Chapter 30: To Die For

(Mob Headquarters: Black Lake Ranch, Sunday 09:00 pm)

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       Gathered on the front lawn of the mansion, Dr. Courtest and 30 of his men together with John Layer, Dr. Marcos, Bionico and Dr. Kinesis  all gathers around Samantha who was bound on a steel chair with her mouth taped shut. "This could be the start of a great union between us all...," says Dr. Courtest, "With our capabilities joined together, we could rule the world!....". Everybody smiles as John Layer says, "First thing's first...I want Miss Peters, Chase Brassman and Grey dead before the night is over, before I join forces with you all!....". Dr. Kinesis frowns and says,"I don't want Grey killed, we can still use him and his super powers if we could turn him or convince him to join us.....But I do realize that some persuasion will be needed before he joins our group....". And as they discuss their plans for the future, Grey finally shows up in his knight's armor as all 30 of the mob's men draw out their guns and points them at Grey.

         Seeing Samantha bound and tied on a chair, Grey yells, "Here I am, now release her!....". Still twenty yards away from Grey, the group breaks up the circle as they all face Grey in a straight line.
"Nobody shoot!....",shouts John Layer, "I want that knight to fight Bionico one more time!...". Then signaling Bionico, Bionico starts to run towards Grey as Grey raises up his Alemdronite shield for protection, as he plants his feet firmly waiting for Bionico to attack him viciously. Then upon reaching Grey, Bionico starts to unleash forceful blows at Greys shield as he goes on a rampage. With a barrage of Bionico's super fast and powerful punches and Grey's diminishing strength due to the toxicity in his system and his worsening liver failure. Grey was unable to maintain his defensive stance as Bionico was able to grab Grey's shield and hurl it away from him. Then without pausing, Bionico starts to batter Grey repeatedly, and with the forceful body blows, Grey was knocked to the ground in a matter of seconds. Gasping for air, Grey suddenly feels the pressure of Bionico's foot on his breastplate. And as he looks through the slit on his helmet, he see's Bionico retracting his daggers as he hears John Layer say, "Go ahead Bionico, you can cut off his head!....", as he hears laughter and jeering from the crowd who were watching.

         But before Bionico could raise up his dagger to deliver the final blow, the whole crowd starts hearing loud rocket sounds from the sky. And before anyone could react to it, the Protector suddenly lands directly at Bionico kicking him on his iron mask as Bionico tumbles and rolls on the lawn. The Protector then turns towards the crowd shouting "Let Samantha go! and you Dr. Kinesis, where did you hide the nuke?...". But before the Protector could wait for an answer, Bionico attacks viciously as he rushes and tackles  the Protector from behind. Falling to the ground, they start to jostle as they start to pummel each other with no one gaining the upper hand. With both having super speed and super strength, they start taking turns striking each other. But due to the Protector's advanced combat technology, Chase was able to turn the tide as he uses his superior martial arts skills with a combination of open and closed hand strikes to knock Bionico off his feet. Then after another minute of fighting, Bionico was finally battered and beaten as he tries to crawl on the ground,  trying to distance himself from the Protector.

        Seeing that Bionico was beaten, the mob's gangsters starts shooting at the Protector. But with the Protector's force shield on, the mob were shocked to see their bullets ricochet off the Protector's force shield without any harmful effects to the Protector. Then seeing that their guns had no effect on the Protector, the gangsters start to slowly back away in fear as Chase starts to walk towards Samantha in order to free her from her bondage. But before the Protector could reach Samantha , John Layer grabs the electronic iPad from Dr. Marcos as he penetrates into the Protector's CPU and turns off his central defense systems therefore shutting off the Protector's force shield. Stopping in his tracks, Chase suddenly realizes that his force shield had  suddenly shut off as he see's John Layer point a gun at him then "Bang!....Bang!..", the Protector suddenly gets shot at his chest and abdomen as he falls to the ground bleeding. John Layer then unties Samantha's bonds as he lets her loose saying, "Go ahead!...go to your dying best friend!....That's what you get for illegalizing cigarettes and smoking in California....It's payback time Miss Peters....."

      Pulling the tape off from her mouth, Samantha rushes towards Chase with tears in her eyes. "Help please!...Somebody call an ambulance!....". But all she heard in return were more laughter  and jeers from the crowd surrounding her. 

     Less than a minute later, a red Ferrari suddenly arrives swerving uncontrolled towards the front of the mansion. With everyone watching, Richard Sambrolini suddenly gets out of the car looking disheveled and drunk as he staggers to the front lawn while holding a bottle of whiskey. "What's with all these people doing here...", says Richard, "I'm so drunk, my world is spinning....". Dr. Courtest blurts out saying, "This is my nephew Richard who is the head of our organization, please forgive him for being drunk.....".

      Dr. Kinesis suddenly gets mad as he says, "You're nephew has been driving drunk?....I hate drunk drivers!....". Dr. Kinesis then points a finger at Richard as an invisible force starts to clamp around Richard's neck as he starts to suffocate. Seeing that Richard was holding to his neck as he gasps for air, Dr. Courtest quickly shouts, "Stop this!....Let him go Dr. Kinesis!....". And when no reprieve was given by Dr. Kinesis, Dr. Courtest yells at his men to shoot Dr. Kinesis. But before anyone could open fire at the mad scientist, they all suddenly felt the same suffocating pressure around their necks as Dr. Kinesis uses his telekinetic powers to strangle all of the gangsters present. And as the seconds turn to minutes, not one gangster was remaining standing. Most had passed out from lack of oxygen.

       A few feet away, Grey see's Samantha holding Chase in her arms as she was swept in tears panicking and not knowing what to do. Grey then gets up and staggers towards Sam and Chase. "Sam, go inside the house and use their phone to call 9-1-1, also get some clean towels, we need to stop his bleeding. And as Samantha runs towards the house, Grey takes off his backpack as he takes out the Holy Flask. He then turns towards Chase, takes off his helmet as he asks, "I have a way to save your life Chase, but I need to know if you have faith in Jesus Christ?....". With blood sipping out of his mouth, Chase nods as he falls in and out of consciousness. Then without hesitating, Grey pours the contents of the Holy Flask in Chase mouth as it starts to have a bubbling effect. Unzipping Chase's flight suit, Grey witnesses that the wounds on Chase's chest and abdomen were slowly starting to heal as the bullets themselves were surfacing until it comes out of the wounds.

      And as Chase falls unconscious, Grey whispers in  his ears saying. "Someday you'll thank me for this....Just promise me that you will love and care for Samantha forever....". And as Grey continues to get weaker by the minute, Samantha returns with towels as she suddenly see's Grey's empty Holy flask lying on the ground. Then seeing Chase's chest wound and abdominal wound progressively heal, Samantha asks, "You used the Holy Flask on Chase?....", and as Samantha's eyes start to get misty she asks once more, "But what about you?.....". Grey forces a smile as he whispers saying, "It has to be this way Sam.....I will always love you, remember that....". But before Samantha could hug Grey, Dr. Kinesis shows up behind Grey as he puts a hand on Grey's shoulder, then "Poof!...", they were gone.

     An hour later, Grey who was unconscious slowly wakes up from the sounds of multiple gunfire. With his vision still hazy, he blinks a few times until he see's Dr. Kinesis in his white lab coat standing before him. Weakened and confused, Grey asks, "Where am I?....And what's with the gunfire?....". Dr. Kinesis folds his arms across his chest as he looks down at Grey then says, "We're still inside the mob's compound, and you're inside my RV .....And the gunfire you hear are the FBI, police and the National Guard who are battling against the mob's men, It's chaos out there...". Not wasting time, Dr. Kinesis points a finger at the back of his RV, and as Grey looks back, he see's a metallic cylindrical mechanism that has a timer that was counting down to three minutes. Getting up on his knees, Grey quickly asks, "That's the bomb, Isn't it?....". Dr. Kinesis quickly nods and says, "Only you can stop this bomb from detonating, give me your word that you'll team up with me in killing drunk drivers and I'll dispose of this bomb, no one dies....Hurry you got two minutes and change.....".

    Wincing from  severe abdominal pain due to his liver failure, Grey responds saying, "You just don't give up do you?....I 'm telling you once more, I'm not gonna kill drunk drivers!....". Dr. Kinesis sigh's heavily then says, "You better reconsider, the fate of millions of people are now in your hands, you got a little over a minute left......". Grey closes his eyes and remains silent as Dr. Kinesis counts down the seconds, and when there were thirty seconds left, Dr. Kinesis grunts in anger then says, "You're the most stubborn, selfish person I've ever met!...". Filled with dismay, Dr. Kinesis then walks over to the cylindrical bomb and puts his hand on it then "Poof", Dr. Kinesis disappears with the bomb. Then after fifteen seconds had elapsed, Dr. Kinesis reappears as Grey asks, "What happened to the bomb?!...". Dr. Kinesis dusts off his lab coat then says, "I might have the determination to kill drunk drivers, but one thing I'm not is a mass murderer.....The bomb's at the bottom of the Pacific ocean as we speak....". And before Grey could respond, several gunshots penetrate the hull of the RV as Dr. Kinesis quickly disappears. And as a group of SWAT police officers penetrate the RV looking for the bomb, the only thing they found was Grey unconscious on the floor. Taking his helmet off, one of the officers puts a finger at Grey's neck to feel for a pulse.
"I feel no pulse!...", says the officer, "This man's dead...".


           (Travis Air Force base hospital)

       Two days later, Chase was still confined at a medical surgical ward. And as a nurse enters his room, "Nurse, can you tell me what's the delay?...", Chase asks, "I've been here for 48 hours and I'm fine and healthy...So why can't I get discharged yet?...". The female nurse folds her arms across her chest and says, "I'm sorry Captain Brassman, but the doctors need to do more tests which was ordered by the Pentagon.....They want to know how you miraculously healed from your gunshot wounds....Just be patient and you'll be out of here in no time....". And as the nurse steps out of Chase's room, Chase decides to turn on his bedside TV as he focuses on the news.

           [USNN News] "And now for our top story, The nuclear bomb that exploded in the Pacific ocean was believed to be the bomb that was smuggled in our country by a terrorist group headed by the Al Queda leader Sirha Uhlo who was arrested together with escaped bomb maker Mukhang Mahasim. The government is grateful for CIA agent Zhiad Marwan who spied against the Al Queda organization and who is responsible for alerting the authorities about the existence of a nuclear bomb in American soil. Meanwhile, authorities are still investigating the connection of Dr. Kinesis to the nuclear bomb. Dr. Kinesis is still wanted for the deaths of drunk drivers in California. On other news, the FBI had arrested the mob at their headquarters the Black Lake Ranch. FBI agents found mob boss Richard Sambrolini dead at the scene from  possible strangulation. Second in command Dr. Luigi Courtest was taken into custody together with Macrostrength CEO John Layer, Dr. Marcos and their super assassin Bionico. We believe that this was due to an attempted murder against the Protector and possible sabotage of the Protector. Lastly, another wanted criminal called the Mysterious Knight was found dead inside an RV that belongs to Dr. Kinesis, autopsy reports shows that  the Mysterious Knight died of liver failure...And now for other news, the city of...(Click)

       Chase turns off his TV as he see's Garfield enter his room as he appears in his green army uniform. "Hey there buddy!...What's with the sour look on your face?....".  After Chase explains to Garfield his frustrations, Garfield starts to change the topic saying, "Hey I'm glad that you're ok....I just finished speaking to Sam over the phone, she said that she's on her way to see you. She and her dad were just finalizing the burial arrangements for Grey, her ex-boyfriend. By the way, the FBI had arrested John Layer and Dr. Marcos. All this time, they have been sabotaging the Protector suit because they wanted you dead as a revenge against Samantha for illegalizing cigarettes in California. I guess it's why his cigarette company had closed.....".       
  
        An hour later after Garfield had left, Samantha arrives wearing a black blazer and black slacks.
With her eyes puffy and red, she smiles at Chase, "How are you?....", asks Sam as she reaches for Chase giving him a tight hug. "I'm sorry about Grey...", says Chase, "I know that he saved my life by using the contents of the Holy Flask on me....I wish that there was something I could do.....". Samantha lies beside Chase on the bed as they start to cuddle up, "I talked to the police....", says Samantha, "Grey was innocent of the murder charges....The police found a video disc inside the mob's safe, and it showed how the mob framed Grey for the murder of the Vallejo police officer....Sgt Holt who was released by the police also told me that they found enough evidence to convict Dr. Kinesis for the murder of another police investigator and that Grey is blameless for the inspector's death....".  

        And as time passed, five years later, Samantha and Chase were finally married. A year after they were married Samantha gave birth to their first born son who they named "Grey". As years passed by, Samantha was finally voted as a California senator in the US Congress. She was able to help pass laws that dismantled nuclear arms world wide. She also became one of the most important peace process negotiators between countries that were threatening to use nuclear arms against each other. At age 55, she won the "Knight of Peace" award which was awarded to her by the United Nations for her importance in promoting peace and preventing nuclear wars between nations. The "Knight of Peace" award was a combination of being knighted and being awarded the "Nobel Peace Prize" for her work in securing peace around the world. (End Of Chapter)