The Axelridge Series Book 1 Finn's Slapshot

FINN-Present Day

“OFFSIDE!”

Marcus, Eddie and Jax fly around a skate bowl. A shape half circle with a flat bottom for using our hover equipment on.

Jax kicks it up, runs up the side of the rounded wall. At the top, he deploys jets which lift him into the air. He readies his mace and flips into a forward aerial somersault, pulls his mace from his back, over his head and brings it down on a drone that entered the arena airspace. It crashes to the ground, his hover boots stop his fall and he lands his heavy mace on it. Drilling it even more.

Marcus runs up one side, flips backwards, twists and lands on his boots. He throws his grenade baseballs, grabbing them from a deployment pack on his back, at concrete targets. Each one explodes and the targets fall over. All except one.

He whips around and throws more toward block towers. He misses some, but eventually knocks the towers over.

Him and Jax weave around pillars looking for their next targets.

“Marcus! Tighten that aim!” I yell from the observation deck.

He spins, skates backwards and glares at me. “My balls are tight enough!”

“Said no one ever!” I yell back.

“You want to eat my balls?!” He growls as he skates around the walls, bouncing a silver ball in his hand.

“That depends, has your sister given them back yet?” I smirk.

He points at me with the ball in his hand. “You leave my sister out of this!”

“Eddie! Get off your ass!” I yell with my hands out to the side.

He’s sitting on the edge of the bowl with his board strapped to his feet, eating Twinkies.

“But it's snack time!” He says with a mouthful, mirroring my posture.

“We're in the middle of training! Eat later!” I scowl.

“Fine.” He crumbles the package and throws it over his shoulder.

“Hey! No littering!” I throw a finger at him.

“Yes, mom.” He smirks.

He shoves the Twinkie in his mouth and jumps. He kicks his hover board on and rides the bowl.

“SHIFT CHANGE!” I yell as he weaves his board up and down the wall in the bowl.

I push buttons and the field changes to dummy enemies. The pillars lower into the floor and dummies rise up.

Eddie is surfing around, waiting, while Marcus and Jax get out of the way.

Eddie puts gloves on and pulls out a bunch of short, silver throwing knives. He holds them in between his fingers like claws.

“OK, Eddie. HI-STICK!”

“Cool.” He grins menacingly.

He turns toward the edge of the pipe, grabs his board, balances on his hand and lands it back down.

He does a few more hang times as he builds up speed then comes around to the entrance of the dummy field.

He crouches and his arms fly to both sides. He throws the blades and they land in the heads of the dummies as he flies by.

“Good! LEVEL TWO!”

The dummies start to spin.

He races up the side and launches into the air. He grabs his edge. “WOO! 1080!!” He spins in the air several times.

“FOCUS!” I bark.

He scowls, lands and readies more knives. He flies through the field and throws more. They land in the chests of the dummies.

“Speed it up!” I bark.

I push another button and the dummies spin faster.

He surfs back around, kicks up his jets and whips out the knives again.

I look at the feed coming in. “You missed!”

“Did I?!” He shoots me a stupid grin as he slides around the bowl.

I look and all the dummies have a knife in their junk.

I look up at him, he gives me a chefs kiss and cackles.

“Very funny.” I cross my arms. “BLACK DIAMOND!” I order.

At different corners, Eddie, Jax and Marcus all launch off the wall at the same time, spin and line themselves up with wall. They come down the wall hot.

The dummies are now crossing each other and spinning. Each have a blade protruding from them at different levels. It’s a live ammo battlefield.

I stand and watch closely to find the gaps in the play.

Marcus spins around and throws a ball, the dummy hit explodes. He turns back around, ducks under a blade, pops back up and throws another one. It kills another dummy.

Jax rides the wall, crossing his feet to gain more speed. He pushes off, flies into the field and crushes a dummies head. He lands on his feet and swings it into the dummies side. It rips off its rotator and destroys the one beside it. He spins around, throws his mace out to block a sword. He reaches out and rips the dummies head off. It sparks and shuts down. He stabs it in the stomach with his mace and rips it out.

Eddie boards in behind a dummy. He grabs its neck and his board carries them both off. He takes the sword and throws the dummy. As he comes around for another pass, he slices heads off.

Marcus jumps on Eddie’s board and they go around the bowl. As they do, Marcus pummels the area with balls. Explosions fill the arena.

Jax dives for cover. “WATCH IT, DICK!”

“What’s a matter, Jaxton? Too hot for ya?” Marcus cackles as they get close to him.

“Don’t call me Jaxton!” He hits the underside of Eddie’s board with his mace and the two go spiraling, end over end, across the field.

“JAX!!”

He turns around and points. “They started it!”

I point to him. “And I’ll finish it!” I growl.

I look to Marcus. “You! Stop being a dick!”

“I’m a fucking angel, ok?” Marcus snaps back as he picks himself up off the ground. “He’s the dick!”

“Yeah? How about I dick your face!” Jax slams his mace into his hands and takes big steps to Marcus.

“WHOA!”

I jump the deck and run out to Jax. I grab his mace. “Hit the showers!”

“But that!” He motions to Marcus.

“Go cool off, Jax.” I get up in his face.

He grumbles and swears under his breath as he turns to the training center.

I slam the mace in my hands. “Now, unless you two want this shoved up your asses…” I eye them both.

Eddie and Marcus look at each other and look at me. “We're good.” They say in unison.

I turn around and rub my forehead. “I’m turning into my mother.” I grumble.

****

I drop my tablet on the desk at the head of the circle. The lighted Hub table holds twenty chairs with a computer at each one.

The council comes in and Jax is bickering with Marcus…again.

“Guys. Knock it off.” I groan. “You’re not kids.”

“Tell him that.” Marcus side eyes Jax as they both sit down in their spots beside each other.

Jax shoves him and Marcus shoves him back.

“OK! Don’t make me separate you two.” I point to them both.

The both scowl, lean back in their chairs and cross their arms.

I take a big, calming breath. “Griff! Please tell me you have something on the activity outside on the city.” I take my seat and rest my aching head.

“As a matter of fact I do.” He stands and clicks buttons on his computer. “Using a portion of Lycan code that Hunter supplied us with, I was able to make a patch in the satellite systems. This is what we found.” He walks to the middle of the circle and clicks a button on his phone.

A holographic screen appears in the center. You can read it and see through it as it slowly turns. Satellite imagery of Axelridge appears as well as New York State. Red, yellow and black dots appear all over the maps.

Griffin stands and stuffs his hands in his pockets. He walks around the inside of circle. “What you’re seeing, gentlemen, is a piss ton of rotten lycans. As you can see, Liam has been a busy prick.” He eyes us as we read.

“The black dots are natural lycans, for lack of a better word. The yellow…The energy signatures are different somehow. I’d have to get my mitts on one to find out what. The yellow is more than the black. They flood New York State and surround the areas around the lake. I can’t confirm if the wily things are out in the open or in hiding.” He leans on the table.

“The red dots?” I ask with an arched brow.

He wags a finger at me as he pushes off the table. “Aye. There’s the interesting bit.” He hits a button on his phone and the map expands to the whole country. “For whatever reason, Hunters code picked up hundreds, if not thousands, of raging, manky rogues.”

I sit up. “Rogues?”

“Aye. Rogues.” He walks to the map. “From here, we're tits deep in them.”

I look at the map. “Zoom into us.”

“Let’s take a gander.” He zooms in and sure enough, we’re surrounded with a concentration outside Rochester. “I’m a bit yoke on military stands, but that looks an awful dodgy.”

“Noah. What do we have inside the city?” I ask.

Noah leans forward. “I haven’t found anything sus in the place. If there are any in the city, they can avoid detections.”

“I have to tweak the systems in the city’s grid.” Griffin shuts down the screen. “Finley. We are looking at a takeover if we don’t strike.”

I twist my lips. “Jax. Send out Track team 1 and Flyer team 8. Surveillance only. If they do engage, we need them alive and brought in.”

“Got it.” He says.

Marcus leans to him. “Take Ops 5. They could assist.”

“Sure. We should send out an alert on the city’s defense board. Put everyone on alert 4.” Jax advises.

“OK. Griffin, put it out, but I don’t want to create panic, so level 6 pack members only with need to know only. The last thing I want is to scare off fans.” I lean back in my chair and cross my arms.

“Aye. I’ll set the targeting systems with these new parameters. I’ll need access to weapons programs.” He turns to Marcus.

“Sure, but don’t get creative. You go in, drop your lines and leave. It took me weeks to sort out the mess you made.” He points at Griffin.

“My mess? Your code looks like it was written by a plastered gimp!” Griffin scowls.

Marcus juts his chin out. “I don’t know what you just said, but I feel like I should be pissed about it.”

Griffin scoffs and waves him off.

Marcus narrows his eyes. “Don’t touch my code, Griff.” He growls.

“Fine. If you want to be a tool and write your code arseways, I won’t be bothered.” He stands and leaves the circle.

Marcus stands. “Tool I understood. Come here!” He rushes around the table and I, once again have to hold him back.

“Marcus!” I grit as he pushes on me.

“Come here, Lucky Charm. I'll shove that clover right up your ass.” He clenches.

“Pfft…I’m supposed to be afraid of a subway rat.” Griffin stands smugly as Marcus fumes.

“Marcus! You know he’s only doing this because you insulted his skills.” I look him dead in the eye.

“Griff…Stop pushing his buttons, bud…Not cool.” Eddie says as he unwraps a sub and takes a huge bite. “Just chill.”

Noah rocks on his chair legs. “You know Marcus is sensitive.”

Griffin looks down at the floor. “Okay…I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said what I said.”

Marcus stops pushing. “Sorry…I get heated…sometimes.”

“Aye…you do…But I did say the wrong thing. What I should have said was your code looks like it was written by a guttered spanner.” He smirks.

“What’s that mean?” He points to Griffin. He looks at me. “What did he say?”

I can only shrug.

He stands and glares at Griffin. “Come here.” He crooks a finger at him as he backs up from me around the table.

Griffin grins as he backs up.

“Marcus…” I whine.

Marcus speeds up and so does Griffin as they try to fake each other out around the table.

I wrap my arm around myself and hold the bridge of my nose.

Eddie and Noah are both kicked back with their feet on the table.

Jax is surfing his phone.

“Your calves better be warmed soccer boy…” Marcus growls.

Griffin takes off cackling around the table and out the door.

“I’m hitting a Homer right across your ass!” Marcus takes off after him, practically falling out the door and down the hallway.

I wave my hand at them. “Whatever. The survivor will put the code in. Moving on.”

“So…” Eddie chews. “I’ll put the feelers out. Get the Enforcers online and ready. If any rogues show up in the city, we'll catch them.” He takes another huge bite.

“Jax. I want the cities bridges tested daily until we figure this out. I also want the underwater system brought online.”

“Can’t. It’s still six months out.” He says as he sits back.

“Well, speed it up. If these things are swimming in, we need to cut them off.” I say.

“All I can do is try.” He says.

“Thank you.” I say as my phone rings. I pull it out and answer.

“April?...What?” I look at my phone. It’s 10:30pm. I put the phone to my ear. “You tried calling?...Fuck…OK. I’ll go look for him. Just stay there and try to stay calm. I’ll find him.” I hang up. “Eddie. The kid’s missing. Put his file out to the Enforcers. He left school without his mother.”

“Bummer…OK. On it right now.” He pulls out his phone and begins to type.

Jax stands. “Need help?”

“Yeah. I’ll take the core and south, you guys take north, east and west.” I instruct as I head to the door.

I turn down the hallway. “Someone call a medic for Marcus!!” I call back to the room.