April 26th, 2023
Specialist Lukas "Amp" Weiss
Castellano Residence
Oceanside, CA. USA
Lukas killed the engine of the rental car in the driveway. He looked over to Monika in the passenger seat and to Ela and Zofia in the back seat.
"You heard what happened when they found out right?" Lukas asked. All 3 women nodded. Ash was the one that told Mrs. Castellano about her son's death. Eliza mentioned that Derrick's mother's reaction to the news was much worse than Meghan's. Lukas knew that Derrick loved his mother as much as he loved Meghan and, recently, Tina so that must have been devastating for her to hear. Lukas looked around at the other assembled cars there. There were 2. He wasn't sure if the all of the party that was to meet at the Castellano house was here yet. There was talk of some other members of Rainbow coming to the memorial service like Blitz, Castle, Pulse and Buck. Lukas adjusted his necktie and Ela handed him his black suit jacket from the back seat.
"Luke, you gotta stop blaming yourself," Ela said to him. Monika nodded in agreement. Lukas nodded curtly. He wasn't going to however. He'd been replaying the scenario in his mind for the past week. It was 100% his fault that he didn't warn Derrick in time and no one was going to dissuade him. Not Monika and not Ela. Lukas got out of the car (with a bit of difficulty) and opened the door for Ela. She was dressed in a simple black short sleeved dress and some heels, which was vastly different from her usual style. Her hair was still blonde with the streaks of green. She clung to Lukas's arm when she stood up. Zofia and Monika got out of the car on their own. The other 2 women wore similar outfits to Ela's but Monika's was more navy than black and Zofia's was dark gray.
"Ready? Oh crap, what were the parents' names again?" Lukas asked.
"Suzanne and Gius...Giuseph...no…" Monika began. She struggled with Colonel Castellano's real name. He had been born to Italian immigrants.
"He goes by Joseph or Joe I think," Zofia interjected. Monika nodded.
"Thanks Zo," Lukas said before he looked down at the ground. Zofia put her hand on his shoulder.
"It's ok Luke, I miss him too," Zofia said. Derrick was the only person that called her "Zo" rather than her full name. The 4 of them began to walk toward Derrick and Meghan's childhood home. Sure the 2 of them spent a lot of time on army bases growing up but they had spent a lot of their childhood in this house as well when Derrick's father became an instructor. Lukas heard talking coming from inside the house and he knocked on the door a few times. Within a few seconds Meghan answered it. It was a bit weird to see her in a dress Lukas thought but that was probably because he was so used to seeing her in camo pants. She gave each of them a hug (she held onto Monika a little longer than anyone else) and led them inside to the living room/den. Lukas saw many pictures on the wall of Derrick and Meghan including one of him as a teenager leaning up against a surfboard on the beach.
"Wow...that explains the surfer voice huh?" Ela said to Lukas in a low voice. Meghan heard and followed Lukas's gaze to the picture. Meghan gave a quick smile before she turned away and wiped her eyes. She hadn't been coping with the death of Derrick very well. He often heard her crying in her room back at HQ as well as during the day. Meghan had begun to wear Derrick's sunglasses on her head instead of her own. Once or twice he'd seen her sitting there just staring at them probably wishing that she could still see Derrick wearing them. Meanwhile, Tina wore Derrick's dog tags. She didn't allow anybody to take that from her. Lukas was surprised that Meghan allowed her to do that but then again, she liked Tina and how Tina had treated Derrick. The 2 women had begun to take care of Derrick's condo as he had left the place and most of his possessions to Meghan when his will was examined a few days ago. Meghan had insisted that Lukas take Derrick's instruments even though Derrick played left handed and Lukas played right handed. Tina also barely talked to anyone else but Meghan and sometimes Lukas and she too was sometimes found sitting alone staring at pictures of her and Derrick on her phone.
Lukas and the 3 others were led into the living room where he saw that Tina, Elena, Eliza, Jordan, Buck (real name, Sébastien), Blitz (real name, Elias) and Bandit (real name, Dominic) were there along with Derrick's parents and a golden retriever sitting on the floor near Tina. Tina was gently petting the dog's head while Sébastien stood nearby. Again Lukas found it weird to see his comrades dressed formally. It was very odd to see Eliza and Elena in formal attire. Derrick's mom was sitting in a chair holding a picture frame crying silently of what Lukas assumed was Derrick while Derrick's father was standing behind her patting her shoulder consolingly. Derrick's mom was a middle aged woman in her late 50's with short blonde curly hair and wearing a pair of glasses. Derrick's father was a taller man that looked exactly like Derrick would have if he was in his early 60s minus the facial hair and added glasses. Derrick's dad was the first to address the new arrivals.
"Glad you could make it. You must be Lukas right? I'm Colonel Guiseppe Castellano but call me Joe," he said. Lukas noted the slight Italian accent Joe spoke with.
"Yes sir, that's me. This is my sister Monika. Elias and Dom might have mentioned her and the other 2 are Zofia and Ela Bosak,"
"Been hearing a lot about you lately Lukas...Like how you saw it happen," Dominic said. Lukas nodded and looked towards Joe who looked puzzled.
"I did. Some guy dressed in white shot his chopper out of the air...It was my-" Lukas began
"Lukas. No. It wasn't," Ela said and squeezed his bicep. Derrick's mom let out a small sob. Meghan walked over to her and held onto her other shoulder. Lukas saw that Eliza was deliberately avoiding her gaze.
"I know Sue, I know," Joe told her. Lukas saw Joe glance from Meghan to Monika and he gave his daughter a coy smile. Meghan turned a little red. Internally, Lukas figured that Mr. and Mrs. Castellano accepted Meghan for who she was. Much like Derrick had. Although he had a feeling Meghan had told Derrick first.
"He told us that you're his best friend right Lukas?" Joe asked.
"Other than Tina, yeah. Met him in Greece and we hit it off pretty quickly," Lukas said. Tina looked over at Lukas when her name was mentioned. "I didn't stutter Tina. He often called me his 2nd best friend after you 2 started dating." Sébastian looked at Tina.
"I figured you developed a crush on him during that mission in Vancouver by the way you kept looking at him. Looks like he did too," he said. Tina nodded.
"He said...he said he loved me…I do too..." she said shakily. Derrick's mom, Sue, looked over at Tina.
"Of course you do honey, he had that effect on people. I always heard that everyone he met liked him. He told us all about you and how you made him happy," she said and turned the picture frame towards her. Tina smiled at it before looking away and began to cry. Lukas saw that the picture was that of Derrick (obviously) as a baby being held by his mother who was sitting on the couch. He was awake and had one of his little arms out towards a small blonde girl who was looking at him and also smiling. Lukas smiled at the photo too. Even as a baby, Derrick had a grin on his face.
"Yeah, he was a nice person. He talked about playing pranks on Meghan and you Joe when we were in Greece," Elias said.
"Like that one time he rigged the showerhead with powdered Kool-Aid or something and Meghan was supposed to be the victim but it was you that got it Joe. He said that you got so mad at him that day," Elena added. Joe nodded.
"Always a bit of a prankster my son was," Joe said. Sue sobbed a bit when Joe said "was".
"Are we waiting for anyone else to meet us here?" Jordan asked Eliza. Eliza had been clinging to him the whole time and Lukas had finally noticed that she was holding Jordan's hand tightly.
"Craig and his wife I think," Eliza said and continued to gaze out of the nearby window.
"Eliza, sweetie, it was not your fault," Sue said to her, got up and made Eliza look at her. You're right Mrs. C, it was mine Lukas thought to himself. Ela glared at him while shaking her head. She knew what he was thinking.
"Sue...he was my responsibility...and I let him down," Eliza said.
"Eliza, we knew the risks of this profession. You think he's truly gone forever? I don't and Meghan certainly doesn't," Jordan said. That seemed to calm her down and Lukas saw her give him a quick kiss on his hand. Lukas turned to Meghan.
"Where is this service taking place again?"
"On that hill we often found him hanging out on, watching the planes when he and I were kids. I have a lot of cherished memories on that hill including…" Meghan stopped talking because she had started to cry again. Her father walked over and held her close. Lukas caught a few phrases such as "I know cucciola, I know" and "that's where he told you he'd always love you". Meghan seemed to imagine that her father was Derrick because they looked so alike by the way she was hugging him. Monika was busy looking at some of the other photos on the wall in the room, including one of what looked like Meghan with her arms around Derrick sitting on a rooftop and watching fireworks. He thought she had heard Joe say the last phrase and she sniffed. Lukas put his own hand on Monika's shoulder as if to say "I'll always love you too Monika". She got the message judging by the smile she gave to him. Ela, who was still clinging to Lukas's arm, looked confused at the gesture before she seemed to remember that Monika had hugged Meghan so gently on the day Derrick died. She looked from Meghan to Monika and then to Lukas for confirmation. Lukas nodded and held up two fingers and twisted his wrist like he was saying "both teams." Ela and Monika nodded. There was a knock at the door again. Joe let go of his daughter.
"It's time. I told everyone else to meet us there," he said and grabbed his suit jacket.
April 26th, 2023
Specialist Lukas "Amp" Weiss
Castellano Hill
Oceanside, CA. USA
Lukas sat beside Ela and Monika on the hill overlooking the nearby airport runway. It was a bright and sunny day. At first it was rather warm, but the shade provided by the line of trees provided a drop in temperature. Many other Castellano family members and friends were present including Derrick's aunts, uncles and cousins. An Air Force Master Sergeant was also among the crowd. Lukas had seen that his name was "Williamson" and he had a few scars across his face. He'd spotted Castle and Pulse among the crowd too. Lukas looked down at the program in his hands and started to read it again as more people filed in. On the front was a photo of his best friend in a full mess dress uniform. A blue overcoat, light blue undershirt and a tie. He also had a blue beret perched on his head and a few awards on his chest. Lukas wasn't familiar with what they meant but he was aware of Derrick's rank of Senior Airman. Under his photo read "In Loving Memory of Derrick Joseph Castellano. April 1st, 1994 - April 17th, 2023." Inside the program was an itinerary for the service including speeches from a few of those close to Derrick including Meghan, Williamson, Eliza and Lukas himself. He had something prepared that he wasn't sure was going to be alright to do. See, one day when he and Derrick had the night off, they had decided to record a little of their jam session. They had recorded 2 songs that night, an English and German version of "Strangers Like Me" and "Dressed to Kill" by New Found Glory. Lukas hadn't got the chance to ask Meghan, Sue or Joe if that was alright back at the Castellano home. Luckily, Joe walked up to him as the last few people filed in.
"You're the last one to speak right?" Joe asked.
"Yes. Uh sir, if you don't mind...Derrick and I recorded a jam session one night. Would that be alright to play for everyone?" Lukas asked. Ela had been busy actually speaking with Zofia. Lukas had noticed that Ela was being less and less hostile towards Zofia. Perhaps Derrick's words about being the younger sibling resonated with her. Joe smiled at Lukas and Lukas was painfully reminded of Derrick again.
"That sounds great, I'm sure Sue, Meghan and Tina would love that," he said. "Tina's been the one taking care of Derrick's condo with Meghan right?" Lukas nodded.
"He loved Tina. Like more than anything. He wanted me to tell her if...if he didn't come back," Lukas started to say before Joe placed a hand on his shoulder.
"He did what he loved and that was flying. I know my son, if he called you by your full name, he was 100% serious in what he was about to say," Joe said and walked away to be with his wife and daughter. Meghan immediately grabbed Joe's arm again as if she was a scared little girl again. Monika was looking at the back of Meghan's head.
"Have you told her yet?" Lukas whispered in German.
"I wanted to...but with everything that happened...I feel that it's a little selfish," Monika responded.
"You can tell she likes you too right? Notice how she hugged you longer than anyone else earlier? I know you liked that," Lukas asked. Monika nodded before looking at Lukas with that look he knew all too well.
"Monika, I told you when you were 18 that I did not give a shit if you were bi. That stance has never changed. Oh no, you have romantic feelings for a woman. What? Am I supposed to hate you for it? I just want to see you happy. I will always love my big sister even if I fuck up and say shit I don't mean," Lukas said and kissed the top of her head. Monika looked up at Lukas's face and she smiled. Dominic and Elias, who were seated on the other side of Monika, nodded at Lukas too.
"Always Monika," Lukas repeated. At that moment, the service began.
Joe served as the "MC" and he started off by thanking everyone for coming and he cracked a few jokes a la his son. That only made Lukas miss Derrick more than he already did. Joe had explained that the city had agreed to call this hill "Castellano Hill" in honor of Derrick and revealed a memorial stone. Upon closer inspection, there was a carving of a young Derrick sitting on the hill. The plaque read "Castellano Hill. In memory of the boy who dreamed that he could fly." He saw that Tina, Sébastien and someone else apparently named Mina were sitting together 2 rows in front of him. Tina was pretty much beside herself with grief. Mina's arm was around her and Sébastien seemed to be whispering words of encouragement in her direction. Tina had Derrick's dog tags in her hands and she kept her eyes on them while Joe spoke. Lukas again cursed the fucker that took Derrick away from Tina. Joe finished speaking about 5 minutes later and Meghan got up to the front of the crowd. Lukas could tell that she was struggling to say anything until he saw that Monika was looking directly at Meghan and telling her to "breathe slowly" and "look at me or your father" in a low voice. Meghan did so and began telling everyone about her favorite memories with Derrick including a rather amusing story about how he had escorted her to the hospital after a car accident. There was also the story about how Derrick's high school girlfriend had cheated on him multiple times and Meghan had retaliated by punching the girl in the face and breaking her nose.
"I got suspended for that but from that point on, every girl in that school knew not to mess with Derrick's feelings. When I found out that Tina liked him, I knew I wouldn't have to punch her in the face. Because I knew she would actually treat him like how he should be treated," Meghan said and nodded in the direction of Tina. Tina looked up for a second before she went back to staring at her phone. Lukas knew that her wallpaper was a photo of her and Derrick on their first date. Meghan finished about 5 minutes later and Williamson got up to deliver her own words about Derrick. He began his speech by saying how much he admired him for his courage and determination to help those in need and recounted the story of how Derrick had saved his life. Tina looked up during this story and Lukas could tell that she was crying again because of how her shoulders were moving. Mina placed a hand on Tina's shoulder and said something that Lukas couldn't hear. Tina collapsed into Mina's shoulder at that point. After Williamson finished, Eliza made her way forward. She had started with how Derrick had saved her niece and nephew from the mountains and how he had made a good impression on her with his humorous demeanor back in Greece and how he often pulled some harmless pranks on the West Coast Rainbow Team.
"The amount of times we heard 'Jesus Christ Derrick' was pretty high. Soon after we saw Meghan muttering to herself about how much of a clown Derrick was. That's what you really need in this field of work...someone to make you laugh. Derrick did so every day," she said. Lukas's heart began to pound because he was next, so he looked to the women on either side of him for some support. Ela encouraged him with a quick peck on the cheek and Monika gave him a quick hug. Lukas sent Tina 2 quick texts that read "Get ready" and "Listen to this later." He attached another audio file to the 2nd message. It was called "OpenArmsDerrick" Eliza finished up her own speech in a shaky voice and called Lukas up to the front. Lukas made his way up and turned to address the crowd. Meghan and her parents were essentially right in front of him and he could make out Monika and Ela near the back row. Lukas cleared his throat and began to speak.
"First off, I'd like to thank everyone for being able to attend this service to celebrate the life of Derrick. I know most of you don't know who I am but if I had mentioned the cover band from the Boston area named 'Time Warp' could that jog some of your memories?" Lukas started. A few people had recognized him when he mentioned Time Warp. He grinned and held up the signs of the horns which was his "trademarked" move back in the day.
"Yes, Weiss-enheimer himself was a friend of Derrick. Best friend as he would say. We first met in Greece where we were to compete in a tournament of champions and were selected for an elite unit of specialists afterwards. The best part was that our sisters, who also happened to be on said team, had no idea either one of us were present and we pulled the surprise off without a hitch. He referred to Meghan as 'the outrageously unfunny one'. Also yes, I hung up the bass guitar after college to be part of a counter-terrorism unit. As Derrick said to me on the day I met him 'talk about a career change huh?' I found out that we shared a lot of similar interests from music to movies and the fact that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was the best show ever made. EVER." Lukas stared right at Monika when he mentioned Power Rangers while everyone else laughed, especially Meghan. Monika rolled her eyes but still smiled.
"Eventually I found out that Derrick was a bit of a musician too. He often told me about how he was a little popular with the music students in college and how he was to be found playing guitar in one of the fields. No, he did not play Wonderwall. Thank God. He often said he played acoustic versions of popular songs but he said that the Colin Hay/Men at Work songs were a very big hit whenever he played them. He capitalized on Scrubs's popularity at the time. Now if you don't mind, and this might be a little hard for some of you to hear, but Derrick and I recorded a jam session one night when we had some time off and, after I asked for Colonel Castellano's permission, I would like to play that session for you. It's about 15 minutes long," Lukas said and pulled out his phone. Meghan and Sue had placed their hands over their mouths as Lukas pulled up the audio file on his phone and took out a portable speaker from his jacket pocket as well. He plugged the cord into the AUX port of his phone, turned the volume to max and pressed play. The audio file began to play quite clearly.
"Ready Skywalker?" Derrick's voice said over the speaker. Lukas let out a sharp exhale when he heard Derrick's voice again. He hadn't listened to this since he had recorded it. Meghan had reached her hand out toward the sound of Derrick's voice.
"Yeah, are we doing German or English on this one?" Lukas's voice responded.
"I'll do both. I still remember this one. I mentioned it to Megs about a few days ago. Tina likes Phil Collins too and likes it when I speak German so let's do this!" Derrick's voice responded. Lukas looked at Meghan who was crying into her father's shoulder again when she heard Derrick say her nickname he always called her. She missed Derrick more than anyone else and Lukas knew it. Derrick and Lukas began to play an acoustic version of the Phil Collins song "Strangers Like Me" on the audio recording with Derrick singing the lyrics in English and German. Lukas stood back and listened and watched as everyone in the crowd reacted to Derrick's singing voice. He had a really good one and according to Meghan, his mom often told him he did. Speaking of Derrick's mom, she was also crying and staring at the picture of Derrick on the program. Lukas thought she was imagining Derrick actually being there singing. Around the 2 minute mark of the song was where it got to the slow part.
"Folge mir nun in meine Welt. Voller Schönheit und Harmonie. Kannst du fühlen was ich fühl. Nur du...und ich. Take my hand, there's a world I need to knoooooOOOOooww!" Lukas could hear Tina's sob from the back as Derrick held the note.
"Nice man," Lukas said on the recording after the song ended.
"You know some New Found Glory?" Derrick asked.
"I know that one song about being dressed to kill or something," Lukas responded.
"DAT'S THE ONE! That's one of Meghan's favorites!" Derrick said before they started playing that song. Derrick sang the lyrics again (in English this time) and Meghan still clung to her father's shoulder as Derrick sang one of her favorite songs. The song finished about 3 minutes later and Derrick said
"Rad Duke Boy. Hang on a sec...was ist das?...Oh dear, it appears Meghan has found out about the donuts! Protip, those are her kryptonite. She'll deny it but one time I saw her kill like an entire box of Krispy Kremes one morning. Anyway, I filled those bad boys in the lounge with mayonnaise cause I'm a diabolical GENIUS. This is gonna be HILARIOUS! Come on, let's go!" The audio recording finished playing after that and Lukas stepped forward again.
"That's what a typical day with Derrick was like. He'd pull some kind of prank on one of us every few days. His favorite target was Meghan but I think he got everyone at least once. He got me by changing my shampoo with olive oil. Ela had a good laugh at that one. He got Eliza accidently once too. His intended target was, surprise, Meghan and he thought he was going to be in huge trouble when I told him Eliza had fallen for the toothpaste Oreos. Rookie mistake Eliza. Come on. I learned to never take any type of food that Derrick either left out or handed to you, unless your name is Tina that is. Eliza got him back later by giving him a caramel dipped onion and told him it was an apple. His face after biting into it was absolutely priceless. I think he was more mad that he fell for something so obvious. I hadn't been to the US since I was in college and I was a bit nervous about coming back but I knew Derrick was going to be stationed here with me. He was a great person to be around. He was a boyfriend, a son, a younger brother, and...and he was my friend. If you ever say a bad joke or some kind of humorous quip, remember Derrick. Don't be sad that he's gone, smile because he was here. I'm sure he would want it that way. He loved flying and be sure to think of him whenever you happen to be on a plane because I know I will. Thank you," Lukas finished and made his way back to his seat to applause from everyone else. Lukas glanced in Tina's direction and he could see she had an earbud in and was crying into one of her hands. She had apparently begun listening to the recording of Derrick singing Open Arms by Journey that Lukas had sent to her after he had finished speaking. She caught Lukas's eye and nodded in thanks. He was hugged fiercely by Monika and Ela when he sat back down.
"That was beautiful Luke," Ela told him as Monika cried into Lukas's shoulder. Lukas nodded in response but didn't say anything. Joe got back up and began to make the closing remarks. Lukas however was making a silent promise to himself. He had been watching the expressions and reactions of the 3 women who were the closest to Derrick. His mother, his girlfriend and his sister. He had made the decision when he saw Tina and Meghan cry when they heard Derrick's voice again and when he had said their names. Lukas was going to make every last White Mask pay for Derrick's death. Every. Single. Fucking. One of them. Especially the fucking bastard that had gloated to him about shooting Derrick out of the air. If Lukas ever found out who that man was, he was going to make sure that he suffered for it.
April 29th, 2023
Lukas Weiss
Location Unknown (AWOL)
Presumably Near Portland OR. USA
Lukas leaned back in the chair he was currently sitting in after putting the finishing touches on his modified kevlar battle suit. He knew that eventually he would have to return to Rainbow HQ and face punishment but his personal mission meant more to him at the moment. After attending Derrick's memorial service, he vowed to hunt down the man who killed Derrick by any means necessary. He knew that Derrick would have done the same for him if he had died and especially if it had been Meghan. Lukas figured that the rampage Derrick would go on if Meghan (or Tina) was killed would be absolutely legendary. Unfortunately, that vow involved going AWOL from Rainbow. By now, he thought his absence was noticed. He'd left in the dead of night the previous evening and took some of his belongings. Mainly clothes, his laptop, his sonic grenades, his G36C rifle, an M2010 ESR sniper rifle and an M240 LMG along with one clip of spare ammo each. He didn't want to draw too much attention but that was going to happen anyway. Afterall, he had just gone AWOL which was very, very not ok. He was currently hiding out in an abandoned storage unit he'd found pretty quickly on the first night. So far, no one had found him. He'd decided to assume a fake name as well. He kept confined to his new "Base of Operations" during the day. This evening, he had decided to go out to a location marked by Rainbow as a supposed White Mask storage warehouse and, since he needed supplies, made a plan to go raid it within a few hours. Lukas was developing a sci fi looking helmet that he had spent the previous night and that afternoon developing himself. It was shaped like a wolf and he made it so it would have glowing red eyes. He had designed it that way so the White Masks would grow to fear him. The sky was beginning to darken and Lukas decided that the time was now. He lifted the helmet off the table and tried it on. It fit rather comfortably and hid his entire face from view. His long hair flowed out from under it and over his shoulder blades. He put on the modified kevlar body suit and performed a few moves in order to get a feel for the suits maneuverability. The suit moved flawlessly and Lukas knew that it would provide him with some protection from knives and small arms fire. Grenades and high powered snipers? Not so much. Lukas put on his tactical gloves and boots. He grabbed the M2010 ESR and a Desert Eagle and all the ammo he had taken which was just one spare Deagle mag. Derrick had his M9 with him on the mission where he died instead of his Deagle and Lukas had, regretfully, taken the pistol from Meghan's workstation where she kept it. She was going to kill him later. This was also something she stared at during her periods of sadness back at the base. In layman's terms, Lukas was currently dressed as an armored vigilante. He clapped the magazines into their respected weapons and made his way out into the night towards the White Masks supply warehouse. They would die first.
Rainbow turned out to be correct about the location. It was a supplies warehouse which had been guarded by a few White Masks. He had tried not to look at his phone on the way over because of the amount of messages from everyone. A few from Craig, Jordan, Elena, Zofia, Tina, Eliza and Meghan but there were a metric FUCK ton of messages from Monika and Ela. They all contained the same 3 words "Where are you?" The ones from Ela contained a lot of swear words and promises that she would kill him if he didn't answer.
"I'm sorry babe, I need to do this. For Derrick," Lukas said to himself, put his phone away and laid down on a spot overlooking the warehouse where he could see a small group of guards patrolling the area. Lukas had decided to go silent and used the M2010 sniper to eliminate the guards one by one. Their heads exploded into red and pink mist as the high powered rounds hit their targets. He injured the final one by blowing his leg off and made his way to him. Hopefully, Lukas would be able to steal some ammo from the warehouse too and had brought his backpack just in case. The injured White Mask certainly shit his pants upon seeing Lukas emerge from the darkness holding his rifle over his shoulder with one hand and the red eyes glowing fiercely in the darkness. It must have been rather scary to witness but Lukas's mind was on two things at the moment. Kill White Masks and avenge Derrick.
"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?! GAHH!" The White Masked screamed before clutching his stump of a leg in pain. Lukas was not going to be merciful to any of these people. He would be playing by his own rules now. Lukas slung the rifle over his back and made his way toward the injured man. The White Mask attempted to raise his gun but Lukas easily kicked it aside and crushed the man's hand with his boot.
"No," Lukas growled. All he really did was make his voice a little deeper and added a slight rasp. The helmet helped disguise his voice as well because it muffled the sound a little. Lukas picked the one legged man up by the neck and held him effortlessly in the air.
"Talk," Lukas said.
"Wh-what do you want?" the White Mask choked.
"Information. Now. I won't ask nicely the second time." Lukas said, drawing his knife and holding it against the man's neck.
"About what? AHHHHH!" Lukas stabbed his knife into the man's shoulder.
"The attack in Washington State. I want to know who was there and who was in charge. Now," Lukas said, twisting the blade. The White Mask screamed in pain and pointed to one of the dead men.
"He's the squad leader. He had a flash drive of in-info. Please,"
"Wrong answer. I know you were there Venom," Lukas said, saying the man's apparent codename that he heard before killing the rest. "You released the gas. I saw you on the news footage. You are going to tell me who ordered it and why and then I might let you go." Venom gulped before he began to tell Lukas who had orchestrated the attack on the college in Washington State. Lukas took a mental note of the names that were mentioned such as Havoc, Dread and Flak. Lukas rolled his eyes under his mask before remembering that Rainbow went by codenames too. Satisfied, Lukas withdrew his knife from Venom's shoulder and let him drop to the ground. Venom tried to stand but his right leg was beyond fucked from the .300 Winchester Magnum cartridge Lukas had fired into it. Venom looked down at his leg before looking back up towards Lukas who now had the Desert Eagle pointed at Venom's face.
"You said you'd let me go!" Venom shouted before attempting to draw his own side arm.
"I said might," Lukas said. Lukas knew Venom would try to shoot him regardless and he pulled the trigger on his weapon first. Venom's head turned into a pile of goo on the wall and ground. Lukas did in fact search the squad leader's body and obtained a flash drive that he would look at later. He also raided the supply warehouse, cleaned up the bodies and destroyed any type of communications equipment. Finally, before leaving, he carved a message in ancient Nordic runes on the wall. It read "ᚠᛖᚾᚱᛁᚱ."
However this night's fun had only just begun. Lukas couldn't figure out what was worse, hearing the sounds of his old teammates approaching or the sounds of another arriving squad of White Masks. Lukas sunk back into the shadows and back to his sniping spot. As he lied down again, he heard movement from behind him and remained very still. Eliza, Jordan and Zofia closed on his location, their eyes on the warehouse he had just raided. Of fucking course. The supplies he had gathered were thankfully in the shadows of the tree nearby.
"Good," Lukas said to himself very quietly but Eliza turned and looked in his direction. Thankfully, she must have thought it was just the wind and looked forward again. Thank God for all black clothing and shadows because she hadn't noticed him lying there at all.
"Meghan, we have eyes on the location," Eliza said into her earpiece. "No sign of Lukas yet either...I know Monika." Lukas cursed himself again as he watched Eliza roll her eyes at Jordan.
"Both of them need to stop being overprotective of their brothers. Derrick's dead Meghan. Give it a rest with the crying already," Eliza said before stopping herself.
"You didn't mean that," Jordan said and he put a hand on her shoulder. Lukas knew she didn't either. Lukas also knew that Monika was currently freaking out about his disappearance.
"Hang on….Ash do you hear that? What are they saying?" Zofia said and cupped a hand over her ear. Lukas steadied his breathing and listened. The arriving White Mask squad had definitely come upon the pile of bodies Lukas had left in their wake.
"What the FUCK! These guys are missing limbs man! I'm out of here dog!" Lukas heard one of the White Masks say followed by the sound of footsteps.
"The fuck?" Jordan whispered to Eliza. Eliza shrugged and motioned for the squad to move in. Lukas watched as they made their way towards the building. He could hear Eliza speaking to Meghan but he couldn't tell about what. Unfortunately, the White Mask squad had heard the Rainbow Ops move in and stopped talking. Lukas picked up the snipe from the ground nearby his right side where he had dropped it and took aim at the White Masks. They had begun to make moves toward engaging with Rainbow. One was about to take Zofia by surprise...that is if Lukas hadn't taken half the man's head off with one silenced shot. Zofia turned at the sound of the body hitting the ground and she saw the other White Masks looking at their dead comrade in utter astonishment.
"CONTACT!" Zofia shouted and dove for cover. Eliza and Jordan did too. Lukas watched the firefight from his safe vantage point, taking pot shots whenever he could. Eventually he ran out of bullets as he had only swiped 1 magazine from Rainbow HQ and hadn't had time to sort the boxes of ammo he had grabbed. Eliza, Jordan and Zofia eventually eliminated the other White Masks and went to investigate the warehouse. Lukas however heard movement near him. He turned to see a White Mask cowering behind a nearby tree. This must have been the guy that left his comrades to die. Lukas activated the glowing red eye function of his helmet and got to his feet. The White Mask saw him and screamed again and tried to run but Lukas was faster and grabbed the man's jacket. He turned him around and picked him up by the throat. Why was everyone of these dudes ridiculously skinny? The man struggled against Lukas's strong grip.
"NO! PLEASE!"
"You should have run the other way. Now you get to deal with me. And I'm. Not. Nice. Those dead men you found. I did it," Lukas growled back and squeezed his fingers.
"What do you want?!" the man gasped.
"Your organization eliminated from this planet. Every last one of you will die. And I will make it happen by any means necessary," Lukas said and drew his knife. He knew he didn't have long before the others responded to the man's scream.
"For Loki," Lukas growled and felt the man begin to lose consciousness. He decided to use him as a message to any White Mask or any of their supporters. He was going to carve his name on the soon to be corpse in his left hand.
"Who...are...you?" the man gasped. Lukas lowered the man a little so he was now face to face with him and he growled one word as he jammed the knife into the man's neck. A name.
"Fenrir."
Mission Report:
Lukas embarks on a solo quest for vengeance under the name of "Fenrir"
