Author's Note: This chapter breaks through the three-hundred thousand, word mark, for Forsaken. Thank you to everybody who has stayed the course and read each, and every word!
Nothing happened – just a click.
I pulled back and released the slide, but a round was not being pulled from the magazine into the chamber. I ejected and reinserted the magazine. I racked back the slide several times, but to no avail. The two larger men were almost on me. I holstered the pistol and pulled my bō-staff from my back. I attacked, but I could not fight both men together – I had fucked up again; I was alone.
"Hit Girl – I need help..." I called over the comms – still no response.
The two men had large machetes, which they were using to deflect my blades and they worked as a team to beat me down. I could hear snatches of Hit Girl in my headset, trying to find me; she sounded beside herself with worry. I was forced down to one knee trying to fend off the attacks, and finally I lost hold of the bō-staff, fell backwards and froze as a sharp machete rested on my chest.
"Don't move – bitch!" One man snarled.
"Fuck you, bastard!" I retorted.
"Fire – now that is good – we're gonna have fun with you, little girl!" The other man grinned, almost drooling. "I like my girls to be feisty and that mask is a fucking turn on!"
I felt horrified at the thought of what might be about to happen to me – I had seen enough of Mindy's warped DVD collection, to know what he was talking about. I started to struggle in vain, as the men seized my arms. I started to kick out, but Ralph D'Amico himself slapped me hard enough to make me lose consciousness.
Two hours later
The warehouse
Shadow was gone.
We had been able to search the entire facility. We had seized all of D'Amico's men that were still alive. They were currently lined up, in front of us. Kick-Ass stood in front of the first man.
"Where is Shadow?" Kick-Ass growled in his electronically enhanced voice, staring through sightless eyes at the man.
The man glared back and said nothing. Despite the fact that I could not see the faces of Kick-Ass and Jackal, I knew enough about them that I could read their body language to gauge their moods. As they could with me! Kick-Ass was pissed, majorly pissed and very concerned for Shadow's welfare. Jackal? He was beside himself with worry and pissed off as hell! I had seen Jackal vanish back to Iron Hide and return with something hidden behind his back.
"Nothing to say?" Kick-Ass roared. "Bad fucking choice!"
Jackal came from behind Kick-Ass and lowered the weapon that he had been hiding and the man's left knee vaporised, as the AA-12 barked once. The man collapsed, and then started to scream. Blood ran across the floor from the wound, as the man rolled around the floor in agony. Kick-Ass stepped forward with a Glock 17 in his hand. He fired a single shot into the man's head, ending his pain. He then turned to the other men, who were still lined up and who looked horrified.
"Now, Jackal is very keen on knowing where Shadow is – anybody?" Kick-Ass demanded.
After a two minute wait, the AA-12 barked twice more and the head of a man, further down the line exploded, showering the other men with blood and brains.
"Time is not on your side, bastards!" Kick-Ass continued.
The remaining four men all started shouting at once!
Early the following morning
Sunday
It was a little after one in the morning.
We had our location and we sincerely hoped that we would find Shadow there. We also hoped that she was still alive...
Titan thundered through the dark streets of Chicago. SWAT was mobilising and we had got word out to Vladimir, and his Bratva. Kick-Ass was at the wheel. I was in the passenger seat and behind me, on the benches were most of Fusion. Jackal, Battle Guy, Trojan, Wildcat and Eisenhower. Mist, Medic and Lynx were following us, in Iron Hide. Hal and Hawk were in the Command Centre.
It had been very hard telling Cathy that I had lost her daughter. I had almost broken down into tears, but Cathy had told me that recriminations could wait. Cathy went on to say that we all had work to do, before the night was out.
The warehouse
I felt really groggy as I regained consciousness.
My head hurt. I tried to focus my eyes, but could only see shadows. Then I felt agony shoot through my body. Somebody had punched me in my left side, just below the level of my breast. I screamed with the pain. The man had hit my wound and although it was healing well, the pain was excruciating.
"Just wanted to get your attention!"
I braced up – I recognised that sneering tone of voice.
"Fuck you Ralph!"
"Still full of fire, I see – good, good!"
Outside the warehouse
We had arrived at the same time as SWAT and between Titan and the single SWAT truck; we smashed down the perimeter fence.
Iron Hide stayed outside the perimeter, with Lynx and Medic. Mist had transferred to Titan. We would have to fight our way to the warehouse. This was definitely somewhere important; there were two sited machine guns – M60s as before. We were pinned down and taking cover behind Titan, whose armour was greater than the SWAT truck's armour. We managed to put one M60 out of action using explosive arrows, but they were the last we had with us, but the Bratva came to the rescue!
There was a bright flash, a bang, then something streaked towards the remaining M60 machine gun, and there was a large explosion, which included the M60 flying into the air, surrounded by various body parts. I span around to see a Krysha throwing down the fibreglass casing of a used RPG-22 rocket launcher.
"здравствуйте!" I called and received several nods in return. ['Hello!']
"Sorry, we are late – Hit Girl!" A Krysha said.
"Better late than never!" I replied.
I spent a couple of minutes talking with the Russians and SWAT – D'Amico's men had moved back, towards the building – but they were still ready and in large, heavily armed, numbers. I felt uneasy, about what we might find, once we gained entry to the building. Anything that involved D'Amico – always went to shit!
I could hear the explosions from outside the building.
At least I was no longer alone. Hit Girl would come for me. I knew she would.
"Have no fear, Shadow – one of two things is going to happen. Either your pals will be outgunned and killed, or they will get here, just in time to see my finale!" D'Amico laughed.
"Keep dreaming, asshole – you will not survive this night!" I prophesised.
"We will see!" D'Amico replied, pragmatically.
I revved up Titan's engine and accelerated for the main vehicular access door on one side of the building.
The reinforced front bumper, followed by eight tonnes of armoured truck, struck the steel roller-shutter at speed. The door bent and screeched loudly, as it gave way. Then it was physically ripped from its track. Titan burst through into the warehouse, riding over two guards and skidding to a halt. We all poured from the vehicle and I smirked at the blood-streaked tyres.
D'Amico's goons were being rapidly reorganised, which was a bit of a surprise. I had expected them to be disorganised, so we could mow through them and put an end to this fighting. However, the men had radio communications and I could see plenty of CCTV cameras. Somebody was controlling the gunmen and very efficiently, too!
We came to an office that extended down one side of the building, before coming to a staircase up to the floor above.
Hit Girl ran forward, a pistol in each hand. As she leapt and flipped from chair to desk, to windowsill, she sent a bullet into every gunman within sight. She neatly dodged almost every bullet that was fired towards her. Any bullet that did catch her failed to penetrate the armoured combat suit and accomplished nothing more than temporarily pushing her off her next leap. However, Hit Girl was lithe and nimble; she was able to react like a cat and adjust her movements to take account of any change. Such as a bullet hitting her armour.
Trojan and Wildcat were working together as a team. Trojan would flip Wildcat into the air, past flying bullets and over the heads of the gunmen. As she flew past the men, she would drive a panther claw into their neck before nimbly landing on the nearest item of furniture or a part of the building that was suitable.
Trojan in turn would shoot at anybody that dared come close to Wildcat. He covered her back so that she could concentrate on what was going on in front of her. Indeed, one gunmen was stabbed in the throat as he himself tried to stab Wildcat. Without hesitation, Trojan retrieved his fighting knife and cleaned it off before stowing it and moving on to the next fight.
I followed Hit Girl through the office, covering her back and shooting anybody that dared to put her at risk. I also kept an eye open for the younger members of Fusion as they fought. Anybody that missed a bullet from my pistols, met Mist and the vicious point of her chain whip, which flew towards their neck.
Eisenhower meanwhile was literally ripping into the gunmen. She had received a number of strikes on her armour from bullets and knives; none of which had penetrated, allowing the animal to continue to strike fear into the gunmen as she lunged, growling and snarling, at anybody that moved. One man lost his manhood in an epic struggle that lasted mere minutes. It did not take long for the gunmen to avoid Eisenhower, altogether, and concentrate on the human vigilantes! The sight of the large dog with blood dripping from her fangs was more than the seasoned gunmen could handle!
I could see no sign of Jackal or Battle Guy, which was weird.
We had made it to the stairs and were now on the second floor.
We could see that the Russians had fought their way up another staircase and were visible over the other side of the building. The Krysha, were proving very accurate with their shooting and were dropping D'Amico's armed guards, but there seemed to be an almost constant stream of the gunmen to replace the dead and wounded. D'Amico had done well recruiting ex-Army and ex-Special Forces types for his personal guard.
SWAT were covering the exterior of the facility to ensure that nobody escaped and were still exchanging sporadic fire with gunmen in the upper windows of the building. Wounded, were brought out for Medic and Lynx – irrelevant of whether they were friend or foe.
I got a shock while I was fighting with a man, who seemed to be ex-Special Forces, possibly Delta. The man was highly skilled, and he knew to use his weight and strength against me. Suddenly he stopped and fell backwards as a large hole appeared in his forehead. I span around to see a man, wearing body armour standing with his .45-calibre Glock 21 pistol aimed at the falling man.
"Thank you, Marcus!" I called and sent him a warm smile.
What, the hell Marcus was doing here, I had absolutely no idea! I could ask that question later, but he had helped save my life. However, I could have won that fight! I watched as Marcus vanished down a corridor, with Fellowes and another cop that I did not recognise. All around the building, I could hear gunfire, shouts and screams.
..._...
I passed through to another room and saw different fights underway. Immediately in front of me, was Mist and she was facing off with three men, all armed with knives. They were attempting to dodge past Mist's chain whip. I could see another man, on the floor behind Mist, with a Sai embedded in his chest - he was very dead!
Across the room, I could see the large form of Kick-Ass as he threw a gunman, bodily against the wall. The man hit the wall hard and left a red smear as he slid to the floor. I grinned - Kick-Ass did like to use his strength, whenever possible! Another man was trying in vain to stab Kick-Ass, but his protective armour ensured that Kick-Ass remained uninjured. Kick-Ass instead, swung around and drove his fist into the man's face, breaking his nose and sending a spray of blood across the room.
Further over to the right, was one hell of a sight. That fight seemed to involve five people - two of whom were quite a bit shorter than those they were fighting! The two kids were brandishing their bō-staffs and the much larger men, armed with what seemed to be older model M16 assault rifles were dodging the razor sharp blades. The men tried to bring the rifles to bear, but had to use them to deflect the bō-staff strikes.
As I watched, the first man fell as Trojan severed his left hand. The man dropped the rifle and screamed in agony, before rolling around the floor. Then as Trojan moved to attack the next man, he was struck on the back of the head by a rifle butt that sent the boy flying. Wildcat took the opportunity to drive her bō-staff into that man's chest, then reversed the blade, and plunged the opposite blade into the back of the third man as he went to shoot the fallen Trojan. I was impressed by what I had seen, as I ran over to check on Trojan.
"I'm fine – I think!" Trojan confirmed. "I'll be fine!"
"Well done, you two – but it is not over!" I said and led my junior operatives towards Kick-Ass.
"You guys okay?" Kick-Ass asked Hit Girl, Trojan and me.
"Awesome, Kick-Ass!" I answered for them, almost skipping with excitement.
The adrenalin was surging through me and I felt so alive – this was awesome. I had killed six men in the past hour, all personally by claw or by blade. However, I felt nothing for those men – I had a job to do and I intended to do it and make Hit Girl proud. Trojan and I made one hell of a team and I was grateful to have him as my partner.
My head hurt from being struck by that rifle butt.
I would survive though – I would not let down Kick-Ass and Hit Girl. I enjoyed fighting alongside that wild child, Wildcat. She was awesome and we worked well together as a team.
The experience of fighting alongside the real vigilantes was fucking awesome!
A door suddenly exploded outwards and a man fell through, followed by a blue clad Battle Guy. His shield covered in splattered blood and his Gladius embedded in the man's stomach.
"Hey, Jackal – I've found them!" Battle Guy yelled through the doorway.
"Thank fuck for that!" Jackal announced as he appeared. His Ninja-To, was dripping blood.
"Where have you two been?" Hit Girl demanded.
"Long story – took a wrong turn. We did find their control room, though! They're going to need a few new flat screens, too!" Jackal explained.
"Good – that means they've lost their guidance; good, well done, ass!" Hit Girl said.
We continued down a corridor that led towards the far end of the building.
Suddenly I felt a chill up my backbone. I could hear D'Amico's voice. I reached the end of the corridor and found a door. The door led to a walkway. Beside the door was a window and I watched in horror, at what was going on beyond.
"I have plans for you, young lady. Have no fear; your identity will remain secret. Your mask will not be removed, but something else will. You took my arm, so I think it only fair for me to take yours – don't you think so, Shadow?" D'Amico asked, his face a picture of joy and happiness.
"You fucking bastard – I die, then so will you. Your fucking life is over, no matter what!" Shadow yelled back.
"Oh – you are not going to die – I am going to make you suffer; just like you did for me. An arm for an arm!" D'Amico responded, his smile getting bigger as he indicated for his man to start the saw.
The saw started to cut into Shadow's armour, just below her elbow and Shadow screamed and screamed.