"Why me? You are the oldest of the two of us, you should be the one to choose!"
"Yes but I'm familiar with making decisions and taking responsibility for them. You on the other hand are not. I was made aware of the fact that you got suspended a couple of weeks ago for bullying. Some of your schoolmates even say that you threaten them using your Secret Service escort. And each time that happens, you try putting the blame to someone or something else entirely. You never took responsibility for anything in your entire life and that needs to change now."
"Who do you think you are! You have no right to judge me!"
"For someone who disliked being judged, you surely like to judge everyone around you based on nothing other than appearance. I'm going to be brutally frank here, you are not someone good but you have the unique occasion to become one right now Alexander. Are you going to put yourself in danger to save innocent people, their only crime being living in the wrong neighborhood or are you going to save your skin and the consequences be damned for the others?" Nathaniel asked, making intense eye contact with Alexander.
Forced to turn his head away under the intensity of that stare, Alexander's attention focused on the people walking in the street. There was a pair of elderly people walking arms in arms, a woman in her twenties talking on her phone and a few kids around ten who were playing under the surveillance of forty something men.
Noticing what Alexander was looking at, Nathaniel added in a soft voice.
"Yes, you have the power to save all of these people Alexander."
"I can't choose! I'm a coward! I want to save them but I don't want to die either! I can't choose, I'm not courageous like you are!"
"Courage doesn't mean not being afraid or cowardly, you know Alexander. Courage is being scared shitless but still finding in yourself the strength of mind to do the right thing. If you are not scared, it's not courage but folly or outright stupidity."
Firming his mind, Alexander nodded once resolutely.
"I want to help them, what do you have in mind?"
"Follow me." Nathaniel said with a smile, glad that he had made the right choice.
Crossing the street with Alexander in tow, Nathaniel walks in the direction of the elderly couple.
"Alexander, just follow my lead, do not say who you are and don't appear to be surprised by what I'm going to say, alright?"
"Okay." Alexander nodded just before they arrived in front of the couple.
Seeing two youth walking to them, the reaction of the two elderly was guarded to say the least. They knew very well where they were leaving even if it was not like that when they took their house half a century ago and they were too stubborn to leave the neighborhood where they lived almost their entire life. Their guarded expression did not last long however when Nathaniel wiped something from his pocket.
"Hell, I'm sorry to disturb you but I'm agent Sanchez of the FBI." Nathaniel said, wiping a badge in front of them and showing it to them, Alexander trying hard not to twitch seeing the badge.
Surprised to hear that considering the youthful appearance of the person showing the badge, the couple exchange a glance before the man chooses to answer.
"What can we do for you, agent?"
"I need your help. I'm here with my little brother Alex and I believe there is going to be a fight between gangs in the next few minutes. Can I trust you to keep an eye on my little brother with you the time I investigate?"
"Oh! Yes, of course! It will be no problem at all." The woman said with a caring expression on her face.
"Thank you, stay with them Alex and please don't stay on the street, go there. I will meet you here once I'm done." Nathaniel said, showing them the wall leading to another street.
Doing just that, Nathaniel leaves once they are not endangered anymore and starts walking in the direction of the three cars he spotted earlier. Taking his phone out and firing up one of the games that was pre installed on it. Turning his phone lightly on the side, Nathaniel walked by three cars in question, seemingly not looking in their direction at all, his eyes focused on his phone.
Seeing someone walking near their cars, a few gang members looked at Nathaniel attentively, relaxing after realizing that it was only a youth playing a game on his phone and not paying attention to them. Forgetting him entirely, they focus their attention back to the bodega, waiting for the last patrol in the area to move away before attacking.
Walking by and going in the direction of the man who was taking care of the children playing in the street. He had counted eleven gangsters in total, three in the first car and four in the two others. He could not determine what they had in terms of weapons but he estimated they had only a handgun and maybe a couple of automatic weapons.
Using the badge of the Secret Service he asked for the President the night before, Nathaniel passed for a FBI agent again, he warned the men about what was about to happen. Understanding the danger very well, the men quickly usher the children inside of his house. It was only when the last children got inside the house that Nathaniel heard a number of car doors open.
Looking back behind him, he could see eight people getting out of the cars and starting to walk in the direction of the bodega. Two had M4, one an AK47, and another having a shotgun. The rest have only a handgun on their person.
"Call 911 and don't leave the house until the cops are here." Nathaniel ordered.
"What are you going to do?." The man asked, worried about Nathaniel going against ten of gang members alone.
"I'm going to have fun." He smiles brightly before walking in the direction of the bodega.
Seeing two of the three men walking out of their respective cars and walking in the direction of the last car, Nathaniel angles himself in that direction. His previous assertion was right seeing the men in the car listening to a Police scanner, the two others coming to listen with him.
"Shit! The cops are already aware of what is going on! We need to move fast." The man still sitting in the car shouted alarmingly after listening in the scanner.
"How the hell do they know already? We didn't even fire a single shot yet."
"Hi." A youthful voice said behind him, making him jump in surprised.
Looking at Nathaniel, the three men sneer, the one who had jumped mad at himself for being surprised like that strain his gun on Nathaniel's chest.
"Kid, get the fuck out of here or I'm going to fu** you up really bad." He threatened.
"Sorry, I can't do that. I just wanted to tell you that I was the one who called the cops on you. Now, I'm going to ask you to put your guns on the floor, put your arms behind your head and drop on your knees, or else." Nathaniel asked amiably.
Dumbstruck for a few moments, the three thugs roared in laughter.
"Well, you got balls kid, I can give you that. Now dropped on your knees, I will show you what you deserved for interfering in our business."
"Why they never listen? I'm so tired of being dismissed because I look young." Nathaniel sighed dejectedly.
Hearing what Nathaniel said, the thug looked at each other, trying to find out if one of them had understood his cryptic phrase. Nathaniel did not miss their trouble and chose that moment to act. Entering the guard of the men closest to him with a burst of speed, the man failed to react quick enough to angle his gun back on the youth attacking him. A second later, he felt extreme pain coming from his larynx and knee, dropping on the ground with a scream.
Snatching the gun from the hand of the man falling on the ground, Nathaniel closed in on the other one who was pressing himself on the car. Pushing himself from the car and launching himself at the youth who was attacking them, Nathaniel decided to use the momentum of his enemy against him, cutting his legs from under him with a powerful kick the man was unable to stop his fall forward, a punch hitting him in the back of the head while he was still in mid air, accentuating his momentum making him do a front flip, knocking him out when he hit the ground hard.
Straining the gun that he stole while he was fighting on the men still in the car, Nathaniel said in a cool voice.
"Put your hands in the air and get out of the car slowly. If you make a single move that I don't like, I will kill you be sure of that."
Freezing, the men did what he was told, moving really slowly. Once he was out of the car, he chose to speak.
"Now what? We are a dozen here, you will never get away with what you just did! We will kill you and everyone you hold dear!" He threatened with an hostile glare.
"Now it's time for you to sleep." Nathaniel answered, putting his hand on the man's head and crushing it on the car with so much force that it created a dent in the car, the man slumping on the ground.
Hearing gunfire coming from the bodega, Nathaniel hastily took another handgun and made sure the two were loaded with the safety off before running inside of the bodega. Not far from here, two elderly people and one youth had witnessed the entire scene awestruck. Darting an eye on Alexander, the elder asked.
"Is this what the FBI taught to their young recruit these days?"
"I don't know." Alexander shook his head, looking worriedly at Nathaniel running inside the bodega.
Once Nathaniel had entered the bodega, the number of gunshot increased by two folds for a minute until it was complete silence. Waiting outside, Alexander was getting more and more anxious seeing that Nathaniel was not coming out. He knew that if something happened to Nathaniel, he could tell the elderly couple or even the cops that he was the son of the President and they would bring him back to the White House but the truth was that he quite liked walking away from the surveillance of the Secret Service of his family. He finally relaxed when he saw Nathaniel walking out of the bodega seemingly unharmed, none of the two guns he had previously in hands anymore.
Coming to them, Nathaniel looked at the couple for a moment before nodding.
"Thank you for keeping my little brother safe, I really appreciate it." He said gratefully
"Don't mention it, it was not a big deal. Are you really a FBI agent?" The elder asked, looking at Nathaniel with piercing eyes.
"I'm from a special unit. That's why it would be preferable if you were to leave before the cops are here and forget seeing us here. For both of our sake."
"I think you are right. On the other hand nobody would believe me if I were to say that the man who solved the situation had a little brother who looked curiously like the son of the President of the United States." He gave a little smile.
Surprised for a moment, Nathaniel gave a good natured laugh. Nodding in Alexander direction who had turned anxious, realizing he had been found out.
"I should know better than trying to fool a senior. I'm hearing sirens closing in, let's leave in different directions. It was a pleasure meeting you."
"Likewise youngster, take care alright?" The woman said with a caring expression on her face.
"Will do, bye." Nathaniel answers, ushering Alexander into the side street.
Running swiftly to put as much distance between the crime scene and them, Nathaniel kept at it until he noticed Alexander was getting short of breath and was sweating profusely. Finding a dinner not far away, he led Alexander there and sat at a table, asking for a bottle of fresh water.
"Better?" Nathaniel asked after Alexander finished his second glass of water in a row.
"Yeah, I should really do more sports."
"You should indeed, we didn't even run that far."
"We run for more than a mile!"
"Yes, not far, that was what I was saying." He affirmed, looking at the menu.
Shaking his head, Alexander drinks another glass of water until he feels full and after that looks at Nathaniel attentively. Looking at him right now, he could never guess that he was so strong as doing what he saw earlier.
"Did you kill them?" Alexander asked offhandedly.