Attack of the Black Snakes
By Maxwell Chan
Chapter 10
Max made the long climb up the stairs to the top floor where the director's office is held. He knew that it was all up to him to save everyone and he can't give up. He opened the door to the director's office. There he saw Julian sitting at the desk. Julian stood up and walked in front of the desk. "Hmph, I knew someone like you would come this far", he said. Max made no response as he stood there with his knife out. "So you have taken Kate away from me," Julian said. "I wouldn't exactly say that I took her away from you," Max said, "The term 'taking her away from you' would mean that we would be dating. Because we're not, she's the one who left you. And it's all because for these two years this gang was created, you kept that secret from her. Why did you do it?" Julian chuckled a little bit, "Because I knew with her kind heart she would go against my job but as a follower of the original leader, Ethan Josh Gonzales, I must do my job after him." Julian opened the window that was behind the desk. "Your arrival here is very fortunate. Listen to the voices of terror and the sounds. This city will soon be taken over by us, the Black Snakes! Once we're successful, we're gonna take over the whole state! And even the entire country!" he said with evil laughter. "You wouldn't dare to do that!" Max said. "Oh I will! And everyone is gonna obey us and if anyone disobeys, we'll take them down. And since you won't be on our side, you'll be the first to be punished! As payback for taking Kate, and as revenge for our original leader, Josh, it's time to die! And how about we have a fair fight without any weapons?" Julian said. "Fine", Max said and he put his knife away. Then his eyes started turning black and was ready to battle.
They started the battle with a tackle. Max landed a few punches on Julian but Julian got up very quickly and started attacking. They blocked each other's punches, kicks and many other attacks. Julian wasn't as pathetic against Max as he was on the night of the Black Snakes' arrest. Since he took over Josh's spot as leader, he trained the whole gang more aggressively. Max has noticed that since the night of their arrest. Max was starting to lose his defense after blocking so many attacks from Julian. Then after ten minutes of fighting, Julian began to combo Max with his many attacks. Not even Max's powers could detect those hits coming towards him as he was now brutally beaten by Julian. He was knocked back against a wall and was on one knee trying to regain energy. Julian stood right in front of him, "Not bad for someone your liking. But it looks like I have won the battle. Look at you, you can't even get up with the amount of energy lost from you" he said laughably. "You see, I'm not like what I was the last time we fought. As the powerful leader of the Black Snakes, I will succeed in this take-over." Max was too exhausted from the fighting to answer to him. He began to think that it was going to be the end for him and the end for the whole city. He also started to think what would happen if the Black Snakes really did take over the whole state. It wasn't a pleasant thought. In this vision, he was seeing every person in Mayland getting chased around by armed Black Snake members. There were buildings set on fire and were being destroyed. The people were dying from the gang. The more Max thought about this vision, the more he knew that this was no time to be fooling around.
"What's the matter?" Julian said, "Did you really give up? I guess you are a lot weaker than I thought" He picked up his knife from the desk and stood in front of Max again. "Sorry, but it looks like I've won the battle. Now it's time to finish you off." The blade was pointing towards Max. He lifted the knife upwards and swung it down to Max's head. But before it landed on his head, another knife came up and blocked the dropping. Max's knife was right above his head trying to defend off Julian's knife. Max's eyes begin turning black once more. "I won't let you take over this place!" Max said as he was slowly standing up. "Ugh! Why do you insist on getting in my way? Why does this all matter to you?" Julian yelled. "At this very moment, I'm going to stop you as Kate's friend!" Max shouted. And so the real fight begins. They were knifing. They blocked each other's knife attacks. Then Julian started struggling to defend Max's attacks. They stopped attacking for a brief moment, "I guess you can't use the right amount of power as much as you want!" Max said. Julian grunted and continued fighting but Max kept defending and when it was his chance he attacked. Then their knives collide with each other. Both of them put in much force until Max slashed Julian's knife out of his hand and the knife flew out of the window. At that moment, Julian knew that he was doomed and it was Max's turn to strike back. Max made one powerful flash attack and Julian got one serious cut through his body. As Julian was slowly falling to the ground, he made one last evil smile toward Max and was laughing very weakly, "Even if…you kill me…there's still…no way to…stop the whole…city…from…blowing up…" his last words said and he slowly made his death.
Max's eyes turned back to normal. He defused the detonator to stop the city bomb from exploding but there was still the problem that there was no way in stopping the tower bomb from blowing up. Max began to fall to his knees and was feeling very weak, "Ugh, what is this? I'm slowly losing energy…" he thought to himself. "No, I can't possibly lose, not now!" He tried to stand up but it was useless. He was brutally beaten from the long battle against Julian. He knew at this point, he would also be doomed with Julian. He began to envision the one he loved the most, Wendy. Once his energy couldn't handle anymore, he started to fall slowly to the ground, "I'm…sorry…Wendy…" he said to himself. As he laid on the ground next to Julian's dead body. At that moment, the timer on the tower bomb ticked zero and the whole tower started to blow up. Not a single Black Snake member that was inside the tower survived. "Wendy…I'm sorry…I didn't make it back to you alive", Max thought to himself as he was falling from the collapsing tower.
Meanwhile in the town square, the police were arresting the Black Snake member and the doctors came to take the wounded people into the ambulance trucks. Kate watched the doctors take her parents into the trucks while she was helping with the doctors. Everything was starting to clean up while Julian and Max were fighting in the tower. "Is this everyone out of the tower?" said one of the doctors. "I think", Kate replied. But then a frightened look showed on her face. "What's the matter?" said one of the doctors. Kate forgot that Max was still in the radio tower fighting Julian. "There's still one more person inside the tower!" Kate said in fear. Right at that moment, Kate, the doctors and the police began to hear an explosion. Kate turned around and looked. She saw the radio tower from the distance blow up and was collapsing. She gasped and was very concerned. She started to run back to the radio tower. "Ma'am!" said a doctor. But Kate did not stop as she continued running to look for Max.
When she arrived at the tower, she looked at the collapsed piled mess. Everything was destroyed. "Max! Max!" Kate yelled as she looked everywhere for Max. There was nothing. She looked down at the ground and saw a pair of glasses. When she picked them up, she knew they belonged to Max. She continued to look and there she found him lying on the ground. "Max!" she yelled as she ran towards him. She shook Max's body but he wasn't waking up. He was complete unconscious and was badly injured. "Max…" Kate said. She was beginning to feel really worried. Tears started coming down her eyes. "Don't worry. He's not dead", a voice said. Kate looked around to see where the voice was coming from. It was Tyler, Max's first college friend and the first person he met on the encounter of the Black Snakes. "He's still alive. He just had a very tough battle and has used up most of his energy. He needs to rest", he said. "Are you sure about this?" Kate said. "Yes. That big explosion that just happened, it takes way more than just that to take him out completely", Tyler said. Kate looked confused, "How do you know this?" she asked. "I'm a friend of his, from college. I know the power he holds", he replied. "Now he must be taken to care." "What do you mean? Like a hospital?" Kate said. Tyler closed his eyes for a brief second, "A hospital won't do him any good", he said. "Then, what should I do?" Kate asked in fear. "The person who he has saved several times throughout his journey can help him. That is to say, only you can save him", Tyler said. Kate started to look surprised, "You're telling me to take him over to my house and make him—", Kate said. "Yes. Do not worry. It won't be such a difficult task. I believe in you. You can do it. Please, you must help him out," Tyler said firmly. Tears stopped dripping down from Kate's eyes as she knew that if she didn't want Max to go, she knew that she had to take Tyler's word. So Kate took Max to her house where he rests.