“Ah! Young Maximilian!” Freedan crowed, “So nice of you to grace us with your presence! You’ve spared us the trouble of having to go looking for you. Again.”
Before anyone could give any orders, two of Rawne’s men aimed up at him—
But before either of them could fire, Justin zip-lined down from somewhere near that vaulted ceiling, plowing through both of them to break his fall as he landed.
“Leave him out of this!” Maximilian shouted, gesturing to Max. “I didn’t ask him to do this! He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time!”
“You expect us to believe that?” Rawne demanded, reaching for his sidearm.
In response, Maximilian hopped over the rail, dropping down onto a decorative landing, then running and jumping to hug and slide down one of the smooth stone pillars, and finished by stepping around face Rawne, who had barely turned in time to catch up with his assailant’s unorthodox moves.
“I don’t expect you to believe me.” Maximilian finished with his pilfered blade pointed at Rawne. “I expect you to let him go.”
All the while, Max tried to figure out a way to warn his unexpected doppelganger about the dangers of bringing a mere metal against an energy blade.
“Now, now, Young Master,” Freedan crooned, “you must understand, we can’t just let an impostor in the Vandenberg family just waltz out the front door…”
“After all, he knows too much, right?” Shades intoned.
“Precisely,” Freedan replied, “which is why—”
Freedan’s words ground to a halt, noting both the looks on everyone else’s faces, as well as the fact he had no clue who he was even talking to, belatedly noticing that the speaker was right behind him.
“No, it can’t be…” Freedan stammered, afraid to turn around now that he saw a gun pointed at his back out of the corner of his eye.
“Thanks for holding their undivided attention, Max,” Shades remarked, keeping his power pistol trained on Freedan.
“Of course,” both of them replied in near-perfect unison.
“You’re not Ma’Quiver,” Rawne observed.
“Sorry if I disappointed you, but he won’t be joining this party,” Shades told them, figuring there was little point in bluffing about an ally who wouldn’t be putting in an appearance anyway. He was quick to catch Freedan’s sigh of relief, though, pressing him, “You’ve been skimming off the top for years, haven’t you? You’re the one who drove Vandenberg to this level of desperation.”
“Is that true?” Maximilian’s voice stern enough to stun even Rawne.
“Young Master,” Freedan tried again, “we’re only trying to keep you safe until—”
“Don’t you dare call me that!” Maximilian snarled. “I overheard the whole thing!”
“Methinks thou doth protest too much,” Shades chided Freedan. “There never was a real search for his father, was there?”
“What he said,” Justin seconded, keeping the men next to Rawne covered with his crossbow.
“Rawne,” Freedan hissed, seeing his few bodyguards completely out-maneuvered, “what the fuck am I paying these people for?…”
“Don’t make me get Shakespearean on your ass!” Shades warned him. Having helped his friend Vince practice his lines for a couple too many plays over the years. “Now drop that cane, or I drop you.”
“Please don’t,” Justin pleaded, recalling one too many sparring sessions. “Once he starts…”
“Young Master!” Sebastian cried out from the top of the central stairway, jaw gaping. “Is that—”
That instant of distraction was all Rawne needed to slip a blade from up his sleeve and flick it at Shades, striking his wrist, making him fumble his weapon.
“Shades!” Max turned belatedly.
“Shit!” Freedan snapped, reaching around and smacking Shades upside the head with that heavy silver knob.
“That is so Nineteenth Century,” Shades muttered, rubbing his head and shifting to keep Freedan from going after his power pistol, relieved that the casing of his watch had deflected Rawne’s knife, even if it did leave a deep scratch in the glass.
Only to find, much to his chagrin, that Freedan was better armed than he originally thought, nearly facepalmed as he turned the knob, unsheathing two feet of double-edged steel blade.
“Let’s hear that smart mouth of yours now!”
“A sword! A sword!” Shades yelped, dancing backwards, seeking an opening to draw even one of his stun-sticks, “My kingdom for a sword!”
“Goddammit…” Justin muttered, aiming up at the stair railing, at Rawne’s men, and firing as they attempted to make their way down, their targets too closely intertwined with their fellows and their employer for them to shoot back, “Ya shoulda just shot him…”
Meanwhile, Max whipped out his backup laser sword, stunning the two nearest guards before they could make a move against Maximilian or Shades, then, seeing his friend’s plight, interceded between him and Freedan to confront this unexpectedly spry and nimble adversary.
“En garde!” Freedan flourished his blade at him.
“Thanks for the warning,” Max replied. Though a quick glance over his shoulder revealed one who was even worse off than Shades.
Once Rawne fired up Max’s laser sword, Maximilian found himself frozen on the spot.
“Tell me, kid,” Rawne quipped, figuring that it would only take a matter of seconds to destroy his young foe’s weapon and overpower him, so he could turn his attention back to defending his employer from the Young Master’s mysterious and worrisome double, “do you even know how to use that?”
Maximilian swallowed hard, refusing to back down. Though Ma’Quiver refused to teach him swordsmanship, he had still watched him practice many times, and was pretty sure he had the basic gist. Even so, he had a bad feeling about that energy blade…
Max, seeing that he wouldn’t have enough time to take out Freedan’s weapon if he was going to make it in time, rushed over and grabbed Maximilian by the wrist, switching opponents, as he doubted the young man was any match for a battle-hardened mercenary like Aden Rawne. To say nothing of the weapons disparity.
Telling him, “This is my fight.”
His father’s blade, glowing before him.
“I don’t know what this thing means to you,” Rawne warned him, “but don’t expect me to just hand it over.”
“I don’t,” Max answered, bringing his own teal blade to bear. “I’m going to take it back.”
Maximilian, on the other hand, found himself face to face with the mastermind behind this whole mess.
“You’re making a big mistake…” Freedan informed him. “This blade was crafted of carbon-cobalt steel, and can pierce body armor.”
“But have you ever used it?” Maximilian countered, recalling an important point Ma’Quiver taught him.
“More times than you.” Freedan assumed his fighting stance, relieved to be facing someone less experienced than that other Max. “I’ll have you know I was trained by the best fencing instructors in New Cali, boy! Now let’s see if that Ma’Quiver actually taught you anything, shall we?”
As Maximilian clashed with Freedan, Justin hid behind a pillar at the far end of the chamber, the last two guards up top shooting at him any time he poked his head out long enough to spot either of them.
He was about to try again, when a couple shots from the far side brought one of them down.
Justin quickly leaned around the corner and nailed the other one while he was still trying to figure out what hit his fellow. Then he turned to see that Shades had reclaimed his power pistol.
“Hey! You’re gettin’ better!” Justin told his friend. “You got that one in only two shots!”
“Let’s wrap this…” Shades turned to see one more mercenary sneaking up on Maximilian as he fought Freedan, but both of them were too closely entangled for even Justin to shoot past them.
Much to both of their surprise, Sebastian stepped from behind a pillar, cracking a very expensive-looking vase over the man’s head.
Maximilian heard the crash behind him, barely parrying as his opponent pressed him back.
“Pathetic!” Freedan taunted. “Even Percy did better than that on his first try!”
“Bastard!” Maximilian lunged forward—
And Freedan parried, tweaking his weapon out of his hand with a deft flick of his cane sword.
“Too easy!” Freedan sneered. “Even the rankest amateur at that prep school wouldn’t fall for that!”
With a most dismayed expression, Sebastian scrambled up to the second level, pulling free a tapestry and draping it over Freedan below.
“Young Master!”
While Freedan stumbled back, cursing profusely and flailing his sword in his opponent’s general direction as he struggled, Maximilian made a mad dash for his lost weapon.
At the same time, Max and Rawne dueled their way across the floor. Yet no matter how hard Rawne pressed him, Max not only refused to yield, but continued to solidly hold his ground. Demonstrating a level of swordsmanship that confirmed the wisdom of diverting him from fighting his boss.
“Unlike that brat, you really are a warrior,” Rawne remarked. “The last time I saw anyone with the same potential as you was Ma’Quiver.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Max replied. “I’m sure he would, too, given how much I trained with him.”
“As I thought…”
Rawne immediately sidestepped, throwing off his duster and sweeping it in Max’s face with the flourish of a bullfighter. But this time Max ducked, sweep-kicking Rawne and tripping him up before he could attack. He tossed the duster aside as Rawne staggered back to his feet.
“I won’t fall for the same trick twice.”
Shades and Justin continued to monitor both fights, deciding it was too risky to intervene. Max and Rawne were too unpredictable to engage, and now that he was clear of that tapestry, Freedan and Maximilian stood toe-to-toe, blades locked. Even Sebastian looked on in worried indecision.
“You’re beginning to piss me off!” Freedan snarled, as his young opponent continued to press him back, wishing he could spot someone still on their feet so he could order them to take that damn butler hostage.
“You’re the one trying to ruin my family and steal my home!” Maximilian shot back, continuing to push his size advantage. “If anyone has a right to be pissed off around here, it’s me!”
For his part, Freedan sidestepped and disengaged, letting Maximilian go staggering up against the nearest pillar with the full force of his own push.
“This… wasn’t how I planned it…” Freedan panted, drawing himself up to his full, if diminutive, height, “but after all these years… I won’t allow… even you… to stand in my way, boy…”
Justin, meanwhile, was glad he was still keeping a lookout, as he was the first to spot more of Rawne’s men arriving on the scene.
“Guys!” he warned his friends, “We’ve got company!”
Author's Chapter Notes:
showdown
