Sifting Through the Ashes (IC)

[Supercape]

"I hate pool..." said the Hound as the cue missed his head narrowly.

"Lets see how strong you are..." muttered the Mess to his adversary.

I can't let him get away with this....

"You gave it your best, didn't ya? Is that all you got? Because if that's all you got, you got nothing. I ain't even started with you yet, and you can't put me down with your best shot..."

He laughed heartily, and then dove into his adversary, taking him into his mighty arms with a bear hug.

"I got ya know, you slippery sonofabitch" he grunted, as he hefted his shoulders and chest into a better position on the mobster...

[Thevshi]

Wrapping his arms around the large mobster, Mess then shifted his weight and sent the large man smashing down onto the broken pool table, keeping him pinned and helpless as he maintained his hold.

Up by the door, the mobster who had shot at Hound tried to track the rumpled private eye's movements, but held his fire as Hound moved into melee with the large mobster. Not willing to take the short, the mobster moved down towards the melee, stopping near the base of the steps where the last remaining biker was blocking his path. The mobster aimed a kick at the biker, but was well of target with the attack.

The larger mobster tried to struggle mightily against Mess’ iron grip, but his efforts proved futile, and he remained pinned.

The mobster who had just been attacked by the last biker again lashed out with his pistol, hoping to send the remaining biker into unconsciousness like his companion lying on the ground. But the mobster fumbled with the attack, dropping his pistol as he tried to pistol whip the last biker. Luckily the weapon did not discharge as it fell to the ground.

[Supercape]

NPC

"Attaboy!" said Harry at the Mess' apparently imminent victory over the mobster in his arms.

"I knew I hired you for something! bustin' heads and looking after my back for one!" he chortled, sparing the time to do up his tie in the middle of the melee - even if it looked as dishevelled as ever.

"Now, where was I?" he asked himself, putting his finger to his mouth for one moment, before bringing it into a snap.

"Ricky!" he shouted, casting his eyes around for the scrabbling, scuttling grass. Spying his target, he turned heel and ran at him.

"Take care of the Mess, Mess!" he yelled at his partner. "I'm going after our loose-tounged freind!"

[Thevshi]

Looking back around the bar, Hound spotted Ricky just as the informant had stood back upright and was making his way out the back exit of the bar. Running off after him, Hound managed to bound up the steps from the lowered section of the bar, and shove the door back open as it started to close.

The door swung forcefully open as it slammed into Ricky, who had not yet decided which way to run. That sent the con artist sprawling into some garbage cans across the alleyway, knocking them over as he fell to the ground.

Back in the bar, the last standing biker again tried to attack one of the mobsters that were attacking him, but once again, the pool cue missed its intended target.

[Supercape]

"Not so clever now are ya, chum?" said the Mess through gritted teeth at the supercharged mobster he held in his massive arms.

Truth was, this guy was a lot stronger than he cared to admit. Even pumped up as he was, he had to exert his full strength on the man.

"You ain't got what it takes, my friend...not by a long shot. You don't have it...." he said as he strained every muscle in his arms, his neck widening and his teeth jarring from the pressure he was exerting. His mighty limbs began crushing the wind out of his adversary.

"And I do!!!!" he said with iron confidence.

[Supercape]

NPC

The Hound took Ricky by the lapels. Normally he left the 'bad cop' routine to his partner, but Ricky was slimy enough to inspire the street cop in him.

"Look here Ricky...I just waltzed out of a bar room brawl to hear you talk. I had a pool cue this close to my face, and my partner got thrown across the room. And from the sounds of it, the party hasn't wrapped yet. And you know what, I don't like staring at a pair of knuckled fists. No sir, I don't. So, if you would be so kind as to oblige me with a goddamn name then both of us can depart this here high class establishment with all our teeth and no black eyes...."

He spat to the side in disgust and adrenaline.

"Because if you don't feel like talking, I don't feel like being nice. And I'll throw you into the lap of the meanest looking biker in there with a kiss me quick sign stapled to your rear end...."

[Thevshi]

While the large mobster tried to struggle free, Mess was able to easily keep him contained. Shifting his weight, he applied pressure to the man, who choked slightly, before eventually going limp as he slipped into unconsciousness. But Mess' victory was short lived.

One of the other mobsters smashed his pistol across the face of the last biker still standing, knocking the man to the ground and unconscious. The second mobster stepped up and slammed the butt of his pistol onto the back of Mess' neck, just as the private eye was starting to stand back up.

Out in the alley,

Ricky visibly wilted as Hound picked him up from the ground by the lapels. "L…I...look Harry," he sputtered, "I didn' want any trouble, not for you and certainly not for me. Those guys seemed like they were after your friend."

"O..of course I'll give you the name," he added as Hound made his threats. "I just had to get out of there, couldn' let those guys see me talking freely with you."

Ricky took a deep breath before he continued. "One of the local lieutenants in the Oliverti family has started up an extortion racket again, targeting small business, people not likely to want to talk to the police. They don't pay, they burn. The freelancer that torches the places is some guy that goes by 'Firebug."

[Supercape]

NPC

Oh boy this ain't my day... sighed the Mess to himself as the pistol whip caught him right in the square of his neck. His vision greyed and he sank to one knee.

Of all the goddamn...still...I've taken worse... he said to himself as he shook his head.

Outside

"Firebug eh?" repeated the Hound as he let go of Ricky. "That's interesting. A good start. The Oliverti family? a bad business...but seeing as you are being so helpful today, perhaps you could give me some clue as to where this incendiary insect might be hiding out heh?"

He didn't want to press Ricky too far, but hey, the man did know stuff...

[Thevshi]

The two standing mobsters chuckled slightly as Mess dropped down to one knee after being pistol whipped. The one who had just dropped the biker moved over. "Not so tough now are you Furlong?" He asked as he grabbed the front of the private eye's shirt and dragged him to his feet. But even dazed as he was, the former boxer was able to pull himself away from the man’s grip.

The mobster who had just hit him took another swing, trying to put Mess down, but with blind instinct, Mess' left arm came up to block the mobster's attack.

Out in the alley,

Stumbling back slightly after being released, Ricky stood back upright as he shook his head. "No, I don' know where the guy is hiding out. But…I think I might know his next target. There is this small optometry shop down on 58th. The old doc there hasn' been cooperating from what I hear."

[Supercape]

"Ricky, you are a gent!" smiled the Hound, letting his quarry go. "I knew I could count on you!"

With a smile, he waved goodbye to his 'friend' and cautiously walked back into the bar...

"Right then...who's next?" asked the Mess as he shook his head and heaved his shoulders. He looked from side to side at the last two mobsters.

"Just you and you eh? Well say hello to my two best friends!" he said, lifting his huge fits.

Bam!

"Lefty!"

Whack!

"and Righty!"

The two last goons went flying in opposite directions having eaten a large portion of fist.

"Damn that felt good!" said Mess with a smile, cracking his knuckles. He was a bit worse for the wear, having taken a few hard knocks, but it was nothing he couldn't handle.

He reached behind the bar (the barman had fled) to grab himself a cool beer and started chugging it down, when Harry arrived.

"Nice work!" acknowledged the Hound, as he dragged the Mess out of the bar.

"But lets not stay. I dislike police inquiries and biker gangs keen for a grudge. Ricky has a name, and more importantly, an address! lets get moving. We have the next target!"

And with that, the detective duo leapt into their car, driving off to the 58th..."

[Thevshi]

Mess managed to chug down the rest of his pilfered beer before they were out the door, setting the empty bottle down on a table as he passed. Hound took the wheel as he started towards the address provided by Ricky, allowing Mess a chance to catch his breath a bit. By the time Hound was slowing down to drive past the optometry store, Mess felt almost as good as new.

The optometry shop was in an old, three story building, an old wooden sign in the shape of a pair of eyeglasses hanging over the main door. Bars covered the large windows on either side of the door, and drapes were drawn, preventing anyone from seeing what was inside. The floors above the shop appeared to be residential, and Hound and Mess saw at least one light in a room up on the third floor.

[Supercape]

The detective duo got out of the car, cautiously now - the mobsters were onto them - with Bloody Mess taking the lead.

"Fancy taking a look in?" asked the Hound, lighting up a cigarette. He was pleased to note his hands weren't shaking that much.

"Ain't that breaking and entering?" replied the Mess, scratching his stubble.

"Technically...technically..." said the Hound, examining his shoes and whistling innocently. "Although it's for public service, ya know. For all we know, our Firebug is already in, or has the place wired up. So its, ya know, necessary...and besides which, I was thinking you could do your..trick..." he coughed "...which would mean no breaking..."

Just a bit of cleaning...

"Hmmm" said the Mess, pondering the matter.

I guess Harry has a point. Ain't gonna have some old glasses man burn to death cos' we were to scared of the some crummy old law...

"This is gonna be messy..." he started, before doubling over and coughing up a long stream of blood.

The effect was, indeed, messy. His body shrivelled, into a dry, dessicated corpse. Meanwhile, the blood he spewed out congealed into a humanoid form, about one and half foot high, and nearly as broad.

"That always feels strange..." said the bloody mess, as the dessicated body of the Mess from which it had came lolled to the side and slumped against the caddy.

"It always looks strange..." agreed the Hound, who wished he hadn't picked up a hot dog on the way.

"Up up and away!" said the Mess, with a little chortle, as the bloody form slithered up the old building towards the third floor, before seeping through the window...

[Thevshi]

The humanoid blood form of Mess slithered its way up the wall to the third floor window. Reaching it, he was able to see inside through the parted curtains. The room with the light was a small living room, filled with old furniture, somewhat worn, but still appearing to be in good shape. There were several bookshelves, filled with old books. Sitting on an old sofa was an old man, his back to the window, who was watching the old, bulky television that was up against the far wall. Mess could see a small dinner table off to the right of the sofa, and a kitchen beyond the living room.

Back down on the sidewalk, Hound was watching over his friend and partner's body, trying not to lose his rushed dinner, when he caught a whiff of something on the wind. Taking a couple of sniffs, he recognized the scent he had picked up as the arsonist at the burned down adult bookstore. Firebug was somewhere nearby.

[Supercape]

NPC

"What's that smell...." said the Hound, as he ground his cigarette into the pavement.

ISmells familiar...

"Horse Manure!" he swore "its Firebug!"

Perhaps i'm jumping to conclusions. Hell, perhaps not. Perhaps I'm gonna get burnt alive!

He looked up to where Mess was peering through the window, anxious for his partner to help. Looking around he quickly picked up an old beer can off the sidewalk and threw it up to the wall of the building.

"Pssst! Get down here! I can smell him!" he hissed at Mess through cupped hands.

[Thevshi]

Up by the window, Mess hear's Hound’s hissed warning. Glancing back through the window, everything thing in the apartment seemed perfectly normal at the moment. If Firebug was nearby, he had not made his way up here. Or at least not yet.

Down on the sidewalk, Hound sniffed the air more, trying to track the scent. As best as he could tell, Firebug had walked right in front of the building not very long ago, and had headed towards the corner to the right and then along the side of the building. Hound also picked up another familiar smell, the accelerant he had detected at both previous arson sites.

[Supercape]

NPC

"Whats ya problem?" hissed back Mess, his voice gurgling slightly as was custom in his liquid form.

"There's nothing up here but the old man. Everything looks good!" he said, peeking in through the window.

"I'll just take a look inside..." he continued, as he oozed himself through the tiny gap in the window and into the room.

"No! Goddamn it and blast!" hissed the Hound, looking left to right.

"Hellfire! I've had enough anxiety today to last me a lifetime..." he said, wiping the sweat from his brow and loosening his tie.

"Well there isn't anything I can do about it. I'll probably get scorched to a cinder by the end of the night, bar some miracle. Jesus H. Christ, if you are up there, gimme a break huh?" he garbled to himself as, in a blink of an eye, he transformed into the mongrol mutt.

The smell was brighter somehow, as a dog. He could pick up the trace of accelerant and track it. With his wet nose to the ground, snuffling along, he followed the scent around the side of the building...

[Thevshi]

Ignoring his partner's frantic attempts to get him back down to streetlevel, Mess slipped under a gap in the window in into the room beyond. Once inside, he could hear the news playing on the television, the ticking of an old grandfather clock next to the entryway to the apartment, but otherwise everything was quite.

The old man shifted slightly, but otherwise kept his attention on the nightly news.

Down on the sidewalk, Hound bounded around the corner of the building after shifting into dog form, easily able to follow the scents of Firebug and the accelerants he was carrying. Following the smell, Hound came to an alleyway that ran behind the buildings on this block. Glancing around the corner, he found the dark alley empty, but saw the back door to the optometry shop standing wide open. His sensitive dog nose picked up the smell of melted metal, and he could see smoke rising from where the lock had been burned out.

[Supercape]

NPC

"Dammit Dammit Dammit" gruffed the Hound, hopping from one paw to the other.

"I hope Freddy knows what he is doing...." he muttered "...although I doubt it...."

He circled twice, as if chasing his own tail.

"I hope I know what I am doing..." he muttered more softly.

"I doubt it..." he concluded.

He stuck his nose into through the back door, alive to the scents that confirmed what, in his heart, he already knew. Firebug was most likely here already - or had at least had his incendiary tools of the trade planted.

"If he see's me, I'm just a stray dog looking for food. That's right" he reassured himself "Woof woof" he said, speaking the "woof" rather than barking it.

"Woof woof, I'm just a hungry stray dog. That's me!"

As softly as he could manage, he padded in, almost silent...

[Thevshi]

As he draws near the open doorway, Hound can hear the sound of someone whistling softly from within side the store. Coming to a brief halt beside the door, the currently canine private eye then quietly made his way into the room beyond, slipping off to one side and under a nearby table.

Looking about, he could see he was in the shop's back room, which held boxes of glasses frames and lenses, as well as the equipment needed to fit the lenses into the frames. Standing in the middle of the room, looking casually about as he softly whistled a tune was a man dressed in dark blue jeans and a black leather jacket. He looked like he might be of Jamaican descent, with long dreadlocks. In his right hand, the man was holding what appeared to be a very strange looking, double barreled handgun, certainly not one Hound had ever seen before.

[Supercape]

NPC

Firebug I presume...

Man, he looks some mean dude. I don't like the look of that gun he has. Probably shoots out fire or something. Hell, by the look of him, he probably breathes fire...

...he looks like trouble to me. But then, Ol ' toothless Mary the mad homeless gal looks like trouble to me....

He edged sideways, a quiet as a mouse.

Gotta get to Mess...he'll know what to do...yeah...that's right. Mess will give him a good right hook and then bam...we can all breathe easy. And not burn to death. That last part, I particularly like...

He backed away from the man, heading silently up the stairs.

There's Irony for ya! we are in an opticians shop and he didn't see me. Sweet Lord, let my luck hold...

He found Mess upstairs, his bloody form perched on the window observing the old man...

"Mess! I've found him! Firebug! He's downstairs!"

"Err...don't mind me, old man!" he said to the optician.

"I'm just a hungry stray dog. Woof Woof!"

[Supercape]

"Firebug? Here?" said Mess, surprised.

I'd have preferred my body...but this will have to do it. It will be a bloody mess....

He jumped down to the floor. Even diminutive, his bloody form oozed strength. He might not have been quite as strong as with his normal form, but...even so...

His blood bubbled, boiled, and burst with a pulsing strength. Pumping up in this form was essentially just the same, making his supercharged blood fizzle with energy. Of course, it didn't lead to the swollen biceps that happened when he was in his bone and muscle.

"Careful! He looks dangerous!" muttered the mutt.

"I can handle it!" replied Mess, confidently. Even so, the element of surprise would be best, he decided. He may have been a boxer, but he was also a street fighter. And when things got ugly, a fighter didn't fight fair...

Leaping to the ceiling, he slithered his way downstairs, quietly, leaving a trail of blood, to meet the arsonist...

[Thevshi]

The old man on the sofa had looked up in surprise at the dog that suddenly appeared in the apartment, and began to talk no less! "Who…what…" The man was shocked, standing up and glancing back towards the window when he heard another voice respond from that direction. Seeing the humanoid form made of blood, he gasped in surprise and could only watch as it began making its way along the ceiling and out of the room.

Looking back down at the dog who had just been talking, the man slumped back down onto his sofa. "What is going on here?" He asked, apparently still a bit in shock and bewildered.

Mess was able to slither his way down to the first floor, and as he came out in the main room of the optometry shop, he caught smell of smoke, coming from the back room. Moving out near the doorway to the room, he could see the figure standing inside, his back to Mess. The man was holding his strange looking pistol off to his side, the barrels still emitting a faint bit of flame from their ends. Directly in front of the man, a bunch of boxes were now aflame. Firebug's left hand was out in front of him, almost reaching towards the flames. As Mess watched, the fire seemed to intensify and then began to spread…

[Supercape]

Holy schmoley...its blazin'! I got stop this guy...now!

Dropping from the ceiling, Bloody Mess whirled his right arm once, twice, and then gave a mighty propelled blow straight to the chest of Firebug.

"Time to mess up your plans, hot shot!" he sang out as he fell into a boxer's pose. It was, admittedly, a little odd coming from a two foot high blob of blood, but Mess was just as deadly in this form - what he lacked in strength, he made up in speed.

"Hey Hound!" he yelled "I need you to put out a fire whilst I take care of this insect!"

"You want me to what????" came the incredulous reply from above as the Hound started to run down the stairs, shifting into human form as he did.

[Thevshi]

Dropping down, Bloody Mess delivered a solid blow to Firebug's upper back, causing the arsonist to stagger forward slightly from the force of the blow. However, he managed to stay up on his feet as he began to turn around to see what had just hit him. The fire was still going strong, but at the moment had stopped spreading any further.

All instincts screaming otherwise, Hound came bounding down the stairs as best he could, shifting back into human form as he went. Though it took some effort, he managed to make it all the way into the front room of the optometry store.

[Supercape]

"I don't know what you doin' my friend" snarled Bloody Mess, his normally intimidating growl somewhat losing its punch with his diminished stature.

"But the Mob didn't pay you enough. There ain't no money that's enough. Because you messed with the wrong people in the Fens..."

"This is my turf...and nobody gets to burn it down!"

Jeesh...why ain't anybody got the good nature to drop when I hit em today? he asked himself.

He ducked to the left, and right, and with a blistering turn of speed, jumped straight up, hooking his left arm under him to deliver a fast uppercut.