Chapter 13

Xpert-Thief Strikes

Later that Night Peter spent it at Jacob s apartment. He knew that it would be safer for his family this way. The night was for once peaceful for him without any nightmares. The next morning he woke up to the smell of pancakes , and bacon being cooked as he woke up to see Kasey in the kitchen with Jacob placing plates onto a long wooden table. As soon as he woke up , he went into the restroom , took a quick warm shower , then changed into some shorts and an Empire University State shirt before entering the kitchen. He took a plate of pancakes and bacon as Jacob passed him a drink. "Morning!" said Jacob as Peter took the plate. "Thanks, where's everyone?" asked Peter feeling that he, Jacob and Kasey were the only ones in the room, until he heard the sounds of footsteps coming down the stairs as Niko, Zack, Josh entered the kitchen eyes on the food leaving Will to limp toward the table. Thankfully Jacob saved him an open seat as they started eating. "Where's Preston?" asked Peter. "He went out last night, he decided to find a lead on our Psychopathic Hockey man." Joked Niko. "Wait , you let me go alone?" asked Peter thinking that was the dumbest thing any of them would do.

"Relax man , he knows what he's doing and besides he said he'd be back by morning." Said Josh in Niko s defense. At that moment Niko entered the living room looking rather exhausted and cold from the weather outside. "Hey guys." Said Preston as he entered the kitchen , placing his back pack to the side after pulling out some blue prints. "Told ya." Whispered Josh. "What's this?" asked Jacob as HE AND Kasey moved the food so Preston flattened the blue prints onto the table. "I got more than just a lead last night. I ran into an old friend , I asked him he saw someone of some people wearing Hockey masks." Said Niko. "What 'd he say?" asked Zack. "He told he heard word of some degenerates breaking into a shop later today." Answered Niko.

"No offense Niko , but I think our goal is to stop some zombie slasher, not a group pf low life s." , "There breaking into a Pawn shop, with a lot of junk , masks, machetes, and some other bladed weapons." Said Niko cutting Josh off. "Good point , keep going." Said Jacob. "He didn't tell me what they're planning but it's something big." Said Niko. "There planning on breaking in threw the roof , here." Pointed Niko on the blue print, "There s an unlocked window that one of the guards always forgets to close. But there s an alarm system too, my guy said they have the code to shut it off.". "okay so the windows not an option. Are there any other entrances?" asked Will. "There s this backdoor behind the building, there s no alarm system but on security camera across from it , it goes on every 30 seconds, so we need to be in fast, and come out carefully." Said Niko as everyone around him listened.

"Okay so what's the plan , just hide out during their meeting and just burst out yelling "Halt in the name of the law." Asked Niko. "We've got a few hours until then, but for now, let s gear up." Said Niko. Everyone followed Jacob out of the kitchen, and into a hallway with the lights off, Jacob turned them on as they entered the hallway. The hallway ended with a black metal door , made of old iron. "I thought you've kept your guns on the ship." Said Peter. "No, the ships, where I keep the space stuff, this is where we keep the earth stuff." Said Jacob as he swung the door open revealing a large room with machine guns, snipers, body armor s, pistols, bandit hats, bladed weapons, and jackets. The room had the look of a large arsenal. "Woh!" said Peter. "Never gets old. Tributes, choose your weapon." Said Jacob theatrically as he , Peter, Kasey, and the rest started grabbing what they could. As they did Will turned to Peter, "So you think this'll be as easy as the other heist s you and the Web-Warriors stopped?" , "Kind of, except this will probably way more violent." Answered Peter.

About 4 hours later, the downtown looks almost like a ghost town except for the vehicles that drive down the roads. 3 silver black Range-rovers parked into an abandoned Pawnshop, it looks as if anything hits the walls , the whole building would collapse. 6 men exited the vehicles, each of them carrying a different type of weapon, once s carrying a hatchet , 2 of them are armed with crowbars, the rest are carrying baseball bats, and some with hand guns. All of them are unaware as 3 hooded figures watching them enter the building. "Recognize any of these guys?" asks Niko as the last thug enters the building. "Some of them are Rikers , some of them have life sentences." Answered Peter. Jacob pulls a handgun from his back , putting a silencer on top of the barrel, "Well let s put them back on their sentences.". Niko brings a black bag in front of him and his friends, after unzipping it he pulls out a rifle with a grapple hook coming from the barrel. "Where'd you get that?" asks Peter, "I won it in an auction." Answered Niko.

"By won it, he means he stool it." Says Preston from an earpiece that Peter, Niko, and Jacob. "Do you ever not rat anyone out?" asks Niko. "Yeah all the scouts but you." Answers Preston. Niko fires the grappling gun across the street, the hook hits a piece of the roof as he with Jacob and Peter following behind zip across the street. If anyone looked up they might be mistaken as giant bats. The three of them made their way to a ceiling window, as Jacob and Peter opened the window as slowly and quietly as possible, Niko pulled out a tablet from his backpack, inside the building a room with lasers across the wall, suddenly they all went off as Peter, Niko, and Jacob enter the room threw a pair of wooden doors. "Nice job!" whispered Peter, "Thanks, you didn't think you're the only one good with computer s did you?" Replied Niko. The three of them snuck into a room with large shelves spread around the room, the only light could be seen threw the selves was a light stand on a table with the same guys surrounding it.

Amongst them stood a man dressed in grey clothes that had a stain of crimson red on the shirt. "Is that?", asked Jacob, "Blood!" answered Peter. The man stood on the table and acted as if he was drunk as he swung a knife around and in his other hand he held a hockey mask that looked almost identical to Jason s but it seemed newer. "Tonight is the start of our time, my brothers. Thanks to our savior we will learn how to take everything that's been taken from us without fear of pain and death." The man then thrusted the knife into his side, Peter and Jacob felt sick as Niko looked away nearly heaving. To their surprise the man stood there as he took the blade out of his body without even getting to his knees.

The man s blood drip from is wound onto the table creating a pool of blackish crimson red. "That's sick! Is that blood?" asked Jacob. "Maybe but it's not like normal blood." Said Peter. There questions were halted as a two more man carried a woman into the room, she seemed scared out of her mind as her kidnappers stared at her with wild eyes , one of them placed her head on the table as the leading thug knelt over her smiling menacingly "And in return for this power, our savior requires us to ascend , through young blood." Said the man as he lowered his blade over the terrified woman.

"Ah Crap." Whispered Peter. "Now?" asked Niko ,"Not yet." Said Peter as he pointed at Niko and then to a table to the right behind a few of the thugs , Niko nodded before making his way behind the table. He then pointed to Jacob and then pointed left behind another shelf. Jacob nodded as he unsheathed a hand gun and hid behind a shelf opposite of Niko. Peter pulled out a mat-blacked bandit mask and then to a pistol in his right hand and then a hunting in his other hand. "On my mark guys." Said Peter through his earpiece.

"Got it." Answered Niko and Jacob. "My brothers prepare yourselves." , "Wait!" said Peter. "Please, please let me go." Begged the woman as her cries were hushed by cheering. "Wait." Repeated Peter. "OUR TIME IS NOW!" yelled the lead thug raising his knife. Peter realized it now or never. "NOW." He yelled firing his weapon , the bullet hit the thug s arm , knocking the knife out of his hand. In an instant the room had bullets flying threw the room as Niko and Jacob emerged from their hiding spots and started shooting while Peter charged in leaving his gun behind and start taking the thugs down with his hands. He grabbed a thug kneeing him right in the stomach , before kicking him right in the face before throwing him into a nearby shelf causing boxes to fall on him. He then front rolled , evading gun fire , as he got up he sliced on of them at the heal before throwing it at the thugs partner.

The blade pierced him in the shoulder as Peter quickly dislocated his partners arm then swung his elbow right into his throat. He then turned to the other thug, grabbing him by the shoulders and then head butted him twice before throwing him to the floor. Peter quickly ran to the girl who was now hiding under the table crying in fear as hell went off around her. Peter raised a hand to her, "Come on." He said , the mask muffling his voice. The woman took his hand shaking as he helped her up, he torn the ropes form her wrist then grabbed her by the shoulders. "Go out the back door, run as fast as you can and call the cops okay?" said Peter. The woman only nodded mumbling with fear. Peter s face changed before yelling , "DUCK!" as he and the girl hid behind a table as the lead thug charging with a shot gun, as the thug turned Peter emerged grabbing the shotgun pointing it up as it fired at the ceiling, "RUN!" he yelled as he took the weapon before slamming it at him with the back before throwing it away as he and the leader locked arms , before Peter relentlessly delivered blows at the thugs face, his chest, and legs, he then grabbed an empty glass bottle , and swung it at the thugs face.

The thug yelled in agony as pieces of glass were lodge in his face , making blood drip. Peter then thrush the broken bit into his chest twice before throwing it aside and throwing him against the floor hard he then proceeded to throw his fist at the thugs face , breaking teeth, making him cough blood, making him scream , "WHERE'S HE? , WHERE'S IS HE?" Peter yelled repeatedly , Jacob turned to see his friend over the lead thug, "Hey , hey stop stop." Said Jacob as he rushed to Peter grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him away from the thug.

"Peter , get a grip he's had enough. PETER!" he yelled as Peter turned his gaze to Jacob then to the thug, the thug s face looked as pale as fog as his chest slowly went up and down , his face is caked with his own blood. Jacob heard the faint sound of sirens. "Pete we gotta go now." Said Jacob , "Wait , wait." Said Peter as he approached the unconscious thug. He put two fingers at his throw feeling a faint pulse. He then observed his jacket finding a small phone. "What are you doing?" asked Niko. "Seeing if we can find any of his friends on this." He answered just as the thug sprung to life , grabbing Peter by the throat laughing, 'He knows you're coming for him , and he wants me to tell you something , he said " when he beats you and the rest , tell him "I'll be waiting for you." Said The thug laughing maniacally before Jacob kicked the guy in the head before helping Peter up. "Come on we gotta go now." Said Niko as he Jacob and Peter ran out of the building threw the backdoor just as the cops pulled up.

A few hours later the three men were back at Jacobs apartment. They climbed the fire escape bloodied, bruised, and exhausted as Will opened the window. Kasey, Josh, Zack entered seeing the three friends. "I'm gonna guess that you found shop and took down the bad guys." Said Josh. "ah , more or less." Said Niko putting a ice bag up to his head. "SO, what did you learn?" asked Kasey. "Not only is Jason in New York, but he's building his own little army. , "There not just common criminals , their psychos and somehow they're almost as strong as he is." Said Jacob. "WHAT?" said Kasey , Zack. "How?" , "The blood!" said Peter out loud. "What?" they all asked. "I think Jason may have transferred his blood into them, it's like getting an adrenaline boost." Said Peter suddenly feeling a sharp pain in his side. He looked down to see his left hand covered in blood at his side, removing it he saw his shirt damped with crimson red. "What the hell." Said Niko and Jacob. "Pete did you get hit?" asked Zack.

"Apparently I did!" said Peter. "Hey guys I got the truck ready and , what the hell happened to you guys?" asked Preston wiping away dust off his face. "Not now Preston." Said Kasey grabbing an ice block and giving it to Pete. "Jeez that s a lot of blood, you should be out cold." Said Jacob. "Yeah but I'm not , and I didn't even feel it." Said Peter. "But now that s out of the way I found a… "Hold on that s not out of the way, first you nearly beat a thug into almost nothing and now you're shot and you don't even feel anything. Am I the only one who finds that odd?" asked Jacob.

"You did what?" asked Kasey. "I admit this is weird but we got something out of this." Said Peter showing the phone he stole. "Okay you pick pocketed a phone , so?" asked Josh. "So , now we know who else we can go after." Said Peter. Niko took the phone opening it and then looking at a list of numbers , "Carlos Dark, Fenton Wreck, David Steele. These are all from Ryker s. Oh !" , Everyone turned to Niko. "

Looks like our old friend Trevor Phillips is involved into this shady shit." Said Niko showing them Trevor s number. "Trevor you drunken idiot." Said Peter getting up but being stopped. "Hold on buddy, why don't we call this a night and get some rest , you definitely need some." Said Jacob. "Serious I'm fine." Objected Peter. "Well were not, and you're clearly not." Said Jacob. "Pete , he's right , let s get some rest and start again tomorrow, and this time wear these." Said Kasey giving his the black shirt with the winking smiley face , cameo pants, shaded glasses , a small syringe, a black scarf , black climbing gloves and a bullet proof vest. "Trust me , Xpert Thief s probably the only one who can get them." Said Kasey turning the lights off.

The Next morning Jacob , Niko, Preston, Josh, Will and Zack were gearing up , putting on bullet proof vest, loading up shotguns, rifles, sniper rifles, silencer pistols. As Jacob loaded a pistol he asked, "Does anyone if Peter s up yet?" , Will looked passed him , "Ask him yourself." Jacob turned to see a man wearing a black baseball cap wearing the shades, the yellow smiley face shirt, the cameo jeans, the gloves, the scarf, and the bullet proof vest under the shirt. The only sight of his black skin was his fingers. "Peter?" asked Jacob. "It's XpertThief now and he's ready for some payback." Peter said coking a pistol.

The day went by fast as the Men went across the city hunting down Jason s Captains one by one. Peter paid a visit to Carlos alone while the others dealt with his men. Then Jacob and Peter went after Fenton and David together. Luckily the two were planning on having a meeting. Unfortunately for them it ended with the Carlos getting a broken leg, and Fenton getting a concussion. But not before Fenton gave up Trevor s location. The Central Park Zoo.

Later that day as night swept over the city, the Zoos last tourist left as the zookeeper locked the gates. Unknown to him a squirrel watched as the remaining people left the zoo. "Finally, and now the zoo will be ours in 3, 2 , and here we go." Said the squirrel as an elephant trunk went off behind him and in a matter of minutes the animals that were thought to be in their cages were now roaming free casually. Among these was a middle aged lion walking along a path as the Squirrel scurried from his tree to the beast side. "So Samson , what are our odds of winning this years Turtle Curling Championship?" asked the squirrel. "Probably 80% with Bridget, Larry, Nigel, and Pet…." He paused not finishing the name frowning. "Oh , yeah this is our 3rd year without him , I still think he s just gonna show up one day in the zoo." Said Benny. "Ryan still misses him too." Said Samson. The two mammals continued walking not noticing a 4 figures watching them.

Moments later the animals were crowded in the penguin exhibit with a frozen lake in the center. Samson and his team Benny, Nigel the koala bear, Larry a somewhat brainless Anaconda, and Bridget the zoos famous female Giraffe sat at their end as their rival team the penguins were nearly the goal. Just before their team leader Victor could pass the, ice beneath hi cracked suddenly. "What the heck." Said Ryan as suddenly guns shots went off as three men armed with machine guns walked onto the field lead by an older guy with a dirty muddy short hair, and nasty torn jeans and a sleeveless shirt.

"Good evening mammals , birds, and reptiles of Central Park, we are this years special guests, you probably cant understand me so I'll make this simple tell me where this lion and his brat are and I wont put you endanger." Said the man holding a poster with Samson and Ryan on it. The two lions took a glance at each other , Samson shook his head as his son stood where he was amongst the crowded , terrified animals. "Don't worry Samson , I got this weirdo." Whispered the Squirrel. "No , Benny." Said The lion as the squirrel scurried to the lead man and jumping on him. Unfortunately the lead thug grabbed the small rodent. "Nice done, you ruined my mood. No I'm in a mood for some Squirrel stew." Hs said pulling a knife.

"F.Y.I Trevor , squirrel stew is not the best food here." Said Xpertthief with Jacob watching from a railing." , "I recommend having a Wild Burger, well done." Said Jacob as he and Peter jumped from the railing charging at the armed thugs. Peter threw a night at Trevors hand , making him release Benny before unsheathing a machete and an axe. He stabbed one of the thugs with the machete before swinging the axe into the other thugs shoulder before knocking him out as Jacob fired into the remaining guys shoulder. Trevor sprinted off with Jacob following as Peter took back the axe out of the thugs shoulder and machete, he noticed Samson and his team staring as he passed by , "Hey guys , hang tight I'll be back. T

hey all stared in shock saying , "PETER?" as Peter ran off after Trevor. Trevor quickly climbed over the gates as Jacob followed, just as he got to the top he Peter quickly jumped over the gate , grabbing Jacob s arm helping him over. The two landed on their feet as they continued chasing Trevor. Jacob shoulder Peter pointing left as Peter turned left. Trevor risked looking back only to find one person chasing him , until Xpertthief jumped him , almost out of nowhere slamming him into a parked car. Xpertthief pinned him against the shattered window. "Last time we met, you gave me and my friends nasty trash, now I'm thinking about giving you something similar, but with a stronger smell." Trevor s face changed from shock to realization , " Xpertthief?" he said, "DING , DING." Replied Xpert Thief. "You look way more alive than last time." , "You have no idea." Said Xpertthief. "This isn't gonna go well for me is it?". "No if you don't cooperate , this won't go well for you at all. Where s your new best friend?" asked Peter.

"Trust me , you don't wanna say no." Said Jacob. "Well last time I saw him , he said he wanted to check out the zoo, go for a night stroll." Said Trevor smiling. Xpertthief s face turned into terror. "Stay here with him." Said Xpertthief. "I got him go." Replied Jacob as he knocked Trevor in the face with the back of his gun.

Back at the frozen lake , Samson along with Benny, Nigel, Larry, and Bridget were where they were asking themselves multiple questions. "Are we sure that was Peter?" asked Bridget. "Im sure of it, that was his voice." Said Samson. As the group talked the other animals were running back to their enclosures leaving Ryan and his too friends Eze the youngest kangaroo in the zoo and Duke a young hippo. "What do you think they're talking about?" asked Eze. "Either those guys that attacked us, or the guys that saved us." Answered Ryan. Suddenly something shook under them.

"Duke?" they both asked. "That s not me?" said the hippo just as a large blade impaled the ice startling the young mammals. "AHHHH!" They screamed as a large hulking looking man burst from the ice armed with a machete. "RYAN!" yelled Samson charging at his sons attacker. The masked man turned kicking the lion back now advancing at him. "Dad look out." Yelled Ryan as the figure raised his weapon.

"GETAWAY FROM THEM!" yelled Peter jumping at the attacker. The two slip across the ice before Peter got up firing multiple shots at Jason. Just like before, Jason flinched form every bullet but still kept to his feet as he charged. Peter then threw the gun aside and unsheathed his machete and axe as the two started swinging at each other. Peter got a swung at Jason s leg just before being grabbed by the head as Jason threw him to the side holding his hat and the scarf. The glasses fell off, shattering as Peter glanced at a shocked Samson, Ryan, Benny, Bridget, Nigel, Larry.

"Hold your thoughts and questions please!" asked Peter turned swinging down at Jason hitting the ice beneath them. The two glanced before backing away as the ice in front of them shattered, making a small river appear in the middle of the frozen lake. In a sudden surprise , Jason was nowhere to be scene. "Not again!" said Peter before ducking as a snowball flew over his head. "What the heck?" said Peter turning to see Nigel holding a snowball.

"Okay were not seeing things." Said Nigel. "Really?" , "Hey , don't really us Peter, we are the only ones allowed to be angry, freaked out, and confused. Do you have any idea on how long it's been, we literally saw you die, or at least we thought we did , and you didn't show up for 2 years." , "And now you just show up like some kind of big-foot." Added Benny. "I am going to allow the crappy big-foot insult , because you guys do deserve an explanation, but this isn't gonna make a lot of sense. "Try us!" replied Samson.