Chapter 4

'Man, why do I have to wear this afro?' BA complained, tugging at the wig with one hand, keeping his other hand on the steering wheel.

'Because our photographs have been sprawled all over the television and newspapers so if we go in undisguised we'll get spotted.' Face, who was sporting a black wig and moustache looked at BA, 'And let's just say you have a rather unique style.'

'I know, I like it that way!' BA ripped the wig off his head, 'I ain't wearin this!'

'BA if you don't wear it people will recognise you, which'll mean that Murdock will be in danger of getting caught, do you want that?'

BA gave Face a dirty look, placing the wig back on his head, 'I don't like this suit you're makin me wear.'

'BA, you're supposed to be a doctor, doctors wear suits.' He watched BA fiddling with his red tie, 'I think it looks good on you anyway, navy blue two piece suit, red tie, although I still say the stripy shirt would have suited your appearance better than the plain white one you've got on.'

'I still say my own clothes would have suited me more!' BA growled, 'I wanna wear my own clothes!'

'BA, are you planning on complaining about the whole of my scam?'

'No, just the parts that involve me.'

'Great.' Face sighed.

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Faye looked worriedly at Hannibal, 'Do you really think Reagan will go after Jack in the hospital?'

'It's a possibility but don't worry, Face and BA are on their way there right now.'

'Yeah, he'll be in real good hands Muchatcho, you got nothin to worry about.' Murdock smiled comfortingly at her.

'I know he is. I'm just glad he's coming home tomorrow, so I can keep a proper eye on him.' Faye sighed, lowering her head. She quickly raised it again, 'Oh, I forgot to ask, have you two had anything to eat yet, I'll make you something if you'd like?'

'No thanks, I'm good.' Murdock pulled on an imaginary leash, 'Come on Billy, lets go practice them tricks I been teachin you!'

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Face and BA got out of the van, looking at the hospital building in front of them, 'So you understand the scam?'

'Yeah man, I got it.'

Face looked at BA 'And?' BA just raised an eyebrow at the question, 'What, no mention of how bad you think my scam is, no complaints?'

'No, I'm to busy plottin revenge in my head for what you makin me do!' BA gave an uneasy looking Face an impatient look, 'Are we just gonna stand here?'

'Ok, ok.' Face and BA put on white doctors jackets and made their way to the hospital, 'Just remember to let me do the talkin.'

They entered the hospital. BA followed Face past the reception desk, the Receptionist, a pretty fair haired lady called out to the men, 'Can I help you?'

'No we're fine thanks' Face looked at her nametag, 'Ms Harronatty.' The Receptionist blushed slightly at his charming smile, 'It was a little hard to find our way around at first, but we've gotten quite used to it now.'

'You work here?' She looked both men up and down, 'I don't recall seeing either of you before.'

'Ah well, we only started two days ago, that must be why.' Face smiled warmly at her, 'I'm Doctor Gregory Martin and this is Doctor Sebastian Abernathy.'

Ms Harronatty began to type in their names on her computer, 'Hmmm that's strange, it doesn't mention either of you anywhere.' She gave them both a suspicious look.

Face huffed disgruntled, 'Well I never, I mean fair enough we are new here but I'd of thought that they would have at least had the decency to give us some kind of mention in the employee records.' He shook is head and frowned, looking quite depressed, 'That's the trouble these days, you're never appreciated, it makes one wonder why on earth they bother.'

'Oh, I'm sure you're appreciated Doctor Martin, these machines aren't always reliable, you're names will probably appear on them soon.' Her eyes were sympathetic.

'Yes, I guess you're right.' Face sighed, 'well anyway, we'd best be off, work to do, patients to see, incidentally can you point me in the direction of um, Jack Conway's?'

'Carpenter.' BA pretended to corrected him.

'Ah yes that's it, Jack Carpenters room.' The Receptionist pointed them in the direction of Jacks room.

They entered his room, a dark haired grumpy looking teenager stared back at them, he had stitches near his right eye and a large bruise on his opposite cheek, with a bandage wrapped around his wrist. The rest of his body that they could see which wasn't under the hospital blanket was covered in small bruises and grazes. 'Where are my regular Doctors?'

'Hey, we're with your parents, they hired us to-' Face began.

'Oh right, yeah, my Mom mentioned somethin about you guys, you're supposed to be helping get rid of Reagan or somethin right?'

'Yeah, well we're here to keep an eye on you, make sure your safe.' Face closed the door and walked over to the bed.

'Man I don't believe this!' Jack grouched, 'I make one stupid mistake and now my Dad thinks I need babysitting like a little kid, this sucks!'

'No, it's not like that, it's just that there's a chance Reagan might want to come after you.'

Jack stared nervously at Face, 'You mean he could come after me here, at the hospital?'

'Well, it's a possibility.'

Jack sank down into the bed and cringed, 'I'm a goner!'

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Murdock was sat on the floor, eyes tight shut, Hannibal walked over to him, an amused look on his face, 'Let me guess, you're teaching Billy how to play Hide-And-Seek?'

Murdock laughed and opened his eyes, 'No, Billy's asleep in the corner over there, I was just try'na remember bout the-' He took off his baseball cap and ran a hand through his hair, 'Doc thing, you know, see if I can try and remember what happened in that room.'

'Any luck?' Murdock shook his head, Hannibal pondered for a second, 'Hmmm, why did you go to see Webster anyway, did you have an appointment?'

'No, I'd been feelin kinda weird, you know dizzy and stuff, this orderly found me like that and said that I must be having an anxiety attack.'

'Anxiety attack?'

'Yeah, didn't feel like one though, I tried to tell him but he'd already gone off to find me a nurse. When he returned with one of the nurses, nice lady called Georgina, I tried to tell her too but she musta just thought I was panicking or somethin, kept telling me to calm down.' Murdock gave a wry smile, 'Anyway, she told me they was gonna take me over to see my doctor, I thought she meant Richter at first, but she reminded me that Richter had taken the week off to go to the Bahaman's, told me it'd have to be Webster.'

'I'm guessing you were less then enthusiastic?'

'You got that right, I told em I was fine, but they wasn't having none of it.' Murdock snorted, 'Bet they wish they'd have listened now.'

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'Um Colonel, I think you may have misjudged Reagans next destination.'

Hannibal walked over to Murdock, who had the blinds wide open, a group of Reagans men could be seen outside, looking as if they were patrolling the neighbourhood, 'Murdock don't open them so far, someone might see you.' Hannibal closed the blinds.

Murdock put his wrist on his forehead taking a dramatic stance, 'One so ugly as I must not be seen in the light of day, for I in all my monstrosity could put even the strongest of men off their dinner and make little children cry!' He spoke with a posh British accent.

Hannibal chuckled and passed Murdock a rifle, 'Come on, lets have a little fun with Reagans cronies.' He threw Murdock a balaclava, 'I quite like having to hide our faces, makes it much more mysterious, don't you think?' The mischievous twinkle was in his eyes.

'It sure does Colonel.' Murdock grinned widely, pulling the balaclava over his head.

'Ok Faye, Richard you two stay put, this shouldn't take long.' Hannibal pulled the balaclava over his head, 'Let's go Murdock.' Both men made there way outside.

Reagan's men stopped dead in their tracks as Hannibal and Murdock fired a round towards the sky, 'They're some of them guys who barged into Reagans place.' One of the men shouted out, 'What the hell do you want?'

'Oh, do you take requests?' Hannibal asked innocently, 'Captain, do you want anything off these fine gentleman?'

'Oh yeah, I sure do Colonel, Um, have any of you guys got a spare unicorn?'

'A real buncha wise guys huh?' A smaller man stepped forward, 'Well, let's see if you're still smiling when Reagan gets through with you.'

'Is that a no to his unicorn then?'

The smaller made a swing for Hannibal, but stopped as Hannibal raised his gun to the mans face, 'You think your so tough don't you, standing there with your rifles, well just remember, there's only four of you, and a whole bunch of us.'

'You're wrong pal, there's a whole neighbourhood of people just dying to see the back of you all.' Hannibal lowered his rifle.

'Really?' The man folded his arms, 'That's funny, all I've seen so far is four guys running around with guns, shouting out threats while the rest of the people just sit around and do nothing.'

'Well, you may have scared a few people, but don't worry, we'll fix that soon enough.' Hannibal shot at their rivals feet, 'Now unless you don't want the next round to miss I suggest you all go back home to your master.'

'You'll be sorry!' The men got into their vehicles and drove off.

'They nearly always say that.' Hannibal turned to Murdock, 'We need to get the neighbourhood on side, because as long as Reagans got everybody running scared he's winning.' Hannibal took a cigar out of his pocket, 'They need to stick up for themselves and we need to organise a town meeting, but we can't go in as ourselves, it's too risky and if we wear these we'll probably look like thugs to them.'

Murdock lowered his head momentarily, then raised it again, 'I think I may have an idea Colonel.'

Hannibal grinned enthusiastically, 'Great Murdock.'

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'What do you mean there was nothing you could do?' Reagan bellowed at the small man who had taken a swing at Hannibal outside of the Carpenters house.

'They had weapons Mr Reagan.'

'I know they have weapons Michaels, I noticed that when they shot at me!' Reagan spat at the smaller man, 'The question is, where were yours?'

'The folks in the neighbourhood usually just stay in their houses now when we show up, so we didn't think we'd need em.' Michaels shrugged.

'Well obviously you do, and unless I tell you otherwise, you'll keep your weapons on your persons at all time, understand me?'

'Yes sir.' Michaels nodded.

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Murdock passed Hannibal a sheet of paper, 'What do you think Colonel?'

'Nice.' Hannibal praised, 'This idea of yours to make us gang leader's costumes is great Murdock, are we ready to get started on these?'

'Yeah, Faye's getting her sewing machine as we speak.'

'Right, now all we need to do is find the materials.' Hannibal looked over at Richard, 'We'll need your help with that.'

Richard jumped up from his seat and smiled, 'Ok, follow me Murdock.'

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'Are you sure we should be leavin him alone in there?' BA looked back at the hospital as he and Face walked to the van.

'Well visiting hours are over and none of Reagans guys have turned up, so unless they're planning on going through all the trouble of climbing in through his top story window, I doubt they'll be coming for him tonight.'

'So I had to wear this ridiculous suit and wig for nothin?' BA glowered at Face before jumping into the van.

'Hey, it's not my fault nobody turned up!' Face held his hand out defensively, he tried to get in the van but BA drove it forward slightly, 'What are you doing?'

BA stuck his head out of the window, 'Gettin my own back for everythin you've made me do today.' He edged the van forward again, 'Looks like you'll need to find yourself a new ride, either that or walk back.'

'What? You can't just leave me here; it's getting late. BA!' Face called out, running after the van, 'How am I supposed to get back?' he yelled, peeved.

BA giggled impishly, 'Why don't you think up a scam?'

'Very funny!' Face rolled his eyes, groaning as he saw the van drive away in the distance.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Murdock walked around the room, paper in hand giving helpful instructions as Faye busily sewed his creation.

Hannibal and Richard cut up dark blue material, which were once old bed sheets, ready for Faye to sew together. Murdock passed them to her, in exchange for her finished product; he placed it on top of the pile of other finished costumes.

Hannibal stood up and stretched his back, his and Richard job was done, now all they had to do was wait for Faye to finish off the sewing, and then Murdocks idea would be complete.

The dark blue bed sheets had been turned into four identical, yet different sized homemade coveralls, and the leftover material was turned into four bandanas, to wear over their mouths for a facial disguise.

Hannibal grabbed one of the costumes and smiled widely, 'These are perfect Murdock.'

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'I hate you Murdock.' BA grouched as he stood wearing the costume that his friend had designed.

'Now be nice BA that idea Murdock came up with was excellent, and like he said, now we've got something that we can wear all the time, and an excuse to wear it.'

BA snarled at Hannibal who was also wearing one of the costumes, 'Man I don't have to wear the fools costume all the time do I?'

'Of course not Sergeant, I mean there's no need to when we're back at our hideout is there?' Hannibal stifled a grin as BA scowled

'Aww cheer up Big Guy, I think it looks good on ya.' Murdock tugged at his own costume, 'I was gonna make a cape for the Colonel, but by the time we'd managed to get enough material to fit around your body there was nothing left to use.'

BA clenched his fists angrily, 'Man that does it!'

'Now, now BA, don't get angry, I was just saaaaayyyy-' Murdock dodged out of the way as BA made a dive for him, '-ing.' Murdock ran away from BA who angrily chased him around their client's living room.

'I'm a get you fool!'

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'….Not to mention the appalling attitude from the driver, you'd think that cabdrivers would make an effort to be courteous, but nooooooo, not mine, I had to get Oscar the Grouch!' Face complained about his journey back to the Carpenters house as BA drove them back to their hideout.

Hannibal tried to hide a sardonic grin, 'Sounds like you had an eventful time Lieutenant.'

Face shot Hannibal a dirty look, before looking down at the costume he had on, 'Do we really need to wear these now Hannibal?'

'Yeah, it'll get us used to wearing them before we have our little neighbourhood meeting tomorrow.'

'Right…' Face turned to his friend sitting besides him, 'You've hardly said a word Murdock.'

'He's probably try'na remember what happened back at the VA again.' BA spoke up.

'Have you remembered anything?'

'Not yet Faceguy.' Murdock sighed, 'I need to remember what happened in that room, so far all I've got is this feelin of anger and frustration, but I don't know why.'

'Don't worry, it'll come to you eventually.' Hannibal assured.

'Hmmm, what If I got really angry and turned into some sort of murderous beast, you know, kinda like the incredible Hulk gone bad?' Murdock surmised, 'Maybe something in the room infuriated me so much that it caused me to transform, yeah that makes sense!'

'Only to you.' Face muttered.

'Shut up fool, you ain't no incredible Hulk!'

Hannibal twisted his seat around to face Murdock, 'Captain you didn't murder anyone.'

'We don't know that for sure, I mean technically I as myself may not have done, but maybe Mulk did.'

Face raised an eyebrow, 'Mulk?'

'Yeah Mulk, you know the beast I turn into.' Murdock explained, 'Hey, if my theory is right then that could mean you're all in danger, cus you know, if any of you make me really angry who knows what could happen, I could end up murdering all of you!'

'In your dreams sucka!' BA glared at Murdock.

'Murdock you are not a murderer.'

'How do you know I'm not Face?'

'Because I know you.'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The morning sun shone down on the van. BA yawned widely as he drove to their client's house; all four men wore their gang outfits, 'Tired Sergeant?' Hannibal smirked.

'Tired? The fool kept me up talkin to his invisible dog!' BA complained, 'He finally went sleep just as it was my turn to keep watch.'

'But you had the last watch.' Face pointed out.

BA groaned, 'I know.' He turned round to glare at Murdock, who just shrugged and smiled apologetically.

'Billy couldn't sleep, could you not boy?' Murdock explained, he smiled and wiped his face as though a dog had just licked it, then moved back in his seat laughing, 'Down boy!'

BA rolled his eyes, then turned to his CO, 'Do you really think this neighbourhood meeting is gonna work Hannibal?'

'It has too, I know they're scared now but if we don't get enough people who are brave enough to stand up for themselves then Reagan and his goons'll win because they'll not have enough people to stand against them.' Hannibal tightened his bandana, 'But don't worry, once we've had our say, I'm sure they'll come around.'

BA hit the brakes as they reached the neighbourhood.

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The Carpenters living room was filled with unconvinced faces as Hannibal called for their support. As much as he tried to convince them that they would be able to defeat Reagan and his gang if they would just stand up to them and stick together, he wasn't managing to win them over.

'No way.' One of the neighbours held his hands out dismissively, 'I've seen what Reagans gang does to people who try to stick up for themselves, and I certainly don't wanna be in the firing line for one of them experiences.'

Everybody shouted, 'Yeah!' in agreement to what he had said.

Hannibal stepped forward, 'Listen, I know it's hard but you've gotta remember, there's more of you than there is of them.'

'There won't be if they keep putting folks in hospital!' A white haired neighbour pointed out. Again everyone showed their agreement.

Murdock stood besides Hannibal, 'If you don't stand up for yourselves then you'll be lettin Reagan and his goons take over your lives, most of you are already scared to leave your own homes, I mean do any of you really wanna spend your life like this?'

'Yeah man, what have any of you got to lose?'

They all looked at BA then whispered between themselves. After a few minutes the white haired man spoke up, 'Ok, we've thought your proposal over and we've decided that what you say is right, whether we think we'll be able to defeat Reagan or not, it doesn't matter, we've still got to try because as long as he and his gang are around our lives just ain't worth living.' He turned to Hannibal, 'So you can count us in.'

TBC