Second Sin: Little Red and The Wolf (Part 5)- Questioning Mercer's Plans And Sanity

--- Mercer ---

Not even three steps from entering the house he found a pair of angry silver eyes looking at him. “Have you heard any word about the guy yet?”

“Nope.” He admitted shamelessly.

“Gah, this would’ve been faster if we just went looking on our own.” Scarlet growled in frustration.

“Nope.” He repeated.

Scarlet gave him a look. “What do you mean ‘nope’?”

“I mean, you’re wrong.” He explained bluntly as he walked around her and towards the kitchen. “Take it from someone who has in fact searched an entire district for one person, it is not that easy. Especially since while he’s most likely in some remote warehouse or abandoned building -of which we could scour relatively quickly- most of those buildings have one crime, mask hideout, or etcetera going on inside. Meaning we’d have to kick about twenty hornets' nests to find the guy. And while normally I have no problem doing that, I’m a little under equipped to purposely trigger a Hell Night. Go get your sister.”

“Why?” The protective elder -(or I assume she’s the elder)- sister frowned.

He blinked before telling her, “Because I brought food.” as he shook the boxes in his hands.

Scarlet stared at him for a moment before shaking her head. “Whatever.”

--- Bell ---

“So, um, what are you working on?” She asked Mercer curious, given how he’d sat down shortly after handing her and Scarlet their food -(That isn’t made from someone else!)- and began messing with the black helmet he’d gotten from somewhere.

Mercer paused for a moment, seemingly thinking about something before explaining that, “Most of my stuff was blown up when they blew up my old house so I’m working on chipping away at my kit until I get back to form.”

“I see…” She nodded, before glancing at her sister who seemed to be attacking her food as if she was scared it would run away if she didn’t. (Which with your usual eating habits is more than likely.)

She shook her head, before trying to continue the conversation so her other-selves wouldn’t.

“Um, what exactly do you, uh, need to get… ‘back to form’?”

“A shit ton.” Mercer snorted before sighing as he continued to work. “Helmet needs some programming stuff I can’t get a hold of without a dedicated programmer as well as a bunch of filtration pieces. Then of course I’ve got to fix the various engines on my grapplers so that I can actually quick-zip around and use them in a fight instead of just swinging around. But since I’m working from scratch I’ll also have to get a new set of Hellraisers, but I can probably get Clockwork to make me those for a couple of favors. And lastly my jacket is just a thick piece of cloth until I add some plating or get some more durable material, and of course I can’t get my Aerogel composite any time soon since that thing costs an arm and a leg to make wholesale rather than just replacing used plates.”

Mercer paused there, gaining an annoyed look. “Actually, now that I think about it, I really want to know what the fuck happened to my jacket since that thing was borderline indestructible and I could not find it anywhere in the wreckage.”

“That’s… that’s a lot.” She admitted, not really following half of what he said but knowing that it did indeed sound like a lot.

“It’s not a lot, it’s a shit ton.” Mercer corrected her. “That’s slightly more than a lot but also less than a ‘fuck ton’. Well unless we’re using the metric system, but America uses the imperial system so… a shit ton is less.”

And… he lost her. (She thought he was joking but after spending a couple days with him she couldn’t actually be sure.)

“And that should do it.” Mercer nodded before clicking something inside of the helmet and making a glowing red skull flash onto the helmet’s black screen. “Basic electronics are a go.”

“Um, what exactly did you do?” She asked as the red skull flashed off.

“Helmet came with a camera by default, but I had to replace the visor with a one way screen and then jury rig some stuff to make it so I can flash my emblem without hindering the camera’s view with the glare.” Mercer explained before shrugging. “Well technically I’ll still have some glare and the screen drains the battery a little quickly, but that’s all stuff I can fix when I add the filtration system’s battery. At which point all I’ll need to do is add some emergency explosives and it’ll be good as new.”

“I s- did you say explosives?” She blinked.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Yeah.” Mercer nodded calmly as if he didn’t plan to-

“You’re putting explosives next to your head?” Scarlet asked, seeing the same problem she did.

“Uh-huh.” Mercer nodded as he finally began eating from his plate. “If someone manages to get my helmet off, I can kill them with a primed detonator before they can get a kill shot off.”

“I… I can’t tell if that’s really smart or really stupid.”

Mercer merely shrugged as if he didn’t care one way or the other.

--- Mercer ---

“Mercer you there?” His helmet chimed shortly after he and the girls had finished eating.

“Yeah, what’d you find?” He asked after slipping his helmet on.

“Alright, after combing through a lot of cameras in the area I think I’ve found the building this Romulus guy is working out of.” Kinsley answered, before his phone started chiming that he’d gotten a message. (Meaning it’s reached the end of its warranty and needs to be replaced.) “He seems to be based out of this old animal shelter that was shut down for supplying a dog fighting ring, years before the place was bought by its current owner.”

He opened the files and found a pin for his map marking a building on the edge of the city’s diamond district, as well as several video clips of vehicles full of suited men and women stopping in front of the building’s side entrance, though unfortunately at an angle the cameras can’t see them actually unloading their cargo.

“Looks good.” He admitted, guessing that the photos in the final photo were supposed to be Romulus.

“Maybe but unfortunately whatever they summoned escaped too far back for me to check the city’s footage.” Kinsley sighed in a way that told him she was massaging her temples to ease her frustrations. “Meaning we’ve still got no leads on what monster these guys let loose.”

“Correction, it leaves us with one lead on what monster this dumbass let loose.” He told her. “Just means once I’ve made sure the kids are safe, I need to have a… beating? Yeah, a beating with me, Rommie, and a crowbar.”

“He’s no good to us if he can’t talk.” Kennedy felt the need to warn him.

To which he couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “I’ve been in the game, how long now? I’m not stupid enough to kill someone before I get an answer out of them.” (On purpose anyway.)

“Mercer.” Kennedy said in a warning tone.

“Kin-Ken.” He said in a light hearted tone.

After a moment he sighed with another roll of his eyes. “Fine, I promise that unless he is actively sacrificing and/or torturing children -which would be legal defense of a minor- I will not kill this Romulus guy… while we’re working together. If he comes at me in vengeance I’m taking him out.”

He was not stupid enough to leave a promise without an end date or escape clause. (Not after that bullshit with the fae.)

Eventually Kennedy ended up sighing on her end as well. “I guess that’s the best I’m getting out of you.”

“Yeah, it is.” He agreed, having been expecting this to be a line between them. (Just like it always is…)

“Alright, then you should get going, the longer Romulus is out there the worse he can make this situation.” Kinsley told him.

“Yeah, I’ll grab my gear and head that way.” He nodded, relieved that she decided not to use the virus she (absolutely) slipped onto his phone with those case files to take back the information she’d given him. (Still going to get rid of the phone though.)

Turning his comm off, he made his way to the living room where DeWolf was still passed out on the couch. A problem easily resolved by -literally- kicking him off of said couch.

“Wh-wha?” The detective blinked before leaping to his feet with a pair of glowing eyes.

“We’ve got our lead, figured you’d want to tag along for the final stretch.”

---

“Okay, so this Romulus guy is responsible for the kidnappings, because he’s trying to find some eldritch… thing that disguises itself as a child, that he screwed up and let loose on the city.” DeWolf summarized as they made their way to the location Kinsley had given him.

“That’s the sum of it.” He nodded, checking his phone as they neared the shelter.

“Great, just what this city needed.” The detective groaned. “A monster that disguises itself as the one thing even this city considers off limits.”

“No different than that one Necromancer with the Dead-Kids.” He pointed out.

DeWolf grimaced at that reminder. “And there are the repressed memories about Deadmen children.”

“Technically they weren’t Deadman.” He felt the need to clarify. “The guy who resurrected them was actually a shit Necromancer and used this summoning thing to have a bunch of lesser demons possess their corpses.”

“And that is so much less horrifying.” DeWolf told him dryly.

“Eh, it’s like a… four maybe a five on my fucked-up-o-meter.” He admitted. “Honestly, I’m just glad the demons were mischievous rather than murderous and… other things I don’t want to associate with children.”

“Yeah, that. That is why I will never be a Mask or Hunter.” DeWolf sighed with a shake of his head. “Especially not one based out of this city. I mean, what’s it say that just by living here, zombie kids attacking people are a seven on the ‘I’ve seen some shit’ scale?”

“That… you're a wussy?” He answered easily before pausing. “Well that or you're not a part of this city.”

DeWolf scoffed. “I’m as stuck in this hellhole as you and you know it.”

“True.” He nodded, before turning back to the girls who were staring at him and DeWolf with something resembling horror. (Weird.) “Okay, so the shelter this guy is based out of should be right around the corner. I figure since we’re working with more people than I’m used to we should probably plot out what exactly we’re going to do before going into the building.”

“And what um, what exactly are we going to be doing?” Bell asked nervously, as he was reminded why he’d have left her behind if he didn’t have to worry about Scarlet.

“No idea.” He freely admitted. “Usually, I do this kind of thing by myself so… I’m open to suggestions.”