The Stone Hawks returned home that night after their little business with Phillips. There, they slept soundly until the coming morning.

When they returned to their jobs, Dave saw the other workers in the custodial department in good spirits. A few even greeted him as he walked through the door. The work schedule was busy, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as yesterday had been. All the same, Dave wasn’t really looking forward to another day of bathroom duty.

Rob spoke again with Barbara as they worked together. It was only his second day on the job, and the large man felt that it was all old hat to him.

At five, his shift ended and he got ready to leave for home. On his way out, he walked with Barbara at his side.

Before parting, the two of them paused and stood facing each other on the sidewalk.

"So what do you want to do tonight?" Barbara asked.

"I’m gonna be busy." Rob lied. Actually, it was more of a half-truth. "There are some things I need to get settled with my new landlord."

"Oh. So tonight’s bad for you?" Barbara was obviously disappointed, her eyes downcast.

"Afraid so. But tomorrow’s open to me."

Barbara brightened a bit at the mention of that.

"How does seven sound?" She inquired.

"Seven’s great. Where do you wanna’ eat at?"

"I know a nice little Greek place that’s perfect."

"Okay. I’ll call you tonight."

"Sure." Barbara got up on her toes to kiss the tall man’s lips. She then walked across the street to the parking lot where her car waited.

Rob felt pretty damn good about getting to know Barbara. There was just something about her that the two them click somehow. The kiss she gave him reminded Rob much of the one they had shared the night before when they first went out.

"Nice to see our new activities haven’t put a dent in your social life." Came a voice from behind Rob.

Rob turned around and saw Dave walking towards him.

"Was that her?" Dave asked as he zipped up his jacket.

"Yeah, it was." Rob answered pleasantly.

"She’s cute. Going out with her again any time soon?"

"We were hopin’ to go out tonight, but you and me are a little busy. So I’ve got a date with her tomorrow."

"Have fun when you go."

"We plan to. How do you plan on spendin’ your free time tomorrow?"

"I should do a little practicing. With this, that, and the other thing going on, I haven’t had any time to exercise."

"You really should use the free time to take a break and have some fun." Rob said.

"Now is not one of the best times to be relaxing." Dave debated.

"But still, don’t run yourself down, man." The one thing about Dave that irked Rob to no end was that damn stick-in-the-ass attitude. One of these days, Rob would probably have to get old Dave good and drunk and make him loosen up a bit.

"I’ll take care of myself." Dave said reassuringly. "Don’t worry."

They left the building in the distance behind them. The sun was just starting to turn the sky pink as it began to set on the horizon. In another part of the sky, the moon was peeping out as it awaited the night to come. Another night in which they would have to go to work on their other new job.

* * *

They returned home for dinner.

Rob was cooking that night and he made pasta with a sauce that Dave never really picked up the recipe for. All he could tell by the taste was that Rob used an ass-load of garlic and a few other spices he had never even heard of before.

"Have you been tired lately?" Dave asked as he sat down at the table.

"Not really." Rob responded from behind the stove. "Why?"

"We’ve both been running on only a few hours sleep this past night or two, and I can’t truly say I’m even feeling worn out. To top that off, we’ve been pretty swamped downstairs at work., and I mean swamped. But I don’t feel sore or fatigued after work. Even after that god awful first day, I was still good to go with you to check on that gang kid last night. I’m thinking that it’s this spell on us."

"Now that you mention it," Rob confessed. "I have been feelin’ pretty good lately. Maybe all that magic shit you’re into isn’t that bad after all. By the way, what time are these guys, the uh Gray Devils, supposed to show up?"

"Black Demons is the name of the gang. The schedule’s got them set up to show around nine. So we should be leaving right after we eat."

"That soon?" Rob asked while he filled a plate. "We’ve got hours."

"I’d like to get a look at this place, get details on the surroundings. I don’t want to have to change in the middle of the street when there could be somewhere else more secluded we could get to."

"Gotcha." Rob affirmed. "Get the bread out of the cupboard, would ya’."

"Sure."

Dave got up from his chair and walked to the cupboard. He pulled out a loaf of Italian bread just as Rob set dinner on the table.

They ate in silence for the most part of the meal. After dinner was finished, they washed the dishes and got themselves ready to be off for the night’s meeting.

* * *

Rob stood in his shadowed form of Granite in the dark alley next to an antique store. Impatiently, he waited for any sign of activity.

This was their first night with their new names, and Rob made a mental note to refer to Dave as Wings should they find anyone nearby.

"I’m gettin’ sick of this." He whispered wearily. "I mean, where the hell is everyone. It’s just a little bit past nine-thirty and it’s New York. You’d think there would be someone out here."

"All the stores around here closed over an hour ago." Dave said from beside Granite in his guise of Wings. "But still, this is strange. You’d think there’d be a passing car or some pedestrians. Maybe the regular folks don’t want to deal with the gangs so they just decided to stay in after dark."

"So where are these guys, anyway? They’re, what, a half-hour late already?"

"Maybe something came up." Wings suggested. "Phillips might have called his friends and told them he had company over last night."

"Them I’m ready to go back over to his place to kick his ass."
"Just hold on. We’ve waited this long, we can wait longer."

The address that they found on the list for this night belonged to a small hardware store in the Southern Bronx. It wasn’t owned by the Committee, or any other company, for that matter. It was nothing more than a little mom-and-pop store that probably didn’t see that much revenue. It made the two of them wonder what business the WMC could have with this place.

The property value of the area probably wasn’t too high, especially in a neighborhood like this one. The entire street was lined on both sides with tiny, independent establishments. The stores here couldn’t even hold a candle to the multi-national corporation. So it wasn’t likely to be a matter of competition. Nothing about the whole matter fit together.

None the less, the pair in the shadows continued to wait in silence.

Twenty more minutes went by until they saw what they had been waiting for.

Five street boys came around the corner and headed towards the hardware store.

"It looks like this is it." Wings nodded towards the gang from the concealing darkness. "Though I was expecting that there would be more of them."

"If you’re disappointed, then I wanna’ wring your neck." Granite muttered.

"It’s not that. It’s just that I thought that this gang was bound to have more members. Back in Chicago, they went in groups of ten or fifteen."

"Any ideas why?"

"I guess the others just have better things to do." Wings said.

Truth be told, neither Granite nor Wings knew what the gangers were scheduled to do here. The list they took from Phillips was just written up as strings of dates and addresses.

The gang members stood before the building with a few makeshift weapons in hand; chains and crowbars for the most part. One of them was holding a brick loosely in hand.

With a heave, the one with the brick chucked his burden at the display window. The brick shattered the glass as it bounced between the security bars.

There was no alarm to respond to the broken window. The idea of a silent alarm didn’t seem to effect the vandals’ behaviors either as they avoided rushed themselves. The whole situation was just appearing stranger and stranger.

Another of the members howled with delight as the destruction began. His enthusiasm and slurred speech gave the indication that he wasn’t at his soberest.

The two with crowbars went to work on the front door and the window bars.

"So they’re robbin’ the place." Granite noted. "Doubt they’ll have an easy time if the owners put the money in a solid safe."

"I don’t think they’re trying for burglary." Said Wings. "One guy with a crowbar is hitting the bars, the other is trying to pry open the door. If they just wanted in, it would make more sense for both of them to work on the bars. It looks more like they just want to vandalize the front and bust up whatever they find inside."

"Then I say we don’t give them the chance to get in." Granite decided.

The Hawks left the alley to deal with the gangers.

Two people going up against five had poor odds no matter how someone cut it. Rather than jump out screaming to challenge the gang, the two had planned to work more systematically.

They moved quietly on the street and sneaked up behind the group.

The two gangsters holding crowbars were still assaulting the building. The gang’s one man cheering section was standing between those two, shouting his own words of encouragement. The remaining two were keeping back, watching the demolition while the exchanging comments to each other.

The black clad figures kept moving as soundlessly as possible. Not that it mattered much with all the noise being created by the shouts and ringing of metal being torn asunder.

The first order of business for Granite and Wings was to take the two men in the back with a minimum of commotion.

Granite made a throttling motion with his hands and Wings nodded back.

Coming closer to their targets, Wings kept a careful eye on the center of his objective’s back as he had been trained to. If the ganger made any sudden moves, it would show in that area of the body.

Granite turned to face Wings. The other man in black stood just a foot behind his target.

Wings made eye contact with Granite who held up his hand and counted off his fingers.

Right after finger number five went down, the huge man grabbed the neck of the ganger in his large hands.

At the same time, Wings had the other gang member in a sleeper hold and was dragging him slowly to the pavement.

Both of the gangsters were trying desperately to scream, but were only able to let out a mild croak, which was lost in the ruckus at the storefront. They kept struggling for a few seconds more and then went limp as they lost consciousness.

"Damn righteous!" Shouted the gang’s cheerleader, clearly enjoying the spectacle of his friends’ handiwork at breaking and entering.

The vandals were doing well at their jobs. The bars were starting to bend from their foundations, and the door had just given way. The member previously attacking the door went in, and the sounds of further chaos came from within the store.

The shouting ganger may have bellowed his support throughout the entire event. However, his cheering came to an abrupt stop when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

He turned just in time to see a foot swing through the air before it came in contact with the side of his head. The crescent kick Wings used sent the street kid spinning halfway around before he hit the ground.

* * *

Inside the store, a lone gang member went through the establishment on his own kind of shopping spree, tipping over shelves and breaking open display cases with his crowbar.

The bars on the window shrieked as they were pulled from the concrete foundations by the other man.

The ganger inside stopped his rampage on the store and listened. Something was suddenly missing.

"Hey, quiet down for a sec!" He called out.

"What’s wrong?" The other asked glumly.

"Why’d Deacon get quiet all of a sudden?"

"Lil’ speed freak probably just wore his lungs out. Ain’t that right, Deac--."

The sentence was cut off with the sound of something wooden striking a body. The member on the outside fell. Behind him stood a muscular man dressed totally in black. He held a long stick in both hands.

"Where the hell did you come from?!" The member exclaimed.

Granite pointed his staff at the vandal menacingly.

"Maybe you should worry about whether you’re gonna live through the night." He said with equal menace.

The ganger was not in the mood to be intimidated. He ran out of the store with his crowbar held high over his head.

Wings saw the ganger rush out of the building and the coming confrontation. He was about to draw his sword, but Granite was already running to meet his adversary.

The ganger brought his bar down with enough force to crush a man’s skull like a melon.

Granite saw the move coming and brought his staff up to block the incoming attack.

Steel struck against wood, and the impact between the two rang out in the night.

If Granite’s staff hadn’t been enchanted as it was, it probably would have broken like a twig against the heavy crowbar. The length of wood didn’t crack or even bend from the abuse.

The Shadowed One responded with a quick sweep of his staff. The hook of the crowbar caught onto the length of wood and flew from its owner’s hands. The bar landed several yards from the two opponents.

From that point, Granite swung his weapon into the vandal’s stomach.

The ganger went down to his knees with both hands clenching his mid-section.

"Guess what, Einstein." Granite spoke as Wings came to join him. "Vandalism is against the law. Not that the cops are likely to put you in jail, anyway."

The burly man tried without much success to slip the staff into the thong strapped to his back. After four failed attempts, he gave up and simply removed the strap from his shoulder and put his staff away. He frowned under the mask at how foolish he must have looked trying to put the weapon on his back.

"Not all that easy, is it?" Wings asked pleasantly.

"No kidding." Added Granite.

"Who do you think you are?" The ganger gritted through clenched teeth.

"Let’s just say we’re a couple of civic minded citizens." Wings said. "How much is the Committee paying you for this job?"

"Screw you, ya’ sick freaks! I don’t know what yer’ talkin’ about."

"Looks like we’re havin’ a little misunderstandin’." Said Granite.

"Do you know how many people have died throughout history because of a failure to communicate." Wings elaborated. "And if we are as demented as you say we are, then you’re in a whole heap of trouble. Because we’re in a foul mood to begin with from waiting for you people to show up."

"Suck my dick." The vandal said.

It was turning into the same deal as with Phillips, only this guy had more backbone, which was going to make things difficult for Granite and Wings. The tough guy interrogation tactics were bound to fail with somebody. But they still had questions, and this gangster was their most likely source of information at this time. Their best option was simply to keep trying with this fellow.

"Let’s just say for the sake of argument," Granite said. "That me and my pal here were conductin’ a little experiment. We’ve been kind of curious about how long your average Joe can go without air."

Wings noticed the game Granite was playing at and began to play along himself.

"We usually get the best results with conscious subjects," Wings said. "But you can see that those boys you brought along are out of commission right now."

"You’re messin’ with a Demon." The ganger threatened. "My crew’ll tear you apart."

"Five of you didn’t do squat." Granite challenged his new prisoner. "And odds are you won’t be around to watch the rest of ‘em come at us."

The street tough sat up a bit straighter, recovering from Granite’s attack.

"You’re both dead."

Both of the Hawks ignored the threat.

"Anyway," Wings began. "We’ve got an experiment."

"Hot damn!" Granite put just a touch of hysteria into his words. "What’re we gonna use on this one?"

Wings turned to look at the hardware store then back at the Demon kid.

"I have an idea." The Shadowed One said. "I just need to grab something from inside."

With that, Wings darted into the hardware store.

The ganger was about to get up, but he found two strong hands on his shoulders to keep him in place.

"Stay." Granite said flatly, as if ordering a disobedient dog.

Wings emerged from the store with a long extension cord in his hands and the most psychotic look in his eyes that he could manage.

"What are you gonna do with that?" Asked Granite.

"Give me a second." Wings answered as he twined the cord in his hands. He was grateful that his gloves had come finger-less. Otherwise, he would have been fumbling with the cord to no end.

Another minute, and he had the cord tied into a makeshift noose with the plug hanging out comically.

"This should do nicely." He stated before handing the cord off to his cohort. "Take a look at this to make sure I got it tied right this time, Granite."

"What do you plan to do?" The ganger asked shakily. There was just the faintest hint of worry that the two men in black might not just be playing around.

"If you have to ask, then you haven’t been paying attention to the conversation." Wings informed the ganger.

"Do ya’ think we can get the cord over one of the lampposts?" Granite asked casually.

"The cord’s long enough. We’ll just have to see if we can toss it up that high."

Granite slipped the noose over the ganger’s head and glanced up at the nearest lamppost.

"No prob." The big man said as he tightened the noose. "I should be able to hurl it over with the first throw. Ooo! A perfect fit. That should stay on nice and snug."

"The Demons take care of their own." The ganger said weakly. His nerve was on the verge of breaking. Both Granite and Wings could tell. Now they just needed to keep the show going on a bit longer.

"Blah, blah, blah." Granite emphasized the words with a bored looking pose. "If ya’ see me squattin’ in a corner with my pants down, then that would be me givin’ a crap."

"Ready to give this a toss?" Wings held up the rest of the extension cord coiled up in one hand.

"Hand it here."

Wings passed off the cord to his burly friend. From there, Granite threw the coiled cord up. It arced its way over the streetlight. Gravity took its course, and the end of the cord was left dangling a mere yard above the pavement.

"You guys are nuts!" The gang kid yelled frantically. "You’re not just gonna hang me."

"If you’re not going to cooperate, then we’re going to get some amusement out of you." Wings said. "Granite, feel free to pull him up."

The large man took the cord in his massive hands and stared to pull.

The ganger was yanked to his feet and clenched desperately at the cord around his neck.

"Heave-ho." Granite laughed.

"Wait!" The strung up guy croaked. Actually, it came out more like "Reeeeaaat!" He was stuck with the toes of his shoes just grazing the cement.

"A change of heart?" Wings inquired.

"Spill it, bucko." Granite ordered while he let go of the cord.

The ganger fell to the pavement on his knees. He gasped out, trying to regain his breath.

"Make this worth our while or Granite here will go back to his weightlifting." Wings said.

"The guy who drops off the schedules said that the Committee wants this place cleared out." The ganger wheezed.

"Why?" Questioned Wings. "And don’t tell us they want to run a freeway through here."

"I dunno why. I heard somethin’ about the people around here bein’ too stubborn."

"So they send you puds in to shoot the crime rate up to get the people out." Granite said. "Cute way of doin’ things. But why don’t the regular cops step in? I thought the NYPD worked apart from the Enforcers."

"Who do ya’ think is signin’ the pigs’ paychecks?" The ganger shot back.

"I guess you’ve got a point there." Granite admitted.

"So how long has this been going on?" Wings inquired. "I’ve never seen anything in the news about New York’s crime rate going up lately."

"Past four months or so."

"Damn," Granite commented. "They must be payin’ all you kids a load to play nice and all. I wonder if there’s been any turf wars since the WMC brought in the truck of money."

"That should do for now." Wings said. "Though we really don’t appreciate you trashing a nice place like this store. I’m afraid we’re going to hang you anyway. Granite, you want to grab that cord again?"

"What?" The Demon blanched. "I answered your damn questions."

"He’s got a point." Granite said.

"We’ll be sporting then." Wings decided. "We’ll leave and then come back in say an hour. By then, you and your friends over there had better clear out, or we’re going to find out how long you’ll kick until the noose does its work. How does that sound?"

"An hour sounds good to me." Granite agreed. "But how do we know that he’ll stay put until his friends come to?"

"I saw more cords inside." Wings said.

"Then our problem’s solved."

Granite then bent over the kneeling ganger and pulled him to his feet as if he weighed only a few pounds.

Wings went back into the store and came out with his arms cradling more extension cords.

The bigger man in black kept a firm hold on the gang member’s shoulders as he brought the prisoner towards the store.

"What’s with this shit, man?" Asked the member fearfully.

"We’re just going to make sure that you don’t wander off." Wings answered while he pulled a single cord out of the bundle and laid it on the ground.

"Better hope your pals come around before we get back." Granite instructed. "And by the way, next time the Committee comes around with more jobs for you, tell ‘em you just retired."

* * *

Forty-five minutes later, the four Black Demons began to stir.

Once of them, by the name of Deacon, was the first to regain consciousness.

He felt a dull pain across his cheek and started to remember turning around and then he recalled the kick that had hit him.

Deacon sat up quickly and looked to see if his attacker was still around.

There was no sign of the man in black. But the screaming he heard caught his attention.

"What the…" His voice trailed off when he looked at the store.

Right there was old Hammer. Hammer had seen less stressful nights by the looks of him. He was somehow tied to the security bars on the window with what looked like extension cords. Whoever had done this must have scared the living daylight out of Hammer, because he was bawling like a little bitch. Almost as an added joke, there was a cord tied into a noose around his neck like some kind of morbid necktie.

"Get me down!" Hammer shrieked.

"Who did this to ya’?" Deacon asked groggily while his head started to clear.

"The same guy who took you down! They’re damn psychos! They were gonna hang me! They’re gonna get back anytime now!"

Deacon always thought Hammer was a tough guy. But damn, when he was scared, Hammer wailed like a banshee.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, one hour after the Stone Hawks had left Hammer hanging around, so to speak, the Shadowed Ones returned to the hardware store.

The cords they had used now lay in a pile under the broken window. The noose Wings had fashioned was at the top of the heap.

The two men made a quick survey of the store. Little damage had been done to the inside save for a few shelves being knocked over and a busted display counter. The door and window were a mess and would have to be replaced, but that kind of disarray was negligible when compared to what destruction the gang could have wrought if they hadn’t been stopped when they had. The boys would have likely burnt the place to the ground give the opportunity.

None the less, the store’s owner was going to be mad when he saw that his establishment had been broken into.

"So what do ya’ think the WMC wants with this place?" Asked Granite.

"I don’t know." Wings replied. "But it must be important if they don’t want the local police involved."

"Think it’s got somethin’ to do with the spell Turoth talked about?"

"With all the weirdness we’ve seen in the past week, who can tell?"

Wings looked up at the back wall of the store and pointed. Granite followed where the other man was pointing and caught sight of a security camera.

"Somebody in a high place is bound to find out we’re in town when they check the disc in that." Wings stated.

"The Enforcers are gonna just love us." Granite said as he waved to the camera.

"Let’s get out of here." Wings said. "We’ve done our job for the night."

"Yeah, I’m gettin’ hungry. Let’s head home and get some food."

The pair left the store and ran into the darkness.

The camera held its position and taped until the coming morning as it waited for any other interesting events that might occur.

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