NOVEL NEXT Chapter 220: Gangs of New York. 2016 CE
Helios and Peter quietly entered the abandoned looking warehouse, there was barely any light inside the building, only the occasional sound of rats and mice could be heard at the ceiling, but Peter’s senses tell a different story, his body was on alert at all times, while Helios just casually walking inside the place.
“Can you… hear anything?” questioned Peter warily. “I feel weird…”
“What makes you think I could hear anything?” Helios throws a counter question at Peter while narrowing his eyes.
“W-Well… you’re the one who has gods as parents…”
Helios sighed deeply as he stopped in the middle of the place. He scanned the room, at first, it didn't seem like much, but he could hear a faint sound of boxes being moved around from below.
Helios’s curiosity peaked as he searched for a way downstairs, and he found it in the corner of the building, an opened trapdoor.
“There’s something below…” Helios murmured.
“Something? Someone?” Peter questioned again.
“Both I guess.” Helios answered. “Someone is moving something downstairs.”
Peter just nodded at Helios's answer, and both of them slowly approached the trapdoor. They both looked at what's inside the hole, only to see a dark corridor and a rusted ladder. The two teenagers looked at each other, and both jumped to the corridor.
When Peter entered the corridor, he felt that his senses started going wild. It made him uncomfortable, and he started gulping his saliva unconsciously.
“I’m starting to think that it’s a bad idea…” Peter whispered.
“Fucking pussy.” Helios scoffed in amusement. “Want to back away now?”
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this man…” Peter murmured. “Fine… let’s continue this…”
—
As Peter and Helios reached the end of the corridor, they started to see some bright light coming from the room that is located at the edge. They could hear the sound of trucks and crates being loaded, and they could also hear voices, shouts to be specific.
Almost all of the shouting has a typical New York accent, and both of the teenagers are starting to think that it’s just some gang operation, but they were quickly reminded that they detected high levels of energy in this place.
“Is that all of ‘em?” Peter and Helios heard a distinct voice near the trucks. They turned towards the source, and they saw a bald man with a white suit, along with a man with a strange pilot helmet and a thick jacket.
“Sure is.” said the man with the strange helmet as he shook the bald man’s head.
“Don’t worry about the money Mr. Toomes.” the bald man said with a thin smile. The bald man then took a case that was given to him by his guard, and gave it to the man with a strange helmet.
“I’ll trust you on the accounting.” said the man with a strange helmet as he took the case. “Good hunting Mr. Fisk.”
“Fisk? Toomes?” Helios murmured. But suddenly, he noticed that Peter wasn’t beside him. He panicked, and looked around, before seeing that Peter was near a crate of ‘stuff’, and he was taking out the scanner that they’ve built.
Helios quickly followed suit, and sneaked right behind him.
“It’s this stuff…” Peter murmured. “High levels of energy readings… what is all this?”
Peter, without care, opened the crate slowly, and saw what was inside it. Purple lights were glowing inside the crate, creating a humming sound that is a bit annoying in the ears.
“Are these… weapons?” Peter frowned.
“Chitauri tech.” Helios continued. “Seems like these gangs could really tinker…”
“What are they gonna do with all this? Start a war or something? In the middle of the city?”
“I don’t know Peter…” Helios murmured. “How are the trucks coming here anyway? I thought this was underground.”
“Abandoned sewers… probably,” said Peter. “Or Underground train tracks.”
“Makes sense…” Helios hummed.
Suddenly, before the two were able to do anything, a shout came from afar.
“Boss! Intruder!”
Peter and Helios quickly turned towards the source of the shout as they activated their stealth mode, making them invisible, but to their relief, the guy who was shouting wasn’t referring to them.
But… who’s the intruder?
Flashes of bright light quickly enveloped the area. Laser guns were firing everywhere, shouts of pain from the grunts of the gang were heard, and beneath all those other sounds, Helios could hear a faint sound of jet engine firing up.
In less than 20 seconds, the firing sounds started to decrease quickly, and sooner rather than later, it turned quiet.
“Give it up Toomes.” said a man with a russian accent. “If you cooperate, nobody would get hurt anymore.”
“Hurt?” ‘Toomes’ said as he chuckled. “Interesting… you are not the Avengers are you?”
“Those guys are amateurs.” the man with the russian accent shrugged. “We like to be quiet.”
“Although it seems that it’s not your speciality, brother.” a woman’s voice added, looking at the mess around them.
“It doesn’t suit my powers.” the man with the russian accent shrugged again.
The jet sounds quickly became more loud, and Toomes didn’t say anything.
“You can’t escape.” said the woman, her hands started to glow red, seemingly restricting Toomes movement. Once Helios took a peek, he saw that Toomes was standing at the exit point of the room, with a… wingsuit?
Toomes kept his quiet. “Who are you? A bunch of freaks are disturbing my business.”
“You know trading alien tech is illegal right?” said the man in the Russian accent. “Come on, give up, don’t worry, we will not hurt you.”
Toomes frowned. He slowly reached for his belt, and took something from it. Before long, his hand quickly moved, and threw that ‘something’ towards the carts near him.
At first, it didn’t do anything, but then, a beeping sound started to come out.
The woman in red widened her eyes, and quickly shouted to her brother. “GET DOWN!”
Helios could see it in slow motion. Toomes escaped to the tunnel, while the two strangers quickly enveloped themselves with a familiar red energy. Helios saw the expanding explosion that was caused by Toomes, the power of the explosion was made worse when it hit the weapons, creating a violent chain reaction that would eventually enveloped the whole area.
Seeing this, Helios also enveloped himself and Peter using his power, protecting them from the powerful blast that was about to ensue.
And then, the whole warehouse disappeared, swallowed by the explosion.
—
Helios was now sitting in a strange vehicle with Peter. In the distance, he saw the smoldering fire that had enveloped the warehouse, police cars surrounded the area, and curious locals were flocking to see what had happened. Meanwhile, near him, he saw the twins from before arguing with each other as their superiors were watching them both, seemingly amused with them.
But, his view was cut short as a Japanese man blocked his vision. It was Kojiro, he sat in front of Peter and Helios, staring at them with tired eyes.
“So… what are you doing there?” questioned Kojiro.
“W-We were just curious Mr. Kojiro…-san…” Peter awkwardly said. “W-We didn’t know there was an ongoing mission there…”
Kojiro hummed. “If you discovered that place, why didn’t you report it instead? Do you want to play the hero?”
“Like Peter said.” Helios continued dismissively. “We were just curious. It’s not our fault that the mission’s botched. It’s their fault.”
Kojiro sighed. “You’re right. Fine, you know what, Cleo told me that I have to give some sort of punishment to the both of you, so here it is.”
Kojiro dropped a physical file towards the two teenagers. Both of them quickly read it, it was a file of the weapon trading that was run by Toomes.
“What do you want me to do with this?” questioned Helios lazily.
“Study it.” Kojiro said. “You’re going to fix this with those twins.”
“What? Are you serious?”
“I am.” Kojrio answered seriously as he stood up.
“Did you tell my father about this?” Helios protested.
“I did.” Kojiro continued. “It’s either this, or summer training with your mother again. You're welcome.”
Helios just dropped down to his seat and sighed deeply. He then turned towards Peter, who looked excited at the prospect.
“Dude… finally! A mission!” Peter exclaimed.
“Fuck off Peter… Fuck off…” said Helios bitterly. He then took out his phone from his pocket, and saw that a bunch of notifications had just popped up.
25 missed calls… from Gwen.
Message from Gwen: Where are you?
Message from Gwen: I called Peter and he’s not picking up too
Message from Gwen: Theo I swear to god if that explosion from that warehouse has anything to do with you, if you’re not dead yet, I will kill you
Helios just turned off his phone again and closed his eyes.
“Fuck.”