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-Moments earlier-

A large white van with dark-tinted windows pulled up across the street from Wanda’s shop. A twitchy bloke, who had been wringing his hands together nearby, breathed a sigh of relief.

The van’s driver got out and made his way around to the back of the van. He was dressed in white armour, with a wolf emblem imprinted above his heart. The driver and the man who had been waiting nodded to each other. The driver then gave the back of the van two bangs with his fist before opening the door and stepping in. He gestured for the other man to follow.

Inside the van, including the driver, were the four members of the Church of the Wolf's black ops team, all dressed in the same white body armour. They were busy preparing weapons and adjusting their armour. The one-eyed leader of the team turned to the newcomer and spoke, “Brother Charlie, report."

“Captain Wolfe, sir, I tracked the target to this witchcraft store. He hasn’t left yet. As far as I can tell, he’s in there alone with the owner. A woman named Wanda,” Charlie, the lookout said.

“Good work. I want you in charge of the van when we enter. Pierre, Give him the keys,” the leader ordered the driver, “Keep the engine running and wait for us,”

Charlie took the keys from Pierre, the driver, and saluted, “You can count on me, sir! Are you going in right away?”

“Not yet, we’re expecting contact from the head priest any moment now,” right on cue, a screen on the side panel of the van lit up, indicating an incoming message. The Leader pressed the button on the screen and spoke, "This is Wolfe."

The screen showed an extreme close-up of head priest Roy's forehead, "Why can't I see anything?" He asked. The camera shifted from his forehead to up his nostril, "Is it working?" Off-camera, muffled instructions to hold the camera further back could be heard. The camera shifted again, now pointing at the ceiling, "Ah there you are, Wolfe. Can you see me?"

"Perfectly, head priest, sir," Wolfe lied, "We're outside the building the target is in now, awaiting your instructions."

"Did you know I was the one who told everyone he'd go to Chook's Creek? I saw the newspaper he left on his computer and I said to everyone, “I bet he's gone to see the circus,” It's every child's dream, you see. That’s why I told you and your team to camp out there for so long. I bet you thought I was wrong, didn't you? It may have taken weeks, yet there he is hohoho."

"We never doubted you for a second, head priest.” Wolfe lied again, “Regarding the target, what are your orders?" Wolfe’s years of combat experience really shone when he displayed his ability to keep the head priest on topic.

"Good, good. Don't worry, the ones who DID doubt me will be found and punished. About the boy, go in there and capture him, alive. I’m coming to collect him personally right now, so have him ready before I get there. Wolfe, this is important: DO NOT KILL HIM. Do you hear me? We need him alive."

"Understood sir, we have the tranquilisers as you requested," Wolfe said, giving his team a look.

"Good. I provided you those tranquillisers. So don't mess up and blame the equipment, Wolfe. If you fail, there will be consequences! Do you understand!?"

Wolfe could hear, but not see Roy's seriousness. His own face, he kept perfectly neutral, "Of course, head priest. We will not fail you. We will report back upon completion of our mission. Safe travels. We will await your arrival.

"By the way, I'm bringing a very special guest with me," the camera shook about again, "Don’t embarrass us, Wolfe. Now, how do I turn this thing off?" The call abruptly ended.

Wolfe turned to his team, "Ok, you heard the head priest, we are to capture the target with non-lethals and await his arrival. Sounds like he's bringing the Matriarch herself along,"

The others gulped.

"Ingrid and Poindexter will breach the front with me. Pierre, you'll circle around and come in through the back. Charlie, be ready in case we need to give chase. Everyone, understand your orders?" Nods came from everyone in the van, "Good, lock and load! Move out!"

🎣Wally🎣

-Back in the present-

“Don't move! Put your hands in the air, Tomas!”

Wanda screamed; everybody flinched.

“Shut up!” the closest man shouted, swinging his rifle in her direction.

She shut up, so the man returned his aim to Wally. All three intruders, two men, and one woman were pointing their barrels at him. They were dressed in all-white body armour, white boots and even their rifles were white. It must have been hell to wash them, “I said put your hands in the air, Tomas!”

Wally looked around behind him, just in case they were talking to someone else, “Me?” he turned back and asked, pointing at himself with the hanger.

“He's got a weapon! Put it down!” The man shouting was obviously the leader. He was the most eye-catching of the three. An impressive scar ran down one side of his face over his right eye which was ruined and milky in colour. Spittle flew out his mouth as he shouted, “Put it down or we WILL open fire!!”

Wally looked disgusted at the spit flying everywhere. His ears ached, “Too many noisy buggers blowing hot air at me today,” he complained. The two intruders behind flinched, but the leader held steady. Wally stumbled a step forward and waved the hanger about in front of himself, “It’sh not a weapon, ya goober. Look!”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

His harsh words and sudden movements proved to be too much for the man directly behind the leader, he let out a scream as he pulled down on the trigger.

Time slowed to a standstill. Am I about to die again? Twice in the same day? NO! Wally felt anger rise up and take over his body. He didn't want to die again, he wouldn't! Not if his stubbornness had anything to say about it.

In extreme slow motion, Wally watched a tranquiliser dart, not a bullet, shoot out of the man's gun. His power surged out from his soul and his body moved before he had time to register what he was doing.

A coat hanger can be many things. For example, moments ago, the hanger was a fishing rod prop in the hands of a master actor. During his earlier performance, his audience (Wanda) had become so entranced that she had actually forgotten that it wasn’t a real fishing rod. His powers had made it so.

A hanger could also pretend to be a wooden sword. Quite a dangerous weapon if it were in the hands of a swordmaster. Legends say that swordmasters are able to hold such focus that they can slow their perception of a moment in time to a standstill and slice bullets, mid-air.

But enough digression, back to Wally getting shot:

Whipping through the air, the hanger’s hook connected with the dart mid-flight. The dart was deflected off its path and flew by the left side of Wally's face, missing by mere millimetres. It connected with the dragon statuette on the table.

Many things happened at the same time. The statuette shattered into tiny pieces. Wanda began screaming. The man who had fired dropped his rifle and dashed towards Wally. Apparently, they only had one dart per rifle, weird weapon to bring.

The one-eyed leader growled at the noise and fired his dart rifle. Wally effortlessly deflected the second dart with an upwards strike. The dart flew into the ceiling and knocked down several dream catchers.

“What are you doing to my shop!?” Wanda screamed, stunning everyone.

Wally’s aching ears gave him an idea. He drew a deep breath and unleashed his own sonic weapon, "Flick off, ya lemon-sucking goat heaps!"

The words hit the intruders like a physical blow from a sledgehammer. The man charging Wally stumbled to a stop. The woman taking aim was so drastically affected that she lowered her rifle and fell to one knee clutching her chest. Tears welled up in her eyes. It was written all over her face that she had never been so offended before in her life.

After shaking his head, the one-eyed man closest to Wally went nuts, his whole face turning red. He screamed and launched himself at Wally. Wally stepped sideways and swung his coat hanger in a diagonal arc. The hanger's hook pierced straight into the man’s one functioning eye and ripped it clean out of the socket. Then, with a graceful, twirl, Wally avoided the now-blind man’s charge like a bullfighter.

Wally gasped and looked down at the eyeball hooked onto his coat hanger, “Oh damn. Hey mate, I gotcha eye here.”

The now blind leader stumbled into the cd shelf, screaming, and somehow turned the didgeridoo music up louder.

The didgeridoos snapped the second man out of his stupor. He had just been standing about, shocked upon seeing his leader’s eye ripped out. Announced his attack with a roar, he too ran forward, head down, in a low tackle.

Wally felt hesitant to swing at him with the hanger, lest he cause more irreversible harm. So instead, took a step back, and kicked his slippered foot straight up into the man’s throat.

It connected with a crunch. The man lost all strength instantly, but his momentum kept him tumbling forward toward Wally. Unable to dodge sideways as he had done before, Wally fell backwards, letting the man crash into him. They fell into a jumble on the floor. The man was struggling to breathe while Wally struggled to push him off, “Get off me, ya fat lump!” he complained.

Wanda, who had been screaming and complaining about her store the whole time, decided it was time to flee out the back door. To her great surprise, she ran full speed straight into a fourth invader who must have made his way in through the back of her shop and was about to enter through the same door Wanda was rushing through. He was a small person, and Wanda was not, so physics did its thing and bounced the man backwards, like a rubber ball, flying back the way he'd come. His head flew hard into a concrete wall a few metres behind the exit door and he slumped unconscious.

Wanda screamed louder.

Back in the shop, the last uninjured invader had finally shaken off Wally’s verbal attack. Tears stained her face as she picked up her tranquilliser gun and tried to take a shot. Her suffocating teammate was in the way, however, “Get off him, Poindexter! Gimme a clear shot!” She shouted.

The recently blinded leader got to his feet. He stumbles forwards, teeth grit in fury. An unfortunate side effect of Wally’s curse words was that they had turned the man savage. He was out for blood no matter the cost. He could hear the sounds of struggling on the floor nearby. Stepping towards them he screamed, “Die!” and kicked out towards the sound. The attack scuffed Wally’s head.

“Ow! Damn. Stop kicking! Don’t shoot!” From the floor, Wally hurled the hanger, eyeball still attached, around the choking man on top of him. The eyeball flew true, hitting the woman who had just lined up a shot, square in the face. She jerked back in disgust and pulled the trigger. The shot missed Wally and instead pierced the blind leader's thigh.

She cursed loudly, “Damn you, Tomas!!!”

The team leader only grunted when the dart hit him, but didn’t stop his assault. He kicked wildly, clocking Wally in the head twice more. Without any Hooked tool in hand, Wally was just an ordinary, skinny drunk guy, unable to defend himself well. Fortunately, after the second kick, the leader stumbled back, finally succumbing to the tranquilliser, falling limp to the floor moments later.

Red-faced, and shaking with fury, the woman pulled something out from behind her back and made her way forward. Wally's head was ringing. He frantically tried struggling out from under the now-unconscious man he had kicked in the throat earlier. Just as he managed to finally wriggle his way free, the woman showed up and jammed a taser into his side, unleashing fifty thousand volts into his body.

"Toad-faced son of the devil!" Wally screeched, his body convulsing.

The supernatural words jerked the lady back with a wince. She screamed in agitation and shut Wally up by punching him in the face with her free hand. She then jabbed the taser back into his side to finish the job.

*GONG*

A heavy object smashed into the back of the woman's skull, ending her screams. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she dropped to the ground unconscious. Only the sound of didgeridoo music remained. All the invaders were now silent and defeated.

Wally looked up to see his saviour. Wanda towered above him, holding the cracked remnants of the crystal ball from her table. She stared down at the three passed-out invaders with a look of pure spite, “The police are on their way. You are going to pay for damaging my shop!” She screamed at them. Then fixing her gaze upon Wally, she added, “And you! You are going to give Tomas his body back. He has some explaining to do before he pays up as well!”