FIX IN OVERTIME SAMPLE CHAPTER

Chapter 16 (Narrator):  Manga Boys in the House

Fix was still tweaked on the Stuff when he called Mindy.  Initially, she was skeptical, secretly thinking that Mark had made up the story about Victor in a futile attempt to teach her a lesson.

“Mindy, I’m telling you,” Mark insisted.  “I’m in Viv’s place right now, I used the Stuff.”

“Oh, you did that for me?”  Mindy softened.

“I told you I’d do anything for you,” Fix said back in his embarrassed schoolboy voice.  “Except kill Victor, of course.”

Then Mark heard Victor’s voice call out from Mindy’s adjoining room.

“Mindy?  Is that Mark?”

“Don’t worry,” Mindy assured in a voice that terrified Mark.  “You won’t have to.”

“No!  No, Mindy!  Wait!”

Simultaneously, Lt. Thomas Goda had run around back to the apartment building’s courtyard, where the balconies faced.  He squinted at the tiny instruction manual he kept in his hip pocket.  His leg came with a tiny, calculator sized keyboard and screen.  Tearing a hole in his pant leg, he opened it up and pushed the appropriate buttons.  The leg could do everything he needed, save one.  Judge the distance from the courtyard to the eighth floor balcony.

“Lessee.  Eight stories, ceiling’s about ten feet.  Let’s say ninety-two, including the ground floor.”

And with that, Goda punched in “92” and leaned all his weight on his cybernetic prosthesis.  One point three seconds later, the leg fired him skyward, perfectly arcing him towards Viv’s balcony.  Unfortunately, Goda failed to ad in the height of the balcony railing, which was another three feet.  He grasped at the edge of the railing and struggled to pull himself up.

Mark immediately spotted him, but hesitated to go running to his aid.  The Stuff was still working.

“Goda,” he said trying to shield his eyes and redial Mindy.  “What the Hell are you doing?”

“You’re under arrest, Fix!”

Although Mark admired his tenacity, clearly, Goda was losing his grip.  Letting him fall was out of the question, so he reached over the railing and offered his hand.  Goda grabbed on, then stared back at Mark’s eyes.

“Ah!  What the fuck’s wrong with you?!” demanded Goda.

“Oh, good, struggle with me.  That’ll help,” growled Mark, pulling him over the railing.

“Jason—  The green light—  That’s what I was trying to remember.  You’re a freak just like he said!”

“Look, you can’t tell anybody about this.”

“The Hell I can’t!”

Just then, the door to Viv’s apartment burst opened.  Six very silent Japanese men entered, immediately cloaking themselves in shadow.  Fix and Goda drew their guns.

“Where is Victor?” said the leader impatiently.

“Drop your weapons, I’m a cop.”

“You did not answer my question.”

“Uh, Goda, I don’t think these—  Gggg!  Akkkk!”

Dropping his gun, Mark dropped to his knees, choking and grasping his throat.  The Stuff had one more power to imbue upon him.  Goda picked up Mark’s gun and tried in vain to keep all the Japanese guys in his line of sight.

“You picked the wrong time to swallow a bug, Fix.”

“By the time we are finished with you two,” added the Japanese leader.  “Neither one of you will be able to swallow much of anything.  Now, where is Victor?!”

“Goda,” gasped Fix.  “Grab...onto...something.”

“What?”

Mark couldn’t hold back any longer.  A roar that shatter Viv’s windows and shook everyone else’s for blocks, rocked the yuppie apartment complex.  Strange bolts of green energy erupted from Mark’s body, instantly burning holes through his clothes and bouncing around the room like mini balls of lightning.  The clocks, lights and appliances went berserk.  Viv’s stereo surged to life, it’s volume controls rolling to maximum and blasting “Rock N’ Roll is Dead” by Lenny Kravitz.  Fog billowed in the room from out of nowhere, but was blown away by a powerful surge of wind that impossibly emanated from Mark’s windpipe.

Goda stamped his foot, locking the magnet against the base of the balcony’s sliding door just in time.  Two of the Japanese men were blown off the balcony, while the others were tossed about the room.  When the wind subsided, Goda made his move.  Grabbing Mark by the collar, he dragged the spent P.I. to his feet and they both stumbled out of the apartment.

“How did you do that?” asked Goda as he stumbled.

“If I knew that, I’d sell my gun,” gasped Mark.  “You got a breath mint?”

Three more uzi-wielding, Japanese thugs were just getting off the elevator in the hall.  Goda and Mark immediately spotted them and made a break for the fire exit.  Goda fired a shot, giving them a precious second to duck out of the way of the uzis’ rain of death.

“Who are these guys?!” demanded Goda.

“The Manga Boys.  Can I have my gun?”

“No.”

At the top of the stairs, Mark grabbed a fire extinguisher.  As the first Manga Boy  came through, he hurled it down the stairs at him. Instinctively, he backed away, giving Goda and Mark enough time to turn the corner.  By this time, the thugs in the apartment had also recovered and were in hot pursuit.  The uzis were fired up through the next flight of stairs, but Goda and Mark managed to stay just inches in front of the bullets.

On the roof, Mark jammed the door shut with a screwdriver, while Goda looked around for an escape.

“Who the fuck are the Manga Boys?”

“They’re Yakuza.  ‘Cept they got these really cool tattoos of Speed Lad and Astro Racer.  Can I have my gun?”

“No, c’mon.”

Goda looked at the roof to the building next store.  It was lower and reasonably close to the apartment building.

“You want your gun, follow me,” instructed Goda.

“Fuck no,” said Mark immediately.  “It’s probably stuff like this, that got ya that leg.”

Suddenly, the door to the roof was blasted away with a hail of bullets.  Mark beat Goda to the next roof.  Unfortunately, the Japanese thugs now had a better vantage point since they were on a higher roof.  Mark and Goda dove behind a heavy looking air conditioning unit, while bullets landed around them.  Goda gave Mark back his gun.

“Think your back up will be here sometime this week?!”

“Shut up, or I take yer gun back.  Why don’t you just zap ‘em again?”

“Because the Stuff wore off!”

Goda returned fire, but could barely stick his head up to see.  Mark watched two of the thugs jump to another roof.  In a few seconds, they would be surrounded.

“We gotta get off of here,” Mark stated.

“I’m open to suggestions.”

Mark looked at the next building.  They’d have to leap the distance of the width of the street and sidewalk to make the next roof.

“Jeez, how do the superheroes make these leaps?”

“Will you stop daydreamin’ and return fire!”

“Oh, that’s right, bat hook.  Duh!” remembered Mark.

At this point, Goda was about to turn the gun on Mark.  Fortunately, Mark came up with the solution.

“Think the leg can make it across this street?”

“Are you crazy?  They’ll shoot us as soon as we’re airborne.  Not to mention the fact I have no idea how to figure out the trajectory with you on board.”

Mark fired a shot, slowing one of the Japanese thugs from getting to the third roof on their right.

“Well, I’m open to suggestions,” mocked Mark.

Just as the lead Manga Boy signaled his two best men to make the leap to Mark and Goda’s roof, Goda suddenly stood.  He was facing away from the Mangas, with Mark slung over one shoulder.  As Goda made the leap, Mark fired both guns at the Manga Boys.  The twosome crashed through a skylight in a building across the street.  Inside, their descent was broken by the branches of a tree, which was part of an indoor atrium.  As police sirens met the ears of the remaining Manga Boys, they left as quickly and as silently as they arrived.

Mark and Goda slowly crawled from the pile of debris they had created.  Alerted by the noise, an eighty-year old housesitter stood in the foyer of the next room, too stunned to do anything but listen to their conversation.

“C’mon, I know where Victor is.”

“Now, hold up.  What were you doing in there?”

“Does it matter?  I know where Victor is and he’s the killer.”

“He’s not the killer.  The killer’s a super.”

“What?  You’re sure?”

“I wasn’t at first.  Had kind of an unreliable eyewitness. But when the feds took the case outta my hands, that’s when I knew.  And Victor’s a normal guy, right?”

“Way below normal.  Christ in a crockpot!  We gotta go right now!  If Victor’s not the killer, he’s probably our only witness and our only witness may be dead if we don’t boogie.  I swear, I’ll explain on the way.”

Mark spotted the old man.

“Hi,” he said upon exiting.

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