captain, their cries for someone to come to their aid that brought me here tonight.” Shade walked out from the shadows and looked at the Captain. “Do you hear the sirens captain?” Stoneheart turned and face Shade gun drawn but could hear the sirens coming towards them. “Put the gun down Captain, you’ve lost this night.”

“Not a chance, if I’m going down I’m going to take you with me.” but as he aimed his gun he felt something pulling his hands down, as he looked down he could hardly believe what he saw the shadows had come alive and was slowly binding him.

“I told you Captain of what I was, to those who harm the innocent I’m something truly horrific.”

“This can’t be… this can’t be happening.” as the captain started to fell the shadows pulling him down into the darkness he gasped and looked the Ghost in terror. “Please, don’t kill me.” Stoneheart begged as he watched Shade slowly walk up to him and kneel down in front of him.

“Oh captain my captain, death is to good for the likes of you, but then again there are far worst things then death in this world, and when you are freed from your torment, you will confess to everything, because if you don’t, I can promise you that there is no place you can hide that I will not find you. There is no cell, no prison, no island that they can put you on that I will not be able to get to you.” with those words Shade stood up and walked away. And as the Captain drifted deeper into his own personal nightmare Shade smiled as saw the harbor patrol arriving. On the deck Shade could see the chief of police standing and smiled slightly. As the chief climbed up and saw the scene he looked at Shade who was still looking out at the city.

“Where are they?”

“In the inner part of the hull.” with that Shade walked down into the hull followed by the chief and the harbor patrol team, as they got to the lowest deck Shade lead them to an opening that let them look at the inner part of the outer hull. As he pocked his head in he smiled as he shinned some light and climbed inside. “This way.” as they climbed into the narrow gap they followed Shade until they reached about half way down the ship, where they found several makeshift benches welded to the hull and on each cot laid a little girl tied at the wrist. “This is how they got the girls out, on each inspection your men only shinned alight at the opening, they never walked in this area because once a ship is put to see trying to do this is very dangerous.” Shade explained and the harbor master nodded.

“But how did you know they would be in here?”

“I didn’t, I snuck on board when you where doing your inspections, and figured I would look in the areas that your men didn’t, that’s when I found them, but by the time I had gotten out of the hull they had already started off, I had to stop them so I destroyed their engines, and once I was able to put the rest of Stoneheart’s men to sleep I was able to send out that communication from his radio room.

“Alright let’s get these children out of here, and those crew men in cuffs.” by the time they got back to the docks the night was almost done, and as Shade started to walk away the harbor master looked at the Chief. “So that’s the Ghost… any idea of who he is?”

“Not a clue, but I have a hunch by his size that he might be hiding more secrets then who he is.”

“His size?”

“The way he carries him self, talks, and acts I’m assuming that when he was growing up he must have been the smallest and got picked on a lot.”

“Ah so he must be a runt.”

“That runt has been taking down criminals right and left, and has already solved 2 major crimes, and has helped us make a dent in the drug ring of this city.”

“Let’s just hope he stays on are side.” As the two grown men talked they didn’t notice Shade vanish from sight. But on his way home he couldn’t help but pay a visit to the Cunningham house hold, though Baloo and Rebecca hadn’t been married yet, it was coming soon, and as Shade looked in on them he smiled as he could see that Kit was really enjoying his hearts desire, Kit had a family, and soon it would be all legal. Shade was glade for Kit but he couldn’t help to feel just a little envious of him. As Shade kept on his path back to his lair he smiled knowing that he was able to save a lot of innocent lives on this day.

*****

Case 5

Jail house blues

*****

Buffy wasn’t bluffing when he said that Shade and the chief would know just how powerful he was. Drug addicts had been turned against the police and the Ghost. From what the chief and Shade gathered, the drug lord had offered five pounds worth of frost to anyone that could stop the police from meddling in his operations, and ten pounds of the stuff to anyone that was able to take down the Ghost and bring proof. This brought a hole new problem into the mix, stores had been selling Ghost costumes for over a month now, and almost every little kid in the city had one, after a few cases of children getting hurt because of some tripped out nut thinking they were the real Ghost, the police issued a special report telling parents not to let their children wear the costumes for their own safety. While at the same time the real Ghost seem to make it a point to remain a thorn in the Drug lords empire by taking down his dealers, and their little drug houses as well. It was clear to both sides that if the others wanted to fight they would be more then happy to bring it on.

One night as Shade was making his rounds he saw a late addition paper at one of the news-stands. “Hot hands ma-ma?” with that Shade got to the street and started to read the article. After a few minutes he tossed a quarter on the news stand and headed off towards higher for hire. As he reached the building he walked inside to find Baloo sitting at Rebecca’s desk. “Why is Rebecca’s face on the front page?” Shade asked, as he looked at Baloo who looked up at him and then shook his head.

“I don’t know, she seemed so happy and this morning, she just went and tried to rob a bank.”

“I got the bank job info from the paper. Now mind filling me in on why she did it?”

“I wish I could, but I can’t, I don’t know why she did it, she just went to the bank and robbed it,… I didn’t even know she owned a gun.” Baloo said, as he got up and started to walk around the room in a shocked daze. “I’m already getting calls from child protective services, they’re saying that this isn’t a good home for Molly or Kit and are threatening to take them away tomorrow. Everything was going so well, we were going to get married next month, Kit had new parents, the company was doing great, and then she does this I don’t even know what to do.” with that Shade nodded and then put the paper on Rebecca’s desk.

“Your going to be strong Baloo, for Molly’s sake you have to be strong, children can pick up on bad things and if Molly sees you freaking out like this she’s going to think everything isn’t going to be alright.” Baloo stopped pacing around for a minute and looked at Shade, the way he spoke Baloo almost forgot that he was talking to a child himself, he had seen Shade do a lot of things, and had always noticed how he carried himself and spoke, if not for the fact that Baloo knew the truth he would of believed that Shade was an adult as well.

“Listen Shade, I know you’ve done a lot, I know you’ve done things at your age that I’m impressed about, but you can’t go against the law, you said it your self you’re a good guy, and even if your broke Becky out where would we go?” Shade looked at Baloo confused for a second and then smiled slightly.

“That’s the spirit big guy, keep telling jokes like that keep the humor alive. As for me I’m going to go and have a talk with Rebecca and find out what drove her to a life of crime.” As Shade headed out the door Baloo was left stunned in the middle of the office. A few hour later in the Cape suzette Female prison Rebecca lay on a hard prison bed sobbing lightly as her life had just been turned upside down. She didn’t truly know how everything had happened so fast one minute she was feeling on top of the world, her business was booming, are family was growing, and she was getting married in a month. Just then she heard a squeeking sound, as she sat up she started to look around scared that there was a rat in the cell with her. As she started to tear up again she looked towards the window the only link she had to the outside world only to be hit in the head by a rock.

“OW!”

“Oops, sorry about that.” Shade said, as his face appeared on the other side of the bars. As Rebecca walked up to the window rubbing her head she looked at Shade with a smile on her face.

“What are you doing here?” Rebecca asked, as she reached through the bars and put a gentle hand on Shade’s face, trying to force a smile as if being brave in front of him. Shade found him self smiling back excepting the tender touch before he shook his head and got serious.

“I should be asking you the same thing.” Shade said coldly as he locked eyes with Rebecca. “I need you to remember the events that happened today, I need to know what happened and how.” Rebecca nodded but then found herself back in the higher for hire office looking around stunned Shade appeared