CHAPTER 8
RICTOR
We had reached Ernest Don's Garage and Repair, the place where Tombstone was hiding. All of us (except for Layla, she was back at the office) had gathered on the rooftop, and I was soon to join them.
By that, I mean I was getting off from riding on the shoulders of Ms. Marvel, one of the superheroes Jamie had convinced to help us, along with Spider-Man. She was stretching me up to the roof.
"Remind me again why I had to be the elevator for you?" She asked me in an annoyed tone.
"I guess both of us got the short straw." I admitted as I got off of her shoulders and she joined me and everyone else on the roof.
"Alright, let's get this over with. Spidey, er, Spider-Man...Mr. Man? What do I call you?" Jamie asked Spider-Man.
"Spidey's good." Spidey replied.
"Right. Anyway, can you use your Spider-Sense thing to figure out what's in there?" Jamie continued.
"Even better. Karen? Can you see what's going on in there?" Spidey responded as his lenses glowed a soft light blue.
"Karen?" Katie inquired in confusion.
"Spidey's AI computer lady.' I heard Ms. Marvel whispering to her. A few moments later, Spidey was ready.
"Okay, I see the drug lab in the rear with a couple people, probably workers or guards. The front's the main garage. Lots of people there and armed." He explained.
"And Tombstone?" Jamie asked.
"In his office." Spidey replied.
"Okay, and what are the entrances?" Jamie continued to gather information.
"This skylight goes down into the lab. There's a window connected to Tombstone's office. Otherwise, front door's the only way in the main garage." Spidey finished. Jamie nodded and turned to the rest of us.
"Okay people, divide and conquer. Monet, Rahne, and Spidey, you're joining me through the window to Tombstone. We'll try to dose him with the Tomb-Cure and take him down silently if lucky. Rictor and Siryn, you go down the skylight and take out the lab, getting rid of every sample and ingredient there. The rest of you, wait by the front door and get ready to storm in and take down the goons on MY signal. Everybody got that?" He explained to us. We all nodded and I stood by the skylight with Siryn as everyone else headed to their positions.
"Ready for this?" I asked my partner. She replied with a smile and a cheery thumbs up. Tense silence followed. But it didn't last long, because...
"NOW!" Jamie gave us the signal, and we took it as our cue to jump down into the skylight. The four goons in the lab weren't ready for us in the slightest, and I grabbed one guy's arm. Siryn did the same to another, we smacked the two together and did the same to the other pair. Once that quick takedown was over, we nodded to each other, then it was time to get down to business.
I used a chair to break some of the lab equipment and the drug samples, while a few piercing shrieks from Siryn took care of some more of it. While we continued to destroy stuff, we heard numerous battle noises from outside. As I listened to them, I heard muffled shouts from the various goons.
"What the hell?"
"Kill these people!"
"Quickly, before the drug is destroyed!"
All of a sudden, there was a loud crash, a growl of rage, then yet another crash. An unconscious man landed at our feet, and outside we could see our enemy, Tombstone. The battle wasn't going very well.
"Well, I see you guys found my little lab." He said with a dark chuckle, having tossed Spidey into Ms. Marvel. He then turned and saw us. "And it looks like I'm going to have start all over."
Almost immediately, Siryn took flight and darted towards Tombstone, ready to scream. But as soon as she was within reach, she was grabbed by the throat and choked. It was a painful sight. Guido got up and charged towards Tombstone, desperate to save Siryn, but when Tombstone could grab his arm, he did and twisted it, as Guido let out a sharp yelp of pain.
And it wasn't like anyone else could help. The others were dazed, bruised, broken and hurt, and were struggling to pick themselves up. But I had an idea. I looked behind me at the ruined lab.
"Kind of ironic ain't it? A normal person like myself trying to give mutants their gifts back, only for mutants to try and take them away. You know, if it wasn't for that nightclub incident, all of this could have happened silently and none would be the wiser. But I guess now the best option right now is to kill you." Tombstone spoke, as I finished readying myself and turned to him.
"That's funny. I was ALMOST going to say the same thing. Just minus the killing part!" I told him as I approached Tombstone. Having taken the drug during Tombstone's speech, I felt a familiar rush of energy. Wasting no time at all, I stoped the floor hard.
The result was the warehouse shook. Tombstone lost his footing, and as a result dropped both Siryn and Guido. As the warehouse continued to shake on, starting to crumble, I slowly approached Tombstone, punching the sides of the walls to seismically vibrate them for good measure.
"What are you doing?" Tombstone asked, now clearly afraid.
"Bringing this whole mess down!" I responded. One stomp later, and it all came crashing down.
It was quiet. At least, until I heard soft breathing and slight laughter. Opening my eyes, I saw Ms. Marvel, giant. She had wrapped herself around us to protect us from the collapse. Next to me, under a bunch of rubble, was Tombstone... unconscious!
"Not bad kid!" Spidey gave a thumbs up as Ms. Marvel shrank herself back down to normal.
"Thanks. Um, this still counts right? I took down Tombstone?" She asked.
"Technically Rictor was the one who took him down." Monet translated what Siryn was currently signing, as everyone looked in my direction.
"Aw! But I helped!" Ms. Marvel moaned as Spidey gave her a few reassuring pats on the shoulder.
"One day rookie. One day." He said to her.
KATIE
After a while of taking in our victory, it was time to start picking up the pieces.
The police had showed up and were taking Tombstone into custody. An ambulance had also shown up, ready to take Rictor to hospital after he took the drug to save us all. While the police were taking Tombstone in, Siryn and Monet were telling them all the information on what happened.
Standing a little distance away from the scene, I saw Rahne and Guido helping to clear the wreckage and check it for anymore knocked out goons. Jamie finished thanking Spidey and Ms. Marvel for their help and walked up to me after they had left.
"Well, I just got chewed up by Eddie for destruction of private property and told me that me and my team have less than half an hour to leave the scene before Singularity arrives to give us all kinds of hell. But on the plus side we just stopped a big-time crime boss from spreading chaos and destruction via magic mutant power giving drugs so...moral victory!" He explained and smiled at me.
"Thank you. Really, this means a lot!" I blushed and smiled back, before my smile fell. "I just realized though, I honestly have no way to pay you for this!"
"You're right. We didn't negotiate anything before we took this case on." Jamie nodded at me.
"And apparently since Singularity is pretty much taking over your case, this whole thing was pointless to you right?" I asked him.
"Not really. I mean, I started X-Factor Investigations primarily because I wanted to help people after my little run with Xavier's school, and what we just did helped a lot of people." He told me.
"Yeah. Makes sense." I stated, and after a small stretch of awkward silence and me thinking this through, I spoke up. "Actually, I was thinking, maybe I can work for you?"
"Huh?" This confused Jamie a little.
"I mean, I'll confess. I kind of always wanted to be a detective growing up." I told him."
"Well, you do know that real detective work isn't-" I cut Jamie off to keep talking.
"Yeah, Layla already gave me that speech, but honestly? I don't care. I'd like to help you people out! I can help you track clues, follow suspects, even the pervy stuff like finding proof someone's screwing someone else. I'm all for it! And you can just take my first few paychecks as payment for this case and-" Then he cut me off.
"Alright!" Jamie cheered.
"Alright?" I tilted my head a little.
"Alright! You got the job. We have a spare room you can move in along with any other stuff you might need-" That's all I needed to hear right now.
I ran forward and pulled Jamie into a tight hug. Surprised, he awkwardly returned the hug.
Now I was part of X-Factor Investigations. And I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next!
