Last Pre-Written chapter. Gonna take a few days to read through the whole story to make sure I don't forget any threads, need to remember which are up to interpretation and which are left cryptic on purpose. After that, I'll go back to the chapter a day format, try at least. These recent chapters have been longer, but likely the next chapters after this one will be shorter - aiming for at least 2,000 words.
Once again, this was and still is an exercise to see how well I can write by writing a chapter a day. Thanks for your understanding and Enjoy.
She had done it,
And the only fear that she had was facing Him.
He knew that Rick was a opportunistic rat,
She just couldn't tolerate it anymore.
If he hadn't let his mouth run about Him, she wouldn't had gone so far as to killing him. Rather, knowing everyone else from the crew - what was said, what was uttered, the glances they shot - it was merely a matter of time before someone else would do the job. In fact, some of the crew was taking bets as to who would finally crack.
So why wait?
And His gaze as he easily towered over her, his pale skin contrasting to his black leather attire like an avatar of death, said -
Why didn't she wait?
"Lola." His tone was firm, the sound of a disappointed father, "You do realize what this means?"
She didn't gulp, didn't show any sign of fear - it was what he taught her, after all - she stood her ground, not looking away from his eyes. But she could see it, his eyes becoming even slightly glassy, a weakness that was affecting her.
"Rick wudda swindled us out, sooner or later. In fact," She pulled a cracked phone from her pocket, and held it up,
"He was meeting with cops for pocket change."
She unlocked it - 1,2,1,2. Rick always thought he was so cleaver.
She showed him the texts - about half of their 'shops' were already known by the cops now.
He snatched the phone, his hand dwarfing her's, he dwarfed anyone in the crew. He looked at the texts with a critical eye, then grimaced.
"Richie!" He tossed the phone into Richie's hands, "Tell the guys at those shops to close shop immediately, gather as much as they can, try to leave no traces as soon a possible."
Richie went as fast as the wind, leaving Lola and Him alone.
They stared for a while before He stood and turned around, his mark set on the back of his jacket - the mark of
Tombstone. The silence was claustrophobic, she could hear it forming itself into bricks to make walls between them -
Dink! Dink! Dink!
She could already feel the rift quickly separating them.
She had broke the one rule, after all.
Never kill another of the crew or sell the whole crew out.
Lola waited for Tombstone to say something, anything,
But he kept staring at the window, a massive behemoth that would decide her fate.
Then, finally, he spoke -
"Leave."
Lola's head slowly perked up in surprise, her eyes wide, "...That's not the rule."
"...I know it isn't."
"Dad -"
"End, of discussion. Take, take your bunch... and leave. I don't wanna see you lost out there again. Can't cover your back like with the Maggia stuff."
This sudden decision left her at a loss for words,
And as a result, she stood there stiff as a statue.
Having been raised by Tombstone, seeing his example, she would rather die than leave with her tail between her legs. She didn't have the same condition as him, but she did try her damnest to grow a pair that would compensate for it.
Yet, here, she found it crumbling fast.
Suddenly, she found herself scared, not knowing what to do or where to go.
The tension between them had grown to sea pressure, pressing into the two of them, making it hard for Lola to breathe.
"I said to leave." Tombstone said.
She opened her mouth, found that she couldn't get it work as she wanted to. To say that this was no problem, that he didn't have to worry about finding her in a dump again. Something that he would at least be proud of her of in hindsight. Her mouth kept opening and closing, and Lola cursed at herself to just say what she needed to say -
"...I love you." Was what came out instead.
Tombstone looked over his shoulder,
His eyes glassy,
And there was a pleading in the glint of his eye.
Lola stared for a moment, before looking down, "...Okay."
Stiffly, as though she were uprooting herself, she walked away. She couldn't stop the few tears that slipped through her guard and had to wipe them away begrudgingly, making sure to force her emotions in check as she neared the exit. She made it outside and there she found her group waiting for her, surprised to see her alive.
"...Is everything okay?" One of them said.
Lola shook her head, "We're on our own now."
There was a moment of silent unease as everyone glanced at each other.
"Then, what do we do?" Another said.
Lola glanced around, trying to figure out just that when she saw the now unoccupied Fisk tower.
"...Think I just found our new place."
They broke in through the fire escape door after jimmying it open, the place had been dark for months ever since Wilson Fisk had been booked by Spiderman. So when they had to use a bit of force, no alarm went off.
"You don't think anyone is going come in here and find us, do you?" Someone said.
"No one's touched this place for shit ever since Fisk got got." Another answered.
"Perfect." Lola said, glancing around the place, still scarred from the day that Spiderman had taken Wilson Fisk in, "If no one is claiming the place, we will. Right now, lets just find a space to hole up."
After brief searching, they found an office space to use as their lodgings for the day, having taken the furniture and assorted it to make it more livable. Currently, they have made the idea of using the individual offices as rooms, for those that wanted privacy, taking the stuff off the desks and using them as impromptu beds.
After what had happened today, Lola took one at the farthest end of the room and as she was assorting things to her liking one of the potted plants left in there, long dead, was knocked over and popped open a fuse box. Lola sighed in frustration at needing to clean up the fallen dirt when she saw something inconspicuous peeking out of the fuse box.
She opened it - the fuses switches were there, but in between one of them was a small panel the size of a thumb, dislodged. Lola popped it out of place and saw a white button. Curious, she pressed it and the wall beside her popped open, making a crevice. Looking at it, if there was power still in this place it probably would have opened by itself. Emboldened by this discovery, Lola took hold and pulled the door open.
There was a musty smell that came out,
And a distinct smell of paper.
Lola pulled out her phone and turned on its flashlight -
And she screamed.
The others stormed in and saw Lola standing in front of the secret room -
That had stacks of cash hidden inside. The room was small, with cabinets along the walls.
Lola blinked and saw everyone behind her -
"Open these." She merely said as she went to the stack of cash to make sure they were legit.
They were.
And as the others opened or smashed opened the cabinets, more appeared as though by magic. The magician had gone to jail, leaving his rabbits for Lola and everyone to discover. Given how large Fisk tower was, there was a lot of rabbits that were sitting in secret rooms such as this.
"Holy shit..." One of them said, "Fisk had this much in this one room?"
"And they're all real..." Another said.
"...Think I need to change my pants."
"With how much is in here, you could buy hundreds."
"Lola, how'dju find this?"
"There was a hidden button in the fuse box." Lola said, "Fisk must have a lot of rooms like this in the tower." She smiled, "And all for us to find. And he must have figured that power might not been working in some escape scenarios or whatever, I had to pull the wall open."
"Shit... We snagged a big one coming here."
"Okay. But, first things first," Lola held up a wad of bills that were all one hundreds, "I'm getting hungry. Three'a you guys get pizza, get food, get drinks to celebrate as we look for more rooms."
Three of the group went off as Lola and the remainder continued to be fascinated at the sheer cash in the room. One of them even whooped as they threw the bills in the air. Afterwards, however, they began work on thoroughly searching the rooms of the ground floor to find more hidden rooms like this.
Three more cash rooms were found,
And the fourth room -
"...Omaigod are those real?" Someone said as they all looked in at the room that held a small armory.
Pistols,
Rifles,
Shotguns,
And ammunition boxes were shelved along the walls.
No one made a move as they all stared at the guns.
Then Lola made the first move, going inside and taking a shotgun off the wall. It was heavy in her hands, and she felt her mouth run dry, licking her lips to wet them.
She pumped it -
Chi-chink!
It was empty.
But the sound was an onomatopoeia for things now changed with this discovery.
Cash,
And now Guns -
And considering how big of a man Fisk was, there was bound to be bigger guns hidden away somewhere here.
Lola's mind was swimming with the possibilities when there was the sound of the fire escape door opening - "We're back!"
"Leave the guns here." Lola said as she set the shotgun back into place, "Right now, we're small time. Don't want people to think that there are people holding up in here now, do we?"
No one argued with that and went to meet the three that brought troves of food -
Five pizza boxes,
Bags of fast food stuff,
Soda, water, juice, and the drink runner said that they couldn't get wine or beer without looking suspicious.
But that didn't stop them from being merry from this new lease on life. The drink runner was thoughtful enough to get lamps as it was starting to get dark. They were all lucky the drink runner was a big guy.
Chatter and small talk went about, echoing with the sheer size of the room that they were eating in, all of them having found themselves so famished with treasure hunting that they ate in the main room. There was still enough natural lighting so as to not be a problem.
Lola was off to the side, pondering about things.
They had cash, They found guns, and there was likely more to be found in the tower -
But it wasn't enough, they needed to get some street-cred to have others join them.
But would that be too soon?
She looked at the crew she currently had -
They were all like her,
Orphans,
Homeless -
To them, being together was home. They had no where else to go, they didn't trust FEAST after hearing it had been run by Martin Li, the leader of the Demons.
Her head perked up -
"...The Demons." She muttered.
There was a jangling sound from the fire escape door, everyone went silent and looked over. A moment later, a boy and a girl peeked in and froze when they saw Lola and her crew.
After a moment of silence,
"C'mon in." Lola said, "There's food here, but, in return you got to do us a favor."
"...Boss?" One of the crew said.
The boy and girl looked at each other. Their clothes were worn and dirtied and were evidently hand-me-downs from older times, likely something that they had gotten from either a thrift store or a shelter giving out free clothes.
Lola pulled out another wad and tossed it to the crew member that spoke up, "Get more food, then get some spray paint."
"Why?" They said.
"Like I said, we're small time. That's why, we gotta do things underground. Feel me?"
Once the extra food had arrived, Lola made sure that the kids felt safe enough that they could talk their woes to her. They ran away from the orphanage they were from, said they couldn't tolerate it anymore. And hearing that Martin Li used to run FEAST made them stay away from their shelters.
Lola gave them an ultimatum -
Do favors for her and they could stay.
The favor?
Tell the other kids at the orphanage about this place, they will be kept fed AND protected. That the Underground will do what others won't. After that, try to get other kids around the city to join.
After letting them go, they returned with other kids just as the evening was rolling in. All were teenage, roughly around fifteen.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" One of her crew said.
"What do you mean?" Lola said, "This is the best way to get things going."
They found more of Fisk's cash rooms,
His armory rooms,
And more kids starting coming in after hearing about this Underground that fought the Maggia. A new mafia that was full of young blood, wanting to put their stamp on the world because the world kept denying them.
Once they found that one of the armory rooms had a small firing range, and after they made sure that no gunfire could be heard from outside the tower. That was when they started training with Fisk's armory.
Day,
After day,
After day -
Then, when Lola heard word of Demon movement, that was when the Underground struck.
If Spiderman wasn't going to finish off the Demons, they will.
And - word around the street was that their hocus-pocus stuff had gotten weaker since Martin Li got permanently locked up in the Raft.
"Good morning, New York. It is Friday, 8 AM. This morning news is starting off with a bang as night terrors became real on the streets on the Upper West Side. The Demons fighting against a new gang on the block called the Underground, their call-sign being sprayed in droves on the crime scene. Reports say that none of the Demons on site survived. As we know, Martin Li was their leader and the Demons are now in disarray now that he is kept in Raft. Witness reports say that all the members of the Underground were teens to young adults, with remarks saying that they were appalled, that our younger generation has resorted to this low for attention. Where they had gotten the high caliber weaponry used to kill the Demons is currently under investigation. In other news..."
Everyone had barely contained glee hearing their group name off the media, stars in their eyes, spirits high in heaven. That adrenaline rush they had when hunting the Demons on the Upper West Side returned, some of the new recruits even started doing flips in their excitement, whooping and cheering as though it were New Years.
But Lola, she was in her office-room,
Looking at what they had,
What they could have,
And Tombstone's shadow she was in.
Ironically enough, even though Tombstone raised her he didn't delve too deep into his past life. The basic stuff such as how he was treated because of his condition, getting the gang together, making sure their name was respected - but in a superficial way, like sprinkles to a cupcake, never elaborating. Looking back at it now, Tombstone was likely never intending Lola to follow in his footsteps. He didn't say anything then, but she caught the look he would have in his eye when he saw that her friend group was growing and starting to become more than that.
For the first time, it was really hitting Lola now that she and her Underground were really on their own.
They were lucky that no one got hurt,
A testament to how weak the Demons have gotten since their leader got put in Raft,
But, thinking about it now, now that the deed was done - what would they have done if they had gotten casualties, especially with fatal wounds?
Yet...
Why was she smiling?
She clenched her hand, even now she was still feeling the adrenaline rush.
The lingering embers of it like fires burning in her veins.
She took a deep breath,
And it came out shakily in her exhale.
There came a knocking at her door which soon opened, revealing one of her crew members, not one of the newer recruits -
"Boss," The crew member said, "Gotta ask, the greenies are talking - whadda we do now?"
Boss.
That's right - she was the boss now.
That word made her grin -
"Now?" She tossed a white spray can at the crew member, who caught it, "We stretch out. We're still small time. People will still forget us. That's why we gotta put our sign everywhere. Put 'em where those that wanna join go to meet our guys chilling."
"...Safe houses? Hideouts?"
"Exactly. Start nearby, going out from the tower. There are many places that're left abandoned, basically free real estate for us."
"Got it, Boss. I'll tell the others."
The crew member left.
And left alone, Lola smiled -
This was the start of something new, something great, powerful - old blood has settled for too long, crusted over and stilled from stagnation.
Time for new blood to take over.
More rooms found -
More cash,
More guns,
More members -
Hideouts scouted and made, used as checkpoints for new blood to meet and join.
'UG' sprayed as signs or to mark that new blood was heading in the right direction.
Fisk Tower, Their Tower, was the Heart,
The hideouts the veins, growing thicker with new members, longer, reaching out farther with every new one.
But, like their name, they still had to keep things under wraps. They were ambitious, wanting to make names for themselves -
But they were still ultimately still kids,
The guns whispered so to them -
For every shot they missed, Death crept closer,
For every moment of being slow, there was a chance they could be a weak link to the group,
For every indiscretion, they risked the chance of turning their network into chain of matches, ready to combust at one wrong saying or move.
Even when they finally finished off the Demons, in the back of their minds, they couldn't help but feel the target slowly creeping and latching its fingers on their backs.
They needed power -
More than guns,
More than bullets, metal,
More than rockets or any kind of explosives -
The needed real power.
Power to make real influence on the world,
Power to even go up against Spiderman -
No matter how big their web got,
He could easily swat it away.
They knew.
Especially Lola -
While everyone was talking about, busy about the Maggia and Hammerhead, Lola cut herself off, shutting herself in her room in the tower after learning Tombstone's arrest.
Her invincible father, taken down by a guy in spandex.
Everyone in the Underground was talking nonstop when hearing about the rumors that Spiderman had to kill Hammerhead, the robotic body he had gained being too much even for him to handle. So far, Hammerhead hasn't been heard since.
The message was clear -
Do not fuck around.
"Recruitment's getting' slow."
"Who'd wanna tango with Spidey? Right now, we're chumps. Lucky enough the Boss'd been laying down law on anyone messing around.:
"...I'm just here for the food."
"Freeloader..."
"Better than being at home."
"...Least you have one."
"And here I thought we'd made it. But, lotta us just hang out now. Hear what happened at one'a the hideouts in the UpperWest?"
"Slipped up. Get bored, had money, bought some green, and nearly burned that place up. Lucky Boss let 'em go."
"What she doing', anyway?"
"Punchin' walls, makin' holes. Tryin to find more stuff or just gettin' frustrated."
There was a loud thud followed by a crumbling in the distance.
"Welp, sounds like she made a bigger one now."
"What does Boss hope to find?"
"Laser, plasma, UFO tech? Fisk was in deep shit, dealt with deep shit, made better shit than any of us could ever make."
"Yeah. If anyone could take down Spidey, it would be Fisk or Oz."
"...They ever gonna get that crane next door?"
"They haven't done anything since Fisk got got. Word is that place was owned by Fisk. Ever since Spidey got those other sites, they've just been sitting t'rot."
"Ugh... Decent ideas always need permission slips, don't they?"
"Think it was a good idea for recruits to get into the the tower through the crane to get into the crew?"
"Honestly, now that I think about it, prolly was. Fresh meat was nice, but... omaigod dude."
"...Hey, is that'a new one?"
"What - messin' shit up, a-gain?"
"No. On the crane."
"Du'fu..."
Hearing this, others started looking over and out the windows at the crane. There, before the crane, looking up at the tower was a girl with glasses wearing a rain coat with her hood up.
"'S been raining two days straight, this nerd really wanna be a wanna-be on that slippery shit?"
"Lotta the wanna-be's don't even wanna walk that thing."
"Aaaaw shit, she's going!"
They all saw the girl get onto the wooden board leading to the piloting platform, pause, then gingerly begin stepping onto the length of the crane -
Step,
By tedious, but careful step.
Inching her way, despite the rain.
More had gathered by the windows, even getting Lola to stop and look over.
"She's going slow."
"You do that in the rain, then."
"She's either stupid or she got guts to do that with this rain."
"Omaigod, she's actually doing it..."
"Never seen a four-eyes go this hard for anything other than grades."
One said in a nasally voice, "Its my glasses, it grants me Plus-Five in Focus-Rolls."
"Shut up."
The rain's gentle fall began to escalate into a downpour. This change caused the girl to slow even more, especially when the wind began to pick up, whipping her raincoat into her side and the flaps sticking to her legs.
"Ooo... Oh god..."
"We're not allowed to help, right?"
"Not unless the boss says so."
"Think God's already crying? That's why it started to rain harder?"
"I actually kinda don't wanna see human roadkill..."
A sudden hush fell over everyone, their eyes glued to this girl, still persistently inching her way, stooping low to make herself heavier. All the while the rain mercilessly beat down on her, the drops drumming against the tower - a beat, loud and all-encompassing, steadier than any of the watchers' hearts.
The clap of thunder startled everyone in the tower, causing a few to yelp; the girl stiffed, paused -
She looked back over her shoulder -
She was half-way now
- Now back forwards.
She took a deep breath,
And she continued, reaching out - her hands on the length as well as her left knee, while using her right foot to carefully push at the small support beams on the sides. After a moment, she realized that the water soaking her pants weren't doing too well to help her slide her knee. She continued anyway.
Everyone in the tower was watching now with abated breath, slow, not aware, as silent witnesses watching high in the tower. This all the while people below in the streets unaware, going about their business, the rain hiding any indication of the Girl's struggle above them.
Watching,
Watching,
Watching -
They had become statues watching this caterpillar undergo its treacherous metamorphosis,
Persisting,
Her gripping and speed,
Her care -
This Girl was trying to prove something, and everyone in the Underground, so captivated by her efforts, hoped she wasn't going to show them proof of her death.
Inch,
By inch,
By agonizing inch,
And there was a collective gasp and screaming when the Girl's hand slipped, causing her to careen to the side, and she would have fallen off if not for her quick thinking to grab the support beams. Because of the rain, her hands slid all the way down and slammed into the base. As the Girl's legs dangled under her, her head snapped back, revealing her clenched, gritting teeth, her glasses catching the day's light as a sheen that hid her eyes. Her hood, as well, was thrown off her head from the momentum, letting her blonde hair become soaked.
There were people with their hands to their mouths,
Some with their hands on their heads,
Other having become stock still, not having moved since first catching their eye on her, so enthralled turned to statues.
There was a moment where they all watched the Girl trying to pull herself up. Even though the rain's thumping drowned out any noise outside, they could hear her grunts through her sheer exertion to even pull herself up, trying to get her elbows up.
The rain continued to fall on her with indifference,
The wind causing her raincoat to whip away or against her body -
The water soaked her body, from the rain, from her coat, leisurely dripping down to the busy street below, nothing to catch it and nothing to catch her. The irony being that the water was more confident in its movements right now than the Girl's.
After a moment, they in the tower watching and the Girl herself realized that she was not going to be able to pull herself back up.
"She's gotta go back." Someone said, the sheer silence making their voice sound loud, even over the rain.
"Its too far for her to go back now."
"...She might fall..."
"The crane doesn't reach all the way..."
The Girl looked over at the tower, where the crane reached only so far, and began to shimmy across, her hands reaching from one support beam to another.
"O-mai-gawd..." One said through clenched teeth.
One beam,
And another,
And another.
At first, the Girl was moving at a steady pace,
But over time she began to slow the more she exhausted her strength, even needing to pause before getting to the last few support beams -
Which left her at the gap between the end of the crane and the terrace it was reaching for.
They saw her assessing the distance, even played with the idea of throwing herself to the ledge by swinging her legs side-to-side, but it wouldn't be enough.
Then she looked at the crane,
And reached under with one hand to grab the support beams at the bottom before reaching with the other hand, causing her legs to dangle again from her weight changing from the elevation shift.
"...Dios Mio..." Another said, crossing themselves.
The Girl gauged the distance again before shaking her head.
Seeing that, a few actually thought she would give up and go back. But that was defeated when they saw her begin to swing to and fro to build momentum.
"No no no..." One said.
Back,
And forth,
Back,
She left go, kicking with her legs to throw herself at the ledge.
The fuse was short and the Girl's arms slamming violently against the ledge in a loud thud was the trigger for the yelps and screams.
The Girl grit her teeth, desperately trying to hold on, but the fire she had used to get herself here had turned her muscles into brittle charcoal. Her feet squeaked and squawked at the wall under the terrace, trying to find footing to push herself up.
She felt her weight start to shift,
The ledge digging into her biceps was now steadily scrapping along, the sensation made it feel like it was biting into her arms, now clamping down at her forearms and wrist.
She whimpered and her breathing paced into a panic -
Her palms,
Her fingers,
And a hand snatched her wrist before another grabbed her by her collar and pulled her up and over the ledge and onto the terrace.
Everyone in the tower breathed a sigh of relief -
Some needed to sit down, either on the furniture or on the ground,
While a few others raced to the restrooms.
Getting up on her hands and knees, her forehead touching the wet flooring, the Girl heaved up a storm that could match the intensity of the rain to catch her breath, every gulp of air finally allowing her muscles to relax for every ache she felt.
"Got a big pair for someone better suited for school. What's your name, Blondie?"
The Girl looked up at the hispanic-mix girl getting soaked in the rain, dressed in a tank-top and jeans, getting soaked without a care.
She had to be around her age.
She adjusted her glasses, took a few more precious breaths and said -
"Rafferty."
"Nerdy name for a nerdy girl." Lola said.
"...You asked."