The woman on the phone got Bonnie’s number and a lay of the current situation, which was about what Lisa already knew. Except she might have a few people to set up tables and booths. Lisa, being enterprising, was setting up to give away free soda and lemonade. She needed people to run that, of course.
When Jim came back, the elf looking girl, who was even shorter than Santos, got out carrying four large bags of food. The larger boy had three. His were rather fuller but it was an even sharing of the load. The tiny girl was working to do her part, it looked like.
When they walked over, Bonnie, who handed the now turned off phone back, waved at them.
“Ava, Jim… We’ve got jobs? I mean, paying things? The mages are setting up a drink booth for the picnic. One day but we get two hundred dollars each for it. If you want in? We can get another person even.”
Ava, the tiny one, seemed baffled by the news. Jim just smiled.
“That sounds good. I don’t have anything lined up that way. Work wise. I’m trying to get on out at the groves for grounds keeping but no one got back with me yet.”
That was the mini forest on the edge of the city. The whole thing was owned by one person. Darlene Gibson. At least Troy suspected that The Technician used that name for things like that. He didn’t mention that part. You put in for work and got it or not. The kid would have to prove out before Troy was going to try and get things like that going for him. It wasn’t bad money for a day’s work.
Ava stared at her friend.
“Does everyone know? I swear…”
Troy shook his head then, with Santos and Denise looking on, a bit confused seeming. They were both a bit too bright not to work out what was going on when the girl said something that obvious. Morgan, standing fifty feet away, listening to the others talk probably had it as well. Then, he’d heard what Troy had said to Lisa, most likely.
The kids, those who were eating, mainly sat on the grass. It was still daylight out. The others joined them, mainly to steal fries and sips of drinks. It was a disease vector but several of them helped Morgan, even if he was kind of freaky looking at the moment. The packaging had to be taken off for him. Wrappers and things like that. The drink cup needed to be held as well, though he could stuff things into his pointed face well enough.
That went on for a while. Before they were finishing but only just before that, a news truck pulled up. This one said it was for channel nine. Troy didn't watch enough television to know if the woman who came over, dressed like a republican house member, in a cheap looking heavy skirt and ill-fitting jacket, was anyone famous or not. He didn’t recognize her but then, he wouldn’t.
They started out by getting footage of the bat in their midst, of course. Then they turned around as several cars pulled in. The young men that got out weren’t high school students. They were, instead, generally fit looking. They had short hair and an odd air about them. Like they weren’t all there, mentally.
It was Ava, who had been asking if people knew about them, in a way that suggested that Bonnie had ratted her out, who spoke then.
“Spelled. They’re under compulsions. I can… The residue.” She pointed, which was mainly for her friend, he didn't doubt.
It really was there though. A very soft silver halo around each of them. When he bothered to notice, the camera crew and the newscaster had that as well. Which explained why they hadn’t asked questions at all. They probably couldn’t at the moment.
He nodded.
“I see it. Okay, we have a problem here. We need to take these guys down without hurting them. Watch the news crew, they might be in on it. They’re all under mind control. Kids, I want you to walk past me, Detective Tran and Officer Santos. Then run, as soon as you can. Morgan…” The waddling walk wasn’t going to be enough, if he was the target. Which, of course he was. The cameras were focusing there again already. “We need to protect Morgan while he’s on the ground.”
That got two of the guys to each grab and arm and pick him up, scurrying with him. The other kids did something similar, even if they weren’t encumbered at the moment. It actually worked in time, leaving Troy between the children and the spelled adult men. There were only six of them, so he could stop them if needed. The issue there was making sure they all lived, since they were probably innocent enough. They had sticks. The handles of things and in one case a baseball bat.
As the men came up, Santos pulled her side arm, and got ready to yell at them. It was a bad plan though. Compelled people didn't have a choice in what they were doing but could be easy to set off or confuse.
“Easy there. Soft voices. They aren’t themselves. Let me get the weapons first. Then we might have to hold them down. I don’t suppose anyone knows a local mage that might be able to take this kind of thing off of them?” He winced but nodded. “I do, actually. Um… Bonnie, take my phone and call from a distance. Leslie Hampton. She’ll know who to talk to at least. It’s on the list.”
That was nearly evil of him to suggest, given the boy in her care had died the day before. So had her sister. She’d been one of the bad guys but that didn't mean she loved her any less. There were more in the area than that but Troy didn't have any other mage contacts at the moment. It was a problem but they’d probably deal. If Leslie answered at all.
Getting the sticks took skill. A lot of it. He could, if he was willing to face enough pain, move in so fast that the men couldn’t resist him at all. Just taking the weapons would break bones in their hands at those speeds, though. Possibly arms. It meant that he had to move at a speed that was nearly insane for him, which felt worse than it normally did by a lot and then take what seemed like a long time for each tool. Going a bit at a time, so that joints and bones didn’t pop. No more than they needed to, at least.
Even trying his best there were some worrying crunches made. Then he dropped the armload of weapons beyond where the kids were running off, behind him. Morgan was just trying to get airborne again.
Interestingly, instead of fleeing, two of the boys had stayed. Jim had wisely run off with the main pack. These guys weren’t big or anything but seemed game enough to take their chances in a fight. Against six armed adults. Now unarmed, so the odds were improving already.
Rather than telling them to take off, Troy grinned, his eyes flashing red and fangs dropping, as he returned to normal speed.
“We need to take them down without hurting them. I have no clue how well they can fight like this. If we can control them, I can try to use compulsion of my own on them. That will only work one on one.” Maybe two at a time but there was no way he was doing six at once, on the fly.
Looking at the whole thing, he nodded, then pulled his handcuffs and tossed them to Tran.
“I’ll go in first. Try to get them to go for me. Then you and these two here will try to pull them off one at a time. Santos, stand back. If any start to get away, shoot them in the leg. If that doesn’t work, then let me know. I’d rather avoid that though. Everyone ready?”
“Yep.” That came from the smaller of the two guys. He looked pretty hard. Lean, like an athlete of some kind. “When we get the word, I’ll do the takedown. Gabe, you try to grab and hold an arm behind their back. For the cuffs. The goal is to not hurt them. Got it.”
That sounded about right. So, realizing he was about to be fired, for a real reason, Troy moved in and got the spelled men to come for him, by pretending to grab at them. They hit, kicked, bit and two of them tried to move past him. Santos called to the others.
“Get the left one!” That was the main breakaway after all. The others were far more willing to go for him. They didn't manage to hurt him but it was playing merry havoc with his nice suit.
Reaching out he pulled one of them back in by the ankle as he tried to leave on the far side. The beating didn’t stop, for a long while. One by one though, Tran and the guys subdued the compelled men. One at a time. The larger boy actually stepped in at one point and took several serious punches to the head. Not doing it back at all
. That let the smaller one, the brown-haired kid, wrestle that fellow’s legs together and topple him.
In all, it took about five minutes for six grown men. Ones who, at a guess, were from the military base about fifty miles away. Probably on leave or vacation, since having them drive that distance under mind control, while possible, would have taken far too long. It had only been three hours or so since the assembly.
When they were done, all of them except Santos looking a little rough, several squad cars showed up. So did the Chief, which was interesting. Roy Benson looked at the men on the ground and shook his head. The film crew was still getting it all down. The kids that had run off started to come back, on their own.
“Damn. I was hoping we wouldn’t have anything like this with the kids. I guess we aren’t ready for this kind of thing.” The Chief sounded actually sad about it.
Tran smiled though, for the cameras.
“Nope. You’d think, given this but not at all. Lopez worked out that they had spells on them. Probably mages in control of them. Given that our community here are law abiding folks, I have to guess this is related to the thing yesterday. It probably wasn’t even about bigotry, just good old-fashioned revenge. That or they got their panties in a bunch.”
The man stopped for a bit, then eventually smiled.
“Well, in that case, congratulations. Now, I think someone needs to explain all of this to me? I hate to say it but I think I’m a bit lost.”
Chapter four
Rather than fire Troy in public, which he probably deserved, the Chief commended the young men and got their names. That way they could be given a more public thanks, later. Then they had to prevent the news crew from escaping. Roy Benson got the idea that they weren’t in their right minds, so had them held as material witnesses. As if that made any legal sense at all.
Any lawyer worth their salt would have had them walking free inside ten minutes. Luckily, they were too controlled for that at the moment. From what Troy was getting listening to them, they only had one goal.
“We need to get those men on video, attacking and killing the bat shifter, please. It’s very important.” The female reporter, who wasn’t that old looking, seemed willing enough to grab Morgan and pull him over to the pile of men to make that happen. There was no attempt to free the men’s hands however.
Now they, the short haired men on the ground, who were indeed all in the military, according to their I.D. struggled a lot, trying to get at the boy. The bat at the moment. Showing a lot of personal strength, he transformed back. It had only been a few hours, which was kind of hard to do. Troy knew that, since the first thing Morgan said confirmed it.
“Man. That sucks.” He was very out of breath, as well as nude and a pale white color. His red hair was all over his body. “It’s like running twenty miles.”
Not that Troy was staring. He didn’t really care. Denise was doing that and Santos peeked over a few times. One of the other kids, Jim, went and got his clothing from a pile, so that the shifter could stop breaking the law, being nude in public.
None of the police tried to push that one.
What they all did was stand there, waiting. Not knowing what was going on at all. Bonnie, his new mage buddy, got him his phone back however.
“Leslie and Nevi are coming. It will be a few more minutes. Sorry. I shouldn’t have run away like that. I could have helped.”
Sean, the smaller guy that had stayed to help, just shrugged that off.
“We had it. No big thing. Now, I didn’t really get the whole thing earlier. These guys have had magic used on them? Like for real? Not drugs, or… For a game?” There was a bit of struggling to understand inside, it seemed.
Moving in a bit, putting his phone back in a slightly torn pocket, he nodded.
“That’s what it seems like. Some good mages are coming. This could be an attack, so we need to hold them until we can break it. That or it wears off. That could be a while, I think. So, I asked Bonnie to call in some friends of mine.”
They pulled up, a few minutes later. The women both seem determined, for some reason. Not ruined by what had happened the day before. When they walked over, Leslie moved in and gave Bonnie a hug. Which was a mistake, if they weren’t supposed to know each other. That was a big problem that was going to be part of life for a while. Some people were, like it or not, going to be known to the public.
Some, like the girls there, weren’t.
Being too closely associated with a given group, like the mages, would kind of indicate belonging, after a while. So, even if it was inappropriate, he moved in himself and opened his arms, so that the lady could hug him as well. That actually worked. Nevi, the older woman did it too. She gave a hug to Chief Benson as well, and then Jim. Just to throw things off.
Leslie looked at the men on the ground, then the huddled mass of news crew. There were ten people in all.
“That’s not good. We’ll need to break this. For each of them. I… Can we call in help? Marks is our best local mage for things like this. For almost anything, to be honest.”
Troy had heard about the man, from the mage leadership. The old leader at least. Brad Hartley. The fellow didn’t really think that highly of his skills. At least when they were covering up who might be guilty of crimes, with the police. He could see that. Brad had suggested that Marks was kind of a medium level talent. This sounded different than that.
“Sure. We’d appreciate the help, if he’ll come. I can’t break this, I don’t think.”
Not using vampire compulsion. The operating mechanism was just too different. He got that part after the slightly heavy man came out. Marks was his first name, it turned out. Everyone just called him that, it seemed. The only bad thing was that he was Ava’s uncle, which was mentioned publicly.
The girl looked a bit upset, or like she was planning to be but Troy just got her attention and shook his head. Throwing a fit would get a lot more attention than a few words would. People might suspect her now but making a big deal of it would be the same as announcing it to all her school pals.
Marks still had to do some real work to take the spells down. The way he did it was very careful, starting at the end of the instruction set and unwinding it slowly. He muttered, almost giving a lesson, as he did it, the first few times. Leslie and Bonnie were both paying attention, with Ava pretending she wasn’t so hard it was nearly cute.
On the third one, the man took a deep breath.
“So, you got that? Ready to try it?”
He started to turn, as if he were going to get Leslie to do it. She looked a little worried. She was older than the girls but still young enough to not seem out of place. In her mid-to-late twenties at a guess. Unless she did a lot of healing work.
Troy moved in then and smiled.
“I’ll do this one, then Leslie can catch the next, if I don’t mess it up?” He’d need a lot of energy to flow but instead of acting like that didn’t make any sense, Marks just reached out and patted him on the shoulder.
“Good man. Go carefully. I’m right here to catch, if you start to slip.”
Troy didn’t, though he was a lot slower than the man had been. Leslie was faster but her concentration wavered more. The man did the next two himself. Then Troy and Leslie each did one on their own. With the fellow standing back, not hovering at all. That left two more. Bonnie walked over and shook her head.
“I’m tired of hiding what I am. I need to know how to do this.”
It had to be a poor idea but no one acted shocked. She was both sloppy and slower. Marks seemed incredibly pleased with her efforts. Ava did the last one… She…
Actually, wasn’t bad. There was no attempt to show her what to do, either. She just walked up to the news lady, touched her hand and took the whole thing apart as if she were an old pro at doing it. The work was fairly complex. Her uncle smiled at her, then looked at the others there.
Interestingly, no one was paying that much attention. Even the kids seem to get the idea
. They’d seen things that day, some of them weren’t supposed to be news to the rest of the world.
The attackers all agreed that they had no clue what was going on at all. Once their heads cleared a bit.
One of them, who had been the one that had beaten up Gabe a bit, explained what had taken place.
“We were hanging out. Eating tacos. There’s a decent place in town here. El Casa. The next thing I knew I was piling in the cars with the others, holding a stick that I’d picked up. I just knew that I had to kill the bat kid. That one.” He shook his head. “I have no clue who he is. We’ve never met. I just got up and… It was there. It was like watching myself move from a distance. I couldn’t control it at all. I wanted to stop. Nothing I did changed anything at all.”
Marks, who was dressed in a blue button up the front shirt and had a large silver belt buckle to hold up his jeans, came forward then.
“I can vouch for that. They weren’t responsible for their actions. It was strong work, too. Some kind of ceremonial thing. Except…” he looked around, the idea that he was openly talking to the police about magic probably hitting him, Troy guessed.
He had a point, however.
“Except that there wasn’t a lot of time to plot that out, was there? So, it was probably a group but also done right there. I wonder if we can get any vid from the area? El Casa? Anyone want anything? I’ll go and check on that.” Troy stopped then. He snapped his fingers. “Wait. Maybe one of the other officers can go and look at that. I just forgot. I’m about to be fired. At least screamed at.”
Tran got it, and nodded.
“I know. We should have kept the boys out of it. They did great work but we shouldn’t have let them be involved. Do you need our resignation, Chief?” She glanced at the man, her eyes oddly somber.
The offer got a considering head tilt.
“Keep that open? This was a strange situation. Still if the lawsuit looks too bad, we might have to deal with their parents.”
Hell, In a Troy (Lopez Time Book 2) Page 5