The United Forums of Neptune Circle

Chapter 6: The Investigation

Fargoth extended his hand to Agent X, who had gotten up from his chair to examine his new ally. Fargoth was a bit messy, wearing an old dark brown cowboy hat and a dark green trench-coat that covered most of his body. The man had also lacked sleep, as could be seen in the circles under his eyes. He looked horribly unprofessional but X shook his hand nonetheless.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Fargoth," said Agent X.

"Yeah, same here…" replied Fargoth.

"Now: I want the two of you to go out and rescue Gado from these terrorists. If we give up the money then we'll end up with more kidnappings from terrorists who think they can get away with the same thing. Not only that, but Gado is one of the wealthiest people in the world. If anything should happen to him, our economy would plunge!" yelled the Governor.

"Alright, let's get going!" yelled Fargoth, running towards the door.

"Hold on there, Sparky," X said as Fargoth froze near the door. "Mr. Yokozuma, do you happen to have a recording of your telephone conversation?"

"Why, yes I do! I record all of my telephone conversations, just like my idol: former American President Richard Nixon!!"

"Let's listen to that first. We may be able to find some sort of clue in the tape," suggested X.

"Fine…" grumbled Fargoth.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BearFrog and Turtle stood outside the gate that guarded Gado's house. The white mansion was quite a beauty, even in this incredibly dark night. The moon was covered by clouds but some light managed to escape and illuminate the large house.

BearFrog walked to the side calmly and faced the large stone wall on the left of the metal picket gate. Taking out a grappling hook from his belt, BearFrog swung the device around in circles before finally releasing it. The hook did it's job marvelously and attached itself to the top of the wall. After tugging on it slightly, BearFrog began to climb the wall with his sidekick following.

Once they reached the top, BearFrog grabbed the grappling hook and re-attached it to his belt. After that BearFrog gracefully jumped on the ground, landing on one foot. Turtle, however, slipped and fell down on his back. BearFrog quickly helped his companion up, and then immediately headed towards a large tree near then house. He could have easily climbed it up quickly, but he helped his companion up on the way.

When they had reached a branch that was high enough to satisfy BearFrog, he once again took out the grappling hook and hurled it at a nearby window. The shot was perfect. It landed right on the windowsill, and when BearFrog pulled it up he opened the window from the outside.

"That's quite a jump, BearFrog." Turtle said, looking feverishly scared.

"Yes it is. Do you think you can make it?" asked his companion.

"Well, I uh-not sure really, possibly maybe…"

While Manson was rambling BearFrog got behind him and picked up his companion with both arms.

"BearFrog!? What are you doi-"

Swish! BearFrog tossed Turtle through the window into Gado's study. Turtle flew over Gado's desk and landed on the ground with a thud. He rolled on the ground a bit and ended up hitting against one of Gado's bookcases, which caused a few books to fall on him. Luckily, very little noise was made in this little excursion.

BearFrog then jumped into the room from the tree, magnifying glass in hand, ready to begin his investigation.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"This is a complete waste of time," Fargoth commented angrily as they listened to the tape again in the sound studio inside the Cloverland police station. "We didn't find anything out the first thirty times we listened to the damn conversation, why would we find anything this time?"

"Shh!" yelled X, listening carefully.

"There won't be no investigation, less you want yo boy to die."

"The more time we spend on listening to this garbage the less time we have to stop the terrorists!"

"Shh!"

"The man who took your beloved billionaire. If you want him back alive then you must bring fifty million dollars in unmarked bills in an unbugged suitcase to the old E5 mansion at midnight two days from now."

"We won't find out anything from this tape, X!"

"…You're right, we won't. We had best head to some old Clock Crew hideouts and check there for clues."

"Bout time."

Fargoth and X exited the police station and walked toward X's car. Once they both got seated, Agent X handed Fargoth a laptop computer.

"Get me a profile of E5 and the schematics for the mansion," X clock said as he turned the key.

"No way, I ain't your servant boy!"

"Just do it," X said without even looking at him.

Grumbling, Fargoth obeyed the order, to an extent. As opposed to using a government database, he just googled the information and brought up two webpages. After closing up a few pop-up ads, Fargoth began to read X the information.

"Name: Edgar Evan Eli Enzo Ellis a.k.a. E5.

Born August 12th, 1959

Died February 5th, 2001

Born into a wealthy family of politicians, E5 had been planning his political career since grade-school. After spending years working for various charities, he began running in local elections and was well known for his positive campaigning. After becoming the Governor of Tahano, he ran in the 2000 presidential election against Rocky Pinnicle.

The campaign was fierce and Rocky Pinnicle would not let up on his ruthless campaign strategy, and thus E5 was forced to fight back with his own negative ads. Rocky and E5 had once been friends, but after the election they had said so many things that they could no longer continue any sort of friendship.

E5 died is car crash in early 2001, his last words were spent asking for Rocky's forgiveness. No response was given from the president."

"Alright, and the mansion?"

Fargoth looked on the page and decided to just sum it up.

"The E5 mansion is built in classic Victorian style, 5 stories high with a large wine cellar underneath. The thing is built like a maze, and with no one to take care of it the place has become a dusty dump and has crumbled in many areas, so certain pathways may be blocked off with wood debris."

"Interesting…very interesting…"

"So should we investigate the mansion first? We can look for possible routes of escape our kidnappers could take and we could find out a way to find and trap them."

"No, we don't have time to waste. You'll just have to study the schematics."

"Pffh. I hate studying," Fargoth said as he tossed the laptop computer in the back seat.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I dare say, BearFrog, I doubt we'll find anything of importance in here. Mr. Gado had no idea he was going to be kidnapped!" flabbergasted Turtle.

"Very true, Manson. Our Mr. Gado did not plan to be kidnapped today, but there is still some imperative evidence in this very room that could lead us right to the philanthropist!" exclaimed his partner.

"What evidence could possibly be in here?"

BearFrog opened up a desk drawer and took out a small lap-top computer. He opened it up and immediately the screen showed something that looked like a city, only in radar form, blinking every so-often.

"This, my dear friend, is a tracking device. This will lead us right to Gado."

"But how?" asked Manson, dumbfounded.

"Elementary, my dear Manson. Gado the Lion is a man who creates all sorts of animes. He had a brand new DVD of his latest project, but to ensure it wasn't stolen and distributed before it's debut release, Gado placed a tracking device inside the DVD box. He does this with all of his new projects."

"Old friend you never cease to amaze me! Ho ho ho!" laughed Turtle.

"Come now, Manson! We haven't a moment to lose!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

X had white rubber gloves on now as he examined the dusty cubicles in the abandoned office building. Cloverland's economy was awful. Businesses were leaving every day, not even bothering to sell the property. Gado had made many attempts to improve this city's economy, but it wasn't working.

X looked down on the ground and carefully picked up a can of spray-paint. He knew who this belonged to. He examined it gently and emotionlessly before noticing a few drops of red paint on the ground. Following the path of tiny dots, X ended up facing a door at the far end of the room. X reached for the handle and turned.

Locked.

X took out his gun silently and shot the door hinges (scaring Fargoth) and then kicked down the door and entered the small dark room. Once again, X was disappointed. Like the previous three hideouts, there were no clues in this one. The room was empty, devoid of any clues that could possibly help them.

X sighed as he leaned up against a wall, accidentally turning on the light switch. He gasped when he saw what was on the four walls in the room. Graffiti was all over the walls, all of it done in spray-paint. X stepped into the center of the room, amazed, and began spinning in circles slowly, examining the paint job. This was the clue he needed. All he had to do was figure out what the clue was.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Boom!

BearFrog kicked down the boarded up door and entered the shack of a house. The place he entered was very dirty, with tons of litter on the ground. BearFrog stepped on old McDonald's wrappers and empty cans of spray-paint until he walked up to a rather pathetic looking television set and a DVD player. On top of DVD player was the box that they were looking for.

Unfortunately, there was no Gado here.

"Quite an unexpected development…" BearFrog said to himself, rubbing his chin. He hadn't expected a member of the gang would take the DVD home and watch it. BearFrog wondered if 'Magical Princess Hitomi' was good.

"What now, BearFrog?" asked Manson.

BearFrog didn't answer, simply remaining in his own world of thought. He walked towards the spray-painted wall and examined it carefully. On the wall there was tons of graffiti of all different kinds. The one who did all of these had real artistic talent. But BearFrog wasn't admiring the art. He had found a clue.

"Rache"

Rache, written in red spray-paint was in the dark lower right hand corner of the wall. BearFrog smiled at this bit of nostalgia and then noticed a leaf symbol with a B on the left side of it and a C on the other.

BearFrog turned around silently and said "Come, Manson."

"But BearFr-"

"Do not worry. Our talented little friend has left me clue and I know how to use it. Come along now."

The duo entered the outside world and looked around at the poverty surrounding them. While Turtle was nervous, BearFrog was angry. He was angry that Ziggy 45 got a government handout than the entire population of Cloverland. He then wondered exactly what kind of society he was protecting so fiercely. He sighed inwardly but then saw the two men his clue had led him to. He walked towards them swiftly, with a confused Turtle Manson following.

"Why the fuck did you want to go to Neptune Circle anyway, Bob? We don't have enough money to get back to the states and now we've got no food, no money, and most importantly: no babes. What kind of chick would wanna hang out with a couple of dumb-shits like us?"

Bob, wearing his green jacket and backwards baseball cap, simply shrugged at his friend wearing the snow cap and yellow jacket.

"Shut up, fatty!"

"Excuse me, gentlemen," BearFrog interrupted from behind them.

"Who the fuck are you?" asked the yellow jacketed man as he turned around, swirling his long blonde hair.

"We are a couple of college professors studying urban art and we were wondering if you could possibly assist us."

"Urban art? I don't know anything about urban art."

"Graffiti."

"Oh! I know the shit about that stuff!"

"Well, Mr.-"

"Jay. And this is my hetero life partner Silent Bob."

"I'm BearFrog and my comrade over behind me is Turtle Manson. Mr. Jay, can you tell me where any 'Clock Crew' graffiti is?"

"Hell yeah, that shit is all over the place."

"Can you direct me to some?"

"Fuck no! The Clock Crew will kick my ass if I do!"

BearFrog holds his hand to his chin again and considers this for a moment. Then, reaching in his pocket, he took out a handful of large silver coins.

"Do you know what these are?" asked BearFrog.

"Money, man…"

"Yes, this is some of Neptune Circle's currency. Each of these is worth fifty dollars in American money."

"Holy shit!"

"Now, can you direct me towards some Clock Crew artwork?" asked BearFrog as he dropped his coins in Jay's open hand.

"Sure thing, man! Just head down that way about 3 blocks and there will be a vacant lot with a brick wall covered in Clock Crew art stuffs."

"Thank you," said BearFrog as he walked towards the way Jay had pointed him but then he stopped and turned back towards Jay, taking a small gold coin out of his pocket.

"Here," said BearFrog as he tossed the coin, "Teach Turtle how to rap."

"BearFrog, by the time you get back he'll be 'Rap Master Turtle!'" yelled Jay.

"Excellent. Well, I'll see you guys later…"

"BearFrog!" yelled Turtle, following the leaving BearFrog. "Wait! Shouldn't I come?"

"No, I'll be fine. Go on Turtle, make friends with our new acquaintances," BearFrog said calmly and happily. He wanted Turtle to stay for other reasons he would not tell his friend. Namely where he was going. If he was correct, these clues would lead him to a place that would put Turtle man in serious risk. Not that Turtle hasn't ever been at risk before, but this place would be too risky to bring Turtle along. Thus did BearFrog bare his friend farewell and head off to decipher the clues hidden in the graffiti.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BearFrog hadn't slept in quite some time and was tired from the long day of traveling around the city, following the trail of clues left behind in the graffiti. Each clue would lead him to a new piece of graffiti art, which then had a clue inside of it. But eventually he reached the last clue.

On the large wall was a needle, a biker guy and a heart. This one was so obvious he laughed out loud. A tattoo parlor. BearFrog laughed as he turned around to see the nearby tattoo parlor. There was his destination. BearFrog clenched his fists and slowly moved toward his target, readying himself for the dangerous event that was about to take place.