Gentleman's Clockwork

Chapter 3

Frank's eyes darted around. It was too dark to make out where the bullet had come from. 

A pair of hooded figures stepped into the light ahead of them. 

On the left- a large hooded man, even under the hood his brutish physique was noticeable, and he was taller than Frank, which was quite the achievement.
Most strange were his arms, which were a sickly yellow color, and seemed to be covered in spikes ending at his hands or rather, his talons.
Lastly, he seemed to be carrying a car behind him.

On the right- the shorter man took off his hood. 
He wore no shirt underneath, and across his slim shoulder and chest was a tattoo of a dragon holding a runic symbol in its mouth. 
He spoke with the voice of a professional chainsmoker. 

“That was a warning shot. You can hand over the scientist with the Apriori Soul and this won't get ugly.” he pulled out a cigar and lit it up with a small silver lighter.

Ap-what? Scientist? 

Frank looked at the man slung over his shoulder. That would explain the honest look on his face. 

“What business do you have with this man?” asked Frank, gesturing with his head to the unconscious man on his shoulder.

The man with the tattoo chuckled. 

“Let's just say we've got a couple of questions to ask him.” The way he looked at the man made Reign feel that they weren't going to ask him to solve an equation in astrophysics for them.

He nudged Frank and whispered,
“Look, I know we kidnapped him, but I was of the idea that we were only taking part in a marital quarrel where he had it coming. I'm not so keen on just handing him off to a pair of thugs. Especially not when being threatened by gunfire.”

Frank agreed. But they were still backed into a corner.

Muskets took about 35 seconds to reload, that would mean they had about 25 seconds left before the hidden sniper would be able to fire again. 

“Any vials left?” he asked.

“Didn't think I'd need much more than the one for the train.” 

Frank nodded. Then made a quick scan of his surroundings, noting that the only source of light came from the one working lamppost. 

The two figures ahead of them were getting impatient. “Last chance.” Said the man with the dragon tattoo. 

Frank ignored him. “I need you to break the working lamp,” he said to Reign.

“How exactly?”

“I don't know, throw a pebble at it or something.” and with that Frank laid the unconscious man on the ground behind him and began undoing his pink tie as he walked towards the figures. 

“Alright. That should be simple enough” said Reign, and he began looking around the dim lot for a pebble.

The man with the tattoo grinned. “Great! It's been a seriously boring day.”
He tapped the big brute standing beside him. 
The brute gave an inhuman snarl as it heaved the car over its shoulder, and then with a heavy step it threw the car at Frank.

Frank put a hand over his shoulder and spoke:

“Frank. Father's strength.”

His muscles rippled and seemed sharper.

Frank ran straight at the car and cracked his tie like a whip. In an instant it turned into a long thick chain, at the end of which was a cube made of metal about half a meter in length. It fell to the ground with a heavy thud.