Pieces #12: Shattered Part One
Jun. 10th, 2017 07:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflyslinkybutterflyslinky lady_sci_fi for betaing.Craig drained his glass and waved to the bartender for the tab. He needed to get home—he was already late, though he doubted either Spoony or Linkara would notice. They were both busy with their own projects, which was why they hadn’t accompanied him to the bar tonight.
It was just as well. Craig loved his boys, more than anything, but they had both been rather snappish lately since they had so much on their plates. Well, so did Craig, truth be told, but it was just his usual workload. Linkara was trying to get Comicron-One repaired, and Spoony had been on a month-long work binge to try to have a good backlog of videos to release soon. Between the two of them, Craig had been run ragged trying to keep them happy (well…functional), and he was grateful to have a night off. He certainly felt more relaxed. Maybe he’d be able to convince one of the others to actually sleep tonight. He was not optimistic enough to assume he could get them both to bed, though he would try.
He paid his bill and stood up to leave. As he exited the building and rounded a corner, a pair of large hands grabbed him and pulled him back into an alley.
“Hey!” Craig yelped as he was dragged down the alley. It was too dark to see his attacker. “The fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“Oh, Craig,” someone said softly. Craig froze. He knew that voice, and the dark figure that appeared out of the darkness. “Did you really think we’d forget?”
“How did you find me?” Craig gasped.
“You weren’t hard to find,” the man said. “You plaster yourself all over the internet…new name or not, tracking you down hasn’t been a challenge.”
“Why now?” Craig asked. “Why wait all these years to come after me?”
He couldn’t see the man’s face, but he could feel the scowl. “You were lucky we got jail time,” the man said. “It kept us from coming sooner…but that’s over. It’s time for revenge, Craig.”
Someone punched Craig hard in the stomach. He doubled over and received another punch to the face. The man holding him jerked him up and held him in place as more and more blows fell on him, hitting his chest and stomach. He coughed, his vision swimming…
“Don’t kill him yet,” the leader said. “We’ve got a lot more fun to have with him.”
Craig felt himself being dragged away, then lifted and tossed into what he could only assume was the back of a van. He heard a door slam and then he blacked out.
*
Linkara staggered down the hall. He was about to go collapse into bed when he noticed the light was still on in Spoony’s room. He dragged himself over and pushed open the door. “Still working?” he asked.
“Trying to,” Spoony snapped. “Fucking assholes…”
“Has Craig come in yet?”
“If he has, he hasn’t bothered me. He’s probably already asleep.”
“He wouldn’t go to sleep without trying to get one of us to go with him.” Spoony didn’t look back, but he knew Linkara was frowning in thought. “Do you think he’s okay?”
“He probably just ran into a friend and is still talking,” Spoony said. “You know how he seems to know everyone. He’ll be back soon.” He did glance back then. “You look exhausted. Go to sleep.”
“If I’m exhausted, so are you,” Linkara said. “We’ve been working for the same amount of time.”
“I’m fine,” Spoony said.
“Spoony.” There was no arguing with that tone. “If we go to sleep now, Craig will be saved the trouble of nagging us when he gets back.”
Spoony sighed, sounding exasperated but not actually angry. “Let me save this,” he said, hitting a few keys. A few minutes later, he stood up. “All right, we can go to bed.”
Linkara gave him a small smile and stumbled over to the bed. He pulled off his hat, shoes, glasses, vest and tie before he fell onto it. Spoony chuckled and went over, curling up next to Linkara and kissing his cheek. “Think he’ll find us?”
“He will,” Linkara murmured. “Leave room for him.” They shifted until there was space for another person on Linkara’s other side. “Good night, Spoony.”
Spoony hummed and soon both were fast asleep.
*
When Craig came to, he was sitting up. He groaned—his entire body ached from the beating he’d received and it took several minutes for his brain to recalibrate enough to figure out where he was.
It seemed to be some sort of storage room, dimly lit by a bare light bulb overhead. There were boxes piled all around him, a few odds and ends scattered around. Craig was tied to a chair, because of course he was, and he seemed to be alone. He groaned again and spat out a mouthful of blood.
“Oh, good, you’re awake.” Craig turned his head to see a small, dark and unpleasant man step out from behind a stack of boxes, followed by two other, larger men. “Do forgive my boys…they tend to play a bit too rough.”
Craig growled. “What do you want, Scott?”
Scott laughed. “Oh, good, you do remember me,” he said. “I was rather afraid you’d forgotten your old associates.” His smile grew more unpleasant. “As to what I want, I want you to suffer. I want you to pay for every year you made me spend behind bars. I want you to be begging for mercy before I finally kill you.” He turned abruptly. “But that won’t be for a while. And I do intend to make a profit from it…you did cost me quite a lot of money. Lawyers’ fees and all.”
“You can’t make profit out of me,” Craig said. “I gave up on that life.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” Scott said. “Gave up on that life, and now you’re living a nice, normal life in the suburbs with two very nice young men.” He grinned at Craig’s look of shock. “Oh, yes, I know about them.” Scott reached past a stack of boxes and produced a laptop. He hit the space bar and turned it so Craig could see the screen.
And there they were, the three of them. That vlog they had made months ago, announcing their relationship. Craig blinked back tears as he saw Linkara kiss him and Spoony crawl up beside them, all three so happy and jokey…
“I would hate for something to happen to them,” Scott said conversationally.
“If you touch them…”
“Oh, I won’t,” Scott said. “But you were saying there couldn’t be any profit out of you. But I think there could be.”
Craig swallowed. “We don’t have money,” he said. “I mean…we get by, but we aren’t rich.”
“None of you?” Scott asked. “Your house looks very nice in the video where you show it off.”
“Spoony inherited it,” Craig mumbled. “I don’t know how, but he did. We don’t have money, none of us. Believe me, I’ve seen their Patreons.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Scott said. “I’m sure they could scrape up enough money to get you back…your fans would help. What do you think?”
“But you just said you were going to kill me.”
“I am.” Scott smirked. “But then I need to make a clean getaway. And I need money for that. Don’t worry…I’ll return your body.”
Craig closed his eyes. He couldn’t do that to them. God please, he thought. Don’t make them go through that.
*
Spoony yawned and stretched. The bed was empty, but he could feel the warmth from the other side and he could smell the coffee from downstairs. He smiled; no doubt Linkara and Craig would be cooking breakfast together already, like they usually did.
Spoony got out of bed and changed his shirt before heading downstairs. Linkara was in the kitchen, but there was no sign of their other partner anywhere.
“Craig gone out again?” Spoony asked, taking a seat at the table.
“He never came in,” Linkara said. “I would guess he went to his own bed and is still asleep.”
Spoony glanced at the clock. “It’s almost noon. He’s usually up much earlier than this.”
“Must have come in super late,” Linkara said. “He’ll be down soon, I’m sure.”
“Right.” Spoony got up as the coffee maker finished. “Working again today?”
“Don’t have much choice,” Linkara answered. “Cataloguing the damage is taking forever, even with Nimue’s help and all hands on deck.”
“Sucks, dude.”
“You working as well?”
“I was going to play more Final Fantasy 14, but I can come up if you need an extra pair of hands.”
“Nah, we’ve got it. And no offense, but you’re not exactly qualified to do any repairs on a spaceship, even if it’s just cataloging.”
“Have you asked Insano for help?”
“Yeah, and he said he’d come have a look sometime next week, he’s busy right now. I’ve already had half the crew from the Exit Strategy come up to help and we’ve made some progress, but it’s just a really big ship. It’ll probably take months just to finish fully assessing the damage, let alone repairing it.”
“Well, let me know if I can do anything,” Spoony said.
Linkara brought plates of eggs and bacon over to the table. “Might have you look at some of the smaller components when we start taking them out,” he said. “But I know space travel isn’t your favorite thing in the world.”
“Yeah, well, the last time I went into space, my subconscious exploded and the world almost ended. Tends to fuck with your perceptions of space.”
Linkara hummed thoughtfully. They finished breakfast in silence. As Spoony stood up to do the dishes, he glanced at the clock and frowned. “You sure Craig’s still asleep?”
“I would guess so.” Linkara glanced at the clock as well. “Maybe I should go wake him.”
“Yeah, probably.” Spoony turned and started washing as Linkara went upstairs.
A moment later, Linkara reappeared. “He’s not there.”
Spoony turned sharply. “What do you mean, he’s not there?”
“He didn’t come in last night,” Linkara said. “His bed hasn’t been slept in.”
“Could he have gone somewhere else to sleep?”
“He’d have called.” Linkara’s expression was quickly changing from worried to panicked. “Oh, god, Spoony, what if he got hurt or was hit by a car or…?”
“Linkara!” Spoony put down the plates and hurried over to his boyfriend. “You need to calm down. Panicking isn’t going to find him.” Spoony waited until Linkara had taken ten deep breaths and was relatively calm before he hurried upstairs and grabbed his phone. He found Craig’s number and dialed as he went back to the kitchen.
The phone rang once. Twice. Any second, Craig would pick up. Any second, he would laugh about being careless and assure them he was fine, his phone died, he forgot to call and say he was going somewhere else, he would come home soon. Any second…
*
Scott raised his hand and struck Craig across the mouth. Craig flinched, but didn’t make any noise.
A second slap across the other side of his face. Craig’s glasses flew off and skittered across the floor. One of the larger men smirked and stepped on them, grinding them to dust and bent metal.
The third hit was straight to his nose. Craig felt it break and bleed. He gasped, sucking in air through his mouth and feeling the blood drip into it. He still made no sound. He wouldn’t give Scott the satisfaction of a reaction.
The next hit was to the throat, leaving Craig coughing and choking on the blood dripping into his mouth. And wouldn’t that be the way he’d go, tied up and choking on his own blood. Appropriate for the man who spent his entire life watching and making shitty exploitation films. In fact, the whole thing just felt like a shitty exploitation film.
Before Scott could hit him again, though, the silence of the warehouse was interrupted by a tinny but quite loud version of “The Touch.”
Scott paused. “That would be your phone,” he said.
Craig nodded. That was the ringtone Spoony had set for himself months ago, and Craig had gotten too used to it to change it.
“One of your lovers?”
Craig nodded again. No point in lying.
Scott walked to Craig and started going through his pockets. A moment later, he produced the phone and hit the green button. “Talk to him.” He pressed the phone to Craig’s ear.
“Craig? Are you there?” Spoony sounded concerned.
Craig coughed. “Y-yes,” he gasped.
“Are you okay? Where are you? Linkara’s going out of his head!”
“I…” Craig glanced at his captors. “I’m in trouble.”
“What? Craig—”
The phone was taken away. “As he said,” Scott said. “He’s in trouble. And it’s going to be more trouble if you don’t do exactly as I say.”
Craig didn’t hear Spoony’s reply, but it caused Scott to laugh.
“Nothing permanent…well, not yet. Now listen carefully, because I’ll only say this once.”
There was a longer silence. Craig could only assume that Spoony and Linkara were having a quick consult on the other end. Either that or Spoony was using his entire store of swearwords to convey his feelings, though Craig supposed that was the same thing.
“You ready? Good. I want fifty thousand dollars by Monday, or your little boyfriend won’t be going home in one piece.”
Craig did hear the reply to that.
“FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS?!” Spoony shouted. “WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GET THAT SORT OF MONEY?!”
“You could ask your fans,” Scott said. “Call in some favors. Rob a few banks, I really don’t care. Send the money to PO Box 487. If it isn’t there Tuesday morning, your boyfriend will be sent back in a dozen different boxes. And if you call the police, we will kill him immediately. Is that clear?”
“YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT—”
Scott hung up the phone, cutting off the rest of Spoony’s rant. “Pleasant sort,” he said. “I see why you like him.” He studied the phone for a moment. “Still, they could call the police. I don’t want them to trace the phone signal…” He handed it to one of his men. “Destroy that.”
The man threw the phone on the ground. He then pulled a hammer from one of the boxes and knelt down to smash the phone into a thousand pieces.
“They’ll find me,” Craig said. “They’ll find me, and they’ll kill you.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” Scott said. “The question is, will they find you before I’m done with you?”
Craig swallowed. “Yes,” he said. “They’ll get here. I know they will. They know things…they’re more powerful than you can even imagine.”
“Touching,” Scott said. “Now…where were we? Ah, yes.” He grinned and pulled a knife out of his pocket. “I think your face needs some redoing.”
Craig watched helplessly as the blade came closer.
*
Spoony threw the phone across the room. It hit the wall and bounced to the ground. “FUCK!”
Linkara looked pale. “Spoony…”
“FIND HIM!” Spoony turned on Linkara. “GET YOUR FANCY ASS SENSORS AND COMPUTER AND WHATEVER THE FUCK ELSE YOU’VE GOT AND FUCKING FIND HIM!”
Linkara stared for a moment before he got up and headed into the living room. “Nimue, locate Craig Golightly, otherwise known as the Cinema Snob!”
“Working,” Nimue said.
“She’ll find him,” Linkara said. “But it might take a while. Meanwhile, we need a plan for when she does.”
“Plan?” Spoony spat. “I’ll give you a fucking plan. Bust down the door, grab Craig, shoot every fucker who ever laid a fucking finger on him! Simple!”
“And what if there are more of them than us?” Linkara asked. “What if us busting in causes them to kill him outright? What if they shoot us and then him?”
Spoony closed his mouth, but Linkara knew he was still fuming.
“We need help,” Linkara said.
“You heard him,” Spoony said. “We can’t call the police.”
“I wasn’t going to,” Linkara. “They’d ask too many questions about how I found him, and they have too many scruples about killing the people who hurt Craig. I’m going to call my old team. They’re good in a fight and their morals are way looser.”
Spoony took a few deep breaths. “I’ll call Insano,” he said. “And a few of Craig’s friends. More people we have, the better.”
“Good,” Linkara said. “Have them meet here. We’ll make a plan and go tonight, Nimue should have coordinates by then.”
Spoony nodded. He picked up his phone and headed to another room to make calls. Linkara picked up his communicator. “Attention, Comicron-One Crew,” he said. “All work is to cease. Report to my house immediately. This is a Code Red. This is a Code Red.”
A second later, there were several flashes of light as Harvey, 90s Kid, Linksano and the Ninja Style Dancer beamed in. “Kid, what’s going on?” Harvey asked as soon as they were all in.
“Craig’s been kidnapped,” Linkara said. “I don’t know by who, but someone nasty. Linksano, are Comicron-One’s sensors functional?”
“No,” Linksano said. “But if I can patch a tricorder through your computer, I might be able to rig something in the next few hours.”
“Do it,” Linkara said. “90s Kid, I want you to grab as many hand weapons as you can find and bring them back here. Ninja, gather up the Cybermats, we’ll probably need them.” The two nodded and hurried off as Linksano took his tricorder to the nearest laptop and started setting up.
Harvey looked at Linkara seriously. “You okay, Kid?” he asked.
Linkara sighed. “I won’t be once we’re not working,” he said. “Right now, I think I can keep it together.”
“Okay.” Harvey turned and headed for the kitchen.
“And where are you going?” Linkara asked.
“To make coffee,” Harvey said. “This might take a while and these turkeys will need something to keep them going. And you’re going to need something for when you can’t keep it together.” He disappeared behind the dividing wall.
Spoony came back into the living room, looking annoyed. “I got ahold of Insano,” he said. “He’s got the sensors from the Exit Strategy going.”
“Craig’s friends?” Linkara asked.
“No luck,” Spoony said. “No one was answering their goddamned phone. Don’t know what the fuck they could have done anyway.”
“Might have been nice to have more guns on hand once we find him,” Linkara said. “But I’m sure my team can handle it.”
“I’m coming with you, you know,” Spoony said.
“I know,” Linkara said. “I wasn’t going to tell you to stay here while he’s in trouble.” He stood still for a moment before he finally turned and collapsed in Spoony’s arms. “God, Spoony, if we weren’t so caught up in our work…”
“I know,” Spoony said. “I fucking know, and I’m not letting him out of my fucking sight ever again after this, but right now, we have to fucking do something, not just stand around feeling guilty.”
“Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do until the sensors pick something up,” Linkara said. “How’d you get Insano on board with using his, anyway?”
For the first time since the phone call, Spoony’s lips quirked in what might have been a smile. “Used some of the blackmail material I’ve been saving,” he said. “Good thing, too. His sensors are a little more precise than whatever Linksano’s McGuyvered together.”
“I want no stones unturned,” Linkara said. “If we lose him…I don’t know…without him, how long could we last?”
Spoony looked at him for a moment before he kissed Linkara tenderly. “I love you,” he said. “I love you both, so much…and we’re not going to lose him. We will find him, and we will get him back, and we will kill every fucker who ever dared look at him funny. But right now, you’re the leader. You have to direct everyone so we can make sure he’s okay and that we don’t fuck this up any more than we already have. Okay?”
“Okay,” Linkara said. “I know that, it’s just…having him in trouble…having him hurt…and…and it’s an ordinary person, isn’t it? Someone who actually wants to hurt him, personally. If this was Vyce, or Mechakara, or even the Entity, I could deal with that. If it was just someone using you or Craig to hurt me, I’d know how to handle it. I’ve spent months preparing myself for that. But this…I don’t know what we’re facing, I don’t know why they took him, and…and I don’t know what to do, other than find him and keep him safe…” He broke off in an angry sigh. “But I can’t keep him safe. I’ve been doing everything to keep you two from getting hurt and it wasn’t enough, he’s still out there, with people who want to hurt him…and I can’t help but wonder how many enemies the two of you have that I need to worry about on top of my own, what I can do to keep you both safe…”
“Linkara,” Spoony cut in. “It’s not your job to keep us safe. We’re grown-ass adults and we can take care of ourselves…well, mostly. This isn’t your fucking fault and you can’t spend the rest of your life hovering over us. I mean…yeah, we all have a lot of enemies, you just have to read the comments on our videos to know that. But worrying and blaming yourself isn’t helping. You can’t worry about us every second. Or are you going to bust in to rescue me from whatever dumbass Final Fantasy hero is coming for me when I finally get this review out? Are you going to jump in every time Craig eats something he shouldn’t have for the sake of a laugh? You can’t live like that…we can’t live like that. This time…it was a fluke, and we’ll all be more careful in the future. But we have to find him first, so focus on that, okay?”
“Right now, I don’t think there’s much I can do except wait,” Linkara said. “I’ve got my Magic Gun, I’ve got people working on finding him and getting ready to save him…I can’t do anything else until we know where he is.”
“So we wait,” Spoony said. “We wait, and…and we hope.”
*
Craig wasn’t sure how many times he passed out. The entire day faded between pain and oblivion, between fear and unconsciousness. He didn’t know how long it was, really, though he knew it couldn’t have been more than one day. Linkara and Spoony would never let him suffer for longer than that. Of course, given the choice, they would never let him suffer at all.
In the moments when Craig was awake, he was dimly aware of the other men moving around. So far there were only three of them, though he couldn’t be sure there weren’t others in the building. He wasn’t worried about that, though—he knew that Linkara had gone up against scarier things than a few washed-up jagoffs, even washed-up jagoffs who had him in their clutches and a distinct lack of morals.
Once, in a moment of unusual clarity, Craig tried to take stock of his injuries. Bruises, certainly—he had no doubt that his entire body was a myriad of interesting colors. He felt sure he had a concussion, and tried to take comfort in the fact that he hadn’t died in the moments he’d been asleep. His nose had stopped bleeding, though it still hurt like a bitch and kept his eyes too swollen to really see anything. Most worrying were the cuts, over his face and chest, most of which were still bleeding. Craig had to continuously blink to get blood out of his eyes, and he wondered idly if he would just bleed out before the rescue came. Then again, he reflected, Scott was an expert at inflicting pain without real damage—he should know. He’d been on the receiving end many times before.
Before Craig could make a better diagnosis, he slipped away into sleep again.
The next time he woke up, Scott seemed to be waiting for it. The man grinned wickedly. “Enjoy your nap?” he asked.
Craig groaned, unable to speak anymore.
Scott frowned and gestured behind him. One of the other men brought out an aluminum baseball bat. “Right knee,” Scott said.
The bat came down on Craig’s knee. He screamed as the bone shattered under the force of the blow.
“Now,” Scott said. “Let’s try again. Did you enjoy your nap?”
“Y-yes,” Craig managed to gasp.
“Good,” Scott said. “I remember why I like you now—you were always a fast learner.” He walked over to the laptop and pressed a few buttons. “I’ve been looking into these boys of yours,” he continued conversationally. “And they’re very interesting people. This Linkara? Wonderful writer—not too bad with his effects, either.” His eyes narrowed. “In fact, a bit too good. I wonder if it’s fiction after all.”
Craig stayed silent. He knew it wasn’t fiction—too many weird things happened in their everyday lives for him to think that. Hell, he’d seen the results of Linkara’s last encounter with his own eyes, helped clean up all the blood afterward. It would be impossible to deny that Linkara’s life was way more interesting than that of the average person.
“So what is he? Some sort of real-life fucking superhero?”
Craig whimpered.
“Answer me.”
“He…he is a superhero,” Craig mumbled. “He has magic, and friends…and a spaceship.” He forced himself to look up, squinting through his swollen eyes. “He’ll beat you. Easily. You’re nowhere near the scariest person he’s gone up against.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” Scott said. “But he won’t bring his full arsenal down on a normal person, will he? Heroes tend toward proportionate retribution.” He clicked a few more buttons. “And then there’s the Spoony one. Let me guess—he’ll come at me with a gunblade like I’m another one of his video game foes.”
“He’s not a fucking hero,” Craig said. “He doesn’t have the same morals Linkara does. He’ll fucking kill you.”
“Left knee,” Scott said. The bat came down, breaking the other leg. Craig cried out again, sure he was going to pass out again. “I’m not worried about him—he has enough trouble with his villains. They’re not the heavy hitters, they beat him too easily. And if he’s angry, his focus will be gone.”
Craig gasped, trying to keep himself from being sick. The pain was overwhelming him, the continued gradual blood loss making him light-headed. He had no idea how to respond. He had told the truth—he had no doubt that Linkara and Spoony would easily overpower these men, and Spoony at least would have no compunctions about destroying them. But Scott was also right—Spoony did tend to lose focus when he was angry, and Linkara…well, Linkara’s morals weren’t as absolute as people tended to think. Either way, Craig reluctantly admitted to himself that he knew which of his boys he would prefer to rescue him.
The bat came down on his chest. Craig thought he felt several ribs break before he once again mercifully blacked out.
*
The phone rang and Linkara jumped. Spoony dove for it immediately. “Yes?” he said, his voice desperate. It had been almost six hours since Spoony had talked to the kidnappers and they were both starting to panic.
“I’ve found him,” Insano said.
Spoony’s eyes closed. “Thank fuck,” he said. “Can you send the coordinates to Linksano’s tricorder?”
“Certainly,” Insano said. “I hope you don’t expect me to come along on this mission. I’ve got enough to worry about without risking my neck for your lover.”
“We’ve got it covered,” Spoony said. “Insano, I…”
“Don’t get soppy,” Insano snapped. “I did what you asked, so you can leave me alone now.”
“Yeah,” Spoony said. “Thanks.” He hung up. “Insano found him. He’s sending the coordinates to the tricorder.”
“Perfect.” Linkara got to his feet. “ALL HANDS!”
His team came running, bringing the items he’d requested. “We’ve got him,” Linkara said. “Linksano, what are we looking at?”
“Warehouse,” Linksano answered. “Not too well guarded, but isolated.” He tapped a few computer keys. “Four lifesigns inside, no other guards. Should be fairly easy to stage a full-frontal assault.”
“Good,” Spoony said. “Get in there, shoot them down, grab Craig, leave. Simple.”
Linkara bit his lip. “Are you sure?” he asked. “I mean…”
“Linkara,” Spoony said. “They’ve had him for a full day. I don’t know what’s happened to him but it can’t be good. We need to deal with this as quickly as possible.”
Linkara nodded. “You’re right,” he said. “Though they’ll probably fight back.”
“Probably,” Spoony said. “But there’s three of them and six of us. I think we’ll be okay.”
“Right,” Linkara said. “Right.” He turned to his team. “Nimue, beam us straight outside!”
“Confirmed.”
“Energize!”
“You know you don’t actually have to say that,” Spoony said as they beamed out.
“Hush.”
A moment later, they materialized in a very run-down warehouse district. If the situation wasn’t so serious, Linkara would expect the Power Rangers to show up and fight a giant monster at any moment. They moved into position, Linkara and Spoony at the front. Linkara looked to his boyfriend. There was steel in the pale green eyes, steel and fire and unholy rage. Spoony nodded and Linkara nodded back once before he turned and took a deep breath.
“I am a MAN!”
With a mighty punch, Linkara knocked the door down.
“You know that’s really fucking hot,” Spoony said as the team rushed in, guns a-blazing.
“You can express your appreciation at a more appropriate time,” Linkara snapped.
Inside, there was shouting and several gunshots. Linkara decided the banter could wait and pulled out his Magic Gun to join the fray, Spoony at his heels.
It was chaos. There were bullets and laser blasts going off but Linkara couldn’t see Craig or their enemies behind the piles of boxes. He looked at where the shots were coming from and aimed his gun at a stack of boxes.
The boxes disintegrated with the shot. Spoony followed up with a shot from his gunblade, knocking down the man behind the boxes. Before he could move, though, a bullet came from behind and hit Spoony in the arm.
Linkara whirled around as another man stepped out from behind a stack, dragging a very bruised and bloody Craig with him. “NOBODY MOVE!” the man said. The gun was to Craig’s head. Slowly, the noise stopped, though Linkara’s entire team had their guns trained on the man. “I admit, I was expecting this…but I did warn you.”
“Let him go,” Linkara said, fighting to keep his voice steady. He didn’t look at Spoony, who had collapsed to his knees, clutching his injured arm. “Let him go and we won’t kill you. We won’t call the police. Just let him live. Please.”
The man chuckled. “That’s adorable,” he said. “You’re the hero, right? You think you can appeal to my humanity…you think you can bargain for his life.” He pressed the gun harder against Craig’s temple. Craig didn’t move, unconscious or already dead, Linkara didn’t know. “Thing is, I don’t want to be bargained with. This little whore took everything from me. He’s had this coming a long time, and nothing you say will stop me.”
Linkara nodded slowly. “Nothing I say,” he repeated. “Fine.” He cocked his gun.
“You won’t shoot me,” the man said. “You could hit him.”
“I know that,” Linkara said. He glanced at Spoony, who nodded once. Linkara raised his eyes and pulled the trigger.
The blast of energy jolted across the room, hitting both Craig and his captor. The man cried out and let go of Craig, who slid to the floor. Linkara kept his hand steady, the gun trained on the man. Finally, with one last blast of energy, the man fell to the ground.
Linkara dropped the gun and rushed to Craig. He turned his boyfriend’s limp forward and desperately searched for a pulse. After a moment, he sagged in relief.
“He’s alive,” he called.
Harvey was already pulling out his phone. “I’m calling 911,” he said. “Is the asshole you blasted still breathing?”
“Probably,” Linkara said. “The Magic Gun doesn’t actually kill. Usually.”
“Why did you shoot through Craig?” Spoony asked, slowly dragging himself up and going over to join his lovers. “You could have hurt him.”
“I knew Margaret wouldn’t hurt him,” Linkara said.
“How?”
“It’s magic,” Linkara said. “I don’t have to explain it.” He looked at Spoony. “Now sit down before you bleed out everywhere.”
Spoony collapsed, leaning his head on Linkara’s shoulder. “I’m okay, it’s just a graze,” he muttered. “Will he be okay?”
“I don’t know,” Linkara said. “But there are paramedics coming. They’ll help him…and you.”
Spoony reached down and ran his uninjured hand through Craig’s hair, smearing blood through it. Unbidden, his mind flashed back to the first night they’d all spent together, with Craig so scared and hurt, covered in blood and thinking he was going crazy...who would have known after that terrifying night that they’d have gotten together, all three of them falling into place so naturally, and that they would be so happy?
And now this…another terrifying day, another time they found Craig, bleeding and hurt…and what would happen when he woke up? Would he be able to explain who these men were who wanted to hurt him so badly? Would he even want to answer questions? Would they ever be able to pick up the pieces from this?
As if in answer to Spoony’s thoughts, Linkara wrapped his arm around Spoony’s shoulders and held him close. His other hand reached out and closed around Craig’s. “I love you both,” he said. “And whatever happens…we’re still alive.” The sound of approaching sirens reached his ears. “We’re alive, and we’re together. That’s all that matters now.
Part Two
