Adventures of The Red Bee

Chapter 3: "Boss" Storm

With his work building having been decimated by the fire, Richard and the rest of his co-workers needed to work in a small brick building on the outskirts of the city. They found more than half of their official files to be gone, which meant they needed to make up for a lot of work.

"Wow," Tom said while investigating a fraud case, "I haven't worked this hard since the attempted bombing on the Downey Building last year."

"Yeah," Richard replied, "and we need to investigate the fire that happened in our old building, too."

"Right," Tom said, "the arson case. Yeah, the police have looked over the remains of the building, but all they found is a part of his suit that must've gotten torn off by a branch or something while he was leaving the building."

"Do you have a picture?," Richard asked excitedly, thinking maybe he could use that image to somehow find the man.

"No," Tom said disappointedly, "they said they had to withhold any evidence until further notice."

"That's stupid!" Richard exclaimed. How was he going to find the flamethrower man now?

"It is," Tom said, "but we can't argue with them. They're still looking at everything they've found."

"Right," Richard said, thinking about what he could do. "Do you have any suspicions on who this fire guy is?"

"Well," Tom said, "I think he was probably hired by someone with a criminal record the person didn't want anyone to see."

"But the national government has records of all crimes. Why would he attack our district specifically?" Richard replied.

"Maybe he's running for office in the city government," Tom said, "and doesn't want anyone here to remind people of his record. The national government has bigger problems than small time corruption, so he could probably get elected if people in his district didn't know about his crimes."

This sparked a thought in Richard's head. One of the candidates for mayor that year, Timothy Storm, was starting to gain traction with the voters. However, Richard remembered his name in one of the files for money laundering. He was bailed out of prison by one of his followers a week after getting arrested. If this information went out to the general public, his political career would be ruined. Richard looked at Tom. He considered telling Tom what he thought, but if he did, he knew Tom would begin a slow investigation process instead of going straight after Storm, which was not what Richard wanted. He wanted swift justice.

"Interesting," Richard replied, placing his hand on his chin and pretending to wonder about what Tom said.

When he got home from work that day, Richard put on his costume and placed Michael in the secret compartment in his belt.

"It's go time," Richard told himself, exiting his home.

He got into his car and drove to Superior City's capitol building, where Storm was to give a speech. He stayed in his car for the entirety of Storm's speech. Then, he saw him come out of the building. He had grey, straight hair, and he was wearing a formal suit. Richard also saw he had a grey mustache. His bodyguards were large and bulky, and they entered a stretch limousine with him. The limousine started to drive. When it was around twenty meters away, Richard began to follow it.

Richard knew he was stalking a suspect he didn't know was guilty, but he needed to see if Storm was truly responsible for the fire. He drove slowly, being careful not to tailgate Storm's limousine. At first, the drive took Richard through the wealthy downtown area. After ten minutes of driving, the buildings began to get smaller and smaller. They were entering the uptown area of Superior City.

At that point, the limo started to take many twists and turns. They must have been trying to shake him off their trail. However, Richard was still behind them, determined not to lose them.

The limo finally stopped in front of a building that was strangely large for Uptown Superior City. It was made of bricks, and looked relatively new. Richard saw Storm leave his car with his body guards, and they entered the building. 

Parking his car a few meters behind the limousine, Richard took his bee jar and pollen jar and exited the car. When he observed the entrance to what he assumed was Storm's lair, he saw it was guarded by two of Storm's guards. Now that he had the chance to look at them standing still, he saw they were wearing suits similar to the suits gangsters would wear in TV shows. What an odd wardrobe choice. Almost as if Storm had something to do with the mob.

Richard sneaked towards the guards. Unfortunately, they saw him in his bright red costume, and they both took out pistols to shoot him. He ran towards one of the guards and punched him in the face, knocking him out. The other guard tried to shoot Richard, but the bullet missed, allowing Richard to kick the guard into the wall, knocking him out as well. 

Richard checked the pockets of the two men, finding a key in one of them. Then, he used the key to open the door, and he entered Storm's lair.

Now, Richard needed a way to find Storm without getting caught. As he looked around the room, he saw a ladder in the corner. It led to a wooden beam that supported the ceiling, and it was large enough and low enough to allow him to walk on it. Being on the beam should give him enough distance from the ground for no one to notice him. He ran to the ladder and climbed up, getting on the beam. Almost directly after he got on, he saw a man coming out of a room. The man proceeded to enter another room. Richard wondered what was inside. Looking around, he saw there was another beam going through the wall that went into the other room. Above the beam was a hole large enough for him to crawl through. 

He carefully crawled towards the opening, making sure not to make a sound. When he managed to get through, he heard the voices of a few men in conversation. Richard looked down, and he saw three men. One was sitting behind a desk while the other two were in front of him, talking about something. As Richard got closer, he saw the face of the man behind the desk. It was Timothy Storm. The voices of the other men began to grow more audible. 

"Boss," said one of them, "what're we gonna do next?"

"Yeah," said another, "the burning was successful, and it's looking like your run for mayor will be successful too."

"Trust me," Storm said, "after I'm elected mayor, all of our future endeavors will become much easier."

Out of anger, Richard jumped off the beam and onto the ground. Now, justice would be served.

Storm looked at Richard in confusion. "So you're the bee man?" he asked, slowly standing up from his desk. "I'm guessing you want to stop me from becoming mayor?"

"First of all," Richard replied, walking towards Storm, "my name is the Red Bee. Second of all, I know you burned down the city's law building, 'Boss' Storm."

"Well then," Storm said, "I'm afraid I can't let you leave with that information. Capture him, men. I want him alive, and I want him to experience a slow, fiery death."

The henchmen both took out tranquilizer guns, and they shot at Richard. However, he avoided the shots and ran towards one of the men. Before the man could react, Richard punched him in the stomach, which caused the man to fall on the ground in pain. The other man fired another shot, but he missed, allowing Richard to run towards him as well. When Richard tried punching him in the face, the man moved out of the way and grabbed Richard by the neck.

To escape his clutches, Richard elbowed the man in the chest, which caused him to let go of Richard. The man took a step back in pain. Richard stared at him for a moment, and then decided he wanted to punch the man in the face to knock him out. Before he could make that decision, the man lunged toward him and punched Richard directly in the nose, causing it to bleed. After that, Richard felt a needle dig into his skin, and everything went dark.