Friday, June 30th, 2017

21:21 GMT-7 (04:21 GMT July 1st)

The Ranch House, Napa Valley

Alpha Team (Mist, Venom, Bane, Paradox, and Domitor)

Bane was spun around by the impact of the high velocity bullet and she hit the ground hard.

Despite her injury, she waved her twin forwards as she lay flat with Paradox covering her as she brought her rifle around. Bullets peppered the ground all around Bane and Paradox even as their comrades in arms pushed ahead. Ahead Venom could see five people and in her mind, all were fucking dead meat! Nobody shot her sister and remained alive. The girl ran forward with Domitor to her left and Mist on her right. Bullets flew in every direction, but Venom had eyes only for her sister's assailant – a tall woman who was running just beyond three mercenaries. Actually two mercenaries as one had just his head blasted apart by a three-round burst from Mist. Then Venom found herself too close for effective use of her assault rifle so she slung the weapon across her chest and she drew her bō-staff. The nearest mercenary ran at Venom, brandishing his assault carbine lengthwise in both hands as a shield against her blade which collided hard enough to cause the mercenary's arms to buckle. Venom swiftly brought the blade up and around, then across, neatly removing the man's head at the neck. Blood erupted out of the exposed neck cavity and Venom snapped her head around to where she had heard a horrified scream.

Otto shrank back as he came face to face with the apparition wearing camouflage fatigues and holding a bloody blade. He could not make out the person's features no matter how hard he looked as the invisible eyes bored into his very soul. Then he remembered the pistol in his right hand and he brought it up and emptied the magazine into the apparition which staggered back under the onslaught . . . but did not go down beyond a single knee. Otto ejected the empty magazine and he feverishly struggled to insert a fresh one even as he felt death edging closer and closer. Then just when he thought it was all over, the boy felt a wave of heat wash over him and then he was falling

Then there was just blackness.

..._...

The boy regained consciousness to find a hand over his mouth and it was very dark, but very noisy with the sounds of battle all around.

"Don't make a sound!" a voice hissed and the boy recognised his mother's voice. "We're safe at the moment – I dragged you down the hill into the trees when the grenades came down."

Otto felt pain in his back and in his left side and he figured that he had been wounded during the counterattack. All around, he could hear the crack of gunshots and the crackle of fires. There was also the sounds of movement in the surrounding trees – he figured that he and his mother were being hunted. He was still not certain how they had escaped certain death, but they seemed to have nonetheless. Otto tried to get to his feet, but the pain was enough to stop him and make him think before he tried again. Instead, he turned his attention to the pistol which was back in its holster. He checked the weapon and found that his mother had inserted a fresh magazine of nine-millimetre rounds ready for action.

Then the boy simply preyed that they might survive until daylight.

Bravo Team (Lilith, Lilim, Trauma, and Riptide)

They reached the winery and almost fell into an ambush.

Though the building had been singed by the airborne strike, it had survived, as had the men and women entrenched all around it. A machine gun opened fire on Lilith and Trauma, sending both diving to the ground. Riptide yanked Lilim down as he dived off to the left, then pulled Lilim with him as they made to outflank the enemy gunners. The young girl floundered for a second before she regained her feet and she brandished her assault rifle, sending short bursts towards the enemy as she ran. Puffs of dirt shot up all around her as bullets did their damndest to intercept the running girl. Lilim was no longer feeling fear to the extent that she had aboard the Osprey; instead, she felt energised as the adrenalin coursed through her body. She was incredibly focussed and her keen eyes caught every movement in the darkness despite the backlighting which came from the raging fires all around them. She saw a head popup and she swiftly adjusted her aim and she put a bullet into it and the head dropped down out of sight.

Lilim ran on, keeping a few feet from her partner at all times. From their right, Lilith threw a smoke grenade to cover the counterattack while Trauma kept any further heads down with his H&K MG4KE machine gun. The grenade struck the ground just as it began to emit copious amounts of white smoke which quickly spread over a large area, preventing the enemy from being able to identify and track any targets as Lilim and Riptide moved into a position from where they could immolate the machine gun and any surviving mercenaries. Then out of nowhere, a burst of machinegun fire came from their left and the bullets carved into Lilim and Riptide, felling them both. Trauma was horrified to hear the screams and see two members of his team fall to the ground even as he and Lilith silenced the first machinegun with hand grenades.

"Mustang! Mustang! Bravo needs assistance. Popping flares!" he yelled as he threw two flares at the newest threat.

Two hundred feet above, the two USMC AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter gunships dipped their noses and they dived for the purple flares exploding out of the darkness.

"Mustang flight has purple flares, guns hot!"

Trauma and Lilith hit the ground and crawled towards their fallen companions as the staccato roar of the twenty-millimetre M197 3-barrelled Gatling cannons mounted in the M97 turrets beneath the noses of each Super Cobra opened fire on the area designated by the flares thrown by Trauma. The machinegun in question shifted to engage the helicopter gunships but the bullets which found the armoured helicopters did little more than chip the paintwork and piss off the flight crews who pressed their attack until there was a large explosion as stored ammunition exploded into the air.

"Target destroyed Bravo Team. We're nearby if needed again. Mustang out."

As the sound of the rotor blades faded, Trauma reached Lilim and he found her writhing in agony, her gauntleted hands gripping the lower thigh of her left leg. Swiftly, he forced the girl's hands away from the leg and he could see where the bullets had torn through her battledress and FCCS body armour before carving into her flesh. There was no sign of broken bones and no sign of excessive blood loss so Trauma simply wrapped the wound tightly with a field dressing to prevent further blood loss or wound infection.

"Can you stand?" Trauma demanded.

At first Lilim was screaming with the pain but then she steeled herself and she glared at Trauma.

"Yes I can fucking stand! Now help me the fuck up!"

Lilim screamed as she tried to put weight on her wounded leg but she continued onto her two feet with Trauma's assistance.

"Oh fuck!"

It was Lilith and she was crouched down beside Riptide. The high-velocity bullet from the machinegun had cut through the air, then through the body armour at the boy's neck. Instantly, his carotid artery had been torn open and ripped to shreds. Blood had then erupted out and down the front of his body armour, soaking his battledress.

"It's Riptide; he's down!"

Alpha Team (Mist, Venom, Bane, Paradox, and Domitor)

After a brief search of the immediate woods, Mist called the team back to the roadway.

"Let's get after Dieter – nobody's getting through the perimeter set by the National Guard," Mist directed.

Bane was back in the fight, although she had a feeling that she was very badly bruised beneath her clothing and armour. She was being assisted by Domitor and the pair were on the left flank as they approached the ranch house. Paradox and Mist were on the right with Venom in the centre. Mist was unhappy with the situation. There was no movement and no sign of counterattack from the ranch house despite it being fairly obvious that there had to be many mercenaries not to mention Dieter Mannheim somewhere inside. Mist, as well as the rest of the team, were very aware that they had wounded to the south, so they had to end things swiftly she knew. The spread out team closed on the northern end of the ranch house, seeking out the enemy in the darkness. At a wave of her left hand, Bane, Domitor, and Venom made for the main entrance while she and Paradox made for the side entrance via the corner deck. The two teams would simultaneously assault the ranch house and kill any person they found using (where possible) shock and awe tactics. A few moments later, the two teams were ready to move.

"Move!"

In the air, out to the east and west, the pair of USMC AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter gunships had chosen to put on an impromptu airshow as a distraction for the defenders inside the ranch house, firing off flares as they criss-crossed the night sky. Therefore, when Mist and Paradox crept across the deck towards the partially shattered glazing, they found a mercenary facing out the southern window and looking out over the valley at Mustang One-Two. Without hesitation, Paradox sent the contents of the merc's skull spraying across the back wall of the living room making a complete mess of several pieces of expensive artwork. The suppressed gunshot was loud within the confines of the living room but still a lot quieter than if the weapon had not been suppressed. Immediately, Mist and Paradox each threw a pair of flashbang grenades down the steps into the foyer beyond followed up by a single high explosive grenade each.

At the same time, out on the patio, the remaining members of the team crouched behind cover beside the outer glass doors leading into the dining room. They peered up onto the deck and the shattered patio doors beyond. At the same time as Mist and Paradox were throwing their own grenades, Venom and Domitor each threw in a flashbang followed by a high explosive grenade each.

The house reverberated with a brace of explosions as each of the grenades detonated independently and any glazing still intact shattered as did anything else within a dozen feet of the explosions. Men and women caught out in the open by the devastatingly bright flash and the debilitatingly loud bang were unceremoniously torn to shreds by the HE grenades detonating. There were yells of shock and pain, not to mention some screams of pain and agony.

It was all music to the team's ears.

..._...

Dieter Mannheim had turned, his eyes drawn to movement in the darkness, even as he felt himself dragged bodily down behind a kitchen counter.

Then came the detonations, one after another; on and on they went, shaking the entire building as they cascaded one after the other. The concussion was enough to rupture his eardrums and he felt blood trickling down the sides of his face and despite having closed his eyes, he had still seen the intense flashes which had given him a splitting headache and severe vertigo and it was a struggle to make his limbs move as he felt several hands on him, pulling him away from the devastation of what had once been the breakfast area of his luxuriously appointed hilltop home. Part of him was enraged that anyone would dare to assault his home but another part of him was stunned that anybody would actually succeed. Though he could not hear anything beyond the persistent ringing in his ears, he could see that a (very) close quarters battle was underway in his very own kitchen. Sections of plastered ceiling had collapsed and there was dust everywhere. Bits of marble countertop were sent flying as bullets struck all around him but it was all like a silent movie playing out around him as the flashes of gun muzzles lit everything in an eerie yellow glow which came from multiple directions. The man tried to raise his own weapon, an Israeli Uzi sub-machinegun, but as he tried to aim the weapon, he found that he had no concept of up and down as his body swayed and it was impossible for him to aim the weapon.

He felt himself being dragged out of the kitchen towards the bedrooms at the back of the ranch house. His men were all around him, firing off bullets in the direction of the deck and the foyer, shredding the remnants of the expensive kitchen almost as well as the grenades had done. Then Dieter fell backwards as two of his men died and crashed into him as they fell, their torsos torn to shreds. He saw movement in the darkness of battle and then came a pair of evil-looking orange eyes and then a dazzling brightness which Dieter realised was the muzzle flash of his Uzi as he subconsciously held the trigger down sending twenty-seven nine-millimetre rounds in the direction of the alien eyes of death. The eyes fell back in to the darkness even as he felt hands dragging him up the steps which led to the upper level of the ranch house. He could just begin to hear the sounds of battle over the ringing in his ears and his pounding headache. His vertigo was subsiding and he found that he could actually stand. Swiftly, he dumped the empty magazine from his Uzi and inserted a fresh magazine.

Then he had to simply wait to make his escape.

..._...

The kitchen no longer resembled a kitchen and the family room no longer resembled a family room.

Well, maybe the family room did resemble the D'Amico's family room after Kick-Ass had finished remodelling with his Gatling guns. Both spaces were a mess of shattered furniture and personal effects, not to mention a few bodies, cast off weapons, and hundreds of ejected cartridge cases. Amidst the carnage and destruction, eighteen people fought for dominance in the semi-darkness. Only five were friendlies and one, Paradox, was badly bruised from the Uzi's onslaught, but that did not prevent him from fighting hard. Due to the tight confines of the family room, it was every man (or woman) for themselves and it pushed the definition of close quarters combat quite a bit.

Mist struck out at anything which came within arm's length, making good use of her fists and the butt of her assault rifle. Her main target was a woman of similar stature and build who had also focussed her attention on Mist. It was blatantly obvious that Dieter's mercenaries were protecting their boss from attack presumably so the bastard could make his escape. Mist was not going to allow that to happen – not a chance! She and her team were angry and very keen to put an end to Dieter Mannheim, one way or another. Indeed, Mist was using every tool she could get her hands on to fight her bitch which included kitchen implements. A cast iron frying pan made a very satisfying sound when it struck something and Mist's bitch found herself on the wrong end of said frying pan which seriously hurt with each strike. As a counter, Mist's bitch also seized up a similar cooking implement and the kitchen soon resounded to the sound of clanging iron.

"Really!?" Venom growled at the unusual improvisation as she moved past Mist.

"You make do with what you have," Mist shot back as she brought her improvised weapon down hard enough to elicit a scream of pain from her opponent.

While the 'Battle of the Frying Pans' was underway, Venom opted for a more conventional attack, making good use of her blades - and any other similarly sharp items which she could purloin from around the destroyed culinary area. More than one adversary found sharp blades inserted in undesirable places as Venom moved through the semi-darkness enjoying every moment of her bloodlust. But that did not last long as something heavy struck her across the upper back and she collapsed to her left knee, the pain just bearable. After taking a deep breath, she rose back to her feet and she found herself face to face with a man who was twice her size – probably more. It was not the first time the young woman had fought against the odds and it was not to be the last as she ran at the man, throwing blades in his direction. The brute simply deflected the blades, much to Venom's annoyance, but when she launched herself at the man, she felt his strong hands grasping hold of her and she was thrown bodily across the kitchen over the heads of Paradox and Bane, neither of whom noticed their flying colleague, even as she crashed into the centre island in the kitchen where the metal work of the stove caused her no end of pain in her butt. Venom rolled off the countertop and she fell to the floor, landing atop what may have once been a man's torso whose squishy composition cushioned her fall. Instantly, she was back up again and she could see her current tormentor coming closer.

"Fuck!" she growled, knowing that there was to be some intense pain in her very near future but she ran at the monster nonetheless.

Strike hard and strike fast – that was what she had been taught since the age of eleven and it was a mantra to which she owed her life. Swiftly, she drew her folded-steel dragon guandao from her back and she ran at the man whose fucking annoying grin soon faded when faced with the dangerous piece of hardware.

"Hi, I'm Venom; I don't think we've been properly introduced."

"Hello, Venom," the man growled. "You are about to die, so my name is of no consequence."

"Good sentence structure – I didn't think you had the brain capacity."

"I don't like you, little lady."

"She's no fucking 'lady'!" Bane threw across the busy kitchen.

"That's Bane," Venom offered conversationally as she sized up her opponent and tried to figure out the best place to insert her dragon guandao where it would hurt the most.

"Just stab him already!" Bane yelled.

Venom growled inwardly at her twin sister as she pondered toying with the man but then reality got the better of her and she lunged to her left, even as the man dodged to his right and never saw Venom switch the weapon into her left hand and then thrust the broad pointed curved blade forcefully forwards into his ample gut. At first, the man did not seem to notice but then he suddenly felt the intense pain as his gut was torn apart and his innards were twisted into a maelstrom of torn body organs. Blood flowed like Niagara Falls followed by a lava flow of hot intestines – what had escaped Venom's meat mincer at least. Venom did not pause as she withdrew her weapon and she chose to put an end to the brute's misery as she casually lopped off his head at the neck, spraying everyone within a dozen feet with hot steaming blood. Needless to say, the brute's colleagues did not seem all that happy with being bathed in the man's internal bodily fluids.

Not that Venom cared one iota as she turned to find her next victim.

..._...

Up above, Dieter Mannheim was looking out of the shattered windows of his son's bedroom.

The valley beyond was a stunning sight at night, but it was not the lights of Napa City which was attracting his attention, it was the gap in the lights caused by a pair of dark objects which were flying very low so as to avoid observation from the armed air assets clattering around the hilltop – at least that was his hope. As the two helicopters bored in, he took the opportunity to peer out of the bedroom door across the passageway to another bedroom, whose doorway was secured by a padlock – that room contained his insurance should things turn worse than they currently were.

"Unlock the bedroom and prepare to move the child," he ordered one of his minions. "The helicopter will be here soon."

Annoyingly, with all the jamming, he could not communicate with the two helicopters and that inability to communicate frustrated the hell out of him. Not to mention that his wife and son had seemingly vanished – maybe that was good, he thought; he hoped. At the back of his mind the silence from the United Kingdom was another worry but he trusted Rosa with his two youngest children, so that was a matter for another day, and if all went well, he hoped to be joining them in just a few days' time. Until then, he would need to tread lightly but firmly as he made his escape out of the clutches of . . . who? Who was interfering in his plans: Fusion? But why would they be interested in taking him to task? More questions, he grimaced to himself as he turned back to the shattered glazing and the approaching helicopters.

The two machines were less than a mile away, passing over the Premium Outlets mall when Dieter was appalled to see a dark shape move in from the right, some distance beyond the two approaching helicopters. The man knew what was to come even as a bright flash indicated the launch of an air-to-air missile and then the first helicopter simply exploded as it passed by the West Napa Reservoir not a quarter of a mile away, the fiery wreckage plunging downward to smash into a vacant patch of ground where it continued to burn fiercely. Dieter's eyes turned towards the second helicopter which was jinking all over the sky as it closed in on him and then it flared to hover above the flat rooftop not a dozen yards from where he stood, but then the helicopter simply disintegrated before him and Dieter himself was thrown backwards as the flying machine detonated in a massive explosion of burning aviation fuel which splattered down upon the trees and the studio building which began to burn furiously. It took Dieter almost a full minute to gather his wits as explosions and fire raged just yards away from where he lay beside his henchmen.

With a roar of anger, Dieter Mannheim scrambled to his feet and he knocked aside his minion who had just released the padlock securing the door to the other bedroom and he kicked the door back against the wall beyond.

..._...

While a battle raged in the kitchen of the ranch house, a subsidiary battle was underway in the adjacent family room.

Paradox was standing back-to-back with Domitor as both fought an ever-decreasing circle of mercenaries. Paradox was injured, as was Domitor, and neither of the boys were enjoying the fight very much, especially Domitor who was not pleased to be back in close quarters combat. All around them was death and destruction including several bodies as they fought, their blades moving swiftly in all directions. Then Domitor fell as he was struck by a vicious blow to his left shoulder which caused him to drop his combat machete as he fell. Paradox instantly moved to cover his friend as a woman moved in his direction, raising her assault carbine, a burst from which would kill them both. However, as the woman's finger squeezed on the trigger, there was the sound of rapid gunfire from his left as four nine-millimetre rounds blew the woman's head apart.

Paradox turned his head in surprise to see Lilim heading towards him, her arms extended, a pistol blazing in each hand – the girl seemed pissed for some reason. Another mercenary went down, the contents of his head scattered in all directions. Paradox sensed something was wrong and he glanced over at Trauma who simply shock his head indicating that it could wait. Paradox knew that someone had been hurt earlier on but his team had heard nothing more since the initial announcement, however, his well-honed intuition spoke volumes as did Lilim's body language and behaviour. Indeed, Lilith herself was just as angry, it seemed, as the crimson devil herself appeared and she began to wreak vengeance on all around her. Her Katana blades were already streaming rivers of crimson which matched her mask. Her assault rifle had already been discarded and she fought like a devil processed. Paradox wisely chose to disengage and he met up with Mist at the base of the staircase leading to the upper bedrooms. Bullets were thudding into the wall just a few inches from Mist's head, not that she seemed to have noticed.

"You ready?" she asked.

"I'll pretend that you did not say that," Paradox commented dryly.

Mist chuckled at the dry British wit and she readied her assault rifle for the move up the stairs under sustained gunfire.

"In three. One...," Paradox said as he pulled the pin from a cylindrical flash-bang grenade. "Two...," he said as he lobbed the grenade up the staircase and two seconds later there was a huge crash and a flash accompanied by a lot of falling plaster from all around them. "Three!"

Mist went first, firing off a long burst from her HK416A5 assault rifle while Paradox followed behind with an appropriated HK416A4 assault rifle as he had long exhausted his supply of ammunition for his MG4KE machine gun. Together, they moved up the staircase against minimal force as whoever was holding the top of the staircase had apparently been temporarily incapacitated by the violent detonation of the stun grenade as had been intended. Both were very keen to reach the top of the staircase as that was where Dieter Mannheim had last been seen heading and news had recently come through that his helicopters – presumably intended for his escape - had apparently met up with the Super Cobra attack helicopters, but happily, they had survived the encounter.

At the top of the staircase, they found chaos – and a small problem.

..._...

Actually, the problem was short, rather than small, about four feet in height, and female.

The girl wore blue jean dungarees, a grey T-shirt, and a jean jacket. The girl appeared terrified but she also appeared to have her shit together, Paradox noticed as he studied her gaze which was full of fear, but not vacant as he might have expected from the trauma which she must have experienced. Who she was, he had no idea, but she was in trouble as the scum-sucking slimeball known as Dieter Mannheim demonstrated as he used the girl as a partial human shield with the muzzle of a .50-calibre Desert Eagle held just an inch from the girl's head. Should the trigger be pulled, the girl's head would be almost vaporised as the massive bullet passed through it. However, there appeared to be more fear in Mannheim's eyes than in those of the young girl, Paradox thought. It was a surreal situation, what with the amazing view, the gentle smoke-filled breeze, and the eager chatter of automatic gunfire from all around.

"Let her go," Mist ordered in her electronically enhanced voice.

"I go free; she goes free," Mannheim countered.

"Not a fucking chance!" Mist responded, her assault rifle coming up.

"No – weapon down," Mannheim ordered.

Mist lowered her weapon so that the muzzle was aimed at the floor.

"Quite an impasse," Paradox commented. "Dieter, my old man."

Dieter Mannheim glared down at Paradox, angrier than he could have ever thought possible. He found his left hand gripping the girl's upper left arm ever tighter – tight enough to make the youngster scream out in pain. That upset Paradox who could never allow an innocent person to be hurt, let alone a child, and definitely not a little girl. The vigilante stepped forward and he saw a pistol appear from behind Dieter followed by a face which registered in Paradox's mind as belonging to Anton Renke – Dieter Mannheim's Chief Operations Officer. Moving faster than he had ever thought he could, Paradox brought up his left hand, loosing a pair of razor-sharp titanium knives into the air on two separate headings. Renke snapped off a round just before the first blade took him in the throat – the bullet struck Paradox in the chest, pushing him backwards even as the remaining blade sunk deep into Dieter's chest.

Dieter Mannheim stumbled backwards, his feet catching on his falling COO, tripping the man towards the shattered glazing. Then the girl screamed as she was yanked along with Mannheim towards the gaping window. Paradox dived forwards as Mist put three rounds into the wounded Renke and shot the final mercenary in the head with her fourth round.

Paradox crashed onto the floor, his right hand reaching for the girl, and he grasped her around the waist even as Dieter fell out of the window, still holding onto the screaming girl's left arm. Dieter brought his .50-calibre Desert Eagle up and he pointed it directly into the masked face with the evil orange eyes. Then came a ripping sound as the sleeve of the girl's jean top came off at the shoulder and Dieter's eyes went wide as he began to fall, the pistol forgotten as he fell the eighteen feet to the ground below. Mist rushed to the window and she helped Paradox to stand as he pulled the girl to safety. She then fired off two three-round bursts into the darkness below before she heard a yell of pain and then silence as Dieter Mannheim collapsed to the ground below her.

"That's the end of that motherfucker . . . !" Mist breathed as she heard a gunshot and span around, her assault rifle to her shoulder.

Paradox stumbled backwards as the bullet struck his frontal armour. Then he leapt forwards and he grasped hold of the pistol's slide then yanked the Glock 26 pistol out of the girl's grasp – it had to have been Renke's pistol.

"Give me that!" he growled angrily. "Who the bloody hell are you?"

The youngster glared into the blazing orange eyes as she spoke, her voice shaking with fear.

"Bailey Eddington – and – and - don't you damn well forget it!"

Paradox smiled beneath his mask.

"Hello, Bailey, my name is Paradox. What are you doing here?"

"I am being held as blackmail for my sister."

"Who is your sister?"

"Laurel Eddington."

Paradox raised a hidden eyebrow as he remembered whom Vengeance had picked up in Europe. His mind drifted for a moment, remembering a particularly nasty event from his past.

"Fourteen with blonde hair; bitch of an attitude, likes to play with fire?"

"You know my sister?" the little girl asked dubiously.

Paradox nodded.

"We met, long time ago."

"Oh."

"You two finished?" Mist asked.

"Are you taking me away from here?"

"Yes, we are," Mist replied.

Paradox then guided the young girl towards the staircase.

..._...

With their leaders dead, the fight soon went out of the mercenaries who then began to rapidly fade away into the darkness.

Mist and Venom headed around the side of the ranch house to retrieve Dieter Manheim's body so that his death could be confirmed. Only, there was a problem.

"Where did you say you killed him?" Venom asked as they probed the darkness below the shattered upper floor windows.

"He was right down here – you can see his pistol," Mist said as she pointed out the cannon which Mannheim had been lugging and which lay on the tarmac. "The bastard's gone!"

"You sure he was dead?"

"I emptied six rounds into him."

"That fucking bastard has the lives of a fucking cat!" Venom spat.

Mist did not trust herself to speak as she walked towards the south end of the building and something she did not want to find. She knew that only three members of Team San Diego had actually arrived at the ranch house to fight, and even as she walked towards the winery, the Osprey was coming in for a landing as the two Super Cobra attack helicopters buzzed busily around, securing the area and protecting the vulnerable tiltrotor transport. As she closed on the winery, she could see many dead bodies, but her eyes focussed only on a single form which lay in the darkness close to the winery where they had fallen. Her pace slowed as she came closer and closer, and then she stopped two feet away and she looked down at the dead form.

"There was just too much blood," a voice said from behind her. "I tried to stop it, but the damage was too great."

Lilith stopped beside Mist and together they both went down on one knee beside the dead youth. He lay as he had fallen, his mask still in place, protecting that most precious of commodities; his identity. Though he had taken upon himself different identities over the more recent years of his short life, it was the identity of Riptide under which he had died, fighting till his dying breath. He was their first loss, and both leaders struggled to process the information as part of their minds refused to believe that the boy was actually dead but there was no changing the fact. The giant tiltrotor landed twenty feet away from them and the crew chief ran down the ramp and handed the two girls a canvas package before he discretely withdrew. It took them both several minutes to manoeuvre the corpse into the body bag by which time they were not alone. Bane had hold of Lilim who was sobbing behind her mask. Paradox had handed off the young girl to the crew chief who had taken her aboard the Osprey and strapped her into a seat after fitting her with a lifejacket, ear defenders, and head protection. Paradox and Domitor were on hand to pick up one end of the body bag once Lilith had finished zipping the object up with the corpse of their friend and colleague inside.

With Lilith and Trauma taking the head of the body bag, Logan Dark AKA Riptide was taken aboard the Osprey for the flight home with his friends.

Saturday, July 1st

01:47 GMT-7 (08:47 GMT July 1st)

The Ranch House, Napa Valley

It was approaching two the following morning by the time the Osprey was ready for launch with their more delicate cargo securely strapped down beside the aft ramp.

A load of intelligence information had been gleaned from the destroyed ranch house and most of it was securely strapped down in plastic crates secured to the floor between the inward facing seats. The young girl had fallen asleep while the team had searched for Dieter Mannheim and his wife – neither of whom could be found. However, there was a secure perimeter around the area, patrolled by the National Guard, and it would not be easy for anyone to slip through, let alone with a dead body in tow. The monstrous machine rose into the sky and headed southwest, out over San Pablo Bay and eventually they passed within spitting distance of the Golden Gate Bridge which guarded the entrance to San Francisco Bay. The return flight to The Strip was a quiet one with most burying themselves in their own thoughts. There were also a lot of tears within the darkened aircraft and the flight crew kept a respectful distance knowing that the assault team had lost a member on the ground.

It was with a heavy heart, after touchdown two hours later, that after removing all the intelligence information for later perusal, they had to leave their fallen comrade aboard. He would be looked after and eventually flown across the country to New York, the city of his birth, for final interment at a later date. Juno was inconsolable, to put it mildly, as she pulled off her body armour and then proceeded to soak herself in a shower for almost a full hour. The loss had hit everyone, equally hard, and for Guinevere it was just as hard as she had no idea how to console the inconsolable, especially when she had absolutely no idea how to understand her own grief. That left Nicholas to look after his women while Erika did her best to look after her own team.

As for the youngster, Bailey Eddington, she went straight to bed and she would remain with the team until suitable arrangements could be made.