Echo & Stealth
The Deadly Duet,
Part 2 of the Unliklies
Table of Contents
Chapter 1—A Sticky
Situation
Chapter 2—The Deadly
Duet
Chapter 3—Taffy’s Kryptonite
Chapter 4—Leave it to
the LEO’s
Chapter 5—‘Nothing’s
Gonna Stop Us Now’
Epilogue
‘The rain and the thunder, the wind, and the haze. I’m bound for better days. It’s my life and my dream, nothing’s gonna
stop me now.—lyrics from the Perfect Stranger’s theme song, ‘Standing Tall’
~*~CAST~*~
Wybie—Alias ‘Y’. He
is faster than the speed of light, a wheelchair bound hero, due to spinabifida.
Arno—Alias
‘R’. A human calculator. He can win any argument, ‘Bugs
Bunnys’ people without them knowing it and Jedi mind tricks himself and his
friends out of sticky situations.
Carmella—Alias ‘Cannon’.
She has a prosthetic arm that shoots lasers and can supply useful items
during fights.
Mrs. Dolores Otto—Alias ‘Rubato’. A speech teacher who has Downs Syndrome. She can slow enemies down to a snail’s pace or
even conk them out using lullabies.
Suzy—Alias ‘Shock’.
Has Tourette’s. Her ability leaves
a villain in stasis.
Dr. Aloisius ‘Al’ Snood—Alias ‘Shrink’. He is Symphony Junior High’s counsellor,
grief management and all-around sounding board. He can psychoanalyze a villain to completely
avoid fighting them.
Melody Raines—Alias ‘Echo’.
Born blind at birth, she uses echolocation to find her offender. Like her younger sister, she holds a 6th
Daun black belt in karate. Uses an
extracting and collapsing 8-ball cane that she manufactured herself.
Sonata Raines—Alias ‘Stealth’. She can sense vibrations and can second
guess where threats will be in relation to her location. She can move without making a sound and her
attacks are just as silent and unexpected.
Like her sister, she isn’t to be trifled with and the two of them make
an unbeatable team.
Chapter 1—A Sticky Situation
Not
long ago, Dastardly had found the perfect mate in Taffy. Taffy was just as her name implies and
often entrapped people by playing the victim card. Her acting was always believable, but she
would take advantage of others by using their kindness against them. This was the case for the Unlikelies, who
found themselves in a literal bind.
‘I didn’t
want her to die Rubato !’, Shrink lamented as the whole group dangled above
a taffy press in a factory that was shut down years ago. The pulling machine was silent momentarily,
but Taffy had her elongated daddy-long leg arm just itching to yank the lever
to start it up again.
‘I
know, Shrink, but surely you could’ve noticed the loon is made completely out of
taffy !’, Rubato said.
‘Now
isn’t the time to blame each other.
Both of these psychos had the upper hand. Let’s just admit it.’, Cannon stated, sadly. It seemed that the whole group was about to
face their demise. R and Shock wanted
to marry after graduation and enter the corporate world, whether it was from
skills and trades or warehouse work. The two of them couldn’t wait to become
parents. As for Y and Cannon, they wanted
to head to college for a guaranteed higher paying job before bringing little
ones into the world. Neither couple
wanted to admit that their hopes and dreams had been dashed all because they
fell for the oldest trick in the book, getting duped by the tar baby. In this case, it was a taffy baby, and the
baby was in no real danger.
‘It’s
been good knowing all of y’all.’, R said, getting a bit teary eyed. Gloating, the villains started to exit the
building, arm and arm, looking into each other’s eyes devotedly.
Chapter 2—The Deadly Duet
Dastardly
and Taffy felt they had already won and began celebrating until the winch that
was holding the Unlikelies had been lowered.
‘Who
did that !’, Dastardly called out, looking for anyone in the factory and shockingly,
finding no one to answer his question.
All of a sudden, the lights went out and the Unlikelies were freed. Of course, what happened next defied their
expectations and the lot of them were left speechless at just how efficient, effective,
and precise these unknown heroines were.
Chapter 3—Taffy’s Kryptonite
The
dynamic duet was known as ‘Echo and Stealth’.
Not only were they like peanut butter and jelly when they fought, but they
knew just about everything concerning the villains who had them facing their untimely
deaths.
Taffy
was splashed with a cold cup of water.
She shrieked, unable to attack while the liquid melted her skin. The attack was terribly painful, and she was
aware the Unlikelies hadn’t figured out this weakness or they would’ve used it
to defeat her. She didn’t have time to
retaliate, because before she knew it as she desperately attempted to flee, she
had been knocked down. Dastardly would’ve
helped but he was being pinned by a spry, nimble young Black girl who had him in
an excruciating wrestling hold that few could execute. Y had already called the police and had
told them about the heroines who had come to save their bacon. Having the two villains secured by the very
rope that had once threatened the Unlikelies was definitely poetic justice.
Chapter 4—Leave it to the LEOs
Once
they had found a place to drop their aliases, the team welcomed Echo and
Stealth. They learned the two ladies
were blind and deaf and incredible assets
in the fight against evil.
‘I think
dodging death deserves a bit of a party at Donatos.’, Aloysius said. He and Delores would be paying for it out of
their academic funds, but it was more than worth it, especially in how quickly
the ladies had acted and how astonishingly rapid they were.
‘Truth
of the matter is we follow you on social media.’, Sonata Raines confessed. Her charming elder sister nodded, concurring. Her chocolate eyes glimmered behind her raspberry
shades.
‘Oh, we’ve
been fans for a while. We’ve been following your capers for a while
and when I heard sounds of struggling from the nearby not-so-abandoned taffy factory,
Sonata and I leapt into action.’, Melody said, smiling radiantly. Sonata nodded. She and Melody had been relieved that they
had been carrying their costumes in their backpacks to make a quick change and
thwart Doctor Dastardly and his partner.
Funny how everything seemed to seamlessly come together, and the heroes
could celebrate another win.
Chapter 5—Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now
The LEOs had been given authority to process the
villains. With the charge of attempted murder
on their rap sheets, it was unlikely that Taffy and Doctor Dastardly were
getting out of the clink anytime soon. It was more reasonable thinking that other villains
would rise after those two had gotten their sentence declared in a court of law
and given residence at the grey bar hotel.
Despite that, Echo and Stealth were more than happy to join the Unlikelies. With their expertise and academic skill,
they were going to be more than welcome on the team and incredibly useful in fighting
crime no matter the form it took.
Epilogue
The pizza party at Donatos was as
marvelous as any of them could’ve remembered.
The crispiness of the crust and deliciousness of the breadsticks dipped
in marinara sauce gave the team time to pause and reflect just how fortunate
they had been.
The
old factory that the villains had implemented had been renovated and turned
into something useful for the community.
Instead of being a taffy factory as it had once been, it was converted
into a technical school, job bank, daycare, and preschool. It had risen from the ashes, never to be
remembered for what it had been.
With
graduation oncoming, the Unlikelies looked ahead to the future but kept their
feet firmly planted in the present. So
long as they were able, they’d keep the town safe from unruly individuals and work
alongside law enforcement. That was
their one pleasure in life, and they were truly proud of doing so.
The End
Comments
Post a Comment