Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Chapter 3

The same accident that caused the loss of his leg at age six also stimulated the latent genetics that ran in his family to trigger a mutation. Although becoming one of the ‘exo-humans’ the government monitored would prove to be the least of David’s worries once he stumbled upon his family’s secret.

Brought to you by the warped mind of Nuuan

~o~O~o~

The two men dragged David out of the woods onto a black top road where two back SUVs were parked and several other armed men waited. "We got a tail!" one of the men dragging the boy shouted.

"Get him in the car, we'll take care of it," One of the armed men pointed to the SUV in the lead.

Shoving David into the backseat, the two men climbed in as the SUV sped off with them. All three watched out the rear window as the remaining men began firing their machine guns when the rock creature charged out of the woods at them. The bullets didn't seem to have any effect on the creature as it scattered the men, then grabbed the SUV and began using it like a flyswatter on the armed men. Within seconds the behemoth had taken care of the attackers then hefted the remains of the SUV over its head and threw it toward the escaping SUV.

"Ewww, gross, "David grimaced watching the carnage through the back window, "Looks like you're going to need some new bad guys."

"Shut that kid up!" the driver yelled.

David felt a stabbing pain in the side of his neck, and then everything went black.

A few miles down the deserted road the driver saw the strange little cartoon coyote standing in the middle of the road holding a stop sign, "What the fuck?"

Looking from the back seat, one of the men said, "It's one of the kid's toys, run it over!" The SUV accelerated headlong into the lone cartoonish coyote.

Seeing the SUV speed up, the coyote cringed while turning the stop sign around, the reverse side of it was white with large black letters displaying the word, ‘YIKES!’

Once the SUV had passed the stop sign lay bent and twisted in the road, the only trace that the coyote had been there.

~o~O~o~

The scene below reminded the DEHA agent of an ant hill that had been disturbed, both uniformed and plain clothed police scurried around under the flashing strobe effects from the rotating lights of the numerous police and emergency vehicles that had been parked haphazardly in the front of the house. Near a broken stone wall at the edge of the back, a cluster of men with a gurney were working on what appeared to be a body as the helicopter descended.

The tall well muscled man, dressed in a crisp black suit, white shirt and thin matching tie, stepped out of the helicopter once it had landed in the backyard of the Wiley's residence. The name badge clipped to the left breast pocket of his jacket flapped around and the lower part of his tie came loose out of the jacket flipping around due to the wash off the helicopters blades above him.

A uniformed police officer stepped forward, ducking under the helicopter's rotating blades as he approached, "DEHA?" he yelled over the noise of the helicopter.

"Agent Scythe." The well dressed man answered over the noise, "Witnesses?"

"In the house sir."

Not bothering to duck down as the police officer had, Agent Scythe walked out from under the noise and wind of the helicopter, straightening his tie and badge as he approached the house. Another uniformed officer standing guard beside the door nodded and opened the door for the DEHA agent as he approached.

Stopping two steps inside the house agent Scythe took in the large kitchen and its occupants. The kitchen set up with counters creating a large L shape took up less than half the room, the remaining part of the room held a large wooden dining room table surrounded by 8 matching chairs. Five of the chairs, all near one end of the table, were occupied by Mr. & Mrs. Wiley, Mr. & Mrs. Bell and Melanie. Two uniformed officers were standing guard to the side of the two families.

"You two," Agent Scythe motioned to the two uniformed officers then pointed at the door, "out!"

"Yes sir." The both chorused as they crisply turned and walked toward the door. Once outside with the door closed the younger of the two officers looked to his partner, "Who the fuck does that guy think he is?"

"Shit man," his older partner answered, "that's agent Scythe!"

"NO shit? What's he doing here?" The younger officer almost seemed terrified.

The older officer looked around to make sure no one else could hear him, "I'm pretty sure the kid's mom is his sister."

"Someone snatched the Reaper’s nephew!" The younger officer almost yelled.

"Shhhh, you don't want him to hear you call him that!"

Agent Scythe was not a mutant nor did he ever think of himself as some kind of superhero and he also hated the nickname that so many called him. Someone a long time ago had made a comparison to getting away from him, as the same from getting away from death and taxes. At least with taxes you had a chance, with Agent Scythe and death, you had no chance, thus the nickname Grim Reaper was coined.

Over his career he had taken down more super villains than many of the cape groups that protected the various cities across the continent. While his military career was mostly classified, the fact was he had lead an elite group that went after rogue mutants and even some super villains. Hollywood had even made a movie about him and his team, Scythe had never wanted publicity knowing it actually made his job harder so he had lawyers fight against the movies release. Although since the writers and producer was clever enough not to use anyone's real name in the movie the injunction was overturned in court and the movie released a few weeks later than scheduled but only after tons of free publicity courtesy of the court system and the media. Of course the movie, while it stated that it was based off real life events, was still a Hollywood action flick. This fact did little to discourage people from believing what they saw on the big screen.

Rumor has it that the Department of Exo-Human Affairs gave him his choice of positions with their organization when he left the military. That the Iowa office was so centrally located could have been the reason he took the position in their Des Moines office. Although a very few knew it was so he could be closer to his family, namely his baby sister. David's mother was not Agent Scythe's biological sister, his parents had adopted her at the age of four, although Agent Wesley Scythe and his older brother Ryan thought the world of their little sister Teri.

Tom and Mary Scythe had been neighbors of Teri's parents, Mary had actually been watching little Teri when her parents had been caught up in a battle between the Paladins and some supposedly dangerous mutant they were trying to capture. As usual the media spun how dangerous the mutant had been and how all the destruction was the mutants fault, oddly enough all the destruction was caused by Paladin’s weaponry, not the mutant's terrible super power that was never caught on camera during the battle. The Paladins had eventually taken the mutant down, but only after they dropped hundreds of tons of a concrete and steel bridge on top of it. Unfortunately Teri's parent's car was among the vehicles that were on that bridge when it happened.

"Wes!" Teri looked up, her eyes red from all the crying, "They took David!" Only to bury her face in both her hands and begin crying again.

"Where's Cindy?" Agent Scythe looked toward Steve.

"She's at a friend house." Steve replied.

"How you holding up?"

"Not good Wes," Steve answered, "I want these bastards that did this to go down...hard!"

"They will," Agent Scythe's replied in a monotone voice, "I'll make sure they do."

"Get my David back for me Wes," Teri looked up with tear filled eyes, "Then kill them, Kill those son of a bitches that took my baby Wes, promise me you'll kill them all!"

Looking at Steve once again, Wesley motioned toward their guests, "Do they know about you know who?"

"Sara?" Steve asked, "Yes somewhat."

"Sara!" Agent Scythe commanded, "I know you are listening."

"Good evening Wesley," a female voice spoke.

"I want all audio and video uploaded to my phone."

"Yes Wesely."

"Do you have any idea where they are taking David?"

"I was able to plant a tracking device on their vehicle as they were leaving."

"Where are they now?"

"Heading south on interstate 35," the disembodied female voice spoke, "It appears they are traveling toward Kansas City."

"Alright Sara, I need to know if and when they stop."

"Yes Wesley."

"Ok so who are you three?" Agent Scythe looked at the Bell family.

Melanie, who had her arms cross on the table with her head buried in them sobbing, looked up "David is my boyfriend!" immediately putting her head back down to continue sobbing even harder.

"We are her parents." Mr. Bell, Dan groaned.

"OK, Sir, can you tell me what you saw?" Agent Scythe looked at Dan.

Looking from Agent Scythe then to Steve and Teri, then back to the DEHA agent Dan spoke, "May I ask who you are sir?"

"I am agent Scythe, DEHA, Des Moines office."

Melanie looked up at Agent Scythe eyes wide with pure terror, "You, your the," Melanie gulped, "the Reaper!" Bolting out of the chair she had been in Melanie ran from the kitchen.

"I'll go get her," Mary started to get up.

Wiping back the tears, "No let me," Teri stood.

Teri found the girl in David's room, sitting on the bed sobbing into one of David's pillows she had clutched to her chest. "Can I sit with you?" Teri sat down beside the frightened girl before she could respond.

"He's, he's going to take me away isn't he?" Melanie sobbed.

"Why would you think he would do that?"

"Be, because he's the Grim Reaper. That's what he does."

Placing an arm around Melanie, Teri pulled her into a hug, "he only does that to bad people."

"But I, my rock creature killed someone."

"You were defending yourself, and David," Teri consoled the girl. "Wes would not take anyone away for that."

"Yes he will," Melanie pleaded, "In the movie..."

"He isn't anything like that movie."

"How do you know so much about him?" Melanie started to calm down.

"Because he is my brother."

Melanie's eyes widened and jaw dropped after hearing this. "The Reaper? David's uncle?"

"Yes but lets not keep calling him that, he really hates being called that since the movie came out. His name is Wesley."

"Will he get David back for us?"

"If anyone can, he will." Teri stood up motioning for Melanie to take her hand., "Now let's go back to the kitchen so we can help him get David back."

"Ah perfect timing," Agent Scythe said when he saw Teri and Melanie walk back into the room, "Teri can you tell me what you saw?"

"Sure Wes," As she began to retell everything she could remember up until the wall manifested into a humanoid shaped creature, striking the one assailant that was holding Melanie and then chasing after the two that carried David off.

Turning his attention to Melanie, "So you can animate things?"

"Yes, yes sir," Melanie hesitantly said while looking down at the table.

"Do you have your DEHA ID with you?"

"I..." Melanie began.

"She doesn't have one yet," Mary interrupted.

"OK," reaching into the breast pocket of his suit jacket, agent Scythe produced a card and handed it to Melanie, "Keep this on you at all times. You can show it to anyone that asks for your ID." Turning to her parents, "Now you must make an appointment with our office to have her tested. The sooner the better. The only good thing to come from that movie is that my name has a lot of clout, but that doesn't mean that is a get out of jail free card."

"Yessir," Melanie answered.

"We'll call and make an appointment first thing in the morning." Dan stated.

"Good," Agent Scythe sighed, "The faster you get that done, the less chance any morons have of causing your family trouble." Standing up from the table and looking at Teri, "OK I need to see what they have found outside. I'll give you a call once we know more." cocking his head to the side, "You haven't called Ryan yet have you?"

"No," Teri answered.

"He'll probably blow a gasket, so let me call him. You don't need to hear one of his rants right now."

~o~O~o~

As the helicopter lifted off Wesley pulled his cell phone from his suit pocket and dialed a number.

"Hi bro, how's it hanging?" The voice on the other end spoke.

"Hi Ryan," Wes was very somber, "I thought you should know, someone kidnapped David."

"David?" the voice quizzed, "Teri's David?"

"Yes."

"What the fucking hell! Who the god damn hell was it! I'll twist their fucking balls off! God mother fucking dammit!"

"Damn Ryan, calm down!"

"FUCK YOU!" Ryan spat into the phone, "Who in the fucking hell has my fucking nephew!"

"We're looking into it, but it appears to be a syndicate job."

"What!" Ryan continued to scream into the phone, "I'll teach those god damn mother fuckers to screw with my god damn family!"

"Ryan!"

"Screw you Wesley!" Ryan spat, "Keep your goddamn people and those fucking retard supers out of my god damned way. I am coming to get Davey!" Although he continued to yell and cuss, Wesley could tell that his brother no longer had the phone near his ear to hear him. "SARA! GOD DAMMIT SARA I KNOW YOU ARE LISTENING!" and the phone went silent.

~o~O~o~

Ryan continued screaming and cursing after he had thrown his cell phone against the wall, destroying it in a shower of plastic, glass and metal. "SARA!" he screamed, "Why wasn't I informed of this?"

"Because Ryan," Sara's voice came from the speakers of a desktop computer that sat on a table on the other side of the room, "I knew how you would react if you thought the syndicate was involved."

"Now that I know about this are you going to help?"

"Yes Ryan," Sara replied, "I had intended on enlisting your help once I had discovered where they were taking David."

"Are you tracking the vehicle?"

"Yes Ryan."

"How?" Ryan asked, "You didn't borrow any satellites again did you?"

"No, I was able to get a tracking device on the vehicle."

"What if they switch vehicles?"

"That will not be a problem. As soon as the vehicle reaches it destination I will relay the coordinates to you."

"I'll need the shifts calculated too."

"Yes Ryan."

"I'm going to the workshop, Transfer everything there once you have the information I need."

"Yes Ryan."

"But first I need to pick up a fucking new phone." Ryan muttered under his breath.

~o~O~o~

~o~O~o~

Somewhere along Interstate 35 the black SUV pulled up beside a nondescript four door sedan. Looking around to make sure there were not a lot of cars on the road, both passenger side doors of the SUV opened and two men climbed out who immediately pulled the limp form of David out of the back seat and loaded him into the back seat of the sedan.

No one noticed the small cartoonish coyote peeking around the rear bumper of the SUV until the coast was clear, then tip toeing over behind the sedan where the coyote disappeared under the rear of the vehicle before the sedan peeled away.