The group raced back to where they had left the car, only to find it on it's side against the bar, and smashed beyond repair. Panther meowed pitifully, and crawled out from around the corner. Narnia immediately picked him up, and began stroking his back.
"Poor baby," she said, soothingly. "Did something scare you? It's all right, baby. Momma's here now."
"What the heck happened?" Multi asked. "It looks like the Incredible Hulk was here!"
"We'd better get to work investigating," Coiley said.
The others agreed, and got to work. The first thing the two Impossibles found was what appeared to be a transmitter of some kind, but they couldn't understand a thing that was coming out of it.
"You think it's Russian?" Multi asked.
"No, I think it's gibberish," Coiley replied. "Maybe we're getting a bad signal or something."
"Here's another one of those things over here," Narnia said, picking up another one. "Same sounds as the other one's making."
While Narnia and the boys were trying to figure out the transmitters (and Panther trying to investigate them with his nose), Big D walked over to the center of the street, and saw a card or something with what looked like an eye drawn on it. But the minute he picked it up, he began to feel strange. The scene began to fade into that strange pinkish-purple again. This time, the chief saw an image of the world, and heard what sounded like someone blowing out a candle or something. When that happened, several silhouettes of people just seemed to fly off. Then the image of the world transformed into that eye shape.
"What's . . . . . happening?" he asked, straining somewhat.
"Oh no, not again!" Narnia groaned. "Come on, boys, help me find some more of those energy drinks before he falls asleep!"
Immediately, the two Impossibles raced into the abandoned store, and grabbed as many cans of that strange energy drink as they could. It took about three of them before Big D started to come out of that weird trance he had been in.
"I'm getting pretty tired of this," he said.
"You and me both," Narnia commented.
"You okay, Big D?" Multi asked.
"I will be," the chief said. "Once this entire mess is over!"
"Us too," Coiley said. "Come on, we'd better continue looking for clues."
The group searched the wreckage, but they were only able to unearth three syringes and a man's sneaker.
"This looks like the kind of sneakers some of the orderlies and male nurses at St. Mercy's wear," Multi said.
"There's one more thing here," Coiley said, looking at the car roof. "It looks like blood."
"That's not a good sign," Multi said.
"Don't worry, guys, I'm prepared," Narnia said. "I've got my knife, and I took the liberty of loading that security guard's gun and taking it with me."
"What's this up here?" Coiley asked, stretching his arm toward the back of the car.
"It looks like an oxygen cylinder," Multi said.
"Yeah, but it's empty," Coiley said.
"We've got to get inside the car," Big D said. "I have a feeling there's more to be found."
"How're ya gonna do that?" Narnia asked. "You got a Swiss Army can opener or something?"
Big D ignored the young woman, and looked around the wreckage site a bit. Finally, he unearthed a crowbar, and smashed what was left of the rear windshield. Then he turned to the two Impossibles.
"Multi," he said. "I think you're the best suited for this one."
"What do you mean, chief?" Multi asked.
"He means you're the only one skinny enough to get into the car through that window," Narnia said.
"Well, if you think so," Multi said, shrugging. Then he carefully crawled through the windshield.
"If I find anything, I'll hand it out to you guys," he said. "Stand by!"
Multi looked around the car, and found that it looked almost as bad as the outside of it did! He couldn't find much of anything useful, but he did manage to find a compass, the piece of the map, the ID card the group found at the train station, and the sphere. He grabbed all three of them, and crawled out of the car.
"This was about all I could find," he said.
"I wish I could get rid of this thing," Big D said, taking the sphere. The minute he did, an image flashed inside of it. It looked like the image of the man on the ID card.
"Odd," the chief said. "I thought this thing wasn't working anymore."
"Forget it," Narnia said. "We've got both map pieces, so let's figure out how to get going!"
Coiley and Multi took both map pieces and stuck them together. Then they handed them to Narnia so she could do the translating. She studied the ID badge, and then the map. Then she took out a tube of lipstick from her ammo belt, and circled a building on it.
"That's where we're going," she said. "And lucky for us, it isn't far!"
"Come on, we don't have a moment to lose!" Big D shouted.
And with that, the group ran off. They reached the mental clinic in no time, and walked inside, only to find the place a complete mess. This didn't surprise them. The only other person there was a woman laying on the couch in the lobby. Like all the others, she, too, was in a strange coma. The group began searching the lobby. Big D immediately ran to a door with bars on it. He grabbed the handle, and turned it, but it wouldn't budge.
"Drat it!" he shouted, frustratedly. "Locked!"
"The key's got to be around here somewhere," Multi said. "Let's look behind the desk."
"Brilliant deduction, Sherlock," Narnia said, somewhat sarcastically.
Big D and the two Impossibles ignored her, and began searching around, not only looking for the keys to unlock the door, but also anything else that would either help them, or give them information about what was going on.
"Here's another Watchful Eye amulet thing, chief," Coiley said.
"Look at this card," Multi said. "Announcement to all hunters. The last vigilante is Vladimir Rozhkov. He will bring in the last ones, ensuring that the rules of the universe are being complied with. It's signed the chessmaster."
"And, unless I miss my guess," Big D said, "according to the note we found at the train station, we are the last ones, and apparently, we are violating the rules of the universe."
"This chessmaster guy's obviously a few sandwiches shy of a picnic," Narnia said. "What the heck does that mean, anyway?"
"I'd love to inform you, Ms. Veretennikov, but I don't have the faintest notion, either," Big D said.
"Let's keep looking," Coiley said.
The group continued searching. Multi picked up a newspaper clipping, but it wasn't much of one. It was just a picture of a man standing next to that strange "Watchful Eye" picture, and the only text on it was "ulost" over and over and over again. Multi had to put it down and squeeze his eyes shut for a moment.
"Boy!" he shouted. "That thing'll give you eye strain for sure!"
"What is this, anyway?" Big D asked, looking at the clipping.
Suddenly, the text switched from the repeated "ulost" to what looked like a regular newspaper article. It talked about an extremist organization known as "Vigilantes," and how their leaders had a dream where this Chessmaster explained rules of the universe, and why everyone would be forced into a coma. The organizations had been outlawed, since it was believed they were responsible for putting people to sleep.
"And we're practically knocking on their door," Big D said, under his breath.
"What did you say, chief?" Multi asked, looking over the chief's shoulder. All the redhead could see on the clipping was the text "ulost."
"Nothing," Big D said, putting down the clipping. "Nothing at all."
The group continued searching the desk. Narnia was examining the cabinet behind it. It had a glass door, but it was locked, and nobody could see what was inside of it.
"We've got to open this sucker," she said. "The question is how."
"Like this," Coiley said, picking up a cane from the floor. He smashed the door with the cane, but all that was inside it were syringes, cotton balls, bandages, and bottles of colored medicine.
"That's not going to help much," Multi sighed. "And the only thing around this desk are energy drinks and energy bars. There's no key in sight!"
"I have an idea," Narnia said, picking up an oxygen cylinder. "This'll make a great missile!"
Narnia climbed over the desk, and set the oxygen tank on a nearby table. Then she took the cane from Coiley.
"Stand back, boys," she said. "I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen!"
Coiley picked up Panther, and he, Multi, and Big D took a couple of steps back. Narnia whacked the oxygen tank with the cane, and the tank flew right into the door. The impact was so hard, it knocked it off it's hinges.
"You did it!" Coiley shouted. "Let's go!"
Unfortunately, that pinkish-purple glow began to overtake the chief's vision again. This time, he could make out a silhouette of a man. He had a very deep, evil sounding laugh, and his fingers were made up of medical syringes. Then, he raised his arms, and two more arms appeared. And all four hands had fingers made of syringes. Then the scene faded, and Big D began to sink to his knees.
"These . . . . . visions," he said. "They're getting . . . . . harder to . . . . . resist . . . ."
"Chief!" Multi shouted. "Guys, we've gotta do something!"
"Hang on!" Narnia shouted. She reached into the cabinet and grabbed a syringe, and three of the medicine bottles. "I know what'll give him a boost!"
Narnia put the syringe in the bottles one at time, to extract the liquid in them. She did this until the liquid in the syringe turned pinkish-orange in color. Then, she immediately rolled up Big D's sleeve, and injected him with the concoction. Immediately, the chief began to come out of it.
"Wow, that was a close one!" Coiley shouted.
"Are you all right, boss?" Multi asked.
"I think so," Big D said. "I'm not sure why I'm seeing these hallucinations, but they're extremely intense. Thank you, Ms. Veretennikov."
"Skip it," Narnia said. "We've got bigger fish to fry."
The group went forward, and found themselves in what looked like a security office. Multi turned on the lights, and looked around.
"Maybe it's a good thing we're in here," Coiley said. "We don't know who, or what is lurking around. We can use the monitors to check the place out."
"Looks like only one monitor's working," Multi said.
"We can remedy that," Big D said. "All we have to do is fix the control panel."
Big D opened the panel, and reconnected the wires. As soon as he did, all the monitors lit up with images of the hospital rooms. Then he sat down at the control panel, and began searching them. He figured Fluey and Natasha had to be in one of them. He scanned every single room with the camera, until he came across monitor nine, which was the last one. There was Fluey, laying on the bed in the room, somewhat propped up on his arm.
"There's Fluey," Multi said. "But there's no sign of Natasha. And it looks like Fluey's about ready to fall asleep any second!"
"And if he falls asleep," Big D said, "he's likely to fall into that coma that everyone in town seems to be in."
"Gallopin' guitars!" Coiley shouted. "We've got to do something!"
"I don't know how much longer he'll be able to hold out," Multi said. "I just hope it's not too late."
"I just hope that maniac doesn't catch on," Narnia said. Then she pulled the security guard's gun out. "But I don't think he'll be a problem, anyway."
"If it's all the same to you, Ms. Veretennikov," Big D said. "I'd rather you not use that gun."
"We've gotta use something to defend ourselves!" Narnia argued.
"How about a tranquilizer gun?" Multi asked, walking over to the shelf.
"Excellent suggestion," Big D said. "Ms. Veretennikov, would you care to do the honors?"
"I gotta see if it works first," Natasha said, taking the gun. She eyed a dart board on the wall, and rummaged for some ammo. Once she loaded the gun, she fired at the dart board. The tranquilizer dart hit the target dead center.
"Okay," she said. "Now, we're ready!"
The group then ran out of the security office as fast as they could. Big D could only hope they weren't too late.