Chase stood behind Krampus as the brutish man gently placed pieces of the ruby shard together. His tongue even stuck out from the side of his fangs as he focused. One after another, he picked up a shard and attempted to match it to the piece in his hand. With a growling huff, he slapped a piece down and snatched another. “Do you need to watch me?” He barked.
Walking around him to get a better look, Chase said, “What else do you need me to do? We have all the shards on Earth and I can’t get to that station.”
Dropping the shards, he stood up. “Enough of this. I thought putting them together might induce some reaction. Something to help. But this is pointless. We can’t move forward without the rest of this ruby.”
Chase walked away and punched a button on the main computer, showing a general image of the BADGE space station. “Get me on there and you’ll have the rest of the ruby.”
Krampus marched over to her and snarled. “I wouldn’t let you step one toe on that station. The risk is too great.”
“Risk? I infiltrated Fort Knox, had ten guards in one room with guns trained on me. I got out of there without a scratch. That station is hardly a vault. They don’t even have a large superhero contingent up there. Get me up there, I will get your ruby shards.”
Krampus pushed her aside and shut the image off. “No! You don’t understand, but if you go there, then you could face a bigger problem. It...wouldn’t be safe.”
“Then what do you suggest?”
“We do have one ally up there already.”
Chase snorted, “You don’t mean Skelanimal?”
“He’ll do what I ask of him. However, he’s an idiot and wouldn’t make it far without a little help.” A deadly smile came to his nasty maw. “I believe I should contact an old friend.”
“Who?” Chase asked.
Krampus turned and walked toward a dark corner of the room. “Stay here and do nothing. I’ll be back shortly.” Using his own magical power, he slipped into the shadows and was gone.
Chase sat down in a chair and waited a moment, making sure she was truly alone. She picked up a tablet and accessed a picture she had stored there. When Krampus saw the way she looked at this image before, he grew angry and tried to delete it, but she had one last copy in this file. It was the same image she has stared at for days. The blast when Strange Quark blew up while holding the ruby shards. Behind him stood a man with stone colored skin and big wings. Both this Strange Quark and the winged man stoked a latent memory in her. A feeling welled up in her chest, but she couldn’t explain it within herself. She wanted to know more.
The cool sea air brushed over the rocky surface of the Mediterranean waters. Birds squawked and called out in the afternoon sunlight. Speedboats played in the waters, some dragging skiers behind them. A large cruise ship approached the idyllic Venice Harbor.
Chromatic Death took in this glorious vista as he rocked back and forth on the small water taxi he had hired. His guitar on the seat next to him, he slumped down, threw his head back and took in the warm sunlight.
His pilot asked, in a thick Italian accent, “Are’a you sure about this?”
Chromatic said, “For the last time, yes.”
“Okay. That’a place, it’sa haunted.”
Chromatic huffed, “Don’t care.”
“I justa warning you. We are almost there.” The pilot drove the little taxi harder across the water’s surface.
Eventually they made it to the dilapidated dock on an island. An old, run-down building surrounded by overgrown foliage. Some of the structure had been shored up with scaffolding and boards, but it was in no shape for living.
The pilot shuddered, “Thata old asylum makesa me sick to the stomach. Why you want to go there?”
“If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me. So, let’s say it’s classified and leave it at that.” Chromatic stood up and grabbed his guitar. “I guess this is my stop. Stay here.”
“No, sir. I go. You call when you want pick up.”
Chromatic stepped off the boat and turned back to the man with a fierce look in his eyes. “We had a deal. I pay you a crap load of money and you stick around until I’m ready to leave.”
“I give refund. I no stay here. You go. When you want to leave. Call office.” Without another word, the man sped away on his boat.
Chromatic growled out a hard sound and prepared to blast that stupid little boat with his guitar. But he knew better than to get in trouble with BADGE for sinking some civilian boat, even if they deserved it.
Slinging his guitar around to his back, he looked up at the spooky old asylum. “Poveglia Island, the most haunted place in Italy. I aint scared of no ghosts.” He snickered at that reference and then blinked a few times. His eyes turned to prisms again, and a swath of colored light spread about before him. With a wicked smile, he walked along the old path. “Still got her trail.”
Chase kept that picture up on the monitor. She fought deeply to recall this person. All she could seem to conjure in her memories was his laugh. A faint image remained in her mind of him smiling and then laughing. That brought her great joy, yet she couldn’t figure out why.
She jerked hard and nearly fell off the stool she sat on when a buzzer sounded. In a flash, she shut down the image so that Krampus would not see it. To her great relief, it was not Krampus but the proximity alarm.
The computer announced, “Intruder alert.”
Chase swiftly made her way to a computer terminal and checked the external monitors hidden outside. The computer replayed ever instance this person had been present within camera range. She frowned at the strange colored lights showing up from nowhere. Then she noticed a pattern.
“Computer, run all recorded video back five minutes and play on loop.”
The images replayed over and over. She watched them, growing astonished and worried at the same time. She turned her attention to the live feed, following this odd man through the abandoned asylum. “How is he doing that?”
“Doing what?” Krampus’s voice broke her concentration.
“Oh! You scared me.”
He gave a half-cocked smile. “I’ll take that as a compliment, you impress me with your skills of observation.”
“We have a problem. Someone is here, on the island.”
Krampus looked over the monitors. “Oh. Another ghost hunter looking for spirits?”
She shook her head. “I doubt it. He has powers.”
Krampus gave off a rumbling chuckle. “So, the heroes think they can find me. Well, no worry, they’ve checked this island before, and not found the entrance.”
She pointed at the monitors. “Don’t be so confident. I don’t know how, but he has followed the exact path I use when coming here. He is two turns away from the secret entrance.”
Krampus spent a moment watching the recorded monitors and then settled his eyes on the live feed. “How interesting. This one is good. Very good.”
“Too good. I’ll take care of him.” She pulled out a blade.
“No.” Krampus pushed her arm down. “Let him get in here.”
“What?”
“Trust me. I have a plan. Now, collect all but twenty of the shards and then stay out of sight. Do not let him see you.”
Chase didn’t argue, she simply complied.
Chaz Hamilton tapped a pen against his desk, while sitting in his office chair, leaning on his left elbow, staring at a blank computer screen. He had been drumming out this solo for about forty-five minutes.
Turning a lazy eye toward the blank screen, he thought about finding another story about those ruby shards to write about. But he was tired of interviewing the average bystander. For some reason it seemed he got stuck with all the country bumpkins each time he went out to find something juicy about those strange ruby shards. The last guy he tried interviewing spent most of the time talking about his pig’s constipation issues.
Suddenly his boss stepped into his cubicle and removed his glasses. “Hamilton, I have an assignment for you.”
Chaz hardly glanced at him. “What, transcribing the TV listings?”
“No. It seems BADGE has finally given your media clearance the green light again. Don’t ask me why.”
Chaz perked up. “You mean I can go do an interview with someone who has most of their teeth?”
“You promised me an interview with Director Nova weeks ago, and now you will get the chance. I’m sending you to the BADGE space station. You will meet with Krystal Fae...”
Chaz’s excitement faded. “Oh...she’s going to be there as well?”
“Yes. I’d hoped you two could work together on this. But she is busy helping them.”
“Fine, whatever, as long as I get to take lead on this and I get the byline. When do I leave?”
His boss handed him a special card from BADGE. “They have a shuttle departing tomorrow evening.”
“Oh, I would like to get going on this sooner. Don’t they have one going up today?”
“No. But, if you want to get there quicker, Krystal Fae has offered to transport you.”
Chaz held his stomach. “Uh, no, I...would rather not. I’ll be on the shuttle.”
His boss turned to leave, but said, “Don’t screw this up like last time. You get black listed again and you might be out of a job.” With that, he left.
Chaz sat back and muttered, “I don’t even know what I did last time.”
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