Ch2 Some Kidnappers and a Hostage

Just my luck, here I was again. I was sitting comfortably in the Waiting Room. I’m not in a talking mood, not after my wife yesterday. She wasn’t at all happy with my brother being a criminal… I had never seen her so angry before. It was so difficult to calm her down.

“Hey Stein! When did you dye your hair?!” I looked up, confused, and saw a strange man with nearly tomato red hair and strange blue eyes. He was looking straight at me. “And since when do you wear suits?”

“Uhh, since forever, I guess, and my hair isn’t dyed.” I said. “Do I know you?”

The man frowned at me. He opened his mouth to speak.

“David Stein?!” called a woman. My turn to go up.

The room Soichiro Yagami was in wasn’t too far away. I arrived and quickly sat down.

The man looked at me. “What is that you need, sir?”

“I would like to know what my brother did and I would like to know if I could bail him out. I’m willing to give any amount.” I stated.

“Sir, your brother is on death sentence.”

“WHAT?!?! WHY WASN’T I TOLD EARLIER?!?!? WHAT THE HELL DID HE DO??!! YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS!!!” I slammed my hands on the table, causing the papers on it to jump. I scowled and forced myself to calm down. “Five hundred thousand.” I muttered.

“Sir, this isn’t-”
“Five hundred thousand.” I repeated. “That’s half million. I’m willing to give up that much. Just to be able to see him.”

“He-“

A distorted voice filled the room. “Mister Yagami, let the poor man see his brother. He’s willing to give that much, that says something.” His tone carried a different intent, yet it was dry.

Matsuda shot up. “He’s in Cell 3, right?”

Soichiro furrowed his brow. “There are no cells.”

“But it’s more dramatic if I say it like that!” he cried.

“Matsuda, just go!”

I couldn’t help but laugh a bit. Then a strange man walked into the room. He resembled my brother, only older, not to mention a giant screw through his head. He was looking at the ground. “Franken, what the hell did you do to yourself?” And how the hell did you put a screw through your head. Is that even possible?

He looked up, obviously recognizing my voice. “David?” I saw his eyes, the same green and the crazy glare that shone from them, he looked tired. He scared me. I noticed the scar that stretched on the length of his face. What had happened to him? I always knew he was kind of crazy, but…

“What happened to you?” I finally said, my face full of awed horror as I took one step closer to him.

“What do you mean?” he asked me. Was he joking? I looked closer at him. No, he was honestly confused at my question. What?

“The scars, the screw, e-everything!” I said, spreading my arms in demonstration.

He smiled. “Nothing that’s not out of normal.”

“IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN DO TO GET HIM OUT OF HERE!?” I yelled at the room. Obviously,
whatever voice had spoken before was in charge here.

“Pick up the bar to $500,000,000 and I’ll let you be in charge of him for a week.” said the voice.

I nearly choked. That much? I swallowed heavily. “Deal.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________
I drove past my house’s security and my brother sat in the passenger seat. “I’m warnin’ ya Franken. I’m going to take you to my house. I have a family there. You dare even look at anyone in my family like a toy or I’ll rip your face off.”

Franken smiled. “Just try.” He said with a laughing edge to his voice.

$^%#$@^&%*#  Idiot.

I parked in the garage, where four other cars sat. “You ready?” I asked. This was gonna be rough.

Franken got up, and put on his glasses. I didn’t know that he wore glasses. “Sure.”he
said, getting out of the car.

I opened the door quietly then closed it as quickly and quietly as I could. My wife was right freaking there. Just my luck. She opened the door again and stared at me
skeptically. I smiled badly and tried to warn Franken to go back with my other hand. “Hheelloo Helen!”

She quickly realized what was going on. “Are you trying to hide something, David?!”

“What? Me? No! Or course not!” I cried.

“MOM! There’s some guy with Dad right there!”

IRENE!!! I should’ve known!

Revealed, Franken didn’t hold back. “Heterochronium Iridium! Fascinating!” He quickly grabbed my daughter’s face for a closer look. Horrified, I ran over and slapped his hand off. Like a little kid.

“HEY! WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST TELL YOU RIGHT NOW?!”

“Well, I’m sorry, but it’s quite interesting. I hadn’t seen anyone with HI recently and it’s just fascinating how a person can have two different eye colors at once.” He shrugged. “Is that a crime?”

“No. Way.” Said Helen “Did you just bring Franken here?! Why on Earth would you-“

“Helen, he’s my brother! I couldn’t just leave him there!”

“Don’t come at me with that! You didn’t speak to him for over twenty years! It’s not like
you care! You’re imposing danger on this family!” she yelled.

Then the door bell rang. I didn’t want to answer, but I needed to know who they were. I took in a deep breath and took it all in. One woman was ringing the door bell at the front gate. Three other people were around her, hiding- two male, one female. I recognized one of them right away. Marie. I didn’t know the other two, Nygus and Sid, but I was absolutely sure that the other man, Spirit Albarn, was the one who asked if I had dyed my hair. I had a hard time but I finally filtered into just one person’s thoughts. “Just Marie goes in, it’ll be easier for her to fool them. Sid follows along and we take David and Stein. That’s the o-“

I cut off the connection, shocked. Kidnap?

Helen rolled her eyes. “I’ll never know how he does that.” Franken smiled crookedly and she glared at him. I stared at them with the most serious face I could muster.

Franken smiled behind me. Even Helen was quiet. “Your soul perception isn’t as rusty as I thought it would be. What’s happening? After all, you can smell their thoughts.”

“Everyone hide right now!” I barked. “This is a kidnapping attempt. I will-“

A man with blue skin rose from the ground and grabbed me straightaway. “Stein!” he barked.
Franken nodded and even if my face was covered by the man’s hand I know he saw my anger and sense of betrayal that crossed my face. Did he seriously just take advantage of the favor I had just granted him? And what kind of person could get past the defenses so quickly, no wrong question, who can move underground.

“Nice to meet you, Helen.” said Franken as he plummeted into the hole the strange man had created.

The man plummeted down and dragged me along with him. No way. This was not happening to me. You can’t be serious. No way.

I was on the other side pretty soon with the four souls I had smelled earlier. The redhead looked at the man holding me.

“I think you can let go of him now, Sid.” said Spirit. “I don’t think he’ll try to run away or anything. We also have some explaining to do to the poor guy.”

Sid let go of me and I fell to the ground roughly. “Now start the explaining.”

Marie approached me helped me up. “I knew someone there.” She said. “His name was Matsuda, I think you know him. He told me you bailed him out for a week, I knew that was our chance. I let everyone else know and we came here. We realized we’d need some sort of hostage, and what better than NeuroSky’s CEO? We’re very sorry about how this might affect you but we had no choice. We need to prove Stein’s innocence. I know you can help us.”

She looked at me and I could tell she was being honest. Each and every one of them. They actually cared for the wellbeing of my brother. Well, I assumed his responsibility the second I bailed him out. Did I really have a choice?

The redhead stared at me. “Why did you bail him out anyway?”

I glared at him. “Well, Spirit” that “I-know-who-you-are” trick always got the best of people. “He so happens to be my brother and I wasn’t going to leave him there.” Everyone turned around in shock toward Franken. “Did I say something wrong?”

Marie looked at me. “Are you in?” Nice way of switching the subject.

I frowned, knowing I’d regret this. “Okay then, I guess, but what do you plan to do anyway? What is he being accused of?”

What did I just get myself into?