Plaster and bits of drywall covered Max and the three SWAT team members as bullets shot above their heads, leaving a line of bullet holes. Everyone dropped to the ground. To their right was a wall, to their left was a couch which they were using as cover.
"They're over there, use a grenade!" one shouted.
Max's adrenaline shot up. Within a few seconds they would be dead. He hopped up in plain sight and scanned the area while shooting his shotgun. A group of three men dropped their weapons as the fell to the ground, surrounded by a shower of blood. In the next second, Max aimed the shotgun at a group two men. When he shot the two men disappeared in a ball of fire, as a bullet hit the grenade one was holding.
The room was long, taking up the whole floor. A few feet in front of them was a hallway to the right, where the stairs were. The SWAT stood up and took positions aiming down the hall. Two pressed up against the wall and peeked down the hall. Max and the other SWAT member stood behind them.
"It's okay, go." Ordered one of them.
They kept low as they made their way down the hall. One Mafia popped out from a doorway, but was shot down in a matter of seconds, falling to the ground like a rag doll.
At the end of the hallway was a stair case, leading all the way up to the roof. As they made their way up the square-shaped stairs, something fell down the middle.
Max examined it, then realized, "Run! It's a bomb!" After that, an explosion cause smoke and debris to shoot up the staircase, leaving behind a growing fire.
Picking a random floor, they came to floor three. They ran up and down the halls searching each apartment on this floor, they were all empty. Footsteps were heard above them. When they came back to the smoke filled staircase they were being fired at. As they moved up the stairs, they returned fire until they reached floor 4.
In the hallway were a few enemies, bearing Ak's and pissed off. The four took cover in the closest apartment, while peeking out the door to eliminate the Mafia.
Slowly the floor filled with smoke. By the time they had searched it, the smoke was getting thicker. With all of the smoke the Mafia would be in the higher levels, so the group skipped a few floors.
Eventually the came to floor eight, which was riddled with men, and where they lost the first SWAT member. As they entered an apartment, a Mafia was behind the counter in the kitchen, holding a heavy AMG, which tore through his body, squirting out steams of blood as he died. He flew back and bounced off the blood splattered wall.
Max dived inside, killing the man as Max was in mid air, along with three other Mafia in that apartment. Before they knew it, they were on floor ten (there was a total of seventeen floors). From here, there weren't many confrontations. Just an occasional Mafia. When they reached floor 15, the fire below had grown, somehow growing not only wide, but tall, up many floors very fast. Time was running out, the building would collapse sooner or later.
By the time they were on the stairs, another SWAT member was gunned down by a large figure down the hall. Max and the last SWAT member ran down the hall chasing the large figure. As they entered the door, the came to a halt.
"FREEZE!" They were staring at eight gang members all holding assault rifles pointed at their faces. The two dropped their weapons. The wood floor echoed footsteps in the background. A weapon was cocked. In the next instant, to the left of Max, the SWAT member became headless, due to a shotgun shot from the back of his head.
Standing behind him was Toni Cipriani. He stared Max in the face. "What are you doing here?"
"Taking you down." Max replied coldly.
Everyone in the room started laughing. "I'd like to see you try."
Max was about to be executed. The room was empty, besides a few crates, and a few boxes of SMG ammo. Max grabbed the nearest guy's gun, pulling him in and using him as a shield as the room light up with yellow flashed of fire. The hostage became soaking red with blood. Max backed up to the doorway, from where he shot the boxes of ammo as he left the room. The sound of ramped bullets firing, followed by random flashes of lights followed.
Entering floor sixteen was a complete change. Instead of apartments, it was more like a giant room, combining floors sixteen and seventeen, although there were catwalks along the edges on floor seventeen. Small walls which looked like cubicles covered this warehouse-themed room.
Looking around, there were various crates, boxes, and cartons, it looked like explosives and ammo. Guns were racked upon walls and racks. A crate of C4 sat out l as if nothing was wrong. As Max walked through the room, an open area was filled with men.
Suddenly Max felt hot, his heart pounding. He had no way to escape. He pulled up his MP5 and randomly fired at one of the rooms occupancies. He fell to the ground in blood.
"Son of a bitch!" Someone shouted.
Max's vision blurred as his head suddenly felt bruised and battered, numb. Something crushed into his head, making Max do a flip to the floor. A small shower of blood misted on him. His head ached, a pain came from deep within. He felt out of focus, seeing two of everything. He hear voices.
"What-what-what-what?"
"No-no-no. Put your-put-your-guns-down-own-n."
"Tis-tis-this-bas-sas-tar-s-gonna-onna-pay-pay-pay" Following this were talking that Max couldn't comprehend. The world was out of joint.
Suddenly his eyes came into focus, his hearing back. He found that he was looking at a few men's feet, through a very light blanket of smoke. Something warm and gushy was covering the back of his head. He felt a warm substance trickle down his face, following a path over his eyebrow, across his nose, and down his cheek.
A hand aggressively pulled him up, he was looking into a face. The face looked familiar, but Max was having trouble thinking. "What the fuck did you do? Why the fuck are you hear! You are going to pay! You are going to pay for hurting Jesse!" He spoke fluently, and with anger.
His foot raised and fell, straight into Max's stomach. He pulled Max up, giving him a punch that made him spit out blood. Three more punches mad Max's face go numb. With every hit more blood poured out of him. The punches kept coming never ending. Cuts on Max's face came from them, his nose was bleeding, his lips torn. His right eye brow was split open, all of this making Max's face numb with pain. It felt like Max was in two places outside of his body. As if he were being beat out of himself. When it ended, he threw Max on the floor. Max put his hand to his face.
He came back again with a few kicks in the stomach. Max couldn't move. The smoke became more fierce now, the room heating up. "Come on Connor, let him die along with the building."
The next time Max opened his eyes they were gone. He came back into focus once again, not knowing how bad his condition was. Most of his body was numb, the pain easing away now. He was soar, and could barely stand up. He coughed through the smog, spitting out blood. It felt like being in an oven. The sound of fire roared furiously in the background. A word clicked in Max's mind, Radio.
"It is just after four o'clock here, I stand right now, outside of this burning building, which has been burning for the last twenty-twenty-five minutes. Police say it is amazing that it is still standing. As you can see, behind me, coal black smoke is filling the air. It looked like the fire has engulfed the first five floor completely, and has climbed up to some of the higher floors." said news reporter, Julia Chen.
Max took his radio and spoke. "This is detective," he coughed, "Payne."
Pierce was at the ground level listening in. "I'm on the…" he paused, "second to top floor. There's no way out, I could really use some help here." He continued coughing.
"Detective Payne? This is David Anderson, chief of Staunton Island PD. We will have a chopper pick you up at the roof."
"No! I have to get out now! You don't understand! The building blowing up!"
"What do you mean?"
"Bombs damn it! They're going t-" The radio cut out with the sound of an explosion within the building.
Smoke cleared away form the building as the chopper hovered above. It dropped a ladder.
Max scrambled to get back up, the floor was tilting due to an explosion below. The fire grew bigger which was now visible, it was on the same floor as the weapons, ammo, and explosives. Max had about thirty seconds before they all blew up. Looking down towards the opposite side of the floor, a chopper was visible. Max's only hope.
Max dashed in that direction. In front of him flashes of bright white light and the sound bullets firing were heard. He ran through it, hoping not to get hit. A few explosions produced heat upon his back as he passed by cubicles, flashes of fire below him, above him, on the sides of him, everywhere.
He came closer and closer with every second. With the loud sound of fire burning, explosions, and parts of the building falling and collapsing, it made him sprint faster. The ladder was visible through the window. He ran through walls of smoke and fire, nearing the end. A brief wave of fire surrounded him after another explosion. He was wet with sweat, and was about to jump through the glass. As he neared the window, he lost his footing as the floor went from a ninety degree angle to basically a vertical wall. Max slammed his head into the ground while it was falling, as if he were going to do a summersault.
In the next second, a large explosion embedded Max with fire as the force tossed him out the window, upside down along with flames, smoke, glass, and wood. He slammed into the ladder and got his leg caught in it as he fell. It pulled at him, giving him great pain, urging him to grab the rope. People from below gasped as the saw Max dangling on the ladder.
The building combusted, throwing flames twenty feet in all directions as it tumbled to the ground, turning into a black cloud, throwing dust and debris everywhere, a lot of which blew into the ocean.
In the condo next door Claude stared out the window as his building tumbled to the ground, creating a blanket of smoke and dust covering a large area. "GOD DAMN IT! THAT WAS MY PROPETY!" Claude shouted, throwing his fists around, "I HAD SO MUCH GOD DAMN WEAPONRY AND AMMO IN THAT BUILDING! MOTHER FUCKER!"
All of the gang members in the room had their mouths wide open. Tommy stood looking at Claude, shocked. Phil was amazed too, that was the first time anyone had ever hear Claude speak. "November fifth, four twenty-seven pm. Claude speaks." announced Phil.
Max was taken to a hospital. Max had a slight concussion. His face was completely red, which turned into purple bruises. He had five different cuts on his face, his brow, the skin was split on both cheeks, a cut on his forehead, and one directly on his nose. His nose and eyes were fine, although his eyes were blood shot and red. He also had a busted lip. The back of his head was swollen, but would get better in time. His chest and ribs were okay, although pretty bruised up. Max was released form the hospital late the next day.
Toni, Connor, and Stephen were sitting in Connors office.
"I'm sorry about you're loss, sir." Toni apologized. "I feel like it's my fault."
"It's not. Even though he died… we still took out Claude's arsenal, and his property. That weakened them. And it's not like, you killed him man." He spoke calm and well, his stare was blank though. His fists were purple and soar from the beating he gave Max.
"Yeah, and at least that bastard cop died." said Stephen.
A knock at the door, Stephen answered it and was whispered to. "Oh my god," he said aloud. He closed the door and sat back down. "Connor, Max, the detective that killed your son… Is alive… And he's coming after us."
Connor felt rage through his veins, his expression changed. He clenched his teeth, "That mother fucker is going to pay. He's going to know the consequences for messing with the Connor Jack."
"He's coming after us? The Jack Crime Families?" Toni asked.
"Yeah." Stephen replied, almost in a laugh.
"There's no way he can take us down." Toni grinned.
"Let's come up with a plan." said Connor.