Chapter 26
The music had become so loud that anyone standing next to the speaker could feel their ears starting to bleed. At first, the crowd danced on as normal, where the hard core fans immediately started to rave in their usual trance-like state. However, it all quickly started to turn ugly.
As Paige and Maddison looked towards the stage lights, they're visions blurred and they're heads felt as if they were in a daze. Time stood still and the music in the background now felt like a monotone, constant buzz in their ears. The feeling was intoxicating, but also soothing and exhilarating all rolled into one.
"Cherry?! CHERRY!... Have you two seen this girl?!"
In the light, they could see the silhouette of a large muscular man running towards them with a photograph of their friend. As soon as the girls tried to answer, the facial muscles on their mouth were unable to move and they were unable to access their own voices. Max frantically carried on past them in the hope that Cherry was still alive amongst the crowd.
Suddenly, he found himself disorientated, where he stumbled back and forth amongst the others. The music was a constant ringing in his ear that Max couldn't quite shake off. After 3 minutes, the strong heavyweight eventually came crashing down, collapsing in front of one of the speakers after trying to push back the crowd from stampeding towards it. Several spectators were then crushed in the chaos, including Max who fell unconscious under their feet.
"What the hell is going on out there?" Blaze turned to Axel, still both behind the stage. At first, they were unable to tell exactly what was going on when the music started, but as soon as they heard shouting, they knew that something was wrong.
"I think it's got something to do with that music from what Adam told me…."
Both of their ears began to ring as they painfully placed their palms over them.
"Here, put these in your ears!" Axel shouted as he passed over to Blaze a set of earphones he was carrying in his back pocket. They were connected to his old phone where he purposely pressed play on a randomly shuffled playlist from 10 years ago.
"Don't take them out, it will block out their music!"
"What about you?!" Blaze shouted.
"I'll be ok! Just get out of here and get help!"
"What?" She shouted back, confused and in a daze.
At this moment, the pair had no choice but to put their differences and feelings to one side, especially Blaze who was still livid with him. Right now however, saving those people and stopping Washi and the twins was the number one priority.
Within seconds, Axel had run out onto the stage. Mr and Ms Y immediately spotted him from a distance.
"KILL HIM!" Ms Y pointed and yelled.
During the following moment, there was an intense silence throughout the crowd. Only the music playing through the speakers could be heard where most of the audience had flocked to. Suddenly, the people in the arena turned around in sync in one swift motion. They paused in their tracks to coldly stare at Axe,l who was now standing at the centre of the stage dodging flying record lasers that K-Washi was projecting at him.
"I said, KILL HIM!" Ms Y angrily snarled.
Those still standing immediately charged forward like a plague of locusts. They trampled without a second thought over the people crushed under their feet who were now unconscious or dead. The crowd had one order and one target to follow.
Axel glanced back at them in horror, as he witnessed thousands of people rushing towards him with fists and broken bottles held up in the air.
This left Axel with no choice but to clench his fists and defend himself. Suddenly, the ground underneath him violently shook. He then jumped high in the air before his knuckles came crashing down into the stage. In doing so, Axel created a tall, thick wall of fire around him, protecting himself before they got close. Unfortunately, those at the front of the stampede who were still in a trance ended up running through the fire, still determined to attack. They were completely unaware of their surroundings and they ended up badly burnt or killed.
"NO! STAY BACK!" Axel shouted at one man and woman who were set on fire after running into a couple that attempted to break the wall before them. These two however, made it close to him. They felt no pain from the flames and had no idea what was happening to their bodies. As soon as he tried to help the woman, she pulled out a glass shard from her side that she attempted to strike him with. Axel kicked away the weapon, but within seconds, her body fell to the ground and she was dead as a result of first degree burns.
At this point however, time was running out and Axel could feel the music starting to affect his own state of mind. As he knelt down on the ground, he could see Blaze out of the corner of his eye behind the stage. She snuck high up, climbing onto the wall behind the decks where K-Washi was standing.
"Kikosho!" She shouted as a strong blue light of energy bolted forward, knocking the already injured DJ out of his stand. He ended up falling several feet then toppling over the edge of the stage and into the crowd.
Before Mr Y had the chance to shoot, Blaze quickly took hold of the record and removed it from the system. The effect of the track stopping was instantaneous, as if someone had suddenly cut out the power and energy of the whole place. The crowd of people simultaneously came to a halt before any more of them could reach the stage. The whole stage area and the curtains were now starting to turn into an inferno.
Anybody left alive in the arena started to scream and panic, with no recollection of the last 5 minutes. They could feel hundreds of dead bodies under their feet who were now unrecognisable after the stampede. Blood was everywhere, and people were slipping and falling all over it. The scenes of those near the front of the stage was just as disturbing where they could hear the screams and cries of people burning to death. Not even the sprinklers above could help them as the fire was too intense.
"Help me, please!" One man cried out amongst the crowd. His hair had burnt off and his facial features were completely unrecognisable. K-Washi was down on the floor in front of him. He stared back at the man for a moment, almost frozen with fear. But instead of helping his fan, the DJ shuffled back away from him then he got up to his feet and ran for one of the exits, barging and pushing away his fans who were also trying to escape through the sealed doors.
The ringing in Axel's ears had now stopped and he could finally hear a signal from Adam. "Get everybody out and find Cherry! The doors should open any second now!"
There amongst the chaos, Axel started to hear the mechanical doors surrounding the walls of the hall opening up.
Mr and Mrs Y looked up in horror, astounded at the fact that someone from outside managed to unlock the shield surrounding the hall. They watched thousands of spectators who were under their control less than a minute ago, fleeing for their lives whilst Axel stared at them from a distance with anger in his eyes.
"Brother, we have to leave now!" Ms Y urged as Mr Y locked eyes with his father's old enemy for the first time.
"Just a moment, sister", he sinisterly grinned as he reached for his rocket launcher. Mr Y aimed forward, right towards an electrical generator by the side of the stage and without a second thought, he fired.
The impact ended up shattering all of the stage equipment and electrics, exploding them into shards of pieces where the blast killed and injured even more innocent people in their thousands. Blaze ended up falling 15 feet and tumbling off the decks as the explosion shook the whole hall. She violently coughed under the smoke next to the curtain which was on fire.
"GO!" Axel pointed at one of the exits at the back of the stage, but Blaze could barely hear him as he leapt forward into the crowd.
Mr and Mrs Y used the distraction as an opportunity to make their own exit fast, whilst K-Washi was nowhere to be seen. Adam immediately ran into the hall, past the screaming fans who were running for their lives in numbers onto the streets outside.
"CHERRY! CHERRY!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, but she was nowhere to be seen. He did however find Max, who was badly injured on the ground next to one of the speakers.
"Max? Max can you hear me?... Max ANSWER ME!" Adam yelled with panic in his eyes. He gently placed one of Max's arms over his shoulder, trying his best to lift the unconscious heavyweight off the ground.
"Let me give you a hand," Axel quickly came to his aid whilst the two of them pulled Max out of the spreading fire to safety.
"Did you see Cherry in there?" Adam nervously asked.
"No," Axel shook his head.
"Daddy!" Adam turned around, holding his breath as his heart skipped several beats. There she was, yelling with tears in her eyes from the front of the building.
"Daddy, I'm so sorry, I should have listened to you!" She cried as she tightly wrapped her arms around his waist.
"Where were you, we've been worried sick?" He asked, concerned as he scanned her up and down from head to toe. Fortunately, she had no injuries on her.
"I'm sorry, I hid inside the bathrooms when I heard gunshots! Are you angry with me?" Cherry cried.
"It's ok baby. No, I'm not angry with you. I love you so much. You're safe, thank God you're safe," he tightly hugged her back, shaking in his voice.
As she held onto him, the paramedics and more police officers arrived on the scene to aid anybody left in the hall who was injured. Cherry froze with shock as soon as she saw the bodies of her friends Paige and Maddison, who were badly injured and burnt lying on stretchers.
"Oh my…" Cherry could barely speak as she gasped at the sight of their helpless bodies. "Those are my friends!" She wept.
"It's ok, everything is gonna be ok," Adam tried his best to comfort her, but it was clear that Cherry was traumatised. In that moment, her strongest emotion that stood out was one of guilt. She felt guilty that she wasn't in that hall protecting her friends, instead she felt as if she was hiding out of sight like a coward. And seeing the state her friends were in, hanging on for their lives only made matters worse for her.
"Stay here with Max…" Axel interrupted the two of them as he started to run back towards the hall.
"Where are you going? The twins are gone!" Adam shouted back.
"Blaze might still be in there!"
"What?!" Adam shouted back in shock.
Axel spent a good 5 minutes searching for her amongst the fire, however there was no sign of her. He figured that, although she was injured, she took his advice in escaping through one of the backstage exits. The only problem was that Blaze took off with the record the team needed as evidence against the Syndicate.
He sighed defeated, shaking his head. At that moment, there was nothing he could do about it, the only right thing to do was to help as many people left who were injured and carry them to safety.
"Hey, thanks for picking me up", Blaze said as she stepped into the car.
"You're bleeding!" Shiva observed with concern from the driver's seat.
"I'll be ok. I got the record we need, that's the main thing. Now you can use this against their asses to keep yourself and your sister safe", she carefully handed it over to him.
"Thank you," Shiva gratefully nodded. "What about you then? You're not still leaving are you?"
"If it makes you feel better, I'll stay a couple more days until this all cools down. A lot of innocent people died today in that concert hall you know…" Blaze quietly stared down at her palms.
"The Syndicate only see them as collateral damage, it's always been that way" Shiva replied.
"Leon, you should have seen what they were doing though! They played music off this very same record, then everyone was in some sorta trance and under their control. This is really dangerous!"
"There's only one person you and I know of who could analyse this then…"
"No, no way. I'm not taking this to Zan or Floyd!" Blaze shook her head.
"But I thought you were still friends?"
"We are, but….."
"But what?"
Blaze sighed, "Axel is with them. So I ain't going back there!"
"...I see," Shiva replied, avoiding her gaze.
"Wait! You knew he was back, didn't you?" Blaze snapped.
He shrugged "I just found out tonight when Electra gave me the cash. Do you believe me now? Honestly, if I wanted either of you two dead under the deal, that ambush plan for Washi at the concert hall would have fell short."
"The whole thing went to shits! But, despite that, I do believe you've changed, Leon. And I'm sorry about earlier…"
"Apology accepted", he nodded. "I'm sorry too that I wasn't completely open with you from the start."
"Well, that's a first!" Blaze laughed, feeling a sore pain on her back.
"Who got away with doing that kind of damage to you then?" Shiva queried.
"Axel…."
"Huh? You two fought against each other?!" He asked, feeling surprised.
"Yeah. I mean, we were both after K-Washi who ended up getting away, but Axel couldn't see my face. I figured if I entered that hall with all those Syndicate thugs around, it would be better to keep my identity hidden, so that's exactly what I did. He's changed though as a fighter,"
"So have you…."
Following that, their conversation came to a halt as Blaze sat in the passenger seat contemplating. She was no longer in the mood to talk and her head was still trying to process what actually just happened.
That night Blaze went to bed tired, exhausted and emotionally drained. She felt numb and it was almost as if the events of earlier were just a dream. Seeing Axel again after 10 years under those circumstances was too much for her to handle and her mind hadn't yet passed the initial shock of it all.
It suddenly dawned on her that his old phone and earphones were still in her pocket after Axel had given them to her earlier.
"I can't believe he kept this phone", Blaze sighed to herself as she unlocked the old model. Then, smiles appeared on her face as she scrolled through the 10 year old phone. His screensaver was still the same as he had left it, with the photo of them together by the beach. And all the pictures they had taken 10 years ago were still there. It reminded Blaze of a time when she was at her happiest.
But then the reality of it all kicked in and Blaze stared down at the screen in silence. Everything changed soon after these photos were taken and it was a stark reminder of the fact that the happy couple she could see in those pictures no longer existed.
Unexpectedly, the cell phone then started to ring. Blaze immediately recognised the number on the screen which belonged to Adam.
"Hello…?" She reluctantly answered.
"It's me. Are you ok? I'm sorry about earlier, I didn't know it was you! Did you get that wound checked out?" Axel's voice was on the other end of the line.
Blaze took a short pause, hesitant to answer him. The truth was that, even though he'd changed both physically and as a fighter, his voice was the one thing that remained the same after all these years.
"Blaze? Are you ok? Where are you…?"
"I'm fine." She finally answered. "I'll have your phone delivered to you in the morning. Please don't call me again," she coldly answered before abruptly hanging up then switching off the phone.
Authors Note
So, a lot of things kicked off in this chapter which will lead into the next section of the story. Firstly, it's clear that Blaze and Axel have left unfinished business, but the initial shock of seeing each other for the first time in 10 years (and fighting at the moment) hasn't yet worn off.
Cherry is also now going through a dilemma of her own, feeling guilty about doing nothing to help her friends and hiding in fear. More on this will also develop in the next chapter.
And finally, that record - someone needs to do some analysing of it to find out what the Y-Twins are really up to and how they are manipulating people's minds which we will also see coming next.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter :-).
