By Smurfy @ MindSay 
________________________________
Boss Dragon closed his hands around the coin, and looked around the car.
The key to glory, power, and everything the Underground Crime Alliance had ever wanted was in his hand.
With some nameless grunts riding in the ordinary vehicle with him, he arrived at his destination.
An ordinary old worn out warehouse, with old worn out paint on it's walls.
He walked to the back, and ordered all the bricks be pulled from the wall. The grunts obeyed, prepared for the situation with crowbars, hammers, and other weapons.
A mechanical clink echoed throughout the warehouse.
The hammer fell to the floor. Boss Dragon walked up, and placed the coin inside a specially built slot.
A smaller, duller click. The chamber, seemingly unwilling, gave up it's treasure.
Nothing.
Boss Dragon stormed out of the warehouse with blood on his hands, and fury clouding his mind. Solely, while they attempted to defend themselves with an assortment of blunt objects, he had killed all eight of them.
_________________
The would-be assassin looked about the deserted parking garage. Mr. Seventy simply held onto the bars on the window and gazed at the moon. Marty was working tirelessly on trying to defuse one of the bombs.
The assassin named "NightVision" sat down on the cold cement, and looked at Mr. Seventy.
He asked, "So what's your name?"
Mr. Seventy didn't reply immediately, but continued looking out.
"My name is 'Fool', My name is 'Wrong', and my name is 'Death'." Mr. Seventy looked down.
Marty sighed, and stopped examining the bomb.
"It's no use, Mr. Seventy. I can't.. it's too well made."
Mr. Seventy gave him no reply.
"What's with the old guy, kid?" NightVision asked.
Marty replied, "Any number of things. He's a thinker."
Mr. Seventy laughed, and looked at him, tears running down his cheek.
"You're a good man, Marty."
The television burst into life again.
Boss Tiger looked at them with tearful broken eyes
"Michael!" She cried, out of breath.
"I.. I've been trying to help you, Boss Dragon.. He's.. he's going to kill you. Where are you at?"
Mr. Seventy looked back at her.
"Get away from there, Rose. He'll kill you, you know it. I'm not telling you where we are."
NightVision started to speak, but Marty hit him hard in the side.
"Michael, I can help you, I can get you out of there, please, let me. Michael--".
Bang.
Boss Snake walked up to the camera, with a disheveled looking Boss Dragon behind him. Tiger yelled out,
“Norman..” Boss Tiger cried silently.
“Now, Rose. Look at what I had to make Luther do to you.” She continued to cry.
“And now I-” From off-camera, Rose begin to sing:
“We all.. Got.. Up to dance..”
Boss Dragon looked at his monitor at Mr. Seventy, who was openly sobbing. He looked puzzled.
“What are you… Boss.. Luther. Kill her.” But she continued to sing.
“Oh.. But we never got the chance..” Boss Snake fumbled with his gun, and pointed it at Rose.
Mr. Seventy sobbed and whispered something.
Boss Snake ended her life, her brown eyes gazing up through nothing.
Mr. Seventy continued where she left, through his sobs.
“The players tried to take the field…”, and Marty, accustomed to the peculiar habits and loves of Mr. Seventy, noted the familiar song that he was singing quietly.
“But the marching band refused to yield.”
NightVision looked at the two men with a strange look, and sat down.
Mr. Seventy continued: “Do you recall what was revealed, he day the music died?”. This alerted NightVision to what song they were actually singing, and he joined Marty and Mr. Seventy in singing the chorus.
“We started singing,
‘bye-bye, miss American pie.’
Drove my Chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
And singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.
"this’ll be the day that I die.”
Boss Dragon’s rage visibly soared, and he destroyed a glass panel with his fury. He yelled to Boss Snake:
“Activate the bombs, now. DO IT. AUTHORIZE THE WEAPONS“. Boss Snake quickly darted for a control panel off-camera.
Boss Snake did something that caused a bell to begin ringing on their side of the camera.
Marty cried out:
“Oh, and there we were all in one place,
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again.
So come on: jack be nimble, jack be quick!
Jack flash sat on a candlestick
Cause fire is the devil’s only friend!”
Mr. Seventy continued it:
“Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage.
No angel born in hell
Could break that Satan’s spell.
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite,
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day the music died”
Then the voices blended together, as the bell rang louder, and Boss Dragon screamed and poured sweat over whatever it was he was typing.
He was singing,
"bye-bye, miss American pie."
Drove my Chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
And singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.
"this’ll be the day that I die."
I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news,
But she just smiled and turned away.
I went down to the sacred store
Where I’d heard the music years before,
But the man there said the music wouldn’t play.
And in the streets: the children screamed,
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed.
But not a word was spoken;
The church bells all were broken.
And the three men I admire most:
The father, son, and the holy ghost,
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died.
And they were singing,
"bye-bye, miss American pie."
Drove my Chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
And them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.
"this’ll be the day that I die."
They were singing,
"bye-bye, miss American pie."
Drove my Chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die."
Mr. Seventy cried aloud,
“And this is the day that we die.”
Boss Dragon roared with laughter, and slammed his mighty fist onto a large red button. His connection with the three men was cut immediately.
The Tanas Building imploded, starting from the top down to the bottom. The fire from the buildings explosion roared outward. The moon stared down, and cried.
Thunder, dust, and blood echoed and spread. The city was quiet. Filled with dread.
The debris was cleared, the bodies recovered. News reports cried “Terrorism“. No one bothered to identify the mangled corpses.
Some stories end with victory. Some stores end with defeat.
This story ends with sorrow. With three forgotten men, who only wanted to fulfill their dreams, no matter how strange they may seem to us.
And in the streets, the children screamed. The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed.
Villains will not go unpunished.
Someday, their end will come. By a good man. A good man, with a good heart,
And a will to fulfill all his dreams.
The end.
Boss Dragon continued speaking:
“Now, I wish to extend my thanks to the both of you.” Boss Dragon gave his usual smile. One that displayed more hatred or disgust than happiness.
The closed circuit TV was garbled with static every now and then, but the transmission was relatively clear.
“You have helped me in my search for this... ‘Coin’...”
Marty looked around. They had tried a minute ago to cut the TV off, but Boss Dragon did not like that. He displayed his displeasure in the situation by having a small gun turret appear out of where perhaps an antenna should be, but it had receded into the set for the moment.
“And, in return, I will guarantee your fame. The both of you. You will both be, in a matter of moments, rather hated suicide bombers. Personally, I like the term Infamous. It just has such an extra flair. Do you understand me, Mister Seventy? When the building explodes, sadly, you will go right along with it.”
Boss Dragon didn’t smile. He didn’t nod. He showed no outward signs of emotion. Marty was struck by this, the rage in his body building.
“You’re the most rotten, vile man to ever live, Dragon.”
Boss Dragon’s eyes lit up.
“Thank you, my friend.” Just as Boss Dragon finished speaking, they heard a door swing open. Boss Dragon heard it through the mic, and gave a sigh of satisfaction.
“And now the deal is complete. We will be in contact shortly.”
Just then the closed circuit TV shut off entirely, and some of the lights dimmed out. The hard concrete of the parking garage felt so cold.
A young looking man walked toward them in black shoes, with a large gun in his hand.
“So, Marty.” Mr. Seventy said low, “I suppose this is about the end, isn’t it?”
He pointed it at Mr. Seventy.
“No offense intended, my friends, but your names happen to be ‘one-hundred’ and ‘one-hundred and one. Sorry about this, but, really, what can we do.” The man spoke.
“Actually, my name is Mr. Sev-” Marty hit him hard on the back. Then as it seemed the end was about 15 feet away, they heard a great creaking noise, same as when Marty and Mr. Seventy had entered the building and the door slammed shut, locked tight.
The man looked back, and shrugged, then pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened.
“What the d-”
The re-activation of the television cut him off.
“Now, you’ve all arrived. Good. I forgot to tell you all, an assasin who calls himself ‘NightVision’ would be joining you tonight, the third member in this group of three terribly confused men who decided to blow themselves up along with a very large building. We will be in contact soon. Goodbye.”
The television cut off again.
“So, I get all the way to the end, and I fail. This is certainly not what I’d hoped for.”
Mr. Seventy walked to the barred door, gave it a tug, and gave up.
“It’s not really what I wanted either. Not at all.”
Marty remained quiet. The crescent moon above glowing brightly.
To Be Continued In “ShockWave”
The Tanas Financial Building.
An emblem of the power of entrepreneurial spirit to all the citizen of the city.
But to the Underground Criminal Alliance,
It was just an eyesore. A large one. The Underground had provided the funds necessary for the original buildings creation, with expectations of 35% of all the companies’ profits for the first ten years.
After that they would probably take all of it. Actually, they would probably take all of the profits before 10 years. Whenever Boss Dragon got bored of things and remembered the Tanas Financial Group.
“According to what Boss Dragon said, Marty, the... Tanas Group hasn’t been paying for about... 2 months.”
“Two whole months? The vile criminals.” The sarcasm in Marty’s voice almost dripped out.
“Yes, and for those... What is the name of that thing again?”
Marty replied,
“The Underground Criminal Alliance.”
“Yes, those fellows. Those good chaps in the Underground Criminal Alliance don’t like it when someone goes against their will! Not a bit.”
“Chaps?”
“Chaps.”
A silence passed as they walked through the parking lot, towards the large barred door that was supposed to be unlocked.
“Marty, did I tell you about the dream I had the other night?”
“No,” He replied, “I don’t believe you did. Tell me after we finish here”
“Oh, I think you’ll like it Marty. It was a very odd one. It kind of scared me a little, you know? I don’t have many dreams like that”
“I’ll let you tell me all about it in a minute...”
They had reached the large steel barred door. As promised, it was opened an inch or so, and unlocked. They walked in, and examined the garage. They noted the locations of the bombs in several of the area’s Boss Dragon had spoke of.
They walked into the parking garage of the Tanas Financial Group’s building, and as they walked forward, the iron barred door behind them slammed shut.
They both looked at each other. A large television cut on in a dark corner of the garage, static came across.
“Mr. Seventy.”
“Marty?”
“I think we skipped happily into our own graves. A trap...”
“Certainly seems so...”
A silence passed.
“What was your dream, Mr. Seventy?”
“Well, I was standing in a field. A full moon was overhead, but it seemed very very close. I heard an owl, far far away who-hooing about somebody that was dead, and closer to me, I heard a dog crying and crows cawing about someone that was dying. The wind was whipping around my head, trying to whisper something to me, and I could not make out for the life of me what it was trying to say. This caused cold chills to come over me, and I woke up.”
“Mr. Seventy.”
“Marty?”
“Do you think you have an idea of what it might have been saying now?”
“Probably so.”
Just then, the static on the large television set turned to a picture of one man, and that’s all it took.
Mr. Seventy sighed, and Marty looked down, sad that the angel was in the hands of a demon.
Boss Dragon sat in a chair, smiling, holding the two sided coin.
Mr. Seventy looked up, sadly, and said:
“It was warning me of the crows, the dogs, and the owls. It was warning me of... this. And, I guess, my hopes..... clouded my...dreams? Logic... too, I guess...”
“Good evening, Gentlemen.”
Mr. Seventy said with a sigh,
“Good evening, Boss Dragon.”
“Pleasure doing business with you, Mister Seventy.”
Two armed guards entered the room, where Marty and Mr. Seventy were seated opposite a rather menacing bald man with a fetish for things that killed people/ or lots and lots of people.
“Now, in exchange for helping you,”
Marty almost wished he could keep the coin. The angel was so beautiful, and as long as he held it, he felt responsible for taking care of her.
Then he realized he was talking about a piece of multi-colored metal alloy. And that it was a coin. And that he was in love with it. Mr. Seventy later told Marty to “Shutup about the coin, you know.” Marty acknowledged that he had a slight habit of doing things like that.
Marty reluctantly handed the coin over to Mr. Seventy, and took one last look at the angel.
Mr. Seventy then placed the coin on the desk of Boss Dragon.
“So,.... uh.. Deal?”
“It is a deal, Mister Seventy.” Boss Dragon’s smile was unnatural, and his voice at a pitch that screamed absolute joy.
_______
Mr. Seventy was discussing the crime bosses with Marty as they walked back towards the magazine rack before they went out to clinch their destiny!
That’s the way Mr. Seventy put it.
He had a tendency to be rather dramatic about things.
But, their discussion about the bosses led to a sort of analysis about all the bosses. Marty noted that Mr. Seventy had an odd knowledge of the people involved in the underground. It was strange, really.
Marty later compiled the information into an easy to read piece of paper. Here are the contents.
_______________
· Boss Dragon- Leader and founder of the Underground Crime Alliance. Whispers on the street of him actually having some members of his own family assassinated for safety concerns. Terribly cold hearted and unforgiving.
· Boss Snake- Boss Dragon’s second in command. He trusts no one but Boss Dragon. Boss Dragon could twist him into doing pretty much anything he wanted him too.
· Boss Horse- An expert in the delicate art of “Blowing things up”. He was a short black man who was missing two fingers from what one would have assumed was an accident with explosives. No one was really sure.
· Boss Goat- A dark-haired female sniper whose sole duty was to shadow Boss Dragon whenever he left the Alliance building. She could shoot a quarter from a quarter of a mile with her high-powered rifles.
· Boss Monkey- Loud, fat, Asian man whose reasons for being in the Underground Crime Alliance were relatively unknown. He made Boss Dragon laugh, so his presence was welcomed.
· Boss Rooster- A hacker. Mr. Seventy didn’t tell me much about him.
· Boss Dog- Drove a taxi for the Alliance, had performed drive-by shootings for the Underground before.
· Boss Pig- A bodyguard for Boss Dragon. He was tall with wispy blonde hair. He could have passed for his son, actually.
· Boss Rat- Manages Boss Dragon’s drug dealing necessities.
· Boss Buffalo- Takes care of security around the Alliance Building. He has a high pitched voice, but knows how to develop strategies better then your average chess playing computer.
· Boss Tiger- A red-haired brown eyed woman who was an expert in shooting lots of guns really fast. She also took care of some of Boss Dragon’s undercover arrangements. Some of the writing here is hard to read.
· Boss Rabbit- Piloted Boss Dragon’s private helicopter, which she maintained in case he needed to be evacuated.
_________________
Mr. Seventy pulled a small gun from the ceiling of the magazine stand.
“I like to keep these around, you know. Sometimes it’s good to feel like you have a little safety, you know?”
Marty nodded.
“I know. And you were right about Boss Dragon, with... his plan and all?”
Mr. Seventy looked puzzled.
“Say what?”
Marty responded,
“Don’t you remember? You said the job would be something small and easy, like setting off some kind of explosive or... you remember?”
Mr. Seventy still looked confused.
“I... think so. Well, I mean, I understand what we have to do. Go to the Tanas Financing Group’s headquarters downtown. The bombs that are in place are hidden under a truck, in a traffic barrel, and on a support column. We enter the activation code in all three of them, and then... walk out. Someone in the ...underground... thing will get the media’s attention and...drop our names, or something. The fact is, it doesn’t... wait... What were you asking again?”
Marty continued to walk.
“I asked what we were supposed to do.”
“Oh, yes, well, that. I guess it’s been properly... um... answered now, hm?”
“Quite right! Quite right.”
The sun was setting as they walked down 7th Avenue.
An old sad looking police car was parked in an empty lot. An old sad looking police officer seemed to be inside. Mr. Seventy clutched the gun in his side pocket.
“Is he looking at us?” Mr. Seventy asked.
“I can’t tell that well, but I would say no, no he isn’t.” Marty was anxious to get to their job. He wanted to get this messy thing out of the way so he could prepare for his future career as a master thief.
The police officer stepped out of his car and lit a cigarette.
“Good evening.” He said without giving much in the way of emotion.
“Good evening to you, Sir.” Mr. Seventy said. His greeting was spoken with a hopeful tone. The officer just stared off into the twilight sky. Marty looked over to Mr. Seventy, but he motioned Marty on.
They didn’t say much more.
But they continued walking.
Walking for minutes that seemed like hours.
But both of them had hope. Hope of a legacy, hope for fame,
Hope for a dream unrealized.
“1974”. Again.
They went forward, same as last time. The only difference in the compound was the mood. It seemed more.. Aggressive? Maybe intense. Marty couldn’t tell, and Mr. Seventy was babbling on about.. something.
The conversation gave way to silence. Marty continued to follow Mr. Seventy.
Then, they were lost.
“This doesn’t look like the way we came in last time, Mr. Seventy.”
“Say wha- U.. Oh. Haha, I think I’ve been lost in thought!” Mr. Seventy responded, cheerfully.
“Well, great. Because we’re lost.. Period. We’re lost.” Marty sounded despondent.
“Look on the bright side.”
A silence passed. Marty was confused
“..For what? On the r.. Yo.. You aren’t making any sense.”
“Shhh, be quiet, listen to the walls.”
“What the d-”
“Shutup, Marty!” He practically whispered.
“Be quiet; listen to the people on the other side of the wall.”
At least he finally had the time to explain the situation. He put his ear quietly against the wall. Some of the things were muffled.
“...using night vision.... missed.. intruder... doesn’t matter because... the key... what?”
It stopped for a second.
“... vault.. the key is for..kill...3...then...trick.. huh?”
Mr. Seventy spoke to Marty, who seemed to be having a harder time hearing.
“They’re talking about killing 3 people in a vault or something.”
Marty continued to listen, then looked at Mr. Seventy and shook his head.
“Why are we even doing this,” he whispered. “It seems a little stupid to be eavesdropping on a bunch of... uh.. cold-hearted criminals. Mr. Seventy?”
Mr. Seventy stared at the wall for a moment, and then turned around.
“Agreeable. Shall we proceed unto the pre-approved meeting grounds?”
“Seems like a darling idea to me, my good fellow!” Marty replied, roughly about the same time that Boss Snake and Boss Dragon walked out of the room they had just removed their ears from the walls of.
“Uh... Hello! And respect you and...your...”
....Mr. Seventy felt as though he was failing the same test over and over again.
“...organization...”
He let out a sigh.
“Mister Seventy. What a pleasure to see you again. Please, step into my private quarters.”
Boss Snake stood behind him and looked down.
“I would.. Ask your friend to join us.”
As they entered Boss Dragon’s room, they noted that he most certainly did enjoy collecting deadly weapons.
Lots and lots and lots of them.
Swords, guns, spears, knives, ... a cannon in the corner, ... several decorated pairs of nun-chucks...
“Well!” Said Mr. Seventy.
“It’s been a full afternoon, Honorable Boss Dragon! Someone actually tried to shoot at us today. It’s very fortunate we survived, you know?” Mr. Seventy seemed very nervous at the moment.
They both later swore that he muttered under his breath:
“Mm... Misfortune really...” But he quickly regained control of the situation, giving them both an all-too-large smile.
"Let's talk of business, gentlemen."
Showing 1 - 5. [ Next ]