-Chapter XXXII- Crackin' Some Heads

-Chicago, Illinois

-March 29, 2012

-3:30 P.M.

-Nicholas

"Nick, why are you even in a business suit? I thought we were supposed to pose as buyers." Saria asked sternly.

"We're posing as business people." Wright explained as Johnson stopped the car before our destination. It seemed like the stereotypical crack-house, old, decrepit, so worn down that it appeared structurally unsound...that is, according to Johnson.

"I'm gonna act like I want to work with him, and Wright and Johnson being my 'bodyguards'." I added.

"And what am I supposed to do?" she asked.

Johnson got out of the car, followed by everyone else. "You..." he said, pointing a finger at her, slowly moved it to another building beside it, "are going to provide cover for us. You won't be able to see us when we're inside, of course, but if he were to get away, you shoot him."

"What about you guys?"

"We can handle ourselves, but keep an ear out. If we're like screaming or something, then you bust in."

I cracked my knuckles. "Let's do this."

"Do they know we're coming?" Wright asked.

"I think so." Johnson replied.

"Saria, go, we got this." I said. She gave me an irritated look before reluctantly walking away in the direction of the next building. "What the hell's her problem been recently?" I asked when she was out of earshot.

"Just don't worry about it." Johnson said as we headed toward the door. "Come on."

He knocked on the door, and we stayed on the front porch a moment or two before the door slowly creaked open. It was hardly ajar, but I reached out to push it open, but my hand was caught before I could by Johnson. When I looked at him, he only shook his head, and opened it himself. It revealed the ancient, seemingly abandoned house behind it. "Hello?" Wright called out into the empty hall, receiving no response other than his own echo.

Johnson and Wright exchanged glances, and they were about to leave when I caught a glimpse of light in the corner of my eyes as I turned. "Hold on, you guys..." I said quietly.

"What is it?" Johnson asked.

I silently pointed to where the light came from, an open door on the other side of the corridor. "Well done, Swifty." Wright said with a laugh. We walked down the hall to where the door was, and very cautiously did we tiptoe through the hall towards the dimmed light. "Hey, guys..." Wright said quietly.

"What?" I asked.

"Do you think I have a chance with Rose?"

"Rose?" Johnson and I asked simultaneously.

"Yeah, why? There a problem?"

David and I exchanged glances, "Nope." he said.

"Not that I can think of." I added.

We turned around the corner to see an open hatch that lead downwards through some old wooden stairs, rotten beyond safety. "Come on..." Johnson said cautiously. He lightly tempted the top stair with a single foot. Though it let out an earsplitting creak, it withheld the weight. He placed more weight through his foot until his leg was over it, and slowly, he stood on it. He reached out his arm to the wall where there was a wooden handrail. He gradually made his way to the bottom, followed by me, then Wright.

"This is...uh..." I trailed off, beholding the vast amounts of packages of a white powder that were piled up to the ceiling.

"A lot of crack." Wright said bluntly.

"Well, well, well..." we heard a voice. There was a wooden door on the other side of the stone brick-walled room, which swung open, allowing a group of men, each armed with rifles, to come out of the other side. "So you must be Johanson, then?" the last man to emerge was a man in a white tuxedo. His manner almost reminded me of Rains.

I stood there silent for a moment, but quickly spoke, as to not seem suspicious. However, what I said may not have helped... "Hiya!"

"Are you the distributor?"

I nodded, "Yes indeedily, and may I just say you sir have a lot of stock here?"

His eyes widened in surprise, and he slowly let a smile appear, "Stock, yes. Someone to help me get the word out without the involvement of the fuzz, no."

"And that's where I come in, then?" I said. This was moving along quite nicely.

"Exactly."

"Of course, our client doesn't work without knowing he's not being tricked. We're going to need a sample, if you know what I mean." Wright said quickly.

The man turned his attention to Wright, "Hold on there, you're moving a bit too fast for my liking." he walked up to him, "What's your name?"

Wright gave him an irritated look, "Jack."

"Jack." he repeated. "You really think I'd believe that two men like you are working for a fifteen-year-old?"

"I come from a...wealthy family." I said without thought. "These two are simply my guards, ensuring my safety. I don't even remember their names. They are nothing more than cogs in the machine."

"Well then." he walked to me. "You may call me Cerberus." he said, outstretching an arm for me to shake, which I took.

"Cerberus." I said, giving him a look of suspicion. "One hell of a name."

"It's nothing more than a tag. One cannot let out their true name when it comes to this sort of business." he began to join the others standing behind him. "Which is why I'm so surprised that you have."

"I haven't. I'm an heir to billions of dollars. I merely want to increase my profits while I am young, that way I can live a life of extended and endless luxury."

"Well I still have to have proof that you have no connection to the cops." he said bluntly. Shit... I thought. He pulled a pistol on Johnson and it took every bit of my strength not to react. "Hm, all right then." he lowered the pistol to his leg, and though I could see the fear of being shot in his eye, Johnson did his best not to do anything. SHIT. When he put his finger on the trigger and slowly pulled back. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see this, and when I heard what sounded like a gunshot, I instinctively reached for my blade.

My eyes shot open, seeing that Johnson was fine, but the gun was now pointed at my face. Whatever the sound was, it wasn't a gunshot. I swallowed hard. "Uh..." I stammered.

"I saw your gun." he said with a snarl.

"I don't have a gun."

"Then what is..." he reached for my sword, pulled away my suit, and was about to grab the sword, "this!" he grabbed it at the pommel, but when he did he looked like he had been electrocuted. When this happened, his men automatically reacted, and began to shoot.

The first to fire was a man with a rapidly firing rifle of some sort. I still wasn't good with guns yet. He began to fire at me, but my sword deflected the spray of bullets that had hit it, taking out two others that were about to fire. Wright took cover, but Johnson pulled out his own pistol and began to shoot. The first thing I knew, the men were going down one by one with the loud gunshot of Johnson's sixshooter revolver. I went on the offensive and ran towards the group of armed men, readying myself to attack, although I didn't get the chance because it was their own bullets that were turned against them with the deflection of my blade.

"Now hold on one damn second." I heard. I turned around to see a man with a bald head, lightly-tinted skin, and was large and burly, still standing, not aiming at me, but at Johnson, who held his pistol back at him. "Drop your sword, or he dies."

"Oh please." Johnson retorted.

The man cocked the pistol he held, "shut up."

Nearly paralyzed in fear, I slowly dropped the sword, stopping halfway to setting it down before I just let it drop. A loud clang resounded throughout cocaine-filled room. "There. I'm unarmed."

"Nick, please. I'm fine." Johnson assured.

"Let's see you saying that when I shoot a bullet through your skull." the man said heavily.

"Nick, he's really fine." Wright said from his hiding place.

The man instinctively turned his attention, and his gun, to where Wright's voice came. A few more armed men came into the room through the entrance we did, and they surrounded me. In the corner of my eye, I saw movement behind them, but not follow them. One second, I had a rifle pointed to my head, and the next, an arrow was through the drug dealers head. I spun around in surprise to watch as nearly all the men in the room received arrows through the their brains, splattering blood everywhere. The burly man began to freak out, and when Johnson took one step, he shot at him.

Everything seemed to become slow-motion, and when he shot, Johnson did so as well, and for a moment, I began to run towards them, but there was a spark in the air between their shot paths, and, without knowing what happened, instinctively held up my sword to protect myself. I watched in awe as the bullet that the burly man had shot ricocheted off of Johnson's bullet in the air, deflected off of my blade, and struck the dealer in the side, knocking him to the ground where he screamed out in pain and agony. When he began to get up and gave me a stare only a killer could give his next target, did Saria finish him off with an arrow between his eyes.

"Damn." I said in awe.

"Damn." Wright said in awe as well.

"Well that was fun." Johnson said with a smile.

Wright pulled out a small device, clicked on the screen, and held up the other side to the massive cocaine storage, and tapped it. There was a peculiar sound effect that came from it, and he replaced it into his front pocket. "Well, the next time you guys do something like that, please, let me know you can do stuff like that cuz I felt pathetic hiding behind a pile of cocaine bricks."

I looked to Saria, who still stood at the bottom of the stairs leading into the stash, with a victorious smile. "How was that?" I asked her enthusiastically.

She wordlessly shook her head before leaving up the stairs again. "You know, I just realized something." I heard Wright say.

"What?" Johnson asked.

"Hey!" I called out to Saria, following her up. "What is wrong with you?"

She stopped abruptly, turning around quickly back to me. "You could've gotten killed!"

"Before that! All day you've been acting like this!"

"You've been acting juvenile! You expect me to act different?!"

"Well considering I haven't seen you this pissed at me since you tried to kill me!"

The anger instantly vanished from her face, but only for a moment, and was overtaken by an expression that was clearly hurt. She glared at me before hurrying back out into the light of day.

"Nick!" I heard Wright call.

Irritated now, I turned around, "What?"

Wright walked over to me, "Where was your dragon during all that?"

Turned out he was asleep in the car.

I seemed to be surrounded by voices a many...lost in an overwhelming sea of confusion that seemed never-ending...voices called out, some familiar, some not, but there was a certain voice that felt different, like it, for whatever reason, stuck out from the immense masses of other pitches, volumes, and levels of intensity. It was female, soft and friendly, and though I felt as though I knew the voice so well that it could've been my very own, I could not place the being of which it came...

"H...hi." she stuttered quietly, using her magic to remove a strand of hair that hung in front of her face. "So, what're you doing?"

"Oh, isn't obvious, Sapphire?" Faith giggled.

Where...am I? Hello...? There seemed to be a pause...

"I am known by many names, all over the kingdoms. The great, the powerful, the champion...you, however, may have the pleasure of calling me by my true name, Rocket Science."

"Rocket Science?" I asked.

"Yes, Sapphire."

She gave a confused expression, examining him. "Do I know you?"

Yet another pause...

"But I'm not a demon..." I said in fear...

"I think it best," the elder Equestrian trailed off, "if you take your leave...permanently."

What's going on? Another pause...

"Sapphire!" I heard Head Start call out in the distance.

…

"Is she going to be all right?"

…

"I would be honoured...if you would marry me..."

…

"Sapphire! No1"

There was a flash of white that engulfed me, washing me away until my eyes shot open again, finding myself again in my bedroom. I looked around in a frenzy, feeling like someone was watching me. "H...hello?" I reached for my sword, but it wasn't there.

With the contrasting glint of blue light flashing at the side of another being standing at the doorway, I realized just where it was. "Nick..."

I felt my lips quiver again at the sound of the all too familiar voice. "Max..." He walked towards me, wielding my blade. "What's going on? What's happening to me...? You must know..."

But he ignored my questions, picking me up from the bed, looking over me with hard eyes, a look in them that I had never before seen. "Nick, no matter what you find out about her, promise me you won't hurt her."

"What? Hurt...who?"

"Promise me, Nick!"

"I don't understand!"

"Nick!" he grabbed my shoulders, shaking me vigorously. "Promise me...please...no matter what you find out about her..."

"But I don't-" I was stopped when he disappeared, and a sudden flash of colours caused me to awake again.