Runaways/The Punisher

in

Legacy of Blood

War Journal Entry #138: The news is buzzing that out in L.A. a dozen "prominent citizens" have just be discovered to have been part of some sort of superhuman cabal called the Pride. New York is my normal hunting ground but I've been out to L.A. several times. Both here and out on the west coast I'd heard whispers of something called the Pride every once in a while for years. I'd looked into the rumors but never found anything. I wrote the Pride off as some sort of urban legend among lowlifes.

Now I have just been proven wrong. I do not like to be wrong.

The news said that the Avengers are taking the lead on this and that the LAPD and the FBI have already arrested a lot of corporate big shots, politicians, and even some cops. As usual, the press is mewing about how this people will now face "justice".

The rich, famous, and powerful rarely face "justice". Especially not in LA. I'd go out west and dispense some real justice but there's a nasty gang war brewing in NYC so for right now I'm needed here.

But I'll be keeping an eye on this Pride situation. I have a feeling I might be making a trip to California soon.

War Journal Entry #197: I've finally decided that a trip to LA is in order to sort this situation with the Pride out once and for all.

In the months since word of the Pride's existence first broke I've gathered a lot of information on their activities from both official reports and my own contacts. The Pride were basically the power behind the throne of the LA underworld and major players in just about everything illegal that when on in California for about the last twenty years. Even the big boys like Silvermane and the Kingpin stayed out their way. The activities the Pride were involved in and the amount of people they had working for them all over the world is shocking.

I managed to get my hands on the report the Avengers filed on the Pride with S.H.I.E.L.D. (Without Nick Fury around they've gotten damn sloppy about security). According to the report, all of the Pride are believed to have been slain in an underwater battle with some monsters called the Gibborim.

The kicker, which the media has been harping on, is that the Pride was seemingly taken down by their own kids. Eager for a story the press is playing the kids up as heroes. I remind more skeptical.

After the fall of the Pride their kids were placed in foster care or various institutions. According to the reports I've read, they all ran away from the system on the same night about three months later. I've also discovered that same night they broke into a storage facility owned by the Avengers that was filled with nasty stuff confiscated from the Pride.

The kids then went underground for a while. S.H.I.E.L.D., the LAPD, and the Avengers all came up with nothing in the search for them. Speculation among law enforcement ran the gamete as to what the kids might be up to and where they were. Partying it up in Mexico was the most popular theory.

Then the kids turned up knocking the snot out of some idiot who calls himself the Kangaroo out in Silver Lake. Then it was the Circus of Crime in Riverside. Then it was Quicksand in Santa Monica. Five days ago they cleaned Stilt-Man's clock in Palo Alto.

With the Pride gone there's a power vacuum in the LA underworld and it seems like every idiot "villain" from New York is heading out west to try and stake a claim. Surprisingly, the kids have been doing a good job of thrashing the hell out anyone in tights that makes trouble.

To me there are three possible explanations for why they're doing this. The first is that these kids are actually trying to make up for what their parents did. This is the angle the media has latched on to in an effort to up their ratings. That's all very nice and dramatic but I give that possibility the longest odds.

The second possibility is that the Pride really aren't dead and that this is all an elaborate ruse towards some end. Fake your death, have your kids take up the front line as your soldiers, let the fools in the press call them heroes…Reminds me too much of what the Masters of Evil did as the Thunderbolts.

Granted, in the end it turned out that most of the Thunderbolts actually did want to turn their lives around. That's the only reason I've never paid them a little visit. (Though I still keep a close watch on the Thunderbolts. Just in case.)

The last possibility is that the Pride really are dead and that the kids are looking to sit on the throne themselves. Keeping other masks out of town would be a must if they're looking to take over where their parents left off.

This I believe is the most likely scenario.

I let the Pride slip by me for too many years. If their children are planning to follow in their parents' footsteps then they most certainly need to be punished.

I leave for L.A. in three days. Time to see just how far from the tree these five apples have fallen.

War Journal Entry #198: Word is coming in from Los Angeles that the runaways just got into a fight with a whole team of masks. There's a lot of property damage in Studio City and reports indicate that they might have kidnapped a student from a high school in east LA.

I have a feeling this could be the start of some sort of escalation in whatever the kids are up too.

Unfortunately, plans for my trip to L.A. have suddenly fallen through. Word on the street is that Bullseye is back in town. There's a sketchy police report of him fighting some woman, tentatively identified as Typhoid Mary, on Avenue D last night.

I don't know what's going on but it seems that gang war I've been dealing with is more serious than I thought. Considering that Bullseye and Typhoid Mary both worked for the Kingpin in the past I think it's a safe bet that the fat man in up to his neck in whatever's going on out there.

My trip to L.A. will have to be put on hold for the time being.

War Journal Entry #223: It's been a bloody month but the gang war is over. I've personally put three digits worth of lowlifes in the ground. The number of each other that they've killed is also pleasing. Bullseye, Typhoid Mary, and the Kingpin all slipped through my hands though. But there will be other chances to get them.

Right now I'm prepping for my trip to Los Angeles. No more delays. It's time to find out the truth about the Pride's kids once and for all.

War Journal Entry #224: The number of costumed criminals these runaways have taken down is impressive. This only drives the point home that I can't underestimate these kids. Their success rate also fuels my suspicion that they may have had training in their abilities from their parents. If this is true then this makes the possibility that the runaways' "crime fighting" is really part of some deeper plot all the more plausible.

Thanks to that S.H.I.E.L.D. file I got my hands on I have a decent idea of what each of these kids is capable of doing.

Chase Stein: The son of two "mad scientists." Seems to be the pilot of a big, green mech the kids get around in. The reports don't show him taking part in the kids' fights which leads me to believe he's taken up the role of wheel man.

There's been some speculation that he might be the brains of the group as well. The S.H.E.I.L.D. file included his school records but nothing in those indicates Stein was either unusually intelligent or a leader. Before hooking up with these kids the only team he was a part of was his high school lacrosse team.

Odds are the mech is one of his parents' creations. If he can handle that who knows what sort of nasty surprises he might have stashed away in case he ever needs to get his hands dirty.

I must also assume the mech is fully armed. If I need to take this kid out I'll have to find a way to get him out of that thing first. A canister or two of tear gas should do the trick.

Nico Minoru: The daughter of two "dark wizards." Damn, do I hate dealing with supernatural stuff.

I've got surveillance camera footage of her waving around some sort of magic staff. The girl seems to have pretty good control of the staff and has used it in some fairly creative ways according to the reports. Eyewitness accounts have her calling the shots when the kids are fighting.

Her school records indicate that she's bright, imaginative, and well-adjusted. The look I see in her eyes on the footage I have of her is that of someone who's been toughened up the hard way.

If I go in expecting nothing more than a former alter girl turned goth I'm going to get my head handed to me. My gut tells me this one is really the leader. Add in magic staff and I'd say she's the most dangerous one of the lot.

In a fight taking her out first will be my number one priority.

Gertrude Yorkies: The daughter of two "time traveling despots." Who the hell is S.H.I.E.L.D. letting write these reports?

From what I've gathered the Yorkies girl doesn't have any powers. What she does have is a pet dinosaur (identified by S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists as a deinonchus) that obeys her every command. As deadly as something like that could be she's yet to have it kill anyone. Everyone who's gotten on the wrong end of the dino's teeth and claws has earned nothing more than a few scars for their trouble. Audio from the surveillance footage that's been captured of Yorkies indicates she calls her pet "Old Lace."

School records on the girl indicate she's highly intelligent, level-headed, and unusually mature for a kid her age. My own observations tell me that if the Minoru girl goes down in the field this one would likely step in and take command. That, and the fact that the lizard takes orders from her, means I should take her down as quickly as possible if things get violent.

Karolina Dean: Daughter of two movies stars who turned out to be alien criminals.

This one normally looks like your stereotypical California, teenage blonde. When she uses her powers her hair and skin turn into a kaleidoscope of colors. She has the ability to fly and shoot energy blasts. Being a living acid trip aside, her abilities are fairly standard as far as super powers go but are still dangerous.

Of the lot the Dean girl is the only one with a criminal record. But getting arrested along with her parents at some protest when she was fourteen doesn't tell me much. Her school grades were good but not outstanding. The girl, however, was involved in just about every activist club her school offered.

If these kids are plotting something a boring, wannabe hippie would be a good front. Underestimating someone like that is an easy trap to fall into.

What I've seen of the girl fighting indicates she's a follower and not a leader. She obeys the Minoru girl without question and seems highly protective of her. The flying and long range powers make her a threat. But I'm betting if I take out whoever gives this girl her orders she'll fold quickly.

Molly Hayes: At twelve she's the youngest of the group and is the daughter of two mutants.

Oddly, her parents seem to have been powerful telepaths but the girl has superhuman strength and durability. Tests conducted on her by doctors at the X-Corporation list her as being able to lift around 20 tons without breaking a sweat. However, exerting too much of her strength exhausts her within minutes.

Good information to remember.

All her school records indicate that Molly Hayes was a normal, happy young girl before things turned ugly. Her grades indicate that she exceptionally intelligent for a child her age. A report written by her homeroom teacher says that the Hayes girl likes Harry Potter and seems to be a fan of that Doop thing and the X-Men, especially Wolverine.

If I get the chance to talk with her it might be in my best interests not to mention the time I ran that self-righteous little runt over with a steamroller.

Still, this fondness for Wolverine is interesting. All information on her parents strongly indicates that they leaned much more towards Magneto's view of mutant supremacy. Either the girl is very good at putting up a front or she wasn't indoctrinated into her parents' beliefs on human/mutant relations.

That's a point in the column for her getting through this alive.

Footage of Molly shows her laughing and having fun tossing around super criminals with rap sheets as long as she is tall. It's like it's a big game to her. The other kids are watchful of her, but seem confident that her powers will protect her from most harm.

Unlike the costumed idiots this girl has been slapping around, I have a pretty good idea of what she can do and how dangerous she could potentially be. Whatever happens I can't let her get her hands on me. But super strength or not, if I can't out maneuver a grade school kid I have no right to call myself the Punisher. Anything she might throw or swing at me could be fatal though. Best not to lose sight of her if it comes down to a fight.

The Hayes girl was reported as having been kidnapped by the Yorkies and Minoru girl in tandem with a boy named Alex Wilder several months back. The Wilder boy's parents have since been identified as two of the Pride. There's also footage of the Alex along with the other runaways intervening in a convenience store robbery during which they fled the scene with another teenager male who was part of the robbery.

Neither boy has been seen since. The media is spouting rumors that one of the Pride's children died with their parents and that one of them was actually loyal to the Pride from the start. But that could just be the press making up their own story again. I haven't been able to get my hands on the actual interviews the investigators conducted with the kids. Those were in separate files than the one I swiped from S.H.I.E.L.D..

But two kids who ran with the others vanishing is not a mark in their favor. The story that one of them stayed loyal to the Pride could be just a rumor. Or it could be a sign that maybe these kids didn't turn against their parents as much as some people think.

There's also been no word on Victor Mancha, the boy seen getting into the kids' mech shortly before their fight with a bunch of C-list capes in Studio City. Eyewitness reports are contradictory as to the question of whether Mancha went with the kids willingly or was kidnapped.

Investigation into the boy has hit a brick wall with SHIELD written all over it. If I need to deal with these kids the hard way I'll have to be sure to leave on alive long enough to get the truth about the Mancha boy.

War Journal Entry #224: I was able to make it to Los Angeles without incident.

Since I don't know for sure if these kids are bad or not I'm going to need to find them and do surveillance on them for a while. Lucky for me Micro had an old safe house here in L.A. that he set up for me for the times I needed to work the west coast. It's fully stocked with canned food, weapons, and even an old fashioned battle van. The van is a useful, unexpected bonus.

Once I settled in I took a deeper look at the information I have. Footage of the runaways shows that their clothes are clean and none of them seem to be malnourished. Clearly they're not living on the streets. That big green mech they travel around in would also need a lot of space. The Pride was too smart not to have some place they could go if things got bad. I think it's a safe bet the kids must have found one of their parents' old bolt holes.

I can only speculate as to what they might have in a place like that to deal with unwanted company. So fighting these kids on their home turf is out. I'll have to wait until they go after the next costumed clown to show his face.

Then we'll see what's what.

The Hostel

11:32 pm

"Nico, are you sure this is a good idea?" asked Chase. "What if the Cylon Kid there tries to hack a missile silo or something?"

"For pity's sake, keep your voice down," hissed Nico. "Victor's been with us for three weeks and hasn't done anything but be nice to us. That says something since we started accusing him of being a murderer as soon as we met him. If we want to make sure he doesn't go bad then treating him like a time bomb isn't going to help. We've got to treat him like a human being."

The pair stood in the doorway of what Victor had took to calling "the monitor room" of the new Hostel, formally the secret headquarters of the Pride. Screens filled all the walls of the room, each tuned to a varity of feeds from around the world. These monitors where all hooked up to an elaborate computer system which had several terminals for access.

On the other side of the room, Victor Mancha, the newest runaway, sat working intently at one of the terminals. Besides him, he fellow runaway Karolina stood watching the screen in front of Victor with curiosity.

"I get what you're saying in that the guy's one half human," continued Chase. "But the other half is machine and that half almost killed all of us."

"Karolina isn't one bit human. Are you afraid she's going to kill you too?" retorted Nico with a glare.

"That's not the same thing!"

"Just so you know, we can hear everything you're saying," called Victor in an annoyed voice. "Karolina is just too polite to say anything."

Nico sighed and rubbed the side of her head. "I'm the boss, Chase, and I say if Victor wants to use the computer for a while it's okay as long as we keep an eye on him. Gert's likely finally gotten Molly to sleep by now. Why don't you go find her and make out for a while or something? You're just making things here difficult."

Chase snorted. "Fine. But if Terminator Lad over there tries to eat you don't say I didn't warn you." With no more words Chase slunk out of the room.

"So now I'm Terminator Lad? The Cylon Kid? Man, Chase is just a fountain of annoying nicknames," grumbled Victor.

"We've noticed," said Karolina. "But he's pretty much been that way ever since I've known him. Don't take it too personally."

"She's right," concurred Nico as she walked over to her teammates. "Chase can get on your nerves but he's a decent guy under it all. It's just that after what happened back at the warehouse while Ultron attacking Gert…well, he's gonna be a little slow to trust you."

Victor stopped typing, looked at Nico and sighed. "Yeah, I guess I don't blame him. My dad, I mean, Ultron, was going to kill all of you. And he made me to be some kinda doomsday weapon against superheroes. After seeing a dead future version of his girlfriend that was killed by an evil future me…yeah, I'd be a little wary of me too."

"Thanks for being understanding about this," said Nico. "But combine all of that with our parents being evil and the last two boys in this little gang betraying us and, well, Chase isn't the only one with trust issues."

"Hey, I'm cool with earning you guys' trust," replied Victor, quickly. "One thing Ultron did program into me was that I always wanted to be a superhero. Now I can be. But I'll do it because I want to and not because it was what he wanted."

"Do we even really count as superheroes?" asked Karolina. "I always thought superheroes wore spandex. Not stuff they bought at the mall."

"If we're superheroes or not is just semantics," said Nico. "Someone has to watch out for L.A. and for now that's us."

"Now that is the attitude of a superhero," informed Victor with a slight smile.

"Whatever. Not to pry too much, but you're been at this pretty intensely for the last hour. Just what are you doing?"

The young Hispanic boy then seemed to tense up greatly. "Well, the first thing I did was check and see what happened to my mom's body. Your parents' system has back doors into all kinds of law enforcement and government databases and that seemed like the place to start.

"I found out that…what was left of my mom got sent to her uncle back in Mexico. Her folks, my grandparents, died years ago. The internet is a little spotty down in the part of the country, but I did find out that she was buried in her hometown next to her folks."

Victor pushed his chair back from the computer and ran a hand threw his hair. "She grew up in a little town down in Vera Cruz. She always seemed happy whenever she'd mention the place. I guess it was a good place to grow up. I'm glad…I think she'll be at peace there."

Nico unconsciously fingered the small crucifix around her neck for a moment. It was hard to picture that Victor could become one of the greatest supervillains in history when he was worrying about his mother's soul being put to rest.

"So that's why some of the sites you were looking at where in Spanish," said Karolina as she placed a sympathetic hand on the Mexican boy's shoulder. "I'm sorry your mom is gone but at least she got buried somewhere she'd be happy. You can take comfort in that."

Victor nodded morosely.

Deciding to move away from the rather morbid subject matter Nico asked another question. "I saw you get on Yahoo Mail when you first got online. Who where you e-mailing?"

"Oh, just my friend Jorge," said Victor. "I was talking with him when you guys showed up that first time. He was pretty freaked seeing all that happen. I just wanted to let him know I was okay but that I couldn't come back to school."

"What exactly did you tell him?" asked Karolina, cautiously.

"I certainly did tell him the truth, if that's what you're worried about. I'm not that dumb" replied Victor, suddenly looking annoyed. "I told him I was a mutant and that you and those costumed guys were people looking to recruit me. Then I said that I told all of you that I wasn't interested and that my mom and I were starting over again in South America to keep stuff like that from happening again."

"Do you think he'll believe that?" said Nico.

Victor nodded. "He doesn't have any reason not to believe it. I've known Jorge for a long time and this will be the first time I've ever lied to him. The info on my mom's burial was only in government files that had S.H.I.E.L.D. tags on them. There wasn't anything about it in the papers. S.H.I.E.L.D. is run by the UN so I guess the US and Mexican divisions must have worked together to cover things up."

"That's no big surprise though," commented Nico. "People get pretty freaked out by Ultron. If word got out he'd been running around in L.A. without anyone noticing that wouldn't look good for a lot of people."

"Makes sense," said Karolina with a nod. "I guess Turbo and those other guys must have called in S.H.I.E.L.D. and agreed not to say anything to the press."

"All the more reason not to trust them," dismissed Nico. "So what's that you're looking at now, Victor? Isn't that…whoa, the DEA website!?"

Victor turned back to the computer and resumed clicking. "Yeah, it is. I'm accessing their arrest record database. Man, your folks might have been evil but they were really good at making sure there wasn't much information they couldn't get their hands on."

"Yeah, that is pretty cool," agreed Karolina. "I've found all kinds of crazy stuff poking around in these computers. If you want, later I'll tell you who really killed JFK. But why are you looking around in the DEA database?"

"Don't you remember what Ultron said about my mom?" replied Victor, harshly. "He said that she used to be a drug mule! I can't believe my mom would ever do something like that. If there's proof she ever did anything it'll be in the DEA's files."

Just then the computer made a chipper beeping sound. The three teens peered intently at the screen.

"Aw, no," whispered Victor. "It's her name; Marianella Mancha. She's in here."

"It could just be someone with the same name," offered Karolina, hesitantly.

Victor said nothing as he clicked on the file. Almost instantly the screen changed and was dominated by a mugshot photo. Though much younger the woman in the photo was clearly Marianella Mancha.

Victor slumped in his chair. "Ultron was telling the truth. My mom was a drug mule."

Nico leaned in and began to scan the information in the files. "It says she was arrested in San Diego for trying to bring a small amount of cocaine into the country. The DEA tried to offer her a deal to testify against the people who put her up to it but she was too scared of whoever it was to say anything."

"She sure does look scared in this booking photo," commented Karolina. "She must have been terrified of what might happen to her if she talked."

Victor said nothing. He only stared at the image of his mother on the screen.

Not knowing what else to do Nico kept reading. "Your mom was looking at hard time but her public defender was really on the ball and got the case thrown out on a technicality. Then she somehow slipped away before the authorities could deport her. She was a little fish so no real effort was ever made to find her."

Karolina put a hand on Victor's shoulder again and gave him a small squeeze. "I know it's hard finding out stuff like this. But you're mom wasn't evil, Victor. She was just someone who made some mistakes."

"She's right," said Nico. "At least you had one parent who was a good person. That's more than any of us can say."

Victor stood up slowly and silently. "I know you guys are trying to help, but I need some time to deal with this. I'm going to bed."

The two girls watched silently as their teammate left.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" asked Karolina.

"Victor's rolled with the punches pretty well so far," said Nico. "Let's give him some space for right now and see how things go."

"Maybe we should do something to cheer him up."

"Like what?"

"Well, how about letting him help out in the next fight. You've seen what he can do and we've watched him practicing with his powers the last three weeks. He's improved a lot since then. Victor could really be a big help to us. They way things have been going it's only a matter of time before someone really tough like Graviton or the Mandarin shows up. When that happens we're going to need all the help we can get."

Nico frowned and nodded. "I agree with what you're saying but don't you think it's a little soon to trust him that much?"

"You said it yourself we're going to have to start showing him more trust sooner or later. If Victor really wanted to kill us he could have done it while we were sleeping anytime since we brought him here. Do you really think keeping up what we've been doing is going to make any of us any safer?"

Nico didn't have an answer for that.

Meanwhile, at the offices of the Los Angeles Times, a conversation that would soon become relevant to the teenage heroes was unfolding.

"Thanks for doing a late night food run for me, Mickey," said Phil Urich as he leaned back in his desk chair and rubbed his forehead. "I've got a deadline on this story in a couple hours and it's still not coming out right."

"No problem. I've done my share of all-nighters so I know how they can be," replied the former New Warrior who called herself Turbo. She then took a seat on the opposing side of Phil's desk and passed him a plastic bag with three cardboard containers inside. "You wanted extra garlic on that pasta, right?"

"Yeah," said Phil as he began pulling the containers out of the bag. "So how did the meeting with the others go today? I would have come but…"

"It was good. Julie, Chris, and Johnny are all still cool with the whole getting back into the hero game idea. They actually seem excited about it to honest."

"Mr. Jones will be glad to hear that."

Mickey was silent for a moment. "I guess so. Though that does sorta go against the idea we founded Excelsior on."

"Yeah, I know. But like Mr. Jones said, it's only a matter of time before some more kids show up here trying to play hero. If it's us taking the risks then we're protecting someone else. And I've sure you noticed that supervillains have been showing up more and more the last few months."

Mickey nodded. "I've been keeping track online. It's turning into a real supervillain crimewave out there. Hell, we had to help S.H.I.E.L.D. secure Hydro-Man after the Pride's kids took him down at the Glendale Galleria only the day before yesterday."

Phil stopped eating for moment and looked thoughtful. "Say what you want about those kids; they're good. Hydro-Man usually gives Spider-Man a decent run for his money."

"It should have been us fighting Hydro-Man and not those kids!" snapped Mickey as she suddenly bolted to her feet. "Let's be real here, Phil. We haven't taken down a villain on our own since Ultron. Every capture of a supervillain in L.A. since then has been those kids! All we've done is play clean up crew. Picking up after other people's fights is Damage Control's job. Not ours!"

The room was awkwardly silent for several long moments before Mickey sat down again. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to blow up like that. It's just…when I decided to get back into the hero game I didn't expect it to be like this."

"The hero game is never what you expect it to be," offered Phil in a conciliatory tone. "But we're still finding our feet as a team and even with backing from Mr. Jones our resources are still really limited right now."

"I guess part of it is that those kids are rookies and they're making us look third rate. I know it's arrogant to feel like that, but I took a lot of pride in being a New Warrior and the things we did as a team. And now..."

"Getting schools by newbies and always being two steps behind them hurts," finished Phil. "There's nothing wrong with having professional pride, Mickey. I don't like that these kids have been showing us up either. We just need a little more time to gel as a team and one good break. Then we'll be able to stop those kids and get them the help they need to live normal, productive lives."

"And what if one of those kids gets killed before then?" asked Mickey, darkly. "What do we do then?"

Phil didn't have an answer for that.

Mickey stood up again and turned towards the door. "We've been reactive to everything that's been going on in L.A. for too long," she said. "It's time we got proactive."

"Proactive? How?" said Phil, leaning forward.

"I've got some ideas," replied Mickey. "Let me check into some things and I'll get back to you."

Without another word she left. Phil Urich slumped back in his chair, completely forgetting that his food was getting cold. "Why do I not like the sound of that?" he asked the empty room.

Silence was his only answer.

The blinking of red and blue lights and the chattering of radios greeting detective Mark French as he stepped out of the car. At forty-three French was a veteran of the L.A.P.D.'s homicide division and boasted an impressive conviction record. His average height, badly balding red hair, glasses, and thin mustache made him look more like an accountant than a keen investigator.

A moment later French's partner, detective Gail Taylor, also climbed out of the car. Taylor was tall black woman whose athletic build made her look younger than her thirty-five years. "What do you think it is this time, Mark? More gang stuff?"

French studied the nearby warehouse whose entrance had already been taped off. "They wouldn't have pulled us off the Ericson case for bangers blowing holes in each other. The brass want that solved ASAFP. If we were sent down here it must be something big."

"Ah, the joys of being raising stars in the world of homicide," smirked Taylor as she popped a stick of gum in her mouth. "Only the best murder scenes for us."

"How's that cold turkey thing going?"

Taylor sighed as she chewed her gum. "Eight days and counting. The gum helps a bit. Never would have thought quitting smoking would be so hard."

"I about went nuts when I quite ten years ago," said French as he started heading for the tape. "But once I kicked it I started feeling a lot better. Just hang in there."

Taylor grunted as she chewed.

A uniformed officer who looked a little green around the gills lifted the tape up for them as they approached the door. The two detectives exchanged looks. They knew that when a scene could turn the stomach of a fellow officer that it was bound to be bad.

Bad was an understatement. Scattered all over the main floor the warehouse were over a dozen bodies, all men, who had been cut to pieces. Most of the corpses had had an arm or hand severed, a few had been decapitated, others disemboweled, and one man had been cleanly split in two at the waist.

A wide varity of guns and shell casings littered the floor which was slick with blood. In several places bags of white powder lay split open on the ground, the contents mixing with the carnage.

Taylor choked on her gum and French shot a hand to his mouth to help control the urge to vomit.

"Now you see why you two were called," came a voice. The two detectives turned to find a lanky man in his early thirties with dirty blond hair holding a camera and looking at them.

"Oh, hey, Cliff," managed French. "Damn, it's been a while since I saw anything this bad. You CSU guys got anything for us yet?"

"You're joking, right?" said Cliff. "We've barely been here an hour. Though I will go out on a limb and say that I don't suspect drowning or suicide as a cause of death."

"You've developed a twisted sense of humor, Cliff," replied Taylor who had recovered her composure.

Cliff shrugged. "It helps me sleep at night after seeing stuff like this."

"Well, whatever happened here L.A. is now short one drug ring," mused Taylor.

"Think it was one of the mask and tights crowd that did this?" asked French.

"Could be. Normal perps would have a hard time doing all this. Maybe it's one of those freak jobs that escaped from the Raft during that big supervillain prison break out east a while back."

"I don't know much about superhumans, but let me show you something," spoke up Cliff. The investigator turned his digital camera so that the detectives could see the viewing window. "As soon as I got here I noticed that the blood splatter wasn't right for a scene like this. Once I got to looking it became clear that most of the blood had been smeared to form a pattern. So I went up to the second floor and got a wide shot of the whole floor."

Cliff taped a button on his camera and a previously saved photo instantly appeared in the viewing window. It clearly showed that the blood did indeed form a design that vaguely resembled a cross between the letter S and a sea urchin.

"A mass ritual slaying like this is going to be the biggest thing to hit California since the Manson Family murders," said French as he rubbed his forehead. "Just our bad luck we'd catch it. The press is going to be all over this!"

Taylor narrowed her eyes. "That design…I've seen it before. I'm not sure where though."

"That was my reaction too," informed Cliff. "When I went to take some shots in the manager's office I figured out from where."

Without a word the detectives followed Cliff to a door nearby that stood slightly ajar. "We haven't had the chance to bag and tag this place yet. But just stick your head inside. You'll see all you need to know."

Not wanting to disturb and possible prints French carefully pushed the door open with his foot. The floor of the office was slick with blood. On the wall furthest from the door was a blackboard with various bits of shipping information written on it in chalk. But covering the chalk now were words written in blood.

The Pride Lives!

French and Taylor's eyes went wide.

"That design…it's the symbol of The Pride!" gasped Taylor. French simply swore colorfully.

"Yeah, that was about my reaction," said Cliff.

"You think this is some kind of a fake out?" asked Taylor.

"I hoped to God it is," replied French. "If it's not, then this town hasn't even begun to see bloody yet."