Time Crisis: Ultimatum…

Summary: The World is in peril once more but the good guys can't seem to get any Intel, so they send in their best men… but it seems the bad guys have a new agenda; they want the heroes for their own judgements… and they've taken the whole world hostage to get them… (TC1, II, 3 & 4 combo – Evan B centred)

Warnings: This is an AU (alternate Universe) Fic, meaning it does not follow the script or story of the Games… Well it might do in some areas but that's purely coincidental because I've only ever played TC4 in the arcade. Also all translations were done online with an online translator. If you can speak the languages I'm trying to translate and if you know it's wrong, could you please let me know because we all know online translators are sh-bleeeeep-…Thanks!

Authors Note: Happy New Year! Ok, so I dunno if I'm happy with this chapter or not. When I was writing it, it seemed rushed so I tried to slow things down a bit but I'm not sure if I've gone too slow now… Let me know your opinions and if you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

As always, let me know what you think, but no flames please. If you have any criticism to make please do it politely otherwise I shall ignore your words. (It's happened before, I'm sorry to say, and I hadn't even posted any real chapters…)

Chapter Nine:

Alan and Wesley weren't quite sure what to expect when they arrived at Evan's building but a dead and silent complex was not it. They had both nodded to one another and split up, knowing without communicating, what their respective jobs would be. Wesley headed for the back of the building where the generator was located and Alan took point on securing the building. It was a routine they'd used on numberless accounts and they were good at what they did. Wesley had a doctorate in engineering so he'd be able to get the backup generator working again, at least until they could evacuate the building of any civilians and injured persons. Alan was the people person out of the duo and would be able to calmly encourage the evacuation with the skills to enforce if necessary.

Wesley wasn't sure what to expect when he'd reached the generator but the electrical device hooked up to it was not it. He peered at the device for a moment before noticing the countdown screen. Immediately, his thoughts went towards explosives because that was what one would expect in these situations, especially when faced with an unfamiliar device that was counting down. But Wesley had a pretty good idea of how explosives work and this one had no incendiary device. Nor did it have any volatile components to set off. It was just a plain box with circuitry connecting to the backup generator's failsafe activation unit.

Someone was keeping the power off in the building for a reason. Wesley frowned, mystified as to why someone would only want to delay the activation of the backup generator. Why not just take out the generator? Why give yourself a time limit?

Traces. That had to be it. Whoever was after Evan had wanted to leave no trace of their existence. No camera footage, no ID from other occupants, no evidence to show why or how the power had been affected.

This was a professionals work.

"Alan." Wesley called into their short range radios. He needed to warn his partner that they were dealing with someone who knew what they were doing.

"What's up Wes?" Alan's voice crackled over the radio and into Wesley's earpiece quietly. It was standard procedure so have their radios plugged into earpieces otherwise anyone near the recipients radio could hear plans and conversations… even the enemies.

"It's a pro. Got a delaying device on the generator. Someone wants to erase all evidence of their existence here and keep visuals to a minimum." Wesley reported back as he set to work unhooking the device.

"Sounds dangerous. Trust Evan to attract this type of guy." Alan's voice responded through the earpiece. "What do you say we shed some light on the situation?" Alan added. Wesley smirked a little, trust Alan to come up with such a wisecrack. Wesley took hold of the last connection to the device and removed it from the generator. A slow hum started as the backup generator was suddenly able to detect its trigger command. Wesley looked up at the building and after a mental countdown in his head he replied into the radio.

"And the good Lord said; 'Let there be light.'" He heard Alan snigger and then right on cue, all the lights flickered on.

"I thought the wisecracking was my job…" Alan's voice chuckled through the earpiece. Wesley shook his head a little before taking the device off the platform it had been sat on and began jogging back to Alan's jeep with it. If it was evidence that the intruder had intended to take with them, then it was valuable to the VSSE too.

"Your job is to get people out of there." Wesley reminded him as he sprinted across to the car. Not even seconds later, Wesley heard the fire alarm blaring from inside the building. Good that would trigger emergency help reactions which should make it difficult for the intruder to escape. Wesley knew his job was to stay outside and watch the building for potential escapees; good, bad or otherwise. He took up position at a distance where he could see as much of the building as possible. He knew that if someone escaped from the windows on the other side of the building he'd miss it entirely but there was little he could do at this point to prevent that. He'd have to focus on those being evacuate whilst keeping an eye out for anything suspicious.

His job wasn't supposed to be easy.

Alan had already made it up to the third floor by the time Wesley had contacted him about the delaying device. He'd already come across the unconscious receptionist and bellhop behind the reception desk and had called for an ambulance. He'd checked that they were alive and in a safe enough position to remain that way too but his priorities were focussed on evacuation and finding Evan and Giorgio.

After his brief conversation with Wesley, Alan switched channels to Giorgio's usual channel and hoped that the guy had his short range radio on him and switched on. If it came down to crunch time, he'd have to call the senior agent's cell phone but if Giorgio was in a 'radio silence' situation that could cause problems.

He gave three quick taps to his send button on his earpiece and waited while running up another flight of stairs. The alarm he'd set off just now was blaring away and he was now navigating through the first few evacuees as they began descending to safety. One man stopped him and asked what was going on and Alan almost missed Giorgio's response which came in at the same time the other guy had snagged his arm. Alan quickly waved him down the stairs and told him to just wait outside, he then pressed his earpiece again and spoke.

"G-man what's the sit-rep?" He asked as he struggled to move past a family of six all running the opposite direction in a cramped stairwell.

"I'm in the maintenance shaft, wanted the element of surprise. I'm almost to Evan's floor. What's happening your end?" Giorgio's accented voice asked through Alan's earpiece. Alan had to pause a little while an elderly man was helped past him before he sprinted up the next flight of stairs. The number of people evacuating was increasing and that made it difficult for Alan to move in the opposite direction.

"I'm stuck in traffic on the seventh floor. Evan's on the twenty-forth right?" He asked, reconfirming his information whilst trying to navigate the flood of people. Giorgio confirmed the information was correct before Alan's earpiece buzzed, indicating he was getting communications from another channel. "Giorgio, switch to the multi-channel, Wes wants to talk to too." He advised before switching to Wes's channel.

"What the hell Alan, your radio was disconnected!" Wesley's voice shouted into his ear. "Is everything alright?" His partner asked quickly. Alan jumped a few steps before rounding the corner and racing up the next flight.

"I was talking to Giorgio, he's on the multi-channel now. Switch across." Alan replied and without waiting for a response he switched to their multi-channel frequency. Wesley clicked in not too long afterwards too.

"Glad you boys could make the party." Giorgio greeted with a little strain in his voice. He was clearly getting a work out from his activities in the maintenance shaft. From what Alan could remember, it was all narrow ladders and dark enclosing walls. He was not envious of the senior agent.

"Got the invite later, would've RSVP'd sooner but time was not our friend tonight. Traffic is abysmal here." Alan responded, glad to have the banter to distract him from his worry. The power had been on for a few minutes now and the alarm had been blaring for just as long and there was no attempt of contact from Evan at all.

"Alan, the elevators should be working now. Save your legs, you might need them later." Wesley advised. Clearly Wesley had not been idly waiting outside, he'd overridden the automatic shutdown procedures for the elevators whenever the alarms go off and had turned them back on. Alan wasted no time in opening the nearest floor door and proceeded to the clearer hallway which lead to the private elevator cubicles. He passed by two families heading for the stairs and one professional looking woman before the corridor was cleared.

He pushed the call button and waited impatiently in the hall. His visits to this building had been limited to only a handful of times when he'd been invited to Evan's apartment for various social events. Even though he'd only ever seen the foyer, the inside of the elevator and his friend's apartment, Alan knew the layout of the building. The lower levels of the building were designed in much the same way as a normal high rise building; that being that there were corridors with three or four apartments on each level with a communal lift to those floors. However from floor sixteen to thirty, the floors turned into private apartments for the richer or more privileged tenants. Alan was currently stood on level eleven and was rapidly trying to remember Evan's pin code.

"Giorgio. Evan's pin…" he began asking into the radio but Giorgio knew what he needed and interrupted before Alan could finish his sentence.

"Five, four, seven, three, nine, two." He recited, "I'm on floor twenty now. Almost there." He added. The elevator pinged open and Alan jumped inside and jammed the pin-code into the keypad. The doors gently closed and the carriage began its serene pace up through the floors. As slow as the carriage seemed to be travelling for such an emergency, it certainly took less time than it would have had, had Alan continued travelling by foot against the tide of human evacuees. In mere minutes (which felt longer) Alan was bracing himself against the side of the elevator for cover with his Beretta U22 Neos semi-automatic and waiting for the elevator doors to slowly open.

The doors finally pinged open and as the first coil of light filtered through the crack of the doors, Alan tensed and stood his ground. The entrance to the apartment was clear but from his vantage point he could definitely see that a struggle had occurred.

"I'm in the room, elevator entrance is clear. Looks like a struggle took place. No sign of Evan yet. Progressing forward." He reported into the radio and crept forward into the hallway.

"I'm at the twenty-second floor. Closing in fast. Be careful." Giorgio responded. Alan quickly checked the bedrooms first as they were the only rooms that had doors with which one could hide behind. However the two bedrooms and the bathroom were clear and with no signs of a struggle either. He tracked back down the hall, back passed the elevator door and proceeded into the open planned lounge-come-kitchen-come-dining area. At first all he could see was knocked over lamps, CD cases on the floor and a few other units knocked over. But then he found a splotch of blood on the carpet, which increased his own heartrate a little, and as he moved further into the room he finally laid eyes on his brother-friend.

"Evan!"

Tom had finally made it up the stairs to the twenty-forth floor. He'd managed to get most of the way up before the lights suddenly flicked on and the alarms began to blare. From that point on it had become a battle to travel against the crowd coming down the stairs. What should have taken twenty minutes had actually take close to forty-five.

Tom breathed heavily as he tried to catch his breath again. He reached into his jacket pocket and retrieved the emergency key-card to the fire escape hatch that was built into every upper floor bathroom. It wasn't a secret escape hatch, it was included as part of the building's original design but several design reforms later excluded them from all the apartments. However, Evan was a high rise carpenter and had installed the hatch himself without the landlord knowing. The stairwell it connected to led up to the roof and the other apartments were given the outside fire escape attached to each balcony that would lead them to the main stairwell he'd just climbed up to get to this part of the building. Over the years many had asked him what was behind the door at the top of the stairs that was always locked tight, his response had always been unhelpful and vague but no one really complained. The landlord wasn't a tenant himself either so he rarely visited the place and had had no need to visit the stairwells.

Tom had dreaded the day he'd have to use this unknown escape-come-entrance because it could only mean one thing. Evan was in danger.

Tom looked up to Evan like a lost little brother would look up to his cooler older brother, even though Tom was older than Evan by a good few years. Evan was a respected field agent and could look after himself really well in any situation. He was quick, agile and creative and had a very sharp mind.

But...

Tom was worried. Evan was injured when he'd come home which meant that his movements would be limited and his fighting capabilities would be weaker than usual. And also, to add paranoia to worry, the building was online again but Evan hadn't contacted his pager at all. Protocol dictates that in situations such as this, communication was the first priority. Report in ASAP to let other know your situation. The fact that Evan had failed to report in meant that something had prevented him from doing so and that frightened Tom. There was several secret buttons in Evan's apartment that only he and Evan knew about that would trigger such a report to say he was alive or ok but none of them had been touched.

So it was with a little trepidation that Tom held his key-card up to the scanner and carefully opened the small illicit escape hatch.

There was no immediate movement in the bathroom. Tom gave out a small breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding and quietly climbed into the small bathroom. That was when Tom heard a voice suddenly pierce the silence.

"Evan!" He froze and held his breath. He crept to the door of the bathroom. It was open but he couldn't see down the hall from his current angle. Not knowing who it was that had spoken, Tom was careful not to give himself away should it be an enemy but his fears were soon relieved when he finally caught a glimpse of the Evan's agent friend leaning over something in the middle of Evan's lounge area.

Tom lowered his gun and put his hands in the air to show he was a friendly.

"Agent Dunaway," he called to get the guy's attention. As predicted, Alan spun in his knees, gun aimed impeccably at Tom's chest with finger ready to pull the trigger at the first sign of danger. Tom slowly stepped out into the hallway. "It's Tom; the bellhop." He reassured. Alan recognised him and lowered his weapon but still had a rather incredulous look upon his face before turning back around to face what he was focussed on before.

"Where were you hiding?" The dark haired agent asked over his shoulder, "I checked those rooms myself, they were all empty." Tom came forward into the living area, explaining about Evan's secret hatch to the disused stairwell but stopped mid-sentence when he caught sight of what it was the younger agent had been hovering over.

Alan had his hands pressed firmly against a large red stain on the shoulder of one Evan Bernard. No doubt he was stemming the blood loss and also trying to wake the man up but with little success of the latter so far.

"Good Lord! What happened?!" He asked as he darted forward. Evan remained completely unconscious on top of his smashed coffee table and looked rather beaten about. His shoulder was slowly bleeding underneath Alan's hands and there was a nasty looking bruise above his right eyebrow and left temple. He'd clearly been fighting someone but there was no one else in the room and as far as Tom could see, nothing had been taken. So why had Evan been attacked? What was the purpose?

"Dunaway, where are you?" Another voice called, this time from the cupboard next to the elevator where the maintenance shaft could be accessed from.

"It's all clear G-man." Alan called back and in seconds the door to the storage cupboard flew open. Giorgio Bruno stepped out looking a little winded but other than that, was in complete control of himself. The Italian man's eyes found his partner's prone form laying on the floor and he inwardly cursed his and his partner's luck with trouble.

"What happened?" He asked, trusting Alan to have cleared the apartment for any dangers. Alan shook his head.

"I don't know. He was like this when I got here. Looks like a fight though. Shoulder's wounded and looks to have had a double whammy to the head." The younger agent reported, still knelt down next to his friend and pressing against the shoulder wound. Giorgio sighed in frustration. All that drama and they had no idea who had attacked his partner or why.

"We'll go over security tapes later, how bad is the shoulder?" He asked as he knelt down next to Evan's head on the other side of Alan.

"It's a slow bleed, looks worse that it is from what I can see." Alan replied. Tom quickly put himself to work and dashed off to the kitchen to find a few clean rags and a bowl to help clean the blood away from the wound. Once the paramedics arrived they could take over but for now they could at least try to see what they were dealing with.

Giorgio leaned down and pulled Evan's eyelids back, checking the dilation of his partner's pupils. "Looks like a mild concussion." He noted aloud. It explained why the kid hadn't woken up yet. "Let's see if we can't get sleeping beauty here to wake up." He quipped and started to gently tap Evan's cheeks.

"I'll leave the kissing to you Prince Charming." Alan replied with a quick grin before removing his hands to rip open Evan's shirt to get to the wound easier. Tom came back with a bowl of warm salted water and two clean kitchen towels. Alan took the first towel and set about cleaning the blood away.

Giorgio hid his smirk at the 'Prince Charming' comment and proceeded in trying to wake the unconscious man up. No one in the room was quite sure what had brought the young agent back to his senses, and would later argue that it was a combination of Giorgio's tapping, the salt water entering his wound and the voices talking over him. Nevertheless, Evan's reawakening happened in the form of a small frown at first, followed rapidly by a sudden yell and an abrupt ascent from his laid down position. In short; after a few taps and calls, Evan suddenly flew up into a sitting position and was caught quickly by Giorgio who held him firmly in place until the young man caught his bearings again. Meanwhile the spontaneous actions had knocked Alan backwards who had fallen into Tom's legs who then stumbled and fell onto the sofa behind him.

Had the situation not been serious, there was a certain comedic value that could have been taken as entertaining about the whole fiasco. However Giorgio felt no inclination to laugh as he felt his partner's vice like grip on his shirt and arm. Evan was shaking, either from exhaustion or an adrenaline rush, Giorgio wasn't sure but his partner was not letting up on his grip. Giorgio was quick to reassure Evan that he was safe and that his assailant wasn't present anymore and that the danger was over. Slowly, Evan's grip loosened on Giorgio's shirt and half a second later, the man completely collapsed into Giorgio's hold. The man was clearly exhausted.

"Guys have you found him?" Wesley's voice echoed through the earpieces with a hint of worry. For him it had been a while since he'd been given any new reports. "Is he alright?" the blond agent asked.

"He's alive Wes." Alan replied, "A little worse for wear and sporting anew hole for Dr Stephens to sew back up but otherwise he seems fine." At this Evan managed to mumble a complaint about his ribs and his chin but Giorgio was the only one who heard it. Alan moved back to sit next to Evan and held the spare kitchen towel in his hand. Evan saw it and knew what it meant. He gave a quick nod and braced himself. Alan quickly and firmly pressed the towel against Evan's shoulder wound and held fast as Evan flinched hard. "How soon before paramedics arrive?" Alan asked into his radio whilst holding the towel still against Evan's shoulder.

"One just turned up but we've got two unconscious people on the ground floor. Another ambulance is on its way, ETA ten minutes." Wesley reported back. The sound of sirens echoing through the radio when he spoke told them that at least the police were close by. Wesley would be taking point there.

"I'm aware. Found them as I cleared the area. They were fine and stable when I got to them but I had to move on." Alan replied more for Evan's peace of mind than for Wesley's. He knew that Evan was on friendly terms with all the staff in his building and he knew that Evan would be worried about them too. "Think you can stand up, Ev?" He asked, hoping to get them moving down the building to maybe meet the ambulance as it arrives.

Giorgio felt the kid nod against his own shoulder and decided that if by some miracle Evan did manage to get to his feet, he wasn't going to stay on his feet without help. Blood-loss and concussion were not a good mix.

"Ok, lean on me. We're going up on the count of three." Giorgio said, taking control of the maneuvering issue. "One." He gripped Evan's uninjured shoulder and placed the kids arm over his own shoulder. "Two." He then reached around and grabbed hold of the kid's belt loop in his jeans and made sure he had a good grip on it. He glanced at Alan making sure he was ready to follow the movement before calling out "Three," and then heaved both himself and Evan up to their respective feet. Alan kept pressure on the injured shoulder and Evan managed to keep his balance for the moment. Walking would be the difficult adventure but Giorgio had quite the firm hold on his partner that he didn't expect much of a problem.

Tom set to work quickly assessing the kid's original injury though he needn't have bothered, it seemed just as it was before the whole fiasco. Then he proceeded to check the kid's back for any lodged debris but only found a few scratches where the wood and cracked under his weight. The glass shards from the shelf underneath the wooden coffee table had pretty much smashed underneath the wood and it looked as though the wood had protected Evan from a nasty scarring. Once he was happy that Evan was not sporting any other concerning injuries, Tom moved to the elevator and pressed the call button before disappearing down the hall to one of the bedrooms.

Giorgio and Alan helped Evan move to the elevator which opened almost immediately, and entered the carriage just as Tom returned with a fleecy blue blanket. Shock was a serious reaction to trauma and Evan's body had already been healing at the time of this attack. Shock was to be expected and it was important to keep the person suffering from it as warm and as calm as possible, hence the blanket. Just in case.

The elevator doors closed and the group of agents slowly descended to relative safety. All of them happy and glad that their brother was still alive and safe.

Now the only questions were; who had attacked their brother and what were they going to engrave on the bastard's tombstone?

A/N: Sooo… a little anti-climactic but it gets better, I promise! Are you still interested?