After slinking past Alex and his friends, Todd Dangles disappeared into the crowd of the film crew.
One of the production assistants grabbed Dangles by the shoulder, causing him to jump. Oh no, Todrick thought. Did I get caught?
The assistant had a panicked look on his face. "Hey, man. Have you seen the extension cords? I can't find any. My only job was to keep an eye on the extension chords. I'm afraid they're going to can me if I can't find anything."
Dangles studied the young man, realizing he wasn't a threat, just an unreliable employee of Ken Stokes. "Uh, check over there. I thought I saw some, uh, wires." He pointed in the opposite direction.
The assistant patted Dangles's shoulder. "Oh, thank goodness. I thought that was the end of my career. You're a lifesaver!"
Dangles gave the assistant a smug smile. "Don't mention it."
He watched as the production assistant ran away, focused intently on his job.
He let out a sigh of relief. "That was easier than I thought it'd be. Wheeler Residence, here I come."
As Dangles was well on his way, Alex, Louis, and Ken stood at the entrance of the building, preparing for a face-off.
Everything was on the line for Alex. He had nothing. No money, no house, no love. Technically, he had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
He stood in front of the Enrichment skyscraper, fists clenched in front of his face, ready to fight a troop of security guards.
Louis stood beside him, readying his stance.
Ken Stokes positioned himself behind both of the imposing men. He did his best to match Alex and Louis' intimidating energy, but he didn't quite hit the mark. He looked over his shoulder at his cameraman, who gave him a thumbs up.
"I'll give you one more chance," a security guard said in a booming voice. "You leave now, and we won't have any trouble."
Ken lurched forward. "My middle name is trouble!"
Alex turned toward Ken, shushing him. "Don't poke the bear."
But it was too late.
Ken chuckled. "Don't worry. It's just some playful banter. Watch this." He tried to puff out his chest. "Why don't you come down here and stop us?"
Alex squeezed his eyes shut. "Ken, that wasn't a good idea."
As the reporter stumbled forward, the security guard charged toward Ken.
Fear flashed in Ken's eyes as the huge man barreled at him. His whole body tensed, unable to move out of the way. "Oh, no."
Louis stepped in front of his friend. He struck the security officer in the throat, causing him to topple over.
As the guard fell to his knees, Louis kicked him, knocking him down for good. He stood above the guard with clenched fists.
With that, Louis crossed the line. Peace was no longer an option. The guards surged toward Alex, Louis, and Ken.
Alex and Louis fought off the men with skilled attacks.
Louis utilized his martial arts skills, hitting the guards with precision and accuracy. A guard rushed toward his side, striking Louis in the abdomen. He tightened his core, preparing for the blow. Then, Louis reacted by grabbing the man's elbow. In a swift moment, he wrapped the man's arms behind his head and put him in a headlock.
"Gah!" The guard cried out, but Louis didn't relent.
Two other guards witnessed his attack and rushed toward him. Louis threw the man he had in the headlock at the other two guards, knocking them over.
Alex delivered blow after blow, never losing steam in the process. With one punch, he successfully knocked out each security guard at came his way. They were no match for Alex's super strength.
Each security guard that went up against the two men met their demise. Alex and Louis were far too strong.
Even Ken got in on the action. When he saw the security guards rush toward them, he ran back to his film crew and grabbed a tripod from an unsuspecting production assistant. He used the tripod as if it were a baseball bat, smashing the security guards in the back of the head.
That was, until, a security guard ripped the tripod out of Ken's hands. He threw the reporter's weapon to the side and lifted him by his shirt. As he threw Ken to the ground, he muttered, "I always hated Channel 16 News."
Ken whimpered and curled up into a ball. "Please! Don't hurt me! I have a family! And a documentary!"
Louis noticed that his friend was down for the count and immediately ran to Ken's rescue. He swept the guard's legs out from under him. "No one messes with my best friend!"
As Louis helped Ken Stokes get back to his feet, the majority of the security guards had met their demise.
Alex came face to face with the only security guard that remained standing. He flashed the guard a cocky smirk. "If I were you, I'd run away."
The guard shook his head, whipping a bead of sweat from his forehead. "I could do this all day."
Alex chuckled. "Too bad."
The security guard darted toward Alex, but it was no use. With a single punch, Alex sent the security guard flying across the street.
As the man's body hurdled through the air, Louis's jaw dropped in awe. "I don't think I'm ever going to get used to seeing Alex punch people into oblivion. It's awesome."
The sight made Ken jump up, beaming from ear to ear. "Did we get that on camera?"
He looked over his shoulder to see the cameraman nodding back to him. "Got it, Mr. Stokes!"
Alex glanced around. "Was that the last of them?"
Louis nodded. "It looks like it. We took them all down."
Ken cheered, overzealous over the events that had transpired. "Oh, my gosh! We just took down all of those bad guys! I feel like a superhero. This is crazy. I punched a man in the jaw!"
Alex and Louis couldn't help but smirk at Ken's childlike excitement.
"Alright, boys," Alex said while dusting his hands off. "Let's take this fight inside."
As Louis and Ken jogged up to Alex, the film crew followed suit. It looked as if there were a sea of people wearing "Ken Stokes Productions" shirts. Alex sighed. "Hey, Ken?"
Ken flashed Alex a trusting smile. "Yeah, man?"
As much as Alex didn't want to rain on Ken's parade, he couldn't have a camera crew following them around in a place as dangerous as Enrichment. Or worse, he couldn't have the camera crew giving them away and causing a disturbance. In addition, he didn't want to have any unnecessary casualties on his hands. The crew screamed 'disaster waiting to happen.'
Alex put his hand on the reporter's shoulder. "Listen, we can't bring all these people into the building. You have to tell them all to go. You got your footage. I think they should call it a day."
Ken looked back at his massive crew. "Are you sure? We could still get a lot of footage. Breaking into the building and sneaking around could be very cinematic. And who knows? Maybe they could help us!"
Alex didn't like that idea. He let out an exasperated sigh. "Yeah, Ken. I don't think so. We don't want anything bad to happen, and I don't think you want your production company to be liable for anyone getting hurt."
Reluctantly, Ken agreed. "Fine." He turned back to the crew and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Hey, guys. We got the footage. We could call it a day. Thank you!"
As Alex and Louis turned to walk into the building, Ken ran back to grab a single cameraman. "Come with me, just in case. Just, keep your distance."
The cameraman nervously looked at the front door of Enrichment. "Are you sure, Ken? I don't want to get on Alex Ambrose's bad side. He just punched a guy fourteen feet into the air."
Ken waved a dismissive hand in his direction. "Oh, you'll be fine. Alex is a big softie."
The cameraman gestured over his shoulder. "He didn't seem too soft back there."
Ken tossed his head back. "Don't worry. Just lay low and be quiet. I really want to capture something good, and I'm positive that we will."
The cameraman groaned. "Fine, but if Alex comes after me, I'm blaming you."
With a wink toward the cameraman, Ken dashed to catch up with Alex and Louis. The camera man followed closely behind.
***
Flora, Gideon, Tom, and Christopher sat around Yvonne's living room, waiting to hear something from Alex.
Flora clutched Gideon's hand. "I'm worried about my baby."
Gideon put his arm around his wife. "This is why we put him in martial arts training as soon as he was able to walk. You knew he was going to have to face hardships. He is an Ambrose, after all."
Christopher cleared his throat. "Alex can more than handle himself. He practically took down a whole army of supersoldiers on his own."
Flora pursed his lips. "Christopher, I thought you were a doctor. You really don't believe in that super soldier nonsense, do you?"
Tom leaned forward. "Mrs. Ambrose, with all due respect, you can't deny the supersoldiers were real. A supersoldier put me in a coma. It wasn't nonsense. All of it was very real."
Unable to accept reality, Flora shook her head. "I just don't understand. Are you sure they weren't just very strong men?"
Tom pointed at his head. "Mrs. Ambrose, they bashed my skull in. They weren't just strong men."
Flora tapped her chin. "A very strong man can bash someone's skull in."
As Tom went to argue, Christopher grabbed his shoulder, shaking his head, as if to tell his friend that it wasn't worth the trouble.
Yvonne entered the living room, brushing her hands off onto her pants. She had just gone outside to feed Gary the horse. When they left Alex's house, they brought Gary with them. He had taken a temporary residence in Yvonne's backyard. Yvonne plopped down on the couch next to Christopher "Okay. The horse has been fed."
Flora disapprovingly shook her head. "Where did he get that ghastly thing?"
It was too hard to explain. Flora didn't even believe the whole super soldier debacle happened, anyway. Yvonne rubbed her temples. "Trust me, you don't want to know."
Just then, the door flew open. A dark figure, silhouetted by the sunlight, stood in the doorframe. "He stole that dastardly horse."
Flora screeched at the top of her lungs as the door whipped open, but Yvonne and Christopher jolted up at the sudden disturbance. Yvonne squinted her eyes. She couldn't make out who it was, but she didn't have a good feeling. "Whoever you are, get out. Now."