Chapter 2: Help From Friends… Well Sort Of

A week later Rael awoke to the sound of his phone ringing. The floor of his new apartment felt cold against his bare feet as he padded across the room. "I'm comin'. I'm comin'. Hold your stinkin' horses," he mumbled sleepily. He fumbled with the cell phone for a moment before finding the right button. "Yo. This is Rael. Talk to me."

"Hey Ace. It's Free."

"Ha ha! Nobody's called me Ace in five years. So did you get the info I asked you for?" He drummed his fingers anxiously on the table beside him.

"Well… sort of."

"What do you mean 'sort of'? Did you locate him or not? You and Eruka have been free all this time and… hey, quit laughing."

"Sorry. It's just that you said 'free' and…"

"And your name's Free. Yeah, I get it." Rael rolled his gray eyes. "Point is you two have had five years to start over, to build a network of connections."

"Is that your way of saying 'becoming spies and informants for someone other than Medusa?" came another voice on the line.

"Eruka! Hey doll. Didn't know you were there too. Missed you somethin' awful when I was stuck in the slammer."

"Yeah right, ribbit."

Rael chuckled. He'd always been good at flattering and impressing the ladies but Eruka had never fallen for his charms. "How come you never believe me, babe?"

"Because you're full of it, ribbit. You don't mean any of that garbage you say. Flirting is just a big game for you. The only person I ever met who liked using her charms to manipulate people as much as you was…"

"Don't compare me to her! I'm just messin' around. I never broke anyone's heart! I don't take it that far!" He was breathing heavily as his heart pounded at the old memories he thought he'd buried so deep inside himself that he would never feel their pain again. Maybe it wasn't deep enough after all.

With great effort he forced the memories to the back of his mind and tried to resume the conversation. "Let's see, oh yeah, I remember. Yes, Eruka, I meant spying."

"What makes you think we work for anyone? We could have gone straight," Free said.

"Yeah right. A guy who took a witch's eye and Medusa's best spy? Sneakin' around is what you… well, Eruka does best. There's no way you two don't work for somebody. I don't care who it is though so please don't tell me. I'll be in enough trouble as it is if anybody ever catches me talkin' to you. Point is… umm…" He struggled to remember what his point had originally been. "Oh yeah. Point is, what the hell is 'sort of' s'posed to mean?"

"He means," the little frog witch explained, "that we only have rumors and leads, ribbit. We don't have anything definite."

Rael sighed audibly. "How hard is it to find someone like that? He's pretty hard to miss. Somebody's got to have seen him!"

"Well that's what we mean by 'rumors'. People have reported seeing a demon weapon like that but you only get second hand stories." Free replied.

"They're probably scared of what he could do to them, so no one wants to admit to anything first hand," Eruka added.

"Look," Rael sighed, "I don't care if it's first hand, second hand, or even third or fourth hand. Just tell me what you know already."

"Alright. All we can find out is that someone like you described has been sighted around some little town in South America. Hey Free! Where did you put that paper with the name of that town? We'll find it. Hang on."