Eddie was not in a good mood.
About a week ago, he had expected to walk to the door and get one of two things.
The first was the money, it was unlikely that a ten-year-old boy could have gotten hold of it in just a few days, but it was always possible. If that happened, he would tell the kid that the interest had gone up, and that he could help pay it off by helping him.
Option two was that the kid did not have the money. Eddie would then offer him the same deal.
Either way, the result was going to be the same, Eddie would take the kid and would say that he was looking after him. The boy was small and could get inside places that an adult couldn't. When he got older, he'd just bring him into the Loan shark business.
Max might want to leave, but Eddie would remind him of the crimes the two of them committed, ensuring the boy would be his forever.
Those plans were dashed a few days ago.
That morning, when he drove over and knocked on the door, there was no answer. Eddie rolled his eyes, he tried calling for Max a few times, not threatening but still, after an hour he left.
The next day he spent an hour hiding in his car watching the house. He had done this for a week now.
A part of him worried that the kid had gone to the authorities, but he quickly ruled that out. If he had gone, then the police would be here. Eddie had surveyed the neighborhood and saw no signs of being watched, maybe someone had spotted him via their door cameras, but no one had gone to the police yet.
So there he was, sitting in his car keeping an eye on the house. He had gone around to the nearest bus depot and asked around if anyone had seen the kid, so far nothing.
The kid couldn't have run away, he was clearly just hiding somewhere. Eventually, the kid would have to come out for food, then he'd get him.
That or the kid had starved to death.
Eddie's vigil was ended by the sound of a buzzing from his pants. The criminal sighed, and pulled his phone out.
"What is it?"
"Hey, Eddie, just phoning you to say thanks for setting up me up with the-"
"Why are you calling me, Sammy?" said Eddie, annoyed.
"Um…Well, I just thanked you and-"
"Sammy, What you're about to do means you don't phone anyone at all."
"Really? Why?"
Eddie gave a sigh, "Because if you get caught, they'll trace that I helped put this job together, you idiot."
"Okay," said an apologetic Sammy, "But if that's the case, why did you answ-"
Eddie hung up the phone and rubbed his eyes. One of these days he was going to start associating with a better class of criminal.
…
Sammy looked at the phone, then shrugged. He looked around the road and saw a storm drain and dropped the phone down there. If they were caught, it would take the cops a few days to find the phone at least.
He walked back down the alley.
Standing there were three men in black suits wearing Halloween masks.
There was a Dracula, a wolf man and a mummy, each holding guns.
"Everyone ready?" asked Sammy.
"As soon as you put your mask on, Frank." said Dracula.
Sammy chuckled and pulled his mask, Frankenstein's monster, over his face.
"Man, we look so cool," replied the Mummy, holding on to his assault rifle. It wasn't real, out of the four, the only one to have a real gun was Sammy. But he wouldn't tell them that. All of them were going to rob that bank, and then he'd rob them.
The group took one look at the bank across the road, they'd get in, get out, the police would never suspect a thing.
There was only one variable, and there was zero chance of it actually happening.
Frankenstein, Dracula and Wolfman walked to the bank. The Mummy walked over to the beat up car parked just around the corner, he was the getaway driver.
Peering into the windows, Frankenstein could see barely anyone was in it. The bank closed for an hour for lunch, so barely anyone was going to come. Their only security was a guard and a silent alarm, ignoring the guard there were currently three staff members and one customer, an old lady.
Frankenstein reached the door and sighed, "Okay, let's do this."
Kicking the door, Frankenstein pointed his pistol towards the old security guard who was sitting by the entrance, "DON'T MOVE! REACH FOR THE ALARM AND YOU'RE DEAD."
The Bank staff looked terrified, the customer looked annoyed, she held on to her handbag and glared at them.
"EVERYONE MOVE TO THE CENTER OF THE ROOM."
Frankenstein grabbed the security guard's taser and threw it in the trash can, he pointed him to move towards the center of the room, where his compatriots and the other hostages were.
Wolfman grabbed one of the bank workers and dragged her to the safe. "YOU OPEN THE SAFE, DRACULA, KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THE COPS."
"I'LL KEEP AN EYE ON THE HOSTAGES," screamed Frankenstein.
He liked this part, with the only actual gun he could hold these people in his control, he was taking their money, and they couldn't do anything about it. He decided whether these people died. Behind the mask, he was grinning.
Frankenstein heard the noise of the vault doors opening.
"AHHH!"
That was Dracula. Frankie turned briefly to see that Dracula had gone missing.
"DRAC? WHAT'S HAPPENED?"
There was no response. Frankenstein turned to the group again. "STAY THERE."
Walking backwards to the door, the bank robber kept looking at the group in front of him, they weren't moving.
That's when something wet landed on his shoulder. The criminal froze.
He turned and looked at his shoulder.
Splattered on his shoulder was green slime.
Slowly looking up, Frankie saw Dracula stuck on the ceiling. They were unconscious, their body being held there by green goo.
Fright entered his heart. He was here.
"WOLF MAN, HURRY UP, HE'S HERE!"
"WHAT," came the confused voice of the Wolf man, "THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE,"
Wolfman dashed out from behind the counter, a duffle bag in his hand. Frankenstein motioned for him to hurry up.
There was the sound of something metallic scraping against the floor.
The masked man fell down, Frankenstein only heard the noise of a human body being dragged away.
"WOLF MAN!" shouted the Creature.
"That's what you're calling him?" said a voice all around Frankenstein. There was an electronic buzz disguising the voice's gender.
Frankenstein pointed his gun towards the counter.
"WHERE ARE YOU?" the monster demanded.
"I mean, you could have come up with a cool nickname like, Talbot or Lon, something fun like that, Wolf-man's just lame."
Frankenstein kept quiet. He looked at the hostages, they still seemed scared, but there was something in their eyes, something looking like excitement.
The monster took two steps towards where his fellow monster had vanished, and that's when something jumped into the sky and landed on said counter.
They were wearing a skintight pink and white uniform. On their chest was a foot with three digits. Covering their mouth was a black scarf.
Frankenstein was about to fire, when a long metal arm shot out from the scarf and wrenched the gun out of his hand.
Not wanting to deal with this, the undead abomination turned and ran towards the doors. He burst through them, waiting outside was the Mummy.
Opening the car door, he turned to the Mummy, who asked, "What happened?"
"DRIVE, HE'S HERE!"
"Who?"
"THE HEROIC HOPPER, THE AMBITIOUS AMPHIBIAN!"
The long dead Egyptian pharaoh looked at him confused, "Who?"
"FROG-MAN!"
Without any more explanation, the mummy put his feet on the pedal. In seconds, they were driving away from the museum doing around 70 kph.
"WHY DID HE SHOW UP, DID SOMEONE BLAB?"
"I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING, DID YOU?"
"NO I-"
A large thud interrupted Frankenstein. Turning, he saw that Frog-man was on the front of the car, just crouching, despite the speed they stayed there.
"Hey fellas, how's the trip?" quipped Frog-man.
"GET HIM OFF!" screamed Frankenstein. The Mummy hit the brakes. Frog-man jumped off the car, the car stopped. The street they had stopped in was empty. Frankenstein looked around, trying to spot the superhero.
"We need to move," the mummy started to say, "let's just-"
The passenger door flew off the car, and before anyone could react, a metal tube wrapped around the mummy, and he was pulled from the car.
Frankenstein exited the car and watched as the mummy was thrown towards a wall. As he hit it, green goo splashed into him. The mummy was still awake and tried to free himself, to no avail.
It was over, the plan had failed, the only thing left was to try and escape.
He started to run, never once thinking about where he would go, he just needed to get away from the superhero.
He heard that swipe sound the metal tongue kept making, it landed just in front of him, four metal latches clamping onto the floor.
Frankenstein turned.
Heading directly for him was Frog-man, flying towards the masked criminal's face was the heroes fist.
"Shi-" Sammy thought before his world turned to darkness.
…
Frog-man finished spraying the last of the bank robbers with their wrist mount mucus blasters. The slime was expensive, but they didn't want to risk these criminals getting away.
With that, they pulled out a note, and placed it on the Mummy. It read "a gift from Frog-man."
They turned and started to jump, briefly phoning up the police to tell them where the crooks had gotten to. Frog-man didn't really talk to the cops, many still wanted to bring them in.
After a few minutes, they arrived at a public library, where they jumped to the roof and landed.
Near the rooftop access, they spotted their backpack. Walking over to it, Frog-man removed their mask.
Picking up their bag, the now unmasked Frog-man looked at her reflection on the phone screen.
She looked at her blonde hair, the only thing that stood out was three different colored stripes, pink, green and blue.
Quickly changing and placing all her things in the bag, the girl opened the door to the roof and started to walk down the stairs. Thankfully, no one spotted her.
She pulled a few books from the shelves and checked them out, exited the library smiling.
That's when her phone started to ring.
Pulling it out, the word "Mom" flashed on the screen.
Answering, the girl smiled.
"HI Mom," said the girl, smiling.
"Hi Molly, Sorry to bother you, but have you seen your sister recently?"
That was a surprising question, Molly was close to her sister, but sometimes it could go weeks without any sort of contact.
"Nope, why?"
"Well I swung by her house yesterday, and there was no sign of her, I asked her neighbors, but they haven't seen her in a week.
Instantly Molly Jo's mind went into panic, Sure Sasha was tough, but something bad still could have happened.
The first thought was maybe someone had attacked her, that lead to three thoughts:
-Some scumbag who liked blondes was up to something.
-What happened if they did it to get to her, had someone discovered her secret identity?
-The final thought was, maybe it was Amphibia?
Molly Jo still felt weird about that, her sister had been to another world. Heck, she had met an inhabitant from there, (even had a crush on one of them for a brief while) stuff like that made being a superhero somewhat normal in comparison.
She still remembered the moment Sasha came back, gone was the girl who viewed her half-sister as something to be ashamed of, now she seemed willing to look after her.
It also helped that Sasha had taught her to fight, which helped in the whole fighting crime thing.
"It's not so bad, I talked to her a few days ago, so she's fine. But I'm just concerned. I left a message on her phone. Hopefully she'll call me later,"
The young superhero wasn't calm yet, but still.
"Okay, Mom, I'll swing- I mean visit her later, see what's going on."
"Well Good, We've got a surprise for her, We're picking up someone at the airport."
Molly Jo was interested, "Who? Grandma?"
"Nope, someone else, Oh, I just spotted them, I'll see you later."
"Oh, cool," said Molly Jo, "Hope you enjoy it."
"We will, Bye."
Molly Jo said goodbye and continued to walk. She tried calling Sasha, but the call was instantly disconnected. She frowned, something was happening. Frog-man might need to sneak into her sister's apartment later.
…
The Lax was a scene of chaos as usual, dozens of people were streaming into the airport, for business and pleasure.
For many this would be their first time in L.A, to see the sights, others came here to try and be famous, others just to party.
However, for one couple, it was like returning home.
"Welp, L.A. hasn't changed," said Hector Wu as he exited the airport. After a decade of living in Massachusetts, the man had gotten used to a calmer climate.
"I love it," said his wife, smiling broadly.
"Didn't say I didn't."
The two walked down the parking bay, trying to keep an eye for a ride.
"HECTOR, AH CY!" cried a voice.
The two turned to see a Blonde woman, wearing jeans and a white shirt across the road standing outside a taxi, standing next to her was a man wearing a pair of jeans a shirt with the words 'Oh Geeez' emblazoned on it.
The two rushed over to him, dragging their bags behind them, The woman looked at them and smiled, "It's good to see you again,"
Ah hugged the woman. Hector smiled and hugged her as well.
"How was the flight?" asked Samantha Waybright.
"Awful," replied Hector, "the drive here?"
"Just as bad."
"And it'll get worse if you don't hurry up." said the driver, who had just loaded the bags into the car.
The three entered the van, and instantly entered L.A traffic, it wasn't a big one, and would only probably take the group three hours to get anywhere.
"So, have you seen Marcy yet?"
"Samantha swallowed, "Well there's a bit of a thing there, See I haven't been able to get a hold of them yet."
"Really," said Hector, worried, he was doing his best to try and keep calm, however alarm bells were ringing in his head.
"I know how that sounds, but I talked to Sasha two days ago, things seemed fine, so I'm sure it's nothing to worry about."
Hector nodded, worried, "Well, I talked to Marcy, around a week ago, she seemed happy."
Ah, held his hand, "I'm sure she's fine, besides, she's with her friends, they look after her."
"Yes, Sasha will look after her."
Hector nodded, none of them would name the third member of that group.
Since the day they had returned, both Waybright and Wu had decided that the third friend was persona non-grata, they would allow their daughters to spend time with her but would never talk about her or her family again.
The van was silent for a while. The driver sat there quietly, wondering if he should get involved, maybe he could offer worldly advice to help them, before thinking better of it. The last few guys he did that with didn't tip him.
Sighing, the driver wished he could be a part of a bigger, better story.
…
The Aquarium of the south pacific was starting to close for the day, as the leader of Global Justice walked through the doors.
Agent Du had told her there was no reason for her to do this, they had enough resources enough to investigate, but even the director knew that sometimes calling in a favor was useful.
The robberies had gotten worse, now they were going after gold. Various jewelry stores had been robbed, each time the crime was committed recycled junkyard robots.
Investigations into Anne Boonchuy had been a little strange. She had been off for over a week now, and her work had no idea when she was coming back, claiming the F.B.I of all organizations needed her expertise.
When called, the F.B.I would admit to having no knowledge about this mission, they might be lying, but the director knew they wouldn't lie to her.
They had tried calling her parents, but nothing. The other two women who had been to Amphibia had also not picked up their phones.
As she made her way through the museum, she eventually found the shark exhibit, where a man was wiping one of the tanks, removing a pink stain.
"Stupid teenagers," muttered Doctor Ritt, "We should ban milk shakes."
"Don't you have janitors for that?" asked the Director.
"He's sick, so I have to do it," said the doctor, finishing his cleaning. Behind the mess was a small Pygmy shark.
"I'd rather not have people announcing my presence," said the director, "Just call me Director for now, sorry."
Ritt stood there looking awkward for a second and then smiled, "Considering you helped stop those mutant sharks a couple of years ago, I'll oblige."
"So not the drama," replied the director, trying to be modest.
"Stopping a constantly hungry Shiver of sharks that would have upset the delicate balance of the sea is no biggie?"
"It wasn't just that, they were also walking on land and had muscles the size of a train. But still, not that big of a deal."
"Well Mrs Director, I'd love to help, what do you need?"
"Tell me everything about Doctor Anne Boonchuy."
Ritt pulled a disgusted face, "Her? What's she done?"
"Global Justice is investigating her, probably nothing, but recent confidential events seem to be connected to her."
Ritt looked at her for a second, then shrugged, "She's a young, inexperienced upstart who doesn't deserve half of the credit that she's gotten."
"So you don't like her?"
"She's only gotten where she is because of who she is," said the Ritt annoyed, "Just because she disappeared for a few months then came back."
"Okay, but has she done anything suspicious?"
Ritt looked at her oddly for a second then rubbed his chin, "Well, I think she keeps sending out this kid who pulls pranks on me."
"Anything evidence of that?"
Ritt stood there for a few seconds and awkwardly shuffled, "...No, but it makes sense."
The Director prevented herself from rolling her eyes, "Okay, Does she ever…mention what happened to her ten years ago?"
"No," said Ritt, shaking his head, "Sometimes she looks at those frogs of hers for a while, but that's it. Personally, I don't believe it ever happened."
"So, what do you think happened then?" asked the director.
"She's a teenager, she just ran away with her friends, and somehow got involved in a movie." said Ritt, annoyed.
"Okay, one last question, Where is her exhibit?"
"Upstairs, just follow the signs to the Amphibia exhibit."
The director nodded, thanked Ritt, and started to walk.
Five minutes later, she arrived at the exhibit.
The place was themed to look like a swamp, but with a medieval twist. The director smiled, she was briefly reminded of that time the knights of Rodingham had set up a secret castle base in Florida.
She had read reports about Amphibia, what little could be gathered from the army's interview was not much. Reports from therapists and psychologists were useful, but they never really painted a full picture of that world.
They knew that while there was advanced technology, it also seemed somewhat backwards.
The fact that three girls had survived there for nearly a year amazed the director.
Thinking back to her own teenage years, she wondered how she would have survived? At twelve, she had been on a few survival courses, but there weren't monsters there.
No, she might not have survived, but she might have had a chance if her husband was there.
Smiling, she imagined the man she loved running away from some sort of monster, heck, that had been more of their lives at this point.
The director walked out of the exhibit. No leads here.
Sighing, she kept moving. Something was going on, and Anne Boonchuy had something to do with it.
The Herpetologist wasn't the master mind, but she was wrapped up in this somehow. Global Justice needed to find her, and fast.
...
Thank you Championelcid for the cameo
Beta'd By dat_physics_boi