The Grim Spectre (20 page)

“Enough of this, it is time to leave this place,” The Grim Spectre said. He glowed and instantly became immaterial. He walked though his bonds and grasped Tammy’s arm, pulling her away from the table she had been tied to.

“It’s about damned time,” Tammy grumbled.

“If you had listened to me in the first place none of this would have happened,” The Grim Spectre said, barely above a whisper. Quickly he gathered up his guns and his whip from a table Simian had placed them on. His knives were still in place hidden within his cape.

He wrapped his arm around her waist and shot skyward, through the ceiling and then into the ballroom. Instantly he glowed brighter than the sun and shouted, “All of you, leave this place now, get out of here while you can. Your lives are in danger!”

Frightened by his sudden appearance within their midst, the revelers turned and ran for the exits.

“Go on, get out of here, and do it now,” he roared at Tammy.

“What? What about you? You can’t stay here; what are you gonna do?”

“I’m going to finish what I started; I’m going to finish Phylo Zeus once and for all.”

“Be careful,” she begged.

The Grim Spectre turned toward her and nodded wordlessly. Then he disappeared back through the floor.

Tammy watched him go and then ran to and through the closest doorway along with a hundred other people.

Down below, The Grim Spectre moved in silence back toward the sounds of battle. He floated invisibly now toward the two protagonists.

Grunts accompanied the sounds of fists hitting flesh and equipment shattering. As he rounded a corner, The Grim Spectre saw Zeus, his tuxedo practically torn from him and in tatters around him, trading blows with the maddened Dr. Simian. Surprisingly, Zeus was holding his own against the enraged man-ape.

Both men (If Simian could even be called that anymore) bled from a dozen wounds.

Then, to The Grim Spectre’s surprise, Zeus tore off the tatters of his shirt and charged the surprised man-ape, slamming into him with bone jarring force. The two opponents tumbled into and through a wall and then out the other side.

‘I’m surprised, I didn’t expect them to be so intent on killing one another,”
The Grim Spectre thought.

Before he could finish the thought Zeus flew limply back through the hole he and Simian had just created to land in a heap against the wall.

Simian stepped through more like a savage beast than a man. He howled madly at the downed gangster and began to thunder toward him.

But then Zeus turned from where he lie and rolled over, until he was facing the charging Simian. Instantly he fired the pistol that appeared in his right hand, nailing Dr. Simian with six consecutive shots in the chest.

“W-wha?” the man-ape asked in bewilderment. He stared at the bloody holes in his chest a moment and then fell over at Zeus’ feet and lay there unmoving.

“Enough, Zeus!” The Grim Spectre roared. He appeared between Zeus and the unmoving Dr. Simian, as if from nowhere.

“I wondered where you’d gotten to,” Zeus said.

“I had no intention of leaving you free, Zeus. Your madness ends tonight.”

“Really? You think you’re gonna end me?” Zeus asked incredulously.

“Yes!” The Grim Spectre shouted.

He leaped at Phylo Zeus.

Zeus was prepared though; he flung what was in his open hand at The Grim Spectre. Releasing a fine silvery powder in the Riverburgh Avenger’s face.

The Grim Spectre immediately dropped to the floor, no longer immaterial or floating.

“What did you do?” the Spectre growled.

“What d’ya think, Mook? I had some of Baron Popadoo’s voodoo powder I lifted from him. It took your magic powers away. Now you’re a man just like me, an’ I’m gonna crush you.”

***

Outside the Olympus Room, Tammy stopped and turned to look back at the building when a hand clamped down on her shoulder.

She spun and threw a punch at where she assumed the face of her unknown assailant might be.

Her fist was caught in the grip of a Japanese man who was slightly taller than her.

“I mean you no harm, Miss Thomas. I am searching for a mutual friend, Robert Terrano.”

“Who are you?” she asked.

He released her small fist and bowed slightly, “I am Bobby’s teacher, his Sensei. My name is Buraglia.”

She scoffed, “That’s a strange name for a Japanese man.”

“Half Japanese; my father was of Italian descent. But none of that matters now. Where is Robert?”

She tried to appear nonchalant, “Oh, he’s around here somewhere. I think he got out when things got rough in there.”

“So, Miss Thomas, are you telling me that The Grim Spectre is still within that building?”

She looked at him and immediately jammed both fists into her hips and said, “Really? Did everyone know about that before I did?”

“No, Miss Thomas, only I. Robert was very careful of who he told his secret.”

A furtive movement caught both their eyes. A shadowed figure furtively ran back into the sprawling club.

“Didja see that?” Tammy asked.

“Indeed I did, Miss Thomas.”

“I don’t know about you, Mr. Buraglia, but I’m going back in.”

“I see no way to dissuade you in this madness, Miss Thomas so I will accompany you, for your safety and protection.”

“What are you doing here anyways?” Tammy asked, “An’ call me Tammy, willya?”

“As you wish, Miss Thomas. I am here to see to my student’s protection.”

They both turned and started to run up the steps to the club’s entrance.

“Aw, you’re worried about Bobby,” Tammy said.

“I am more concerned about him dying within this gang lord’s home, because if he does, so does my weekly fee for teaching him.”

She looked at him, her face screwed up crookedly in disbelief at what he just said. Buraglia shrugged his shoulders and smiled then ran ahead of her easily.

***

Phylo Zeus kicked The Grim Spectre hard and actually lifted him off the floor where he had been kneeling on all fours. The Grim Spectre tumbled and fell against the wall in a heap.

Zeus advanced with blood in his eyes, ready to kill the man under the mask.

Zeus kicked again, but this time The Grim Spectre slid to the side and grabbed the foot yanking it hard, and dropping Zeus to the ground.

“Did you think you would defeat me that easily, you misbegotten brute?”

“I think you more’n met your match in me, Spectre. I’m gonna prove it too.”

Both men were back on their feet now and circling the other.

“No more magic powers, Spectre,” Zeus taunted, “just me an’ you, man to ghost, or whatever the hell you really are.”

“You are about to find out exactly what I really am!” The Grim Spectre shouted.

He charged his larger foe, and immediately Zeus threw a roundhouse right punch at The Grim Spectre.

But The Spectre dropped below it, raising his arm up in a block that sent the blow sailing above his head, and then it was his turn to strike. Right, left, right, left in rapid succession to Zeus ribs. Blindingly fast with incredible strength and an iron will behind them.

Then Zeus backhanded The Grim Spectre across the jaw, knocking him flying across the basement.

The Grim Spectre instantly got to his feet before Zeus could advance.

“C’mon, Ghost! Give me whatcha got!” Zeus roared.

The Grim Spectre charged in and feinted a right cross but instead swept the forward leg of Zeus, dropping him to the floor. The Spectre continued to spin into a wheel kick off of his back leg right to Zeus’ jaw.

The sound of the impact was like thunder!

Zeus fell over backward with blood spraying heavily from his mouth.

“You sonuvabitch,” Zeus mumbled through bloody teeth, “That hurt like hell.”

“Surrender now, Zeus and you can spend the rest of the night shackled to a nice hospital bed.”

“Are you kiddin’ me? Do you really think I’ll be arrested here? I have an ‘arrangement’ with the mayor and the cops of Riverburgh. You’ll never get me arrested here.”

“Maybe not, Phylo Zeus, but I am sure the state police would have something different to say. So what is it going to be, mortal? Do we continue this dance of pain and death or do you surrender?”

Zeus crawled backward along the floor, putting some distance slowly between them.

The Grim Spectre walked several steps, quickly recovering the gap.

“What are you doing, Zeus? This game is over. End this foolishness.”

Zeus pulled out the gun he had just recovered from the floor and aimed it at The Grim Spectre, “It ain’t over until I say so, Ghost. This is
my
town; I run it, I own it. It runs by
my
rules. I call the shots!” he roared, “An’ right now the shot I call is your death.”

He began to fire the gun. The first bullet missed the Spectre, who leaped to the side, but the second winged him across the ribcage leaving a trail of blood through the air.
“I gotcha, you sonuvabitch. Not so impossible ta shoot without yer fancy magic, are ya?”

The Grim Spectre crawled away from Zeus; every movement elicited a new blinding hot nail of agony driven through his side.

‘C’mon, get up!’
he chided himself.

“Time ta die, Ghost. This is over, finally. Wit’ you outta the way things go back to normal an’ this city gets back to doin’ business the way I say it should. Say goodbye, freak. You’re goin’ back to hell or wherever you came from.”

Zeus raised the gun and sighted down the barrel at The Grim Spectre.

Zeus sneered, “What? Nothin’ more ta say? Too bad; I guess I’ll say g’night then, Ghosty”

Zeus began to pull the trigger when a figure hurtled out of the darkness screaming like a banshee!

“Raaaahhhh!”

Zeus turned toward the sound and was tackled by the shadowed figure. A smaller man was wrestling with Zeus when the gun went off three more times, and both men fell to the ground.

The Grim Spectre fought his way to his feet, clutching his blood red stained side, and made his way toward the two men. One of them pushed the other off of him. The limp body rolled into the light.

“Joey DeLuca,” The Grim Spectre said.

Zeus aimed the gun at The Spectre from the floor and fired, but all he was greeted by was the sound of empty clicks. In exasperation he threw the gun away.

“No more bullets, murderer?” the Spectre said.

“I don’t need ‘em. Ghost-man. I can take you out with my bare freakin’ hands.”

Zeus lunged at The Grim Spectre, both hands outstretched for his throat.

But The Grim Spectre was ready this time. Even though wracked with pain, he quickly side stepped the leaping brute and whacked down hard on his neck with the edge of his right hand.

Zeus tumbled to the ground.

“No more games,” The Grim Spectre said, rage and adrenaline empowering him, “no more guns, no more powers. We’ll finish this like men and so help me, I’ll free this city from your hellish grip, you demented madman.”

Beneath his mask, Bobby grimaced at the pain he was feeling, but he was not going to think about it or let it show.

He advanced on the brute, who brought his own hands up for the final battle.

Then both men came together. The Grim Spectre feinted right, and then unleashed a powerful side thrust kick to his foes gut.

It was like kicking a wall.

Zeus roared and swung a powerful fist down at The Grim Spectre’s head, impacting cruelly and almost knocking him out with that one blow.

The Spectre staggered backward. Then, recovering quickly, he sent a snap kick off of his rear foot into Zeus’ knee. The crunch of bone could be heard reverberating around the room.

Zeus stumbled and groaned in pain, “I’ll kill you, you sonuvabitch.”

The Grim Spectre’s only reply was a left roundhouse kick to Zeus’ ribcage, knocking the man completely to the floor.

With a howl Zeus landed on his injured knee, and then rolled to his left, trying to avoid The Grim Spectre’s next strike.

But he was an instant too slow. The Grim Spectre punched him in the face with the fury of a man working a bag. Hitting him left-right, left-right with no let up. Zeus tried to strike back, but The Grim Spectre merely stepped away and then continued his onslaught from the opposite side. He no longer felt the burning pain in his side, all he felt was a burning hatred of Phylo Zeus, the crime lord of Riverburgh.

Between blows, Zeus brought both his fists together and slammed them into the Spectre’s ribs, on the spot still streaming blood, knocking him sideways.

Beneath his mask, Bobby gasped for air.

‘I can’t let up, if I do for an instant, I die.’

Zeus crawled to a workbench and pulled himself up to it. He stared with hate filled eyes at The Grim Spectre, his own face a bloody mess now. He picked up a wooden stool and, limping badly, charged at The Grim Spectre with it.