The Raven Gang (Noble Animals Book 1)

by Brendan Walsh

  “Yeah!” Slate followed. “All of us have put up with your plan for much too long, and it has consequently changed all our lives forever.” he slowly turned to face everyone else, huddled against the back of the cell. “They won’t get away with the forever. Something will spring up and stop them forever.”

  Patrick was too far into a nervous stare that he didn’t notice the grunt at first. The same one who flicked the switch and had not yet spoken grabbed a steel rod from behind one of the tables. Quietly, while the other two were still focused on handcuffing the gang, the lone soldier swung it hard at the back of the first one’s head, sending him down cold without much of a twitch. The other barely had time to process the impromptu turn of events when the rod clubbed him straight across his left check, send him twirling face first onto the floor.

  The gang’s eyes ballooned down at the knocked out Elder goons. Proudly standing before them, the soldier who had just taken out the two of them quickly yanked off her custom-made hat and mask and flung them to the ground.

  “And you guys tried to tell me that intramural softball was a waste of time.” Lindsey said with a light chuckle.

  “Lindsey!” Johnny cried out in glee.

  They all spent the next few seconds cuddled into a jubilant group-hug as they sprang from the inside of the cell. One by one they each spoke out their immense gratitude.

  Slate was the first to divulge from their happy moment. Lindsey’s risky appearance prompted many questions. “As happy as I’m sure we are all to see you, how on earth did you find us?”

  “Yeah, or even pretend to be a solider?” Gary wondered.

  The detective’s daughter continued her smile, obviously proud of what she had done. “After you people left I was placed under arrest by some FBI agents who turned out to be working for Elder. They were going to take me to God knows where.”

  “So how did you escape?” Patrick mindlessly blurted.

  “I’ll get to it! Anyway, before they took me somewhere out of the city your batty pal Edgar broke into the van and tossed those two goons straight out of the car. Though he didn’t stick around much. So I figured that the best way to save you guys was to pretend I was a soldier, and boy was I surprised where that led me!”

  “Hell, you saved us and that’s all that matters!” Johnny cheered. “Now we can all just go forward to the cops and tell them everything.”

  Jane raised her eyebrows at them. “I’m not so sure that’s true. If we could just go and explain everything to the police, why would Elder happen to leave this place unsupervised?”

  “Well no time like the present.” Gary slowly jogged to the open steel doors. “Let’s just get out of here first.”

  “It’s not going to be that simple.” warned their savior.

  “Why not?”

  As Lindsey watched all the members of the gang make futile plans to take back control of the battle her smile came back. It seemed there was much the raven gang didn’t know.

  “Wait,” she said. “You guys have no idea where you are, do you?”

  “No. You can’t exactly see anything from down here.” Patrick weighed in. “Why, where are we?”

  Lindsey’s expression rose to a subtle half smile. She was a tiny bit pleased at finally being the one in the group who wasn’t in the dark. “I have good news and bad news.”

  The rest of the building was not actually hard to navigate. Especially since they had Lindsey with them, who had lapped around it a couple times. After several empty, bright, and seemingly futuristic halls with strange devices wired around them they came to a regular looking rusty door etched with rectangular windows on each side. Wherever they were, it was nighttime, that much was clear. The six of them powered through, shoved the door wide open, and elevated a small set of concrete stairs until they were on street level.

  Seeing the outside world was like coming out of hibernation. It was suddenly filled with wonder and intrigue, as if they were all tourists in an unknown city.

  Which they technically were.

  Patrick eyed the available skyline around him. Several monuments with view of the naked eye were one he had only seen in history and social science textbooks. Most notably a tall, thin obelisk that pierced the top of the old city. The monument’s name dedicated to the first president of the United States.

  Gary slowly stepped up behind him, staring at the Washington Monument wide-eyed along with his friend. “Dear lord, we’re in Washington DC!”

  “More than 3000 miles away from home!” Slate said.

  “Surprised?” Lindsey grinned as she surveyed everyone’s response. “But that’s not everything.”

  The gang was then instructed by Lindsey to look to the left at an inert black and white car parked nearly in the middle of an empty alley with its headlights on. Despite the colors it was not a police car, but the two figures leaned against the rear were certainly cops. One was a youthful looking Hispanic woman and the other was Lindsey’s father. Patrick recoiled in surprise. Even though things were starting to make much more sense.

  “You brought your father here?” he asked Lindsey nervously. “The guy who’s out for our heads!”

  “Relax Patrick, I gave him a call earlier and explained everything to him. I’m surprised he was so quick to believe it.”

  When they got to the car Patrick could tell that the detective held a dour expression tightly with his eyes, his lips furled into a frown.

  “Hello, Mr. Hunter.” Slate greeted shyly.

  “Raven Gang.” he snorted in response.

  Gary took a few steps forward and extended his hand “It’s certainly nice to finally meet you in person. I gotta say I’ve really loved your work lately.”

  “Alright let’s just get to the point.” Guajardo interjected. “Now, as his daughter has so bravely done-”

  “Without my knowing.” her father said, eyeing her suspiciously.

  “Anyway, during her brief stunt she wasn’t able to find out anything clear about what Elder’s plan is in the city, but there was talk of something called “The Time Keeper” unleashing something from the basement of the Bronstrom Building just down the block.”

  The name popped up in Patrick’s mind. “The Bronstrom Building? Isn’t that the place where all those scientific conferences are held?”

  “That’s correct.” the female cop confirmed. “So it would seem it’s not a coincidence that that specific meeting is happening right now.”

  “So we need to get everyone out right?” Jane asked. “It stands to reason that whatever is going to be unleashed won’t be good.”

  Detective Hunter took two heavy, displeased steps towards the gang, his eyes furious. “This is great! Let the juvenile band of criminals do the planning, that can’t go wrong!”

  “Then what would you recommend we do, sir?” Patrick asked respectfully.

  “I....uh....yeah we need to get everyone out.”

  Gary crossed his arms over his chest, trying to keep warm. It was December in Washington DC, and they were all dressed for the wrong state on the wrong side of the country. Though the heavy doses of adrenaline in their bodies made them mostly forget the weather.

  “But how will we do that? We can’t exactly just go in and say ‘We’re the raven gang and if you don’t listen to us you’re all going to die’ now can we?”

  No one had noticed since they were all too involved in the conversation but Johnny was off to the side privately cackling to himself. Once the sound of the laughter became more audible, their annoyed looks all directed at the raven gang member who wasn’t taking their problem seriously.

  “Son, what exactly is so amusing about this?” Hunter asked.

  “Let’s just say I know some people around here who can definitely help us out. My old guitar instructor now works just down that street over there, and he would definitely do me a favor that w
ould solve our problem.”

  “How would he be able to solve any of our problems?” Patrick asked with a frown.

  “You guys know just as much as I do that the best way to draw out a crowd is with some good old fashion Rock n’ Roll.”

  Everything was going according to plan. Doctor Lenny Hullway, a treasured physicist at Princeton, watched as the events of the evening unfolded just as he had hoped. As the chairperson for the National Association of Scientists, he needed things to go swell or it could end up not boding well for him. They were just rumors, but he heard that the last chairperson was laid off because at the annual last gala he had failed to provide melted cheese for the nachos. It was most likely just jest, but he decided there was no hurt in being too careful. Every last molecule of detail was scrutinized.

  Besides the same small worries everything was looking swell. Months prior he had sent classy invitations to several of the nation’s top scientists, whose appearance at the event would surely increase publicity and revenue. Every last one of them came. All of them were either conversing by the elegantly flowing chocolate fountain or looking out the window across the street where the most recognizable building in the country proudly stood. The White House.

  That could have ended up causing a few problems. Ordinarily there wouldn’t have been any issue, but with the fabled raven gang now apparently plaguing the entire nation, the people were finally expecting the president to do his job and ensure the American people that he considers the issue to have utmost importance. Despite the tons of fear mongering around the media every time the phrase “The Raven Gang” came up, Hullway was never worried. Not necessarily that he didn’t think the threats were real, but it had yet to enter his mind he could become a victim.

  On that note, he looked over amongst the merry festivities to see a young man start to approach him. He was dressed similarly to everyone else at the gala except for one thing that stood out. It could best be put that he smelled much more like a canine than a human, as if he had spent the last hour being smothered by wolves.

  “I trust you’re enjoying the event so far?” Hullway greeted, not thinking anything of the scent.

  The young man maintained a stolid expression. “I am Mr. Always.”

  “Hullway.”

  “Whatever.” he growled. “I do have one question though: are the emergency exits and evacuation plans the same as they were last year?”

  “Well...I think so; I’m not really the one to ask though. Why?”

  “Just making pleasant conversation.” the dog boy replied. “It’s what human’s do, right?”

  Before Lenny Hullway could respond the young man disappeared into the crowd, almost too quickly for his 20/25 vision to pick up. Things were indeed going according to plan, just not Doctor Hullway’s plan.

  The gang, now with the help of a couple municipal San Francisco authorities, had spent the last hour preparing for their boldest move yet. Slate, being the uptight and proper citizen he strove to be, recommended they all look nice considering the fancy atmosphere they were about to enter. So they switched their normal clothing for suits, vests, ties, and yes, even a bow tie. Slate took the pasta shaped tie and a black vest, and everyone else took the black suits and white dress shirts. It certainly made everyone feel confident. As long as they could move well, they were fine.

  Some of them were positioned right outside the Bronstrom building, setting up for a plan that seemed too farfetched to work. The building had the standard amount of windows for its size, but thankfully none of them were positioned for anyone to see what Johnny, Patrick, Lindsey, and Jane were doing.

  Patrick cheerfully sighed as he finished snapping the midsection of a light post back into place. “I think we’ve just about covered everything.” he wobbled it back and forth to make sure it was snug. He jumped off the stage and landed beside the other three.

  “It looks like it.” Lindsey said, inspecting the back part of the stage that they had to drag from the garage of Johnny’s music teacher’s store. “Johnny, you’re the expert, is everything just as it should be?”

  Johnny crawled out from under the stage, swooshing the bright blue curtain out of the way. “Yep, the gig’s ready when we all are. But before we rock these nerds, we need to go over the plan. And here they are now-”

  Gary and Slate had just returned from looking around the base where they were imprisoned. As they expected, the place was deserted, even the workers Lindsey knocked out had disappeared. Their job was to gather as many useful weapons as possible, odds are some kind of fight would break out between whatever army Elder had stored below the Bronstrom building, so they needed to be prepared. Based on the sport’s bag Slate had wrapped around his shoulder, it wasn’t much.

  “Okay. This is how it’s going to go down.” Jane started, positioning herself between both parties like a football huddle. “If we make ourselves known every form of law enforcement will be on our asses faster than congress can waste our tax dollars, so we need a different way of evacuating the building. I, Johnny, and two other people from the store will play live music in hopes of driving them out of their snooze fest of a party. While that’s going on, a team of wildly inexperienced fighters, present company, will go inside and contain whatever was going to be released and attack everyone.”

  “Actually, I and Gary are both pretty experienced for what we have.” Slate felt the need to add.

  “That team will comprise of Patrick, Gary, Slate, and Lindsey. Alright you guys, what weapons did you find?”

  Slate arched the bag onto the ground as Gary slid the zipper down. Everyone peered inside. Their expressions said it all.

  “You have got to be kidding me.” Lindsey said with minimal impression.

  Patrick reached into the bag to pulled out one of the weapons by the handle, which had a design for a specific finger arrangement, and the blade was long and thin. “These look like fencing swords. This is the best you could do?”

  “They’re epee, specifically.” Gary said as he took one out for himself. “And these have been made to be very sharp. Slate and I know how to fence well, along with other attacking methods, so we can do some damage.”

  Slate moved his feet into proper position and lunged forward, his blade sparkling from the light fixtures. “See, that’s six years of bourgeois culture being shoved down my throat for you.” He slid the tip of the sword through a belt loop on his slacks, holding it securely against his hip. “I don’t mean to be the guy who asks the million-dollar question, but should we try to get Edgar here?”

  The question produced a worried silence among everyone.

  Jane was the first to reply. “No. Definitely not.”

  “What are you talking about?” Gary countered. “His abilities would make this a whole lot easier.”

  “You remember that tape don’t you?”

  “It’s not his fault!” Gary’s face grew red with disgruntlement.

  “Look, you two.” Johnny slid off stage so everyone could see him. “Yes, Edgar is our friend, yes he killed Doctor Black and who knows how many others, and yes we want him to be okay, but we can’t risk getting him here. If Elder finds out he’ll make him do things he doesn’t want, like attacking us.”

  Patrick forced an argument, not surprised that he was now on Gary’s side. “But Elder doesn’t have to know he’s here. He’s stealthy and quiet, more so than anything I’ve ever seen. But most importantly he’s a member of the gang, and we don’t leave anyone behind. If we had a creed it sure as hell would be in there.”

  “I’ll give us something we can all agree on.” Slate tried acting as devil’s advocate. It always bothered Patrick when he did that. “It would be great to have him back, but if Elder finds out and does that mind control stuff on him we will have to fight him. And not just him, have you considered that the army below the building is a group of Edgars, maybe 10, 20, or hundreds? We may ha
ve to hurt them, and it’s not going to be fun.” He looked down unhappily, playing with the handle of his sword.

  “I still think it’s a good idea” Gary and Patrick agreed. “He’s probably off somewhere so miserable and alone. If we’re with him, then that gives him something.”

  Johnny sighed. “Let’s take it to a vote.”

  The two of them hoped to convince everyone else. Lindsey sided with them, but ultimately they thought it was best to wait until after it was clear that Elder couldn’t do anything to him again. A loud beep went off on Jane’s watch letting everyone know that it was almost time to begin the plan.

  “Alright you guys.” Lindsey said heavily. “Let’s prepare to do the dumbest thing any of us will ever do, if we’re really so lucky.”

  “Where on earth did your father go?” Patrick wondered. “Wasn’t he going to help us?”

  “He is. He’s just taking care of a few things. He’s getting firearms from an old friend. Pretty necessary considering our weapons. He’ll be right back.”

  Patrick drew his hair to the side. It had gotten itchy with sweat. “Wouldn’t things be easier if your father just told the whole true story to everyone? We wouldn’t have to do this.”

  “Think about it. He’s the one that kept pushing for a greater crackdown on you, he’s the one that delayed other cases to work on this one, and he’s the one that pushed for greater publicity and ended up creating more fear. He’d be out of a job if people knew the truth.” Lindsey’s hands were at her hips, as if she was giving a lecture.

  Slate stopped playing with his sword and joined the conversation. “But that’s not the worst part. Think about Edgar.”

  “Yeah I see what you mean.” Gary’s head drooped down pensively. “If the full story gets out, you know what they’re going to want to do to him if people realize something like him exists?”

  A gloomy awkward silence passed over them.

  “Kill him.” concluded Patrick.

  That was the general consensus.