“Today’s the day,” Bob said with a smile on his face as he got up that morning. It was the day when he finally completed his special collection, one that he’d been striving for years to complete. After showering and general grooming, he headed to the kitchen to make himself a special protein shake. It was going to be a big day, he needed the nutrients.

A small kitten looked up from the small box, along with several kittens that Bob had collected over the last week. Bob was an animal lover, especially of young kittens, which seemed to be in constant supply. Bob picked the small orange kitten up, kissing it and stroking it gently.

“That’s right, Mr. Whiskers, today’s the day when I finally get the material to finish my tailor-made business suit. Only the finest of fabrics will do, and the finest fabrics are hard to come by,” Bob said as he nuzzled the kitten gently. “But I’ve been patient, collecting when I can, and today if all goes well I’ll come home with what I need to finish my greatest project.”

Bob headed into the kitchen, still holding the kitten close, gathering ingredients together. “Today’s also the day that Elite hopes to draw that nasty man the Punisher to town. I know, it’s dreadful business dealing with people who don’t how to smile, but hopefully after this is all over, we’ll all walk away with a smile on our face.”

With his free hand, Bob tossed fruits and vegetables into a high powered smoothie maker. He gave the kitten one last kiss before dropping it in on top of the other ingredients and closing the lid before pressing the ultra-blend button. Yes, today was the day when all of Bob’s dreams would come true.

THE TITLE OF A THOMPSON TWINS SONG

By Tobias Christopher

“What do you mean there’s been a change of plans?” Chip asked early one morning after Frank had woken him up. “Weren’t we heading to New York anyway?”

Frank tossed the gossip rag down on the bed Chip pulled himself up, rubbing his eyes before reading the story. “A bunch of circus freaks shot up a gay youth center?”

“And specifically told the one survivor to let me know about it,” Frank said as he started getting his stuff gathered. “Put your pants on, we’re leaving now. We can be in New York by this afternoon.”

Chip got out of the bed, still yawning as he saw how dark it was outside. It was only when the old lady outside screamed and ran off that Chip realized that he standing there naked, his last pair of fresh clothes having been worn the day before. The war Frank had started left them little time to spend laundering clothes. “What about finding Benji?”

“I have to hope that he’s got the courage to survive against whoever has him for a while longer,” Frank said. “The survivor said that a person in a white plated mask was the leader. It sounds like a copycat of a killer named Elite that I took out a few years ago, most likely the asshole’s son all grown up and looking to avenge daddy. Looks like I have to put junior down before he kills anyone else in his father’s name. The car leaves in two minutes, otherwise, I hope you can run fast.”

Chip was already hopping around, pulling his pants up as Frank headed out the door with his duffel bag.

Sweetwater, Wyoming

Benji didn’t have much time to work. Barracuda only came to check on him every few days, and he was losing both weight and strength the more he starved. He couldn’t survive on the small rations Barracuda tossed at him, and he knew that he couldn’t rely on the Punisher to come rescue him.

After Barrcuda’s last check-in, Benji waited until he heard the hefty footsteps go downstairs. He pulled off his belt and used the buckled hook to pick the lock on his ankle chain, removing it like he had the last time. He looked up at the air vent on the wall, which led outside. There were several problems in reaching it, however.

Even if Benji could stack the furniture high enough to reach it, he was still on the third floor of the house, meaning he’d need a rope to get down. He wasn’t sure exactly how high up he was, but he knew the bedsheet probably wouldn’t be enough to get him to ground level.

Then there was the fact that the town was crawling with murderers and rapists. He knew this because Barracuda had told the men that they were not touch a hair on Benji’s head, but he saw the look on some their faces. If they caught him trying to escape and Barracuda wasn’t around . . .

Everything had to be perfectly timed for him to escape. He wasn’t going to die there, not when he had a family to avenge.

New York

Martin Soap walked into his old stomping grounds at the NYPD, barely recognizing any of the faces there. Of course, it had been a few years since he’d been employed there.

“Soap?” a voice asked after a few moments as the man approached the front desk. “Martin Soap?”

Soap turned around saw a friendly face. Molly von Richthofen, Soap’s former partner on the Punisher task force. She didn’t look any older, in fact she looked even younger.

“Molly?” Soap asked with a smile. “It’s been forever? How have you been? Are you still-”

“Yes, I’m still a lesbian,” Molly said with a smirk. “A happily married lesbian with twin boys who are about to turn five.”

“I was actually going to ask if you’re still a detective, but . . . congratulations,” Soap said as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. “Look, I know you have no reason to help me, but I need some information about the case we first worked on together. The Trinity killers.”

“Ah, I see you’ve heard about this new Elite,” Molly said as they walked toward her office.

“What? No, I want to know about the original Elite,” Martin said as he sat down. “I think I’m about to ask his daughter to marry me, and… well, it’s complicated. Don’t look at me like that.”

“I can get you the info,” Molly told him as she put her hands on the desk. “And I’m really glad you stopped by, because I’m going to need a favor from you, the only man I could ever really trust.”

“I lost a perfectly good pair of shoes,” Chip said as he sat in the passenger seat, his shirt still unbuttoned. True to his word, Frank had begun to drive off after two minutes, forcing a still half dressed Chip to chase after, shoes and shirt in one hand, his laptop in the other. He lost his shoes a half mile up the road, having had to jump into the car before it left the stoplight. It’s not like Frank hadn’t done this before, but usually Chip was fast enough to at least get one shoe on before Frank left the parking lot.

“We’ll pick you up another pair when we get to New York, it’s not like we’re going right into battle,” Frank said as he focused on the road. “If this new Elite is anything like his father, he’s going to cause whatever damage he can to draw me out. We have to find him before he kills again.”

“The survivor said there were three people with Elite,” Chip said as he looked over the article. “A cowboy, a smiling guy in a business suit, and a guy dressed like a court jester. Sound familiar?”

“All but Smiley,” Frank said without looking over. “It sounds like Elite’s got a Punisher revenge squad formed to take me out, and they’re not shy about who knows.”

“The police are going to be hunting for these guys,” Chip said.

“Which means they’re going to be hunting for me, as well,” Frank said as he finally looked over at Chip. “Which could be what Elite wants.”

“What if he knows that you don’t hurt cops?” Chip asked. “A fight between you, four freaks, and an army of cops in the line of fire? You’d be like a sitting duck, with both sides gunning for you.”

“Then we figure out where Elite and his team are going to strike, and we get the drop on them before the cops can arrive,” Frank said as the car arrived in New York. “But first we need a place to set up. The first job is finding out where Elite’s family ended up after I took him down.”

“My laptop’s low on power, otherwise I’d already have all the info,” Chip said. “I had to choose between the laptop and my underwear, by the way.”

“You’re wearing pants and you have your computer, stop bitching,” Frank told him as he turned off the freeway.

“I love you, too,” Chip said sarcastically as he looked out the window.

“Where the hell is Bob? We’re supposed to be hitting that rehab center,” Jester said frantically as he paced around. “Why are we hitting a rehab center?”

“Filthy drug addicts,” Elite said as she shined a nice new hunting knife. “They’ll only just be released and start the cycle all over again, destroying more lives and bringing down more property values.”

“Sorry I’m late, gang!” Bob said with an unnatural smile as he walked into the warehouse. “I just had to get some the finest fabric to complete my dream project.”

“I’m afraid to ask,” Doug said from under the cowboy hat.

“Whatever, let’s just go and wipe the vagrant scum out,” Elite said as she put the knife into a holster around her waist. She was going to deal with Bob in her own way after the PUnisher was dead. She knew exactly who Bob was, and what he did for a living. And while it disgusted her, vengeance against her father’s killer came first. “If the Punisher hasn’t already heard about us, this little adventure will surely bring him here.”

“And then what?” Doug asked her as they headed for the door. “The Punisher’s going to come in, guns blazing! He won’t even let us open our mouths before he opens fire.”

“That’s exactly what I’m counting on,” Elite said, smirking under her mask. “There’s an old saying, “Know thine enemy.” And I’ve taken many greats pains and spent a great deal of money getting to know mine. I know what the Punisher is thinking, and what he thinks that I’m thinking right now. He’s going to play right into my hands. There is nothing that can stop us.”

“Why didn’t Anna tell me her father was Elite?” Soap asked as he looked through the files, looking up at Molly. “We tell each other everything.”

“Everything?” Molly asked with a raised eyebrow. “She knows about your… former career?”

“She knows I was in a dark place,” Soap told her. “She accepted that. She’s accepted everything about me, and her little brother, except for one thing that he hasn’t told her yet. He’s gay and he’s afraid to tell her.”

“What’s he afraid of? She seems nice enough?” Molly said as she kept digging through the files.

“I don’t know, I guess he’s just afraid of how she’ll react,” Soap replied with a shake of his head. “I’m sure she’ll be fine with it. It’s not like she’s going to kill him over it.”

“Anna, I’m gay,” Tommy said into a mirror in the bathroom, having been practicing what he was going to tell her all day. “I’ve wanted to tell you for so long. No, I’m not seeing anyone, I’m still single. I’ve had two important men in my life. Dean, my first true love, and-”

A knock came at the door as Tommy jumped in shock. He quickly ran to the door and looked through the peephole, seeing it was only the Jimmy Johns delivery guy.

“About damn time,” Tommy said as he paid for his sandwich. “You guys aren’t as nearly as fast the commercial promises.”

“Hey, cut me some slack, I’m still new at this,” the delivery boy said as he took the money and left. As soon as he was gone, Tommy sat down at the table and started working on his speech again.

“Anna, I have something to tell you. Something I should have told you a long time ago…”

Frank and Chip walked into the safehouse, one of many that Frank had set up as Chip sat down at the table.

“There are fresh clothes in the cabinet, including boots and underwear,” Frank said as he watched Chip plug his laptop in. “You stay here and I’m going to check in on some contacts. Call me the second you get anything on where Elite’s kids are.”

“You coming back to get me or you going in for the kill alone?” Chip asked.

“Depends on what you find,” Frank said as he headed out the door. “There are guns hidden in a secret cache in the back of the closet, just in case. Do not open it unless you have to, and for fuck’s sake, do NOT touch the hand grenades this time.”

“One time!” Chip said as Frank closed the door behind him. “It’s not like they weren’t going to tear down that motel anyway.”

It only took ten minutes for Chip to get enough of a charge on his computer to get his search started. He began by hacking into the police database to find out about Elite’s family after his death.

“Let’s see, mom died in a suicide several years back,” Chip said as he scrolled down further. “Daughter Anna seems to be pretty well off these days. Let’s find out what the little bastard who took up daddy’s mantle is doing with his life . . . No. No, no, no!”

Chip stared into the computer screen, seeing the image of Tommy staring back at him.

The rehab center was on fire, all the inhabitants inside laying dead as Elite and the Fucked-Up Four emerged from the burning building. All of them were covered in blood, except for Elite, who was still completely clean.

“Bastards, they smudged my shoes,” Elite said as she looked down. “It’s a good thing they’re all dead or I’d have go back in and make them pay for this insult.”

“That was fun!” Jester said as he did cartwheels alongside the group as they walked away. “Think we should have left someone alive this time to tell the cops who did this?”

“Oh, don’t worry, friend, I left a calling card for the cops,” Bob said, smiling evilly as they walked away. “The Punisher will get our message.”

“Good,” Elite said as they heard the sirens of the approaching police. “We’ll meet back at the warehouse later tonight. I have one more errand to run to make sure that the Punisher really suffers. He should be arriving in town very shortly, so tonight we go in for the kill.”

“Oh, boy, I’ll wear my new suit!” Bob said gleefully as he skipped away. The others just shuddered as they watched him go.

“That guy creeps me out,” Doug said from under the cowboy hat. “And I’m a freakin’ conjoined twin!”

“Chip?” Frank asked through his earpiece as he punched a crackhead hard enough to make him spit up blood. “What have you found?”

“It can’t be Elite’s kids,” Chip said as he walked down the sidewalk. “It has to be someone else. There’s no criminal record for either of them, and they both look to have their noses clean.”

“Bullshit, their dad was the same way, and look at the bodycount he racked up,” Frank said as he tossed another crackhead out the window. “I’ve been hitting up the local drug dealers to see what they’ve heard about Elite’s group, but I’m coming up empty-handed. Give me the son’s current address, I’ll go pay him a visit.”

“He’s . . . unlisted, it’ll take a while to find out where he is,” Chip lied. He needed to find Tommy first and prove that the man was innocent. “I’ll search deeper, but I don’t think we’ll find anything.”

“Are those cars I’m hearing in the background?” Frank asked as he broke another man’s arm as if it were nothing. “Why aren’t you at the safehouse?”

“I’m going stir crazy, I needed to get out for some fresh air,” Chip told him as he found Anna’s apartment building. “I’ve got my laptop with me, I’ll stop off at the local Starbucks and keep working. Just keep snapping bones, someone must know something.”

“I’ll be back at the safe house in a few hours,” Frank told him. “And I want every bit of info on Elite’s family by then, got it?”

“Got it, boss,” Chip told him.

“You’re starting to worry me, kid,” Frank said as he smacked two druggies together, sending blood spraying upwards. “You sure everything’s alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m good, it’s just,” Chip said as he leaned against the wall. “What if Elite’s kids are innocent, just for the sake of argument?”

“We don’t punish the innocent kid, you know that,” Frank replied as he grabbed a druggie’s nose and twisted it, creating a sick, crunching sound. “But you also know in this world, everyone’s guilty until proven innocent. Until that happens, those kids are our best bets. I’ll see you later tonight. Stay safe.”

Chip rushed up the stairs and rang the doorbell, praying that for once Frank was wrong about a suspect. Tommy answered the door, not expecting another food delivery. He opened it up and saw Chip standing there, the memories of their night together in Kansas immediately flooding back to the both of them.

Between what little info he got from the street, and listening in on the police band, it didn’t take Frank long to reach the half burned down rehab center. The police and firefighters arrived just in time to put the worst of the fire out, but far too late to save anyone inside. It was easy to sneak in with the all confusion, and even easier to find the message waiting for him.

It was written in blood and smeared on the charred wall. “The Fucked-Up Four are waiting for you, Punisher. Soon vengeance will be ours.”

Frank stared emotionless at the message on the wall before he turned to walk away. This had to end before more lives were ruined. He just hoped that Chip had found the information they needed to put an end to this.

Clothes were strewn all around the room, leading to the fold-out couch where Chip and Tommy were wrapped in a blanket on the couch. Neither had expected their hormones to react the way they did upon meeting each other again, and forty-five minutes later, they were exhausted and trying to catch their breath.

“What happened to you being straight? This is the second time we’ve been together like this,” Tommy said as his head rested on Chip’s shoulder.

“It’s . . . complicated,” Chip said as he stared up at the ceiling. “Tommy, I need to know. Are you Elite?”

“What?” Tommy asked in shock as he raised his head off of Chip’s shoulder. “No! Why would you ask me that?”

“That’s why we’re here,” Chip said as he raised himself up, resting on his elbows as he adjusted his position to look at Tommy. “The Punisher thinks you’re behind these killings. He just wants to talk with you.”

“You mean snap me like a twig?” Tommy asked as he sat up, placing his feet on the floor before burying his face in his hands. “I can’t believe I fell for this. What? Did you let this happen just so could have one last joyride before your friend throws me out the window?”

“No!” Chip said as he sat up, putting an arm around Tommy. “Frank doesn’t know I’m here, I came alone to talk to you first. I- I care about you. More than I realized. I won’t let him hurt you, Tommy. You just have to tell him everything you know about Elite. We’ll find the real killer, together.”

“You promise I’m safe?” Tommy asked as he looked at Chip.

“I swear,” Chip whispered as the two gently kissed. Down the hall, Anna was just stepping off of the elevator, having to get something from the apartment before she went back to work.

Soap had gotten all the information he could to piece together Anna’s past, and was just walking out of the station when someone dragged him into the alley.

“Holy shit! Frank?” Soap asked nervously. “What are you doing here?”

Frank pulled the file from Soap’s hands, seeing it was about the old Elite case. “Obviously the same thing you’re doing. I’m trying to find this new Elite. I have a feeling it’s his son.”

“What? No, it can’t be Tommy,” Soap said as he stared up at Frank’s large frame. “Tommy’s the nicest kid you’ll ever want to meet. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“You know him?” Frank asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Come, Frank. Walk with me, talk with me,” Soap told him, still under the impression that they were old friends. “And, uh, try not to hurt me when I tell you what I have to tell you.”

Chip was in the bathroom, getting cleaned up while Tommy was pulling on his clothes. The door started to open as Anna walked in.

“Hello, brother,” Anna said as she kissed his cheek. “Is everything alright? Your face looks flushed.”

“Just . . . exercising,” Tommy said. “Have to stay in shape to wait tables, you know.”

“Tommy, waiting tables is so below you,” Anna said as she stepped past him. “You should come work for me. It’s more dignified than cleaning up after other people.”

“I know, but I’ve never been the business office type,” Tommy told her. “I like earning my money the old-fashioned way.”

“Is the shower running? Is Martin home?” Anna asked as she headed to the bathroom, as Tommy cut her off before she reached the door.

“No, it’s a friend of mine,” Tommy told her nervously. “We’re heading out soon and he needed to freshen up first. His apartment’s all the way uptown and he just got off work. I hope it’s okay.”

“Just don’t stay out too late, you know I’m a light sleeper,” Anna said as she headed to her bedroom to get something from under her bed. Tommy sighed as he closed the bathroom door, not sure how to explain himself to her.

Meanwhile, down the hall, Frank and Soap were getting off the elevator, ready to have a little talk with Tommy.

To be continued…