Author's Note: So this one is a tad shorter to make up for the length of the last one. Sorry it took so long to post, I kept getting distracted by things. I have a field camp I have to do in a little over a week, so I may not be posting during those three weeks. But to make it up to you, if you beg me enough, I'll try to crank out some chapters back to back before I go.

Chapter 7: Fleeing

"EVERYBODY GET DOWN!" Mike yelled as a barrage of bullets ripped through the apartment. He'd seen more than two dozen men outside; far too many for them to take down on their own. Especially since several were now firing semi-automatic rounds into Piper's apartment. Mike pushed Piper down and tried to cover her body with his as glass flew in all directions around them. Rose and Willow were on the other side of the window, out of his reach, but they too had dropped to the ground immediately. William had tried to pull out a gun from his waistband, but as soon as the bullets whizzed into the apartment, he dropped behind a large bookcase for cover. Micky, Peter, Davy and Ginny were in the middle of the room. The first shot had been a solitary shot. It had given Micky enough time to get them into a protected position. He now dropped to the ground, grabbing the coffee table and pulling it up next to them to protect them from shrapnel. Finally the barrage ended and the air was filled with an eerie silence broken only by the sound of broken wood and glass clattering to the floor.

"Everyone ok?" Mike asked before venturing a peek outside.

"I think so," Piper answered.

"You know what we want, gentlemen!" one of the men from outside boomed. "Give us the girl and we walk away without a fight."

"Micky, grab the bag under the couch!" Piper hissed quietly before turning to the men outside. "You just destroyed my apartment! Why should I do anything you want me to!?"

"Because you now know what we're capable of!" the man yelled back. Mike watched Micky reach under the couch and feel around for the bag. With a quick glance around the room, Mike saw everyone was still moving. "That was a small taste of the ammunition I have at my disposal. I gave you a warning shot so you could duck. I trust that was adequate. Next time you won't be so lucky. Bring me the girl or there will be nothing left of your home."

"You must be insanely stupid if you think we're going to give you anything," Mike yelled as Micky slid the bag he'd found across the room to Piper. "Not to mention all this shooting is gonna draw a lot of attention to yourself. The cops will be here any minute."

"Son, I am the police," the man laughed. "Now hand over the girl! We can do this the easy way or the hard way!"

"The easy way is boring," Piper said pulling something out of the bag and tinkering with it for a second. "I like to party, so why don't you come on over and try to take her! Or are you not man enough for that?"

"What are you doing?!" William asked quietly. "There's way too many of them."

"Relax, I've got this," Piper said poking her head out the window.

"That's real cute, baby doll," the man barked. "You think questioning my manhood is gonna piss me off? I've dealt with way worse than the likes of you."

"I wasn't trying to piss you off," Piper said. She exchanged a glance with Micky, Mike and Rose and mouthed "smoke bomb" to them. Each of them understood. Mike readied himself to move toward William, Rose grabbed Willow's hand and Micky instructed Davy and Peter to hold hands with each other. "I was trying to stall you, idiot!" Piper lodged the bomb out the broken window and in that second Mike grabbed William, Micky grabbed Ginny and Peter, who was now holding Davy's hand tightly, and Rose began pulling Willow toward the front door. The smoke bomb went off with a loud explosion and the shockwave almost knocked them over, but they were able to keep their bearing. Everything was now covered in a haze of thick, black smoke.

"I can't see anything!" Davy exclaimed.

"Just trust us and don't let go," Micky answered pulling Davy towards the front door. Mike could never explain it, but somehow they'd always been able to see really well through thick smoke. They couldn't see things as though the smoke wasn't there, but rather the smoke seemed to make things around them glow faintly. At first Mike had thought it was an Assassin thing because Mike and Micky could both do it and they weren't blood relatives, but they soon found that no other Assassin could do this. It worked in their favor at this moment and Mike wasn't going to question it. It was going to save their hides.

Micky, Mike, Piper and Rose each led the others through the smoke and out the door. The block was filled with enough smoke that they could run to William's cargo van without being seen. William had driven that, not knowing if they would need it to run away. Mike and Micky had decided to park the Monkeemobile away from the apartment because they knew it drew a lot of attention. If they were going to make a clean getaway, they'd need to be a more inconspicuous vehicle. William's van was large enough to hold all of them comfortably, but plain enough to not draw attention.

"How did you do that?" Willow asked when they'd settled in the back of the van. William got behind the driver's seat, but could still talk through a small window that separated the cab from the back. "We couldn't see anything."

"Just something we've always been able to do," Micky shrugged. "Don't know why."

"We can't worry about that right now," Mike said. "We need to figure out where we're going first."

"Our house?" Willow asked. "They don't know about us."

"They probably do," Rose said. "If they don't, they will soon. We can't go anywhere that has a connection to any of us. Not until we know what we are doing."

"We need to go after Robert," William said. "We need to get that artifact back from him."

"He'd have gone somewhere else," Piper said. "We'd need to find him again. And that's gonna take time. We need somewhere to hide out until them."

"And if Mike and Micky are going to help, they need to get back into shape," Rose added. Mike looked at Micky and noticed for the first time he was bleeding. In the rush of everything, he hadn't taken an inventory of injuries. Rose, sitting next to him, was covered in little tiny cuts from the glass having rained down on them. The others had come out largely unscathed with nothing more than a few cuts to their hands.

"Micky, you're bleeding!" Mike exclaimed.

"I got nicked a little by one of the bullets," Micky said. "I'll be ok."

"Let me take a look at it," Piper said.

"It's nothing," Micky said. "I'll be ok."

"Micky, please," Ginny said carefully taking his arm and rolling up his sleeve.

"Rose, you gonna be ok?" Peter asked looking worried.

"I'll be fine," Rose answered. "Nothing a few well placed band-aids won't fix."

"Not quite," Willow said moving a little closer to her. "Hold still."

"Why?" Rose asked as Willow reached out her hand towards Rose. Mike looked a little more closely and saw a piece of glass sticking out of her shoulder.

"Don't move," Willow said firmly. Mike felt Rose tighten up next to him and gripped her hand. Willow grabbed the piece of glass between her fingertips and carefully pulled while Piper looked at Micky's arm. Rose squeezed Mike's hand tightly in pain as Willow removed the small piece.

"How bad is it?" Piper asked glancing over.

"Not very deep," Willow answered. "Just wanted to remove it before it cut her any further."

"Thank you," Rose said.

"Is he ok?" Davy asked.

"I'm fine, Davy," Micky said offering a smile. "Don't worry about me."

"It's just a surface wound," Piper said. "Better even than Peter's."

"So we need to figure out what our next move is," Rose said once they were all sure Micky's wound was minimal. "Somewhere not connected to any of us."

"There's a secret Assassin hideout about three hours from here," William said. "It's not directly connected to any of us so they couldn't find it with tax records and no one will be there because it's used as a safehouse."

"I'd say we have use for a safehouse right now," Davy muttered.

"What should we do about Davy and Peter?" Mike asked Micky. He didn't want to drag them into all this, but if they let Peter and Davy go back to their normal lives, they could still be in danger.

"What do you mean?" Peter asked. "You're not gonna ditch us, are you!?"

"No," Mike answered, "but what we're about to get involved in again is extremely dangerous."

"We want to help," Davy said.

"The more numerous our numbers the better," William said. "We have better chances of winning in a fight if they fight too."

"No!" Mike and Micky said in unison. Neither wanted their friends putting their lives on the line any time soon.

"Guys, this is our fight," Micky said.

"You're our best friend, Micky," Peter said. "Family even. And family doesn't just walk away. They support each other. That's what we're gonna do."

"Peter, you're a pacifist," Mike pointed out.

"Yes, I think it's wrong to hurt people and even animals," Peter said. "But I get the feeling that Micky's dad and others like him aren't of either class. They're monsters. Anyone who can do what he did to Rose...monsters."

"You guys are sure you don't want to just go home?" Micky asked.

"To England or to the Pad?" Davy asked. "Either way, I'm staying. And I'm helping."

"You guys have no idea what you're doing," Mike said.

"So teach us," Davy said.

"I don't know…" Mike said.

"Mike, we need to protect your friends at the very least," Rose said. "Whether you guys like it or not, they're a part of this. We should at least teach them to defend themselves."

"If Peter's a pacifist, he's not going to fight very well," Piper said. "But I can show him some first aid treatments. It never hurts to have a nurse in the field. Will you be ok with that?"

"Whatever I can do to help," Peter said.

"And I'm gonna fight," Davy said.

"Davy, do you remember when you tried your hand at that boxing circuit?" Micky asked. "You could barely land a punch."

"And you hid behind the referee during your fight with the champ," Mike pointed out. "You aren't cut for fighting."

"Then what do you want me to do?" Davy asked. "I'm gonna help."

"We'll figure something out, Davy," Micky said.

"The safehouse has a training room down in the basement," William said. "Whatever we decide, we can get you guys back in shape down there. And there is plenty of space for us to stay comfortably."

"Sounds like a plan," Mike said as he began to settle in.

"We have company," William said a few moments later. Mike and Micky were closest to the window in the rear of the van and peered out carefully just as William sped up. When they looked outside, they saw four cars following very closely behind. Without warning, someone in one of the cars began shooting at them. "Hang on. I'm gonna try and lose them."