Hello! Merry Christmas. Sorry I've been gone so long! This chapter changes perspectives; it starts as Dave's, then switches to Mindy's and then goes into narrative form. Enjoy!
"I… wait… WHAT?" Chris D'Amico. I thought we might have been friends, once. But times changed. He was the reason my father was dead. And now Marcus… But that was impossible. Chris D'Amico had been completely obliterated by a shark, I had seen it myself.
"But… but… I saw him die! He's dead! The sharks…" Mindy snorted.
"The shark screwed him up pretty badly. I heard he's stuck in a wheelchair; he lost both of his legs… But my guess is, he's got someone working for him, and he's built a team. There's no way he could have done all of this by himself."
Mindy walked over to the window. She was very serious now, and she had a deadly sort of determination that I had seen many times before. It made me feel sort of… I cleared my head. I had to concentrate. I put down my pizza and walked over to Mindy.
She was lost in thought, but as I walked over she turned to face me.
"Listen, Dave, there's trouble coming. I've heard things, the whole superhero business has faded from the spotlight, but that doesn't mean certain people haven't forgotten about it. There's a storm brewing."
I felt Mindy's soft hands – surprisingly soft for someone who had spent so many years training so hard – wrap around my arms. She continued talking.
"I don't want to force you into anything, but you're the only person I have left I know I can trust. We have to be ready to fight." I trusted Mindy. I knew that what she was saying was the truth, but there were a lot of things that didn't make sense to me.
"I know a lot of this doesn't make sense, Dave, and there a lot of things that I haven't figured out yet, but together, I know we can do this."
She had read my mind. I nodded in response.
"Ok." I said. Her face lit up like a Christmas tree.
"Great. Alright let me start from the beginning then…"
(Mindy's perspective)
"When I left, I basically moved around from hotel to hotel in different cities, I stayed low, I waited for things to blow over. It was pretty boring, to be honest, but I knew I couldn't risk coming back until everyone had forgotten about Hit – Girl and Kick – Ass and everything. So I kept tabs on the news, and waited it out. Things were dying down, until about a month ago. I went out on a night patrol – that's how I got cash – I would basically find the nearest drug dealer or gang member or whatever, follow them, kill them, and take their cash, it was relatively simple. But then this one time, I was following these 2 guys, who were talking about splitting this load of cash from some heist they'd pulled for a customer. I didn't think much of it, they were on their way to pick it up, so I decided to tail them until they'd gotten it and come back, or something. Either way I was gonna see were they were going. So they'd showed up at the meeting spot, some shitty house at the end of an alleyway, and they knocked on the door. And of course they were getting all excited, they were both pretty stupid, I don't know why the hell anyone would hire them – but anyways, this huge guys opened the door, and he's got a mask on and he's holding a gun. And he shoots them both in the kneecap. Fabulous stuff, right? Anyway, the big guy steps aside, and he asks someone in the background what he wants to do with the idiots howling away on the ground holding their knees. And the guy who walks – or, well, wheels himself forward to start talking is Chris D'Amico. I thought my eyes were going crazy, but I'm sure it was him, the guy called him the Motherfucker – great to know he's still using that stupid name… Anyway, all Chris said was to bring them inside and get any information on Johnson they had. I don't really know what that means. Anyways, I didn't know what to do, I mean, I'm powerful, but not that powerful, I knew I couldn't handle that alone, there had to be 50 guys in that building at least. So I did some digging. Mob bosses, gangsters, corrupt cops, you name it, I wanted information. The best I could gather was that Chris is planning something, and it involves – well, us. And the entire city. He wants to take it over, somehow – seems pretty ambitious if you ask me, it's not like everyone's just gonna vote Chris the mayor or something. Everyone I talked to only knew bits and pieces. Eventually, I discovered that Chris was ready and was starting to unfold his plan of action. And then I discovered that it started with Marcus.
I was too late.
And now I'm here."
(2 days later)
Since Mindy had explained her story to Dave, the two had decided that their best course of action was to, for lack of a better way to put it, do nothing. Whatever Chris was planning, it seemed like he was taking a dormant period before resuming, and without the resources or knowledge to do anything about it, all they could do was train and continue searching for information. The two had decided to go out on their first night patrol since the incident, as almost a trial run, to test their skills out for the first time in years. Naturally, going out as Kick Ass and Hit Girl or any superhero for that matter would be far too alarming, so instead, they went out dressed as themselves to a certain extent – Mindy had put on a brown wig and wore glasses, and Dave had put in contacts and was wearing a hat. If anyone paid too much attention to them, they would be able to change their appearance enough to avoid detection. As Dave laced up his pair of running shoes, Mindy was putting on her jacket.
"Alright, so Mindy, I've got my batons and a baseball bat in my backpack, and a gun in my jeans, do you think that's good enough?"
"Yeah, should be fine. We probably won't do too much tonight." Mindy adjusted her hair, and grabbed her small purse. Dave looked at Mindy. She looked quite nice, he thought. She was the same old Mindy from all those years ago, yet somehow, he looked at her differently. He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. Looking at her, he noticed that she was didn't seem to be carrying much.
"Um… Mindy, where's all your stuff?" She grinned, and lifted her shirt, revealing a dozen or so variety of knives.
"I have more up my sleeves, too, for easier access." She flashed Dave a cheeky wink. Her grin widened even further when she saw Dave's cheeks turn bright pink. She opened the door, and the two set out into the night, eagerly awaiting adventure. As they were walking down the street, Mindy turned to Dave.
"Ok, now remember, we're going to pretend we're out on a date. Anyone ask any questions; just say we're looking for a quiet place to do it, or something."
"Ok – wait, what?"
"Oh, calm your pants Dave, it's not serious."
"Right."
They continued walking, descending deeper and deeper into the heart of the area of the city where things livened up at night, the places where drugs changed hands, prostitutes were on the prowl, and gangs owned the streets.
Mindy carefully slid her arm around Dave's.
"Hey there cutie. Wanna have some fun?" The remark came from a provocatively dressed prostitute across the street. Mindy turned to her.
"He's taken!" She shouted. The woman smiled.
"We could make a threesome!" The woman replied. Mindy tightly held onto Dave's arm.
"Fuck off before I cut you!" Mindy smiled towards the lady.
She backed off.
Dave laughed.
Eventually, the pair turned into a set of alleyways, where they discovered 2 men surrounding a girl who looked to be in her teens. They looked to be having too much fun to notice Mindy or Dave. The girl was crying, and was badly bruised. Mindy cracked her knuckles, and grinned at Dave.
"One sec." Quickly, she whipped out a knife.
2 slices later, both men were collapsed on the ground, screaming and crying like little girls.
Dave moved forward.
"You're safe now." He said to the girl.
"Thank you." She replied in awe. And with that, the girl took off.
"Uh… bye?" Mindy grabbed Dave's arm and pulled him around the corner, following the direction the girl had travelled.
"Did you see that?" Mindy said.
"See what?" Dave replied
"That girl."
"Huh?" Mindy rolled her eyes as she crouched behind a dumpster. She beckoned for Dave to follow.
"Seriously Dave? We just saved that girl from being raped and she runs further into this part of town?"
"So?" Dave said, as he slid down, joining Mindy behind the dumpster.
"Any decent person would run out of here. She's obviously up to something. Come on, I see her."
And with that, Mindy grabbed Dave's arm, travelling further along the street.
They soon reached a corner. Mindy quickly glanced around.
"Here." She motioned to another dumpster, and the two quickly hid behind it. Dave was about to say something, but Mindy shushed him, and pointed ahead.
Up ahead of them, at the end of a dead end alleyway, was the girl they had just rescued, talking to a man in a black leather jacket with a scar running diagonally down his forehead.
He was standing in a doorway, cleverly concealed as a panel of bricks. They were in an intense conversation.
The girl was talking.
"Listen, I'm telling you, she popped up out of nowhere! The girl was badass, she sliced their throats." The man nodded.
"Interesting. I'll send out Tommy and a group of guys to go look for this girl, she sounds like a valuable asset." The man beckoned inside, and two men come trotting out, holding guns. "Babe, you stay inside, I'll go out and find the girl you talked about – no one kills two of my men and gets away with it."
"Mmm kay." The girl giggled, and walked inside.
The man turned and started talking to the other two men.
"Alright, we're looking for a brunette, late teens. Pretty dangerous, from the sound of things." The man paused. "Where the hell are Tommy and the others? They should be back by now…"
Dave was confused.
"What the hell –"
"Shh!" Mindy interrupted. She grabbed Dave's arm.
"Come on, we've got to get out of here, now." Mindy started to get up, but suddenly sat back down, pulling Dave with her.
Dave was about to ask what was wrong, when he saw it.
Coming down the street that was there only escape route, were about 10 or so guys, holding guns. The man at the front of the pack, presumably Tommy – waved to the man in the leather jacket. Mindy cursed under her breath.
"Shit."