Chapter 21

Mr X stands with Electra as she frantically presses the elevator button in the basement of the control centre.

"Go and find Dr Dham, I will drive my way out of the tunnel and will meet you at the usual check point" Mr X orders her.

Electra looks at her watch "five minutes left now until launch"

Mr X: "Call Raven and any of our fighters back at Wood Oak City. Tell them they have just three hours to gather our supplies before they find safety".

The elevator door opens as Electra steps in. "Be careful Javier" she politely says as he readies himself to flee.

Mr X: "I know you loved him but I want you to know that I still always respected you for putting our business first".

Electra questions him with confusion on her face: "Who? What are you talking about?"

Mr X: "Tiger. We will avenge him I promise".

A tear rolls down Electra's face as the elevator doors shut.

Mr X swiftly walks to the basement car park as he presses his keys to open his black Mercedes. Although this was never an ideal scenario, he always had a backup getaway plan and this was it. With most of his soldiers and fighters now dead, the number one priority is to make it to safety. As he turns and looks behind, he walks forward but the car fails again and again to unlock from its key. He immediately realises there is a problem as Axel steps out from behind one of the pillars.

Mr X stops and glares at him with evil in his eyes.

Axel immediately charges forward with fire in his fists as he executes a powerful upper cut that sends Mr X collapsing to the ground. With rage, he kicks and punches him over and over again until his enemy is coughing blood. Axel then lifts Mr X by the collar to his feet.

"Six million people, six millions lives will die because of you!" Axel says before he punches him again in the face.

Mr X raises his hands in the air as Axel loosens his grip but he retaliates by trying to punch back. Axel is quick to dodge his efforts as Mr X falls to the ground and lies helplessly on his front, still in pain from being burnt earlier.

Axel: "I swore to myself this day would come where I would kill you!"

Mr X: "you would kill me in cold blood? I'm a helpless man right now, just like your father was when you killed him".

Axel: "Visser, that man you worked with was not my father! I killed him and I'll kill you for what you did!"

Mr X holds one more lifeline as Axel lifts him off the ground to annihilate him.

"Wait" he quietly says, out of breath and in pain "wait.. I can stop the bomb. But if you kill me, there's no chance".

Axel pulls out a knife presses it against his back then forces Mr X to walk towards the elevators that lead to the control centre upstairs.

"He's in that room!" Blaze points up at the glass window to where Dr Dham is stationed. Her and Shiva run as quickly as possible up the rest of the stairs towards the control room doors.

"Shit I can't open the door!" Shiva says as they try to bust open the heavily secured room. Inside they can see Dr Dham in fear frantically running around looking for another way out.

Blaze tries to throw an electric ball with her chi towards the door which starts to break. Shiva then intervenes as the two of them attack the door from right and left with their chi. As they get closer to opening the door, they notice Electra holding her hand out to Dr Dham from one of the vents on the ceiling.

"Come with me before it's too late!" Electra shouts down at Dr Dham as the door to the room shakes.

"Hurry!" She becomes impatient as he makes sure that he retrieves one last flask sample of blood that he places in his lab coat pocket. He takes her hand and is lifted to safety just in time before the thick door shatters and opens.

Blaze immediately runs over to the controls with over 100 buttons and a large screen displaying the missile. She is overwhelmed and pressured for time with less than four minutes to go now. Shiva jumps and pulls himself into the vent to go after Electra and Dr Dham in the hope that he will find them in time to stop the launch.

Blaze uses her hand print to try and gain access to the controls. She also types in emergency codes to try and deactivate the missile but it is no use. The only words that become displayed are 'Access Denied' in red.

She uses a phone attached to the wall to contact Tim Murphy who is stationed in Wood Oak City where it is now in the middle of the night.

'Please pick up' she whispers to herself.

Blaze: "Tim?! Tim can you hear me?!" she panics.

Tim: "Blaze?!"

Blaze: "We're running outta time, I'm calling you from the centre of Lima. A missile has been activated with target Wood Oak City, I can't stop it! Send warning to everyone to evacuate the city immediately. Please, Mr X is on the run".

Tim: "What? Mr X is dead! We killed him have you gone insane?!"

Blaze: "No no no no listen to me, I am standing right in front of an energy missile with my power inside that will destroy the city! You killed a decoy, please listen".

Tim: "You got some nerve Fielding calling this late after deserting us. The Government signed the treaty weeks ago the war is over!"

Blaze: "What? But I left Wood Oak City five days ago. The wound is still healing on my leg when the explosion hit our building. Murphy?!"

Tim: "You've been gone now for almost three months! The war is over!"

Blaze: "No, no that can't be right. It will take three hours for the bomb to reach Wood Oak City, please get yourself to safety if you want to live".

Tim: "Goodbye Blaze"

#Hangs up#

Blaze is left staring into space in shock. Three months? That can't be right. Is this really all just a dream again or a fake reality? She is quickly distracted from her thoughts as she props up into a fighting stance when Mr X enters the room with Axel. He forces Mr X forward who places his hand on the control reader. The display board then lights up a green colour as the control buttons become activated. 'Access Granted' A female voice speaks out from the computer.

"Deactivate it!" Axel orders as there is now less than two minutes left on the clock. Mr X smirks and hesitates.

"I said Deactivate it you son of a bitch!" he insists.

Mr X proceeds and types in a code. The voice from the computer speaks again "Please enter new coordinates".

Axel: "New coordinates?"

Mr X: "It's too late to stop the bomb, looks like you get to choose who dies again" he heckles.

Axel grabs him impatiently around the collar "I said deactivate this piece of shit!" Mr X laughs again as the clock continues to count down. He then silences his laugh with a punch to the face.

Blaze and Axel look at each other in front of the controls feeling undecided.

"Someones gotta die!" Mr X laughs again as he looks up at them from the floor.

"Target Wood Oak City province, 40 seconds. Please enter new coordinates" the computer repeats.

"He's right" Blaze says as she reaches for Axel's dog tags around his neck.

"You fucking genius!" He reacts as he pulls off his chain and punches in the coordinates to the Yamato temple.

"12 seconds… 10, 9, 8,…."

They stand back as they watch the bottom of the missile fire up. It burns with heat and the light is too bright so they take cover and lie face down on the ground whilst shielding their ears as the noise intensifies before the missile is projected on its course and into the sky.