RoR 3 -CH5- (Patreon)

Sitting behind an office desk with a monitor on it was who Warner assumed was director Ames.

Blonde hair, blue eyes, dressed in a suit that was equal to Mark’s, he gave off a similar air that Mark did. He was typing away at the keyboard on the desk and seemed quite intent on the screen in front of him.

“Welcome, director Ehrich,” said the man without looking up. “This’ll of course be your office after I get up and log out. I just had some paperwork to finish up before I set off after your arrival.

“Needed to make sure I had HR completely behind anything and everything you do here after all. Wouldn’t do us any good to eliminate threats just to have lawsuits pop up, though those do tend to happen.”

Rolling his eyes the man continued to clack away at the keys.

After a minute he came to a stop, grabbed the mouse and moved it around, clicked, then smacked the escape key.

“And done, this office is all yours and-”

Director Ames was staring at Warner.

Who stared back.

“Ah… I see. I apparently don’t… have as much situational awareness as I thought,” Ames said with a chuckle and then held his hands up in front of himself. “My apologies, Yellow-Eyes.”

From here, Warner could sense a rather deep undercurrent of injustice and justice alike around the man. That he’d made terrible deals against and for people.

Betrayed people, saved people, and everything in between.

“You reek of injustice,” Warner said in a cold voice. “The blood of the innocent and the guilty alike are upon your hands. You will have a heavy price to pay in the afterlife when you sit before the judge.

“You should begin to work toward your redemption now. Lest you suffer for a great while after your death.”

Director Ames blinked at that, then took in a slow breath.

“Yes. Well. I suppose that isn’t something I wasn’t expecting,” said the man in a much more subdued tone. Standing up behind the desk he pushed the chair in and then came around the other side. “Anything truly awful though? Have I betrayed my nation or killed anyone directly?”

“Betraying your nation is only a minor offense. It wouldn’t know of your crimes,” replied Warner, still staring into Ames’ face. “You have many great sins upon you for what you’ve done to others. I would judge you harshly if I weren’t here for the council.

“Your price would be to immediately relinquish your role, join a charity group, donate all your wealth, and begin working for others. Likely until you died of old age.

“Even then, it is unlikely your soul would be clean of the filth you’ve put upon it. It is quite foul indeed.”

Ames opened his mouth, nodded his head, then closed it. A second later he began shaking it while chewing on his lip.

“You’re not wrong, I’ve certainly done a great many wrongs on the behalf of my country,” answered Ames. “And Director Ehrich? How does he rate?”

“His injustice is weak when it comes to his work. All his actions have been righteous and he always has kept his word in one way, or another. Even to his enemies he has gifted them mercy and restraint when others would not have,” said Warner immediately. He’d already weighed out Mark and found him to be wanting, but not in a way that would make Warner uneasy. “His misdeeds are more to do with his personal life, than his work life. He’s working to correct them already and has made inroads on them.

“His sentencing from me would be no more than to truly work with those he harmed and assure their happiness. He is already doing that.

“Now, to the case at hand. This is a traitor to your agency. I have my people on the ground floor working to insure no one escapes physically. That doesn’t eliminate magical means of egress. We must act quickly. How shall we proceed?”

Warner pulled the woman off his shoulder and dumped her onto the ground between the two directors. He wasn’t sure what they wanted to do with her and really didn’t want to be involved more than he was.

Her injustice was very minimal and didn’t interest him. The only reason he was willing to see this through at all is because she belonged to the Council. An existence that seemed poised to fight Warner directly and wanted him to be exterminated.

“-telepath. We can pull everything we need from them directly,” said director Ames.

“Agreed. That doesn’t solve the building though,” argued Mark. “Nor does it solve the other buildings in the state. I can’t just leave this as it is. I need to clean house.”

“You may utilize Yellow-Wings,” Warner said, moving his gaze to Mark. “That should allow you to do so without any problems. I and the rest will have to move back to our own goals.

“If you should happen to find a location that the Council inhabits, I would appreciate you giving me that information. I would like to… judge them.”

“Yeah, sure, no worries,” Mark said, then reached over to slap Warner on the shoulder. “Soon as we get a location, I’ll more than happily send it over to you. Just make sure that you leave enough of them alive for us to send to jail and… uh… interrogate.”

“If that is your request, I will make sure to spare them all,” said Warner, smiling at the other man. “Handing them over to you would also be a form of justice as long as you can assure me that they will all receive appropriate sentences to the crimes I submit for them.”

“Sure, no worries,” said Mark who gave Warner a thumbs up. “Just make sure you get me a list of who gets what and I’ll give them the time for the crime after we get it pulled from their minds.

“Telepaths can easily dig up whatever you want them to so long as they know what to look for. Saves a lot of time and effort and there’s really no magic that can save them for it. Like having a key for a door.”

“Superb,” Warner said with a dip of his head. “Then I’ll be leaving for the time. Agent Frias has a way of contacting me if you have need of me as your liaison. While I don’t expect us to remain comrades past the elimination of the Council, I will try to keep my activities to those who clearly deserve retribution. Please have someone relieve Blue from her post with agents to direct toward Wings. Thank you.”

Turning on his heel, Warner left.

He had things to do and he’d already given Mark what he asked for in this situation. Staying any longer would make him feel more like he was working for the Fed.

Which he most definitely was not.

Non ducor, duco.

Warner wasn’t sure why Warin’s memories decided to interject that saying at that moment, but it felt correct.

I am not led, I lead.

***

With a thump, Warner landed in the back yard. Letting his wings settle down in place, he considered how to go about making contact.

Thankfully it was long after sun-set which gave him a little bit of leeway as far as being spotted went. There went as many working streetlights in this neighborhood.

He’d decided on a spur of a moment to seek out someone who had given him a great deal of information previously. Who had single handedly righted a great many injustices by simply making Warner aware of these people.

Tito, a drug dealer who dealt in normal merchandise as well as Para goods. A man who kept his drugs as clean as he could, dealt with better people, and worked to constantly balance his scales.

A truly terrible man, while also being at the same time, a great man as well.

Balanced on a needle, Tito was a man who had managed to subvert the scales completely.

Standing there, Warner wasn’t sure how to proceed.

Last time, Tito had simply known he was here and come out to greet him when he arrived.

Slowly, Warner walked over to the door to the back yard. Hesitating for a few seconds, he eventually lifted his hand and knocked on the door.

There was some shuffling from inside before the door opened.

A young boy, perhaps twelve years old, stood in the doorway. Looking at Warner with wide eyes and a surprised expression.

“I’m looking for-”

“The police took dad out front!” blurted out the boy.

Now that Warner was looking at the child, he realized he shared many of the same features of Tito. The same brown hue of his eyes and shade of hair. He even looked like he might share the older man’s wiry build as he grew older.

“He didn’t do nothing this time! He didn’t do nothin’ to them and hes got no beef with them but they wanna get paid!” explained the child.

Warner’s eyebrows rose at that.

Abuse of power, dereliction of duty, and most importantly… gross injustice.

Not waiting a second longer, Warner snapped his wings out, then down. Leaping at the same time to push himself forward and up.

No sooner than he cleared the roof of the home then Warner saw a cop car in front of Tito’s home. One cop was sitting in the driver’s seat while another was leaning into the rear-passenger side door.

It looked like they were talking to someone on the inside of the squad-car.

Even from this distance Warner could feel injustice from the officers.

“We gonna beat’em?” Dayine asked from a few feet away. She’d been hovering just above Tito’s home rather than going with him. Watching for anything that might try to sneak up on them.

“Indeed. We’re going to administer justice,” murmured Warner. “And then… perhaps you and I can visit the local police stations. As well as the PID station.

“While we’ve stated previous we would leave it to Mark and Wings, perhaps you and I can work from the bottom up. Though I must confess… I have a particular weak point for wanting to punish wicked officers.”

“I mean, if someone ran my kid over with a car, I would too? But I don’t actually have any kids so, that’s kinda a weird thought,” Dayine said and then laughed. “Hey, hey, when we go to the station, I wanna be the one to punch whoever we find. I wanna punch them in the face. In front of them all. In the middle of their precinct.”

The sudden thought of Maya being run over by a policeman on duty flashed to life in Warner’s head.

Flapping his wings, Warner summoned his power into the form of a glowing blade. Brandishing it beside him he flew straight at the cop car.

A bang loud enough to be a gunshot echoed as Warner’s feet hit the hood and crumpled it. His booted feet smashing into the engine as well.

“Officers!” Warner declared and lifted his sword high above him. “I find you to both be unjust.”

Both policemen, both in their middle age, one dark skinned and the other light, were staring at Warner now.

“Your crimes include bribery, extortion, planting evidence, assault, theft, and general misconduct,” Warner shouted and then leveled his sword point at the two men. “I will take you into custody and leave you with agents from the Fed. It would be best if you did not do anything foolish.”

With a slam Dayine landed on the trunk of the cop car, crushing it just as much as Warner had done so to the front. Holding her hands up at her side, she looked almost amused.

“If I were you, I’d do what he said. He’s in a bad mood because I reminded him of a bad memory,” warned Dayine. “He might just kill you if you do something dumb. Like fight him.”

From inside the squad car was the sound of someone laughing hysterically. Like they’d just been told the world’s funniest joke and couldn’t contain themselves at all.

“Hey, Yellow-Eyes, they’re super crooked!” called the laughing man that was likely Tito. “They wanted bribes from me and drugs!”

“I’m aware. They will be chastised appropriately,” declared Warner while still staring at the policemen.

As if realizing the situation was more than they wanted, the two cops held their empty hands up. The one in the car looking just as flustered as the one next to Tito.

“Blue, handcuff both of them and put them in the car,” said Warner and then dropped off the front of the car. Walking around to the rear-passenger side he found exactly who he was looking for.

Tito, wearing a t-shirt, pants, and socks. Apparently they’d grabbed him up without letting him put shoes on.

Reading the situation, Tito bounced up out of the squad car and laughingly went over to Warner.

“Sup, Yellow-Eyes. Didn’t think you’d drop by again so soon. Not for me, right?” asked Tito with a grin.

Warner could already feel that Tito was once again, completely balanced. Last time he’d been balanced upon a knife’s edge with his actions. Act for act, each one leveled one out.

Though he did have some balance toward’s justice at the moment which seemed a bit odd. He was closer to doing right by Warner’s senses at this time.

“No, I was here to wrangle wicked police officers,” Warner stated, glaring at the closer officer. They wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I just happened to run into you. Though I’ll need to speak with you briefly to get a statement as to what they wanted. Do you mind?”

“Nope. Not a damn bit. I’ll fucking narc on these two like the rattiest rat-fuck that ever squealed,” Tito said with even more laughter. Sticking his hands into his pockets he started to strut back toward his home.

At the same time Dayine had finished putting the officer behind the wheel in handcuffs and was now moving toward the second.

Moving away from the cop car Warner followed Tito.

The goal of the evening had been to link up with the man and see if he could get more information from him. The visit was already paying returns in the form of two crooked cops, but that was by no means enough for Warner.

Taking a seat on his stoop, Tito let out a loud breath, then started to laugh again. He was watching Dayine push the cops into the back of their own squad car.

“Man… I’m gonna get some serious shit about this later,” Tito said with a chuckle followed by a sigh. “But that’s fine. Whatever. Everyone was already kinda thinking I dumped my enemies on you since they all kinda vanished. In one night.

“You did take care of everyone in that book, didn’t you? A lot of them just went silent and dark. They’ve done it before, but never this long.”

“Dead or in prison, there is no alternative,” Warner said, coming to stand near Tito. “Anyone in the book you gave me was handled. You were correct in all your assessments. They were all very deserving of the fates given to them.”

“Heh, nice,” said Tito with a shake of his head. “Came back for more?”

“Indeed. I was indeed hoping you perhaps had another black book of people I might pay a visit to,” admitted Warner. He saw no reason to beat around the bush with Tito.

“Considering you’re not angry at me, betting that last book I gave you, gave me quite the balance in favor of good. Since I haven’t done anything particularly nice since then,” murmured Tito, scratching at an elbow. “Yeah. I do have another ‘black book’ for you. Filled with a bunch of bitches and scumbags you’re welcome to get rid of.

“I didn’t put any of these people in the last one cause I didn’t know how to balance it out in my head. Still not really sure but clearly it was worth a lot more than I expected.”

“You still have some balance toward justice right now,” confirmed Warner. “Though if I were you, I would keep that balance if possible. But that is only my humble opinion.”

“Yeah, yeah, maybe. Anyways. I’ll go get that book but you should know something,” warned Tito getting to his feet. “Some of the names I have in it this time? Mob, mafia, gang types. Not sure how your justice magic, hoodoo, the fuck whatever does, but these guys have a way of saying things that doesn’t lead back to them. You get it?”

“Of course,” Warner said and meant it. He had a fairly good understanding of what he was going to end up handling if what Tito said was true.

Leaving Warner there, Tito went into his home. From outside Warner could just faintly hear what sounded like the young boy talking to his father.

Warner looked out toward the police car to find Dayine standing atop the hood of the vehicle. She was moving up and down, causing the vehicle to rock. She looked like she was enjoying herself quite a bit.

The door opened once again and Tito reappeared. Standing just behind him was the same young boy from earlier. He was smiling and waved at Warner briefly before the door closed.

“Here ya go,” Tito said and then moved around to the front of Warner. Putting his back to anyone who might be looking. Then he held up a small black notebook at his midsection. As if he were just crossing his arms. “Those two idiots out front ain’t in it but this is everyone else I got. Anyone I could think of at all that might be someone you’d consider worth dropping in on.”

Warner dissipated his weapon, letting it vanish into nothing. Then he reached out and patted Tito on the arms as if he were consoling him. Taking the notebook at the same time. Then he nodded his head to Tito after having secured the notebook away and out of sight.

“Be well Tito,” said Warner, walking away from the man. “I will come back in a month to see if you have anything new. If you do not, that is well and fine. I do not expect you to always have it. Though I would be appreciative if you did, but I do not hold you to it.”

Reaching Dayine Warner already heard Tito go back into his home.

“So, how do we get these chuckle-fucks out of here?” Dayine asked. “Gonna be a bit of a show no matter what we do, won’t it?”

“We will carry the vehicle itself. To the Fed building,” declared Warner, leaning down to peer into the window at the policeman inside. The windows were down for some reason but Warner wasn’t concerned with that.

“You can’t do this. We’re police. No one will believe you,” said one of them.

“When this is over, I’m going to kick your ass,” said the other cop.

Warner gave them a slow smile and tilted his head to one side.

“You believed you were above the law and that it didn’t apply to you. You have now tested that assumption at your convenience,” he said in a deathly chill voice. “You were incorrect.”

“In other words, you fucked around and now you’re going to find out, you dumb bitches,” Dayine added helpfully then laughed. “I can’t wait to go check out your precinct. Wanna give me some names by the way? That’d help. Makes it easier on me so I don’t have to wait for Yellow-Eyes to go all blood hound on them.