Chapter 17
They appeared at the shop to see Emerson already there. He had a large plastic bag and was stuffing chocolate from everywhere in the shop. A security guard who was also in the shop was watching Emerson closely, obviously sure he would steal it all since no man would be able to pay for everything he was collecting.
Just as Emerson grabbed a large chocolate in the shape of a hippo, Ryker clamped his arm on his shoulder. Emerson spun round immediately and smiled as if he was pleased to see them.
"Hi guys, I was just going to the shop." He tried but they looked unimpressed. "Want a bar?" he asked hopefully and held out a one kilogram bar.
"Shotgun!" Alasdair shouted and grabbed it.
Meanwhile the security guard seemed to be calling for back-up. Emerson glanced at him cautiously.
"Could you, by any chance…" Emerson started but paused.
"Could we what?" Amya prompted.
"Get me out of here…"
"Well obviously." Amya said. "Why else would we come to get you, it's not as if we wanted to come to the shop."
"Actually…" Jeremy chipped in but was cut off by Emerson.
"With the chocolate?"
"I'm sorry what?!" Amya asked her voice showing signs of annoyance.
"Could you get me out of here with the chocolate?" Emerson pleaded.
"No way!" Amya snapped back. "We are most certainly not helping you steal this chocolate."
"Keep your voice down." Emerson said as the security guard was walking slowly towards them, obviously back-up was on its way.
"We're not helping you steal this chocolate." Amya repeated quieter.
"I'll get you out." Alasdair said.
"Thank you so much." Emerson said gratefully and Amya glared at the Jumper.
"But on one condition." Alasdair continued.
"Ok, sure, whatever you want." Emerson agreed wholeheartedly.
"You share your chocolate with me."
"And me." Jeremy said quickly.
"Ok, you share your chocolate with me and Jeremy." Alasdair corrected himself but saw Ryker's blank, deadpan and scarily unsettling expression. "And of course Ryker." He added quickly.
"You want me to share my chocolate with you?" Emerson asked in disbelief.
"Either that and I get you out of here, or you get arrested and your chocolate gets taken away from you. Which will it be?" Alasdair asked. "Hurry up, your time is running out." He taunted and indeed he was correct as the guard was coming closer and they could hear voices and footsteps from not far away which were obviously from back-up.
"Ok, ok. I'll give you some of my chocolate; just help me take a bit more." Emerson said caving in and Alasdair, and then Jeremy started to take some more chocolate from the shelves.
"They obviously don't think we'll be able to get out." Alasdair said, indicating the guard who was walking towards them at a leisurely pace.
"Well, where would we go?" Emerson asked and Alasdair shrugged.
"Fair point, but they still don't have to be so cocky."
"Well I'd love to stay and teach them a lesson, but it may be easier said than done." Emerson said, indicating the back-up that was running into the shop. Obviously the back-up called by the security guard in the shop had joined with the back-up that had been called earlier as there was an abnormally large amount to take down five people.
"Where is it you want to go?" Alasdair asked in his best chauffeur impression.
"Take us home, so we can unload this stuff and you can look at a map again." Emerson said, saying the last few words acidly.
"You're the boss." Alasdair said and everyone grabbed hold.
They appeared in the kitchen of the Tate's house and Emerson started forward immediately and placed the chocolate on the counter, Jeremy and Alasdair did the same.
"Right, well Amya, if you go through the map with Alasdair, we'll have a go starting off the chocolate." Emerson suggested, picked up a bar, ripped of the wrapper and bit of a large chunk.
"I'm still eating some chocolate." Alasdair grumbled, grabbed the map off the counter and sat down at the table. Amya moved over and sat down next to him.
After a thorough study of the map of the world and a significant amount of chocolate, they were ready to go again. Amya had gone through exactly where Belgium was and exactly where, in Belgium they were supposed to be going and then after she had done that, she did it again three more times. Emerson didn't even have to ask for them to go; he just put down his half eaten overly large chocolate bar and stood up, Jeremy and Ryker doing the same. They grabbed on and were in Belgium.
They were on a small hill in the countryside; in front of them was a large castle, The Miranda Castle to be exact. It seemed completely deserted except Angelo Scraper's car, Angela's motor bike and a Range Rover. They had arrived a fair distance away and hoped to be out of sight.
"Just a quick question..." Alasdair queried. "What exactly is our plan?"
"Hahaha, yeah, wouldn't that be great." Emerson laughed genuinely and led the way down to the castle gate.
"Wait, so we don't have a plan?" Alasdair asked Amya in disbelief. "He expects us just to follow him blindly down into a trap without thinking it through at all."
"Yes." Amya confirmed and followed behind Emerson. Ryker followed without question and Jeremy shrugged and trudged along behind them. This left just Alasdair standing by himself his face ridden with disbelief.
"We are crazy." He muttered and walked off after the others.
Amya slowed her pace a bit so she was walking level with Jeremy.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked her face full of concern.
"Yeah, of course. I didn't come this far to back down at the confrontation, that's like watching the entire of the film 300 and then skipping the final fight scenes." Jeremy replied and Amya laughed.
"Ok, just wanted to make sure. It's probably going to get quite violent."
"I'm a teenage boy, I love violence. Besides, I've exploded a car, witnessed someone getting hit by a shark and watched as you guys beat up some German thugs." Jeremy said.
"Yeah, that pretty much sums it all up. Ok, but stay close, if you get injured, Caiden will not be happy." Amya warned him and began to speed up to catch up with Emerson.
Jeremy stayed at his same pace, thinking to himself about the past few days and how much things had changed. He was so deep in thought he almost didn't notice when they stopped at the foot of the castle and Emerson banged his fist on the front door.
"That was kind of unneeded; they must know we're here already." Amya said.
"Yeah, I know, but I just thought I might be polite." Emerson replied.
They heard footsteps and a few metal bars being pulled across. The door swung open to reveal Angelo Scraper, his features lit up in a smile when he saw them, he looked so happy that Emerson was afraid he would try and embrace them.
"Oh, isn't this wonderful. Everyone's here." The Tex exclaimed. "I'm sure Tate Senior is going to be overjoyed, I think he needs other company. I'm not sure he really enjoys the conversations he has with us as much as the one's he's had with sane people, could be something to do with us being psychopaths…" he wondered scratching his head.
"Hmmm, could be." Emerson agreed.
"But anyway, you're not here to hear me natter all day are you?" Angelo asked. "No of course not, you're here for your brother; I guess you aren't leaving without him and all that stuff, blah blah blah."
"If you wouldn't mind?" Emerson asked.
"Hmmmm, I'm not sure. I'll have to clear it with the boss." Angelo wondered. "Would you mind waiting here for a minute, I'll go and get him."
"Sure, take all the time you need." Emerson replied cheerily.
"Thanks a bunch." Angelo said and turned wandering off into the castle, leaving the doors wide open. Emerson just stood outside whistling a tune to himself while he waited for Angelo to get back.
"I'm sorry, but are we actually waiting for him to get back?" Alasdair asked Emerson fearing the answer.
"Uhuh." Emerson replied.
"So we're not going to take this prefect opportunity to just walk in and do what we came here to do?"
"No."
"May I ask why not?" Alasdair asked.
"You just did." Emerson pointed out.
"Ok, but why not?"
"Because that would be rude." Emerson explained. "You wouldn't like it if someone just strolled into your house just because you left the door open would you."
"Well I wouldn't leave the door open." Alasdair replied.
"Yeah, but you wouldn't like it if you did."
"Well, I guess not… but I thought we were trying to get your brother back and take down these people that captured him." Alasdair said.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be polite." Emerson replied and Alasdair looked confused. He was about to say something else, but they heard footsteps and Angelo appeared once more in the doorway.
"I am terribly sorry," He said apologetically. "But the boss said that we aren't allowed to hand your brother over to you at this time, maybe you could come back later? He did say however that you are more than welcome to go and join him." Angelo said happily.
"Hmmm, well we only really came here to fetch Caiden, so I'm not sure if we can really stay," Emerson said.
"Oh no, the boss was very insistent, he said I should ask nicely." Angelo explained.
"What did he say to do if we said no?" Emerson asked curiously.
"He said that if you were horribly stubborn, I should stop asking nicely."
"And then what?"
"And then hold a gun to your face and ask you a bit less nicely." Angelo said and his hand whipped out and grabbed the revolver into his hand.
If he hadn't told Emerson what he was going to do, it would be over there and then and Angelo would escort them inside with the gun pointed at Emerson's face. However as it was, Emerson had pretty fast reactions so even before Angelo had finished his sentence, Emerson was already moving to intercept the inevitable.
Emerson batted Angelo's hand away so the gun flew out and started spinning across the floor. Emerson then lifted up his leg and solidly kicked Angelo so that he flew backwards onto the floor. However as soon as he saw Emerson moving, he knew what was going to happen so while he was in the air with speed like a snake he whipped out his other revolver and his finger closed on the trigger.
Amya acted at once when she saw Angelo flying backwards she readied herself and when he reached for his gun she was already pulling with the air. It flew through the air towards her spinning so that the shot went right up into the ceiling. Angelo skidded backwards across the floor now unarmed, his head cracking down on the solid stone surface. Amya caught the revolver and pointed it straight at Angelo's head.
"Great, now I don't have either of my babies and you even have one pointing at my face, this is not how this was supposed to go. Do you know how demoralising it is to have your own pride and joy pointed at you by a pretty woman when you were supposed to be pointing it at them?"
"Honestly, no." Emerson replied.
Amya reached out her other hand and used the air to pull the other gun into her hand but just as it left the ground it was kicked right out of the air by a misshapen foot and Angelo leapt up and caught it. Amya recovered and aimed quickly with her new gun firing at where Angelo had just spun out of the way hiding behind the cover of the wall.
They waited but nothing happened, neither side made a move.
"Do you think we should just leave and come back later or something?" Alasdair whispered. "We don't even know how many of them are behind there."
"Good idea, I say we find a hotel and rest for a bit, and then come back tomorrow." Emerson agreed in a hushed tone and Amya nodded.
"Sure, at least we now know that most of them are here." She said and they grabbed hold of Alasdair who teleported and they were gone.
Sickening walked out from behind the wall with Angela behind and sighed, "Well we'd better be ready for them tomorrow." He said.
"They took my baby." Angelo said in dismay.
"Yeah." Sickening agreed.
"I'm gonna to make them squeal for that." Angelo decided. "So, who's up for a game of cards?"
A/N: Chapter 17! It's not much, but at least it's here right? As you can see, I wrote this chapter reasonably quickly, the next should hopefully be the same. I have some idea of what I'm going to do for the next few chapters or so, but then there's a huge blank spot where I don't really have any ideas, help would be so much appreciated. The next chapter should hopefully be a bit more exciting and probably violent, I guess you'll see. Thanks so much for reading, please review, I would love you so much if you did. Thanks,
Mangobean.
