The question now was how to deal with the situation. From the sounds of it, they were dealing with multiple enemies, and they had been purposely split up into two places.
"Should we just send half of the Bloodline group to each of the locations?" Na asked.
"I’m not sure," Max said, shaking his head. "From what you’ve told me about Dud, if we move a large force, he might try to use the hostages right from the beginning. It’s pretty clear he doesn’t want a head-on fight. They must have a large force, but it’s still not large enough to take out the entirety of the Billion Bloodline group—or at least they don’t want to risk it. Who knows if splitting us up like that is exactly what they want us to do."
"But then won’t you have the same issue either way?" Na asked, leaning against the desk. "Let’s say you just mobilize the rangers on this task. If one side fails, or if we can’t get to both places at the exact same time, it will be trouble."
Max understood that perfectly. The only real option was to send two elite groups to deal with the hostage situation, but even then, there was always the chance they would use the hostages against them all the way from the other side of the city to stop the fight if they were losing.
While they were caught in the middle of their thoughts, the doors burst open and Joe entered the room. He was holding onto his phone and was covered in quite a sweat.
"Hey, did you see this?" Joe asked, breathing heavily.
"What now?" Max replied, worried that Na still had more surprises waiting for them.
"I just got news from some of the other guys," Joe explained, wiping his face. "Rick and Aki... they’ve been taken to the hospital for emergency care. It seems like someone really did a number on them. I tried to get more information, and apparently, they were at some university meetup thing. But I don’t think some ordinary university punks could do this to them."
"Emergency care... are they okay?" Max asked. He already pictured the situation in his head. They must have tried to protect the students who had eventually gotten taken away.
"They are fine, it doesn’t seem like they’ll die or anything," Joe said, shaking his head. "It was just the wounds on their bodies were strange. The guys who found them said there were small puncture marks all over them, like they had been poked with a sharp object in all different places of their body. Seriously, Max, just what is going on?"
A thick, tense air could be felt coming from his side. Max turned his head and looked over at Aron.
"Is it who you thought?"
"I think so," Aron replied, his face turning grim. "This is the worst outcome that I expected."
With that bit of information, Max believed he had finally figured out exactly what he wanted to do.
"I’ll go to rescue the Black Hound members and the Stern family," Max declared. "But I’ll do it alone."
"What? Do you have a death wish?" Na asked, the sudden shock taking the words right out of Aaron’s mouth.
"I don’t want to die, and I don’t plan to die," Max said, standing his ground. "But I think this is the only way right now. The rangers, along with Aron... I think all of them will be needed to rescue the others at the secondary location. With all of you together, you are a strong force that I can trust to get those kids to safety."
Max looked at them, his expression hardening. "Being entirely alone will give Dud a false sense of security. He won’t even think he needs to call the other side and use the university hostages. I will hang on over there no matter what they throw at me. It’s clear it’s me that a large number of them want anyway, including Dud. So you guys go beat whoever you need to beat, and then you come right to me. I’m doing it this way because I trust you guys, and you need to trust that I won’t die."
Aaron was completely at a loss for words, but he knew deep down that the Black Hand were most likely the ones covering the university students. Meanwhile, Dud and whoever else was with him would be waiting with the others at the main location.
"I also have... a backup plan just in case that might work," Max muttered. He picked up his phone and gave a call. It took a few heavy rings, but eventually, the other end answered.
"Vera."
"Max?" Vera replied, completely surprised. She was heavily panting on the other side of the line.
"I know you might be in the middle of a tough situation right now, but I have something important to tell you," Max said, cutting straight to the point.
"Please, go right ahead," Vera said. A sharp grunt echoed through the receiver, followed closely by the heavy groan of another person hitting the pavement.
"A major situation has occurred, and it looks like the Black Hounds might need your help," Max explained quickly. "Once you’re done dealing with the situation on your end, I want you to come to where I tell you. But before that, there is a place I want you to stop off at first..."
Vera listened to Max’s request, and it instantly lit a fire in her to sort out the mess the Fallen Rose was currently fighting even quicker.
"Don’t worry, Max," Vera claimed, a fierce grin in her voice as Abby resolved to make sure she actually came through for him this time. Abby was somewhat happy that when in a situation where he really needed help she was the one he called and in some ways she was happy in her new body right now. "We’re going to take over this entire city and come right back to you as soon as humanly possible!"