32 Chapter 32 - Central Park

Mikael walked through the park as he watched the sight of children playing with their families. Kites dotted the sky and laughter filled the air around him. It was a peaceful moment and he would have liked to just take the time to enjoy it, however it wasn't a luxury he could afford this day. For him, it was going to be a busy one.

He was pulled from his internal thoughts as a hand gently grabbed his shoulder. He turned to look at Jean, wearing in a red sundress and bright smile as she walked alongside him.

"Is something wrong?" Jean asked as she walked in front of him.

"No, not at all. I just remembered I have to take care of some business later." Mikael answered with a smile as he looked past her and spotted his parents in the distance near a large carousel. His mother sat next to little girl and another woman on a picnic blanket while his father stood next to a large grill as another man stood next to him watching over a young boy playing with a kite.

Mikael walked over to his family as Jean followed alongside him. His mother quickly noticed their approach as she stood up and walked over. She gave Mikael a short hug before she turned to look at Jean.

"Jean! I'm so glad you could make it!" Sarah said with a smile as she gave Jean a hug.

"Well come on then, take a seat. I have so many questions." Sarah told them as she pulled Jean over to the space they set up at.

"This is Maria and her daughter Lisa." Sarah introduced as she sat down with Jean.

"You must be Mikael. It's great to meet you, your mother's told me a lot about you." Maria said as she pulled out an assortment of baked goods from a basket.

"Hi! I really like your dress." The young girl said as she waved at Jean.

"Hey Mikael! You made it just in time!" Thomas called out as he walked over with the other man and little boy, each now carrying an aluminum tray of food.

"That's my son." Thomas told the man next to him as he handed the tray to Sarah before sitting down.

"I'm Frank, this is my son Frankie." Frank held the tray with his left hand as he introduced himself and his son before holding out his right hand.

"I'm Mikael. I've heard a lot about you." Mikael responded as he shook Frank's hand before they all sat down.

"Wait, you're THE Mikael! Oh my god, your hover boards are super cool!" Frankie yelled out as he did a double take when he saw Mikael's face. Mikael just smiled as he made a motion to be quiet.

"Hoverboards? Is that what he makes?" Frank asked in surprise.

"He makes a lot of things actually. He's the one that made that new prosthetic that Curt got." Thomas answered as he handed Mikael a bottled soda.

"Really? That was you? Guess I should thank you for that." Frank said as he opened a bottle and handed it to his son.

"It wasn't any trouble. He seemed like a good man so I felt like he deserved better than the one he had." Mikael replied with a smile as his eyes looked past Frank to the carousel. He spotted a man sitting on a bench with an open newspaper in front of him. It was clearly out of place to him, especially given that the man's eyes weren't reading the paper but instead were trained on Frank.

"Well you're right, he did." Frank said as he looked towards Thomas who just nodded in agreement.

"So is this your girlfriend?" Thomas asked as he looked at Jean.

"Well-" Mikael tried to answer before Jean interrupted.

"I'm Jean. It's nice to meet you." Jean introduced herself causing Mikael to raise an eyebrow in surprise at the sudden interruption.

"Well it's nice to meet you too. I was worried Mikael was just going to stay single his entire life." Thomas responded with a smile. Jean tilted her head slightly as she looked back at Mikael.

"What? I was busy." Mikael said shrugging his shoulders. The group continued to talk amongst themselves as they ate while Mikael occasionally scanned the surroundings. About an hour later Mikael spotted groups of people beginning to converge on the opposite of the large carousel. The man he spotted earlier was now leaning against a light post and talking on the phone.

"Excuse me for a moment. I just remember there's a call I need to make." Mikael said as he stood up and started walking away. Sarah tilted her head slightly as she watched him walk towards the restrooms. For a brief moment she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her when it looked as though his form turned translucent for a brief second. She shook her head as she turned back and continued her conversation with Jean.

Mikael stood on top of the carousel as he looked down at the three gangs gather below. The Kitchen Irish, the Dogs of Hell and the Mexican Cartel all stood there facing each other. He also noticed one individual in particular that seemed to be particularly nervous as he constantly looked around the surroundings. His eyes narrowed slightly as he watched the gang members becoming impatient and starting to argue.

"Where is he?"

"You're asking me? Who the fuck should I ask?"

"What if this is a sting?"

"Which one of you fuckers ratted us out?"

Mikael watched as one gang member drew his gun. Like a line of dominoes every gang member drew their own weapon in response and pointed them at each other. Mikael looked to the side slightly as the sounds of children playing echoed in his ear and his eyes narrowed. The gang members started shifting their weapons back and forth at one another until suddenly they noticed the world suddenly getting dark around them.

"What the fuck? What is this?" One of the bikers asked as he noticed a dark fog seeping out of the ground.

"Which one of you fuckers is doing this?" One of the members in a suit asked as he pointed his weapons at the other gangs.

"You all have a lot of nerve." A cold voice filled the air as the rocks trembled beneath their feet. The crowd started to look around them only to find the couldn't see anything beyond a yard of their group. It was as though the whole crowd was inside a dome that consumed all light from outside its borders.

"There! There's something there!" One of the bikers pointed to the top of the carousel as they saw a shadowy hooded figure standing on the edge of the structure's roof. They watched as the figure took a step off the ledge and float down slowly to the ground in front of them.

"Who the fuck are you? Hoodini?" One of the bikers stepped up the figure. The hooded figure lifted their head revealing a silver, red and black helmet.

"What the f-" The words had barely left his mouth when his head suddenly twisted to face the group behind him. The gang members shouted and jumped away from the body that slumped to its knees before collapsing on the ground. The group tried to point their guns towards the figure only to have their weapons ripped from their hands and held above their heads.

"You knew that there would be innocent people in this park and yet you came here with weapons anyway. You make your deals without any regard to the innocent men, women and children around you." The figure spoke in a cold voice while stepping over the corpse on the ground as it began to burn with blue flames.

"I am Archon. And you should consider yourselves lucky I have more important things to do than waste the rest of this beautiful day painting the city red with your bodies." The cold voice echoed through the air shaking their bones as their bodies were held in place by some invisible force.

"Give my warning to every gang in this city. I don't care if you sacks of human waste kill each other. But if anyone dares to cause another shootout in a populated location again? You will be erased." The figure raised a hand in front of them. A loud snap reverberated through the air as every single gang member dropped to the ground unconscious. The figure turned to look at a single man that was still standing.

"And as for you. I have a different message I want you to deliver to your District Attorney. The next time she decides to do something by ignoring innocent bystanders, I will treat her like a criminal. And she will be punished like one." The figure said as it pointed to the corpse that had now turned to a pile of ash.

"Do you understand?" The voice echoed in the back of the man's head as he quickly nodded his head vigorously.

"Good. Now clean up the trash. Now." The darkness around them suddenly vanished as sunlight filled the area once more. The man blinked at the sudden change in lighting and when he opened his eyes again the figure was gone. He would've liked to treat the events as just the stress of being undercover causing hallucinations. However when he looked at the field of unconscious bodies, weapons and the singular pile of ash slowly mixing into the wind, it was clear what happened. The man stepped away and pulled out a phone before he began to shakily dial a number.

"District Attorney Reyes." A woman's voice answered the call.

"T-This is Jacobs."

"Has he shown up?"

"N-No mam. We have a pr-problem." The man answered as he looked at the scene around him. Mikael watched from on top of the carousel as the man started to report on the situation. Mikael looked away towards the man he saw previously as he was quickly approaching the carousel. The man stopped around the side of the carousel and started making a phone call. Mikael quickly pressed a button on the side of his watch just as the man started talking.

"Sir, there's a problem."

"What is it?" A gruff voice asked on the other end of the call.

"The gangs are all down."

"What do you mean they're down?"

"Sir they're all laying on the ground unconscious."

"Explain."

"Sir they had their guns pointed at each other one moment ready to start shooting but then they just froze in place for a minute before dropping to the ground." The man said as he looked over the scattered group of bodies on the ground.

"First that kid shows up and now this?"

"Sir, do we continue?"

"No, pull back and await further orders."

"Understood sir." The man put his phone away as he gave the scene another glance before starting to walk away. Mikael flicked his wrist as a small disc landed on the ground in the man's path and stuck to the bottom of the man's shoe as he walked over it. Mikael gave his watch another look as he saw a flashing red dot traveling away on a map. He dropped down from the roof of the carousel and started to walk back to his family. He sat down with a smile as his eyes followed the man as he disappear from view.

As Mikael continued spending the rest of the day with his family, on the other side of the city things were not quite as peaceful. A line of men stood at attention as a older gray haired man paced back and forth in front of them.

"You mean to tell me, not a single one of you knows what happened?" The man asked as he looked over each and everyone of the men in front of him.

"No sir. Everything was proceeding to plan until they all just dropped." One of the men answered. The older walked around his desk as he leaned over the desk propping himself up with both arms, one of them prosthetic.

"God damn it. Get out. I need to make a call." The man said as the men quickly filed out of the office. The older man pressed a button on the phone before he reached into the drawer of the desk and pulled out a bottle.

"Is it done?" A cold voice asked over the phone.

"No, there's been a complication." The man said as he sat down in his chair and opened the bottle.

"What kind of complication?"

"The gang shootout didn't happen as we originally planned. Something rendered them all unconscious before they started shooting." The man answered as he took a swig from the bottle.

"Do you know what may have caused that?"

"No. But it could have something to do with the fact that Mikael Argent was present. It could be his security team that did it."

"Argent? Why was he there?"

"It looked like his family was friends with Castle. Do you think Castle could have shared it with them?"

"Maybe. We need to be sure. Send a team to find out. He's just some 18 year old kid, use whatever means you have to. It shouldn't be too hard to break him just make sure no one can track it back to us. Better yet capture him, maybe we can make him to give us his technology."

"And Castle?"

"Just send another team to his house. Make it look like a burglary gone wrong. Make sure nothing goes wrong this time." The voice said as the call ended. The man took another swig from the bottle before he put it back into the drawer and dialed another number on the phone.

"Russo. There's something we need you to do."