Chapter 2: Tension Again
Author's Note: Sorry 'bout that, -blah- is for thought's only take off the blah... Don't mind if I
don't make sense.
Author's Note 2: Just to clear up, in case you noticed White's little lack-of-thought before he got
out of the car, it was supposed to be -Good boy,- White thought.
Author's Note 3: I intended this chapter to be the last, but thanks to Brin, I realized that it could
use a lot of improvement. Thanks for the advice. And now I'm gonna continue. What's the use
of a *two* chapter story anyway?
______________________________________________________________________________
"The snipers are down," Max whispered.
"What do we do now?" Sketchy asked. After all, if someone was in the building trying to kill
them, then they couldn't just go on dancing like nothing was happening.
Max, still looking up at the second level, said quietly, "I don't know."
"Shouldn't he be back by now?" Asha asked.
"Yeah, it is taking him awhile," Logan agreed. "Maybe he ran into some more trouble."
Suddenly, Max saw Alec slam into the railing of the second level, having been punched in the face
by White. Max got up and ran for the stairs. "White!"
The others followed her gaze and all got looks of worry and fear on their faces.
***
White threw another punch at Alec's face and Alec ducked. White lost his balance at little and
tipped forward. Alec came up under him and threw him into the wall.
The two men rushed at each other and began punching and kicking each other for all they were
worth. -In White's case, that's not very much,- Alec thought, as he landed a solid blow to
White's face.
The battle grew more and more heated. White kicked Alec in the ribs, hard, and Alec was sure he
felt a few of them break. Alec staggered back, but he ignored the pain as much as he could and
grabbed White's foot as he brought it up to kick him again. As he was about to twist it and break
a few bones, White jumped, bringing his other foot up to kick Alec in the head. Alec barely
managed to acknowledge the sound of something snapping as he held White's foot in a firm grip,
just before his vision blurred over slightly as the two men fell to the floor.
Despite his injured ankle, White was up first and aiming another kick to Alec's ribs. Alec barely
managed to roll away in time. He leapt to his feet shaking off his slight dizziness. White lunged
at him, aiming a punch at his face. Alec blocked it and returned the favour, breaking White's
nose.
***
"Alec, hold on," Max whispered as she rushed up the stairs. As annoying as Alec could be at
times, she didn't want him to be killed. In fact, she didn't even care about his annoying
comments, and she was sure the things she said to him sometimes did more damage than the
things he said to her.
Max found herself wishing she could take back those thing's she'd said.
'Isn't bragging what you do best?' Logan had said.
'Yeah, that and screwing up.'
Max had laughed. Alec sure hadn't. She'd seen the look on his face. -What the hell is my
problem?- She had continued laughing anyway. That must have stung much more than her
words. She'd been almost glad when he told her about the snipers. It had saved her from seeing
any more of that pained look.
She knew that Alec couldn't have forgotten it all, in favour of his 'mission.' It wasn't like this was
the first time she had inspired pain in his eyes. He had just pushed it aside. And Max would be
damned if she let him die before she fixed it for good.
-Hold on, Alec, hold on.-
***
Alec wasn't doing too well. He had several broken ribs, and God only knew what else was
broken. He was bleeding. He was bruised. His only consolation was that White appeared to be
in similar condition. Except White was well enough to be inflicting more pain.
White punched Alec in the gut and kneed him in the face when he doubled over. Alec staggered
backward. He managed to avoid White's next punch by stepping back yet again and he suddenly
felt his back hit the wall. He pushed off from it, and tackled White to the floor. Alec pinned
White down and began punching him mercilessly in the face.
As Alec brought his fist down yet again, White tilted his head to the side, causing Alec to put a
sizable dent in the floor. White threw Alec off him. Alec landed on his back on the floor and
white picked him up and threw him at the stairwell door. Which flew open just before he would
have hit it.
***
If Max hadn't been knocked down the stairs as soon as she opened the door, she would have
jumped a mile. She hit the between floors landing hard, the wind almost knocked out of her. She
whipped her head to the side to see Alec unconscious. She felt a swell of worry.
"Well, well, 452," White said coming through the stairwell door above her. "How nice to see you
again."
"Bite me," Max said, wiggling out from under Alec, who had landed half on top of her.
White slowly made his way down the stairs toward her. "You can never win, you know," he said.
"No matter how good Sandeman may have made you, you'll never be good enough to beat us."
He stepped onto the landing with her and Alec. "Why don't you just give up now?"
Max stood toe to toe with him and raised her eyes to look at him. "Because it's so fun to kick
your ass, and no matter what you say, I always will."
"Someday that pride of yours will get you killed."
"Someday *I'll* get *you* killed."
"You can't, you see, 452," White said, grinning. "You can't beat me one on one, and you have
no one around who can possibly help you."
"Do you suffer from memory loss, or are you just dumb?" Max sneered. "I always have back up."
Before White even knew what was going on, Alec kicked his legs up behind White, sending him
flying headfirst down the rest of the stairs. He hit the floor, unconscious.
Max reached out a hand and helped Alec up. "Thanks."
"Always."
"I know," Max smiled. "Are you okay?"
"I'll live," Alec replied. He took a deep breath and winced. "Probably with a few cracked ribs,
but I'll live."
They walked down the stairs, slowly and carefully, Max offering Alec a little support. He and
White both looked as if they had taken quite a beating. Not that Max cared about White. -I *do*
care about Alec,- she thought, and was a little scared of that.
When they got down, Max bent down and checked White's pulse. "He's still alive," she said.
"Remind me again why we can't just kill him?" Alec said in a pleading voice.
"Because the ordinaries don't know that he's not human, Alec," Max said, sounding a little upset.
"Let's get the hell out of here."
"Yeah. Gladly."
***
Logan, Asha, OC, and Sketchy anxiously watched the upper level and the stairwell door for any
signs of Max or Alec.
They were very relieved when the door opened and Max stepped out with Alec in tow. They all
visibly deflated.
Max motioned toward the exit. Sketchy began to stand, but Logan grabbed his sleeve and yanked
him bact to his chair. "Casually," he whispered.
"Well," said OC, "it's sure getting tired in here, what say we call it a night?"
"Yeah," agreed Asha, following along. "If I have to watch Sketchy try to dance once more, I'm
gonna be sick."
"Hey!" Sketchy said.
"Let's go home," Logan said.
They all grabbed their coats and slowly left the table, heading for the exit.
They met Max and Alec outside and all piled into Logan's car, with Logan in front of course, OC
and Sketchy squeezed into the front with him, and Asha, Max, and Alec in the back.
It was a tight squeeze, but if they had put up with it on the way there, they could put up with it on
the way back. Alec, however, looked a little uncomfortable, and was glad when Asha's stop
came and she left the back seat, leaving him and Max. "You okay?" Max asked.
"Like I said, I'll live."
"Hey Sketchy, can you hand me the first-aid kit under your seat?" Max asked.
"Sure," Sketchy replied, handing it back to her.
"Here, let me have a look," Max said to Alec.
She helped him to remove his shirt, and winced as Alec grimaced in pain.
She winced again as she saw the blood and cuts and bruises all over his torso. She began to tend
to him, taking extra care with the nasty wound to his ribs.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Alec said, suddenly looking confused.
"What?" Max asked, with a hint of worry in her voice.
"Sketchy," Alec went on, completely ignoring her, "if you can't dance, then why the hell did you
agree to go to a *salsa club*?"
Max, OC, and Logan all got the same confused look on their faces as Alec did.
"Because," replied Sketchy, sounding annoyed, "you guys wouldn't take no for an answer, no
matter what anyone said."
They all began to laugh.
***
Meanwhile, White pulled himself off of the floor back at the salsa club, quite surprised that no one
had stumbled across him as he lay there unconscious. Good thing he wasn't out very long.
He pulled his cell out of his pocket, surprised it hadn't been crushed, and dialed.
There were muffled voices as someone picked up on the other end. "I'm gonna need back-up,"
he said to the other person. He gave the address of the club and headed out to his car, ignoring
the gasps of people who saw his condition along the way.
A few minutes after he got to his car, Otto arrived with three vehicles, several men, and lots of
weaponry. "Let's move people, we don't have much time!" White ordered.
White got into Otto's car with him, another man taking White's car. "Did you place the tracking
device?" White asked.
"Yes sir," Otto replied, looking him over. "Are you alright, sir?"
"I'll live," White replied, unknowingly echoing Alec's words. "I'll be much better when we get
452 and 494."
They pulled away from the club. They followed the direction of a small radar screen on the
dashboard. They followed the direction of Logan's car.
To Be Continued . . .
______________________________________________________________________________
Review. Please!
Author's Note: Sorry 'bout that, -blah- is for thought's only take off the blah... Don't mind if I
don't make sense.
Author's Note 2: Just to clear up, in case you noticed White's little lack-of-thought before he got
out of the car, it was supposed to be -Good boy,- White thought.
Author's Note 3: I intended this chapter to be the last, but thanks to Brin, I realized that it could
use a lot of improvement. Thanks for the advice. And now I'm gonna continue. What's the use
of a *two* chapter story anyway?
______________________________________________________________________________
"The snipers are down," Max whispered.
"What do we do now?" Sketchy asked. After all, if someone was in the building trying to kill
them, then they couldn't just go on dancing like nothing was happening.
Max, still looking up at the second level, said quietly, "I don't know."
"Shouldn't he be back by now?" Asha asked.
"Yeah, it is taking him awhile," Logan agreed. "Maybe he ran into some more trouble."
Suddenly, Max saw Alec slam into the railing of the second level, having been punched in the face
by White. Max got up and ran for the stairs. "White!"
The others followed her gaze and all got looks of worry and fear on their faces.
***
White threw another punch at Alec's face and Alec ducked. White lost his balance at little and
tipped forward. Alec came up under him and threw him into the wall.
The two men rushed at each other and began punching and kicking each other for all they were
worth. -In White's case, that's not very much,- Alec thought, as he landed a solid blow to
White's face.
The battle grew more and more heated. White kicked Alec in the ribs, hard, and Alec was sure he
felt a few of them break. Alec staggered back, but he ignored the pain as much as he could and
grabbed White's foot as he brought it up to kick him again. As he was about to twist it and break
a few bones, White jumped, bringing his other foot up to kick Alec in the head. Alec barely
managed to acknowledge the sound of something snapping as he held White's foot in a firm grip,
just before his vision blurred over slightly as the two men fell to the floor.
Despite his injured ankle, White was up first and aiming another kick to Alec's ribs. Alec barely
managed to roll away in time. He leapt to his feet shaking off his slight dizziness. White lunged
at him, aiming a punch at his face. Alec blocked it and returned the favour, breaking White's
nose.
***
"Alec, hold on," Max whispered as she rushed up the stairs. As annoying as Alec could be at
times, she didn't want him to be killed. In fact, she didn't even care about his annoying
comments, and she was sure the things she said to him sometimes did more damage than the
things he said to her.
Max found herself wishing she could take back those thing's she'd said.
'Isn't bragging what you do best?' Logan had said.
'Yeah, that and screwing up.'
Max had laughed. Alec sure hadn't. She'd seen the look on his face. -What the hell is my
problem?- She had continued laughing anyway. That must have stung much more than her
words. She'd been almost glad when he told her about the snipers. It had saved her from seeing
any more of that pained look.
She knew that Alec couldn't have forgotten it all, in favour of his 'mission.' It wasn't like this was
the first time she had inspired pain in his eyes. He had just pushed it aside. And Max would be
damned if she let him die before she fixed it for good.
-Hold on, Alec, hold on.-
***
Alec wasn't doing too well. He had several broken ribs, and God only knew what else was
broken. He was bleeding. He was bruised. His only consolation was that White appeared to be
in similar condition. Except White was well enough to be inflicting more pain.
White punched Alec in the gut and kneed him in the face when he doubled over. Alec staggered
backward. He managed to avoid White's next punch by stepping back yet again and he suddenly
felt his back hit the wall. He pushed off from it, and tackled White to the floor. Alec pinned
White down and began punching him mercilessly in the face.
As Alec brought his fist down yet again, White tilted his head to the side, causing Alec to put a
sizable dent in the floor. White threw Alec off him. Alec landed on his back on the floor and
white picked him up and threw him at the stairwell door. Which flew open just before he would
have hit it.
***
If Max hadn't been knocked down the stairs as soon as she opened the door, she would have
jumped a mile. She hit the between floors landing hard, the wind almost knocked out of her. She
whipped her head to the side to see Alec unconscious. She felt a swell of worry.
"Well, well, 452," White said coming through the stairwell door above her. "How nice to see you
again."
"Bite me," Max said, wiggling out from under Alec, who had landed half on top of her.
White slowly made his way down the stairs toward her. "You can never win, you know," he said.
"No matter how good Sandeman may have made you, you'll never be good enough to beat us."
He stepped onto the landing with her and Alec. "Why don't you just give up now?"
Max stood toe to toe with him and raised her eyes to look at him. "Because it's so fun to kick
your ass, and no matter what you say, I always will."
"Someday that pride of yours will get you killed."
"Someday *I'll* get *you* killed."
"You can't, you see, 452," White said, grinning. "You can't beat me one on one, and you have
no one around who can possibly help you."
"Do you suffer from memory loss, or are you just dumb?" Max sneered. "I always have back up."
Before White even knew what was going on, Alec kicked his legs up behind White, sending him
flying headfirst down the rest of the stairs. He hit the floor, unconscious.
Max reached out a hand and helped Alec up. "Thanks."
"Always."
"I know," Max smiled. "Are you okay?"
"I'll live," Alec replied. He took a deep breath and winced. "Probably with a few cracked ribs,
but I'll live."
They walked down the stairs, slowly and carefully, Max offering Alec a little support. He and
White both looked as if they had taken quite a beating. Not that Max cared about White. -I *do*
care about Alec,- she thought, and was a little scared of that.
When they got down, Max bent down and checked White's pulse. "He's still alive," she said.
"Remind me again why we can't just kill him?" Alec said in a pleading voice.
"Because the ordinaries don't know that he's not human, Alec," Max said, sounding a little upset.
"Let's get the hell out of here."
"Yeah. Gladly."
***
Logan, Asha, OC, and Sketchy anxiously watched the upper level and the stairwell door for any
signs of Max or Alec.
They were very relieved when the door opened and Max stepped out with Alec in tow. They all
visibly deflated.
Max motioned toward the exit. Sketchy began to stand, but Logan grabbed his sleeve and yanked
him bact to his chair. "Casually," he whispered.
"Well," said OC, "it's sure getting tired in here, what say we call it a night?"
"Yeah," agreed Asha, following along. "If I have to watch Sketchy try to dance once more, I'm
gonna be sick."
"Hey!" Sketchy said.
"Let's go home," Logan said.
They all grabbed their coats and slowly left the table, heading for the exit.
They met Max and Alec outside and all piled into Logan's car, with Logan in front of course, OC
and Sketchy squeezed into the front with him, and Asha, Max, and Alec in the back.
It was a tight squeeze, but if they had put up with it on the way there, they could put up with it on
the way back. Alec, however, looked a little uncomfortable, and was glad when Asha's stop
came and she left the back seat, leaving him and Max. "You okay?" Max asked.
"Like I said, I'll live."
"Hey Sketchy, can you hand me the first-aid kit under your seat?" Max asked.
"Sure," Sketchy replied, handing it back to her.
"Here, let me have a look," Max said to Alec.
She helped him to remove his shirt, and winced as Alec grimaced in pain.
She winced again as she saw the blood and cuts and bruises all over his torso. She began to tend
to him, taking extra care with the nasty wound to his ribs.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Alec said, suddenly looking confused.
"What?" Max asked, with a hint of worry in her voice.
"Sketchy," Alec went on, completely ignoring her, "if you can't dance, then why the hell did you
agree to go to a *salsa club*?"
Max, OC, and Logan all got the same confused look on their faces as Alec did.
"Because," replied Sketchy, sounding annoyed, "you guys wouldn't take no for an answer, no
matter what anyone said."
They all began to laugh.
***
Meanwhile, White pulled himself off of the floor back at the salsa club, quite surprised that no one
had stumbled across him as he lay there unconscious. Good thing he wasn't out very long.
He pulled his cell out of his pocket, surprised it hadn't been crushed, and dialed.
There were muffled voices as someone picked up on the other end. "I'm gonna need back-up,"
he said to the other person. He gave the address of the club and headed out to his car, ignoring
the gasps of people who saw his condition along the way.
A few minutes after he got to his car, Otto arrived with three vehicles, several men, and lots of
weaponry. "Let's move people, we don't have much time!" White ordered.
White got into Otto's car with him, another man taking White's car. "Did you place the tracking
device?" White asked.
"Yes sir," Otto replied, looking him over. "Are you alright, sir?"
"I'll live," White replied, unknowingly echoing Alec's words. "I'll be much better when we get
452 and 494."
They pulled away from the club. They followed the direction of a small radar screen on the
dashboard. They followed the direction of Logan's car.
To Be Continued . . .
______________________________________________________________________________
Review. Please!