Powerhouse: Legend of the Archwave

Chapter 24 (Act III): Valiant Vandals

We last read Chapter 23, in which James Markovsky a.k.a. Powerhouse sends an email to the Mayor of Seattle informing him that he has come up with a possible way to broker peace between the Spraywatch gang and Seattle's government whilst eating his breakfast for the day. After he finishes typing and sending the email, James practically inhales the remainder of his food, gets dressed in his superhero ensemble, and says goodbye to his mother Susan Markovsky, opting to only tell her a partial truth about how he's going to resolve a graffiti-tagging spree.....and neglecting to tell her anything about his former companion Isabela Acosta a.k.a. Archwave's origins.

While driving around Seattle in the tricked-out convertible, Powerhouse comes across two women in the outdoor eating area of a Starbucks who happen to be scrolling across a dire news story on their phones with worried expressions on their faces. When he goes to confront them, they—but mostly the girl on the left—show him a news story that describes the Mayor of Seattle as having gone missing the previous night, with security camera footage apparently showing him going with a bunch of FBI agents willingly. That girl then goes on to inform Powerhouse that the FBI command van was observed driving north of the beachfront house, to which the prosthetic-armed boy thanks the women for the information before leaving the area. He then reluctantly chooses to continue searching for Isabela first before tracking down the missing mayor—even though he needs the mayor in order to make peace between the Spraywatch gang and the government—since Isabela might probably know something else about the mayor's abduction due to being out late all last night following his abandonment of her.

Elsewhere, in a desolate alleyway, Isabela Acosta a.k.a. Archwave lethargically stumbles into the passageway, completely ignored by everyone around her as she begins succumbing to her hunger after having failed to secure a proper breakfast. After briefly reminiscing about the fulfilling breakfast she had shared with Powerhouse the previous morning, she spots a half-eaten burger lying near an already rusted trash can.....and out of sheer desperation and determination, she wills herself to crawl over and eat it. She toughs out the gut pain she suffers as a result of the food's obviously poor quality, and staggers all the way to the outdoor eating area of a Buffalo Wild Wings. Although the eating area is still empty at the time due to it still being around breakfast time, the TVs show a breaking news story detailing the Mayor of Seattle having gone missing; the chapter ended with Isabela cursing internally before rushing off to an unknown location.

This time, James and Isabela meet back up at a rather convenient location, and fill their new allies in on the current situation.....

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-Spraywatch Hub, Seattle, Washington-

James Markovsky a.k.a. Powerhouse, still in the driver's seat of the tricked-out convertible, found himself driving through a more derelict and run-down portion of the city; the same sector that he had driven through on his official visit to the Spraywatch Hub the previous night. He would be coming up on the Hub itself in a few minutes; the dark iron fencing on the left side of the road would give it away.

He knew that his focus should've been on locating his companion, but he figured that it couldn't hurt to stop by the Hub momentarily and ask the Spraywatch gang if they had heard of the mayor's alleged abduction; after all, they had proven themselves more than capable of fighting during the second FBI chase, and he could use some other allies in the event that his former partner really had officially left Seattle for parts unknown.

He found the same isolated lot that he had parked the tricked-out convertible in the previous night, and, much to his convenience, the exact same spot was also free. He pulled the vehicle into the lot—perfectly nestling the convertible between the two white lines demarcating the parking space—then turned off the engine, pulled out the key, and stashed it into the front right pocket of his brown pants before leaving the lot, taking a sharp left turn onto the cement sidewalk, and approached the dark iron fencing coming up on his lefthand side which indicated the location of the Spraywatch Hub.