Phillip Grodstone was your average high-school nerd. He loved books, video games, and chemistry. Phillip had had earned a $20,000 full-ride scholarship to MIT for inventing a non-lethal police weapon. The said weapon was a dart shot from an air gun that caused temporary paralysis. Phillip had learned to shoot from his uncle, a retired Royal Marine sniper. Phillip had repeatedly shown that he could hit a match-head from 200 yards, with both his weapon and his uncle’s sniper rifle.

Phillip sported an IQ of 187, and had converted most of his grandmother’s basement into a chemistry lab. Off of the laboratory were his library and office/bedroom. The office walls were plastered with everything from a poster of the periodic table to a vintage 80s Pac Man Fever arcade system.

“Phillip, are you down there?â€? called his grandmother, she already knew answer, as Phillip spent almost all his time in his basement.

Phillip grunted his reply. He has inhaled a mouthful of hot gasses and ash when his latest project, a bubble grenade, had melted into a bubbling mass of glass and chemicals.

“Honey, you really should get outside. Staying inside all the time isn’t helping your asthma.â€?

“Sorry Gram. I’m working on this bubble grenade for the military. It’s going to revolutionize military grenades, a combination of a smoke grenade and a stun grenade. I just need to make the sedative fireproof.â€?

“Well, perhaps the outdoors could, er… ‘provide cognitive stimulation’ as it were.â€?

“I object, Gram. I already know what I need to do, just not how. It keeps turning into a primitive form of napalm!â€? came Phillip’s normally witty retort. “Gah…argh!â€? *sphlssshhhh* “Thank the gods for fire extinguishers, eh?â€?

“Oh god! Are you alright, Phillip?â€?

“Eh, not but a flesh wound. It’ll heal.â€?

“Ah well. I’ve got to go make a cake for book group. Be careful, Phillip.â€?

And so Phillip went back to his chemistry. When he ran out of ideas, he stored the incomplete project into his locker, and went off to finish up a small security program for Sun Microsystems. After hours of coding, he finally fell asleep.

“’Ey kid, gimme your moneyâ€? a large and intimidating bully swaggered up to Phillip, who was on his way to school.

“Even if I did carry around proportionate amounts of cash, I would hardly spend it on one of your brain capacity, numbskull,â€? Phillip retorted. After a moment of contemplation, the bully figured that the insult was directed at him. He raised a fist. “Who you callin’ a numbsku- Ooff!â€? Ducking the punch, Phillip delivered a swift kick to the groin. Swinging his Pac Man lunchbox, the sickening crunch of aluminum connecting with flesh gave Phillip much satisfaction. He stepped over the whimpering bully, whistling as though nothing had happened.

“’Ey man, that kid, he was givin me da cheek, ‘e was. See, ‘e gave me dis balck eye ‘ereâ€? the same bully was telling his gang, a group of bullies 12 strong.

“We gonna bop ‘im for it, Greg?â€? said a second gangster.

“Yeah, dat sound like a good idea, yoâ€? replied a third.

“No, imbeciles. We should formulate a plan of vengeance,â€? a voice from the shadows said. He spoke with authority, and all the gangsters froze as he spoke, listening with rapt attention.

“Yes sirs, Mr. Hugo sirs, formilate a plan of venganche, sirs! How do we go about wid dis venanche yo? Er… sirs?â€?

“Hmm… well, the best plan would be to hit him right where it hurts. Being your average nerd, his books would be one of his most prized possessions… so…â€?

“So we beat ‘im wid a book?â€?

“No, moron. They are obviously the source of his power. If we can take away the power source, we cut the head off the snake. Here’s what we’ll do…â€?

As he walked back from school, he vaguely saw a few dark-clad figures enter his house. From the distance, he couldn’t see much, but he quickened his pace nevertheless. He wasn’t very worried about them, because his house was protected with a specially-patented alarm system. Instead of entering the house from the front, he detoured to the back, unlocked his gun cabinet with a thumbprint, and pulled out his favorite non-lethal dart rifle, a short-barreled semi-auto rifle. He climbed the stairs to the deck, entering through the screen door into the kitchen. Sweeping through the house, he cleared each room, SWAT style. In his grandparents bedroom, he first smelled the smoke. It was coming from downstairs.

Phillip tore down the two flights of stairs. When he passed the mud room, he noticed the alarm system was completely obliterated. That explained why the alarm didn’t go off. He could smell that the fire was down in his basement. He rushed down the spiral stairs, arriving just in time to see the fire door swing shut. Then he saw the flames coming from the library. Torn between saving his precious book and catching the culprits, he quickly grabbed on of his experimental smoke grenades, threw it in the library, closed the door, and shoved a towel in the crack beneath the door. The smoke should cause the fire to burn out, reasoned Phillip. The library mostly saved, he rushed out the fire door, just in time to see the culprits sprinting down the street. He angrily emptied the eight round clip from his rifle in the general direction of the culprits. Miraculously, one of the darts hit the leader in the foot. He kept running on, but as the sedative kicked in, he stumbled and fell, caught in a full-body paralysis. The others caught up to their fallen leader, stopped briefly to pick him up, and kept running. Running up the fire escape stairs while reloading to get a better shot, Phillip used their pause to take aim at the nearest one. He let out two shots, and easily dropped his target. He quickly changed targets, dropping another. Three of the seven downed, the other four fled. Phillip frantically discharged the rest of his clip, but missed. The culprits down for the count, he went back to check on the library.

Snatching a fire extinguisher from its clip near the door, he opened the library door, quickly, spraying fire-smothering foam into the confined space. With the fire completely gone now, Phillip switched the extinguisher to vacuum, and swept up all the foam back into the container. Next checking his collection of books, Phillip was relived to find that most of his favorites were safe. The Art of War, War and Peace, and 19th Century Art were all fine, with only a bit of smoke damage on the covers. As he scanned the shelves, he found only a few blackened books. Flipping the through the first one, he found that each page was a bit of hard, melted plastic. Analyzing the contents of the plastic sleeve he saw a melted Polaroid inside. Wiping ash from the spine, he could vaguely make out the pen-scrawled words: Phillips baby pictures. He was devastated. Sinking back into his winged chair, he tried to find a surviving picture. They were all burned beyond recognition. The memories of his childhood, and of his deceased parents where gone, forever.

For the first time in his life, Phillip sat back and wept.

Cold, was George’s first thought. The second was Hard. The third was Ouch. He decided to try to see his surroundings, but his eyelids didn’t respond. Open, he told them. Words didn’t make a difference. He thought he heard people talking, but decided it was just his imagination. Suddenly, he felt a pain in his lower left leg. Pain, he thought. What an interesting concept. Then he realized, wow, that was smart talk. I wonder where I am, he mused. Probably a bed, said his imaginative side. How do you explain the cold and hard, then? Said his logical side. Rawr, his imaginative side said weakly, You’ll pay for that. Oh really? Said his logical side, how do you figure that? I’ll bite your head off! The imaginative side replied. We share the same head, moron, the logical side countered. Shut up, both of you, said Georges more sane third. He tried to open his eyes again. They cracked open slightly. He couldn’t make out any features, but he could see a few blurry colors. He opened his eyes wider, and more shapes came into focus. A white house. A black road, on which he was lying. He heard sirens in the distance. The police! George picked himself up, and as he did so, noticed a number of other bodies. He recognized them all. What are they doing here? He thought first. Second, he thought, Why are they all on the ground? Not having an explanation, he decided to wake one up.

“’Ey, you. Wake up.â€?

Nothing happened. Shrugging, he noticed the police sirens were closer than last time. Automatically assuming they were coming for him or these guys on the ground, he decided to take off.

“What do you mean, he shot them? The kid shot them? I thought you were in position that he wouldn’t come home until after the burning!â€? said the voice from the shadows, now angry, but retaining the authority.

“Eh, well, there was a slight hitch, ya’ know, sir? We er, was, eh… postponded.â€?

“What, exactly, happened?â€?

“Well, Billy met up wid ‘is girlfriend on da way there, so we was about five minutes behind schedule when ‘e got there. By dat time, da kid was already on ‘is way.â€?

“And where is Billy now?â€?

“Well, ‘e was one o’ da ones da kid shot, ya’ know.â€?

“Serves him right. I cannot have an unloyal servant. I only hope that he escapes police custody; he could leak our secrets.

“I want you to take the whole gang out, and retrieve those downed. They must not be captured by the police!â€?

“Yes, sirs.â€? Replied the rest of the gang, now only 8 strong.

It was at that time that George came bursting into the hideout, through the rickety door.

“The… police… they have… the others…â€? panted George.

“Slow down. What news do you bring us of the battlefield?â€?

“The police, they got the others. We only just got away, ya’ know.â€?

“This will impair our plans of vengeance. I must now formulate a way to bust them out of police custody, also. Leave me, I must think.â€?

Police sirens screamed, flashing brightly in the dying sunlight. The cruisers screeched to a halt in front of the house. The two remaining fallen gang members were stirred by the noise. One of them tried to sit up, but a police officer quickly cuffed him.

“Get ‘em in the back of the cruisers, we’ll take ‘em back to HQ for questioning,â€? barked a burly deputy. As he said this, a small group of dark-dressed gang members emerged from the woods. None of the 4 officers at the scene had noticed them. An officer had knocked on the front door of the house. Hugo knew he and his commando team needed to act fast. Rushing forward, he called the rest of the squad to follow him in. In a triangle formation, they swept across the back lawn, up the deck, and into the kitchen. Hugo held his hand with his fore and middle fingers crossed. Hide, it told the rest of the squad. Coming up the basement stairs, Phillip did not see the commando squad lurking in the shadows.

“Coming,â€? Phillip called to the officer, who was banging on the door impatiently.

“Not so fast,â€? Hugo stepped out pf the shadows, behind Phillip. Dragging a knife from his belt, he held it to Phillip’s throat.

“Don’t move. If you talk, I’ll knife you. Got it?â€?

Phillip nodded his reply.

“Good. Now, we’re going around back, ok?â€?

Another nod.

Hugo dragged Phillip across the kitchen. Luckily, Phillip did not fight him. They went out the screen door, onto the deck, down to the lawn.

“Now where are the guns?â€?

Phillip led him to a small metal cabinet. He thumbed the lock, opening the door.

“Grab all of ‘em. Let’s goâ€? Hugo told his team.

Phillip saw a pair of black boots moving under the hedge, coming around the corner of the house. He seized his chance, kicking the cabinet closed on one of the commando’s fingers. The commando let out a shrill cry. The police officer appeared around the corner, drawing his gun on the way.

“I got hostiles!â€? he shouted.

Hugo dropped Phillip, grabbing a semi-auto air pistol. Locking the clip in place, he pulled back the barrel, loading the gun. Taking aim at the officer, he blasted two rounds into the officer’s chest.

“Move! Dodge and weave!â€? shouted Hugo to his team. One of the team swung his gun off his shoulder. Before he could tranquilize Phillip, Phillip had rolled out of the way. Snatching the knife from Hugo’s belt, he put Hugo in a headlock, swinging him towards the commando. Countering the move, Hugo dropped to the ground, rolled, and shot at Phillip’s leg. The dart missed, bouncing harmlessly off the house.

Phillip stomped hard on Hugo’s hand, forcing him to drop the gun. As he bent down to retrieve the fallen weapon, the other commando shot Phillip in the back. Before the sedative could kick in, Phillip scrabbled to pull out the dart. Finally reaching it, he knocked it from his skin, but it was too late. He had started to loose some of his motor functions. At the same time, a police officer appeared around the corner, his dart pistol drawn.

“Get on the floor; put your hands behind your…Ahrg!â€? A dart appeared on his chest. Enraged, he fired back. Phillip dropped to the ground, swinging his knife at any ankles he saw. Commandos dropped, but got back up, running for the woods. A police dart downed one, but the others dragged him up on his feet, plucking the dart out of his back. They kept running, police officers pounding behind them, loosing shots. The commandos kept running, finally disappearing into the woods. The police decided to give up the chase, and started back towards the cruisers. One helped Phillip up, saying, “I’m Lt. Geoff, kid. Unfortunately, we need to take you back to police HQ for questioning. So, if you’ll kindly come with us, that would be best.â€?

Phillip followed the lieutenant back to a cruiser. At the group of cars, chaos reined.

“How’d they escape?â€?

“They left their handcuffs here, how’d they break outta them?â€?

Phillip took in a few sentences before he caught on to what was happening. The police captives have escaped! They other gangsters could easily have busted them out once the commandos had distracted the police.

“The others busted them out,â€? he stated calmly.

“What ‘others’!â€? the deputy shouted.

“The commando squad that attempted to kidnap me, they were just a distraction. If they could get all of you police to come over and see what was happening, another group of as little as 2 people could have easily busted the rest out of the cruisers.

“These people where the same that attempted to burn down my house, or at least my library. These are the people responsible for both attempted kidnapping and severe vandalism.â€?

“Well, the judicial system is on your side, kid. We need to have access to your house for 24 hours. See, I got a search warrant.â€? He held up a warrant. “We need you to come in for questioning. Tell us exactly what happened, capiche?â€?

“Yes, sir.â€?

“We are back to full strength. Now our problem is this; the police. Our greatest enemies have joined. The intelligence of Phillip will complement the brawn of the police. The police aren’t smart, but they’re like flies. Eventually, they’d find us. What we need to do is keep Phillip away from them.â€?

“Wadda we gonna do? ‘E’s probably in da police station, telling ‘em everyttink.â€?

“My plan is that if we can stop the police from compiling a case against us, then they cannot help Phillip. We’ll leave a trail of clues-â€?

“But if we leave clues, dey’ll find us, won’t dey?â€?

“Do not interrupt. We’ll leave a false trail of clues, leading them away form us. We can even use this opportunity to damage a rival gang.â€?

“So, we like, leave traces dat da Lightnin’s was dere, not us?â€?

“Precisely. The Lightings were exactly who I was thinking of, too.â€?

Back at police HQ, Phillip was answering some questions.

“So what exactly happened?â€? asked the interrogator.

“Well, I was walking home from school, when I saw a few darkly-clad figures entering my house. I thought my security system would deal with them, but when it didn’t, I got worried. I went around the back of the house to get my air dart rifle, incase they were armed. I went through the house looking for them, and then I smelled the smoke. I rushed down to the basement, where it was coming from.â€?

“Then what?â€?

“That was when I saw the door swinging shut. I threw one of my experimental smoke grenades into the library, where the fire was. I closed the door and stuffed a towel underneath the crack. Then I went outside and attempted to tranquilize the culprits.â€?

“You, a civilian juvenile, attempted to neutralize the suspects?â€?

“That is correct, sir. I managed to down three of them. I assume one of them managed to wake up before you got there, the paralysis and unconsciousness is only temporary. The rest of the group fled, and unable to capture them, I turned my attention to the burning library. The measures I had taken to burn out the fire had worked, but I sprayed the room with fireproof spray anyway. The majority of the books had only minor smoke damage, but some where completely destroyed.â€?

Phillip decided to leave out the pictures. The police thanked him for the help, and that was when the evidence team returned. They had the alarm box, which had been smashed with a crowbar by the looks of it, and a few fingerprints on the doorknob. They needed to take Phillip’s prints to eliminate those. He and the bad guys were the only ones who had touched the fire escape doorknob, and after using a program on the internet, the police were able to narrow the prints down to 4. They ran a scan through the criminal database, but found no matches. The police had no suspects, and only 2 pictures of the criminals the police had cuffed, which had been taken from the back, where you could not see the face well.

“Sorry kid, we’re gonna have to put this case on hold for a few days, until the evidence team gets

some more stuff,� said the police chief.

Phillip was picked up and driven home by his grandmother.

“I know this is hard for you, not having any evidence to catch those rascals,â€? his grandmother sympathized, “But I refuse to let you go after ‘em yourself. You promise?â€?

“I promise. But I will help the police in this case. You can’t stop me.â€?

“I know that. Just don’t do it yourself, is all.â€?

Through the week, the evidence team was in and out of the house. Phillip came into the police station after school every day. Attempting to solve the mystery, Phillip had to dedicate his brainpower to the case.

“We’ve picked up this hair,â€? said one of the evidence collectors, “It appears to be a dog hair. You don’t have a dog, do you?â€?

“No, sir, I don’t. I haven’t been in contact with a dog for a few months. This could be the evidence we’ve been waiting for, once we get suspects.â€?

“Absolutely. Quite a brain ya got there, sonny.â€?

Phillip gathered all the evidence together. Perhaps it would help to analyze it together, he reasoned. We might find a pattern. Looking through the boxes, he laid out the doorknob, the alarm box, the hair, and a piece of cloth, snagged in the doorframe of the fire escape. He meticulously viewed the evidence, even taking a peek inside the alarm box. Noticing an odd glint from the lights on a dark object in the box, he pulled it out with his white rubber gloves. It was a chip from the metal object that broke the box!

“Ah ha,â€? Phillip whispered, dropping it into a plastic bag.

“Sir, the evidence has come back from the lab,â€? one of the police detectives told the director of the case.

“I sent them a few fingerprints I found on one of the handcuffs the gangsters escaped from. We ran it through the national database, and came up with one guy. Hugo Montez, age 17, sent to juvenile detention for an elaborate hoax in Nevada, which included kidnapping and money laundering,â€? he continued, reading the file on his clipboard.

“Hmmm, not exactly your average criminal we’re dealing with. Can I have those files?â€?

"Sure. I'll e-mail them to you right away."