Omega Kid

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from the Kick-Ass comic or film written by Mark Miller, or any guest characters from other Kick-Ass fanfic's they are owned by their own writers and creators. However, all rights and characters for Omega Kid belong to me and are owned by me alone. So if anyone wants to ever use any characters or anything else from this story for a special chapter or fic will have to ask first...but don't worry, there's a 99% chance I'll say yes.

Chapter 25: Mystery Solved

Would it be wrong to say that we were still spooked out by Halloween from a few days ago? Possibly, but it's a certainty when you've almost been killed by some undead magician. But that wasn't the part that freaked me out the most (hard to believe as it may seem); it was the fact that my dad was somehow involved in this.

Albert Houdini knew my face, my father's face, and said that he was the one that lead him to his death. I should be the defensive son and say that my dad would never do such a thing; but I never knew him, even Jenna was too young to remember our parents, and none of our relatives mention them thinking that it would be too much for us...we're teenagers, we deal with a lot of crap in our lives. And being a part time superhero I deal with thrice as much. ''Thomas, earth to Thomas.'' Rachael playfully tapped me on the head bringing me back down to earth, and more specifically my bedroom.

''Sorry, what page were we on?'' I tried to sound concentrated at the R.E work I was helping Rachael with, but from the look on her face she knew my mind was somewhere else. ''Sorry, I was just thinking.''

''Anything you want to talk about?''

I want to talk to her about it, but how exactly do I break it down for her? ''Rachael...sorry for asking but...did you really know your dad? Like the kind of person he is?''

Obviously taken back by my questions she hesitated, I was more worried about offending her than anything else. After Halloween she seemed to be more open with me so I just had to ask. ''Well…no…since he split from my mother…I haven't heard from him since. Why are you asking this?''

I shrug my shoulders; I don't even know why I'm asking. ''I don't know my dad either! What did he like to do? How was he in school? Was he like me? Did he meet mum like I met yo...'' I stopped myself before I could say it; unfortunately too late, Rachael's face lights up with a curious smile. ''Forget I said that last bit!''

''Were you about to say me? Why would you compare your mum and dad to us?'' I gulped louder than I should of, I can't keep fighting this, should I just come clean right now about how I feel? Should I confess how I feel before I reveal my secret identity to her? Did Stella do the same for Megan, surely it wasn't this hard? ''Thomas, you're spacing out again.''

''Oh sorry...it's just that...I...I really...'' My phone cut me off, and from the ring tone I knew whom it was ''I just need to take this,'' Rachael nodded; I got up from my bed, quickly showed her which pages to revise on and went out of the room to answer Alex. ''Hey, what's up?''

''Thomas you're not going to believe this, someone survived!'' Alex rushed down my eardrums.

''What? Who? What?''

''Yesterday, Jack the Ripper attacked some woman down the street, but she managed to get away and now the police have her in care. This might be our chance to nail the son of a bitch.''

''How?''

There was a silence on the other side, and little stutters. ''I don't know, it just will!'' Yeah, great reason.

''Look Alex, I've got Rachael over at the moment. Call Stella, and we'll meet at Clocktower Park at two okay?''

''Sure, oh and Tom...''

''Yeah?''

''Are you and Rachael in the bedroom?''

I just hung up on him straight away, should have seen that coming.

I continued to help tutor Rachael like nothing was going on; and thank God there were no more embarrassing situations I got myself into. We finished up and she left, she still looked a bit pale from the illness she told me about. I'll check on her once I check up on this whole survivor of the Ripper thing; how could this woman get away? All of the Ripper's deaths have been clean (in a criminal way) and without too much hassle.

It was the top news on every channel; BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and every other news channel I could think of, talking about Audrey Madison and her close encounter of the Ripper kind. She was attacked around four in the morning; it was still dark so there couldn't have been that many people to help her. She had a few cuts on her arms and necks; but the Ripper always goes for the neck or ribs.

At first I thought this was just some hoax or some copycat of him; but there was even CCTV footage of the attack, he was even caught on camera now! Why? He's always so well thought-out and two steps ahead of the law. They even caught a glimpse of his half burnt face. There were a few possibilities for this...he could be getting over-confident, but he always seems to be confident, and from looking up the footage on YouTube, it looked like he wasn't even trying. Then maybe he was trying to quit? No, why after all this would he quit now? And he was still after me...wait; could this whole thing be a way to lead me out? This is too much of a risk just to get me out of hiding.

My watch alarm beeped, I needed to meet up with the others, and with the construction work going around the park not many people will be there. I packed up my costume (just in case) and headed off to meet the others.

On the dot, all four of us where at the park. ''So you guys all heard the news?''

''I was the one that told you.'' Alex said, rare for him to outsmart me.

''Okay, so what do we know about this woman?''

Stella pulled out a sheet of paper from her rucksack, and began to read what was on it. ''All I got was Audrey Madison is a store clerk for some retail shop; she never went to college, earning her first job the day after she left school. She's not married, has two older sisters and she still lives with her parents, and has no connection whatsoever to the other victims.''

''Well that was a load of help.'' Alex moaned.

''It's all I got off her, she's no one really special just someone who was wrong place wrong time.''

''No there has to be something that's connecting them all.'' I persisted.

''Thomas, he let her get away, if he was killing them all why let this one get away?'' Alex asked me. Sometimes it's tough being the leader of the group and expecting to answer every question that is giving to us.

''I don't know, maybe she wasn't the person he was after, she might have looked like...''

''Then why not kill her? Why leave a witness?'' Alex cut in; this was really starting to annoy me.

''Hey! I'm trying to figure this out, now just shut up and let me think!''

''We don't have time! Sooner or later he's going to go after someone we know, he already tried to kill our cousin!''

''You don't think I'm trying to work this out?''

''You're not doing as quick because you're scared of him!'' That really struck a nerve. ''You're scared because of that whole one has to kill the other, I'm sorry Thomas, but this guy has to be killed!''

''No, he doesn't, we can bring him in...''

''The longer this guy breaths, the more blood will be on his hand and ours if we don't stop him.''

Now it all made sense, why Alex wants to stop the Ripper so quickly. ''So that's it! Because he's your first real villain you want to finish him off?''

''It's not because of that!'' He defended, but I know the truth.

''It is because of that, you're like me when I fought Toxin, you think just because you're new to this the weight is greater on your shoulders.''

''STOP IT!'' Stella screamed and pushed Alex and I back; I didn't even realise we were right at each other's faces. ''This is getting us nowhere, we need to work together, we're all in this!'' We all took a moment to calm down and get our thoughts back in order. ''I think we should go to the crime scene, see what we can find.''

We arrived at the scene in our costumes; the area was packed with police officers, it was unbelievable how we managed to sneak around to the location the footage showed the attack. Thanks to Viper, she switched off the cameras, but we had to make this quick to throw off any suspicion. Once again, it looked like the Ripper had left clean, not as clean as before, but there weren't any clues or anything left behind from the attack. ''So much for going back to the crime scene.'' Ultra Kid shouted sarcastically, now he was trying to get on my nerves.

Stella spoke up before things between us got tense again. ''I hate to say it but there's nothing here, I think we should just head back to my place and think of another plan.'' I also hate to say...but she's right, there's nothing here.

''Hey guys!'' Super Kid called out to us, we all immediately headed over to where he was searching. He found a brick out of place on the building next to us; he moved it aside and dug his hand to, if someone went to the trouble of moving the brick there had to be something there, and hopefully it was from the person we're looking for.

He brought his hand back out, and was holding a cloth with something wrapped inside it. He slowly unwrapped the dirty cloth, a bit too slowly for our liking, this was too much tension. Ultra slaps him around the head, signalling to hurry up and when Super does we finally see what was inside the cloth...an old knife.

''Is this his knife?'' Super asked.

''I don't think so, it doesn't look the same.'' Ultra answers looking at the knife carefully.

''And this knife is too old and weak to do the damage the Ripper has done,'' Viper also added in, and then she noticed something that I just noticed as well. ''What's that?'' She rubs the side of the knife, a cloud of dust showering around her gloved hand, and then it became clearer what were on the knife...words.

'Long Live the King...'

''He's British!'' A stupid comment from Super Kid plus a smack over the head from Ultra equals. ''Ow, just a guess!''

We looked over the scene again; there was nothing else, and a police force were about to go around the area, so we headed off back to Stella's home. Her Apple Mac laptop set up, and full of documents she has been working on for the Ripper. The knife was placed next to her desk, just looking at his souvenir gave me a nervous feeling; like the knife itself was going to spring to life and kill me.

''Hey, Thomas...'' Alex said. ''I'm sorry about snapping at you earlier.''

''No problem, I've been down that road.'' And I don't want to go back down it; a few months ago I could only ever think about fighting alone, and now I just want to stand back and hope this thing resolves itself without me having to end someone's life.

''We don't have to kill him...'' As if Alex was reading my thoughts he continued. ''I just prefer it if he wasn't still alive after all he's done.''

''I know...but he said it's between me and him, and I don't think I can do it.''

''It's not just between you and him; he's just saying that to fight you alone, you don't know him and that proves there is no special connection between the two of you.''

''Seems like the Lanks bloodline knows alot of sadistic killers,'' I said leaving a confused Alex. ''Remember the magician Albert, on Halloween?''

''Undead zombie, supernatural methods of torture, giving me one hell of a bruised rib...how can I forget?''

''He knew my dad, and he was convinced my dad was the guy that lead him to commit suicide.''

''That's bull!''

''How do you know? In fact how do I know? I now can't think of parents without thinking Albert.''

''Listen, that's in the past. Once we take care of the Ripper, than you can prove the innocence of your family tree.'' Although it was rare, Alex was actually a good friend to talk to. And he could always cheer up a person...in one way or another.

Stella groaned and slammed her keyboard on the desk. ''I've still got nothing, this knife and the words don't add to anything.''

''There has to be something connecting them.'' I tried to reason; we can't lose Stella on this mission now.

''I'm sorry, but there is no connection...''

''There is! I mean, why name himself after another killer? Because this isn't random, and he's doing this according to the original in same way. That has to be what the words mean…the King? He's referring to the original!''

''What about time of deaths?'' Stephen asked.

''No, his one's are too distant.''

''The victims, they all had nothing in common, there's a link!'' Steph tried to sound smart, but then realised what he said. ''Oh, that doesn't help at all.''

Long live the King. I know it has something to do with the original, that's who he is mentioning, long live the original Ripper. He is doing something similar, but we just can't work out what it is. We've been going around in circles for a good few weeks now; if only we had one little hint, then we could probably get the drop on him.

''What about place?'' Stephen spoke up again, and Alex looked like he was about to lose it. ''The original killed in Whitechapel, I swear if you say one more thing...''

''WAIT! THAT'S IT!'' Stella screamed, and before we can ask she's typing away on the computer. Curiosity grabbed hold of us, and we all squeezed in to get a good view of the screen where Stella had a map of Whitechapel showing the location of the original Ripper's crime scenes. Stella went on. ''I kept looking at this map and the one of the new Ripper's crime scenes thinking there was something familiar about them and that's just it. He's killing them in the same locations!''

Part of me was thinking that Stella has just gone off the deep end; we just said the original's crimes were in...Hold on, looking at the death locations of new and old, it was like looking up a star signs, there was a line that connected the dots. All though this made a squiggle, the new Ripper's death locations made the same shaped squiggle; he was killing them in different locations, but the same when looking from a bird eye's point of view.

''So where was the next victim?'' I asked.

''The victim for the original Ripper was in Buck's Row...so here it would be...HERE!'' She pointed to the location and the screen and we all knew where that was.

''That's Quasar's arcade, it's always packed there.''

''Then that's where we're going to be, everyday from now on, after school we're there waiting for him until he comes out and attacks'' I said.

''We got that bastard now!'' Alex said and he and Steph high fived each other. This was it; this is going to be our closest chance to getting the Ripper before he kills someone else. But what if this whole thing was a way for us to find him? He was caught on camera and let Audrey go because he wanted us to find the knife and help us track him down? I don't really care right now; this is our chance to stop him!

I lay on my bed waiting for the eleven o'clock silent alarm when it was time to change and start our first night watching over Quasar's. I haven't been to that arcade in ages, who would have thought I would be returning to fight a crazy serial killer that's giving the superheroes clues to catch him? I checked my watch, 9:58, almost time...

''How come you're still dressed?'' Jenna asked me as she stood at my bedroom door.

''Oh, didn't hear you come in. I'm not tired yet, and I didn't know I was still dressed.''

''Okay then, night.'' She was about to turn around and leave, but not before I had to ask something.

''Jenna, do you remember mum and dad?''

She turned back round at me bemused. ''Why do you ask? Is it because of the whole I'm 16 next week?''

Jesus, I completely forgot it was my birthday next week! It feels like I've been 15 my whole life. ''Uh...yeah...just...did you know them?''

''I think it was remember them...and no, I don't.''

''Well, have you heard anything about them?''

''What? Why are you asking that?''

''Cause I don't know who they are, or what they were like.''

''Does it really matter who they were?''

''Of course it does, they're our parents, and I have to know something about them!''

''Well, how about this? After your birthday, I'll ask someone about them.''

I wanted to know about them now! I might not even be here tomorrow with the Ripper after me, but this is an argument I can't really fight back. ''Sure''.

''And you shouldn't have to worry about who they were, because you are Thomas Lanks, the fun loving, good natured, troublesome, and annoying little brother of mine,'' She ruffles my hair, I don't know whether to take that as a complement. ''Oh, and speaking of your birthday. I've decided to have the party at...''

''It's my birthday shouldn't I have the decision?'' I teased.

''A place you haven't been to in a long time, where you used to love going to all the time and in fact where you won that large bar of Milky Way chocolate!''

My heart sank…no it blew up in my chest hearing this. There is absolutely no way my luck is that bad. ''Please not...''

''Quasar's Arcade, I know a 16 year olds birthday is mostly about partying and all that. Although mine wasn't like that. I just thought it would be a neat nostalgic touch.''

I was panting; how can this be happening to me? Of all the places in the world it was there, and just when we find out that's the place where the Ripper is going to attack next! Maybe I'm just being paranoid (I can't blame myself); maybe the Ripper won't attack on my birthday. What are the chances of him attacking Quasar's on that specific date? I really don't want to know the answer.

To Be Continued...