Author's Note: Ah...aquĆ es parte dos. Er, or somethin' like that. Hurrah for one semester of Spanish in Sophomore year? Yes. Hurrah!
Part 2
:::Santa Barbara Police Department, Detainment Cells:::
"Jules, you've gotta let me out." Shawn whispered, wrapping his hands around the bars as he pressed his face between them, staring at his blonde girlfriend with wide eyes. "You know I didn't do this."
"I know you didn't." She agreed. "But..." She added on quickly, cutting Shawn's growing smile short. "...I agree with Lassiter. I think you know something. And if it's because you're protecting someone or just scared, I get it, but you need to tell us." Shawn stared at her for a long while, and she stared back. With a huff, he propelled himself away from the bars, and threw himself onto the squeaky bed in the detainment cell, landing heavily on his stomach. He made a point not to look at Juliet.
His father had come and gone in the two hours he had been in he detainment cell. He had only come for seven minutes, ranting about how Shawn was an idiot to get wrapped up so much in something, and how he would have to find his own way out of the situation. Not like he hadn't had to find his way out of tough situations on his own before, but every time it had been people that meant pretty much nothing to him. But these people...well, he couldn't just smack their heads together and make a quick getaway while they were unconscious.
Chief Vick had been down, too, demanding Shawn answer their questions. But he hadn't answered them. That was why they had left him alone in the detainment cell with only Juliet as his company, hoping he'd spill the beans to her.
'This is just like all those years ago, when I called in the tips.' Shawn thought bitterly. 'The same thing. They think I know something, so they arrest me. Only this time, I don't have any excuse to get me out of this one. This isn't just a few tips.' He sighed, shifting slightly.
He was itching to get up and run, to get away from the tight confines of the cell. The bars that kept him in the small room didn't help, either; he hated bars, unless they were the kinds that would serve him something strong or on the rocks.
It wasn't just the bars, though, that had him on edge. It was the promise he had received when Lassiter had been leading him out of the Psych office in handcuffs.
The tall man that had too perfect features, smirking at him from across the road. Giving him a predatory look. The same man - but now with yellow eyes instead of his previous brown - holding up a flier that advertised how the SBPD was there to help.
The man knew where he was.
The man knew who he was.
Not just who, but who.
Which was never a good thing.
He had begged and pleaded to be let go, giving up as much information as he could while still trying to keep Lassiter, Juliet, hell the entire city safe. But none of it would satisfy the detectives nor the chief, so here he was, locked in a detainment cell. He didn't know how many hours he had left, or if he even had that.
"If you just tell use what you know, Shawn, then we can let you out of here." Juliet called softly from where she sat outside the cell, once more trying to gently prod information from her boyfriend.
"I already told you. It wasn't a human, it was an animal. That's all I know about the case. Now if you don't let me go, then there's going to be one hell of a problem for the police department, so let me go."
If Gus showed up at the Psych office, only to find it empty, with only that man waiting for his arrival...
Oh, God, Shawn didn't want to think about it.
He glanced at the bars of the cell, contemplating the probability of him being able to bend them enough to allow him an escape route.
No, that would never work. He would still have to stroll right through the entirety of the police department, full of cops that knew his face. that would never work, not unless he wanted to bash a few skulls first. Which, of course, he didn't.
"Juliet, please. It's not just me who'll get hurt if I stay here. You will, and so will Lassie, and the Chief, and Woody and Buzz and everybody else in this entire department."
"And who will hurt us, Shawn?" Juliet asked, leaning forward in her seat in hopes for more information. She hated seeing her boyfriend so desperate, locked in what was essentially a cage. But she was a cop, first and foremost, an upholder of the law. She had a job to do, and sadly, this was it.
"Something that you won't be able to stop, and something that you definitely won't want to face. It'll kill you without remorse, without hesitation, and without any difficulty. You have to let me go!" Juliet just shook her head sadly. "Argh, you all just don't get it!" He buried his face in his pillow, returning to his mental drawing board on how to get out of his cell. And then, consequently, Santa Barbara, and probably the United States. He would, after all, be on the run from the cops.
Again.
He didn't even hear Juliet get up and leave, and he didn't notice her absence for the time that followed.
He did, however, hear the loud explosion that shook the foundation of the building to its core.
:::Chief Vick's Office:::
"I don't know what he knows," Juliet said with a heavy sigh. "but whatever it is, he thinks its coming. Here. For him. And that'll hurt us in the process." She turned to the Chief. "I say it wasn't him Chief."
"Of course it wasn't him." Vick said, ignoring Lassiter's almost silent release of breath in a sigh that border-lined being disappointed. "But that doesn't mean that Lassiter wasn't right this time, and that Spencer knows something."
"This time?" Lassiter's annoyed voice called, which was promptly ignored.
"Do you think he knows the murderer's identity?" Juliet asked, throwing her own personal theory out into the air. "And he's just scared that the murderer will kill him for revealing it?"
"He's figured out murderer's identities hundreds of times before, and revealed them to us, without any hesitation before." Vick said with a dismissive shake of her head. "It's not that."
"Maybe he has something illegal he doesn't want us to know about." Lassiter said with a small smirk, staring off into the distance the same way he had since he had entered the room.
"Like what?" Juliet asked, all of the wires she had been inspecting at the Psych office coming to mind. "A bomb?" She had meant it as a joke of course, but Lassiter snorted.
"He's nowhere near smart enough for that. Remember the one case with the bomber? When he almost got us all blown up because he thought we were supposed to clip the green wire or the red wire or whatever, and it wasn't there?" Juliet shrugged, opening her mouth to respond.
She was cut short, however, when a loud blast rocked the building, shaking a few things from their places on the walls or on the Chief's desk.
Screams echoed from outside Vick's office after the loud crashing of falling objects halted, followed by a loud, piercing howl.
"What?!" Lassiter growled, storming out of the office with Vick and Juliet trailing right behind him.
Policemen and women were scrambling around, either fleeing from the entrance of the police department, or running towards it with much heavier artillery.
"What in the name of Sweet Lady Justice is going on here?!" Lassiter demanded loudly, making a grab for the nearest fleeing cop. "McNab!"
"Oh, uh, h-hi, Detective." He looked over Lassiter's shoulder, nodding to the two women. "Detective. Chief." He looked back to Lassiter. "Look, I'd love to talk, but I have to go find a gun." He glanced at the weapon on his belt. "A bigger gun." He darted off before another question could be asked.
"What? Why?" Juliet called after the tall man, but he was already gone. The trio exchanged glances, then jogged towards the direction the loud ratta-tat-tat's of firearms.
Policemen and women were crouched on the ground, more than one collapsed on the ground and covered in some amount of blood. Anybody that wasn't unconscious - or dead, as some of them seemed to be - was taking cover behind counters or other various objects, either catching their breath or reloading their weapon of choice.
"WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING?!" The Chief yelled, her eyes ablaze with fury.
"Chief, Lassie, Jules, get down!" The three were pulled down to the dusty floor moments before a large cinderblock was hurled at their heads.
Their savior was hunched over behind the front desk, numerous tears in his plaid shirt with more than half of the buttons missing. A horizontal slice decorated his left cheek, blood spilling out in thin sheets to die the collar of his shirt a ruby red. Even so, he was grinning stupidly, waving at the three that he had just recused from either a nasty head injury, or something much worse.
"Spencer-" Lassiter began, but was silenced as his savior stuffed a wad of paper in his mouth.
"I'd love to chat, Lassie, but I think we have a bigger problem here." Shawn said, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder in the general direction of the front door.
"Who let you out of the detainment cell?" Vick asked, frowning. She hadn't seen anyone go down to the cells to let anybody locked up out - which was supposed to happen when any type of emergency came along, and this seemed to be one - but then again, she had barely seen anything besides the interior of her office since the case of the mauling-serial killer started. Shawn stared at her for a moment, and then broke out into a grin.
"Who said I was let out of my cell?" Juliet palmed her forehead, Vick blinked, and Lassiter scowled. "Please, we all know that I'd be able to escape jail. Your detainment cells are too easy! I've escaped harder places in my sleep." He lifted his finger into the air. "And I repeat: We have bigger problems than Lassie's inability to accept that I'm more awesome than him-"
"Spencer!"
"-and how your security in a crisis is severely lacking."
"And what problem would that be, Mr. Spencer?" Aside from the seemingly crazy cops that were shooting at the entrance. "And how did you know about it?"
"First of all..." Shawn held his hand up to his temple and wiggled his eyebrows. His smile fell, as did his hand. "And as for what the problem is..." He pointed directly above his head as a large glob of viscous and cloudy liquid dropped on his head, thoroughly messing up his hair. "...that."
The three looked up while Shawn sighed, and a very girly scream pierced the air, one that Lassiter would later deny.
Hanging above their head was a massive wolf, its maw gaping to drip tendrils of saliva from its fangs. Its long fur was ragged in white, with more than a few patches missing to reveal bloody flesh that rippled with muscle. Its forelegs were hardly forelegs at all, looking more like human arms; in fact, that what they resembled exactly, except that they were covered in white fur, and the human-like hands were ended in long, jagged claws. The monster's piercing yellow stared hungrily at the four, its long, pink tongue darting out to swipe at its entire muzzle. Its lips peeled back from its jagged fangs.
"Hit the deck!" Shawn ordered, dragging the three further to the floor as he dove downwards. The wolf flew over the three in a poorly-executed pounce, slamming face-first into a nearby pillar, where a few cops rounded on it and unloaded enough bullets into its body to kill a bull elephant. The thing twitched, and then laid still.
"W-what is that thing?!" Juliet squeaked, her eyes wide. After the wolf had leapt, it had revealed its lower body. Its hind legs still looked a bit like those of a wolf or an animal - the legs being digitigrade legs - but the key word was a bit. The feet looked like a grotesque mix of feet and paws, with curled claws with razor-sharp points, and while the wolf's tail had nothing odd about it, the wolf-thing was wearing pants. Ripped pants, yes, but it was still wearing pants. And its torso wasn't shaped like a wolf's, but a man's. "What is that thing?"
"Ah, Wolfman?" Shawn offered with a hesitant and uneasy smile. The three stared at him, and he blinked rapidly. "What?"
"How is that possible? How is it possible?" Juliet asked. "It's...I mean, look at it!"
Shawn frowned, staring at the wolf-man...thing. He had accused a dinosaur, a werewolf, a vampire, and ghosts of murder on multiple occasions; figured that the police were not exactly onboard with the one thing he knew was real. "Why're you asking me?"
"Because that's the thing in the picture!" Lassiter hissed. "And you know something about that!"
"Hey, hey, I never said that I knew anything about that." Shawn said, pointing with an intense look on his face. Lassiter's eyebrow kicked up. "But...uh..." He lifted a hand tentatively to his temple. "...I may be sensing that that thing is known as an "Eraser.""
"I knew it!"
"I said "sensing," Lassie, as in "I didn't know that until now when my sexy awesomeness and amazing hair listened to the spirits and heard this divine information."
"...Spencer, that didn't make any sense."
"He's right, Shawn. Hair doesn't have ears."
"You too, Jules?" Shawn clicked his tongue. "Man can't win anything here, can he?"
"People, bicker later!" Vick barked, diving down next to them. While the three had been arguing, Vick had moved off to join the rest of the police force, firing her own pistol at the other wolfmen - or, Erasers, as Shawn had dubbed them - that were still moving in through the front door. "We need to deal with this now! Like find out why they're attacking the police department, for one!" Shawn raised his hand in the air.
"I know why they're here!" He yelped, loud an shrill, as a Eraser hand tried to swipe his own off at the wrist. "And I know how to get rid of them!"
"And how do you expect to do that, Spencer?!" Lassiter snapped, taking his place next to Vick, pulling his own handgun from its holster. Shawn grinned, the corners of his mouth curling up in a grin that was a bit too much like the Joker's. He dug into one of his pockets, and pulled out a handful of...
...Pink Pearl erasers.
"What are you going do to with those? Throw them at them?" Lassiter snorted. Shawn waggled his eyebrows.
He leapt to his feet, turning towards the nearest Eraser who was standing just a few feet away. He drew his arm back.
"SUCK ON THIS, BASTARDS!" He screeched, lobbing a handful of Pink Pearl erasers at the wolf-man. They bounced harmlessly off of the wolf-man's chest. The entire police department fell silent as the pieces of rubber dropped to the floor. Everybody froze, police nor Eraser moving a muscle as they stared at the little erasers meant for students in elementary school.
The wolf-man suddenly started to roar with laughter, its comrades following in its example. Its jagged fangs glistened with saliva, and more than a little bit of blood.
...fun.
Lassiter rounded on the blue-green-eyed-man.
"Spencer! What in the hell was that supposed to do? Annoy them?! Well, it probably worked!"
"Wait for iiiiiit..."
The Pink Pearls began to glow, halting the Erasers' laughs. Within seconds, they exploded, bursting out in a terrifying shower of flame and light. Silence once again reigned as the dust began to settle and clear. While it was still dusty to all hell, the lack of a frontal Eraser was apparent. All that was left were two grotesque feet-paws.
"Erasers erasing an Eraser! Poetic justice, my friend, POETIC JUSTICE!"
"Holy crap, Shawn!" Juliet shouted in the roaring silence, uncovering her head from where she had ducked for cover right when the freaking erasers exploded. "What was that?!"
"A bomb! Well, multiple bombs. Inside erasers. I made them!" He said the last part proudly. Juliet's gaze shot to Lassiter, looking torn between grinning smugly and and looking horrified. Shawn just settled for looking obscenely proud. "And I didn't even think I remember how to make a micro-bomb anymore! Or put them inside erasers. That there is tricky business."
"Mr. Spencer, did you just detonate a bomb inside my precinct?"
"It was more like five bombs, Chief."
"I counted five, Chief."
"Mr. Spencer, did you detonate five bombs inside my precinct?"
"That I did, Chief. And they performed magnificently."
"...Spencer, you're a dumbass."
"And you, Lassie-Face, are a party-pooper."
"Shawn, you do know that it's illegal to build bombs, right?"
"Oh, Jules, not you, too! I just blew up an Eraser! I think we can overlook the fact I built five-plus bombs."
"PLUS?!" Multiple voices cried in unison, with a few Erasers choosing that moment to back further away from the childish man.
"Well, did you really think I only built five micro-bombs? Come now, guys, I thought you'd know me better by now."
"We didn't know you could build bombs at all, Mr. Spencer!"
"...then you all apparently knew me less than I thought." Shawn blinked, and flicked another Pink Pearl at an Eraser that was trying to get the jump on a cop. The eraser flew into the wolf-man's mouth, and it snapped its maw shut with wide eyes and a high-pitched squeak. Shawn spun his finger in the air. "You might want to run, fuzz-butt." The Eraser stumbled backwards, clawing at its own stomach.
It suddenly froze. Its stomach began to expand, as did its throat and cheeks. With an explosion of gore that splattered the walls, the Eraser was pretty much vaporized.
Shawn peaked his head over the counter he had ducked behind, just barely being protected from the blood that bathed the walls. He made a face, contemplating using his typical high-pitched scream he would utilize when violence erupted, and he was the center of it.
"And that goes for the rest of you!" He called to the remaining Erasers. "Get outta here before there's I pull out the real bomb!"
A few Erasers scrambled at that, gruff mumblings - which surprised the cops, since the words were English - exchanged as they fled with their tails literally between their legs.
Shawn ducked back behind the counter, grinning across the isle to Vick, Juliet, and Lassiter. "Still got it."
"Got what?!" The three hissed, and his grin just grinned.
Wouldn't you like to know? the grin said, and that was all that Shawn offered up.
The Erasers who hadn't fled were making their way back towards the innards of the police department, more bodies of Erasers collapsing, dead, by the minute.
"I thought they'd leave..." Shawn thought out loud. He jumped with his classic shriek when a hand clapped down on his shoulder, a shock running down his spine. He spun around. "DAMN! Gus, don't do that, man! I almost flew through the ceiling!"
Gus offered a small smile, but his face was noticeably paler. His eyes kept darting to the Erasers that were struggling to get into the building under the heavy fire.
"Shawn, we gotta get outta here." He muttered, nodding his head towards the back of the precinct, or more specifically, the back door. Shawn opened his mouth to protest, but after a moment of contemplation, he closed his mouth and nodded. He took a quick glance around the precinct; he was so happy that his dad had the day off. He did not feel like explaining things to that man at the moment.
He glanced down at the two remaining Pink Pearl bombs he had in his hand, and with a shrug, he tossed them over his shoulder and the counter, grinning as they exploded in a flurry of flames behind him. He spurred himself to his feet and dashed after Gus before the Erasers could move after them, or before the police could stop them.
"Shawn!" Juliet called after him, drawing the attention of Vick, McNab, and Lassiter, but he was already gone, rounding a corner towards the stairs that led to the back doors.
"I've got some bags in the Blueberry, and, uh, some new plates if they're needed. I withdrew the money from our bank accounts, and, uh, I have those false IDs you made a while back." Gus was saying, but Shawn was hardly listening.
"We don't need to leave the city, Gus." Shawn protested, but was quickly silenced by Gus's hard stare.
"Yes, we do. Those wolf guys-"
"The Erasers."
"-whatever...the Erasers tried to attack you in a police department. They obviously don't care where you are, or who you're surrounded by. We need to leave Santa Barbara, as much as I hate to admit it." Shawn wrapped his fingers around Gus's upper arm, jolting him to a stop.
"You mean I have to leave Santa Barbara. You're staying here." Gus snorted, and Shawn cut him off. "Gus, serious-Shawn time. You have a family here. A family, a job, and a life. A normal life. This is my life; moving from place to place to stay ahead."
"You have a family and a life here too, Shawn." Gus jerked out of Shawn's grip, and reversed their roles so he was dragging his fairer-skinned friend. "And now we're both gonna leave."
Shawn shook his head with a sigh. He hated "serious-Shawn" moments, especially when they involved his less-than-public life. And he hated when Gus had to take the fall for them. Okay, so he didn't always hate it when Gus had to take the fall for him, but sometimes he did.
...okay, he only hated it when it was concerned with his less-than-public life, but still.
They snuck out the back doors, slipping into the Blueberry, which was parked behind a cluster of bushes to keep it out of sight. For the Erasers, though, sniffing out the car would be no problem. The parking lot was void of Erasers, however, something that the duo counted as a blessing.
"I'll drive."
"Oh no you wont, Shawn! This is a company car! Company car!"
"And we're going to be on the run! It won't matter who the car technically belongs to! Gimme the keys!"
"No." Gus said, fixing his face in a neutral expression and staring off into the distance, crossing his arms stubbornly.
"Gus, don't be a...a...just gimme the damn keys!"
"Not on your life. Get in the car." Gus slid into the driver's seat without another word, effectively cutting off the conversation. Shawn stamped his foot on the ground - not unlike a little kid - and got into the passenger seat with a scowl, buckling and crossing his arms to pout.
Author's Note: Uh...part two's done. :D
