Undercover

Chapter 41 - Final Countdown

"Come out you coward!" Gabe screamed within the smoke. The man let out a malicious laugh. Gabe threw a punch in the direction of the noise but he didn't hit anything. The nose was coming from all directions that he wasn't able to hone on to its direction. Just then, he felt someone grab onto his leg and dragged him upside-down into the air.

Gabe struggled violently but that didn't affect Xander's grip on him. He managed to grab hold of his cylinder and fired its tip out at Xander's face. The hook, full of pressure, punctuated the man's face, knocking him out and both of them began their descent. They were plummeting down faster and faster. The wind whipped on their face like a whip-lash. Gabe kicked Xander's arm off his leg. The ground was coming closer into contact. If he didn't act fast, he would die instantly with a splat.

He looked for a place where he could use his cylinder's grabbling-hook feature but couldn't find any that would withstand all the force. Just then, he remembered his watch. He fumbled around for a spot to teleport to. Any spot. He was desperate. He struggled to press the waypoint. He was smacking his watch aggressively. He was no more than 100m above ground. He clenched his eyes shut, bracing for impact when he heard the "beep" and everything went black.

Gabe gradually opened his eyes. "Am I dead?" He heard a groan and he quickly got to his feet. He was staring at a... 'Brad'? And he's lying, face-up on the floor. "Commander?" he piped as Matthew rendered into view. "H-he didn't see me, did he?" Gabe asked.

"That's Wren that you fell on."

"Oh," Gabe fumbled to help him up.

"Found Miles?" Wren asked out of breath.

"Coronado Bridge," Gabe answered briefly. The three nodded before vanishing into thin air.

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Maddison dropped Tessa off at her room's balcony. They embraced each other for the last time before Maddison whisked away.

Tessa ran into her room and fumbled for her phone but, "Crap, I must've dropped it somewhere." She hurriedly turned around to check and breathed a sigh of relief when she caught sight of her tattered notebook full of all her theories still tucked away safely in her backpack that was loosely slung across her shoulder.

She scurried to her room desk and flipped open her laptop. She immediately went on the link to watch the live broadcast at Coronado Bridge.

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"Wow! It's worse than I thought," Wren breathed. "We got a lot of work to do."

The commander gave a slight nod. The whole bridge was full of smoke, everything around it in ruin. It was surprising that the bridge was even standing, but for how long? No one wanted to find out.

"This whole place looks like a mass occur!" hollered Matthew above all the chaos.

"It is one! Where's Gabe?"

"I think he already jumped in."

"Oh no," Wren sighed. "I think he knows what he's going to do. We got to go after him before he gets himself hurt!"