Gerald massaged his right cheek. It was a little red, but as he rubbed it, it started to fade.
"Sir Gerald, are you okay?" Chester checked up on Gerald's face. Obviously worried about it.
"I'm fine, I'm fine." Gerald waved his hand to ease Chester's worries.
Chester sighed. "Why did you have to tell that to your father? Of course he'll get physical with you if you provoke him. Good thing that you only received a slap, if you went any further he might've..."
Chester stopped talking when he saw that Gerald was steps ahead of him. "Sir! wait for me!" Chester ran to catch up with him.
Gerald entered the building and talked to the receptionist.
"Oh it's sir Gerald, Miss Lynn is waiting for you in the studio." The female receptionist spoke warmly to Gerald. Clearly, this isn't the first time Gerald visited here.
"Alright then." Gerald walked to the elevator and pressed the button to the 44th floor.
Just as the elevator doors were going to close, Gerald heard Chester's voice.
"Sir! wait up!" Chester ran towards the elevator.
Gerald stuck his leg out to prevent the elevator doors from closing and Chester got in without any trouble.
Chester gasped for air. "Sir, don't walk too fast. I'm not ready to suddenly sprint out of the blue."
"Hehe, sorry about that." Gerald chuckled. "How about I give you some chocolates when we get home?"
Although tempted, Chester still managed to pull himself together. "Sir is too generous, I guess I would like to have some. If that's alright of course..." Chester coughed twice.
Gerald patted his shoulder. "Don't be too humble, it's my treat."
Gerald laughed inwardly. This man beside him, Chester Palmes, a skilled martial artist, professional musician, painter, chef, electrician, combat trainer, marksman, and also an ex-assassin was acting this way just for some chocolate.
"If you say so." Even though Chester tried to sound uninterested, his face said otherwise.
Ding!
The elevator opened up and both of them walked towards the long corridor with yellow, brown and red diamond patterned carpet and beautiful plum shaped lamps that brightly lit up the area.
Walking through the corridor, they soon came across the black soundproof doors of the studio. And with a knock, Gerald said,
"Hey, it's me." Gerald has been here multiple times already, so he was sure that the doors would be opened for him.
And sure enough, it did.
…
Gerald walked towards the studio doors and none of the guards stopped him.
And the moment Gerald entered the room, he saw a woman wearing office attire holding a clipboard and a cup of coffee. Her face isn't really warm because of how dark the circles under her eyes were. But despite that, she still had a womanly charm.
She wore a pencil skirt and a gray blouse, she had dark blonde hair and she carried a mug full of strong coffee and a clipboard on her left hand.
"Hm?" Eve, Miss Lynn's assistant noticed them entering the studio.
Gerald noticed Eve and greeted her. "Oh, is Miss Lynn here?"
Eve shook her head and smiled. "You know her, she's busy so I have to take care of her matters like this. It's a very great job." Eve laughed with an obvious tone of sarcasm. "So, since you're here now, the director is waiting for you. Follow me." Eve turned away and walked. She was very casual with Gerald since she found his company relaxing.
"Oh by the way, nice tie Chester." Eve complimented Chester's cat patterned tie. "I do hope I can also have time to work on myself as well." Eve's tone was once again, very negative.
Chester was about to respond to her compliment and instead looked at Gerald who responded to him with a shrug saying, "I don't know what to do, don't look at me."
Gerald and Chester followed behind and ignored Eve's terrible mood.
...
As things normally progressed inside, there was evil brewing outside the building..
In a dark and mysterious alley, a man received a call from an unknown number. Actually, the alley wasn't mysterious, it was just hard to see what's going on, so yeah, real spooky.
Beep.
A man answered his phone. And the voice of an unknown caller came through.
"Is he there?" The unknown caller's voice was distorted in order to prevent anyone from recognizing him.
"Yes sir, the target is on floor 44." The man nodded.
"Good. Follow the plan and make sure you get this done fast." The unknown caller hung up.
The man turned around and said, "You heard the boss, let's go." He gestured to seven armed men behind him. Each of them wearing bullet proof vests and masks to conceal their identities.
They all packed their weapons and went towards the building.
…
Inside the studio.
Gerald, with no idea what was going to happen, was following the director's instructions and began shooting the ad.
"Cut!" The director shouted. "Gerald, you need to put more emotion into this. Your voice sometimes sounds so monotone and your expression doesn't look happy enough. Give it more energy alright?"
Gerald nodded. "Okay, got it."
"We'll take a short break. Just make sure to give it more than... what you did earlier." The director sighed and walked away to take a phone call.
Gerald walked towards Chester and grabbed the water bottle from his hand.
"Is anything troubling you sir?" Chester asked with concern.
"I just don't feel like it today. That's all." Gerald passed the water bottle back to Chester after drinking.
"Well if sir needs something, make sure to ask and I'll get it done." Chester assured him.
"Thank you." Gerald picked up a chair and sat on it while he waited for the shooting to continue. In the meantime, he used his phone and scrolled to look at the news.
He saw a headline in bold letters saying, "The Owner Of Vismont '94 Corporation's Daughter Was Just Kidnapped Yesterday."
Gerald's eyes showed some worry. "Cherry Vismont? I met her in a few gatherings before.. She was kidnapped just yesterday?"
Chester saw the news on his phone and sighed. "These criminals are getting ballsier by the day. What came to their mind when they decided to kidnap huge figures?" Chester looked at the 25 bodyguards and said. "Well it's a good thing that sir Gerald is safe with all the bodyguards sir Daniel sent you." Chester was relieved.
"I hope she'll be alright." Gerald's already sour mood went even lower after seeing someone he's acquainted with get kidnapped. It's normal that he'll feel bad for her.
...
Downstairs, a van parked in front of the building.
The guards saw this van and put their hands on the gun on their waists just in case.
The gunmen wasted no time and opened the van and began shooting. This time, with guns instead of cameras.
"Take cover!" One of the guards shouted.
However, he only managed to shout this much before being shot dead with bullets riddling their bodies.
"Go! Go! Go! We only have a short time before the authorities come!" The masked man from earlier shouted.
They entered the first floor and shot anyone that came in their view.
The female receptionist screamed alongside the staff before being riddled with bullets.
Immediately, screams and blood splatters filled the room.
After that, the masked stormed the stairs and went to the 44nd floor.
...
"What was that!?" Eve shouted in horror. "Wait no, am I going to die? About time."
"Those were guns! Quick, call the cops!"
"We need to get out of here!"
Many people were scared out of their minds. They panicked and the guards tried to maintain order and calmed them down.
Gerald's heart skipped a beat. "Are they here for me?"
Chester looked worried and said, "No, they can't have you. Sir, you need to get out of here, no need to worry about us."
"But what about them? What's going to happen to them?!" Gerald asked with worry.
Chester grabbed his shoulders and said with a serious voice. "This is no time to argue, your safety is our duty and you need to escape here as fast as you can alright?!" Chester gestured to one of the bodyguards. "Quick, get sir Gerald out of here. Make sure to keep him safe, got it?"
The bodyguard didn't speak and nodded. He grabbed Gerald's arm and escorted him out of the emergency exit.
The other people were also walking out of the emergency exit in order to safely avoid the gunmen. They scooted out of the way when Gerald's bodyguard came through.
This way, Gerald had a smooth escape without any obstructions.
...
Chester pulled out a gun from his waist and waited with the other bodyguards if the gunmen ever went in the door.
However, the gunshots stopped and they didn't hear anyone coming.
"Strange, why did they suddenly stop? The police aren't here yet." Chester thought to himself.
A few minutes later, they didn't hear anything coming for them at all. At this point, the guards were a bit relaxed but they still watched the door just in case people barged in.
Chester pulled out his phone and called Miss Lynn.
…
In the skyscraper of Dawnwise Co.
In a tall skyscraper, Lynn Tellise is in a meeting about her company.
You know? the usual business stuff.
Lynn is a tall and beautiful woman with green eyes that appear to glow like a tigress brandishing its claws. She wore black heels and stockings, a brown long skirt, a white long sleeved shirt under her black trousers. Her black hair was as smooth as silk and cascaded like a waterfall. But despite having a fierce appearance Lynn had a playful attitude which complimented her domineering vibe.
It was going just fine, the meeting organizer was explaining different topics as the others listened carefully. It was until Lynn's phone suddenly rang and saw that it was from the Greenwood household.
"Sorry I have to take this." Lynn walked out of the room and went to a more private area.
After being excused, she left the meeting room.
"Hello? What's going on?" Lynn asked and held the phone to her left ear as she pulled her hair back.
"Hi Miss Lynn, your building that Gerald is having an ad shooting got raided by gunmen." Chester's voice was heard from her phone.
The moment Lynn heard this, her green eyes went serious. "What happened, is he safe?"
"Yes but, I want to ask.. is there another way to reach the 44th floor?" Chester's breathing was slowly intensifying due to his worry but he kept it stable.
"Hmm... the 42nd floor has stairs leading to the 44th but that one is under construction for another fire exit." Lynn answered until realization hit her. "Wait, did Gerald go through the emergency exit?!"
Chester's heart sank. The reason why there wasn't anyone coming through the door was because they were planning to go through the other exit all along!
"NO!" Chester dropped his phone and ran towards the emergency exit. "Follow me! The gunmen are coming for sir Gerald!"
The other bodyguards quickly followed after hearing this.
They went down the stairs and saw dead bodies everywhere. Including the guard that was supposed to escort.
Chester's heart sank further. He looked everywhere and saw that Gerald wasn't one of the dead bodies. His assumption was right, they were there to kidnap him.
"Quick, we need to go down now!" Chester ran down the stairs as fast as he could. The other guards followed behind.
...
When they reached the first floor, they saw two vans far away from them.
"Go to the cars! We need to catch up to them!" Even before Chester said that, the guards were already going in their cars to follow the vans.
Chester got in and drove forward. "No no no, this can't happen to you.. Anything but sir Gerald.." Chester was getting worried as each second passed.
Chester's kind demeanor slowly disappeared as his murderous aura also revealed itself.
...
"Oh, we got company." A man with a demon mask looked out the van.
"Mngh!" Gerald struggled to move and shouted through the cloth in his mouth.
"Shut up!" A man hit Gerald's stomach with the butt of his rifle.
Immediately, Gerald almost puked out what he ate. His face was bruised and he instinctively scrunched down because of the pain.
"Tsk" The man sneered and shook his head in disappointment.
Another man with a lion mask looked out the window and frowned. "These rich guy cars are fast. When are we getting new cars like these? Compared to them, this burnt wreck is slow as a snail."
"Don't insult my boy like that brother." The driver with the demon mask caressed the steering wheel before laughing. "Alright, get rid of our tails and make sure they're dead."
"Roger that." Without any hesitation, the man with a lion mask threw a grenade out the window.
...
"Grenade! watch out!" The guards swerved their cars to the right in order to avoid the explosion.
Chester's car, who was in the forefront, shook for a while before managing to stabilize itself. He was determined to get Gerald back.
...
Everyone looked at "Lion mask".
"What?" Lion mask looked back at them.
The skull masked man beside him looked at him silently but also with a hint of unbelieving that this man in front of him was this stupid.
Skull mask slapped the back of his head. "The #?$# were you thinking?! You tryna get us located?! You #?$;#?#!" Skull mask shouted one curse after another.
"Alright, won't happen again." Lion mask rolled his eyes as he rubbed the back of his head. "Plus, the gunshots are sure to get us located regardless."
"We have a route to follow! We need to get rid of these guys and get there fast." Vulture mask reminded him.
"Oh right, the plan." Lion mask leaned back on his seat. "That's no fun though."
"When did we have such a braindead ally with us?" Everyone thought simultaneously.
...
The two sides exchanged bullets.
The bulletproof cars weren't really affected by the van's gunshots. However, the van which has makeshift armor was taking some damage after some time.
Chester climbed half his body out of the window while his other hand was driving and shot one of the gunmen.
Bang!
Vulture mask got shot in the head and fell limp instantly. The gun in his grip fell down the road.
"Got one." Chester muttered to himself and went back inside the car to avoid getting shot.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
Sparks flew out the moment bullets hit the car, narrowly killing Chester.
The gunmen were clearly agitated after losing one of them. They weren't shooting as often as they used to.
Lion mask took Vulture mask's body inside and filled his vest with grenades.
Skull mask looked at this and said to himself. "How in the actual ?#$& did he get this many grenades?"