Unfinished Business part 4

Mackenzie had no pajamas for Labrat. Considering he rarely wore pants anyway and his fur was long enough for modesty, it didn’t matter too much. She let him take the guest room.

She hadn’t heard anything from Ryan all night. She wondered if she should call his teammates in the Commission, but wasn’t sure how to do so. She could figure something out in the morning. For now, she was exhausted and had to get some sleep. On the upside, her conversations with Labrat had given her some surprisingly good ideas for a film.

****

The three men appeared in a flash of light, once more atop the teleporter platform. They had gone from a pub in Belfast to Westminster Abbey in London and were now – in the upper chambers of an abandoned mansion. The architecture was nearly as old as the abbey they had just visited. The inside was cold and dusty with chunks falling out of the walls and ceiling. Outside, the rising sun sent thin rays into the dilapidated building. Ryan Bennings breathed in some dust and instantly coughed. Farrell Creed ran a finger along an old fireplace and brought up a cobweb. “So what’s our clue this time?”

The Cavalier looked at the console’s screen, “Clue #3 – Dig deep, you’ll find happiness there.”

“I ain’t feeling too happy right now,” Creed sneered “Anybody got any ideas where we are this time?”

“None,” the Cavalier took a look out a window and only saw tree limbs covering the view of anything substantial.

“I think we’re still in Europe at the very least,” Ryan answered, “I’m working on a theory about where Zenith is ultimately sending us.”

“Feel free to share with the rest of the class,” Creed said as he paced around the room.

“I’m still working on the coordinates of this teleporter and I’m figuring out how the geometry works,” he tapped the console of the platform, “Meanwhile, I think there’s something to consider about each place we’ve visited. Zenith sent us to a pub and then a church and now it appears we’re in some old mansion. I’m not sure if there’s a connection with those locations or not. Maybe there’s something to consider about the cities? We hit Belfast and then London. I’m curious to know what city we’re in right now.”

“Everything Zenith has done has been a game to prove he’s smarter,” Cavalier explained, “He’s in it to win, but he still wants us to try to figure things out for ourselves. He wants to give us a chance. If there was no answer to these riddles, it’d be pointless. So I think you’re right. There’s gotta be something there.”

“My concern is that nothing’s happening right now,” Creed explained, “So far, we’ve hit the ground running every place we been. Now, everything’s quiet? Like we’re meant to explore this place ‘til we run into a trap? Makes me nervous.”

“You’re from Winghaven,” Ryan began, “Exploring creepy places is your forte. Lead the way, Scooby.”

Creed gave him an annoyed look and responded, “Okay. Come on, Scrappy.”

“You kinda ran into that one,” Cavalier joked quietly as he passed Ryan.

“Jinkies!”

They made their way down a long, winding staircase with Ryan’s drone floating ahead to light their path. They descended carefully to a foyer, the stairs creaking loudly with every step. As they cleared the staircase, they noticed two figures laying down in what appeared to be sleeping bags.

The first figure lay on his side with his back turned, but it was obvious the man was exceptionally large and muscular since the sleeping bag only came up to his waist and he had a second one rolled up as a pillow. The second figure was much shorter and almost completely disappeared in their sleeping bag.

There was some movement from the smaller bag and a green mohawk slowly emerged before the figure quickly climbed out. The man was thin and very short. He wore a plain white t-shirt and blue shorts to sleep in. He squinted against the light from the drone. “Huh?” the short man blinked and shielded the light with his hand and didn’t seem too alarmed that they had company. “Yo, Mayhem,” he called to his much larger partner, “I think they’re here.” The larger one grumbled an incoherent complaint and kept his back turned. The smaller one gave a light kick to the larger one’s backside, “Dude, get up. It’s… the guys. The guys showed up.”

Slowly, the larger man rolled over and squinted at the trio. He groggily opened the sleeping bag; he was wearing sweatpants but no shirt. His torso was so muscular that it was hard to tell where his shoulders ended and his neck began. And like his partner, his hair was in a small mohawk died green.

“Okay, lemme get up,” the larger man tossed the sleeping bags across the room and began stretching. The smaller one disappeared in a nearby study.

“Anyone know ‘em?” Creed asked, not making an attempt to lower his voice.

“I think I’ve seen them in past Cavalier files,” the Cavalier explained, “Mirth and Mayhem. They competed in that underground fight club.”

“I thought I recognized them,” Ryan snapped his fingers, “Power Grid experiments. They’re from Rex’s rogues gallery.”

“What’s their deal?” Creed asked.

“Big guy’s strong. Little guy heals.”

Creed scratched his beard as if figuring something out, “Mayhem’s the big one? The other guy’s Mirth?”

“Yeah, that’s us,” Mayhem adjusted the elastic on his sweatpants, “Zenith paid us to stay here for 24 hours. Said you guys might show up.”

“And, uh, what exactly were you instructed to do if you saw us?” Cavalier asked.

“Kill you!” Mirth launched himself into the room, now holding a large crescent-moon sword above his head, one that was almost half his size.

Cavalier’s shield appeared over his forearm. The curved blade deflected off the surface and Creed rushed in from behind. He wrapped Mirth up in a bear-hug and hoisted him off the floor with both arms pinned. Mirth began laughing and slammed his heel into Creed’s knee and then performed a reverse head-butt. Creed ignored the hits and continued to hold on as Mayhem stomped forward. “Let ‘im go!” Mayhem shouted as he threw a punch. At the last second, Creed whipped Mirth around to absorb the blow and both men were sent across the foyer where they fell through the large windows on either side of the front door. They hit a cobblestone path outside and Mirth’s sword fell in a bush.

Next, Mayhem raced toward Ryan who tapped his belt to erect his forcefield. Cavalier quickly summoned his quarter staff and thrust it against his ankles to trip him. Instead, the large fighter just stopped and chuckled at the attempt. He snatch Cavalier by the helmet and threw him in the air. The knight went through the weakened ceiling and landed in an upstairs room. Ryan sent his drone to Mayhem’s location where it began delivering electric shocks. Again, this did little to stop Mayhem and he grabbed the drone out of the air and happily slapped it against his forehead, flattening it before tossing the remains aside. “Rude,” Ryan grumbled. A second later, Cavalier dropped out of the hole in the ceiling, carrying a portion of a wooden beam. It smashed against Mayhem’s skull but barely moved him. “You guys are gonna have to step it up,” he told them.

Outside, Creed rose to his feet and took a look at his surroundings – the vines and bushes were overgrown and a stone path led to a black gate that was still standing. A forest surrounded the mansion, giving few clues as to their location. He noticed Mirth face-down on the cobblestone, stirring. Slowly, he sat up, revealing a partially caved-in skull with a deep gash and an eye that was partially out of its socket. “Just gimmie a sec,” Mirth told him as the flesh on his face began to shift. The collapsed skull reverted back to its original shape like an inflating balloon and the huge gash began to seal shut like a zipper. Mirth poked his eye with his index finger and it slid back into its socket as the flesh and bone around it healed. He blinked a few times and rolled his eyes to ensure everything was in place. “Okay, game-on,” Mirth said with a slight giggle. He noticed his bladed weapon in a bush and began crawling on his hands and feet toward it, but Creed grasped his ankle and began dragging him back. “No ya don’t.” Mirth rolled over on his back and laughed maniacally while kicking Creed in the face.

Inside, Cavalier formed two quarter staffs and placed them against Mayhem’s chest who casually strode forward, pushing him across the room until he was pressed against a far wall. There, Cavalier propped the end of the staffs against the wall, making sure to keep the opposite ends against Mayhem. Briefly, he stopped, which gave Ryan the opportunity to fire several shots from his energy pistol. He grunted in discomfort as concussive blasts hit him in the back and side, “Alright, that’s not bad.” He grabbed Cavalier’s staffs at the center and threw him across the room. And while Ryan had his forcefield up, it still knocked him over when the armored knight fell on him. They both rolled toward the entrance to the study.

Ryan sat up and fired a few blasts at the winding staircase next to Mayhem. The stairs, railing, and parts of the ceiling quickly collapsed. Mayhem was hit by metal and mortar, finally forcing him to the ground where he was buried under rubble. They knew it was a temporary distraction but they needed to formulate a plan.

“Pure force isn’t gonna cut it,” Cavalier groaned.

“You got any sedatives on you?” Ryan whispered.

“Didn’t have any when Zenith kidnapped me.”

“I got my pen,” Ryan stood up, “Get him to open wide. I’ll do the rest.”

Mayhem stood up from the rubble, arms raised triumphantly. He smiled at them and stepped over the debris to reach his targets, “I like you guys. Ya got heart.”

Outside, Creed grabbed Mirth by the collar and pulled him to his feet. He delivered a punch to the bridge of Mirth’s nose, shattering it. The nose relocated and the cut disappeared in a second and Mirth let out a high-pitched laugh. Creed hit him again. This time, it dislocated a jaw. Mirth’s laughter was garbled until the jaw snapped back in place, then he reached up and raked his eyes with his fingernails. “Goddamn!” Creed grabbed him by the mohawk and shoved his face onto the stone path. Mirth was still for a moment, then the laughter returned, quietly at first, then louder. He rose up and the cuts and bruising from the fall disappeared from his face, “My turn.”

It was then that he noticed Creed had retrieved the crescent blade from the bush, “Ready when you are.”

Inside, Mayhem swatted Ryan’s forcefield, sending him through a wall. Because the old mansion was crumbling, chunks of the ceiling also fell. The Cavalier activated his Round Table, gaining a battle axe in one hand and a morning star in the other. He slammed the morning star across Mayhem’s face, doing little damage and then ducked under the next punch. Over Mayhem’s shoulder, he noticed Ryan take the sedative pen out of his jacket and ignite the jets in his boots to hover. Cavalier rolled away from the next strike and brought the axe down on Mayhem’s foot. He finally felt pain, rearing back to let out a howl. Ryan flew forward and landed against Mayhem’s back, then placed one arm around his neck and shoved the sedative pen in his mouth. The Cavalier performed an upward swing with the morning star, breaking the pen on an instant. A huge cloud of sedative gas erupted around Mayhem’s head; he wobbled for a moment and the two men gave him space. Muscular legs turned to jelly and Mayhem hit the ground, unconscious.

Near the gate outside, Creed swung the curved sword at Mirth who dipped back. “Close,” he said mockingly. He ducked under the next swing and started laughing. “Ever shut up?” Creed growled and took a low swing. Mirth back-flipped over the blade, landing in front of the old gate. He kicked off the rusted bars, launching himself at Creed with a superman punch.

Creed dipped under the next strike and held the blade in his path, tricking Mirth into running himself through. The tip of the blade entered the stomach area and burst out his back. And when Creed raised his arms, he hefted Mirth off the ground with the U-shaped blade before spinning him overhead and hurling him into the black gate. Mirth bounced off the metal bars before dropping onto his back. On the stone path, he coughed and sputtered; wet hands pushed organs back into the massive exit wound running through his torso. His healing powers were keeping him alive – for the moment.

Creed dropped the sword in the overgrown bushes and approached. “Hey, you ain’t laugh’n no more. Maybe it’s just me, but I think this shit’s hilarious.”

“Creed, what the hell!” Cavalier shouted as he and Ryan exited the mansion.

“It’s the next clue,” Creed knelt down next to Mirth, “Dig deep, you’ll find happiness and more. Mirth is another word for happiness, so I think this guy’s got the next set of coordinates inside ‘im. Just gotta dig deep,” Creed plunged a fist into Mirth’s wound, making him scream in pain.

“Holy shit!” Ryan shouted, “You’re gonna kill him!”

Creed continued to dig around inside Mirth’s torso, “He got healing powers, don’t he?”

“Doesn’t mean he can’t die eventually, psycho!”

“That don’t bother me.”

“We can find another way,” Cavalier yelled angrily.

Creed continued to fish around inside Mirth’s guts as he kicked and screamed, “Yeah, I get it… Ya’ll got your way and I got mine… My way ain’t for everyone… but it gets results.” Creed pulled something wet from the wound and tossed it at Ryan, “Here ya go, smart guy.”

Ryan caught it with a look of disgust and used his sleeve to wipe the blood away. In his palm, he saw a GPS device and when he turned it on, the screen displayed a map of Europe. Their current location was pinpointed by a red dot. Meanwhile, Cavalier knelt down to inspect Mirth. The wound began to close slowly and his body regulated itself. Mirth was breathing, but unconscious.

“He’s alive,” Cavalier said quietly, “His powers are taxed, but I think he’ll make it.”

Creed wiped his hands on his jeans, “Ya’ll need to yell at me, feel free, but I got what we came for.”

Cavalier shot to his feet and shoved a finger in his face, “I don’t wanna see that shit again. Hear me?”

Creed shook his head, “Not all of us got a suit of armor, Cav.”

Ryan, meanwhile, was busy formulating a path on the GPS, “If we’re done with the amateur-night surgery over there, I’d like to draw everyone’s attention to this.” Creed and Cavalier walked over to him. Ryan held the device up for them, “Zenith gave us a little GPS, so we now know our location. It’s some abandoned mansion on the outskirts of Strasbourg, France.”

“Okay?” Cavalier began, “Why’d Zenith leave that thing behind?”

“I’m pretty sure it means that he wants us to find the next location as opposed to giving us coordinates like the last two times. Now, since this whole thing started, we’ve been to Belfast and London, and now we’re in Strasbourg. If you know your European geography, you’d know that we were traveling in a southeastern path, stopping at the major cities as we go. Going by the GPS, there’s roughly 400 miles between each point as the crow flies.”

“So the next point is 400 miles, southeast?” Creed asked.

“More or less. It’s not exact…,” Ryan drew a line from one city to the next on the screen, “… But, if you recall, the teleporter uses a very unique coordinate system. When you apply that, things straighten out a lot more and it leads us to our next location.”

“Which is…?”

“Venice… It’s quite lovely this time of year, but unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll be going.”

“What?” Cavalier and Creed echoed.

“Zenith likes games, so let’s play a big ‘ol Uno Reverse card.”

At the same time, Zenith reclined in a chair in his headquarters. The adjoining GPS screen hanging in front of him displayed a map of Europe and the heroes’ location in France. He was surprised they made it that far and he was sure they would be in Venice soon. He was prepared for battle and soon, he would prove his superiority.

Continued…