Rangers Apprentice AU-Police Force

Episode 8 Part 3 The Other City

As Will and Horace hesitated, the gang recovered and one Will assumed was leader, stepped forward, eyeing them up and down. 

"An' what'ivver are a pair of toffs loik you doin in these parts?" He asked with the lilting accent. Irish, Will thought, getting a better look at the group. Behind the gang, the figure on the ground stirred and lowered his bruised and bleeding hands ever so slightly. The dark eyes gleamed beneath a dirty tangle of curly hair as the Italian waited for an opportunity of escape. Clenching his hands by his sides, Horace answered the street thug.

 "We might be asking what you're doing, instead." His voice was angry, and Will knew he had seen the size of the kid behind them. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

 The leader's face stretched into an arrogant grin as he cocked an eye at them. 

"Blimey. Loik your lil' friend 'ere?" He asked, nodding his capped head at Will. Heat flamed up Will's neck as the gang burst into mocking laughter, stepping closer. He took a deep breath, pulling his focus back to the situation. 

Don't get distracted, Halt's voice said in his head. 

Right. They were just a bunch of young boys  but they'd been in the school of the streets where life wasn't fair and honorable. They didn't care about anything except where their next meal came from, and how to get it. And while they were maybe thinner or smaller than Horace, Will doubted that they were ignorant in how best to fight. Rocking onto the balls of his feet he waited, eyes still on the Italian kid who hadn't missed any of the conversation.

The gang pressed closer. 

"I'm 'fraid you're goin t'have to pay the dues, lads," the leader sniffed, running a dirty sleeve across his face as his comrades flanked him. 

"Roger." Shucking his coat, Horace beckoned with a broad hand, his blue eyes gleaming. "Come on and take it, then. Unless you're scared, Mike."

 Will had never seen this side of Horace before, and it almost distracted him as much as the reporter had intended it to with the Irish kid. Angry at the taunt lack of fear in the two young men the one he had called "Mike" pointed his bat. 

"Take em', lads!" He yelled.

There was a thudding of feet on cobblestone as they advanced, and for a moment it was a blur of swings and feints as the group strove to move in close to the two young men who stood back to back. Dodging a wild swing from one freckle-faced member, Will caught the back of the bat and yanked, pulling the unsuspecting attacker off balance. He wasn't as big as Horace, but Will was every bit of wiry muscle and he had the gang member on the seat of his pants in the alley way, blinking with surprise. It left Will open however, and before he moved back one of the others cracked him across the ribs solidly.

The pain was excruciating, all breath knocked from his lungs as he dropped with a strangled gasp.

"Will!" 

Still on the ground, Will kicked out with his leg, sweeping the other guy off his feet. Horace flew past him with a battle cry, parting the wave of startled fighters, as with one fluid motion he caught up the kid from the corner and slung him across his shoulder like a sack of meal.

"Let's beat it!"

Still in possession of the bat, Will rose with an effort and used it like a staff, ramming the end into Mike's stomach then pivoting on his heel and catching the attacker from behind.

"I'm coming!"

Jumping over the gasping Mike he landed with a grunt as his ribs screamed in protest, then took to his heels after the longer-legged reporter who was running like he was quarter back heading to the goal. Will followed him for a block before he realized they were heading the wrong way. Putting on a burst of speed, his lungs bursting as he drew alongside of the other young man, he grabbed Horace by the arm and steered him down a side alley. Then a quick turn. Then another. 

Ever fainter the sounds of pursuit diminished, but it wasn't until Will saw familiar landmarks again that they slowed their pace. Halting behind a row of apartments, Horace set down the boy he'd been carrying with a grunt onto the fire escape.

 Bent double, Will watched the youngster uncurl himself and rise carefully, eyeing them both with suspicion and a glint of curiosity. He couldn't have been more than twelve, Will realized with shock. The shock of curly hair hung down untidily, his face thin, the shirt he wore patched several times over but tucked into a pair of trousers and secured with a rope. Horace seemed equally shocked.

 "Why, you're just a scrap." He said.

The Italian's eyes flamed. "I am no scrap! I am Alonzo, an' one of the best fighters in my gang!"

"Well, Alonzo," Will replied slowly. "How did you end up alone?"

The Italian's face became shuttered. "I was on a job, an' took a short cut. Only, I wander into the wrong territory." he spat in the dirt. "I had it under control."

It made sense. Gangs were territorial over their districts-immigrants stayed to their own sides for the most part and many times gangs would form and do battle against each other. Will found himself wondering just what the "mission." had been however, that required a young boy to travel such an area by himself.

 "I see," Horace said dryly. "I guess we didn't need to go to all that trouble then, did we Will. How are your ribs?"

 Will straightened, keeping his face averted from Horace and smiling down at the kid who was regarding him soberly now with his large eyes. "They're fine. Under control, right Alonzo?"

 Alonzo looked as if he didn't know whether Will was joking or serious. Standing, he brushed the dirt off his trousers as best as he could and extended a thin hand to Will. "I promise you, signori. I pay you back for doing this thing for Alonzo."

 He meant it, too. Will tampered down the urge to smile, taking the outstretched hand in his own. That completed, the boy did the same to Horace, who, after a pause, shook it. His own hand nearly smothered the boy's up to the wrist.

 "Now, I go." Jerking his head in a nod, Alonzo stepped off the rickety fire escape. 

"Don't you want us to walk you back?" Horace blurted, his eyes holding concern over the beating the small boy had taken. Proudly titling his head back, Alonzo regarded Horace with a look that was supposed to have been imposing. "I am fine. It takes more than a few toughs to take me, signori."

 Then he lowered his head a little and regarded them both. "Besides. Where I go,  is better you no go." His sharp glance flicked to Will. "You a cop, yes?"

 Startled, Will asked, "How did you-"

The Italian boy broke over his amazement with a cheerful grin. "I know. I Alonzo. Ciao, my friends."

 With a nimbleness that belied any soreness he still felt, the street kid took off, lost in the shadows once more. More slowly, Horace and Will made their way back to their side of town, both sobered by the events of the day. Will contemplated the life of Alonzo, and the other boys. It could have been them. Glancing up at Horace, he wondered how much of the real city was hidden in those little streets that were slowly being closed off by the bigger side of town; how many more Alonzo's were out there. It was prime territory for someone like Morgarath to rise, to become a leader promising better things. Like Capone. Like many of the others who paved their path with blood of the forgotten ones.

 "Will, you sure you're okay?" Horace broke over his dark thoughts with concern as he noticed the other's pace slow. 

 "Yeah." Will's brow furrowed as he thought. "I was just thinking. I don't believe we've seen the last of any of them."

Horace grunted softly. "I wouldn't mind meeting Mike again." He acknowledged, and Will grinned. Then as he caught sight of Horace's face, he sucked in his breath.

"The better question is, would he recognize you. Are you ok?" 

Pointing at the shiner he sported, Horace grinned lopsided. "Sure I am. Rodney will just think I ran into another fence while trying to get a story. I'm used to them," He laughed. 

They walked together in silence the rest of the way, each comfortable in each other's presence without talking. It made Will feel better. If they stuck together like this, he thought, then surely they would be able to do something about the rising threat in the shadows. Together they would see it through, just like before. He had to believe it, for Alonzo, and for himself.