That same evening
Saturday
Safehouse A
Dave and I woke up and showered around nine, we then woke up Josh and Chloe, which wasn't easy.
We each had to drag a kid out of bed and then we suggested that they both got a shower, preferably individually! Finally they both appeared, looking much more awake, having had a shower and we had a quick meal of sorts, before suiting up.
The plan was to take the KAM and make a short patrol.
This would be Jackal's first patrol, so naturally he was very nervous, but we all helped to ensure that he was properly geared up with his pistols, throwing knives and Ninja-To. Shadow was wearing a black combat quiver on her back, with eight, standard, high performance arrows; my trick and custom arrows, weren't ready yet! She carried a compound bow, as well as her usual pistol. This would be a first, for Fusion and hopefully a good test of the compound bow in action. Chloe was our best archer, so she deserved to try it out first.
Battle Guy would be monitoring us, from his apartment and he would ensure that for this run, at least, we would avoid locations that were know to be used by the Russian Mafia.
I had decided that I liked Josh too much to get him killed on his first trip out!
Kick-Ass was driving and we were heading north, to start with. One thing we had noticed with Jackal, which we hadn't really noticed before, was that on comms, he sounded normal, as he used a throat mike. This was a bit weird because when you were close by him, he sounded very strange!
We headed north, up South Western Avenue and then east, along West Garfield Boulevard, where we parked up, near the S Normal Boulevard and the rail yard. It was very dark and there wasn't much activity. In hindsight it seemed obvious, but at the time it never occurred to any of us that there was anything out of order!
A boy, of about ten or eleven years old, suddenly appeared in the middle of the road and yelled one word: "Help!"
Then he was dragged off by a large man, into a semi-derelict building, just off of the road. We immediately advised Battle Guy of what was happening and jumped out of Beast, then ran down the sidewalk towards the building. The main door was just closing, when Hit Girl bounded up the steps and kicked open the door. We followed. The boy had vanished, but the man was pushed back, as the door flew open; Hit Girl grabbed him.
"Where is the boy?" Hit Girl growled, menacingly.
The man did not answer, or didn't understand. He just shrugged, which just made Hit Girl mad.
"Where is the boy?" Hit Girl growled, again.
Four men appeared in the doorway, four very large men, with pistols. The man Hit Girl was holding, smiled, then the bullets started to fly. Hit Girl flung the man past us and into the men at the door, who fell back with two falling down the steps. As we moved towards the door, more men advanced up the steps, firing pistols and AKS-74U assault rifles.
It was a fucking ambush!
"I hate to state the obvious Hit Girl, but I think this is an ambush!" Kick-Ass stated, rather obviously.
"You don't say!" I growled, dryly, in response.
Heavy rounds impacted the wall above us and chips of plaster, brick and concrete flew off and impacted our armour. I looked around, there were perhaps a dozen armed men and they were using large calibre weapons, probably 7.62-millimetre, which would tax our Type III armour. We could not afford to be exposed for long. Kick-Ass and I fired off several rounds from our Glock pistols and saw three men drop at the doorway, then I saw a man drop, with an arrow in his chest, closely followed by another. I turned and saw Shadow concentrating on aiming another arrow. I didn't think that any of the Russians had noticed Shadow and her bow. Jackal started firing one of his FN pistols, and managed a hit.
We were taking them down, but far too slowly! We also did not have a lot of ammunition with us for a prolonged fire fight. Battle Guy was aware of the situation, but was too far away to be able to provide support. We would have to get out of this ourselves! I pulled out a pair of canisters from my belt and grabbed the pins.
"On my mark, run for that doorway!" I ordered and received acknowledgements.
"Three - Two - One - Mark!" I yelled and threw the two M18 smoke grenades, about a half dozen yards away. Two seconds later an immense cloud of violet smoke pulsed out of the canisters, covering our withdrawal, further into the building.
..._...
We ran through a doorway and into a larger area, which was thankfully empty. This gave us a minute or two to get our breath back and work out a plan of escape. From this area were four doors, two seemed to go further into the building and one led into a room with no windows or other exits, so we selected the remaining doorway and ran through.
We made it twenty feet, before running into two Russians who were armed with pistols and did not look like fighters; but they died anyway, in a hail of bullets from Kick-Ass and myself. All was quiet for the next dozen yards, which concerned me no end and eventually Kick-Ass voiced it.
"I got a bad feeling about this!" Kick-Ass commented.
"Back at ya!" I replied.
We came out into a more open area, which seemed to be a meeting room. Almost immediately six Russian Kryshas burst into the room.
..._...
A Krysha is an extremely well trained and powerful Mafia soldier, normally called upon when heavy muscle is required. Only Kick-Ass had the physical bulk to battle these guys hand to hand; a Krysha could snap the rest of us in half, single-handed!
"Do not fight them hand-to-hand, or you will lose!" I advised over the comms, firing several shots from my pistols, before swapping out the magazines. There was not enough space for me to use a Katana, so I left it stowed. My Tanto would have to do, although I managed to fell one Krysha, with two knives in the chest.
Kick-Ass pulled out his Ko-Wakizashi and attacked two of the men. I headed towards the other three, trying to keep myself between them and Jackal. I saw Shadow notch an arrow and she took down one of the Krysha, but was shot in the chest before she could get another arrow ready; she fell back and rolled under a large table to get her breath back.
"I'm okay, I'm okay!" Shadow called over the comms.
I continued to battle with my two Kryshas, but then one of them screamed, simultaneously with the sound of a gun shot; Shadow had shot the man in the leg, from under the table! He fell down to one knee and then his head exploded, as Shadow despatched him with another shot! With that distraction I was able to Kill my Krysha with the Tanto. Kick-Ass had killed one Krysha and was finishing off the next, with a slash that took the man's head clean off!
I took another good look around. This building had definitely seen better days and I was surprised it hadn't collapsed yet. Some sections of the ceiling were held up with temporary support pillars. There were no windows, but there was evidence of where some had been bricked up, long ago! Shadow reappeared from under the table and stood with Jackal.
I could hear loud voices, conversing in Russian, but couldn't make out out what they were saying, but they were getting closer. I headed towards another doorway, which seemed to go to the next door building. I looked through and found another room, not a big one, but there was a doorway on the opposite wall. I heard the voices again and the Russians were there, bullets started to come through the previous doorway.
Hit Girl grabbed Jackal and shoved him away from the bullets, towards a doorway that led to a corridor and hopefully a room with an exterior wall and a window.
We ran down the corridor, I was in front, with Jackal immediately behind me and Hit Girl was covering from behind. I could hear Jackal's breathing, he sounded as scared as I was. Bullets were impacting everywhere, we had almost reached the doorway at the end of the passage, when a Russian Krysha suddenly appeared from a passageway on the left, he shoved me into the wall, hurting my shoulder. Hit Girl swung her Tanto, stabbing the man in his right shoulder and he dropped his pistol.
"Shadow, run, follow Jackal!" Hit Girl yelled.
I turned and ran after Jackal then into the room. I turned to watch Hit Girl fighting with the Russian Krysha and she managed to smash his head against the wall, knocking him senseless. Hit Girl picked up her Tanto and ran towards me. I could hear Kick-Ass still fighting, further down the corridor.
Just as Hit Girl reached the doorway another Krysha appeared and caught hold of her; they both rolled into the room and started fighting on the floor. I moved to help, but a face appeared in the doorway and threw two objects into the room, before hauling the steel door shut.
I focused on the objects and my eyes went wide, then I threw myself to the floor, behind what was left of an interior wall, with my arms over my head.
"Grenades! Get down!" Hit Girl yelled.
The grenades went off, behind the wall, which disintegrated. Apparently it had been a supporting wall, as the beam it had been supporting, fell, blocking the doorway.
The beam had collapsed into the room, in a large cloud of plaster, dust and brickwork.
The only person not chocking, was Jackal, as his mask filtered out the dust, but we were all covered from head to toe in chocking dust. I looked around; the beam had caught Hit Girl on her shoulder and on the side of her head; she wasn't moving. Jackal was half buried under plaster and bricks, on the far side of the beam. I felt a hand grab my upper arm and looked up. The Russian Krysha, seemed uninjured and had pulled himself out of the debris; he looked pissed and he hauled me to my feet and swept up my pistol from the floor where I had dropped it.
I managed to reach behind me and grab an arrow from my quiver. I stabbed the Krysha in the hand, making him release me. He punched me hard, in the shoulder, with his other hand. I screamed and fell to the floor, then I scrambled away from the Russian and reached for my bow, grabbed hold of it and notched the arrow.
Hit Girl was trying to move, but she couldn't get back to her feet; the Krysha had his foot planted, firmly, on her shoulder. Jackal pushed, desperately, against the fallen beam, but couldn't bring his pistol to bear.
The Russian Krysha aimed the FN Five-seveN pistol directly at Hit Girl's head and grinned.
"До свидания, Хит Девушк!" He said, sounding very happy. ['Goodbye, Hit Girl!']
"Shoot him, dammit!" Jackal yelled and I released the arrow, a second before Hit Girl was shot in the head.
"Ешьте дерьмо, ублюдок!" I yelled. ['Eat shit, motherfucker!']
Kick-Ass was attacking the door, trying to get in, but the door was completely blocked.
"Hold on Hit Girl, I'm coming!" Kick-Ass yelled, sounding desperate.
"The doorway is blocked!" I called. "Can you get around to the west side? We have a window, but we might need your help; Hit Girl is hurt!"
"On my way, Shadow!" Kick-Ass replied.
..._...
The Russian Krysha lay on the floor.
He seemed to be still smiling; his eyes were open, but vacant.
"He dead?" Jackal asked, trying to look past the fallen beam.
"I sincerely hope so, unless he enjoys having an arrow bisecting his head! It does look kinda cool, though!" I replied, immediately wondering why I had said that. I climbed over to Jackal and helped dig him out of the rubble, without dislodging too much more!
"Help me with Hit Girl," I said, kneeling down and brushing debris away from Hit Girl's face.
Hit Girl was trying to move, but seemed uncoordinated. I dug around her legs and freed them, Jackal helped me pull her out and roll her onto her back.
"Hit Girl, can you hear me?" I said. "Hit Girl?"
"I can hear you," Hit Girl replied very quietly.
"Where are you hurt?" I asked.
"I... I'm okay. Help me up!" Hit Girl said and tried to push herself up. Jackal and I helped her to her feet and supported her. I checked that her Katana and Tanto were in place, before we guided her over towards the window. That was when I got a surprise.
"Fusion this is Medic, I am en-route to Safehouse A. Advise any injuries!"
"Medic, this is Shadow!" I called, thinking it a bit redundant, as my Mom would surely recognise her own daughter's voice! "Hit Girl is behaving strangely and is not very responsive, she was hit by a falling beam; Jackal and I are supporting her to make our escape!"
"Any blood or sign of injury?"
"None visible, but we're all very dusty," I replied. There was something comforting about hearing my Mom's voice, as I was feeling very scared, right now.
"Shadow, this is Kick-Ass, we need to get out now, before reinforcements arrive! Can you see me?"
I looked out of the window, after removing some dust from the glass.
"I have you! I'm gonna smash the window and push Hit Girl out, you need to catch her!" I said and pulled out my pistol, which I had reclaimed from the Krysha; I had already lost one pistol to Ralph D'Amico! Mindy would be really pissed if I lost another, plus this one was extra special!
I reversed it and smashed out as much of the glass as possible. Then Jackal and I shoved Hit Girl out feet first and Kick-Ass caught her, lying her down on the grass, beside the house. I jumped down, followed by Jackal and Kick-Ass ran to get Beast, while Jackal and I guarded the confused Hit Girl.
"Battle Guy, Fusion is out of the building. Kick-Ass is getting Beast!" I called.
"Battle Guy copies Fusion out of building and awaiting transport!"
A minute later Beast skidded to a halt and I pulled open a rear door and with Jackal's help pushed Hit Girl in, but before Jackal and I could get around to the other side, bullets started pounding Beast. Jackal and I ran, then dived for cover, to the side of the building, but were forced round the back.
..._...
"Go, Kick-Ass, we have alternative transport!" Jackal yelled and Kick-Ass roared off, heading back to Safehouse A and medical assistance.
"You cannot be serious! You are a grade A, British nutcase!" I exclaimed, when I saw what he was looking at!
"Fuck off!" Josh replied, climbing on.
"Hit Girl will chop your dick off!" I warned.
"No, she's gonna give me a bloody medal! Now move your fucking arse, Shadow!"
I climbed up behind him and started shooting at the corner of the building.
"You know what to do?" I asked.
"Well, the key's in the ignition, if I set this thing to that 'circle-arrow' symbol and press this..." Jackal mumbled and the engine roared to life.
"Cool!" I commented, as I changed out my magazine and fired at the Russians.
I felt Josh slip into first gear and ease forwards.
"Take it gently, asshole!" I whispered, as we accelerated forward, slithering a bit on the grass, then the tyre bit in, as we hit the black top and we roared off after Beast.
"Kick-Ass, we've escaped and we are on our way!" I called over the radio, feeling sore from where a number of bullets had hit my back armour. "In style, I might add!"
Early morning
Sunday
Safehouse A
It took only ten minutes to speed through the empty streets and it wasn't long before I slammed on the brakes in the safehouse.
Medic was already there and helped to pull Hit Girl out of Beast and I carried her through to the briefing room and placed her on the couch. Medic immediately started checking Hit Girl out, before removing her mask.
"Where the fuck are those two little shits?" I said. Then over the comms. "Jackal, Shadow! Where are you?"
"Two minutes; got a little lost, can you open the gate, we ain't got a remote!" Shadow replied.
I ran to the main door and hit the button to shut-off the lights and open the door and gate. A minute later I saw a pair of bright headlights coming slowly up the road, before turning towards the safehouse and finally in the gate and then into the safehouse. I had to laugh; Mindy would... I didn't know exactly what Mindy would do or say!
"So Mr Grand Theft Auto rides again!" I said.
"It was all him!" Shadow explained, climbing off with a grimace of pain.
"Well, when needs must!" I commented, turning back to the briefing room.
Mindy was sitting up and Dr Bennett was helping her to remove her combat suit.
"You okay?" I asked, with a smile.
"Could be better, I think, my fucking head hurts like hell and so does my shoulder!" Mindy replied. "Are the rats back? I understood they didn't come back in Beast."
"No they er, found alternative transport!" I said and Mindy scowled.
"Am I gonna like what they've done?" Mindy asked.
"Let's worry about that later!" I said and helped pull off her boots.
"You two!" Dr Bennett called to Josh and Chloe, who were standing in the doorway. "Get out of those suits, get upstairs, get showered and wait in the kitchen. I'll be up soon to check your wounds! Move!"
Josh and Chloe positively fled out of the door and shot upstairs!
I smiled at Dr Bennett, "You have a commanding manner!" I said, with a laugh.
"Got to keep those two on their toes!" Dr Bennett said, grinning.
"They are thick as thieves, those two!" Mindy commented.
"Not far off the mark actually!" I warned.
Mindy's eyes narrowed.
"What does that mean?"
"They acquired another motorcycle to get back here! It seems to be a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R, in Black! Josh rode it, with Chloe on pillion." I explained. "Apparently the keys were in it! It's kinda like your Ducati!"
"Well done young Joshua!" Mindy said, grinning. "And it is nothing like my Ducati; not even in the same fucking league! It's like comparing you to me!"
"Thanks!" I growled.
"At least tracking signals don't work in here!" Mindy said.
"Okay, Little Madam, here," Mindy made a growling noise, when Dr Bennett said that! "Has a concussion and significant bruising to her right shoulder. She needs to rest."
"I have Russians to kill; I don't need rest!" Mindy stated and tried to get up, but fell back onto the couch, holding her head.
"You - will - rest!" Dr Bennett stated. "Or I can always sedate you!"
"I'd like to see her fucking try!" Mindy muttered under her breath.
"Try me, Hit Girl!" Dr Bennett challenged.
"FUCK!" Mindy screamed.
"Mindy looks so cute, when she pretends to be pissed and she knows that she can't use violence to get her own way!" I quipped. "Although the book of Hit Girl says that when all else fails, turn the air blue!"
Dr Bennett laughed, while Mindy just tried to look pissed.
"Hit Girl need a hug?" I asked.
"This sucks!" Mindy shouted, before starting to giggle. "My fucking head hurts!"
"I'm used to the moody sixteen year-old!" I said. "And the moody fifteen year-old, the moody fourteen year-old, the moody thirteen year-old, the moody twelve year-old and the moody eleven year-old! I've seen 'em all!"
"Ass!" Mindy growled, but with a huge smile.
"Well, I'd better go check up on Bonnie and Clyde!" Dr Bennett said, heading upstairs.
Josh and I had separate showers, for a change!
When my Mom appeared we were both sitting in the kitchen, with a hot chocolate each, with extra marshmallows. Josh had a towel wrapped around his waist, while I had my towel covering up a bit more, but revealing a bit too much thigh, which I had tried to cover without much success!
"Were you hurt, Josh?" my Mom asked.
"Not really, the others protected me for the most part," Josh replied, then my Mom turned to me.
I looked down at the floor.
"Well, young lady?"
"I was hurt on my left shoulder," I replied.
My Mom started prodding and manipulating my shoulder, which kinda hurt a bit.
"Just some bruising, nothing to worry about... What the hell is that?" My Mom demanded. She had seen the red mark, left over from the bullet that had hit my chest.
"I was shot," I admitted.
My Mom examined the red mark, then looked at me, before asking another question.
"Where else? Don't attempt to lie, either!"
"I... My back, I was shot several times, as we escaped..."
My Mom spun me around, causing my towel to slip off, but I managed to grab it and maintain some dignity!
"So Josh hasn't seen you naked yet?" My Mom asked, innocently.
"Oh I have, quite a few times!" Josh said, smiling broadly.
"Joshua!" I growled, blushing.
"Oh, sorry!" Josh apologised, with a slight blush.
My Mom finished prodding my back, I had a few bruises from some of the larger calibres.
"You need to take more care, Chloe!" My Mom cautioned.
"Yes Mom, I will," I promised.
"You staying here, tonight, or coming home with me?"
"I have a choice?" I asked, incredulously.
"Chloe, I trust you, okay!" My Mom said, before turning to Josh. "Besides young Joshua, you just remember that I carry a very sharp scalpel and can turn you into a eunuch in two seconds!"
"What's a eunuch...? Oh... Not good!" I said, blushing as I worked it out.
"Tell me about it!" Josh said seriously and crossed his legs!
I laughed, I couldn't help it!
"You stay here and make sure Mindy behaves herself! As far as I can tell, she only really listens to you, my dear daughter!"