THIS STORY IS MADE IN COLLABORATION WITH DEADGIRL19 – YOU CAN FIND HER: /u/6294519/
Chapter 4 – Grand Mage from hell
Having deduced that Vincent and his gang were behind the killings, the Dead Men were able to track them down the next day, to a flat in the west of the country. They had arranged themselves into three cars, as the flat had three exits, determined to catch the gang.
Saracen and Dexter were in the first car, Valkyrie and Skulduggery had bagged the Bentley together, and Ghastly and Anton were sharing the last car with Erskine. Erskine had originally intended to go with Saracen and Dexter, but the others soon realised that if those three were put together, nothing would get done. So, Erskine would either have gone in the Bentley, or in Anton's car. Skulduggery had given a half-hour lecture on why Erskine should not go in the Bentley, and Valkyrie had topped it all off by whining for ten minutes straight. Ghastly and Anton had given in and had accepted to have Erskine in the car with them, as long as he sat in the middle seat in the back, with his seatbelt done up at all times. The giving in had been pretty soon into the lecture but once the detectives got going, nothing stopped them.
Each car was equipped with walkie talkies, and it seemed that Erskine was making the most of this fact. "Grand Mage to Princess, Grand Mage to Princess, do you read me? Over," he said in the walkie talkie. No one bothered to answer him.
"Grand Mage to Princess, I know you're in the Bentley with Sherlock, over," he continued, but when it became clear that neither Princess Peach nor Sherlock Bones were answering, he set his sights on Saracen and Dexter.
"Grand Mage to Excess Pounds and Sharp Abs, Grand Mage to Excess Pounds and Sharp Abs, do you read me?" he asked, then cursed. "Grand Mage to Excess Pounds and Sharp Abs, I forgot to say over, over."
Saracen and Deter ignored him, and the fact he'd given himself a name he'd given up soon after realising he was a rubbish leader several years ago, too. Erskine tried Anton and Ghastly, even though they were sitting in the car with him. They blamed themselves for this – they were the ones that had given Erskine the walkie talkie in the first place, as a means of getting him to shut up.
"Grand Mage to Hotel and Green Tea, are you there? Over."
He frowned. "Can somebody give me a damn answer?!" he yelled into the walkie talkie.
"SHUT UP!" everyone answered.
Once Erskine's walkie talkie had been taken away from him, everyone sat back and tried to relax, in what had so far been a tedious stakeout. As the sun began to descend and disappear below the horizon, Valkyrie yawned.
"I'm bored," she whined. Skulduggery turned to her.
"Hello Bored. I'm Skulduggery," he said. She glared at him.
"I am feeling bored," she amended through gritted teeth.
"Only boring people get bored," he said.
She intensified her glare. "You're not helping the situation."
"I apologise."
"Why isn't anything happening?"
"Valkyrie, tiny particles consisting of the chemicals chlorine and bromine are being distributed via pollution, and are deteriorating the ozone layer. Consequently, more ultraviolet rays are getting through to the earth from the sun, increasing global temperature, which in turn is melting the ice in the Arctic circle, killing various animals. You can hardly say that nothing's happening, Valkyrie."
"Oh, shut up," she muttered, and began to sulk.
"Any movement yet, guys?" Dexter asked over the walkie talkie.
"No, nothing yet," came Anton's reply.
"No, nothing's happening," said Skulduggery. Dexter could hear Valkyrie saying something smug in the background about global warming. He turned to Saracen.
"This is boring," he stated.
"Correct," said Saracen. "I can think of a million other things to be doing right now."
"Let me guess – most of them involve a bed?"
"Of course," Saracen smirked.
"Remember that time at that party in Geneva, where everyone was drunk, and you called me over to the side of the room, and we-"
"Oh yeah! Good times, Dex, good times."
"You were really good.
"I try my best. You weren't too bad yourself."
"Well, I might have improved..."
"Is that an invitation?"
"What would you say if it was?" asked Dexter. He froze. "HOLY CRAP! SARACEN, I FORGOT TO TURN THE WALKIE TALKIE OFF!"
Saracen paled. "You mean..."
Dexter leaned back. "Yup."
"Please, carry on, guys," teased Valkyrie. "Keep chatting about 'old times'."
Dexter swore at Valkyrie. Skulduggery swore at Dexter. Saracen swore at Dexter. Erskine helpfully swore at Anton. Anton swore back and punched him.
"Can you all stop swearing?!" said Ghastly, exasperated. Everyone muttered apologies.
"I didn't swear!" exclaimed Valkyrie.
"Good for you," said Dexter, still annoyed and embarrassed. "Do you want a medal?"
"Guys, Mercy just left the flat," Saracen said, as Mercy was seen walking from the flat entrance he and Dexter were watching.
"Quick – follow her," said Skulduggery, as Dexter pulled away and took off after Mercy, keeping at a safe and discreet distance.
"Is anything happening?" asked Ghastly.
"Not yet," replied Dexter.
"Well, actually-" Skulduggery began, ready to give his ozone layer lecture, but Valkyrie elbowed him sharply in the ribs. A few moments later, Vincent also left the flat.
"Vincent's out as well," said Valkyrie. "We're following him." Skulduggery manoeuvred the Bentley so that it was following Vincent at a steady pace, far enough away so that suspicions hopefully wouldn't be raised.
A minute or so later, Obloquy and Samuel also exited the flat together. "We're following Obloquy and the vampire now," said Ghastly.
Skulduggery watched as Vincent took out his phone, pressed a few buttons, then held it to his ear. "Vincent's on the phone," he said.
"So's Mercy," said Saracen, at the same time that Anton said, "And the vampire."
"They're all talking to each other," said Valkyrie. "What about?"
"As soon as I've mastered the art of mind reading," said Skulduggery, "I'll let you know."
She rolled her eyes, and watched as Vincent turned down into an alleyway.
The Bentley took a parallel route, and then pulled up near to where the alley led. Vincent walked out, and continued on down the road.
Eventually, he led them to an abandoned building. Valkyrie saw Mercy, Obloquy and Samuel already there waiting, and the four of them pushed open the graffitied door, and disappeared inside. Valkyrie glimpsed the others in the surrounding area.
"Should we go in?" asked Dexter via the walkie talkie.
"Yes," decided Skulduggery. "We have the element of surprise, and hopefully a better arsenal at our disposal. The numbers work to our advantage."
"Come on, then," said Valkyrie, and she and Skulduggery got out of the car, and walked up to the building door. It had been left open.
Ghastly, Anton, Saracen, Dexter and Erskine came up behind them, and as one they burst through the door, and spread out along the side of the large empty room that they had entered into.
For an abandoned building, it was surprisingly clean, and now that Valkyrie thought about things... why didn't the four of them just leave all together if they were heading towards the same destination – why did Mercy have to go first, then Vincent, then Obloquy and Samuel? Why would Vincent need to phone them again, if he had just spoken to them? In fact, things barely made any sense, like how they'd left the door open...
Too late, Valkyrie realised that they had walked right into a trap. She glanced at Skulduggery, and he inclined his head slightly, indicating that he had just figured it out, too. Judging by their annoyed faces, the other Dead Men had worked it out as well.
The door they had entered through slammed shut, and Vincent Foe came walking out from behind them. Mercy dropped down from the ceiling, taking up a fighter's stance on the left of Vincent in front of the Dead Men, and Obloquy and Samuel wordlessly stood on the right of him. Valkyrie hadn't even seen them enter.
"Vincent Foe, Mercy Charient, Obloquy and Samuel, by the order of the Sanctuary, you are under arrest," said Skulduggery.
Vincent laughed. "On what charges?"
"Various murders all over the country," replied Skulduggery simply.
"And your evidence?"
Skulduggery sighed. "Stop avoiding the obvious, Vincent. It clearly was you and your merry little gang. Now come and surrender, there's a good homicidal serial killer."
"And if we resist arrest?" asked Mercy.
"Then we will have to use force," said Valkyrie.
Vincent pretended to think for a minute. "Very well then, use your 'force'. But first, let's even up the numbers a little..." He trailed off as Sanguine erupted out of the ground beside Obloquy, and, with a blur of movement, Dusk was standing beside Mercy.
Skulduggery tilted his head. "Dusk? What business do you have with them? Sanguine just goes where the money is, but what are you here for?"
Dusk shrugged. "We have a deal, skeleton. The details do not concern you in any way."
"In case you haven't noticed," said Dexter, "It's seven versus six. You're still outnumbered."
"Oh yes, the final member of my team," said Vincent. He moved to the left slightly, as Tesseract walked in and stood next to him.
Erskine paled, and Valkyrie and Ghastly stepped back slightly, warily, remembering their previous battle with him. Skulduggery tilted his head. "How are you here? I watched you die."
"I died," Tesseract said in his Russian accent, "then I was brought back to life. Have you heard, Detective, of Solomon Wreath?"
Skulduggery bristled, and Valkyrie felt anger flare up inside her. "He used some Necromancer trick, didn't he?" she asked. "Like with the Black Cleaver."
"Correct," said Tesseract, his mask slightly muffling his words, yet the venom in them was still evident.
"Now," Vincent said, "where were we...?"
And with that, Mercy let out a stream of energy from her mouth, hurtling towards Valkyrie.
Thanks for reading again! I'm certain this was written by DeadGirl19, I kept laughing the whole way! I hope you enjoyed! :)