Just wondering, but don’t you have problems in hanging onto beings like Six or myself?" Mikae smiled sweetly, but the lighting of the room turned it into a demonic leer. Jose just laughed.
"Hanging... on?" Jose could barely gasp for breath around the laughing fit that had overtaken him, but he motioned for the two Ideas to remove the steel lid on the tub. The two large brutes easily lifted the metal lid off, but one stubbed its foot on the tub and dropped its side of the lid. The echoing bong from the metal hitting the stone floor only undercut a scream of pain from the poor, stupid greenskin that had dropped the lid on its foot.
After hopping around for several minutes, the Fixed Idea had massaged the pain out of its foot, and it finished pulling away the lid, revealing a dull green pool of uncharged sustenance. Jose looked up at his captive, a lustful smile crawling all over his face, and causing Mikae’s skin to crawl at the sight.
"Now, uncharged sustenance does dick-all for keeping my lackeys alive, but the stuff in here will be doctored slightly." Jose walked over to the tub of dull green liquid, revealed a milk carton sized jug of fully-charged sustenance, and poured in the entire jug.
"Now, this is at about two percent, so it won’t hide anything, and besides, it’ll take a while to destroy your clothes. Now, be nice, and let me have my fun." Jose snapped his fingers, letting the sharp noise echo through the room for a few seconds before a Fixed Idea walked in, holding a director’s chair monogrammed with Jose’s name on the back, and a two-foot tall tub of popcorn.
"By the way, do you like my new jacket? It’s second-hand, but it’s just perfect for me." Mikae snarled several incoherent insults at Jose as she noticed that he was wearing her favourite jacket, but her mind rebelled at the implications of his earlier statements. *What the fuck is he going to do to me?*