Danger Zone

By Divamercury

Hey, everyone! I'm back! I was on a roll and I wrote this entire chapter today. Thanks sooooo much to Pixie-Dust and Lizzigirl for their wonderful help on getting me unstuck. You guys rock! Please read and review; I'm so excited! I've got 100 reviews now! ;)

~DM

Chapter 25

"Damn! Why won't Jackson answer his phone?" I was furious at his defiance. Normally he would answer it on the first ring, but now I was stuck on hold with "elevator music" being piped into my ear. Finally, when it seemed like he would never answer and I was very close to pressing the OFF button on my phone, Jackson's voice came through the wire.

"Hello, Ken. What can I do for you?" His sarcasm was evident.

"Getting Sara Pezzini under my control comes to mind. Especially considering that's what I'm paying you to do!" I shouted.

"Easy, Ken. You're going to burst a blood vessel. I've got men working on it. Relax."

"Relax, he says. And how many of your men are still alive? If you have Sara, Ian Nottingham, Raven Cole, and Andreanna McPherson in the same location, chaos will most assuredly result, as well as severe bloodshed. I would be willing to bet that many of your men are no longer with us, considering they are fighting individuals with warrior blood."

"I've noticed," Jackson said.

Not bothering to ask how, I said, "If Sara and Ian remain free, I can guarantee that they will be more trouble than they're worth to you."

"What about to you?"

"I have resources that will keep them under control," I said.

Jackson snorted with derision. "Nothing short of unconsciousness could keep that woman under control."

"Exactly. Jackson, I don't want to do this, but if you can't get the job done, I will have to turn elsewhere for my business matters. Keep that in mind." I hung up and stared into the fire roaring in the fireplace.

What is going through Jackson's head? Has he developed a rebellious streak?'

* * *

When I came to, my vision was blurry and it took a minute for me to figure out where I was. When I could finally figure it out, I realized I was in Will's car and then remembered what had happened. He had been instructing some White Bulls on what to do to capture the others.

"Traitor," I growled at the memory and sat up slowly, groaning with the pain. "Hope I don't have a concussion." I reached up to my temple and felt a knot but thankfully no blood. One of the goons had hit me in the head with the butt of a rifle and I went down hard.

"Great. Well, let's see if I can be of any help. Hope the guys are okayI shouldn't be too worried, considering the people I'm talking about here. Pity the guys who've tangled with Chief. And Ian will kick their asses if they look at her the wrong way. Time to get up off your ass, Gabe," I said. It was really stupid of Will to leave me in the passenger seat. If I were him, I would have put me in the trunkwait, did that make sense? "Spoke too soon about the concussion." I opened the passenger side door and was about to step out when I heard a soft ticking sound.

"Crap!" I shouted and leapt out of the car, sprinting away as the car bomb triggered by the passenger door exploded and showered flaming debris as I ran like hell for the warehouse. The gas tank ignited, triggering another explosion, and after that I didn't look back.

"Well, maybe Will's not as stupid as I thought," I said to myself as I ran into the alley beside the warehouse. I peered in the window when I reached it and then, acting on impulse, jumped through it. I didn't cut myself too badly and was proud of myself as I rolled across the floor, dodging the bullets.

Mac took that opportunity to signal Raven, who nodded slightly. Her black eyes widened, her black eyebrows plunged, and that telltale twitch signaled something big. A second later everyone within a three feet radius of her went flying, and one guy even got stuck in the ceiling when she threw him up there. His legs dangled helplessly and everything. Raven got to her feet and was proud of herself. She looked up to the balcony and nodded to Sara and Ian. Simultaneously both of them leapt off the balcony and were stopped in midair three feet from the floor by Mac and Raven. Once their feet had hit the floor, Mac pulled a similar stunt that Raven had, making her captors fly in every direction.

"I told you to get rid of those two!" Will yelled at Dante, who had been thrown into a pile of crates by Raven. "But no, you had to be nice." Dante scowled at him. Sara and Ian ran over to join Mac, Raven, and myself.

"Good to see that you're conscious, Gabe," Chief said.

I grinned. "Didn't miss me too much, I see. Having fun?"

"Oh, yeah. Loads," Ian said, rolling his eyes.

"We should do this more often. Seriously. It was fun," Raven said with a shrug.

"Well, this is all so touching, but I'm sick of the banter." Dante stood up and fired a tattooed bullet at Sara's head. She held the Witchblade up but it was unnecessary. Raven stared at it and it slowed down gradually, finally stopping two feet from Sara's head.

"You guys should really keep better grips on your guns, considering how slippery they are," she said.

"Especially since they're in the company of a few telepathically gifted individuals," Mac piped up. Raven nodded. Mac's and her eyes twitched, and the newly regrouped White Bulls were stunned to see their guns fly out of their hands and come to a halt in front of Mac. I was stunned to see Jake among the thugs that had just arrived, and Sara was as well. Raven plucked Dante's previously fired bullet out of the air from where it was still hanging and examined it carefully while Mac unloaded the ammo from the guns floating in front of them. She took one out and looked at it, much like Raven.

"I think this looks more like a horse than a bull. Or it could be a pony. What do you think, Raven?"

"I quite agree. You all are so manly, My Little Pony Menthat has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"

Sara and Ian looked like they were about to explode from trying not to laugh.

Dante and his colleagues were less than amused, though. Predictably, they attacked. Raven whipped out her sword, as did Ian and Sara (with help from the Witchblade), and they collided, Sara felling three with one stroke.

I'll just back up now,' I thought, watching as Mac broke several necks with her mind and Ian broke some with his hands. Sara broke out of the mob and faced Dante, pale white because of his anger at being dissed and his fear of the four people in front of him, especially his former subordinate. Despite that, he made a very bad decision.

"Well, it's finally you and me, Petzini. Too bad your dad's not here to see you take down the Bulls. You know, he was one of us. And he liked ituntil he suddenly grew a conscience and deluded himself into thinking he was going to stop us. He was wrong, and you are, too. You're nothing, Petzini, and neither was your father. I wish I'd been the one that killed him."

"Are you finished yet?" she asked.

"Why?"

Sara's eyes flashed amber and she grinned evilly. She shot forward and before Dante could even blink, she buried the Witchblade in his gut. He gasped and a small stream of blood trickled out from the corner of his mouth. "I just didn't want to interrupt the last ravings of a madman," she said. She roughly yanked the blade out of Dante's stomach and stood there, watching him die.

The other White Bulls seemed to lose confidence now that their leader had been annihilated.

"Any other volunteers?" Sara asked.

The very few survivors of the massacre stampeded towards the door. Mac chased after them and Raven was about to go as well but Sara put a hand on her arm.

"Let them go," Sara said tiredly. "They've had enough. And they'll probably all be in jail soon, anyway."

"That's for sure," Mac said. She reentered the room with Will in tow, floating above the ground, struggling. "Caught this one on his way out. Apparently he thought he'd get off easy. I think he'll help you get some convictions. Won't you?" she asked, breaking one of his fingers with her mind. He screeched in pain and nodded helplessly. "Thought so."

"Hang on a sec. I need some payback for what this asshole did to me," I said. Mac grinned and nodded, holding him still. I took a few swings at Will and by the time I had finished, he was sporting the beginning of a shiner and undeniably a very bruised stomach. "Well, I feel better."

"We'd better drop this slimeball off at the precinct," Sara said, and the six of us finally left the warehouse. I noticed that Raven stopped for a moment before following us, looking through the entire room and glancing suspiciously at a specific corner. When she realized I was watching, she caught up with the rest of us.

Will ratted out the entire White Bull operation and investigators (who we were sure were clean) went out to start rounding people up. It turned out that Will had been the lawyer that had helped the Bulls out in cases where one of them had been really stupid and had actually gotten nailed for something.

"Kiss your law license goodbye, buddy," I called as they hauled him off, and Raven, Mac, Ian, Sara, and I left the building.

"Hey, Pez."

Sara whirled around to see Jake coming up behind us. Sara narrowed her eyes and Ian suddenly appeared right behind her, an extremely menacing look on his face. I knew that look; he was wearing it when he came to visit me a long time ago at my place to tell me to back off on the Witchblade research. I didn't pity McCartey in the least.

"What the hell? What do you want?" she asked coldly.

Jake winced. "I guess I deserve that. But it wasn't what it looked like!"

"Really? It looked an awful lot like you were a goddamned White Bull, Jake! I trusted you! Jesus. I don't know what else it could be."

Jake pulled out a badge and handed it to her. She looked at it, glanced at him, and then did a double take.

"FBI?" she asked incredulously.

"Yep," he said. "I was UC to try and bring down the Bulls. Guess you beat me to it. And what was that sword thing you had?"

Sara opened her mouth but then Mac and Raven each took Sara by an arm and said, "Time to go" simultaneously. They dragged her to Ian's car, parked across the street, and Ian and I followed.

"Bye Jake!" I called, giving him a goofy wave and leaving him standing there on the sidewalk, head tilted to one side, really confused.