CH. 4 - Breaking Point
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Kevin beats in the door to Yami’s place again.
“You kids, always keeping me on my toes..!” Yami rushes over to her and picks her up softly. Kevin stands there for a moment watching Yami take Jazmine to the same back room where he fixed up Michael some hours ago. He coughs up some blood into his hand.
“Kevin! Are you alright?” Michael comes to his side.
“Hey, Michael… Heh, it’s been a while, huh? Ow…” He holds his side as he stands up. “Had a run in with Francis before we got here…” Kevin says.
“That explains her condition... I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you…” Michael helps him to the chair.
“It’s okay, man! We’re not your responsibility, after all.”
“I’m going to make him pay…” Michael glares angrily.
Some time passes and Yami comes out of the room. Kevin stands up.
“Is she alright?!”
“Who do you think I am, boy? Of course she’s fine.”
Jazmine comes out from behind him.
“Although I’m going to be a little sore…”
Kevin runs up and hugs her. She looks surprised at first, but soon hugs back happily. Jade and Michael look at each other, smiling.
“Well, now that the gang's all here, why don’t we discuss the problem here.” Michael says.
“Jazmine and I talked to Paulie. He said it’s probably Mogami causing all this trouble. And that you knew how to get to him?” Kevin informs.
“Of course I do. I know everybody. But do you really think you’re ready for this? Mogami is a big deal in all the Districts. And look at you guys. I just finished patching up Michael and now Jazmine? I really don’t think it’s a good idea to go after him…” Yami warns.
“He’s right. And we’re not about to abandon our friend. Not ever.” She smiles at Michael, who looks at her slightly more cheerily now. Yami looks at them all together and smiles lightly. He thinks to himself.
‘This is what was missing…’
Then Yami gets an intense look on his face. He stands. Jazmine has a serious look on her face. He appears like he’s struggling with something internally before something clicks in his head and his eyes go white. Instantly he’s back to what he was saying.
“Well, if you are serious about getting to Mogami, then I guess I better equip you guys with all you need. Stay right here. I gotta get something from the other room.” Yami walks into the other room and closes the door behind him. He looks around for a few things. He eventually approaches a desk and grabs something.
“This should do.” Then something comes crashing through the window. He turns quickly and looks at it. It’s a bomb. Yami looks shocked for a moment before calming down. “Again…”
The bomb goes off as the others in the other room feel it and stumble. Michael and Jade rush over to the room and see it destroyed. There is a secondary crashing sound.
“Yami!” Michael shouts.
“Michael!” Kevin calls out his name. He turns quickly to see a bruised up Francis holding up Kevin, staring right at Michael. A smashed in door behind him.
“Put him down!”
“Ya know, getting to you has got to be one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. And I’ve whacked a LOT of people.” He says, aggravated, with blood dripping down his face. Jade notices Jazmine crashed into the table, seemingly unconscious.
“Why are you doing this?!” she asks.
“Isn’t it obvious? For money. Now, I’m only going to say this once. Die quickly. Otherwise, I’ll take it out on these guys here. 1…”
Michael gets intense, unsure of how to save his friends.
“2…”
Jade looks at him like she’s looking for answers. Michael is afraid.
“3-”
“Okay!”
Francis quickly draws a gun and fires at Michael’s body 3 times, but the third shot misses. He stumbles back.
“Michael!” Jade screams as Kevin gets pissed, an intense glare in his eyes.
“I’m going to kill you…”
But before he could say anything else, he was smashed to the ground hard and stomped on to make him cough out a lot of blood. Jade quickly turns and brings out her hammer and swings it at Francis. This time the hammer’s head is slung from the long handle attached to a coiled whip-like end. But he dodges and wraps the sling around his arm and pulls her to him.
“Nah ah. Not this time.”
He grabs Jade by the collar of her shirt and lifts her off the ground. Jade looks intense as Jazmine jumps on him from behind. They struggle for a moment before he throws Jade against the wall and grabs Jazmine by the hair and shoulder throws her to the floor.
“Like I said. You should really spend more time looking out for yourself.”
She spits blood at his face and he gets irritated. He raises his arm to crush her, but Michael grabs it as it swings down. He struggles to hold it over himself and her.
“M-Move…”
She tries to get up and move, but Francis hits her side as she stands.
“Not that simple!”
The force of the attack was enough to crush multiple of her ribs. She coughs up a lot of blood. He then throws Michael towards her as well.
“I’m sick of this. I’m just gonna blow this whole place up!” He brings out another bomb and flips the trigger, but Jade grabs his hand around it after the top pops off. Francis looks intense. Jade is serious. “What the hell is your problem?!” He starts pushing her head away trying to get her to let go.
“J-Jade… What are you doing?..”
“It’s okay, Michael… Let me protect you this time. Get Jazmine and get out of here… Kevin, he’s…” She looks at him on the floor. Lifeless.
Michael strains as he grabs Jazmine in his arms and leaves the building. They both watch him leave. Francis turns his head to look at the floor.
“It really took this long huh?”
“I promise, we’ll find a way. Francis.” He turns to look at her. She smiles. “We will save you. It’s what we do. But first, we gotta find a way out of here, right?”
“Yeah.” he smiles back.
Cuts to Michael running with Jazmine in his arms. He is panting heavily. The apartment building behind him explodes, causing him to fall, still holding Jazmine so she wouldn’t hit the ground. He lies her down gently. He begins to cry as he is propped over her.
“I’m sorry… Jazmine, Jade, Kevin… I’m so sorry.” Jazmine lies down, but falls to the side. Michael notices. “Jaz...mine…?” He is shocked when she falls lifelessly. He begins to freak out. “No! I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!” he begins to sob to himself, laying his head on hers. “Even after all this time, I… I couldn’t protect any of you…”
“Well, that’s a sight I don’t wanna see.”
Michael opens his eyes wide and looks up sharply.
“Kevin!?”
“In the flesh! Oh, well, not really, I suppose.”
Everything around them has turned blacked out. He is sitting like he is leaning against something despite nothing being there, with one leg out and one bent. He looks horribly mangled with many open, bleeding wounds and a slash across his right eye.
“You know what really sucks here? I can’t actually really smoke in here.”
Michael rubs his eyes a bit and laughs.
“Heh… You know it’s not good for you.”
“Yeah, I know. You guys keep reminding me.”
“Wait, how are you here? What’s going on?”
“That’s a good question. I was really hoping you could tell me that.”
“I’m sorry, but I have no idea…”
Kevin grabs Michael by the cheeks and pulls him close.
“Enough of the sorries! You know, deep down, you know what’s going on here. You just gotta remember.”
Michael looks confused for a moment before his head pulses, then his chest. He begins to struggle and shout. He grips his head with both hands and looks up, then starts shouting loudly as energy starts pouring out of him, blasting out. The energy is a light turquoise color with thin, squiggly lines with small squares of sky blue scattered out with the energy. Kevin covers his eyes due to the brightness and heat. He looks up at him.
“Yeah, that’ll probably work.”
There’s a close up of Michael’s face showing his eyes are whited out and his hair changed to the same color as the energy, as he yells then it all goes black.