Chapter 5
"Boy oh boy, it don't look like nobody' home, I wonder if Lee's back yet," Carter said.
"Just pulled in, look," Thorn pointed.
"Don't point, don't you know that's not polite?"
"What do you care? It's 12:00 at night, everything's dark," she replied.
At that, Lee came from around the corner of the building to face them.
"Carter, one of Leaboo's men cut me off on the road and tried to kill me," Lee informed.
"I know, the same thing happened to us," Carter replied.
"I don't think it's safe to be here anymore," Lee said.
"Don't be ridiculous, they've already been shot, what more trouble can they do?" Thorn asked.
"Besides, they'd be expecting us to leave, as long as we're up here, we're safe," Carter said, as they got off the elevator.
"I say we stay up here, we can watch to see if anyone's coming," Thorn suggested.
"Thorn, Lee and I need to talk in private," Carter said.
"Fine, I'll go into the living room and watch the late, late, late early show," Thorn said sarcastically.
"Lee, I can't say the same for you, but we can't take a chance on leaving Thorn alone anymore than necessary," Carter said.
"I'm aware, Carter, but if we take her everyplace we do, Leaboo will catch on," Lee replied.
While they had their conversation, Thorn was in the living room watching 'Bat & Brawl', an old 3 Stooge cartoon, set back during the French Revolution. The 3 Stooges were soldiers, keeping a top-secret message away from a vampire, Count Duncula.
"Ow! He got me on the ear!" Curly Joe exclaimed.
Thorn watched as Duncula bit and flew away with the message in his teeth.
"Hey Thorn! We're gonna, what is this?" Carter asked.
"Channel 47 is having an all night vampire marathon," Thorn replied.
Carter turned to face Thorn and almost fell down laughing, she was standing on her head upside-down on the couch, with her arms spread out like vampire wings.
"Whatever, I think all this commotion's got you batty," Carter said.
Carter left into the next room to talk with Lee, just as he did, a hand reached for Thorn from behind the curtains. However, she already noticed it, she screamed loud enough for Carter and Lee to hear her. They rushed into the living room to see her fighting with a man three times her own size, Carter picked up a lamp and bashed him over the head with it.
However, it hardly effected him at all, he started yelling at them, but while he was doing that, Thorn sneaked up behind him and bit him on the neck, just like a vampire. The man gasped and dropped to the floor, dead, possibly.
"Thorn, what do you think you're doing?" Carter asked.
Thorn spit out two of her teeth, or so it seemed, Lee picked them up and realized what they were.
"These look like transparent gel teeth, what they're used for I don't know," he explained.
"Thorn, what's the deal?" Carter asked.
"Carter, look!" Thorn yelled.
Carter's eyes bugged out as the man's body dissolved, starting with the bite marks on his neck, until it completely dissolved, leaving a metal skeleton.
"He was a robot?"
"Leaboo seeks my demise through every trick in the book, even this stuff...Artificial skin was used to cover his metal body, therefore, people would assume he's human. But, the acid will eat away at just about any skin," Thorn explained.
"Thorn, you mean, you already knew about the acid?" Lee asked.
"Yeah, I managed to get ahold of some of it, and implanted it in the teeth, Hojun's men sometimes invent new weapons and other equipment for self defense, especially since Leaboo came around. Normally they're used for injecting arsenic or something...I bite down on someone's skin, and the acid is injected into them...it's very dangerous, but I figured, if anyone got near me, I'd bite them, and...anyway I better go get something to clean up this mess," Thorn left.
Carter eyed Lee that he got the point, he was to follow her and make sure that nothing else happened. Meanwhile, Carter got to work in disposing of the titanium steel body.
Thorn approached a small storage room down on the first floor, and went through all the bottled liquids and chemicals kept there, and one by one, she pitched them.
"Cooking fat, *toss* glue remover, *toss* whip cream, *toss* perfume, *toss* phooey."
Little did Thorn know however, that while Lee was watching her behind a shelf, someone outside of the room was carrying a bottle of the red acid, the lid had been removed and was ready to be thrown.
"Nope, nope, nope, nope, trizoac acid, nope."
Thorn tossed the bottle of acid and it hit the red bottle, smashing it right on the man's hand, he screamed and ran away.
"What was that?" Thorn turned around.
"Someone was trying to kill you with acid, but when you threw the trizoic acid, he ran because both bottles smashed on his hand," Lee explained.
"Lee, you moron! Don't you know what trizoic acid does? It blows up! Why in the hell didn't it do it just now!?" Thorn asked.
"I don't know, but the main thing is, he's gone now," Lee told her.
Great, now what'll we do?" Thorn asked.
"Follow me."
"Where're we going?"
"Doctor."
"I don't need no doctor, Lee," Thorn replied.
"No but you will," Lee returned.
"I'm not going anywhere with you," Thorn said.
"Trust me, I know what I'm doing," Lee said.
"You always say that and you're never right," Thorn replied.
"So? Something right has to happen to me sooner or later," Lee said.
"Yeah, well the day that happens to you is the day I bite--"
With that, Thorn got conked out by a falling light, she later woke up in what looked like a hospital. Struggling to get up, she saw two syringes filled with a liquid, at first she assumed it was acid, but there was a bottle next to her full of it, it read, DEMORAL. Jittery by the sight of it, Thorn threw the bottle into the air, causing it to crash on the floor, a masked doctor walked in.
"Hey doc, what am I in for?" Thorn asked.
"You're in because you got knocked out by a falling object two days ago," he replied.
"Two days? Man, it sure seems like longer than that," Thorn said.
The doctor went over to Thorn's bed and placed one hand on her head to flatten her down.
"What're you doing?" she asked.
"Relax, I'm going to give you an injection that will help you rest," he said.
Thorn eyed the needle and realized it was the Demoral, she kicked it out of his hand and screamed. Carter and Lee came rushing in through the door, Carter pulled out his gun and pointed it at the doctor while Lee helped Thorn out of the bed.
They ran out in the middle of the hospital and started yelling, that got all the doctors, nurses, gurneys and wheelchairs out of the other room and into the main hallway. Carter took out his gun again and started yelling in a foreign language to the nurses. The three rushed out into the middle of rush hour traffic and dove into their car to getaway. Lee put the key in the ignition, and they tore out of there.
"You know what, Carter?" Thorn asked.
"What?
"I didn't know you spoke Portuguese."
"I don't," Carter realized.
"I can vouch for that, he just told the nurses to 'go out in the street during traffic, and yell 'chicken'!" Lee replied.
"Where'd you learn how to speak Portuguese?" Carter asked.
"I took it up in night school," Lee explained.
"Never mind, let's just get out of here before we're blown all over the street," Thorn said.
"Yeah, we can kill each other later," Carter added.
"Well, let's go," Lee said, making a right turn.
Lee parked the car and they headed up to their apartment, Carter noticed Thorn seemed unbalanced and lightheaded.
"Thorn, what the hell all happened in the hospital? One of the damn doctors mess you up or something?" Carter asked.
"I don't know...how long was I even there?" Thorn quietly asked.
"A couple of hours, we were in the waiting room expecting the doctor to ex'plain your condition," Lee started.
"Then we heard you screaming and went in to see what the hell was going on," Carter said.
"He must've been one of Leaboo's men, he was trying to put me under with Demoral," Thorn explained.
As Thorn seated herself on the couch to rest, the phone rang and Carter answered, it was Hojun, he needed to speak with them again, but this time they couldn't bring Thorn. Carter agreed and told him he and Lee would arrive shortly, then he hung up.
"Who was 'dat?" Lee asked.
"Hojun, we have to see him again, he said to keep you here, so stay out of trouble if possible, Thorn," Carter said.
"Are you kidding? You sound as if you don't trust me," she replied.
"We don't!"
Thorn quickly became unsteady and passed out, hitting the floor in her fall, Carter picked her up while Lee rambled on like the idiot he was.
"What do we do?" he asked.
"Go get a bottle," Carter said.
"Right," Lee took off on one foot and spun back around on the other. "Hey, you know how hard it is to get a bottle in this town," Lee said.
"Water ya idiot," Carter replied.
"Ohhhhhhhh," Lee said.
Thorn slowly started moving and finally opened her eyes, "Forget the water," Thorn said, "make it a 96, on the rocks."
"What?" Carter asked.
Thorn laid rested against Carter, she started shaking and mumbling in obvious confusion.
"Ohhhhhhhh, mammy, it's your dear boy Sammy, coming home from Alabamy, so put on those eggs and hammy, don't flim flam me mammy," Thorn muttered.
"Give me that bottle of water," Carter said.
Lee went into the kitchen and came back out with a bottle of ice-water, and handed it to Carter. He took the bottle and poured it on Thorn, she jumped for the ceiling.
"Carter!" she screamed, "What the hell was that for!?!"
"To get you back to normal, if that's even possible," Carter replied, "Did it work?"
Thorn dropped down from the ceiling and back on her feet, "I...guess so...thanks."
"Maybe that doctor did screw with you in the hospital," Lee said.
Carter and Thorn stared at Lee with confused glares.
"Not like that!" Lee said, realizing what they thought, "you know what I mean!"
"I don't think he did," Thorn replied, "I'm just tired...I just want to lay down and....oh....."
"What?" Carter asked.
"Nothing, I just remembered how that sentence usually ended...and I don't want to die anytime soon," Thorn replied.
"So Thorn, do you think you can stay here alone for a while and not cause any trouble?" Carter asked.
"What do I look like, Dennis the Menace? I'll be fine, you two go on, see what Hojun needs, come back, and we'll put together a plan for Leaboo, now go on, get going," Thorn said as she tried shoving them out of the door.
"Allright, we'll go, just remember, stay out of trouble!" Carter said.
"Or else what?" Thorn asked.
"What do you mean or else what?" Carter asked.
"What will you do if I don't?" Thorn asked.
"Thorn, if you get into any more trouble today, I'll introduce you to the rest of the LAPD when I get back!" Carter said.
Recently, everyone back there had become an extreme pain in the ass according to Carter, so he knew someone like Thorn would go crazy if she had to be around them.
"Yeah...then I won't!" Thorn said.
"Good," Carter said.
"Fine," Thorn replied.
"Fine," Carter repeated.
"Good!" Thorn slammed the door in Carter and Lee's faces.
"Well, now that that's settled, let's go see what Hojun wants," Carter said.
"Boy oh boy, it don't look like nobody' home, I wonder if Lee's back yet," Carter said.
"Just pulled in, look," Thorn pointed.
"Don't point, don't you know that's not polite?"
"What do you care? It's 12:00 at night, everything's dark," she replied.
At that, Lee came from around the corner of the building to face them.
"Carter, one of Leaboo's men cut me off on the road and tried to kill me," Lee informed.
"I know, the same thing happened to us," Carter replied.
"I don't think it's safe to be here anymore," Lee said.
"Don't be ridiculous, they've already been shot, what more trouble can they do?" Thorn asked.
"Besides, they'd be expecting us to leave, as long as we're up here, we're safe," Carter said, as they got off the elevator.
"I say we stay up here, we can watch to see if anyone's coming," Thorn suggested.
"Thorn, Lee and I need to talk in private," Carter said.
"Fine, I'll go into the living room and watch the late, late, late early show," Thorn said sarcastically.
"Lee, I can't say the same for you, but we can't take a chance on leaving Thorn alone anymore than necessary," Carter said.
"I'm aware, Carter, but if we take her everyplace we do, Leaboo will catch on," Lee replied.
While they had their conversation, Thorn was in the living room watching 'Bat & Brawl', an old 3 Stooge cartoon, set back during the French Revolution. The 3 Stooges were soldiers, keeping a top-secret message away from a vampire, Count Duncula.
"Ow! He got me on the ear!" Curly Joe exclaimed.
Thorn watched as Duncula bit and flew away with the message in his teeth.
"Hey Thorn! We're gonna, what is this?" Carter asked.
"Channel 47 is having an all night vampire marathon," Thorn replied.
Carter turned to face Thorn and almost fell down laughing, she was standing on her head upside-down on the couch, with her arms spread out like vampire wings.
"Whatever, I think all this commotion's got you batty," Carter said.
Carter left into the next room to talk with Lee, just as he did, a hand reached for Thorn from behind the curtains. However, she already noticed it, she screamed loud enough for Carter and Lee to hear her. They rushed into the living room to see her fighting with a man three times her own size, Carter picked up a lamp and bashed him over the head with it.
However, it hardly effected him at all, he started yelling at them, but while he was doing that, Thorn sneaked up behind him and bit him on the neck, just like a vampire. The man gasped and dropped to the floor, dead, possibly.
"Thorn, what do you think you're doing?" Carter asked.
Thorn spit out two of her teeth, or so it seemed, Lee picked them up and realized what they were.
"These look like transparent gel teeth, what they're used for I don't know," he explained.
"Thorn, what's the deal?" Carter asked.
"Carter, look!" Thorn yelled.
Carter's eyes bugged out as the man's body dissolved, starting with the bite marks on his neck, until it completely dissolved, leaving a metal skeleton.
"He was a robot?"
"Leaboo seeks my demise through every trick in the book, even this stuff...Artificial skin was used to cover his metal body, therefore, people would assume he's human. But, the acid will eat away at just about any skin," Thorn explained.
"Thorn, you mean, you already knew about the acid?" Lee asked.
"Yeah, I managed to get ahold of some of it, and implanted it in the teeth, Hojun's men sometimes invent new weapons and other equipment for self defense, especially since Leaboo came around. Normally they're used for injecting arsenic or something...I bite down on someone's skin, and the acid is injected into them...it's very dangerous, but I figured, if anyone got near me, I'd bite them, and...anyway I better go get something to clean up this mess," Thorn left.
Carter eyed Lee that he got the point, he was to follow her and make sure that nothing else happened. Meanwhile, Carter got to work in disposing of the titanium steel body.
Thorn approached a small storage room down on the first floor, and went through all the bottled liquids and chemicals kept there, and one by one, she pitched them.
"Cooking fat, *toss* glue remover, *toss* whip cream, *toss* perfume, *toss* phooey."
Little did Thorn know however, that while Lee was watching her behind a shelf, someone outside of the room was carrying a bottle of the red acid, the lid had been removed and was ready to be thrown.
"Nope, nope, nope, nope, trizoac acid, nope."
Thorn tossed the bottle of acid and it hit the red bottle, smashing it right on the man's hand, he screamed and ran away.
"What was that?" Thorn turned around.
"Someone was trying to kill you with acid, but when you threw the trizoic acid, he ran because both bottles smashed on his hand," Lee explained.
"Lee, you moron! Don't you know what trizoic acid does? It blows up! Why in the hell didn't it do it just now!?" Thorn asked.
"I don't know, but the main thing is, he's gone now," Lee told her.
Great, now what'll we do?" Thorn asked.
"Follow me."
"Where're we going?"
"Doctor."
"I don't need no doctor, Lee," Thorn replied.
"No but you will," Lee returned.
"I'm not going anywhere with you," Thorn said.
"Trust me, I know what I'm doing," Lee said.
"You always say that and you're never right," Thorn replied.
"So? Something right has to happen to me sooner or later," Lee said.
"Yeah, well the day that happens to you is the day I bite--"
With that, Thorn got conked out by a falling light, she later woke up in what looked like a hospital. Struggling to get up, she saw two syringes filled with a liquid, at first she assumed it was acid, but there was a bottle next to her full of it, it read, DEMORAL. Jittery by the sight of it, Thorn threw the bottle into the air, causing it to crash on the floor, a masked doctor walked in.
"Hey doc, what am I in for?" Thorn asked.
"You're in because you got knocked out by a falling object two days ago," he replied.
"Two days? Man, it sure seems like longer than that," Thorn said.
The doctor went over to Thorn's bed and placed one hand on her head to flatten her down.
"What're you doing?" she asked.
"Relax, I'm going to give you an injection that will help you rest," he said.
Thorn eyed the needle and realized it was the Demoral, she kicked it out of his hand and screamed. Carter and Lee came rushing in through the door, Carter pulled out his gun and pointed it at the doctor while Lee helped Thorn out of the bed.
They ran out in the middle of the hospital and started yelling, that got all the doctors, nurses, gurneys and wheelchairs out of the other room and into the main hallway. Carter took out his gun again and started yelling in a foreign language to the nurses. The three rushed out into the middle of rush hour traffic and dove into their car to getaway. Lee put the key in the ignition, and they tore out of there.
"You know what, Carter?" Thorn asked.
"What?
"I didn't know you spoke Portuguese."
"I don't," Carter realized.
"I can vouch for that, he just told the nurses to 'go out in the street during traffic, and yell 'chicken'!" Lee replied.
"Where'd you learn how to speak Portuguese?" Carter asked.
"I took it up in night school," Lee explained.
"Never mind, let's just get out of here before we're blown all over the street," Thorn said.
"Yeah, we can kill each other later," Carter added.
"Well, let's go," Lee said, making a right turn.
Lee parked the car and they headed up to their apartment, Carter noticed Thorn seemed unbalanced and lightheaded.
"Thorn, what the hell all happened in the hospital? One of the damn doctors mess you up or something?" Carter asked.
"I don't know...how long was I even there?" Thorn quietly asked.
"A couple of hours, we were in the waiting room expecting the doctor to ex'plain your condition," Lee started.
"Then we heard you screaming and went in to see what the hell was going on," Carter said.
"He must've been one of Leaboo's men, he was trying to put me under with Demoral," Thorn explained.
As Thorn seated herself on the couch to rest, the phone rang and Carter answered, it was Hojun, he needed to speak with them again, but this time they couldn't bring Thorn. Carter agreed and told him he and Lee would arrive shortly, then he hung up.
"Who was 'dat?" Lee asked.
"Hojun, we have to see him again, he said to keep you here, so stay out of trouble if possible, Thorn," Carter said.
"Are you kidding? You sound as if you don't trust me," she replied.
"We don't!"
Thorn quickly became unsteady and passed out, hitting the floor in her fall, Carter picked her up while Lee rambled on like the idiot he was.
"What do we do?" he asked.
"Go get a bottle," Carter said.
"Right," Lee took off on one foot and spun back around on the other. "Hey, you know how hard it is to get a bottle in this town," Lee said.
"Water ya idiot," Carter replied.
"Ohhhhhhhh," Lee said.
Thorn slowly started moving and finally opened her eyes, "Forget the water," Thorn said, "make it a 96, on the rocks."
"What?" Carter asked.
Thorn laid rested against Carter, she started shaking and mumbling in obvious confusion.
"Ohhhhhhhh, mammy, it's your dear boy Sammy, coming home from Alabamy, so put on those eggs and hammy, don't flim flam me mammy," Thorn muttered.
"Give me that bottle of water," Carter said.
Lee went into the kitchen and came back out with a bottle of ice-water, and handed it to Carter. He took the bottle and poured it on Thorn, she jumped for the ceiling.
"Carter!" she screamed, "What the hell was that for!?!"
"To get you back to normal, if that's even possible," Carter replied, "Did it work?"
Thorn dropped down from the ceiling and back on her feet, "I...guess so...thanks."
"Maybe that doctor did screw with you in the hospital," Lee said.
Carter and Thorn stared at Lee with confused glares.
"Not like that!" Lee said, realizing what they thought, "you know what I mean!"
"I don't think he did," Thorn replied, "I'm just tired...I just want to lay down and....oh....."
"What?" Carter asked.
"Nothing, I just remembered how that sentence usually ended...and I don't want to die anytime soon," Thorn replied.
"So Thorn, do you think you can stay here alone for a while and not cause any trouble?" Carter asked.
"What do I look like, Dennis the Menace? I'll be fine, you two go on, see what Hojun needs, come back, and we'll put together a plan for Leaboo, now go on, get going," Thorn said as she tried shoving them out of the door.
"Allright, we'll go, just remember, stay out of trouble!" Carter said.
"Or else what?" Thorn asked.
"What do you mean or else what?" Carter asked.
"What will you do if I don't?" Thorn asked.
"Thorn, if you get into any more trouble today, I'll introduce you to the rest of the LAPD when I get back!" Carter said.
Recently, everyone back there had become an extreme pain in the ass according to Carter, so he knew someone like Thorn would go crazy if she had to be around them.
"Yeah...then I won't!" Thorn said.
"Good," Carter said.
"Fine," Thorn replied.
"Fine," Carter repeated.
"Good!" Thorn slammed the door in Carter and Lee's faces.
"Well, now that that's settled, let's go see what Hojun wants," Carter said.