Chapter four: With her Luck
"Are ya gonna carry me all the way home?" Angel giggled and wrapped her arms even tighter around Ben's neck running her fingers through his neckhair teasing him, trying to get some sort of reaction out of him. Then, without a warning she started to laugh almost hysterically which she hadn't done for a long time. Ben frowned. She had definitely had one too many.
"So are ya?"
"What?"
"Carry me all the way home?" she repeated. "I feel like we're getting married all over again."
He gave an amused laugh. "Well lady, I doubt that you can walk at all in that condition and I didn't really feel like leaving you in some bar full of gangsters for a night." Though, he suspected she could've beaten the crap out of them even then.
"Besides, even if you could walk, it'd take forever before we'd get home", he continued. Knowing Angel she would've gotten some new silly idea; seen a new bar to go to. When she got into the mood there was not many that were able to keep up with her – both literally and figuratively. Naturally, he could.
"Oh, my knight in shining armor, aren't ya?" Angel sighed sounding dramatic. "This must be a dream come true."
"Must be", Ben said smiling sadly.
It was kind of funny to see Angel drunk which was highly unlike of her. Being a loving husband, he of course had tried to stop her from drinking all of those shots of scotch. Although this time he hadn't been too bossy 'bout that. Honestly, he hadn't been bossy at all. He couldn't help but think that when she was more than slightly drunk, it made the whole thing a little easier for him. And hopefully for her as well. Alcohol killed pain, for a moment anyway. And moment was all he needed.
Besides, even if he had wanted to keep her from drinking, there wasn't much he could've done to stop her. Angel was as stubborn as a bull. She had always been like that; loving and caring but also wild and impulsive. She always did exactly what she wanted to and nothing that he or anybody else said made any difference. What she wanted, she usually took - simple as that. It would all change again. They'd force it to change.
"I'm totally wasted!"
"Stating the obvious, honey."
"Get outta here!" she joked, but then her voice all the sudden changed completely, like she was mad at him for a reason he didn't know.
"You son of a bitch!" She screamed. What the hell? Had he done something again? "Don't you even think about taking advantage of me being drunk, cause it ain't happening, pretty boy. My man will totally kick your ass!"
Oh, she'd been watching TV again. "Your man? Ya ok Angel?"
"Almost perfect." But just almost. "Why? Oh – ya don't mean that little thing I just said, do ya?" She giggled again sounding like a drunken teenager. Well she was drunk, wasn't she?
"Well that crossed my mind, yeah."
"Oh. Well, it was something I have always wanted to say and now I have, thanks to you. I saw it in this movie once – somehow can't remember which one right now."
"I wonder why."
"But it was like really funny. I mean, I laughed my head off!" she kept rambling like she hadn't heard his remark. Well, probably hadn't. Angel was skilled with ignoring things she didn't want to know about.
Truthfully, she had ignored it only because she really hadn't paid any attention to it. She had been thinking how much she liked it - that feeling. She absolutely loved it! Everything in her head was spinning around wildly, almost like there was no end near and thinking about Manticore didn't cause any kind of pain which was new to her. She felt – as she had said – almost perfect. For the first time in weeks, her life was smiling again and she was almost happy.
For all night she had been thinking whether to tell Ben what she was or not. She finally ended up with a strict no. What on earth could she possibly say to him?
Honey, I'm really sorry but I have to tell ya something. I was wondering if I have ever mentioned that I'm a gene manipulated human weapon, who is actually on a mission right about now, spying on ya, of course. Hope that doesn't change anything between us. Does it? Well ya know, girl's gotta do what girl's gotta do.
"Ya think you can stand for a while on your own two without falling on your ass, baby?" Ben asked highly doubting it. Angel was force to snap back to the present and she notice they had arrived at the front door of their apartment. All she wanted was to take a warm bath and forget everything.
"Well of course", she said starting to laugh again. Ben gave her a questioning look. "Ya sure?"
Honey, I'm an X5; yes I'm sure. "I'm sure!"
"Okay", he shrugged and dropped her gently down onto her own two feet. At the same time that he took his hand off her back to look for his keys, she fell against the door with a loud thud that probably woke up the whole building. "Shit", he cursed wrapping his arms around her waist just when she was about to fall onto her knees.
"Oops?"
"Exactly what I'd have said."
Somehow he managed to keep her up and open the door with one hand… but trying to get them both inside at the same time without waking up the whole neighbourhood was the hard part. When he finally managed to get them both in and shut the door by kicking it gently, he threw the keys onto the nearest table next to the door while glancing around the hall. For some reason he didn't put the lights on, like he would've wanted a status report first. There were no signs of danger anywhere, which made him only more suspicious.
Where the hell are you guys? He wanted it to be over quickly.
"You can let go already, I'm totally fine-"
The sound of a breaking window interrupted her sentence getting their full-attention.
Oh my God, what was that? The boost she'd been drinking seemed to vanish from her head in no time. Unfortunately it didn't have the same healing effect on her body - more like the opposite.
They heard another noise but they still didn't make a move. Never expose your position to the enemy - they had both learned that in the very beginning of their lives. They both just focused on trying to locate from where exactly had the voice come. The Manticore inside of her woke up making all sense of fear within her head disappear.
Ben heard them, knowing that they were in the house, in the basement to be exact; but the alcohol was still keeping her senses down so she couldn't hear the scratching noise their shoes made. Ben wasn't actually sure if that was a bad thing or not but it really wasn't the first subject he needed to be worrying about. This is it.
Then Angel suddenly straightened herself to her full height, clenching her fists, throwing a worried look at him. In unison they both backed a couple of steps towards the front door, scanning the space around them making sure no enemies were waiting in the shadows of the room. Now he knew for sure that she heard them, but before either one of them had time to do or even think of doing anything else, four dark figures approached them from the living-room's darkness guns pointed at them. Angel couldn't see their faces due to black commando masks that they had pulled over their heads, protecting their identities. One of them came closer than the others, so obviously Angel assumed him to be the leader.
"I wouldn't move if I were you."
A wave of shock wiped over her and she couldn't help but gasp out of anger as she heard the cold voice of female's. She observed the figure in front of her eyes and rage started to bubble beneath her skin as she realised the truth. Hell yeah, she was a woman! Some bitch had just barged into her house? Angel narrowed her eyes threateningly. Soon she would show her who the real boss of the house was but not until the right moment had come up.
Never attack under pressure.
"What the fuck are ya doin' here?" Ben said with a deep voice which was filled with anger after he recovered from the shock that seeing her there had caused. Of course the shock was half faked.
"And I sure would like to know, who the hell you are." Angel questioned right away. "That doesn't concern you", the cold voice replied.
At that point Angel was ready to bitchslap the stranger. "You're in my house, bitch, of course it concerns me!"
The stranger sighed. "Look lady, we can do this the easy way or the not-so-pleasant-way. Personally I prefer the latter but it's your call. Do we understand each other?"
Silence.
"I take that as a yes." She turned to look at her crime mates. "You, Delta, go upstairs. See if there's anything what we could use. You, Alpha, go check the backyard. And you Kappa, you know what to do. So do it!" she gave orders to them which they followed with no arguments.
Oh please. "Delta, alpha and Kappa – how original. Don' tell me that you're omega."
"Actually I am."
"Oh." Angel shrugged. If the burgles lacked in imagination it wasn't her problem. The guns, now those were her problem.
If the moment hadn't been the kind it was, Ben would've laughed. Angel tried to use everything she had
ever learnt but 734 knew all the tricks. Trying to confuse the enemy, trying to unbalance her attention, trying to make her pissed – it all was a part of Angel's plan but 734 was too smart to fall for it. They had had the same training, after all.
Who are they? What do they want from us? Angel couldn't figure it out. She looked at Ben trying to signal him to be ready for what was about to happen next but she couldn't do much because of "Omega's" intense stare.
What happened next seemed to surprise not only Angel and Ben, but their enemy too. It was screaming.
Val's screaming, Angel realised and when she heard a sound of a gun being fired she lost control of herself. The shot had gotten the lady in black to look over her shoulder which was of course a big mistake. That exact moment was just the kind of Angel had been waiting for and within a nanosecond Angel moved towards her wiping her legs under her with her own feet. She fell down onto her back cursing out loud. Angel grabbed the gun from her hands when she fell and pointed it towards 734 looking at Ben at the same time.
They didn't talk and at first Angel didn't even move. It seemed like she'd needed a minute to straighten up her thoughts.
Ben gave an angry look to the soldier lying on the ground. He knew that 734 hadn't fought - well, if I can call that horrible fall act a fight - with all her strength 'cause if she had, Angel would have been dead already but this wasn't the way they had planned it. The truth be told, he didn't mind her getting knocked out 'cause he knew too well that Angel really didn't stand a change against her even though she thought she would. She, 734 was not only one of the best marshal arts specialists but the best assassin Manticore had ever trained… but of course, Angel didn't know it. How could she have? The information had been kept from her for years.
Angel didn't have the time to think about it though. Actually, all she could think about at the moment was Val.
Oh my God. Michael?
The fact that their home was under an attack, meant nothing to her now. Where is Michael? Where's Val? They were the last thoughts in her mind before she lost consciousness.
