Villains Club Training Camp (5)

Manor

Garfield

No, I did not run halfway across the city! That would have been stupid! we did get as much distance as we could while my riders used their respective phones.

"I got it!" Reviled yelped, with some information from Marca he'd pulled up cameras from her family's mansion. If you could call it that, the house was certainly in the middle of its own lot on the outskirts of LA. but the building looked run down. "Looks like a lot of stuff is on fire! I'm not seeing anybody!"

Marcia was trying phone numbers using Reviled's phones, calling and messaging number after number and getting no results.

"Okay Coocoo!" Ray called out, and his phone responded with a polite chime sound from Marcia's hand. "Call Crock!"

"Hey! I was about too, who's Crock!" The phone started ringing. "It's what I put my mother under. We cannot ride Changeling all the way to our house!"

"Oh thank God!" I yelled, the act of pushing myself, then healing the injuries was almost as tiring as the running itself.

After a moment Ray's mother answered, on speaker as Ray called out "MUM! I Need you, and the Car to meet me! Shit's going down and bring your old gear!"

To the credit of Ray's mother, there was no hesitation in her voice. Just a slight pause as she told Ray, "Your grandfather is here, I'll get him to lift and drive. Where at?"

Ray shook his head, then angrily jabbed his phone and read out an address, using a map to pick a place between us and the target.

After they hung up, Ray instructed Marcia to swap phones, letting the girl look at the camera footage while he brought up the Ping App, and pinged Claire's phone.

"As I feared, her phone is at your house. Either she went with the driver for some reason, or someone took her there. Hope it's the first!"

I beat hooves towards the check-point.

Marcia stared confused at the pictures, but spoke to Ray calmly. "Why are you bringing me with?"

The silence from my back stretched as I ran before Ray growled, then groaned. "Aaar, it's Stupid! There was actually a time when I did think you were awesome!"

"WHAT!"

"I mean, Miss A was awesome! Before I knew the mean bully girl at our school with Miss A! You were something to look up to, only a couple years older than us. Already a side-kick! Taking down street level crime with the Original!" He lapsed into wistful silence. "You were awesome and I would have given anything to know you. Now, I'm just kinda embarrassed cause of how much you picked on me before I got powers!"

I filled in with something to help my embarrassed friend; "The guys they were sending after the Original aren't known for being nice. Claire was worried for you. So she, Ray and I agreed we should keep you out of the fight. We wouldn't want Jagged Bone happening to you."

"Jagged Bone? The bone dancer? He's in the group!" Miss A had lost her snarky voice, thinking calculated. "They say he can puppet bones! But only one person at a time! I know what the attackers did, he probably grabbed the Original's best people, and forced them to attack him."

As we pulled in towards where Ray's mother and grand-father waited Miss A sadly stated. "They would have made him kill all the Manor's staff!"

We swapped out for a car with the old man and middle-aged women in the front seats. I went back to panther, taking the middle seat between the two martial artists. The man looked ancient, coughed a lot but wore armor that resembled a mix of sports gear. In the car with us were crossbows, baseball bats, and a small grenade launcher. The mother occupied the passenger seat in the front, and a walker stuck out the back of the truck's boot as we roared down the highway. One of those ones with wheels that you push along in front of you.

"This is Sportsmaster and Artemis!" Is all Ray said about them. None of us mentioned that Artemis had a cast on her leg and a back brace. Everyone was serious as we rushed to the Manor, and Artemis remained with the car, although not in it as the Sports-Master loaded us up with the improvised weapons.

"You ready Kids? Girl, I get you'r here for your mentor but remember that's not our goal." The grandfather spoke, "We're here to protect our own."

"I understand, just stay out of my way!" As Miss A marched off, crossbow in hand and a baseball bat, amongst other things on the ready.

Ray actually rebuffed that, "It's Better not to go one on one, these are professional villains. Some of the best. I won't stop you fighting them but I am coming with you. Garfield, go with my Grandfather, find Claire."

"And prepare for the worst!" We agreed.

The Manor was already a burning mess, and I tried not to look at the bodies in some of the rooms I passed. I had a super bad feeling that Jagged Bone, while perhaps not kidnapping Claire for his own reasons, was using her "I'm too cute, you can't hurt me, you have to love me instead" aura as a weapon.

Armed with a sword or gun, she could have been made to face these people, and with her aura all the way up not one of them could have harmed her. That was rather the point. The old man stalked alongside me just a green panther and rejected sports star stalking through a battle zone.

When we stumbled across bleeding but living wait staff, an older man and some cut up maids. Sportsmaster went to ignore them, instead I checked them, saying; "We're not the backup you want, but you're not alone now. If you can make it to the road, ambulances have been called, police have been called and there's someone out there with a first aid kit!"

That had been my insistence in the car ride. They wouldn't be there yet, but they would be soon.

I let Sportsmaster stalk ahead, escorting the survivors outside, sure enough Artemis was talking to police officers who'd already arrived, with yelled conversations of "Where are the Heroes! You said you're here to help, but you're definitely not licensed!"

I abandoned that as a pointless conversation and slinked back in at a run, trying to catch up with the old man.

When I found him, it was in the middle of a stalemate.

More or less as feared, most of the villains who assaulted the Manor were injured, the short dude with the hair and mustache lay on the ground with weird coloured skin and singes all over him.

The stand-off was between The Original, a sorcerer who currently floated in the air, dodging attacks. A marksman, who had apparently shot up the whole building before switching to a sword. And E-Claire, who danced like a puppet on strings, cutting and slicing mercilessly at Marcia's guardian.

But Where was Jagged Bone?