Well hello, reader. New update for you here...and this update compared to the last one was much quicker me thinks so 10 points to me! Anyway...hope you enjoy...
Max Killner looked up slowly at what had caused the outbursts from his friends. When he saw Steve, a sly smile spread across his face.
"Well well well, look who it is." As soon as he spoke, the entire room went silent. A large man to the immediate left of Max, who Steve recognised from the farmhouse, stood up quickly and cracked his knuckles menacingly. Steve only glanced at him, not perturbed by his gesture as his only focus was and needed to be Max. "No, no." Max assured his fellow gang member "It's alright, it's my best friend." His voice dripped with sarcasm.
"You shot my best friend." Steve said harshly, unable to help himself.
"I believe it was Aaron who did that." He nodded to another guy sat close by. "And it was your friend who shot me first, know where I can get one of those electro guns?" He laughed to himself, enjoying his position of power and the sound of his own voice. The Downside – overconfidence, Steve thought to himself. Suddenly Max stopped laughing and it was only then that Steve felt the atmosphere in the room – all eyes on him and a deadly silence pressed over everything.
The gang leader leaded forward in his seat and stared at him with a brute expression of anger "Alright enough with the pleasantries. What the fuck are you doing here?" He spat.
"I'm doing my job." Steve replied simply.
"Your job? What are you, some kind of super cop? You one of them government assholes?" He raised his voice.
"Yeah, I'm one of them government assholes." Right now Steve would have to say anything in order to keep talking and wait for the right moment to signal the others to come in. "I'm not here to bust you for the drugs, I'm here to take something from you but if I can kill two birds with one stone then I may as well, I'd love to see you rot in jail." Again, he couldn't help himself.
Although Max hadn't actually been the one to pull the trigger on Claudia, he was the leader, which made it his responsibility, his fault, in Steve's mind and he couldn't help but release tiny snippets of his anger with his replies to Max. He would have his chance, he would have to wait. Wait for the right moment. Steve composed himself in his mind as best he could.
Max smirked and took another drag from his joint. "Let me guess, you got snipers all over the place...couple of helicopters to?" He laughed again, this time his cronies joined in too.
"No, just me. I'm not even armed." Steve turned around slowly in a full circle, his arms slightly raised. More laughter from the men at this, they found him a bit ridiculous, coming in with no weapon, saying all these things. "Like I said, I'm just here to take something." He said calmly.
Max shook with more laughter "You have a death wish?" He turned serious again when he said in a low tone "You aren't taking anything of mine. I can very easily have a bullet put in you, just like your girlfriend and unlike Aaron, I tend to have slightly better aim."
"And like Pete, so do I." Steve said with his voice slightly raised. What happened next was all at a ridiculous speed.
In the split second of confusion where the men tried to process what Steve had said, Pete sprinted through the door and threw the Tesla into Steve's awaiting arms. Straight away he aimed and fired at a large metal beam above Max's head, no doubt filled with wires. Before any of the gang members knew what was going on, the beam came crashing down upon half of them in a spectacular shower of golden sparks.
Some men close to Max tried to move out of the way but were too slow, half of them now trapped and unable to move.
Myka sprinted in immediately after Pete and fired mercilessly at the remaining men who were hurriedly trying to retrieve hand guns and failed miserably, Artie followed suit. Pete, thinking that the other three agents had everything under control went straight for Max, who was attempting to wriggle his way out from under the beam.
In his rage, Pete was at a complete disregard for the artefact that was still strapped to Max's wrist. The agent sprinted over the beam and grabbed on to him by the scruff of the neck.
"Pete don't!" Myka exclaimed.
Pete had every intention of mashing this guy's brain to a pulp but too late. As soon as Pete's hands were at his neck, Max forced the artefact against them. A slight ripple passed between the touching of the hands and Pete's eyes suddenly glowed a bright red.
He slowly let go of Max, who let out a sigh of relief as Pete stood up straight, much like a soldier and said softly to him "What are my orders?"
Max smiled with evil in his eyes when he spoke with soft menace. "Kill her." He raised a bloody hand and pointed to Myka, who was staring at Pete with immense caution.
Pete ran at her at full pelt. Myka, knowing she had no choice but to fight him off, stood her ground and ducked the punch that was thrown at her. She kneed him in the thigh but it hardly had any effect on him as he was much heavier than her. She hated what she was doing but right now, Pete was a dangerous threat. Myka raised her fist and brought it across her partner's face. She raised the other one and fist met face once again.
She went for another punch but this time Pete was ready, he placed his hand over her clenched fist and slowly began twisting. Myka clenched her teeth as she stared into Pete's eyes. He was gone from her, looking back into her eyes was a shell of Pete Lattimer, his face but not his emotion. Blind rage and anger such that Myka had never seen in him before. She knew it wasn't real, Pete was just fuelled by the artefact but all the same, it frightened her.
She raised her spare hand delivered a perfect upper cut to his chin, despite the fact that he was seconds away from breaking her arm. He immediately let go and stumbled backwards. He then immediately lunged for her. He tackled her to the ground and they both became a mess of clothing writhing on the floor. Pete had Myka pinned down and punched her in the stomach twice. They were hard hits and she bit her tongue to keep from crying out.
"Artie!" She shouted just as Pete attempted to reach for her throat. She managed to bend back his fingers, causing him to snarl in pain at her, like an animal, she thought. This stalled Pete long enough for Artie to grab him from behind.
While this was happening, Steve moved though the array of unconscious bodies to Artie's discarded bag. Pulling on a purple glove, he reached in and took out Hammer Lane's knuckle strap and put it onto his non-gloved hand.
He instantly felt the energy and power coursing through his veins and turned and ran at Max, just like Pete but this time, he was prepared.
Steve went straight for Joan of Arc's wrist armour and wrenched it off him using his gloved hand. Then, feeling the power within him increase, he lifted up Max by his throat and pinned him up against the wall, a good foot off the ground. He let out a scream of rage at the drug dealer that had started all of this and without warning, Steve punched him across the face, using the knuckle strap. Blood spattered across Steve's face from the blow but he didn't care, seeing Max bleed made him more eager to do further damage.
He threw another punch in Max's face and Steve felt the immense satisfaction of his nose crunching under the force. Steve punched him in the gut, then again and again, treating him like a punch bag, all the while holding Max up off the floor. The power coursing through him was astounding; he had never felt so strong.
"Myka shoot him!" Artie shouted over Pete's exclamations of anger. Artie held him tight, just long enough for Myka to raise the Tesla and shoot Pete in the chest. He crumpled to the floor in a heavy heap.
As Myka couldn't focus on anything else apart from Pete when she was fighting him off, she didn't notice Steve move over to Max and begin pummelling him to death. The room had gone quiet and all Myka could hear was the grunts from a semi-conscious Max Killner and the shouts of an artefact fuelled Steve.
Myka watched in shock as Steve threw punch after punch into Max's stomach. He was relentless and suddenly let out the loudest scream of all as he reared back and head-butted the guy so hard that even more blood came out of his face. Steve seemed unharmed however and Myka was confused as to what was giving him such strength.
She soon snapped out of her momentary shock and watched as Artie ran forward, carrying two neutraliser bags.
"Steve!" Artie stooped down and bagged the wrist guard that Steve had previously tossed over his shoulder. It sparked heavily.
Artie grabbed Steve roughly by the shoulders and somehow managed to pull him away from Max, who slid down the wall and slumped onto the floor.
Artie looked into Steve's crazed eyes that were tinged red at the edges and said as sternly as possible and in a low tone so as not to make him mad. "Stop. You are being too excessive with this artefact, it will consume you if you keep it on for much longer."
Steve just looked confused, as though he had difficulty hearing and understanding what was said to him. His ears were ringing and his mouth was dry, he felt strange. Artie pulled off Hammer Lane's knuckle strap, while Steve was trying to remove his confusion, and bagged it.
As soon as the sparks cleared, so did Steve's mind. His ears stopped ringing and mouth was back to normal. Although now his heart rate had gone way up. He began panting heavily and bent double, hands on knees.
"Wha – What's happening?" he wheezed.
"When you were using the artefact, all your energy was fuelled by it, this is just your body's way of 'catching up', you'll be fine." Artie told him and he patted his shoulder comfortingly.
Steve stood up straight and glanced at Max slumped on the ground, his face unrecognisable and covered in blood. Steve gulped slightly and raised his face to Artie's. "Did I...Did I do..." he didn't want to finish his sentence.
Artie looked at him with a serious expression and said. "I'm just glad it was you, not me. If I'd done that, I fear I would not have been able to stop."
Steve nodded to him and walked over to Myka, who was sat with Pete, waiting for him to regain consciousness.
Artie looked at the mess in front of him, the broken tables and chairs, the wiring from the beam, the beam itself – with squashed men underneath it, all of them bleeding and possibly dead. Artie didn't care about them. His eyes landed on the mashed face of the man he hated and knelt down in front of him so that they were eye to eye.
He grabbed Max by the scruff of his neck, getting some of his blood on his hands. The drug dealer slightly opened his one good eye, as the other was already turning black, and looked Artie square in the face. Artie looked murderously at him and when he spoke; his voice was dangerously low and harsh.
"I could kill you here and now." He said, an almost wild look in his eyes.
"N-No." Max managed in his state. He could almost feel the older man's anger that was seething through him.
Artie shook the scruff of Max's shirt he had hold of. "Why not? You would do it to me, wouldn't you? Cowardly men like you are pathetic." He spat. "I'm not going to kill you; I won't sink to your level. But I will personally see to your imprisonment in jail for what you've done and for lord knows how many other things you've done. Agent Jinks seems to have done all of my intended work for me and I believe prison doesn't accept dead men so I guess you should think yourself lucky that I didn't get my hands on you, you worthless piece of – " SLAP! Artie hit him hard across the cheek, his last word un-heard due to the loud noise it made.
It was enough. Max's head rolled to the side, he was fully unconscious. Artie had knocked him out.
He stood up slowly and carefully and turned to the other three agents, who were stood watching him. They were all silent. Artie cleared his throat slightly and addressed Myka: "Call the police, or the feds, they need to get this place cleaned up."
"Already done, Artie. They're on their way." She paused. They all did, as they looked around the completely trashed room. "We should leave." She said, breaking the silence.
"They'll be waking up soon." Pete seconded.
They all turned and left the room, Artie giving one last look at everything, knowing he'll regret it later – he didn't want the image of their left over carnage stuck in his mind but he couldn't help it.
When they emerged at the top of the stairs on the second floor, the work men, now free from the influence of the artefact, looked around the room, all with an identical expression of confusion on their faces.
Some of them noticed the four agents coming down the stairs towards the large group they had formed.
"Hey!" One of them shouted. Myka was in the lead and was first to reach the bottom of the stairs. She walked towards the men who began bombarding her with questions all at once. She simply sighed under the noise and raised her badge in the air. That shut them up she thought.
"Okay gentlemen – " She began but was cut off by an older worker.
"Excuse me." He said rather innocently. "What's going on?" he looked at her almost pleadingly.
Myka wasn't quite sure how to respond, a lot had happened in a short amount of time. She was thankful when Pete stepped in. "Mushrooms, gentlemen. Mushrooms. It seems you've all either eaten the mushrooms or been unknowingly exposed to them at some point."
Myka caught on. "Yes, we are currently maintaining the situation so if you would all like to follow me this way please, we need to get you outside to have you assessed." She raised her voice so all the men could hear and once again raised her badge above her head and began walking towards the next set of stairs. Everyone followed her lead.
They explained the same thing to the work men on the ground floor, who were just as confused. When they all reached the loading bay where the SUV was parked, there were a number of other vehicles arriving also, some men holding guns were already emerging and running into the factory.
An important looking man, who the four of them assumed was in charge, got out of his sleek black car.
"I'll talk to him." Artie said to the three of them. Clearly some 'explaining' was needed to be done. Myka watched Artie weave his way through the running armed men that were being fed into the building and the workers who were being talked to by some official.
"Well, that went well." Pete said, clapping his hands together as he turned to Myka and Steve, who still looked a little shell shocked.
"Jinksy, you ok?" Myka asked him.
He inhaled deeply. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine, I'm okay." He said truthfully. Although he really just wanted to get back to the Warehouse.
Myka seemed satisfied with his reply so turned to Pete, who was gently poking his soon-to-be-black eye.
"Pete, I'm sorry." She said to him.
"For what, Mykes?"
"For...hitting you, and...kicking you and well, knocking you out with the Tesla, and everything...I know it wasn't really you attacking me but I still feel bad I mean, look at your eye, that's gonna bruise Pete." She looked up at him, a caring expression on her face.
"Myka, it's fine, really. You did what you had to do. And I'm sorry if I hurt you at all. I'm just glad this is over." He finished, smiling at her.
She nodded back to him as Artie came back over.
"Right, we're out of here." He said.
"Everything cleared up?" Steve asked him.
"Yep. We're both government. They do their job, we do ours. Let's go."
They all went back to their car and piled in, homeward bound.
Do you think I should finish the story here? Or should I do like one more chapter of them getting back to the warehouse and such? I think it could easily end here but what do you think? Oh and you could also tell me how you thought the chapter was maybe? If you want to?
Much love x.