Love Struck Delusion
Chapter 157 – The Panic.
Mason's POV.
"Wait Raptor!" I shouted as the crowd exploded and began to run for him as he made haste for one of our trucks. I couldn't keep up and watched as he quickly left the lot. With Dom coming to my side in a loss of what to do I ordered while pointing towards Raptor's last direction.
"Go after him Dominic!"
Dom wasn't about to say no and I watched as he ran for a truck. Left in utter loss for words of what just happened, I questioned the mess I was now in. As panic was setting in I heard from one of the members of the crowd.
"Commander Mason! Any comment on what just happened!?"
Then another.
"Commander Mason! Over here sir! What lead you to convince the one person the middle east trusted into an early retirement!?"
Then another with more anger to his tone.
"Commander! What in god's given earth have you done!? You doing this is basically giving G.U.N a free pass to win this war! Are you fucking crazy!?"
My men quickly ordered him to shut up as I another reporter shouted.
"What is the rebellion going to do now!? Is there a plan set in motion to replace Commander Voltz?! What will you do without his leadership!?"
"What led to the decision Commander!?"
"This is your fault!" A woman shouted as I caught the eyes of many angered civilians starting to get wild in the crowd.
"Commander!" Looking to my right I was soon greeted by Captain Marhick who took command by grabbing my arm.
"We need to get you inside sir! Away from this!"
I couldn't agree more with the man. Starting to guide me to the main building was starting to seem dangerous as people began to throw anything they could at me. From notepads, to drinks, to rocks. I was soon pelted by one to my head and with my men closing the gap I held my wound and kept moving as Marhick shouted.
"Secure the yard! Everyone get this mess under control! Bravo team protect the commander!"
This was insane. One moment I had Raptor built up and the next he tore it down and all the fingers were getting pointed at me. Why the fuck did he have to make it sound like this was my fault!? He was the one who wanted to give up. He came to me with it. This wasn't all on me! This was his fucking choice.
As I got to the main door, I panicked as a bullet got sent right into my right arm. Sending me through the door and onto the ground in the main lobby. Without another warning coming from any of my men I began to hear rifle fire then screams. With Marhick coming to my aid he got down to ask.
"Where you hit!?"
"My fucking arm!" I replied as he placed his hands on the wound to order.
"Can you walk!?"
"Yeah!" I replied as he helped me up. Looking back to the main door I widened my eyes when I looked outside to see more then a few dead civilians laying on the ground just out the door. With Marhick in control he guided me into medical and shouted to his men.
"Lock down the main building! Get the perimeter secured and get the crowd under control! I want to know what the fuck just happened and who opened return fire! Move!"
With Gord and that fox of Raptor's soon coming to my aid, Marhick ordered them while grabbing his rifle from his side.
"Lock the door and get him stable!"
"Yes sir!" Replied Gord as I was taken into the room.
With my mind slowly fading out of control I could only try to get calm. What the fuck just happened!?
Archer's POV, Mintues ago.
"You were right. You were always right. This isn't Shadow's rebellion. It's mine. It's mine and I've lead it astray from the path. A path that was set years ago by Shadow himself. As I leader I put my emotions ahead of the people I should be caring about and focused only on myself. Risking not only my life but many others in the process. That's why I need to say one more thing before this is over and we go back to restoring this great city."
Everyone was ether standing out of their seats or sitting down in ether absolute shock to what has been said on global tv or in fear for what was to come. I was shocked Raptor just said all he said. This was suppose to remain confidential. Now the fucking world knew about his family. The only good thing I see coming from this was that G.U.N would have to act with something. The middle east now knows they acted before the war signing. Which will have to cost Linnen something. But I had no concern right now as to what that would be. I was waiting in silence as Raptor said the one thing I never expected to come out of his mouth. Hunter who was just staring at the screen slowly widened her eyes along with everyone else in the mess when it came through the speakers like a bad hair day.
"As the leader to this great army. As a leader people look to for answers in this time of chaos. I am not fit to lead. My job is protect the people. Instead I risk my own life and I have strayed away from the path Shadow Robotnik had set before his passing. All I am at the end of the day is a killer. A soldier and a warrior. All I know is how to kill and how to do it right. When it comes to calling the shots that decide the future, that cost lives, I should not and will not be the one responsible. I've only come to realize this conclusion recently. Thanks to commander Mason and his strong words, I'm convinced there is a better person out there to fill my shoes. That's why after this meeting is dismissed I will be resigning as acting commander to the rebellion all across the middle east and I will be focusing all my efforts here on out to recovering myself and all I had lost to get this far. It's what I want. It's what my wife and kids would want. It's what Mason wants and I truly believe my time has come and gone since my selfish actions had been taken. If I can't keep a promise to the people I know and love then I know for a fact I will only keep hurting said people. For winning the war is my promise. Stepping down will accomplish that. I'm sorry everyone. I'm not the person you should trust with your future. I am not the same man I use to be and I am not the man this country needs as it's leader. I'm...I'm deeply sorry."
It didn't take long for some of my own men to start shouting out in public. I even shouted out in confusion to what he was doing. What he had just done. Raptor was resigning? Because of Mason? Because he feels he's not the right person? I understood only up to a certain point. Even now I was always questioning him and his ability to lead an army. I never once thought he would take my comments or anyone's this seriously.
"I'm not fit to lead this army! I am not fit to be your leader! And I am not fit to be a part of this moment in history! For everyone's best interests this is the right call and the only one I can see making! Again I am sorry to you all! Hopefully this country and it's people will prevail and I have faith that without me this war can still be won!"
Looking to Hunter she shouted.
"What the fuck are you doing!? Raptor you stupid motherfucker!"
Black held her down as she clearly lost her self control. But what made matters worse was so were some of my men and women. A lot of which were shouting just like Hunter, but mostly they were yelling for answers. Hunter began to cry as I had to do something. But just continuing to watch the screen we all listened as he said with Mason who was no surprise at his side in protest.
"I wish you all the best of luck. With me this country falls. Without me this country will rise once more. Thank you all for all you have done and for all the support. I hope you understand why this must be done and...goodbye. May god be with us all."
With that I widened my eyes as he stormed off stage. The camera lost him not soon after and with them still running we all began to hear the crowd panicking at the live event. This wasn't a simple meet and greet. This was a rally. There were more people then soldiers and with the yelling getting out of control I panicked as a gunshot was soon heard through the speakers. Soon followed by rifle fire. Shaking my head with Marx at my side I said in loss.
"This can't be fucking happening."
All I knew now was that Mason was in danger. The city was going to blame him for this. Raptor made that very clear before he left. And with rebellion troops opening fire I knew this was out of control. Looking to Black I ordered.
"You and your men are coming with me Major! We are not staying here! The rest of you get out and make sure no one starts a riot before I can do something!"
"Yes sir!" Replied Black as he left Hunter's side to gather Tap, Leo, and Gabe. Turning to head for the exit, Marx chased after me begging.
"Please find him Archer! Before it's too late!"
"I'm going to try Marx! Get everyone here under control and to bunks! We need to contain this mess before it spirals any further!"
"I'm coming too!" Stated Hunter as she ran for my side.
I wasn't going to deny her this. Raptor was making the biggest mistake of his life. And not just that he was making the biggest mistake in this war. Regardless of how I feel it should come down to the people. This country chooses who it follows. Not the other way around. And with Mason in trouble I had to get to Afghanistan as soon as possible. This was going to fuck over the rebellion. There was no hiding those bodies if they returned fire on unarmed civilians. I had to do something to control this. But with all of Afghanistan at that building it was going to be a battle just to get everyone calmed down. And knowing Mason; I expected his men to resort to riot control soon enough. That's the last thing we need. With everyone soon boarding a chopper I gave the order to take off. With Hunter trying to clean up her tears I tried to piece this all together. Whatever Mason didn't tell me was the cause of this. But I knew if I could find Raptor I'd be able to convince him to rethink his decision. I had too otherwise this would change the country forever.
Raptor's POV.
As I drove I could feel all that was happening. I was shocked it got this bad this fast. But it was all going to work out. It had too. I'm sorry Mason but it had to be done. If everything goes smooth from here I'll be back soon enough. But what would that cost other then Mason's friendship? Probably a lot. But I committed. It was set in motion. No looking back now. I just had to leave and let this boil over. Watts was going to keep track of things for me, so hopefully I'll have some good news soon.
Soon finding myself at the location I got out of the truck and made haste for the plane which was already warmed up. Climbing aboard I was soon greeted by Molly who was running all around from the noise. She came right up to my leg as Blitz who was stationed in a seat asked.
"We good to go?"
Nodding my head, I replied while going to the cockpit.
"Yeah we're good. You know where your going!?"
Zeta who was manning the flight had a pair of headphones on and looking back she replied with most of her voice.
"Get settled in! I'm getting us airborne in two!"
Making my way into the back with Blitz, I dropped my duffel next to my feet and buckled up. Molly climbed onto my lap and began to bury her nose in my lap as we got moving.
"It's okay baby. Just keep your head down." I urged her as Zeta got us onto the runway. I held molly tight as we were soon flying off the ground. With some bumps and shakes we soon found ourselves up and away. I waited a minute for the air to thin out and once we were stable Zeta shouted from the cockpit.
"We're airborne! You can relax! I'm going to get us on a direct path, but ETA is going to be around five hours!"
"Got it!" I replied as Molly was struggling to calm down from the event. Looking up to Blitz I asked.
"You good?"
Nodding he replied.
"I'm good. You? Any idea what will happen now?"
Taking a second to breathe I soon replied.
"Now we relax and get to Syria. From there we can focus all our efforts on contacting her sister. Hopefully she's somewhere safe and we can just do a drive by and scoop her up before more trouble arrives. We'll be in a new city with completely different people and completely different rules. No telling what might happen, but I don't want any heat till we get a move in place. Am I clear?" I asked as he nodded back.
"We take our time if we have to, but number one priority is securing Pepper. We can focus on leaving once we have time to regroup."
"We need a place to operate though." Stated Blitz as I glanced to Zeta to say.
"Zeta's been here before. Hopefully she remembers some places and can set us up. Regardless Blitz Zeta is considered off the books, so regardless of the plan we need to do everything we can to keep her identity hidden during all this. Even if that means it'll just be me and you doing the heavy lifting."
Giving me a powerful look Blitz replied.
"I got your back."
With Molly slowly coming out of her shell, I just tried to focus on the flight ahead for now. This was the start of everything to come.
Linnen's POV.
Show was over and there was more then enough to see. I had no idea what to do. Everything had turned to shit in a matter of minutes. Somehow Voltz is alive and for some reason he turned tail and resigned. I have no clue what he was thinking but he threw everything he had away just then. More then that he just caused riots across this land. I had reports coming in that half of this city was starting up fires and letting the local soldiers know how they felt. Regardless if they were mine or not. I had teams on the move to get things under control and it wouldn't take long. But Afghanistan and Iraq may be different stories. Afghanistan was for sure going up in smoke and Iraq might as well be too I would like to think. Considering that is where most of the people are right now.
Sitting in my office, I only really had one real thing to worry about. The first being Hecan. Raptor exposed my actions and it's not like the middle east will not believe him. Hecan should call at some point about it. Regardless of what Raptor said I will ignore and deny. There is no evidence that operation even happened and all of the people who did it are ether gone or dead. Hecan can't press any penalties if he can't prove it. And like it or not Hecan would never believe someone like Voltz. It's not who he is. All I had to do was play dumb. I'll be okay.
With a glass of whiskey in my hand, I took a gentle sip and relaxed in my chair. The more I drank the better I felt.
Zeta's POV, Three hours later.
Letting myself rest back in the seat, I gently felt the air smooth out and with that I took off the headset and let myself breathe. This flight was shit to be honest. Bad weather, bad turbulence, bad everything. Thank god for once I was able to relax.
Looking back into the main corridor, I looked over Blitz who was sleeping and Raptor who was just sitting there with Molly in his lap. His eyes wide open and looking at his phone. Gently refocusing on the flight, I put the plane to auto and stood up to start heading into the main room. Raptor who remained on his phone as I now soon approached.
"You okay?" I asked as he calmly looked up at me to reply.
"Yeah. Just keeping up to date." Looking back to his phone I wondered as I sat down next to him.
"Isn't your buddy going to keep you informed? Thought that was his job after all."
Letting out a chuckle he quickly replied back.
"He is. But can't help but be curious. He's going to give me a whole tour of the shit storm I caused. I just want a casual peek before any of that."
As I got seated next to him he asked.
"Don't you have to fly?"
Reaching over to start petting Molly I replied.
"It's on auto. We got two hours and it's a straight shot to Syria. Relax a little."
With that Raptor just gave me a shrug and went back to looking at his phone. I didn't know what else to really say at this point. I wanted to say a lot, but nothing that really mattered. Part of me just wanted to see if I could just mingle with him. He was still a person and like it or not I need to figure him out at some point. All I know is the serious stuff when it comes to this guy. Plus I had no other way of killing time so might as well. I was never the type to sit here like this and just ignore the person next to me. Especially when that someone is...?
Looking over Raptor and me just locked eyes. A slight grin to his face as he wondered.
"Are you okay? You're looking at me like I am a piece of meat."
"Yeah I'm fine. Just...I'm just trying to...?"
"Mhmm?" He hummed with confidence as I went red in the face to state.
"I'm not good at this."
"Clearly." He replied as I let out a small laugh. Giving him a gentle push, I took a breath and mumbled after some silence between us.
"What's...what's your favorite color?"
Without missing a beat he replied.
"Blue and orange. You?"
With his eyes now on me and putting down his phone, I replied back with almost a whisper.
"Black and orange."
"Lame." He replied as I questioned.
"Lame? Orange is your favorite color to asshole. How's that lame?"
"I mean black you goof. That's lame. It's over picked."
"How can you tell me that one of my favorite colors is lame? Okay I agree that black is over picked but it's picked for a good reason. It goes well with everything. How can you dis me for that?"
"I'm not dissing anything. All I'm saying is that black is over picked and your lame for hopping on the band wagon. Next question please." He urged me as I just pushed him again in his seat to reply.
"Okay smart ass. What's something you like to do in your free time?"
Looking back to me he questioned.
"Other then kill people?"
"Yes other then killing people." I replied as he gave the answer some thought. After some time he replied.
"Believe it or not...I really like bowling. Frisbee too."
Instantly I jumped in my seat to state to the hog.
"I was on the ultimate Frisbee team back in high school."
"Really?" He wondered as I quickly replied back.
"You bet your ass. I loved that shit. Gave me thrills and chills."
"Probably because running after a flying disk is basically in your blood as a dog."
"Are you stereotyping me?" I asked him in disbelief as he nodded and replied with a smile.
"You and Molly are the same thing. You just so happened to come out smarter. Regardless of the brain though; all you dogs still have your dog things in common. Some are just harder to preform with certain dogs. But at the end of the day you dogs all do the same things.
"Do you even hear the shit coming out of your mouth?"
Smiling he replied.
"No ma'am I don't. I find that if I do it fucks up my rhythm."
I couldn't help but laugh at him as he went on to state.
"You're easy to read anyway Zeta. Don't need superpowers to know your ticks."
"Oh yeah? What are some of my ticks then Raptor?" I asked him as I gave him this cute glare. Keeping a smile he replied.
"Let's see...where to start? You get off on being dominated for starters. But also take pleasure in being the dominate if your mate is weak. Hence why you probably took control of Raze that night we were together. You like owning someone, but you also enjoy being owned. Like a proper trophy."
"You said I am an easy read. Besides that have you picked up on any more of my charming personality?" I asked as he carefully whispered.
"Let's see...you love guns, armor, any combat focused and advanced stuff you come across like my armor. You also really like cold air. You have a few moments where you kick your feet when you sleep. Kinda like your trying to pedal. It's cute, but unbecoming of a woman of your caliber." He stated as he rested Molly down on the seat next to him. Refocusing on me as I continued to listen in seldom shock so far, Raptor calmly lost his smile to say with confidence behind his tone.
"You also have your blood type written in bright neon green ink inside the right cup to your black bra. You only took two bags when we first met back in Iraq and I get the feeling this is true what I'm about to say. But you had a third bag stowed in the garage we went to. And I like to think I'm pretty good with my smells; and I'd like to say you left it behind because it was probably what was left of your old clothes. And I won't lie Zeta even during our little "shuffle" back with Raze; you weren't the most...pleasant smelling...wet dog."
With my face going red in embarrassment, I kept listening as he went on to state further.
"So you care deeply about your appearance to others and probably get off on catching the eyes of the common rabble. But simply put Zeta, you hate smelling bad and who can blame you? I mean as we both can probably agree with. Wet dog isn't ever a good smell to begin with. Doesn't matter the...source of it."
Throwing me a small wink, I asked in an almost whisper tone to match his now.
"How did you...?" Putting his finger up to my face he urged.
"I'm not done. Shhhhh."
Bringing myself to a pout, I kept quiet as he said with a softer voice.
"You also aren't wearing underwear right now which means one of two things."
Changing into a gentle stare I asked now curious.
"And those are daddy?"
Raptor had his mouth opened and when he heard it again; I just giggled to myself as he had to catch his tone. But with a very thin smile across his face he replied after some time.
"Which means ether you're hoping to give me easy access at some point...or your just the type of girl to not typically wear underwear."
Leaning over into his seat I wondered.
"Or maybe...both?"
Looking over my shoulder to check on Blitz. I followed his eyes as we both saw he was asleep and in the grave. I can tell when a wolf is sleeping good and that man was sleeping really good. But looking back over to my...boyfriend? I don't really know if that's a legal term yet for us, but whatever. He replied.
"Maybe both. But fancy me a real answer?"
Looking between us, I grabbed onto the arm rest that was there and pulled it up. Raptor fully open to me as he sensed trouble coming. His eyes were so beautiful. Leaning over into his chest, I replied while placing my left hand on his leg.
"They take up room I can't afford to waste on something that is bound to come off at some point. Plus with Pepper in my life growing up we would always take each others. After a few years I kinda gave up stealing and just kept myself in proper shape. And it is more comfortable just so you know. No...restrictions."
Raptor just stared at me as I leaned over his neck to open my mouth. Very softly he placed both his hands on my hips and I gently began to bite down on the right side of his neck. My teeth went cold as I did it and with no regrets I began to purr a little. Raptor whom immediately giggled and asked through my bite.
"Did you just purr?"
Undoing my grasp on his neck, I replied softly into his ear.
"Don't tell Raze."
Going back to biting him, I listened close as he replied with his hands still on my sides.
"Never."
I could feel my venom slowly drifting to my eyes as i continued get a taste.
mT Shadow.