Glenn and Francis had already reached Brooklyn, where Francis told Glenn that the thieves' hideout is. But before going there, Glenn had used a payphone to call Lloyd about the location, and he had to pick up V.V. from her part-time job, but he promised to be there in a flash. 'Cos first he have to pick her up with the Land Rover, park it back, grab a Metro bus to Grand Central Station and grab the earliest express train they could find.
"It's getting pretty late, don't you think?" Francis checked his cellphone time. It's nearly night time.
"Don't complain." Glenn reached into his bag and pulled out a slightly squashed box of doughnuts that he had brought earlier at the station's cafe, but then he had nearly squashed the box 'cos he forgotten all about it. "Here. Doughnuts."
Francis opened the box and found each one with different icing sugar. There's a total of six doughnuts in the box. Sugar, chocolate, cream with chocolate chips, strawberry, strawberry with jam and chocolate with rainbow chips.
"Dude, you could've picked a better flavor..." Francis exclaimed.
"Oh, come on. There are plenty of different flavor." Glenn said. "Don't eat the cream with chocolate chips, it's mine."
"Sure." Francis picked the sugar one and gave a huge bite. Icing sugar dusted down onto the floor.
Footsteps started approaching near them. Glenn quickly whip out his gun that was tucked into his waistband and Francis stood on his kickboxing stunt.
"Hold up, it's us..." A voice said.
"Lloyd, don't scare us like that!" Glenn tucked his gun back.
Lloyd and V.V. came into view. When Francis saw them both, he said, "Good to see you, Mr. Anderson. And Vivi too."
"Why is he here?" V.V. asked inquisitively.
"He is our source." Glenn said.
"What does Franciska have to do with this?" Lloyd asked.
Lloyd, Mia and Glenn are the only person who can call Francis' full name without getting a scowl and an icy glare in response.
"Well..." Glenn said slowly. "I think you should let Francis explain."
Francis launched into the detail of his story. Every now and then V.V.'s eyes kept on becoming narrower, as though Francis is saying offensive about her.
Only when he finished, he said, "Vivi, are you okay?"
"No, but your story reminds me of that lady who used to locked me in that prison." She muttered.
"Say what????" Francis asked, confused.
"V.V. used to be locked up in a cell as an experiment project." Lloyd answered.
"Oh, well, these guys are not experiment, though." Francis said. "And they are also not exactly what you call friendly." He then started ticking off points of his fingers. "There's Blaze Vinegrove aka Pyro, who is the unofficial leader of the group. He is a pyrokinetic. Then we move on to the strongest and most brutal, Raymond "Ray" McCarthy aka Lupercus, he can transform into a very vicious wolf. Watch out for him and Terra Magenta aka Liquescere- "
"Hold up." Lloyd said. "Liquescere?"
"It means to melt. Got it?" Francis said.
"Oh, I got it." Lloyd said. "So, every member has a code name, huh?"
"Right-o." Francis said. "Then we move on to Lance Granger aka Sniper, who although he looks normal and harmless, has the ability of inhuman sight, accuracy, strength and stamina. In short, he is on an inhuman level. And let me warn you, when he set his target on you, get ready to run."
"Why?" Lloyd asked.
"Because the guy never misses. He can hit a bulls eye 1,000 times and never miss." Glenn answered. When Lloyd and V.V. stared at him, he said defensively, "What? I listened."
"Yup. He did, alright." Francis said.
"For the first time." Lloyd said. V.V. giggled, which is pretty rare. In fact, her giggle sounds pretty nice, like chimes in the wind.
"Okay, moving on." Francis said, trying to get back into the subject. "Then there's Hornet. She never told anyone her real name, but she's an Asian. And just like her name, she's can manipulate hornets to do her bidding, and she possess hornet characteristics."
"She's a hornet????" V.V. gasped.
"No. I meant she has hair that can become a sting, she can sprout wings and she loves honey and nectar." Francis said.
V.V. nodded slowly.
"And last but not least, Jake McCartney aka Inuestigandum. He can track anyone, you know, like a detector. He's harmless, 'cos he can only track people, which is why Lance stay close to him."
"Not bad." Lloyd said, nodding. "How do you know all this stuff?"
"I stayed with them for a day, then I defected. Pretty weird, huh?"
"How did they ended up together anyway?" Lloyd asked.
"They were shunned by normal people." V.V. said. "Isn't it obvious?"
"I know. But what I meant was, how did they all came together? I'm sure you know about it, right?" He added the last part to Francis.
"Nope." Francis said. "The only one I ever get close is Terra Magenta. She was brought up in an orphanage, then she met Blaze and his gang." He then glanced at his watch. "Anyway, I think we better get going."
As they left, Revarie, who was watching from afar, sprouted bat wings and flew off.
***********
"Heh. Who would have thought those slayers went to hunt down a group of rebellion power users?" Revarie smirked as he came back from his scouting.
Dario, Allen, Reo and a boy were in a wide and spacious room, listening to his reports. Allen kept rocking back and forth in his seat. The boy looked very bored, and is tossing a crystal piece up and down in his hand. Dario, however, looked interested.
Reo, on the other hand, did not smile. "I used to be with them, in case you have forgotten."
Revarie then stared at him. "So what does it matter?"
Reo stared back at him. Crimson met dark. "I know you, Revarie. You are going to drink their blood, aren't you? Because all of them are just teens."
Revarie grinned. "Teenagers' blood are quite delicious. The soft skin and the blood blends perfectly in harmony."
Dario then stood up from his seat, staring at the moonlit sky.
"What is it?" Allen asked.
"If Revarie wants to go, then let's make a vote."
"I refuse to go." Reo said, folding his arms. "No point of seeing them again."
"I don't have that much interest in those guys." Allen said.
The boy stopped tossing the crystal and said, "Is V.V. there?"
Everyone stared at him.
"You know V.V.???" Allen said, awestruck.
"Heh. We had a long history." The boy said. Although his flaming red hair is cropped short, it seems to get even longer and became a scythe. His amber eyes looking murderous. "I can't wait to see her face again."
"If that's the case, then let's go." Dario said. "Where is their hideout anyway?"
"They are like nomads, you know." Reo said. "But they should be at one of the streets."
"What the heck?" Mind's Shadow snarled. "Then I'll just track them."
Allen's eyes glowed red for a few moments, then he said, "Brooklyn."
***********
The four of them walked down the rows of warehouse near the bay side. Most of the warehouse are abandoned and gratified.
"You sure they are here?"
"Yup, absolutely." Francis said. "Should be right around...here."
They stopped right in front of a warehouse that seems to hid in the shadows.
"This is it?" Glenn wrinkled his nose. "You think they might want to get a better hideout."
"The murkier, the better. But the more suspicions raised." Francis said. "You know what? I'll go first. You three can sneak in later, but watch out for Lupercus."
"Over and out." Lloyd beckoned the other two to follow him.
Taking a deep breath, Francis banged on the door three times.
"Hellooo???? Anyone hooooooome????" He asked.
There's no answer.
"Hello???? It's me...." Francis banged even louder and without warning, the door smashed down. "Ooops."
"Way to go, Franciska." Lloyd rolled his eyes.
"But he did managed to get us in..." Glenn grinned.
"By breaking down the door???" Lloyd muttered. "That is bound to cause people stare at us."
"Good point." Glenn nodded.
Francis tried to put the door back together, but is having no success. So he put it against the frame. "Come on in. I think nobody's in."
Cautiously, they went in.
It's not exactly nice. It's piled with many crates. There's a stairs that spiraled upwards to a landing. A crate was being used as a table, 'cos there are paper plates filled with leftover food, and paper cups that are half-finished with juice. The only source of light is coming from a few naked bulbs hung high in the ceiling. In the corner, there's a pile of well-worn mattress squished together, poorly-sewn pillows,and very thin sheets used as blankets. But they did tried to brighten up the place, such as painting patterns on the walls. There are two boxes used as a storage for food and water. A mini refrigerator that looks as though it's fished out of a junkyard is making a humming sound. For a moment, Lloyd felt a little pity for them.
"Boy, this is sure one heck of a hideout." Glenn said, prodding one of the blankets.
"That's weird." Francis said. "Nobody's in. And there's no stolen cash."
"Think again, Muscle Head..." A voice said.
As they looked up, fireballs started heading towards them.
"SCRAMBLE!!!!!" Francis yelled.
Everybody split as Blaze Vinegrove (aka Pyro) hurled a whole lot of fireballs at them. Some of the crates burst into flames.
"Damn. This guy is crazy!!!" Glenn said, shooting at Blaze, except a wall of fire protected him.
"I would appreciate it if we take it outside." Blaze said. "Otherwise my hideout will be turned into ashes."
The others shrugged and went out. The crates are turning into nothing right now. A bit of the embers are all that remains.
As soon as they reached outside, Blaze hurled a ginormous fireball at them, except this time they ducked, causing the fireball to splash into the sea. A wall of water blasted out at least 5 feet tall before crashing back into the water.
"So, tell me, who are you all suppose to be. The cops?" Blaze's tone stared to drip with venom.
"No, we're not." Lloyd answered.
"Funny. You sure look like one. And let me tell you, you can't put me in jail forever. I can melt the bars easily. And I had not done anything wrong."
"You didn't." Glenn said. "But your comrades did."
"What do you mean? Are you framing Ray and the others?" His eyes glared at Francis. "You...You defected no good low-life algae. Why did you tell us off?"
"I'm doing this for your comrades sake." Francis shouted at him. "They robbed the Bank of Manhattan."
Blaze cooled down for a moment. "The robbery in the news?"
"Well, yes!"
Without warning, Blaze hurled a whip-like stream of fire and bind Francis.
"Got anymore lies to spread, Muscle Head?" The fiery whips started licking Francis, but luckily, he's wearing a thick polyester jacket, so it had protected him from the major damage.
V.V., her hair turning into blades, charged Blaze from right behind. Blaze tried to burn her but she then started to strangle him, saying, "Don't even think about it..."
"You're not human. So, why are you helping them?" He asked.
"It's none of your beeswax." V.V. answered.
"How old are you anyway, 16?" Blaze asked, trying to struggle his way out.
"Yeah..." She then wrapped her legs around him and said, "Stop struggling and make things easier for me."
"No can do." Blaze surround himself with flames that caused V.V. to untangle him and stumbled back, but Glenn automatically reached out to catch her to stop her from falling.
"How chivalrous." V.V. muttered as Glenn set her on her feet.
"Thanks." Glenn said.
Francis ran off to the side of the warehouse and came back with a fire extinguisher. With it, he tore off the top with his super strength and just let the carbon dioxide spray all over Blaze, who yelled. Well, if you're fire and you got sprayed by carbon dioxide, wouldn't you shriek your head off if you had a voice?
"Even though he's a walking flame, he can't stand carbon dioxide, which I must say, comes in handy during the right circumstances." Francis patted the fire extinguisher tucked underneath his arm.
"To hell with you! All of you!!!" Blaze coughed.
"Spare us the threats." Lloyd said, wrapping him up with fireproof blanket.
"You people just wait. I'll get you guys when I burn my way out." Blaze tried to start a fire but nothing happened.
"Sorry, Fireboy." Lloyd said with mock pity. "But this is a fireproof blanket. Found it at the dumpster near your hideout. Very convenient, huh?"
Suddenly, cards started to charge towards them. Lloyd grabbed some of them in between his fingers whereas some hit the crates behind him, slicing them into half.
Lloyd looked up to see a boy, holding a pack of cards, and aiming it towards him. This must be Sniper aka Lance Granger. Beside him must be Inuestigandum aka Jake McCartney.
"Look out! The whole gang is here!" Lloyd called out to the others.
At that moment, hornets started buzzing towards them with a huge gargantuan wolf, who pounce on Glenn.
"Arrrggghhhh!!!!" Glenn yelled, trying to push the wolf off him.
Hornets buzzed towards Lloyd who started dicing them with his blade. Francis was defenseless, so he tried to run for cover, luckily V.V. grabbed him out of safety while her hair turn into blades and started killing off the hornets.
"Sorry I can't do much here." Francis said as she dropped him on top of a roof.
"You could always try to take on the sniper and the tracking boy." She nodded at the two who are at the other side of the building.
"Got it." Before he move, Francis turned back to her and said, "Hey, Vivi."
V.V. turned back to him with a puzzled look on her face.
"You're not human. But I am curious, how old are you?"
V.V. smirked and as she goes back into the battle, she replied, "I had been around long enough to witness World War 2 til now."
Francis gave a laugh and said to himself, "I like her attitude."
Glenn is still struggling against the huge wolf when this voice said inside his head. You have power, why not use it?
What the- You again? Glenn fought the voice in his head.
You are a descendant of a clan of vampires. You ought to be proud to possess inhuman abilities. The voice said.
Stop it. Go away. Glenn tried to shake the voice off him, but it kept penetrating his head.
Bring me out, the voice said. I'll finish it soon enough.
Hell, that'll be the day.
"Get off me, dog!" Glenn kicked the wolf hard on the jaw.
The wolf yelped as he was thrown back and knocked against a pile of crates. As Glenn straightened himself up, he ducked again as a swarm of hornets tried to sting him. When he ducked, kunais, shurikens, kumbis and senbons aimed for his vital points. He ran for cover behind a wall and the weapons bounced on the wall.
"Whew. That was close." Glenn sighed with relief.
"Hiya!!!!"
A girl with a single long plait aimed a flying kick at him, but that is not what he's afraid off. It's the kumbis that she's holding on each fist. She thrust both fists out, releasing her hold on the kumbis and the the sharp projectiles flew towards his chest, causing him to lean back as low as possible to avoid them from thrusting itself deep into his chest.
"Cripes. That was scary."
The girl, whom he assumed is Hornet, flew towards him and landed two powerful kicks straight onto his stomach. He doubled up in pain as she flicked shurikens at him.
Two struck his arms.
Two struck his legs.
And before he could even blink, Hornet threw him towards a wall. At that moment, Lloyd rammed Hornet hard with the handle of his blade, causing her to cough violently.
"Sorry I have to do this." Lloyd said as he ran off.
But Hornet isn't going to let him off easily, as soon as his back was turned, she took out a scroll hidden well inside one of her sleeve. She unrolled the scroll and did some complicated hand seal movements, muttering under her breath as she did so.
There was a huge cloud of smoke and weapons of all kinds charged towards Lloyd's unprotected back. Katanas, daggers, kunais, senbons, kumbis, shurikens of all kinds, sickle with chains, nuchakus, blades and many other various kinds of weapons all are aimed at him. However, he deflected every single weapons with his blade in swift silent movements.
Hornet gasped in shock. No one could ever survive her ninjutsu skills, certainly not this one, which summons various weapons which she had sealed inside the scroll.
As Lloyd left Hornet, who seemed to have surrendered, acidic bubbles started floating towards him. Corrosive to everything they touch.
Francis managed to win his battle against Lance Granger, but Jake managed to flee to Terra's side, who is sending dangerous acid bubbles to Lloyd who is in a pinch.
"Geesh... I never liked those acid bubbles..." Francis said, walking back, bracing himself and jumping off the building, yelling, "EN GARDE!!!!!!!"
Glenn, who was pulling the shurikens out of his wounds, caught sight of Francis doing a crazy flying leap from the roof top.
"WHAT THE HELL- FRANCIS!!!" His eyes popped.
Francis started to fall back to the ground. Glenn's first instinct tells him to run, but if he did, Francis would go splat and that won't be a pretty sight.
Here goes nothing, he thought, stretching out his hands and-
Francis fell right into his arms with such powerful force that knocks both of them down.
"Thanks, Glenn." Francis said, getting up. "You're a pal."
"Ow...I think I broke a rib or two." Glenn rubbed his backside. "And my back hurts."
"Sorry, man." Francis pulled him back up.
"Why don't you have the ability to levitate or something?"
Francis shrugged.
Lloyd was ducking every acidic bubbles that floated after him. When they touch something, they pop into thin air but also melting anything it touches.
"Oh, for Pete's sake." Lloyd said, running as far as he could to put the distance between Terra and him. "I know that to nullify acid you need alkali but there's just no alkali."
V.V. ran past him, charging towards Terra, who quickly move her bubbles to a nearby warehouse. The bubbles melted part of the building, bringing it down. She's planning to crush V.V. with the collapsing building.
Lloyd skidded into a halt. "Oh no, you don't."
He ran back towards Terra, making a high jump and slicing the building into half so that it split apart without hurting V.V. who did a headbutt at Terra, straight into the head. There was a splintering crack and Terra fainted. Jake, who was with her, tried to make a run for it, except V.V. caught hold of him with her hair, binding his arms and legs.
"Hell, no!!!!" Blaze was struggling with the fire-proof blanket that had bound him tightly like a sausage roll.
"Hell, yeah!" Glenn said, whooping into the air. "We rock!"
Lloyd came over to Blaze and said, "We won't hurt you and your buddies. But we might have to turn you over to the police for some explaining."
"No!!! You can't!" Blaze yelled. "You have no idea what it's like for us to be shunned by the community!"
"So you steal to survive?" Glenn said, shaking his head.
"Only food and the basic necessary to survive. We don't harm people unless they harm us."
"You could have come to us." Lloyd said gently. "We help supernatural cases and the helpless. Then you needn't end up this way."
Blaze grunted.
"Look." Lloyd said. "We are trying to help you. I have a friend who is a doctor in this kind of stuff. I could ask him for an antidote-"
"No need!" Blaze spat. "Just promise to get out of my sight and don't come back!"
Lloyd gave a shrug and said, "I tried."
"I have a few questions for you." Blaze said, softening a little.
"Go ahead." Glenn said.
"Alright then." He held Glenn's gaze. "My first question, you are not exactly human, are you?"
"Yup." Glenn said. "How do you know?"
"Please." Blaze snorted. "Vampires possess supernatural beauty that are used to charm their victims. Except....You sure do possess the beauty part. But do you ever....drink?"
"Heck, of course not!" Glenn looked horrified at the thought.
"So you're not exactly a pure one, huh?"
"No."
"My next one." He turned to V.V. "You are not human. Why help them?"
V.V. fixed her gaze with his. "I had done a lot of things that I'm not proud of in the past."
"You're not going to open up to me, are ya?" Blaze smirked.
V.V ignored him.
"My last question is for the defected Muscle Head." Blaze said. "But you're going to have to let me go first."
"And why should we do that?" Lloyd asked.
"'Cos there's something I need to show him, dammit." Blaze wiggled around like a caterpillar. "I won't run."
Lloyd looked at Francis. "Do you trust him?"
"Yeah." Francis said, but he tightened his hold on the fire extinguisher, which he sealed the broken top with his thick sweater.
"Okay, we'll let you go." Lloyd said. "But if you try to run, Francis will spray you with carbon dioxide and we'll turn you into a sausage roll and you'll be heading into a confinement center."
"Fine."
Lloyd loosened the thick cords that held the fire-proof blanket and tugged the blanket so that it came loose around Blaze.
"Thanks." He said, rubbing his shoulders. "I had an ache."
"Get to the point, Pyro." Francis said. "I believe you have a question for me that needs you to move around."
"Oh, yeah." Blaze put his hand into his pocket and drew out a photo, saying, "I'm sure you know him. He left us a few years ago. And Jakey tracked him at your school."
Francis looked at the photo and gasped.
It's Reo.
But it's a younger Reo. His hair isn't shoulder length like now. He doesn't even looked as cold as he is now. He looks kinder and younger.
Even Glenn gasped.
"Reo Minamio?"
"Yeah." Blaze said. "We call him Mizutsuchi 'cos he can manipulate water and earth. In Japanese, Mizu means water whereas Tsuchi means earth. He is one decent guy and used to be our leader."
"You're kidding." Glenn exclaimed.
"I never joke." Blaze said seriously. "When he left us, we had been trying to find him but we're having no success, until Hornet found him in the internet."
When everybody gave him a puzzled look, Blaze sighed. "You guys never use the internet?"
"Of course we do but we don't bother checking up on him." Everybody retorted.
"What's going on, Pyro?" A deep voice asked. Everybody turned around to see Ray, in his human form, glaring at them. "Why are you negotiating with them? Especially him." He jerked his head at Lloyd.
What the hell did I do to offend Wolf Boy here? Lloyd thought.
"Ray, let them see it." Blaze said.
"Are you crazy?" Ray yelled.
"Now!"
Ray cursed under his breath and took out a picture printed in black or white from his waistband and held it gingerly towards Lloyd. He took it with a word of thanks but Ray only scowled deeper.
Lloyd stared at the picture. Even though it's in black and white, he could make out Reo's handsome features facing the camera. Standing right next to him is....
"Dario Darkmatter." Lloyd whispered.
Dario's hair isn't shoulder length and straight cut like now. Instead, his hair is cropped short, just like Lloyd's. Since the picture is in black and white, Dario's blonde hair was basked into a darker colour, nearly like his own dark hair.
And scarily, they looked exactly the same.
Lloyd felt a shiver down his spine as he handed back the photo to Ray, except this time he stood far away from Lloyd. So Hornet took it instead.
"We though if we could find this guy, we find Mizutsuchi, except...you're not him, are you?" Blaze gaze cautiously at him.
"No."
"Yes, I am ." A familiar voice said.
Everyone looked up to see Dario gazing down at them from the top of a building.
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