damn screwed up my spacing so I have to use line breaks to do the dirty work in place of hyphens.

Wings of Destruction
Chapter 9
Vicious Attempts

"Are you alright?" Uno asked as she entered the freeway. Mandy's eyes were closed and she was breathing rather heavy. Uno spared a glance in the girl's direction as she changed lanes to the far left side.

"Mandy?"

"Yeah," Mandy replied hoarsely. "I just hurt all over. That's all." She opened her eyes and sorely looked back at Uno.

Uno fumed and returned to stare at the road. "You shouldn't have done that."

"I had too," Mandy retorted.

Uno ignored her reply and shook her head. "You shouldn't have had them messing with your body. Now you can never go back after this war is finished; I wanted to let you four have the ability to lead normal lives but after what you did it's useless."

Mandy looked down to her lap where her fingers were fidgeting. "It wouldn't matter—Vincent would keep me for himself once the war is over. And I don't want kids if they're going to be coming from either one of us. I've been through enough abortions in my life so far and adopting may not be so bad."

Uno felt her blood drain thin; she didn't know her own parents and this girl was talking about abortion and adoption like it was an everyday task. "Tramp," Uno murmured.

"What?" Mandy blinked over.

Uno looked out her own window and kept her voice low. "Nothing."

"Chris…" Vincent sat down on the armchair and lulled Chris's attention away from the book held firmly in his hands. "I'm wondering…"

Chris looked up with a smile on his face. Vincent relaxed and stretched out his legs before him. Justin was sitting on the other armchair across from him and reading a magazine.

"Yes, Vincent?"

"Have you ever been kissed?" Justin looked up through the tops of his eyes and over to Chris. "You know… just a wonder."

Chris's eyes creased and his lips pressed thin. "If you're wondering if I've ever been fucked then the answer is no!" He pushed out a rough breath and returned to his book.

Vincent's brows rose in shock at the kid's reply and Justin only chuckled, shook his head, and continued reading.

"Damn Chris… only a question." Vincent retorted with a sneer.

"Why do you have to ask?" Chris replied negatively. "More output to use against me?"

"It's input," Justin intersected in correction. Chris glanced over at him as Justin continued staring at the magazine. "It's more 'input' to have 'output' against you." Chris blinked.

"Smart ass," Vincent sneered Justin. Justin only grinned in return and the two other men in the room returned to face one another.

"I'm asking because I'm wondering how old you are—you look fourteen."

"Well I'm not," Chris growled back. "Mandy's fourteen—Uno's fourteen. I'm sixteen thank you very much!"

"Damn it you fucking asshole!" Vincent shot to his feet and roared down at the child sitting below him. Chris stared up at him in sudden shock. "All I'm doing is fucking asking you questions; I don't like that dick-headed attitude you're giving me in return!"

Chris tossed the book aside onto the couch and shot to his feet. He stared up at the man several inches above him and yelled back in his face.

"And I don't like people accusing me of having sex with my own mother because of my immaturity, lack of friends, fame, and popularity! I got enough of that in school and I joined in on this team to prove myself better than everyone else!"

"Well you sure as hell haven't made any attempts to get better at it, yet!" Vincent roared back. "I don't even see you trying!"

"I haven't had the chance to try yet, Jackass!" Justin stood as the two continued to argue. "If you would give me a chance then maybe you would see you're not the one making the rules around here!"

"Hey," Justin pushed his arms in between the two fierce bodies and began to spread them apart. His voice remained calm and toneless and he stared at the space between the two rather than into their faces—a better way to break up a fight.

"Come on now," Justin began pushing them apart. "Uno's the one who makes all the rules around here, alright, so stop this fight. It's not worth the time and effort and you could save the anger for something better."

Vincent growled and turned away from the childish boy standing below him. Chris's teeth slowly stopped their clenching and he dropped his gaze to the floor. Justin lowered his arm and returned to the chair.

"This model isn't large enough to co-exist with the rest of them," Doctor Masons fumed down at his data sheets below him. Doctor Vix glanced down at the plans and picked up one of the sheets. His light blue eyes blinked in interest as he took another bite into the apple in his hands.

"Angel?"

"I think it gives her another image aside from blonde hair and blue eyes; even the model color is white and gold trimmed," Masons turned to face his alley.

"Yes but," Vix nodded and swallowed his bite. "I heard Professor G and Doctor J state their model was entitled Angel already."

"And it is," Professor G's voice rang out in the hangar and all other four scientists paused in their work to glance over at him. "The model is far superior to that of any of your own or any we have ever designed so I expect you to change your name immediately. The Angel of Death continues the reign of the God of Death; she is his daughter and thus it will be kept. At the same time, Angels are far superior to anything you could ever achieve." Professor G dumped the bin of loose scrap metal into the garbage can and turned back to his and Doctor J's private office to continue their work.

"Incompetent fool," Mason's snarled.

"Easy Masons," Vix lowered the sheet and turned away from his partner's table. "We'll just think of another name—that's all. Evan—what is yours considered?"

Lieutenant Evan stood up from his perch below the base of a foot as it was being suspended off the ground. He glanced over to his allies before signaling to the workers to keep up their work. "What was that Vix?"

"I asked what your design was called."

"Phantom." He glanced down at the data plans on Mason's desk and pointed at one of the cross stitches that marked its wide and broad chest plate. "How about X?"

"X?" Mason's replied in shock before shooting to his feet. "X!"

Evan shrugged and folded his arms behind his back. "Besides the marking, isn't your girl usually in ecstasy whenever she is being used?" He turned away from the two doctors and nodded his agreement to one of the workers.

"X…" Mason's trailed off as if the word had a deeper meaning to it. He glanced down at the paper. "Well, with the proper colors I guess it could be useful…"

"Don't use X, Masons—the public will take to it that she is no more than a common druggie," Vix sat down at his desk besides Mason's and shifted through his papers. "Just call it Dick because that's all she's capable of fighting against."

"What do you have, Sanders?"

Sanders look up from the engine where he was configuring the wiring system. "This thing's name is Predator… kinda' makes it alluring in a dark way, I suppose."

"But your kid's a child," Vix muttered incoherently.

Sanders shrugged. "He wants to grow up and become a badass…" He turned back to the engine. "His loss if it doesn't suit him; we only make the machines… they have to adapt to them."

"Vix… what was Justin's machine called?"

"Zeus," Vix replied nonchalantly.

Mason's tilted his head back and forms an o with his lips. He then smirked and shrugged his shoulders. "Ah… well, I feel we are going to have a rather… odd… group of fighters."

"So… all you have to do is rest?" Uno took a hard right and nearly put the van on two wheels. "Better tell that to Vincent."

Mandy rolled her eyes. "That pervert's just going to have to wait."

"Pervert?" Uno blinked over at the comrade sitting in the seat besides her. "You are actually calling him a pervert?"

Mandy snorted. "Well he is," she glanced out the window to her right. "But now that Mason's worked on my body I think I'll be fine."

Uno cleared her throat and shook her head as Mandy's words came out differently than the dumb blonde supposedly meant. Mandy turned and looked at Uno with confusion spreading across her face.

"What?"

"Nothing," Uno shook her head. "Don't worry about it."

Mandy sighed and noticed Uno glaring into the rearview mirror. She turned her head to look back behind them then back to Uno in wonder. "What is it?"

"This asshole's been following us for four miles now," Uno growled. "And he's been starting to tailgate me."

"Maybe you're going too slowly and he can't get around," Mandy glanced around them. "It's the fast lane of the freeway we just got off of and perhaps he's in a hurry."

"Hrm…" Uno slowed down and moved onto the shoulder so he could pass by and he sped off and out of sight within the next minute. "Stupid jackass."

Mandy giggled. "Speed demons… I can't speak though. When Michael let me drive his car he would have to take me to the track cuz I like the speed of the momentum."

Uno slowed down when she neared the red light and took a heavy sigh. Mandy closed her eyes and relaxed. Mason's did wonders working on her body but now she had to relax or she would faint from overwhelming. Uno stared ahead down the road as it turned off of the freeway. The woods were up about ten more minutes and she'd get there with enough time to load up her gear and head on out to the hangar for her assignment. G and J won't give her the details until she got there so she'd have to head in early to get a head start.

The green compact car that had sped by them only seconds ago arrived at their left and despite having a red light drove right on through. Other horns blared and Mandy opened her eyes to see what all the ruckus was about. The green car stopped in front of the black van where Uno and Mandy were currently seated, the windows rolled down, and two assault rifles poked out of the inside.

"Holy shit!" Uno screamed. "Fucking bastards!"

"Oh my God!" Mandy felt her heart racing and her vision began to blur. "Uno!"

The bullets fired and the first shot ran right through the middle of the van and out the back window, which shot out the window of the car behind them and killed a civilian passenger. More bullets began to fire away and both girls screamed out, one high pitched and one in agony. The sound of the firing startled all the other civilians and not only did some of them get out of their cars to run off, many began pulling out their own firearms incase the target turned to them.

The bullets that flew around the driver side sprayed everywhere and the entire windshield shattered and fell to pieces. Shards of glass jumped out at their faces and no matter how much they tried to dodge, they were busy trying to survive against the bullets. Uno screamed as pain tore through her chest and hot metal seared her flesh. Warm liquid immediately began pouring down from her wound and her arms and legs started to get tingly. Another bullet flew by her right arm and scraped off a good chunk of her skin.

The green car was in front of them, more cars around them, and no sirens going off Uno did the thing she could do; she slammed the gas pedal into the floor and peeled out. The black van plowed right into the compact car, instantly damaging and totaling the smaller vehicle, shoved it out of the way, and sped off. The van was terribly damaged in the front but not as bad as the little green car was; in fact, as soon as she was about a good distance away with a speed of eighty, an explosion had shaken the ground and only told her the engine blew and the whole car exploded.

Her hands were losing feeling and she gripped the wheel tighter to keep her steering possible. She forced another tight right and felt the van nearly tumble to the left. The path to the woods usually had to be taken carefully as to not damage the base of the car but she didn't care; if she didn't treat the wound soon she would die of blood disease, the bullet wound, or—in worst suffering ways—loss of blood. Besides her Mandy was as silent as could be and Uno couldn't even spare a glance to check to see if she were even breathing.

The van flew into the air and slammed against the ground and more than a few liquids drained from the engine and all its many components. When finally she reached the cabin she spun the van to a stop, yanked the keys from the ignition, and nearly fell out of the door.

"So if I were to be pinned into a corner, I wouldn't try and talk my way out of it I would scream at them as a warning?" Chris blinked as he looked up at Vincent who had him cornered in the living room. Vincent was trying to teach Chris how to fight and Justin, who was still sitting in the same arm chair as before, was watching in humor.

"Not scream but warn them with an evil tone like… well, like a horror movie." Vincent explained.

"But why not talk? Sometimes it may work…" Chris expressed.

"Pacifists never lived longer than a few decades if even that," Justin spoke up. "The Peacecraft Kingdom was demolished not even twenty years into its reign."

Vincent turned to grin at Justin. "Hey, I'm the brainiac here… and besides, it was twenty-one years of a reign!"

Justin rolled his eyes in return. Just then, the front door slammed open and all three guys jerked in the direction of the body stumbling inside, half drenched in blood.

"Holy fuck!" Vincent shouted.

Justin leapt from the chair and climbed over it as he neared Uno in time for her falling. She landed in a heap just as he wrapped his arms around her, her braid dragging on the ground and her blood draining so fast it was literally forming puddles on the hard wood already.

"Uno—what happened?" Justin grabbed her chin in his left hand and lifted it up, his right arm draped over her back to help support her. "Uno?"

"Drive by…" she coughed in pain. "Drive by—shooting." She finally raced the sentence out through a forced breath.

"Oh my God," Chris muttered and stepped closer to the two.

"Where's Mandy?" Vincent urged as he stalked around the couch. "Uno?"

"Passenger seat," she felt dizzy and wanted to sleep.

"Is she… dead?" Vincent peered down at Uno and felt his heart rising in his throat. "Is Mandy dead, Uno!"

Uno coughed as Justin tried to stand her up. "I—I don't…. know." Vincent ignored her and ran outside to the van and get Mandy. Uno felt weak and her lids were heavy. She started to close them until Justin jerked her face in his direction and yelled.

"Uno! Don't you go to sleep damnit!" He shouted at her. Chris ran into the bathroom to get the first aid kit. "Uno!"

Uno's lids were dropping and Justin continued to shake her to keep her awake. She's lost a lot of blood and if she were to faint she may never again wake up. Chris returned only moments later with the box and knelt down besides the two.

"Uno?" Chris muttered.

"Uno!" Justin continued to call for her only now his voice became an urgent scream. He shook her body again, slapped at her face, and continued to call for her but Uno made no attempt at flickering her eyes or opening them back up.