DREA
Driving was way cooler than snooping around the outside of a creepy warehouse. Drea inhaled, wrinkling her nose at the scent of dead fish and diesel. Yuck. She hated the docks. Stealth was kind of fun though. She got to employ the cattier side of her and slink along the shadows, leaping silently from the ground to the fire escape, to a nearby window ledge. A little smirk toyed at the edges of her lips. She kind of gave new meaning to the saying, 'peeping tom.' Though she was more like a 'peeping Thomasina.'
Peering in through the window, she wasn't sure what she was seeing. Rows and rows of crates? What was inside them? The glass was dirty. She pressed her fingers to one pane of the nine, in the aged wood window. It surprised her when the glass came loose, tipping inward. Oh, no! What the hell kind of dump was this? She'd barely touched it! Scrambling to catch it she missed, flinching as it fell to the floor far below, shattering. Okay, her stealth totally needed work.
"Hey!" Someone yelled as she ducked behind the wall, before quickly leaping down the fire escape and retreating into the alley. Shit. Shit. Shit.
A side door opened, light pouring into the alley as Drea ducked behind a dumpster. A second later the sounds of boots rushing the pavement stomped by. "Spread out! Someone's out here! We saw movement on several cameras."
Semi-crouching, Drea pressed herself closer to the wall hoping they were all flowing out toward the street rather than searching the actual alley. Then the sound of footsteps grew louder, carrying a physical presence closer. No such luck.
"Hey!"
Someone shouted in her direction from the door. Drea's heart jerked as she prepared to attack.
"We need you guys back in here!" The voice shouted. "The new arrivals got loose and they're fucking people up!"
"But they're just little things," said a different voice.
"Yeah well, they're trained in some kinda ass kicking and the buyers want them whole, so. It is what it is. Jamie called for reinforcements but they're five minutes out."
"It's like that?"
"It's like that."
The alley flooded with stomping again before falling silent. Drea peeked from behind the dumpster in time to run toward the door now swinging closed. "Chane," she said into her headset, "did you hear all that? Scout and Alli need help and I've got an open side door. I'm going in."
CHANE
"Drea, wait. Where are you so we can back you...?" Chane trailed off as sounds of combat flooded the line. Damn. Drea would be too busy to answer.
She had a sudden rush of sympathy for her Uncle Leo, coupled with a gripping fear at the realization that, in the likely event something went wrong, it was on her.
Well fuck that. Nothing was going to go wrong. "Nik, back up and find a vantage point. I want a play-by-play of what's going on inside."
"On it." He called out over the din of battle.
"Shen, Jem, what's your status?" She called out, raising her voice to be heard.
"We found an access point on the roof. Jem's working it open now." Shen answered.
"I can see them. Drea joined Alli and Scout, but they're boxed in. By a bunch of armed guys. The way they're fighting, their intent...it looks like they want to take the girls alive and not too badly harmed." Nik called out.
Chane let out a relieved breath as she circled the building, back to the area she thought Drea might've been in. Score. Someone had left a door wide open.
"Good. Then they'll be able to hold for a bit. Jem, Shen and I are going in, full stealth. Whittle away the edges, taking down as many as you can without them realizing their losing people. Nik, keep watch and warn us if we're in for any trouble, or if the tide turns and we need to go full aggression. Move out."
With the comforting weight of her twin hand axes at her back, should things need to get messy, Chane drew a kunai from her side pouches and slipped silently into the warehouse.
SHEN
Shen pulled out her bow and uncapped the quiver strapped to her hip. Her thoughts pulled to sharp focus as she ran her fingers over the synthetic feathers. This was real.
Ahead of her, Jem popped the lock, tucking his tools away with a smile. Utilizing more-than-human strength, he hefted the steel lid up, revealing a square opening into the building below. With a nod to her, he dropped in.
Swift and silent, she followed. They landed quietly, crouching to absorb the force, atop a stack of crates, flinching at the muffled protest from within.
Jem immediately started scaling down the side. Shen held her position, scanning the room.
Drea, Alli and Scout were holding their own, despite Drea being the only one properly armed. It looked like Alli and Scout had improvised, relieving some fallen opponents of the burden of their weapons. But they were backed against a wall and blocked by crates that could not be harmed on either side as a horde of guards, growing increasingly hostile, pressed them back.
At the far end, she detected Nellie, creeping up behind guard after guard, catching them in sleeper holds. She only dropped them with brutal headbutts if they struggled too much. She might not have her dad's ramming power, but they shared a thick skull that was no joke. Still, Shen wondered how long it would be before she was forced to use the kunai, waiting in her grip. There were just too many to hold back for long.
Below her, Jem had his tonfas out, the secret blades in them not yet sprung. More sneaky, traumatic head injury from him. But once the guards noticed...
She nocked an arrow and took aim at one of the men hanging back in the uncovered expanse between Jem and Nellie.
We only kill if we must. Her father's voice sounded in her head.
She exhaled a breath, then let the arrow fly. It caught him sideways through the throat, not immediately lethal, but it would silence him. The man quietly grabbed at his neck as he toppled backwards.
Thwup.
Another. Done just the same.
Thwup. Thwup.
Two more. She was on a roll.
Thwup.
Someone noticed this one go down, calling to the men around him as he searched for the source of the danger.
She could hear Sofu's voice in her head. The first rule of being a ninja is 'do no harm.'
The man spotted her, him and three of his buddies starting to draw guns, in what looked like slow motion.
Unless you mean to do harm. Then do lots of harm!
Steeling herself, she let four rapid arrows fly. This time into their eyes.
Lots of harm.
SCOUT
The noise was horrific, Scout's head a constant throbbing pain that was somehow threatening her vision. Her eyes actually hurt, making everyone from villain to Alli, and her awesome-sauce drop-in cousin Drea, look a little blurry on the edges. Probably not a good thing, but there was no time to deal with it. They were surrounded. And head-and-gut-bashing dudes with their own guns, guns that she didn't want to fire, was not her thing. What she really needed was her weapons bag.
"Drea- what are you doing here?" Scout panted, eyes assessing the next guy dumb enough to step up to her, she executed an efficient pressure point attack that left him seizing.
"Wow, you really can hear. And your voice-" Drea glanced Scout's way with wide-fascinated eyes, earning herself a kick to the side that had her skidding across the floor to land at Scout's feet.
"Stay focused, girls!" Alli yelled, blocking an attacker. She disarmed another, ramming the heel of her hand into his nose. The dude dropped like a bowling ball off the Lincoln Bridge. "Eww." Alli grimaced as blood spilled out over the floor.
"Not sure that one's going to make it." Drea groaned, rolling away from the pooling mess. Seeing she was down, several of the men charged forward kicking at her.
"Move your ass, Andrea!" Scout shouted, lunging forward to deflect one blow only to take others to her legs and back. Putting herself in front of Drea while her cousin got to her feet, Scout let her shoulder roll back as a fist sailed passed her. Rotating around she blocked another incoming strike then countered with a jab-cross, side kick combination. "You okay?" she asked Drea, never looking away from the fight.
"I'll live," Drea replied, stepping into a fighting stance, beckoning her next victim with one stick. "Let's do this."
"Enough!" A man's voice boomed over the battle.
The guards stepped back, then lifting their guns, pointed them at the girls. The energy of the room drastically shifted, renewed tension hanging in the air between a literal divide of baddies verses Scout, Alli and Drea. What was apparently a take-them-alive situation was quickly becoming something else.
Whoever this guy was, called the shots and was upping the ante. A line parted down the center as the owner of the voice appeared. Scout didn't recognize the abnormally large bald man, as anyone she'd seen before anywhere. Maybe he wasn't anyone important, just the latest asshole for another sleazy place. But he was crazy tall and broad like a refrigerator, almost inhumanely so- either he was a hybrid of some sort or a mutant… maybe?
"Uh, girls," Alli swallowed, suddenly backing toward Scout and Drea, as she motioned toward the tranq gun in the massive man's hands.
The newcomer aimed his tranq at Scout. "You are trouble. And trouble goes back in the crate."
Holding her ground, eyes on the weapon that had dropped her twice in a day already, Scout's voice came out a low, firm sound. "Or not."
Jumbo-Dude motioned to the two men on either side of him, never taking his eyes off Scout. The men each lifted the barrel of their guns, aiming right for Alli and Drea's heads. Scout's heart was pounding as hard as the pulsing throb encompassing her skull. "No!"
"Now, now." Jumbo-Dude pointed to the dude aiming at Alli. "That one has a buyer too. I don't know who the third one is. We weren't expecting her. But, I'm sure we can find a home for her as well. For now, she makes good leverage." A sick grin crossed his lips. "Take her to my office, where we can," he licked his lips, "discover her talents. Lock the other two up." He fixed his gaze on Scout. "I'd like to deliver the two of you to your new homes wrapped in a nice pink bow for your buyers, with you in tact and able to perform. But, if you don't settle your ass down and follow directions," he motioned toward Andrea, "I'm going to hurt her in ways you didn't know existed, and make you watch." He waved the tranq gun, using it for a pointer. "You go back in the crate. Now."
For a second no one moved.
"Now!" the man barked.
CHANE
Chane was making some good headway, when Nik shouted. "Big dude and entourage coming in. Nellie, hide."
She immediately slipped between two stacks of crates, moments before an enormous bald man swept into the room.
What to do? Abandon stealth and take out this guy who was obviously someone of authority? Or remain hidden and continue as she was? What should she do?
SHEN
She crouched on her crate, heart pounding. Six dead men with arrows in their faces. Her doing. So fast. Easier than she though it would be. But maybe that's because the adrenaline was still coursing through her. She was almost afraid to face the end of the battle.
Then the booming voice of a new player broke through her shock, tearing her attention away from the bodies. Bodies. Men before. Bodies now.
Mind slow and unresponsive, she gradually processed what was going on. The guns trained on her cousins. The obscene threats.
Scout's surrender or Drea's violation.
No choice.
Unless she gave them one.
She brought up her bow, took aim and released, shooting to kill.
Baldy's hand whipped up, grabbing the arrow before it pierced his skull. His head slowly turned to look up at her, snapping the carbon fiber shaft in his fist.
What? How? She'd only ever seen her dad catch an arrow like that. Once. Though he'd said Sofu could.
And then something sharp bit her in the thigh. She looked down to see a feathered dart sticking out in her leg.
Oh shi...
JEM
He'd pulled back at Nik's warning, but didn't know how long that would last. As Bricky ran his big fat mouth, his grip on his tonfas grew tighter and tighter, until he was sure he wouldn't be able to hold himself back.
And then Shen shot the guy. Or tried to. What the shell was Brickster?
As Brickman locked gazes with Shen, a bang echoed through the large space. Jem snapped his gaze over to the tranq gun in Brick's non-arrow hand, following where he'd aimed back up to Shen, who now had a dart in her thigh. Uh oh.
Shen's eyes rolled back in her head and she toppled off the stack of crates.
And no one was going to catch her.
No!
He darted out of his hiding spot and dove for her, slamming into her as he caught her, rolling their mutual sideways momentum to a dizzy stop. Into the middle of all the baddies. With their guns. Trained on him.
Aww, street apples.
CHANE
Shit!
Shit. Shit. Shit.
They had Shen and Jem. It was up to her now. And that guy needed to be taken down. By any means necessary.
Throwing caution to the wind, she tucked her kunai away, pulled out her axes and attacked, barreling through the startled, parting crowd.
As anticipated, he dropped the broken arrow and caught her initial strike. But she used her forward momentum, releasing the lost axe to spin around into a sweeping kick, which he also caught, losing his tranq gun in the process. Now was her chance. Both his hands were full.
She finished the rotation, twisting the air, to bring around her other axe and bury it in his skull.
Except, instead of smashing his brains in, the blade of her weapon bounced off his bald head as though she'd struck steel, sending a jarring reverberation of pain straight up her arm.
How? How was this possible?
She didn't have long to wonder.
His grip on her ankle tightened and she let out a startled shriek as he swung her like a flail. Straight into the concrete floor.
NIK
Once the new player showed up, Nik abandoned his post. There was something very wrong with the new guy. He was like a dark, man-shaped whole in the energy spectrum around him. Like anti-energy. He'd never seen anything like it and it disturbed him.
Using, shuko spikes from Scout's bag, an item that probably perpetually lived in the side pouches, he scaled the wall and snuck in through one of the upper windows.
And just in time. Guns were trained on Jem and Shen as well as Alli, Drea and Scout. And Big Bad had Nellie, dangling her body by her ankle as she swirled with muted consciousness, cracks of injury splintering across her body like jagged spiderwebs. Not good.
Taking a steadying breath, he leapt from the crate and released two handfuls of shuriken, all that Scout had packed.
Flares of pain exploded in the hands of the gunmen causing the weapons to drop in a chorus of distressed cries.
He landed on the chest of an unfortunate guard. After drilling him into the ground, he dashed into the crowd, launching a series of critical strikes to warm, glowy vitals as he went.
Almost to the boss man. The darkness made the guy unreadable. But that was fine. Nik could figure out what went where from his general shape.
Popping the cap off the handle of his cane, unextended and tucked in his side pocket, he squeezed the white plastic and threw it at the shape of the man's head.
Throwing up his shields to block out the energy blast when the flashbang exploded, he slipped Scout's bag off his shoulder. Holding it by the straps, he spun and released it on a perfect trajectory towards Scout's blazing form, burning with anger and righteousness, but also vibrating ripples of searing pain.
Hands free, he caught Nellie when the man dropped her. Grunting under her weight, he ran towards the girls, the closest, temporary bastion of safety.
But he must have misjudged the boss man's resilience. A reality that became abundantly clear as his fist connected with the back of Nik's head, sending him sprawling forward to the floor, unconscious.
DONNIE
Donnie, scrolled through the massive file drop that Sappho had sent to him from her adventures in the enemy's digital realm, feeling increasingly nauseous. On the one hand, they'd have more than enough evidence to put these people away forever once they anonymously donated it to the police under the guise of a whistleblower.
On the other hand, it was a hard, painful thing to read. So many young lives destroyed.
Their designer drugs. Flow, to trap victims in dull, compliant servitude like some dystopian science fiction novel. Smooth, to subdue emotion, creating ready-made sociopaths. Jive, to ramp up endorphins and euphoria turning people into needy, performing monkeys or ravenous consumers of entertainment. Frenzy, to ignite a berserker rage of uncontrolled violence. Sensuality, to overclock hormones and suppress inhibitions as the ultimate date-rape cocktail. The variety and scope of enslavement was staggering.
So many youths, converted into products for the organization or sold to the highest bidder in their trafficking ring.
But most disturbing was the Essence. Tearing the body apart and rebuilding it over and over again to temporarily undo physical disabilities before reversing the process with equal violence until that body could take no more. When it worked. When it didn't, the results were nightmarish. Early-days-of-mutation-nightmarish where you never knew what you'd get.
All made possible by one key ingredient. Mutagen. Mutagen they siphoned from the bodies of young mutants and hybrids when the poor kids were spent and had nothing left to give, but every last drop of their blood. Reclamation.
His stomach threatened to toss its contents.
"Donnie, you find anything?" Raph's voice pierced his dark thoughts.
Yes. More than he ever wanted to know.
"How about a shipment schedule? They called this place a distribution center, didn't they?" Leo suggested, pulling up to the warehouse.
Donnie swallowed his gorge and opened another file, his peripheral vision catching Mikey's car, with Sappho behind the wheel, skidding to park across from them.
Oh no.
He gulped. "The most recent shipment was set to leave by boat. Twenty minutes ago."
"Then what're we waitin' for?" Raph yelled, throwing open the door as everyone piled out of the van in a mad scramble.
"A plan!" Leo called out, though no one heeded him.
Leo turned to Donnie, who shook his head. "Sorry Leo, it's Nik. I have to go."
"Donnie, wait!" Leo cried, but he was already on his way out the passenger door, barely catching Leo's whispered follow up as he left.
"It's Shen too."