CHAPTER 6
"Hey James, look you need to stop running from the families who would adopt you. Look, those coming now; there are three of them, they have children they adopted. They're the ones who'll understand your situation best. They, too, once lost their families and were sent to different homes. So they went through what you went through. That's why I think you should give this family a chance. In a few years you'll be old enough to stand on your own; so at least give it a chance for those few years. After that you can go to another family if you want."
"Okay, okay Dr. Shenon, you're right. Maybe I'll give it a chance this time."
PRESENT DAY
James answers the call from the hospital with fear.
"Hey Mr. James, you need to come to the hospital. I'm afraid we lost your mother my condolences."
James's world collapses; he buries his head in his hands and begins to cry, murmuring, "No, no, not again, not again..." Tears run down his face as he quickly jumps onto his motorcycle and speeds to the hospital. "Where, where is my mother? Where?" he asks the doctor. The doctor tries to comfort him, but James has lost his second family too.
James is devastated, angry at himself for not being there in her final moments. With no one left whom he loves or values, he knows he won't hold back anymore he vows that no one who abuses their power over others, not even someone like Ethan, will be allowed to live.
He handles the funeral arrangements; everyone from the station has come, many acquaintances of the family are there. Alan comes up to James.
"Hey kid, I'm so sorry. My condolences. I never wanted you to go through this again. Kid, if you need anything, just say so. Take time off until you get yourself together you deserve that. Like I said, if you want anything, tell me."
Because James now knows what Alan is like, he says nothing.
After everyone leaves the funeral, James, alone, can't hold back his tears. He looks at the grave one last time. Quickly he goes to the hideout; the final piece of the new costume he'd been making has been finished.
He attaches the reinforced piece to the chest of his old suit to make it more durable, and loads the necessary items onto his belt: sonic grenades, smoke bombs, devices like the Skyfang attached to his belt. Then he secures his Ironfangs to the sides of his belt
now he's ready to hunt.
He scans the map quickly but nothing appears. One place he'd seen in the files the place all of them are connected to sits dead center on the map: an old, abandoned airport that catches his attention.
Because he'd seen documents in the files that Ethan had purchased that place, he heads there. James rides his motorcycle toward the city's most sinister quarter. The wounds he still carries from the last fight sting, but pain is something he's used to it's almost the source of his strength; he feels stronger and more unstoppable than ever, burning with the need to take from the man who caused all the pain that started the cycle of losing his family his revenge.
James arrives at the old airport on his bike. From the outside it really does look abandoned.
But he doesn't know what's going on inside; he doesn't know what they're doing. His goal isn't so much to stop whatever's happening inside as it is to take revenge.
First he distracts the man standing at the door with a sound bomb. When the man turns toward the noise, James drops down on him with his grappling hook; he quickly strangles the man and incapacitates him. He hooks the grappling hook around the man's throat, activates it, and the hook yanks the man upward.
He quickly turns on his mask's heat sensor, kicks the door, and throws the smoke bombs he prepared inside; the men's vision is suddenly obscured. He darts in; as the men fire wildly around, he first grabs the first man's gun, then delivers a hard blow to the man's head with his Ironfang the man's head splits open and he falls to the ground. He kicks another man, then throws a Skyfang knife; it tears the man's throat the throat-slashed man falls. He crosses Ironfang blows against a third man, then knocks him down with a kick. Against another attacker he sidesteps the assault, then runs forward and kicks the charging man the man collapses. He takes down the remaining three men one by one.
He drags one of the men who fell and is still alive by his clothes toward the wall. He lifts him and pins him to the wall.
"Talk, talk, you son of a bitch! Tell me where your boss is, where that bastard is, tell me!" he shouts as he starts beating the man. Eventually the man can't stand the torture and begs:
"Stop, please stop. If I tell you something he'll kill me."
"If you don't tell me I'll kill you worse than he would."
James clamps the man's throat tight, pulls out the Skyfang from his belt and drives it into the man's knee, pressing down hard with his foot; the Skyfang rips in so that more than half of it embeds inside the knee. The man is still muttering that he can't talk.
"This is your last warning talk or die."
"No, I can't talk. I can't talk."
"Fine, then you asked for this."
He cuts the man's throat taking the Skyfang out of the man's knee and using it to slit his throat. The man collapses and dies from blood loss.
"I may not have learned your purpose or location today, but if I don't kill you myself, I'll kill myself, you son of a bitch," he cries out, looking toward the moon visible through the window.