Title: Pieces of Blue - Chapter 6
By Ashley Delfin
Notes: Finished before March was over, as I said in the forum but editing it plus tweaking the rest of the webpage made the update be a tad late.

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"So, you're sure the mugging was going to happen in this alley?" Matt asked Cee Cee for the eleventh time as he looked at his surroundings. It did seem like the perfect place for a crime scene, you needed to turn two corners to get to this dead end and the entrance was in one of the less frequented downtown streets. it was probably a back exit to several houses and stores. Still, there was no one to be seen.

"Yes, completely, in about two minutes," she replied.

"But no one's come in, and it's a dead end," Matt went on. "I don't see how some guy mugs somebody else when there's no guy and no somebody else to mug."

"One minute, drink your beer," Cee Cee said, handing Matt a bottle of Heineken. Matt gave her an amused look. "It was the only one my parents had in the fridge. At least it's not American."

"I'll drink to that," Matt said, opening the bottle and downing it all in ten seconds.

"Super power ready?" Cee Cee asked.

Matt flexed his arm and grabbed a trash can lid from nearby. He stared at it for a couple of seconds and then proceeded to crumple it into a ball of metal.

"Ready," he answered.

"Show off."

"Hey, you asked. And I still don't know how the hell is a guy going to-"

Matt's word were interrupted by the sound of something being thrown from the other side of the wall that made the alley a dead end. When the something thrown emitted some sort of sound and started moving around they realized it wasn't some "thing" it was someone.

"Yup, my favorite place, told ya you'd like it," a voice was heard coming up the other side of the wall. The "someone" was actually a girl, and she had duct tape on her mouth. As the man turned his back to the three of them, Cee Cee crouched beside the girl and Matt prepared to give the man the scare of his life.

"Well, other than the smell and the mud it's a real fine place," Matt said, making the man lose his footing and making him fall and slip so he landed face first on the floor. "I've a friend or two who would complain about the color pattern, but they're busy elsewhere."

Matt grabbed the man by the overcoat and started lifting him when he saw the gun pointed at him. He should've seen that coming, and Amaranth was so going to lecture him on that later.

"Stay away from me," the man said. His body was shaking. Matt's superpower made him immune to bullets but he knew that did not apply to the other two girls so he raised his arms and stepped back. "Give me the purse," the man continued, pointing at the girl. "Now."

"She doesn't have one," Cee Cee explained, trying not to make any sudden moves.

"Sure she does, it fell over there," the man pointed at a corner of the alley. The small orange handbag was pretty obvious. Cee Cee slowly moved towards it. The girl gave out a muffled scream and shook her head to Cee Cee.

"Shut up! Hand me the goddamn thing!" The man said, more violently now.

Cee Cee took it and looked back at the girl. She was crying and although Cee Cee couldn't make out the words she knew she was begging her not to hand the man the purse.

"Throw it!" the man demanded, and Cee Cee did as she was told. The man caught it and ran for the exit. Cee Cee got her cell out and speed-dialed Amaranth.

"Cee Cee, 'sup?" Amaranth answered his phone, trying to sound very cool and casual. He was on the sidewalk just outside the alley and he was being observed by two men in an old, brown Cadillac.

"He's coming your way, he's got her purse," Cee Cee explained.

"Got it, see ya." Amaranth replied and hung up. He heard some running footsteps coming his way and the men in the Cadillac looked at whoever was coming and smiled. Damn, thought Amaranth, they were together.

As the steps neared Amaranth stepped in the way, feigning ignorance. The man crashed against him, making them both fall onto the ground. Amaranth heard something metal hit the car and bounce. He looked up; it was the gun.

"Derk! Get in the car man!" one of the men yelled. "Derk" tried to stand but Amaranth held on to his overcoat making him fall again.

"I'm so sorry," Amaranth said, faking his voice as best as he could. "I didn't see you or anything. Are you hurt?"

"Yeah, it's fine, get off me!" Derk replied, getting up as fast as he could. He got on the car as fast as he could. "Drive, idiots, drive!"

The man at the wheel stepped on the gas but it did not move. They argued for a few seconds until the driver looked at the rearview mirror and yelled. The other two looked back.

"Man, that kid is not holding our car put," the one in the passenger seat said; but Matt was, in fact, holding the car in position. The scary part is that he didn't seem to be making to much of an effort.

"I called the police," Cee Cee informed Amaranth. They were hiding in the alley alongside the girl. Although Amaranth seemed always ready to jump out. "Relax," Cee Cee added, "he's bulletproof." Apparently that made something go off in Amaranth's head because he ran out to Matt.

"Step on it, man! Step on it!" The one in the passenger seat yelled. The screeching got louder and Matt started sweating but other than that not much changed.

"Dude!" Amaranth said, crouching beside Matt.

"I'm fine, man, go back."

"When did you drink your last beer?" Amaranth asked. Matt frowned. "Damn," he said.

"Let go," Amaranth said, "the police is on their way."

"No, I can hold them a little longer," Matt said. A gunshot was heard. Amaranth ducked but he then noticed it had hit Matt on the shoulder. His t-shirt had a hole where the bullet had bounced.

"See," Matt said, "I'm fine."

"Dude, you're bleeding," Amaranth answered. Although the bullet had bounced, it had managed to hurt Matt. "Your power's fading, let go!" At this Matt looked at Amaranth's eyes. "Let go," Amaranth said again.

Matt cursed and let go, the car sped off quickly. And the two guys turned their backs so the people on the car wouldn't get that much of a look at their faces. Another gunshot was fired, but it fortunately missed them. Then, a crash.

Matt and Amaranth turned around and saw that the car had crashed headfirst into... into nothing. From the sound it had seemed as if they had crashed against a wall but there was nothing in front of the car, just another empty street.

"What happened?" Cee Cee asked, walking out of the alleyway with the girl, who was limping and still crying. She was holding on to Cee Cee with one arm and rubbing her face where the duct tape had been with her free hand.

"They crashed," Amaranth said, not sure if he believed his own words. The car had crashed, the front part was obviously shattered, and the three men inside were unconscious, but it made no sense.

"Against what?" Cee Cee asked, confused.

"Not sure," Matt responded.

"My bag," the girl said and started limping as fast as she could towards the car.

Cee Cee began walking after her, but then they heard the police sirens. "Let's go," Amaranth said to the three of them and they quickly walked off in the opposite direction.

"What?" Matt asked, obviously shocked. "You're not going to leave her here alone, are you?"

"The police is getting here, they'll take over. Let's go."

"Amy," Cee Cee said, holding his arm. "We can't just go."

"We have to," Amaranth said, flat. "I'm not going stay to tell the police some half-assed lie to try to cover up what we did, and I'm not going to let you do it, either. The girl, they'll think she's having delusions from the shock. We go, now."

"We can't, man! She's pretty shaken up," Matt said.

"Look, I was worried enough letting you go in there by yourselves. We have to go, we can't risk the girl telling them about how you stopped a car with your bare hands or finding some minors with alcohol," Amaranth was still managing to keep a completely flat tone.

"Amaranth, we-" Cee Cee began.

"They'll call our parents, guys," Amaranth said, stared at them for a couple of seconds, and began walking away. The other two stopped complaining at that point and grudgingly followed Amaranth, not without looking back a few times at the girl. She was sitting a few feet away from the car, crying uncontrollably. As they turned the corner, they saw a couple of policemen walk into the scene.

"Amis, Esper, we meet at Cee Cee's house," Amaranth said into his cellphone. "Go the way you usually go, we'll be there later." Amaranth was silent for a few seconds. "Yes and no, sis, I'll explain everything later. What? Fine, put him on." Amaranth let out a sigh. "Hi Esper, what is it? Yes, I know about complementary colors... One inside the other? Got it. Gotta go, bye." He put his cell phone away and turned to his two friends.

"Can't we just walk by and make sure she's okay?" Cee Cee asked.

"No, she might point us out to the police," Amaranth replied.

"Man, what's wrong with you? Why all the paranoia?" Matt asked, taking a step forward to confront Amaranth.

"We're getting something to eat, just to calm us down," Amaranth said, looking at his watch. "My treat."

"Dude, do not change the subject," Matt said, grabbing Amaranth's shoulder.

"Matt," Amaranth hissed. "Not here, not now. Let's go." With that he started walking towards a nearby store. Matt and Cee Cee were a bit angry at their albino friend, but after what had happened could not turn down free junk food and soda. Once Amaranth had paid for their stuff they walked out.

"Are you going to tell us what's up with you now? Or do we have to wrestle it out of you?" Cee Cee asked once they had been walking for a while. Amaranth stopped and turned to look at the window of a bakery. The three of them remained silent for a while.

"Okay, that's it," Cee Cee said to Matt. "You grab him and I punch him."

Amaranth rolled his eyes, but he still laughed a little. "Fine," he said and took a deep breath. "Don't you think it's a bit odd?"

"What's odd?" Cee Cee asked.

"Something, I don't know. I've been having weird feelings lately," Amaranth said.

Both Matt and Cee Cee looked confused. "Well," Matt finally said. "Honestly, every thing's been a little off ever since I started hanging out with you guys."

"And every thing's been a little odd with us, always," Cee Cee added.

"Touché," Amaranth said, taking his eyes off the bakery window and looking at his two teammates. "I meant the car, just now. It crashed, but did either of you see what it crashed against? And then the museum's robbed by some weird creatures we've found no literature on. Not to mention it's barely Tuesday. We still have to watch over the Lua's tomorrow and Thursday. We also have a few other robberies to stop and I don't want to put you guys in danger. I'm just worried, that's all."

---

The Covington family (that is: Cee Cee, her mom and her dad) ran a small store in one of the more frequented downtown streets that specialized on esoteric items and fortune telling. In addition to having all the fad items of the season's esoteric tendencies, they had everything a witch might need, from incense to wands and broomsticks. Both of Cee Cee's parents did some fortune telling for customers (her dad read palms and her mom the tarot cards) at a table near a small window. The best part, the team agreed, was the bookshelves at the far left side of the store. Not only were they filled with books on every subject concerning magick, mythology, lore, fortune telling, and others; the team had also free access to them because they were friends with the owners' daughter.

The store wasn't very big, but it did well enough. Cee Cee often said she was sick of it; but that was understandable since she lived in it. Well, actually she lived below it. Although the apartment on top of the store was a two bedroom, she had asked to move down to the basement when she was fifteen.

After saying hi to Cee Cee's parents, they went through a door behind the cashier. They entered a hallway that had, to the right, some stairs going up and, opposite to the door they came in, a trapdoor that led down to Cee Cee's room. They followed Cee Cee down through it into her room.

Cee Cee's room was the whole basement except for the part right beside the staircase, that was the laundry room (and Cee Cee did most of the laundry to keep her parents from coming down here too often). It was separated from the rest of the room by some curtains. Today they were bright red with an organic grass green patters, but she changed them at least once a month. Behind the curtains Cee Cee had her bed, a sofa, her desk/bookcase, some weights for exercising, and a huge, fluffy rug at the center of it all. On one of the walls she had two shelves filled with several trophies and medals, the rest of them were covered with posters of her favorite athletes.

"So, what happened?" Amis asked as she sat on Cee Cee's bed.

"Fluffy floor!" Esper exclaimed as he laid down on the fluffy rug.

"Well, we prevented the robbery, I guess," Amaranth said, sitting on the sofa alongside Matt.

"Esper, don't gnaw on the carpet!" Cee Cee said, glaring at the boy.

"What do you mean you 'guess'?" Amis asked. "Either you prevented it or you didn't."

"Esper! Don't roll yourself inside the carpet! What do you think you are, a taco?" Cee Cee said, kneeling beside the roll of fluff and randomness on the floor and trying to unroll it.

"Well, they took the girl's purse," Amaranth said.

"Yes! The bouncy variety!" Esper said.

"But then they crashed, so she got it back," Matt explained.

"Stop rolling! You're going to crash into my bookcase!" Cee Cee was having a hard time not beating up Esper.

"Anybody get hurt?" Amis said with a preoccupied tone.

"Wheeeee! Sequin-laced bumblebees!" Esper kept on rolling along the floor.

"Nope, well, the girl was limping but I s'pose the police will take care of her," Matt said.

"See! Told you you were going to crash against the bookcase." Cee Cee said, walking towards Esper.

"And Matt has a small wound from a bullet since his powers were fading," Amaranth said, looking at Matt with the sort of disappointed look he gave anyone in the team when he thought they'd been irresponsible.

"Ow... knowledge hurts," Esper complained, rubbing his head on the spot where the big mythology book had landed.

"Dude, sorry, I couldn't find time in the heat of battle to drink another beer. Next time I'll ask the bad guys to hold on for a sec," Matt replied, sarcastically.

"Not my fault you won't listen to older, wiser, prettier me," Cee Cee said, making sure Esper's head was okay.

"Dude, you do realize that if you hadn't let go the car would've just pulled you and you would've been greatly hurt, right?" Amaranth was now showing signs of anger.

"I thought it was my friend!" Esper whined, hugging Cee Cee.

"Bro, lighten up. He's fine," Amis said, lying down on the bed.

"Esper, for the last time, you cannot form friendships with inanimate objects," Cee Cee said as she picked up the book that had fallen and looked at the page it had opened to.

"I can't lighten up," Amaranth explained, standing up. Although his voice sounded calmer the completely sarcastic smile made it obvious he was just as pissed off as before. "I'm the leader of the team. Y'know? The responsible one. It's my responsibility to worry; because if I didn't, nobody would. I have to be forever worrying of what might happen because I have to be ready in the event it does happen."

"Ooooh! Slinky!" Esper said, taking the toy from below Cee Cee's desk. At least tragedies never lasted long with him.

"Dude, you're taking this way too seriously. We were just stopping some common idiot from stealing a purse," Matt said, lying down on the sofa.

"Yes, we were," Amaranth added. "But there were three men trying to steal a purse. And then their car crashes against nothing! Nothing! And you act as if this is normal!"

Amis seemed a bit confused, but she did not want to break the silence. Matt stared at the albino for a second, thinking about it. "Of course you could just be getting paranoid again," he added.

"Amaranth," Cee Cee said, getting up from where she was.

"What?"

"Look at this," Cee Cee showed him the book.

"What's this?" Amaranth asked before even reading a word.

"A book, it fell on Esper, look," Cee Cee explained, pointing at Esper who was now tangled with the Slinky. "Oh, you are so dead. I am saving my slinky, and then you are so dead," Cee Cee yelled as she walked towards the younger boy.

"What's that?" Matt asked, but Amaranth was too interested in the reading to answer.

"Ow, don't take my ear! I need it," Esper complained.

"Monsters," Amaranth said, handing the book over to Matt.

"Well, it's my slinky or your ear and I'm not really fond of your ear right now," Cee Cee responded.

Matt raised an eyebrow and took the book. "Dude."

"Cee Cee, it's easier if you untangle this part first," Amis said as she walked towards them. "If you pull on that you're just going to knot it even tighter."

"At least now we know where to look, more or less," Matt offered with a smile.

"Well, it's not my fault bouncy taco here cannot figure out how to properly play with a slinky!" Cee Cee exclaimed. She crossed her arms and let Amis try and save her Slinky.

"Right." Amaranth was clearly not as optimistic. "We are looking for a type of monster, and there isn't tons of literature, most of it useless, on the subject." Amaranth grabbed a post-it from Cee Cee's desk and placed it on the page they had been looking at. Before closing the book, Amaranth looked at the illustration. Besides the word "monster" was an image of a creature very much like the ones Amis and him had seen at the museum.

"I want cookies," Esper whined.

"Dude," Matt said, "it's something, and it's the only thing we've got. We both went through most of our books and found nothing. For once in your life accept a good thing when it gets to you."

"Well, I want my slinky and that isn't getting you any more untangled!"

Amaranth and Matt looked at Esper, finally noticing what was going on. Amaranth finally smiled, and Matt walked over to try and help.

"Esper, dude, how do you do this stuff?" Matt asked.