A/N- The stage is set and the pieces are all in place. Time for some much needed action! ;)
-Grey.
Their faces blackened up and fully equipped with their miniature arsenal, the remainder of Alpha Force deployed to the area. Both Alex and Li grabbed a stun grenade and a telescopic baton each, while Camilla was left with the can of pepper spray. Paulo was more then happy with his stun gun, which had fresh batteries and Hex was still satisfied with his police style baton from earlier.
They approached from the South side of the building and split off into their teams, Hex and Paulo remaining at the south side of the building to prepare their part of the plan while the others moved on. At the vertices of the South and Eastern wall Li split one way while Camilla and Alex took the other, both groups hugging the wall and steadily separating into the night.
Camilla and Alex came across their guard first where he stood with his back to them smoking a cigarette by the uncovered pit of rebar. His back was towards the open door of the sole building a few metres behind him. Not expecting trouble from within the site already, his watch was focussed outwards.
A mistake as it turned out.
Feeling foolish, Alex realised that in his focus on stealth he had forgotten to deploy his baton prior to contact. Cursing internally, he regretted that there was no way to extend the weapon now without alerting the guard with a telltale set of clicks. Recovering from the shake up of a mistake so early in the piece, Alex remembered the pepper spray that Camilla was carrying.
He signalled to her to ready the weapon by miming a spraying motion with his hand. Understanding his message she drew the device from her pocket and readied the canister for use. Silently the pair padded their way closer to the guard, who stood on the edge of the ledge surveying the site. Footfalls were carefully chosen as they stepped around the stacks of timber and piles of loose gravel on the short path to their victim.
When they had reached just a few feet from the unaware man Camilla raised the spray with her finger poised over the tab that once depressed would unleash a stream of chemical that was a powerful irritant.
It was in that moment however that a faint whistling caught both teens attention as a second guard casually stepped out of the doorway behind them.
Time slowed down for Alex as he considered the new opposition.
In the same instant that the teens turned to acknowledge the new presence, so too did the guard they had been sneaking up on. His eyes sprung open wide as saucers as he found two teenagers right behind him looking extremely suspicious.
The guard's throat was just finding the appropriate sounds when Camilla pressed the trigger of her weapon and a spray of liquid burning engulfed his eyes and face. His scream was suppressed in his mouth by the harsh chemical that entered his throat and muffled the noise with its spicy mixture. The pounding in Camilla's chest made the canister shake in her delicate hands as it delivered a steady stream of spray.
The refined compound of chilli caused an immediate burning on contact with his skin; an increase in secretion from mucus membranes and a pain that made keeping one's eyes open impossible. A high pitched, spluttering, gurgle was all the noise the disabled man was capable of making as he sunk to his knees, with a stinging throat, clutching his assaulted eyeballs.
At the exact same time that Camilla was acting, Alex was moving to close the distance between himself and their new opponent.
The newcomer had frozen just out of the doorway as he suddenly took in the unexpected sight before him. With stealth forgotten, Alex extended his stick on the charge and swatted out with it, one handed, as soon as he was in range. The heavy silver tip flashed in the dim light and landed a heavy blow across his opponent's broad chest.
Lead and steel impacted on sinew with a distinct crack that started a shockwave of further snaps as ribs gave out under the extreme force. Breath was bashed from the hollow organs in the chest with a muffled huff.
Alex chambered the baton back across his shoulders and took advantage of his winded opposition to strike again. This time, with a firmer base, he was able to better swing the top-heavy, damaging device, drawing force from the rotation of his hips and the whip of the elbow. His first shot caught only arms and hands as they were brought up to block by a man desperate to escape further a couple more savage hits however, Alex managed to bypass the fleeting defence and land a decent shot on the burly mans head.
With a whipping noise, the deadly tip connected with the corner of the unwitting guards skull, smashing his chin down into his chest and destroying his consciousness. The big man was crumpling to the ground with a significant dent in his skull, as Alex turned over his shoulder to check on the first combatant.
Camilla was desperately delivering another relentless dose of the noxious spray into the thugs half covered face as he bravely tried to find his feet. On shaky legs, the man managed to stand with his back to the ledge and reach for the weapon holstered under his armpit.
Alex could still feel the adrenaline in his system, bolstering his speed and reactions as he sprinted off the mark, trying to beat the draw. Camilla's stream faltered and stopped in her hands before she was brushed aside as Alex hustled past her. Being completely blind and feeling as though his face was inhabited by wasps would have slowed down anyone's drawing of a firearm and the man had just got the submachine gun free of his jacket as Alex reached him.
Unable to kill his momentum, Alex collided into the blinded thug, shoulder first and pummelled him backwards. The teen was knocked back onto his arse by the sudden deceleration, where he could only watch as the bad guy stumbled backwards over the edge.
Camilla raced to the edge prepared to finish the opponent only to find in disgust that her efforts would not be required. Alex rolled forward onto his feet to meet her at the precipice to view what she could see.
She recoiled back into his shoulder at the unpleasant sight before them.
Suspended about a foot off the ground was the unfortunate foe who had landed directly atop the exposed rebar, which now penetrated him completely and held him aloft.
The spiralled, rust coloured poles protruded from his chest and abdomen as well as one of his legs. Trails of blood rapidly descended the spiral grooves of the rebar, repainting the surface with the thick fluid of lost life. His eyes were wide with unimaginable amounts of pain as his impaled body shook involuntary on the metal spires. Slow ragged breaths escaped through the gaping lips of the doomed man as his body began to shut down from the immense strain of the multi-system trauma.
A crimson pool was beginning to form at the base of the poles when Alex turned his girlfriend away and slunk back into the safety of the shadows, dragging the other disabled guard between them.
There was time to dwell on the dead with their next task looming.
Li skulked around the darkened building stalking her prey like a darkened jungle cat. Her prey in this instance was the final man on security who was patrolling the perimeter of the site.
Like the rest of the hired muscle his guard was built like an athlete with bulging biceps and broad shoulders. Jeez where do they find these guys Thugs-Are-Us? Maybe there is an Internet mail-order catalogue for disposable henchmen. Li wondered in consideration of the seemingly shared character traits that the Mobs security apparently looked for during recruitment.
The shaven head of the man rotated as he scanned his environment perceptively. The thick tendons in his neck strained with each flick of his head and muscles rippled down his back. Despite his colossal size, Li still backed herself against the man and as she lurked closer and mentally rehearsed the takedown technique she would utilise.
As the guard continued his route around the side of the building his path led him into a patch of darkness where the streetlamp's light were unable to reach.
It was here that Li made her move.
Taking advantage of the virtual invisibility provided by her darkened clothing and face, the wiry Asian girl waited until her victim was fully immersed in the darkness and no longer facing her before she struck. Unlike Alex, she had remembered to extend her baton prior to closing on her target and there was no telltale noise as she slid it out from under her shirt.
With a calming breath out, Li held one end of the baton in each hand and reached her arms over the big man's head. Putting on a sudden burst of violence, she wrapped the heavy rod across the bridge of her victims nose and dragged backwards sharply, with all her weight. A crunch sounded from under the stick as the effort broke the fragile bones in the face as the unfortunate guard was yanked backwards over his point of balance in a very painful fashion. With a grunt of pain the muscled guards hands instantly flew to the area of discomfort and he tried in vain to wrestle the painful pressure off his face.
The direction of her force changed the instant his head and shoulders overtook his hips, at which point Li put more weight downwards then backwards, driving her opponent to the ground. With her opponent now lying on his back with his neck at an awkward angle, Li released the crushing pressure of the rod and slid it further down to cross his neck.
Switching the site of her squeeze, Li cut off the man's scream before it could start as she quickly occluded his carotid arteries with the stick on one side and her strong forearm on the other. Li gritted her teeth in concentration and braced with her strong arms as hard as she could. She knew that this modified Hadaka Jime or 'Rear Naked Strangle' prevented bloodflow to the brain and would quickly render her opponent unconscious.
As his brain became hypoxic, the guard frantically scrambled at her strong grip to try and gain some reprieve from the strangulation. Li buried her determined face into the safety of her own bicep as desperate fingers sought any means of release and dragged bloody trails down her forehead, arms and shoulders. In this way she protected her eyes from assault and ensured she could focus on the technique without worry of serious injury.
With a suddenness that always startled her, the body in her grip stopped fighting and instead began twitching chaotically in a full tonic-clonic seizure before sinking into a limp, unconscious state. Li immediately released the pressure with her arm and stick, ignoring the dark whispers in the far corners of the mind.
The devil perched on her shoulder reminding her how easy it would be just to hold the strangle on a little bit longer and really finish the fight…..
Having faced down the darkest temptation of combat, Li uncoiled herself from the limp form and got to work tying and gagging him while he was still out.
From previous experience in the dojo, Li knew she had about ten to twenty seconds before the man started coming to. She worked quickly and only just made her timeframe as the staring absent eyes suddenly blinked and it was as if a lighter was being clicked. A spark of life flashed in the fallen foes eyes before they sharpened in focus and consciousness truly returned. Li always watched this phenomenon; intrigued and fascinated at the moment in which spirit asserted itself over the unconscious state.
Content that the guy was still alive; Li rolled the heavy man off of the main path and out of site. Her forearms ached from applying the strangle and lines of pain marked her body where the disabled man had broken her skin in desperation to escape.
In the sullen darkness Li prepared herself and waited for the next stage of the plan to commence.
At the southern end of the site and completely oblivious to the plight of their friends, Hex and Paulo were putting the finishing touches on their role in the rescue.
Paulo was sitting in the rollcage cab of a Bobcat hydraulic loader, a compact, bucketed vehicle that weighed a bit over a tonne. The dynamic four-wheeled vehicle was extremely powerful despite its small size and was a useful all-purpose vehicle in the construction industry. The Argentinean had just finished working on the ignition for the vehicle and he was now certain he could start it at a moments notice.
With nothing to do but wait for his signal he allowed his attention to drift outside of the canopy to see Hex returning towards him. Slung over his broad shoulder was a dusty 20L bag of cement that he placed in the bucket of the vehicle as if it was a child. The hacker was glad to finally put down the heavy bag and found himself confronted by Paulo's confused face as he rotated his hips in a small stretch.
"What's with the bag Hex?" Paulo whispered in confusion, which was only deepened as he spotted strips of duct tape running along the top of the large, chalky bag.
"All part of the plan." Hex reassured him with a wink as he disappeared to bring back a second cement bag.
"To help with the distraction." He panted quietly as he arrived back with the second bag, which he also placed gingerly in the tilted bucket of the bobcat.
Paulo was not really satisfied by this explanation but trusted his friend too much to question him further about it. If Hex says it will help, then it will help, he reassured his restless mind.
Radios crackled very faintly on the boy's belts and a voice laced with static whispered to them.
"Okay fire it up Paulo and you guys are a go. Hex give him a few seconds to breach." Paulo could only just recognise the whisper as belonging to Alex before Hex replied for the two of them.
"Roger that." Hex drawled and reached behind him for some objects.
"Here," He said as he tossed a pair of earmuffs and a dust mask to Paulo in the cab, "You should always wear your safety equipment," He lectured mock serious.
Paulo shot him the cocky devil-may-care grin but donned the hearing protection and crisp mask anyway before dropping down the security arm onto his lap. With fingers crossed on his spare hand, he keying the modified ignition and was rewarded with the low grumbling start of the engine. Paulo quickly pulled back the lever at the side of his seat to reduce the revs of the powerful vehicle. On low revs the powerful vehicle was surprisingly quiet, although the strong vibrations ran up Paulo's arms on the control levers and bounced through his feet where they rested on the pedals.
After counting to ten in his head he slowly crept the vehicle to its designated position and swung Hex a merry two fingered salute.
The Hacker grinned at his friend and dug his phone out of his pocket, his chest beginning to pound as the testing moment drew closer.