Friday, June 16th, 2017
Casa Genovese
01:43 GMT+2 (23:43 GMT June 15th)
Alpha Two with elements of Bravo One
It was carnage and at first there was no movement from the scattered members of Alpha Two and Bravo One.
Had the Genovese just managed to do what countless others had failed to do? Had the Genovese just killed over a dozen members of Fusion and Vengeance? The very worst thoughts were going through Trojan's mind and a part of him did not want to find out, just in case it was not good news. Tentatively, Trojan rolled the girl over into a supine position and he was greeted with an angry growl.
"That was fucking hot!" Ajax pointed out as she struggled to move. "It fucking hurt!"
"Siesta's over," Trojan replied with immense relief. "Get to your feet, Ajax!"
All around him, bodies were moving as everyone regained consciousness after their near-death experience.
..._...
Psyche was not amused as she struggled to her feet.
"What fucking bastard did that?" she demanded. "Get up, Fury; lazy bitch!"
Fury glared at Psyche from behind her mask as she shrugged off the pain and the remarkably close shave.
"Oscar One, Psyche, over."
There was no response.
"Oscar One, Psyche, over."
Psyche tapped on her wrist screen for a moment before she found a screen which told her that the comms package mounted at the back of her utility belt had 'overheated and shutdown'.
"Fuck!" Psyche groaned. "My comms pack is out – don't think it liked being cooked."
"Mine's fucked, too," Fury said a few moments later. "Trojan, you got your ears on?"
"Five by five – I've reported you all alive to Oscar One," Trojan replied. "They'll relay to the rest of the team."
Psyche moved towards the northern end of the buildings and a small wooden door set into the back end of the building, facing the cliff behind, which nobody had seen on the plans of the building.
The catacombs beneath Casa Genovese
Stormtide and Splinter
The two subterranean tunnel rats were still underground – at least they thought they were.
After leaving the bloody mess at the end of the first tunnel, they found themselves entering what appeared to be a tunnel complex – they had passed two junctions where the tunnel had split into three. So that they could find their way out, back the way they had come, Splinter was making discrete blue marks to indicate which route they should take to escape, should the need arise. Each tunnel looked the same as the previous one – each was roughly hewn from the rock itself and were strategically lit – that is, not exactly floodlit. The tunnel wound around and climbed, then fell in no discernible fashion, except with the only fathomable purpose to confuse the hell out of the both of them. They had not seen another human soul on their trek and their comms had been cut off by the twisting tunnels and the solid rock, which was a major concern, especially as they had no idea where they even were. However, they knew that wherever they were headed, it would be a trap; they had both agreed that it was only prudent to expect the worst.
Then had come an almighty shaking of the tunnel followed by the sound of an explosion from some distance away.
..._...
Ignoring the dust which fell all around them, the pair continued down the tunnel, oblivious to what fate had befallen their colleagues outside.
Stormtide was not enjoying herself underground – she had never liked confined spaces, and she was worried that they might never find a way out of the decidedly forbidding tunnels. Something at the back of her mind nagged at her like Rage when he was in a particularly annoying mood. They walked for what had to be half a mile when Splinter suddenly stopped.
"We've come back on ourselves," he said. "Last junction – look."
Stormtide looked at where the boy was pointing, and she groaned. It was one of Splinter's discrete blue marks.
"Some bastard is fucking with us," Stormtide growled.
"Shh!" Splinter said as he turned his head to listen "I hear something – a ways down there; sounds like scraping."
The pair edged back down the corridor ten yards then stopped. There appeared to be a section of wall which was different to the surrounding stone – maybe it had been infilled. Stormtide put her ear to the section and she listened. She could hear something – it was a slight scratching sound . . . familiar somehow . . . then she heard a voice.
"Oh, shit!" she exclaimed as she shoved Splinter to the floor and then dived down beside him.
As she landed on the rough stone slabs which made up the floor of the tunnel, there was an enormous explosion as the section of wall was blasted inwards. The scratching had been the sound of somebody pushing something into a gap in the masonry, but the barely distinguishable voice had said four words – 'fire in the hole' – after they had inserted an explosive charge and just before they had triggered it. As the ringing in her ears stopped, she could hear scrabbling and the collapse of masonry as people forced their way through the gap. Then she felt a hand on her back, and she was roughly rolled over. She saw the muzzle of a weapon just inches away, but she could not see much more due to the large amount of masonry dust lingering in the still air of the tunnel.
"Stormy?"
"What do you want, you little cunt?"
"Hello to you too!" Psyche said as she hauled her friend to her feet.
"You could have just knocked," Splinter growled as he glared at his girlfriend.
"I did – with C4."
"Where the fucking hell did you come from?" Stormtide demanded.
"After almost being burnt alive by one of Vito's traps, we found a door which we knew nothing about. We forced our way through and then followed a long tunnel before it came to a dead end – only it looked like it had been blocked up – just not very well, so we blasted it," Psyche explained.
"So, how goes the fight?" Splinter asked.
"Not all that well, but we're giving as good as we get," Fury commented from behind Psyche. "What have you two found?"
"Apart from the tunnels circling us around, not very much," Stormtide replied. "Someone is fucking with us, and now we have more people, we can search for hidden doors and shit like that."
Drift stepped forwards with Petra, the pair having listened to everything.
"Stormtide, take Psyche, Fury, Nox, Glide, Rogue, Tao Wu, and Tai Tei," Drift directed. "Take the tunnels in that direction. Splinter, take Arbiter, Resolute, Intrepid, Harrier, and Ajax in the other direction – Petra will go with you. I'll take Rampart, Stripe, and Tempest – we'll cover the backs of both teams."
The teams split into their groups and then moved off in the relevant directions, weapons raised.
Vito had not expected the enemy to find his subterranean tunnels and catacombs, but the old bastard was wily enough to plan for every eventuality – it was why he was still alive and leading the most ruthless mafia group on Sicily.
He had always known that there might be an attack on his home – either from other competing mafia groups or from law enforcement – so he had planned accordingly. Lethal traps, such as the fuel/air device were planned to decimate the enemy forces making it easier for his family to escape. However, they had been caught by surprise, leaving no time for the family to escape; instead, they had made a time-delaying stand. One which seemed to be reaping dividends as nineteen vigilantes moved deeper into the tunnels and to their doom.
The trap was set and about to be sprung.
Stormtide, Psyche, Fury, Nox, Glide, Rogue, Tao Wu & Tai Tei
They all knew to be careful and to expect the unexpected – Hit Girl had quite literally battered it into all of them – but, by definition, the unexpected was, well, unexpected.
Psyche and Fury were on point, Psyche looking up and Fury looking low. Behind them came Stormtide who was followed by Glide and Rogue with the Chinese terrors behind and Nox as tail-end Charlie. Nox spent most of her time walking backwards as she ensured that nobody came up behind them. Everyone was nervous after the massive attack outside and that did not help the team when it came to focussing on the task ahead. As such, everyone missed the tell-tales as the Genovese trap was sprung. It was Fury who was in the wrong place at the wrong time as the wall beside her bulged out and then with an enormous roar, masses of stonework crumbled atop the young vigilante even as Psyche was knocked off her feet. The rumbling continued for almost a full minute before the very last pebbles spilled down the cave in and silence descended upon the tunnel.
Then came the coughing as bodies moved and fought to understand what had just occurred. All lights were out, and hands fumbled for the torches and flashlights fitted to their submachine guns. Nobody had the slightest idea who might be hurt, let alone if they were still combat capable. Gradually, Stormtide was able to restore order and she took in the scene which was not good. Beside her stood Glide and Rogue – there was no sign of Psyche or Fury – while Nox and the Chinese terrors were picking themselves up from the floor and rubbing the masonry dust off themselves. Ahead of the group was a massive pile of collapsed masonry.
"Psyche! Fury!" Stormtide called out but she heard nothing in response. "Psyche! Fury!"
Glide made to scramble over the pile of collapsed stonework but even she was far too large to find a way through and the collapse was massive – it would probably take machinery to dig through – so they had no choice but to backtrack and find a route past the blockage.
Splinter, Arbiter, Resolute, Intrepid, Harrier, Ajax & Petra
Splinter was on point, as he led the group deeper into the tunnel network.
His sixth sense was screaming at him like a Psyche diatribe. He dared not ignore the voice in his head as it had kept him alive for so long without fail. There was something seriously wrong and he worried about his friends. Then he heard a sound – a smooth rushing sound which simply unnerved him at first, but then he felt fear like he had never felt fear before that moment. Then he recognised the sound and the fear turned to terror as his torchlight settled on something highly reflective.
"RUN!" he bellowed as he spun around and shoved Arbiter back the way they had just come.
Everyone turned and ran, obeying the order in an instant. Then Resolute screamed out in terror as she recognised what was racing towards them – then everyone was screaming as they were all swept off their feet by the raging torrent which rapidly flooded the six-foot-tall tunnel, leaving barely a foot of breathable air. The torrent was strong, and it carried them along, smashing them against the roughly hewn walls and spinning them around. Resolute and Intrepid were terrified as darkness enshrouded them deep underground and the cold water threatened to drown them. The pair did everything that they could do to stay in touch, their gauntleted hands reaching out for one another and trying desperately to grip on. But each time their fingers touched; they were thrust apart by the relentless flow. Petra knew that the watery trap could destroy her team, however, she had no choice but to, quite literally, go with the flow as she listened to her team members screaming with terror.
For most human beings, being buried alive and drowning were two nightmares that nobody wanted to come true – only for the team, both were coming true as they fought to breathe when the churning maelstrom flipped them over and their equipment began to drag them down.
Drift, Rampart, Stripe & Tempest
Things were going no better for the remaining vigilantes as they came under sustained gunfire from two side tunnels ahead.
The incoming gunfire was accurate and the ambush perfect. Stripe and Rampart had been taken off their feet by the initial fusillade as the bullets had struck their frontal armour. As a result, Rampart was turning the air very blue as she informed their enemy about what she thought about her bruised chest. Normally, they might have simply advanced and killed the attackers, but the virtual gauntlet was most definitely off, and any thought of merciful kills were very much off the board as Drift pulled the pins on a pair of M34 phosphorous grenades. He tossed one to Tempest and they both tossed the grenades towards the side tunnels. With a bright flash, lethal chunks of military-grade white phosphorus exploded out and covered the Sicilian defenders. On exposure to the air in the tunnel, the chunks spontaneously ignited and oxidised to become phosphorous pentoxide. The oxidation process caused intense heat and the phosphorous pentoxide burst into yellow flame and copious amounts of billowing white smoke were emitted. Where the chunks had landed on clothing, the heat and flame burned through and then spread over the skin and flesh below.
The gunfire suddenly stopped and was swiftly replaced by yelling and screaming.
Stormtide, Nox, Glide, Rogue, Tao Wu & Tai Tei
Stormtide was beyond worried.
She had already lost two members of her team and she was determined to lose no more, but her mind told her that in combat, anything was possible. However, wandering around dark tunnels was not exactly combat in her mind. Her team, with the noted exception of Nox, was made up from younger children, and that was a tactical weakness which Stormtide had to ensure she protected.
As for the two youngest members of the team, they were both having the time of their lives and having the worst time of their lives. For Glide, the fear and excitement were what she lived for and she relished both but for Rogue it was a bit of an eye-opener. Rogue had the best training a nine-year-old could ever have from the hardest, meanest bitch out there, but she did not have even a fraction of the physical and mental conditioning which her friend Glide had received. Rogue was physically fit and strong, but she was nothing compared to the raw muscle exhibited by Glide. Both girls were the absolute best of friends and they had trained together to work as a team, knowing each other's thoughts and moves like they were their own. The pair complimented each other perfectly as they moved through the dimly lit tunnels. Rogue was worried about Psyche, but she did her best to push the concern to the back of her mind, knowing that Psyche was perfectly capable of looking after herself.
The pair advanced with sub-machine guns raised to their shoulders as the true professionals which they were.
..._...
It was Rogue who sensed that something was wrong.
She could feel a rumbling coming through her boots as she stepped carefully upon the stone floor of the tunnel. Why was she feeling the rumbling, her brain asked? Then another part of her brain considered that there should not be anything rumbling beneath their feet where there should have been solid rock.
"Glide, we're in shit!" the girl had time to say before the tunnel floor beneath their feet suddenly vanished and both girls fell.
Nox reached out for Glide who was the closest and she was able to grab a part of the girl's webbing. Glide in turn had seized hold of Rogue by the strap of her sub-machine gun. Stormtide dived for Nox even as gunfire began to echo throughout the tunnel. Stormtide was forced to roll away from Nox as bullets pinged off the tunnel floor just inches from her head. Nox was determined not to let go of the two girls and she struggled with their weight as she tried to pull them back up to the tunnel. But then Nox felt bullets strike her armour and she lost her grip on the edge of the gaping chasm. Her gauntlet scrabbled for purchase even as she fell. For Stormtide, it was a developing nightmare.
She heard Glide and Rogue scream as they both vanished from sight.
Psyche & Fury
Fury was the first to regain consciousness and she tried to move but her legs were pinned.
She looked around but it was dark, and she could see nothing. She pulled her weapon closer and triggered the torch. The beam illuminated a massive pile of rocks which covered her lower legs and left thigh. As she swept the beam around, she saw a pair of boots and then the beam identified a pair of legs and then the prone form of Psyche.
"Psyche!" Fury hissed. "Psyche, you fucking bitch, wake the fuck up!"
Fury reached down and she started to shove rocks off her legs but with limited success as some were quite large. Fury was worried about her friend and she did not like the total darkness which enveloped them both. Extraordinarily little scared the eleven-year-old girl, but the absolute darkness and the unknown situation was causing fear to creep into her mind, not least the fear that her friend might be dead.
"Fuck!" Fury yelled as she fought to move her legs and force some of the rocks off them. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"
"What the bloody hell are you bellyaching about?"
"Psyche! I thought you..."
"Believe me, you'll know when I'm dead because I will be fucking haunting you!"
"Will you stop being a goddamn bitch and get these sodding rocks off my sodding legs?"
"Get that twatting torch out of my fucking face!"
Psyche pushed herself to her feet, rubbing her bruised back and then her sore head. Quickly, she began to shove the rocks off Fury's legs and then she pulled the girl to her feet. Psyche looked around, aiming the torch attached to her sub-machine gun around the tunnel.
"Well, looks like we can only go one way," she commented. "You, okay?"
Fury frowned. She knew that Psyche cared about her, but it was exceedingly rare for her to actually vocalise it.
"My legs are bruised to hell, but no broken bones."
"Good – so no reason for you to start bitchin'."
Fury laughed as they moved off down the dark tunnel – that was more like it!
Splinter, Arbiter, Resolute, Intrepid, Harrier, Ajax & Petra
The raging torrent dragged them through countless tunnels leading to an unknown destination which could not be good in any way.
Intrepid could no longer fight the terror building up inside her and she knew that she was going to die. She had lost sight of Resolute and that terrified her even more; she did not want to die without him close to her – he was her life. The thirteen-year-old girl choked as cold water pushed its way down her throat and she struck the stone wall of the tunnel. She tried to scream but nothing came out as more water flooded down her throat and she began to drown. All control vanished as her terror gave way to panic and she began to inadvertently gulp down the water, her mind coming apart as all sense of reality vanished, replaced by a total nightmare as she began to die, right there in the dark flooded tunnel.
Intrepid was alone, but not alone. Ajax was just feet away, suffering just the same, only her situation was many times worse as she had found herself tumbling, spending time under the raging torrent before her head then burst out into the limited space above the level of the water and the girl was able to seize a quick lungful of air before she was thrust beneath the water again. She had briefly found something – or rather someone – to hang onto, but it had proved to be Arbiter who had dutifully punched Ajax in the face as Ajax was dragging the older girl down under the water in her panic to achieve buoyancy. But that final punch had caused Ajax to give up in her struggle to survive and her choking began in earnest as water raced into her open mouth and down her throat, even as the girl tried to scream.
Splinter had been shaken from his terror when he had struck something hard. Instinctively, he had reached out to grab whatever the object was and for a moment, he held on tight to what had to be a solid structure of some kind set into the tunnel wall. The boy gripped on with all his might, but then something cannoned into him, tearing his grip from the object. For a moment, he thought that the something was Resolute, but Splinter could not be one hundred percent certain in the darkness as he and the something tumbled in the turmoil.
Resolute was frightened beyond belief. His life, what there was of it, was flashing before his eyes. He had passed beyond terror and he was moving beyond blind panic. Any hope he might have had that he would survive the subterranean ordeal had long since faded and he had begun to accept his fate, despite his panic and human instinct to survive. While he hated the thought of dying, his greatest regret was that he had not had a chance to live, to marry, to have a family. He missed his best friend, and he had not seen her for a while, but he knew she was also suffering in the raging torrent, alone in the darkness. However, something was not right . . . he was not drowning . . . and the water appeared to be going down. Then the boy yelled out as he slammed into something hard, then he yelled out again as something slammed into him. He heard a scream and he recognised Arbiter's dulcet tones as the person who had slammed into him. The water rapidly went down, and the boy discovered that he was crushed against a vertical iron grill that looked to be decades old. Eventually, the waters subsided and the pressure on Arbiter eased and she sagged to the wet stone flags of the tunnel floor allowing Intrepid to fall beside her.
"Sound off!" Petra's voice yelled out of the darkness.
"Resolute!"
"Arbiter!"
There was a coughing/choking sound followed by, "Ajax!"
"H – Harrier!"
"Splinter!"
"Where's Intrepid?" Petra demanded.
Someone found their weapon and switched on a torch. Petra looked around and she spied Resolute sitting on the stone floor of the tunnel beside Arbiter and Ajax on all fours coughing sporadically. Splinter was crouched down beside Ajax and Harrier stood beside Petra. Then her eyes fell across a dark soggy shape in the darkness. It was a body and it lay on the cold stone floor. Resolute jumped to his feet and leapt the seven feet to where Intrepid lay. The boy rolled his friend onto her back and then pulled off her mask. Her eyes were closed, and he swiftly pulled off his right gauntlet and shoved his hand into her carotid artery at the base of her neck.
"I can't find it!" his horrified voice exclaimed. "I can't find a pulse! It's got to be here . . . help me!"
Petra recognised his building panic and she pulled the boy away from Intrepid. Petra raised her right fist and she brought it down hard onto Intrepid's chest, forcing a contraction of her lungs which forced air and water out of her mouth. Arbiter dropped down beside Intrepid and she pulled off her own mask before she commenced cardiopulmonary resuscitation as she placed her mouth over Intrepid's and blew in twice. Petra had by then retrieved a special device from her pack while Splinter had unzipped Intrepid's combat suit and he slit the girl's T-shirt and sports bra allowing Petra to attach two small pads to the girl's chest.
"Clear!" Petra announced as Arbiter sat up after having provided two more breaths into Intrepid's lungs.
Petra stabbed the button on the miniature defibrillator and Intrepid's body jerked upwards and then back down again. Arbiter administered two more breaths and checked for a pulse – she shook her head.
"Clear!"
Again, Intrepid's body jerked and Arbiter checked but then she shook her head.
"NO! NO! NO!" Resolute cried out as he grabbed hold of Intrepid and he bodily shook her. "Wake up, dammit!"
There was the sound of hissing and then choking as Intrepid began to convulse and Arbiter rolled the girl onto her left side as water gushed out of her mouth and Intrepid coughed before finally taking in an enormous amount of air, once, twice, and then a third time.
"You fucking bitch!" Resolute yelled. "You fucking scared the hell out of me!"
The boy gave Intrepid a kiss on the cheek even as Arbiter helped the shaken girl to sit up.
Nox, Glide & Rogue
The three girls fell an unknown distance before they struck something, and then rebounded off to roll to a stop on hard stone.
Glide and Rogue fought to remain conscious and the two girls regained their feet, swaying slightly as they sorted out their equilibrium. Glide noticed that Nox was still on the ground and not moving – she must have been knocked unconscious by the fall, the younger girl surmised as she looked around.
"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore. But we ain't over the sodding rainbow!"
Rogue studied the rough concrete floor of the cavern they were in which was totally different to the rough stone floor of the tunnels.
"Now I know we're not in Kansas," she responded as she pointed at a red sign which was affixed to the concrete wall and mounted above a wrecked steel air vent cover.
'Lüftungskanal'
"What does that mean?" Glide asked.
"No idea, but that sign looks old," Rogue replied.
The two girls looked back up the shaft down which they had fallen. The shaft was smooth concrete and there was no way that they could climb back up the shaft which appeared to curve up and to the right after about a dozen feet.
"Okay," Glide tried. "Where the fuck are we?"
"Looks like some kind of underground bunker."
"Fucking ow!"
The two girls turned to look at Nox who was struggling to her feet. The older girl glared at Glide and Rogue for a moment before she looked around and she took in the smashed air vent cover. The impact of the three of them on the vent cover had torn half a dozen bolts out of the concrete as they had cannoned into it. The vent was just a foot off the floor so the landing could have been a lot worse. Nox rubbed her head which was sore from the impact – she had landed head first as opposed to the two girls who had landed feet first. The thirteen-year-old Nox was not happy with the situation, but she was experienced enough to know that bitching would not change the fact that they were God only knew how many feet they were below the ground. As they checked out the immediate area, they could see that they were in a small part of something much bigger. Two more old signs on concrete walls were identified as being in the German language:
'Küche'
'Kaserne'
"Well, this explains a few things," Nox commented. "This must be a German bunker left over from World War II which explains the tunnels and those machine gun nests. That canny bastard built his home atop the fucking bunker to give himself a defensive position and a bolt hole."
"That all adds up," Glide conceded as Rogue nodded her agreement. "So, what next, oh glorious leader?"
"God, I hate little kids!" Nox growled. "Let's see where we get to – we'll head this way."
Glide led off, with Rogue following and Nox watching their backs. The bunker was made up of concrete-lined corridors with light fittings bolted to the walls every few metres. The illumination was not amazing, but it was enough to be able to see what was ahead and behind. Cable trays laden with thick black power cables ran along the left side of the red-painted concrete corridor, near to the two-metre high ceiling while various sizes and colours of pipework ran along the opposite side at the same height as the cable trays. At varying intervals, there were doorways which led into what might have been storerooms, decades before. They could see where the doorways were as electrical cables would branch off into the rooms from the main cable trays. None of the rooms were locked but neither were they full of anything other than decades old rubbish and other detritus. However, their simple saunter through history was not to last.
At a T-junction formed by their tunnel meeting another, they found a pair of guards loitering and talking between themselves. Rogue and Glide did not hesitate as they drew and took careful aim with their .22-calibre suppressed pistols. The heads were not hard to miss, and a swift double-tap added a glossy composite to the concrete wall behind as the bodies fell to the floor. Rogue and Glide ran forward and checked that the way was clear to left and right.
"Clear!"
"Clear!"
Rogue listened hard and as she focussed to the right; she could hear voices. She pointed to the right and Nox nodded.
Without a word, the trio moved off, heading towards the sound.
Psyche & Fury
After a dozen yards, the two girls paused beside a steel hatch set into concrete.
"What the fuck?" Fury asked.
"You got me," Psyche answered as she checked out the door which hinged inwards and was fitted with six large dogs – two at the top, two at the bottom, and two at the right side.
Closer inspection showed that the dogs were lathered in grease which did not look to be as old as the door which bore a single inscription on a red sign in the centre:
'Bunkereingang Vier'
"Bunker Entrance Four," Psyche mused. "Why would the sign be in German?"
"I would have thought Italian would have been better," Fury agreed. "What's this?"
Fury held up a section of hollow steel pipe.
"Try it on one of the dogs – I think it'll work like a kind of key," Psyche suggested.
Fury inserted the obviously scratched end of the pipe onto the handle of the first dog on the right side and she heaved down on the pipe, causing the dog to shift with a brief grinding of metal against metal. Fury continued with the remaining five dogs until she was about to heave down on the fifth, but Psyche stopped her.
"Hold on," she cautioned. "We have no idea what's beyond there."
"You, cautious?" Fury chuckled. "Since when?"
"Since I almost lost you in that cave in."
"Christ, you are creepy when you try to sound caring," Fury responded. "Ready?"
Psyche chuckled as she held her sub-machine gun ready and aimed at the hatchway. Fury released the last dog and she nudged the steel hatch which swung open on well-oiled hinges. Beyond was simply a concrete corridor painted red and extending for about twenty feet before it took a sharp turn to the right.
"After you," Fury said as she waved Psyche forward.
"Age before beauty," Psyche countered as she waved Fury through.
"Bitch!"
Fury dogged the hatch closed after them both as Psyche continued down the corridor to where the corridor took a sharp turn to the right.
Splinter, Arbiter, Resolute, Intrepid, Harrier, Ajax & Petra
Intrepid was back on her feet and attempting to regain her dignity as she zipped up her combat suit.
"Wow!" Intrepid commented as she looked around. "That was one hell of a kiss – you, Resolute?"
Resolute shook his head as he looked over at Arbiter who simply shrugged.
"Ewww!" Intrepid complained.
"There's plenty more where that came from," Arbiter chuckled with a sly grin.
"Get your masks back on," Petra directed. "You two can make out later."
"Yeah, right!" Intrepid stated as she hid her scowl under her mask, ignoring Arbiter's creepy grin which soon vanished under her own mask.
"Well, this direction doesn't look all that good," Harrier commented as he looked beyond the grill.
"I struck something, someway back, and I was able to grip onto it for a while until something struck me – it might have been a ladder," Splinter announced.
"As good as any place to start," Petra said. "Everybody good to move? Weapons complete?"
There was furious activity as everyone checked their weapon, ejecting magazines and ensuring that they were free of obstructions. Bolts were worked to clear actions before magazines were returned and bullets were swept into the breeches ready for action. Once everyone was ready, the team headed back up the tunnel, checking out both sides to identify what it was that Splinter had struck and then clung onto. It was Resolute who found it.
"Voila!" he announced happily as he shone his torch onto an iron ladder embedded into the tunnel stonework.
Petra shone her own torch upwards and she found a steel hatchway embedded in concrete and set into the roof of the tunnel.
Nox, Glide & Rogue
They began to find obvious signs of activity as the sounds of voices grew louder.
They had not come across any further guards, but they knew that they were standing into danger as they passed through a large steel hatch which was partially open. They began to see creature comforts, such as mats on the concrete floor and pictures on the concrete walls. Indeed, the first room they stopped at to check was a storeroom stacked with tinned goods – lots of them – and the dates on the tins were merely months old rather than decades such as the detritus which they had already come across. Someone was living in the bunker – most probably members of the Genovese family, Nox surmised. They were moving slower now that they could hear activity not too far ahead. Each of them knew that there was danger all around them and that they had no avenues of assistance; they were alone in the subterranean German – well, Sicilian – bunker.
Glide was getting a bad feeling and she looked over at Rogue whose body language told Glide that she was unhappy as well. Were they scared? Yes – any nine-year-old would be in such a situation, but the two girls were not average nine-year-olds, so their fear was managed and used to enhance their senses and fighting skills. Both were experienced vigilantes and it was not their first night out by any means. One thing both had learnt during months of training was to select the correct weapon for the task ahead. The sub-machine guns were pushed behind their backs and the pistols were out and held up at head height, the muzzles moving with their eyes and ready to take down an enemy.
Nox was growing particularly nervous as the voices came closer and closer. She knew that hostilities could commence at any moment. She was also worried about what might happen to her should she lose either, or both, of the two young girls in her care. Nox held her Heckler & Koch SFP9 M at eye level, the suppressor following her eyes as they constantly moved left to right, right to left, left to right. As well as scanning over the heads of the two girls, Nox was checking behind as well as checking on the girls themselves. Nox was highly skilled and a perfectionist when it came to everything she did, which often drove others to despair in her desire for perfection. In fact, Nox had learnt some of her perfection-orientated skills from watching a young Rylee Clarkson during their time together in Toulouse. That simply meant that Nox slowed the eager young girls and probably saved their lives as three men suddenly appeared from a doorway just feet away from them.
Nox reacted swiftly, snapping off a bullet to the first man, catching him in the head. The next man was pistol-whipped across the face by Glide who was far too close to make use of her Smith & Wesson M&P 22 Compact pistol with attached suppressor. Rogue snapped off a round which went wild, the attempt costing her as the man just three feet from her, lunged for the youngster and he smashed her to one side with his right forearm. Rogue screamed out as she crashed into the concrete wall and collapsed to the floor of the tunnel. Glide ducked and rolled, coming up behind the man who had just attacked her friend and she put three bullets into the man's right side from below, the .22-calibre rounds shredding the bastard's liver and perforating his left lung. The remaining man who had been pistol-whipped glared at Nox, oblivious to his bloody face as he went for the armour-clad vigilante, his massive hands grasping the girl by her webbing and then throwing her down the tunnel where Nox thudded into the concrete and rolled to a stop against one wall, the pain coursing through her body and momentarily paralysing her. Glide pulled a bruised Rogue to her feet and then the pair went after Nox.
Only, the sound of the fight had reached others, and hell was about to rain down upon the three vigilantes.