CHAPTER 17: Mission Alfred
The room was filled with empty noise, not even breathing was heard; this was the quietest the agency ever was. All the chatter in the halls or the yelling in each station was all gone, all there was left was silence and blood. Everyone was waiting to hear where they took Alfred, waiting for the first words to be spoken that's when Pete took a deep breath and started to speak
"I- It was definitely The Other Side. One of their upper officers we're in here, number 4 to be exact. I tried to fight them off but they stuffed me in this freezer as a threat against Alfred. That's when they went around killing everyone, I couldn't believe my eyes. Only a few escaped up the elevator although they probably got hunted down. I tried- I tried my best." Pete said, choking down on his sweat with each word he said while also trying to speak as fast as he could.
"It's okay, you tried, that's all I ask from you," Apollo said before walking away into a room.
"Alright, so all we know is the other side wants to capture Alfred for some unknown reason. We also know it's not to kill him because they would have killed him on the spot instead of taking him somewhere else. What would be the purpose of that?" Dion said with a face that showed he was thinking.
"Leverage?" Aza said with a confused face that matched Dion thinking face.
"Maybe. However, if it's for leverage that means they want to make some sort of trade only thing is it couldn't be an item they could like money for example since they destroyed almost all of the secret underground base." Dion said
"Which means if they want leverage on anything..." Aza started before starting to connect the dots.
"Then it be a person." Kingsley finished leaving the room to go silent.
"Then I don't think it's for leverage," Koji said with the same tired face, however, this time more awake.
"Why not?" Dion asked trying to understand Koji thought process.
"Well, if it's for leverage that means one of us has ties to The Otherside. Enough ties at least for them to go out looking for them and kill and capture anyone in the way." Koji said in a deadpan voice.
"If anything, they did this to try to make us all rush to Alfred's aid to get the full agency in one big swoop," Koji said looking down with his eyes closed.
"If that's the case we're already doomed?" Kingsley asked Koji
"Yup," Koji said looking at Koji with a smile.
"What do you think Z?" Z?" Aza asked Z before looking over and seeing him in a deep thought
"Z?" Dion asked looking at me.
"Guys I might have something interesting to bring to the table," I said
"Well spit it out!" Dion said interested in his theory.
"The guy I fought at the warehouse named Will, said something that connects a thread that no one has asked yet. If this was the attack from the OtherSide then why do it now? Think about it all the Top-fives we're either on the mission we went to or out of state, I find it hard to believe they just picked a day out of a hat to fight us, this was planned."
"Thank you, you're all in danger. I tried to stop them ever since that day but I was overpowered. Ray and Quix are out for blood, blood that goes way deeper than you think. They work for an organization that rivals all of the other ones. The Government, The other side, The Undershow Agency, their out to destroy them all. I never wanted to bully you, I never wanted to say the things I did but they are always listening. So I adapted it to my life, and I embraced my role. I tried my hardest to impress everyone, but I lost myself and my life on the way."
"Was with Will told me before shortly after taking his life. The point is, there's an organization that rivals the big three, one that is unknown. Or at least he thought they rivaled all three."
"What's your point here Z?" Kingsley asked looking at me with a confused face, with slight anger.
"In some way, The Otherside and the secret organization are working together or have ties." I said coldly.
"Which would explain why they attacked at this time!" Aza said looking up and snapping her fingers.
"Yea, but that's off speculation that we haven't even confirmed yet, was this a random attack or planned?" Koji said going back into a more tired state.
"Only time will tell," Dion said finally getting out of his thoughts, and everyone agreed.
"In any case, this doesn't matter right now. For now let's at least get the old man back before we speak agency talk because the way I see it, we might not be in business for a while." Koji said pointing to the torn apart wires and circuits behind him with the destroyed walls and broken lights behind him which made everyone shake their heads in agreement again.
"So, now what?" Kingsley asked and made everyone have a deadpan face.
"Well first we have to find where they are, if we do that then we would have a place to go," I said
"You're right, alright now here is the hard part... how do we do that?" Kingsley said and everyone looked at each other with confused faces.
"Some detective department," Dion mumbled quietly with an annoyed face.
"We heard that!" The detective team yelled at Dion making him have a scared face
"This is how we find him. I installed a tracking device in Alfred's shoe, with this we'll be able to locate and retrieve him." Apollo said walking into the room holding a device at the top that said GPS.
"Wait, why do you have this?" Aza said looking at him with a concerned yet questioning expression.
"I had someone make this for events like this and although he fought me on it I eventually got him to trust me. Plus I only used it one time, and he was drunk." Apollo said, feeling embarrassed by the question.
"Well, regardless of your intentions, we now have a way to get to Alfred!" Aza said happily
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Kingsley said running towards the elevator
"Stop right there idiot," Koji said to Kingsley before Kingsley started to complain about being called an idiot, which Koji ignored.
"If this is still here, this will be a huge help!" Koji said going into the now broken and destroyed mechanic department.
When he came out he was holding a machine and placed it down. "This will bring us to where we need to go," Koji said pointing to the four-wheel machine. This machine left Kingsley and I confused.
"What's that?" Kingsley said raising his hand like he was in a classroom.
"It's called a car, you two wouldn't know since you grew up in Mystiko." Apollo said looking at us trying to explain it
"It's a machine that uses an engine that uses a combination of air and gasoline to create small explosions that help move the car forward. That's where the wheels are used for, with the wheels they help move the outershell of the car with the force of the small explosion which makes it have momentum which allows the car to drive. There are other parts and mechanics to a car but that's a short version." Apollo said to Kingsley and I which made things ten times more confusing. I look at Kingsley for a confrimation and he had a conf
"Dude, stop making up words." Z and Kingsley said to Apollo with the most straight face ever made. "I'm not making up words! You're both just dumb!" Apollo said before sighing and staring up again
"Anyways, this car will be essential to helping us secure Alfred only thing is... How do we bring it up?" Apollo said and everyone started thinking before Aza looked up and took a deep breathe
"I told you guys we should have built a way to go up with cars! But noo, idiot one and two said it be fine without a way up for the cars considering that cars would be used for testing!" Aza yelled at both Apollo and Dion who sat there in silence rubbing their necks.
"You were right, we're sorry for being lazy." They both said at the same time putting down their heads in shame
"They're definitely brothers alright!" Kingsley said in a very shocked and animated yell.
"Now, get digging, we have to dig out of the city so we can drive upwards without people knowing about our secret agency so, get digging," Aza said pointing to the wall
"Eh?" Everyone said
"Do you guys see any other way to scale up this car?" Aza said still pointing to the wall. That's when Dion pulled out his sword and Apollo turned into his doggy form.
"Why aren't you using your wolf form?" Z asked Apollo
"Because I need moonlight to change forms," Apollo said starting to get in the position to dig.
"You can't channel it or something? I mean the moon is shining everywhere." Z said before sitting down next to Aza leaving Apollo in a thought.
"What do you think you're doing?" Aza said looking at Z
"Sitting down." Z smiled and said
"Sitting down? Hey Kingsley, Koji." Aza said looking over at them
"Yes?" They both answered in scared voices
"Why don't you start digging or you'll end up like Z!" Aza yelled the last part before kicking Z to the wall
"I see birds. No no stars-" Z said before standing up and starting to help with the tunnel. "Stravinskyyy Septeet- Moment one, Drilly Drilly style! Thirty Second Noet Drill!" Z said in a very loopy and barely can-talk way.
"Oi, someone should check on him," Pete said seeing Kingsley and Koji walk over his body
"Wow Z, your new ability is awesome!" Kingsley said before starting to help take down the wall."
"Yeah, who would have thought it be so cool looking!" Koji said before pulling out the two swords and taking down the wall.
"Thankss Guysss!" Z said holding a thumbs up.
"No, really someone should check if he's okay," Pete said before laying down on the floor.
"Pete, why are you lying on the floor?" Aza asked and Pete looked up to see the devil's eyes piercing into his soul.
"Don't I deserve a break? You know being in a freezer and all!?" Pete said and Aza sighed
"Fine, I guess you do," Aza said before fully lying down
"Wait a minute, why aren't you helping?" Kingsley asked Aza
"Well, you guys all have abilities to break a tunnel down easily. I have one too however, it would require all of you to move out the way." Aza said before she made lighting appear between her thumb and finger.
"Good point," Kingsley said before continuing to break the rock.
"Actually, maybe I can help everyone move out the way," Aza said making everyone move out the way. That's when she put her hands on the rock, closed her eyes, and shot lighting out her hands until she felt loopy. "You guys do, the rest," Aza said sitting down and touching her head.
"Wow, it's so much easier to break now!" Kingsley said and everyone agreed.
"Yeah, I know now keep it going. We got to save Alfred right?" Aza said kinda tired.
"Right!" Which kicked everyone into high gear.
"They're all done!" Apollo said while they looked back and saw the end huge tunnel they made to the surface.
"It only took 15 minutes too, that nice!" Dion said has Koji and Z we're carrying up the car and everyone else expects Dion and Apollo we're inside.
"Finally you two are slowpokes pushing cars up tunnels," Dion said seeing Koji and Z out of breath.
"Yeah? Then you do it next time!" They both yelled
"There won't be the next time, bleh," Dion said sticking his tongue out at them
"Alright, let's get ready to go, children," Apollo said getting into the driver seat.
"What are you doing in the driver's seat?" Dion said looking at Apollo.
"Driving in it, obviously," Apollo said looking at him with a cocky look
" No way, big bro drives." Dion said trying to push Apollo out of the seat.
"No way, early bird gets the worm!" Apollo said trying to kick Dion out of the seat. That is what led to bickering between the two complaining about who should get the seat.
"Talk about children." Koji and Z said to each other
"Alright that's it let's settle this." They both yelled at each other before they both put out a hand and made a fist with their other hand.
"Don't tell me there-" Kingsley started before hearing
"Rock! Paper! Scissors!" they both yelled at each other before putting out their hands and Dion making scissors and Apollo making a rock.
"Ha! I'm driving!"
"No way, best outta three is always the rule everyone knows that!"
"We don't have best out of three times, Alfred is in trouble! Come on idiots tick tick!" Aza said before Dion slid to the other side of the car and Apollo stared up.
"She right!" They both said but before Apollo kicked the car into high gear and start driving on the dirt to the roads of Venzard there was still one more issue.
"Wait, hold on! There are only enough seats for the three of us, but five of us are going." Kingsley said making everyone just sit in silence.
"Alright well, there is a spot in the trunk considering we don't really care about who sits there now, do we? Unless you guys are so scared you want seatbelts on you at all times?" Apollo said has Z then followed that by saying "I'll sit in the trunk."
"That's cool of you Z but still we need a seat still," Kingsley said making Koji look at everyone and then start talking with an evil grin on his face.
"Simply cut the cook, he can't fight that well anyway," Koji said shrugging his arms
"I still wanna go!" Pete responded
"Then someone sits in someone's lap and let's get going!" Dion said
"Yeah, but who's that going to be!?" Aza said already sitting in her seat making it obvious it wasn't going to be her.
"Kingsley, Pete get out of the car real quick," Koji said looking at them while sighing, They both get out has Koji points to Pete and tells him to sit next to Aza which Pete does a little angry because of Koji's comment. That's when Koji sits down in his seat and took a deep breath.
"We have to save Alfred right? We don't have time for joking around so Kingsley sit on my lap and if you move too much you're going to feel something against your ass the whole time, do you understand?" Koji said looking down trying to remember his life choices
"Yea, Yea," Kingsley said while sitting down on Koji's lap.
"Alright let's go!" Apollo said finally kicking the car into high gear and leaving the outskirts of the city and making his way through the streets of the beautiful city of Venzard.
After a while, the car was more silent than usual. I didn't know everyone could be this quiet, It's understandable, losing someone like the head of your agency that a lot of people see as their father figure. I know it hurts. There is nothing that hurt more than losing someone who was only inches away from you at one point, I know that much. Even my short time with Alfred has been the most life-changing time of my life. I will do my part, we won't be leaving empty-handed. I won't let anyone die, never again.
It's been around 30 minutes since we left the beautiful city streets of Venzard and now are heading straight towards where the GPS said Alfred was. That's when Kingsley finally said something to break the silence.
"Alright too bored, somebody play sticks with me!" Kingsley said in a tiresome voice.
"Well, I got my hands on the wheel so Dion play with the kid," Apollo said while turning the wheel to make a left.
"Well, I don't want to break my back to play a game of sticks! There are four more people in the back to play with him so one of you with the boy." Dion said
"Well, I cook for Kingsley every day and I'm old so I'm out of the picture, so Aza be a dear please."
"You see I can't because... Well actually I don't have a reason except that I don't want to play sticks so, Z would you mind?"
"Me? Well, I burned my hand back at the facility on one of the wires so playing sticks would be hard for me to do, so Koji you have to play."
"Well, what if I don't want to like Aza," Koji said opening one eye from his sleep.
"You can't say no." Everyone said at the same time in the same uninterested tone, leaving Koji awake for the first time in a while.
"Alright, Koji! Let's play sticks!" Kingsley said happily with a smile making Koji just do a deep sigh.
"Alright, Alright." Koji finally agreed to putting his hands out into a fist and getting ready to play.
"Alright I'll go firs-" Kingsley was saying before something broke the side-view mirror.
"The hell just happen?" Dion said before something dropped on the top of the car and dropped down to the side of the car looking straight at Dion's eyes.
"You have pretty eyes, let me keep them! My sister would love those eyes." The boy said before grasping at Dion before losing his footing and falling to the side of the car. That's when Dion looked out the car and saw a van driving behind them and taking a turn into the woods and the GPS glitched and started to follow the van.
"I don't know how they did it but they changed the way Alfred's tracking device was showing on our GPS!" Apollo said before turning the car around and starting to catch up to the van.
"They must think we're super weak thinking we wouldn't be able to shake off eyeball guy and catch up to them but, we're the best agency there is!" Dion said before he tried to look out the window again for bullets came and the van opened the back of its doors and had multiple guys shooting straight at them.
Bullets rained from the sky and colored the night sky black with all the lead, and the smell of a gun was in the air. That's when they hit Pete's arm and Pete screamed in agony. I ripped off a small section of my shirt and wrapped it around Pete's arm.
"Detective team, I'm going to break this extra door thing! When I do I need your help we're going to try to stop them on the outside while they're close distance in the car preserving their enegry!" Z said breaking the tailgate of the car and jumping out of the car and starting to run towards the truck.
"You heard the man! Let's go!" Koji said as Kingsley got up from his lap and started jumping out and Aza jumped out as well while Koji grabbed his swords he put on the floor and finally jumped out.
"Let's kick their asses, show them just because we're smart doesn't mean we're also not strong!" Aza said as she had her two index fingers spaced out the length of a small pencil.
"Calling the lighting to my hands! Specialty Zoe! Direct Beauty Strike!" Aza yelled as she shot one of the fingers she was charging the move up with and hitting three of them in a chain. That's when Kingsley got up and started to charge his move up
"I haven't been able to do this yet! Colored Flames: Orange n Yellow!" Kingsley yelled before stopping and starting to put his foot in the air and winding it up for a kick
"It hurts to do it but, I got the idea from Aza style of lighting and Koji Dancing Stars!" Kingsley said before starting to breathe and his leg started to glow like it was being charged up full of energy.
"Specialty Zoe! Colored Flames: Orange n Yellow! Tide Splitter!" Kingsley said has a wave of energy shot from his leg like Koji when he shoots air slices through the air but solid and full of energy and like the way Aza charges her lighting for it to go longer and do more damage. That alone split the van into two has everyone on it went to two different sides not trying to get split.
"It takes a lot of energy to do however, taking down the van is a good feat." Kingsley thought to himself out of breath and barely can stand.
"Oh, all the fun gon- Oh Kingsley you okay?" Koji said as he went over two the breathing hard Kingsley
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just glad that worked!"
"Yeah I need to know how you did that, I might change the way I use these swords If I can use them," Koji said as he pulled the blades that gave off a glisten that made him quiver with fear before putting them back in the holders. That's when they saw Z beating down one of the men on the van asking him questions.
"Z. Don't kill the man," Apollo said next to Z.
That's when Z turned around and saw the car parked and Pete holding his arm still from the bullet.
"Sorry," Z said as he released the man who was quacking with fear. That's when Apollo punched him to make him pass out.
"What happened to not killing the man!?" Aza said
"Look, we need him knocked out so we can see what he has on him without a struggle, simple business." Apollo said as he started to look through his stuff finding an Id, a wallet filled with an unlimited pass to a place called "rehto edis, food and games", a credit card, and a spare peanut.
"Wait, where's Alfred," Apollo said as everyone started to remember the reason why they followed them to start with, the GPS said they had Alfred.
"I don't know how they did it, but they manage to undermine his tracker until they were right next to us. Making it so only when the signal was right next to us we were able to see where he is." Apollo said walking to the front of the car. That's when Apollo went to the front seat and heard ticking once he open the door, and everyone walked to his side once he heard the ticking.
"Run away! Get down!!" Apollo yelled as an explosion went off not even five seconds later.
...
"How are his vitals?" "They're stable." "He will wake up soon."