Insanity Chapter Twenty-Three

Insanity

Chapter Twenty-Three

~Operation Fang~

Day Twenty-One

The rain fell hard on the Docks. The ships and wooden decks rattled with the large rain drops. The gutters were overflowing with rain waters. Puddles covered the streets and sidewalk. Fang stood in the torrents of rain. His white and black hair stuck to his face. He looked at the Docks, his eyes scanning every motion though the downpour.

He stood at the opening of a street that led to the Docks. The Docks was where people kept their recreational boats, usually the rich people left their boats here. Fang waited. He figured that they would contact him.

There was a motion and Fang’s eyes darted to it. He saw her now, coming off of one of the Yachts. Edonya still wore her pink clothing. A man with black hair and wore black and red clothing held a pink umbrella over her head. He stood to her right. She walked up to Fang with that smile on her face. The clown skipped on her left.

“Well hello,” Edonya smiled, “Fang, is it? You can call me Edonya.”

She offered her hand out for Fang to shake. He didn’t. She smiled anyway.

“I’m glad that you complied with our demands,” she said, “It’s always a pleasure doing business.”

Her gaze passed Fang, “Oh, hello Riff, Vise. Is there anyone following?”

Fang turned slightly. Two men followed behind him. He had sensed them but this was the first time he had seen them. One of them, Vise, was the fire eater in the circus. He too wore black and his hair was a rusty red color. The smile on his face was thin and sly. Riff was a little taller than Vise. He was the animal tamer. His hair was short and blond. He looked at Fang with blue eyes. A whip hung down from his belt.

“This is Thae,” Edonya motioned to her right.

Thae nodded, his eyes were black voids. His features seemed void to emotion. It was impossible to tell what he might be thinking.

“And this is Lire,” Edonya pointed to the clown, “He has no powers but I wouldn’t take him lightly. And that,” she pointed to the boat, “is Ibid with your little Arisa.”

Fang looked at the boat. Arisa stood in the boat in the rain with two identical girls holding her in place. She was one of the acrobats.

“Now, if you would come aboard and we’ll be on our way. Arisa will go free and—”

“What do you mean?” Fang asked.

“Well, all we wanted was you for her,” she looked confused, “Didn’t you put that in the letter?” she asked Thae.

“I wrote what you told me to,” Thae answered, his voice monotone.

“Hm,” Edonya placed her hands on her hips, “Oh, well, guess I forgot to mention it didn’t I.”

Thae barely moved, “It appears so.”

Edonya turned back to Fang, “Well, because we messed up you can go back and talk about out new terms with the others. We want you for her.”

“Why?” Fang asked.

Edonya shrugged, “Ask our boss. He’s the one who wants you.”

Fang was silent. The rain lightened up a little. This was going to change things but not all that much. He glanced at his watch. Five more minutes. He needed a little more time. Fang tapped his watch twice.

“Well, I guess we might as well get this over with,” Fang muttered.

Edonya smiled and hopped. She turned around and walked back toward the ship, “Right this way, if you please. You sure you don’t want to say your goodbyes?”

“There’s no need to,” Fang said.

Thae’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. Fang met the gaze.

“Thae! I’m getting wet!” Edonya complained.

“My apologies,” Thae said and followed behind her with the umbrella, his eyes were always on Fang however.

They walked toward the boat. Arisa saw Fang and tried to squirm out of her captors grasp. Edonya signaled that it was alright and Arisa ran to Fang. Fang kneeled as Arisa ran into him. She cried into his shoulder and apologized repeatedly for all the trouble. Fang reassured her that she had nothing to apologize about.

“You’re coming home, alright,” Fang said.

Arisa nodded. Her tears mixed with the rain on her face. She gripped Fang closer.

“I need to go,” he said.

“Go where,” Arisa face was buried in Fang’s shoulder.

“I want you to go on home, alright?” Fang said.

Arisa looked up at him, “You’re not coming back, are you?”

Fang glanced at Thae who was still staring at him, “Wish I could. But you need to get home before you catch a cold.”

Arisa looked like she was about to cry again.

Fang kissed her on the forehead, “Now, no more of that. No need to be so blue. Now go on home and stay out of the puddles. Oh, and defiantly stay out of the alleys. You never know what kind of shadowy figures might be lurking there. Some might have guns. I want you to be careful, alright, and patient. Our yard is packed with ravens and crows. They can be rather mean so just stick on the path.”

Arisa’s eyes seemed to understand a hidden meaning. She nodded and gave Fang one last hug before running down the street. Arisa was extra careful with jumping over puddles. Fang stood up and looked at Edonya.

“When do we set sail?” he asked.

“As soon as possible,” she smiled, “Thae, prepare the boat, please.”

Before they boarded the boat they searched Fang for any weapons. Naturally, they found the silver gun and confiscated it. The boat was fairly neat and expensive looking. There was no way they could afford all of this on their circus pay. Fang glanced around, committing everything to memory. He felt the boat start to make its way out to sea.

“Pity, you have no way of getting off now,” Thae said.

Fang glanced at him, “What makes you say that?”

He noticed a map with a city circled. Thae noticed and covered the map. He glared at Fang.

“What do you have planned?” he said.

“Honestly,” Fang smiled, “nothing.”

Thae looked unconvinced. He looked out the window as if expecting to see something. The rain had stopped and the sun was starting to peak out of the clouds. Fang looked too. From behind one of the clouds appeared a black speck. Thae squinted. He pulled Fang to the deck.

“What is that?” he asked Ibid.

The girl looked at the speck and shrugged uncaringly. Whatever it was it was getting larger. Fang’s sensitive ears already picked up what it was. He sighed and shook his head.

Edonya came out and squinted, “Thae, what’s going on?”

Thae glanced at Fang, “I’m sure he knows.”

“Oh, Fang,” Edonya said, “I told you not to have anyone follow us. Lire,” she said to the clown.

He laughed as he comically picked up a colored beanbag. Lire then picked up a kind of launcher. He placed the beanbag in it and aimed at the black speck. The launcher fired. Fang had a sinking feeling that this wasn’t going to be a good thing. There was a large explosion and at first Edonya looked satisfied. But she looked at Lire and saw that he was frowning.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“It detonated before impact,” Vise answered.

“What does that mean?” Edonya asked.

“It means they shot it down,” Thae glared at Fang.

Fang smiled slightly, “Well done, Alister.”

“Nice shot!” Shadow called out.

Alister rested his sniper rifle on his shoulder as he stood outside of the helicopter. He held on to the rim of the side door with his left hand. Alister smiled.

“I just hope they send more my way,” he said, “You know what trouble Fang ‘as gotten ‘iself into?”

Shadow shook his head, “No, but we’re way off the plan. How’s it handling, Raven?”

“Fine,” she said as she flew the helicopter, “Thanks to Penelope, it was able to start.”

“Remind me again how you know how to fly a helicopter?” Alister asked as he straightened his arm to aim.

“Child soldier, remember,” Raven looked back.

“Hey, keep your eyes on the…um…air,” Alister fired.

Raven maneuvered the helicopter to avoid the center of the explosion.

“What I want to know is where Penelope learned to hotwire a helicopter,” Shadow glanced back at her.

Penelope shrugged, “I-i-internet?”

“Not buyin’ it,” Alister said as he fired three more times.

Three other explosions appeared in the helicopters path.

“S-s-so what’s the plan?” Penelope asked, changing the subject.

“When we fly over Penelope and I will go and drop down,” Shadow said, “Alister you do what you do with that thing and Raven just keep doing what you’re doing.”

“So descriptive,” Raven said.

“Not quite like Fang’s plans,” Alister commented, “But it’ll do.”

Shadow gave him a look, “Sorry, I could make the plan that I throw you out of here head first.”

“Hey! I said it’ll do!”

“Rocket!” Raven called.

Alister threw the sniper rifle into the helicopter, “Hand me the machine gun,” he told Penelope.

While Penelope rushed to get the weapon, Alister clipped something from his belt onto the roof of the helicopter. It was attached to a string that kept him from falling out. Penelope handed him the machine gun. Alister leaned out of the helicopter again.

“Lean left!” he shouted.

Raven tilted the helicopter left. Alister got a good view of the coming rocket and fired the gun. A stream of bullets fired at the coming theat. The empty shells fell on Penelope.

“Gosh! Will you just shoot that thing down already!?” she shouted.

“I’m workin’ on it!” Alister shouted.

Raven looked concerned, “You’re cutting it close, Alister!”

“Imagin’ David an’ Goliath! I gotta get in it the right spot!” Alister shouted over the rain of bullets.

The rocked grew closer. Raven couldn’t wait any longer. She turned the helicopter sharply to the left. Time slowed. The helicopter barely passed the rocket. As it passed, Alister fired at it. It detonated. The explosion blew Alister back into the helicopter. The string snapped and he fell against the door. The door opened suddenly and Alister fell into open air. Penelope unbuckled from her seat. She reached for Alister as she jumped from the helicopter. Shrapnel riddled their helicopter. Shadow and Raven ducked at the impact, both barely escaped death as the shrapnel blew past them. The engines stalled.

***

To Be Continued…