CHAPTER 2: THE FRIENDS WE WERE
They both exit the priest’s house through the window, just as they were about to begin their bickering, they’re spotted by the intruder when he looked out of the window. Unbeknownst to Jack and Oscar, the intruder had company with him, waiting outside of the priest’s house. 2 SUVs, all full of passengers, all armed young men, all heading towards them. The pair begin to run, and as they do, the SUVs were also chasing them down, whilst shooting at the 2 of them. “Shoot back!” Oscar yells at Jack, and Jack then takes cover behind a steel garbage bin and shoots back at the SUVs. This bought them a few extra seconds and the 2 manage to escape by going through the neighborhood sewer tunnel. Eventually they reach the other side of the tunnel, “What in the world was that?” asked Oscar. Jack just shrugs, as he has no idea either. “We should split up” says Jack, “Wait, that’s it? We just got shot at man! What the hell were they doing at Fr. Spenser’s house??” says Oscar. “I DON’T KNOW YET! That’s why I need to go alone now, I can’t think straight with you around. You piss me off everytime I look at you.” says Jack. “WE JUST GOT SHOT AT! I’ve been shot at before, but not like that. HOW ARE YOU OKAY RIGHT NOW?!” asks Oscar. “Listen Oscar, you may have a lot of fights, but you’ve never been to war, to real war. What you call a hassle, I call normal.” says Jack, “Welcome to my world Oscar!” he said while walking away and dramatically turning his back on Oscar. “Jack wait!” Oscar yelled, “Look, I hate you as much as any other ex-con you’ve locked up, but the Priest was like a Father to me, taught me everything I had to know about throwing a punch. What’s happening to him, it ain’t right. I ain’t an investigator man, and I can’t just punch my way through this thing. I want to get my revenge for that Priest, and I can’t do that on my own. You’re trash at fighting man, but you’ve got a lot more of a knack for this thing than I do. Your brains, my muscle, for the Priest. What’s it gonna be Soldier Boy?” says Oscar while extending his hand to Jack. Jack, with his fists clinched, hesitates at first, but he deduces that while Oscar isn’t the smartest, he wasn’t wrong either. Jack knew doing it alone would be too much to handle, so he reluctantly agrees saying “Alright fine, but I ain’t shaking your hand.” “Fine by me!” says Oscar. “So Robocop, what should we do?” Oscar says, “Well first of all we gotta find out who the hell those guys were, their firepower looked heavy. Sadly there isn’t any CCTV coverage in that neighborhood.” says Jack. “What about the gas station behind Father’s house? They might have some Cameras around.” Oscar suggests, “Not a bad idea, let’s go hunting” Jack replies. After waiting for the remaining goons to leave the nearby vicinity of the gas station, they head into the Gas Station store. Jack, carrying his Police ID, approaches the Cashier lady “Ma’am good afternoon, I’m Officer Dixon *shows ID*. Look Ma’am, I’m not gonna waste anybody’s time, I’m here on official Police business. I need access to your CCTV Footage, this is regarding the pending investigation of-“, “Rev. Fr. Swan? Yeah, I know, I heard. He lives right over there actually, he’s a regular here. He’s a good man.” says the old cashier lady. “He may be a good man Ma’am, but he’s wanted for some very bad things. I’m here to figure out whether it’s true or not. Now… May we please access the CCTV Footage?” Jack said. “Sure, come over here to the back.” says the lady. Jack heads over to the CCTV room, he rewinds the CCTV Footage to review the events that had happened only a few hours ago. All the thugs that chased after them had hoods on, except for the thug that went into the house, his face was very much uncovered, but the camera was a little too far to see his face clearly. Jack secretly downloads that portion of the video with a flash drive, and takes it with him. As Jack leaves the store, the lady said “Best of luck kid!” to which Jack says, “Thank you Ma’am, and thanks for your time!”. Jack and Oscar, now with hoodies on in order to cover their faces, review the footage in a local internet Cafe. With the use of AI and a few websites, they managed to enhance the picture of the man’s face. When they finally see the man’s face, they’re both shocked to see that it is a man wearing a US Army Uniform, Special Forces from the looks of it. Apparently, he wasn’t alone either, as behind him, there was another man, who both of them recognized. It was Detective. Marcus Sloan, Jack’s former partner, who also had a hand in arresting Oscar. “How in the world is Marcus involved in this? Right behind my back, I’ve only been retired for 2 days and already he’s involved in stuff like this.” Jack said. “Maybe you just never knew about his involvement in this in the first place. Forget about Sloan, I’m more worried as to why the Army is involved in this.” Oscar replied. “Well whatever it is, I’m about to find out. I’m gonna go ask Sloan myself.” Jack said. Oscar agreed with this plan, and they decide to go through with it. Jack and Oscar patiently watch Sloan’s house from a distance, as Sloan arrives back home, Jack goes to the door “Sir, you look lonely, I can fix that.” says Jack. With a smirk on his face, Sloan turns around and says “What’s good retiree?” Sloan said to Jack. Sloan approaches Jack and the pair embrace. “I’m good brother, how are the wife and kids? Jack asks, “All good man! So, what brings you here? Judging by the look on your face, you seem like your here on business.” Sloan said. “You know me Marcus, I ain’t one to waste anybody’s time, so let me ask you straight up. What do you have to do with the death of Rev. Fr. Spenser Swan? We saw your face on the CCTV footage yesterday, you were an Army guy, commanding a bunch of goons to chase us down. I’m pretty pissed right now man, that priest was like a father figure to me so you oughta tell me the truth.” Jack said angrily. “Alright Jack you got me, now-“ Sloan tries to pull out his gun, but Jack manages to grab his hand in time. As this happens, Oscar manages to sneak in from behind, and trap Sloan in rear naked choke. This disarms Sloan, and within 9 seconds, Sloan blacks out and is soundly unconscious. Moments later, Sloan wakes up, staring at Jack, tied to a chair, inside his own living room, while Oscar is staying on the lookout upstairs. “Look man, whatever you’re gonna do, don’t do it, I ain’t talking for nothing. You’ve got nothing on me.” says Sloan. Jack then replies “Actually Sloan, I do have something on you. YOUR KIDS… You know me Sloan, I’d never harm the kids, but if you don’t give me what I want, I have a friend who’s more than willing to put on a mask and kidnap your kids while they walk home from school. Now I’ll give you a name… FR. SWAN!”. “OKAY ALRIGHT, he’s in an abandoned warehouse, the one a block behind St. Dominic Parish.” says Sloan nervously. “The warehouse right behind the very Parish he’s the head of? Isn’t that a bit obvious?” asks Jack, “Yeah, that’s exactly why no one expects Father to be there.” Sloan replies. “Why Sloan? Why Fr. Swan? Why the reporter? Why be corrupt? Who’s funding this stuff, who’s behind it?” Jack asks, Sloan says “Money Jack, money… I was one of the cops recruited by an Army guy by the name of Sgt. Damian Todd, they brought back a bunch of opium from their tours in Afghanistan. They needed local muscle, which is where we come in. It was all money Jack, nothing personal. A couple of days ago, that reporter, Dimitry whatever his name was, tracked down one of our drug deals, filmed the whole thing, caught us red handed. He was supposed to hand over the picture to the feds, but we got to him, beat him to death in an alley, me and the Army guy. Unbeknownst to us, the father was just passing through, he managed to get a video of us with his smartphone. We saw him, the old man actually managed to run away. After finding out who he was, we managed to track him down. He tried to hide in his own home, but we had guys waiting on him in his house. We couldn’t kill him, because he managed to hide a copy of that video, where it is, we don’t know, that’s what we’re keeping him around for. That’s all I know Jack, don’t hurt my kids…” Jack then says “Well, I’m just glad there’s still enough good in you to save your kids sanity by giving your mates up. Wait a minute, that explains why there was a toothpick and a cigarette at the crime scene, you corrupt, toothpick chewing, cheap cigarette smoking scumbag. HA! *sighs* Your kid isn’t gonna grow up fatherless, but that doesn’t mean you won’t suffer for what you’ve done.” *Jack points to the hidden camera and tape recorder that recorded the whole thing*. Sloan is visibly angry, to which Jack simply says “Smile Sloan! HAHAHA Say goodnight old friend.” Jack says as he hits Sloan with a backhand, hard enough to knock him out.
CHOOSE:
[[A: Present the video to some of Jack’s old friends.]]
[[B: Go and rescue the Priest yourself, with the help of Oscar.]]EPILOGUE: PUNISHMENT
Jack, seeing that Oscar is about to shoot Todd in the head, tries to stop him, but Oscar mercilessly shoots Todd without a second thought. This enrages Jack, as Jack thought they could have planted Todd as a suspect for the police to handle. Oscar then says, “Look around you Jack! Everyone’s already dead! One more body makes no difference.” Enraged, Jack decides to hold Oscar at gunpoint, but Oscar notices this and immediately disarms Jack. Now Oscar holds Jack at gunpoint, and although he had the chance to kill Jack right then and there, he decided not to. He dismantled the gun, and simply walks away from the scene, leaving Jack to help the priest alone. Jack decides to move on, he looks for the priest, and once he does, he realized that the priest is unconscious. Instead of helping the priest himself however, Jack calls 911 twice. He calls once for the paramedics, and once for the police. After doing so, Jack immediately flees the scene, knowing that the priest is still alive, and knowing that the paramedics and the police will do just fine. A few weeks go by, using the evidence, Rev. Fr. Spenser Swan manages to clear his name. As he presides in one of his masses, unbeknownst to him, Jack was there, going there solely for the purpose of checking on how the priest is doing. As he sees that the priest is doing fine, he decides to leave the church straight after when the mass was over. Although Jack knew in his gut that he was still pissed off at Oscar for what he did, he has no choice but to move on from it, because despite what Oscar did, a part of what Oscar did was still the right thing to do. It was vengeance, it was punishment…EPILOGUE: SPOOKY HELP
Jack heads over to Oscar, “Hey Oscar, we’ve got a call to make!” Oscar replies “To who?” To which Jack says while pulling out his phone, “An old friend of mine.” Jack dials a number, waiting for a response “*ring*”, “Hello?” Says the receiver, “What’s good Casper? It’s been a while, it’s me, Jarhead.” Jack says. “I’m gonna stop you right there Jack, it’s usually never good news when it’s from you. So don’t dilly-dally, just spill it.” Casper says. “Alright fast talk, I’ve got a problem. You know that priest on the news who just beat a reporter to death? Well that priest is my friend, and guess what, he didn’t kill the reporter. He had evidence to convict the men who did commit the murder, they saw him film it, he got away, but then they framed him for it, and now they’re interrogating him in a warehouse for the location of the smartphone he used to record them. I know this because I managed to interrogate one of the ones responsible for it, he’s my former partner, Detective. Marcus Sloan.” Jack elaborates. “Alright now, where do I come into this?” Casper asks, “I need you to give a tip to the FBI about this, remember Special Agent. Christine Morales? She’s the one you should tip off, send her the information that I’m about to send you, tell her it’s from me. It’s information and details as to where the priest is, and where a massive drug operation currently is. I couldn’t tip her off myself because if it’s just a tip from me, even with the video, it’s not enough for them to raid the warehouse. But if the tip is from you? That’ll make it a little more convincing. I’ll send you all the details right now.” Jack said. After waiting about 30 seconds for all the info to be sent, Casper says “Jack, this is barely even evidence, it’s a filmed confession, but that’s not 100% tangible evidence.” To which Jack replies “You’re an INTELLIGENCE agent, from THE CIA! The CIA doesn’t needs evidence, all it needs is information and INTELLIGENCE. The info I just sent you, that’s your intel. Do with it what you must. AND REMEMBER CASPER, you owe me for the bad intel you gave in Iraq, that intel got me hurt. You have a debt to me, this is how you repay that debt. Do it Jack, work your CIA magic, AND TIP OFF, THE FBI!!!” Jack said. “Alright Jack, consider it done. That warehouse will be raided within the hour.” Casper said, as he hung up the phone. “CIA? Seriously? THAT CIA?” asked Oscar, “Yes, yes it was. If the tip comes from them, the FBI should raid the place in no time.” Jack replied. “That Casper guy, what exactly does he owe you for you to be able to call him up this easily?” Oscar said, to which Jack replies “You don’t wanna know.” After a mere 45 minutes, Jack’s phone rings, he pulls it out of his pocket to answer it. “It’s done” Casper said before immediately hanging up the call afterwards. “He said it’s done.” Jack said to Oscar. After about a minute, Jack’s phone rings again, “Hello?” Jack said, and to his surprise it’s FBI Special Agent. Christine Morales. “Hey Jack! It’s Christine, listen It’s unexpected, but thanks for the tip. The priest is safe, he also already gave us the video of who really killed that reporter. The smartphone with the video was hidden underneath the altar of his church.” Jack then replies “Under the altar? Seriously?… Huh, that’s neat. By the way, how’d the raid go?”, to which Christine says “Boring, but we got everyone. Every goon, chemist and even that Army guy. It’s safe to say they’ll be going away to jail for a very long time”. “That’s a good thing then, look Christine, thanks. Deal with everything how you must. How about I repay with dinner sometime?” Jack said. “Sure, you’ve got my number. OH and by the way, should I tell the priest? About what you did for him?” Christine asks. “I prefer if you don’t, just tell him it was an anonymous tip from a God fearing man. Comprende?” Jack said. “Alright Jack, I’ll be in touch.” Christine said as she hung up the phone. “FBI?” Oscar asked, “Yeah it was… Look man, there isn’t much left here for us to do. FBI will come here to get Sloan in no time.” Jack said. The pair look at each other for a good 9 seconds, and although they are both reluctant, they shake each other’s hand, their own symbolic way of parting ways for a job well done. Despite their differences, and although both of them can’t admit it, they actually make a pretty good team. They don’t always see eye to eye, but when it mattered, they did what they had to do together. After they shake hands, Oscar nods at Jack, and Jack nods back. They go their separate ways, hoping to never see each other again. A week later, on a Sunday, now with a cleared name, Rev. Fr. Spenser Swan continues to preside masses in his church. For one mass in particular, in attendance, is Jack Dixon. Jack sits outside the church, attending the mass, and watching Fr. Swan from a distance. When the mass was over, as Fr. Swan walks off the altar, Jack watches him, and Jack can’t help but smile, as he sees that the priest is all good and well. He leaves the church, knowing that he succeeded at helping, an old friend…EPILOGUE: A TRAGIC INVOLVEMENT
Against Jack’s advice, Oscar rushes over and puts the intruder in a rear naked choke. However, much to the shock of Jack, the man that Oscar is subduing has a familiar face. It’s Jack’s former partner, Detective. Marcus Sloan. Sloan was slowly losing consciousness, until all of a sudden, somebody sneaks behind Oscar while he was choking Sloan, and hits Marcus on the back of the head, effectively knocking out Oscar. Before you knew it, Jack had a gun pointed at him by the second intruder, before Jack could react however, the man smacks him in the face with the gun hard enough to knock him out cold. A few hours later, Jack and Oscar wake up, both ziptied to chairs. Marcus sees them waking up and yells, “Yow Todd, they awake.” He was apparently referring to Sgt. Damian Todd, a soldier in the US Army Special Forces, who is also a part of this operation. Responding to this call, Todd walks into the room, he tells Sloan, “Shoot the Ex-Con.” Just like that, without hesitation, Sloan shoots Oscar in the head, killing him instantly. Sloan follows up with “You know, I was surprised to see ya’ll together, I feel no remorse for that Ex-Con. Remember when he elbowed me in the face the day we arrested him. That elbow still kinda stings, but not anymore.” Jack was doing everything in his power to maintain a stone face, despite the gut wrenching death of Oscar that occurred right next to him. Jack, with a killer look on his face asks, “Where’s the Priest?” Sloan then goes to another room in the warehouse, and drags the Priest into the room where Jack is staying. Jack is relieved to see the Priest still alive, unconscious, but alive… “How Sloan? Why? You of all people, how could you?” Jack asked. “Money Jack, money. Sgt. Todd over here managed to smuggle a whole lot of opium from Afghanistan, he hired me as security and a couple of other cops to protect it. That reporter, Dimitry whatever his name was, managed, I’m sure you know who he is, managed to film us in the act of selling one of our shipments. We beat up that prick to death, but whilst doing it, Father over here managed to film us. He got away, and is currently refusing to tell us where he hid the copy of that video, he’s a tough old man I’ll give him that.” Sloan said arrogantly. “Sounds like you guys have horrible environmental awareness, how do you manage to get yourselves FILMED in the act, and for it to happen TWICE, come on now. Wait a minute, that explains why there was a toothpick and a cigarette at the crime scene, you corrupt, toothpick chewing, cheap cigarette smoking scumbag. HA! ” Jack said mockingly. “I ain’t got beef with you Jack, you were my partner once, so I ain’t got it in me to kill you. Stay put here with the priest, my boy over here will watch over you as I leave so, behave…” said Sloan. As Sloan and Sgt. Todd exit the warehouse, they leave Jack with an armed goon, however, unbeknownst to them, while they were all conversing, Jack managed to sneakily untie the very unprofessional makeshift handcuffs that were used on him. Jack tells the goon “You know what’s the mistake they made? They weren’t professional with tying my hands up just with normal rope behind my back.” As the goon checks Jack’s hands, Jack immediately lunges to jump at the goon, it was only then when Jack realized that the goon was nearly twice his size, and barely moved an inch from getting hit by Jack. Jack realized this, and immediately just tries to take away the guy’s gun, he successfully throw takes it away but as he tries to shoot, the guy simply slaps Jack’s hand and the gun goes flying away from Jack’s grip. The big guy then kicks Jack away from him, this drops Jack. As the big guy approached Jack, he stood up grabbed the steel chair he was sitting on and uses it to whack the guy’s head. This drops the big guy, and as the guy is lying on the floor, Jack unleashes a fit of rage by repeatedly hitting the guy’s head with the steel chair, while the man is lying down, which eventually ended the man’s life. As Jack began calming down after the fight, he grabs the guy’s gun and holsters it in his pants. Jack thinks, and the first thing he does is wake up the priest. It took a good one minute to do so, but the priest eventually wakes up. He unties the priest, and he simply says “Jack? Is that you boy? Is that dead guy… Is that… Oscar???”, “Yes Fr. Swan it is. Long story short, I didn’t believe that you’d ever murder a guy, so when I heard it on the news, I just wanted to save the day alright. Oscar thought the same thing, he just got out of jail a few days ago. We can catch up later, I’ll explain everything, but we gotta get out of here. Stay close to me, and whatever happens, you get out of here, and you release all the evidence you have, to lock those bastards up. Deal?” Jack said. Fr. Swan, who immediately understood what to do, simply nods at Jack. They both get up. Jack always loved shooting bad guys, so with the priest following him from behind, they break out of the room. Jack skillfully disposed of every goon that was in their way, killing every single one of them with just one headshot each. This was easy work for him, while also not getting shot himself. Jack picks up a phone that he found on one of the dead goons, and hands it to the priest. “Once we get outside, call the FBI, they have a department here in Bigville, specifically request for Special Agent. Christine Morales, you can trust her. Tell her everything that happened here, tell her I told you to call her.” Jack said. Jack then picks up a fresh gun from a dead goon, and as they exit the warehouse from the back, Jack calls a passing taxi and lets the priest go inside first. Before Jack could get inside however, Jack is shot from behind. He was shot by Sloan, as the priest tried to help Jack get inside the car, Jack in pain, simply yells “Father no! Just go, now! NOW! Do everything I said, now GO!” Fr. Swan tells the taxi to drive away as quickly as possible. Sloan walks up to Jack, and as Jack is lying down, he says “Shooting me from the back? Man that’s low Sloan. I thought you didn’t have it in you to kill me?” Sloan tells Jack “Well then, you should’ve looked behind you. Sounds to me like your environmental awareness, is just about as bad as mine. Also Jack, you’ve killed a lot of my men, that will cost me a lot of money. I wasn’t gonna kill you because I had no beef with you… Well now I do. Say goodnight old friend…” Then, without a second thought, Sloan simply shoots Jack in the head, quickly and remorselessly, leaving Jack, dead on the spot. While all of this was happening, the priest managed to make his way back to the church, which was conveniently, one block behind the warehouse he was being held at. He goes into the church, and hidden under the altar, he retrieves the smartphone that he used to film the crime. He then proceeds to do exactly what Jack told him to do. He calls the FBI, and specially requests Special Agent. Christine Morales. He tells here everything, told her Jack told him to call her, and tells her he has evidence to clear his own name. After the call, Agent. Morales told him that they’d be at the warehouse in 10 minutes. Sloan and Todd were doing what they could to try and sort things out at the warehouse, but true to her word, Agent. Morales arrives at the Warehouse just before Sloan and Todd could manage to get out. “FBI! Don’t move!” Sloan and Todd heard. After raiding the warehouse, and putting everyone involved in handcuffs, Agent. Morales goes to the church to speak with Fr. Swan. “Hello Fr. Swan! I’m Special Agent. Christine Morales.” The priest, after hearing this, simply breaks down in tears. “What’s wrong Father?” Morales asked, “Jack Dixon, and Oscar O’ Donell, I knew those men since they were kids, I was their boxing trainer in the old gym when they were in their youth. They heard the news, and immediately took action to save me. I wish they were still alive, I wanna tell them thankful I am, but they’re gone.” Father said while barely being able to hold back his tears. As he continued to cry, Agent. Morales hugs him to comfort him, while she also shed a tear, for the death of her old friend, Jack Dixon. Two weeks later, Sloan and Todd were taken to court, and charged with enough crimes to put them in prison for a very, very long time. Another week later, Rev. Fr. Spenser Swan, now with a clear name, continues to preside masses, and for his homily, as it was somewhat related to that day’s gospel, he tells the story of two noble heroes of different backgrounds, who teamed up to save the life of a man who was falsely and unjustly accused of committing a crime he didn’t commit. Thus, in this way, in his own way, he forever remembers the actions, and the names of the two men who saved him, the boys he was knew. The men we know, as Jack Dixon, and Oscar O’Donnell…CHAPTER 3: DIVING HEADFIRST INTO DANGER
Jack heads out of the house to talk it over with Oscar, “Well, I got the info, and I got his confession. We should call the feds.” Said Jack. “You know what Jack, I’ve been bored for a while now. 3 years in prison? It’s a long time Jack. I miss the action. I say we go and get Fr. Swan ourselves!” Oscar says. Jack replies “Are you nuts? We can’t g-“, “Oh come on Jack, let’s get some action Jack. You’re not chickening out are you? It’s time for us to bring out that soldier in you, and besides, what’s more righteous than going out to rescue a servant of God.” Oscar says. Before Jack can even respond Oscar rushes straight to the car and immediately tries to go to the warehouse. “Wait, you don’t even know where it is!” Jack says. Oscar replies “I overheard your whole conversation upstairs, now I’m going with or without you. Are you in, or out?”. Jack reluctantly agrees, out of fear that Oscar might do something stupid. They arrive at the warehouse, after scoping the area out a bit, they realize how lightly guarded the place is from the outside. They sneak in through the back, they take out the two guards in the back, and take their guns. Now armed, the pair sneak in through the back, they didn’t let their guard down for a second, as they knew a heavy firefight would ensue. Just as they expected, they were welcomed with heavy gunfire the minute they got inside. The pair was life a 2 man army, they easily shot and beat down wave after wave of goons and gangsters, shooting them, punching them, even taking their weapons when they ran out of bullets. They skillfully and successfully wiped out every man in the warehouse, all in under 9 minutes. All except for Sgt. Damian Todd, who was hiding behind a barrel, was shooting the two of them. The two, slowly flank Sgt. Todd, but it didn’t really matter, because Todd eventually ran out of bullets. The pair managed to corner the Army-man. Oscar then elbows Todd in the face, and knees him in the liver. This drops Todd to his knees, and is left at the mercy of the pair…
CHOOSE:
[[A: Oscar shoots the Sergeant in the head.]]
[[B: Jack sets up bait for the Sergeant to be arrested.]]EPILOGUE: A SYMBOL OF JUSTICE
Jack, wanting to get proper justice from Todd, decides that they were not gonna kill the Army-man, but rather hang him up to a post, for all the police to see. So they hung Sgt. Todd to a tall post, and left a sign around his neck. The sign said “Arrest me please”. After doing all of that,
the priest, who was unconscious in one room, was waken up by the pair. “Oscar? Jack? What in the world are you boys doing here???” Fr. Swan asked. The two simply laugh, and Oscar tells Father “Doing God’s work…”For their sakes, Jack calls 911 twice. He calls once for the paramedics, and once for the police. After doing so, Jack tells Fr. Swan that he and Oscar must leave, as the police will be arriving soon. So the priest simply give them a blessing before they leave, a blessing for their safety. Jack and Oscar go about their separate ways, after nodding to one another out of respect, they still hoped to never see each other ever again. A few weeks go by, using all the evidence, Rev. Fr. Spenser Swan manages to clear his name, and managed to lock up a few names along the way. As he presides in one of his masses, unbeknownst to him, Jack was there, going there solely for the purpose of checking on how the priest is doing. As he sees that the priest is doing fine, he decides to leave the church straight after when the mass was over. Even though he knew the priest would be fine, he still couldn’t shake the feeling that MAYBE someone would come after the priest. But Jack knew, as long as Fr. Swan still had God by his side, he’d be totally fine. People in the community now see Fr. Swan as not just a priest, but a symbol. A symbol for those who were made to feel hopeless, in his own way, he was a symbol of justice…CHAPTER 1: A FRIEND IN NEED
After reviewing the events on the news and reading about any evidence that is currently publically available on the internet, Jack heads to the scene of the crime, where Dimitry Golovkin was allegedly murdered by Rev. Fr. Swan. Being the skilled detective that he is, Jack immediately sensed that something was wrong. Although the crime scene looked pretty straightforward, and looks exactly like how a murder via beating would look, he noticed two very peculiar things on the crime scene. A toothpick and a cigarette that looks like it hasn’t been fully smoked yet, these two items are peculiar because the priest was never a smoker, neither was he the tough guy type who chewed on toothpicks. Jack then assumed that maybe it was Dimitry who was smoking the cigarette, but then it would still be wierd, because that would imply that Dimitry smokes and chews on toothpicks simultaneously. He tried mixing and matching who the toothpick and the cigarette could belong to between the two, but no matter how he thought about it, his gut feeling would still tell him that something was definitely wrong. In order to piece the puzzle together, Jack decided to go to the priest’s house, the house where there just conveniently happens to be drugs hidden inside. He gets to the house, he walks around inside the unguarded crime scene, and again immediately senses red flags. First of all, all the drugs were conveniently stashed in one vent of the house. Nothing in the house was disorganized or broken in any way, therefore the police immediately knew where the drugs were, as nothing else inside the house was touched. Jack began thinking, when all of a sudden somebody kicks him from the side out of nowhere, Jack tries to pull his personal gun out, but the perpetrator controlled Jack’s grip and immediately disarmed him. Jack kneed the guy on his liver, but as he tried to elbow the attacker’s face, his elbow was blocked, the man grabbed Jack’s throat, tripped Jack’s foot and slammed Jack’s head on to the floor. Jack was fighting for his life, and wondered who in the world could have taken him down so easily. As oxygen was slowly draining from Jack’s lungs, the attacker suddenly stopped choking Jack, and slowly got back up. “Detective. Dixon?!” yelled the attacker. Jack, still choking profusely, slowly got back up, and after finally clearly seeing the attacker’s face, he suddenly recognized who he was. “OSCAR??? When did you get out?!” said Jack. “About 2 mo-“ Oscar was about to tell Jack but before he could, Jack hit him with a right hook to the jaw. This rocked Oscar for a bit, then as Jack was about to charge, Oscar ducked down and threw a straight punch into Jack’s solar plexus, he then pushed Jack’s head back, and once again Jack was sitting down on the ground. Jack was obviously pissed to see Oscar’s face after 3 years, after all, it was Jack who sent Oscar to prison 3 years ago. It also doesn’t help that as kids, Oscar beat up Jack in an amateur boxing match, Oscar is the very reason Jack decided not to become a professional fighter. They both grew up in the same neighborhood, under the guidance of Fr. Spenser, so it was no mystery to Jack as to why Oscar was there, but it was still infuriating for Jack to see Oscar’s face. “Calm down JACK… So you heard about what happened to Fr. Spenser huh detective?” said Oscar. After calming down Jack said “Yeah I did, I assume that’s why you’re here too? And for the record, I’m retired now, and we’re both not supposed to be here. So I can’t arrest you, but that doesn’t mean I ca-“, “What?! Fight me again? And lose a few more times? Yeah right Soldier Boy, I don’t think so” Oscar cuts him off. “You know, I could just shoot you.” Jack said, “Dear God Jack, how cowardly have you become? Is that why you retired, you chickened out? How does a a once proud soldier like you become so fearful?” Oscar said. “I don’t know, how does America’s top MMA prospect, and potential UFC athlete, bum out and become a leg breaking, gang banging, debt collector for the Bigville Devils? Worse than that, ending up getting himself arrested for aggravated assault and first degree manslaughter, by a so-called “cowardly” rookie cop like me?… You’re damn lucky you only got 3 years of prison thanks to your connections, you washed up Cage Warrior.” said Jack. Tensions began to rise between them and it seemed like there was another brawl about to ensue, but that was until they heard footsteps coming into the priest’s house…
CHOOSE:
[[A(Jack’s idea): Escape through the back window.]]
[[B(Oscar’s idea): Subdue the unknown intruder, for questioning.]]PROLOGUE: It’s a beautiful Sunday morning in Bigville, Gotharkham; Jack Dixon sits on his porch and enjoys a nice cup of coffee. Jack, having just retired from the GPD(Gotharkham Police Department) 2 days ago, after 6 years of service, decided that he wanted to lay low and relax for a week or two before deciding on what next step he should take. Based on his skillset, he’s qualified to become either a mercenary or a private investigator, seeing as before becoming a cop, he enlisted in the Marine Corp at age 19, served for 5 years and survived 2 tours in various areas of the Middle East. After living life on the edge and in constant danger for the last 10 years, he decides that he needs a little time to cool off. “I’m only 30” as he would say so himself. It’s night time, and like most retirees, Jack decides to sit on his favorite couch and watch a movie on the TV. The minute Jack turns on the TV however, something on the news immediately catches his eye. “This just in, Rev. Fr. Spenser Swan, a well known local priest and boxing coach in the Bigville area, is currently the primary suspect for the murder of Dimitry Golovkin. Dimitry Golovkin is a private journalist, private investigator and well known political activist. Police reports suggest that Dimitry was beaten to death, by being hit in the head repeatedly with a bare knuckle fist. It’s also worth noting that upon further investigation just this morning, police found 50 pounds worth of cocaine in the priest’s home. Spenser Swan is currently being charged with murder and possession of illegal substances, he is currently on the run and remains at large, and police are currently on a city wide manhunt to find him…” Jack hears on the news. Jack sits on his couch, scratching his head. He knew the Priest very well, as the priest was his boxing coach when he was a kid, and he attended masses at the church that the priest was presiding at every Sunday. “He couldn’t possibly have done that, this man has never even punched anyone outside of the boxing ring, how can he be guilty of murder and drug possession?” Jack said to himself. As Jack’s hero instincts begin to kick in, the gut feeling inside of him gets stronger and stronger, as if telling him that the priest couldn’t have possibly done it. Just like that, Jack finally decides that he needs to get involved, he gets in his car, brings his bag of toys and rides off…
[[NEXT]][[TITLE: A SERVANT IN VEIN]]