Wednesday night
Lake Michigan
The 'Nebuchadnezzar'
My claw had ripped three, vertical, parallel grooves down his face, from his forehead and down his right check. Blood ran freely down his face. I lashed out with my other claw and ripped into his chest and I saw blood on the claw, when it came free. Then I heard two gunshots, from the main stateroom, behind D'Amico and I was momentarily distracted. D'Amico thrust me to the deck with his left hand and rushed up the stairs to the main salon above us.
"D'Amico is coming up!" I yelled into the comms as Hit Girl came out of the stateroom, a pistol in her hand.
"You okay, Wildcat?" Hit Girl demanded, her voice full of concern.
"I'm fucking fine!" I growled back and instantly regretted my tone of voice, as Hit Girl did not look happy.
I grabbed up my pistol, rammed the magazine in and holstered the weapon. I followed Hit Girl up the stairs; I could hear shooting from above and then the 'Nebuchadnezzar' was rocked by an explosion from aft.
As I got to the top of the steps, I saw black and white smoke billowing from the stern of the 'Nebuchadnezzar' and I could see that the 'Vigilante' was more than a dozen yards away, to port. I was feeling scared now – my meeting D'Amico had almost made me shit myself, but now my fear was of drowning, if the 'Nebuchadnezzar' sank with me inside.
I was slightly annoyed with Wildcat, but it could wait till later.
Once back in the main salon, I looked around for that bastard. Looking aft, I could see that the stern boat garage was open. I had a distinct feeling that the bastard had managed to get away again.
"He came up the stairs, dived past the bar and down the stairs to the galley and crew quarters," Mist said and she sounded dismayed with her actions. "I shot at him and I think I got him..."
"It's okay, Mist – we'll get him!" I replied. "Kick-Ass, D'Amico is making a run for it!"
"We saw him! He's in the tender and racing for shore. We've lost sight of him – he has no lights and is not visible on radar," Kick-Ass advised. "He used a smoke grenade to cover his escape, plus an HE grenade after he left. The 'Nebuchadnezzar' looks to be taking on water and sinking by the stern."
I took a moment to examine the warning lights on the control station. It did not look good for the 'Nebuchadnezzar'!
"Let's move – she's going down!" I ordered.
..._...
Jackal brought the 'Vigilante' back alongside and I watched as Mist, Trojan and Wildcat jumped aboard. I took a moment to dive back down to D'Amico's stateroom, looking for information. I saw two laptops, so I seized them and then just as I was leaving, I caught sight of something reflecting in a mirror. I looked under his bed and saw an LED display.
01:42... 01:41... 01:40...
I ran out of the stateroom, still clutching the laptops. I could still see the timer counting down in my head.
01:33... 01:32... 01:31...
I scrambled up the stairs and into the main salon.
01:24... 01:23... 01:22...
I ran aft and then threw myself over the gunwale towards the 'Vigilante' and into the waiting arms of Kick-Ass.
01:08... 01:07... 01:06...
"Fucking move – bomb – less than a minute – GO!" I yelled as Kick-Ass lowered me to my feet and I lost my footing as Jackal pushed both throttles to their stops and the 'Vigilante' surged forwards and away from the 'Nebuchadnezzar'.
Everything was quiet, except for the ear-shattering roar of the twin diesels at flank speed, as Jackal put as much distance between the two boats as possible, before...
The sky lit up for miles around, as the 'Nebuchadnezzar' came apart. The fireball was enormous; then the sound hit us, followed by the shockwave. Thankfully we were far enough away for little damage to be caused. It was still an awesome light show, though.
Jackal made a large sweeping turn, well away from the burning wreck and set a course, due south for the Calumet River.
Three hours later
Thursday
Safehouse F
2 A.M.
It had been very late when we had finally moored the 'Vigilante' in Safehouse W.
The trip back had been rough, plus we had had to avoid the US Coastguard who seemed to be zipping about like angry bees! I was pissed that we had lost D'Amico again, but pleased that we had fucked up his plans yet again! We had driven back to Safehouse F; Mist and myself on motorcycles and the rest in Iron Hide.
..._...
"Welcome back, team!" Marty announced, as we pulled off our masks on the way to the armoury.
"Hi, Marty! Hi, Kim! You guys okay?" I asked.
"Oh yeah! The video from the 'Vigilante' was fucking awesome!" Marty exclaimed excitedly. "When the 'Nebuchadnezzar' blew – fucking wow – HD and all!"
I laughed.
"It was cool! Here – take these – they were D'Amico's," I said, handing over the two laptops.
The laptops were housed in a special box that would block all electronic signals. Marty would examine them in a special room on Level Zero.
"Cool, thanks!" Marty said and seized the box.
I left him to it – I knew that he would enjoy himself! Kim came with me to help us all get out of our suits.
3 A.M.
"I'm not fucking tired!"
"Oh yes you fucking are!" I replied. "Get to bed."
Megan looked like she wanted to fight; but right now, she was more of a danger to herself than she was to anybody else!
I sighed and rolled my eyes.
"Megan, come with me," I said and led her upstairs to my bedroom. I pointed to my bed. "Sit!"
Megan looked a little confused, and possibly apprehensive, too. Dave appeared at the door with a quizzical expression.
"Give us a few minutes, Dave," I said, looking meaningfully at Megan, and Dave closed the door. I then looked at Megan. "Spit it out!"
"You're mad at me – I fucked up!"
"Yes, you did! However, I'm not going to hold that against you, Megan."
Megan looked up at me, in surprise.
"You fired off five rounds, at the man coming down from the flying bridge – then what should you have done?" I asked.
"I should have changed out my magazine, as I only had two rounds left," Megan said, looking sad.
"You should always keep track of how many rounds you have fired. Always keep a full magazine in the pistol, whenever possible. It is a lot easier to change out a magazine when you are not under pressure," I said and saw Megan flinch back, away from me. "That leads us to the next issue."
Megan looked at the floor.
"I fumbled my pistol and dropped it, along with the magazine," Megan almost whispered and I saw tears start to fall. That was rare – Megan almost never cried and never in front of anybody, either. "I let you down – big time!"
"No you didn't – that was your first time, in that kind of situation, Megan – shit happens!" I explained. "However, you made a snap decision; the right one, by the way and made use of your other weapons. You also came face to face with that bastard, D'Amico and you hurt him. That was very brave, Megan and I'm damn proud of you."
Megan looked up at me and smiled weakly and I smiled back.
"You made mistakes, but you're new to this shit, Megan. You also called in D'Amico's escape, which was a very wise move. You are exactly the type of person we want as a vigilante, in Fusion!"
Megan had stopped crying and she smiled with pride.
"Remember; you don't need to be a bad-ass to be a super hero, you just have to be brave!" I said with a smile. "I once said that to somebody very dear to me..."
"Dave," Megan stated.
I nodded. And remembered the kiss.
"Can I stay with you for a few minutes?" Megan asked.
"No problem."
I went back up to the bedroom and pushed open the door.
Both girls were fast asleep on the bed. I scooped up Megan and carried her through to her own bed, in the bunk above Erika, who smiled when I came in and she pulled the duvet down so that I could slide Megan in.
"Night Dave," Erika said.
"Night Erika, and thanks for your work tonight."
..._...
When I returned to the bedroom, Mindy was awake.
"Sorry, I fell asleep!"
"No problem, gorgeous – you were both very tired," I said, waving it off.
Mindy had that look on her face – the one that she used when she felt ashamed about something. I lay down on the bed, beside my fiancée and faced Mindy.
"Spit it out!"
Mindy bit her lip, before speaking.
"I almost fucked up in D'Amico's stateroom. As I went in, a man swung the butt of an assault rifle at me. He must have been out of ammunition, as there was no magazine in the weapon. He caught me on my shoulder and I fell down. I saw D'Amico rush out of the stateroom and towards Wildcat; I drew my pistol and fired two shots, killing the man that attacked me."
"So – what's wrong with that?"
"I should have been ready for an attack; I could have then killed D'Amico and Wildcat would not have been put at risk!"
Dave just stared at me.
Then he looked at me like he would a cute little puppy!
"What?"
"My dear Mindy, if you didn't want to put the girl at risk, then you would never have damn well taken her!" Dave said in a patronising manner.
I glared at him, but softened my expression as I realised that he was bang on, as fucking usual! I had been horrified at the thought of what could have happened to little Megan.
"You trained her well, Mindy; she used her training and acted without hesitation – I listened at the door!" Dave admitted with a grin. "Plus, I spoke with Erika, earlier."
"I thought you might and I'm glad you did," I replied. I had no secrets from Dave – I needed him to know what I knew.
Dave was my sanity check.
Later that morning
Thursday
It was early afternoon by the time all of us, had woken up.
We were all tired and we met up in the galley for brunch. I smiled at the girls, as Megan and Mindy came in, followed by Erika and Josh. Curtis and I had been up for an hour, talking with Marty. Megan looked a little embarrassed – she knew that she had fallen asleep in our room, but had woken up in her own bed!
After some food and some time to debrief, we all went home to rest. We could do nothing more until Marty and Abby had found us the headquarters for D'Amico.
That was most probably, where he was at that moment – we were closing in on him.
Two days later
Saturday
Safehouse F
There was trouble brewing!
"You are not coming, Chloe!" I said forcefully.
"You gonna stop me? Eh, Hit Bitch?" Chloe retorted getting angry.
"I'll stop you!" Josh tried.
"You'll do what exactly, wanker?" Chloe demanded with a murderous look.
"I could tie you up!" Josh replied, without really thinking.
Chloe opened her mouth, closed it and then blushed. I looked at Dave and grinned.
"Joshua – I never knew! Chloe – is this the 'next level'?" I asked innocently.
"We have never done anything like that!" Chloe insisted, glaring at Josh.
"Yeah, right – I've heard you two 'at it'!" Dave commented, laughing.
Chloe looked very annoyed and glared dangerously at us all.
Marty and Abby had come up trumps!
We had the location of what we hoped was D'Amico's headquarters. No matter, headquarters or not, it was going to be destroyed. Mindy had finally given in to Chloe. It had been two weeks, after all, since she had been shot. Nevertheless, Mindy had left it up to Cathy to make the final go, no go, decision. Cathy had ultimately given her daughter a full physical and declared her ready for combat.
Naturally, Shadow was very pleased!
That evening
Southwest Chicago
I looked over at Hit Girl, Shadow, Mist and Jackal. They all had their bows raised with explosive arrows fitted.
"Okay, girls – ready to fire?" I asked.
"Hey, green arsehole – I am not a girl!" Jackal complained.
"Could have fooled me!" Hit Girl laughed.
"He is most definitely not a girl; his equipment is perfect in every way – I can vouch for that!" Shadow announced with a grin.
"Jeez, can we not get through one damn day without you two talking about each other's, whatever's?" Hit Girl moaned. "Ever since they discovered sex, it's been non fucking stop!"
Kick-Ass coughed pointedly.
"What!" Hit Girl demanded.
"How is their behaviour, any different to the way that you behave, eh Hit Girl?" Kick-Ass asked with a chuckle.
"Fuck!"
"Let's shoot, people!" Kick-Ass suggested and four arrows were released into the air.
All four arrows fell true and on target.
As the arrows landed, they exploded and destroyed not just the wooden doorway, but the explosion also flattened the two, armed guards who never knew what had hit them.
The five of us ran forwards, heading for the doorway. We were engaged almost immediately by several guards armed with sub-machine guns. We took cover, on each side of the destroyed doorway and returned fire. The lights were out, due to the explosion and the emergency lighting must have been damaged as well. We were wearing our NVGs, to assist our targeting in the darkness. The guards had no such advantage; so we were able to cut them down without any risk to ourselves.
We proceed further into the facility and came across small groups of guards, whom we attacked, before we moved on. The groups only exchanged fire for a few minutes before melting away into the darkness of the facility.
After the fourth such 'hit and run' strike, we paused in a large open room.
"Something is not right here!" Kick-Ass said, cautiously.
"I'm inclined to agree with you," I replied.
Something did not feel right. Indeed, this felt like a trap!
I looked around, carefully checking every inch of wall, floor and ceiling for trouble. That was when I saw something move and it was not a man with a gun! The wall bulged outwards and then exploded, throwing us all across the warehouse.
"Fusion, this is Battle Guy, report!"
"Fusion, this is Battle Guy, report!"
We must have all been knocked out for a few seconds, but as the dust settled, I was able to focus and I heard the radio call.
"Fusion, this is Battle Guy, report!"
"Battle Guy, Hit Girl – there was an explosion – we… Hold one!"
I looked around, checking the team. I saw Kick-Ass and Jackal pulling themselves out of the rubble. I also saw Mist, coughing a few yards away as she shock off the dust. There was no sign of anybody else.
"Shadow!"
I feverishly started to dig through the rubble, followed by the others. Kick-Ass found Shadow's P90 and Mist, her NVGs, but nothing else.
Shadow had vanished.
The warehouse
When I came to, I found that I had been seized by a very large man.
His enormous hand was over my mouth and preventing me from calling out. I had to admit that I felt a little shocked at waking up like that. Nevertheless, I sorted myself out fast and I shoved my head back hard, and heard an exclamation, as I broke the nose of the man holding me. His grip loosened for only a moment; but I was ready and I broke out of the man's grip. I followed through and rammed an elbow into the man's stomach followed by a reinforced heel into his groin.
The man doubled over and I kneed him in the face, flipping him over backwards. I then drove my heel into the man's throat, crushing his windpipe and he was left gagging for breath, his face turning purple – Mindy would have liked that, I thought for a second!
..._...
I looked around me. I was in a long corridor and, it seemed, on the wrong side of a locked, heavy steel door – I could only move forwards. I pulled out my pistol; I was low on ammunition, but would have to make do – I had also managed to lose my P90; Hit Girl was gonna kill me for that!
I wandered down around for a while, constantly calling on my comms for help. I was getting no response – just static, but I was sure there was some snatches of voice getting through. Marty said that our comms were un-jammable – he used the phrase: 'frequency hopping spread spectrum'. Something though was blocking the signal – I would need to talk to Marty about that when I got back!
..._...
Finally, I found windows, but they were mounted high up. Then I turned a corner and I saw men running towards me – two men, both of whom were very large – just like the last one. I started shooting at them, but after only a few rounds, the slide locked back on an empty magazine. As I had done many times before, I ejected the empty magazine and inserted a new one. I pushed the magazine home and released the slide, which sprang forward under the pressure of the spring. The men were getting closer and a third man had joined them – it was Ralph D'Amico, himself!
I had my chance; I raised my pistol, sighted on D'Amico and squeezed the trigger.