Have a Heart

Alexnandru Van Gordon

I'm back, boys and girls! Wow…I never thought Religion Camp would be so…interesting…Oh well, now I have time to continue on my stories, but I have to do this first for purposes of the competition. I also want to thank all of you who are reading this story. I'll have to get back to reading yours so—if I haven't reviewed your competition story yet, PLEASE tell me, and I will get to it this weekend.

PS: I don't know if anyone else noticed, but DLsky did—I made the airport "lights-out" situation a little far-fetched for the sake that everyone has something fantastical happening in their story. Oh—and only the lights failed. If "all" the power were to go out then no planes could land or take off because…well, if you ever saw the "Die Hard" movie you'd know what I'm talking about. The airport tells them the distance, time and speed they should go at when flying in that area and if the power went off then…wow…talk about collateral damage…

CHAPTER FIVE: The Church family

Eric could have seen Klaus and he could have carried Muriel to the car. After all, that's what he expected to happen after Slade caught up to him. But the man must have had a change of heart. Instead of keeping Muriel and his younger brother captive, he took the pregnant from Eric and made his way through the panicking mass back to where Klaus sat. Seating her down, Slade told his brother to watch and took Eric by the arm.

Then they left.

"Get in."

Eric hesitated a moment before sliding into the passenger seat of the car. Doing up his seat belt, he raised his hands when Slade took out one pair of his many cuffs. With them he cuffed him to the high safety bar above the door (Alex: if you ever see them, some people hang clothes up on them. You can also hold onto them when the car rocks or hits harsh terrain.).

"Why the change?" He asked when Slade slid into the driver's seat. It was dark outside, the sun neatly set over the horizon.

"I can go back and get them if you want." He warned.

Eric smiled to himself.

"If they were smart then they'd take their tickets and fly to Brazil." Slade continued. "But if that woman friend of yours is as half as determined as she was when she shot me, then I suspect we'll be seeing more of them soon."

"What makes you think that?"

Slade must have been smiling behind his mask.

"Because, she didn't really faint." He started up the car and backed out from the parking space. "But she's not a bad actor either. If her husband is really dead, then you should marry her."

Eric didn't say a thing. He scowled to himself silently and stared out the window as they drove off, half-curious about the dark blue car following behind them…

-M-

She wasn't keen on killing a man. She wasn't keen on seeing him rising from the dead either, but whoever said life was as easy as a cake-walk deserved a bullet or two in the back of the head. Life was anything but easy for her, ever since she got married. She hadn't been with her husband for more than a year before he died in a car crash—not to mention she was pregnant at the time! Then she stayed in Germany alone, started back up on her painting career and tried to live peacefully…

That's before she moved one door up from two guys hiding from who-know-how-many mercenaries or hitmen—or whatever they were! She didn't really care! For the sake of her baby she should have bought a ticket, grabbed Klaus and moved to Brazil for the rest of her life. But what was the use of that? With some guy thinking she was married to 'Eric' then she should have turned herself in right then and there.

Well…as her grandmother always put it—if you can't run away, then run full speed back. If she couldn't live a normal life now, then she never would. Might as well do something about it.

The moment Slade took Eric away, she opened her eyes and turned to the stunned, but still conscious, Klaus and said only one thing:

"You're either with me or you're not. I'll give you money to buy a plane ticket, but if you're staying then you're helping me get your brother back."

He just stared at her.

"Nod your head if you staying."

He nodded.

"Good, now for the fireworks…"

Standing and shouting out a couple of apologizes, she made her way through the bustling crowd and squinted her way through the dim emergency lights in search of the damn man who held the gun to her head. Upon finding him, she grabbed his gun, fished through his pocket for a key, and stood. Taking Klaus by the hand, she hurried him over toward the front entrance.

It wasn't easy to get outside, but she managed. Running was a harder task, but she could see Slade and Eric at the far end of the parking lot when she arrived outside. Eric parked in the center lot near the east entrance.

"Don't look suspicious." She said, walking over toward one of the rental cars. Car companies made only four different keys, each that worked only on the same kind of car. After trying two of the cars, she started to panic. But the third, a dark blue, finally worked for her sake.

"Yay! Score one for me! Jump on Klaus."

The boy, seeming to wake from his shock, nodded with a grin and waited for her to open the passenger door before hopping in.

Then they were off.

-S-

The highway roads were pretty crowded. It could have been because of the sudden power outage in the airport, but he doubted that for the most part. After a long enough wait, he turned on the radio to a news station, listening to the hard German for anything about traffic.

'There was an accident on Route 7 this afternoon around five-thirty.' A woman said quickly. 'One delivery truck sped down the highway and collided with a small vehicle. Seven other vehicles then followed into the disaster and blocked up each lane heading south to Magdeburg—'

"That explains a lot." Eric muttered, interrupting the weather report—rainy near midnight—which followed. "This could take until tomorrow."

"And why are you telling me this?"

"I'd rather go to hell than spend an entire day trapped in a car with you." He grumbled. "No offense."

Slade thought it over. "None taken." They couldn't stay there anyway. Wintergreen was supposed to meet him in three hours. He'd either have to change the meeting place or tell him he'd be late…

Slade was a patient man, but he wasn't that patient.

Waiting for one of the front cars to inch forward impatiently, he slipped through a gap onto other lanes riding in the other direction. Cars honked their disproval but he didn't care. In less than a minute he was speeding back toward Berlin.

In half an hour or so, he found a diner/gas station off the side of the highway. Pulling into one of the parking lots, he stopped the vehicle.

"If I return to find you gone, rest assured, I'll get you." Slade warned before he slammed the driver's seat door. "Try to get anyone to help you and I'll kill them."

"Don't worry." Eric sighed. 'I promise to behave."

"Good."

Turning toward the bar, he stepped onto the wooden porch and made his way around to the back quietly, careful not to be seen. Then, rolling up his fist, he knocked hard on the back door.

There were a few mutters on the inside, followed by a rude shout, before a lock creaked and the door opened partway to short and stubby man. He didn't have a chance to say anything, though, when Slade's second fist connected with his mouth. Knocked out, Slade stepped over the body casually and made his way through the small, messy kitchen toward the black phone hanging off the far wall. Picking up the receiver, he dialed his number…

-W-

Although he was confused by the caller ID on his cell-phone, he answered anyway. Still sitting in the back with the laptop on his thighs, he sighed.

"Slade?"

"Change of plans. Route—"

"—7 is blocked off by an accident. I know…" He allowed himself to grin. Being in the military with the man even before he took up his malevolent occupation, Wintergreen knew to never stop monitoring the operation. Bad things tended to happen. "I've already picked out the second meeting place. It's a mile off Route 23 by an old air hanger. You can't miss it. Its abandon and no one lives near the place."

"And what did you find out about the Church family?"

"For such a decent surname…" He clicked up a few windows on the homepage of his computer. "…Mr. Church is quite the maniac. Do you have a moment?"

"I'm in Germany. What else could I possibly have to do here?"

"I see…Moving on—the father fits the description of mad scientist. For all I know, he could have come up with the atomic bomb if he lived way-back-when."

"His son is a university professor. It's plausible."

"In any case, he was arrested nearly thirty years ago but was broken out fives days later, still at large."

"What was he in for?"

"What else? Experimentation."

"Men? Women? Children—"

"Infants." He sighed. "Imagine a three month old boy or girl going through the same procedure that made you immortal."

There was silence on the other side of the line. Either Slade was surprised or he was thinking hard about something.

Clearing his voice, the old veteran continued. "He wasn't aiming to make a super-soldier, though. He just wanted to advance the human brain."

"And?"

"Half the infants died during his chemical procedures. Besides three, the rest died a week after signs of advancement."

"What was so special about the other three?"

"Sad story, actually. They were injected with his serums before birth. One was born premature and died a day after its birth. The second died two weeks later due to heart failure, hereditary, and the third, successful, was none other than Eric Church, his own son. His wife died giving birth."

There was an even longer pause on Slade's end of the line, but Wintergreen decided to wait for a sign of sanity before going on.

"What about Klaus?"

"He's normal so far as I can tell. He could be Eric's stepbrother, but I think he's more likely a half-brother. But all of this was hidden well by numerous sources. So far as the normal world knows, Eric Church doesn't exist."

"Has he always been on the run?"

"For a couple of years. Not too long though—and he came back to America to grab his younger brother before continuing on his way. His father's been after him for a couple of years now, along with a couple of other people—and a lot of cops."

"Why?"

"He used to be a thief. Nothing petty, mind you, but he's been close to being arrested for quite a few heists. Then some of his employers were arrested. He's never actually been caught before you came along, so congrats at that."

"And why is he wanted? He's not the only super-genius in the world."

"You'll have to get that out of him on your own."

"There's absolutely nothing about him that you can pick up on that?"

"None at all. Now, what are you going to do about it?"

"Get it out of him."

Wintergreen grinned. "Really? All you have to do is deliver him alive and whole, collect your cash, and go back to defeating the Teen Titans. Why would you possibly want to dig yourself into his past?"

"There's more to this than what meets the eye. It might come in handy."

"With what? Destroying the world?"

"Maybe."

"Have fun."

Slade hung up on the other end and Wintergreen laughed.

Some men never change.

-M-

Traffic was crazy and she wasn't sure she'd be able to keep up with Slade and Eric at the rate the highway was moving. You wouldn't believe how relieved she had to park on the highway behind a long line of vehicles, turning to stare at the diner on the side of the road. It was actually Klaus who spotted the license plate first, leaning across her and pointing at Eric's car. It was dark outside and she couldn't see if anyone was still inside the vehicle, but she was ready to risk a chance at finding her friend.

Pulling her car out of line, she cut across the empty lanes and pulled into the diner parking-lot where she told Klaus to stay. Holding her behind her back, she stepped outside the car and made her way toward the vehicle.

Parked under a lamp post, she could see one figure inside. Judging by what she could see, it must have been Eric…

And it was.

Knocking on the window, she must have startled him. He was staring in the general direction of the diner with an edgy appearance to his body, not to mention his hands were hand cuffed to car.

He jumped when he saw her, but allowed himself to smile for a moment. Leaning his face down awkwardly, he grabbed the door lock pin with his teeth and pulled it up to let Muriel in.

"You okay?" She asked, staring up at the cuffs. "Looks like you're kind of tied up, eh?"

"I'm hungry and a little tired, but altogether fine—what the hell are you doing here? I though you would have waited at the airport?"

She shook her head. "I couldn't just leave you."

"That's no excuse."

"Fine then. I blame my insanity on the mood swings."

He didn't argue against that.

"So…" She touched the cuffs with her free hand. "Do I shoot these off?"

"Hell no! Slade would hear and then he'd be outside before you could get away."

"Then what do I do? Hotwire the car?"

He smiled. "You could always leave me."

She shook her head. "No way. I have a better idea…"

-A-

YAY! One chapter down. Now for my other stories…Oh well, I might turn in for the night because my back is going out on me again. Here's a piece of advice for all you young boys and girls who like to avoid pain—watch your step on ladders.

Until Again,

Alexnandru Van Gordon