Knight Parade Eleventh Chapter Meeting the Boys

Chapter Eleven

Meeting the Boys

When Mike arrives at the auditorium he sees Paul from his usual lookout spot atop the building. Paul also notices Mike and gets down from his perch and makes his way inside the auditorium to no doubt to tell the others Mike has arrived. As Mike enters the main theater he sees Justin and Pete, apparently the self-proclaimed brains of the operation, going over some sort of plans and the rest of the boys are either working out or sparring.

Justin turns to Mike as he enters and greets him loudly, "Well what the frig? What you doing here man?"

Mike smiles at his friends as he walks toward the stage, "Just chillin man, frigin chillin."

Pete crosses his arms over his chest, leans back against the table and says, "Came to see Claire hey, about frigin' time. You can't just see her with five other guys around, you sick friger."

Mike turns a little red with embarrassment and pats Pete on the shoulder as he finally gets to the table, "Yeah, we spend the afternoon together, it was pretty frigin' good."

Pete just nods, stands up straight and answers, "Yeah tapping that crap, huh, wha bha dho, yeah you like that crap huh baby." As Pete attempts to make porno noises while thrusting with his hips he makes slapping motions in the air with his hands.

Mike cannot help but break into laughter as does Justin. Mike responds, "Dude, you need to get laid and it ain't like that, she's, well she's huh, yeah we're good."

Pete discontinues his perverted antics, pats Mike on the back saying, "Good for you man. There needs to be some good going on in all the rest of this crap."

After the greetings Justin hollers out, "OK boys down to business. Now I think we need to work out some code names for each other."

Paul laughs and interjects sarcastically, "Do we get to have a secret knock and hand shake too, oh spy master."

Justin rolls his eyes and gives Paul the hey I'm really serious here look and answers, "Bite me witch, if we need to talk while doing a hit its probably not a good idea to use out real name now isn't it sweetheart."

Paul nods and agrees, "Alright, good point tiger, so what do you have in mind?"

Justin gives Paul a look of confusion and answers, "Oh come one I can't do everything for you frigers. Crap, it's not hard, just pick a name for yourselves, one that is not connected to your real name and we'll call you that."

Pete laughs and answers loudly, "I want dirty sanchez."

A general roar of laughter erupts from the rest of the boys.

Justin shakes his head trying not to validate Pete's joke by laughing, "Frig Pete, if we start calling you that we'll never get any darn work done out there."

With tears running down his face from the laughter Pete responds, "Yeah, I know, but funny as crap huh."

Justin breaks downs and starts to laugh saying, "Yeah man, funny as crap."

Mike, actually putting some thought into this interrupts, "I like Naphtali."

There is general nodding and consensus among the group and Paul interjects, "Hey I like that, cool."

Nick starts to snort with his own laughter and blurts out, "Hey that sounds like a hooker I know."

Tim turns his head sharply to look at Nick with a look of confusion and asks, "How the frig do you know a hooker."

A wide smile emerges from Nick's face and he says, very smoothly, "Crap man, I know all the ladies."

Justin begins to laugh himself continuing, "Really, all the ladies you pay to have sex with you."

Nick give a shrug and answers, "Hey you do what you gotta man, you do what you gotta."

Justin cuts in trying to get some control over this matter saying, "Whatever does it for ya man. Anyway, ladies can we get back to picking names please."

Paul states bolding, "Yes, el capitian. I like Boaz, I read a story once with that name, I'll go with that."

Nick nods and agrees, "Very cool, strong name. I like Amos, if I had a kid that's what I would name him so if I don't get the kid I guess I'll take the name."

Pete cannot let this opportunity slide pass and interjects, "Well you won't have kids if you keep paying for sex, that's for darn sure."

With that another roar of laughter erupts from the group and Pete smiles proudly he continues, "But I think I will go with Eran, not sure why but I like it."

Justin smiles and nods adding, "Very good. So what should my name be?"

Pete continues on his sarcastic roll, "Ebenezer, because your such a frigin' scrooge."

Justin concludes chuckling, "Ebenezer, yeah I like that, we'll do that."

Mike and the rest of the boys continue to play catch up about what has been going on and possible plans for the future of the group. Claire shows up about thirty minutes later. It is just about then that Mike realizes that someone is missing and for some reason it really alarms him.

Mike blurts out with a worried tone, "Hey guys, where the heck is Timmy?"

Justin can't believe he has been so oblivious looks around, as if expecting to see Tim and answers, "Yeah he said he would be here, it's not like him to miss this stuff."

Mike gets up and grabs his cloak and blades saying, "Yeah I got a bad feeling, I'm going out."

Justin also begins to grab his gear and adds, "Right man, I'll roll too. Boys, who's in?"

The whole group begins to gather their things in alarm and Pete speaks for everyone, "All of us man, crap." They all nod their heads in agreement.

Justin going into crisis leadership role declares, "All right, Pete and Claire you stay in case he shows up."

Claire stops gathering her things abruptly turns to Justin and yells, "Heck no! I'm coming this time you sexist idiots, like it or not!"

Mike says in an attempt to defuse this situation, "Alrighty then. Claire's with me, Justin and Nick, and Pete and Paul team up. We go in pairs not solo. Leave a note for Tim he can sit tight if shows up when we're not here, alright."

The rest agree and suit up with weapons, masks and black cloaks and then set off in three different directions. Justin and Nick head toward Tim's place to see if he is around or just running behind. Pete and Paul head east and Mike and Claire go a more dangerous direction, south, toward the middle of town. It is late and fairly quiet and Mike and Claire take their horses through as many alley and back paths as they can to steer clear of any possible Homage guard patrols. But Mike and Claire do not have to wait too long to find what they are looking for. As they come out of an alley, about four blocks from city hall, Mike hears a slight commotion. It is a group of men talking and some sort of fight commencing. Mike and Claire dismount and take a right flank maneuver to get a full view of what is going on. When they make it into an observatory position they see a group of four Homage guards roughing up an older couple in front of their house.

As Homage guard has an old man by his throat up against the side of the house demanding, "How long were you going to hold out on us old man? Did you think we weren't going to figure this out, huh?"

The man squeaks out struggling from breath, "Please stop, I don't know what you are talking about."

The guard screams at the man, "Really old man? Then how do you explain these papers? Copies of all our building plans. How the heck did you get these?"

The man tries to explain, "I don't know what those are or how they got into my house, I swear."

The old woman screams out, "Please let us go! We're old and we don't know anything about this."

Claire whispers into Mike's ear and they watch the scene unfold, "We have to help them."

Mike's brain is going into overdrive trying to find some solution to this problem answering Claire, "I know Claire but there are two of us and four of them. We need to pick our battles babe."

Claire asks with urgency in her voice, "Can't we go get the others?"

Mike shakes his head reluctantly, "By the time we get them and get back the Homage will have the old couple in jail, or worse, they'll be dead."

Claire agrees in frustration, "Yeah I know, crap."

Then something rather unexpected happens, but I suppose it would have to be unexpected to be noteworthy in anyway. A rock comes flying out from just east of the Homage guards and nails one of them in the head almost knocking him over. This of course gets the attention of the other guards and two of them run in the direction of the hurling rock. Another rock comes hurling at the two guards rushing toward the outcropping buildings and this time they are ready for it and deflect the rock easily. Mike looks at Claire questioningly and she reciprocates the look.

Both think to themselves, "What the heck was going on here?"

Mike can see whoever is throwing the rocks begin to move around the perimeter toward Mike and Claire's position.

"Whoever this is does not have a good handle on position," Mike thinks to himself. "They have two guards on their back and the other two guards are bolting toward the rock hurler to head them off. Stupid friger needs to get out of here ."

Mike whispers to Claire, "Alright babe, get ready." As be pulls his two blades and Claire pulls her short sword. "The Homage guards are almost on top of the rock hurler and the other two are going to be on their position real quick. We need to work toward whoever that is and hopefully surprise the first two guards and then we can deal with the two running to head off the rock hurler alright."

Claire nods with a worried look on her face, "Got it love."

Mike leads Claire quickly to the position of the rock thrower and right before they get there they heard a scream and the sounds of joining blades. Mike knows the voice and should have known all along, it was Tim. Mike thinks to himself, "What they heck is he thinking anyway?"

When Mike and Claire break onto the scene Tim is doing a fairly good job. I mean he is going to get his ass kicked but he is putting up a heck of a fight. The two guards are backing him up against a building and any advantage he had is almost gone. But Mike and Claire have the element of surprise on their side and Mike goes in with both blades high and hard leaving his opponent almost no chance. The guard wheels around to try and block Mike but has little luck. As the guard brings his blade up to block, Mike forces it back and his opponent drops his blade. Mike's follows through and cuts deep into his opponent's right forearm and right lower abdomen spilling blood everywhere. The guard drops to his knees cradling his open stomach wound and Mike spins quickly with a neck shot almost decapitating his opponent. Claire is much slier about her attack. As her opponent turns to meet her advance she drops to one knee and almost cuts out the knees of her opponent. Forcing the guard to almost fall forward on his face, the guard catches himself with his hands and Tim is quick to plunge his sword right through his back. But there is no time for pleasantries though, the other two Homage guards are almost on top of them.

"Frig she is too quick, too darn quick," Mike thinks to himself.

As Claire is at least three paces ahead of Mike and Tim. She charges the last two guards.

"She is so hot," Mike thinks but then has to steady himself. "Yeah she's hot but that crap is gonna to get her killed man, pick it up motherfriger."

Mike pushes his attack as fast as he can with Tim right behind him. Claire very cleverly goes after her left opponent and stays out of attack range of the guard on the right. She comes in straight and about mid-level, which her opponent blocks and tries to parry her right. Her opponent is stronger than she is but he miscalculates her momentum and basically tosses her off to the right. In doing so he is pushed left into his fellow guard. It is not enough to knock either over but it sure as heck throws off their timing. Mike then charges right in at the two, too ballsy and kind of stupid, but arrogance gets the best of all of us sometimes. He comes in high, he likes to come in high, not high like that jackasses, but this time his opponents are ready for him. The left guard blocks and the right guard attacks low. Mike is able to get his left blade around to deflect this attack but can only slow it down and he takes a slash to his left side. His leather armor takes most of the blow but it goes deep enough to start a decent blood flow.

Mike curses his stupidity and arrogance, "This is the price I pay," he guesses to himself.

He rolls off to the right side to try and buy himself some time and the guard on the right comes after him hard. But this time Mike will not over step his bounds. He waits for his opponent to come in and he knows Claire is right behind him and this gives him an idea. The guard comes in and instead of blocking he ducks the attack. He drops his swords to get in real close and just grabs the guard and spins him around with his back to Claire.

Mike commands in a breathy voice, "Stick him Claire!"

Claire quickly follows the order plunging her blade into the kidney of the guard making sure to angle the shot so as not to get Mike too. The shot drops the guard to the ground and Claire is quick to withdraw the blade and finish the neck his neck.

Claire drops be blade and turns her attention to Mike stating the obvious, "You're hurt."

Mike chuckles as be looks down at his left side responding, "It's fine, a good dressing will take care of it."

Claire looks worriedly at Mike's side, grabbing it to get a better look at the wound she asks, "Are you sure?"

Mike chuckles again and answers cradling his side, "Yeah babe, are you OK?"

Claire smiles at Mike, pushes her brown hair out of her face and answers, "Fine love, thanks."

Mike keeps his left arm against his side and puts his right arm around Claire saying, "You kicked some ass there, pretty darn hot."

Claire begins to forget about anyone or anything else around them and responds in a sexy tone, "Well thank you big boy." As she slides her arm around Mike's waist.

Mike does remember that they are in this situation for a very good reason and he says to Claire quietly, "Hold that thought."

Mike then turns his attention to Tim and says sternly, "Tim, what in the mother frig were you thinking? You, we, could have all been killed! Have you lost your frigin' mind?"

Tim, looking more dejected than Mike has ever seen him, with tears beginning to swell in his eyes stammers, "Hey man, I, yeah, sorry I needed to do something man. After Alex died I just, I don't know man, I can't just sit around and do nothing. I need to take it to these guys."

Mike, mad as heck at his friend, finds himself feeling sorry for Tim. Mike walks over, puts a hand on Tim's shoulder and says more compassionately, "Dude, I know man. But we need to do this thing together. Together we stand, apart we fall ya know. If you die what good are you to us and the cause right? We can do this thing together. Now we need to try and hide these bodies in this building here and get going before we attract anymore attention."

But they have already drawn too much attention to themselves and they hear voices coming from the direction of city hall and they are coming quick.

Mike looks back toward city hall and can see the flicker of lights and says alarmed, "Crap, no time, let's roll."

The three get back to their horses and ride out fast taking a round about route to the auditorium trying to keep it somewhat secret. The ride back is extremely tense as they try to stay off the main streets and keep watching their backs. Every little noise becomes a possible enemy, making them even more nervous. Finally, they return safely to the auditorium and the rest of the gang is there.

As the three come in Justin gets up and walks toward them asking, "Where the heck have you guys been, what happened? There was quite a commotion near city hall."

Mike stops as when he meets Justin and turns toward Tim, "Yeah dumb ass here decided to take on four guards on his own. When Claire and I showed up we had to take care of things. They're all dead but we didn't have time to cover our tracks. There were more guards starting to file in so we bolted."

Justin finally notices that Mike is in pretty bad shape and asks, "You guys alright?"

Mike rolls his eyes at Justin but gives him the benefit of the doubt saying, "I could use a dressing on this wound. Mike takes off his leather and lifts his shirt to open his side wound.

Pete, moves forward and looks at the wound and takes Mike's arm saying "Alright man, we will get you dressed up come on." Pete and Paul help Mike get the wound clean and dressed.

Justin then turns to Claire and Tim and ask, "You two alright?"

Claire answers, "Yeah fine, thanks.

Justin then fixes in on Tim, still in disbelief that his usually level headed friend could have done something so stupid ask, "Tim what the heck were you doing?"

Tim looks down at his feet and says with a shaky voice, "Don't man, Mikey already chewed my ass for it OK. I know it was stupid but I just can't sit around and do nothing. Alex died because of us."

Justin understands Tim's feelings but needs to make him understand that he is not along and says harshly, "Dude don't, we did the best we could but we can't beat ourselves up over Alex. Yeah, it sucks ass but we need to make sure he didn't die for nothing, and what good would a dead Tim do for us? Not a thing, we need you man. Now come on promise you won't do anything stupid again."

Nick, trying to lighten the mood interjects, "That may be asking too much of him man."

Tim finally looks up and cracks a smile answering, "Yeah alright, I'll do my best, thanks guys."

They talk about the night, lick their wounds and just regroup in general. They decide they had been a little too active in the last couple of weeks and need to take time out. They will meet a couple times a week and call a meeting if anything important comes up. Mike will try and get into town as much as possible and the group will try and keep him in the loop. They continue the monitoring work as they had decided on previously and they keep tabs on what the Homage are doing. They will plan another hit as soon as they have more information on where the next best place to hit will be.

Mike rides Claire home, not like that you sick frigers, and as Mike walks her to the back of the house, remember she needs to sneak in, Claire turns to Mike and says very abruptly, "I love you Michael."

Mike for a second is struck speechless, not only did she just use his long name she just said I love you. He was not ready for this, he never thought she would say it so soon but that is the only reason he hesitated because he already knew his answer.

Mike puts his hands around Claire's waist, brings her in close and says, "I love you too Claire, more than I have ever loved anyone." Mike kisses her deeply which Claire gladly reciprocates. After the kiss Mike lets her go says, "Sleep well my love, I will see you soon."

Claire answers, "See you soon love," and walks into her house.

Now a lot of the time boys, and men for that matter, will say they love you just to get laid but Mike really means it. He just fells better when she is around. Without her he just feels wrong and with her he feels right and that's all he needs to know. He loves her and can't see himself without her. The whole ride home Mike plays this scene over and over again in his head and he just can't stop smiling.