"Who are we involving? It's a whole gang, meaning we need a team- a bigger one than usual," Patty says from the passenger seat. Alex shrugs and changes lanes.
The two are on their way back from Geoff's house. The conversation went well, but Alex could tell that the possible issue with the gang weighed heavily on Awsten as soon as he heard it. He understands why Geoff never told the purple-haired boy about the eventual need to do everything again.
"We need to get other people on our other cases. Geoff is our number one priority," Alex mumbles out, slightly lost in thought.
"Tyler owes us a favor- he can take care of the situation with Brendon," Patty states and begins sending out texts.
"Josh can deal with our other case- send him. He'll need a small team in order to handle Oliver. Get Remington, Emerson, and Ben to help him," Alex instructs, and the car falls silent. The only sounds are the rumble of the motor and Patty tapping out texts.
"Alright, who do we need?" The blond boy asks as he cracks his knuckles.
"Well, what assets do we already have?" Alex asks before answering his own question. "You're an amazing coordinator and supervisor. Jack and I are field agents. Zack is excellent at finding people and performing getaways. Rian is the best damn security detail I've ever worked with. Who else do we need?"
"We need someone who can disappear. I'm contacting Kellin," Patty says as he starts typing again.
More silence invades the car as Alex tries to think of anyone else they can use. They need backup, and a lot of it.
"Message Jawn. We're still cool with him, right? Have him on standby, so if we need numbers we'll have him and his people waiting. Contact Travis, too- we'll need more people than just Rian on security," Alex instructs as soon as Patty stops typing.
Patty nods and does as he's told.
The rest of the drive back to the apartment is quiet, with Alex driving six miles above the speed limit and Patty coordinating with the people taking over the cases.
***
The apartment isn't what you'd expect with a group of five vigilantes living under one roof. It has two floors and is clean and organized.
The first floor is just a basic kitchen and living room, with simple decor and color schemes. The floors are hard wood and the couches are black leather- easy to clean blood off of.
The boys try to avoid fights and getting shot, but it's a bit easier said than done in their line of work. More times than any of them are able to count, someone- usually Jack or Alex- comes home with a large gash from a knife, or a busted lip, or even a bullet hole or two.
Rian's not only great at guard duty, but excellent at playing doctor for the many scrapes, scratches, and bruises that litter his teammates.
It's a rare occasion that any of them have to go to the hospital- Rian is that good, and the other boys are that good at staying out of range.
The second floor is various bedrooms and the security room. Jack and Alex share one bedroom, while Rian and Zack share the other. Patty sleeps in the room with all of the security monitoring equipment set up. He's the lighest sleeper, so he can easily be woken up by an alarm being tripped. The whole apartment is decked out with security cameras and motion sensors- the place is locked down tighter than Fort Knox.
Upon entering the apartment, Patty and Alex notice Jack laying on the couch with Rian bent over him. There's blood smeared on his torso, and a huge cut over his ribs. Rian is sewing it closed.
"What the fuck happened to you?" Alex asks as he strides over to Jack. The wounded boy is clutching a pillow tightly in his left hand, and Alex replaces the pillow with his own hand. He's leaning over the back of the couch as Jack looks up at him.
"I was finishing up that thing with Frank's stupid ass stalker, and the bastard got the jump on me. I had to call Ryan and his little clean-up crew to wipe the scene so the cops won't find the knife with my blood on it," Jack explains.
"Did you redo the bug plant?" Alex asks, referring to the mission that Jack was supposed to be finishing up on his own. He was intructed to simply plant some audio bugs around the house of Frank's stalker, Andy, so that the boys can listen in and make sure he stops stalking Frank. Rian will be working with Emerson and Ashley to monitor the audio feed. They'll have to take over the job while Rian helps with Geoff's case, though, and Ashley will need to find someone to help her while Emerson helps on Oliver's case.
"Nah, I gave Ryan specific instructions to leave the bugs. They aren't obvious, so there's no need. If we have to make good on our threat and call the cops, I didn't want there to be any trace of me in the house," Jack replies.
"Good job," Alex praises and Jack smiles before wincing as Rian continues to tend to his gash.
Patty looks away from the scene and goes to find Zack. He finds him in his bedroom looking at some sort of blueprint.
"Hey, I think we need to have a team meeting after Rian finishes with Jack's knife wound. I'll call you out in a few, okay?" The blond boy informs as he adjusts his beanie.
Zack shuffles through the blueprints a bit before turning his swivel chair around to face Patty. "No problem, just yell out when you guys are ready."
Patty nods and leaves the doorway. He makes his way back to the livingroom to wait for Rian to finish working on Jack.
***
After another thirty minutes of Rian preforming everything but surgery on Jack, everyone is ready.
Patty sits on the couch between Zack and Rian, and Jack and Alex sit on the other couch. They all face each other, with nothing but a rectangular coffee table separating them.
"Okay, we have a lot going on right now, but we have something we really need to focus on," Patty begins, "Geoff's dad's gang is going to cause problems."
"Does Geoff know?" Jack asks, and the blond boy shakes his head. "No, Geoff is under the impression that we're checking it out now."
"Why didn't you guys tell him?" Rian asks, confused. That'd been the whole reason Patty and Alex went to Geoff's in the first place.
"On the way there, we realized that we'd never met Awsten. All we knew was what Geoff had told us. When we got there, we realized that he wouldn't have been able to take hearing "hey, you guys have to drop everything and go into hiding because there's a gang out to get you." So, we kind of made a silent executive decision to not bring it up," Alex explains. Rian nods.
"Listen, I don't know what we're going to do about those assholes, but I do know that we'll figure it out. We'll need all hands on deck, though," Patty says as he stands up and begins pulling files out of a pile on the coffee table.
"Rian, Zack- the abusive relationship situation with Brendon is going to be taken over by Tyler Joseph. He'll finish it up," Patty informs as he hands a file labelled 'Urie' to Rian.
"Jack- Ashley and Emerson will keep up with the bugs in Andy's apartment. If Andy doesn't listen to us and decides to keep pursuing Frank, They'll call the cops and make sure he gets put away for a year or two. We'll deal with him as necessary when he gets out," The blond boy states and passes Jack a file labelled 'Iero'. Jack carefully takes it and winces when the movement pulls at his stitches.
"Oliver and his gang are being taken care of by Josh Dun. I've instructed him to contact Emerson, Ben, and Remington to help him. So, Alex and I are free now too. We all need to add everything final to our files so they'll be up to date when I hand them off to the people taking the cases." Patty holds onto the last file labelled 'Sykes'.
Alex nods and kicks his legs up onto the table. "So, who are we calling in to help us again?" He asks, and the other three boys look at Patty with curious eyes.
"The best of the best."
...