Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction. I do not know the sexual orientation of any of the celebrities who will be appearing in the story.
WARNING: The character does not have a happy life and will not have very many happy events in his life. If this kind of stuff bothers you, I do not recommend reading. Otherwise, enjoy.
The Shadow created by Street and Smith, Walter B. Gibson. Copyright Advance Magazine Publishing Inc.
Author's email address: authorjames2002@yahoo.com
Chapter 6 That's What Friends Are For
The bullets stopped and several men in tuxedos jumped through the busted glass and open door. The two masked heroes went into action as well. The Shadow blocked a punch and retaliated, punching a man in the face. Nightwing grabbed a guy's wrist in mid-punch, spun underneath the man, and flipped him to the ground. Then, Nightwing kicked the guy in the face knocking him out.
Two guys grabbed the Shadow's arms and held them back while another punched him in the face. He punched the Shadow again. Then he reached inside his coat and pulled out a gun. The Shadow swung his legs upward. One foot connected with the gun knocking it out of the attacker's hand. The Shadow flipped over the guys and their grips loosened on his arms. The youth slipped his right hand free, which he used to back-hand the one who had held it. Then he brought his fist over and punched the guy still holding fast to his left hand. The two men stumbled backwards clutching at their noses. The Shadow swung his leg up and connected with the genitals of one. The man fell over in pain. The youth turned and did the same to the other, who also fell to the ground.
The man who had the gun pulled a knife and was ready to throw it at the Shadow when a blue bird-shaped object flew through the air and hit the man's hand. The man dropped the knife and a blue and black gloved fist hit the man in the back of the neck, rendering him unconscious.
"Thanks for the help," the Shadow said.
"You're welcome. You'll have to show me some of those moves. Now let's check on our friends."
The Shadow nodded and the two went inside.
"Arsenal!" Nightwing called out.
"Harris!" the Shadow called out.
They heard the creak of a door in the back and the two snuck back in case it wasn't their friends. Nightwing approached the corner and a hand grasped him on the shoulder. With a quick, fluid motion, he flipped the person onto his back and placed his foot against the person's throat.
"Arsenal!" he said realizing who it was. "Sorry about that." He released his grip and helped him up. "What were you doing in the closet? Aren't you supposed to be out of it?"
"Ha, ha," Arsenal said in sarcasm. "We heard someone come down from upstairs. We hid back here hoping to get a jump on them when we saw the guys. I'm not bulletproof and neither is the kid."
"Kid? I'm almost as old as you two! I don't need this patronizing shit! Not from you!"
Everyone turned to Harris surprised at the passion behind his words.
"Is something bothering you?" Nightwing asked.
"Nothing I want to talk about."
The Shadow chose to ignore what was going on and examine the situation at hand. "I was on my way here to get some information from Jared about the A-Teens. He was looking into something concerning strange occurrences surrounding the two males. The same guys who killed are dressed the same as men I've seen at the youths' suite at a downtown hotel. These men obviously knew Jared was working for me and so killed him. Jared may have gotten close to what is going on and their boss, whoever that may be, decided Jared was a liability."
The Shadow turned to see the guys staring at him. "Is there a problem?"
"You know the A-Teens?" Arsenal asked.
"Not on a personal basis, but I have met them. I'm investigating what happened."
"What did happen?" Nightwing asked.
"They had sex with one another."
"That doesn't seem so strange."
"They were videotaped by someone who also wanted the condoms filled with their cum. That tells me there is some issue about their genetic code being factored in. My question is who wants it and why?"
"Well the why is obvious, someone wants to reproduce."
"Or someone wants to clone Dhani and Amit."
"You can't get all of their DNA out of their semen," Harris stated. "Male semen only carries half of the chromosomes and DNA for reproduction."
"True, but in semen there are millions of sperm cells which carry the DNA. All of a male's DNA is represented in an infinite number of combinations equally half of what is needed for life. If someone were a geneticist, they could very well be able to create the DNA sequence of both men and, thusly, recreate them."
"Or combine them to make one really hot guy."
The three masked heroes looked at Harris.
"Well it's true. Can you imagine a guy that looked like both of those two? Man, that's getting me hot and bothered already."
"We can stand here and do all the speculation we want. Until we analyze what's on Jared's hard drives, we won't know anything for certain." The Shadow pulled out his cell phone and called Moe. He requested Moe to come to the apartment complex. "Moe's on his way," the Shadow said after hanging up. "Let's get his computers and bring down here."
The four young men went inside and gathered all the electrical equipment and brought it out as the taxi cab pulled up. Moe pulled up in his cab. "I got your call," he said to the Shadow. "Who are these guys?"
The Shadow didn't answer and the group piled into the cab after putting Jared's computers into the trunk.
"I'm Harris," Harris introduced.
"I'm Nightwing and this is Arsenal."
"How you doing?" Arsenal said to Moe.
Moe just nodded. Then asked, "Where to, boss?" They loaded the hardware into the trunk and the Shadow ordered Moe to take them to an abandoned building near the gymnasium. It was the same building the Shadow lived in before he met Jonesy.
Once at the building, the Shadow, Nightwing, Arsenal, and Harris unloaded the computers. He led them around back into the building. "This should do," the Shadow replied. "We can set up the lair here. Do you have Jared's computers?"
"I don't feel right using his stuff," Harris said. "We kind of stole it."
"He used those computers for me and my work. Technically, they are mine."
Nightwing and Arsenal looked at each other and rolled their eyes. They didn't know exactly what kind of arrangements the Shadow had made with Jared so they didn't interfere.
"Go ahead and set up. I want to see what you can do," and the Shadow left.
"So, how did you two meet?" Harris asked Nightwing as he began connecting the machines together.
"We met a few months ago in Orlando during the Vamp..." He looked at Harris, not sure if Harris would think he was crazy.
"Vampire War?" Harris completed. "I know about it. I was involved with some people that dressed like you guys. Only these people fought vampires."
"Really?" Nightwing replied. "I did for a while with some people down in Orlando. It ended up getting my girlfriend killed. During the Vampire War, I met Arsenal. We hit it off great and he suggested we head up this way. There was enough regular crime to deal with out here and enough strangely powered beings that could handle the supernatural.
"My name is Robert, by the way. Some people have called me Robbie or Rob. Arsenal's real name is Roy."
Harris smiled, feeling grateful that these costumed heroes were willing to share their identity. Well, that Nightwing was willing to share their identities. He wondered if Arsenal would be so trusting.
"You know, you look familiar to me. Have I seen you somewhere before?"
Realization dawned on both of the young heroes.
"Your group came to Columbus during the Vampire War," Harris replied. "You work with Batgirl."
"I did work with Batgirl."
"You don't work with her any more." It was a statement more of a question.
"Not since we came here. I figured they had enough help down in Orlando to fight the demons. I'm only human. I don't have special powers or special skills to fight them."
"I'm only human, too," Harris stated. "But look at me. I've been helping them for a long time."
"But you have some special skills. You know how to use this stuff."
"You know how to fight."
"There are plenty of fighters in Orlando. Just as I'm sure there are plenty of fighters in your team. It seemed like it when we were there."
Harris nodded. "There are a lot of fighters in Columbus."
"But how many of them can use computers like you?"
"I don't think any of them, really. Whistler knows some about technology, but most of that is for designing weapons."
"Sounds to me like you have an important job with your friends, your family. Maybe you should contact them to let them know you are safe. I'm sure they are worried about you."
"Maybe," Harris answered.
The Shadow entered the room and looked from Nightwing to Harris. "Did I interrupt something?"
"No," Nightwing answered.
"What do you want me to do?" Harris asked.
"I want you to do a search on the A-Teens. I want background information on them. Where they come from? Do they have any shady contacts with anybody? Find out anything and everything you can about the group."
Harris nodded. He typed in a few parameters in a search engine and came up with several thousand websites. He clicked the first one. "This might be something," he said. On the site was a link that said, "Secrets of the A-Teens".
"I highly doubt anything about them would be so blatant."
Harris clicked on the link as curiosity got the better of them.
"Hello!" he said as the images loaded up.
"What?" Nightwing asked looking over Harris's shoulder.
On the screen were several pictures of the group, all nude pictures. It was obvious someone with some computer intelligence imposed the heads over the bodies. Still, the thought of seeing the guys naked in any way stimulated Harris, Arsenal and Nightwing.
"That isn't them," the Shadow said. "I've seen the guys naked, as I told you before. Dhani is longer than that and Amit is much thicker. Both keep their pubes trimmed, as well. Move along."
The three men who stared at the pictures turned to the Shadow and stared at him.
"Move along," the Shadow replied.
Harris cleared his throat and went back to his computer work.
"I'm going to check on them."
"Do you want us to come with you?" Arsenal asked.
"No."
After the Shadow left, Arsenal turned to Nightwing. "Do you believe that guy? He's a real piece of work."
"He saved my life," Harris said as he ran a search on Jared's computer for anything related to the A-Teens. "And he's a mutant."
"What?" both young men said turning to Harris.
"Yeah, he's a mutant. And he didn't know he was until I pointed it out."
"What are you talking about?" Nightwing said as he moved toward Harris. "How can a mutant not know he's a mutant?"
"His power is invisibility, it seems like. He came right out of the shadows as if he were part of them. I don't think he ever realized it before. It's kind of hard if you aren't around mirrors when you do your mutant thing."
"I used to work with a mutant," Nightwing said. "He was pretty cool."
"How do you know about mutants?" Arsenal asked Harris.
"Oh, look," Harris said changing the subject. He didn't want to go to any part of his past at the moment. "Jared found some interesting tidbits on the A-Teens."
Nightwing looked over Harris's shoulder. "What's that word? 'Ipanema'? I've never heard of that word before."
"I'll run a search on it and see what the Internet has."
"Good thinking. I'm itching for some constructive violence. Are you up for it, Arsenal?"
"You better believe it."
"Can I come?" Harris asked.
"Do you know how to fight?"
"I want to learn, remember? How can I learn if I don't experience it?"
"Don't you have a search thing to do on the computer?"
"It hardly needs me here to do a search."
"I think it's too dangerous," Nightwing finally said. "At least for right now. You have no training whatsoever. Once we train you in some ways, I would be happy to have you come along. But until then..."
"Whatever," Harris said solemnly. He turned and sat down.
"Listen, I don't want you to be mad..." Nightwing began.
"Just go."
Taking a deep breath, Nightwing and Arsenal left the lair leaving Harris alone to his work.
To Be Continued...