“The coaches are requesting the college forfeit the rest of the season,” Stan added. “We’ll concentrate on our studies. Text us all when you’re ready, Mikey.”
“Count on it. Goodnight.”
Joanie, Denny, Nazer, and Sandy carried out their more romantic farewells until Baby Groot needed to leap around from one couple to the next. They broke apart reluctantly. Joanie rode home with Sandy.
“Not cool, twig,” Nazer complained.
After the others left, Mike sat beside Denny, who had adjourned to the kitchen. He worked on his satellite laptop while Loretta watched. “Are you checking in on the Masjid?”
“Yep. They’re having a service, or an Imam call for jihad, or plotting a jihad would be my guess.”
“You’ll be on line with us, Den. Keep track of the numbers. I’ll send Mongo in first to scope out the situation. I’ll stream the remote viewing to you. This all hinges on whether I crash with Demon.”
“I heard that, you wanker,” Demon retorted. “I’m not buying it. You have more power and control than I’ve ever seen you with. Frodo knows what to do. I say we hit this place now while you practice flying. These people painted a target on us. We can’t just wait around until they start strapping bombs on their kids to get us, like they do in the Middle East.”
“Agreed. Are you ready, Mongo?”
“Can I rage through this Masjid as Baby Groot after I learn what they have stockpiled, and if the leaders are there?”
Mike grinned. “I think we can work that out, but I’ll need a remote viewing to be sure. We can’t assault everyone in the place. This will be a great practice run for me, especially carrying D. Baby Groot charging around inside seems like the perfect return visit. Who would they call to complain? The police arrive, sirens blaring, guns drawn, and the people run out screaming they’re being attacked by a creature from ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 2’.”
“This could be the video of the year for us,” Denny said.
“You guys are mental,” Loretta stated. “I like your plan though. I’ll be here when you get back, Mike.”
“Okay, but let Denny pour you another dose of the mix.”
“Agreed. It won’t matter.”
“It will to me.” Mike led the way outside after putting on his heavy all-weather coat with hood, ski mask, and gloves.
“You’d better let Mongo carry me, Ripper. Concentrate on your flying. If something goofy happens, Mongo can hang on to me, and save you from a fall. He can pass me over to you when we reach the Masjid.”
“Good plan,” Mike replied. “You don’t need to go at all, D. Are you sure you want to?”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world. When Mongo tears around the inside as Baby Groot, they’ll run screaming in all directions.”
“Here we go. Any advice, Mongo?”
“Slow assent as you did in our building. Stay on my six, El Capitan.” Mongo picked Demon up easily and rose into the air effortlessly.
Mike concentrated on following Mongo, thinking through the weight of his body, while lightening and using the tendrils of darkness to propel him onward.
* * *
Denny, Nazer, and Loretta watched the assent in silence. Their friends disappeared into the night.
“That was very weird. I forgot Mongo needed to change into a Haunt for flying.”
“He doesn’t have to. Sometimes, he flies around as Super Mongo. You will eventually get used to the weirdness,” Nazer assured Loretta.
“What you won’t get used to are the Demon/Mongo pranks. Mongo can be anywhere without you knowing it. He spies on the rest of us for D,” Denny explained. “They constantly do setups like they did on your first overnighter. The only way you’re safe is if Mike shields you.”
“Maybe I could ask Mongo and D not to bother me.”
Nazer glanced at Denny with a big smile. “Good luck with that.”
“Ah… let’s get into position for recording and watching,” Denny suggested. He led the way inside. “If Mongo and D know they can bother you, they’ll turn your world inside out. It would be better to show no reaction at all. They feed on emotional responses.”
“Why are the inmates allowed to run the asylum,” Loretta asked.
“This isn’t an asylum. It’s a zoo, and they’re the zookeepers,” Denny answered.
“Oh…”
* * *
Mike and Mongo hovered a hundred feet above the Masjid. “This is incredible. I’m wearing my long-johns next flight.”
“You did good, El Capitan.” Mongo transferred Demon to Mike. “Engage remote viewing. I am going in.”
Mike closed his eyes, connecting his entire network at Demon Inc to Mongo’s viewing.
“I’m getting the view, Ripper,” Demon said. “How about you and Naz… Frodo?”
“Clear viewing,” Denny answered. “I’m recording.”
“Go for it, Mongo,” Mike said. “Check every area, but don’t let them see you. We’re interested in safes, weapons, laptops, and computer hard drives. You know the faces of the leaders. If Gashi and his thugs are there, we’ll follow them after Baby Groot rips the place apart.”
“On my way.” Mongo dove straight down through the roof, slowing the moment he cleared the ceiling, turning nearly translucent.
Mongo moved through the large house, recording the people meeting there, making sure he attained full facial views of each one. Gashi, his men, and Imam Sousa spoke together in a conference room setting. Mongo found the weapons catch under the back bedroom’s false flooring. He locked the door of the bedroom, turned on the lights, uncovered the access panel and lifted it out of the way. Moving down the stairwell, Mongo found a light switch. He heard his friends gasp at the variety of automatic weapons, rocket launchers, and even readymade anti-personnel mines.
“Cover it up, brother. We need another plan,” Mike told him. “Call Alisha, Denny. Send her the recording without Mongo’s flight through the roof. Keep her on a live stream while Mongo records where the computers and safes are. Cut her off when Baby Groot runs wild. Tell her we found a way to get the terrorists to vacate their Masjid and call for help. Let me know if Alisha can move on this and how much time she needs. She can list Mongo as a confidential informant if a warrant is needed.”
“Will do, Mike.”
Mongo unlocked the bedroom after covering the arsenal under the floor. He then located a standing safe, inside a computer room with many monitors and stations. “I will wait for your word, El Capitan.”
“We’ll wait until the FBI can get a warrant, and assault the Masjid. With the recording we have, Alisha shouldn’t have any problem with a warrant.”
Five minutes later, Denny reported an FBI assault force on its way with Alisha and Manny leading the operation. “Alisha’s excited. They had Sousa on a terrorist watch list, because of his travels to Syria, Iran, and Libya. ETA for the team is thirty-five minutes.”
“Outstanding. Baby Groot can go wild for ten terrifying minutes. Don’t let anyone out, Mongo, and guard the bedroom with the arsenal, along with the computer room. I don’t want any casualties amongst the FBI, so rake any hands with weapons.”
“I am Groot!”
Ten minutes before the FBI were due to arrive, Mike told Mongo to begin. Out of the computer room charged Baby Groot, tearing through the screaming people, his combat face twisted into a mask of rage, limbs stretching to trip people and smash down men with weapons. He circled them, beating down any who tried to get into the guarded rooms or escape the building. His battle cries and intermittent calls of ‘I am Groot’ as he ran, leaped, and pranced, caused raucous amusement on the network. The Demon Inc crew’s hilarity nearly made them late getting Mongo to open the front door and escape through the ceiling to join Mike and Demon. With a final ‘I am Groot’, Mongo changed into full Haunt and fled through the roof.
“Oh…oh my God… that was the best,” Mike said. “Sneak back in and make sure the FBI finds everything, brother.”
Mongo saluted, and dive bombed the building again.
Mike and his network listened to the people inside trying to convince the FBI agents Baby Groot from ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 2’ attacked them. For added entertainment, they imitated Mongo’s charging attack, musical dance steps, and yells.
He emerged ten minutes later. “They have uncovered everything. It appears Alisha and Manny want all the people there to be detained or arrested. They have Sousa in handcuffs, along with Gashi and his three stooges. I believe we can leave now.”
“Yep. Let’s go home.”
Nazer, Denny, and Loretta met them at the door. They hugged Mongo.
“Everyone called in,” Denny told them. “Jerry told me he thought he’d need to do CPR on Janis. She laughed so hard she couldn’t catch her breath and nearly passed out. Little Mike was still up. He saw Mongo tearing around the Masjid and said ‘Groot’ over and over while pointing.”
“We have other news too, Mike,” Nazer said. “Steve called already on the overnighter in the ruins. Lucifer picked tomorrow night. We are to be in place at 10 pm. He considers 7 am as our night completed. Mongo and I will do Denny’s equipment checklist and load the van, with D supervising. He will spot anything we miss.”
“I like it. This will be a good payday. We’ll handle Lucifer’s plot and give SyFy a video for Halloween.”
“I think we earned a couple of shots and beer while we watch Mongo’s attack on the Masjid.”
“Agreed,” Mike replied. “No more than that with tomorrow’s action planned, D.”
“I know. I’m too pumped to sleep after the Baby Groot wipeout at the Masjid,” Demon replied. “It’s only a little before ten now. Loretta can wait a few more moments before jumping your bones.”
Loretta shamed Demon while blushing furiously. “Bad Bluto!”
* * *
Loretta moved over Mike with breathless abandon, suddenly stopping with a gasp. “You…you remembered the shield, right Mike?”
Mike cupped her face with his hands. “Yes. My paranormal brothers will need to seek entertainment elsewhere.”
“Oh… God… Mike!”
* * *
“Did I get it, Denny?”
Denny shook his head and took off the headset. “Yeah… the audio is clear. Mike will snap my neck for helping you two jerks with this.”
“We only have audio, Frodo. Grow a pair,” Demon told him. “Go to bed. Mongo will take over the headset until our lovebirds finish.”
Denny and Nazer left for their rooms with Nazer putting a comforting hand on Denny’s shoulder. “I will tell Mike it was pure extortion, Den.”
“Thanks, Naz. I will never go in my room with Joanie again without using my bug detector first.”
Mongo sat listening to the sounds on the headset with a big smile as Denny and Nazer walked out of earshot. “Oh, Bluto… this is wrong on so many levels.”
“Harmless fun,” Demon replied. “We’ll need to record the audio reaction when we begin playback into their room.”
* * *
Mike stroked Loretta’s face as she drifted into slumber. Sleep overtook his consciousness moments later.
The sounds began building in their room minutes later from over an hour of torrid lovemaking. Loretta shot bolt upright with a gasping scream. She clutched Mike in a frenzy. “How…how did this happen?”
Loretta buried her head under the covers, listening to the audio of a first orgasm during their interlude. She shuddered involuntarily. “They got me again.”
Mike blasted the speaker feeding the intercom system into the room. “Nothing can be done now. Maybe I can take your mind off of it.”
Loretta pulled him to her. “Make me forget, big boy.”
Two hours later, when Loretta and Mike slept in each other’s arms, her ‘make me forget, big boy’ was piped into the room from a small speaker at their door with Mike’s shield down.
Mike gripped Loretta as the audio woke her. He held her to him in a soothing embrace. He shot a single tendril of darkness into the speaker, providing silence. The Muttley snicker echoed into their heads.
* * *
“Oh man, Mikey, the paranormal pranksters got you good,” Stan said as they entered the ruins. “You have self-control, brother. Otherwise, you would have toasted them.”
“Watch your mouth, Stanley,” Demon warned, sitting across from him in the Demon Inc van as Grant drove toward the trailhead to the ruins. “I will slime you for five minutes. I slimed the Imam, who tasted like camel piss. Don’t provoke me.”
“After what you and Mongo did, I’ll freeze you in a heartbeat, D. Don’t test me,” Mike warned. “Let’s keep our heads in the game at hand.”
Loretta stayed close to Mike, gripping his hand tightly, while avoiding the smiling camaraderie glances of compassion. Grant parked near the dark trailhead leading down to the ruins. He turned on the floodlights mounted on the van for this operation. The Demon Inc crew disembarked from the van at 9 pm, knowing the transfer of equipment would take many precious moments. Mike called Mongo and Demon over.
“Do your best, brothers. We need to know if even a hint of evil or gunpowder await us.”
“I researched every explosive smell, Ripper,” Demon replied. “If we’re being set up for a blast, I will know about it. Mongo goes high. I go low. We’re on your network. Mongo and I will let you know when it’s safe to begin equipment transfer.”
Mongo jetted down to the ruins with Demon in his arms. He set his paranormal brother down near the rectangular stone remains, where they would be doing the overnighter until 7 am. Complete blackness surrounded the ruins. Only a sliver of moon peeked at them during breaks in the cloud cover. Demon felt the aura of evil, as did Mongo.
“They’ve been here,” Demon relayed over the network. “This place is rancid with evil. They must have done a walk through or something. I’m checking on explosives now.”
Mongo hovered through the area up to a thousand yards in all directions, listening to the crashing ocean waves nearby. “I feel nothing, other than what Bluto described as an aura of visitation. You may start bringing down what we need here, El Capitan Darkness.”
“Come get the heavy stuff, Mongo. I’ll help. Demon will protect our greeting area.”
Mongo and Mike transferred all gear down to the enclosed ruins, starting with the video gear Steve would need during the operation. Steve began recording immediately, setting other cam feeds into place, which would provide multiple angles during the action. Everyone else proceeded to the site with a mixture of fear and anticipation. Mike returned near Loretta for a moment.
“Forget last night. We’ll deal with it. I heard you were warned before our latest humiliation. I will have Denny sweep the room for bugs from now on.”
“I want to be with you,” Loretta replied. “I don’t care how many archives of lost souls recordings I become part of.”
“Okay… good. Hang on through our op with fists clenched and mind focused. I have a bad feeling about this confrontation. We’ll handle it. You, Tom, and Grant stay on edge with the van access locked off.”
“Understood,” Loretta replied. “Go do what needs to be done.”
* * *
“We’re locked and loaded, Mikey,” Stan said.
The portable heaters provided against the cold chill of ocean winds in an unenclosed space. Mike provided a large all-weather tent with a heater for sleeping on shifts. No one wanted to go there and miss anything. It would be a long night. Even if they beat back or destroyed the foes launched at them, they would still need to stay in the ruins until morning. The crew shared funny observations about everything, including the audio prank sent out by Mongo to everyone in Demon Inc. Mike took the abuse in good spirits, knowing the laughter kept the team from being gripped with numbing anxiety.
Nothing materialized. Everyone dozed off except for Mongo, Demon, and Mike. They knew this would not be a false alarm. They awaited the inevitable stoically, Mike with iron spike in hand and
Haunt killing weapon in the other. The threat built slowly. Mongo perked up from enjoying the heated air blowing outwards toward him.
“It is coming, El Capitan,” Mongo related on their connected network.
“I feel it,” Mike agreed. “Shake loose, friends! The enemy approaches!”
Wailing shrieks pierced the air in low intensity waves of despair, unrelenting, without origin. The Demon Inc crew stood with weapons in hand and ready, back to back, facing outwards. An impressive threat of filmy poltergeists swept upward at the perimeter. Mongo ended the promise of threat with a clawed slashing whirlwind of horror, the poltergeists could not endure. Because of his Haunt DNA, Mongo’s talons shredded through them, producing shrieks of agony as they dissipated into nothingness.
Demon high fived his paranormal brother as Mongo landed next to him. Black slime creatures poured into the perimeter with abandon. Demon Inc met them with short, aimed blasts of Haunt killing mixture. Steve filmed and replaced tanks as members called out ‘empty’. The numbers nearly overwhelmed Mike’s perception as he fought. He finally threw down his empty weapon and sent the darkness in a demon killing, frenzied rampage. He was slashed by the slime creatures, jetting in to hack at him, until Mongo and Demon provided cover with unmerciful purpose.
After an hour of unrelenting assault, beings of immense bearing floated with deadly focus upon the perimeter, hellish creatures from unknown sources. Mike molded the darkness into a functioning creative force. He conjured a golem to face the devils, whisked into being from the sand and stone pieces they stood upon. It pounded the creatures. They had no shielding force to stop the golem, nor even a strike to weaken him. The battle waged onwards, with Mongo flitting to the Demon Inc van for more tanks of mixture. Toward dawn, the assault weakened in sporadic form at first, and then in abject defeat, as the Demon Inc warriors streamed demon destroying spray on them. Mike’s darkness golem pounded the remaining creatures without pause, its touch burning them to ash, dissipating in the cold ocean wind.
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