I know I wasn't exactly precise with abdomen surgery last chapter, but I'm not a real surgeon either... I corrected it so it SHOULD be good by now.
The siren lights were still flashing along with the headlights. Within minutes, the police department and multiple fire stations were around the area, surrounding the intersection. The Hyperjet landed nearby.
Blue and red siren lights flashed around the area as crowds saw the wreckage. The UFRT laid on its right side.
"Where is their leader?! WHERE'S THE CAPTAIN!?" It was the missing teenager, who was 18 and had a deep voice. He kicked Nadine's back. "I thought I told you not to move!" She grimaced in pain.
"I'm heading over there. *radio static* Swoops, get out of there before you get hurt!" Shadow opened the rear Hyperjet cargo doors. "Hey! Where are YOU going?!" Arnold shoved Rhonda's arm from him. "I'm not standing by and letting three of our own die." He gave a stern look.
He immediately walked out of the jet.
"You want the leader? You got me!"
"DROP EVERY FUCKING WEAPON YOU HAVE OR THIS ENTIRE STREET GOES BOOM!" The teen threatened. Shadow had no choice. He took off his utility belt, dropped his sword to the ground, and even his radio. He walked away from his stuff.
"Thought you'd be more of a hero than this, you pathetic bastard… Thought you were on the truck I WANTED YOU DEAD!"
Shadow had his hands in the air. "You have my attention, now what? You intend to kill me… Josh Barnwell. I already know who you are." The teen yelped but stood his ground.
"You tried to file a lawsuit for the death of your parents, trying to make us look bad when your parents were unlucky they were killed by the Militia! Is that what this is about? You wanting us dead because the Militia had your parents killed?!" He took slow steps toward him. "My team has a whole life ahead of them AND THEY NEVER DID ANYTHING TO YOU, that former firefighter wasn't even with us when your parents died!" Shadow mentioned Montgomery.
"Lies! The Militia was the best thing that happened to me! It's because of them I have all this gear, and I want to kill you personally. I once looked up to you, but with you having my parents killed, I hated your fucking guts! You didn't even try searching for them!"
"You know they captured and enslaved people they found! And killed anyone who didn't obey or opposed them. And I'm sorry. But is this what this is about? An unintended victim in all this mess between us and the Militia? And what now? You're out for reven-"
"Stop! One more step, we all go boom!" Josh threatened with the detonator in his hand.
Everyone watched the stare-down.
"You always had a choice. And I mean 'had' because you stopped being the victim the moment you planted your first bomb." Shadow gave a stern look.
"The lawyer did-"
"Did her job yet you killed them all! We all do our jobs."
"Destroying my family…" Josh trembled. "I lost my parents! I lost everything!"
Arnold raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that?"
"What the hell are you on about?!"
"Your father may have been killed, but your mother survived, the Militia made you believe they were dead, and now… They converted you into a criminal." He pointed to where Ariel and Rhonda had his mother.
"Josh…" His mother was disappointed in him. "Mom…" Josh saw his mother, completely distracted.
Shadow immediately wrapped his arms around Josh and kicked his knee down. He managed to grab the detonator from his hand. Bomb squad units, SWAT, and police officers immediately ran over and pointed their rifles at the two.
"DON'T MOVE!"
"FREEZE!"
"GET THE TRIGGER!"
The Militia Base
"Damn idiot got himself caught…" The Militia Commander facepalmed. "He was bound to get caught, Commander." Haidra's robotic voice started. "This was just a minor setup. We have two more fighters down."
"Don't you mean three?"
"Two. Their former firefighter doesn't count."
"So you're letting him off the hook?…" The Commander raised an eyebrow. "Really depends, to be fair. I'm not after them, I'm after Shadow and those other runts!"
*radio static* "Boss, the Cloudburst tank is nearing completion, Alastor will have it operational in a matter of hours." A Militia soldier said. "How's the weapon diagnostics?"
"Weapons are fully functional and ready to disintegrate anything it shoots."
"Keep our soldiers posted. I want to know the SECOND that device is done!"
"It's a tank-"
"I DON'T GIVE A CRAP WHAT IT IS! TANK. DEVICE. WHATEVER!" Haidra snapped.
Josh had his hands in the air as SWAT units immediately apprehended him and yanked him aggressively.
"We got it from here." The SWAT member said as they walked off with Barnwell. Shadow then immediately shifted his focus to Spinelli and the others.
Swoops was redeployed to pick up his gear.
"WARREN!" Shadow yelled and motioned over to Phoebe and Warren who stood outside the PRT truck. He immediately kneeled to Spinelli and checked her pulse.
"Stay with me, girl…" Her pulse was normal for now.
"How is she?" Warren got the backboard on the ground. "… J- Just bar- Barely here…" She weakly replied.
"Ariel, check on Travis and Nadine!" Arnold told her through the earpiece. He soon felt a hand on his knee. "What is it, Spin?" He held her hand.
"I'm feelin' kinda woozy…" She said, dazed. "Her skin is starting to get cold, and her B.P.'s probably dropping!" They soon saw the Sai stabbing her abdomen.
"On three… One. Two. Three!" They carefully turned Spinelli on her side to place the backboard beside her. She was soon placed on the backboard.
"We won't know the extent of the injury until we open her up." Phoebe mentioned. "And hopefully, that didn't do much damage." Warren replied. "On three! One. Two. Three!"
They lifted the backboard onto the stretcher.
"We got this." Warren patted Arnold's shoulder, reassuring him. He would only nod as they headed to the PRT truck. Shadow stood there for a moment and looked at the truck. He then looked at the wreckage.
A person cleared their throat. "Shadow, do you have a minute?" It was Commissioner Goodell. "Ah. Commissioner. Quite a surprise to see you. Is there anything we can help you in?" Arnold asked, almost in an awkward manner.
"Quite a standoff against that kid, a short one too. I know your team has been through a lot lately, and well… I just want to thank you for bringing in that kid. We had suspicions about him for a while now, and that all confirmed it tonight."
"It's what we do." He shrugged. "Even if you do wreck some buildings." She rolled her eyes. "Point is, I guess we could lighten up on you and your team, I guess I was mistaken on you and your team."
"Why thanks. It really means a lot coming from you, Commissioner." Goodell then stuck her hand out. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." They shook hands. "Are you going to deal with this wrecked truck or-"
"We'll handle it, we just need an Engine company to put out the minor fires around it."
"You got it."
"This doesn't look good…" Phoebe opened Spinelli's abdomen, only to find she was bleeding internally. She lost consciousness, so Kliff intubated her. "How bad is it- I see now…"
The Sai was just penetrating through her abdomen, and just poking at the side of one of her organs.
"Aw, great… No biggie, we should be able to remove this without damaging her organs even more." Phoebe then remembered a feature onboard the truck. She snapped her fingers. "I got it!" She went toward a monitor.
Warren looked over. "Whatever you have in mind, you better hurry 'cause her B.P.'s starting to drop!"
"Just give me a second…"
"Connected with Dr. Young of SliverStone Memorial." Impulse said. "THE Dr. Young of SilverStone?" Warren asked.
"Hey, you guys- Wow! That is an amazing operating room you have! Anything I can do for you two today?" Dr. Young greeted. "Abdominal trauma, penetrating object just poking at the organs." Phoebe replied.
"Ah, no biggie. Alright, let's hurry it now." Dr. Young soon started helping out virtually. Warren and Phoebe immediately got to work.
"Hey, you okay?" Rhonda approached her husband. She had a hand on his shoulder, but he shoved her off. "If it wasn't for you, Spinelli would've bled out, Travis and Nadine could've died from their injuries, and all because you wanted to stop me from facing that kid!" He looked like he was bound to snap.
"Hey, what the hells wrong with you?! I-"
"Ask what's with me but you didn't care about these three! You were holding me back from facing that kid! I don't care what would've happened to me, all I care about is this team, for my family! But you were willing to let Spinelli bleed out next to this hunk of junk, let your childhood best friend suffer from her injuries, and let Montgomery agonize in pain." Rhonda stood dead silent, rather afraid now. "Now get the hell out of my sight. I don't care whether you're my wife or not, I stand by my decision whether you like it or not." Shadow was now extremely upset, while Rhonda whimpered a little. She sniffled.
She would only nod and slowly walk away. She tried fighting back her tears, but her emotions got the better of her.
Little did he know, the earpiece was on, and transmitting the conversation back to the lair.
"What's gotten into him? He's never a grouch about anything!" Sapphire said. "Star, get over there but I'm assigning as incident command. Take over for him. I want him back here immediately." Stella told her.
"Yes, ma'am." She immediately flew out of the lair, leaving Stella and Miles both concerned yet upset about their son's behavior.
"Warren, Phoebe, any updates?" Arnold asked through the earpiece. Static came through. Sapphire soon landed next to him. "You're done here."
"What? You're not my mother or father!" He gave a confused look. "But I am! Arnold Philip Shortman, you are done at that crime scene. Get your ass back here to HQ. NOW!" Miles was the one who radioed and sounded extremely upset.
"Sapphire will be lending a hand over there. I'm turning command over to her."
"I stand by my call." Arnold yanked out his earpiece and smashed it against the pavement and smeared it. Sapphire merely winced as she never recalled Arnold ever losing his temper.
"Don't even DARE say anything!" He turned around and pointed at Sapphire. "I didn't even move my mouth!" She exclaimed.
Within minutes, the stealth cycle raced out of the Hyperjet and headed back to the lair.
Two ambulances soon drove, while Ariel came up to Rhonda, who was seated against the landing gear of the Hyperjet.
Ariel kneeled to her. "Hey, you alright?" She asked. Rhonda hesitated to answer. "I'm fine. I just got smoke in my eyes." Ariel raised an eyebrow suspiciously.
"I said I'm fine dammit!"
"You do know it's okay NOT to be fine?" She sat beside her. Rhonda sighed as she dried her tears. "Come on, you can vent to me, a girl-to-girl talk. Something bothering you?"
Rhonda sighed as she was left with no choice.
"Mind explaining what the hell is with your attitude?!" Miles asked his son, upset. "Big whoop, so I made a gutsy call. I did what was necessary to get Spinelli into the PRT as fast as possible!"
"Don't try to excuse yourself! What we're referring to is the way you treated your wife! That's not normal of you one bit!" Stella soon mentioned. "Pfft, please. You two have no idea what marriage is or what?" He crossed his arms. "Besides, what do you care? I'm not a baby you two abandoned! I'm not a kid you two can punish! She was getting on my nerves-"
"DON'T you DARE backtalk your mother or even less excuse the fact you verbally abused your wife!"
"What the hell are you two gonna do, huh? Make us apologize to each other like kids?!" Arnold's eye color was starting to look rather odd. Stella and Miles noticed. "… This isn't our Arnold… Something's wrong with him."
"This is a load of hooey, I'm out of here…" Arnold turned his back to them and walked away. "Not on our watch you don't!" Miles and Stella both tackled him to the ground.
Minutes Later
Their son was unconscious and had tests being run on him by Impulse.
"Anything?" Stella asked Impulse. "Mrs. Shortman, I'm afraid I can't pick up anything in his immune system, or anything in his body."
"CHECK IT AGAIN! His eye color changing doesn't sit right with me!" She replied in a higher voice tone.
"He really snapped at you like that?! But why?" Ariel heard everything Rhonda told her. "I don't know! I just… Ariel, do you think Arnold snapped at me like that because… Does he have a thing for Spinelli? I mean, the way he stood up for her-"
"But he also stood up for Nadine and Montgomery. And you know Spinelli's condition was worsening with every ticking second. And besides, I highly doubt that anything exists between those two. You know Arnold loves you, I guess something was just hindering him."
"Ariel." Sapphire came over. "Help me out on getting the truck into the Hyperjet. It's too heavy for me even if I create two big hands with my ring."
"I'll be over there in a sec." Ariel replied. She then looked at Rhonda. "Hey, cheer up. I'm sure Arnold's back home waiting for you, and wanting to give you a very long and slow kiss!"
"Where the hell is my wife?! What even happened?!" Arnold had woken up with a headache. "Back at the crime scene WHY ARE YOU YELLING?" Stella replied.
"OW, MY HEAD HURTS!"
"AGH, MY HEAD HURTS TOO!"
Miles came over. "Will you two knock it off? You two are worse than kindergartners! And you, mister, have a lot of explaining to do to your wife." Miles told his son.
Arnold remembered every moment of the crime scene, including verbally abusing his wife. While he didn't cuss her out, he hurt her feelings badly.
"A little lower!" Sapphire told Ariel. She was in the QR Helicopter lowering four ropes to hook onto the UFRT.
"Boy, I just realized how low we're running on members." Ariel mentioned.
The four ropes were lowered to street level, and Rhonda soon hooked them to the wrecked truck.
"All set down here." She went on her earpiece. "Just give me a little space to snake my hands under the truck." Sapphire told her.
Soon, Ariel pulled the helicopter up slowly, just barely making space for Sapphire to snake two big formed hands from her ring.
"Alright, let's get it into the Hyperjet."