Mako's Message: Bah. I wanted this up on Thursday or Friday. But I also got my tax return, so I invested in a new writing station. New desk, chair, computer, printer, the whole shebang, and spent the weekend getting everything set up. Good news though, is that the next chapter is finished too so I'll post that tomorrow.

Anyway, enjoy!


Ya know, I think last night might have been our biggest success yet.

I mean, sure, we didn't kill, or even hospitalize, anyone, but some people would say that's part of why this was a success.

I mean, we had to have arrested at least three dozen people just for being there. Then there were the handlers, the "trainers", the guys running the betting, they even had a fucking concession stand!

I mean, sure, it wasn't quite as fun as busting up The Rainbow Factory, hell, this was almost boring compared to that, but... I don't even know how to explain it.

I was raised to take out thugs. The worst the world has to offer. Organized criminals sucking the life out of the world like a parasite. And to do it with extreme prejudice. And I fucking love it, not gonna lie. Just knowing there's one less piece of shit cluttering up the world makes my day better.

But this actually felt just as satisfying. Maybe even more.

And while it may have been boring compared to The Rainbow Factory, it was still pretty fun.

Dave, Stars, Biker Knight and I stalked the entrances, and when it looked like they were about to close the doors, and just when they were about to lock up so no one could sneak in, we snuck in. I grabbed the guy by the throat just as he was about to close the door. I literally had just enough room to slip my arm in and grab him. I fucking loved the expression on his face. He literally pissed himself.

Then I duct taped his mouth shut and zip cuffed his wrists and ankles.

White Mage came in after me, and the other guys went in through their doors in their own little teams as well.

I know the Guardian went with Stars because he's the only one he gets along with(his presence was the only downside to the whole mission). Dave went in with Dr. Gravity and Insect Guy. Biker Knight went in with Katie(who still hasn't changed her name. I'm gonna have to remind her about that) because he was the only person who hadn't listened to me bitch about her at least once, and The Gentleman was with them too. For some reason.

I don't know why I had Alice with me though. I'm not complaining. And I preferred her over pretty much everyone except Dave, John, or Biker Knight and they were all leading their own teams in. It's almost like they don't trust me not to slit people's throats when they're not looking. If I say I'm not going to kill people I wont.

Rampaging cunts going buckwild in the streets are a threat to myself and the public. This is just some asshole watching a door. I am capable of just knocking him out.

Anyway, my job was to stealth my way in to the very center of the place, while Biker Knight's team secured the dogs, and the rest of them blocked off the exits.

They had this big arena filled with saw dust set up in gym, with all the stands pulled out and setup around it. They even pulled all the lighting around so that it all pointed down on the arena. It lighted the rest of the place up enough to see what you were doing, but kept it dim enough that people didn't feel like they'd be easily recognized.

Fucking douchbags.

I will give them credit though. It was a pretty nice set up. For illegal death matches between animals they really couldn't have done better unless they actually found a closed down arena. Or maybe an abandoned zoo.

The place was full of people placing bets, arguing, drinking, or just sitting around talking waiting for the "show" to start. It was honestly so fucking normal looking it made me sick.

So, we found the guy who was going to be announcing the fights, as well as the guy in charge of the lighting, and knocked them both out. White Mage stayed by the lighting and turned all the lights off, which apparently everyone took as the sign that the fights were about to start and they all took their seats.

I took the announcer guy and dragged him out into the arena, bound and gagged, and when I got to the center, Alice turned the lights back on, lighting me and my new friend up.

I held my hand out and said, "Ladies and gentleman! Welcome to the show! Unfortunately it's canceled and you are all under arrest. Do not try to escape, the doors are all securely locked so you won't get far. Please kneel on your seats with your hands on your heads and submit to the Justice Forever members that come to handcuff you. However, if you feel you MUST resist, go ahead," and then while still holding the announcer guy, I drew one of my guns, gave it a twirl, and then held it up, "Make my day!"

God I fucking loved it. When the lights came on some people actually screamed! And that last line just came to me on the spot. How often do you get a chance to use a line like that? Not often enough that's how often! And of course some people tried to run, but the rest of the team had the exits covered so they got beat down pretty quick. Kinda wish I could have been in on that, but they wanted me where I was because they thought seeing me would make the biggest impression and I had the best chance of getting into the center of things unnoticed.

A surprising number of people actually did what I said though. I left the announcer guy laying in the middle of the ring, and started cuffing the people closest, while the rest of the team started working their way though the stands.

It went surprisingly and disappointingly smoothly.

So then we marched the people who were compliant and dragged the people who weren't out to the parking lot and called the police to come pick them up, and we had some people from animal shelters on the way for the dogs.

So while we were just policing the field, waiting for the cops, White Mage and I decided to check on Biker Knight's group. We headed around to the back of the school, where they had all sorts of cages set up. Some where small, like what they put animals in fly in planes, and some where big with a bunch of dogs in them. They were full of Pit Bulls, and Rottweilers, and Dobermans, and even a couple German Shepherds. Then, there was one dog, a Bulldog, in a big cage by himself. He was so scarred up I think there might have been more scars on him than fur. All the other dogs were jumping around and barking and growling at us, but this guy just stood there, stock still, staring at us.

I went up to the bars, and he walked right up to them. Still didn't make a sound and just kept looking me right in the eye. I wasn't afraid of him, and he wasn't afraid of me, but I knew if I tried to reach through those bars I'd lose my hand.

Then all of a sudden Katie comes running up saying, "Oh my god! Hit Girl! You have to come see this!" only she didn't sound afraid or worried. She sounded excited and she just grabbed me by the arm and dragged me off.

It was embarrassing and I wanted to kick the shit out of her, but she has longer legs than me and she was running at full speed so I kept getting pulled off balance.

Dr. Gravity, The Gentleman, and Biker Knight were already there, waiting by this truck, and when we got there The Gentleman went back around to the front to help keep an eye on the prisoners.

Katie pulled me around to the back and said, "Aren't they adorable!"

And they'd popped open the back of this truck, and the thing was empty except for a bunch of hay all over the floor, toys scattered all over the place, and a litter of the most adorable puppies I've ever seen.

They were like big balls of fluff with cute little noses and eyes!

And they were just playing and jumping and climbing and wrestling with each other. It was so adorable!

I climbed up to sit in the back of the truck and one just ran right up and jumped on me! It started play biting and licking me and I couldn't stop laughing. The little guy almost knocked my wig off!

Alice climbed up with me and one of them came over to her too and started nipping at her too. It was so cute! She was like, "Oh, you jus wanna pway don you? Don you you wittle fwuff bawl?" and the rest of them noticed us then and came running over. Katie climbed up too and almost got bowled over. Dr. Gravity had to run up and catch a couple of the puppies that tried to leap out of the truck.

Dave showed up about then, and he just kinda stopped and stared, so I hopped out of the truck and ran up to him with the puppy and said, "Look! Isn't he adorable?"

And Dave grinned and reached out and rubbed the puppy behind the ears and it tried to jump up and nip at him, but I held onto him, so he just kinda stretched around and licked at his fingers.

Biker Knight was the only one that hadn't gone near the puppies though, so I went over and said, "What? Don't you wanna pet them?" and held the puppy out to him.

He hesitantly reached a hand up to him, but then the puppy turned and snapped at him. Not a playful nip or anything. Seriously tried to bite him. I could hear his teeth snap.

Biker knight pulled his hand away and took a couple more steps back.

He must be a cat person.

So then Dave said he came back to tell us that the shelter people where there and we should start helping them get the dogs.

Dave, Alice, and Dr. Gravity each grabbed two of the puppies, leaving me and Katie with one each. But my puppy was such a handful, climbing all over me and licking my face, that I didn't mind.

Someone must have told the press about what we were doing that night, because by the time we got back around the place was swarming with reporters. It was like a fucking Hollywood movie premier with all the camera's going. I had to double check that Justin Bieber and Lindsey Lohan weren't behind me doing coke off of Miley Cyrus while she got face fucked by Kanye West or something.

Col. Stars was waving us over to where the shelter people had set up their trucks, and when I saw him, I had the most brilliant idea I've ever had.

I asked one of the shelter people if we could keep my puppy. Specifically, if Col. Stars could keep him. I think me telling her about his dog dying last year(though at the last minute I decided I should leave out just HOW his dog died), and the fact that my puppy fucking LOVED me, was enough to make her okay us taking the puppy.

After telling us to get it registered and vaccinated and other shit.

One of the guys we arrested stood up when he saw us carrying the puppies over and started flipping his shit. Saying that they were his dogs and we couldn't take them. That he'd been breeding them "special"

The nearest cop clipped him in the back of the knee with his nightstick. That made me smile.

So, some of us started helping them walk the dogs around, and some of us helped the police load up all douchbags and douchbag-ettes. Dave AND Biker Knight helped the cops though, which was disappointing, because I wanted to help with the dogs. The Guardian and Katie were also helping with the dogs, which pissed me off. But at least White Mage was with me.

I think it was a good thing I decided to help with the dogs, because the last dog to be brought around was the bulldog and they must have gotten the same vibe from him that I did, because they weren't going to go in there without that big padded suit that makes you look like the marshmallow man. And they were going to use one of those loops-on-a-pole things.

Idiots.

You'd think they'd know this, but going in there like that is only going to make the dog fight. It's what it does. So I just grabbed one of the regular old leashes we were using for the calmer dogs and shoved Marshmallow Man aside and went into the cage. The dog backed up a bit, and growled at me a little, but more or less stood it's ground. Unlike the other dogs that just went batshit insane.

I held the leash out, with the little clip dangling down from my hand to about his eye level and we stared each other down again. I knew just from looking at him that if I tried to touch him without his permission he'd take my hand off. Or at least a finger. And I knew he knew that if he bit me I'd kill him.

After...I dunnno. A minute? He took a couple steps forward and sat down. So I went and kneeled down in front of him and held the leash out, he looked at for a minute then stretched his little stubby neck out about as far as it would go and I hooked the leash onto his colar.

Then I walked him back around to the front, gave him a little rub behind the ears, and sent him on his way.

I hope he's okay. He's a tough dog. And a good dog. As long as people aren't stupid with him he'll probably be fine. They just need to understand him.

And I really want to call him "Sir Charles". I dunno. Most people would look at him and think something like, "Ripper" but he's better than that. Noble. I should call and find out what they're doing with him and suggest the name. A name like that might give him a better chance at getting adopted or whatever.

At least give people a better mindset when dealing with him.

Anyway, Dave came over while I was watching them drive away, and he put an arm around my shoulders and said that the rest of the team were going to head to the diner to celebrate and wanted to know if I wanted to go.

I grinned and asked, "You gonna buy me desert?"

And he looked at me like, "Are you serious?" for a moment, and then he smiled and said, "Yeah, sure."

The reporters had mostly stopped taking pictures at that point and were trying to get interviews with the cops or other JF members, so I took a chance and put an arm around his waist. I mean, he had his arm around my shoulder, so, why not? We walked like that for a bit, but we broke apart before we attracted any attention.

I drove us to the diner in the Hit Mobile, the rest of Justice Forever went in John's van. The Guardian had this really sweet motorcycle. I'd love to get one like it. But in purple.

Biker Knight drove off his Ford POS and didn't join us, which was disappointing but not surprising. I mean, what was he gonna do? Just sit there and nod and not eat?

The Guardian did. At least for a little while.

He didn't stay for long, but by the time he left, everybody but Dave and Alice were talking to him, and I have a feeling that that was just a show of support for me.

John wasn't there for most of it either. He spent the first hour sitting in the back of his van with the puppy getting to know each other. He did eventually come in though, with the puppy. One of the waitress was about to say something about it, but you could see he change her mind.

And then we all got to pet the puppy again!

I don't even have the slightest clue what kind of dog it is. It looks like it might be... part lab or... I dunno. They're kinda rolly polly. And super fluffy. Kind of like a St. Bernard, but...not. Some of them are kinda stubby, so maybe there's some bulldog in there... I really don't know anything about dogs.

Anyway, we spent a couple hours there just talking and eating and drinking and being merry and shit. And playing with the puppy.

It was late as hell by the time we finally got home. Dave took me home too. Not that he needs to. But it was nice. No kiss goodnight though.

I was exhausted and passed out pretty much as soon as I hit the mattress again. I woke up late, but not too late. I'm pretty sure Dave slept in too cause he hasn't called or texted me about our morning jog yet.

When I went downstairs, there was a note from Marcus on top of today's paper, which had a big ass picture of my puppy licking me and me giggling about it. I'm not exactly happy about the massive amounts of light side points the picture added to my reputation, but it IS a good picture of me. And I guess it doesn't hurt to do things that give me a positive public image now and then. I mean, sure, Batman never had pictures taken of him with puppies licking his face, but Batman isn't real and had the cops practically in his pocket. Well, Commissioner Gordon at least. So, I guess it's not a bad thing. Not like I can't always make the criminal scum in this city terrified of me all over again.

Might even be fun.

Anyway, the note said, "I'm proud of you."

I never thought I'd ever hear Marcus say that to me. Not about what I do at night. I guess that's one of the big reasons I feel like last night was such a success. If even Marcus is pleased with what we did. It wasn't just a win against crime and evil, it was a win for Heroes everywhere. Show the whole city, maybe the whole country, that we can and ARE doing good.

Fuck, the only thing that could make this day better would be if I found out Chris got run over by a steam roller. Or if Dave said he wanted to fuck me.

Or both.