Chapter 12
The hustle and bustle of the hospital entrance is almost like an eerie background noise to those who work and spend their nights here.
"You know how much I hate hospitals…" Ms Y remarks as her and her brother, accompanied by ten of their fighters in close proximity storm through the entrance of the building.
"I'm sorry but you can't just…!" a security guard by the stairs rushes forward.
"Quiet!" Mr Y silences him by shooting the man in the chest. The gunshot sends the ground floor of the building into chaos with visitors and staff all running for their life.
"Sugar, find the main control room, you know what to do!" Mr Y instructs his fighter dressed in biker gear. He hands over to her a USB device.
Less than a minute later and the sound of chaos and screaming is silenced on the ground floor when a rugged female voice speaks through the tannoy.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we apologise for the disturbance on the ground level. There is nothing to be alarmed about, just sit back, relax and listen carefully…."
Suddenly, a strange eclectic mix of relaxing house music and dub step are played through the speakers of the hospital. The crowd of civilians instantly change their demeanour from panic to a quiet state of trance as the music plays. The gang who have invaded the hospital, including the twins' fighters all check their ear pieces to make sure they are not affected by the sound waves.
"Have you seen this woman?" Ms Y holds up a photograph of Dr Sarah Briggs. The civilian in front of her slowly shakes his head, his eyes whitened and wide open staring at her in a daze. Without hesitation, she stabs her sword into his gut then aggressively pulls it straight back out with ease.
"Let's try that again, have you seen this woman?"
Every time a man or woman is useless to her, she kills them without remorse until one member of staff points to the 7th floor of the hospital map.
The upper levels of the building slowly become exposed to the music and sound waves one by one as Sugar accesses the controls to each level. She also begins to disable the power, lighting, phone lines and electrical systems so that the building can start to shut it down.
The ceiling lights on the 7th floor begin to flicker as Orson Briggs runs through the corridor in search of his wife. "Have you seen Sarah?" He questions each of her colleagues that he recognises, however their facial expressions are blank and fixated on the music blaring out.
He glances up at the corner of the ceiling corridor, noticing a speaker on one side and a surveillance camera on the other. With his left hand, Briggs annihilates the speaker by projecting a fireball, then with his right hand, he burns and shatters the glass on the camera.
"Sarah!" He immediately spots her further down the ward amongst the crowd of civilians who are unaware of their surroundings, wandering around as if they are sleepwalking. The agent pushes through the parade in a trance, barging anybody out of the way until he grabs hold of her and pulls her to safety.
"You!" He angrily points forward as Ms Y emerges at the other end of the hall, casually spinning around her blood stained sword.
"I know the truth, Steffan" she smirks whilst pacing forward towards him.
"What have you done? Was all of this really necessary?" He calmly shrugs.
"You tell me! If only you had been honest from the beginning with me, we wouldn't have had to do this. I bet it hurt all over again when we killed your mistress…. Don't worry, your wife next to you can't actually hear or process our discussion through this music. She follows my orders now" Ms Y grins whilst extending her hand towards Sarah.
"No, Sarah, what are you doing?!..." He tries to stop her but Sarah's gaze is fixated on Ms Y as she takes her hand.
"Now I need more answers!" The young woman demands as she presses the blade against Sarah's neck.
"Ask me whatever you want. Just don't hurt her, she's a loyal soldier" he agrees to cooperate.
"How badly do you want the syndicate back and what are your intentions?"
"You know my intentions for this city! I've lived up to my end of the bargain every time! I've given you everything you've asked for but you need to remember that I was the one who started this! And I was wrong, and I see a lot of Mr X in you. But he was also a loyal soldier to me. If you can find it in yourself to trust me, we will take down this city together and start a new empire. The syndicate is yours - the drugs, the money, the muscle. Unlike your father, you and your brother have no interest in politics or the running of Wood Oak. That power should belong to me! And you need me whether you like it or not, otherwise this big plan of yours to control people's minds won't last very long. What are you gonna do when a full scale military war comes your way?" His explanation forces her to consider a great deal more.
"You're a smart man Mr Visser and that's why father chose to work with you. But we have one problem on our hands right now".
"I'll deal with my Axel and his friends. But Leon Stone, he remains unharmed. We need the boy's powers to run this city, there is no one else like him who exists with both types of chi. If we can't control the child and wipe his memory, he will destroy us one day just like they destroyed your father."
"How far are you willing to go?" Ms Y queries.
"I'll kill for this!"
"Are you even willing to kill your own son?" She raises her eyebrows.
"Yes" he coldly replies. "His mother betrayed the syndicate a long time ago. Your father carried out the kill but I was the one who ordered it. I'll do the same again if I have to".
"Then prove it!" She snarls.
"When Axel tries to stop us, you'll see…."
"No, I didn't mean that. Your loyal soldier right here betrayed you even though she's your wife! Prove to me that you put our cause first, above your family then we will proceed with our plans!" Ms Y demands.
"How has she betrayed me? Sarah has been loyal for over 30 years…."
"Are you sure about that? Open the folder she's holding". Ms Y snatches it out of Sarah's hands then throws it over towards him.
"What the hell am I looking for?" Steffan queries, chucking each piece of paper on the ground displaying Sarah's patient files since the start of her shift.
"I really can't be bothered to check the surveillance again so pay close attention to what's there!" Ms Y sighs.
Just before reaching the end of the file, he finds an A4 sized file with a large printed black and white ultrasound photograph of a baby. He then finds more photographs underneath it that zoom into the white striped mark above the fetus, measuring it's high temperature anomaly. Although he is alarmed and puzzled by what he sees, it still doesn't make any sense as to why Sarah has betrayed him.
"This still doesn't explain what you're accusing her of doing!"
"Take a close look at the patient's name on the bottom of the papers." Ms Y softly says.
It reads Blaze F Stone.
"They were here?!" He angrily shouts, in shock and about to have an outburst.
"I should be congratulating you, but your wife here just betrayed you! Now prove how badly you want the syndicate back…"
Steffan hesitates for a second, taking a deep breath as Ms Y whispers to Sarah to ignore the music and stop following her orders. The doctor immediately awakens from her trance, catching her breath back, holding onto her ears.
"Oh my God! Orson you're here! I don't know what's going on but this music started playing and…"
Ms Y lowers her sword, grinning with amusement behind Sarah as she rushes forward to put her arms around him.
"Why did you let them go?" He asks with a slight tear in his eye, holding up the photos in front of her face.
"I, I er… they're good people. Axel spared my life"
"I don't care. You've ruined everything! You should have dealt with this properly, you knew exactly who they were and what this child right here means in terms of the future of this city!"
"I'm sorry! I made a mistake…. Please forgive me!" She begs.
"I'm sorry too…" he looks back at her with regret in his eyes.
"No! Please don't! No!" She screams before he places his hands around her throat then suffocates her with the heat from his palm. Once Sarah is dead, her body collapses down to the ground, motionless and finally at peace.
"Is that enough proof for you Ms Y? I put the syndicate first before anything else, remember that" he coldly stares, wiping his hands on his jacket.
"I'm impressed. You sure are cold blooded just like our father. He would have done the same thing if any of us had betrayed him like that. We'll press forward then with our plans for the future and we'll bring you the boy. But I still want vengeance for my fathers death! If I find Axel first, my brother and I will be the ones who kill your son and his friends."
"Very well. And what about Blaze?"
"She can stay alive until the other little brat is born. Why not have double the power we require right?"
"Agreed." He nods.
"There is little time left until our plan becomes a reality."
"And I'll be there to see it through until the end" Steffan pledges.
The two of them suddenly hear a large explosion coming from below. They glance at one another then run in each direction to find out what is going on.
5 minutes earlier.
"Are you gonna tell me what's going on then?" Blaze asks as Axel tries to open the security door to the stairwell using Sarah's key card. "This door is jammed, probably the electrics on it are busted. We need to get out of here fast! If we take the elevator down to the next level, this key card should work from there, then we can exit the building by the supply entrance."
"What's the rush for?"
"That doctor who did your scan, that's Sarah Briggs!" He reveals.
"What the hell? Oh my God!" Blaze replies, feeling alarmed with her hand over her mouth.
"It's ok, she helped us. Briggs is on the way here though, possibly with the twins. We have to get out before they find out why we're really here!"
The two of them step into the elevator.
"I don't think I can move that fast though…" Blaze shakes her head, still waiting for the rest of the painkillers to kick in.
"Here, hold these. I'll carry you down the stairwell" Axel replies, handing over to her two knives from his jacket.
"Get down!" Blaze immediately shouts, pulling him back. As soon as the elevator doors open one level below, a small rocket flies past them, hitting and shattering the back of the hospital elevator which flies off, opening out to an array of dark cables.
Mr Y stands in front of them with a large smirk on his face. "Go!" He orders his fighters to immediately run forward inside the elevator to attack them.
Blaze is quick to grapple and throws one of the thugs over the edge who falls to his death whilst another one stumbles back then hits the electrical cables on the way down after she kicks him in the chest. Axel also jumps high, using the side wall of the elevator as a deflection to kick two more fighters off the edge whilst Mr Y readies his weapon to launch a second rocket towards them. Axel is quick to react, punching the elevator button to close the doors whilst he projects a fire bolt forward towards his enemy standing outside.
Just as the elevator begins to descend once again, the two of them hear another rocket crashing one level above them into the cables holding them up. The impact immediately stops the elevator from descending further, applying its own emergency brakes. Axel glances over the edge of the broken wall at the back but it is way too high for them to jump out with at least 5 stories now below them. The lights suddenly go out and the elevator shuts down before they hear the sound of the metal cables groaning.
"Hold on!" He says as the two of them sit on the ground and huddle up in the far corner away from the back wall that has fallen off. The cables that are left quickly break and the elevator free falls, crashing down onto the lowest level with only the magnetism of the base left to slow down the impact.
"You ok?" Axel asks as the two of them stand up, trying to avoid any falling debris.
"I'm ok!" Blaze nods.
He uses the strength in his arms to force open the doors of the broken elevator. As the two of them step out, the corridor in front of them is dark with the power to the building now cut out.
"Look! That must be the way out" Blaze points, noticing a fire escape door on the other side.
Just as Axel lights a flame from his hand so that they can see the path ahead, he senses something or someone behind them close by. He turns around for a second to glance back on guard, but the area still appears to be dark and empty.
"They definitely need to fix the lights down here!" A voice in the distance startles them. The couple immediately turn around, readying their fighting stance.
"It's been a long time…" Steffan appears, slowly walking forward towards them.
"You should be dead!" Axel glares at him with hate, less than 25 feet in front of him.
"I know, and I have the scars to prove it after what you did! You honestly thought after all these years that I never survived your little arson attack, didn't you?"
"It doesn't matter, you're dead this time!"
"And where do you think those powers of yours come from huh?" Steffan laughs, lighting up a flame from one of his palms. "I didn't realize you possessed this gift son, until the day you tried to kill me..."
"There's a lot you never realized about me…" Axel angrily answers.
"I know you better than you think, you'll understand this now that you're a father yourself..."
"Are you gonna stand there and chat, old man or are you gonna fight me?" He replies, intensifying the flames from both of his arms.
"We have to go… the twins are coming. I can't fight them on my own right now or outrun them… please…" Blaze worriedly pulls him back, convincing him to leave with her.
Axel pauses for a moment, staring forward at Steffan with nothing but hate inside of him.
"We have to go before they come…" Blaze insists.
"This ain't over yet!" Axel promises. He then projects two flames forward, hitting several oxygen canisters that burst into an inferno between them, giving him and Blaze the chance to escape.
Once the flames have subsided, Steffan crouches down on the ground, staring at his own scarred palms with regret on his face. They emit thin smoke into the air after he cuts out the flames, right before Mr and Ms Y burst onto the scene.