James awoke and grabbed his head, rubbing his eyes. 'One day.' Saying to himself, he walked over to his wall and looked at it. He made all the preparations he needed to defend himself, but felt that he needed one more thing, something to make sure only Cain was the one to attack him. If Allanah, Magnus, Maria or anyone else showed up, he knew it would be over, even with Phillip there. The man had no clue who his enemies were after all.
Looking at everything, his fingers twitched. He looked at Magnus and thought of his shop, but brushed it aside. After his last visit, he was sure the building would be heavily watched to stop him from getting close. Next was Alannah, but without any information, he couldn't get close. Maria was off the table as well for the same issue as Magnus.
Staring at the gentleman's photo, he knew there was only one target, even if it was the worst. He needed Lucas heavily distracted, and could think of only one person who could give him what he wanted. His eyes turned to the picture of Chicken Mask, on the outer edge of the wall. Even if he was on a one-man crusade, James felt that with the right push, he could have him released once more. The only problem was finding him.
Pulling out a cigarette, he looked at the nearly empty packet and clicked his tongue. 'Maryland.' Taking a smoke, he freshened up, got dressed and sped off to the part of the city. Driving around, he looked out for the car he had seen before, remembering the glimpse under the mask of his short, dirty blond hair. The man had numerous arrest warrants out for him, but knowing how Maryland was favourable to him in recent years, he was sure they would protect him, even if he left his car out in the open for them to find.
James drove around, carefully going up each street, one by one, looking into the alleyways. Turning onto Colehill Lane, he saw a car covered in a drap, the red paint peeking out from underneath. James parked up next to it, and got out, pulling the drap over and seeing the red Mustang without a license plate. James could tell the street was dodgy from the stares and quiet whispers.
"Excuse me," called from a nearby window. James turned to face an old lady and smiled.
"Yes?" James spoke as friendly as he could. The woman, however, didn't care, looking him up and down, her eyes narrowing with displeasure the more she looked.
"Is there an issue with the car?" She asked, looking across the street. James followed her gaze and saw a few people watching him. Activating his eyes to see if Chicken Head was amongst them, he frowned, not seeing his aura. Despite that, he saw a few ability users among the people watching.
James tapped the top of the car, grabbing the drap over it, "It's illegal to have this over your vehicle on a public street." Pulling a flimsy law out of his ass, he quickly explained. The old woman sighed, closed her window, and quickly reapered outside, rubbing her hands together to warm up.
"You police?" She said, looking back over to the people who were watching. James smiled.
"Technically." Staring at her, he shrugged his shoulders, "Do you know the owner of this vehicle. I can excuse the missing license plate as I know sometimes they're stolen, but this poses a safety hazard in cases it blows over." James put his hands in his pockets. "I just wish to clear up the situation."
The old lady watched James, unable to tell his true motive. Despite that, seeing he wasn't trying to cause an issue, she nodded and looked across the street, lifting her hand to one of the young men. A man in his twenties with hazelnut hair ran over.
"Old Lady, I told you to stop getting involved with people's business." The man playfully said before staring at James like he didn't belong.
"He says the car is a hazard of something." The woman waved her hand, "Deal with it, would you? My show is on." The man nodded and helped the lady back up the steps into her apartment. Coming out, his kind smile was gone.
"Get lost." The man said, lifting his shirt to show a gun in his waistband, "I'll talk to the owner, but you gotta go." James backed up and held his hands up, hiding his nerves.
"I just need to talk to him," James said, gulping. Looking over at the group the man had been with, he saw them watching, waiting for the moment he moved wrong. "I'm alone, but I'm armed," James said. He knew mentioning his connection with the force would be the wrong thing to say, but he needed to build some trust. The man narrowed his eyes and nodded for James to show.
Pulling his coat to the side, he revealed the pistol he brought from Phillip. "What do you need with him?" The man's tone eased up a little without removing his hand from his waist.
"Listen, I know who he is, and I've got something he may like," James said, taking a deep breath. The man stayed silent and looked James up and down. Looking across the street, he nodded to them. One of them took out a phone and quickly made a call. Focusing on his ears, he listened from a distance.
"Someone's snooping around." The man waited and sighed, "Yeah, Danny's speaking to him right now." There was another pause, "You sure? Alright." Hanging up, the man looked to Danny and nodded. Removing his hand from his belt, he flicked his hand to have James follow.
James didn't move straight away. Seeing that he was leading him down the alley, they were standing around, but knowing that he needed everything he could for the next few days, he chose to follow. 'Xavier would have said if I died here.' Telling himself, he followed the group down a set of steps into a basement.
Knocking a few times, multiple latches opened, followed by the heavy door. Seeing inside, James held his breath. The air was dry, and littered all around were numerous tools and weapons- axes, baseball bats, machetes, hatchets, and hacksaws. Each one was neatly hung up, waiting to be chosen. In the centre, a large block of money wrapped in clean film.
'It must be at least ten million.' James stared at it, stopping his eyes from twitching. His eyes moved up and saw a man wearing a Chicken Mask, staring at him. By his side stood a man with white hair, cleaning a knife, putting it down and grabbing another.
James heard the door close behind him, and the cold steel of a barrel pressed against his head. Slowly lifting his hands, his breathing slowed. "What do you have?" Danny asked, pushing the gun deeper. Another moved and took the gun from James's holster at Danny's orders.
James tried to smile to ease his worries, "The Gentleman is moving on Result Day." James said, looking for a reaction. The white haired man stopped cleaning for a second before refocusing on it. Chicken Head stared, the blank eyes of the mask looking at him like it could read his soul. "I am one of the people he wishes to kill. But to do so, he needs to cause a distraction so I can't have support."
Chicken Head moved, reaching inside his bomber jacket. James tensed up, but seeing him pull out a notepad, sighed in relief. The man wrote something down with messy handwriting and held it up.
'So?'
It was a punch to the gut, and James tried to think of a way to get him to move. "Can we make a deal?" Chicken Head stared slowly nodding, waiting for him to speak. James tried to think of what to give. He didn't want to release the man to start executing all on the list; he still wished to bring them to justice, but he also knew it had to be something worthwhile.
Thinking of the purple aura, he took a deep breath, "Information on the Gentleman's ability." The silence in the room seemed to get deeper. The white haired man stopped what he was doing and stared at James. The group of men all tensed up. Only Chicken Head remained unfazed, nodding for him to go on. "It works like a parasite, attaching itself to a person. Through it, he can control said people or kill them if need be." It was a guess, not entirely correct based on what he saw, but it was close enough. "Ability or no, he can attach it to someone. How he does, I don't know, however."
James took a deep breath and thought back to the manor, "How many he controls at once seems to be around twenty, at least that's the most I saw." James slowly lowered his hands. "Is this fine?" Chicken head looked down at the paper and wrote.
'What do you want?'
James felt his body relax, "Result Day. All I ask is that you target one of the Gentlemen's places. I don't care which. Just draw attention to yourself." It was wrong to ask something like that. He had seen what comes whenever the man attacks, the carnage for carnage's sake, but with his own life on the line and the fear of becoming whatever the Gentleman turned into people, he would choose it.
Chicken Head stared at James before looking at Danny. The gun on his head lowered, and James knew he had accepted. Chicken Head wrote one last time.
'No special requests?'
The blood in his body chilled. Remembering the scene from Secret Desire again, he closed his eyes and tried to picture what madness the man before him would create, wondering if he was hoping for some inspiration to make it worse. Some part of him wished to impose a limit to try and curb the bloodshed a little, but part of him knew there was no point.
Even if it was targeted, there was passion in his crimes, which was only found in the worst of killers. James took a deep breath and stared ahead with a hesitant gaze.
"No." Weakly, he said, "Just your usual work." Chicken Head nodded. The doors behind opened, and James slowly walked out, wondering if he was making the right choice. This wasn't like before; he couldn't wash his hands clean. He didn't have the luxury of saying that he didn't know if Chicken Head would act. Getting back into his car, he pulled a cigarette out and sat in silence, smoking.