Enhance 2: Chapter 34

After the run in with the clones in the park they expedited their trip to One Door. But when they got there they didn’t find anything. No secret cloning facility, no mad scientist, not even something beyond regulation. It was an in and out job that left them high and dry.

It left Darren frustrated beyond belief but it was just a setback. They were getting back to it, running what contacts they could and any avenue that would lead them to something. The threat delivered by the clones wasn’t subtle in the least and they were going to have to be on their toes. But there was a more pressing matter to be fixed for the group.

They went as a group down to the local shelter but they didn’t get another dog. Phase recognized that was probably too much for the house as it was. But what no one expected, least of all Yumi, was a pair of cats taking a liking to her. An old tabby named AM and a younger calico cat named PM. They both reacted very noisily to Yumi the moment she passed them. It was love at first meow.

She begged and pleaded over and over to make sure they could be rescued and eventually Phase gave in. It didn’t help that Echo and Feint were also very much on board with the pair of felines on a trial basis. They had to make sure that Roxie would get along with them first.

The very first meeting they had was cautious, neither AM nor PM knowing how to react to the Rottweiler. But after two years of hanging around the seven of them Roxie had gotten friendly toward other animals. PM was very interested in Roxie once the ice had been broken and AM eventually warmed up after a couple of hours.

Another visit later and suddenly the three of them were laying together like this had been there normal routine for years. The cats groomed Roxie and she just lay happily enjoying the extra attention. They were committed and their animal family had grown by two. But before they could bring them home they had one more thing to do.

“Alright little sis. You’re next. You got this?”

“Yeah!”

Yumi had both her arms around Nina’s waist to keep her balanced on the edge of the table with her back against Yumi’s chest. Set up on the table in the back of the shelter was a large cooler with tubs of dip’n’dots. The basic flavors, chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. “What’ll it be Harold?” Yumi asked and Nina held her serving scoop up.

“Ha look at you and your helper. Chocolate please,” he said and Yumi nodded looking down at Nina.

Nina lifted the scoop up and then stuck it into the tub. Carving out a large scoop she plopped it into a waiting cup with a tiny plastic spoon. Nina looked up at Yumi and she gave her a thumbs up. She looked back at the man beamed, “Enjoy!”

“Thank you, very much little lady. I will,” he said backing away taking it toward one of the tables. Everyone had separated around with their own ice cream or with water. It was hot enough that being inside wasn’t the best thing in the world but it was refreshing with treats.

The line was empty finally and Yumi looked around one more time to make sure that everyone who wanted some had some. They were almost out of vanilla which had surprised Yumi. She definitely thought that chocolate would be the more popular one.

Picking her off the table she set her down on the floor, “Alright little sis. Your turn. What do you want?”

“Chocolate!” she shouted.

“You got it.”

While Yumi made it Hanako came up to the table. “I don’t even know how you pulled this off Yumi.” She said softly. “I called Peter like you suggested and we negotiated this entire party but I barely paid anything for all of this. And I know for certain that this is your doing in someway shape and form.”

“Me? No way,” she handed the cup down to Nina and handed her a spoon. She then held her fist and Nina tapped her own against it and then dug in. “I’m just your everyday person.”

 “Come on Yu. You’re at least special to me,” She looked up as Shade walked over with Feint and Echo along with her. She smiled and kissed him. “Also a special brand of pain in the ass but that’s part of the package.”

“Gee thanks Shadeow. I love that. Really, I do,” she smiled and rolled her eyes severely making sure to not break eye contact with him as she did it. She looked at Hanako and smiled. “You gotta relax and enjoy the ice cream. Are Theo and X-Ray not back yet?”

Hanako checked her phone and sighed, “They should be. I sent him off on that errand half an hour ago. The store isn’t that far.”

“Betting he and Ray are just enjoying this weather,” Echo replied brightly.

Yumi nodded, “They definitely are. Hey where’s fearless leader?”

“Outside in the courtyard. I think he was talking to Flair?” Echo said.

“Cool. Echo cover my station. I gotta go talk to him,” she said stepping around Nina and patting her head lightly. “Be good little sis.”

She walked out to the courtyard and looked around until she spotted him near the tree. Though she didn’t see Flair over there and wondered where she was off spending her time. Flagging him she walked over and leaned against the table and looking up at him. “Hey leader what’re you doing?”

“Well I think I was getting tricked into ease dropping with Flair,” he shrugged his shoulders. “We had a bad vantage point so she’s moved on to somewhere else.”

“Who were you ease dropping on?”

“Theo and Ray. I think they were flirting together before Theo’s mom sent him out. Though I’m not really sure what flirting looks like. At least indirect flirting,” he shrugged. “What’s up Yu?”

“Nothing. I think.” She turned and rested her back against the tree and stared up at the sky for a long time. “I love this place. These people are down on their luck but they’re good people.  And Hanako and Theo make sure they have a home. And it makes me wonder how many other good people are out there in the city who are struggling the same but can’t find places like these.”

“You want to help more people out there?” Phase asked.

“More than that. I want to protect people like this. The N Kings. The Vanguard. The Royals. The fucking police and people in power. They’re all out there trying to abuse people like this as much as they can. Take all they have and then take some more.” She turned to look back at him. “They need someone on their side.”

Phase looked at the few people that were outside with them, looked back at the shelter and finally nodded, “You’re right.”

Yumi blinked quickly, “I am?”

“Yeah. Ever since we had our argument I’ve been thinking about it. Watching the N Kings and the Vanguard fight with each other. We took down G and the rest of his cronies but the Royals popped right in to fill the spot. Our clones being a thing. And beyond our crazy life the real problems. It’s like a never ending thing.”

He walked away from the tree and went toward the end of the fence that separated the courtyard from the street. Leaning against the chain links he stared at the street.

“I still believe what I said back then. That the cities problems aren’t our problems. Getting tangled with the gangs and everything else is dangerous could get us hurt. Hell it did get us hurt.”

He turned around to face her and saw that she was getting ready for some kind of disappointment. He knew that face well enough but instead he smiled. “But we got hurt independent of the problems. When we were ready and prepared we were able to help people. When we worked together we stopped bad shit from getting into the communities or at least saved lives and stopped things from getting worse. Check that out.”

He pointed at a spot just above the main entrance to the shelter. Right above the door and a little hard to see was an image. A mask, not unlike the ones that they wore out on the field was on the shelter. It looked like a tag, slapped onto the stone.

Yumi laughed softly looking at it, “We starting a real gang leader?”

“Nothing that fun,” he folded his arms and grinned. “Me and Darren started working on it after the clone thing. We put a few of them up around the city. They’re transmitters that are basically monitoring this place and a few miles in every direction. I set them up a few of them last night to test the range and connection. Lots of trial and errors. Imagine personal radio towers.”

“What’re they for?”

“If something goes wrong we’ll hear it before the news does. We can get there faster than anyone else and unlike calling the police we’re here to help.”

“You’re serious,” she asked staring at the tag and then looking back at him.

“Yeah.”

She broke into a wide grin and hugged him tightly nearly picking him off the ground to which he was not at all ready for. Grunting he laughed and hugged her back.

“Alright Yumi. Let’s go find everyone else and enjoy the party. We’re gonna have our work cut out for us trying to be more than just thieves.”

She put her hands together and spread them in the sky, “The Harlequin, defenders of the city. Has a nice ring to it right?”

Phase smirked, “I think I like it.”

“You think huh?” she asked putting her hands on her hips.

He started to say something and then felt his phone going off in his pocket. Taking his phone out he answered it leaning back on his foot, “Hey Darren what’s up?”

“You two need to get moving. Now.”

Phase’s face grew serious hearing their tone, “What happened?”

“A police shooting,” Darren hesitated and finally said, “Just. Just get there. And prepare for the worst.”

Phase really didn’t like the sound of that and looked over at Yumi. She stared at him intently and Phase shook his head finally hanging up, “Police shooting. We gotta go now.”

Yumi’s face turned into a grim line and she nodded. He hopped over the fence with Yumi behind him. They dated into an alleyway and climbed quickly to the roof. From there they jumped shooting out their wires and swinging through the city. They didn’t go far. Just around the corner. They came down onto street level and start movinged their way through the crowds.

As they moved they saw more and more people in the street. Lots with their phones out. And then there were the police cars, lines of them blocking off the street. They landed on a roof and saw the center of the disturbance. It was the edge of the corner.

There was a line of police standing together and forcing people back. They had their arms out and the pair of them could hear shouting though not what was being said. There was a man against a wall with police near him. They looked like they were talking or questioning him. He had a gun in hand but the police didn’t seem fazed. 

Phase and Yumi both stood at the edge of the police line. Yumi stood as tall as she could and saw the first shape huddled on the ground. Hugging his knees and head down. An officer stood by Ray but wasn’t looking at him. “Ray? Ray!”

Yumi shoved her way forward and one of the officers shouted trying to stop her but with a simple tap from Phase she went straight through them. She ran straight over to him and when he looked up at her his eyes were huge and very puffy and red. She slowed down kneeling in front of him, “Hey you okay?”

“Yumi. I. I. I didn’t see it. I didn’t see it. I didn’t see it.” He reached out to her, his hands shaking and she saw the still wet blood on his hands. She stared at them shocked and then looked back at his face. “I didn’t see it Yumi.” And this time he started to cry hanging his head again.

“Ray what happened? Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“Hey get back behind the line!”

Yumi looked over her shoulder and glared at one of the officers coming her way, “He’s my friend!”

But looking past she saw the other shape in the corner. At the corner, near the store was a tarp over a shape on the ground. Her heart skipped several beats. It damn near stopped. “Ray. What happened.”

“I didn’t see it Yumi. I didn’t see it.”

Yumi started to stand slowly and was vaguely aware of the officer getting close to her. But she started walking. She moved quickly going toward the tarp. The officer tried to grab her but she shrugged them off hard enough to make them stumble back. She stood over the tarp, staring down at it.

Whatever was under it wasn’t that big. Smaller than her. At the edges of it she could see dark puddles at the edges of it. It was a body plain and simple. An officer brushed past and grabbed her arm hard, “Get the fuck back behind the line.”

She struggled against their grip and in the process kicked off the tarp at the bottom. She looked at it and saw a shoe. A shoe she recognized because she saw the owner of it earlier that day. Saw him running around. Saw him making jokes. Saw him breathing.

And now all of that was gone. His future. His laugh. His smile. All of it was gone.

“Hey I said get back behind the line!”

The officer grabbed Yumi’s shoulder and she was fast. But before she could say anything, before she could make a threat, Phase was standing in front of her. Phase took her hand in his wincing at the intense heat there but he didn’t let go. Yumi’s death glare turned to raw pain as he lowered her hands and met her eyes.

“I’m sorry officer,” Phase said carefully, doing his best to control his voice. Doing his best to stay calm. “We’re leaving.”

“No.”

“Yes Yumi.”

“No. No. No. No!” She squeezed his hand tightly, the flames dying down and put her face against his chest. She screamed against his chest to the point where every other sound was drowned out. The pain that radiated in her chest took away her ability to stand and Phase helped her. Leading her away from the crowd slowly.

He stopped and pulled her against him tightly holding onto her. She squeezed his hand even tighter and cried harder, “He’s dead Phase. He’s fucking dead. They fucking killed him. He was a kid. What did he do wrong? What did he do wrong Phase?”

He didn’t answer. Didn’t answer because he didn’t have one. Not a real one. So he didn’t. He put his head on top of hers and just held her. Held her through his own pain.

“No more.”

He looked down at her, “What?”

She looked up at him and sniffled taking a deep breath saying, “I’m not letting someone else get fucking killed. And I’m not letting them get away with this anymore. No fucking more.”

“No,” she stiffened thinking he was going to try and convince her otherwise. But when she looked in his eyes, what she saw made her pause. “We’re going to make sure they pay for this. We’re doing this together. And we’re not stopping until we get them all.”