Chapter Eighteen
"Hey, Frederica… Happy Birthday. I sort of wish you had just told me your birthday was coming up." Rock said as he was invited into Frederica's apartment and he sat down with Frederica, Sawyer, Lotton and Shenhua. Frederica and Lotton had been playing video games, and as usual, Lotton had been losing miserably.
"I have never liked my birthday. I never even told Shenhua, and Lotton about it. I do not know how you found out." Frederica asked. Rock sighed.
"Our newest member… Linus… He did research on all the members of Lagoon Company… And I guess he found out about you… So yeah… Sorry about that. I got you a present. Happy Birthday." Rock said. Frederica blushed and took the gift.
"It is… Very heavy… What is it?" She asked, putting the gift on the table. Rock had to agree. It was heavy, even if it was light for what it was.
"You'll just have to open it." Rock said. Frederica nodded, smiling shyly and pulling the paper off, folding it neatly on the floor. When she got to the gift, she gasped. She picked it up, hefting it and swinging it a few times.
"Is this made of aluminum? It will not be strong enough to cut through people."
"No… It's a unique metal created by something called the Genesis Project. Garda called it Up-Your-Tanium, Alric called it Unnamed Metallic Compound 52. Linus calls it Qo'ostreodium… It's stronger than titanium but lighter than aluminum. Linus wrote down all of its properties." Rock said, handing Frederica a card with neat calligraphy on it.
"Mmm… It spins very fast… It will eject the muscular and bone matter from a port in the back. That will make cleaning it much easier… Thank you, Rock… This must have cost a fortune… I'm not sure I can accept it." She said. Rock shook his head.
"Its previous owner was surprisingly willing to part with it. No, I didn't kill him. Linus sold it to me pretty inexpensively. I hope you get a lot of use out of it." Rock said.
"You give her good gift, yes you do!" Shenhua said excitedly, admiring the chainsaw from the table.
"Yes… My old chainsaw was wearing out. I needed a new one, anyway. The gears were starting to jam from years of having gunk move through them. This just brings about my old one's disposal a few weeks earlier than anticipated." Frederica said. I will invite you to watch my next job with it…" She said, leaning in and smirking.
"Maybe if I do a good enough job, we can have a repeat of last time." She said. Rock blushed, especially at the looks on Shenhua's and Lotton's faces.
"I look forward to it." Rock said. "I have dinner reservations again at one of the only nice restaurants in town. We need to hurry or we'll be late. Happy birthday, Frederica… You turned 20, right?"
"Yes. Let's go. Out the window." Frederica said, leaping from the third story window, bending her knees upon hitting the ground, and beckoning for Rock to join her. Rock sighed, running from the middle of the room and jumping, bending and rolling as he hit the ground, not trusting his knees to hold up on their own. He stood up and they headed towards Luis', an excellent eatery considering their surroundings. As far as Rock knew, it had only been shot up three times since it opened twenty years ago.
That was practically a record. When they got there, they were greeted by Luis, a balding, portly man with a goatee that didn't quite suit him. He was the son of the previous owner, Luis Sr., who had died fairly recently.
"Ah, Rock! Frederica! Please, come in, sit down!" he said jovially, getting them menus and pouring some wine for them. "And a happy birthday to you, Frederica. Drinks are on the house tonight, of course!" He said. Frederica blushed. She hadn't expected such special treatment, especially since most people didn't know what she even looked like when she wasn't in her cleaning gear. She set her new chainsaw aside while Rock readjusted his belt with all his weapons on it.
"So… Are you planning on steak again?" Rock asked. Frederica nodded.
"Yes… Does my chainsaw run on gasoline?" She asked. Rock shook his head.
"It runs on children's tears… Just kidding. It runs on solar power. It has panels on the top there, see? You can also plug it in if you need to." Rock said. Soon, the waiter came over and took their orders. They both got steaks. Rock got his medium and Frederica got a medium-rare steak.
As they were waiting for dinner, Linus and Garda sat down at the table next to them.
"We won't bother you for long, yeah. Happy birthday, Frederica." Linus said. Garda stayed silent.
"She's even more beautiful than in her pictures. I love the dress, Frederica." Linus said, winking at her, causing Frederica to turn a pale shade of pink.
"Thank… You." She muttered as low as she could with her electrolarynx.
"Garda, dear… Do you have your weapons with you?" Linus asked. Garda nodded, looking at him as if to ask why. He looked at the door as two men in suits, carrying strange, high tech looking guns and a woman in a suit with kerambits on her waist. The three of them looked around and focused on Linus, looking directly at him, then at Garda.
"Frederica, Rock… You may want to take off. Those are some old friends of ours. They escaped like we did, but we didn't part on the best of terms. They became assassins and sold their expertise to the highest bidder and Garda and I disappeared into the world. I read that a team of three assassins recently accepted a job on our lives. This is going to get messy. Please leave." Linus said, his tone of voice completely changing from friendly to dead serious.
"No. We'll fight with you." Frederica said, picking up her chainsaw and looking at the assassins, whose expressions didn't change in the slightest. They seemed completely unamused by Frederica's threats, though. The three walked forward, taking their guns and kerambits out. The tallest man fired first, which Frederica blocked with her chainsaw, wading forward into battle. She clicked a button on her chainsaw, which roared into life, drawing startled screams from the rest of the patrons, who fled immediately.
"You have ruined my birthday dinner. If you do not want to end up on my slab, you will flee immediately!" Frederica growled. The woman smirked, stepping forward, taking out her kerambits and brandishing them, running in in a very angular movement, far faster than Frederica was expecting. Linus, Garda and Rock meanwhile supported her. Rock fired bullets at the woman, missing but forcing her to split her attention between him and Frederica, allowing her more mobility.
Garda took out dual shortswords and struck at the shorter man, who fired point-blank, but missed, and was rewarded only with a cut to the leg. Garda had to dodge the shorter woman, though, grabbing her arm and twisting, dislocating the woman's shoulder and taking both her Kerambits, hiding them on herself. Linus took out a gun and fired at the woman's head, who dodged, but took the bullet in the shoulder.
She grimaced and turned, shooting back at Linus, who cut sideways with an iron pipe, beating the bullet aside. He smirked, firing and planting the bullet right in the woman's knee. The woman growled angrily, falling to the ground, no longer able to walk. The taller man was hit then in the elbow by a bullet from Rock. He had been aiming at the man's chest, but the man was fast enough to avoid any vital areas but not fast enough to avoid being hit altogether.
"We have to leave! We were expecting to be against one superhuman, but not two! And we could have faced them if we had planned to take on two regular humans as well! We'll regroup and plan for another time!" The taller man shouted, picking up the woman and hurrying out of the restaurant with his two partners. Frederica put her new chainsaw away, sighing in relief as the new owner came back in to thank them. He shook Rock's, Frederica's, Linus's and Garda's hands.
"Thank you so much. It's likely that your intervention prevented my restaurant from being damaged more. I'd like to give you all your meals on the house." He said. Rock thanked him and sat back down. The restaurant was almost deserted now, thanks to the attack by the three Genesis subjects. The four were now sitting at the same table.
"So… Spill… Who were those people?" Rock asked. Garda sighed.
"They were 4M-008, 4M-015 and 4F-086. I believe they chose the names Ludmilla Kaczka, Zane Caldwell and Matthias Kuiper. I had heard that some of the individuals we escaped with began selling their services to the organization again. For the right price, of course. Either that, or there are others who want us dead. Either way, we need to be more careful.
"Garda, I want you to call Alric and Astrid and have them meet us at the restaurant. We'll all stay together for the time. I trust you, I know you can fight better than anyone. But it's good to have backup.
"I'll get in contact with Miss Balalaika… I'm sure that we can get Hotel Moscow to support us if we put it in the right context for them." Rock said, taking out his cell phone and dialing Hotel Moscow.
"Hello? Balalaika speaking." Came a cheerful voice from across the phone line.
"Hello, Miss Balalaika. We've got a bit of a problem. You know the three superhumans you recently hired?" Rock asked. Balalaika nodded.
"How could I forget? Half my members either fear fighting them or want revenge on them."
"Right. Well, three assassins just came into the restaurant that Frederica, Linus, Garda and I are eating at and attacked Linus and Garda… They appear to be former comrades of Garda and Linus, fellow superhumans who escaped from the same organization as they did. We're sure that if we remain together, we can at least mitigate the threat they pose, but I would appreciate assistance from Hotel Moscow, if you're willing." Rock said. Rock almost thought he heard Balalaika's smile as she spoke.
"We would be happy to help. Consider it a favor. The assistance that Alric, Astrid and Garda have already given us is greatly appreciated, and we would hate to lose allies such as them. Could you give us descriptions of the individuals in question?"
"There are three of them. One is thin, but muscular, tall at about 5'11", European in appearance. He has blue eyes and black hair.
"One is shorter, standing at about 5'8". His appearance is also European, maybe a little bit Slavic. He has brown eyes and black hair. He's muscular as well but bulkier than the taller man. The woman has long black hair that was in a braid that went down past her knees. She's about 5'2". She seemed like her hair was tied back by something heavy, so she may have a weight or a blade on her braid. She has deep blue eyes and looks like she's European, probably Slavic.
"The woman is called Ludmilla Kaczka, the tall man is called Zane Caldwell and the shorter man is called Matthias Kuiper. The woman carried kerambits and is probably skilled in other small bladed weapons. The taller man carried handguns and the shorter man had guns as well, but seemed skilled in hand-to-hand combat as well." Rock said. Balalaika actually laughed at this.
"You really took a detailed inventory of your enemy. You truly are a profoundly talented tactician, Rock." Balalaika said, winking and saying goodbye, hanging up the phone. Rock sighed. They had the support of Hotel Moscow. There was still the chance that they would die. But Rock was sure that they had a much better chance of making it through this. And with the injuries their enemy suffered, they probably wouldn't have to worry that night.
The taller man had taken a chainsaw to the chest. It hadn't cut through bone, but it had rent flesh and muscle, and it was likely that he would need stitches, even with his advanced healing. Rock went back out where the rest of the group was waiting for him. Dinner had been served and he sat down and ate with his friends. As they finished, Alric and Astrid arrived.
"Hello, Gook, Linus, Miss Sawyer, Garda. We have spoken and agreed to room near you for a time while all of the problems regarding our new enemies are sorted out. We have spoken to Miss Balalaika and she said she was already apprised of the problem. Who are these enemies? What are their names and former ID numbers?" Alric asked stoically. Linus sighed.
"4M-008, 4M-015 and 4F-086. Last I checked, they had called themselves Zane Caldwell, Matthias Kuiper and Ludmilla Kaczka." He said. Alric nodded and went through his computer that he had brought with him and looked up his former allies. He nodded as he familiarized himself with their abilities again.
"This is good." Alric said calmly. "I am certain that between the four of us, and using you, your lover and your allies," he said, turning to Rock and Frederica. "We can defeat these people. Hopefully we will not have to kill them, as I am more than just passingly fond of them, most especially of Ludmilla, toward whom I feel what I assume is a mild sexual attraction." He said this so matter-of-factly that it seemed almost out of place next to what he was actually saying.
However, Rock and Frederica merely nodded and they headed back towards Rock's apartment, where he went got Garda, Alric and Astrid a room next to Lagoon Company's own. It had recently been vacated by people who refused to pay and ended up on the business end of a .45. Frederica's company had come in and cleaned everything up just a few days earlier. Garda no longer had to worry about being far away from Linus either, since they would be situated right next to each other.
At least until they either defeated their new enemy or died at said enemy's hands.
