Pit Boys - The Next Race

Chapter 1 - "I'm not dead"

Pete was fixing himself a drink at home when he heard a knock. It was late at night and he became cautious as he approached the front door. As he opened the door, a figure quickly slipped past him knocking the door from his hands and closing it behind him. He flung himself at the figure and locked his arms around the person's neck. The stranger delivered a blow to his midriff that made him let go as he doubled over in pain.
"What do you think you are doing?"
Way stood in front of him, panting and massaging his neck. Pete fell backwards and blinked. Way sighed.
"I'm not a hallucination. I didn't die."
"But we had a funeral." Pete blurted out the first thing that came to his head.
"Did you really think two measly bullets could kill me?" Way smiled as he settled on the couch. Pete slowly got up and backed away.
"Please, I'm not a ghost and I'm not here to hurt you."
"Then why are you here?" Pete was still wary.
"Are you really not even a little bit happy to see me?" Way held out his hand. "Here, touch my hand, so that you can read my mind. It really is me."
Pete did not make a move.
"Fine!" Way said. "I'll explain."
"I got to know of Charlie and him faking his death. I knew he was not really dead. I overheard him and Jeff speaking about certain things."
"What things?" Pete was standing across the room now.
"Specifically, a serum that can slow down your heartbeat to near zero. At first, I didn't believe it but it was not all that hard to come by."
"Someone must have helped you."
The faces of different X-hunter members passed through Pete's mind.
"Kenta did."
Pete did a double take. Since when did Kenta and Way become so close that Way trusted Kenta with his life?
"Kenta? Why?"
"Who else could I have turned to?"
Pete looked at him with something akin to hurt in his eyes. Way looked down.
"I know, I could have come to you for help. But you were too close to this thing."
"And Kenta was not?!" Pete was angry.
"Look, you have every right to be angry. I didn't go to Kenta, he came to me. That day, when we tried to steal the briefcase, Kenta was practically fired by Tony. I think he finally saw sense after that."
"Why did he come to you?" Pete had a lot of questions. And Way was not answering anything that mattered.
"Because he was well aware of Tony's plans with Babe and me. And Tony is not the only player here."
Pete's eyes narrowed. "You mean, there's other people who sell children with special skills?"
"Not exactly. We killed Tony but not his buyers. There are still a lot of people out there, both inside and outside our country who have paid Tony for children with special skills and never got any. They are livid. I mean, it's not just one or two people, they are from different countries and extremely powerful. Tony is nothing next to them. And now that Tony is dead, the middleman is gone, they consider it an open invitation to kidnap the children."
"But, we got the children back to their families and relatives."
"What, you think these people care? They are about a hundred times more powerful than Tony and there's nothing stopping them from taking what they think they own."
"How do you know all this?"
"Kenta. Tony underestimated him a lot. Since he had intricate knowledge about how Tony and his system worked, he used it to shut down the whole operation immediately after Tony's death. But they wouldn't stop. Tony's secret trump card was Babe and me and a child he hoped would come from us." Way's voice cracked at this and he coughed to cover it up. "Before I could do anything, Charlie found Babe and that made Tony even more furious. I should never have done what I did." Way put his head in his hands.
"I knew that there was no way we could stand up to Tony and his men without weapons or anything. Kenta was our only hope."
"So you asked Kenta to kill Tony?"
"No, it was his plan. He said he wanted to be the one to end this." Way sighed and sat back on the couch.
"Like I said, it was relatively easy to come across the serum that can slow your heart rate. If you know the right people. Once we had that, it was easy to plan the rest. We convinced everybody that I had died. The serum was in my pocket and I injected myself once I was shot. My body was loaded into an ambulance and Alan collected the coffin from the funeral home. You never really saw my body after Tony's house."
"But you got shot."
"Yeah it still hurts a little."
"What was the point of this whole you dying drama?"
"Because if we convinced the world that I was gone, the people would back off Babe. Getting us together would be the jackpot, getting Babe alone would be a pain in the ass. He's a grown man, not a child and would be difficult to manipulate. Also, it would be easier to handle things if everyone thought of me as dead."
"Why did you come to me? And why now?" Pete was standing in front of Way now. Way stood up.
"Because we need your help." Pete nodded. With lightning speed, he punched Way's face. Way fell back on the couch, blood leaking from his mouth. He looked up at Pete, shocked.
"Ok, I probably deserved that." Way held up his hands.
"You definitely did." Pete stepped back.
"Why do you need my help?"
"We need to handle whoever comes to our country and tried to take the children. It's not just the children who are in danger, anybody who has powers is in danger. Babe, Charlie, Jeff, you, me. It doesn't matter who. We need to make a statement once and for all, that they cannot mess with us. I want you to lead us." Way looked at Pete.
"Me?" Pete raised his eyebrows.
"You run a company, you are used to handling issues. You are not hot headed, you are calm and collected. I think you are our best bet."
"That's why you came to me."
"And I trust you." Pete looked up. "So does Kenta."
"Why did you not go to Babe or Alan first? I'm pretty sure that they would want to know that you are not dead."
"I don't know if they want me with them anymore." Way looked away, the hurt in his eyes betraying his stoic expression.
"Well, that is entirely a misconception. You don't know how much they miss you, all of them." Pete sat down next to Way and took his hands. "They would do anything to get you back, Babe, Alan, Sonic, North even Charlie and Jeff. Nobody wanted you to die." A single tear rolled down Way's cheek and he brushed it away.
"You can read my mind now, can't you?" Way whispered.
"You have to know, it's not that I don't trust you. But after that stunt you pulled, I had to make sure that you were telling the truth."
Way nodded. Pete smiled.
"I think it's time you rejoined X-hunter."