Changing of the Guard

Part Four: Gun Control

Cover: Frontal view of Jason in an alley shooting at a group of people rushing towards him. Jason's long coat (horribly stained), is flapping in the wind behind him. Text under image reads: "Gun Control!"

" ooky here... just in time. That's the guy, right?" James Royce pointed to the slender, somewhat well-dressed young black man that had just entered the lobby from the side entrance. Marilyn Dobbs stood stoically beside Royce at the front door; they had just arrived in search of that very same man.

"Will wonders never cease." Marilyn's brown eyes narrowed as she watched Brooks pause just inside the door from the parking garage. He stood there and watched the people in the lobby as if he were studying them... the same way that the detectives were studying HIM.

"Hey," said Royce with a chuckle. "He looks like your type."

"And what do you mean by that?"

"A pretty boy. Nice and neat, straight outta GQ. Betcha ten dollars that the clothes on his back cost more than both our paychecks combined."

"A sucker bet. And he ain't my type. Too skinny."

"Yeah, you'd break him like a toothpick. But still... ya want me to go over and get his phone number for ya?"

"Gee... would you, Royce? You can use my pen.. Here." Marilyn gave her partner the one-finger salute. "What's that on his clothes? Is that blood?"

Royce squinted at the dark stain on Brook's shirt and coat.

"Looks like motor oil," he said. "Or something. Could be blood."

"Probable cause?"

"Hell, we had that before we walked through the door."

"What's he doing now?"

Now Brooks appeared to be talking to someone, only there was no one there. He was speaking out loud to himself.

"Who's he talking to?" said Marilyn.

"Radio, maybe? Cell phone?"

"Hmph. Well let's reach out and touch him. Come on."

The detectives started walking towards Brooks. They were halfway across the lobby when Jason turned suddenly towards them. Maybe he'd seen them out of the corner of his eye, but it was more like someone had tapped him on the shoulder and pointed them out Jason's eyes got big and round... the unmistakable "Oh, %&@, It's the Cops!" look that both detectives had seen a hundred times before.

"Ten bucks says he bolts," Royce mumbled out of the side of his mouth.

"Fifteen says he can run faster than you."

"Hell, I ain't taking that bet. I ain't chasin' him either... that's YOUR department."

Jason didn't run. He took a few steps toward the detectives as if he were going to meet them, then he stopped and stared at James Royce as if Royce had just sprouted a second head.

"What the hell's wrong with this guy?" said Royce.

"Drugs," Marilyn whispered. Then she spoke aloud, to Jason. "Jason Brooks?"

"Whoa..." said Jason, still backing away. He pointed at Royce. "I don't know who you are, but your aura is seriously fu-"

"Detective James Royce. This is my partner Marilyn Dobbs, we're here to ask you a few questions. We can ask 'em here, or we can ask 'em downtown."

"I'm not going anywhere with you, man."

"Okay, that means we're gonna take a little ride-"

"Hey, Jason. What's up?" The two detectives and Jason had been joined by a fourth (fifth if one counted Donovan). It was Brandon, Jason's neighbor from across the hall. Jason remembered his encounter with Brandon earlier. The less-than-charming college student had some secrets that might just come in handy. He eyed Marilyn Dobbs. "Hey there," he said to her.

Jason's mouth twitched as he stifled a devious smile.

"Move along," said Royce.

"Hey Brandon," said Jason "These guys are cops. They were just asking me some questions about your date last night. I told 'em that I didn't know anything."

"Huh?" said everyone else. Brandon's face flashed red, and then grew pale.

"You know," Jason continued. "Some girl says you raped her."

"Now wait a min-" Detective Dobbs began. She didn't finish. Brandon turned and bolted back through the stairwell door... just what Jason wanted.

"What the hell!?"

Both detectives turned to see the frightened youngster run, and Jason took that very moment to run for the front door.

"Get the kid, I'll get Jason!" said Marilyn.

"Yeah, yeah," said Royce as he followed Brandon.

"STOP! POLICE!" Marilyn yelled. As predicted, her shout only seemed to spur Brooks on. He was out the door and out of sight before the other people in the lobby even finished turning around to see what was going on.

Marilyn ran after him.

Jason didn't want to stop long enough to open the glass lobby doors, but, since he also didn't want to run *through* them, he had no real choice. It didn't slow him down that much, and by the time his pursuer made it to the door he was already at the corner of the next block.

He didn't stop then, either. He ran straight across the street; his eyes already focussing on the next block... which was a busy intersection. He had no idea where he was going, or even exactly why he was running. That male detective's aura was reason enough... a living black void with sharp spikes protruding from it. After seeing that, the details were unnecessary.

Especially after what happened in the parking lot.

Jason looked behind him, and almost tripped. The female cop was after him, and not only was she catching up to him... she was catching up to him FAST! Her long arms and legs were pumping like racing pistons.

"FREEEZE!!" she howled.

Jason did no such thing. He turned his attention back to the sidewalk in front of him. A tiny portion of his brain was trying to map out any of a half-dozen routes to take him absolutely nowhere, but the rest was only concerned with running faster. After a dozen or so steps, Jason glanced behind him again...

"STOP! POLICE!"

"Oh, MAN! I can't BELIEVE I'm getting chased down by a WOMAN!"

"And just why are we running, again?" said Donovan's disembodied voice.

"Cop?" Jason huffed. "Aura like a porcupine dipped in motor oil? Ring any bells?"

"I'll have to take your word for it. You can see it, I can't. Not any more."

"I don't wanna see it anymore, either... that's why I'm running."

"What you described sounded like a demonic aura."

"Great. Demon cops. That's just GREAT!" Memories of the encounter in the parking garage flashed across Jason's mind. It was more than enough incentive to squeeze still more speed out of his muscles.

Jason hit the next intersection running even faster than he was at the last one. The light turned green, and cars started to move in front of him. Jason couldn't have stopped if he wanted to.

He ran out in front of a old Buick LeSabre that would have knocked his legs completely off if it had hit him. Fortunately the driver saw him coming, and slammed on the brakes just in time.

SKRREEEEE-

By the time the driver started cursing him, Jason was across the street and gone. Behind him, he heard-

THUMP! THUMP!

"Aw, MAN, she got HIT!" Jason skidded to a halt and looked behind him.

The 'thump' he heard wasn't the cop getting tagged by the car... it was the heel of her left foot putting a huge dent in the car's hood as she sprinted over the top if it.

"Oh GREAT! SUPERCOP!"

Realizing that he was rapidly approaching the end of his mental atlas of the area, Jason took a hard right at the next alley... spinning on his heel and nearly throwing himself off balance.

"Awww DAMN!"

In front of him, strung between two brick buildings, was a ten-foot tall chain-link fence.

Jason hit it running. The metal rattled loudly as he climbed-

Kshh! Kshh! Kshh! Kshh! Kshh! Kssshh!

Once at the top, he jumped to the ground.

THUD!

"OOOF!" He nearly twisted his ankle in the landing. He tripped and fell...

"HEY YOU!" the cop screamed. She was halfway to the fence. "DON'T MOVE!"

Jason moved. He scrambled to his feet and took off as fast as he could.

Behind him:

Kshh! Kssh! THUD!

Marilyn touched the fence in only two places as she went over, then hit the ground in a crouching position, ready to continue her run.

"DONOVAN WHAT THE HELL IS SHE!?!?" Jason yelled as he ran... his lead rapidly vanishing as the cop got closer and closer.

"What do you mean?"

"What do I MEAN!?!! I'm getting chased by the BIONIC WOMAN, here!"

"My guess is that she's had a lot of practice chasing down people like you."

There was a row of metal garbage cans down the length of the ally. As he passed them, Jason reached out and knocked a few of them down, hoping to throw some obstacles in her path. Marilyn leapt... legs spread forward and back... and sailed over the first can. She repeated the smooth motion for those that followed, clearing the metal hurdles without loosing a bit of speed.

Except for the last one.

She was coming down off of one leap when a trash can hit her in the shins. She tripped, stumbled, but regained her balance before she fell. She watched Jason running for the mouth of the alley. He wasn't far away, but he was getting farther fast, now that she'd stopped running

"Screw this," said Marilyn. She reached down and grabbed the circular metal lid from the trash can. She kicked the can out of her way, then made a running start. She stopped suddenly, twisted hard at the waist, and let the metal lid fly like a giant Frisbee.

It hardly made a sound as it flew... until it connected with the back of Jason Brooks' head.

KLOOONG!

Thud.

Writhing around on the filthy concrete, Jason grasped his head with both hands... not because he was about to be arrested, but because his head was still ringing from the impact.

When he opened his eyes, Marilyn Dobbs was straddling him, her gun pointed down at his face.

"Okay... Okay, I give." said Jason. "W-what the hell are you!?"

"Five-time winner... women's amateur decathlon. YOU just tried to run from me... now, don't you feel stupid?"

"Yep."

Jason looked up at the gun... right into the large round hole in the end of the barrel. The uneasy feeling in Jason's gut returned with vengeance, and his skin felt like it was about to crawl right off of his body. His arms and hands began to tremble involuntarily, which was something new. It was as if they wanted to... do something.

"So why did you run?" said Detective Dobbs.

"Uhh..." Jason thought about getting up, but the look on the detective's face told him he'd be safer on the ground. Plus, he still had Donovan's sword tucked under his coat. The last thing he needed was for it to slip out as he tried to stand.

"Better come up with a good one... you waste my time I WILL kick your ass."

Jason had no doubt whatsoever that she could do it, too. After chasing him down for at least five blocks, Detective Dobbs hadn't even broken a sweat.

"Your partner-" Jason began. Donovan Wilde interrupted him.

"You tell her that her partner is a demon and you may as well pull out my sword and slit your own throat."

"What ABOUT my partner?"

"I didn't like his eyes," said Jason. "He looked... dangerous."

"Wrong. I'M the dangerous one. Now get up. Slowly."

Dobbs backed away, but kept her gun aimed at Jason's head. Jason wondered why she didn't shoot him when he ran. He answered his own question an instant later... it would have been illegal. As long she hadn't seen him commit a crime, she could do anything.

So what if he ran right now?

She'd run him down and kick the tar out of him, that's what.

"You show up in the strangest places," said the detective. "A man dies in your arms, and when we trace him back to where he got the injuries... there you are. And then when we show up to ask you some questions, you bolt. Why is that? The truth this time."

"I got attacked by a demon in the parking lot, and, when I saw that your partner was a demon too... I just decided I'd had enough for one day."

"Jason!"

"Uh-huh. I think you'll be going downtown with me."

"Heh, any time," said Jason with a sly smile... forgetting for a moment that the woman had a gun pointed at his head.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

"What's that under your coat?"

"A sword," replied Jason.

"You don't look like the sword-type to me," said the detective.

"What... a black man can't carry a sword?"

"Put it on the ground. Slowly."

Jason slooowly removed the weapon from the confines of his coat. His fingers were twitching noticeably now.

"So I gotta sword? What's the problem... I gotta have it registered or something?"

"On the ground."

He dropped it to the ground. The detective's eyes moved rapidly from the weapon to Jason's face, while Jason's stayed fixed on her gun.

He could almost hear the gunshot that killed his brother.

His hands went from 'trembling' to 'shaking in spasms.' His palms hurt, and his fingers were curling and contracting of their own accord.

Jason wondered what was going on.

He also wondered why the brown van that had driven by the alley a second ago was now backing up for a second look.

Dobbs had her back to the street, so she didn't see it as it rolled to a stop, effectively blocking them in. But she heard it. She was turning to face the van when the driver... a blonde woman... pointed a gun out through the passenger window

"Hey YOU-" Marilyn started to yell.

Both women fired at once...

*pfft*

BANG!

Dobbs barely had time to aim. Her shot whizzed past the driver's head and shattered the window beside her.

Dobbs grunted and staggered backward. The feathered tip of a multi-colored dart protruded from her neck.

Two men leapt out of the van's rear door and ran towards them. Their auras were like billowing black shrouds pulled tightly around them. Meanwhile, the driver was raising the tranquilizer gun again and pointing it at Jason.

But Dobbs wasn't down yet. She raised her weapon one more time and fired two shots before she collapsed.

"UNGH!"

One of the men from the van was knocked backwards by the bullet. He crumpled to the ground and didn't get up. The other stopped running as the second bullet sailed past his ear.

"GET THEM!" the driver howled. She adjusted her aim and put another dart in Detective Dobbs... this one in the shoulder.

Jason had been in shock from the moment Marilyn's gun went off the first time. He saw everything, but was watching it as if it were happening to someone else in an unusually realistic movie. He saw Marilyn falling towards him, already unconscious from a double-dose of tranquilizer. He saw a third man emerge from the van; his aura was as dark as the others. He saw the driver loading another two tranquilizer darts into her weapon.

But all he heard was the echoes of Detective Dobb's gunfire... and the sheer terror had him rooted to the spot like a giant redwood.

"JASON DO SOMETHING!" Donovan wailed in his head.

"Uhhhh..."

"WELL THE LEAST YOU CAN DO IS RUN!"

At that instant, Marilyn Dobbs fell onto him. She was a heavy woman, and her limp weight easily bore him to the ground. Jason barely avoided braining himself on the concrete. Dobbs' unconscious body lay across the lower half of his body, pinning him down.

The impact knocked the gun from her hand.

The attackers... the two men from the van... were jogging towards him. One stopped to drag the dead body of his comrade back to the van, but the other kept coming.

Meanwhile, the female driver grunted in satisfaction as she finished reloading. She pointed the tranquilizer gun at Jason.

"JASON, YOU IDIOT! EITHER DO SOMETHING OR GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"

Jason reached down to push Marilyn's body off of him. He was thinking about Donovan's sword. Where was it?

He almost didn't notice what his right hand was doing. He almost didn't see what it was HOLDING.

Dobbs' gun.

"Wha-"

Jason's arm moved of its own accord. Holding the weapon tightly... perfectly... his hand rose from the ground beside him and swung across his field of vision like a bird in flight. Jason's eyes wanted to widen in fear and shock... but instead they narrowed in concentration, focussing at once on the gun's sight and the targets beyond it. The sight passed over the woman's hand even as she prepared to shoot. His wrist tightened instinctively, preparing for the recoil. Jason's index finger pulled back on the trigger... smooth and firm, as if he'd been doing it all his life.

BANG!

"AAAA!" Jason's scream of shock and surprise was met by the woman's yelp. Her gun tumbled from her bleeding grasp... shot neatly out of her hand.

A perfect shot.

"Jason?" Donovan questioned. Jason wasn't listening. His insides were convulsing in fear and panic. He was trying... STRAINING to stop his arm! He couldn't! It kept moving, sweeping toward the approaching thug. As it did..

BANG!

Blood exploded from the back of the man's head as the bullet sizzled through his skull. The entrance wound... a neat little circular hole... was plainly visible in the center of his forehead. In the EXACT center of his forehead.

"Let's GET OUT OF HERE!"

The third thug had just finished loading the first corpse into the back of the van. He leapt inside and slammed the doors shut as the driver hit the accelerator.

The van's tires protested loudly, screeching like harpies as the van took off.

"Don't let them get away!" shouted Donovan. "SHOOT the tires!"

Jason's arm was already in motion.

BANG!

POW-HIISSSssss!

The gun's last bullet pierced the van's tire as it vanished from the mouth of the alley. The van swerved, but kept going. The sound of its racing motor quickly grew distant.

"...oh God... oh God... OH JESUS CHRIST!!!" Jason screamed. Now in control of his arm, he flung the handgun away. The weapon hit a wall and bounced away into the darkness.

"What did you do THAT for!" said Donovan. "That was a perfectly good weapon!"

Jason opened his mouth... perhaps he to reply to Donovan, perhaps to just scream. But the moment his lips parted, his stomach contracted violently. Marilyn Dobbs was still laying across his legs, and therefore her shirt caught the majority of Jason's lunch. Even empty, Jason's stomach lurched and cramped uncontrollably for several minutes. He was shaking all over, and was too weak to even think about standing up. Cold chills raced down his spine, but the remainder of his body felt red hot. He was beyond fear now. Beyond panic... and well into the realm of stark, raving terror. The gunshots still echoed through him. He could hear them. He could feel the gun jerking in his hand. He could see his brother dying...

Jason's uncontrollable tears came faster and louder.

"Good God, man... what's the matter with you?" said Donovan. "Throwing up on cops and tossing away good weapons isn't going to make this job any easier!"

"I SHOT HIM!" Jason moaned. Sweat and tears rolled down his face. But he wasn't sad... he was terrified. "I couldn't stop it... I couldn't stop it... what... what the hell did you DO to me!!"

"What do you mean you couldn't stop it?" Donovan said calmly. Jason's only response was mindless gasping and coughing... and a few more attempts to empty his already-voided stomach. "It HAPPENED, didn't it? That's IT! Your Affinity... It's not with swords... it's with GUNS!!"

Jason moaned something incomprehensible, then shoved the still-unconscious detective off of him. He scrambled away from her, then looked around as if expecting to see someone.

"WHERE ARE YOU! YOU did this! YOU made me do it! You POSSESSED ME!!"

"No, it wasn't me. It was you. It was the Affinity."

"But I didn't WANT to! I... I..."

"Like the other gifts, control will come in time... time that we can look forward too now that we've discovered your Affinity. Without it, you'd be dead."

"NO! NO, leave me alone!"

"I couldn't even if I wanted to. And I doubt those gunshots will go unnoticed. Don't forget... this detective had a partner."

"I killed... I killed them."

"It was self-defense. Besides, in THIS line of work, you can't be squeamish about this type of thing."

"Squeamish? SQUEAMISH!?! I blew the BACK OF SOMEBODY'S HEAD OFF!!!"

"An excellent shot. Not that you are capable of anything BUT excellent shots now. If it works the same way with guns as it did with swords, then your marksmanship is now 100%. Its physically impossible for you to miss."

"You're talking about GUNS! I can't SHOOT people! It's... its... wrong! I CAN'T!"

"You have to, or you'll die."

"FINE then! I can't go around SHOOTING people! I can't live like this!"

"You don't mean that. Besides, the Affinity is very hard to stop. Whenever you're in danger, it will take control."

"Oh, God... I'm possessed now!?! I'm... I'm like one of those serial killers... hearing voices telling me what to do? Is that it?"

"Actually no, but you'll be tracking down a few of those before too long. Those 'voices' tend to be demonic entities more often than not. But first things first... we've got to get out of here."

Jason got to his feet, which took three attempts before his legs could support him. He slowly calmed himself down, but his guts still felt like he'd just swallowed a jar of ice-cold razor blades. He started taking deep breaths while he pushed the sounds and images out of his mind. Sounds and images not of the men who'd just attacked him... but of his brother. He kept seeing it, over and over... but finally the panic abated and the past once again returned to the shadows of his mind.

Jason saw detective Dobbs laying on the ground where he'd pushed her.

He walked over to her, and was looking down at her when a sudden high-pitched chirping noise shattered the silence... and nearly frightened the beating heart right out of Jason's chest.

"AAA! WHAT-"

"It's just a phone," said Donovan. "The phone in her pocket is ringing... probably her partner wondering where she is. We'd better get going."

"Will she be all right?"

"She's still alive... it looks like they were using some kind of tranquilizer."

Jason pulled one of the feathered darts out of Marilyn's skin.

"Animal tranquilizer," said Donovan. "Very powerful and fast-acting."

"How do you know?"

"It's what I'd use if I were hunting people. It isn't usually fatal, But she DID take a double dose... she could be out for a while."

Jason knelt by Dobbs and checked her breathing. She looked dead, but she was breathing and she had a pulse.

"She needs a doctor," said Jason.

"Her partner can take care of that.

"Her partner, the demon?"

"We'll deal with him later. The people in that van are the greater threat."

"Why?"

"Because I recognized the woman driving."

"Old girlfriend?"

"If it weren't for her, I'd still be alive."

"She... killed you?"

"Her master did, and then I returned the favor. The woman was one of his last remaining servants, and if she's out collecting warm bodies it can only mean one thing."

"That she's crazy?"

"That Brite is about to make his return."

"Who?"

"A monster. Not a demon... but pretty damn close. Powerful and evil in ways you can't even imagine. He will enslave this city, and the blood of innocents will run like rivers through the streets. You're the only one that can stop him."

"Oh yeah? Well I hope the city got a kiss and a dance first... because it's gonna be screwed."

To Be Continued...

copyright 2005 by Dark Icon Entertainment