THE ATTACK BEGINS.
One month later…
Chuckie Finster walked down the street, heading to his girlfriend's apartment to have breakfast together. He was wearing his favorite green jacket, with a blue T-shirt and black jeans. With a closer look, however, you could see a little bit of red tights under the shirt, combining with his red and yellow sneakers, and also a little mass on his back, who was actually a hood with antennae covered by the jacket.
Despite the fact Chuckie never used a mask, and always wore his glasses as his alter ego, the ColoRed Chuck, his identity was still a secret. First of all, the colorful disguise attracted so much attention many people hardly noticed his face's features, and usually confused the glasses with some kind of mask. Second, there were very few photographs of him, and almost all were took at a distance, generally focusing on his disguise. And last, the ColoRed Chuck had a bravery's reputation, and, since he was a well known scaredy-cat, and only the ones who spent a lot of time with the ColoRed Chuck noticed this characteristic in the hero as well, it was really hard to suspect from him. Only his family and closest friends and allies knew his secret.
One of those close ones was Angelica Pickles. Chuck met her almost two years ago, when saving the girl from Tim Thug, her ex-boyfriend and a well known criminal. After that, they dated a couple of times, and eventually became her boyfriend. Even if Angelica sometimes could be really bossy, and enjoyed teasing him, she really loved him, and admired his labor as a superhero. Sure, sometimes she could get scared because of the risk he was exposed, but she was getting used to it, and the fact he could at times cancel a date, or even run away at the middle of one, to attend an emergency. He always made his best to compensate the blonde when he came back, and enjoyed having someone who accepted him and his way of life. He even invited her to some of his meetings at the Union of Superheroes, Paladins, and Similar, and the girl made good friends among his colleagues; surprisingly, she discovered one of her relatives was part of the Union as well, and a close friend of her boyfriend.
Chuckie arrived at Angelica's place, and rang the bell. After a few minutes of nothing happening, Chuckie did it again, with the same results. Angelica was always eager to receive him, so Chuck got a little puzzled. He took out a copy of Angie's apartment's key she gave him a few months ago, and opened the door. After a few seconds, he took a look at the place, and wide opened his eyes in panic.
"CHANFLE!" Chuckie exclaimed when noticed huge red letters on one wall, with a menacing message.
WE GOT THE GIRL. HER TIME AND HIS HAD COME.
After a few minutes of shock, Chuckie started searching the apartment for any clue, being careful of touching nothing to not ruin any evidence. After 10 minutes, Chuckie decided to call the cops, using his superhero name to be sure they would get there faster.
One hour later, Chuckie, on his superhero outfit, was talking with Lt Susie Carmichael, while Laboratory Officer Edwin Carmichael and his team were checking the apartment. Lots of cops and detectives were around the place, interrogating the neighbors and keeping the curious people away. Despite trying to keep his heroic image, Chuckie was still looking down, and obviously worried.
"I don't get it, Susie. I had been really careful so nobody out of my trusted ones would know Angelica is my girl. How this could happen?" Chuck was on the verge of tears, with Susie trying to cheer him up.
"Don't worry, friend. We'll use all our resources to look for her. She is a protected witness, after all, so the Department will make this a top priority. Maybe this wasn't related to you at all, and is because of her old relationship with McNulty." Somehow, this explanation wasn't helping Chuckie at all. Then, he heard a well known male voice behind him.
"Susie is right, Chuck. And you know everyone at the Union is willing to help you as well. Our families and friends are sacred to all of us, and nobody can touch any of them without receiving punishment." Chuckie turned to see his friend Tommy Pickles, aka Okey Dokey Jones, entering the apartment in his usual explorer-like outfit, complete with a brown fedora and a whip hanging from his hip. Chuck smiled a little, and saluted his friend their usual way, touching fists.
At that moment, Sgt Harold Rumkin, holding a note-pad, approached the trio, with Edwin at his side. Chuck, Tommy, and Susie turned to see the red-haired guy, and hear his reports.
"Well, we had checked the whole place." Harold started, while looking at his notes. "It seems Angelica was kidnapped without any violence. There is no broken furniture, but we found that the bedroom's window was forced; it seems it was an expert job, because the lock is almost undamaged." Harold paused, allowing Edwin to continue.
"The message was written with regular paint. However, we found traces of some kind of narcotic substance on the rug. It seems that the kidnapper released a doses of sleeping gas on Angelica's bedroom, and, once she was unconscious, this person opened the door from the inside to take her out. We are going to check some hair samples, as well as the marks left on the rug, to see if we can find out who did this... apparently, there were at least 2 kidnappers." Edwin stopped, and Harold continued, while reading his notes.
"We had calculated that the whole thing happened at early hours of the morning, when nobody was awake, so there are no witnesses. It seems that the night watcher could had been drugged as well, because commented he felt really sleepy during his shift. We are taking him to the Station to practice him some analysis as well." Harold concluded.
Chuck and Tommy were now more concerned about Angie's state. This was obviously a professional job, and a very well planned one. Tommy was also fearing that Angelica was kidnapped because his identity was public knowledge ("Okey Dokey Jones" was a nickname more than a real hero name), and she was his cousin; both he and the ColoRed Chuck had made many enemies through the years, and half of them would be glad to do this. Tommy made a reputation of recovering artifacts stolen from really dangerous crooks around the world, and Chuckie, despite his clumsiness, had filled half of the prison's cells just in their hometown.
"I hope we can discover who did this." Chuckie said. "I'm almost willing is one criminal we know... as the old and known proverb says, the evil you know is your enemies closer." Chuckie shook his head, realizing his mistake.
"No... I mean, keep your friends close and better than the good to know." Chuckie said, and slapped his forehead.
"No, it's not like that! The evil you know comes from close enemies... and the better you know them for good, you can keep them away from your friends... and is good to keep friends close...Oh, chanfle, why I have to get this confused right now!" Chuckie groaned in frustration. Tommy and Susie, as well as Edwin and Harold, decided to keep silence, since Chuck was already upset enough because of Angelica's kidnapping.
A moment later, Susie's attention was required by Officer Lillian Deville, who ran next to her and whispered something at her ear. Obviously it was really important, since she ignored the presence of both Tommy and Chuckie, and Susie wide opened her eyes. The young lieutenant sighed, and directed to Chuck, in a low voice.
"It seems you were right, ColoRed. Whoever did this to Angelica, is one of your enemies." Susie paused, and took a deep breath before talking again. "There's another kidnapped person, and the crime scene is a lot like this one. The victim is Captain Kimi Wattanabe."