Chris groaned, throwing his radio against the wall, "that's it. If I have to hear that fucking song one more time I'm killing myself, we need Jack back." Samantha sighed picking the broken radio off the ground as she entered the living room.
"Jack?" The man looked at her mortified.
"You know, 105.9 Jack.FM. Best radio channel in the country?" She deadpanned and he fell back. "That's it, we're taking those jammers offline and getting Jack back."
Samantha sighed, "what do we have to do?"
"Just climb the towers and get the jammers off, then we'll get a crisp clean signal." She nodded and Chris walked to the base of the stair. "We're heading out! Should be back in a few!"
Catalyst shouted an affirmative and Chris shrugged taking off downstairs, the pair quickly climbed into his pickup truck driving off down the road. After a few minutes he pulled onto a gravel driveway next took the church he blew up and walked to the door.
"Hey sis, can we come in?" Andy nodded, allowing the pair in, "how come you got our childhood home, whatever happened to Malibu?" She shrugged.
"Come to see Taffy?" Chris nodded as they walked through the house to the back porch.
They stepped outside and Chris sat on the edge of the porch next to the stairs Andy turned walking back into the house as Samantha stood. "Hey Taffy, I just came by to apologize. I'm sorry I never said goodbye. I'm sorry I was so rude to you. I'm sorry that those damned veterinarians saw profit more important than your life."
"I'm not gonna be back for awhile, the Deputy is gonna need help with the cult. I just wanted to say, in case I don't get back here. I'm sorry. Goodbye." He stood walking through the sliding glass door and back through the house.
They quietly climbed back into the car and Samantha looked over at him, he quickly wiped his face with this shirt and placed his hands on the wheel. She opened her mouth to speak but decided against it as they drove back down the road to the nearest tower. Chris pointed up to the top with a grin as they pulled out of the neighborhood and onto Red Fox Court.
"Operation: 105.9 Jack.FM is a go, we need to get up there, break off the jammer, and get back down." He looked a bit to its side, "just, don't let any electrical parts fall into the lake." As they drove down the dirt road a rancid smell hit her nose and she gagged.
"What is that? Smells like shit." He laughed.
"Because it is. There's a sewage treatment plant on the end of this road." Chris grinned as he stopped the car at the foot of the tower.
He quickly kicked the, mind you unlatched, gate off its hinges and moved to the foot of the tower, "we've got three options, both of us go up, I go up alone, or you go up alone. Just know first there is no safety harness on this tower." Samantha paused looking at the pond that was admittedly closer than the lake.
"We could jump into the pond." He deadpanned.
"Ma'am that is a fucking pond." He sighed, "if you want to go up but not climb down I have a set of wingsuits in the truck, we'll have to aim for the lake though." She nodded, walking back to the truck and opening a box labeled I'm a motherfucking bird.
"I call blue!" Chris groaned, grabbing the green suit, she looked at him for instruction and he groaned.
"They go over your clothes normally, however these I modified to act as just a jacket. So pull it on like a jacket and when you jump grab these little hooks and open your arms. Won't work as well but it allows full mobility." She nodded and they strapped on their suits before gripping the base of the tower, "ready? Once we get up there they'll know."
"More exciting if they're shooting at us." Chris nodded and they began their ascent, the bars were cold in the morning air and as they climbed it grew harder to hold on with the wind throwing them around. The man grunted as his hand came down on a piece of jagged steel, out of reflex he let go.
Samantha quickly spun to his side of the tower grabbing his wrist, he nodded thanks grabbing back onto the tower, blood trickled down his hand and he groaned pushing forwards carefully.
The pair pulled themself onto the platform at the top of the tower and Chris shivered looking over the town, at the old school the logo of the Project At Eden's Gate painted on the wall over the fading Lolo School crest. He growled.
"Change of plans. We get the tower knocked out, and we give those cunts a little taste of their own medicine." Samantha nodded, staring at the school before turning back to the jammer.
Chris smirked, placing a roll of firecrackers in the jammer, "ready?" Samantha nodded and moved aside, the boy took a running start jumping off, it took him about a second before he gripped the metal ring and yanked the wings out and attaching them to a hook at his wrist.
He glided safely towards the lake and she mimicked his jump opening as soon as she leveled out, however aiming slightly a bit more down. She looked up noticing she had lost more altitude than him and he was going towards a nearby house.
"Um! Chris!" he looked back before noticing his path and trying to point further down.
"Well… now I know why you need the bottom half…" he sighed. "I'll meet you in their living room." Samantha looked down quickly, disconnecting the wings and straightening herself, landing feet first in the lake.
When she reached the surface once more she hesitated swimming after Chris as he unlatched his wings and turned his legs forwards, the momentum slammed him through the window into the family's living room.
"Holy shit!" She groaned, pulling herself into the shore and running to the window, she took a moment to assess the situation. The family's patriarch held a revolver to the older man's chest as he lay in their broken table, the mother clutching her children to her hip.
"Hol-" the younger man growled.
"I said who are you! I will blow your fucking head off who are you?"
Samantha groaned, pulling her own pistol out and firing into the air before pulling out her badge. "This idiot's with me. Official police business." She walked through they're back door as the man put down his weapon.
"Who's gonna pay for my damn window?" She sighed.
"If you call the station they can reimburse you the price of the window and table. Until we have the jammers down, which is what we were working on, do you have any place to stay?"
The woman nodded, "my brother lives a while to the south, we can go there." The younger man turned as Samantha picked Chris up from the table.
"That douche? Seriously Becca?"
The man in Sam's arms frowned. "Like, Colin's sister Becca?"
"You knew my brother?" He nodded.
"He was a grade behind me, had a falling out when I was going into seventh grade." The other woman nodded.
"He's told me about you, said your falling out was because you knocked someone out." Chris shrugged.
"He wasn't knocked out, just… barely conscious…"
The woman laughed, "he told me you'd say that? Why don't you come visit?"
Samantha and the other woman's husband butting in. "Sorry, we'd love to but we need to get to the other two towers and take out the jammers." Becca nodded.
"Alright hun, what do you say we let them get back to work?"
"Wait!" The trio looked at Chris and he gestured to his hand and legs, which each had a large gash and his legs had shards of glass in them. "Have any bandaids here?"
The two men shared a look and the younger man nodded in understanding. Passing him a spare first-aid kit, Chris shot him thanks as they moved to the house's front porch.
The man placed his leg in front of him slicing open his pant leg, blood trickled down into the fabric under his leg. He quickly pulled a small bottle of rubbing alcohol from the kit and pouring some onto each wound.
He grunted as the alcohol seeped into the wound cleaning killing the bacteria in the wound. Samantha winced unwrapping a few gauze pads, she quickly reached for the tweezers however Chris got there first grabbing it and readying it on the largest shard.
"Ready?" Samantha hovered a pad over his leg as the others watched from the door. "It's gonna cause a big flow so be quick."
Chris quickly pulled the shard from his leg gritting his teeth, blood quickly filled the wound and she pressed the pad down onto his wound, he quickly grabbed the bandages wrapping a good chunk around his leg before moving the tweezers to around another shard. Samantha hesitated readying another, as the shard was pulled out a spray of blood covered her shoulder, she held the gauze against the bleeding gash and Chris wrapped it.
"Alright, last one, sorry about the blood." Sam nodded.
"All fine, just, don't bleed out on me. Literally."
He quickly pulled the last shard out and she pressed the gauze down one last time, the man wrapped the wound off and paused. "Well… that doesn't quite feel great?"
"Problem?"
"None that any of you can fix." Samantha stood offering her hand and he took it, zipping up the first-aid kit. "Thanks for letting me use this."
The two began walking down the stairs off the deck, before they could get to the road, however a voice called to them, "wait!"
Becca ran down, trailed by her children, "how long have you been a cop?"
Samantha turned to him, "yes, how long have you?"
He smirked, "well… technically I'm not, in fact I'd be considered a felon!"
Samantha tilted her head, "actually, I think most of this goes under the self defense. And the Geneva Convention specifies that only military class planes are allowed to carry weapons, never specified a private owner being allowed to add weapons to their private F15…"
Becca and Chris just stared before sharing a look, "I guess I'm not a felon then, sweet." The pair nodded and said their goodbyes before setting off.
"We better get a new window." Her husband groaned and Becca grinned.
"Their nice people, great partners." He looked down, nodding.
——————————————————————————
"So, you knew her brother?" The man nodded.
"We met when I was in first grade, the first day of school. I had just moved to Lolo so I didn't know anyone yet, and there he was, another kid who didn't know anyone, so naturally we paired together. When winter came, since I was used to heat year round, he gave me one of his coats and things went up from there."
She smiled, "so, pretty close huh?"
"Yep."
"So, what happened? Really?" Chris sighed.
"One of his newer friends said something I didn't like, so, as a kid with anger issues and the inability to lose a fight does. I laid him out." He inhaled deeply. "Colin got mad, wasn't there when the guy made the threat. So, I left. We didn't speak to each other and then I moved away."
Samantha frowned, "what did he say?"
"That he would do something really bad." He smirked as a way of changing the topic appeared in his mind. "Y'know your really hot."
"Wha-where did that come from!"
He leaned forwards as they stopped, "where do you think?"
She blushed. "Um? I don't know?"
"Whatever part of my brain controls logic. Said it to change the topic, although it is true." He smirked and she punched his shoulder as they set off once more, ahead of them his car sat still parked.
"Alright, I'm gonna check in on something before we go to the school, and no guns there. Only knives, swords, or other melee."
"Right, why?"
"Because. Guns don't belong in classrooms, only melee weapons." The car pulled off near the school driving up the mountain behind it and onto the ledge above. "Alright, I'm gonna go see if they're here, then we'll head down." Samantha nodded watching him jog up to the front door, mere seconds after he rang the bell a woman came to the door.
"Hey Max, been a while."
She sighed, "Chris, I thought I told you never to come around here again."
"Look, I just need the rocket bat I gave you." The redhead groaned as her, also redhead, wife rounded the corner.
"You son of a bitch! What are you doing here?"
"Hi Racheal, what I'm doing is asking for my baseball bat back." He spread his arms, "all I need is my bat. Then I'll be gone."
The two redheads glared at him before Racheal walked away, Max turned back looking slightly up. "Look, I understand I'm not the best person in the world but I'm working on making amends. Just, just know The Cook is dead and I'll never be around here again."
Racheal returned, passing him his bat and he turned getting ready to walk back down to his car.
"Killing The Cook doesn't bring back my sister, or Finley's niece, or Addison."
"Addison isn't fucking dead!" Chris turned, throwing the bat to the side and storming back up to the door as they tried to close it.
His foot slammed into the door and they fell back as the door knob embedded itself in the wall, "those sick fucks have her! And you know what you did when they took her! Nothing! When we met it was us against the world, all my friends had left me! My girlfriend drove herself off a fucking bridge!"
She stumbled back, "well she made the right choice! Better to be dead than be with you!" He sighed, stepping back.
"Maybe, maybe that's why it never worked out between us." He turned, "I'll reimburse you for the wall."
He tossed the bat into the back of his truck and the pair watched as his truck drove back down the road. "Mommy?" Max looked down at her child as he stepped onto the porch.
"Hey buddy, it's alright, you're gonna be fine."
The pair in the car sat in silence until they were about to pull into the school's parking lot, Samantha looked over, "so, your ex?"
"Yep. Believe it or not, in high school I actually managed to have two relationships. My relationship with Max fell apart because I had to focus most of my attention on Cat and I still wasn't fine after what happened." Chris sighed. "Now, all I can do is try to make amends with all the people that have been wronged in some way."
The car slowed to a stop and the two jumped out walking to the bed of the truck, he quickly grabbed the bat handing it to Sam before opening up a toolbox. He wrapped his hands around the wooden hilt lifting the sword into his hands before putting it into a sheath at his hip.
"If it counts for anything I don't think you're that bad a person. A little messed up in the head? Sure, but who isn't these days?" Chris smirked.
"Thanks, means a lot. Ready?"
"Absolutely."
The pair quickly moved to the main entrance for the elementary building and Chris turned, "we do this quietly. Other than that, do it your way."
Chris quickly breached the building pulling his sword from his sheath and jumping over the front desk, "I'm gonna knock out the power." Samantha nodded, checking the first door on the left side of the fork. She was greeted by a large gym and she slowly stepped inside. The lights flicker off and the Peggie's inside dropped their workout gear, she heard the sound of gagging and struggling before the room went silent.
She quickly pulled out a flashlight scanning the room only to see one Peggie with a barbell on their throat and the other on the ground underneath a climbing wall. "Well, that was convenient…"
She stepped over the unconscious form of the fallen Peggie raising her bat and bringing it down on his throat. In the library Chris slowly looked over the bookshelves before finding a piece of paper tucked neatly under one of the shelves, he quickly unraveled it and grinned.
"Whoever reads this note knows the power of The Cult Of Mount Awimpus. All who oppose us shall be put to death by drowning in the Flying Squirrel foam pit.
Your Lord, the King Of Mount Awimpus and God of Wimps, Chris."
"Alright fuckers, you've unleashed my full power." He smirked, stepping into the old librarian's office before sighing and moving to the next again, across the hall he slowly slinked into his first grade classroom, a flow of memories filling his mind.
"You're the Gold Ranger?" Chris smiled, lifting off his mask as Jacob, dressed as the Red Samurai Ranger did the same. "I guess we gotta be best friends for today!"
"I guess so," the black haired boy smirked as the teacher walked in, everyone but the two taking their seats.
"Maloney, Roberts, take your seats, we've got a movie to watch."
He frowned, staring at the wall where the SmartBoard used to be, behind him a door opened and he spun, raising the sword under their chin. "Whoa, it's just me. What's up?"
"Nothing, just…" he inhaled looking around the room to where his desk used to be, "just a lot of memories."
Samantha nodded, gesturing where he was looking, "did you sit there?"
"Yep, right next to the only kid who was nice to me. Went missing in first grade, did you clear the rest of the building?"
"Mostly, just the lunchroom is uncleared. Saw a few people while walking down the hall though."
"Got it." Samantha turned as Chris handed her a neatly folded note before the two set off.
The men turned as they heard a noise, "Jason are you t-" the voice was cut off, replaced with the sound of a body hitting the ground. A small flame lit the air in front of another Peggie and he flew to the ground before the wooden bat slammed into his head at full speed.
A lamp lit the room and one of the Peggie's turned as a sword sliced through their final remaining teammate. The man stepped over the corpse, noting the sword at the other Peggie's hip and holding up his fist, the Peggie drew his sword and got into a fighting position and Chris smirked.
The Peggie lunged forwards swinging downwards and the other man flung his sword back up blocking the previous strike, he quickly swung another attack and the Peggie lowered his blade down to block. Samantha grinned as Chris feinted with his blade before stabbing it through the man's chest.
"Fucker." The pair turned to the door as the body dropped, "let's check out the middle school buildings. Then we can move on."
The two quickly made their way down the walkway and towards the two story building, "you go down to the lower entry, I'll go on top. Got it?" Chris nodded.
"If I remember correctly they never changed the locks after my years, find locker fifteen and use code Seven-Five-Six-Seven."
"Right." She quickly breached the door and the boy ran down the stairs, she heard glass shatter downstairs and groaned, the lights flickered back on and she ran forwards catching a Peggie before he got to the stairs.
She fell to the ground as the ground shook, she heard an explosion downstairs, she quickly ran down to see the building ignite. "Get the fire extinguisher! Closest room up there!" Samantha nodded, running back upstairs and grabbing the extinguisher.
The two sprayed foam into the flames and within a few seconds the flames had died down. "Alright, well… grab the locker and gear up. They're coming, saw one radio in."
Samantha nodded, opening the locker, "press against that wall." She did and behind the wall sat a large bottle of alcohol.
"What. Is. This?"
"A kid brought this to school, I exchanged… services, for money, ranging from running a black market to smuggling shit." She paused.
"So, you were a criminal?"
He kicked open locker sixty-five and pushed into the lower plating. "Pretty much, hit the sprinklers." She nodded, lighting her lighter under one of the detectors, the water began to pour down pooling around the ground.
Chris stuffed a rag into the bottle before drawing his Karambit and standing in the locker bay, a man rushed past and he lunged forwards sticking his knife into the other man's karroted. "This definitely does not count as self defense."
Samantha sighed, lifting her bat over her shoulder, her teammate unsheathing his sword. In a matter of minutes the small clash was over and they were soaked, the man hefted his cocktail throwing it down the hall, and a small fire burned the pair quickly left the building as she turned to him.
"So, weird school…"
"Yep, although, I am a large part of that. Most people who did something stupid did it because they don't like me." He grinned. "Check out the paper I passed you."
"You made a cult? Seriously?"
He grinned, "was more a religion. We just joked around passing notes in class, and even then it was just a few of us. Stopped when the Peggie's came to my house."
"Right…" she looked ahead as the dirt road they drove in stopped, ahead of them a tower loomed over them. "You stay down here, I'll climb back up and get it knocked out."
Chris nodded, sitting in his truck bed and pulling a needle and thread, as Samantha began her ascent, the boy looked back up after her tiredly before continuing to stitch his pants back together.
She quickly grabbed the wires in the jammer and tore them out, a voice ringing from her radio. "Hey, Finley here, Eli and Wheaty wanted someone to take out the jammers if that'll work for you."
"Chris and I are already on it, just took out the second jammer."
Finley sighed, "alright. Well, the last tower is on a convoy, the road just south of you, if you hurry you might be able to ambush."
"Right. Thank you."
"Just, be safe." Samantha nodded, she hesitated before replied once more.
"I know it's not my place but, well, Chris feels horrible for leaving you behind." Finley tried to bud in but Samantha continued, "he went to a friend of his to get a bat and spent the entire time getting yelled at, do you know what she said?"
"I'm guessing Max said something along the lines of 'I have kids now, leave me alone!'" The blonde atop the tower groaned.
"No. She said that he's better alone, that it's a good thing his daughter grew up without a mother." She sighed, "Look, I know you hold a grudge for him running, you have every right to, but. Well, would you prefer he left his daughter without a father?"
The radio went silent and Samantha shook her head, lowering herself back to the ground. And climbing into the truck, "let's go."
The pair sped down the road to a bend and Chris tossed some C4 down, the truck passed over and he boredly pressed the detonator down, the convoy exploded in a flash of light and Chris frowned.
The car veered off the path and he jumped out running into the woods, Samantha hesitated before her radio shouted, from both Chris and Finley's signals. "Run!"
——————————————————————————
Samantha turned as the bunker door slammed, Chris stumbled down, his body but skin and bone. He looked at her before falling down into her arms, Finley ran into the room to see what the commotion was as the pair dropped to the ground.
"Jesus Christ."