HOLA AMIGOS/AS! I promised you another chapter soon so here it is! TADA! Chapter 24 up and running. I had a blast with the first scene in this chapter. The second scene may even answer a few of your questions about Fletcher. (Rest assured he will be back soon. But I have plans for him. 8D) Anywho, I own nothing except for Carlos and Mercer Spade.

Now, without further ado, Chapter 24: Back in Business.

Read, Enjoy & Review! :D

The bald man with pale green eyes rounded the dark corner at a flat run, only to nearly fall as gravel flew out from under him. He felt the air move and turned, lashing out, only to have someone yank his tattered brown coat from behind. With a terrified yelp, he fell to the ground and a Skeleton in a black pinstripe suite stepped out of the shadows.

"Well, well, well. Mercer Spade," Skulduggery Pleasant tilted his head. "Aren't you supposed to be in jail?"

Mercer kicked Skulduggery's legs out from under him and tore down the alley, the road just a few yards ahead. The crooks first mistake was to narrow his vision to only his destination and not all the dangers behind, next to or above him. A black figure was plummeting toward him from on high, locked on like a missile and silent as the grave. Valkyrie Cain reached out, wrapped her arms around his torso and thrust her wings out and down mightily and surged back into the air.

It took all her strength to stay air born as Mercer writhed and yelled in sheer terror as the ground drew away further and further with each stroke. Valkyrie began to perspire as her arms strained with the load she carried. Despite her new in-human strength, she wasn't invincible and continued to labor until she was finally positioned over the river than ran through the heart of Dublin City. Then she let go.

Mercer flailed and screamed as the river rushed up to greet him, his breath suddenly cut off by the sudden jarring he received as Carlos broke his fall, but not for long. The river swallowed him and for a few long minutes, everything fell silent and Mercer feared death had finally found him.

His fear heightened to something new as the water around him tightened and he was pulled upward into the air. Valkyrie Cain, Skulduggery Pleasant, and a black panther stood on the edge of the river. The skeletons hand was held directly out in front of him, Mercer figured that he was the one directing the bubble of water he was currently incased in. Then the water broke and the bald man fell to the ground at the detective duo's feet coughing and spluttering and drenched.

"Now, Mr. Spade, you are hereby under arrest for highway robbery and first degree assault on Mr. and Mrs. Dunaway of Dublin City. You have the right to a fair trial though you'll probably just spend the rest of your life in jail for all we care. Now, please, allow me."

Valkyrie hauled the bald man to his feet as Skulduggery produced a pair of handcuffs and shackled Mercer's hands behind his back. Mercer spat in rage.

"You'll all pay for this!" he snarled, green eyes flashing.

"Oh ho, really now?" Valkyrie chuckled, "It's not like we've heard that one before, Cheeky."

"I hope you all rot in Hell, including your little cat." Carlos hissed menacingly and Mercer drew away from him.

"We'll let you do that for us Mr. Spade." Skulduggery said as he dragged the criminal over to the Bentley. The ride to the Sanctuary was mercifully short and very cliché, but Valkyrie enjoyed it none the less. She had forgotten how much she missed fighting crime with Skulduggery, now she was back and they were better than ever. Carlos was enjoying the crime fighting immensely as well, his favorite part was tormenting the criminals all the way to holding cells.

The cleavers had been swift and silent about their business, leaving Skulduggery, Valkyrie and Carlos in peace again. The past week had been, overall a pleasant one. Skulduggery had welcomed her into his home until she could get everything in order at Gordon's house. Since she was now the legal owner of her Uncles house, she had had the option of living there.

The house had brought back memories, but it had been to large, open and lonely, even with Carlos there, so Valkyrie had declined until she figured out what she really wanted. The 1954 Bentley R-Type Continental pulled smoothly in the garage on Cemetery Road.

In the house, Skulduggery hung his hat on the hat stand in Valkyrie shed her new black coat with midnight blue inner-lining. Her attire had changed too. Her mid-calf length boots lace up over her black pants and her shirt was silky smoke grey and strapless for the most part to accommodate her wings but the front came up to wrap around the back of her neck so as not to look too racy.

However, the best feature these new clothes offered was their ability to retract into shin guards when she Shifted. It was handy especially on high paced chases when criminals may swipe at her legs to knock her off balance during the hunt and also debris that always had the possibility to injure the most important part of an animal.

Valkyrie flopped down on the couch, completely drained of energy. Chases like these always took up a lot of energy and adrenalin, therefore Valkyrie had to constantly have food in her system to provide extra energy for day to day activities. Skulduggery keyed in on this instantly and brought out two boxes of frozen pizza and slid them in the oven for her. All this constant need of food tended to get on Valkyrie's nerves, it made her kind of angry to run out of energy so fast. She'd never had to do this before, but she hadn't been a human-hybrid all her life either, so she took on the burden and bared it.

The oven beeped, signaling that her food was ready and Valkyrie gratefully welcomed it. Both large pizzas were gone within 10 minutes, by the time she finished Carlos was just beginning to eat the steak that Skulduggery had had pre-prepared for him. Shoving the pan away from her, Valkyrie's eyes began to droop as Skulduggery sat down across from her.

"You eat like pig, you know that?" Valkyrie grinned.

"And you being over 400 years old are trying to tell me that I eat like pig? Did you even have eating utensils back then?" Skulduggery held up his hands.

"OK, truce, truce. I was going to say you eat like a hungry Fletcher but I had to have my fun." At the mention of his name, Valkyrie deflated a little. It had been a week and Fletcher still hadn't come home, nor had he even answered his cell phone. Skulduggery also picked up on this too.

"Val, I'm sure everything is alright. He's been out on these searches for weeks on end. It's not uncommon for him since you had disappeared. The longest he's been away was three weeks. He'll be back soon, and when he his he can finally stop his searching. He loves you Valkyrie, we all do."

She looked up at Skulduggery and reflected. The detective had always been there for her, even before she knew him. Then he had finally taken her under his wing, taught her to control her magic. He had been a mentor, best friend, ally and father figure to her all her life and for this she was grateful. Had he not been, God knows where she'd be today.

"Goodnight Skulduggery."

"Goodnight Valkyrie." Then she stood to clear away her dinner then she made her way to her room, Carlos at her heels. She undressed and pulled on her new Dublin football jersey and climbed into bed. As she began to drift off to sleep, eight winged figures flew past the moon over the city.

"And how are we supposed to find Valkyrie again? I mean it's not like we're searching for one girl in a million people or anything." Gazzy said. Max was beginning to get a head ache, it wasn't very often she rushed into things without a game plan mapped out before hand.

"We don't really have a choice but to comb the city. Valkyrie warned us about Billy- Ray Sanguine and now we've figured out that he's still smuggling people, presumably for the Institute."

"But not just any people," said Angel. "Mages, sorcerers, magic people. They're planning something even bigger."

"So now in order to find Val, we have to go off what we know. She told us all that she remembered. Her Skeleton friend, Skulduggery, lives somewhere outside the city on Cemetery road. He drives a big black Bentley R-Type Continental and they are nearly on the road 24/7 stopping crime. We just need to find a map." Dylan concluded for them, then he turned to Angel. "Could you perhaps find us one, quickly?" Angel nodded and stared at the ground, sifting through the minds of wandering people in the streets below. Soon she opened her eyes in defeat.

"I can't hear anything of any use. The best thing we could do is find an all night internet café or library or something with a computer so Nudge can hack into Google Maps."

"Well we need to find her soon, so waiting for a library to open at 10:00 isn't really an option." Iggy said in annoyance. Max brushed her wing against his side in reassurance. It was hard for Iggy because he knew what it had been like to see before the White coats at the School tried to enhance his night vision. By the expression change on his face, she knew he understood.

"Well, we're in luck." Angel smiled, "there's a guy down in that café messing around on his lap top." She tucked in her wings and dropped like a rock to the dark street below, the rest of the flock following suit. They landed silently behind the small corner café and strode casually through the front door. The clean cut man was oblivious to their presence as he typed away on his lap top and sipped his frappechino. The flock found a table as Max approached the man, he was completely engrossed in his work never noticed Max's arrival.

Swiftly, she cracked her elbow against his temple and he crumpled, unconscious, in his seat. Nudge ran over to the lap top and began to work her magic. In a matter of seconds, her insane hacking skill paid off.

"Got it!" She yelled. The flock looked at the overhead image of house at the end of a cul-de-sac portrayed on the screen. " Five miles west of the outer suburbs of Dublin. Lets roll."

Fang and Max put everything just as it had been and propped the man up as best they could, then walked out the door and leapt into the warm night air again. Nudge led them this time, her big brown eyes scanning the ground as they finally entered the Dublin City suburbs. Five miles slipped by under their wings quickly and the houses became more and more scattered and then finally…

"Up ahead to the right! There it is!" Dylan pointed. A faint glow began to appear in the sky and behind them, the sun slowly made its way up over the sea.

Valkyrie's eyes flew open as several rapid knocks issued from the front door. Ignoring her body and mind's tired complaints, she jumped out of bed and emerged into the hallway as Skulduggery, façade up and gun in hand, approached the front door and looked out the side window. She approached and looked out the window too, and sighed in relief.

"It's OK Skulduggery, it's just Maximum and her flock. The other human-hybrids that helped me come home." Skulduggery nodded and allowed her to greet them. Valkyrie was welcomed by a mass hug attack from Nudge, Gazzy and Angel before she could even say "hello".

"Valkyrie." She looked up at Max and frowned.

"What is it Max. Is everyone OK? What's going on?" Fang, Max and Dylan exchanged glances.

"It's Billy-Ray Sanguine. He's back and he's helping the White Coats, again."

Skulduggery stiffened and Valkyrie snapped her eyes shut as white hot pain engulfed her, burned her and Billy-Ray's toothpaste commercial grin leered at her through iron cage bars.

Say good-bye to your sanity…

DUN DUN DUUUUNNNNN! What is yet to come? You shall find out soon my pretties, you shall find out soon... *mad cackling*

LOL! Jk, jk. Anywho, a little back ground info on the randomness of Mercer Spade. I needed a random crimnal and this was the best I could come up with. The reason Mercer robbed poor Mr & Mrs Dunaway is because he has a gambling addiction. (Hence the last name Spade. See? Ain't i clever?) He had no other purpose other than to get the ball rolling so to speak.

Now for the bad news, I do not know when Chapter 25 will be posted but when it is, I hope it will get excited for the great action to come. Even more epicer (If thats even a word *shrugs*) than the Vampire Chapter a while back, yeah? Good. Now Saurkraut and sausages are reviews please! :D