Rocky - Origin - Chapter Five

The entire crowd erupted with cheers and whoops at the impromptu fireworks display, all the kids jumping and hollering. Wildman's men, who by now included Tom, took the opportunity to work around the crowd, to keep them together. Rocky suddenly seemed to notice the six men on the stoop of a nearby building and turned to Jim.

"Where're the other three bad guys?" The force of the accusation almost caused the bronzed giant to step back.

"Remy?" He asked quietly, looking in the engineer's direction.

"Dey was no time to grab dem, Jim. I jus' got to y'all in time fo us ta leave, I din even tink of de bad guys." Remy looked only mildly apologetic, and that only to his friends. He turned to the boy with a shrug. "Aww. Dey was bad men, keed. Yo don wan loose no sleep ova dem."

"You jerk! What do you know about those men? What about their families? What about their friends? What about questioning them? Huh? Did you think maybe they knew something we wanted to know? Jimminy Christmas! Rrrrgh!" The boy stopped aiming his tirade at the mountainous engineer and just paced around, fury defining every line of his young face. He continued to mutter and sputter, but Jim couldn't make out any actual words.

One of the teen girls sidled up next to Rocky and gently put her hand on his shoulder. He snapped at her and she smacked him lightly. She whispered something in his ear, facing so Jim couldn't read her lips. Rocky looked around at the blaze, and the bystanders who had come out of their homes to gawk, and seemed to note the sirens growing closer. He nodded at her and turned around.

"Sarah has reminded me that we need to get out of here, before the cops show up. Does everyone remember who their partners are and where to go?" When no one answered negatively, he continued, "Good. Then take off. We'll meet at the rendezvous tonight. Good luck."

The crowd of children seethed for a few minutes, like a net full of salmon, as each kid sought his or her partners. As each group formed, they tried to leave, but someone was in the way. Wildman's friends had them surrounded. They started maneuvers to escape, but Rocky called to them to wait. He turned to Jim.

Jim spoke first. "I don't know where you were planning on taking them, son, but they're coming with us." The pale boy's left eyebrow raised in query, and the bronzed giant answered the unspoken question. "I know you think you have everything under control, but these kids need to return to their homes. Some of them need medical attention."

At this last pronouncement, Rocky started, and scanned the crowd for signs of injury. Jim pressed his case further, walking up next to the boy and kneeling down until the two were at eye level. "You may want us to think you're in charge, but we know your friends let you down. Let us help."

Rocky looked into Jim's pleading eyes, confusion in his own. "What... friends? You think I have a... patron? And that... patron... didn't show up to help us, so he must not care about us?" Jim nodded at each statement. Rocky chuckled suddenly, "Boy are you way off the mark!" He put his fists to his hips, and looked at Jim defiantly. "Now are you going to let us go quietly, or am I going to have to get mean?"

Jim Wildman looked at his four friends and smiled, "I guess you'll have to get mean."

Rocky lashed out unexpectedly and shoved Jim. The giant man was caught unaware, and had to catch himself, allowing the boy time to dash to the side and plant a haymaker in Ham's gut. The dapper lawyer folded over the blow, flailing at Rocky with his umbrella. But the boy was not there, he had already streaked over to attack Sh'ead.

Sh'ead, however, was ready for him. His over-long arm slipped in front of the boy, grabbing his shirt. Rocky didn't stop, but grabbed the arm in front of him with both hands. He pulled down for a judo throw, but Sh'ead stood firm. The soft looking boy lifted his feet, planting them firmly in his opponent's chest, and yanked on the arm in his hand.

A cracking pop and Sh'ead's cry of pain galvanized the other men into action. They converged on the two, leaving the crowd of children unguarded. A few pairs had the presence of mind to scatter while they had the chance, but the majority were gripped by the fate of their leader.

Their leader was having a tough time. He launched from Sh'ead to tackle Tom, who dropped flat with the boy on top of him. Jim and Ham each seized an arm and lifted Rocky into the air. Tom took the opportunity to grab the kid's legs. Remy completed the immobilization, enveloping the top of Rocky's head in one tremendous paw.

Coincidence saw to it that three events occurred next. Rocky Markona squirmed and seemed to disappear out of his human straight jacket in a flash of silver. A dark sedan rounded a corner to the north, spewing lead at the gathering. And a large bus careened in from the south, slewing around the crowd to stop between the guns and the kids.

Jim Wildman closed his grip, in case his captive had turned invisible, but he held only empty air. He began scanning for Rocky, but the boy announced his presence first. He stood next to the bus, and was herding the children inside. He grimaced at Jim when he saw the bronzed man was looking at him. "I don't care whose bus this is, we need to get out of here now!"

"I couldn't agree more, young man." Jim directed his companions to take up positions at the ends of the big vehicle, and they began firing sporadically at the men who had advanced out of the sedan. The guns the heroes were using were of Jim's own design, fully automatic pistols, fed by clips of bullets. They produced a sound like a bullroarer. Rocky jerked around at this sound, accusation in his gaze, but one of his charges distracted him.

The bus was packed with kids in short order, there being just barely enough room for everybody. Jim Wildman and his friends climbed in behind Rocky and stood in the narrow aisle as the driver tried hard to take out a few of the gunmen as they hurtled away from the scene, barely missing the police car that had come to investigate the disturbance.

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