The Fury
Issue #2
by Tom Zjaba
Chapter Three
The Revenge
After a few days of slipping into the gutter and drinking away his sorrows, he
finally gets a grip of himself and realizes that all the hard work that the
professor did would be for naught, if he slipped back to his former life. He now
has a power and a responsibility to use that power. As much as this power could
be used for selfish intents, he knew that the professor wanted to change the
world. He really believed that he could do some good and this mind expanding
drug was a step towards the betterment of mankind. So Jack heads over to the bus
station to see what was so important that he clinged to life long enough to give
this key to him. As he walks into the bus station, he sees a mixture of
passengers and vagrants who come to escape the harsh realities outside. He walks
quietly and looks forward as not to bring any attention to himself. As he finds
the locker, he carefully opens it and looks around to make sure he is alone.
Inside it are two duffel bags, both quite full as they are both fairly heavy. He
lifts both of them and searches around to make sure there is nothing else left
behind. When he is convinced the locker is empty, he makes a quick exit and
heads back to his hotel room before opening the duffel bags. Last thing he
wanted to do is to open it and find some guns or something else that is illegal
and would land him in hot water. As he opens the first duffel bag, he finds it
is full of notebooks. The notebooks are full of notes. He looks through them and
they appear to have formulas and other stuff on them. As he reads them, they
begin to make some sense to him. They are the recipes, for lack of a better
term, for the mind expanding drugs he has been taking. While he still does not
comprehend all of it, his expanded mind can understand allot more than it would
have a few weeks ago. As he pulls them out, he finds at the bottom of the bag,
there is a wooden box. As he opens the box, he finds it is padded and inside
there are five vials of the formula. He quickly takes one out and drinks it
down. He then grabs some tape and labels the other bottles so that he takes them
according to the schedule that the professor had set up.
After taking the drink, he goes to the fridge and pulls out a beer and downs it.
It is just a mini fridge, but he has managed to stock it with beer and some
fixings for sandwiches. He then opens the other duffel bag and falls back in
amazement. The bag is filled from top to bottom in money. There are bundles of
twenties that add up to five hundred dollars each with rubber bands around them.
As he counts the money, there is over a hundred thousand dollars here, more
money that he ever thought he would see. While he feels guilty about the death
of the professor, he cannot help to celebrate and grabs a couple of bundles of
money and then stashes the rest of it in a safe place in the room. He heads out
to mourn the professor and celebrate his new found financial freedom.
The first place he heads is to the leather store to get a leather trench coat.
He picks out a black one and drops the few hundred to buy it. He always wanted
one of these, but he never figured he would get one, unless he found one. He
then stops to get some new clothes. Time to dump the well worn and less than
aromatic clothes he has worn. He heads to the local department store and stocks
up on black shirts, black jeans, fresh underwear and socks and a pair of black
boots with the steel toes. He figures the black look is both menacing and also
good for hiding in shadows. His next stop is to the local weapons store. While
he doesn't like weapons, he knows if he is to avenge the professor, he needed
some backup. He looks over the guns, but knowing his background, he has no
chance of getting a gun and an even better chance of getting arrested. But he
looks at the knives and decides to stock up on some. As he looks over the cases
full of knives, he sees some throwing knives. There is also a book on the art of
knife throwing and decides to buy them. "Hey Mac, lemme get a dozen of them
throwing knives, a few of the belts to hold them and this book here." he says as
he eyes them. "Whatcha planning on doin, running away and joining the circus?"
the owner says with a laugh. "Yeah, I always wanted to be a knife thrower and
figured better do it while I still can" he says back with a smile. The guy adds
it up and says "Cash or charge?" Jack digs into his pocket and pulls out a roll
of money and drops a few hundred down on the counter "Cash, don't believe in
credit." He then heads out the door.
As he leaves, he goes back to the apartment and begins to formulate a plan. He
knows that he cannot just charge in and attack Justin Rage. With his influence,
connections and power, that would be nothing short of suicidal. Even with his
powers, he is no match for the people that Justin Rage employs. He knows his
best course of action is to hit him where it hurts most, in the wallet. He will
also try to find out as much as he can to look for a weakness.
That night he goes back to the room and gets all his stuff. He decides that
before he gets deep into battle, he needs more knowledge, more training and more
money. He also needs a better place to hole up. The last thing he wants is to
come home and find someone robbed his place. So he heads uptown to get one of
the better apartments. One that comes with a safe in the room and locks on the
doors that actually work. While the place he is at is under the radar, it is
very unsafe. So he heads downtown to get a room at one of the nicer hotels. It
is not the top of the line but it is fairly expensive and a whole lot better
than where he was. But he soon finds out something that he did not expect. You
need a credit card to rent a room at a quality hotel. And being homeless, he
does not have a credit card. So he figures he will have to stay in the dumps
where cash is king.
Later that night, he begins his attack on Justin Rage. He starts off in the
seedy bars where the criminal element is rampant. Being telepathic has its
advantages, especially when it comes to investigation. He just heads over to the
bar and sits down with a drink. Since his transformation, he is more observant
of his drinking problem and works hard to watch himself. These new found powers
are no good if he cannot control his drinking. Many times in the past, he tried
to quit but was never able to. Alcohol controlled him in such a way that he was
its prisoner. But with his life, it was often easier to drink away the reminders
of how much he lost. The pain of thinking about his ex-wife, Alice and how much
he misses her. But when he was caught trying to embezzle money from his company
and was fired and prosecuted, he knew he had to flee. He hated to just run off
on his wife and leave her to pick up the pieces, but the thought of spending
years in jail was too much for him. While the embezzlement was bad enough, the
reasons behind it were worse. He had a drug habit and a mistress that demanded
extravagant presents. He needed more money for than his salary could provide. So
he started off by first selling some of the company secrets to a rival company.
But when people became suspicious, they hired some computer forensic specialist
to find out where the leak was. Little did Jack know that they would not only
find the leak, but also how he had stolen tens of thousands of dollars. He
showed up to work one day, only to find the police waiting. He was escorted out
of work in handcuffs in front of all his co-workers. The pain of the
embarrassment he felt still stings. When Alice paid his bail, he should have
been thankful. He should have sought help for his addiction and said a prayer of
thanks that his wife was standing by his side. But he instead chose to disappear
into the night. He ran off with their new Mercedes and promptly emptied most of
their bank account. He quickly sold the car to a less than reputable dealer for
cash and fled from the west coast to the Midwest. He quickly blew through the
money he had and soon found himself on the streets. With no chance at a real job
and with his past haunting him, he had no choice. He let his hair and beard grow
to look different from the police sketches that were shown in the newspapers.
But in a few months, he was forgotten. He was presumed to be out of the country.
So he soon joined the invisible people of the street and this is where he has
been ever since. But now he had a chance to change all that.
As he sits at the bar, he looks around the bar and starts reading people's
minds. At first he is overwhelmed with all the thoughts. His head starts to ache
from the massive input of thoughts. He grabs his head instinctively like it was
a headache and stops and concentrates. He looks at one man across the room and
concentrates on him. It takes a few minutes of intense concentration to only
hear him over all the people in the crowded bar, but soon he is reading this
guys mind. "Need to find a way to earn some quick cash. Lilly is really going to
leave me this time if I cannot come up with the rent money." This guy has no
worthwhile information. So he keeps scanning the room, one person at a time.
Love problems, money problems, complaints about the local sports team is all he
picks up. After he finishes his drink, he decides that this bar has nothing.
Then he notices a guy coming out of the backroom and headed out the front door.
He decides to listen into this guy's thoughts as he seems to be leaving in a
hurry. . "This shipment is huge. If anything goes wrong, Mr. Rage will have my
head personally." Bingo! This is the one. So he decides to shadow this man. As
the man leaves, he walks down the street and heads towards an alley. Jack keeps
listening to his thoughts as he says "Better get over to Big Al's and make sure
the deal is going down right. I never should have left Big Al to do this." Jack
cannot help but laugh to himself. He didn't think people went by names like Big
Al anymore. That is so cliché Hollywood mobster. Guess there is some truth to
even the stereotypes portrayed in Hollywood.
As the man heads down a dark alley, he comes up to a door. It is a steel door
and has a few dents in it. Someone has obviously tried to force their way into
it in the past. The man cautiously looks both ways to make sure no one is there.
He is nervous and sweat is starting to bead on his head. But he does not look
up, where Jack is hiding. His new ability to fly makes it so much easier to
trail someone. Criminals do not make it a habit to look up, but after he is
done, they may start to. He floats over to a fire escape and moves back into the
shadows. The man knocks on the door and a small opening in the door slides opens
and a pair of angry eyes peer out. They look back and forth at the man and then
the guy on the other side of the door asks "What's the password?" The man leans
in and looks him in the eyes as he whispers "The rain in Spain." The man behind
the door abruptly shuts the opening. The sound of locks being unlocked is heard.
Within a few seconds, the door slowly opens up and the man slinks in. Then the
sound of locks is once again heard. Jack slowly floats down and lands in front
of the door. He pulls a cheap cloth mask out of his pocket. It is the kind that
covers part of your face. He puts it on and knocks on the door. As the opening
opens up the man says "You are early for Halloween." Jack smiles and says "The
Rain in Spain." The man looks at the weird guy and says "Who sent you?" Jack
then concentrates and starts to unlock the door with his mind. The guy quickly
shuts the opening and Jack can hear him cursing as he tries to redo the locks.
Jack then kicks the door open and it hits the man right in the face. He falls
back and lands on his back. Blood is shooting out his nose and he clutches it to
try and stop the pain. As Jack looks into the room, he sees it is just a hallway
and there is smoke in the air. At the end of the hallway is a set of stairs
leading up. Jack then picks up the guy with his mind and throws him out the door
and abruptly shuts the door. The man is scared and just runs off. Jack hears men
talking up the stairs and decides he better prepare himself. The last thing he
wants to do is get killed on his first mission. He pulls out a few of the
throwing knives and starts to float up the stairs. He wants to keep the element
of surprise, so he chooses not to walk.
Inside the upstairs room a bunch of guy are working on a drug shipment. There is
a huge stack of bags of cocaine. A group of men are taking the bags breaking
them to small piles which is then weighed and put into smaller bags. These are
then sent down to another man, who weighs them again and then labels them. A
last man puts them into different boxes and gives then to men to deliver. There
are a dozen men working at different tables. As Jack floats up the stairs, he
comes into the room and stops. The men at first do not see him as they are busy
working. One of the guys looks up and says "Who the hell are you?" Jack smiles
and says "I am a fury of vengeance." The guy reaches into his coat for a gun but
Jack throws a knife that with his mental help hits him right in the hand. He
screams out loud and drops his gun as he looks down at the knife lodged in his
hand. The blade part is sticking out the other side and blood is pouring out of
the wound. The other men jump up and also reach for their guns. The fury
concentrates and lifts one of the tables and uses it to knock over some of the
men. "How the hell did he do that?" one of the guys yells. One man manages to
shoot at Jack but he sees the bullet and is able to stop it before it hits him.
He then makes it zig zag past him and go into the wall. He throws two more
knives and once again they hit the men in the hands. The rest of the men start
running off. Some go out the window and down the fire escape and others go into
another room. One guy hides under one of the tables and crawls into a ball. Jack
then lifts up all the loose cocaine piles that are on the tables that are not
knocked down and makes all the loose cocaine fly up and form a cloud of nose
candy. This cloud then goes through the doorway and flies into the other room.
The men who are waiting for the intruder to rush into the room, are completely
stunned when they see a cloud of cocaine fly in and fill the room. They have no
time to react to it and soon they are engulfed in cocaine. They strain to close
their eyes and cover their mouth and nose but they are too late. The cocaine
finds it way into all their orifices and soon they are higher than a kite. They
end up breathing in a near lethal amount of the drug and it takes its effect on
them as they are all falling on the floor. Jack makes the drugs cover their face
and soon they pass out. He then grabs a nearby phone and calls the police and
reports that there is a huge quantity of drugs at this address. As he comes back
into the room, he notices a few briefcases sitting next to the tables. With his
mind powers, he pulls one to him and opens it up. Inside it is full of money. He
brings the other one over and find it also contains thousands of dollars. He
decides that he can do more with the money than the police. He does look over
and see the criminal rolled in a fetal position and hiding under the table. At
first he thinks of tormenting him, but the police sirens that are getting closer
and closer are enough for him to leave the guy alone. Jack decides it is time to
go. The police would ask too many questions and with his past, it is best to
remain anonymous. He climbs out the window and looks down at the men who are
running away. He floats upwards with the two briefcases and heads back to his
apartment.
As the police come, they find the men laying there on the ground. They also find
a man hiding under one of the tables. When they pull him up and ask him what
happened he says "Some guy named The Fury came in here and busted up our drug
business." The police look at each other and say "The Fury?" The next day the
headlines in the newspaper reads "Huge Cocaine Ring broken up by The Fury."
Underneath it, in a separate article, there is an artist sketch of The Fury and
a little blurb that says "Who is The Fury?" The paper is then crumbled up into a
ball in the clenched fist of Justin Rage who is gritting his teeth with anger.
"Fury, your super hero career is going to be very short. I guarantee it." he
says as he throws the rolled up newspaper into a trash bin.
The Fury © 2006-2008 Tom Zjaba