Two days later
Saturday

Did you know that Chicago had its own assassin?

Well it did and it wasn't me!

There had been a string of deaths in the past few months that had been baffling the Chicago PD. Again, those deaths, had nothing to do with me! Normally I would be happy to accept credit for dead bodies; but these weren't mine. So, why was I now involved? 'Cause two Chicago PD officers had been shot, when they had stumbled onto an assassination.

I had my hands full with Miranda and her damn Nightingales, but I would not stand by while Chicago Police Officers were shot in the course of their duties. That was one of things that would really get me riled up and it made me so fucking pissed off!

All we knew about this mysterious assassin, was that it was a she and that she had over twenty-seven kills to her name that could be tracked back over the past three years. There had never been any living witnesses to the assassinations and, as far as we knew, no mistakes had been made... Apart from now; the two officers in question were alive, except that they were in comas and under Police protection in Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Marcus had been assigned the case; something to 'prove his metal' - at least that's what Jack had said!

The assassin had a name: Regina. The name meant 'the reigning queen', which I kind of took personally; as far as female assassins went, I was 'the reigning queen'!

I also had another problem and that involved Chloe, again!

Safehouse A

"Typical, she's only had the damn thing a week and then she fucks it!" I growled angrily.

"It was an accident! The post kinda jumped out in front of me!" Chloe moaned, trying to look innocent.

"My fucking ass!"

"Well you're lucky that Fusion now has a full time mechanic - and here he is now!" Dave announced, as a pick-up truck pulled into the Safehouse.

Chloe appeared to be a little shocked to see who climbed out of the cab.

..._...

"You know Tony and Tommy!" I said with a grin.

"Of course! Hi guys! What...?" Chloe said, looking at me and sounded confused.

"Tony is our full time Fusion mechanic, which will be kinda useful considering how much equipment we have now that needs servicing, and repairing," Mindy said and looked at Chloe with a glare that made her flinch. "Not to mention a few items that you don't know about, yet!"

"Like what?" Chloe demanded.

"Need to know, Chloe!"

"You can't just dangle something like that in front of me and then pull it away!" Chloe whined.

"I can and I did! Don't crash my damn motorcycles, in future, young lady!"

"Let's have a look at the damage!" Tony suggested. "Lead the way, wrecker!"

Chloe scowled, but led Tony over to her Multistrada. The right hand headlight was smashed and the front end dented and scratched. The right hand, front suspension mount was also badly scratched, with at least one gouge.

"Have it good as new, in a day or two!" Tony advised, with a grin.

"Chloe, if Tony reports any abuse to my machines, you won't be using them – be warned! One more post jumps out on you and you'll be riding the Honda one hundred!"

"That is really low; you wouldn't!"

"Fucking, try me!"

"It's not road legal!" Chloe said smugly.

"That'll take less than an hour to correct," Tony advised. Chloe scowled and threw her hands up in defeat.

..._...

"I spent over twenty years in the U.S. Navy, if it has a piston, I can fix it! For that matter, if it fires a bullet, I can fix it, too!" Tony explained to Chloe, over a coffee.

"I'd better not break my P90 then!" Chloe quipped and received a steady stare from Tony in return. "Just kidding!"

"I'll be watching you!" Tony said, with a chuckle. "Mindy's told me all about you and Joshua... Every sordid detail!"

"How have things been, since you moved up here?" Chloe asked quickly, blushing and changing the subject away from her and Josh.

"Very good, thanks! We have a nice house over towards the south of Chicago and Mindy has got Shannon setup with running a small shop. Tommy thinks it's great and is enjoying the time he spends at D-JAK with Curtis, Megan and that other boy, err, Cameron Fellowes."

"He's doing well with his Taekwondo. He should have his yellow tag in no time," Chloe confirmed.

That Evening
West Ridge

"Hi Marty, Kim! Come on in!" I said, with a smirk.

"What are you up to, Dave?" Marty asked.

"Nothing!"

"Bullshit!" Marty responded. "I know you!"

I led them both through to the living room, where Marty's eyes almost popped out from behind his glasses!

"Erika!" Marty exclaimed, then he looked at Dave. "You and me are gonna talk, pal!"

"How are Marty? This wasn't my idea... See Mindy!" Erika said, getting up from the couch and giving Marty a polite kiss on the cheek.

I watched as Kim scowled at Erika, Marty saw this and turned to Kim.

"We dated for eighteen months, when I was fifteen!"

"Hello, Erika! Marty seems to pick some beautiful women!" Kim said, with a smile.

"He definitely does; looks like he's hit the jackpot with you, Kim."

"We need to exchange notes!" Kim suggested and Marty looked horror struck.

"I'm gonna kill you, Hit Girl!" Marty whispered to a grinning, and apparently unrepentant, Mindy.

..._...

We sat down and enjoyed a good meal together.

Dave and Erika had fun bringing up some of Marty's more embarrassing moments which Kim enjoyed hugely. However at one point Erika raised an interesting question.

"Katie and I ceased to be friends, fairly soon after she split up from Dave, but after that little skirmish in the corridor, well Katie had some weird things to say about Dave, which at the time I thought were obviously not true! However, since then and since seeing you guys at D-JAK… Well, Katie had this notion that Dave was Kick-Ass!" Erika said.

The entire room went silent as a tomb and everybody froze with food partway to their mouths, all except Erika!

"So it's true!" Erika said, looking amazed.

Everybody finished off their current mouthfuls and then looked at Mindy.

"What are you all looking at me for?" Mindy demanded, then she smiled at Erika.

"Can you be trusted, Erika?" Mindy asked.

"Absolutely!" Erika replied, looking excited.

"Then please meet: Battle Guy, Hawk and Kick-Ass!" Mindy said, pointing at each person, in turn. "I am, of course, the one and only Hit Girl and that, fast asleep over there, is Eisenhower!"

"That is totally awesome – you know, if it wasn't for Dave and Kick-Ass, I would never have got together with Marty. Dave spent so much time fuc-, sorry, with Katie, I had no choice but to hang around with this geek, reading comics!"

"He's a special kind of geek, though!" Kim said, with a smile at Erika.

"That means, you were that little girl that rescued Dave!" Erika said, looking at Mindy who nodded.

"Yes, that was the much younger me and a pretty useless Kick-Ass!"

"I wasn't totally useless! I saved your sorry ass, twice!" Dave retorted, indignantly.

"Okay, I'll admit that!" Mindy acquiesced.

"Wow! Kick-Ass rescued the amazing Hit Girl!" Erika exclaimed.