The Hood Pt. 01

*****I'm trying something new, I hope you all enjoy this.*****

***Everyone in this story is 18 and is fiction****

Please enjoy.

*****

Chapter 1:

In a warehouse, by the docks, I was perched on a support beam over a group of thugs. These thugs happened to work for the mob boss Tony Zucco. For the last few months, I have been interfering with his supply shipments These shipments contained the usual smuggling items like drugs, weapons and unfortunately, people. Tonight happened to be my fifth one.

To catch you up to speed, my name is Ezra Danvers, also known as the vigilante, The Hood. I didn't give myself the name, it's what the paper started calling me after I caught their attention. Unfortunately, I got the attention of the police as well. The cops really didn't like me doing their work, but I wasn't too happy with their work lately. See a year ago, my younger brother Elton was murdered by Tony Zucco. He was never prosecuted because the evidence was tampered with and some witness retracted. I decided to take matters into my own hand, I took the skills I learned from the military and other skills I picked up along the way. With the help of my friend, I started messing around with Zucco and his thugs. Hoping for one day to meet him face to face and beat him to near death and throw him in prison. His thugs, however, were the tight lip, but I still had hope that one will break.

On the topic of thugs, two of them passed by below. I had been up here in the shadows for about twenty minutes. Surveying the building and the thugs. I knew there were six in the building and at least two inside the two parked trucks outside.

After I started attacking his supplies, Zucco became paranoid and started having fewer thugs at the shipments. I assumed he figured fewer thugs the less chances of them breaking. I thought it was dumb, send more to defend your supplies. But I couldn't complain that was fewer thugs I had to go through.

When the second pair passed by I quietly jumped down behind them and followed them for a few seconds until they turned down the hallway. I grabbed the one on the right by the head and slammed him into the wall, causing the crate to drop on the floor. The second guy dropped the crate he carried and before he could yell out anything, I quickly place my hand over his mouth and shoved him against the wall. Launching a series of blows to his abdomen. He slid down the wall and I rammed my knee into his face, causing him to pass out. I then turned around and punched the other guy out cold. I continued down the hallway and made my way through the warehouse house, taking out each thug silently. When they were all out, I went for the drivers. Which were easy honestly, one was distracted by a show he was watching on his phone, the other was jamming out to music. When they were dealt with, I tied each thug and dragged them out of the building and piled them together. I removed their clothes, leaving them in their underwear. I called the police on one of the thug's cell phone and left.

Across the street, I sat on the edge of the roof watching the police cars drive in. When I saw the police tend to the thugs, it was my cue to leave. I stood up and walked down the fire escape and landed below next to my parked motorcycle and drove back to base.

My base, which was just a closed down bar, was my second home. I would stay here a lot, training, researching, planning. Of course, I couldn't do all this on my own, especially the computer hacking stuff. That was my childhood friend's job, his name is Elex. I know my name starts with an E, my brother's name starts with an E and my best friend's name starts with an E. My first boyfriend's name was Erik. I'm just surrounded with people whose name start with the letter E.

I parked my bike next to a dumpster in the alley next to the bar. I unlocked the back door to the bar and walked down the hallway to find my friend Elex sitting at the bar.

"How did it go?" He asked chewing on beef jerky.

I pulled down my hood, "fine, only eight guys tonight." I grabbed a piece of jerky from his hand, "give me some of that."

"Jerk," Elex said turning around, "also that's good I suppose. How many more depots until you run into an army of his guys?"

I smirked as I unzipped the top piece of my gear. "he would have done that already."

I removed the top and dropped it on the table, then I removed my pants. I turned to Elex wearing only my boxer briefs.

I saw the concerned look on his face. "Look, I've been careful. He knows the Hood is onto him. He'll fuck up soon enough, just have to squeeze him a little tighter." I turned back to the table and grabbed my casual clothes and began putting them on.

I heard Elex let out a sigh, "I just don't want you to get seriously hurt or you know die." He basically yelled out the last word.

I finished putting my shirt on, "Look, we've been over this already. Once Zucco is in prison, I'll stop." I placed one leg into my pants and continued, "Don't worry about it buddy, I got this."

"You know I worry the most when you say that."

I shrugged off the comment and finished getting dressed. When I was done, I hopped over the bar and pulled out a bottle of whiskey with two cups. We pretended the bar was functional, we had glasses and a few bottles of alcohol behind the counter. Elex turned around as I poured us two drinks. He held up his glass as I held up mine, "To a mission completed" he nodded as the two glasses hit each other and we downed our drinks. For the next few hours, we drank and watched videos on Youtube.

When it was 5 am, Elex decided it was time for him to go home. I told him I would be staying the night here. Elex grabbed his stuff and left, leaving me to my nearly empty glass of whiskey. I was barely able to focus and decided to get some sleep. So I downed the rest of my drink, then I stood up and stumbled my way to the table. I removed my pants and shirt, then lied down on the seat of the booth and closed my eyes and slept.

The next morning I woke up underneath the table with a small pool of drool next to me. In a rush, I stood up and hit my head on the table. I rubbed my injured head and slowly crawled out from underneath. I sat up and stared at the window, seeing the sunlight through space between the wooden panels that covered the outside of the window.

Yawning, I stood up and walked down the hallway and into the restroom. I entered the nearest stall and relieved myself.

When I was done, I grabbed the bucket of water next to the toilet and dumped it in to flush it. Since the place wasn't actually open, neither were the utilities. Elex and I would bring in water for the essentials, washing, and restroom. Very rarely, did we actually cook anything here. Also, no one really bothered us here, we did our best to not attract attention.

The bar was located on the corner of a lonely street near Chinatown. We had cameras located on each side of the streets so if the police were passing by, we would be able to notice them and turn off the lights. We came close to getting caught once, it was similar to last night, Elex and I were celebrating with some alcohol after a successful sabotage. We had drunk so much that we ignored the cameras. Luckily for us, the cops had stopped a drunk homeless guy down the street, which caught our attention. Both of us had stumbled to the generator to turn it off then fell to the floor. We had laughed so hard that night.

I stepped out of the restroom and walked a short distance to the bar and sat on the stool. Scratching my balls, I opened the laptop and began reading the newspaper on the screen.

Elex is the same age as me, we attended middle and high school together. During those years, I always stuck up for him every time he was picked on. He was a nerd, a hard nerd, he read just about every Star Wars book and comic outside the movies. I would sometimes refrain from even mentioning something nerdy because he would then talk about it for hours. I remembered the day he was furious about Disney making the books and comics non-canon. It was honestly adorable to see him that frustrated.

Elex was the first friend I came out to, I mean it made sense since he was my best friend. It actually took him a while to believe I was gay. Especially, since I had flirted with most of the girls in school, which was all for show. But eventually, he believed me and accepted me for who I was. I gave him in a blowjob once, but after that nothing ever happened. We just moved on. He would eventually marry a reporter at the local paper, Laura Branigan. They were expecting their first child this year.

As for me, my last boyfriend was a guy named Blake Bonham. He was a trainer at the local gym. We dated for a year and a half before my brother died. We broke up because I fell into a deep depression after my brother's murder. Since then, I didn't date anyone, I stuck to my goal of putting Zucco in prison.

I grinned when I came across an article in the paper. It was written by Elex's wife detailing the events of last night. It always gave me a special feeling knowing someone was highlighting my achievements. Knowing that someone in the tabloids was having my back. Laura, of course, didn't know about me and Elex's evenings. I mean she knew we hung out a lot and she respected it since due to our long friendship.

When I finished reading the article, I closed the laptop and began to dress. I noticed the bad odor coming from my body, I needed a shower. Thankfully I didn't work today, so I had plenty of time to get home. When I stepped out into the alley, I put my sunglasses on and walk down to the streets. I walked a few blocks and crossed the bridge before calling for a cab. It was something Elex and I would do to be cautious.

Thirty minutes later, I arrived at my apartment and immediately went to the bathroom. As I did, I removed my clothes, leaving a trail. When I entered the restroom, I bent over into the bathtub and turned the faucet on. As the water got hot, I stood before the mirror, staring at my lean muscular body. My body was the main weapon against Zucco, I made sure to train every single day. However, days like this did happen, where I would wake up from a hangover. I rubbed my right shoulder and passed over a 3-inch scar. This scar I got in Iraq, when a Taliban member came at me with a knife, while we were under siege. The lucky bastard stabbed the blade into my shoulder, but I was able to retaliate and kill him before he could do any further damage.

When the tub was full, I sat on the edge and turned the faucet off. I dipped my hand into the water to test the water's temperature, it was just right. Leaning forward, I slowly fell into it, sinking to the bottom. After a few seconds, I opened my eyes, then slowly pulled up for air. For the next ten minutes, I lied in the bathtub enjoying the water, letting the warm water soothe my aching muscles. Unfortunately, my peace came to an end when I heard the phone ring. I reached for the phone on the sink, dripping water all over the floor, and grabbed it with my fingers, nearly dropping it as I did. However, when I looked at it, I noticed it was the wrong phone. The phone that was ringing was the other phone, the phone Elex and I only used for our evening activities. Cursing, I stepped out of the bathtub soaking wet and nearly slipped, and walked out of the bathroom. I found my pants on the floor and quickly grabbed them and fished out my ringing phone.

"Hey, Oracle," I said. We made sure not to use our actual names, instead, we used codenames.

"I told you not to call me that. Call me Overwatch" Elex replied sounding annoyed.

"Sorry, just messing with you. What's up?"

"I got some information. We need to meet up. Are you home?"

"Yeah, let me put some clothes on."

"Better make it quick, because I'm outside," then I heard a knock on the door.

I quickly ran to the door and swing it open.

"Why are you naked?" He asked walking past me.

"I was in the bathroom. Having a nice bath, which you interrupted by the way." I said nearly slamming the door.

He sat down on the couch and brought out his laptop, placing it on his lap, "please put something on." he said.

I spat out a "whatever" and walked to my room. I threw on a white t-shirt and grey briefs, then walked back to the living room.

He looked up at me and sighed, "at least it's something."

I rolled my eyes and sat down next to him as he got straight to the point. "Zucco is going to have another shipment."

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah, tomorrow night to be exact."

"He's never done that before. You think it might be a trap?"

"Possibly, I say we ignore this one though."

"No," I said raising my voice, "we've been successful in sabotaging every shipment for the last few months. We can't just stop now because he's moving up his schedule. Every night I go out there, I expect a trap." I paused then continued, "thankfully, we've been lucky."

"That luck can end tomorrow night." He added.

I leaned back into the couch and thought about it. We had been successful in sabotaging four of Zucco's shipments. The next shipment was supposed to be in two weeks. This was rather odd for Zucco. Part of me wanted to agree with Elex and let the shipment go through, but the other part wanted to investigate and hopefully sabotage it.

I leaned forward, "Okay, what else do we know?"

He rubbed his clean-shaven chin, "well not much. We don't even know what the shipment is. Last night's shipment was weapons. I say we find out more information."

I wanted to protest him, but he was right. "Alright," I said in defeat. "We will wait."

"Good, I'll tell Laura that I'll be busy tomorrow night."

"You know, I can do the stake out on my own right?"

"Knowing you, you won't even do the stake out part."

"You're no fun, you know?"

"Look, we'll keep an eye out first, then we'll act. Okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," I said placing my hand on my forehead.

"Thank you," he said. "Have you eaten anything today?"

I shook my head.

"I'll make you some food, go finish bathing."

"You got it bromeo," I said slapping his back.

I got up and went to the restroom to finish bathing. When I was done, I changed and headed for the kitchen. When I entered, he was finishing up. He had made chicken with Chile Verde and fried rice. I quickly sat down and scarfed down the food. I was starving, especially after a hangover.

The location of the latest shipment was a bit further from us. In a business area of between Huntington Park and Lil Tokyo. I remember I would always pass by here to go the nearby Sears as a kid. We parked a few blocks away and then walked to the building across the street from the meeting. We sat on the top floor of the empty building looking through binoculars. Elex was on his computer, "give me a moment." He said as he continued. Then the drone that was on the roof hummed to life and began flying over to the building.

"It's almost 11," I said to him.

"We should be able to listen in on them. Thankfully, it's cloudy tonight so it should provide some cover for the drone."

I simply nodded as I got back to the binoculars.

About ten minutes had passed with nothing happening. I turned to Elex, "Are you sure there was a shipment?"

"This doesn't make sense," he said looking through the footage on his laptop. "Maybe they're late?"

I shrugged. "Well, if nothing continues to happen I'm going to go kick their asses out of sheer boredom."

"Let's not do that. I'll set the drone down on the roof of the building next to them. For now, let's wait."

"Fine," I muttered out.

Fifteen minutes had passed with nothing going on. Honestly, I was getting bored and annoyed. Part of me wanted to go down there and beat them all up. However, I didn't know how many they were. It could very well be a trap. Normally when we do one of these, there is a lot of reconnaissance, we check out the building and check out the thugs. How many there are. What weapons they are using, etc...

"Let's do something to pass the time," I said breaking the silence.

"Like what?" Elex said with his eyes glued to the screen.

I moved my hand over to his crotch, "How about I suck your dick?"

"No, we've discussed this," he said brushing my hand away.

"Oh come on, your wife is 7 months pregnant. When's the last time you've had sex? I'm sure you've been wanting to get some pleasure."

"Shut up."

I knew he was lying, he wanted to say yes but couldn't. I pressed more on the subject. "It's been like 10 years since I last saw your dick." I placed my hand on his crotch and to my surprise, I felt his erection.

"See, he agrees," if there was light I would be seeing Elex blushing.

Once again, he shoved my hand away. "I said, no."

"Fine, bitch," I said jokingly.

"Sorry, it's just..." And before he could his sentence we heard chatter on the screen. We both turned to look at it and saw two groups standing in the middle of the warehouse. It looked like they were talking.

"Can we pick up what they're saying?"

Elex piloted the drone and moved it over the warehouse. I looked out the window and noticed something. On the building to the right, opposite to where Elex parked the drone was a dark figure perched on the edge of the building.

"Elex," I whispered to him, "there is someone on the roof across from your drone."

He panned the camera up to see the dark figure I saw.

"Who is that?" He asked.

"I don't know. Could be a rival gang member."

We continued looking at the figure as he remained in his location. He hadn't noticed the drone yet.

"Let's find what he's doing," I said as I jumped to my feet and ran down the stairs. I heard Elex blaring in my ear not to confront this guy. But I just had to know what this guy was up to. When I reached the bottom floor, I pulled up my mask that was around my neck and flipped my hood on. The mask was just in case my hood was pulled down.

I ran around the block and turned down the street. Moving swiftly to the building next to the warehouse. I made sure to not attract attention from anyone as I did. When I entered the building, I quietly moved up the stairs until I reached the roof. There was no roof door which made it easier to sneak up on the dark figure. I moved cautiously towards the edge of the building until a voice stopped me. It wasn't Elex's voice; tt was the hooded figures' voice.

"You must be the hood?" The dark figure said in his muffled voice.

"Excuse me," I said with my hands out before me.

He turned to me which allowed me to see the black beanie mask he wore.

"You're shorter than I thought."

He didn't seem hostile, he was more friendly. But I couldn't let my guard down, he could just be luring me into a trap. "So, what brings you here?"

He turned to the building below, "same as you."

I squatted down next to him to see his view. Then we were blinded by white lights. The entire yard lit up like a sports arena. We both stepped back and heard some of the thugs yells, "They're up there."

"Fuck!" I said rubbing my eyes.

"You gotta run," the dark figure said.

When I opened my eyes, I saw him running towards the edge of the building, then he said one last thing, "There is a secret meeting in two days at The Barracuda at 10 pm." And then he jumps off the ledge.

I heard Elex blaring into my ear, "Hood, Hood, can you hear me? The guys know you're up there. Get the hell out of there."

I stood up and found my bearings and looked around. Going down the stairs wasn't an option anymore since they were most likely coming up that way. I ran to the edge and saw that he had jumped on to a building. It was about 10 feet, but I think I could make it.

I stepped back passing by the roof door. The noises of the thugs grew louder. "I hope I don't fuck this up." I took in a deep breath and ran across the roof. Leaping off the building, I descended down. At the correct moment, I leaned forward and rolled onto the roof. I still had momentum from the fall so I kept rolling and ended with my back colliding with a metal pipe that stuck out of the building.