Powerhouse: Legend of the Archwave

Chapter 28 (Intermission): An Ugly Ultimatum

We last read Chapter 27, in which James Markovsky a.k.a. Powerhouse and Isabela Acosta a.k.a. Archwave—alongside Monarch McIntosh, Valentina Valdez, Tyrone Hoover, and a unit of the Spraywatch gang—attack the top observation deck of the Seattle Space Needle to save the Mayor of Seattle from Special Agent Warren Schaefer and his group of armed and armored loyalists. After a massive scuffle breaks out following Archwave's barely unsuccessful assassination at Schaefer's hands, Powerhouse focuses on getting the mayor to safety—with additional help from Tyrone Hoover late into the extraction—while Valentina Valdez and Archwave team up to incapacitate the loyalists in the indoor area of the deck before being joined by the Spraywatch gang's leader Monarch McIntosh. Despite the mayor already having been rescued by Powerhouse, which was the combined team's main goal, Archwave—being the hero that she is—refuses to leave until the other hostages taken by Schaefer have also evacuated, in effect forcing McIntosh, Valentina, and Tyrone to remain behind until the deck is vacant.

Soon, Powerhouse succeeds in extracting the Mayor of Seattle from the Seattle Space Needle, and—at the mayor's own request—brings him back to the town hall in the tricked-out convertible, hoping that the other heroes can handle the rest of the baddies back at the top. At one point during the scuffle, Schaefer forcibly grabs Archwave and holds her at gunpoint to force Valentina to back down, but Archwave remembers the hand-to-hand combat skills she learned from Powerhouse the previous day, and is able to get out of Schaefer's grasp without any assistance.....while also leaving him with an aching chin and giving him an impact to the groin for good measure. Irritated, Schaefer retaliates by flooding the entire deck—both the indoor and outdoor areas—with smoke from numerous grenades concealed within his jacket.

Tyrone Hoover re-enters the indoor area, and he, Valentina, and McIntosh work together to try and keep Archwave safe as the four of them make for the elevator after learning that all the other hostages have already been freed. Valentina uses another paint bomb—identical to the one she used at the beginning of the fight—to cover the quartet's escape, but Schaefer snatches Archwave from the Spraywatch gang's protective formation in the blink of an eye and they don't realize it until they're already near the elevator.

Schaefer taunts the Spraywatch gang's main figures by bringing up how the scuffle—no matter how hectic—still resulted in a trade: Archwave giving herself over to the FBI in exchange for the mayor's freedom.....which was the first option listed on his threatening letter. He dares them to tell Powerhouse about what happened at the Space Needle after his early departure, telling them that he wishes to show the prosthetic-armed boy the same pain he apparently felt after realizing that Powerhouse had "betrayed" his country by aiding and sheltering Archwave, who is an illegal immigrant. The chapter then ended with Schaefer and the remaining loyalists making their getaway with Archwave as their hostage while sending out two elite units to cover their escape; though the elite units die as a result of effectively "drowning" in the Spraywatch gang's paint, Schaefer ends up escaping, and the Spraywatch gang's main figures are left to deliver the bad news to Powerhouse whenever he returns to the Spraywatch Hub.

This time, Powerhouse successfully returns the Mayor of Seattle to the town hall safe and sound but arrives back to the Spraywatch Hub to some devastating news, while Archwave and Schaefer both have a scathing chat aboard the latter's attack vehicle.....

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-Seattle Town Hall, Seattle, Washington-

James Markovsky a.k.a. Powerhouse eventually arrived back at the Seattle Town Hall with the Mayor of Seattle firmly secured in the tricked-out convertible's back right seat. Once the prosthetic-armed boy pulled into an empty space on the town hall's lot and turned off the engine, his immediate order of business was to get out, move to the mayor's side, and help him exit the vehicle slowly and safely.