MASTIFI The Ancient Chronicles

Suddenly all of the emergency strobe lights begin flashing. An announcement begins over the Public Announcement system. “Code Griffin! Code Griffin! Please remain calm. All attending personnel, please report to 5B2, I repeat 5B2”. Kendra looks up at the door. She reads the door out loud, “Wing 5, Section B, Room 2!” Joe looks around the room in desperation, searching for an escape. The door opens and Mega is standing in the doorway to their room with a serious look on his face. He grabs Kendra’s hand and says, “Are you two waiting for an invitation? Come on, let’s go!!!” Mega then passes gas masks to Kendra and Joe. Kendra replies, “How did you even find us? How are we getting out of here?!” Joe added, “Are we being extracted?” Mega responds, “No, we’re on our own. Their friends are higher than mine; so, let’s be quick and quiet. Follow me.” After turning the corner, Mega holds up a fist to signal to Kendra and Joe to stop. Mega listens for the guard's footsteps to get close enough before he throws a smoke grenade. They follow Mega through the smoke-filled corridor as the armed guards fall to the ground in a coughing frenzy. Mega attaches a device to a keypad that unlocks the freight elevator. Once the door opens, Mega says to Kendra and Joe, “You’re on your own from here. I’ll buy you some time. There’s a black SUV outside waiting for you both.” Kendra replies, “No, we stay together!” Joe responds, “Ken, we don’t have time, we have to go”. Joe grabs her hand and pulls her into the elevator. Mega presses the button the elevator ascends to the parking level above.

They sneak past the armed guards laying on the ground outside of the elevator and get into a black SUV. Kendra stares out the window as she tries to hold back the tears from pouring out of her eyes. Joe brushes a tear from her cheek. He looks over to her, grabs her hand, and says, “Ken, everything will be fine. Calm down!” Kendra holds his hand and begins crying even harder. She brushes her hair behind her ears and says with a tremble in her voice, “Joe, this whole time my uncle has been carrying this burden and I’ve been taking everything for granted. Yes, I have been tested. But Mega’s intentions were always good, I just didn’t know then, what I know now. Joe, you have been so supportive and so helpful.” Before Joe could respond, the SUV suddenly pulls over to the curb and shuts off. Joe yells, “What the hell is going on? I’m not in control of the SUV!” Joe looks at Kendra and says, “Get out now. I don’t wanna wait to find out why or who did it.” They unbuckle their seatbelts and get out of the SUV.

They both look over to find John strolling out of the woods. He pulls Something out of his breast pocket and says, “Kendra, you’ve got to take better care of this thing. Who knows? It could fall into the wrong hands.” Kendra looks up and notices it’s her family’s journal and her nostrils flare as she storms over to John to take it from him. While Kendra was furiously heading towards John yelling, “Give it back, now!”, Joe was sneaking up behind John. As soon as John teasingly holds the book away from Kendra, Joe speedily snatches the book out of his hand and returns to Kendra’s side. John looks over to Joe and says sarcastically, “Joey, how rude of me? Let me introduce myself. My name is Alexander John Nichols III.” Joe responds, “You can’t be! I was told you died with our parents!” John reaches into his pocket and replies, “By who? Mega?!” Joe steps back defensively in the event John pulls out a weapon. John raises his empty hands as a gesture of good faith. He keeps his left hand in the air, then slowly reaches into his pocket with his right hand. Joe demands, “No sudden movements!” John pulls out a tablet and turns it around in the air so that they can see that it is harmless. He unfolds the tablet and presses a button, which opens a hidden gate covered in greenery. He presses another button which opens the back doors to the SUV. John mockingly waves his hand and says, “Your chariot awaits!” He hops into the driver’s seat and enters an address into the GPS. Kendra asks, “Why are you doing this?” John responds, “Why else? Revenge, money, boredom!” As they drive, the cloud-covered moonlight makes it even more difficult to see any signs of memorable landmarks.

They finally stop in front of a driveway that leads to a property with only one building in sight. When Kendra and Joe hop out of the SUV, armed guards come up from behind and throw canvas bags over their heads and zip tie their hands. They shove them to walk forward towards the building. John is met by Natasha, the first female boss of the underground. Joe and Kendra can hear the gallop-like footsteps of a woman’s stiletto shoes. Joe strains his ears to hear their whispers, but can only determine that John is annoyed about a deal that went wrong. John says in annoyance, “Natasha, they’ve never had a woman on the council and they gave my seat to you?!” They no longer hear the footsteps of stilettos and John hurries to their side with his tablet in hand. He orders the armed guards to prepare the helicopter while he takes care of their guests. He takes them into the building and through a series of secured doors. When they arrive at the armory, John locks the door and removes the bags from off of their heads. “We have eight minutes. Suit up and get ready for combat.” says John as he cuts the zip ties from their hands. He lowers his voice to a whisper and says, “Look, I made a bet I can’t cash and I’m on a short leash with Natasha. She’s got eyes and ears EVERYWHERE, except this old WWII fallout shelter, no signals get through.” Kendra replies, “And… You expect us to trust you now? You’ve got to be joking bro.” John hands them weapons while explaining, “I knew Mega would free you from the lab, so I planted the SUV there to bring you to me.” Joe accepts the weapon from John and grabs the bulletproof tactical gear from off the wall and quickly assists Kendra with putting it on. She does the same for Joe. They start filling each other’s pockets with ammo as if they are in tactical training at the compound. While John is on the other side of the room, Kendra whispers to Joe, “I don’t trust him.” Joe replies, “Whether he’s trustworthy or not, my main priority is your safety.” John whispers, “Follow me” and enters a code on his tablet and all the lights go out. The door unlocks and John peeks his head out to see if the hallway is clear. He steps into the hallway and braces against the wall. Joe takes Kendra’s hand and they follow behind. The dark hallway is illuminated by the emergency lights. John signals for them to stop. Footsteps can be heard coming from the adjacent hall. John waits for the precise moment and throws a stun grenade and signals to move forward. The guards drop to the floor as they sneak past the hallway. John presses a button on his tablet and pushes the wall. They hear a beep once the wall closes. John activates an all-black Bugatti and creeps over to climb in quietly. As the garage door begins to open, a male figure appears. Once John turns on the headlights, Kendra exclaims, “It's Mega!" They follow John into the Bugatti. Mega waves his hand signaling John to drive into the back of the large shipping container on his flatbed. Once they are safe inside, Mega closes the doors and bangs the container so that the driver of the flatbed will take off.

Mega pulls a Tomahawk motorcycle out of a bush and follows behind them. When armed bikers give chase, Mega pushes a button on his handlebar that releases spikes. An armed guard falls off of his bike and a second biker runs into the fallen motorcycle. A third biker swerves to avoid the crash. Mega stands and fires a gun at the armed biker. The third armed biker fires back and misses Mega, but a net flies out of Mega’s cannon and subdues the armed biker. Mega loses control of his bike and swerves off of the cliffside. An armored truck speeds into view behind the shipping container. An armed guard opens a hatch door in the roof of the truck and pushes out a large missile launcher, while the truck closes in on the shipping container. John immediately pulls out his gadget pen, pushes it between the doors of the shipping container, and presses the button at the end of the pen. The ink squirts all over the armored truck’s windshield, causing the driver to swerve off the road. Suddenly, John, Kendra, and Joe hear the propellers of a helicopter whirling above. Kendra says, “Is that a helicopter?” John returns to the car and says, “ You should buckle up, things are gonna get a little bumpy.” He opens the trunk of the car and takes out ammo and a small grenade launcher. While two helicopters appear on either side of the shipping container, an armed guard from both helicopters shoots a hook into the top of the container. John fires the grenade launcher at the hooks, which release them from the shipping container.

John peaks between the shipping container doors to see the dark walls of a cave close behind them. Joe looks over to Kendra and says, “Are we going down?” John returns to the car and says, “We’re here.” A very large muscular man in a sharply tailored suit is walking towards the front of the entrance to the shipping container, as armed guards open the doors. John’s head turns towards the man and his jaw drops. He immediately closes the passenger door to the car, jumps in the driver’s seat, picks up his tablet, and begins typing frantically. Before the large man can reach the shipping container, the elevator doors close. John waits for the armed guards to run to the entrance of the shipping container and presses a button on his dashboard to release sleeping gas from the car. The armed guards begin dropping to the floor. When the platform elevator ascends to the mountain top, John uses his tablet to open the cave doors.

Mega is anxiously waiting outside in Natasha’s car, which takes off behind John’s car as it flies out of the cave. Mega looks over to Natasha and says, “Leave the twins out of this, Natasha!” Natasha responds, “It’s not my fault you and John always need saving!” Mega takes a deep breath and responds, “As I recall, you didn’t save my brother, John, at all! He’s dead and I'm left to take care of his twin sons Joe and John III. So, who are you really saving now?!" John realizes that he’s being tailed and slows down. Natasha’s car crashes into the back of John’s car and the driver manages to swerve and drive alongside John’s car. At that moment, Mega rolls down his window to reveal to John that it is him in the car with Natasha.