Powerhouse: Legend of the Archwave

Chapter 22 (Act III): What A Hero Does

We last read Chapter 21, in which the Mayor of Seattle—residing in his beachfront residence—dreams about being at work and going about his business as per usual.....when his advisor unprecedently drops by his office and delivers him a lottery ticket; as the advisor continues to stand by, the mayor scratches off the coverings on the numbers and reveals that it is a winning one, to which he and his advisor begin dancing ridiculously in celebration.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Special Agent Warren Schaefer and his loyalists—who have already breached the house—are staring at the slumbering Mayor of Seattle in real time, watching him "dance" in his bed.....which, in reality, is just an erratic pattern of tosses and turns that does nothing but disorganize his bed further. Nonetheless, Schaefer puts his first plan into action by falsely informing the mayor that an assassination attempt has been conceived against him in order to coerce the mayor into following him and his loyalists out to their command van out front; unbeknownst to the mayor, there is no actual assassination attempt, and Schaefer and his loyalists instead intend to use the mayor as bait for an elaborate trap to lure the illegal alien Isabela Acosta a.k.a. Archwave out of hiding, since Schaefer knows Isabela won't be able to resist the chance to do something heroic.

Loading the mayor into the back of the command van, Schaefer then gives the mayor some coffee from Starbucks.....which has actually been spiked with a drug that induces severe drowsiness within the government official. As he begins to feel dizzier and weaker by the second, Schaefer reveals his true plan to him, knowing that the mayor won't be able to react any further. The moment the mayor charges towards Schaefer out of disgust, the spiked coffee overwhelms him and he falls face-down on the van's floor, down for the count. The chapter then ended with Schaefer ordering his loyalists to plot a course for the Seattle Space Needle to give the mayor a bird's-eye view of his most beloved city.

This time, James Markovsky a.k.a. Powerhouse returns to the Markovsky Residence at a late hour following the second FBI chase and the official ending of his partnership with Isabela, only to have a familiar face come to him in a dream once again.....

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-Markovsky Residence, Seattle, Washington-

James Markovsky a.k.a. Powerhouse—now by himself—pulled back up to the front driveway of the Markovsky Residence in the same tricked-out convertible that he had used to evade the forces of the FBI for the last two chases. He brought the vehicle as far forward as it could possibly go, then turned off the engine and got out; he neglected to actually put the convertible inside the garage since he had an internal feeling that he'd need its services again soon enough.

His mother, Susan Markovsky, had already said goodbye to family friend Elise Fornwright and went to bed for the night a few hours beforehand.....but she made sure to leave the alarms disarmed for whenever her son returned from his nighttime superheroics; as of the current moment, she wasn't aware of anything going on with Isabela Acosta a.k.a. Archwave other than the fact she existed. In other words, Susan wasn't aware that Isabela was an illegal immigrant, or that she was currently being sought after by the FBI, or that James had been effectively caught in the crossfire as a result of his association with the archer woman.

Thankful that his mother had left the house unarmed specifically for him—there were other backup measures in case burglars tried to strike, anyway—he walked up the short cement path to the Residence's main door, took a small right turn, and arrived at the knob, at which point he inserted the key, turned it, and let himself in.

He had been through quite a bit already that night, and his mind was practically a mess after everything he'd just learned following the second FBI chase. All he wanted to do was hang up his superhero costume for the night, get something resembling a good night's sleep, and then immediately get started on arranging a meeting with the Mayor of Seattle in the morning regarding a peaceful compromise between the Spraywatch gang and the city's government.