The gray eyed magician walked with purpose through the streets of Portugul (city here), two praetorian's on either side, each eyeballing the surroundings for threats.
"Its a good thing I ran into you two, this job really needs to be a group effort." The man said with a look of concentration on his face.
Inside the mind of the immortal grey eye'd magician, he was trying to deduce where the thugs had taken Euphie.
'That wayward princess is gonna owe me for this. Maybe I should lock her up for a few days? Those reports of atrocities committed in Area eighteen might help...'
'She was this way!' The magicians look of concentration felll away as he broke inot a mad dash past some new apartment project in development, nearly being hit by a truck as he jaywalked across the street at high speed.
"Where the fuck is the boss going?"
"I've been wondering that the past forty-seven years kid, when I find the answer I'll let you know. Now haul ass and lets catch up to him." Hoffman said.
"Alright fine." The other man said, running after their boss with a hint of trepidation.
As they the two men crossed the street, they drew their firearms, forty-five caliber pistols, not the most powerful weaponry but easier to conceal then assault rifles or rocket launchers.
"Think he's walking into a trap?" Henry asked.
"You mean is he knowingly putting himself and us at risk?" His companion questioned.
"Yeah."
"When hasn't he? Remember Shanghai?"
"There was no Shanghai!"
" Well before that event that shall not be named, their were dozens if not hundreds more. Every time shit hit the fan only one thing was certain."
"That was?"
"Those guys shooting, stabbing or otherwise meaning to do the boss or us in eventually died sooner or later and we..." The man said pointing his gun at his fellow solider then back at himself to make the point. "Are still around.".
"...That stuff in china.."
"You've only been with the group for five years. How'd you end up in this line of work anyway?"
"...My family was murdered. The perp was a wealthy land owning aristocrat who thought he was above the common people like my wife and child. Long story short I stormed into his home while he was having a party with some guests and shot him in the head."
The man nodded knowingly. This wasn't that uncommon. White knights and dark anti-hero's filled the ranks of what many only knew as 'the company'. The boss had another name but the world didn't need to know it, not yet anyway. Euphie had a part to play, but what that was neither Henry nor Hoffman knew.
A yell interrupted their conversation as they drew near their now stationary leader who was looking straight ahead to a ruined apartment building.
"And they put you in chains and executed you before a cheering crowd! If you lady's are done gossiping, I've got a princess to save and I do believe I've found the right castle."
"What if you find out the princess is in another castle?"
The gray eyed magician's right eye twitched before he began to march forward, calling back to his two accomplices.
"If the princess is in another castle then I'll assume its being guarded by turtles and giant lizards in which case its safe to assume your commander and chief here has lost his marbles and is now senile."
The two men chuckled, their faces breaking into tooth filled grins as they entered the broken apartment building with their master some three yards ahead.
The smell of shit, piss and other odors assaulted their collective nostrils.
"Right chaps its time the safety's came off, the princess is here and we've got to assume she's not being treated with kid gloves. I'll take the stairs, Henry your with me, Hoffman can watch the entrance."
"Why do I have to sit here while you and Henry have all the fun?"
"...I wouldn't call this rescue fun...I mean its had its ups and downs sure. If my collection of movie's has taught me anything its that people rush in to save the captive, untie them and then get caught again because the bad guys came back. So with you by the door we'll at least have a heads up...besides you can stall em with the pea shooter you brought." The gray eyed magician stated before bounding up the steps two at a time.
Henry and Hoffman shared a look before Henry vanished up a flight of stairs to guard a boss they both knew was an army unto himself.
Henry turned to the entrance and crouched low by a broken window, not wanting to be noticed should trouble come a calling.
"Million times better then Shanghai." The man said as he became the guard dog for his master's temporary dominion.
It was fifteen minutes and four floors later that they found her. The body of Euphemia Li Britania covered with a tarp, underwear used to tie her hand behind her back, a single gunshot to the side of the head evident, brain matter and blood coating equal parts of the tarp and floor.
The gray eye'd magician stared at the girl for a moment, taking in the evidence of sexual assault, the bruises and the gruesome bloody mess that surrounded Euphie. Hell the mess that was Euphie!
"I've found the princess but this...this isn't the way it was supposed to go at all. No epic gun battles or choreographed heroics here...just a dead girl and an unfilled need for justice."
Hoffman for his part pulled out a lighter and a pack of smokes before speaking.
"No offense sir but she was dead before. These things I've got here should've done me in decades ago...but I've got you to answer to sir."
"I am a pretty good boss...all things considered. This..." The magician said motioning Euphie's body.
"This is never easy sir but your the right person for the girl. For this world, without you and the rest of our disfunctional family I don't know what I'd do." Hoffman confessed.
"Probably be dead in the ground or on the way their."
"But we have you sir...this girl has you too...if you don't think she'll be too damaged."
"Hoff...It seems I'll get the caped crusader I deserve and not the one I want." The magician said somberly, the dry humor of it all soaking its way into his bones but falling flat even to him.
"Go check upstairs...if anyone's here they might know something. The nights still young and the boys should be arriving with the cargo soon."
"Sure thing sir." Hoffman said with a crisp if unexpected salute before departing out the door to search the remainder of the upper floors.
The gray eye'd magician walked forward, bending down in front of Euphie and audibly sighing.
"Alright lets get you fixed up pinkie."
Though the man was eccentric cynic at times, having witnessed countless horrors over the centuries that deadened men's hearts as well as their bodies, if one looked close enough they could see something glisten in those gray eye's before the magician rubbed it away with his hands.
AN: More is coming up. Updates are coming for all my stories save MwM, this saturday morning or afternoon.