Chapter 15: That day's rainstorm!

"You put your faith into law enforcement far too often and undeservingly, Dust." Said Tal as Dustin walked into the kitchen after he just hung up his call. "Like I told Gray, you have a tendency to let where you put your laptop slip your mind, we're all fallible men." Dustin replied after calling for Janece and Lowelle who he remembered were upstairs. "I was absolutely this close to beating Lowelle and baby Gerald in one night & the intended victory fifteen to zero, I was goin' to make them rage quit again." Janece complained with a disappointed tone. "They have incredible patience. Anyway, one of our criminals escaped police custody. We'll hunt him down and personally escort him alongside the officers this time." Dustin informed Janece and translated through sign language the situation to his youngest sibling. Lowelle put one foot forward, placed his head low, he closed his eyes, . "Their presence is incredibly more vivid to me now that I've felt them, I have him in sight, I'll lead the way." Lowelle informed his siblings with a note app from his phone with a grand smile. "It hurts me that you're now the fastest at typing too." Janece replied to him with sign language, he shrugged as he led the way. The investigation crew followed their youngest brother to an ice cream shop. Upon recognizing where they were led, Janece and Dustin's eyes widened with shock. "Huh, isn't this the exact joint that Derek had told us made his favorite mint chocolate chip ice cream he's obsessed with?" Janece asked her siblings. "He was eating the ice cream while doing it and it was the only time he was calm when he made a promise, the one to bring us here and enjoy some time together." Dustin replied and reminded his little sister. "Fortunate chump, did my homework and this establishment isn't owned by our perpetrator, you're absolutely sure that he's here, Low?" Tal butted in informing his team before he turned towards the youngest and needed assurance. Lowelle tightened his right fist, placed one foot forward and definitely felt the villain who escaped below them. He pointed downwards with his thumb as he nodded, everyone understood him. "Remember how Pa had always stressed the importance of connections before he— ?" Janece asked but couldn't finish her sentence and remember the day. Lowelle comforted her as she gave herself a moment to pull herself together. "A team of sidekicks, ancient empowered coats that allow him to embody the wind and now friends with ice cream shops he can hide in, fits the scum's M.O. well." Tal opined before he kicked the front door and broke the hinges. "You were always our quiet one, Talisha." Dustin teased as the team entered the shop to investigate. "They're at an ice cream shop searching for a criminal. Sending you their location now. Get the job done." Said a chocolate skinned man wearing a gray hoodie with a canteen on his hip spying on the team from a vantage point to someone over the phone in his hand.

Derek was contemplating out of his window while the sky was filled with the sun as bright as he could imagine it to be as it began to exit, eating his Grandmother's leftover crab stuffed mushrooms from the fridge, as his beloved sun began letting the moon have its turn to shine. He decided to take a rest on his bed to finish asking himself the questions important to him about his goals in his life, fueling these questions were feelings that he never imagined he would have in his lifetime. He scrolled through the phone his Grandfather gave him before he went on their team's top secret assignment, scrolling past his few friends in his contacts, his shakey finger began hovering over Kamila Methadonna's phone number, hesitant, his nervousness annoyed him. "I— I survived against a team of heartless treasure hunters, one that could have torn me limb from limb and yet… A feat that according to my Grandmother, I should feel proud of, one that should give me the confidence to face my—." Derek reasoned and thought to himself with a cheerless tone as he laid down on his bed. "Why are my palms still sweaty and my body still— I'm feeling like a suspect in a crime or something." Derek continued questioning himself, his motives, wondering if he had a choice to make until his friend Arlo Meinrad called him and realized what time it was currently.

Tal kicked down the steel door of a room after Dustin of the siblings stumbled upon a secret entrance in the shop's kitchen. It was darker than they were expecting. Dustin lit up his gauntlet, its glorious bright red glow acted as their torch downwards. When he uses it as a torch, Janece always begins to feel jealous that their father gave it to him. "One day we'll trade our relics, Dusti." Janece declared as she gripped onto her bag. Tal shook his head after hearing her. "Why would you give up our family's most powerful item over light?" Tal inquired from his little sister as they walked carefully through a darkened corridor. "I can think of a couple, it's the whole package of presentation and style with its versatility during our investigations." Janece answered as she shook her own head. Dustin stood quiet observing their surroundings as they followed Lowelle, he couldn't help but nod in agreement with Janece. "Idiocy— that bag has the ability to physically transform anything that can fit inside into anything with its energy, a grapple, a ball, a bit of a glow or whatever other redundant secrets he's discovered pales in comparison." Tal argued with his sister but she refused to listen while Dustin halted after noticing broken handcuffs on the ground below them. "He used a lock pick, these are the handcuffs Janece transformed one of her gum balls into made with R-UY metal." Dustin theorized as he kneeled down to investigate. Dustin looked towards Lowelle, he pointed to a room five doors down the hall. "The world's greatest private investigators from South Africa." The team heard from behind them, halting Tal from knocking down the door between the four of them and the criminal who've escaped police custody. Tal gave the mysterious stranger an eyeful of dagger as he caught all of their attention. "Hopefully, you're all as deadly as your ugly mugs." Said the mysterious stranger with bloody red pants after he realized their glaring, all except Dustin, he noticed he had the look not far from someone piecing a puzzle together in his eyes.

"'M been excited for this movie since it was announced!" Said Rex excitedly as he held his arms behind his head as the four friends were a few blocks away from their destination. "The comics were mediocre." Arlo critiqued with far less excitement, Rex gave him a stink eye. "Said it like companies even faithfully adapt the source material, hopefully they decide to release every volume and the annoying protagonist gets killed off by the end, they adapt that faithfully in." Liam replied, with a big smile near the end. Rex's eyebrows were as low as they could get and his eyes fierce as Derek realized he's never seen read the stories and they're spoiling it for him. "Confession and question time, would it be weird, guys, if this was my very first movie?" Derek asked to change topics and rescue the other two from Rex. The three of them turned towards him with eyes wide open, barely blinking, Derek began to get quiet and backed away from the others slowly, tapping his thumb and pinky behind him. "What strange world are you visiting here from?" Arlo asked with a tone filled with utter shock. Liam elbowed Arlo's arm. "No. Either way, it doesn't matter, your first is about to be the greatest movie of this generation." Rex opined as he gave him a thumbs up. "Worst. Correction. Worst." Arlo began laughing afterwards, using false coughing to cover up his mumbling. Rex turned around and looked at Arlo while shaking his head. As the friends arrived at their local theater showing the movie, Derek noticed Kamila was waiting for them in a car across the street. "Those are your friends?" Derek heard from an adult in the car with her, he assumed it was her father. "Keep this in your pocket and call as soon as the movie is over, I'll let Greg know and come pick you up immediately." He finished hearing from her father while she stepped out of the car and began heading over towards them. Derek tried his darndest to remain calm and confident but he felt like he couldn't keep it together. Rex looked over at her, Derek didn't like what he was reading from Rex, his heart sunk. Derek looked up towards the sky and noticed the clouds turning gray and warned everyone of the rain, Liam remembers checking the weather before he left and he found it strange his weather source was far from accurate. Derek's heart shattered when he witnessed Rex and Kamila holding hands as they walked in.

"Nothing's adding up, it doesn't make any sense to me, there's only one possible person who could have hired you and have the resources to locate us." Dustin was thinking out loud to himself but his little sister Janece heard him. "What's going on, Dust?" Janece asked as she witnessed her brothers taking on the mysterious stranger. The stranger weaved and dodged through Tal's lethal swings while he was primarily worried about his attacker's youngest sibling. "The way he's moving as if he has intel on us, our strengths and weaknesses?" Dustin took into consideration while he was having the worst time of his life coming up with answers. "I've got a fine idea of who's behind this, what this guy's problem is with us, where his customer is located, when they initiated this and how they were able to, nothing is making sense for me about the why." Dustin informed his little sister who seemed far more lost than he was feeling. Janece reached into her bag, she pulled out a steel ball and transformed it into a flash bang, she warned her brothers who both leapt away and back towards Dustin, who got on the ground and covered his ears while the mysterious stranger didn't seem like he cared about it to Janece. The stranger's hearing went fuzzy but his eyes were fine. Janece pulled out and transformed another ball made from steel into a short sword, she began swinging but he weaved and evaded her slashes until he recognized his opening, disarmed her sword from her hand and swung her own blade, after switching which hand, in a circle beheading her. Her head rolled as her body dropped but still stood up. Dustin, Lowelle and Tal began feeling bloodthirsty, ready to avenge their little sister.