Dean woke up the next morning with a headache. He sat up on the couch and rubbed the back of his neck. ‘God, sleeping on couches is annoying.’ He thought. Dean popped his neck and stood up. He walked into the bathroom and took a much-needed shower. When Dean got out, he saw that the clothes he was wearing were now tattered and ripped. ‘Damn, guess I’ll have to get some more.’ He decided not to use the portable closet because it had a limited wardrobe. Dean felt like if he was a hired gun, he should look the part. Luckily, there was a clothing store nearby. Dean walked downstairs and saw that Red was sitting on the couch. “You’re up early,” Dean said.
“I always am.” Red was reading what looked like a magazine for teenage girls.
“You know,” Dean said, “I don’t know how old you are. You kinda need to be a certain age to join the fixer business.”
“Oh, I’m 16.”
“And you only have one arm. What are you gonna do about that?”
“I might buy a prosthetic.”
Dean nodded his head and grabbed the keys to his car. “Where are you going?” Red asked.
“I'm gonna buy some more clothes.” Dean walked out the back door and walked to the garage. He got in his Mustang and drove down to the clothing store.
-----
Dean opened the door to the store with a “ding”. He saw the woman behind the counter. She has curly red hair and was around 5” 5’. Dean walked to the back and saw a couple of three-piece suits that looked nice, but there was a suit that caught Dean’s attention. It was a black and red three-piece suit with a golden accent. He looked at the price tag and cringed. ‘10,000 credits? What a scam.’
Using the money Angelo so kindly provided to him, Dean decided to buy the suit. He pulled it off the rack. Dean then walked over to the masks so he could see what was for sale. Dean was looking through the masks when he heard the door ding with the sound of a new customer walking inside the store. Dean looked over the rows of clothes and saw three boys wearing academy uniforms walk inside. The one in the middle had blonde hair down to his shoulders and green eyes. Dean estimated his height to be around 6 feet. The one on the right side of the blonde kid was a brown-haired boy with brown eyes, around 5’ 11”. The one on the left was a kid with Black hair and blue eyes, around 6 feet.
When they walked into the store, Dean instantly recognized the kids, they were the ones in the photos. ‘Talk about good luck,’ Dean thought. They were standing in the same formation as the photo which made it easy to recognize who was who. Dean saw the kids named Johnny and Walter split off away from Richard, who was flirting with the cashier. Dean grabbed a kitsune mask off of one of the shelves and started to creep towards the cashier. Dean walked past Johnny and Walter while making his way to the cashier. Dean walked up to the cashier and slammed the clothes on the counter. Without shame, Richard continued to flirt with the cashier. Dean, realizing the cashier was now uncomfortable, interrupted. “Hey kid,” Dean said, “Shut the hell up.”
“Excuse me?” Richard said.
“Did you not hear me?” Dean asked, “I told you to shut up.”
“You know I’m from the Sardegna marquisate right?”
“I could care less.”
“Because you're a fixer or something.”
Dean turned to face Richard, “Exactly. What are you gonna do about it?”
Richard began to go red with anger, “You’ll regret talking to me this way!”
“Is that a threat?” Dean asked, “Because you will regret it.”
The cashier rang up Dean and he paid the money. He walked out of the store and instantly hopped on top of the building. ‘Might as well seize the opportunity.’ Dean sat on top of the building until the trio walked out of the store. Dean walked along the rooftops and followed them to the academy. Fortunately, the kid named Walter split off from the group. Dean decided to follow him until he walked into an alleyway. At the end of the alleyway, Dean saw a hooded figure hand Walter something. The hooded figure walked away first, giving Dean the perfect opportunity. Dean hopped down from the roof and stood at the exit of the alley. Walter looked up, “Who are you?”
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“Depends on what you have there,” Dean said.
“That’s none of your business.”
“Wrong answer.” Dean snapped his fingers, and a pack of wolves came out of a black portal. “Don’t kill him,” Dean said, “I need him alive.” Dean saw Dimitri nod and led the pack to attack Walter. Dean thought Walter was going to use magic but was surprised when he didn’t and pulled out a sword. ‘He doesn’t have magic.”
Dean started to laugh maniacally at this new revelation. “You don’t have magic!” Dean snapped his fingers and the pack of wolves disappeared. At first, Walter was confused. That was until Dean started to put on some gloves. “What do you want?” Walter asked.
“I was hired to kill you,” Dean said bluntly, “I hope you will cooperate.” Dean used his gloves and formed a pair of knuckle dusters.
“You’re gonna use that?” Walter asked, “When I have a sword?”
“It’s all in the technique.” Dean then zipped in front of Walter. Reflexively, Walter swung his sword down on Dean. Dean threw a punch at the sword, colliding his fist with the blade. Dean watched as Walter’s face turned to despair when the sword broke, allowing Dean’s fist to collide with his face. Walter fell to the floor and tried to crawl away from Dean. Unfortunately for Walter, Dean wasn't having it. He grabbed Walter’s leg and proceeded to hyperextend the knee. Walter cried out in pain but was cut short due to Dean casting a spell, Nihil.
“I can’t have you screaming and letting everyone know what’s going on,” Dean said, “Hey Nancy, can you take him back to the house please?”
Nancy came out of a portal and nodded her head. She dragged Walter into the portal and disappeared. Dean walked out of the alley and went back to the clothing store so he can drive home
-----
Dean pulled up to his home and got out of the car. Dean turned around when he heard a banging noise coming from his trunk. Dean walked back to the car and opened the trunk to Walter crying and kicking around.
“What the hell Nancy! I said take him home, not put him in my trunk.”
“He got here didn’t he?” Nancy said, walking out of the house.
Dean face-palmed as he put Walter in his shoulder and brought him to a shed behind the house.
Dean snapped his fingers using Nihil to cancel the sound coming from the shed. Dean grabbed a chair from the corner of the shed and tied Walter to it. Dean canceled the spell on Walter’s mouth and smiled. “You can scream now.”
Walter screamed for help at the top of his lungs, and Dean just laughed. “You know no one will hear you right?”
Dean laughed again when he saw the sliver of hope that was on Walter’s face disappear.
“Boss,” Nancy said, “May I ask why you are resorting to torture tactics?”
“Well, he did rape and kill an innocent girl. I feel like I’m obligated to torture him. At east a little bit.”
“Wait, how do you know that?” Walter asked.
“I told you I was hired to kill you right? Did you think I wouldn’t research my target?” Dean laughed for the third time.
“Hey Nancy, can you grab me some torture devices?” Nancy nodded her head and disappeared inside a portal.
“While she’s doing that, I’ll start breaking your bones.” Dean grabbed Walter’s fingers and started to break them at each joint, one at a time. Walter screamed in pain as Dean went from one finger to the next. Dean then went to the elbows and shattered them. Walter screamed even louder. “Shut up,” Dean said, “I haven’t even gotten to the worst part.” Dean then formed some knuckle dusters on his hands and shattered Walter’s shoulders, practically turning them to dust.
After Dean had turned the bones in Walter’s arms to dust, Dean started to destroy Walter’s legs. By the time Nancy returned, Walter’s limbs had become dust.
“You do realize he’s passed out, right?”
“He just did,” Dean said, “Now give me a bucket of water.” Nancy filled up a bucket of water, and Dean threw the water on Walter’s face, jolting him awake. Walter looked around until he recognized where he was. Dean grabbed a pair of pliers from the table and started to pull out Walter’s teeth. Walter tried to shake his head, but Nancy appeared behind his and grabbed his head. Dean pulled out all of Walter’s teeth as slowly as possible while Walter was screaming in pain. Dean then grabbed a rag from the table and got it wet. He flipped Walter and the chair down and put the wet rag on Walter’s face. Dean then grabbed another bucket of water and started to pour it on Walter’s face, waterboarding him. Walter shook his head violently trying to avoid the water on his face. After a couple of minutes, Dean grabbed the rag off of Walter’s face and sat him up.
Dean then grabbed a pair of jumper cables that were connected to a large batter across the room. Dean silently approached Walter, as Walter was trying to get out of the chair. Dean clamped the jumper cables to Walter and watched him shake violently as the electricity started to course through Walter.
Walter seized for at least 10 minutes before Dean stood up and took the cables off of him.
“He is now dead,” Nancy said. She turned around and saw Dean with a sadistic smile on his face.
“Well that was fun,” Dean said, “Now time for phase two.”
-----
[The Next Morning]
Nick was walking down to the grocery store when he saw a crowd of people surrounding a wall. Intrigued, Nick walked through the crowd to see what the commotion was about. Nick pushed through the crowd and saw police tape surrounding a gruesome sight. It was a boy from the academy hung upside-down in the shape of an upside-down cross. Nick recognized the boy instantly, it was Walter, one of the kids that violated his daughter. Above Walter was two words written in blood, “One Down”.