Three days later
Tuesday night
8:15 P.M.
As the bullet entered the head, it seemed to swell, before it started to come apart. The back of the head split, releasing brain matter, blood and bone. This brain matter, blood and bone formed a cloud where the head used to be and expanded outwards, in all directions.
Admittedly, it was dark, so it was not as spectacular as it would have been in daylight, but the sight of the cloud of body matter settling to the ground, followed by the headless corpse was still very impressive, in the illumination from the street lighting.
"Fuckin' A!" Jackal commented in his electronically disguised voice, as he lowered his pistol and turned towards the next target.
I threw the man over my back and onto the ground, followed by a single round from my Glock 19 into the man's head and moved onto the next target. I fired another single round, blowing another head apart as a man came towards me with a raised baseball bat. I threw myself to my right and past the bat, as it swung for my body. Another gunshot, this time the sharper report of a five-point-seven-millimetre round from Shadow's FN Five-seveN pistol. The man with the baseball bat fell with a single hole in his forehead.
A man, six feet away was about to be shot by a masked cunt. I raised my pistol again and put the cunt down with two rapid shots.
"Спасибо, Хит Girl!" The man said, looking over briefly, before returning to engaging the masked attackers with his AKS-74U. ['Thank you, Hit Girl!']
Now, you may ask – why was I fighting alongside a Russian?
You would probably be a little more surprised to know that he was Russian Mafia, from the Bratva that I had upset some weeks before, when I had dropped into their conference room!
Well – two words – Ralph D'Amico! He was wreaking havoc in the City. He was targeting anybody who could stand against him, including the Russian Mafia. It seemed that he no longer wanted to collaborate with them, unlike the last time.
The Russians had contacted me, through one of my informants and I had met with Vladimir. He asked for my help, would you believe that! I agreed to join forces – but only until D'Amico was dead. The Russians had agreed, surprisingly, to my terms.
So there we were, fighting side by side at South Independence Boulevard and South Ridgeway Avenue.
..._...
We had been alternating the Fusion patrols to give people time to rest.
That night, Kick-Ass and I had been staying at the Safehouse on standby, while Jackal, Shadow, Mist and Medic had gone out, together. To give them extra protection, I had insisted on them taking Beast, instead of their motorcycles and Medic was driving. Shadow was not amused about not being allowed to drive Beast; she seemed to have enjoyed driving Beast, the last time!
They had just swung by Marty's neighbourhood in Lawndale when they had witnessed the masked cunts gathering. Unfortunately, the cunts had also seen Beast!
Beast had then come under sustained fire from multiple automatic weapons.
Earlier on Tuesday evening
7:35 P.M.
We turned left onto South Central Park Avenue and after a couple of minutes drove past Marty's apartment. I glanced at Josh and smirked – Marty and Kim were up there, right now!
"She's pregnant, they won't be having sex!" Jackal said, reading my mind.
"Why not!" Medic commented. "Being pregnant with little madam never stopped me!"
"Ewww!" I exclaimed and thrust my masked face into my gauntlets. Jackal, being a complete asshole, just laughed at my discomfort. Mist just blushed.
We made another left onto West Douglas Boulevard.
"Cunts!" Jackal blurted out and pointed through the windshield.
The cunts had seen us, too! The windshield was peppered with dozens of bullets from automatic weapons. Medic floored the five-litre supercharged V8 engine and Beast zigzagged left onto the grass median and then right into South Millard Avenue.
"Fusion, Beast is taking automatic fire. Support required!" I called over the comms as I seized my P90. I dove out of Beast as soon as we stopped, along with Jackal and Mist.
The three of us ran to the corner of the two streets and returned fire with our P90s. Medic stayed with Beast, an MP5K in her hands.
Iron Hide
As soon as the alert had come through, Kick-Ass and I had made our way, via the hidden tunnel, to Safehouse D.
We had left the warehouse in Iron Hide for the high-speed, two and a half mile drive, up South Kedzie Avenue and then left up West Douglas Boulevard.
"Fuck me!" I exclaimed at the sight before me.
It was a pitched firefight. I could see Jackal and Shadow engaging multiple cunts, all of whom seemed to have automatic weapons. I could not see Mist, but I knew she was there somewhere. Several bullets struck Iron Hide as we pulled up on the grass median.
I leapt out angrily and yelled at the cunts.
"Hey, bastards – this truck is fucking new and it was fucking expensive!"
I then followed this up with automatic fire from my G36C. Kick-Ass engaged with his G36K and sent several flashbang grenades, from his underslung AG36 grenade launcher, into the crowd. When these grenades landed, they exploded with a loud bang and bright flash; which was blinding in the darkness. This caused disorientation in the cunts and they started to move back, further up the Boulevard.
"Good to see you guys!" Shadow called over the comms.
"Just thought we'd come by to see how Medic was doing," Kick-Ass replied.
"I'm fine, Kick-Ass!" Medic called.
"Funny arse!" Jackal moaned.
"Time you two turned up!" Mist commented, from over on the grass. She was taking aimed shots at the cunts.
"Hit Girl, Hal – The Bratva is pulling up now!"
I turned to see a pair of black, armoured Cadillac Escalades pulling up. Out stepped Vladimir, followed by eight, very large Kryshas. Each Krysha was armed with an AKS-74U assault rifle and they did not hesitate to move into cover and start to engage the masked cunts. I nodded to Vladimir, who smiled back, but remained behind the armoured SUVs.
That was when my cell rang.
"Is that you starting world war three in Lawndale?" Marcus asked.
"I didn't start it – D'Amico did!" I retorted.
"Okay – SWAT is on their way," Marcus advised.
"Advise them that Fusion is engaged and we have back up from Vladimir," I said.
"You sure about involving the Mafia?"
"To be honest, no!"
"Just great!" Marcus commented dryly, hanging up.
Kick-Ass and Jackal moved up the grass median, while Shadow and I headed up the street, using vehicles as cover. The masked cunts were starting to sort themselves out – somebody was in command and issuing commands – that was different to the other night.
The cunts were now taking cover behind a large fountain on the grass median at the corner of South Independence Boulevard and West Douglas Boulevard. The random automatic gunfire was now better controlled and there was now short bursts and single shots.
The five of us moved up the grass median using trees for cover. So far, none of us was injured. A few shots had struck our armour, but we could still fight. Medic was currently treating a wounded Krysha, while another lay dead. Despite this, there were almost a dozen dead cunts on the street and median. As we got closer to the fountain, I could make out more detail about what was going on.
I could see mean with binoculars and radios. They were coordinated – that would be trouble. To my left I heard the deep roar of the CPD SWAT trucks, which pulled out of a side street at speed with blue lights strobing. I could see rifles engaging out of the left side gun ports. Then something bad occurred.
The cunts engaged the armoured vehicles with a pair of M60 machine guns. The chattering sound was unmistakeable and the 7.62-millimetre bullets carved into the SWAT trucks. The Trucks served away from the gunfire and turned towards us and then the first truck smashed through a wooden fence between two buildings, one of which was abandoned. The other truck followed suit, reversing in. Kick-Ass ran back to Beast with Jackal. I ran over to SWAT.
"Anybody hurt?" I called over the noise. The M60 was still taking pot shots at the abandoned building, sending masonry flying around.
"No – just shocked and pissed off!" Matthews announced as he climbed out of the battered front truck. "Those rounds were borderline for our armour – we were lucky!"
..._...
Kick-Ass and Jackal returned minutes later.
"Fuck me – just what we need!" Matthews announced and other SWAT members agreed.
Kick-Ass was sporting his Heckler & Koch 121 machine gun and Jackal was lugging spare two-hundred-round packs of belted ammunition. He took up position with the 121 mounted on its bipod, on the bonnet of the second SWAT truck. The bulk of the truck would protect Kick-Ass. Mist and Shadow maintained short bursts of fire. Jackal vanished back to Beast to bring up more ammunition for the P90s and two SWAT team members set to reloading P90 magazines. Other members provided direct cover with AR-12s.
With a roar, Kick-Ass engaged the cunts, with a SWAT member acting as spotter with night glasses. It was critical that we silence the M60 machine guns. We had the advantage of a higher rate of fire and most probably better accuracy from a newer weapon with a less worn barrel.
The cunts were not amused! I saw the men, who seemed to be in command yelling into their radios.
"Shadow, take out the bastards in charge!" I commanded.
I watched as Shadow moved her weapon onto the men with binoculars. She pressed the button for her laser and squinted through the telescopic sight. I saw her control her breathing, before squeezing the trigger once, then moving the weapon slightly to the left and dropping the second man. Both targets eliminated – two rounds expended!
"On target, girl!" I praised.
"Always the tone of surprise!" Shadow chuckled in reply.
..._...
On losing their commanders, there seemed to be trouble within the remaining cunts. Kick-Ass had knocked out one of the M60s and was working on the other one. Many of them were dead – they should be getting the hint my now!
I could see arguing between some of the masked cunts, but then they seemed to sort themselves out and as Kick-Ass silenced the second M60 and ran out of ammunition himself, the masked cunts started to fun towards us, firing their weapons on automatic. We had between twenty and thirty attackers bearing down on us. As they emptied their magazines, they dropped their weapons, but came on with baseball bats and melee weapons.
I fired repeated shots from my G36C and saw my bullets hit home. Two men fell backwards, dead, and then the attackers came close enough for hand-to-hand fighting, which I excelled at, of course! I lost track of Mist and Shadow in the maelstrom of fighting.
SWAT, Mafia and vigilante were now fighting for their lives. Kick-Ass was laying into anybody within reach with his Ko-Wakizashi. SWAT were relying on riot batons and pistols. It was chaos. I saw a SWAT member attacked with a baseball bat, his left arm was smashed before I was able to blow apart the man's head.
We had been fighting for forty minutes, it was now quarter past eight in the evening and the fighting was still going on. Some of the masked attackers had hung back and some of the Kryshas were attacking these. Other Krysha were lending their literal weight to the fight, knocking down masked cunts with their fists and clubs.
I heard a scream in my headset, which I recognised as Shadow. I could not see her in the crowd of fighting bodies.
"Shadow, Hit Girl – status check!" I called. There was no response. "Anybody have a location on Shadow?"
"Negative!" Kick-Ass responded.
"Negative!" Medic responded.
"Negative!" Mist responded.
"Negative!" Jackal responded.
Fuck! Where was she?
I was in pain.
A lot of pain.
My mind was drifting in and out of consciousness as I lay on the grass. The fighting was just a distant sound around me. I felt myself being kicked and trodden on.
My mind started ti drift and it drifted back to the previous weekend at Safehouse F.
..._...
Three days previously
Saturday
Safehouse F
"Hey, Sophia!"
The big dog came pounding along to the Briefing Room and stopped in front of Dave and Mindy. I was with Josh and we were sitting a few seats over and watching curiously.
"Sophia has been with us for a year now and she has had a very busy year, too!" Mindy commented.
"You're celebrating Sophia being here a year?" I demanded.
"Yes, why?" Dave answered.
"You never celebrated, or even remembered, me being with you guys for a year!" I felt slightly miffed.
Dave laughed before he replied.
"We only try to remember happy moments!"
"That hurts!" I growled.
"I didn't mean it like that – I just didn't want to remember the first meeting of a hormonal, foul mouthed young girl, who thought that she was a vigilante! Brought back way too many bad memories!"
"Hey, cunt! You mean that I'm a bad memory!" Mindy demanded, catching on.
"I still get nightmares about the younger Mindy!" Dave said with a grimace.
"That didn't stop you a few weeks back!" Mindy said seductively. "When we celebrated meeting at Rasul's!"
"I heard about that one – Josh still gets nightmares about the screaming!" I quipped with a laugh.
My mind drifted back to the present and the fighting.
..._...
Tuesday evening
South Lawndale Avenue
I could hear voices in my ear and Hit Girl calling out for me.
The grass felt comfortable beneath me, I was feeling tired. Something warm was trickling down my body, inside my combat suit.
I felt something hit my cheek and then everything went quiet and very black.