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Registered User
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Posts: 1673
Join Date: Jan 2008
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The Master Manipulator lays his plans out for one final assault. He gathers Locust, Firefox, and Dark Eagle to his side. The Gunslinger was too badly wounded to be of anymore service so Dark Eagle had executed him shortly after their escape from the Superhuman Defense League.
“All right here is what will happen next. Midnight will be here soon enough if he picked up on my trail so I will stay here with Dark Eagle to finish things. Locust should assault Sentinel Tower with his insects to keep the other heroes occupied until I arrive, while Firefox is to find Franklin Harrier and give him my regards.”
Meanwhile Midnight has set aside everything he thought he knew and has taken up his father’s trail…
“Mark I think I’m going to need your help on this one, the $@#$%& is my father!”
“John what are you going on about?” Mainframe asks through the communicator “what about your father?”
“The Master Manipulator is my father and the cat-woman I was chasing was Trish. She’s already dead. Now I need to hunt him down before he causes anymore trouble. I want you to call detectives Stonecipher and Lawrence and have them meet us at 8011 Red Hibiscus Ave. I believe that is where my father is hiding out.”
“I’m on it John, I’ll be there shortly. I’ve already radioed Sentinel Tower to let them know of the threat so that they will be prepared.”
Midnight perches on top of a cathedral directly across the street from the supposed hideout of his father. He activates his night-vision lenses trying to peer through the darkened windows of the brick building. Gunfire erupts from street level and several bullets whiz by his head.
He leaps off the roof and extends his wrist blades as he dives toward the gunmen. Midnight slices through a semiautomatic rifle with one blade while he stabs the shooter in the arm with the other. The mafia thug lets out a sharp cry of pain as he drops the weapon.
A bullet pierces John’s right shoulder from a distance of no more than 10 feet behind him. The gunman steps forward with his submachine gun and fires another burst. Midnight somersaults out of the way and fires his grappler quickly climbing up to the roof of the hideout. Once there he rolls over the peak and down the other side of the roof out of direct sight in order to nurse his wound.
The Master Manipulator climbs to the roof and fires his homemade pistol. The acidic bullet strikes his left gauntlet causing it to melt. Midnight unfastened the gauntlet fast and tosses it over the edge of the roof before the acid could eat away at his flesh.
“It is time to die you S.O.B.!” Midnight yells at his father while removing his mask.
John Dark Sr. is startled for only a moment before his face settles into a mere look of amusement “so it is my very own son who hunts me. Oh look at the irony! My death caused you to wage your war on crime only to find out that I am one of the criminals! This is priceless.”
With that he fires his pistol again but John Jr. quickly dodges the bullet and closes the gap between them. The Master Manipulator activates a hidden button on his pistol altering it from gun to knife in mere seconds. With his acidic blade he slashes out toward Midnight trying to end the fight then and there.
Midnight uses his remaining wrist blade and deflects the blow knocking the dagger from his father’s hand.
Clutching John Sr.’s throat with his unarmored hand he places the blade to his forehead “you are nothing but scum!
Sirens blare below as detectives Stonecipher and Lawrence show up with a squad of police officers. The cops efficiently round up the other thugs while the detectives try and find a way up to the roof. Mainframe lands on the roof at the same instant and starts toward the two combatants.
“John, don’t do it. I know what he’s done is wrong but let the police take it from here. He is your father after all!”
“You better listen to him Johnny boy. You don’t want my blood on your hands do you? What would your poor deceased mother think?”
“Shut up! You have no right to even mention her! What would she think of you right now? Do you think she would condone all the things you’ve done?”
The Master Manipulator secretly presses a button on his belt while his son is screaming at him summoning his backup! Dark Eagle seems to simply appear as he fires off his own revolver. The bullet makes straight for John’s head but Mainframe intercepts it relying on his electromagnetic field to stop it. It doesn’t and the bullet pierces Mark’s skull as if it had went through paper. The computer hero falls over the edge of the roof and splatters on the pavement below.
In that instant true terror spreads across Midnight’s face. As he turned to face the Dark Eagle his own father stabs him with a blade hidden in his shirt sleeve. Arriving just seconds’ too late detectives Stonecipher and Lawrence shoot their one time boss and yell for Dark Eagle to surrender.
The mafia hit-man fires off a shot and turns to jump off the roof hoping to escape. The two detectives’ shoot at the same time and both shots are dead on. Dark Eagle plummets to his death, landing right beside Mainframe’s broken body.
Epilogue…
Saint Katherine’s Bay General Hospital...
“So you’re telling us over the last few months you’ve been masquerading as a vigilante” Tony Stonecipher asks while scribbling in his notebook?
“I know it sounds crazy guys believe me I know. But after what happened to my dad” here he made quotation signs with his fingers “I thought I had to do it in order to catch his killer. I wasn’t prepared for the truth.”
“Sorry we couldn’t tell you of our suspicions” Jake Lawrence spoke up “but the investigation was still open and we were both praying it wasn’t true.”
Tony nodded his agreement with that statement “you know with the proper training you would make an asset to the force. Are you sure you won’t take us up on the offer and join? We could use you to help clean up this town.”
“Sorry guys I’ve lost two friends in the short time I’ve been doing this. I think it’s time I travel the world for awhile and find my true purpose. Once I get out of here that is.”
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