"I know this Jenkins dude must have to have a record" Uncle Diego parked the sleek black Rolls-Royce a block away from the Police station; it appeared to be one of the more nondescript cars but despite their need to stay incognito, it was still rather eye-catching. "Just gotta get our hands on this file"
"And your plan is to what?" Auntie Allison questioned skeptically. "Waltz in there and just ask for it?"
"I know this station like the back of my hand, sis—spent a lot of time inside"
"Yeah, in handcuffs"
"Whatever. Here's the plan—"
"—Plan? What plan?" Uncle Five puzzled, "I'm just gonna blink in and get the file"
"No, that's not…" Uncle Diego denied, growing frustrated at the lack of respect for his newly acquired leadership role. "You don't know the ins and outs of this place, okay?"
"I literally just did this yesterday"
"What?"
"Well, my yesterday, not your yesterday. It'll take me two seconds—"
"—Listen to me, you are not going in there. I made a call because that's what a leader does—he leads"
"Yeah? Y'know what else they do—?"
"—Are you two gonna spend the whole day measuring dicks?" Theodore leant forward to pop his head between the two front seats so he could eyeball his previously bickering—now blushing/spluttering—uncles. "Or did you forget the ticking time bomb that is doomsday?"
Not long after Uncle Diego had scampered off to meet with his police contact, the remaining trio made their way over to the payphone on the corner of the street so Auntie could make a couple of calls. Uncle Five leant against the concrete pillar of the building, shifting his weight every so often and hissing painfully as he did so. Usually, Theodore probably would've been more concerned about this, as it was his eyes were more preoccupied with nervously roving over the throngs of people around them as he searched for any sign of the School or their tech. Mogadorians always hunted in packs and there was no telling if the ones from the day before were just scouts or the full hunting party—it was better to be safe than sorry.
"…Love you sis" Auntie ended the call before rejoining the quiet pair on the corner as they waited for Uncle Diego to return. "Are you sure you didn't want to leave a message for Vanya?"
"Uh yeah—yeah, no it's fine" Theodore stammered as he rocked back and forth on his heels, trying desperately not give away that something was wrong.
"Did you guys fight or something?"
"No—it's uh, it's nothing—not important" Theodore shifted his eyes to the floor, refusing to meet her eye.
"Right…" Auntie shared a glance with Uncle Five at the response. "Which reminds me, why aren't you at school?"
"Didn't you see the news this morning?" Theodore's puzzled expression flickered between his aunt and uncle. "It got blown to kingdom come—"
"—What?" Uncle Five perked up.
"Yeah, it looked like something outta a disaster film with all that fire and smoke and shit. 'Pparently, they don't no who did it or how or why" Theodore lied, burying his sweaty hands deep into his pockets. "But they think it had something to do with the same guys from Griddy's and Gimble Brothers'…But I guess you'd probably know more about that than me, so…"
Thankfully before the pair could delve further into their questioning (despite their clear desire to) Uncle Diego returned with the shiftily acquired file in hand. "So?" Uncle Five latched onto his appearance like a dog with a bone, clearly wanting to do this Apocalypse thing his way.
"Your welcome" Uncle Diego sassed, pulling the blue file from where he had hidden it in his sling and brandished it in the air. Moving quickly, Theodore snatched the blue file from his uncle's hand before his aunt could reach it, and began to flick through the thick file.
Pages and pages of this Harold Jenkins guy recorded from the time he was a tween up until his adults years. The first half of the file was dedicated to the petty crimes he had committed—most of them involving injuring animals or traumatising other children. The photo clipped to the front of this section showed a young kid—probably thirteen at most—with splotches of dried blood splattered across his face and a manic grin twitching at his lips as he held up the plaque for his juvie photo.
"…is Vanya?" Auntie asked, pulling Theodore from his snooping.
"Hm?" Theodore hummed, not looking up from the page in front of him.
"I said do you know where my sister is?
"She's our sister too, Allison"
"Really? 'Cause you sure don't act like it"
"Yeah, anyway…" Theodore briefly eyed his snarling family, "She's 'honeymooning' with her boyfriend"
"She's married?!" Uncle Five exclaimed.
"What? No! She's holidaying with her creepy boyfriend out in the woods and doing mushy couple stuff"
"Leonard, right?" Auntie clarified.
"Yeah" Theodore nodded, flipping through more pages as his eyes skimmed the words written there. "There's just something about him—he's really creepy, like those serial killers you see on the news"
Flipping over to the adult section of the file, Theodore was met with more pages of behavioural analysis' on the bloke. Most were 'good behaviour' reports from the prison counsellor or guards, plus a signed appeal to release from his jail sentence a couple of years early. But it was the clean-shaven photo clipped to the page that made him pause and blink dumbly at the man staring back at him. "Hey, what d'ya know? He really is a serial killer"
"What?" Both uncles chorused as Auntie peered over his shoulder to see what he was talking about.
"Holy shit!" She cursed.
"What?"
"Harold Jenkins is Leonard Peabody" She snatched the folder from Theodore's hands and flipped it around so that both Uncles Diego & Five could see.
"That's Vanya's boyfriend?!" Uncle Five asked incredulously, drawing himself upright as a tone of protectiveness entered his voice.
"You don't seem particularly worried" Uncle Diego pointed out, turning to Theodore. "Why?"
"Uh well, Mama's not exactly the damsel-in-distress you all think she is" Theodore replied with a shrug. "Especially not after what she did to my social studies teacher"
"What…did she do?" Auntie hedged, not quite believing that her timid little sister was capable of such violent feats.
"Uh…nope!" Theodore's eyes blew wide and his parlour paled slightly as he recalled what happened to said teacher. "Nope, we don't talk about that!" He swallowed thickly, spinning on his heel and walking stiffly back towards the parked car. In doing so, he didn't see the disbelieving looks plastered across his aunt and uncles' faces as their imaginations ran wild with possible scenarios that could elicit that kind of reaction from their nephew.
"Here it is" Uncle Diego parked out in front of Peabody's two-storey terracotta house, where it lay nestled among the other suburban family homes along the pastel-coloured street.
"Just be careful!" Auntie Allison warned for the umpteenth time as they all exited from the vehicle and made their way up to the front door. The warning was directed more toward Uncle Diego (whose vigilante nature was coming to light) and Uncle Five (whose temporal assassin nature was also making an appearance). The two men had been butting heads since they had left the Umbrella Academy and it was starting to drive the two in the back seat insane—Theodore was about two seconds away from letting Loren eat one of them, just to shut them up. "We don't know what Peabody is capable of"
"Yeah, he didn't seem dangerous when I first saw him" Uncle Diego rebutted. "Looked kinda scrawny"
"Yeah, well, so are most serial killers and mass murderers" Auntie retorted, "I mean, look at him"
"Thanks" Uncle Five replied sincerely as he limped up the lawn.
"Good point" Uncle Diego agreed as Auntie disappeared around the back and through the side gate that creaked on its hinges as it moved. "So what's this guy want with Vanya?"
Uncle Five's answer went unheard as Theodore drifted over to the corrugated garage door. After spending a seconds jimmying the deadlock with a loralite claw, he was able to push the door up far enough to crawl underneath. Once inside, Theodore was met with the overwhelming stench of decay. "Oh God!" He gagged, smothering his nose and mouth in his hand as he tried to find the source of the smell. Of course, before he could the sound of glass breaking further in the house caught his attention.
CRASH!
The source of the noise turned out to be Uncle Diego who laid groaning on the floor amongst several shards of broken glass and wooden splinters from the door's window; which was now just a large hole. "Subtle" Auntie commented as she strolled down the main hall, having come in the back door.
"Y'know the door was unlocked" Uncle Five added, having teleported himself inside and pulled the door open.
"There were easier ways inside, Uncle" Theodore stated, toeing a couple of shards of glass in front of him.
"Yeah, well, my way works just fine" Uncle Diego snarked as he rose to his feet and shook off the glass clinging to him. "Spread out, yell if you, uh, y'know are in trouble"
"Ah, inspiring leadership" Uncle Five deadpanned as Uncle Diego limped off towards the kitchen.
"One of the greats" Agreed Auntie before they went their seperate ways.
Upon second inspection of the garage, the teen could see just how much crap was crammed into the small space. The interior of the garage appeared small and cluttered with trampled boxes and old furniture piled on top of each other in precarious piles that threatened to fall at any moment. A single well-trodden path led from the house and wound through the mess like a hiking track. Theodore could see why the door had creaked and whined on its hinges when he had hauled it open even a smidge—the garage was practically bulging with unwanted stuff like a hoarder's wet dream.
Skirting a particularly rusted bicycle frame that jutted out from beneath a pile of faded & torn magazines, Theodore found himself stopping short at what he had found. "You see that too, right?" Theodore asked, his voice muffled by the hand slapped over his face as he stared dumbly at the sight before him.
"Do you mean the dead chick on the plastic-wrapped couch or the conspiracy map glued to the wall?" Loren sassed, his tone equally as dumbfounded.
"I think that chick might be Helen Cho…" Theodore murmured as he bent as close as he dared over her decaying face.
"Who?"
"She was the first chair in Ma—Vanya's—in the orchestra" He choked out, stumbling yet again over what to call his (ex) mother. "Guess she didn't leave like they thought"
"Not willingly"
"Wonder how he got her?"
"Sneak attack most likely"
"Yeah, Helen was pretty handy with her violin" Theodore recalled an instance where one of the string players had tried hitting on her. It hadn't ended well for him.
"That and that's what he did to his father, remember?"
"Oh yeah, from the file" Theodore nodded, remembering the bit that mentioned the murder of his father with a hammer. Stepping away from the dead violinist, he then made his way over to the busy back wall which was wallpapered in a multitude of images, handwritten notes and red string.
Some pictured the Umbrella Academy as children (from magazine/comic book cutouts) whilst others showed them as adults; but that wasn't all. There was also images of Saint Gregory's, their apartment and various polaroid snapshots of Theodore displaying his powers over the last couple of days. "How the hell did he get these?"
"You don't think…?" Loren trailed.
"I think he's batshit crazy and pretty good at connecting the dots" Theodore replied as his fingers hovered over the hastily drawn symbol of the Ragnor-Ra staff that was pinned next to the ticket for Vanya's concert and the scribbled notes taped beneath it. "But I don't think he's involved in that"
"Still pretty dangerous"
"Yep"
THUMP!
"What was—?" Theodore glanced up at the noise, wondering if one of the piles had finally given into gravity and collapsed. He didn't have to wait for very long.
"STUDENT 2419 DETECTED" Intoned a familiar voice as he suddenly became enveloped in the warm tingly feeling he associated with an identification drone. He froze in place like a deer caught in the headlights as the whirring blades of the drone fluttered above him.
"HOW THE HELL DID THAT GET IN HERE?!" Loren screeched.
"Dunno" Theodore squeaked, now crouching behind a waning stack of newspapers and hoping against hope that the drone was alone.
"STUDENT 2419 DETECTED" The robotic voice grew closer to his hiding spot. "STUDENT 2419 DETECTED"
"SHUT THE BLOODY THING UP!" Loren ordered, pushing him into motion. As the drone dodged around another leaning pile, Theodore leapt out from his hiding spot and slashed a loralite claw down through the machine, sending it careening to the floor where it sparked and died. "KILL IT! KILL IT! KILL IT!"
"I'm going! I'm going!" Theodore snarked as he tripped over an old microwave in his attempt to reach the downed drone and rip out the GPS chip that was standard in the identification drones.
No sooner had he finished, did the sound of his aunt's frantic calls reach him through the house. "—eo! Theo! THEO!" Auntie called urgently.
"Coming!" Theodore replied, slipping over magazines in an effort to leave the stinking garage, murder shrine and alien drone behind. "Auntie?"
"Up here!" He followed the sound of her voice to the top of the stairs where the ladder into the attic remained open. Glancing up he was met with the sight of Uncle Diego & Auntie Allison awkwardly trying to move an unconscious and bleeding Uncle Five down the ladder.
"Auntie?" Theodore puzzled, "What happened? Did you kill him?"
"Nevermind" Uncle Diego replied. "Just help us get him down"
The next few moments were spent trying to decide how to best fit Uncle Five through the opening without further damaging his wound. In the end, Theodore raised a splayed hand to his bloody uncle and gripping him with telekinesis slowly floated him down until Theodore was able to get a good hold on him. Shifting his arms slightly until Uncle Five rested comfortably in his arms, Theodore let the liquid loralite flow from his forearms and mould itself to his smallest uncle like a silicone glacier. "What the hell is that?" Uncle Diego demanded, eyes narrowed on the loralite encasing his brother as Theodore moved out of the way to let him and Auntie hurriedly descend the ladder.
"It's loralite" Theodore replied as if it were obvious, "It heals"
"Whatever it is, just get him in the car" Auntie interrupted. "He needs a hospital!"
"No hoshital!" Slurred Uncle Five as they slid into the back seat of the Rolls-Royce.
"Five—!"
"NO!"
"I know some first-aid if that helps…" Theodore piped up, gripping tight to his uncle as they flew down the road.
"That's fine, but a shrapnel wound's a bit more serious than what you're use to" Auntie gently denied, "He needs to go to the hospital!"
"No!" Uncle Five continued to moan.
"…Fine, we'll see if Pogo can help" Uncle Diego decided, swinging the car around.
"Diego—!"
"What? He's clearly not gonna co-operate if we take 'im to a hospital!"
"I still think we should've taken him to the hospital!" Auntie griped as she propped the door open for Theodore to shuffle through with arms full of bleeding uncle.
"Kid wish shrapnel wound migh' raish some queshions…" Slurred Uncle Five as he was deposited on a nearby couch and the silicone-like loralite receded back into Theodore's arms.
"Yeah, well, so does the murder shrine in Harold Jenkins' house!"
"Nngh!"
"He's still losing a lot of blood. What do we do?"
"We gotta get the shrapnel out" Uncle Diego automatically replied before wandering off to catch Nana before she disappeared up the stairs.
"I can do it" Theodore rolled up his sleeves as he sat on the floor next to the couch, "Auntie, can you get a bowl please?"
"Uh…ri—right" Auntie Allison shakily nodded before hurriedly searching the bar for some kind of bowl.
"Eyes please" Theodore murmured to Loren who quickly switched his Human orbs for the Loric ones, filling his sclera with alien blue. With vision now improved tenfold, Theodore quickly set to work plucking the metal from the shrapnel wound and into the olive bowl that Auntie had procured with loralite encrusted fingers.
"How…?" Uncle Five moaned, his voice thick with pain as he tried to stay awake.
"Hm?" Theodore hummed as Auntie hovered nearby, gripping tight onto Uncle Five's hand, more for her own comfort than his.
"How do you know what to do?" Auntie clarified.
"Oh, 'cause Teachers liked using physical punishments and Deans aren't very motherly" Theodore replied absentmindedly.
"Physical punishments? At St Gregorys?"
"No"
"Then where?"
"From before, at School"
"What like pre-school?" Auntie asked aghast.
"No, the centre in Arizona"
"Vanya moved to Arizona?"
"No" Theodore dropped the last of the shrapnel pinched between loralite claws as Auntie's expression grew frustrated at the vague answers he gave her. Her narrowed eyes remained trained on her nephew as a small piece of loralite liquified and dripped down onto Uncle Five's bare stomach.
"Wha you doin'?" Uncle Five tried to see.
"Just getting the last little bit" Theodore replied, "This might hurt"
"Wha—?" Uncle Five's confused expression quickly morphed into pain as the liquified loralite crawled towards his open wound like a slimy blue slug and slid inside. In the time it took for Auntie to process what she was seeing, the little loralite slug had returned and crawled back out of the wound where it was now covered in blood and had tiny shrapnel pieces embedded inside it.
"I think I got most of it" Theodore plucked the little slug from Uncle Five's stomach and deposited it into the olive bowl beside him. "But you might wanna get Nana, just in case"