Bayani and I have arrived at the docks. We made it a point not to be seen by anyone we know on our way there, not that we ran into anyone this time around.
"I don't really see anything," Bayani says, glancing around.
"Well, the Parlay docks are big, but I personally haven't ever explored it all," I reply, nodding over to a large shipping crate that looks oddly isolated. "That looks strange, yeah?"
"How would I know? I've never been here." He tells me.
"You don't need to have been here before to think that an isolated shipping container placed diagonally instead of organized with the others is suspicious," I remark.
We slowly creep toward it. I'm utterly unsure of what's in there. Bayani keeps glancing over at me nervously, like he's silently asking me to open it. I look back at him, not opening it either, as we stop in front of the doors.
"Are you going to open it?" Bayani asks.
"Are you?" I reply.
"Together?" He replies.
"Alright."
Bayani grabs the left door, and I grab the right one. It's tough to open, as it drags on the ground below, creating this grating screeching sound. We managed to get it open, to be met with a large stash of bladed weapons, and a man turned around, smoking. He's a darker man with a clear complexion. His hair is in cornrows, and he's wearing a dark green polo, some blue jeans, and a mask strapped to his back with a Jack of Clubs ensignia.
Upon seeing the man, Bayani grabs me and pulls me to the side, to where we'd be out of sight.
"That's the Jack of Clubs guy," He whispers.
"I figured because of the mask. But he's the one who put you in the infirmary?" I ask in a hushed manner, looking up at him, as I lost my footing from being dragged, so for once he's taller than me.
"Yes. He has two flaming chains. He's strong."
"Great. Let's take him down."
"Are you crazy?!" He says, his voice rising slightly above a whisper, before he hushes himself again.
"He's distracted, and there are two of us. Let's just take him down here." I reply.
"Okay, let's say we succeed. How do we get him taken into custody without Elaine finding out what we did?"
Oh.
I forgot that's what I'm supposed to do now as Parker. Usually, Miss Claire handles this sort of aftermath, or at least tells me what to do. I suppose this is a part of self-sufficiency.
"I didn't think of that."
"Yeah, so let's just move on."
"Or we can take one of the weapons."
When those words leave my mouth, Bayani's jaw drops.
"Why?!" He says in an annoyed whisper.
"It's probably one of those weapons that disable powers. Like the ones Kara and I were hit with at the mall. I'm curious." I reply.
"How about this? We grab some after we take the Clubs down later, with Kara here." He tells me.
"Sure. Let's move on." I reply as we start slinking away from the container, moving on from here.
Bayani points to our right, and I follow his finger and direct my gaze to where he's pointing. And I see two large, imposing brick storage houses. They're painted grey with two large white sliding doors in front of them.
"Well, that looks important," I tell him.
"Let's go then," Bayani says, already walking toward it. Likely desperate to get away from the Jack of Clubs.
I follow shortly behind. As we get closer, we hear some shouting from the middle storage house. Noticing this, we both start making our way over there to catch as many of the words being said in there as we can.
"That bastard told that Parker boy where we are! And the boss told everyone that he and the other two apprentices are targeting us!" A male voice shouts in frustration. He sounds… goofy. I can't take it seriously. He reminds me of someone who'd talk about how difficult it is to be green.
That must be the King of Clubs, Mr. Eun-ji did tell me that his voice was rather unique.
"Why should we worry? He's a nine-year-old boy coming at us with two other children. You're acting like we're dealing with Eun-ji or one of the top four heroes." A more feminine voice speaks up.
"Oh. You mean the three children being raised to be the strongest of the next generation? Even the King of Hearts is taking a personal interest in Parker. We shouldn't take them lightly." The King of Clubs shouts.
"Watch your tone with me. You are in the top position by influence alone. And you know damn well you, Darren, and I are at the same level of strength," the woman snaps.
Darren? I can only guess that's the Jack of Clubs.
"Even so. There's some big secret about that Parker boy that only the Boss and the King of Hearts know! What if that is something crazy that makes him stronger than we assume?" the King of Clubs says, calmer, but still panicked.
What? So not all of them know that I'm Chameleon. That's good. But it's still terrifying that people I've made enemies of know. And the King of Hearts also seems to know about my past, before Miss Claire.
Bayani turns to me, a little concerned, "Parker. You look shaken. What is the secret?"
I take a sharp inhale, "My birth family, probably. Or maybe that I have an aunt who's in some version of witness protection?" I tell him. Both things are sort of true.
"An aunt in witness protection?"
"I only know her as Jane. Jane Doe. Her actual name isn't known to me. It's for her safety. I don't even know where she actually lives. When I go to her place to meet her. My mom blindfolds me so I don't know." I explain. Not entirely a lie, that was how it was before I started doing missions as Chameleon.
"Intense." He remarks.
"If they know about her… Even more reason to take them down." I tell him.
"Yeah." He affirms.
"I think we've seen everything I wanted to. Unless you have more things you'd like to see."
"Parker, I'd like to go into the storage houses that the people aren't in."
I nod, and we walk over to the left storage house. Bayani and I both give our best effort to open the door just big enough for us to slip inside.
It's dark, so it's hard to see too clearly, but I can see that in here are even more bladed weapons. I go ahead and swipe a small dagger and put it in my pocket.
"Are they the faction producing these weapons?" Bayani ponders out loud.
"Maybe. That'd explain why a faction weaker than the others still has equal influence. Mr. Eun-ji did tell me there was a power vacuum for a while, where all factions were in a stalemate." I explain.
"Yeah. That would explain how the Clubs kept up."
"This place is a mess, though."
"Yeah, you think that they'd want to sort them at least," Bayani remarks.
"Ready to go to the other one?" I ask, already turning around to walk out.
"Let's go," He replies, moving swiftly to catch up.
We rush over to the right one. Wanting to rush this so we don't risk Elaine finding out we left HQ. Two hours have already passed since we first went out that window.
We slide open the door slightly, and we are about to enter, but then I notice people inside, so I hold out my arm to stop Bayani.
"What?" He questions, before looking ahead and seeing what I saw, "Oh. People."
"A lot of them. Why would all of the grunts be guarding one warehouse?"
"Maybe they're guarding something important?"
"That's true, try to peek your head in a bit, see if you can see what they're guarding." Bayani requests.
"Got it," I reply, already peeking my head inside, glancing around.
I see a bunch of masked and armed men and women, all keeping a watchful eye on a tiny little safe in the middle. The storage house is completely bare aside from that.
I pull my head out and turn toward Bayani, "They're just guarding a tiny safe."
"Odd."
"What do you think they're guarding?"
"Your guess is as good as mine."
"A cookie recipe."
Bayani swats my shoulder when I say that, "Be serious."
"Ready to head out? Don't wanna risk getting caught."
"Yeah, let's go."
Bayani and I start walking toward where we started. Retracing our steps is probably the quickest way back to HQ. I'd really rather not get lost or something.
When we get back to that initial odd storage container, we see something different.
"Huh, both sides are open. Weird." Bayani remarks.
"And the Jack of Clubs is gone," I reply.
Bayani grabs my hand and starts rushing away, pulling me alongside him, "I have a bad feeling about this. Let's hurry and get out of here."
As if Bayani's words caused a reaction from the universe to make it all true, I feel a large sting, then a burning sensation on my left ribcage, as I go flying to the right from getting something slammed into me.
"Hey! What do you boys know about physics?" I hear an unfamiliar voice ring out, but Bayani's eyes widen, which means it can only be…
"Is that your greeting after seeing me again?" Bayani asks, already readying himself in a fighting stance.
I turn my head and see him, the Jack of Clubs, donning the flaming chains I've heard about.
"Well, I'll greet people who snoop where they don't belong, however I'd like."
"I don't think we've met," I announce, slowly standing up.
"Parker, yeah. Don't need to hear an introduction from you. You no longer have my interest anyway."
"Are you kidding? You burned down an apartment complex just to maybe have the chance to meet him!" Bayani shouts.
"Yeah, that's when we fought, and you became the point of interest." He replies.
"How flattering." Bayani grimaces.
"Hey, back to the topic at hand. Physics, go." He points at Bayani and me.
"No clue," I reply.
"Inertia, thermodynamics, forces, relativity, and conservation? I'm familiar." Bayani says.
"See! You are the more interesting one. Nobody gets it, I mean, what's not to love about pursuing the knowledge of the rules that run what's all around us?" The Jack of Clubs sighs, not even looking at us, but up at the sky.
"And that equates to you committing arson and trying to kill a mother and her child?" Bayani snaps.
"The most fun part of physics is knowing the rules and using them in battle, being able to explain all of your movements using these rules of nature." He replies, now swinging his left chain back.
"Ignoring what I say, huh?" Bayani says, using his strings to wrap around a smaller wooden crate. Flinging it right at the Jack of Clubs' head.
It doesn't seem to damage him, but it seems to make the man stagger. And I take that opportunity to stand up and close in on him. I grab his head and jump up to slam it into my knee.
Bayani takes the opportunity to wrap string around his leg and trip him.
"We fight together," Bayani tells me.
"Obviously," I tell him, turning my head to look at him.
By the time we look back, the Jack of Clubs is already standing, cocking his arms back.
"I'm surprised you two kids just let me stand back up!" He shouts.
Crap. Me too.