Danger Kid

Chapter 19

 (Previously, on Danger Kid! Having finished an underwhelming breakfast in a dingy café, Adam sees and old acquaintance, Frank! Chasing him through the streets of a city whose name has yet to be disclosed, he eventually catches the low life in an alleyway. After interrogating Frank for information about Tag, he promises to let Frank go. However, Adam is quite the tool! Will he keep his promise? What will become of Frank? Find out, now!)

The punch hits Frank with a meaty thwack. His vision fills with those strobing noodles, and his senses stop working as they should. Frank crumples to the ground, almost unconscious. He has just enough time to look up to see Adam ricocheting between buildings, escaping. Frank tries to move, but his vision clouds and he loses consciousness, lulled to sleep by the growing wine of sirens.

When he awakes, Frank's in the back seat of a Gauntlet hover car. Outside the window, he sees other cars, the road, and an expanse of waste land barren of any sort of life except for an occasional bit of brush. The wet sky is equally gloomy.

The highway signs that whiz by cue Frank in that they're on the way to Gauntlet Headquarters. Shoot. To make matters worse, Frank now notices the two Gauntlet agents sitting on either side of him.

"Oh, look, he's waking up," Says the one on his left, a rough, scarred and smelly agent who just finished picking his nose. The studs on his uniform show that he is from Combat department. He addresses Frank. "Morning sunshine. You smell like garbage, so we're taking you back to Gauntlet to get you cleaned up."

"And that's not all," says the one on the right. "You've got a buddy waiting for you at HQ. He'll be happy to share a warm cell with you."

"Screw you, pigs." Growls Frank.

"Tough words, scumbag, but you're the one who's screwed."

Frank's rage rises. Frank, unlike Gauntlet agents, has learned to welcome The Call. The Call is what has kept him alive. But even as The Call begins to roar inside his brain, he begins to think a bit more rationally. With more than a bit of effort, he slows The Calls growth, freezing it, and then smothering it.

The Gauntlet agents seem disappointed. They wanted to fight. They try a few more attempts to get a rise out of Frank.

Frank decides it would be better just to shut them out. Besides, he's tired. He eases back in his seat, not talking, closing his eyes.

"Oh look," Says the agent on the left. "He's pouting."

"He's got reason. He's about to spend the rest of his life in a deep, deep hole."

The two agents chuckle like a couple of red neck yuck-yucks from the movies.

However, they eventually choose now to leave Frank alone. They can see he won't respond to their antagonism. They begin talk to one another, gloating over the bad guys they put away, or whatever. Frank zones it out. He considers briefly the idea of escaping, trying to bust out the window and running. But he knows the penalty. Escaping from Gauntlet custody, as a Deviant, usually merits the death penalty upon recapture. There's no way, really, to confine a force as powerful as a deviant, so the only thing that can hold a miscreant such as himself captive is the threat of no second chances.

He can't think much longer. Frank is tired to the point where thinking is difficult. Weariness creeps out from the darkness of his mind, pulling him down.

The last year had been hell. Jumping around from gang to gang, picking up what little cash he could find. Trying not to be captured by Gauntlet...

He thought back to when he worked for Tag. The man was strange, sickeningly friendly. Like one of those guys who knocks on your door asking to share a holy book, he was far too interested in your personal welfare. He always smiled, and looked deep into your eyes. The most irritating was how he always insisted you were his family.