One week later
Friday Night

The Hamptons

"Nice place you have here!"

"Yes, thank you."

The man did not seem happy...

"Just wanted to say thank you for keeping up your end of the bargain..."

"I made a deal, I won't break it."

"I am pleased to hear it..."

I moved closer and placed the razor sharp blade of my bō-staff just inches from his throat.

"Remember, I have so many reasons to gut you..."

"I promise..."

However, the man was talking into thin air and the blue-clad vigilante known as Clarity was gone.

The following night
Saturday

The Bronx

In the space of five minutes, we almost lost Clarity and I almost died too.

A living nightmare had come true. I always knew it might happen and the thought was there, deep in my mind. I had buried it under slabs of metaphorical concrete, but here it was clear as day. I should have recognised the bastard...

It was comical in hindsight.

The five of us came around a corner and literally bumped into a large man and four of his minions. We were all too close to draw our pistols, nor could Haze and I use our bō-staffs! Kick-Ass pulled out his batons and shoved me out of the way, diving into the largest man. The rest of us each picked a man and fought.

Five minutes later, it was all over.

Clarity had been shot four times, in the chest, and she had collapsed onto the ground, where she was struggling to breathe. My head felt like it would explode thanks to a killer punch to the side of my head; I had fallen to one knee as I had struggled to focus. Haze had been thrown to one side and was in pain, struggling to stand. Swipe was still on his feet, as was Kick-Ass. We had put down three of the goons and only one was left, fighting Swipe. The head goon was able to shove Kick-Ass off to one side, shooting him three times in the chest.

Then I felt hands around my throat, lifting me up and off the ground.

"You, my pretty, are going to die for what you have done..."

"Who – the fuck – are you...?" I choked.

"They call me Ralph..."

I froze – every inch of my body went cold at the name.

"... D'Amico and you killed my brother..."

"Technically, it wasn't me..." I forced out.

Everything started to close in on me as I fought for breath. Then suddenly I fell to the ground as Kick-Ass drove a baton into D'Amico's kidney. Swipe had killed the remaining goon, so D'Amico chose to run, sending two bullets into me.

I tried to pull my pistol but I could not and I just collapsed to the ground.

Safehouse C

"Fuck me!"

"Take it easy, Mindy..." Swipe insisted as he helped me to the mat and lay me down on my back before pulling off his mask.

Kick-Ass was carrying helping Haze in the door, with Clarity behind him. Both girls collapsed onto the mat, pulling off their own masks. Dave appeared as he secured the door and pulled off his own mask. Alex proceeded to help with my mask, gently, as my neck hurt. I let him; I had no choice and I could see the concern on his face, so I allowed him to help me off with my upper armour.

Chloe was helping Natasha with her own upper armour. I could see tears running down the girls' faces from the pain. What a shock it had been, running into those men...

Of all the men it could have been, Ralph fucking D'Amico!

The House

I lay in bed, next to Dave.

I was worried.

I was scared.

I was in pain.

As usual, I was naked, but neither of us were in any mood for carnal activities. We were both covered in bruises and Dave had fallen asleep very quickly.

"What am I going to do?" I whispered. "Daddy, what do I do?"

"You do what comes naturally, baby-doll."

"What!"

I looked up and Daddy was standing there, leaning against the doorframe.

"You know what you need to do and you can do it. I trained you well and you have him!" Daddy went on, tossing his head at Dave.

"Oh, yeah, sorry…" I said and felt my face warming up.

"Don't be shy – you needed a companion. I am proud of what you have set up, I really am. You are doing good and you are rescuing people..."

"Thank you, Daddy..."

"You just follow your instincts, child; they were always good. Use your skills and those of your team. You will get through this and you will put that diseased bastard down..."

"I love you, Daddy, sleep tight..."

The following morning
Sunday

The House

There were a lot of groans and moaning that morning.

Everybody was very sore as they headed downstairs for breakfast. Dave and Alex were being very nice to us girls, which was a surprise – they never usually passed up an opportunity to wind us up. I knew that they were both hurting, too, but I was grateful for their care.

"I suppose it could have gone worse!" Dave quipped.

"At least the pain means that I'm still alive..." Natasha replied dryly as she dug into some sausages.

"I have to agree with that!" Chloe added.

"We need to heal and then up our game – that fucking diseased rat needs to be squashed and we are going to do that squashing..." Mindy growled.

Two weeks later
Saturday night

Safehouse C

We were healed, mostly.

Over the past two weeks, we had trained and we had gathered intelligence on Ralph and Chris D'Amico. They were both still out there and they were causing trouble. I had even spoken with Marcus; he was worried about the escalation among the drug dealers in the city. He was also concerned about what I was going to do about it!

That night the five of us were ready. We checked each other's combat suits and equipment; there was to be no room for mistakes. We were taking the fight to the enemy and he would not be happy about that!

For the night's action, I had arranged an ace in the hole – I just hoped it would not be needed...

The Bronx

The five of us stood atop the apartment block looking down into the darkness below us.

It was a cold night; however, our combat suits kept us warm, as we watched the men down below, going about their nefarious ways.

This was going to be a big hit calculated to piss off a lot of people and hopefully his lordship himself!

We believed we were going up against a first line crew, one of Ralph D'Amico's best. They were protecting one of what used to be Frank D'Amico's greatest earners, but now belonged to Ralph D'Amico. The men, below, belonged to a group with no name. At least, we had not been able to find a name for them.

The men looked like heavy hitters who would not shirk from a fight. The intention was to hit hard and leave a mess; I wanted D'Amico to see what we could do to his organisation. I had no illusions that he would just pack up and leave New York, but one could always hope!

So far, we had confirmed eight hitters. We were sure that there were more, in the building. The group used the first floor and the basement. Above them were apartments. We had obtained plans for the building and confirmed the layout. The first floor had three rooms, one large and two small. The two small rooms were either side, of a short corridor, that went between the main door and the larger room. We believed that the larger room was used for illegal gambling. One of the smaller rooms was a kitchen; the other was a space for the hitters.

The basement was accessible from the short corridor down a flight of stone steps. Done there was believed to be storage and a counting centre. There may also be a drug-packaging centre there; the evidence was inconclusive on that. Marcus had told me that there was intelligence on that building, but somewhere, up high, there was a bastard covering that intelligence up!

It had taken us over a week, to gather intelligence on this building and to complete reconnaissance of the area. Dave had obtained most of the information and Marcus had been able to fill in some gaps from a previous Police raid on the building.

..._...

The hitters were all armed. The weapons varied, but they were mainly pistols. At least two sub-machine guns had been visible, although right now they were not in evidence – that would have been difficult to excuse if a Police patrol drive past.

We nodded at each other; we all knew what to do. Kick-Ass and I started moving towards the ladder, down from the roof to the street. Swipe, Haze and Clarity headed for the hatchway into the apartment building.

Once on the ground, we kept to the shadows and moved towards the alley. Kick-Ass briefly squeezed my hand and I squeezed back; we were both ready. I had my twin Wakizashi blades in my hands and Kick-Ass had his Ko-Wakizashi held steady in his. Kick-Ass looked really, very menacing in his suit and he looked huge compared to me. We were hoping that he would look menacing to the hitters; this would, we hoped, put them off their game.

We made our way down the stairs into the apartment block.

The stairs were clear, as was expected for that time of night. There was a side entrance from the apartment block, down a flight of concrete steps into the alley. We would attack from there; it was also the first place that a guard might be hiding, as the steps were only a few feet from the door to the den.

Once we reached the second floor, we stopped at a set of double doors that led to the side entrance. There he was! A tall man sat in a chair, a large sub-machine gun beside him.

"Hit Girl, Swipe – we have the second floor exit in sight – one cunt!"

"Well done – stand by to take the fucker out!"

One of the hitters started moving towards us, flicking a lighter near his face. Bye, bye, night vision – so stupid! Kick-Ass smacked him hard across the face with the back of his right gauntlet. The man went down, without much of a sound. The traffic noise helped to deaden the sound of his body hitting the alley floor.

"Art! You got my fucking lighter?" We heard a minute later, as another hitter appeared out of the gloom.

He saw us.

He froze and all blood drained from his face.

He turned to yell, but was suddenly and painfully cut off by a knife in his throat. Fucking bullseye! I smiled as the hitter dropped.

Almost half a minute later, all hell broke loose.

"What the fuck?" A new voice. "Jack? Whatya doing in the snow? You drunk?" Another hitter came out of the gloom. His eyes went wide, when he saw Kick-Ass looming over his colleague.

"What the fuck are you?" He yelled.

"Your worst fucking nightmare, cunt!" Kick-Ass snarled back.

The hitter pulled his gun, but Kick-Ass kicked him down and disarmed him, before ramming his armoured elbow into the man's face. Dave ejected the magazine and the chambered round before he threw the gun into an open bin. The other hitters started shooting, at the apparition coming towards them, out of the darkness.

"Swipe – take him!"

"Fire in the hole!"

Clarity kicked open the double doors as I pulled the pin from a grenade and rolled it towards the guard. The guard jumped up as the doors opened and then looked in horror at what was rolling towards him. He made to dive for the exit, but he had taken perhaps two steps when the grenade detonated.

The thunderous bang and bright flash of light overloaded the man's senses and he crashed to the ground where Haze shot him in the head with her pistol as she passed. We all raised our brand new Heckler & Koch MP7A1 sub-machine guns as we headed for the exit. The weapon was light and each was fitted with an optical sight, laser, flashlight and a suppressor.

The detonation rang out, momentarily causing us all to pause.

Then the fight began in earnest as the last glass fell to the ground. Kick-Ass took a round to the chest, then two more, which did little more than make him stumble back, his stance prevented him being thrown off balance and his armour absorbed a lot of the impact. He hesitated a second before throwing himself forward. I followed from his right and I felt one round hit my left chest, which put me off balance and almost spun me around, but I caught it in time and continued advancing. I stowed my swords on my back and pulled out my pistols, shooting into the hitters, but making sure that I aimed away from Kick-Ass who was carving through them with his own blades.

I dropped six men, two at a time and Dave had clubbed three more into submission, before the door to the first floor burst open and more men ran out, with their guns drawn. We barely had time to catch a breath, let alone reload, before the men slid to a halt and took in the scene. They hesitated a second more before advancing. A few rounds missed us, very close. We must have been difficult to see in the darkness, as the only illumination was a small light above the door.

Three people burst out from the second floor and poured bullets into the emerging men who dived for cover leaving three bodies behind. I saw Haze and Clarity shooting from cover on the steps while Swipe moved down the steps towards us firing short bursts from his MP7. The weapon had been a good choice and both Kick-Ass and I carried one in a thigh holster.

Eleven men were shooting at us. Then ten, then nine. Two men shouted, "Fuck this!" and ran for the end of the alley. Kick-Ass drew his pistol and shot them both as they ran past. That left seven. The odds were increasingly in our favour. We were now too close for firearms so I pulled out my swords again.

With Kick-Ass to my left and Clarity to my right, bō-staff in hand, we advanced.