Part 25: The Angel's Sacrifice
Clover stood with her arms up, panting heavily and exhausted to the point of collapse, but she wouldn't let down her guard. Sam stood on the other side of a table before her, her emerald green eyes never moving away from hers. They were both covered in bruises and wounds from the shattered glass on the floor and wood splinters of the desks they'd destroyed in their fight.
The pouring rain from the skylight had long since doused the flames started by the bomb, until there was nothing left but damp furniture and smoking piles of wood or human flesh around them. They didn't care however, their fight had consumed them until they lost track of their surroundings.
"MADISOOOOOONNNN!" Mandy's scream echoed down, the first thing to break them from their combat trance. They didn't even have time to look up before a purple form slammed into the table between them, shattering it like a meteor plunging through a building. Clover and Sam put up their arms to defend against splinter shards that flew through the air with the sound of cracking wood and bone mingling together.
Slowly Clover lowered her arms, staring in shock at the twisted form of the pre-teen girl lying amid the wood chips that remained of the table. She looked up at the roof to see Mandy leaning over the side of the skylight, her arm still outstretched as if to catch her in mid-fall. Her face was a mask of shock and horror, staring down at the body of her sister.
"Oh my God... Madison..." Sam rushed to the table and sank to her knees, reaching out with her left hand, shivering in horror at the girl's blank, emotionless gaze. "What... what happened...? Mandy?" Sam looked up quickly, seeing Mandy staring down at them in shock and sorrow.
"I think... we happened to her..." Clover decided grimly. She looked down at Sam, whose gaze had shifted to her without hatred for the first time in over a month. Tears flowed down her cheeks, mingling with the rain that fell through the broken skylight.
Sam blinked, then looked down at the little girl again, reaching down to stroke Madison's cheek. Tears flowed down her cheeks as her shoulders shook, her anger for the first time in weeks overcome by the shock of seeing the child lying dead on the floor in front of her.
Clover looked up at Mandy through the skylight, then headed for the door in the back to make her way up the staircases to the roof. She emerged into the dark sky, ignoring the searing cold and torrential rains to approach Mandy, who hadn't moved from her position near the skylight.
"Mandy..." Clover walked up to her from behind, kneeling down beside her to stroke her back. When she got no response she pulled Mandy up from the roof, seeing that she left a small pool of blood on the roof where she'd been laying. Mandy looked up at her, pale-faced and shivering, her eyes darting wildly around as if she was still trying to catch her sister.
"I... I didn't know she would fall... I couldn't catch her... I tried... I tried..." Mandy sputtered randomly. Clover nodded and pulled her into a tight hug, letting her lie against her weakly. Mandy held her close, shivering and burying her face in the side of her neck.
"It's okay Mandy... it's over..." Clover said softly, closing her eyes and leaning her cheek against the top of Mandy's head. The rain fell down around them, blanketing them in its cold embrace, almost as cold as the embrace of death that had gripped Madison...
Clover's eyes snapped open when she heard a high-pitched metallic whirring sound from the courtyard behind the U.N. building. Clover turned around as the sound grew louder, and it was soon joined by the sound of flames firing from jet engines.
Clover gently pushed Mandy back, who looked in the direction of the noise numbly. Clover ran to the back of the building, her eyes widening when she saw a large jet with the United States flag emblazoned on its side. She could see a yellow-suited form lying limp on the lift that was raising it out of the Earth, while its engines turned downward for vertical takeoff.
"Alex..." Clover grumbled darkly as the plane's jets finished warming up and flared to life. Mandy walked up behind her, not bothering to hold the wounds over her chest. "The President's going to get away with it... everything that happened..."
"It was all his fault..." Mandy growled hatefully, watching the jet lift into the air. "All of this is because he was the one pulling the strings... he framed you... he killed my father... he killed Madison..."
"And us all out of gadgets..." Clover shook her head grimly as the jet passed their eye-level. She could see the president through one of the windows in the back of the plane, looking out at them with a satisfied expression on his face. He knew he'd won, despite everything that had happened here. At least, he was likely to win now.
"No. He's not getting away!" Mandy sprinted forward, pumping her legs as hard as she could across the dangerously slick roof. Clover yelled after her alarmed, but she couldn't hope to catch her before Mandy hurled herself off the edge of the roof. She sailed through the rain as another flash of lightning shone off the reflective hull of the jet.
She slammed into the top of the right wing with a dull thud, gripping the slick edges with both hands as she pulled herself along it. "Mandy! Don't!" Clover screamed, though her voice was lost under the roar of the jet engines. Mandy pulled herself up the length of the wing struggling to hold onto the incredibly slick surface.
The door of the jet opened and a well-suited figure stood just inside, holding onto the door to keep from being blown out of the jet. "Who ARE you exactly?" He called arrogantly, keeping his eyes on Mandy. "Do you think you're going to make history tonight? Do you think one pissed off child is going to change the world?"
"You don't need to know who I am... to know I'm about to kick your ass." Mandy gripped the wing with one hand as it rose ever higher into the night sky. Her other hand reached up to pull the last Boomerang Buzzsaw Barrette out of her hair, extending the blades with a push of a button. The President raised a gun from behind his back, pointing it straight at her.
"If you value your life, you won't do anything drastic." Chambers called over the roar of the engine directly below Mandy.
"You'd kill me anyway. I'm dead no matter what. But it'll feel damn good to take you with me." Her wrist flicked outward, sending the blade hurtling through the rain and raging winds below them. Chambers turned to fire on it desperately, but it was way too small a target in very poor conditions.
It turned back in the air, arching toward the engine underneath Mandy. "Get this jet moving!" Chambers screamed into the jet, but it was already too late. The buzzsaw flew straight up the engine, slamming into the gas tank with enough force to make the whole damn thing detonate. Mandy flattened herself against the wing as the jet careened to the side, no longer supporting by the necessary two engines.
The U.C. building loomed ahead of them as a lightning flash cut through the torrential rain, showing Clover still standing on the edge in an attempt to see the jet. "RUN CLOVER!" Mandy screamed at the top of her lungs as the nose of the jet embedded itself into the side of the building, destabilizing the whole damn thing.
"Shit!" Clover turned and ran toward the other side of the building as the building began to collapse. She pumped her legs as hard as she could. The sound of cement and concrete hitting the ground far below her dominated along with the rumble of the Earth itself trembling under the weight. Finally she reached the front of the building in a sprint while Mandy was flung from the slick jet's wing.
She slammed into the wall of the building as it continued to collapse, sending large chunks of debris raining down around her. She scrambled to get out of the way, barely rolling away from one chunk that could have split her spine in half on impact. She scurried away from the building on all fours, collapsing to her back and panting furiously as she turned to watch the building collapse. Finally it settled to the ground, ceasing the rumbling that had been splitting the air until there was no sound but the pitter-patter of rain drops and thunder.
"Ugh... I wonder if Clover's okay..." She pushed herself slowly to her feet, brushing of her black and silver body suit as she started walking shakily toward the side of the building. A gunshot halted her however, as the bullet plunged into the ground right at her feet. She stepped back quickly and looked to the side to see President Chambers walking toward her with his gun raised.
"You think you've won? Nothing can defeat the United States of America. I'll get back to my country, and then you'll wish you'd joined us instead of trying to fight us." He pulled back the hammer of his gun, staring into Mandy's eyes. Mandy remained motionless, staring at him with her arms hanging limply at her sides. He was the source of all this...
"Does murder really feel so good?" Mandy turned to march toward him. Chambers fired another shot at her feet, but she didn't even flinch, going into a run. This time the barrel of the gun aimed straight at her chest, but something slammed into him from the side, tackling him to the soaked grass with a dull wet thud.
Alex's fist slammed into his face, burying his head in the wet grass. She punched him again with her other fist, then the first in a series of blows that quickly coated her hands in blood. Mandy walked up behind her, watching pitilessly until she finally stopped, panting and staring down at the mangled face of the president. He was still breathing, but unconscious.
Alex looked up at Mandy, pale faced and shivering as her emotions had been spent. Mandy offered her hand, which Alex took to help her climb to her feet. "How...? We saw you on the platform..." Mandy said softly.
"Little gift from Heaven..." Alex unzipped the front of her uniform and pulled out a small silver star shaped pendant. The direct center was bent sharply inward, and the flat disk that had been a bullet fell off of it to the ground at their feet. "Jerry's always been there for us after all..." Alex smiled slightly, sliding the pendant back into her uniform.
"Come on, let's go find Clover and make sure she's okay." Mandy said softly. Alex nodded and they walked around the side of the U.C. building. In front the diplomats and leaders from the various countries were being looked over by paramedics. Those who were uninjured were gathered to one side, watching the paramedics do their work or looking at the rubble of the U.C. building.
"Hey, we've got more survivors over here!" Several paramedics rushed to Mandy and Alex. Alex was pulled toward one of the ambulances parked on the lawn, but Mandy pulled away from them. Mandy could see Sam inside one of the ambulances being treated, and a small bodybag was sitting inside another. She didn't, however, see Clover anywhere.
"Where's Clover? Is she up here?" She asked.
"We haven't seen anyone by that name." One of the paramedics replied.
"Tell someone to pick up President Chambers behind the building, he's unconscious." Mandy said. The paramedics nodded and rushed off, leaving Mandy to turn bck to the ruined building. She hadn't seen Clover get off the roof... could she be trapped inside the rubble?
"Clover!" Mandy shouted as she walked up to the rubble. Her eyes scanned every little rock she could see, looking for any sign of movement or flesh. She didn't see anything... no sign of Clover one way or another. She could have been so deep inside that she couldn't be seen... "Clover..."
"What is it already?" A snippy voice replied. Mandy blinked and looked up, seeing a red shape hanging limply in the branches of a particularly tall tree. Her suit and flesh alike were torn apart by various small twigs and thorns, apparently after she'd leapt from the roof and landed in the tree. It was one of the stupidest things Mandy had ever heard of. But it worked, and that was what mattered.
"Clover!" Mandy ran to the tree and climbed quickly up the trunk, scaling the branches like a monkey until she reached Clover and straddled the branch beside hers. She pulled Clover out of her entangled state, pulling her into a soft embrace. "God, don't scare me like that."
"Scare YOU? You almost buried me..." Clover retorted, though her voice lacked the sharpness she usually used to tease Mandy. "Did you get him?"
"Yeah, they're going to get him now." Mandy replied. Clover nodded and smiled, her head lying against Mandy's chest lightly. "So it's all really over now... the president's going down for his crimes... and then they can depose all of the officials he installed."
"Sounds good." Clover nodded, staring up into Mandy's eyes. Mandy stared back, giving her a slight smile and stroking her cheek with one hand. "I guess that means we go back to our lives soon..."
"You do at least..." Mandy replied softly. "My dad's dead... he was the one paying for everything... without him, I don't have anything... or anybody..."
"Ya still got me." Clover reached up to put her hand on Mandy's, still stroking her cheek. "WOOHP gave us our own place... you can stay with us if you want... Hell, I'm sure after this they'd let you join WOOHP if you wanted... once they get that bastard Richard out of there."
"Join you...?" Mandy blinked. She hadn't thought about it before. She'd just been riding the current where it took her, and looked for a way to get revenge... she hadn't considered taking it as a career choice.
"You don't have to decide now." Clover told her. "For now, let's just be glad it's over." She pulled herself closer to Mandy, wrapping her arms around her torso. Mandy put her hands on Clover's back, leaning her cheek against the top of her head. A WOOHP agent... with Clover all the time after all of this had happened... there were worse lives she could think of...
TO BE CONTINUED
Clover stood with her arms up, panting heavily and exhausted to the point of collapse, but she wouldn't let down her guard. Sam stood on the other side of a table before her, her emerald green eyes never moving away from hers. They were both covered in bruises and wounds from the shattered glass on the floor and wood splinters of the desks they'd destroyed in their fight.
The pouring rain from the skylight had long since doused the flames started by the bomb, until there was nothing left but damp furniture and smoking piles of wood or human flesh around them. They didn't care however, their fight had consumed them until they lost track of their surroundings.
"MADISOOOOOONNNN!" Mandy's scream echoed down, the first thing to break them from their combat trance. They didn't even have time to look up before a purple form slammed into the table between them, shattering it like a meteor plunging through a building. Clover and Sam put up their arms to defend against splinter shards that flew through the air with the sound of cracking wood and bone mingling together.
Slowly Clover lowered her arms, staring in shock at the twisted form of the pre-teen girl lying amid the wood chips that remained of the table. She looked up at the roof to see Mandy leaning over the side of the skylight, her arm still outstretched as if to catch her in mid-fall. Her face was a mask of shock and horror, staring down at the body of her sister.
"Oh my God... Madison..." Sam rushed to the table and sank to her knees, reaching out with her left hand, shivering in horror at the girl's blank, emotionless gaze. "What... what happened...? Mandy?" Sam looked up quickly, seeing Mandy staring down at them in shock and sorrow.
"I think... we happened to her..." Clover decided grimly. She looked down at Sam, whose gaze had shifted to her without hatred for the first time in over a month. Tears flowed down her cheeks, mingling with the rain that fell through the broken skylight.
Sam blinked, then looked down at the little girl again, reaching down to stroke Madison's cheek. Tears flowed down her cheeks as her shoulders shook, her anger for the first time in weeks overcome by the shock of seeing the child lying dead on the floor in front of her.
Clover looked up at Mandy through the skylight, then headed for the door in the back to make her way up the staircases to the roof. She emerged into the dark sky, ignoring the searing cold and torrential rains to approach Mandy, who hadn't moved from her position near the skylight.
"Mandy..." Clover walked up to her from behind, kneeling down beside her to stroke her back. When she got no response she pulled Mandy up from the roof, seeing that she left a small pool of blood on the roof where she'd been laying. Mandy looked up at her, pale-faced and shivering, her eyes darting wildly around as if she was still trying to catch her sister.
"I... I didn't know she would fall... I couldn't catch her... I tried... I tried..." Mandy sputtered randomly. Clover nodded and pulled her into a tight hug, letting her lie against her weakly. Mandy held her close, shivering and burying her face in the side of her neck.
"It's okay Mandy... it's over..." Clover said softly, closing her eyes and leaning her cheek against the top of Mandy's head. The rain fell down around them, blanketing them in its cold embrace, almost as cold as the embrace of death that had gripped Madison...
Clover's eyes snapped open when she heard a high-pitched metallic whirring sound from the courtyard behind the U.N. building. Clover turned around as the sound grew louder, and it was soon joined by the sound of flames firing from jet engines.
Clover gently pushed Mandy back, who looked in the direction of the noise numbly. Clover ran to the back of the building, her eyes widening when she saw a large jet with the United States flag emblazoned on its side. She could see a yellow-suited form lying limp on the lift that was raising it out of the Earth, while its engines turned downward for vertical takeoff.
"Alex..." Clover grumbled darkly as the plane's jets finished warming up and flared to life. Mandy walked up behind her, not bothering to hold the wounds over her chest. "The President's going to get away with it... everything that happened..."
"It was all his fault..." Mandy growled hatefully, watching the jet lift into the air. "All of this is because he was the one pulling the strings... he framed you... he killed my father... he killed Madison..."
"And us all out of gadgets..." Clover shook her head grimly as the jet passed their eye-level. She could see the president through one of the windows in the back of the plane, looking out at them with a satisfied expression on his face. He knew he'd won, despite everything that had happened here. At least, he was likely to win now.
"No. He's not getting away!" Mandy sprinted forward, pumping her legs as hard as she could across the dangerously slick roof. Clover yelled after her alarmed, but she couldn't hope to catch her before Mandy hurled herself off the edge of the roof. She sailed through the rain as another flash of lightning shone off the reflective hull of the jet.
She slammed into the top of the right wing with a dull thud, gripping the slick edges with both hands as she pulled herself along it. "Mandy! Don't!" Clover screamed, though her voice was lost under the roar of the jet engines. Mandy pulled herself up the length of the wing struggling to hold onto the incredibly slick surface.
The door of the jet opened and a well-suited figure stood just inside, holding onto the door to keep from being blown out of the jet. "Who ARE you exactly?" He called arrogantly, keeping his eyes on Mandy. "Do you think you're going to make history tonight? Do you think one pissed off child is going to change the world?"
"You don't need to know who I am... to know I'm about to kick your ass." Mandy gripped the wing with one hand as it rose ever higher into the night sky. Her other hand reached up to pull the last Boomerang Buzzsaw Barrette out of her hair, extending the blades with a push of a button. The President raised a gun from behind his back, pointing it straight at her.
"If you value your life, you won't do anything drastic." Chambers called over the roar of the engine directly below Mandy.
"You'd kill me anyway. I'm dead no matter what. But it'll feel damn good to take you with me." Her wrist flicked outward, sending the blade hurtling through the rain and raging winds below them. Chambers turned to fire on it desperately, but it was way too small a target in very poor conditions.
It turned back in the air, arching toward the engine underneath Mandy. "Get this jet moving!" Chambers screamed into the jet, but it was already too late. The buzzsaw flew straight up the engine, slamming into the gas tank with enough force to make the whole damn thing detonate. Mandy flattened herself against the wing as the jet careened to the side, no longer supporting by the necessary two engines.
The U.C. building loomed ahead of them as a lightning flash cut through the torrential rain, showing Clover still standing on the edge in an attempt to see the jet. "RUN CLOVER!" Mandy screamed at the top of her lungs as the nose of the jet embedded itself into the side of the building, destabilizing the whole damn thing.
"Shit!" Clover turned and ran toward the other side of the building as the building began to collapse. She pumped her legs as hard as she could. The sound of cement and concrete hitting the ground far below her dominated along with the rumble of the Earth itself trembling under the weight. Finally she reached the front of the building in a sprint while Mandy was flung from the slick jet's wing.
She slammed into the wall of the building as it continued to collapse, sending large chunks of debris raining down around her. She scrambled to get out of the way, barely rolling away from one chunk that could have split her spine in half on impact. She scurried away from the building on all fours, collapsing to her back and panting furiously as she turned to watch the building collapse. Finally it settled to the ground, ceasing the rumbling that had been splitting the air until there was no sound but the pitter-patter of rain drops and thunder.
"Ugh... I wonder if Clover's okay..." She pushed herself slowly to her feet, brushing of her black and silver body suit as she started walking shakily toward the side of the building. A gunshot halted her however, as the bullet plunged into the ground right at her feet. She stepped back quickly and looked to the side to see President Chambers walking toward her with his gun raised.
"You think you've won? Nothing can defeat the United States of America. I'll get back to my country, and then you'll wish you'd joined us instead of trying to fight us." He pulled back the hammer of his gun, staring into Mandy's eyes. Mandy remained motionless, staring at him with her arms hanging limply at her sides. He was the source of all this...
"Does murder really feel so good?" Mandy turned to march toward him. Chambers fired another shot at her feet, but she didn't even flinch, going into a run. This time the barrel of the gun aimed straight at her chest, but something slammed into him from the side, tackling him to the soaked grass with a dull wet thud.
Alex's fist slammed into his face, burying his head in the wet grass. She punched him again with her other fist, then the first in a series of blows that quickly coated her hands in blood. Mandy walked up behind her, watching pitilessly until she finally stopped, panting and staring down at the mangled face of the president. He was still breathing, but unconscious.
Alex looked up at Mandy, pale faced and shivering as her emotions had been spent. Mandy offered her hand, which Alex took to help her climb to her feet. "How...? We saw you on the platform..." Mandy said softly.
"Little gift from Heaven..." Alex unzipped the front of her uniform and pulled out a small silver star shaped pendant. The direct center was bent sharply inward, and the flat disk that had been a bullet fell off of it to the ground at their feet. "Jerry's always been there for us after all..." Alex smiled slightly, sliding the pendant back into her uniform.
"Come on, let's go find Clover and make sure she's okay." Mandy said softly. Alex nodded and they walked around the side of the U.C. building. In front the diplomats and leaders from the various countries were being looked over by paramedics. Those who were uninjured were gathered to one side, watching the paramedics do their work or looking at the rubble of the U.C. building.
"Hey, we've got more survivors over here!" Several paramedics rushed to Mandy and Alex. Alex was pulled toward one of the ambulances parked on the lawn, but Mandy pulled away from them. Mandy could see Sam inside one of the ambulances being treated, and a small bodybag was sitting inside another. She didn't, however, see Clover anywhere.
"Where's Clover? Is she up here?" She asked.
"We haven't seen anyone by that name." One of the paramedics replied.
"Tell someone to pick up President Chambers behind the building, he's unconscious." Mandy said. The paramedics nodded and rushed off, leaving Mandy to turn bck to the ruined building. She hadn't seen Clover get off the roof... could she be trapped inside the rubble?
"Clover!" Mandy shouted as she walked up to the rubble. Her eyes scanned every little rock she could see, looking for any sign of movement or flesh. She didn't see anything... no sign of Clover one way or another. She could have been so deep inside that she couldn't be seen... "Clover..."
"What is it already?" A snippy voice replied. Mandy blinked and looked up, seeing a red shape hanging limply in the branches of a particularly tall tree. Her suit and flesh alike were torn apart by various small twigs and thorns, apparently after she'd leapt from the roof and landed in the tree. It was one of the stupidest things Mandy had ever heard of. But it worked, and that was what mattered.
"Clover!" Mandy ran to the tree and climbed quickly up the trunk, scaling the branches like a monkey until she reached Clover and straddled the branch beside hers. She pulled Clover out of her entangled state, pulling her into a soft embrace. "God, don't scare me like that."
"Scare YOU? You almost buried me..." Clover retorted, though her voice lacked the sharpness she usually used to tease Mandy. "Did you get him?"
"Yeah, they're going to get him now." Mandy replied. Clover nodded and smiled, her head lying against Mandy's chest lightly. "So it's all really over now... the president's going down for his crimes... and then they can depose all of the officials he installed."
"Sounds good." Clover nodded, staring up into Mandy's eyes. Mandy stared back, giving her a slight smile and stroking her cheek with one hand. "I guess that means we go back to our lives soon..."
"You do at least..." Mandy replied softly. "My dad's dead... he was the one paying for everything... without him, I don't have anything... or anybody..."
"Ya still got me." Clover reached up to put her hand on Mandy's, still stroking her cheek. "WOOHP gave us our own place... you can stay with us if you want... Hell, I'm sure after this they'd let you join WOOHP if you wanted... once they get that bastard Richard out of there."
"Join you...?" Mandy blinked. She hadn't thought about it before. She'd just been riding the current where it took her, and looked for a way to get revenge... she hadn't considered taking it as a career choice.
"You don't have to decide now." Clover told her. "For now, let's just be glad it's over." She pulled herself closer to Mandy, wrapping her arms around her torso. Mandy put her hands on Clover's back, leaning her cheek against the top of her head. A WOOHP agent... with Clover all the time after all of this had happened... there were worse lives she could think of...
TO BE CONTINUED