PRL Serials

As Ivan and Clay fly through the air, the two converse via their mental connection.

I have no idea where we’re going, Ivan says.

Me either, I was following you, Clay says.

We gotta go somewhere. We can’t go home.

What about Tennessee? Maybe Detective Young can help us. 

Should we do that to him?, Ivan asks. He’s police, and we’re fugitives now.

Maybe we should just turn ourselves in.

Ivan thinks about it as he barrels through the wind current that pushes against him. Flying is difficult, even the way Ivan does it by essentially manipulating latent energies to propel himself against the pull of gravity. He has to be aware of what is in front of him or risk smashing into something, and he is not invulnerable to pain or injury. He can definitely kill himself if he is not focused. He can create cushions of energy when he connects with something solid, but that has its limits. Clay on the other hand, can manipulate his body to absorb an impact, and he can withstand much more force than Ivan without injury.

Jamar has the police, remember? Ivan says finally. We go back there, we’re just doing what he wants. 

The detective knows us, he’ll want to help. And he has a good reputation.

That’s why I’m hesitant, I don’t want to ruin anything for him. What if Jamar influences him too?

We need to make a choice, right now, Clay says sternly.

Fine, let’s go to Young.

Ivan begins to change course and Clay stretches his body vertically in the air so that he can force himself down to the ground, and when he comes to land in someone’s backyard, he reinforces his legs and bends his knees just in time to avoid cratering the Earth beneath him. He launches himself up in a split second in the new direction that Ivan takes and he sails through the air until he catches up to Ivan.

We’ll go to his house, Ivan says as Clay continues his trajectory faster than his own and soon they land in Young’s backyard. 

Sandra, who has lived with Young for about five years now, emerges from the backdoor and Young is close behind her. 

“If it ain’t Ivan and Clay,” Young says happily and he hugs them both like they are sons he hasn’t seen in a long time. “I just saw y’all on the news. I should be worried but I’m so happy to see you both well. Come on in and tell me everything, and I’ll decide if I can help or if this is the happiest our reunion is gonna be.”

When they are inside, the two sit with Sandra, who introduces herself, at the dining room table while Young makes coffee, anticipating that the arrival of the two will mean a long night for him. They fill Young in on the mishaps that had brought them to his house and Young sits at the table with a steaming mug. He sighs and it pushes the trail of steam out.

“This don’t sound zombie related, I was hoping it did, that it connected to what I been dealing with lately. But this sound like something else.”

“The zombies are back?” Clay asks. He had been hoping, like everyone else involved with the incident that resulted in the bonfire of the zombies, that they had dealt with that threat well enough that it wasn’t a worry, but he was being naive. 

“Did they ever leave?” Young asks ominously. “It’s a bad batch of meth out there we think, messed up the dealers and either it exploded with the back half that house it was in, or it’s coming to a street corner near me sometime soon.”

Clay shakes his head. “It’s too much going on, we need some help. Where’s Kevin? Whatever happened to Manuel and Adam? Did we leave them to die?”

“No,” Young says defensively and the room is suddenly tense. “Son, we formed a tight unit real quick under some crazy ass pressure, and we all did what we had to do to complete that mission. We did something real and important that night, don’t you ever forget that, but we dealing with something bigger than these drug dealers, these traffickers. They pawns in a bigger game. And we put a hurting on them that night. Adam and Manuel, the ranking officers of our unit, made a decision and we followed orders. Don’t you dare be hard on yourself for a successful mission. Wherever Manuel and Adam are right now, and I know they still alive, they are proud that they had the honor to fight next to you against pure evil.”

Clay nods silently.

“So what can I do for you now in exchange for your assistance with my thing in the near future?” Young asks with a smile to lighten the mood.

“We need to show everyone that Jamar is the criminal and we have been framed, I guess. We weren’t framed, it was a bogus jail sentence and we escaped to help Alia.”

Young grimaces. “Seems whatever happens with this Jamar, y’all gonna have to finish that sentence, unless the judge over turn it. But you gotta go at him first. You gotta stop him from making things worse. Why y’all think he wanted y’all to break out of jail?” 

Ivan and Clay look to one another, then Ivan says, “Probably to make us look bad.”

“He attacking your reputation,” Young says, “so maybe you gotta expose him for what he is, or have somebody else do it, so the world can see he ain’t somebody to trust. Neutralize the magic stuff and I’ll get in touch with who I can locally in NC to see what kind of case I can scrape together.”

“I didn’t know you had that kind of influence,” Clay says, noticeably impressed.

“I been in good with the TN state bureau, and they work with other states. The head knows people in NC she trusts, I can talk to her.”

There is a young woman named Falon in the city of Knoxville, Tennessee who is doing some amateur detective work that coincides with Detective Young’s current case work. Falon is looking for her father and it seems that he is either dead from the fall out of the bad batch of meth referred to earlier, or he is running and needs help. Whatever it is, Falon wants to know, and she has amassed a gang of five men that she borrowed from a new friend, five white guys all over six feet tall with beards and muscles, and calluses on their knuckles that are a symbol of their familiarity with violence. 

Young decides to take his friends out for dinner and he finds himself in the same restaurant as Falon, who is sitting and laughing with her table full of goons. Young, his roommate Sandra, Ivan and Clay sit nearby and soon they are laughing at their own stories and the restaurant is lively and fun. 

Falon spots Young when all of her friends scatter to their ready positions inside the restaurant and at various places outside. She recognizes him; when she had arrived in the city, she had stopped and asked a stranger for directions, and she was sure that he was that stranger. She pulls a chair up to the table with his friends and they all stare at her awkwardly.

“Do you remember me?” Falon asks Young.

“I been looking for you,” Young says chuckling. He looks to Ivan and Clay and says, “You two are my good luck charms. I been looking for this woman for about a month now, then y’all show up and she just sit down next to me.”

“Why you looking for me?” Falon asks.

“I’m a detective and people been placing you at crime scenes.”

“A detective!” Falon says gleefully. “That’s crazy ’cause I was at them crime scenes looking for my daddy and I still haven’t found him. I didn’t kill nobody, didn’t have nothing to do with it, but I saw heads explode.”

“Who your daddy?”

Falon smiles. “Before we get to that, I got some villainy to perpetrate.” She looks between Ivan and Clay. “A little spider told me it’s a bounty on y’all. I didn’t come here to be the bad guy, I really want the detective to help me out, but a girl could use a good gang, and Tsuchigumo can give me that. I just have to get that green off you.” Falon smiles around the table. “I’m so sorry to ruin y’all good time, but that’s just how important this is to me. I need to know if my daddy alive. If he dead, I need to know who did it. The more I find out, the clearer it is to me that I need a gang behind me to get my revenge. No hard feelings folks.” 

Falon stands to leave. “Good luck getting home. I’ll be there when you give it up, and Tsuchigumo will collect. See you soon.”

As she leaves the restaurant, the waiter notices that no one from her table has left any payment and he runs after her. There is a commotion and one of Falon’s bodyguards attacks the waiter. There is a fight just outside and Clay springs to help. Soon he is caught up in a fight without using his powers. He trades blows with the big man and Ivan struggles to break it up. Young keeps everyone from calling police and separates Clay to end the altercation. When the chaos settles, the three realize that Sandra is gone, as well as Falon and her goons.

Young pays Falon’s bill and he, Ivan and Clay stand outside on the sidewalk. 

“What the hell?” Young says. “What are y’all mixed up in?” Just as he finishes, he notices Sandra struggling in the distance and a man drags her inside a building. “Come on,” Young says and they run to the front door of what turns out to be an abandoned storefront. 

“Stay tight on me,” Young says as they make their way inside. They brush aside cobwebs when they are in the dark. Young can’t see anything. “Y’all with me?”

A green flame rages from Ivan’s hand. “I’m here…” he starts, and then the flame seems to be sucked away from him. It rages horizontally instead of vertically as it normally does and Ivan can feel something pulling at it. 

“What’s that?” Clay says with concern and he stands behind Ivan. He can feel the tug too and he wraps his arms around Ivan’s torso.

“Tsuchigumo, the black, is collecting what is hers,” Falon says as she emerges from the darkness and into the chaotic glow of the tortured green flame. “Don’t resist, it will be over shortly.”

The goons emerge and they flicker in and out of sight as they surround Ivan, Clay and Young.

Young pulls two guns. “I don’t want to kill nobody, but I will.”

“You fast enough old man?” Falon asks as one of her goons tackles Clay from Ivan. They roll into the darkness and Young curses as Ivan struggles to hold his flame.

“I can help you find your father,” Young says with his guns up, eyes darting around the scene that is mostly dark. Another man rushes him and he fires until the man falls. “Don’t make that impossible. Call these men off. Leave Ivan alone.”

One of the men tackles Young from behind and then he hears Clay’s growl. He pulls the man off of Young and then helps him to his feet. 

“Guard Ivan,” Clay says as his eyes glow, but they seem to flicker like the glow is struggling to maintain itself. “I’ll find them.”

Ivan is struggling but the tug of war with the flame continues. Young stands next to Ivan and shoots one other man before Clay grabs Falon.

“They’re all gone, make this stop,” Clay says.

“It’s not on me,” Falon says, almost bored. “I got her here and she was supposed to do the rest. She should have given me a bigger gang.”

Clay releases his grip on Falon and she slips away in the dark. He follows the direction of the flame where it is stretched, then he feels a force at his chest that blows him back. Ivan and Young are blown back by the impact of the force on Clay and Ivan loses control of the flame altogether. 

When they regain themselves and stand, Ivan and Clay know that they have lost it. They can feel that their powers are gone.