STRESS RELIEF.
Meanwhile, at the Police Station, Chaz and Kira Finster were in an interrogation's room, answering the questions that Detective Shane were asking them about the kidnapping of their daughter. Both were extremely worried, and the officer had to do a great effort to keep them calmed enough to have a dialogue.
"We called her apartment a couple of times..." Chaz explained, sobbing, "...to tell my daughter that we were on our way there... because we were supposed to have lunch together... but she never answered the phone. At first we thought she was on the shower or something... but, when we arrived, and she didn't opened the door... and that horrible message on the wall!" Chaz had to stop to cover his eyes and try to comfort his wife, who was crying on his shoulder.
"Don't worry, sir. We have every available officer working on this case. We hope we can find your daughter and Miss Pickles as soon as possible." Samantha told them in her best cooled tone, but obviously she wasn't so sure about her own words. At that moment, Susie and the ColoRed Chuck entered the room.
"Sam, the ColoRed Chuck wants to talk with the Finsters alone for a moment. Come on." Susie called Samantha, who just nodded and walked through the door after saluting silently the red outfitted hero; she didn't knew Chuck's secret identity, but he had saved her life once, and she admired Kimi's job, so respected both of them a lot.
Once the door was closed, Chuck approached his parents, and then he could forget his hero's role to accept the son and brother's ones. He took his hood down, and hugged Kira and Chaz, who returned the embrace and started crying again.
"Mom, Dad, I'm so sorry! This is all my fault! Kimi is in danger just because of me... and now we have no idea where she or Angelica are...Why they had to do this to them?" Chuckie said between sobs. Despite their sadness, Kira managed to hold her tears for a moment, and tried to comfort her son.
"Chuckie, this is not your fault. Kimi is a cop, and she knew the risks of her job. We actually are glad that you could help her sometimes in your other identity. She and Angelica survived this long thanks to you. You must not blame yourself." Kira kissed Chuck on his cheek. Chaz washed his tears, and spoke to his son next.
"Son, your mother and I don't always like the life style you and Kimi chose, but we had never stopped being proud of both of you. Every time I see the newspaper mentioning that one criminal is behind bars thanks to Kimi, or that you saved a kid that fell into a well, or something like that, I can surely say that your mom and I raised great kids who grew up to be wonderful grown ups. Never think otherwise, son." Chuckie actually felt a little better, and hugged them tighter.
Meanwhile, on the outside, Tommy and Susie were chatting, now without any other officer around. Susie was questioning him about what the Union was doing to help the police.
"Well, Danny and Jenny took a look at Kimi's place after you guys left, and so Catman and myself on Angelica's. The sleeping gas was the same in both cases, and we got a few clues as well. The Union's scientists are now sharing the information with the Police's ones, and we'll hopefully have a couple of answers in the next hour. We are also checking if any ColoRed Chuck's enemy is still at large, or had escaped prison on the last year." Tommy paused and leaned against the wall.
"I just hope he can stand the pressure. I offered him to go rest while some other superhero handled this case, but you know Chuckie. When it comes to his sister, or my cousin, he forgets any fear he might have." Tommy sighed. He was feeling really useless himself, since he was a good investigator, but most of his cases as Okey Dokey Jones involved stolen artifacts, not missing persons, and this one was especially stressful for him because of the involved people. Before Susie could say anything else, Dil approached them, in a lab coat, and with a worried expression as well.
"Hi, bro. Susie." Dil saluted both of them, and then turned to see his brother. "I just came from seeing our uncles; they're really freaked out. No news yet?" Tommy and Susie shook their heads, and she spoke.
"We are still waiting for the lab's results. Chuck is inside the room with his parents." Susie explained. Dil sighed and took out a little jar from his pocket.
"Well, at least I think I can help our friend giving him a new jar of Shrinktolin. He ran out of pills on his last mission, and I had no chances to give him a new jar until now." Dil explained, while looking at the jar.
Besides the shrinking pills, Dil was the inventor behind all Chuckie's equipment, including the antennae and the Skweaky Lumper. When Chuckie and Kimi applied for the police force, he wasn't admitted because the instructors thought he was too geeky and coward for the job, but he still wanted to help people, so Dil offered to invent some things for him to become a superhero. Dil already had invented the pills for Tommy, but his brother could handle almost anything he faced without fancy inventions, so decided to give them to Chuckie. The disguise's design was also Dil's idea, following the concept of making it so colorful and funny nobody would take a second look at Chuck's face, plus making thecriminals understimate him until it was too late for them.
Susie opened the door, and gasped. Kira and Chaz were there, hugging, but Chuckie wasn't. Before she or the Pickles brothers could say a thing, Kira explained.
"He had to go. Someone summoned him. He'll contact us once his job is done. Kimi would be so proud of him." Kira said with a few tears, but keeping a smile. Everyone on the room sighed, but smiled as well. Of course, Dil was also hoping he wouldn't need the pills for his current assignment.
Meanwhile, in Hillwood, a big nosed guy, about 20 years old and wearing a green cap turned backwards, was running for his life. Trying to avoid his chasers, he ran through a maze of alleys, until he stopped in a closed one.When he realized his mistake, turned around to escape, just to find his way obstructed by a slightly smaller guy around his same age, on a very elegant suit, with two huge thugs behind him. The fancy looking guy smiled and talked to his prey in a calmed and friendly way.
"My dear Sid, hadn't learned anything after all these years? You can't escape from your debts, especially if you own me the money." He pointed to the guy. His victim gulped, and tried to find his way out by talking as well.
"But, Gino, I already paid you the last cent a month ago! And besides, we are no longer in Elementary School... you should be able to respect me a little, don't you think?" Sid tried to sound brave, but his fear was easily noticed. Gino shook his head, sighing and then smiling again.
"Oh, yes. The old 118. So many great memories. You are right, Sid. We are no longer kids. That means the interests are bigger now. Also, that Arnold is not going to save your neck as he used to; we are way far his home, or any other of your friends, by the way. And, finally, that also means that, if you don't pay, we have to do something more serious than just having fun with a toilet." Gino ended, and snapped his fingers. Both thugs moved in front of him, slowly heading towards Sid while cracking their knuckles. Sid was now sweating bullets, and leaned against the wall behind him, while looking at the rooftops. Gino noticed this, and laughed.
"Oh, please, Sid, don't tell me that you are counting on Monkeyman to save you. This alley isn't on his regular patrol's path, and I can say the same about that spy girl; besides, there's still sunlight, and they only appear at night, remember?. You are alone in this." Gino leaned against a nearby wall, while looking at Sid like a hungry fox. Sid gasped, and closed his eyes, whispering under his breath.
"Oh... and now, who will defend me?"
CRACK!
Sid opened his eyes to see one of the thugs totally dizzied, and with a broken plant pot on his head; he collapsed after a few seconds. Gino and the other thug were surprised as well, and then heard a voice coming from a window that was on one of the alley's walls.
"I!" Chuckie popped his head out of the window.
"THE COLORED CHUCK!" Gino and the thug exclaimed in surprise, while Sid did it in relief. Chuckie jumped out from the window (who, luckily, wasn't a very high one), and quickly stood in front of Sid, grabbing his Lumper with both hands.
"Didn't count with my cleverness! Are you okay, man?" Chuck said in his hero's voice, turning slightly to see Sid behind him. Sid nodded. "Good. Now, get out of here and call for help while I handle these guys." Sid didn't needed to hear more, and ran away, passing right next to Gino and the thug, who were totally concentrated on the intruder. Gino returned to his cool mood again, and directed all his attention to Chuck.
"So, you're visiting Hillwood, uh? Well, since I represent all the honest local business men, I think is my duty to greet you to our lovely city. FINISH HIM!" Gino told his remaining bodyguard, who immediately obeyed and charged against Chuck.
Chuckie used his Lumper as a sword, blocking a couple of punches. When thegoon realized that he wouldn't be able to just hit him, he jumped against Chuck trying to tackle him, but Chuckie avoided the attack moving fastly at the criminal's right, making him to crash against the wall behind them. Before thecriminal could react, Chuck hit him on his head with the mallet, and then on the chest and chin, knocking him out cold.
Gino gulped. Now, he was alone against the hero. He quickly tried to take a gun out from his suit, but, the moment the weapon was out, Chuck hit his hand with the mallet, making Gino to drop it. Gino now was really scared, and tried to convince Chuck to stop.
"Hehe.. we were just playing, you know? Sid and I are old friends from school... I would never hurt him..." Gino realized that Chuck wasn't exactly on a good mood, and tried a different approach. "Come on, you are supposed to be a hero! You can't hit an unarmed man!" Chuckie then gave Gino a sly smile, and dropped his mallet.
"You are right. But, unfortunately for you, I'm having a very bad day. And, luckily for me, I finally found a way to relief some stress!" Chuckie snapped, while cracking his knuckles. Gino gulped.
About twenty minutes later, Kira received a call on her cell phone. She was still in the interrogation room, along with her husband, Susie, and the Pickles brothers. Kira answered and smiled after a few seconds. Then, she hung off the phone, and, before anyone could ask who called , she took a deep breath, and said, in a fake alarmed voice...
"I really wish my son were here with us. Oh, and now, who will help us?" Kira paused. In a perfect cue, the interrogation room's door opened, and a red outfitted guy entered.
"I." Chuckie said without enthusiasm. He smiled to his mom and hugged her. Then, saluted Dil, and explained why he left.
"There was this guy in Hillwood having problems with a loan's shark. The little creep wanted to make his thugs break the guy's legs or something. I handled them in a moment, but I was so angry that I knocked the boss with my bare hands, just to relief some pressure..." Chuckie paused. He wasn't proud of what he did to Gino, but couldn't help but do it. After taking a deep breath, continued. "Then, I waited until the cops arrived, and called Mom so she could summon and bring me back here."
Dil smiled; the whole summoning thing came from a special mechanism hidden in the antennae, and reacted to an specific phrase, but also to a lot of variations. Chuckie could be summoned by either saying "help", "defend", or "protect", and the pronoun could change without problems ("me", "he", "us"...); besides, it also discriminated between the people who really needed him to be there, and the fake alarms from a villain. Dil considered those antennae as one of his finest inventions since the Aquarium-Belt.
Dil gave Chuckie the new jar of pills. He just nodded and accepted it. At that moment, Officer Phil entered the room, with a concerned and angry look, and a paper on his hand. Everybody turned to see him.
"Good and bad news, people. We have the lab's results. The sleeping gas used in both kidnappings is an special formula that only some high security agencies know; we investigated a little, and seems that someone stole a little of it from a government's lab last week. The government tried to keep this as a secret, but it seems that the criminal was quite agile, because he or she avoided a really fancy security system to get it.
Also, we found that one set of footprints left on the Captain's rug was from cowboy's boots, and another from some kind of weird ancient shoe, and it also had traces of salt, probably from sea water. And, finally, the DNA analysis of one hair we found in Angelica's house confirmed that Tim Thug was there recently." Phil finished. Everybody gasped, and Chuckie got a blank expression.
"But Tim Thug is on jail! He had been there since Angelica and I caught him! You were there with your sister, remember?" Chuckie snapped. At that moment, a huge man, Commander Pangborn, entered the room. He wasn't aware of Chuckie's secret identity, so everybody stayed silent. Pangborn sighed, and talked, directing to all the people in the room.
"No more. He and some other criminals escaped from their prisons over the last month. We tried to keep it secret to avoid panic, and to not compromise the reputation of these jails. The fugitives are..." Chuckie interrupted him.
"Tim Thug. Kill-a-Lot Kid, Sneaky Saavanah... and probably The Shark, since he knew about the sleeping gas. And, let me guess... Coco LaBouche is still at large, and her assistant escaped as well. I'm right?" Chuck directed to Pangborn, with an angry look on his eyes. Despite the size's difference, Pangborn was intimidated by the guy's reaction. Chuckie continued. "So, you are telling me that some of my more dangerous enemies had been free from a long time... and you kept that a secret, even from your own officers... JUST TO AVOID A BAD NOTE ON THE SUNDAY'S NEWSPAPER!" Chuckie snapped.
Pangborn tried to answer, but was cut by the furious looks from Chuck, and from everyone on the room, including his own officers. The man sighed; Chuck was totally right. Because of the fear of scandal, one protected witness and a worthy Police's element were now at the mercy of some of the most wanted criminals on the country.
Okey Dokey Joneswalked a step ahead, and took control of the situation.
"Okay, ColoRed Chuck, you know these criminals better than anyone. Any idea of where they might hide?" Chuckie pondered for a minute.
"Tim, Kill-a-Lot, and The Shark would be fine hiding on any warehouse or apartment... but Saavanah and Coco enjoy luxury accommodations. Plus, if all of them are together, they'll need a big place to stay. And, if they are near the sea... I would say they are hidden in a very big house near the beach, or in a ship." Chuck concluded. Tommy nodded, and started giving instructions.
"Good… this is what we are going to do. We'll divide; Commander, warn the Coast Guard for any suspicious ship near the state's shores; I'll call the Crimson Chin and Mermaid Man to assist on the search. Meanwhile, the ColoRed Chuck and I will collaborate with the cops lookingat the mansions or any fancy houses' district located near the sea. Just to be sure, I'll also ask InvisoBill, Catman, and XJ-9 to keep an eye on the roads in case these guys try to sneak out of the state by land." Tommy concluded, and everyone agreed.
Chuckie now was feeling a lot more confident.
"Angie, sis, please resist. We are on our way."