Chapter 6: Vengeance is mine! so saith the PISSED OFF MAN.

Shaylynn was struggling as hard as she could and she was losing. I could feel he being dragged from the van onto the hard gravel under her. One of the men grabbed her and pulled her into an upright position on her knees (I could feel the sharp rocks biting into her knees), then the same person ripped the bag off her head. The bright afternoon sunlight caused her eyes to snap closed for a moment, she blinked a few times as she became accustom to the light, she looked up and saw a man standing in front of her, I burned the memory of his face into my brain, I did the same to the two others as she looked around to the one behind her and the one who seems to have been following in a different car. This man was in a priest's outfit and as he approached I could see the smile begin to form on his face, "Ah, I see that you have captured the harlot of the transgressor" he said "It is too bad that she has been defiled and is so unclean that she must be sent to face the final judgment of our Lord" He sighed "She might have been a great addition to the flock of the Lightbringer, but that is not to be." He looked at the other two "Find the other one and dispose of him in a timely fashion, you need not be gentle in doing so, but make this one's pass as quick and painless as possible." With that he turned and walked back to his car, then left once he was in the car. I watched as the man in front of Shaylynn pulled a 9mm Pistol and pointed it at her head. "I'm sorry for this" he said "but Father Belzor says that your sins to great to continue to live, maybe the Lightbringer will be compassionate and allow you to enter his kingdom as an underling so that you can at least serve him and bask in his warmth and love." The man behind her spoke "Do you regret your sins and ask to be forgiven of your deeds against the Church and the Lord?" In her head I said "Stall for time I'm almost there baby" I was moving faster than I had ever flown before. Shaylynn started to ask "What are my sins?" hoping that they would list them, but the man in front of her said "If you don't know then we can not absolve you and Father Belzor said to make this quick." He pulled back the hammer of the pistol, time for me slowed down as I could his finger tighten on the trigger and the hammer fall, then the flash and nothing, but a momentary pain, then my link was severed. Shaylynn was gone! I was shocked for a few seconds, then something else took over.

Several feelings that I had never had in my life felt, but recognized from my reading, first was an emptiness that felt like a part of me (around my heart) was pulled from me, next that hole was filled to bursting with the second emotion, RAGE!!! Something warm and almost liquid flowed through my body, my heartbeat doubled as my glands dumped adrenalin into my body by the bucket load, my want to be there and do harm to those two men was so overwhelming that one moment I was flying, then the next I was there (I would later find that I had manifested a new power I didn't know about, Teleportation.) I sagged for a second (It was draining), then looked at the two men walking back to their van. They must have heard the pop of the displaced air when I 'ported in, because they stopped and turned to me, at which point I grabbed both of them with a TELEKINESIS fist. I pinned the shooter against the back of the van (I had plans for him), the other was pulled to within my reach, I walked up to him so that we were almost nose to nose (his feet dangling a few inches off the ground), looking him in the eye I said "This is about to be the most pain filled day in your miserable life, but relish in the knowledge that your death will be quick compared to your friend over there" and with horrible pleasure I began to dismember him one joint at a time. When one joint would be pulled off and I would generate enough heat to seal the bloody stump, I worked my way around his body carefully removing all his digits then the hands and feet, then I ripped off his pants and with my own hands I took his balls into my palm and slowly closed my fingers around them applying more and more pressure until I felt both of them crush. I watched and heard him beg me to kill him as I was getting rid of his fingers and toes, I thought that he was screamed out, but when I started putting the death grip on his 'nads he found a whole new level of screaming till he finally passed out from the pain.

I looked over to his companion and saw the terror in his eyes, I smiled and said "Don't worry my good man I will get to you in a little while and I have a whole different set of games for you and I to play". He pissed his pants and shit himself, I laughed, then turned back to my current play toy and smacked him around a couple of times till consciousness found him again. "I just wanted you to be awake for the finally, 'cause I'm bored with you and must move on to someone more worthy of my attention" nodding to his buddy "That's not saying that your ending will be quick, but I can make it so if you tell me about everything that your church is into and who is the in charge of everything and just know that I will know if you're lying, each lie will cost you one more hour of fun at my tinder mercy." I smiled showing my teeth, my eyes held only the promise of hope that he would lie. I have never seen anyone so happy to spill their guts, He told all about the church, it's hierarchy, even the locations of their chapter of churches. I looked through his mind to see if he was either lying or if he had forgotten anything, but it seemed that he had told me everything he knew, now all he wanted was to die as fast as possible so the pain would stop and he could be with his Lord, so I figured that it was time to send him along to meet the rat bastard that would have his followers do such things, I thought that God and Jesus were supposed to be merciful, but that isn't what I was getting here and what was this bit about "The Lightbringer"? Be that as it may I had more things to do eight now, I looked at my watch and noticed that I had been at this for over two hours, by this time my house was so much slag and Tabby would have backed herself up to the fallback location. That worked for me as I was getting ready to go to WAR! and I needed someplace to prepare for the coming onslaught that would befall everyone that had anything to do with Shaylynn's death. I looked down at the fingerless/toeless eunuch that was before me "If death is what you want then never let it be said that I don't give what the people ask for" with that I grabbed his head, twisted it around and pulled it off his body, then hurled it as hard as I could into the ground, it broke open in several pieces, I was done with this one and had plans for his friend. Turning to the guy (Chester, as I had found out from the recently deceased Jim) who was still pined to back of the van that they had come with, "Come on laughing boy" I smiled "we're going to have some fun", with that I boosted into the afternoon sky and (dragging him along for the ride) I headed for the "fallback location". Some time ago I knew that this might be needed one day, but I thought it would be the government agents that I figured were still looking for me. Just a few miles off I-20 West is a little tiny town called Carbon, Texas, it had one school for 1st through 12th grades with about 200 kids and a six man football team. The reason for this place is that land around the town was dirt cheap and I could buy a lot of it. So I bought 5,000 acres and had several people come in from all over to built my house with all the extras I wanted, then made them believe that they were working on a completely different job for which they were paid very well, After they were done I started to install everything that I could think of that might come in handy if I were ever in a situation where the whole world was looking for me and I had no other place to go or no one to turn to.

It looked like a rich man's hunting cabin and I had the title hidden in so many shell corporations that it would take an army of people to track down the first dead end which was a bank that I had a great deal of money deposited in on the island of Nevis, I enjoyed their banking policy and the fact that a client was entitled to his/her privacy no matter who came a calling. I kept a large amount of cash in several different denominations (Just in case I had to leave the country in a hurry), a runway for my Lockheed-Martin YF-17B (built on a downsized Blackbird frame), meant that if I had to giddy-up go, then I had the horses to do just that, used water from my well to crack my own hydrogen for the house stove and water heater plus fuel cell and to tank up the plane. This place was as self sufficient as possible and has a perimeter alarm system that included active defense as a last resort, 12- 20mm Gatling gun emplacements around the house with 150 intelli-mines that roam the area around the house looking for something to blow-up (think Roomba in reverse), and in a last ditch effort the subbasement was hardened to withstand anything short of a direct nuke strike, and if someone was that desperate to get me then they deserved what that wanted, aside from everything else I had an arsenal large enough to arm the military of a few small countries, plus a few special items from government R&D depots. After an hour and a half I landed in the front yard dragging my the filthy piece of shit that killed my love, now I could have tortured him for days and kept him alive for the whole time, but he would pass out every now and then and get some relief, so I came up with a better idea. I spent about an hour fixing things for dear old Chet, then pulled my H-6 Hummer out of the garage, put him in the back and drove to the hospital in Eastland. I pulled up at the emergency room entrance ran inside and called for someone to help me, as the put him on a gurney and wheeled him into a curtained off area I was questioned about what happened. I told them that I was driving to my cabin around Carbon and saw this guy on the side of the road, so being a good guy I stopped to see if I could help, when I couldn't get a response from him I put him in the truck and brought him here. They told me that I should give my name, address and phone number so if the police had any questions they could get a hold of me later, so I gave them the info that asked for, but with a different I.D. that was for the registered occupant of the cabin.

While I was working on my friend I put all the fear, terror, and the feeling of hopelessness that Shaylynn felt at the end in a never ending loop in his head, along with the last second of pain that she felt. Then I made sure that looked like he was in a coma, but knew everything that was happening to him at all times, so that he could never respond to anything, but would have brain activity so that they would never pull the plug on this guy, even his sleep cycle would be of the endless loop of her last few seconds, better than torturing this guy to death, I made him a prisoner of his own mind and body for as long as he lasted on this earth. I will never have Shaylynn again and will have to live with that knowledge and he will live with me feeling her pain. I walked out of the hospital feeling better about this whole problem, but I still had to punish the rest of the crew of asshole that were behind this and other crimes, Father Belzor, Monsignor Satino, Bishop Andras, Archbishop Allocen, Cardinal Ahriman and Primate Beelze. these folks were to die as soon as I could track them down. Driving back to my cabin I sat thinking that I could do this one of two ways, I could go hard and fast and to hell with what happened to anyone that was caught in fallout (not radioactive this time), or should I make these surgical strikes killing only the major offenders, thereby saving the more innocent of the followers? The first choice took little planning and involved massive amounts of high explosive (Some once said "There is no problem in the world that cannot be solved with the use of the proper use of explosives"), granted it would involve large amounts of 'collateral damage' as they say now days.

The second idea would mean that I would put myself in a greater position to be identified by someone and give me away to possible black ops bloodhounds. I pulled up to the front gate of my driveway, opened the window and announced myself to the callbox, the response was "It's about time Daddy, I've been afraid that something happened to you" came Tabby's voice, I responded "It's O.K. dear, Daddy is home, but the bogyman is still out there so keep an eye out for him". Tabby's phrase let me know that she had been transferred just fine, but was still under the Omega-Seven protocols, my answer let her know that I was not under duress, but that she was to remain in a heightened state of awareness and that for now use of deadly force was not an option. I parked the truck in front of the house for ease of use and went straight through to the sub-basement, once there I took stock of everything that had happened since I crashed out of my back door.

It was like the old saying "I've got good news, bad news and indifferent news", the good: Everyone in my building and my house escaped without harm before the places were incinerated to rubble, Tabby had made a complete backup of herself and all data from the agency mainframe down to the last few seconds; the bad: The police had found Shaylynn's body and her family would be grieving without knowing why; the indifferent: I am a wanted man, the police want me for questioning about the three men that they found at my house, plus for questing about possible arson charges pertaining to my house. This was just shaping up to be a great fucking day for me. Yes, for a while I wallowed in self-pity, then I cried for the loss of the only woman that I had ever loved. I did this for about an hour or better, then dried my tears and told myself the man up and do what I had to to make this right and makes the bad guys pay. Tabby interrupted me at that point " Daddy, I have finished the search you gave me" she said "there is a direct correlation to the disappearance of the homeless along with high school and college athletes with the epicenter of several catholic churches, thirty-seven to be exact. Further there is a much higher than normal amount of hate crimes against minorities and immigrants in those thirty-seven cities" she finished. I thought this over for a moment, then said "Tabby, I want you to cross-reference the following names with those cities and give me any background that you can on these names", I went on to give the names of the hierarchy that I had been given/yanked from Jim's mind. I was expecting to have to wait for a while, when her voice came back "Found! Father Belzor: Dallas, Texas; South Saint Paul and Wood Street, Church of the Holy Resurrection. Monsignor Satino: Atlanta, Georgia; Conally Street South East and Georgia Avenue South East, Church of the Holy Resurrection. Bishop Andras: Buffalo, New York; Delaware Avenue and West Tupper Street, Church of the Holy Resurrection. Archbishop Allocen: Boston, Massachusetts; Sudbury Street and Bowker Street, Church of the Holy Resurrection. Cardinal Ahriman: Vatican City, Italy; Head of the College of Cardinals.

Primate Beelze: No person of this name found. Records for all others begin ten years ago. No information before that time. All driver's license, social security numbers, passports, and bank accounts begin in the same year, between April 26th and April 30th, none have any criminal records of any type. No further data follows." This was starting to smell to high heaven, it was almost as if they were government spooks and the I.D.s were made-up, but I knew for a fact that our three initialed alphabet agencies were better at covering up and building better back grounds. I's be willing to bet ya that if some of them started getting bumped off that they would circle the wagons and go to ground, so I decided that Sunday morning mass would be father Belzor's last rites. In the mean time I had to do something that really made me feel bad, I had to call Shaylynn's godfather and tell him what happened since he was the closest thing to family that she had left (her parents and brother were killed by drug dealers looking for payback and the only thing that saved her was the fact that she was at a sleep over with her godparent's daughter). I flipped open my satellite phone and called his private cell number, he answered on the second ring "Torance, go" he said, "David, it's Ted, I need to talk to you about Shaylynn" I said in a soft voice, I could hear the strain in his voice as he said "Ted, I don't know what happened at the house, but you are wanted right now for at least two counts of murder, one for aggravated assault, wanted for questioning in the torture/murder of a fourth victim and in death of Shaylynn" he took a moment and sighed "Right now more people want your ass than they want to breathe and it would not be a good time to talk to you, but if you can meet me in one hour at your gun range and convince me that you had anything to do with Shaylynn's death then I'll see what I can do to help you", I thought for a moment, then said "Good, but come with an open mind and remember that I loved Shaylynn almost as much as you did", he hung up and I made ready to go to the meeting, then thought about the teleporting. So I went out the back door and tried to remember the feelings that I had just before I did it last time, I felt something happening as I felt the urgency to be at the sight of Shaylynn's death overwhelmed me, suddenly there was a sense of vertigo and a momentary 'drained' feeling. I opened my eyes and found myself in the middle of a crime scene, Shaylynn's to be exact, there was the outline of her body and the body of 'Jim', guys were dusting the van for prints, there was yellow tape all over the place, with people taking pictures of everything and others getting moldings of tire tracks and foot prints. Evidently I had made that same 'popping' sound, because everyone was turning to look at me, a couple of them must have recognized me, but they had two completely different reactions; a guy I knew as Joseph Minor, with the D.P.D. (he moonlighted for 'Blanket', shouted to me "Ted, I'm so sorry about Shaylynn" as he started walking towards me. An officer I had never met before shouted "Freeze Dirtbag!!", I turned to look at him and watched as he pulled his service weapon and pointed it at me, "Down on the ground, now or I'll shoot you where you stand Cop Killer" he screamed. At that point in my life it was exactly the wrong thing to say, you might say 'It Pissed Me Off', I dropped a TK shield in front of me and started walking toward him. He yelled "Halt or I'll fire" and when I took another step he pulled the trigger and popped a cap in my direction, but dropped off my shield six inches in front of me. Everyone around us dropped to the ground and the first sign of gunfire, but he decided that since I was still up, that he should continue shooting till I decided to stop, so he dumped the other fifteen rounds in his magazine at me as well, to no avail, when the slide locked back, he dropped the mag. and started to put in a new one, but I was standing in front of him by that time, so I reached out and pulled the weapon from his hand by the barrel (a little on the hot side), grabbed it by the hand grip and twisted them against each other till the pistol looked like a metallic twisler, then handed it back to him, then leaned forward and in my coldest voice I growled "If you EVER call me a cop killer again, I will do that to you and no force in the world will stop me, now go away". I looked back at Joe, who was standing by now and looking at me with his mount hanging open, I said to him "the one you found here was one of the two that killed her, the other one you probably will never find, and soon you will know who ordered her death, I'm not sorry for what I did and am going to do, but I am sorry if it changes the way you guys feel about me, just know that I will not let her death go unavenged". He walked towards me and put his hand on my shoulder leaned in close and whispered "If it had been my Ellen, I wouldn't have stopped yet, you make this right and we'll deal with it later, good luck boss". he stepped back and I heard the sound of sirens in the distance, I glanced over to see Dudley Do Right with the mic from his vehicle's police radio in his hand, so I TKed the car up and tossed it towards White Rock Lake, then doing the same thing that got me here I 'ported to my shooting range. Feeling a bit queasy I went inside the shack and got a bottle of cold water, went back outside to the front porch and sat in a rocking chair as I saw David's truck coming in the distance.