Chapter 8
"Bold" words indicate singing.
December 21st, 2012
Andy ran to his parents, "Mom, Dad!"
"Andy, what is it?" His Mom asked.
"Another one was uploaded."
Thomas got on the family computer and pulled up YouTube, clicking on the new video that was uploaded ten minutes ago.
!
"What's up Freedom Fighters! I'm Patriot and this is Char, and welcome back to another unboxing video!
"Today, we have this box here in Nebraska. Let's take a look inside shall we."
Patriot and Char made their way over to the base. They used the snow that was falling to their advantage, to cover their tracks. They approached the main gate, but had to duck behind some snow covered bushes, to keep from being detected by the on guard agents.
The two of them breathed a sigh of relief, when the agent walked past them. It didn't last long however. For the agent had noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He looked down at the snow on the ground, and saw that there were two sets of slight imprints in the ground, like someone had walked through the snow. The mostly covered tracks looked like they started in the forest and led off somewhere closer to the base.
The agent followed the tracks to some nearby bushes. Char was the first to hear the crunching footsteps on snow, as they approached. Char got Patriot's attention, then pointed his nose in the direction of the approaching agent.
Patriot waited for the Hydra agent to get close enough, before grabbing his wrist, twisting him around and then covered his mouth with their hand. Patriot then pulled him back, then once they were covered in the surrounding foliage, Patriot snapped his neck.
Patriot laid him down in the snow, and after they took the weapons he was carrying, his access card, and anything that seemed important, completely covered him in snow.
With that done, the two of them went back to the bushes that they were hiding behind.
They waited for the next patrol to walk past, before they snuck into the base proper.
Once inside, they stealthily went down four levels before they found an unoccupied computer in an empty room. Patriot closed and locked the door behind them, then walked over to the computer. Hacking into their system was child's play. This time however, instead of just downloading files onto a couple of external hard drives, Patriot went a step further and implanted a virus that would find all of the files and monitor any and all additions. It also enabled Patriot to access Hydra's network from anywhere. With one or two surprises inside as well.
Once that was done, Patriot took out the first explosive and placed it on the underside of the desk.
"Now these explosives," Patriot explained, "these will in fact blow up. With a boom and everything."
Patriot paused for a moment, "I feel I must remind everyone. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!"
Then Patriot and Char slowly made their way to the lowest level, placing the bombs as they went. After placing the last explosive on the boiler, and programming it appropriately Patriot pressed the start button. And the song American Soldier, by Toby Keith began.
"I'm just trying to be a father, raise a daughter and a son, be a lover to their mother, everything to everyone."
Thomas looked at his wife and son, then at the screen, at his daughter. At his family.
"Up and at 'em bright and early, I'm all business in my suit. Yeah, I'm dressed up for success from my head down to my boots,"
Marie looked at her husband, at how when he gets up in the morning he is always dressed and ready to go, for whatever the day may bring. How he never takes a day off. How he never just has a lazy day, and completely relaxes.
"I don't do it for the money, there's bills that I can't pay, I don't do it for the glory, I just do it anyway."
Andy thought about his sister. How when she saw evil or an injustice being done, she could not, would not, just stand on the sidelines and watch as everything fell apart. He thought about how Lexi has always been the first one to jump in and help someone out, even if she didn't know them at all. Their Grandpa Gabe, always said that if she was born in time to fight in the second World War, that she would have been Steve Rogers' competition to get the Super Soldier Serum.
"Providing for our future's my responsibility. Yeah I'm real good under pressure, being all that I can be,"
Patriot and Char made for the stairwell. Running up the stairs, as fast as they could. On level five, they heard someone on the stairs. The footsteps approached at a steady pace. Patriot opened a door out onto the level, and had just managed to close it as the footsteps went past.
Unnoticed by Patriot, there was an agent who stood a few feet behind them. Shocked at the sudden appearance.
"You can bet that I stand ready when the wolf growls at the door,"
Char on the other hand, noticed the agent.
"Hey, I'm solid, hey I'm steady, hey I'm true down to the core,"
Char placed himself between Patriot and the enemy. His hackles raised, and he was poised to strike.
"And I will always do my duty, no matter what the price, I've counted up the cost, I know the sacrifice,"
The agent pulled out his gun, preparing to shoot Patriot, but Char lunged before Patriot could be hit.
"Oh, and I don't want to die for you, But if dying's asked of me, I'll bear that cross with honor, 'Cause freedom don't come free."
A single shot rang out in the room, followed by a high pitched whine. Patriot whipped around at the sound, to see Char on the ground with a gunshot wound, and the agent standing over him. Patriot didn't even think as the agent then raised his gun at Patriot. Patriot sprang up, kicked the gun out of his hand, and pulled out one of their knives. The knife went right through his throat.
Once the agent was dead, Patriot went and knelt by Char's side. The bullet had missed Char's vest and it went into his neck. Char whined as Patriot probed the wound gently. He tried to get up, grunting as he did so.
"Oh no you don't." Patriot said.
Char looked up at her as if to say, "Please. I've had worse."
"Hold on." Patriot said. Patriot then pulled out the first aid kit, and wrapped the wound, then put on a harness. Which Patriot used to clip onto Char's vest behind Patriot, so that he could be carried while keeping Patriot's hands free.
"I knew this could come in handy." Patriot murmured.
"I'm an American soldier, an American"
Patriot stood up with Char hooked to the harness, and started back up the stairs.
When they got outside, an agent saw them, and had begun to shoot at them. Which then drew in the attention of the other agents, bringing the total of agents shooting at Patriot from one, to a dozen. Patriot pulled out the SIG from its holster, and started to shoot at them. Patriot shot the first agent in the head. Then dove into cover.
"Beside my brothers and my sisters, I will proudly take the stand,"
Patriot shot another two agents, one in the heart, and the other one in the throat.
"when liberty is in jeopardy, I will always do what's right,"
Patriot crouched behind the crate that was their cover, and looked around for a way out.
"I'm out here on the front lines, sleep in peace tonight."
Patriot looked and saw a motorcycle 20 yards away. Patriot emptied the clip while moving to the next cover spot closer to the motorcycle.
The next clip slid into the handle, and a bullet slid into the chamber, within a second of Patriot and Char finding cover again.
!
Marie clutched Thomas' hand tightly. Watching her daughter do all of this, is the most difficult thing that she ever had to do. She was once a field doctor for the marines, and this is more difficult. Walking into battle yourself is one thing, but being forced to watch your child walk into battle, on what is essentially a suicide mission, is the single most difficult and terrifying thing that Marie has ever had to do.
Watching Thomas, her husband, risk his life for hers when she had unwittingly stepped onto a mine. He had heard the click of the pressure plate in the old bomb. He had then ordered her to stop, and ordered all of his men back behind cover, as he went and rolled a large rock across the arid desert ground over to her. He had counted to three and then gave the rock one last hard shove, then grabbed her and ran to the truck, then dove behind it just in time for the bomb to go off. The timer in the bomb was obviously old, and so it had been delayed by five seconds. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough for the two of them to get behind cover.
That was not nearly as terrifying as watching her daughter right then.
!
"An American, an American Soldier."
Patriot had gotten within a couple of feet of the motorcycle, when the song was about 15 to 20 seconds from ending. Patriot fired over their shoulder while running towards the bike. Patriot jumped onto it, and hotwired the motorcycle. When the engine roared to life, Patriot emptied the clip in the SIG one more time as they drove off.
As the last cords in the song ended, the explosives went off. Blowing all of the support columns, and setting fire to the base. The agents inside screamed one last time before the base came crumbling down like a house of cards. The agents outside tried to get away, but it was too late. The ground collapsed beneath them, and they fell several stories, where they breathed their last.
!
Patriot raced back to the starting point of the video. Neither of them took any mind of the video that was still recording. Patriot jumped off of the motorcycle, and ran over their gear. Char was gently unclipped and laid down on the ground after a towel was put down. After the vest was taken off of Char, Patriot reached over to the medical supplies that they had stocked up on.
Patriot carefully removed the gauze, to see the wound. Patriot disinfected the wound, then grabbed the packaging that held the forceps, and ever so carefully used them to reach inside the wound to grab the bullet. All the while, whispering soothing words to Char, to keep him from moving around too much.
It took Patriot a moment or two of digging, to find the bullet with Char whining in pain all the while. Once the bullet was grasped, and pulled out, Patriot disinfected the wound one more time, before grabbing the bandaging. Patriot closed up the wound, and wrapped it, then sat back breathing a huge sigh of relief.
Patriot then remembered that they were still recording, so got up and went over to the camera set up, after double checking that Char was comfortable.
"So there you have it. Another box opened, and secrets within revealed." Patriot said. Patriot looked back at Char, "Char is going to be out of commission for a while. I'm going to make sure that he is healed completely before we tackle the next base."
Patriot took a breath and said in a brighter tone, "As always, please give this video a big thumbs up. Subscribe to my channel and don't forget to hit that bell, to get future updates. I'll have another video for you guys as soon as we can."
"America!"
!
Lexi stopped the camera from recording anymore, and then took off her helmet with a sigh. She packed everything up, then went to check on Charlie.
"Hey boy, how are you feeling?" She asked soothingly.
Charlie looked up at her, then stood up. Lexi removed the bandages on Charlie's neck, and was happy to see that the wound was nicely healed. Thanks to the serum in him.
"Ready to go back to the motel?" Lexi asked.
Charlie immediately jumped up and ran to the car, patiently waiting for her, with his tail wagging.
!
"Stark!" Fury called.
"What's up Fury?" Tony asked, not even bothering to look up from his project.
"Stark, have you figured anything out about this Patriot person?" Fury asked.
Tony sighed and put down the gauntlet to his newest Ironman suit. He turned to look at Fury, and then pulled up a hologram depicting the various videos from Patriot. All of them being analyzed by Jarvis.
"I've had Jarvis scanning and analyzing the videos, ever since the first one was posted." Tony said. "Jarvis?"
"I am sorry sir. I have been over the videos 1,376,201 times. And I am afraid that I have yet to find anything pertaining to the identity of the person in the videos." Jarvis apologized.
"Well, you heard him. I've got nothing." Tony said. Fury growled in frustration. He turned away to walk out the door when Tony spoke again, "I can tell you this however. Whoever Patriot is, they are very good. If I can't find them, and you can't find them. Then we won't be able to locate them, unless they want to be found."