Lightning signaled to the agents standing behind her with three fingers, counting down.
Standing outside the suspected Nora warehouse, Lightning activated the body heat sensors within her contacts to scope out at least six individuals inside. Unlike most of Cocoon, it existed on the surface of the planet and had underground layers as well. Her thermal contacts were good, but unable to penetrate more than six feet of a solid barrier, and because of this, Lightning couldn't be absolutely certain about the enemy's numbers.
It was a clever attempt at a secretive base, but foolhardy as well. Digging underground wasn't very common on Cocoon, and thus trackable. Though they had tried to hide themselves, it had only been a matter of time before PSICOM had uncovered their base.
When she hit one, she whispered into the comm unit that was built into all of their bulletproof uniform collars. "Go," she ordered, commanding the second team at the exit to break in.
Leading her own unit, which consisted of her, Joe, Rob, and Dejule, Lightning stepped back from the entrance and kicked the metal door inward right off its hinges. She noticed Joe hesitate a moment before she swiftly entered the warehouse and lost sight of him.
Unlike the other team who had used a rammer to open the door, Lightning's brute strength made up for the lack of heavy equipment every time.
"This is PSICOM: lower your weapons and get down on the floor immediately," she ordered, her voice projected through reactive tech that amplified the shout, ensuring that the entire immediate vicinity and beyond would hear.
As her contacts colored her fellow agents in faint green tones, the six warm bodies she had spotted through the wall shone red in contrast. They startled to action as if they had suddenly caught on fire. Three of them grabbed sidearms and aimed while a forth quickly grabbed his friend and began climbing down a ladder where some kind of machine loudly hummed below.
Gunshots went off as the three armed men took up positions behind pillars and the third dashed behind a machine. The forth threw down his weapon and curled up on the floor.
Lightning, however, was faster.
Bolting into the facility, she trained the sights of her gunblade on the mobile targets and quickly snapped off three rounds. The first shot struck one of her opponents in the shoulder and the second hit another in his leg. Her third just barely missed and pinged off the giant metal contraption the man had run to. As her heat sensor filters faded to give her a better scope of the room at large, she recognized the robotic Shell she had shot.
A giant, hulking robot easily two times the height of a normal man and three times abreast, the great machine was a warfare edition, manually-handled power suit and very dangerous. When they had first been introduced, military and police forces had taken to calling them Shells, both because they needed a human inside to operate and for the incredible amount of artillery they carried.
"Raise our shields," Lightning commanded as her team swiftly took the injured shooters completely out of commission.
She had barely finished saying the words by the time the man had safely encased himself into the bulky robot and turned on them. Lightning recognized the man's use of speed-enhancing implants even without the tech in her contacts having to tell her so.
At the front of the warehouse, Dejule generated an energy barrier that expanded in front of all of them. Translucent, but blue-tinged, they could still clearly make out the enemy as he fired the Shell's massive gatling gun their way.
Lightning stayed near the rightmost edge of the shield and pulled free an electro grenade from her belt, which she threw over the side of the shield. The grenade struck the Shell in the chest and the rapid gunfire ceased as an electric web shot across the heavy unit and fried all of its systems.
The man inside, though unharmed, began to panic as the air filtration unit shut down in his suit, leaving him airless.
Dejule casually lowered the shield and reported, "Energy shield at 93 percent."
"Rob, cut him out of there and restrain the other. Dejule, Joe, with me."
Lightning swiftly made her way to the railed ledge where the first two men had disappeared underground. As soon as she got close enough, someone shot a few bullets upwards near the ladder and called out, "We have explosives and a thermal-electric generator down here," he warned, yelling up at them. "Start shooting and you'll take half the block with you. And if you send anyone down the ladder, we'll shoot them. You assholes ready to talk?"
Joe cast out a projected scan over the wide opening and frowned. "Readings indicate enough power and heat concentration for this to be true," he reported gravely.
"Dejule, take negotiations," Lightning ordered her trained subordinate. "Joe, tell the other team to start clearing nearby houses just in case. And don't let anyone follow me until I give the all clear."
Joe patched through to the other team and started relaying the orders as Dejule called out to the men below.
"I'm patching through to channel eight," Dejule said and waited a moment for the rebels to join the same frequency. "Alright, Son, you there?" he asked, and then routed both their voices through everybody's comms so the team could listen, but not be heard.
"I'm not your son, PSICOM rat," the man spat.
"You got a name I can call ya?" Dejule asked conversationally.
"Call me John Doe, asshole."
"John," Dejule repeated back. "I'm Dejule. You said you were willing to talk, 'eh? What would you like to discuss?"
"You're not the man in charge," John snarled at him. "I want to talk to the ones that make changes."
"I'm not in charge, no," Dejule answered calmly. "But I have the authority to bring our conversation to the Primarchs if I deem it urgent enough. I'm pretty sure neither of us want to die today, John, so why don't you tell me what it is y'all want from all this?"
"What're you gonna do?" Joe asked as Lightning triggered the color camouflage and retractable helmet to slide into place over her head, effectively hiding her champagne hair and pale skin.
Completely covered in a dark bodysuit now, Lightning didn't answer and made her way to the opposite end from where the ladder led down far below.
"The Primarchs have been stripping our rights at every opportunity," John said heatedly. "Not all of us are fucking blind to it. First, they take over our media, next they insert little clauses into their laws that allows them to do fucking anything to anybody. Nora is a peacekeeping community and your leaders label us as terrorists! Do you know what that allows them to do, Dejule? It allows them anything. We're basically not even people in your eyes anymore!"
"I hear ya, John," Dejule assured, "I support less government oversight, too. But I gotta say: holding up the block as hostage like this, that doesn't feel very peaceable to me, John."
"We wouldn't have to if the Primarchs stopped interfering in our lives! They control our jobs, aptitudes, salaries, now even our fucking families! What the fuck do you expect us to do when you come in after our children? My wife is pregnant with twins! You just… " he choked a little bit, then his rage returned in full force. "You expect us to hand them over for slaughter because the Primarchs are too scared to fight the barbarians? Fuck that! You're either going to take this to the Primarchs and let them know we're not taking this lying down or this is gonna start happening all over Cocoon, Dejule. All fucking over. You've no idea how many of us there are. You think you do, but you don't. PSICOM's not big enough to handle us all, not even with your attack dog up there..."
He continued to threaten, but Lightning tuned out the words and only listened to the tone for indication of his intent, quietly confident in Dejule's ability to stall him. At the opposite end of the opening now, she flicked her gunblade back into its magnetic holster, stepped onto the railing and jumped down, much to Joe's quiet, wide-eyed alarm.
The air rushed past her quickly as she descended, but Lightning didn't feel it through her uniform. Though her uniform also came equipped with a cold effect for her comfort, it wasn't anywhere near as powerful as her own clothing's technology. She couldn't afford to let it be, not when Nora and other thug insurgents had tech that could detect unusual temperatures.
Her moment of freefall passed quickly and Lightning reached out to catch one of the hanging pipes she had seen from the ground floor. Gripping it in her fist smoothly, she let her momentum carry her for a full effortless swing around the pipe, and then released it on the downswing and landed silently in a crouch on a metal platform.
"Holy fuck," Joe's whispered voice emitted from her earpiece.
"Radio silence," Rob admonished right back.
Rolling back her shoulder, Lightning raised her head to find the faintly illuminated bodies of four other men on the opposite end of the platform and two more a bit further behind them, escaping down a tunnel.
Unseen as of yet, Lightning scoped out the sidearms each Nora agent held, including the two automatics that were presently trained towards the ladder. The other two, standing a little behind the first set, looked tentative. They hadn't unholstered their weapons and both kept exchanging glances as Dejule conversed with the leader.
Next to them, set into the ground, but protruding enough to cause some serious damage if it were shot upon, lay the reactor. Lightning scanned it briefly to give her contacts enough time to identify the type and expected blast it might cause. The projected readings scrolled in her peripheral vision, numbers only she could see, but they were significant enough to warrant great concern.
Lightning moved quickly, silently traversing the platform towards her quarry. The two nervous ones exchanged another glance as she approached, and then Lightning grabbed one of the armed gunmen. She wrapped a strong arm around his neck and grabbed his gun arm as it lowered, forcing his aim towards the other gunman and squeezed her finger over the trigger. His gun went off into his friend's leg several times before Lightning ripped the weapon from his fingers, discharged the clip deftly, and threw the heavy piece into the face of the second gunman. A sickening crunch split the air as his nose broke and he crumpled.
Throwing her current captive aside like a ragdoll, Lightning stepped closer, kicking the second man's gun out of his reach, then whirled on the nervous nancies with a roundhouse kick that connected with the first man's jaw so solidly, a few teeth flew from his mouth. His feet lifted off the ground momentarily before gravity dragged him down into a pathetic, moaning heap.
The last man squeaked, horrified, as one of them hit him. He quickly abandoned his sidearm to hold up his hands.
"Clear," Lightning reported back through her comms. "Hurry. Two are escaping out a tunnel," she said, cuffing the man's hands together behind his back.
As the other nervous one tried to rise, Lightning stepped on his back and forced him back down before cuffing him as well.
From above, the rest of her team appeared on the ladder with Dejule arriving first, swiftly sliding down the edges.
"Take care of these," Lightning ordered, stepping on the first gunman's hand as she turned for the tunnel. "I'll get the last two."
"You're a fucking beast," Joe admired as Dejule stooped to the injured gunner and Rob collected up the guns.
"Quit getting wet and patch up Dumbass over there, princess," Rob snapped.
Lightning left them to it in pursuit of the final two, which had disappeared from her heat sensors. Retracting her helmet, she took off in the direction they had fled and found the end of the tunnel where a ladder ran up to an open manhole cover. Scaling it swiftly, Lightning emerged onto a quiet street. She frowned, glancing around, but she hadn't gotten close enough to get an identity match on the two before they had run off.
She knelt before the manhole she had just exited and sniffed the air. The residual scent of sweat was so faint, she almost missed it entirely. Lightning inhaled a few more times to get the exact scent, a musky mix of cologne and sweat that barely lingered in the air. Her eyes narrowed as she scanned the street.
At the front of a driveway, two kids frolicked around each other playing some sort of game with chalk. Lightning shifted her eyes to an arguing couple a few houses down and listened to their argument for a moment, which seemed too authentic to be suspicious. A few other passersby, one with a dog, one with a baby, one by himself and smoking a joint, were all similarly dismissed.
Lightning stood and sniffed again, attempting to follow the direction of their scents, but without a piece of clothing or possession, it was difficult, especially since it was so windy today. Still, she tried, her head turning to identify and dismiss potential culprits as her high-tech contacts gave her brief police files of every individual she scoped out.
A full six blocks away, Lightning caught the glimpse of an outlined heat signature disappearing behind a residential dwelling a little too quickly. She hadn't caught sight of him enough for a full scan with her contacts, but Lightning trusted the sudden certainty she felt in her gut and took off at a sprint after him.
The man, out of sight of Lightning but for his faint heat signature that she could detect through the thin wall, immediately picked up his pace.
Lightning sped up, too. She reached the end of the row of houses quickly and charged after the figure, slowly closing the distance between them with her greater speed. At the end of another row of houses, he reached a chain link fence and attempted to jump it, but his shirt caught on a sharp edge, costing him precious seconds. It was enough for Lightning to close the remaining distance between them, jump onto the fence and seize her suspect by the scruff of his shirt.
The Nora agent tumbled, dragged down by her grip on his shirt, and this close, Lightning could smell that she had the right man. One of them, anyway. As soon as he hit the ground, she scrambled to grab and pin him.
"Get off of me, you mutant filth!" the man screeched, futilely fighting her grip as Lightning held him firmly. Having used both of her cuffs on the first two offenders, she no longer had any way to restrain him but with her strength and body.
The man's thick muscles bulged as he struggled beneath her.
"Do you want resisting arrest added to your charges?" she snapped, wrapping her arm around his throat while she secured one meaty arm in an uncomfortable grip behind his back. He reached for her with the other one and snagged a few fingers into her hair, but Lightning forcibly pulled back the arm she had restrained and broke it.
The man howled.
"Fucking. Freak," he gasped, wheezing in pain. "And we're the problem? When the Primarchs happily use freaks like you against us?"
Lightning tightened her grip around his throat.
"I've secured one of the runners," she said through her earpiece, ignoring the squirming man. "But I don't have cuffs. A squad car would be appreciated."
"It's already on the way, tracking your suit's coordinates," Dejule reported.
"You animals," The man in her tight grip spat, twisting about in vain. "Enjoy your glass castle while it lasts. My only regret is that I won't be there to watch it burn."
Lightning squeezed hard enough that his air was cut off as she waited for the patrol car. It arrived a few minutes later, flying down from the sky, and Lightning gratefully passed off her captive to the local Guardian Corps patrol. She began heading back for her team underground, but found them all outside the same manhole cover she had exited out of with the other captives all in tow.
"Lightning!" Joe praised as soon as he saw her. "You were incredible! We watched your pursuit from the chest cam. I've never seen anything like that, were you actually smelling him out?"
"Settle your tits, mama's boy," Rob growled, grinning wolfishly. "No matter how much you flatter her, Boss ain't gonna pork ya."
Joe flushed again and tried to swing at Rob, who ducked away.
"All I'm saying is she's faster and more efficient than any of us," Joe defended himself. "Strong as hell, too. It's too bad we don't have more soldiers like you, Boss."
"Why don't you go suck her off and settle our bet then, boy scout?" Rob punctuated the comment by making a lewd sucking noise with his tongue and Joe scowled.
Dejule, however, appeared thoughtful and glanced at Lightning. "There's a thought," he pointed out.
Lightning felt an uncomfortable twisting in her gut. "That's not a good idea."
Dejule arched an eyebrow at her. "No?"
"It's too easy to get carried away. I could break your bones with a handshake if I'm not paying attention," she answered coldly, only noticing her clenched fist when her nails pierced the skin of her palms. "You think a real Pulsian wouldn't?"
"Oh? Feeling barbaric after today, Boss?" Dejule joked in poor taste. "Ready to raid and pillage and knock up some poor woman like dear old dad did?"
Lightning's jaw set and her words came out a snarl.
"I'm nothing like my father," she growled darkly.
"Hmm," Dejule murmured, looking her over in a way she couldn't quite read. "Good thing the General's got you pussy-whipped."
Rob snorted. "Wouldn't that be fucking something? If the barbarians just needed bossy pussy to be domesticated? Can't blame you, Boss, I bet it's good pussy."
"Well, I'm glad you're on our side, Boss," Joe said, closing down his holo-vid where he and Rob had been watching the replays from their chest cameras. "I feel safer with you leading our team."
Rob rolled his eyes, scornfully glancing over at their youngest member. "You're such a twat, Joe."
"Any of you tools up for a round at Jerry's?" Dejule asked.
"I could go for a cold one," Rob said.
Joe seemed more tentative, but Rob nudged him. "Don't be such a pussy."
"Lightning coming?" Joe asked.
"I don't drink," Lightning declined as she usually did.
"She's not allowed to," Dejule pointed out. "None of them are, 'cept that immune one. Don't want 'em turning even more savage on us."
Joe looked guilty and stricken by the revelation, but Rob barreled on in his usual manner.
"Plans with the Missus?" Rob ribbed Lightning. "Bet she likes those vids as much as Joe does. Bet she's gonna ride you raw tonight, innit she?"
"Someone else could use more discipline," Joe grumbled, but went along with Rob to their prisoners as the PSICOM cruisers appeared in the sky. When the two were out of immediate earshot, Dejule gave her a dubious glance and asked.
"You good, Boss?"
"I'm good," Lightning said.
XXX
On the ride home in the automatic air car, Lightning checked her messages and found one from Jihl. She hit play and sat back in the auto-car to listen.
"Gorgeous, I miss you. I haven't even watched the vids yet and I'm aching to see you already." On the phone, she sighed wistfully. "Darling, you do things to me. I'm calling because I love you and to let you know that I've left the office early today to prepare for tonight. I'm sorry I won't be able to take you to Angela's as I'd intended. It slipped my mind in my haste to get everything done for the weekend. Will you be okay, love? I can stop by afterwards to pick you up. Call me, Lightning. I want to hear about your day, too. I love you. Talk to you tonight."
Smiling, Lightning called her girlfriend back.