The Tragedies

The Tragedies

Chapter 1
"They're heading in now. Big Hen, you're good on the east side," the brunette said into the walkie-talkie and a simple 'thanks' was returned. They stepped back from the edge of the warehouse roof, the darkness of the night concealing their pale, freckled face. "Almost time," they said with an immense grin and picked up their spiked bat and put it over their shoulder. They walked over to the ladder set up on the side of the building and stepped onto it and slid down to the bottom, their worn down sneakers hitting the dirt ground.
         "About time, you've been up there forever," a boy with dark hair said with a smile as he shrugged his jacket onto his shoulder. Max, the brunette, let out a light chuckle.
         "Well our boys were a bit late, Reese, but they're here now. Oo, I am so PUMPED!" Max cheered and the boy laughed at their enthusiasm. Suddenly a hushing sound was heard. A boy with glasses turned the corner with a small frown, the two brunettes quieting down after their laughing fit.
         "Are you guys' idiots?" The boy with glasses asked in a harsh tone, "You're gonna get us caught being this loud."
         "Sam, chill out, they won't remember ever seeing us after we get to 'em." Max immediately disregarded what the boy said. The boy tsked at their response and crossed his arms.
         "You guys ready to go in?" A voice resonated through all of their walkie-talkie's, startling them slightly. Sam grabbed his walkie-talkie and held it to his mouth to respond.
         "Yeah, Jane Doe and Robin Hood are with me," he said and waited for a response.
         "Got'cha Prez. I'm going in, don't wait too long to catch up." The voice responded one last time, a playful tone screening through their words. Sam looked at Max as they raised their spiked wooden bat and Reese pulled out his large pocket blade.
         "Boys," Max nodded and ran merrily past them and to the doors of the worn down, white warehouse. Reese sent a small solute to Sam and rushed in after Max. Sam then turned his boot heel and walked into the warehouse after the two excited brunettes.

         "You're kids, what could you possibly do to us?" A man in a suit said as Max circled them slowly, waiting for Sam to hijack their laptop. Reese sat on a small storage box, watching them and spinning the flip blade between his glove covered fingers. He had a thing about germs and stuff getting on his hands.
         Finally, after a period of the two grown men complaining and threatening them, Sam got into the laptop and smiled victoriously.
         "You get it?" Geena, aka the Big Hen, stood up and walked over to Sam and looked down at the laptop. One of the men let out a muffled curse and Max stopped their circulation around the men tied up and looked at the two by the laptop.
         "Yeah, and blamo - not what we were exactly looking for. I'm sure that I could find something in here though, they're connected for sure from the research I've done on them," Sam said, scrolling through history, emails, and cookies - anything to find something. Geena nodded and looked up at Max, who was watching them impatiently.
         "Take 'em to town Max," Geena finally let out the magic words Max had been waiting for.
         "My pleasure." Max smiled and looked at the two men tied to large, brown storage boxes. They raised their bat with twisted nails sticking out of it, obviously the handiwork of their own, and brought it down violently and screams came from the men who once doubted them. They're not going to be able to scream again once Max is done with them.


Chapter 2
         The brown leaves crunched beneath Max's feet as she walked down the road to the secret living space for the team. They pulled off their black uniform tie and tucked it in their knapsack and pulled off the itchy navy blazer and tucked it in the bag along with the tie. They let out a heavy breath, the fog of their breath spreading in front of them from the icy mid-winter Minnesota weather.
They finally got to the hideout. They went past the gate by a large white house with a red door and shutters, and into the backyard and into a small worn-down garage. To anyone else's eyes, it would seem like a simple garage to hold tools and lawn equipment, but to Max it was so much more. They knew there was a camera behind the funnel hanging by the wrenches, and that there was a secret pulley built into the shovel that would open the entrance to the hideout.
They placed their bag on the shelf with the other three that belonged to the rest of the team. They walked over to the shovel and pulled it towards themselves. Suddenly the floor dropped out and they let go of the "shovel". They walked to the dropped out floor and stepped down, their converse landing on an oak wood step which led to a series of steps which led to a warm light and familiar yelling. Max smiled as they walked down the steps, the floorboards returning to their spot and concealing the stairs they had walked down. They stepped onto the tan carpeting and looked around at the small, but big enough, space for them.
"Yo, Max, you FINALLY made it!" Reese smiled as he was sitting on the couch, watching some weird show.
"Sorry it took so long, I got detention again from Warner," they responded and sat at a stool by the bar counter. As they reached to grab the remote of the table, a pair of scissors flew past their head and into the white wall. They looked over from the area where the scissors were thrown and Sam ran out, his feet skidding on the ground and he ran into the small kitchen and piled himself under the sink. Geena came fast walking out of the room and looked around and looked at Reese and max.
"Where is he?" She continued looking around and the two brunettes shrugged simultaneously. As Geena walked into the kitchen and started looking around a pair of footsteps were heard and they all looked towards the stairs as a dark-skinned boy slightly older than them with a brown messy Mohawk.
"Sans!" They all said in different tones. Sam popped out from under the sink and looked over the counter. "Hello," he said and Geena sent a glare down at him and he showed a nervous smile, "Sorry about your ring." He stood up and Geena huffed and crossed her arms.
"I can see we're all in a good mood," Sans chuckled and sat next to Reese on the couch and they're eyes all followed him. He put his foot up on the small, black, wooden coffee table and his heavy sneakers made a thump against the table.
"So what's up?" Max asked around, no one else seeming up to talk at the moment.
"Glad you asked, Maxy. I'm here because Papyrus got another message from the Boss. You have to gun down Alphys Manson, the CEO of Metta-Tech. She's getting lots of money, way more than his projected amount for the company. We think she's in a secret underground deal, we need you guys to get in there," Sans explained nonchalantly as he lied back on the red couch.
"Where exactly is this Metta-Tech place?" Geena asked, now paying full attention.
"In the Temmie District. Not too far from here," Sans responded, looking over at them, "I told them you can take it, but now I have to ask. Can you?"
"Yeah." Reese answered.
"Mhm." Geena nodded.
"Of course." Max said, sounding determined.
"Yes, yes, but one question. Why exactly are we looking into Metta-Tech in the first place?" Sam asked curiously and Sans looked at him and furrowed his brows.
"I'm not sure, Papyrus has got to know though," Sans answered and stood up and stretched out his back, "I've got to get going. I don't want to be late for dinner, I'm starving. Let me know how this whole ordeal goes down. Don't want you guys to have a bad time and I don't know about it." Sans smiled and walked toward the stairs, all of their eyes following as he walked up the stairs.
As he emerged from the hideout, Sans sighed and rubbed a hand through his hair. "What they don't know can't be bad for them, right?" He shook the thoughts from his head and walked out of the small garage, hands in his large blue Hoodie.
Chapter 3
         "Shut it," Sam said as he pulled back the bow string, it dragging across his cheek. He drew in a breath and let it out heavily as he let go of the string a light yelp was heard. Sam looked at the boy standing under the apple with an arrow through it, sticking into the tree.
"Sam, I refuse to carry on. Last time we did this, you got an arrow in my shoulder!" Reese whined. Sam lowered his arms and huffed.
Max swung their bat viciously at Geena and she blocked it with her large, metal spear. Max let out a grunt as they pushed the bat against Geena's spear. Geena pushed back, making Max leap back and land on their feet. Max immediately ran towards Geena again and jumped up, swinging their bat down with all of their force. Geena blocked it with her spear, making her feet slide back slightly.
"Max, you mustn't be so quick to attack Max. I can see right through you," Geena said and moved her spear from defense and brought it around and brought it down on Max's back, bringing them to the ground. Max let out a huff of frustration and Geena chuckled. "You are being foolsome Max. Think before you act." Geena smiled, leaning her spear on her shoulder. Max huffed and crossed their arms.
"My fighting tactic is great, thank you very much," Max sneered and Geena laughed lightly.
Max looked up as a drop of rain hit their head.
"We should head inside," Sam said as he and Reese walked over to the two taking their short break from sparring. Reese nodded and Geena sighed.
"Might as well, this is no condition to train in," Geena replied and walked over to the two boys and they looked over at Max, "You heading in Max?"
"I'll be in soon, just give me a minute," Max replied, staring at the sky. Sam and Geena shrugged and began to head towards the shack. Reese watched Max before a small frown spread across his face and he headed to the shack with the others.
Max looked down at their hands as the rain dripped down on their pale hands. Suddenly, they heard a familiar voice behind them. Max whipped around to see no one there. Max let out a heavy breath and wiped their eyes, hurrying to go inside.

"Pay attention when I'm talking to you Maxine!" Their father screamed as Max stared down at their plate. He was shouting over Max's late arrival and the scars up and down their arms. Max glanced up and their mother sat there with a sorry smile on her face. The only person Max could rely on was their mother, Tori.
"The meal was splendid, goodnight." Max stood up and pushed in their chair slowly, their face not rising to meet their fathers eyes. Max's father huffed and flopped down in the chair, rubbing his face. Tori rubbed his shoulder and talked tensely to him.
Max walked into their room and huffed angrily. They groaned loudly and looked into the mirror on their wall. They saw a familiar face behind them and whipped around with a gasp. It was an empty room, just like what happened in the field earlier. They shook their head and headed towards the bed.
"I just need some sleep," Max chuckled and rubbed their neck. They sat on their bed and laid back, slowly drifting to sleep.
Chapter 4
"Alright, I've got the guard routes and schedule for Metta-Tech." Sam looked up from his computer and Geena nodded. Max looked over at Sam from their pacing and crossed their arms.
"So when are we gonna go in?" Max asked impatiently and tapped their foot. Reese nodded in agreement and stood up, putting his arm around Max.
"Yeah, I'm aching for some action," He said with a large grin. Max put their arm around Reese and smiled as well. Geena smiled and let out a light laugh, causing Sam's frown to dissipate into a small smile. All of them, now laughing and smiling were not to see what was ahead of them.
"Sir, I don't feel this is right. Luring them in like this, it doesn't seem right," Sans murmured, looking down at his scarred and rough hands.
"It's the only was Sans, how else do you expect us to carry on the plan? We have to use the kids," A deep voice said from a large chair spun backwards so you couldn't see past the head of the chair, just like the clichmovie villains. Sans sighed and looked over at his taller brother, Papyrus, who was looking down as well.
"Well, sir, I have become close to these kids and they - they're good kids. Strong and very determined, they could help us," Papyrus said quietly.
"They are helping us boys!" The man boomed and stood up, his head of dark brown curly locks now shown. "We're going to make a fortune."
"An innocent life will be taken! Maybe even more! These kids are powerful!" Papyrus yelled. Sans showed worry on his face as the brown haired man circled around the desk. The man grabbed Papyrus by the collar and stared him down, Sans stepped forward to defend his brother as the man started to speak.
"You listen here, Bones, I will not take your backtalk so easily and just let it go. You will obey me and take my orders, or you're going down along with that annoying nasally doctor Alphys. You hear me? You used to be so eager to please me, now you go and start back talking me lately. What's gotten into you? Is it your brother? Your annoying plaything?" The man tightened his grip on Papyrus's collar and Papyrus grunted and showed an angry glare.
"I started talking back because you're a terrible man and I haven't realized up until now. When you decide to hurt my companions. Well, I won't let you. You'll have to go through me first to get to my friends," Papyrus hissed. The man with dark curly hair glared and let go of the tall, thin boy's collar.
"Leave my office at once." The man walked to his chair and sat down again as Papyrus and Sans watched with surprise. Sans nudged Papyrus lightly and the taller nodded, walking out with his brother.
4 hours later
"God, I hate this! I just want to be on break already!" A man in a black, fitting suit complained, and rubbed his arms trying to stay warm from the chilly weather.
"Stop complaining and do your job. You're so annoying," the other man whom was in a similar suit tsked.
"Hey! Who you callin' annoying!" The first man shouted. The other man glared at him.
"I'm calling you annoying, you dimwit!" The annoyed man snapped back. As they continued to bicker and bicker, they started to lose focus more and more. Suddenly, they both heard a sound coming from a ways in front of them. They both looked down as a rock rolled towards them and stopped by their boots. The one who was complaining leaned down and picked up the small rock and flipped it to see a short message, written in black marker.
It said 'how about you both shut up ?'.
As the man looked up from the rock, he saw a body hurling itself at him. He quickly drew his weapon, but was too slow as the force of something heavy and sharp hit him in the head. He dropped to the ground and his gun fell out of his now cold hands, a small whirl of dust twirled about. As the other man stood there with wide eyes, looking down at his comrade and co-worker had been bludgeoned right before his eyes. The small body made its way to him; he pointed his gun at the figure, his hands shaking.
"Y-you killed hi-him," he stated weakly. He heard a light chuckle and his shaking intensified.
"Damn right I did," a light voice responded. The small figure then raised the weapon, seeming to be a bat covered in nails with blood on it, and brought it to his head. The man dropped to the ground with a heavy thump.
Max turned from their victims to where the rest of their team was and motioned them over. They all made their way over to them and looked at the two lifeless bodies on the ground.
"Well done Max, let's head in now. Sam, you and Reese take the west side. Max and I will cover the east. Once you're done there, head to the fourth floor for the boss battle," Geena ordered and the two boys nodded firmly. Geena made her way towards the east side of the building and Sam to the west, Max and Reese remained where they were for a while.
"Good luck, Reese Cup," Max smiled sadly and Reese smiled.
"You too Mighty Max," Reese answered back softly. He held out his fist to Max and they lightly tapped his with a light chuckle.
Reese pulled Max into a quick, adoring hug before hurrying off after Sam. He turned to give a quick smile and a thumbs-up after catching up with Sam before disappearing behind a set of large black double-doors. Max sighed and turned on their heel and hurried off after Geena.
As Max and Geena ventured the halls, they came across a group of guards. Geena pulled Max behind a pillar that held up a hefty flight of stairs. Max watched Geena as she peered around the pillar to better observe the situation they were in now.
"There are about ten of them, all pretty big guys," Geena whispered to Max and looked back at them, "And they're all equipped pretty heavily. Do you think we can handle 'em?"
"I think we could handle anything," Max said encouragingly with a large grin. Geena smiled and nodded, pulling out a small baton from her boot. She pressed a small button on the side, it growing to the size of a giant bow staff.
"Ready for it, Max?"
"I was born ready."
Max and Geena came out from behind the pillar, weapons in hand and determination in their hearts. A man looked over and shouted to the other men, all of them soon crowding in front of the two challengers. The men looked at them one last time, taking a double take on why two frail kids were trying to take them on. Before they could process, both Geena and Max were running at them with full force, their weapons ready to strike.
Geena ducked down, dodging a punch from one of the men and swung her staff towards his stomach, causing him to stumble backwards with a grunt. She spun around and brought the staff to his head, but he grabbed it and pulled her towards him by the staff. As she was pulled forward Geena brought her feet up to his chest, her weight supported by him holding the staff, and brought her head in and head butted him. He stumbled back and fell onto another man in a suit and Geena pulled her staff from his hands, whipping around to hit another man in the head with it.
Max was busy with their own fight as they swung their bat towards one of the men, him backing up to dodge it. Max ran towards him and dropped to their knees, whacking him in the leg with the bat and swiping their foot under his causing him to fall with a yelp. Max then circled around on their foot and jumped up, running at their next victim and swinging their bat towards them.
"Reese, hurry up or I'll do it," Sam hissed. Reese shushed him and an unlocking sound was heard from the other side of the door Reese had successfully lock-picked. They both walked in through the doors, the only light in the room came from the hallway from which they entered. Suddenly the lights went on and they saw a familiar face, but it was worn out and tired; miserable almost.
"Sans... What are you doing here?" Reese asked, his brows furrowing. Sans didn't respond, just looked up at them and sighed. Reese slowly made his way towards the boy huddled in a blue sweatshirt.
"Sans?" He said the name worriedly, reaching out to touch his shoulder. Reese flew back, falling on his behind. He looked at his friend with confusion swept across his face. Why did Sans push him away? What's going on?
"Sorry kid, but it seems you're gonna have a bad time," Sans said. He walked towards the boy on the ground, who wasn't moving. Sam ran forward, seeing as the boy wasn't defending himself, and stood between Sans and a very bewildered Reese. Sans reached forward and Sam immediately smacked his hand away and brought his hand in to send a powerful blow to Sans's nose. Sans backed away and grunted, wiping away the running blood from his nose.
Reese stood up finally and pulled out his switchblade with a frown. He didn't want to do this to his friend, but his friend had left him no choice. He ran past Sam and towards Sans and slashed his blade, Sans moving out of the way and punching the boy in the stomach. Reese gasped loudly and stumbled back, coughing heavily. Sam tried to make his way forward, but Reese blocked him.
"I won't let a friend die by my ignorance again, so you stay back Sam." Reese looked back at the worried Sam and gave a small smile, trying to reassure him. He turned back to Sans and glared at him.
"Why are you doing this? You give us the mission, now you're here and trying to beat me up. What's the big deal?" Reese asked as he charged towards Sans again. Sans moved out of the way and Reese spun around and brought his blade towards the boy, cutting a hole in his sweatshirt.
"You wouldn't understand Reese, you're just a kid," Sans replied and dodged Reese's quick attacks. Sans blocked Reese's attack with his arm and brought his knee up, it delivering a painful blow to Reese's lower abdomen. Reese wheezed and stopped a minute to catch his breath before regaining his posture.
"I'm sure I would if you would just explain to me Sans, I'm not as an innocent child as you think I am. Please explain to me what in the hell is going on!" He shouted and they both stopped, panting lightly.
"Fine. Reese, Sam, I'm not as innocent as you think I am either-"
"Well we can see that!" Sam interrupted.
"Shut up! I'm tryin' to explain!" Sans yelled at the sarcastic boy. "As I was saying, I am part of a large underground bartering system called The Guild. We take out who we need to when we need to for money. I'm part of the most powerful group of them. And you four, I saw practicing in a field one day and thought that I could get you to help us out. All those missions - every single one of them, was a barter. A murder mission. And now that you four have done so much, been by my side for these many years, I have been hired to kill all of you. I don't want to, but I have to." Sans explained guiltily, looking down. Reese's facial expressions went to angry, to disgusted. Sam watched the boy they once trusted reveal his true intentions to them with a sad look in his eyes. He pushed up his glasses with a huff.
"How could you? You lied to us for years, now I'm finally finding out right before you try and kill me! How dare you keep something so big from us! We would've understood. Maybe not at first, but if you had waited until the right time, we might've understood you. But here we are." Reese gritted his teeth in anger and held back his tears. They weren't from fear or sadness. They were tears of betrayal.
"I'm sorry Reese. Sam. I wish I would've told you, but now it's too late." Sans muttered and fisted his hands.
"You don't have to do this Sans. We can get you out, we can get out of here. All of us. Max, Geena, Reese, Papyrus, you, and me. We can give up this lifestyle and live in peace. Sans please, we can forgive you," Sam said desperately. Reese continued to glare at the ground as if it had killed his whole family.
"No. I can't atone for all that I have done. Not after Regis," he said quietly and looked up at Reese who had looked up quickly in shock.
"Did you ki- You killed Regis?! Sans, you - that was Max's brother!" He shouted and Sans locked his jaw.
"I know, they assigned me to kill him. He had to be killed-"
"Just like us!" Reese shouted, his voice full of anger and betrayal.
"Yes, just like you guys. Now, it's time for me to kill you. Goodbye." Sans said quietly and looked up from the ground, tears in the corners of his eyes. Reese balled his fists and closed the blade and set it down on the ground, taking some few steps back.
"I refuse to fight you and one of us dies. If I kill you, I have a friend's blood on my hands and if you kill me, then well I'd be leaving Sammy and all my friends here. I won't do that. I will protect them with my heart and soul and if you really were our friend, a part of our broken family, then you wouldn't do this either Sans. I may not ever forgive you, I may not ever like you as much as I did. But I will always love you, because families have to love each other," Reese said, tears falling down his cheeks.
Sans stared at him in shock and bit his lip. He showed a small smile and pushed his tears back. "I - I...I understand. I am willing to protect you and atone for everything I've done," Sans said and pushed his back up, standing straight. Reese smiled a half smile and Sam smiled too, before someone came into the room.
"Reese, watch out!" Sam warned. As Reese quickly turned around, a gunshot echoed through the room.
Max turned away from the pile of men on the floor and towards where they heard a gunshot. "Geena, was that a gunshot?" They asked, but Geena had already started sprinting towards the sound. Max followed quickly, wanting to know what happened. They heard a loud scream and ran quicker, finally stopping where Geena stood frozen at a door. Max pushed through and gaped at what they saw. Reese was on the ground, sunken to his knees as he clutched his bloody shirt, and Sam against a wall looking up at the figure holding a gun, who was now pointing the gun towards Sans.
"D-dad?" Max stuttered and the man with dark curly hair looked over at his child.
"Maxine, I was wondering where you were. I've been looking for you," He flashed a sickly grin at Max's horrified expression. "Oh, your little friend. I decided he was no longer important. And I knew this idiot wouldn't kill him himself." He looked at Sans who wore a guilty expression.
Max tried to take in the whole situation as it was. Sans was going to kill Reese, but then he wasn't so Max's father stepped in to kill Reese instead. Why was Sans going to kill Reese anyways? Why was their father here?
Max was interrupted from the spiraling thoughts as Sans fell to the ground by their father's feet. "Stay out of my way you imbecile!" Max's father looked at them and Max stared at him, letting no emotion through. 'Kill him. He killed me, now he's going to kill you' a voice whispered into Max's ear. Max finally realized who the voice was and why it was with them. It was Max's brother. They could picture the young boy smiling now, but the memory was invaded by an image of the same boy, but he was on the ground bloodied.
"How dare you," Max growled and looked up from the ground with a grimace. "How dare you kill my brother and now kill my friends! You are definitely no father to me!" Max screamed and charged at the man who yelled at them every morning about how annoying they are and how they are unimportant, and who yelled at them every night about how he wished they would be ridden from his life. Well now Max wasn't going to be a part of his life, because he wouldn't even have one.

END
1 year later
         "Alright kid, if you want to join you're gonna have to show me you're tough enough to roll with the big dogs." Geena smiled at the boy with abnormal white hair. The boy showed a grin and got into a battle stance. The boy ran at Geena with a loud yell and brought his fist towards her, her dodging it quickly and waiting for him to attack again.
         "Max, you doing okay?" Sam asked, a hand on their shoulder. Max simply nodded and Sam gave a soft smile. "Alright, come join when you're ready." Sam patted her back and walked over to the two sparring with a smile.
Max looked down at their hands and back up at the gravestone place by the trunk of a large willow wisp tree. It read 'Reese Cadwell. Best friend, son, and selfless adventurer.' In large block letters, then towards the bottom it read in quotations a quote from him, "Once a Tragedy, Always a Part of the Tragedies." Max chuckled and rubbed their eyes and they felt a presence behind them. They turned to see Sans holding a hand for them.
"Hurry, if you want in at the new kid," He said with a smile. Max didn't take his hand, but stood up and gave him a weak smile.
"Yeah, don't want him to think he's gonna take over because I'm not around." Max wiped their tears and started walking towards the team sparring with the white haired boy.
"Hey kid! If you think you're so tough, try and take me down. I doubt you will though, there's only been one person to take me down." Max shouted, everyone showing her a smile. The boy grinned and cracked his knuckles eagerly. He won't be a match to Reese, no one ever will be, but he'll be all right.