Generation Antihero - Shorts

Dust from abroad

Most of the lights were off and the waters calmly splashed against the walls of the docks. At mild-warm temperatures Ilus wanted to take Zigz' and Kiki's new baby for a walk. Kiki herself finally got a full round of sleep and Zigz wanted to go out with Shark. Basically, Ilus meant to give the parents a night off. So he pushed the stroller while Teddy walked by his side. He noted whispering: "She slept in again". "Talita's going to be like her father if this continues. I'm scared of that", he mumbled back. "But her father won't show up as a cute flower girl in the winter", Teddy smirked.

Chef smiled: "It would be a funny thought, if this idiot were to show up as a flower girl to his own wedding. I'm excited for them marrying in winter. I still don't know how Kiki convinced him to do it in Russia". "Probably with the fact that Koi and Lucky can't crash their party then", both laughed and looked out to the dark water.

There Ilus noticed: "Is that a cruise ship?". "Seems like it. Was one supposed to dock today, actually? We're not really a destination for such tropical liners", Teddy scratched his back head. "We'll be smarter any second", Ilus pulled his phone out and sent a voice message, "Koi, please send me the schedule for all ships that were supposed to dock today and tomorrow". Not even a minute later, Ilus got the requested data. Henry squinted his eyes together in the darkness: "The ship's name is... Dinistia Blu". "Isn't on the list", Ilus mumbled thoughtfully.

Together with the data, a voice message came back: "Is trouble arriving?". "Quite possible. If you and Lucky have some time right now, could you either look after Talita or come take a look at that suspicious ship?", he answered. Ilus recieved a badly acted response: "Oh, too bad. I didn't get part of the audio file, there was such a weird cracking sound. But we'll gladly take a look at the ship". Rolling his eyes Chef kept pushing the stroller: "And this guy wants to be a father some day...".

The sports cars drove up when both leaders were already on their way home. With binoculars Lucky and Koi climbed up to a higher position and scrutinized the ship. Koi was impressed: "Woah, just take in the size of that thing!". Lucky smirked mischieviously, as to he was kicked by his best friend. "What I was meaning to say...", the hacker puffed, "For such a huge cruise ship, barely anyone is on there. I can only see the captain with his crew and some employees".

Lucky noticed more: "It also seems to come from Italy. That's a damn long way for a ship without passengers". Koi already got his laptop into use: "Let's just search for the line and who's the CEO". Meanwhile, Lucky kept observing what was happening on the luxury liner. He didn't let himself get distracted by the colorful lights and vainglorious intereior, unlike Koi, who quickly ended up on the picture gallery: "Woah, Ilus has to pay us more of we want to go on a cruise like that! And I do want...".

Puzzled Lucky looked past the binoculars, back through them, and tapped Koi several times: "Oi, take a look at that". Together they witnessed large opaque boxes being loaded off. The ginger-head meant: "A cruise ship shouldn't be used as a freighter". Koi shut his laptop and got up: "They're taking the crates to some trucks. We should follow them". Exactly that turned into their plan. The tracking lead them to a suspicious-looking warehouse two towns away. They sneaked inside through the back and tried to open one of the boxes. Lucky warned: "Don't be so hasty with the knife. In the end you'll cut-". There was a ripping-sound and a white cloud of dust covered Koi's face. "...something open", Lucky bluntly finished. Koi first coughed, but seemed dazed quite fast. The smaller one face-palmed: "Ilus will surely be happy to see you high. At least we seem to have found work".

Back at the hideout, Lucky drove up with his lambo, plus Koi's car in tow. Koi himself was of absolute unsound mind. Expectant Chef turned his attention to that part of his first league and Lucky informed: "The good news - We've got something to do. The bad news - We found out unconventionally". Worried Ilus approached Koi, where he was grabbed and shaken by him: "Isn't this fantastic? Work, Ilus! Work! And there were soooo many drugs! What do you think would happen if we'd sniff all of them up? Tons of 'em! Soooo many coloooors...". Meagerly Chef pointed his finger upstairs: "Fishhead, now". Excited he looked up: "You see how high that is?! I'll run up there in one second!". And although he was sprinting, he did - in fact - not finish all the stairs in one second. So he counted repeatedly while running: "One! One! One! One!". Immediately Teddy wrote down: "Excessive cocaine deals via cruise ships...".

Ilus turned to Lucky: "At least you seem to be fine". "I was far away enough. But honestly, Koi's doing fine too. A little too fine", he waved off wide-eyed. "Alright... I just won't ask further. We'll only hope for now that Koi's going to manage the down-phase of this devilish stuff, after behaving like a squirrel with rabies. Meanwhile, we're going to try and find out more about this offense", Ilus clapped his hands together. Before he could get to work, Fishhead came down with a stressed face: "Tell me, Ilus. When you send your men up to me, impaired of some sort, what are you thinking then? Shot wounds, scraped open skin, cut off limbs - I can understand all that. But the side effects of drugs are exactly the one thing we don't practice in. What am I supposed to do about it now?". "Am I paying you well or not? I'm sure you'll think of something!", he brandished his arms around.

Fishhead shrugged: "The only thing I can think of right now is to give Koi cannabis so he gets down from the rush". Lucky laughingly raised his hand: "I want to see that!". "No way!", Ilus protested deeply outraged.

~~~

At the start of the next shift, Ilus called in a meeting. He cleared his throat and collected his papers: "So, boys. Right off I want to mention that if you ever suspect drugs in front of you, to never ever rip the packaging open unwary. Otherwise, you'll put yourself at high risk of getting addicted to both cocaine and cannabis". Smiling down his anger, he clenched his fists with a twitching eye, letting the paper in his hands crumble.

He took a deep breath and calmed down: "Further we found out the following - There's actually a huge italian shipping company that earns some extra cash by dealing kilos of cocaine. Since this also concerns our beautiful Seattle, I'd like to take this oppurtunity to finally get into this business outside of USA's borders. With taking down this offense, we would protect eight other countries from further deliveries. For that we'd have to fly over to Europe and take part in one of the cruises, since the ship here has left again".

Interested and convinced his entire team nodded. "There is just one problem", Ilus added, "When I saw the bill for this whole adventure, both my bank account and me went into cardiac arrest. Meaning I can only bring a carefully picked small group of fighters. This shit is actually so expensive that I can only take the first rank with me without going bankrupt. Because I'm very sure all of you are planning on eating in the following month". Cheering Arrow raised his hands: "Yeah, food!". "Especially with him here. So one of you guys will have to maintain business while we're gone. And I'm scared of this decision", he admitted honestly.

Mostly in second league many raised their hands and called out their arguments as to why they should be the one to take over his position. Ilus just interrupted: "It's best if you make that out between yourselves and I'll make the final call! After all, you'll have to live with your new temporary Chef! You better have decided in an hour!". Afterwards, he left his desk and went over to Lucky: "Is Koi still throwing up like crazy?". "Uhu", he barely nodded, as he packed up his bag. "Don't ever take drugs, kids...", Ilus sighed disappointed.