[IC] The Unknown

[rhema13]

Joseph just finished wiping off a table where a customer had just left, when a bell rang, signaling that the front door opened. He turned from his work, as he watched an elderly woman come in. The man grabbed his rag, as he made his way behind the front the counter. He threw the rag in a bucket full of sanitizing water by his foot, as he slightly supported himself against the counter. "I can serve you right over here, Ms. Barbara." Joseph said in a rather monotone manner of speaking, as he attempted a faint smile.

"Thank you very much, Joseph." She smiled back at him, as she slowly approached the counter. "New menu?" She questioned, as she looked up at the menu boards behind Joseph, set up quite differently than before. It still had the same sandwiches, shakes, burritos, coffee, but the menus now looked more aesthetic, even equipped with pictures for some of the bigger items.

"Yep, just finished it yesterday. No worries, though, I already know; your usual." He responded once again with a sigh, quite without emotion, as he started punching some things in on his cash register.

Ms. Barbara reached for his hand, as she held it in her own, squeezing ever so slightly. "The police are doing everything they can to find your brother. They will find him! You just need to have faith." When her eyes met his, she could sense the pain and suffering he was going through. It looked like the young man hadn't slept in days. She could see something passed that, however; Joseph had a look about him, a look of a man who was capable of doing anything. "You've already done everything you can, Joseph. Get some rest, and just have patience." She added.

"I will, Ms. Barbara, thank you." He smiled at her once more, as he held her hand in both of his.
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Joseph took a glance at the clock, it was already a quarter past ten p.m. . He took his apron off, and folded it up on the counter. He changed the sign in the window from 'open' to 'closed'. After grabbing a few things, he left the cafe.

He drove around a number of shady streets for a while, until parking just little away from a couple of teens talking to another on a street corner. He pulled up a picture of a couple of teens from his phone. He glanced up at the group, and then back to his phone, he went back and forth for a moment or two before coming to the conclusion: "That's him." He mumbled, recognizing one of the teens in the picture as the teen doing the majority of the talking on the corner. Joseph put on some sunglasses, and threw his hood over his head, as he stepped out of the car. He slowly started making his way towards the group. "Hey, Darnell!" He yelled out to the group, as the two teens Darnell was talking to suddenly broke out into a sprint in the other direction.

"What are you doing, man?!" Darnell angrily shouted at the mysterious man walking towards him. "You just made the biggest mistake of your life." He chuckled slightly, as he reached into his jacket for his gun.

Joseph suddenly grabbed him by the throat before he even had a chance to pull it out. The gun fell out of his jacket, and onto the ground, as Joseph lifted the boy up as high as he could with a single hand. Darnell tried pry at Joseph's hand with his own, but to no avail. "I just need to ask you a couple of questions, okay?"

Darnell didn't have the air to even speak, as he furiously nodded his head.

Joseph dropped him on the ground, as he stepped right on the handgun, flattening the weapon almost perfectly.

Darnell nervously shuffled backwards from the monster, as he backed up right into the wall of the building behind them.

Joseph pulled out a folded piece of notebook paper from his hoodie's pocket. "What is this?" He angrily asked, as he unfolded it in front of the boy. On the paper was a drawing of a 'U', in an extremely detailed, artistic fashion.

Darnell dusted himself off, as he stood up to face the man. "Look man, I got no idea who's gang that is, sorry." He avoided eye contact, as he turned to walk away.

Joseph punched a hole in the brick wall, clean through, his fist coming about a centimeter from hitting Darnell. The fist blocked the teen from moving forward. "I never said the symbol belonged to a gang." Joseph brought his fist out of the wall, as he held it back once more, aimed at Darnell this time. "I know you were good friends with Caleb," Darnell's eyes widened slightly, as Joseph mentioned it. "your friend is missing, and could even be dead, because of whoever this is." Joseph showed the symbol to the teen once more.

"Okay, okay," Darnell sighed, as Joseph dropped him down to the ground once more. Before speaking, Darnell took a good look at the aggressor's face. "You're his brother, ain't you? He'd talk about you a lot; he really looked up to you, you know." Darnell had never seen Caleb's older brother before, but he could tell by the look of hurt on the man's face that this was someone close to Caleb.

"Answers." Joseph demanded.

"Caleb and I both got initiated into the Sabertooths together, out of all the other fresh meat, he was the only one I really liked. Everything was business as usual, just up until a couple months ago. These new guys started popping up, the Unknown is what they ironically called themselves. They wiped out the Koreans, the Irish, came out of nowhere. We were getting ready for an all-out war, but they came to our boss, offered him a deal. They'd replace the Koreans as our suppliers for guns. They also claimed they were working on some 'experimental' weaponry to deal with, well, you know..." Darnell awkwardly looked up and down at Joseph. "People like you. They needed some guinea pigs, expendable people who would be willing to try out these new weapons. The boss chose Caleb, and some other of the fresh-meat to be those pigs, and I haven't seen him since. That was some weeks ago, I got no idea where he is now." Darnell shrugged insensitively.

Joseph punched another hole in the wall, this time more out of pure anger, rather than intimidation. He could already be too late, his brother, and these other kids could already be dead. "Where can I find these guys!?" He angrily asked.

"You don't, brother. They find you; no one really even knows anything about these guys."

Joseph grabbed onto both of the boy's shoulders. "You have to know something! Where and when do they buy these weapons from them!?" He frantically asked, desperate for any sort of lead.

Darnell sighed. "The 21st. The Unknown's holding a meeting then for all the other major gangs in Laxver, to try and show off their new weaponry for any potential buyers."

"Where?" Joseph continued to pester for answers.

[rhema13]

Joseph halted in his tracks, as he stood just outside the chain-link fence of an old, abandoned two-story building. A large, plain sign read: 'Carl's Kennel'. The man sighed, as it appeared to him that Darnell had sent him on a wild goose chase just to get away from him. He rested his hand on the lock and chain on the fence's entrance that kept most people from trespassing. His eyes drifted up, as he saw a number of cars parked in the lot just behind the building. "Well, I came all the way here," he whispered under his breath, as he gave a light tug on the chain. Almost as if it were made out paper, the chain was ripped in half, as it hung from Joseph's hand. He pushed the gate open, as it made a quiet creaking noise. "might as well check things out." Joseph dropped the chain to the floor, as he made his way on the property. He tried the simple wooden door out front, but of course, it was locked. He front kicked the door, as it, loudly, went flying backwards. It flew right through a bar, and into the back wall with a crash. It was dark, but from the moonlight, Joseph could tell that it was a small room, probably where 'Carl' made all of his transactions, and paperwork done for the dogs' owners. There were various pictures on the wall, but he couldn't make them out too well, as well a couple of chairs just adjacent to the now destroyed bar. Joseph turned his head slightly to his right, as he heard a group of hurried footsteps approaching him. He felt around the room a little bit, before coming to an opening, which led into a narrow hallway.

"Hey, fool! What do you think you're doing!?" A man, visible from a light source coming from just behind him, yelled out to Joseph, as he, and two shadows just behind him, pointed their pistols at the stranger.

Joseph, unafraid, casually walked towards the group. "'Fool'," Joseph mimicked, as he grabbed hold of the speaker's pistol, crushing it within his hand simply by giving a little squeeze. "do you know who I am?" Joseph let the flattened pistol drop to the ground, as he pulled down the collar of his white T just slightly enough to reveal the branding of a cursive 'V' on his right peck.

The two guards behind the frontman nervously put their guns back into their jackets, now that Joseph was a bit closer, he could tell they were all nicely dressed in suits and ties. Even with the formal look, however, Joseph knew they were just your common street thugs.

The man in the front awkwardly laughed, as he patted Joseph on the shoulder in a friendly sort of manner. "Sorry 'bout that, friend. I didn't know we had anyone from Veritas coming down."

Joseph didn't respond, but simply stared at the man with a cold look.

"Right, right; well, you're a little late, but you're just in time for the action," There was a small pause, as the thug remembered, "sir." He tried another laugh to lighten the mood, but it just came off as pathetic. "Right this way, sir." He gestured Joseph to follow him, as he, and the other two thugs, led Joseph to the back room, where the light was coming from.

The room was a much larger than the last, however, it mostly just held a number of large cages, and a few shelves here and there, holding dog food, tools, and other such things.

"Over here, sir." The thug called him over to a case of stone stairs leading downward. The two guards sat down in a couple of plastic chairs, as someone always needed to be up above to stay on lookout. Joseph, and his guide, traveled down the flight of stairs, passing by the basement, to a floor even further below. "Right here." The thug told Joseph, as they arrived at the lowest level. The door was metal this time, with a square window revealing the inside. The thug opened the door for Joseph, as the man casually walked inside. The room was enormous, with at least 600 people inside. There were eight large metal bleachers along the walls, two on each side of the room, in the center of the room, was a chain-link cage that went vertical from a cement stage (that only came up about three feet off the ground), all the way to the high ceiling of the room. Joseph couldn't see anything passed that, as it was very crowded, and the only lights were focused on the center stage. Several people on the bleachers, and also just standing around, looked at the newcomer for a few seconds before drifting their eyes elsewhere.

A young man wearing a bright yellow suit, and a backwards yellow baseball cap stood in the center of the stage, with a microphone, next to a large, burly, shirtless, nine-feet tall giant. "Ruthless, dangerous, and, most-importantly, super-powered! The Goliath!" The colorful man expressed to the crowd, as he showed off the giant. "For a measly mill, you too, with the help of our very own Potestatum Serum, you too can have your own personal weapon against any pesky vigilante you may encounter!" He advertised, as he held up a silver suitcase in his other hand.

It wasn't any of Joseph's business. All he wanted was to find his little brother; he could care less about what kind of deals these gangs were making with each other. He slowly made his way around the room, as he scanned for anyone who looked like the man in charge. He noticed people like Broderick, the head of the Sabertooths; Alexander the Killer, with the rest of the Russians...
None of which interested him, however. He was looking for the head of the Unknown; Joseph didn't know exactly what he/she looked like, but he knew he'd know when he saw them.

Many of the people in the crowd started yelling out how uneasy they were if the Potestatum was even worth the purchase. Or, if it even worked. Or, if was even effective.

"Ha! I thought you might need some more convincing, that's why we've prepared for Goliath to have his dinner!" The announcer exclaimed, as the crowd went wild, excited to see some blood. A sham or not, it'd be a show. "Presenting..." A door from the other side of the cage opened up, as some unseen people threw in a costumed girl. The announcer grabbed her by the hair, as he held her up for the crowd to see. Of course, everyone went wild, various whistles, screams, and claps. "Laxver's very own little superhero! Known for wiping out the Kiras single-handedly! It's the lovely, the beautiful,"

Joseph's attention was now caught, as his eyes widened at the sight within the cage. It was far away, but he could tell the costumed woman was bruised and bloody already. Now he was angry; no one was going to put their hands on a lady.

"Ms. Knight! How will she fair against Goliath!?" The crowd was louder than ever before after hearing the hero's name, obviously, she was well known.

The announcer let the girl drop to her knees, as the monster, Goliath, stood over her, chuckling. The crowd was unaware, but the fight was as unfair as it could get. Beaten, bruised, aching, and without any weapons, Knight was worse than at her worse.

She slowly looked up, as her eyes met those of her opponents. She gritted her teeth, as she prepared for the impact of the first punch.

[rhema13]

"Get out of my way." Joseph angrily murmured to the cheering mohawked punk in front of him, as the large man simply shoved his way through the crowd. Even if people tried to push back, they couldn't; it would be like trying to move a building. He quickly found himself at the fence surrounding the stage, as the man easily pulled the chain-link apart with his bare hands. Without saying a single word, Joseph stepped onto the stage.

For a moment, both the announcer, as well as Goliath, were speechless at the sudden entrance. They both stared on at the newcomer, until the announcer suddenly spoke out: "What's this!? Someone dares to interrupt the fight!? Is he, perhaps, seeking to challenge our Goliath!?" The announcer snickered, as he took a step back, so he wouldn't be in the way of the bloodbath.

Joseph stood silently, as the enormous nine-feet tall man approached him. They both stared each other in the eye for a few moments, as Goliath smirked. Standing next to someone so tall took away a bit of Joseph's own height intimidation, but it didn't seem to bother him whatsoever.

"You must be pretty strong if you were able to rip the fence like that, this could be exciting." Goliath finally broke the silence, as he shot down a lightning-quick straight towards Joseph.

Joseph swayed just slightly to his left, even quicker than the giant's punch, as he countered with a mean right to Goliath's abdomen. The giant went flying backwards, into the fence, as spit flew in the opposite direction.

The announcer, as well as the girl, Knight, simple watched on in shock. The entire crowd was dead silent, as they saw the amazing portrayal of strength.