TBD

by Zarek Dragon

Once they were home, Robbie started towards the "lair" as he referred to the basement. Chase called out, "Hold up, where are you going?"

"I was going down to the lair to see if there were any crimes, why?"

"The computer can do that?"

Robbie nodded, "I have it tied into the police scanner, so it pinpoints everywhere the police are active, as well as silent alarms and 9-1-1 calls."

"Nice, but would you mind holding up? Kash and I won't be going out anytime soon; instead, I would like to celebrate your adoption being finalized."

"Sure, will Uncle Grandpa Trevor be joining us?"

Lenny smiled at Robbie calling his love by that name. "I can call him to see if he's able, if you would like."

"Please, Uncle Grandpa," Robbie grinned. "When you two get married, he will be my uncle grandpa also, so he will be family. You think he would mind me thinking of him as family already?"

"I think he would love the idea."

It wasn't long before a cab pulled up out front. Lenny went outside to pay the cabbie as Trevor got out. "Where is that boy?"

"He's inside waiting for you."

Trevor walked in and went up to Robbie. He wrapped his arms around the boy and whispered, "I consider it an honor for you to think of me as family. I love you and as far as I am concerned, we are family."

"So, where would you like to go to celebrate?" Chase asked.

"Seriously, you're letting me pick, Dad?"

Chase chuckled, "You may be only two years younger than me, but it sounds so sweet with you calling me Dad. Yeah, you can pick anywhere to celebrate."

"Can we go to Bestia? It has the highest rating in Los Angeles."

"If that is where you would like to go, but you know, Trevor DOES work at The Water Grill."

"I didn't know that. The Water Grill has almost as high of a rating, but it's more seafood and I would like to celebrate with Italian. I hope you understand."

"Robbie, the fact that you know the rating impresses me. And you are aware of its cuisine, so I feel honored that you even looked it up. If you prefer Italian over seafood, I understand."

"Personally, I prefer Italian, too," Kash declared.

"That doesn't surprise me, Babe, but I wanted to let Robbie choose without bias. You did notice, I didn't mention The Water Grill until AFTER he chose?"

"I know, and I'm glad you did. We are celebrating him joining our family. If he would have chosen seafood, I would have eaten whatever, but I am glad he wanted Italian. And, I did notice that, though it seemed like you were trying to change his mind."

"No, I didn't think he would, but after commenting about choosing based on ratings and knowing the two restaurants are only point two points apart, I thought I would throw that out and make Trevor feel good."

"If you would like," Lenny offered, "I can make you a perfect Italian dish to celebrate."

"No, Uncle Lenny, I want you to enjoy the day with us, too, not busy preparing a meal. Now if you would like to prepare something tomorrow, I'm all for that."

"What would you like for supper tomorrow, Robbie?"

"I don't know if this would be too hard to make, but I love lasagna, or spaghetti and meatballs."

"Neither one of them are hard to make. Ask Chase or Kash about my chicken lasagna."

"That sounds good. I think I'll get spaghetti tonight if you'll make it tomorrow."

Sitting in the restaurant chatting, Chase suddenly felt uneasy as masked men entered the place. One of the guys had a tattoo showing, "Guys, I need to disappear. I think these are the guys who were on that beach."

"Are you sure?" Lenny was shocked.

"See that tattoo? I swear it's one from that day."

"That's an unusual tattoo, too. How many people can there be with a 3D tattoo of tanto coming out of their arm?"

"So, you see my point. I'm going to the bathroom."

As Chase stood up, one of the guys shouted, "Sit down. Nobody move or you WILL die."

"Fuck, now what do we do? If these are the same guys, they may kill everyone just like they did on the beach."

"Dad, you're a ninja, can't you just disappear in a puff of smoke?"

"It's not really like how they do it on TV or in movies, Robbie. Besides, if I disappear and they notice I'm gone, what would they do to all of you?"

"I'm scared, Dad."

"So am I."

Kash asked, "Do you have ANYTHING on you?"

"I always have shurikens, you?"

"I didn't grab anything, but from this day forward, you can bet that I will."

Chase pulled out his shurikens; he had four on him and there were five guys. He had to plan the best way to use them. He was studying the surroundings when he felt it. A blow gun dart whizzed past him into one of the guys, and then four more. Chase looked in the direction from whence they came and saw him, one of the ninjas from the clan he had trained with.

All five guys went down before anyone else knew what happened. Chase got up and went to the ninja. "Yamamoto Takeshi, am I glad to see you."

"Sensei sent me to see if Blue Dragon needed any help covering his identity."

"I believe I am good at this time, but I appreciate it." Chase looked at the guys lying on the floor, "I really appreciate it, today."

"The clan bought a house here, someone will always be available if you ever need assistance of any kind. Here is a card with the information. I must go."

As Chase returned to his table, he replaced the card he was given with one of his own. He set the card down, then went to the guy with the tattoo he recognized and removed his hood. As he saw the man's face, he started to cry. Kash was the first to approach him, "Babe, are you alright?"

Chase nodded his head, "I was right, this is the guy who removed his hood at the beach. This is one of the motherfuckers who killed my dads."

"Now what?"

"Now, we let the police deal with them. As much as I would like to take action, I would be just like them if I did."

Lenny nodded, "I'm glad to hear you say that."

As if on cue, the police arrived. Chase heard one of the other patrons tell the first officer to arrive that it was The Blue Dragon that rescued them… "and that man spoke with him." The man was pointing at Chase.

"You spoke with The Blue Dragon? Did he have any identifying features?"

"Not that I could see, but he did give me this card."

The officer took the card from Chase, "Yes, we've gotten one of these each time this guy has shown up. Personally, I wish I could thank him for his help, but I am ordered to arrest him if I ever see him."

Chase looked down and spoke quietly, "Officer, there is something you should know." Kash couldn't believe what he was hearing, was Chase about to tell this officer who he was? He didn't think Chase would, but he couldn't think of anything else his love would tell the officer. "These men were responsible for the murder of my dads and others on the beach eight years ago, or at least this one guy was there. When they thought they had killed everyone, he removed his hood and I was in the water hiding." Kash sighed in relief.

"Are you sure of this?" Chase just nodded as the officer asked. "Good, maybe we can finally find out why all those people were killed and put that case to rest."

As they drove home, Kash asked, "Now that your dads' killers have been caught, how does it affect us going out?"

"You know that I never expected to catch the guys, so it doesn't affect us at all. We will continue as we have. At least now we know, the police appreciate our actions, even if they do plan to arrest us if we are ever caught."

Once the Traverse was parked, everyone got out. Chase went to the "lair," removed his shirt and started pounding on the Wing Chun dummy. He was smacking it harder than he ever had. Kash came down to see what the noise was all about. "Dude, what did it ever do to you?"

"Nothing, but seeing that man again…"

"I know, it hurts, probably a lot. At least you ARE taking it out on something meant to take a beating. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really, but I probably should. I wanted to kill that man, even with him lying there unconscious, a part of me just wanted to kill him. He took my dads from me, but I also knew that if I did, then I wouldn't be any better than him. For now, can you just hold me?"

"Sure, Babe," Kash put his arms around Chase as Chase put his head down. Tears came without force or reservation. "And for the record, I think anyone in your shoes would have wanted to kill him. It's guys like you who don't that make this a better place."

It had been almost an hour since Kash went down to check on Chase, Robbie wanted to go down and check on them as did Lenny, but they knew Chase was feeling pain and Kash would do whatever he could to help his love. Robbie was pacing back and forth, almost with tears in his eyes. "Uncle Grandpa, I'm sorry that I chose that restaurant. Do you think it'd be safe if I went down to apologize?"

"You have nothing to apologize for; in fact, had you not chosen that restaurant, those men may have killed the people in there and gotten away. Yes, Chase is hurting from old wounds reopened, but now those wounds can start to really heal."

"But I was an asshole before, and Dad adopted me anyway, then I chose THAT restaurant. My actions hurt him."

"You were forgiven for being an asshole; the fact that Chase adopted you is proof of that. As for your actions, they didn't hurt him, the action of those men eight years ago did. And you had no way of knowing they would be there. I'm glad that you care, but you are not at fault."

"Uncle Lenny is right, Robbie. You are not at fault and I can never blame you for what those men did. I am glad we were at the restaurant. I now have complete closure and can move on."

"Thanks, Dad. I needed to hear you say that. Can we watch Hawaii 5-O?"

"Sure."

As Robbie turned on the TV, news had a breaking story. The Mayor was speaking…

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to announce the capture of five men earlier, today. These men are radicals from a group called 'Keep America Straight.' They believe that unless you are white and straight, you don't deserve to live. We can connect this group to over a thousand murders in the United States, including the ones that took place on 1000 Steps Beach back in 2010. When asked about it, their leader, Richard Cranial, just laughed and said they all deserved to die. Again, he was asked if he did it and he said, and I quote, 'Hell yeah, we did, and we will remove any more sub-humans from this country.' With this confession, there will be no trial, just a jury to determine their punishment. I will end this news conference saying that I believe justice will be done and our streets will remain safe. Are there any questions?"

Several reporters raised their hands, "Did the Blue Dragon have anything to do with their capture?"

"Yes, he is the one who actually caught them, but it was a young man who was on that beach that day who identified one of them."

Another reporter called out, "If the Blue Dragon is helping the police, is he still wanted?"

"I have asked the Police Commissioner to rescind his arrest order. Blue Dragon, if you are watching, I would like to shake your hand and deputize you; make you an active part of the Police Department. The Commissioner has agreed to this action, as well."

Kash looked at Chase, "What do you think?"

"Dad, I can set up an untraceable phone line on the computer if you would like to call and speak with the Mayor."

"Do that. If the Mayor is being honest, we can help out and be completely legal."

Kash gave Chase a funny look, "What was illegal about what we've done so far? Doesn't America give citizens the right to make citizens' arrests?"

"That is true, but some places do not care for vigilantes and may consider their acts as criminal. You've watched the show Arrow Arrow (" <em>Arrow<\/em> is a copyrighted show on The CW based on the DC Comic <em>Green Arrow<\/em>. "), haven't you? The only thing we have in our favor is, we never killed anyone, and I hope it stays that way."

Robbie disappeared down to the lair and returned in ten minutes, "It's set up, Dad. Your number is 1-BLU-EDR-AGON1-BLU-EDR-AGON (" This MAY be a real number. Calling it may bring undue expense to you as the area code IS out of the US. Please, do NOT call this number. "). The area code isn't really in the US, but I used a program so that it will work. I can send it directly to the comms, either any one comm or all of them. And if you wish to make a call, I can do that, too, but only one comm at a time. Also, using the comm, it disguises your voice"

"Sounds good, let's call the Mayor."

They were still watching TV as the Mayor answered his phone. They heard him telling the crowd that he had a call coming in and was hoping it was in response to his offer, then Chase heard over the Comm and on the television, "Hello?"

"Mr. Mayor, this is the Blue Dragon. I'm not so sure about the deputizing as I don't want my actions construed as police brutality, but I do want to be of assistance to the police and be accountable should I cross the line. I won't have set hours but will patrol as I see fit, and anytime you need assistance, you can call this number. I or Black Dragon will assist to the best as we can. And we expect no compensation for our assistance."

"That sounds like a good counter offer, I accept your terms, and thank you."

Chase felt good having that taken care of. Hopefully, this will help the news reporter to quit feeling any negativity towards him. Only time will tell.

The next day, even though it was Saturday, Chase and Kash took a chance and went to City Hall. They were dressed in their ninja gear. As soon as the Mayor knew they were there, he greeted them, "I'm glad to see that you trusted me. I was very sincere in what I said, but you had no way of knowing that. This could have been a set-up to trap you."

"That did cross my mind, but I thought what better place to work toward a mutual trust than to take the first step in trusting you."

"After talking with you last night, I understand why you would rather not be deputized, which is fine. This country does allow for citizens' arrests. The Commissioner and I would like to give you an authorization code that you may use to add police lights to any vehicles you may use. We trust that you will only use them as needed and not abuse them."

"You have my word on that, Sir."

"Then as long as your actions do not break any laws, you have my authority to assist the police however you see fit. I just need both of you to sign these waivers stating that you will not hold the city responsible should you get injured, and you may sign using your Dragon identities. This isn't a ploy to find out who you are. That being said, the city will cover any medical bills you may get, I just don't want you to sue us."

Chase signed as Blue Dragon, and Kash signed as Black Dragon. The Mayor shook their hands and they left. Chase felt good about the "deal" he made.

Instead of heading home, Chase drove to the address on the card Takeshi had given him. When he rang the bell, Takeshi opened the door. "I see that my helping you has worked out good."

"Yes. Takeshi, but I was wondering how long you would be staying in Los Angeles."

"I have a visa to stay for six months. When it expires, I will return to Japan and another will come. Why do you ask?"

"Kash and I will be getting married in January. That's four months away. You were the one most helpful to me when I was at the Temple, so I was wondering, would you be my best man?"

"Chase, I am honored with you asking. I would love to be your best man."

"Cool, we are planning our ceremony in a Japanese style, but my Uncle Lenny will be getting married, too, so it'll be a double ceremony. Is there any chance you can give advice on any of the Japanese wedding traditions?"

"Again, I am honored. I will visit your home often to advise, but the final decision must be both couples."

"We can agree with that. Thanks, Takeshi."

As they were talking, Robbie called Chase's cell, "Dad, the Mayor is calling Blue Dragon's number. Do you have your comm piece?"

Chase put the comm in his ear as he answered, so Robbie put the Mayor through. "Blue Dragon, I know we just spoke with you at City Hall, but we have a hostage situation on Venice Boulevard. I know you rescued that boy who was almost abducted, do you think there is a chance you can help this hostage?"

Chase asked for the details behind the situation. He found out that the building was a two-story house. Most of the family that lived there were away at the market. A fourteen-year-old boy was home alone when bank robbers broke in, trying to get away from police. There were four suspects in the house. Police had the house surrounded, but whenever an officer tried to get close, one of the suspects would take a shot, front or back.

Chase told the mayor that they would assess the situation, and if he could help, he would. If he didn't think it would be possible, he would call back.

Chase drove to within two blocks of the address he had been given. Most of the homes in the area were single-story dwellings; this was the only two-story in the immediate area. The boys changed into their ninja gear and climbed atop one of the houses. Chase worried that one of the suspects would look out the second-story window facing them, but they were lucky.

They made it to the house next door to the home. Chase put rubber ends on the tips of his grappling hook and threw it to the roof of the two-story home. He swung over, then stood on the window ledge so Kash could swing over.

Chase did a quick look into the room; it looked unoccupied, but was definitely a teenage boy's room. Fortunately, the window was unlocked, and Chase was able to quietly open it. He entered, followed by Kash. Chase used a scope to look under the door. He saw a man walking up the stairs and going into the first door. He listened closely. "Kid, we're getting hungry, go downstairs and fix us something to eat."

"Why should I?" a voice squeaked.

"Because you want to live," the first voice growled. "Now, get your underwear clad ass downstairs and do as I say." Chase heard what sounded like a backhand slap next. He watched as a boy wearing only tighty-whities walked downstairs, followed by the man. The boy was rubbing his cheek as he walked. Chase shook his head, angrily.

Once the man was downstairs, Chase and Kash came out of the room. They moved quietly to the stairs. Chase used the scope to look downstairs.

I hope you enjoy this story and that it draws you in, wanting more. If you have any suggestions or concerns, don’t hesitate to email me.  Thoughts and suggestions are always welcomed and may or may not be implemented. Concerns will be considered and addressed as much as possible.

Please contact me at Zarek Dragon. Please let me know that you read it on The Story Lovers' Website or which ever Fort Family Site you did read it on.