In the tiny back alley was a rusty, disused-looking metal door. Still glancing over his shoulder, he approached it and knocked.
"Password?" Came a raspy voice from inside.
"'My Name Ain't Mister'," Ace smoothly answered.
The heavy door creaked open, and another green-skinned boy greeted the three into the dim. This one was short and sinuous, with thin, needly, reptilian features.
"You did it, man!" He cried, giving Ace a triumphant bear hug. "I knew you'd find her!"
"Did ya ever doubt it when I had guys like you backin' me up?" Ace answered, thumping a friendly hand on his companion's back.
Johnny noticed three other boys with the same light green skin standing about the room, making five in all.
"That's the Gangreen Gang," Buttercup explained. "They're a part of our team." "Team?" Johnny repeated, growing more unsure and overwhelmed by all the shocking new information he had had to take on board.
The old abandoned general store turned out to be a covert outpost, a gathering point for those whose actions may not have pleased Lord Alecto. It was safely hidden from the public eye in a location that was mostly out of the crime-lord's reach.
The shortest boy pointed to Johnny. "Who is el idiota?" He asked curtly in a coarse Hispanic brogue.
"Some kid Buttercup picked up in the past," Ace replied casually, dismissing Johnny like some expendable comic relief. "We'll return him home when we get the chance. What did you say your name was, Squirt?"
Here the others snickered.
Johnny put his hands on his hips with a look of irritated pride. "My name's Johnny, and I'm not a squirt, you stooge! I'm probably the same age as you!"
"Oooh," Ace taunted, "Big words from a little man!" He drew a hand across the top of Johnny's head demonstrating their height difference.
The others now indulged in a hearty laugh at the boy's expense, Buttercup included.
Then, good-naturedly, Ace announced "C'mon, let's get going before Ms. K starts to worry. Snake, man, you bring up the rear for us, okay?"
The reptilian boy nodded congenially, seeming glad to have been picked for the assignment.
"Where are we going now? " Johnny wanted to know, but his new status as the group's target for adolescent teasing prevented anyone from providing him with an answer.
Leading the troupe into a dingy, almost pitch black room, Ace knelt down to what was now a concrete floor. With the help of a particularly large and stout member of the Gang, he lifted up a hefty gutter grate.
"Eeewww…" Johnny blurted out, "we're going into the sewer? " No wonder these boys had such sickly skin!
"Move it, Squirt," Snake barked, pushing him down the slimy ladder as the others went.
One of the boys flicked on a flood lamp. Johnny now saw that they were standing on the edge of a pool of putrid sewage that flowed along a long, low tunnel.
"Let's go," Ace announced, and in single file the six teenage boys tiptoed precariously along the edge of the river, taking care not to step in the smelly liquid. Buttercup effortlessly hovered over the sludge, a smile on her face that was equal parts ease and smugness.
"Show off," Johnny grumbled.
After what seemed like hours stumbling along in the stinky darkness, taking countless twists and turns in the pipes that had been memorised perfectly by the green quintet, the group finally came to an open chamber in the sewer system. A huge doorway, resembling a porthole, was situated in one high wall. As they approached it, Johnny noticed a small rectangular keypad to its side. Ace punched in a stream of numbers and the door shuddered open with a resonating metallic twang.
What they stepped into was a welcome change from the sewer-a large and well lit underground chamber with a tiled floor. It was musty with the feel of abandonment, but at least it was somewhat clean. It was not featureless by far: in amongst a lot of other bulky objects that cluttered the floor Johnny spied what looked like public benches, turnstiles and ticket booths. In fact, it almost looked like…
"Pokey Oaks Train Station?" Johnny repeated.
"Alecto shut down mass transit," said Ace, "in fact he cemented over all the entrances to the metropolitan stations. That's good for us, since it gives us a lot more security."
Johnny raised an eyebrow. "You're quite the authority on this Alecto guy, aren't ya?" he noted almost rudely.
"I gotta be," the green boy retorted. "It's for the good of the team."
"Oh right, your 'gangly gang' or whatever," Johnny muttered.
"Team Eumenide," Ace corrected pointedly, not taking any humour at all in Johnny's indifferent attitude. "C'mon, I think there's some people you should meet."
To Be Continued. . .