Ch. 5 Stay out of My Way
Heero walked home after getting as much intell as he possibly could. It turns out, Shank was right, the Yakuzas are taking over most of the crime in New York and the leader was indeed a woman by the name of Tanaka.
'Shank,' he thought. 'You always come through for me.' For the past three months, Shank had been helping him out by gathering information that could only be obtained by someone with a vast amount of street smarts, as well as being good at deception. Heero had met Shank while on the hunt; he originally thought that he was some alcoholic bum but it turns out that Shank had a lot of information about the scum Heero was hunting. Shank was also acting as Heero's 'conscience', telling him when he'll go to far and might just become the very evil that he's fighting, as well advising Heero to take a break every now and again.
Then there was Glitch, Heero's armorer, computer specialists, and good friend. Glitch, like Shank, also had a second purpose: to keep Heero focused. Glitch would always be there to remind Heero what being the Punisher was about, protecting the innocent and punishing the corrupt.
And finally, Max, a stray that Heero found. He trained him how to fight, to go for the parts that would deal the must damage, such as the jugular. Despite this, Max is overly friendly to those who posed no threat to Heero, Shank, Glitch, or anyone else his master considers a friend.
Halfway home, he decided to pay Shank another visit. Shank lived not far from Heero's base and it was short detour, plus he could run into more scum along the way. Shank lived in a rundown apartment complex in one of New York's many bad neighborhoods. These places were a mix of corruption and innocence, almost to the point were you couldn't tell the difference. But Heero knew, he had been trained to tell the difference, so no innocent would become a casualty of the Punisher's war.
Heero made his way to apartment number 129 on one of the top floors. Heero knocked on the door, letting Shank know that it was him, because he was the only one who knocked. He waited until Shank unlocked the door and Shank had a lot of locks. The door opened and Heero walked in, and as soon as the door closed behind him, a gun was pointed to the right side of his head.
Without even looking to his right, he said, "Shank, put the gun down, you know it's me."
Shank lowered the weapon. "Sorry Heero," he said. "It's, just, you don't know who's going to be on the other side of that door."
"That's why I knock," Heero retorted.
"You don't know who'll knock either," Shank countered.
"Hn" Heero replied. Heero walked over to the sofa, if you could call it that. It was the kind of sofa you would see at a junkyard, but Heero didn't mind, he'd seen worse. As he sat down, Shank came over and placed a bottle of beer on the coffee table in front of Heero and one in front of himself as he pulled up an armchair.
Shank opened his beer while Heero just stared at his. "You're not gonna open it?" Shank asked. "Or are ya just gonna stare at until it magically opens?"
Heero looked up and glared at Shank. Shank smiled and shook his head, "You know that doesn't work on me."
"Not thirsty," Heero replied.
"So," Shank said. "Take it with you when you leave."
"I don't drink," Heero replied.
"Man, you are just one buzz kill after another." Shank said, taking a sip from his own beer. "So, why ya here?"
"Maybe I just wanted see a friend," Heero said.
"Yeah right," Shank said. "The only reason you'd come is because you need something."
"You were right," Heero said. "Yakuzas are moving in and their leader is a woman named Tanaka." "Told ya," Shank said taking another sip. "So, what are you going to do?"
"Seek and Destroy," Heero said.
A silence settled between the two men until finally Shank spoke. "Heero, I have some new information I think you should hear."
"What is it?" Heero asked.
"I hear that the Preventers are now helping the cops track you down." Shank said.
Heero sighed, "Well it was bound to happen sooner or later."
"So what are you do about them?" asked Shank.
"I'll know what to do when the time comes." Heero said as he got up. Shank finished his beer and moved to grab Heero's but it was quickly snatched up by Heero, who popped the top off and took a sip.
"I thought you didn't drink," Shank said.
Heero looked at him and said, "Yeah well, 'an eye for eye'." Then he turned and left the building.
He moved at slower pace then usual, perhaps it was the beer, or perhaps he just wanted to take a break from all the crime, perhaps, just for a moment he didn't have to be the Punisher.
But a woman's screams snapped him back into reality, he looked up from were the screams were coming from.
He saw a women struggling with a man on the roof of a large building, 'Skyscraper rapist,' Heero thought. 'The bastards are getting original now.' Heero spied a fire escape going up the building. He ran and leapt onto it and began climbing the many ladders.
Duo sighed for what Hilde had counted as the seventh time.
"What's wrong?" she asked as they were driving down Broadway after returning to the precinct to acquire another set of crime files. Hilde was worried that Duo might become obsessed with finding Heero.
"Nothing," he said. "It's just that…" He sighed.
'Number eight,' Hilde thought.
"Heero was one of us," he continued. "I mean, any one of us could have become the Punisher."
"Heero was always a soldier," she said. "It's not surprising that when the one thing that would turn him to a regular person vanishes, he becomes a soldier once again or at least in his eyes, he's a soldier."
"Yeah, but its strange the way the cops talk about him," Duo said. "Its like he's some sort of evil hero, doing good and bad at the same time."
"What do mean?" she asked.
"They like what he does," Duo said. "They think he's doing the right thing. One of them said and I quote, 'He does to those bastards, what us regular cops can only dream about.' It seems Finch is the only one who wants to catch him too."
"Well then it's a good thing that he's on our side," Hilde said as she smiled at Duo. He smiled back.
Suddenly, just as a red light turned green and they started to move forward, 'something' fell on the car. Duo slammed on the brakes, and when the car came to a complete stop, he looked to see what had hit the car.
What he saw both amazed and horrified him, "Holy Christ," he breathed, while Hilde screamed.
Halfway through the windshield, was a man's bloody, still conscience, face. They just stared at him while he stared back, he tried to say something but more blood just kept coming out of his mouth, then something else impacted the car. Whatever it was, it killed the first man, by severing his spine; not spinal cord, spine.
They looked up to see that it was Heero, who didn't seem to notice them as he stepped off the car and walked off, as if nothing had occurred. He walked to the other side of the street, turned the corner, and was gone.
Duo stepped out of the car and looked at Hilde and said, "Call an ambulance, I'll be back real soon." Without waiting for a reply from Hilde, Duo took of running in Heero's direction.
Duo went down an alleyway, hoping to intercept Heero and take him by surprise. His opportunity came when he saw Heero walk by and didn't notice him, this was his chance, and he had to act now.
"FREEZE!" Duo shouted, pointing his gun at Heero. Heero stopped, put his hands above his head, and turned around.
"Duo," he said, his face and voice remaining emotionless.
"You're under arrest," Duo replied and moved towards Heero to take his weapons.
As Duo reached out with his free hand to take one of Heero's pistols, Heero grabbed his arm and twisted it around his back. Using his free arm, the one still holding the gun, he started elbowing him in the stomach.
Eventually, Heero let go and Duo turned around and again pointed his gun at Heero. Heero grabbed him again, flipped Duo onto his back, took the gun and pointed it at Duo.
Duo held up his hands in defeat, as Heero walked over to him. For a moment, Duo thought that Heero was going to shoot him but instead, Heero pulled back on the slide, ejecting the chambered round and then he ejected the magazine.
He let them drop to the ground and said, "Here's a warning that I want you and the others to abide: stay out of my way. There's no place for you in this war," then he turned and left.
Duo walked back to his car, the sounds of sirens and flashing lights told him he was getting closer. Heero's words echoed in his mind, 'Stay out of my way.'
'Why would he say that?' Duo thought. Then it hit him, 'He could've easily killed me!' Duo thought. 'But why didn't he?' Then he remembered what Heero said in his 'declaration': 'Those who prey on the innocents…'
'He protects the innocents and punishes the corrupt!' Duo realized. 'He won't kill anyone who hasn't done anything! And that's how were going to beat him.'
Heero climbed down the ladder into his base, Max coming over to greet him, as he usually does. Heero removed his gear and sat down in his chair, Max accompanying him. Max laid his head in Heero's lap, he could feel Heero's distress, and so he tried to comfort him. Heero petted his head and half-smiled at him.
Glitch, Shank, and Max were now his only friends and Heero had come to terms with that this night. 'Duo, Hilde, Quatre, Dorothy, Wufei, Sally…' he thought. "Relena," he breathed. 'I'll never see them on friendly terms again.' Speaking of Glitch, he better head over to his place tomorrow and see if his 'special' order came in.
"He said, 'stay out of my way'," Duo stated. They had all gathered at Duo and Hilde's apartment to hear about his recent encounter with the Punisher. "He said it was a warning. He also said that there's no place for me in some war."
"What war could he possibly be talking about?" Noin asked.
"The war on crime." They all turned to see Detective Finch, standing in the doorway.
"How did you get in here?" Hilde asked. Finch threw something at Duo, which he caught.
"It's not safe to leave your keys in the lock," he said. Duo looked at his hands and indeed there were his keys.
"Whoops," Duo said.
"Anyway," Finch said. "The thing about the Punishers is that they believe they, as well as us cops, are fighting a war. So they treat it like a war."
He looked at Relena said, "I guess you can't end all wars, can you?" Relena just seem to glare at him
"So," Duo said. "Why are you here?"
"I came over to show you this," Finch said as he held up a disk.
"What's that?" Noin asked.
"A surveillance video." Finch said, "From a bank. I thought you might want to see it." Finch walked over to the TV, and put the disk in the player.
The picture came in to view as a surveillance camera watching the front desk. Everything was normal for a few moments, but then five men wearing masks and carrying assault rifles came into the picture. They began yelling at the clerks to give them all the money in the bank and if they didn't, then they would kill them.
"Why are showing this?" Hilde asked.
"Just wait," Finch said. A moment or two pasted before Finch stopped the video and pointed to something in the bottom corner of the TV. Everyone moved closer to see what he was pointing at but all they saw was a black blur.
"What's that?" Relena asked.
"Just wait," Finch repeated, as he continued the video. Suddenly, they saw a man jump over the counter and attack the five would be robbers. He apparently had a knife because he slashed one of the men's throat and he fell to the ground, dead. When they saw the man from the front, it was obvious who it was, the skull was a dead give away. Heero effortlessly slew the men one by one, until he got to the last one.
Heero shoved him into a wall, put his knife to the man's throat and said, "Tell me who's behind this and you just might live longer."
The man looked scared and said, "Oh, God, please I don't know anything."
Heero obviously didn't believe him, because he pressed harder on the knife. "I swear I don't know," the robber said as tears began to form at the corner of his eyes.
As they began to spill over, he shouted, "I'M GOING TO BE A DADDY!."
Heero's eyes widened, he looked down, then he stuck the knife in the wall, pulled the man close, and said, "Be a good one."
Then he knocked him unconscious, retrieved the knife, told one of the clerks to call 911, and left.