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inkribbon796 · 4 years

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Crackdown Ch. 4

Chapter 4: Where Loyalties Lie

Summary: The heroes get to sit down with Yan, Bim, and Illinois and find that Dark and Wilford probably weren’t the terrible parents they thought they were.

A/N: It’s done. I’m done. Hope you guys enjoy it, it was a beast to write.

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4

While the first half of their operation went almost uncannily easily. The second part wasn’t. Almost all the heroes had initially thought that living with a murderous demonic mobster and a murder happy madman would have counted as a horrible traumatic incident that they would have been happy to get away from.

They were wrong, apparently all three of them had glowing things to say about both parents.

Patton was in with Abe and Jackie, trying to get information out of Yan. King immediately cut them off from talking to Yan when she started crying and wanting to call Wil. She did get to call him but the Host reassured the heroes that they weren’t going to get anything out of her.

Bing was in talking to Bim, Oliver watching the building for security. “Come dude, you killed them, just admit it.”

“What part about I want my fucking lawyer don’t you understand?” Bim shouted back.

King was standing outside the room with his head in his hand. “Nice to see he hasn’t changed.”

“Was he like this when you were kids?” Silver asked.

“Yeah, he was always a bit of a spoiled brat,” King frowned. “Wil pretty much gave him anything he wanted, and for a while he was an only kid and was always kinda an attention whore.”

“Sounds like hell,” Silver commented. “Why’d Dark and Wil get five more kids if they could barely handle one?”

“Don’t know,” King shrugged. “Dark told us a story once about Bim being taken once and how we didn’t have to talk to other kids because statistically we had to like at least one of our siblings. Personally I think he was just a bit of a control freak.”

“Is that why you left?” Silver asked.

King sighed, “You know, Dark’s a piece of shit boss and I hated working for him, but he wasn’t actually a bad dad, never let me take the work home even if I wanted to.”

Silver just looked at him, “Did he get kids just to work in the Network?”

“No,” King corrected firmly. “For a long time we weren’t allowed to even ask about what he did. We knew he worked in his office from home or at the warehouses, and that was it. Hell, Dark didn’t even allow us to watch Wil’s show, you know, because he killed people on it.”

“Then how’d you wind up working for him?” Silver asked.

“It kinda just happened,” King answered. “Artie and Illinois started getting interested and I tagged along with Illy a lot, so when he started pestering Dark, I joined in and Dark suddenly found he had a vacancy as an assistant, not that that job existed before I asked him. He hated the idea of someone else with their hands on his work.”

“He treated you guys good, right?” Silver asked. “Never seemed like the type of guy to be a caring father.”

“He and Wil were miles and leagues better than the foster homes I’d been in before,” King answered, before looking away. “I’m getting some coffee.”

King walked over, as Bing was coming out of the room.

“Ok, so the little dude totally lawyered up and we’re at a standstill,” Bing said. “Dude’s obviously been coached on how ta talk when he’s arrested but I think we’ve enough ta go somewhere. He’s acting a bit off, I think he might be on somethin’ but we need more ta be able ta do a drug test, and e’en then it might come back a false positive because ‘a Wil.”

“You know how they’re doing with the third little boy scout?”

“Marv was goin’ on an’ on about brainwashin’ so who know how that’s going,” Bing threw his hands up and shrugged. “I’m gonna check on Ollie, see if Googs is givin’ him any trouble.”

Silver found Amy standing outside the second interrogation room, Yan had been in that room but after her failed questioning she’d been put in her cell and Illy was moved in instead.

“How’s it going?” Mark asked, watching an arguing match.

“Probably shouldn’t have let Marvin’s talk to him,” Amy sighed.

“We know he was doin’ magic on yeh?” Marvin argued.

“You get off your high horse!” Illinois shouted back.

“Where’s Eric?” Silver asked.

“With Ollie,” Amy frowned, “Eric not talking to anyone except for him and King, he sure isn’t talking to Abe or Marvin.”

“Yep, tapping in,” Silver decided, walking in. “Marv—”

“You all can shove it,” Illinois decided, continuing to escalate the situation. “I don’t care if Artie and Kay are working with you, I don’t care whatever teen rebellion phase they’re in, I don’t care if you call me crazy and lock me up in the same cell as Yancy. None of you cared when Kay and I were being bounced between places, no one cared about us except for Dark. I am living the life I dreamed about and thought I’d never get as a kid. I get to travel the world and go to all these amazing places.”

“Dark is a demon who manipulates people,” Marvin reminded.

“I’m not crazy and Dark is not forcing me into living in the Manor, it’s my home, and I am not lying and saying that the person who took me in and protected me was an abusive monster, because he wasn’t!”

Illinois angrily sat down, “You fuckers want anything else, you can talk to my lawyer.”

After that, Illinois seemed to calm down enough and they had to move him back to his cell, it was Wilford’s anti-magic cell. So because there was one cell, all three of the siblings were in there, Bim sitting on the cot, and Yan in the chair as Illinois walked around and studied the cell.

“This is so stupid, why are we even still here?” Bim’s faint aura was curled around him like a coat that was two sizes too big for him. Yan was poking at it inquisitively, making Bim swat at her hands. “Stop that.”

“It’s cool,” Yan smiled, not listening to him. “It’s like the Old Man’s. How long have you had that?”

“Dad has an aura too, you know,” Bim put his foot in-between her and his aura.

“Wil’s aura isn’t grey,” Illinois reminded.

Bim glared at Illinois, “You got something to say against Dad?”

“Not to your Dad, we need to get out of here,” Illinois reminded coldly.

“Yeah, whatever,” Bim grumbled, rolling his eyes.

Then all three of them went quiet and Illinois was thankful for the moment to think.

“Hey, Ills?” Bim started, his tone different.

“What?” Illinois took a self-calming breath.

“This a bad time to mention I’m hungry?” Bim admitted.

Illinois resisted the urge to bang his head on the bars, “What type?”

“The other one,” Bim replied.

“How bad?” Illinois turned to look at him, the younger brother still looked human which was good.

“A five,” Bim offered. “It was a two before they started messing with my aura.”

“Okay, okay, we’ll get you someone when we get out of here,” Illinois promised, despite wanting to bang his head against the bars and scream in frustration.

Anything else Illinois and Bim might have continued to talk about was stalled when the Host walked in, his bandages more than a bit stained with blood.

“Can we help you?” Bim asked, his tone more than a bit hostile, and his attention laser focused on the man’s blood.

Illinois had been studying the newcomer and some things stuck out. The long coat and bloody bandages, a sharp smile. Things that had plagued Arthur’s dreams as abstract and dark nightmares he’d confided in Illy before he ran away one day, and a figure that was stalking the young author’s mind. But there was something familiar about the person in front of him. “Author?”

“The Author is dead, the Host reawoke in his body,” the Host explained. “He encountered an enemy of the Entity’s that he should not have tried to fight alone.”

Yan stiffened as if she’d been shot or hit.

Bim chuckled a bit nervously, “Nah, come on, this asshole’s lying, there’s no way Artie’s actually dead, he was a tough piece ‘a shit.”

“As much as he would have appreciated such a barbed compliment,” the Host smiled, “the Author cannot come back. The Host is what remains.”

“So Host,” Illinois stayed between Host and his other two siblings. “You working with the heroes.”

“Yes,” Host answered. “He has been helping to keep the Entity out of the heroes’ base.”

“Why?” Illinois demanded.

“Because the Host has a conscious and no hero worship of the Entity,” the Host answered. “Unlike the Author or Illinois.”

“You here to gloat, then?” Illinois asked.

“Partially,” Host reassured, “however the main reason the Host is here now is to pass along a message from the Entity.”

“Really?” Illinois said in disbelief.

The Host gave a big smile, “Yes, the Host had the ability to speak and make a deal with the Entity from massacring the city’s police department in actuality instead of merely daydreaming about doing so.”

“So what’s the message then?” Yan asked.

“Three hours,” the Host told the three young enforcers.

“What?” Yan asked as Illinois didn’t dare break eye contact with the Host.

“The Entity will post bail for Illinois, Bim, and Yan,” the Host commented, “in exactly three hours from the time he made the deal with the Host. So the three siblings now have two hours and forty-five minutes.”

“You asshole,” Illinois spat, turning to gently nudge Yan off her chair. “Tell him we’ll do it in under one.”

The Host smiled, “The Host wishes them the best of luck. The heroes will not let them escape so easily.”

Turning, the Host left, his narrations following him out,

“Three hours?” Bim grumbled to Illinois. “Great, you’re not letting us take that are you?”

Illinois tapped the chair a couple times before slamming it onto the ground and breaking it into pieces, “You shouldn’t want to take it.”

The older enforcer handed a chair each to both Yan and Bim. Bim looked at it with disgust. “I want my knife.”

“We’ll worry about getting your knife after we get out of this cell,” he promised and then took the fourth chair leg and waited for a guard to come back into their cell to guard them before throwing the sharp piece of metal at him.

Silver was staring out towards the parking lot. Dark was standing out there, anyone who had attempted to approach him had been attacked. Now he was just out there, occasionally glancing at his watch. Oliver has nervously reported that Google was in the area before hiding behind Bing, but Silver hadn’t spotted him yet.

Eric was waiting by the door, glaring at Marvin who was readying one of the spikes that Chase had tried to use on Dark earlier.

“Okay so I know the first one didn’t work, but this one should do the trick,” Marvin smiled.

“Host said he won’t attack,” Silver reminded, still staring at Dark.

“Right, trust a demon, sounds like a great idea,” Marvin rolled his eyes, before looking at Eric. “Hey kid, yah know one ‘a his kids, anythin’ we should be aware ‘a?”

Eric’s glare became angrier.

“Hey, Marv, maybe you shouldn’t bring up the boyfriend,” Silver offered.

“His boyfriend’s an international criminal,” Marvin reminded.

“G-Go to hell!” Eric shouted at him.

“Eh, it’s a borin’ place,” Marvin dismissed. “Let me at Damien, I’ll pry Dark off of him.”

“At least wait until he attacks,” Silver ordered. “We need all the help we can get, including the element of surprise.”

The three of them stopped when they heard a scream from deeper into the station. Their communicators crackled to life.

“Fookin’ shite!” Chase yelled at someone on his side of the communicator. “He’s not fookin’ human, stop him.”

“Average, the hell’s goin’ on?” Marvin demanded.

“They’re escaping, an’ I think I know where Bim’s victims have been going,” Chase answered.

“Guard the door,” Silver told Marvin. “Anybody got eyes on them?”

“They’re headed your way, Silv,” Amy reported.

Sure enough Silver could see Illinois walking down the hallway, dusting off his hat.

“Illy!” Eric shouted in excitement.

“Hey, dulcito,” Illinois winked, pulling out what looked like a solid white baton from inside his hat, “you mind stepping away from them, I don’t want you hit on accident.”

“You need to go back to your cell,” Silver corrected, watching Yan and Bim walk over. The real concern was Bim, who had blood running down his chin and staining his suit, his pupils blown wide open and his suit a bit ripped up.

“You hit the one to the left, and I’ll stomp your ankle in,” Illinois threatened Bim.

“No promises,” Bim grinned, way too many sharp teeth to be anything close to human.

“Fine,” Illinois grumbled.

“How’d yah get out ‘a that cell?” Marvin demanded.

“It’s calibrated for Wil, not us,” Illinois answered. “Sorry about the mess we might have made of the place.

“Well I’ve been wanting to try out some new spells,” Marvin said.

Bim stiffened and arched his back, collapsing as he was jolted with a TASER round from Chase’s gun. Chase was bleeding from the head above his eye and his right arm was ripped and bleeding.

“Put that gobshite in a fookin’ straight jacket!” Chase ordered. “An’ a muzzle.”

Bim literally growled out, and Illinois was pulling the studs out as Silver rushed over.

“Come on, come on,” Illinois screwed his eyes shut and ducked.

When he ducked down, Chase pulled the trigger again, but his attention slipped at that second from Illinois to Silver and as a result Silver wound up with a TASER found right in the dead center of his face. It didn’t do any real damage, merely stunning the flying hero.

Silver screamed and Illinois shouted, “Run!”

Bim tried to run for the only person in the vicinity who was bleeding, but Illinois tugged him towards the door.

“No, we’re so close,” Illinois shouted. Bim hissed at him.

“Yer not goin’ anywhere,” Marvin told them, summoning up one of his giant playing card. Yan summoned her katana and dropped into a stance.

“Heads or tails?” Illinois shouted, flipping up a coin into the air.

“What?” Marvin asked in confusion, before just firing as much magic that he could at them, trying to trap them in place.

“Tails!” Illinois called out quickly. The magic beam hit the coin and magically redirected, wrapping around Marvin and the force throwing him out the window.

“Out!” Illinois was dumping what looked like rainbow colored chalk dust in a line on the ground. Silver slammed into some kind of a barrier made by the dust.

Yan was vaulting herself out the window and gasped in joy when she saw Dark.

Illinois breathed in relief when Bim had enough self control to jump through the window instead of attacking Eric.

Right before Illinois could jump through himself, he was grabbed and Eric slammed him into the wall.

“Hey, sweetie,” Illinois smiled at him.

“C-an’t just l-et you three l-leave,” Eric shrugged.

“Ahh, dulcito, you could have just asked for a goodbye kiss,” Illinois smiled, the two of them kissing before Illinois pulled out something that looked like a caulk gun and when he fired it, it shot out a glob of glue that stuck Eric to the wall.

“Illy!” Eric shouted in indignation.

“Sorry sweetheart, I know you got a job and all, and you’re going to be pissed when you find out what Bim did.”

Illinois jumped out the window and smiled at Marvin who was cursing violently.

“Nothing personal,” Illinois smiled. “We tried not to hurt your friends too much.”

“Fook yeh, yah right bastard,” Marvin spat.

Illinois tipped his hat and walked over to Dark, who was mostly ignoring Bim, who was yelling at Dark.

“Time,” Dark announced, looking at his watch as Illinois stopped in front of him. “Forty-five minutes.”

“We do good?” Yan smiled.

“If you were out here, why didn’t you come in to help?” Bim demanded.

“And what would you three have learned?” Dark commented dryly, before finally getting a good look at Bim. “Ahh, you must be hungry.”

“Obviously!” Bim shouted.

Wilford popped into existence, “Am I early?”

He gasped and hugged Yan, “How’d you enjoy your time, princess?”

“I stabbed a man,” Yan smiled, holding her katana up.

The madman laughed, “What about you, Junior?”

“I hated it,” Bim decided it,

“Maybe that will teach you why you need to be careful,” Dark was checking Illinois over as the Host walked out of the station.

“And everything worked out as promised,” the Host smiled.

“I kept my end of the bargain, are they here or not?” Dark growled.

“The Entity must not kidnap the King of the Squirrels or Yancy, unless they want to leave with him,” the Host warned.

“King of the—? Has Kay been the raving lunatic running around the park?” Dark thought on that for a couple seconds, “Fine, but if anything dangerous happens I’ll be forced to protect them how I see fit.”

“The heroes only think the Entity and Wilford are threats,” the Host reminded. “If the Entity will wait and listen, the heroes will not attack.”

Dark was quiet for a couple seconds before nodded, “We need to be quick, your brother is hungry and we’re all overdue to eat actual food.”

The Host nodded, the first thing he did was to help Marvin free himself, Dark summoning Damien’s cane so he would have something to do with his hands. Marvin was always glaring at Dark and Illinois in pure fury.

“Yah know yer kids’ are a pile of shite?” Marvin spat.

“Well there’s no need to be such a poor sport because they came prepared,” Dark smiled, proudly patting Illinois on the shoulder.

Dark became immediately distracted when Silver walked out with King and Yancy, Yancy looking more nervous than King. Something that seemed to make all the other heroes nervous in kind.

“I’ve heard you took over the park?” Dark asked King.

“I did,” King answered. “So stay the hell out of my park, Old Man.”

“Consider it your territory,” Dark promised, “now that I know that it’s yours and not one of those heroes.”

“I am one of the heroes, and I’d appreciate you treating me like one,” King insisted.

“I refuse to plan a way to kill you, full stop,” Dark refused. “The heroes do not deserve you.”

“Well I think they’re great and if you gave them a chance you might like some of them,” King responded.

“Come on, Darky,” Wil smiled, appearing behind King and Yancy, wrapping his arms around them. Both of them reflexively smiled at him. “Don’t they look like they’re having fun. They’re out here living life.”

“Hey, dad, nice to see you again,” King told Wil, rolled his eyes.

“Are they treating you right?” Dark demanded.

“Yeah, I like it there,” King insisted.

“And you would come home if that changed, right?” Dark demanded.

“Yes,” King promised.

“I’d go back ta prison,” Yancy answered.

“Over the Warden’s dead body,” Dark dismissed immediately, Yancy glaring at him.

“Speaking of which, you never talk about how you came into my care,” Dark reminded. “I thought we weren’t mentioning it.”

“We aren’t,” Yancy reminded sharply, but looked more that a bit confused. “I’s only told them about my other folks, not how I’s got ta youse guys.”

Dark looked thoughtful at that, leaning on his cane. “Interesting.”

He turned to look at Bim, “I think I know exactly what to pick up for you Bim. If you’ll be a little patient.”

“As long as I get someone’s heart by the end of it,” Bim hissed.

“Oh don’t worry, you will, we’ve got quite the nasty little mole in my network,” Dark said and opened up a tear in the Void. Wil dove in with Yan, Illinois and Bim following after him.

“I’m very hesitantly trusting you,” Dark reminded the Host. “Don’t let anything happen to them.”

“The Host would not let anything happen to them,” the Host promised.

Dark then turned to the other heroes. “Next time you arrest one of them again, I won’t be so patient.”

“You shouldn’t have raised wanton murderers then,” Silver spat back.

“I’m gonna find a way to banish you,” Marvin promised Dark.

Dark smiled, stepping backwards into the Void, it sent him to a slightly different location than the rest of his family so he could take care of Bim’s newest craving.

And clean house in the process.

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