The following day
Saturday
Safehouse A
I had arranged some fun for everybody.
We would all meet at Safehouse A, for ten in the morning.
By 'all', that included myself, Mindy, Marty, Kim, Chloe, Abby, Curtis, Dr Bennett and, of course, Sophia. Mindy and I, along with Marty, Sophia and Kim, had been there since nine, setting things up.
Sophia was asleep, as usual, on a couch in the briefing room. To one side of the mat, we had setup two tables and about twenty yards away, a wooden stand, backed with ballistic steel. It was what we used as a range to keep up our skills. We used suppressors, as the soundproofing wasn't good enough for fully automatic fire, or large bore weapons.
Arrayed on the table were a selection of weapons: two Glock 17 pistols, two Glock 26 pistols, an FN Five-seveN pistol, a P90 PDW, a G36C assault rifle, two SIG Sauer P232 pistols and a Browning Hi-Power. All the weapons were fitted with suppressors and had several magazines available, all currently unloaded. Beside the weapons was a small pile of boxes, with the relevant ammunition and a bin for the used brass cases.
..._...
Curtis's eyes lit up when he saw all the weapons.
Up until now, Curtis had never been allowed to properly see our weapons and we had never allowed him in the armoury, for obvious reasons.
"Wow!" Curtis exclaimed. "Can I touch them?"
"You can fire them all, if you want," Mindy said, smiling.
"Cool!"
Everybody else was used to weapons of some sort, but this was to be some fun target shooting, so we were all looking forward to it, even Dr Bennett!
I also wanted to have a bit of fun of my own!
"Okay, let's have some fun first! Who wants to test a bullet proof vest?" I asked.
Nobody stepped forward.
"Who votes for Curtis?" I asked, laughing.
Every single hand went up, including Dr Bennett's. We even got a bark from Sophia.
"Hey! That's not fair; stop picking on the little kid!" Curtis exclaimed, indignantly.
We all laughed.
"Mindy, why don't you go first and show everybody how it's done!" I suggested, smirking.
Mindy reluctantly strapped on a vest and went and stood at the end of a mattress, set there for her to fall back on.
"Ready?" I called.
"Just get on with it, ass!" Mindy growled.
"Okay, lets start with the .38," I suggested, but did not pick up a SIG Sauer. Instead I reached under the table and grabbed another, slightly larger, pistol!
"I've been so looking forward to this, for over a whole damn year!" I said, smiling so hard it hurt!
I pulled back the cocking lever, brought the pistol up and aimed it.
"Dave, that is not a .38, that's a fucking..." Mindy said, her voice rising steadily in pitch, before being cut off.
..._...
Mindy's exclamation was cut off by the loud report of the .44 Magnum, then as the bullet impacted Mindy's vest dead centre, she was carried backwards onto the mattress.
"You fucking bastard!" Mindy yelled.
I just laughed!
"Okay, I suppose I deserved that!" Mindy groused, getting back to her feet. "Fucking ouch!"
Everybody else started laughing and I explained about Mindy shooting me, in the back, with one of the these damn cannons! Mindy walked back and took off the vest, rubbing her chest hard.
"That'll leave a mark!" Chloe grinned, trying not to laugh.
Mindy just scowled!
Next up was Curtis, who wanted to see what it was like. Chloe wanted to use the .44 Magnum on him, but I suggested the .38, as the .44 would probably break every bone in his body! Chloe reluctantly agreed, but she still got to shoot Curtis!
"My dream, ever since Curtis was born! I finally get to shoot him!" Chloe grinned, while receiving a vicious glare from Curtis, as he got back to his feet, rubbing his chest!
..._...
After everybody, including Dr Bennett, had been 'shot', we moved onto target practice.
First up was Mindy versus Dr Bennett.
They both selected Glock 17 pistols and each loaded five rounds into a magazine. They then inserted the magazines and together fired all five rounds. Once the weapons were cleared and safe, Chloe went to get the targets. Mindy scored forty-nine out of fifty, while Dr Bennett got a perfect fifty! Mindy was not happy, but she still shook hands with Dr Bennett, magnanimously.
Next up was Chloe versus Abby. They followed the same procedure and Chloe achieved a score of forty-six, while Abby got a score of thirty-two.
Marty managed a score of forty-five, while shooting against Kim, who got a score of forty-eight.
Last up was myself versus Curtis.
For this, Chloe helped Curtis. She crouched down behind him and held the P90, while she let him aim it, using the laser. Chloe loaded a magazine with five rounds, fitted it to the top of the P90 and then let Curtis pull the trigger, five times. Curtis' target was completely unmarked, while I scored a perfect fifty and again, this annoyed Mindy, no end!
Curtis was very unhappy about missing the target, so after checking with Mindy, Chloe loaded forty rounds into a magazine and helped Curtis to aim the weapon, before she selected full automatic fire and let Curtis pull the trigger, holding it down. The weapon was empty in a little over two seconds. Chloe cleared the P90 and set it down on the table.
Curtis looked up at Chloe with such an enormous smile, that Chloe looked a little confused. Curtis then hugged Chloe really tightly.
"Thanks Chloe. That was the most amazing thing I have ever, ever done in my life. You are totally awesome!" Curtis exclaimed, still hugging Chloe, who looked really uncomfortable! "I love you, Chloe."
"No problem Curtis, I love you too!" Chloe mumbled, feeling a little embarrassed. I remembered what Dr Bennett had said about how Curtis loved Chloe, despite the horrific way she treated him! Dr Bennett smiled at Chloe's discomfort and laughed. After that, Curtis never left Chloe's side, for the rest of the day!
Chloe actually went soft on Curtis and helped him fire all of the weapons and she even showed the kid around the armoury. He loved the Katana blades and the combat suits, but Curtis was a little disturbed, when he saw the damage to the shoulder of Chloe's combat suit. This seemed to have an affect on Chloe's attitude toward Curtis.
"Mindy, you got a moment?" Chloe called from the armoury.
I followed Mindy into the armoury, Chloe was there along with Curtis and they were standing in front of the original, Hit Girl and Kick-Ass, costumes that we kept there.
"Curtis wants to know why you don't wear the wig and cape any more and so do I?" Chloe asked.
Mindy looked at me and I just shrugged.
"I don't know really. I wanted to change the way I looked and we also needed some decent suits that could protect us, when we went up against armed cunts. I admit I do miss the cape and the wig, as Daddy designed them both for me," Mindy replied, smiling down at Curtis. "You think I should still wear the wig and cape, Curtis?"
"Yeah, you'd look really cool!" Curtis replied, happily.
"Maybe I will, then," Mindy replied.
..._...
At lunchtime Marty and Kim went out to get an enormous pile of pizzas.
When they both returned, we all enjoyed some good pizza, chatting about anything that came to mind. It was actually kinda cool, eight people and a dog, sitting on the mat in the safehouse eating pizza! Sophia enjoyed sharing Curtis' pizza, before returning to her snooze.
After lunch we settled down to some different training. Chloe partnered with Curtis and Abby, showing them some basic defensive movements. Mindy and I partnered with Dr Bennett, who wanted to refresh her skills from years before. Marty, naturally, partnered with Kim!
I had to admit Dr Bennett was very good and could move quite quickly. There was definitely a lot more to Dr Bennett than you would think! Surprisingly Chloe wasn't pounding on Curtis, as normal, but was actually teaching him moves, along with Abby. Curtis was a fast learner and seemed to be picking things up well. I understood that the kid would be ten, in a little over a week. He would be going home, too, at the end of next week as school would be starting soon, which Chloe wasn't looking forward to, very much.
I had a chat with Dr Bennett about Chloe, just to see how she had been settling back in, after New York.
"She's been good, surprisingly there doesn't seem to have been much in the way of nightmare's. Not sure if that is good or bad!" Dr Bennett said.
"You mean that Chloe is getting used to killing! I understand that Chloe undertook her first interrogation, while in New York and promptly threw up afterwards!" I commented.
"She is a very different girl, to that which left for New York. I seem to have my little girly girl back again! I can only assume that finding out that Joshua was alive, has given her a new reason to live. I liked the boy, only met him a couple of times; Chloe was too embarrassed to bring him around much!" Dr Bennett explained with a smile.
..._...
The day had been a great success.
It had allowed everyone to have a bit of fun, after the nasty week that we all endured and it also gave Mindy a chance to focus on anything other than Ralph D'Amico. Mindy was not happy that he had escaped, naturally. It wasn't her fault, he was just a very good planner, as we had all seen! Both cities were slowly getting back to normal. Nobody had any idea where, or when, Ralph D'Amico would appear again. But when he did and it was when, not if; we would be ready. We now had a good team building, we even had our own medical support! D'Amico had killed a lot of people and he would be back,that was certain.
For now we had to train and prepare. We had at least one new member to train up and that would take months. We had to repair and replace equipment, including Beast. Mindy was not happy to see the damage to Beast, but pleased that we were able to put the vehicle to good use. Marty was sourcing some replacement armoured glass, via one of Mindy's contacts.
West Ridge
Mindy and I were back home, with Sophia.
Marty was out with Kim! They seemed to be spending a lot of time together!
"Well done Dave, that was a brilliant day!" Mindy said, giving me an enormous kiss.
"You're not too pissed off about the .44 Magnum?" I asked, with an evil smirk.
"Not really. It's not like I didn't deserve it! But that was still fucking evil; you've been hanging out with me too long, I'm starting to rub off on you!" Mindy replied, kissing me deeper and for longer.
"I only get the best bits of you!" I said, kissing back.