Hi everyone. Here is part thirteen of my Adventures of Max series. Hope you enjoy.

Preface: Max and Joe were at the video game store in their local shopping mall when the mall is taken over by a group of robbers who are trying to get as much money out of the stores as they can. But since Max and Joe have the ability to do something about their situation, they decide to do something about their situation.

It was a late Friday evening when Max decided to visit the local shopping mall before it closed for the night. Once he got there, he and Joe accidentally met each other at the video game store that was in the local mall. “Hey Joe. What are you here for?” asked Max. “Ethan’s showed me this one fighting game franchise called Blazblue so I was coming here to get some eshop money for my Switch so I can try a few of the games out myself.” Answered Joe. “What are you planning on getting?” “I’ve finally saved up enough money to get a copy of Iceborne. Can’t wait to try it out.” Said Max. As the two of them were about to make their purchases, they all of a sudden heard the sound of a gun shot followed by terrified screams. “Everyone, get down on the ground!” yelled a voice coming from the doorway of the game store. It was a robber dressed in all black holding a handgun. All six people in the store got down on the ground after seeing the gun. “This is Red 1. I have secured the video game store.” The robber said into a walkie talkie. “Good.” Came a voice from the walkie talkie. The robber entered the store, closed the door behind them, then waved some kind of device over the door handle. They could hear that the door had been locked by the device. The robber slowly approached the counter of the store. “You gotta safe in this place?” demanded the robber to the store clerk. “In the back.” Responded the store clerk in fear. “Take me to it. And don’t any of you think about moving!” said the robber as he was led to the back of the store. “Mommy, I’m scared.” Said a small child, one of the other people held up in the store. “It’s going to be OK sweetie.” Responded the child’s mother. “Do you think we should do something?” whispered the other person on the ground, a man who looked to be in his mid-20’s. “I think my friend and I have an idea.” Said Max, not sounding the least bit scared. “Are you sure? In front of all these people?” asked Joe nervously. “Do you want these people to get away with robbing the whole mall, or not? By the looks of it, this robber is part of a group, hence the walkie talkie. Plus, this could be a good chance to test out our crystals. Without killing anyone, obviously.” Said Max. “In this small of a space?” asked Joe. “Probably not in here.” Said Max “Ok then, if you say so.” Said Joe. “So, do you two have a plan?” asked the guy in his 20s. “We do. We’ll take care of everything. The rest of you can sit tight and…try not to overreact.” Responded Max. He and Joe got up from the ground and took deep breaths. “Ok, here we go. Let’s see if we can make this quick.” Said Max, psyching himself up. “Here goes nothing.” Said Joe. The two of them concentrated for a few seconds, then all of their werewolf features appeared all at once: the fur, the claws, the arched back, the muscles, the legs, the ears, the snout, the fangs, the tail, everything changed in the blink of an eye. Their shoes and shirts were completely destroyed in the process. “I think that’s a new record. That was almost immediate.” Said Joe. The other people in the store all looked even more terrified than they already were. The child looked like he was about to scream. “Shhhhh! Just stay quiet for a bit while we get into position.” Whispered Max. “Gamma, hide behind one of the shelves by the door.” “Got it.” Responded Joe, who moved behind one of the shelves. Max positioned himself by the door to the back room so that the door would be blocking him when it opened. After a few more minutes of waiting, the robber returned from the back room carrying a large duffel bag full of money while following the store clerk, who was being held at gunpoint. The robber then looked around at everyone in the store. “There were five of you when I went to the back room. Where did two of them go?” asked the robber. “Behind you.” Growled Max. He then closed the door to the back room and stared at the robber with a hungry look in his eyes. Terrified, the robber dropped the bag of money and went to turn his gun at Max, who promptly slashed at it, knocking it out of the robber’s hand. “AHHH!” cried the robber as he held his hand in pain, which at best, was dislocated. The robber then ran to the door as fast as he could. As he struggled with the door, too scared to remember he locked it earlier, he then turned in horror as Joe started growling at him menacingly. Joe advanced towards the robber slowly, backing him up to the wall. Max soon joined Joe in advancing at the robber, advancing along the wall the robber was backed into, trapping him in a corner. With Max and Joe towering over the robber, they came up to him and Max slowly put his snout up to the robber’s ear. “You know, we always like playing with our food before eating it.” Max said slowly into his ear with a sinister voice. He then looked at Joe and nodded towards the locked door. Joe took a few steps back and, with one powerful kick, forced the door open, breaking the lock on it. “Now start running.” Said Max. The robber bolted out the door as fast as he could. “Well, I say that went well.” Said Joe. The rest of the people in the store had all gone pale when Max and Joe turned to look at them. “Relax, we’re not actually going to eat him, or anyone for that matter. We were just messing with him.” Said Max in a softer voice. They still stared at them with utter terror. “Where do you think he ran off to?” asked Joe. “I’m not really sure. We should probably start looking around the rest of the mall for some of the others.” Said Max. “I think we should also call for backup. I’ll let the guys know.” Max pulled out his phone to send a message to the pack’s group chat. “Sigma here. The River Point Mall is under a full-scale robbery by a group of people. Gamma and I are already at the mall and are requesting back up.” “And sent.” Said Max. “Let’s get going.” Said Joe. “Oh, before we go…” Max then turned to the store clerk. “Do you think you could hold on to a copy of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne for me?” asked Max. “And two $50 Nintendo eshop cards for me?” added Joe. The store clerk slowly nodded silently. “Thanks. We’ll drop back by when we get this sorted out. We’ll get everyone out of here once the robbers have been dealt with.” Said Max. “Let’s head to the food court for now, since it’s connected to every part of the mall.” Suggested Joe. “Good idea.” Said Max. The two of them then ran on all fours to the food court.

Soon, Max and Joe arrived at the food court, where they came across something they weren’t expecting to see. “The hell happened here?” asked Joe. The whole floor of the food court was covered in ice and in the middle of the tables was what looked like someone frozen in a block of ice. Upon a closer look, the person that was frozen was wearing all black and was holding what looked like an assault rifle. Off to the side were a group of people hiding in one of the food shops, all of them looking terrified and confused. “Sigma, Gamma? What are you two doing here?” asked a voice coming from the corn dog stand. Max and Joe looked to see Chris in his elemental wolf form, wearing red, yellow, and blue striped pants and a paper hat of the same colors. “Omega?!” said Max and Joe. “What are you wearing?” asked Max. “It’s my uniform. I was working at the corn dog stand when someone with a big rifle showed up and threatened everyone to get on the ground. One of the customers was trying to run away and when I saw the rifle aimed at him, the only thing I could think to do was freeze him before he could fire. I actually froze the bullet mid-air.” Said Chris. Looking back at the frozen gunman, Max and Joe saw a loose icicle by his feet with a bullet frozen at one of the ends. “So, what were you two doing here?” Chris asked again. “We met each other at the video game store by accident and were about to ask the clerk for the things we wanted when a robber showed up with a small handgun.” Said Max. “We were actually seeing where they ran off to. We gave him a real good scare when he got back from raiding the safe in the back room.” Said Joe. “What did you do to him?” asked Chris. “We may have told him we like playing with our food before eating it.” Said Max. “Wow guys. Just wow.” Said Chris. “Anyway, we think that the entire mall has been taken over by people working as a group. We saw the robber communicate with someone via walkie talkie.” Said Joe. “They must be really prepared if they planned to go after the entire mall.” Said Chris. “Yeah, but they’re not prepared enough for us.” Said Max. “I’ve already called the rest of the pack for backup. I’ll actually check if any of them have responded yet.” Max pulled up the group chat on his phone to see if Jake or Ethan had replied. “Delta and I have arrived at the mall, but we can’t find a convenient way in because the police have surrounded the whole building. No word on Omega’s status.” Was what Jake had sent. Chris then pulled his phone out and sent “I’ve been at the mall since school got out and I am in the food court with Sigma and Gamma. Also, locate the employee parking garage and see if you can get in from there.” After about five minutes, Jake sent another message. “The entrance from the employee parking garage is clear. Heading in now.” “We’ll be here in the food court.” Sent Max. “Now we just wait for them here.” Said Joe. “So, did you guys have to transform in front of people too?” asked Chris. “We did. We didn’t have much of a choice. We only changed in front of like four people though.” Said Max. “I had to transform in front of everyone in the food court. Honestly, I think they were more scared of me than the gunman.” Said Chris. “I even transformed in front of my manager. What’s she going to think of me now?” He said nervously. “But I at least was able to get them all to hide in the food stands.” “Hey guys! We got here as fast as we…the fuck happened here?!” shouted a familiar voice. Max, Chris, and Joe turned to see Jake and Ethan running towards them. “Omega, what did you do here?” asked Jake. “A gunman was about to shoot someone, so I panicked and froze him solid.” Said Chris, pointing to the frozen gunman. “I see.” Said Jake. “Have you found any other robbers?” “We were about to start looking for more. We’re not sure how many there are but we know one is frozen solid, and another is scared out of his mind.” Said Max. “Where do you think we should start looking?” asked Ethan. “I would say the jewelry store would be a good idea. It may also be a good idea to check the security room.” Suggested Jake. “Why don’t Sigma and I check the jewelry store?” Said Joe. “Alright then. You guys better hurry up. Alpha and I will check the security room.” Said Ethan. “What should I do?” asked Chris. “Why don’t you gather up all of the people that are still in the mall.” Suggested Max. “There are few people still at the video game store that you should probably gather up. Have everyone hide in the food court while we get this sorted out. If you come across a store being held up, feel free to help out.” “Got it.” Responded Chris. “Ok, let’s get going.” Said Max. The five of them went off to where they were assigned to go.

“Where’s the jewelry store again?” asked Joe as he and Max were leaving the food court. “I think it’s somewhere on the second floor. It should be near the clothing department.” Said Max. After reaching the second floor of the mall, Max and Joe soon found the jewelry store, which indeed was being held up by someone dressed in all black, this time a female. Max and Joe peered into the store through the glass windows to see the robber was attempting to loot every last piece of jewelry in the store and since she had a small handgun, the jeweler and the one other customer couldn’t stop her. “So how are we going to go about this?” asked Max. “She’s most likely locked the door and simply charging in doesn’t sound like a good idea.” “Should we attempt to lure her out?” asked Joe. “How would we do that?” Max asked back. After thinking for a few seconds, Joe had come up with an idea. He took off his crystal necklace and placed it on the ground so that it could easily be seen through the glass door of the jewelry store. “Now position yourself so no one in the store can see you.” Said Joe. Max and Joe moved to the edges of the store windows. Once they were ready, Joe knocked on the window. After a few tense seconds passed, they heard the sound of the door being unlocked as the robber opened the door to grab the necklace. Before she could get to it, Joe tackled her to the ground, restraining her arms so she couldn’t get away. With what little arm room she had, she attempted to point her handgun at Joe. Max then came up to her and pulled the gun from her hand, unloaded the clip onto the floor, and crushed the gun in his hand, rendering it unusable as it fell to the ground. “You know, we don’t take kindly to people who invade our territory.” Joe said menacingly. The robber looked completely petrified as Max and Joe stood over her with their mouths hanging open. “Now, why don’t we play a little game with our food?” said Joe as he let the robber out of his grip. “Start running.” Said Max in a playfully sinister way. The robber got up from the floor and ran away as fast as she could. “You know, scaring these robbers is way too much fun.” Said Joe once the robber was gone. “It really is.” Said Max. Once Joe had picked up his necklace, him and Max turned their attention to the two people still in the jewelry store. “Are you two OK?” asked Max as he entered the store. The two people looked up at Max in horror, since they saw what Max and Joe just did. “Calm down, we’re not here to hurt you. We only said what we said to get the robber to go away.” Said Max. Joe soon followed in behind Max. “Everyone else who is stuck in the mall are all in the food court. You guys should wait there until we have these robbers dealt with.” Said Joe. Max and Joe made a clear path out of the store and the jeweler and the other customer bolted out of the store towards the food court. “I think we should figure out where the robber just ran off to.” Suggested Joe. “Since we both got close to her, we should be able to track her scent.” “Good idea.” Said Max. The two of them followed the robber’s scent, which led them to a door marked ‘Authorized Personnel Only’. “After you.” Said Joe. Max opened the door, which then led them down a dark hallway. After walking down it for a bit, they came across a door with a window next to it. Above the door read ‘Security Room’. Max and Joe peered into the window where they saw four people dressed in all black, two of which they had not seen before, and the other two being the robbers Max and Joe had scared off. Over to the side of the room sat security guards that had been tied up. Finally, they noticed that there was another door and window on the other side of the room and through the window, they could see two pairs of tall ears by one of the edges of the window. “It looks like Alpha and Delta are on the other side of this room.” Whispered Joe. Max quickly pulled out his phone and sent “Gamma and I are at the other side of the security room.” To Jake. A few seconds later, Jake responded “Delta and I have been listening in on what they’re saying to see if we can learn anything important.” “We should listen in too.” Said Joe. The two of them put their ears to the door and could hear the people inside talking. “So, you two are saying that there are actual werewolves in this mall and that they nearly ate you?” asked one of the people dressed in black. “That’s right boss. There were two of them, a brown one and a dark grey one.” Said the female robber. “I just barely managed to get here before they got to me.” “What on earth were you thinking?!” yelled the male robber Max and Joe dealt with earlier. “They could have followed you here! For all we know, they could already be right outside these doors!” “Alright, that’s enough from you two.” Said the other person in black they hadn’t seen before. “You probably just saw some people dressed up in costumes.” “Costumes aren’t supposed to be 7 feet tall!” yelled the female robber. “Bring up the camera footage outside the jewelry store.” A large monitor that could be seen out of both windows showed the entrance to the jewelry store. “Now rewind it to about 5 minutes ago.” She demanded. Soon, the monitor showed Max and Joe approaching the jewelry store, Joe setting down his necklace and moving into position to ambush the robber. “See, there they are!” the female robber exclaimed. A message soon came in on the packs group chat. “I must say Gamma, that was a pretty good trap.” Sent Jake. “Thanks.” Joe responded back. “You sure those weren’t just people in costumes?” asked the boss again. “They were real! I swear it!” yelled the female robber. “Hey, while you have the footage up, see if you can find Red 3. He still isn’t responding when we call him.” Requested the boss. “You don’t think he was eaten, do you?” the male robber asked the female one. “I hope he hasn’t.” she replied nervously. “What on earth!?” said the boss as he was looking at the footage of the food court. “He’s…frozen solid?! How’s that possible?!” They rewound the footage back to the point where the gunman first entered the food court. The footage showed all of the people in the food court getting down on the ground, with one person slowly inching his way to the nearest exit. Then the person started running and the gunman went to aim at the person trying to run away. Off in the corner, they could see Chris quickly transform into his Blizzard form and freeze the gunman solid from the corn dog stand with his ice breath. “Wait, replay that again and look over by the corn dog stand.” They replayed the footage. “Did he just…?” “There’s another one?!” “How is that even possible?!” Another message came through the group chat. “Let’s advance on them while they’re confused.” Sent Jake. “Ok. Follow my lead.” Sent Max. Once they kicked the two doors open, the four of them began to growl as they slowly entered the security room. “Well, would’ya look at what we have here?” Said Max in a playfully evil voice. The four robbers and the security guards all looked up at the four werewolves, terrified. “A boxed dinner isn’t too bad every once in a while.” Said Jake with a hungry look in his eyes. “If only it weren’t so squirmy.” Said Joe. “I think I can fix that.” Said Ethan as he went to touch the crystal around his neck, transforming into his Blitz form. “Hold them still.” Requested Ethan as he went to grab the closest robber to him. Max, Jake, and Joe all did the same, each robber trying their best to free themselves. But their strength paled in comparison to that of the werewolves’. Ethan then brought two of his electrified metallic claws to the side of the robber he was holding and used them like a stun gun. He then went around to each of the restrained robbers and did the same to them, rendering them motionless on the ground. “Ok, scaring the shit out of these robbers was actually kinda fun.” Said Ethan. “I know, right? It makes it better knowing they deserve it.” Said Max. “I’ll get the security guards.” Said Jake, who went to cut the rope that was tying the guards together with one of his claws. “You guys can relax. We aren’t here to hurt anyone.” Jake said to the guards. “I know seeing four giant talking werewolves is really scary, but we really don’t want to hurt you. Now just follow us to the food court.” Said Ethan as he picked up one of the unconscious robbers and put him over his shoulder. Everyone else did the same and they soon left the security room with the guards following behind them.

Everyone was now gathered in the now partially frozen food court where it appeared that Chris had made everyone snow cones to try to help them calm down. It also started to look like the gunman was thawing out. “I may need your help with the gunman here.” Said Chris once the rest of the pack got back. “I don’t think knocking him out when he’s been frozen for as long as he has would be a good idea.” “Well first…” said Max as he went up to the frozen gunman and smashed the rifle he was holding to the ground. “Second, I say we just hand him over to the police while he’s still frozen. He deserves a bit of bad karma.” “Fair enough.” Said Chris as he refroze the gunman. “I’ve also checked the entire mall and I couldn’t find anyone else that could have been part of the group of robbers.” “So it looks like we got’em all.” Said Jake. “Oh Gamma, before we forget, the stuff we asked the video game store clerk to hold for us.” “Oh right. Did you bring him to the food court Omega?” Joe asked. “I did. He should be over by the salad bar.” Said Chris. “Sweet.” Said Max as he and Joe went to the salad bar. The clerk for the video game store was indeed there and he was still holding onto the things Max and Joe had asked for. “How much do we owe you for the stuff we asked for?” Max asked the store clerk. “You two can have them for free.” Answered the store clerk. “Are you sure?” asked Joe. “It’s the least I can offer you two for stopping those robbers.” Said the store clerk as he handed over Max’s copy of Iceborne and Joe’s eshop cards. “Thanks.” Said Max as he and Joe rejoined the group. “Omega, do you mind if I grab a corn dog? I’m really hungry.” Asked Max. “Go ahead.” Responded Chris. “Awesome.” Said Max. He went over to the corndog stand and grabbed two pre-cooked corn dogs and devoured them in a single bite. “That’ll be $5.98.” said Chris. “Seriously?” asked Max. “Hey, I don’t make the rules.” Said Chris as he shrugged. “Fine.” Said Max as he pulled out his wallet and paid for his corndogs. “I think it’s about time we let these people go home.” Said Joe. “Yeah. We also need to turn over the robbers to the police.” Said Jake. “Right.” Said Max. “Ok everyone!” Chris yelled to the food court. “The robbers have been taken care of so we can all now leave safely!” Everyone made a mad dash for the nearest exit. Max and the group followed behind them with the robbers in tow, with Chris holding the frozen one over his head. Once the crowd of people exited the mall, the five of them took deep breaths as they exited out the front entrance, where they were met with a swarm of very confused police officers. “Get down on the ground! Hands where I can see them!” yelled one of the officers. The five of them placed the unconscious robbers down and slowly got on the ground with their hands in the air. “Are those actual werewolves? They’re so huge!” they could hear one of the officers ask. “Max!!” they heard a woman’s voice yell. Max’s mom then pushed through the police officers and ran up to hug Max. “Oh thank god you’re safe!” “I’m fine mom. We actually took care of the people who were trying to rob the entire mall and we saved everyone who was trapped inside.” Said Max. “Why I’m I not the least bit surprised?” asked Max’s mom rhetorically. “Mam, please step away from…” started one of the officers. “Now you listen to me! If you have any decency as human beings, you would let my son and his friends go home for doing what you all failed to do!” Yelled Max’s mom as she released Max from her hug. “You shouldn’t be jumping to conclusions because they look different and scary. They’re still people trying to live their lives the best they can.” “Are they though?” asked one of the officers. Max’s mom looked like she was about to explode. “As a matter of fact, yes, we are.” Said Jake. The five of them then turned back to normal in front of the officers and the people that were trapped in the mall, the teenage boys now standing before them shirtless. The police officers now looked even more confused than they already were. “We’re still normal people trying to live normal lives. We all have a history test coming up next week that we all need to study for.” Said Max. They could all hear a big commotion coming from everyone who was trapped in the mall. “Well, they look like normal people. And they didn’t try to eat any of us.” They could hear one person say. “Hey, I think I go to school with some of them. They’ve always seemed like nice people.” They heard another say. “They may have acted big and scary, but they did stop the stores from being robbed.” Said another person. “To think the new kid I hired was actually a beast? Yet he gave all the customers snow cones to calm everyone down. He even got his wolf friend to pay for his corndogs.” Someone else said. (Most likely Chris’ manager). Despite being scared of them initially, everyone seems to be on the side of Max and his friends after what they did to help everyone. “If there’s anyone you should be taking away, it’s the people in black here on the ground. They were the ones robbing the mall and threatening everyone at gunpoint.” Said Chris. The police officers looked back and forth between the crowd and Max and his friends, obviously conflicted. “Let’s let’em go.” Said one of the officers. “It looks like they haven’t done anything wrong.” The police then apprehended the people dressed in black while Max and his friends got to go home. Once the police had left, Jake’s mom had shown up with extra shirts for everyone. “Thanks mom.” Said Jake. “Thanks Mrs. O’Neil.” Said the rest of the group. “Anytime boys. Why don’t we get you all home?” said Jake’s mom. “I can drop everyone off Rebeca. You don’t have to worry about driving anyone else.” Said Jake’s mom. “That’s very kind of you Lynda, thank you.” Said Max’s mom. Max then went with his mom back to the car so they could head home.