13/13/13
Chapter 2

Mr. A1Z26 Broke His Crown.

18/15/13/21/12/21/19 1/14/4 18/5/13/21/19 4 5/22/5/18

Alax sighed as his wife told him that ‘he’ had shown up. Right, let’s just get this over with. He thinks to himself as he puts down the article discussing another scandal President Debbie’s family had popped and told the desk Sergeant he was taking a break. Alax tried to calm himself as he drove through the even more messed up then usual NY traffic. He tried to focus on the fact that his son was happier then he’d been in weeks thanks to Red.

Red, why couldn’t you have just stayed a stereotypical juvenile delinquent? (chuckle) you caused me less headache then, than now ironically. Mused Alax to himself.

Red wasn’t the best thing to focus on(especially when a sane person is trying to calm himself) but it beat thinking about what was waiting for him at home, so why not?

He still couldn’t believe that that girl was now his son’s best/only friend. Naturally, he was suspicious of her, still was. But after Hotbed, he was more willing to forgive and forget.

Well, that wasn’t completely true. As much as Alax hated to admit it, bit by bit that girl had been starting to grow on him before ‘that.’ Especially after that Valentine’s day…

...Last Valentine’s Day...

Red groaned as she threw away the dozens of valentines (while keeping the candy of course) that got sent to her every year by horny jerks-

“Huh, speaking of which, it just occurred to me that I haven’t gone on any dates for awhile.” Thought Red to herself. In fact, she hadn’t dated since she befriended Tyrone.

Red shrugged this epiphany off apathetically. ”Whatever; Tyrone’s fun to be around and guys are dorks anyway.”

It was at this point she realized she was near Tyrone’s school. ”Huh, and it’s probably close to dismissal. What the hey, not like I got anything better to do.”

Thought Red to herself as she walks up to the front door and stops dead in her tracks.

She watched stunned as Tyrone sat on the front steps, obsessively fixated on a home-made valentine card box. He frantically shook it; desperation practically marked upon his face.

Finally he gave up, dropped the empty box, and broke down in sobs.

Red quickly ran to him. “Tyrone, what’s wrong!?” She asked concerned.

Quickly Tyrone tried to hide the box and the fact he’d been crying. “(sniff) Nothing! I’m fine! Why do you ask?” He said while trying- and failing miserably- to sound tough and nonchalant.

Suddenly, a kid his age walked out the door behind him. He took one look at Tyrone and laughed. “No Valentines again? What a loser!”

The boy suddenly found himself both with a broken jaw and inside the nearby bush.

“TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE, TWERP!” Shouted a furious Red as an amazed Tyrone looked on.

Suddenly, Red heard a small cough. She turned around and paled at the sight of Officer Alax. “”Uh...he tripped?” Lied Red lamely, as the boys legs continued to poke out and flail helplessly from the bush behind her.

To her surprise, Alax smirked. “I was too busy spotting a potential jaywalker; so I’ll have to take your word for that.” He said with a wink.

Relieved that she wasn’t going to be arrested she immediately turned her attention to Tyrone while his dad got the boy out of the bush and sternly sent him on his way.

Tyrone sighed. “Seven years I’ve been forced to make a box like this, and seven years, not a single card.” He let out a sigh. “Maybe I should just accept it, no girl is ever going to like me.” He said out loud.

“What!?!” Exclaimed Red in outraged disbelief. “Okay, first of all, that’s nuts! You’re funny, smart, adventurous and kind! Any girl who can’t appreciate that isn’t worth your time!” She snaps.

And then she got an idea. “And secondly...” She trails off as she dumps all her candy into Tyrone’s box.

She smiles at him. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Tyrone.” Tyrone just looked at the box, stunned.

“I’m not going to cry. I’m a man, real men don’t cry.” Thought Tyrone to himself as he tried, and failed to do just that.

Alax rolls his eyes. “Tyrone! Everyone cries! Even me! Don’t buy into that Hollywood malarkey!”

And thus, Tyrone did just that while hugging Red in gratitude.

Alax smiled. It would be so easy to think of Red as a good girl from that, but yet...

...Pre-Tyrone Friendship...

Wearing nothing except a seahorse inner-tube, Red frantically tried to make sure her long ginger hair covered her breasts.

“I swear! It’s not what it looks like!” She shouted while standing in front of a burning building.

Alax just stared at the whole thing in speechless disbelief.

….

Alax put these thoughts aside as he drove up to his apartment and made his way to the back alley to see the man who, 20 years ago, was the most important person in his life, but now was just the skrag-head that nearly got his son and his friend killed.

Little did they know...

…An hour ago...

Tyrone was just coming out of his room to ask his mom if they could have pancakes, when he saw her heading toward the door with a revolver.

Quickly, Tyrone retreated back into the room and peeked out from behind the door. Without looking behind him, he clenched his hand above his head to indicate the ‘cover me’ military signal to Red.

Meanwhile, Red cursed herself for not paying attention to Tyrone when he tried to teach her these signals months ago. Not knowing what else to do, she went with her gut. She pulled out her army knife, pepper spray, and tazer before joining Tyrone as he continued to peek through the door crack.

They watched the brief exchange between Sky and the old man with amazed confusion.

“Whoa...I have never seen your mom act like that before.” Stated a stunned Red.

Tyrone wasn’t really listening, he had run over to his bookshelf and began to rifle through it.

Could it be? Could he be the one who sent me those letters?

Several months before the ‘hotbed hospital incident,’ he’d received anonymous letters filled with instructions on how to (among other things) locate haunting spots, summon ghosts to him, and exorcise them.

Looking back, Tyrone realized he should have been more suspicious of this, but for some reason, he completely believed and trusted the letters.

But the instructions told only how to destroy the ghosts. Tyrone wanted to trap them and prove their existence! Maybe he could finally get people to take him seriously, including Red.

Using supplementary information provided in the letters and his own research, Tyrone attempted to modify the ritual. The first two tries he did on his own, he ended up burning down two abandoned buildings with nothing to show for his troubles.

But the third time was really the charm! He’d been so confident of the ritual working he’d invited Red!

And it worked! His ritual worked! He caught the ghost! He had proof it existed! Red had been astonished. And that’s when that bandaged creature tried to stab her, only to get him instead.

Needless to say, the night went downhill after that.

When he regained consciousness, he was in a hospital bed, with a sobbing and bloodied Red by his side.

Later, his dad came in to check on him to make sure he was okay, then made him explain what happened.

When Tyrone told his dad about the letters, he went ballistic! Tyrone had never seen him that angry before.

Alax had the letters burned, and told Tyrone that if he ever got involved with this sort of thing again, he’d ship him to a boarding school on the other side of the globe. But what his dad didn’t know is that when he thought Tyrone was asleep, Tyrone heard him furiously talking with someone on the phone.

Tyrone hadn’t been able to hear most of it, but what little scraps he got seemed to indicate that his dad knew who’d been sending him the letters, and that he was coming here.

I know it’s risky, but I have to know. Thought Tyrone as he finally found the hollowed out book that held the backups of all the letters he’d received and his research on them.

It’s only then that he remembered that Red was still there; quickly he explained the situation to her.

While he did so, Red’s thoughts went elsewhere…

A 5-year old Red giggled as she finished yet another drawing of her kicking butt in far off lands.

GAH!!! Screamed Red, as once more, the freak of nature managed to get another stab at her! Staying up on pure adrenaline alone, she kept the fire ax and herself in between the creature and her best friend who was quickly bleeding to death from the wound he sustained taking the knife meant for her.

She knew that this was the part of the scene where the heroine was supposed to make a ‘quip’ or something, but the best the terrified teen could do was ignore the urine going down her leg.

“ADVENTURE!!!” Shouts the little girl as she tosses all her drawings in the air and ties her bed cloth around her neck like a cape before jumping on the bed making quasi-karate actions while in midair.

Red groans. After Tyrone’s dad swooped in and saved them at the last minute; it gave her the distraction she needed to scoop up Tyrone and limp him over to the nearest hospital. It had been a long night, but finally, Tyrone was safe. He was pulling through and now... now, she sleeps.

CLICK

Red’s eyes were open in an instant, right into the barrel of a shotgun. Alax was in tears.

“I’m sorry Red. I’m grateful that you saved my boy, but if you tell anyone about what happened tonight... what you saw... my whole family will be in danger.” He then shoved a piece of parchment into her face.

“So please, sign this, and give me a reason to not kill you.” He begged.

Little Red growled as she wrestled and tore apart another stuffed animal.

Red slunk back to her apartment in tears. ”Again, I fell for it again!” She snarled to herself.

Once again a so-called ‘bad boy’ sweet talked her onto his ‘hog’ with talk of debauchery and excitement, only to leave her holding the ‘bag’ at the first sign of trouble!

“I’m so stupid! These posers obviously only want one thing from me! Why do I keep falling for their lies!?” This unhappy train of thought was thankfully derailed when she sees a now familiar cupcake left on her doormat.

….

“One day I’ll go there, beat up the bad guys, and become king.” Thought little Red as she looked at an imaginary fantasy land in her book. “And I’ll also go there. And there. And there. And there...

The little girl continued to focus on imagining all the fun, far-away lands she’ll go to. It was either that or listen to her parents yell at each other again.

….

Red was getting misty eyed. She’d long forgotten of the little girl who dreamed of adventure. That little girl had died the day her mother left, and teenage angst buried her further. Occasionally her spirit tried to return every time a guy offered some new cheap thrill, and each time she was sent back disappointed. But not this time, and not this guy.

Meanwhile, Tyrone finished his explanation. “I can’t force you to be a part of this, if you want to leave-”

Tyrone was shocked when he suddenly found himself lifted into the air and cried out when he received a noggie. “And leave you to trip over your own legs!? Fat chance, short stuff!” She shouted teasingly.

“She’s back... I’m back...”

….

The moment over, Red finally explained to Tyrone what happened between his father and her a month ago.

Tyrone looked at her in shocked disbelief. Red sighed. “That’s why I took so long to see you again- I mean; aside from processing the whole ‘monsters and ghosts are real and want to kill me’ thing- I didn’t want to be here when your dad was here, and I didn’t think you’d believe me.”

Tyrone sighed. “I won’t lie, if you told me that a month ago I probably wouldn’t have, but after seeing my dad like that...”

Tyrone trailed off. The memory of his dad’s rage that night still made him flinch just even thinking about it.

Tyrone shook his head. “You say that, after signing the parchment, you can’t talk to anyone else about this?” Asked Tyrone desperately trying to change the subject.

Eager to oblige, (she too quivered thinking about Alax’s rage), she elaborated how she had a weird feeling after signing the parchment, how she later tried to talk about what happened to other people, but she found herself physically unable to say anything, and it was scaring her.

Tyrone tried to comfort her while simultaneously thinking of a plan to listen in on the conversation in the alleyway.

While Red distracted his mom, Tyrone went to steal a police issued, long-range microphone from his dad’s closet.

Tyrone couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. ”A year ago, I was afraid to cross the street without my mom’s permission. Now, look at me! I’m a rebel! Whoo!”

Indeed, it should come to no surprise to anyone that, shortly after Red entered his life, Tyrone was quick to become the latest of a long line of guys willing to do dangerous, stupid, illegal things to impress a girl they liked.

Now, contrary to what TV has lead people to believe, not all dads are idiots. Tyrone’s dad kept his police gear locked in a closet behind three padlocks and a keypad. Unfortunately for Alax, Tyrone wasn’t an idiot either. He knew how to pick locks and had long ago memorized the password with his keen powers of observation (It was ‘Wendigo’ for some reason).

Red couldn’t help but be impressed by this. ”Man I really need to have him teach me that. The times that coulda saved my bacon, the times that it HAS saved my bacon in the last year thanks to Tyrone.”

“Red! Pay attention!” Hissed Tyrone as he tried to maneuver the microphone so they could get an optimal listen of what’s going on in the Alley. So far it was just the old man down there fiddling with his phone, but his dad could be there any min-

“Tyrone, it’s your dad!” She hisses quietly while turning to him in a panic. Unfortunately their position on the fire escape caused her to hit his nose while doing this.

Crying out in pain, Tyrone nearly dropped the microphone. Red quickly grabbed it, but found herself teetering on the edge.

Quickly, Tyrone wrapped his arms around her to stop her from falling. She let out a surprised squeal and he quickly tried to pull her back-

But it was too late. His dad was already in the alley.

Both kids froze where they were; they dared not move lest they attracted attention.

The instant the old man saw Tyrone’s father, he clearly tried to be courteous with an extended hand, only for Alax to slap it away and start to angrily snarl at him.

Tyrone cursed; there was some kind of interference. Too much static. He was only getting fragments of the conversation, and he couldn’t adjust the frequency because his hands were busy keeping Red from falling to her death.

He tried to read their lips, but between how he was positioned, and the steam from the nearby sewer grate obscuring everything, it was even worse.

He tried to listen with the headphones while a flustered Red bit her lip to stifle a groan.

Bzzt! How could- Bzzzzt Jam- Bzzzzt! right to know! Bzzzzt! Bees- Bzzzzt! Nearly died! Bzzzt! Templars- Bzzzzt! Alix’s ink! Bzzzzt! Sword- Bzzzt! The 13th- Bzzzzzt! His legacy! Bzzzzzt! Apricot- Bzzzzt Father- Bzzzzzt Julio-

GET OUT!

Tyrone felt his ears bleed as his dad screamed that last part while shoving the old man to the ground. The man gets up, says one last thing, straightens his coat- Tyrone’s eyes widen -he then leaves.

The instant Alax leaves as well, Tyrone begins to talk again rapidly: “Okay, I didn’t get most of that. But I saw something fall from his coat! So if we can-

“Tyrone!” Interrupted a mortified Red. “Do you think you can deal with THIS first!?” She pleaded.

Tyrone looked at her in confused bewilderment, and then horrified realization. He was grabbing her by the chest.

Tyrone frantically pulled her back up and let go, apologizing furiously.

The two awkward adolescents walked down to the alley in silence.

Remembering where the old man stood, Tyrone pointed out the storm drain he’d been standing on and they both started fishing through it.

After an many minutes of suffering through freezing cold water, rat bites, and sewage, the two were rewarded with a broken, water-logged smartphone.

Red gritted her teeth. “Great, now what do we do?” Tyrone thinks, then smirks. “Now we get some rice.”

“Rice can be used to dry out electronics? Huh, fancy that.” Red was amazed at all the info this kid held in his head. He was the brains to her brawn. Ever since she teamed up her street-smarts with his book-smarts, they’d become a pretty kick-a** team. He**, even Tyrone’s super-cop of a dad couldn’t catch them!

“Not that you’d know it by looking at us now.” Thinks Red to herself as she struggled to keep from laughing at Tyrone’s comical struggling to reach the top-most pantry where the rice was kept.

She tried to do it but, tall for her age she might be, even she couldn’t reach it.

Tyrone groaned as he looked at the clock. His mom stepped out for a bit to do some laundry, but that usually only ever took her a few minutes (he knew this thanks to all the long, lonely nights- before Red came into his life- that he tried to fill with whatever activity he could) and most of it was up now. She could be back any second.

Tyrone groaned. He didn’t like this, but what choice did he have? “Lift me up.” He said to Red, forlornly.

Red eyes widened. “Uh, are you sure? I know how much you hate it when I-”

“Look, we don’t have time! J-just make it quick.” Interrupts Tyrone full of self-loathing. He hated when she did this, not only because it reminded him that he was short for his age, but also because it was a painful reminder of why a relationship between them was so unlikely.

Without another word, Red easily lifted him up to grab the rice and they headed back into the sanctity of Tyrone’s room as quickly as the awkwardness would allow.

“Well, it took an hour, a whole bag of rice, and some quick computer work,” Stated Tyrone as he looked at the data uploaded to his computer. “But I was able to save ten percent of the data.” Admitted Tyrone with a sigh.

Red frowns. “Wait, that’s it?” She asked with annoyed disappointment. Tyrone glared. “Oh, I’m sorry. I left my supercomputer at the symposium!” He snarked.

Red glared back. “Hey! Considering I nearly fell to my death AND got copped a feel; I think I got every right to be disappointed by this!” She snarled.

Tyrone took a deep breath to calm himself. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I appreciate you helping me. I’m just as disappointed as you are.” He admitted dejected.

Red softened up too. “I’m sorry too. Actually, considering how messed up it was when we found it, ten percent is actually a pretty darn good achievement.” She admitted.

Tyrone brightened up a bit. Then turned back to the computer as he tried to sort through the data.

“Okay... it looks like a bunch of GPS coordinates, a couple phone numbers and what seem to be some pictures.”

Tyrone looked at these for a bit. Most of them were too badly degraded to make anything out. Two were fine; one seemed to just be a picture of a colorful stone, but the other...

Tyrone felt his heart stop-

“Mr. Christos and his boys...”

Was written in an ‘old timey’ parody-way across the bottom of the picture showing the (younger) old man having ice cream with three younger boys. two were clearly his teenage father and uncle Alex.

He tells Red this. “Wait, who’s Uncle Alex?” Asked Red confused. Realizing she’d never met him. Tyrone eagerly explains that his uncle was this amazing guy who traveled the world as an anthropologist and occasionally swung over during the holidays to hang with him and give him gifts.

He excitedly showed her the many things his uncle had given him: a shrunken head, a Enigmalith, a Inca aeroplane, a Ubaid Lizard Man, a UFO tooth wheel, a Mini-Mechanical De sphaera mundi, a canopic jar, a Antikythera Mechanism, a genetic disk, a piece of the voynich manuscript and-

“Whoa, whoa.” Interrupts Red before Tyrone gets on a roll. “I’m sure these...‘whatever they are’s’ are amazing and I’m sure your Uncle is amazing too, but maybe we’ve gotten off track?” She suggests while pointing back at the picture.

Tyrone flusters, but nods. He returns to the computer screen. “Right. Seems like a safe bet that the old man is my grandfather. That other guy must be another uncle. Judging by the hostile attitude my dad has toward him, and the fact he’s never said a word about his side of the family, except uncle Alex of course, I think it’s safe to assume we’re dealing with a classic ‘dark family secret’ cliché.” States Tyrone simply.

“And since he seems to be the guy who sent those letters, that must mean whatever the ‘secret’ is, it might be something paranormal!” Exclaims Red in realization.

Tyrone nods, then smirks when the full implications of that statement hits him. Quickly putting away the thoughts of wands and pointy hats, he turns to Red.

“Well, that’s probably all we’re gonna be able to figure out today. Not only do we have no other leads to look into at the moment, but more importantly my dad will be coming home soon.”

Both kids shuddered as the memory of Tyrone’s enraged dad filled their minds. It went unsaid that whatever they did with this investigation, it would be when Tyrone’s dad was out of the house. It was just too risky otherwise.

The two just stared at each other.

“So now what?” Asked Red. Tyrone frowns, then smiles. “I could continue annihilating you at Space Yada-Yada XII.”

Red scoffs. “Fat chance!” She snarks as they start playing. All thoughts of supernatural and family secrets leave their heads as they have fun together for the first time in a month, leaving this enigma for another day.

That day in question came sooner than expected.