“It’s all done with smoke and mirrors.”
“Gimme a break!”
“Alright. I’ll tell you everything you want to know, but you’ve got to let the kid go. He made a mistake.”
“I’ll say he did! He stole from me!”
“He didn’t steal from you. He was putting the money back!”
Palucci did a double take.
“Putting
it back? Then who stole my money?”
“Your money? Your money?”
“Hey! Don’t get smart with me if you wanna walk outta here, Big Guy.”
Titan relented. “Okay. It was the old guy. He did it.”
“The old pervert?”
“He’s no pervert. He’s a thief.”
As he said this, he calmly but quickly walked over to Mercury and began popping the chains as if they were made of plastic and ripping the duct tape as if it were tissue.
“Je-sus! Hold it, What the hell? Big Guy! Stop! STOP! You wanna get shot, asshole? STOP!”
Titan paused and looked up at Palucci
“I’m just going to set him free and then, I’ll tell you anything you want to know. I’ll answer any question you might care to ask… before I walk out of here and go home.”
Then, he turned his head and spoke directly into a ultra miniature mike hidden under his lapel- a “gift” from some friends at the FBI.
“Marbles.”
“Marbles?” Palucci thought he overheard the Big Guy say something- “What? What is Marbles? What are you talking about?”
“Long story about that…” Titan smiled, warmly, he hoped.
Marbles heard the start word on the receiver that looked like a hearing aid. She nodded to Abe and giggling nervously. knelt down.
“Oppsie, gotta tie my shoe.”
Abe noted that her shoe didn’t have laces. He hoped that just for a moment or two no one else would notice either.
She carefully placed one hand on the ground and concentrated, meanwhile, Abe “vanished”.
The guards were immediately upset, but more so as the ground beneath them seemed to slide and shift uncontrollably. They started shooting indiscriminately.
One managed to draw a bead on Marbles, but the gun in his hand exploded and he fell backwards in fright!
On a rooftop, an eighth of a mile away, Marksman chambered another round and trolled for more targets with his scope.
Abe knew that if he ran, he’d get winded and start coughing, but he quick -walked as fast as he was able- up the steps and into the mansion, in search of Titan.
Titan had just about finished unwrapping Merc, when the pop, pop, pop of small arms fire erupted on the lawn in front of Palucci’s house. Palucci, upset and frightened at what he was seeing and hearing pulled out his weapon.
“What’s going on out there? Stop dammit! I won’t tell you again. Stop or I’ll kill you.”
Titan stopped, stood tall and faced Palucci.
“I’m not a Fed, but you are a bad actor and you’re going to have to pay for your crimes soon. I work for an… agency that is in the process of putting together an airtight case against you. In a few months, we’ll be finished, but if you give in now and save us all a lot of trouble, I’ll promise that I’ll say some words to the right people that will make a big difference in your sentence.”
Palucci was shaking.
“You broke those chains like they were nothing! You fly! What are you?”
Palucci’s gun hand shook as if he had palsey.
Titan advanced a step.
Palucci summoned a bit more resolve and the gun spotted shivering.
“Hold it. Stop! What the hell’s going on?”
“Let the kid go. I’ll answer any questions you have. Anything.”
Then, Titan put his hands up.
More gun fire from outside caused Palucci’s pulse to race. Now, he believed what Titan had just said about the case against him! Anxiously, he aimed his pistol.
“You’re not taking me in!”
Merc was free enough to kick off the rest of his restraints and dove to get in front of Titan. Only Titan’s powerful arm prevented him. Air huffed out of Mercury. The shot rang out, and red, red colors blossomed on Titan’s perfect black suit. He toppled, just as Abe found the right room.
Marbles was holding her own with occasional help from Marksman. He kept all of the thugs outside flat on their bellies and hidden behind solid objects with an occasional well placed near miss. The thugs still shot at her occasionally but the shots always went wild. Marksman hadn’t actually harmed anyone yet, except for a few broken fingers and burns from shooting at their guns and exploding them.
Marbles was laughing in delight! She hadn’t ever had a real world test and she was causing the ground to throb and move under her hand at will!
“Earthquake! Earthquake! She shrieked in delight. “Hahahahah! This is so cool!”
Suddenly, Mercury came running down the steps laboring mightily with the huge load that was Titan!
He ran fast, but no longer so fast that you couldn’t see him. His face showed fear and strain as he ran past.
“Wait
a minute! What was that?”
Marbles stood up to see what had just passed her.
“Was that Titan? Is he hurt?”
The ground had stopped moving and one of the thugs ventured up to shoot Marbles.
Marksman shot him in the shoulder. He went down crying out of pain.
Marbles tried to collect herself to concentrate enough to make the ground move again, but she’d just seen her boss, teacher and friend being carried away, and covered in blood!
“Titan! Nooooo!”, she screamed. She forgot everything, the thugs, her training; everything except Titan in her fear and worry! She just stood there paralyzed with concern.
Another thug drew aim at her.
Then, she disappeared!
Abe had hurried down the stairs and tossed his coat over Marbles’ head and hugged her hard to him.
They almost ran.
With a few well placed shots into and around the guard’s enclosure, Marksman drove the guard running for the cover of the Palucci mansion. Abe hurried in and activated the gate following the rest as they rushed out onto the streets.
The reports from the guns had drawn a number of police vehicles from all the surrounding cities. An ambulance was not far behind. Marbles, Abe and Mercury were taken into custody; Marksman melted into the urban landscape, slowly, carefully making his way back to The Refuge.
In time, someone from the FBI was alerted and eventually, someone high enough in the food chain called to have the three released. In the time he’d had to sit alone and reflect on what had happened, Abe asked himself – What would happen to the kids? Titan thought I might be some kind of help…Should I stay a while? – Just until Titan is up and around again?
“What about our friend?” Abe was concerned. It had been almost twelve hours and no one had been willing to give them any information regarding Titan at all. Since they were vouched for by someone so high up in the FBI, they were grudgingly determined to not be a threat.
Suddenly, information was quite forthcoming, but none of it was good.
“Next of kin?” The coroner was bored, and tired. It had been a long night and his shift was almost over.
“I don’t know…” Abe was confused. He’d just met this guy, and he didn’t like him at all at first, but he did what had to be done to free Merc, and he didn’t allow Merc to sacrifice himself. Grudgingly, Abe decided that Titan was a good friend. A very good guy. Abe decided right then and there what he was going to do. Besides, he felt he owed him. He turned back to face the coroner.
“I’m sorry. I’m so upset… I’m his dad. I can provide ID later…for right now, where do you recommend I have him moved for funeral arrangements?”
Back outside of Palmdale, they sat around grieving, and trying to decide what to do.
Mercury looked at Abe.
“You know, Old Dude…”
“Don’t call me old dude.”
“You’re old. You’re a dude. What do you want me to call you?”
“Abraham. It’s my name.”
“Abraham? What kinda name is that?”
“Mine. I’ve had it since before your folks were born.”
“No. that’s not a name-”
Abe sputtered, but Mercury pressed on.
“I remember my Granmama… She used to live in Alabama before she came to live with us in L.A.. She’d talk about hauntings and so forth, but I never believed any of that stuff until today.”
“Hauntings?”
“Yeah…you know ghosts? That’s what you are, Old Dude. But she didn’t call them ghosts. She called them Haints. That’s you- you’re a Haint.”
“Haint, huh? A ghost, you say?” Abe scratched his chin, and discovered that he needed a shave.
“Yeah, man, I saw you cover Marbles and you both disappeared- all the way to the gate! It was great!“
“Hmmm
a Gayst…Geist…”
“Huh?”
“Oh… Yiddish for Ghost… but, Haint…? Not just me, Boy. You kids were trained to work behind the scenes… We’re all haints.”
“Yeah, okay. So, what do we do next?”
“Well, first thing we do is get bullet proof vests.”
End of Part 1