February 25th, 2023 3:00 pm
Specialist Derrick "Loki" Castellano
Rainbow HQ
Near Portland, OR. USA
"MOTHERFUCKER! Again?!" Derrick exclaimed as he withdrew his hand from the inner workings of his T.R.I.K. Projector once again. He was doing some routine cleaning of the holographic lenses and got burned in the exact same place as he had back at the Air Force Base. Upside, no one had been present in the lab to watch him embarrass himself. Lukas and Monika were being briefed by Ash and most of the others were either asleep or in the workout area. The basis of this new living arrangement was this, their main priority is to monitor potential White Mask/other terroristic threats along the West Coast. Each night, 1 or 2 specialists would work guard duty and would alert the others if anything major was happening. Other than that, the specialists (Derrick, Lukas, Meghan etc.) were pretty much allowed to do what they wanted. Derrick had gone back to his apartment a few times when he wasn't scheduled. He liked the Facility but sometimes, it was better for him to be alone. There was a plaque near the entrance that read;
"Operators, as head of R&D, I would like to welcome you to your new home away from home! Mi casa es tu casa!
As you probably have already noticed, the stadium itself was soon forgotten and left to rot. But now, thanks to The Program, this entire facility has been rebuilt, redesigned and resurrected just for us! I personally worked very closely with the engineering team, making sure we had absolutely everything we needed to really push ourselves to our limits.
Everything is state of the art; gyms, medical bay, gun range, dormitories, around the clock all you can eat cafeteria, lounges, and even a movie theatre. Not to mention, an enormous new R&D lab that I will be putting to good use developing new toys for us. I am sure it will take you no time to find your way around. If you have any questions, you can probably find me in the lab blowing something up." It had been written by Mira and Derrick had remembered seeing the same message on the wall in Greece. Harry had explained to Derrick that these Facilities were used to help build relationships and allow the operators to learn to work together more closely. Harry also asked Derrick to monitor Zofia and Ela. Apparently their sibling relationship was very much the opposite from Derrick and Meghan's. Ela hated Zofia. As he stated to Lukas and Monika when they arrived, Ela had been extremely pissed off when she found out that she had to work/live with Zofia. There was also a rumor that Ela had calmed down a bit when she found out Lukas was stationed at this Facility as well. Derrick grinned to himself but then remembered that his hand was pretty much on fire. Looking around his work area he spotted a glass of water and immediately stuck his hand in it.
"Slick," a voice from behind him said. Derrick jumped, knocked the glass on the floor where it shattered and turned to see the face of Elena Alvarez grinning at him.
"Hey Elena, when you get in?," Derrick asked and began to clean up the shards of glass along the floor. "How much did Ash annoy you on the way over? I heard she actually met you at the airport. I would have given you a lift but Ash told me she wanted to go herself," Derrick knew about Elena and Ash's mutual distaste of each other. Elena frowned slightly.
"Honestly...not at all really. She informed me of who else was here and briefed me on the situation," she said and dropped off her equipment at a free lab station. "Where's everyone else?"
"Ash is with Lukas and Monika, giving them the tour, Meghan's in the gym, Tina's in her room, Craig and Jordan are sleeping and Ela and Zo aren't here until...next week I think," Derrick explained, still shaking his hand in the air. Damn, the loose wire had really gotten him this time. He always forgot to turn the damn thing off before working on it. Bonehead.
"So you never really told me how this worked. I was called away as you were writing your report. I did read it. That actually happened right? You pranking Meghan with the classic shaving cream?" Elena said, walking back over to Derrick.
"Of course I did. Laughed for about 20 minutes straight afterwards when that Jack dude drank what Meghan gave him," Derrick answered. Elena chuckled and then turned to Derrick's projector. Derrick's hand had finally stopped twinging with pain and he was able to move his fingers again.
"Ah yes, you are not to be deterred it seems. So how this works. Well I assume you are familiar with...oh crap...forgot her name… the woman from the Netherlands...uh Nienke? Yeah that's it! You know Nienke's floating projectors work right? Pretty much the same when it comes to holographic and AR technology. There are a few dozen state of the art Air Force holographic projectors/cameras in there which is good because the original one I made in college only displayed a static image over my body and when I moved, it shimmered rather than have the image imitate my movements fully. Still got top marks and my spot on the Special Recon team. Meghan wasn't able to attend my college graduation because she was busy in the Navy…" Derrick started to explain but stopped when he got to the comment about Meghan.
"You really care about her don't you?" Elena asked.
"Yeah...what about you? Any siblings?" Derrick asked.
"I have one sister. Still in Spain," Elena answered. "So you were telling me how this worked."
"Right right, where was I? Oh yeah, the cameras. I update them whenever I hear about some new model that comes out every few months. The design for it has also changed over the years. The original one was an arm mounted touch screen with another type of projector attached to my abdomen. This 'half glove with pauldron' design is the latest type of iteration I tried. I got a few ideas to try at some point," Derrick explained. Elena continued to look entertained so Derrick kept talking.
"Now that I'm on Team Rainbow and I see a lot of the fun shit you guys get to play with, I might be able to get the latest stuff before anyone else does. Might be able to work out the annoying kink that's been bugging me for years. I blame Windows Vista."
"What kink?"
"It bodes well for me that I now share a lab with a tech expert that wasn't able to figure out the real from the fake. Watch this," Derrick said, sealed off the "maintenance hatch" (as he called it) and put it on his arm. He activated the projector and turned into a clone of Ash.
"Notice anything different?" he asked in his own voice. He saw Elena flinch a bit. Might have been a bit eerie to hear his voice come out of Ash's mouth.
"Other than the fact that I don't want to punch you in the face, no," Elena answered.
"What color are Ash's boots normally? Red right? Look down," Derrick said and pointed at "Ash's" boots. They were blue. Elena's eyes widened and said "shit" in Spanish. Derrick put his hands over his mouth in mock outrage.
"Elena! The commanding officer is present! Watch your language!" Derrick said, imitating Ash's crisp stern voice. Elena backed away from him.
"Ok...that's just creepy," she told him as he turned back into himself. "When did you get Ash's likeness uploaded into that?"
"Few days ago when I picked her up from the airport. Already used it as a safety net. Bout a half hour ago actually," Derrick said slyly. Elena narrowed her eyes at him but ruined it by smiling.
"What did you do and who did you do it on?"
"Who do you think...wait for it," Derrick looked over his shoulder out of the lab and towards the gym. Within seconds, Derrick heard Meghan's catchphrase of "JESUS CHRIST DERRICK!" come from down the hall followed by rapid footsteps. A couple seconds later, Meghan arrived in the doorway wrapped in 2 towels, looking a lot more red/purple than she ought to and rather angry .
"Hey drippy, how's the workout going?" Derrick asked and tried his damndest not to laugh. Elena nearly lost it but turned away.
"YOU THINK THAT'S FUNNY DO YOU?" Meghan said angrily.
"Oh dear me, what happened to you?" Derrick said, pretending to just notice her red complexion.
"YOU KNOW DAMN WELL WHAT HAPPENED TO ME! POWDERED GRAPE JUICE IN THE SHOWER HEAD?! WHAT ARE YOU? SIX?" Meghan shouted again and grabbed Derrick's shirt. She smelled like grape juice surprisingly. Derrick was still trying not to laugh his ass off. He also prayed to every deity that he knew that Meghan's towel wouldn't fall. If it was Tina in front of him though….
"No, I believe Six is a doctor named Harry. Have you met him? Nice guy," Derrick answered. Elena was shaking with suppressed laughter as she pretended to fiddle with something.
"YOU…" Meghan yelled before walking away in anger because she wasn't able to think of anything else to say. Probably to take another shower. Derrick and Elena both burst out laughing. Derrick himself was laughing so hard he nearly passed out.
"That's the only time I'll do something like that. I swear. But I HAD to do it once. Oh MAN, I used to do that all the time back in the day. Dad got so mad at me once cause he took a shower before Megs did. Still gave me and my Mom a good laugh though," Derrick said, wiping the tears from his eyes. He had indeed used the Ash disguise to sneak into the women's showers (something he NEVER did but decided to take a risk today) and rig the showerhead before Meghan got in. Thankfully the disguise was not needed as there was no one else in there. Couple of people saw him leave however and they had looked surprised to see Ash/Derrick chuckling to her/himself. Derrick and Elena continued laughing as Lukas, Monika and Ash arrived.
"Any idea why Meghan was so mad?" Monika asked the room at large and sat down with her R.E.D. MkIII Spectre scanner and began to fiddle with it.
"And I thought you were the smart one?" Lukas answered, sitting down next to her.
"Castellano...what did you do?" Ash asked (Elena pretended Ash wasn't there in the meantime). Derrick explained his harmless prank. Lukas laughed, Monika rolled her eyes but still smiled and even Ash chuckled.
"I wondered why some of the Recruits were looking at me funny. Don't do that again Derrick alright. It was funny once. Come to think of it, you...you don't use that to spy on people do you? Like...do you go into the women's room often?" Ash asked him. Derrick expected someone to ask this question at some point. The answer was of course no. Derrick wasn't a perv. Ash happened to be the only female disguise he had scanned into the projector's computer as the computer usually deleted old scans after about a week.
"Of course not. I'm not 17. But I read ya loud and clear ma'am. Won't do it again," Derrick answered. He even deleted Ash's scan right in front of everyone so they knew he was serious. Ash nodded and left the 4 of them in the lab.
Meghan walked in about an hour later still a little miffed but thankfully less red/purple. She spotted Derrick, who still had a grin on his face.
"Shut up," she said and began to adjust her Gyro Cams that were sitting on another table. Derrick placed a hand on his chest and another over his mouth as if he were a Victorian Era woman that had just seen something rather GHASTLY.
"Do I sense hostility?" he said with a slight lisp. "You owe me some flowers missy." Lukas chuckled.
"Don't encourage him!" Meghan shot at him while continuing to glare at Derrick. Derrick got up and gave her a one armed hug. She tried to push him away but eventually relented like she always did whenever she fell for one of Derrick's harmless pranks. Derrick never, NEVER, intended to harm his would-be victim.
"I thought that would stop now that we're on the same team," Meghan said.
"Had to break out a Castellano Classic. Haven't seen you really other than Christmas and other holidays. Before you ask me again, I was not kidding when Ash asked me about spying. I never EVER use my projector to sneak into the ladies locker room. Victoria's Secret yes but- OW! Kidding!" Meghan punched his arm in response. Derrick spoke in the lispy voice again. "NOW I EXPECT SOME CHOCOLATES! GOODNESS ME!" Meghan had a smile on her face now so Derrick took it as she had forgiven him. Not surprising considering they were so close. Derrick looked at his sister's cameras.
"Ah yes, I read about those in your report. It's a portable camera right?" Derrick asked.
"Pretty much as I am one of the top intel gatherers in the Navy. I worked with Ela once a few years ago as her source of intel. Glad to see my little brother followed in my footsteps too," Meghan explained and allowed Derrick to pick up one of the cams. Derrick noticed that it was light and aerodynamic. Kind of like a softball.
"I think I remember you mentioning that once. Didn't you drunkenly try to set me up with her?" Derrick asked before Meghan smacked his shoulder again. Derrick noticed that Lukas glanced up from his work and uncovered one ear (he was listening to music while working) when the subject of Ela was brought up.
"I would appreciate that you don't bring up my civilian life while we're at work Derrick," she said, handing Derrick a phone connected to the Gyro Cam's feed. Looking at the phone, he saw that the image had like a light blue tinge to it. "Cause I'll have to tell Tina all about you and how much of a momma's boy you are," she added in a low voice that only Derrick could hear. Before Derrick could retort, Ash came back into the room with her RC-4 in her hands. For a moment, Derrick thought the gun was made of ice but it was just a trick of the light.
"Castellano,"
"Yes?" Both Meghan and Derrick answered. Derrick grinned but stopped when he noticed how serious Ash looked at the moment.
"Ma'am, what's going on?" Derrick asked.
"There's a situation. Building was seized by a terrorist cell. Lukas, Monika you better come. I believe that there's a bomb threat too. Double time to the Jeep. Let's move!"
February 25th, 2023 4:15pm
Specialist Derrick "Loki" Castellano
Terrorist-Held Building
Near Portland, OR. USA
Derrick let go of the neck of the now dead terrorist and dragged his body into the nearby alleyway. Within seconds he became the man's twin but his undershirt was blue instead of purple. He covered up the error by zipping up his jacket.
"Target neutralized. I'm going in with the cams Valk," Derrick said into his earpiece. At first, it was weird calling Meghan something other than "Megs" but protocol was protocol.
"Copy. Remember I need full coverage. Entry points, exits, everything. Try to hide them in hard to spot locations. See if you can find the bomb too as well as any other civilians. Once you're done, Amp and IQ will make their way in," she responded. "Loki...be careful…"
"Roger," Derrick said. She must have been waiting for a joke but even Derrick knew that this was not the time. People were in there. Innocent people. Derrick walked into the door the guy he ambushed came out of. Immediately he was greeted by another terrorist. This guy greeted him in a foreign language that Derrick didn't speak. The other guy continued to speak and became more and more agitated that Derrick wasn't responding. Derrick decided to just shoot him and did so.
"Boring conversation anyway," Derrick said, forgetting that his mic was still on.
"Are we about to have company?" Amp asked him. Derrick grinned. This man just made a Star Wars reference. Outstanding.
"No sorry, ran into someone. I took care of it. Valk, I'm setting the cams. Discreetly of course," Derrick answered and threw one of the cameras at the ceiling. Thankfully Meghan had designed it with mini suction cups all over the outside which allowed the camera to adhere to any surface.
"Camera feed up and running," Valk responded. Derrick continued to make his way throughout the building keeping his eyes peeled for any other civilians or a potential. Thankfully most of the other Terrorists spoke English and addressed Derrick as "Sven." None of them even noticed as Derrick threw cameras on the ceiling and stuck them on walls out of plain sight. Some of the hostages noticed him doing this but Derrick held up a finger to his lips and gave a military salute to a young girl and her brother. They seemed to get the message that he was a soldier that was disguised as a terrorist. Eventually he did find a bomb on one of the upper floors right after placing the last camera.
"Valk, you seeing this? Eyes on a bomb. 3rd floor. Was I followed?" Derrick whispered and posted up against the wall. He had counted 2 enemies in this room.
"Negative," Valk answered. Derrick heard a sense of pride in her voice.
"Ash, are we weapons free?" Derrick asked. "I got 2 dumbasses in front of me."
"Affirmative, drop 'em," Ash's voice responded. Derrick took out his pistol, took aim and fired, dropping one of the terrorists in one shot. The other one looked around and spotted Derrick. Derrick put on what he hoped was a convincing Scadinavian style accent and addressed the other guy.
"I am so sorry. The pistol misfired! It's these stupid American guns! So faulty am I right," Derrick rattled off. The other guy wasn't so convinced. He walked over and slammed Derrick against the wall...deactivating his holographic disguise with a smashing noise.
"WHAT THE?! AMERICAN!" the guy shouted. "KILL THE HOS-" Derrick shot him before he could complete that sentence. Fuck. Not good.
"Uh Ash, Valk, I got a problem," Derrick said and began to fiddle with his projector with no avail. The thing was pretty much out of commission. Thankfully, he had backed up all the files (and his collection of pictures and videos) on a computer back at the base so it should be a relatively easy fix. Plus he had access to more tech now that he was on Rainbow and Elena said she would help him develop a new style for it.
"Loki, you got a squad coming. Stairs you came up on. ETA 15 seconds," Valk said and Derrick could tell she sounded worried. I got this big sis, he told himself as he readied his M4. One of the arriving Terrorists peeked around the corner, ate a round to the forehead and dropped dead. Derrick took out a frag grenade as the other 3 returned fire, missing him entirely. What really surprised Derrick was how calm he was at the moment. He had only seen active combat a few times and none of them involved any civilians in the crossfire. Derrick pulled the pin and threw the frag toward the other terrorists. The explosion and subsequent screams told Derrick that he was successful in taking them out.
"Loki, are you alright?" Amp said into his ear.
"Yeah, where are you and IQ?" Derrick asked.
"Over here," IQ responded. Derrick looked at the windows to see a small woman next to a giant man with big muscles scaling the building.
"We'll take care of the bomb, you help Ash and Valk. According to Valk, the terrorists are far from where they stashed the hostages. You can potentially lead them out the back, the way you came in," IQ said as she crashed through the window in the room and began to sweep the area with her R.E.D. Amp followed her in with a bomb defuser. Derrick nodded at the pair of them and made his way back to the hostages. Sure enough, they were left unguarded and Derrick began to lead them outside one by one. He felt that it would be easier and quieter this way as he didn't want to alert the terrorists. When he came back for the final 2, the young girl and boy he had seen earlier was when shit pretty much hit the fan. First, a terrorist shouted and fired a shot at Derrick which missed...but grazed the boy's leg. Another shot grazed Derrick's ear and basically destroyed his commlink and his ear began to bleed. Luckily, it didn't do that much damage as the terrorist happened to be a bad shot. Derrick retaliated by unloading the remainder of his M4 magazine in that guy's direction. 5 bullets connected and the terrorist went down in a bloody heap. The boy was crying in pain and his little sister was also crying in fear.
"It's ok, I'm a good guy. A soldier. You can trust me," Derrick told them, pointing to the American flag patch on his sleeve and starting to wrap the boy's wound with some travel bandages.
"It's alright buddy. You're gonna be ok," Derrick told him.
"Lok….mor….omb...on...oor...OVE!" a staticy voice said into his damaged comlink.
"Repeat? I didn't cop-" KA-BOOM! An explosion went off in the adjoining room and the debris from the explosion blocked the only doorway outside. What was worse was that multiple explosions followed and pretty soon, smoke began to fill the room as the building caught fire.
"Shit," Derrick said, looking around the room for a means to escape as the 2 kids continued to cry. He tried his commlink again but it was too damaged. He spotted a window nearby and ran over to it. He looked out of it to see that he was on the second floor...conveniently right above the surveillance van that just drove up to the burning building. He could see Valk yelling into her own commlink, most likely for him and Amp held her back as she tried to run into the burning building. Derrick turned to the 2 kids.
"Alright kiddos, I'm about to do something extremely stupid. Don't do this later when you go home ok?" he said to the kids. "Grab onto me and bury your faces in my chest. Don't stop until I tell you. Ready?" Derrick grabbed a kid in each arm. The smoke was beginning to get to him and his vision became a bit foggy but he had to get them out of here. He got as far as he could from the window and ran full speed at it. At the last moment, he turned and jumped somewhat backwards into it. Thankfully, it was just a window and Derrick smashed through it going backwards and fell onto the roof of the van with a loud crashing noise. Pain. Immense pain was now going through Derrick's back. Derrick sat up. He looked over the side of the van and saw Valk and Ash simply gawking at him.
"My bad...I'm sure it'll buff out." Derrick said. "We're safe now guys, told you I was a good guy. Ash, the boy got grazed. He needs more medical attention." Ash didn't respond. "Uh ma'am...are you alright?"
"Cas...Loki. I don't...what the hell was that?" she asked him and helped him off the roof of the van. Thankfully, Derrick's commando dive didn't cause that much damage to the van. His back? That wasn't so lucky. Derrick started to walk, or rather limp, it off to no avail. Valk still hadn't said anything and Amp began to talk to the little girl. She laughed at his German accent as he led her over to her parents, who Derrick saw were nearly in hysterics. Derrick explained what happened before the bombs went off.
"So I needed a way out. I'm gonna need to lie down for a bit. Holy shit that hurt more than I expected. Everyone else made it out right? Hostages I mean," Derrick asked. Ash nodded and then patted him on his shoulder and gave him another smile.
"Nice work Loki. Valk and I managed to hold the terrorists at bay as you extracted them. Six was right about you. Valk, take it easy with him. That was a bit of a hard fall," she told Valk, who had finally done something other than stand there looking mystified and hugged Derrick so tightly, he thought she was going to break his back.
"Ow...OW! Easy, I'm fine," Derrick told her. Valk looked up at him. He could tell she had been teary eyed because they were red. "Ok, maybe not fully. Note to self: I am unable to fly. Those showerheads have a massage function right?"
"Yes..." Valk answered but added something in a low voice that Derrick couldn't make out due to the arriving fire crew. He thought he heard the name "Tina" followed by Valk smirking at him.
February 25th, 2023 4:15pm
Specialist Lukas "Amp" Weiss
Terrorist-Held Building
Near Portland, OR. USA
Lukas, Monika, Derrick and Meghan sprang into action when she told them about the potential threat. Lukas himself was a bit nervous on the way there. Ash, Loki and Valkyrie were currently going over some kind of infiltration plan while Ash drove a van loaded with equipment down the road. Monika turned to him and spoke to him in German.
"You ok?"
"Yeah...just you know...first real challenge as a Rainbow op," he answered, also in German. Derrick, who spoke German, gave Lukas the thumbs up from the front seat but didn't say anything else. Lukas could see in one of the mirrors that Derrick looked nervous too.
"Remember what I taught you. Focus on your objectives. And remember to call me IQ," she told him as she put her helmet and mask on. Lukas tied his hair in a ponytail and pulled up his own half facemask and put on his tac goggles. They pulled up next to the building under siege by terrorists and Lukas, Monika and Loki walked out while the van drove around the other side of the building. Loki quickly went over the plan he had come up with along with Ash and Valk.
"Ok, here's the deal. I'm gonna impersonate one of these bozos and get inside, set up some cameras and see what the situation is. If I find where the bomb is, that's where you 2 come in," Loki explained as he punched in a few commands on his AR display before walking away to look for a stray terrorist to impersonate. Lukas checked the magazine in his rifle as he heard Loki say
"Target neutralized, I'm going in with the cams Valk," about a minute later. Lukas turned to IQ to see that she was attaching a rappel cable to her belt.
"Boring conversation anyway," Loki suddenly said into his ear. Lukas decided to have a bit of fun.
"Are we about to have company?" he asked.
"No sorry, ran into someone. I took care of it. Valk, I'm setting the cams. Discreetly of course," Loki answered. IQ looked towards him with a worried look in her eyes but Lukas held up his hand and whispered "Star Wars." She nodded and focused her attention back on the building. She had taken him to see Episode 1 back in 1999 when Lukas was 10. He remembered how she tried to get into the movies in order to be closer to him because he loved them. For most of the movie, she kept asking him questions in a low voice that only he could hear. Unfortunately, that movie was not so good but they both had a good time regardless. Lukas took out his phone, which was connected to Valk's camera feeds and began to cycle through them. Loki had done his job well. Some of these bad boys were in pretty sneaky places. Under a sink in a kitchen like area, in dark corners and on top of bookcases. Lukas cycled to the camera that showed him a room full of tied up people. Men, women and children. He pointed this out to IQ.
"Looks like...8 hostages? No 10," he said to her before Ash's voice interrupted
"Amp, IQ. Bomb located. 3rd floor. You know what to do,"
"Yes ma'am," Lukas answered and unhooked his own repel cable from his belt. He and IQ threw the cables skywards with mighty heaves and they anchored to the side of the roof securely. Together, they began to climb the building. Lukas was just beginning to wonder where exactly the bomb was on the 3rd floor when he heard an explosion.
"Loki, are you alright?" he asked.
"Yeah, where are you and IQ?" Loki responded. IQ had her R.E.D. out and had her feet pressed against a window. Must be that room so Lukas made his way over to her.
"Over here," IQ said, jumped away from the building, fired a few shots into the window so it shattered and went through it. Lukas climbed through as IQ was performing a sweep of the room with her R.E.D., looking for more potential threats as Lukas took out the bomb defuser and began to type in various commands.
"We'll take care of the bomb, you help Ash and Valk. According to Valk, the terrorists are far from where they stashed the hostages. You can potentially lead them out the back, the way you came in," IQ told Loki, who nodded and left the room. Lukas finished setting the defuser, which would take about 45 seconds to work it's magic, and turned to IQ.
"Anything else in here?" he asked her. She shook her head. "Come on, let's go help lead the hostages to safety."
Lukas and IQ climbed back down the side of the building after the bomb was defused where they saw a small group of people standing on the sidewalk looking terrified. One or 2 of them saw them walking down the side of the building and pointed at them.
"Easy now, come on. We will lead you to safety," IQ told them. 2 of the females had taken a liking to Lukas immediately but IQ stepped in and led them away from him. Just like old times huh Mon, Lukas thought to himself as he led another group to safety. He began to hear gunfire and people shouting as he got closer to the front of the building. Ash must be doing fine on her own but Lukas decided to go help. Plus most of the hostages were extracted by now. As he started to make his way to assist Ash, IQ suddenly yelled.
"ASH, MOVE!" Lukas turned to see that IQ had her R.E.D. out again which was pointed near the building and her eyes were wide with fear. Lukas glanced at the screen and saw the outline of more explosives through multiple walls. Oh shit. There must be more than one bomb. Oh fuck. Derrick.
"Loki, there's more than one bomb, most likely on multiple floors! MOVE!" he yelled into the commlink. Loki didn't answer. Lukas went to speak again but KA-BOOM! Lukas immediately shielded IQ with his large frame. He wasn't allowing anything to hurt his big sister.
"Oh fuck," Lukas said as more explosions shook the building and the street. He pulled IQ away and ran to the van that just pulled up near the building.
"Are there any more bombs?" Lukas asked IQ. IQ shook her head but Lukas could tell she was pissed at herself. As he expected, Valk was pretty much beside herself.
"LOKI RESPOND….LOKI, DO YOU COPY?!" Valk was yelling into her comm. Eventually she ran full speed at the burning building but Lukas grabbed her and pulled her away.
"GET OFF ME, MY BROTHER'S IN THERE!" she yelled at him and tried to break free. Ash was about to say something when the sound of glass breaking made them all look up to see Loki falling from the 2 story window backwards holding 2 children in his arms. He landed rather hard on the roof of the van and grunted loudly. Lukas released Valk but she didn't move immediately. Instead she just stood there, gawking at Loki. There was a split second where Lukas thought Loki was dead until he saw him get up painfully and said
"My bad...I'm sure it'll buff out." Lukas grinned under his mask. Loki was fine. The mission was a success. Lukas helped the little girl off the roof of the van while IQ picked up the little boy and began to apply some more first aid to his injured leg.
"Are you also a good guy?" the little girl asked him.
"Oh yeah, that guy that jumped out the window with you is my buddy," Lukas answered. The little girl giggled at him. Must have been his accent. "Come on, I'll take you to your mom and dad." Lukas figured they were the ones pretty much in hysterics and holding their arms out towards their children.
"Thank you. Thank you so much sir," the woman said as she held her son close.
"It's my job ma'am. He got grazed by a bullet according to Superman over there," Lukas answered and pointed in Loki's direction. He was currently being held in a rib cracking hug by Valk.
"Will he be ok?" the man asked IQ. IQ nodded and then patted the boy on the back.
"It may hurt for a few days but it should heal just fine. You were both very brave. Have a nice day," she said and walked back to the van. When they were out of sightline with the crowd, IQ also gave Lukas a rib cracking hug. A tall order as he had quite a lot of muscle.
"Mon...not in front of Derrick…" he whispered but she didn't let go. Lukas looked over at Derrick, who was wincing as Valk continued to squeeze him, and gave him a look that said "overprotective sisters am I right." Derrick returned the look and they both grinned at each other.
February 25th, 2023 5:30pm
Specialist Lukas "Amp" Weiss
Rainbow HQ
Near Portland, OR. USA
The assault team returned to base about an hour later. Sure, they hadn't disarmed all the bombs but the hostages were secure.
"I know Weiss, things happen. Nice work regardless," Ash had told him when he brought up the bombs again. Derrick's back hadn't gotten much better and Lukas helped him to the showers.
"Thanks man, if you don't hear from me in an hour, then we have a problem," Derrick said as Lukas left him to relax in the steamy shower. Lukas himself dropped his gear off in the designated area and went to one of the lounges where he saw Tina and Monika, each in one of the comfy chairs, watching the news on TV. Lukas sat down in another chair and Tina looked at him as he grunted.
"New guy, nice work out there. Monika here was telling me all about it. She seems to be upset about something," Tina told him. Sure enough, Lukas saw the tell tale signs of Monika's obsessiveness begin to make themselves known. She was fidgety, rubbing her hands together and sniffed every so often.
"I nearly got Derrick killed," she said suddenly.
"What?!" Lukas and Tina said loudly. Lukas thought he heard a tinge of anger or fear in Tina's voice.
"There was more than one bomb. It was my fault. I basically got him trapped in a room with no exit," Monika continued. Lukas motioned with his hands for her to relax. As he expected, she headed his request and stopped fidgeting.
"Is Derrick ok?" Tina asked Lukas rather harshly. Lukas nodded.
"Yeah, he's in the shower. You must have seen him jump out the window right?" Lukas asked. He thought he knew what was really going on in Tina's mind.
"That was HIM?!" Tina asked before sighing wistfully. Again, Lukas nodded. Monika wasn't looking at them and Lukas took the opportunity to smirk at Tina. Tina looked away and tried to change the subject. It appears that Tina also harbored a crush on Derrick.
"Everything else went fine. No civilian casualties. 2 minor injuries. Derrick and a hostage got grazed by a bullet plus Derrick landed pretty hard on his back," Lukas said, still grinning at Tina. Monika now noticed Lukas's expression and he saw her come to a conclusion in her head. She also grinned slyly at Tina.
"Why are you so interested in our friend Derrick," Monika asked her.
"Well...uh...you know, I didn't want him to die obviously. He's our teammate isn't he," Tina answered pretty quickly.
"Uh huh sure," Monika answered, still smirking.
"I'll save you more embarrassment Tina, Derrick likes you too. You should have seen him back in Greece between matches. I must have seen him making goo-goo eyes at you at least 10 times. He kept saying stuff like 'wow, she's much prettier than I thought' and 'my God, there's no way she's going to go for a guy like me' under his breath," Lukas said. "Feel free to tease him about it. Give him a taste of his own medicine. You hear what he did to Meghan earlier?" Tina smiled, both at the fact that Derrick liked her and possibly remembering the prank Derrick played earlier that day.
"I thought that was him exiting the ladies shower. His boots were blue rather than Ash's typical red….he doesn't use that projector thing to spy on people does he?" Tina asked.
"Of course not. But I can see where you could get that idea. He only did it to Meghan and doesn't plan to do it again. Ahh speak of the devil," Lukas said as Derrick and Meghan made their way over. Was it the lighting in this room or did Derrick look a little slick and shiny? Plus the kitchen must be making soup for dinner tonight because the smell of chicken broth was rather pungent according to Lukas. Derrick sat in a chair next to Lukas and the chicken broth smell became more intense.
"Ahh, much better," Derrick said, leaning against the cushions and closing his eyes. Meghan sat next to Tina and it looked as though she was holding in a laugh with difficulty. He saw her whisper in Tina's and Monika's ear before they both began to stifle laughs. Derrick opened his eyes and scanned the room. Lukas saw him flinch a bit when he saw Tina.
"Hey Tina, didn't see you there," he said before noticing that the 3 women were trying very hard not to laugh. Lukas looked from Derrick to Meghan and the reason why became clear.
"Uh what's so funny? Whatever it was, I didn't do it."
"Nothing," Monika lied quickly. Bad move sis, Lukas thought but to his surprise, Derrick bought it.
"Anyway, did we make the news?" he asked the room at large.
"Yes, I saw you jump out the window carrying 2 hostages. Is that why your back hurts?" Tina said, continuing to hold in her laughter.
"Don't see how saving hostages and injuring myself makes me a laughing stock but ok," Derrick answered. That did it for Meghan. She doubled over in laughter. It took a minute for Lukas to get the joke but he too began to laugh. Derrick frowned (very much out of character) and raised his arm as if to point at her. Before he said anything, he looked closely at his arms and then took a whiff of them both. He seemed to realize what everyone was laughing at and chuckled himself.
"Bouillon cubes in the showerhead. Nice. You know what, I deserve that for earlier. That explains the smell in there. Thought it was just dinner seeping its way through the vents. Game recognizes game big sis. I'll be right back. Don't want the lab smelling like soup while I fix my projector," he said and got up out of the chair. Lukas high fived Meghan.
"Incredible. Is that where you ran off to when we got back?" he asked her. She was still laughing but managed to nod. Lukas grinned and turned toward the TV to watch the news as he heard Derrick laughing to himself down the hall. He caught Tina looking after him and smirked at her again. She turned a little red.
"Trust me, he does. Right Meghan?" he asked Meghan, who had finally stopped laughing. Meghan also nodded at Tina.
"I know him better than anyone else. You notice how he flinches a bit whenever you show up? Tease him about it whenever the time is right. He'll break eventually," Meghan told her. Tina smiled and looked down the hall. Lukas followed her gaze and saw Ash was silently laughing to herself and muttering something about bouillon cubes.
After Mission Report:
Hostage situation contained. Derrick and Lukas commended for their actions.
