Later that morning
Tuesday
"Hey lazy tits – it's time to get the fuck up!"
"Fuck off Josh!"
Josh laughed.
"I know how to wake you up..."
"Don't even think about it, cunt!" I warned meaningfully. "Already occupied!"
"Bloody hell!" Josh said with a laugh.
"You got it in one – you're learning," I said, glaring at my boyfriend.
Late night, plus period, equalled very grumpy Chloe!
"What's up?" Dave asked later.
"Nothing," I groaned.
Mindy laughed. "He's not gonna be getting laid for the next few days!"
"I know how you feel!" Dave commented with a genuine smile.
"Assholes!" Mindy growled and made a point of violently chopping the ends off all of her sausages and then mutilating what remained.
"Anyone else and I'd laugh," Josh commented dryly before turning to Sophia. "And don't you get any ideas, either."
Sophia just sat there, licking her lips.
"You're lucky, she's already had hers!"
The events of the previous night had worried me.
I had not been able to sleep much, what with thinking about everything that had happened. I had considered putting Fusion into hiding for the duration, but that would just send a bad signal to the criminal fraternity of Chicago, not to mention elsewhere. Eventually I had gotten myself up, where I had then sat with Sophia, on the couch in the living room, and started writing ideas down and almost instantly crossing them out. The crossed out ideas included whacking all the new Cops and the new Mayor as well as the new Superintendent. I had even considered moving out of Chicago completely and finding yet another City to call home.
All were stupid ideas and most would just end up with us all in prison, or worse. I was not about to retreat either – Daddy would turn over in his grave! I had a responsibility to the City of Chicago and I was not about to run out on that responsibility.
That afternoon
D-JAK
"I need a break!"
"You turning into a pussy, or something?" Zach asked.
"You want me to kick your balls somewhere where they won't drop till you're thirty?" Megan responded.
"Megan!" Paige called over sharply, before going back to her work.
"Snarky, 'ain't she?" Nikki suggested with a grin. "Maybe, she's not so tough anymore."
"Maybe, I'll jam my foot up your snatch!" Megan said quietly, so her Mother could not overhear.
"I'll pass, if you don't mind, Megan," Nikki replied still grinning.
Megan turned to glare at Jake and Curtis who were whispering and sniggering.
"Care to share?" Megan demanded.
"Look little stormtrooper, give it a break!" I suggested strongly.
"You want a kick where it hurts, Kyle?"
"Enough is enough!" I said and dropped Megan to the mat before whispering into her ear. "Keep this up and Mindy will be pissed."
Megan glared as she tried to fight me off. I released her and she stood up, painfully. I was aware of her stab wounds, but most of the kids here, were not.
"What's wrong Megan?" Jake asked, showing some concern at Megan's grimace of pain.
"Silly bitch keeps overdoing it and taking on the bigger kids," Curtis laughed, using our cover story for Megan being a bit tender.
"You guys ready for some real work?" I asked, ignoring the glowering Megan. "Right, line up."
Lawndale
"You look a little sore, this morning, Toni," I commented.
"Bad day, Marty, I've got some bruises."
"I see – you and Erika pushing it a bit?"
"Marty!" Kim laughed.
"How you doing, Kim – that bump looks enormous!" Erika commented.
"It feels enormous – not to mention that it spends half it's time kicking me," Kim complained, running a hand over her rather large belly. "I feel hideous!"
"You look beautiful!" Marty said with a grin.
"Yeah, right!"
D-JAK
"Hi Mindy!"
"You young lady, are going to come seriously unstuck!"
"Yeah, yeah!" Megan growled.
"I mean it – Marcus will not stand for it," I warned. "I should fucking know, short ass!"
"Okay, but a girl needs to vent, that's all."
"Vent?"
"You heard me!"
I laughed and left her to it. I actually felt a little sorry for Marcus, but in hindsight not so much!
That evening
West Ridge
As if I had not heard enough both from and about Megan that day, she called about nine that night in a bit of a panic.
"Mindy, help me – something monstrous is happening over here!"
"If this is a goddamn wind up, shit head, I'm gonna kick your fucking butt," I growled in response.
"Problem?" Dave asked with a grin.
"Short ass needs help, apparently..." I laughed, heading out the door.
I wandered down the street, towards Marcus' house, on the other corner of the estate. I had a distinct feeling that this was a wind up, as Megan had been behaving strangely over the past week or two.
Nevertheless, she was soon to be my little sister, so I had to look out for her.
..._...
Megan was waiting at the open door, by the time I got there.
"Jeez, take your fucking time, why don't you?" Megan growled, shutting the door behind me.
"What's the emergency, rat?" I asked, and then I heard a very disturbing noise and Megan pointed at the ceiling with a grimace.
"Oh yeah, baby!"
"Keep it coming, big guy!"
I closed my eyes for a moment and groaned. "As if I wasn't emotionally scarred enough!" I whined, looking at the rather freaked out Megan.
"Tell me about it!"
"How long they been, err, at it?" I asked delicately.
"You mean, how long has Marcus been boning my Mom?" Megan asked.
"Been enlarging your vocabulary?" I asked, slightly appalled at Megan's choice of words.
"Gotta catch up with you, haven't I?" Megan replied. "They've been up there for almost a whole hour! What could they be doing for so long?"
"You really don't want to know!"
"I thought sex only took a couple of minutes."
"You also have a lot to learn!"
We went and sat out the back, where we could not hear all the commotion from upstairs. We talked together about general shit and eventually we ended up talking about our own lives. I had no secrets from Megan and I hoped that she didn't feel the need to have any from me. We ended up talking about our Fathers, which I found a bit depressing, but apparently, Megan had not really spoken about her own, since he died. I told her about what my Daddy was like, when he was not hell bent on the destruction of the D'Amico family. About trips to the bowling alley, but I left out trips to waste ground to get myself shot in the chest!
Finally, the obscene goings on upstairs were terminated and I headed home to what turned out to be some extremely whacked out dreams, or were they nightmares.
That night in dreamland
Safehouse B, New York
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!
My back hurt like hell, my chest hurt like hell. What was I doing flat on my back on a flat roof? Why were there three holes in my costume jacket? Then it hit me like a punch to the stomach!
Daddy!
I scrambled, rather painfully, to my feet and looked upwards. There, a dozen feet above me was the window to Safehouse B. It all flowed back into my mind like a torrent: Red Mist! That fucking bastard – he shot me, three fucking times! The pain was almost unbearable; it was nothing like when Daddy had shot me. I pulled up my jacket and looked underneath – thank God for Kevlar!
Once back inside the building, I surveyed the Safehouse. It was obvious that the place was burned and would never be able to be used again. I had to rescue Daddy – the bastards must have taken him. On my way back into the building, I had come across the 'Mist Mobile', parked outside and seemingly abandoned. I grabbed a set of NVGs from the Safehouse, made sure that I had spare magazines and climbed into the Mustang; the keys were still in it – idiot!
I noticed that Red Mist was actually quite tall – I had to wait for what seemed like a year for the damn driver's seat to motor itself fully forward so that I could reach the pedals – yeah, I was fucking short! I also noticed that it was a stick-shift – that should be fun; I started the car and looked through the last few destinations that had been recorded on the satnav – I recognised one, it was the warehouse, which Daddy had burnt down – as good a place as any to start.
The D'Amico Warehouse, New York
Bingo!
There were several vehicles parked outside the supposedly abandoned warehouse, so I parked a block away, before I then headed back through the darkness to the warehouse and I started to work out a plan.
There was something going on inside, but exactly what, I was not sure. I crept closer and climbed upwards, to a vantage point in the roof where I could see the inside of the partially destroyed facility and once I had had a good look at what was happening below, I covered my mouth as I almost gasped out in horror.
Daddy!
He was strapped into a chair and beside him, similarly strapped in, was that green fucker, Kick-Ass. Some asshole was talking to the camera.
"This, for all you cavemen out there... Is fire... Fire…"
I felt rage building up inside me; somebody was going to fucking die – I grabbed the NVGs and turned them on before pulling them over my head. I pulled my Heckler & Koch USP Compact pistol and checked that a round was chambered and that the suppressor was securely attached.
"Fire is good... Fire is our friend... Gentlemen..."
Fuck! That bastard had a lighter and I had previously seen him pouring fuel around Daddy and that fucking twat, Kick-Ass. Note to self: kill that green asshole, once I have saved his life. Was that a weird idea, or what? I surprised myself sometimes! I swarmed down the girders to the ground.
..._...
"Time to die!" The asshole drawled to the camera and that snapped me back to the situation at hand.
"Guess it is, asshole," I breathed and fired my first round, clean through his head, followed by two further shots into the floodlights.
Darkness instantly descended on the warehouse. I liked darkness; darkness was my friend. I removed the suppressor and concentrated on the eerie green image visible through the NVGs. I moved towards Big Daddy and stopped short of the man nearest to him. None of the men seemed to know where the attack had originated, which was just as I had intended when I used the suppressor. I could see pistols aimed in various different directions and I could hear panicked shouts.
I moved away and scanned for my next target, taking full advantage of the darkness.
..._...
"Focus, Mindy – this is a piece of cake!" I thought as I shot the next guy, some wanker with a moustache, then turned and took down the next man.
Panicked gunfire erupted all around me, muzzle flashes everywhere. Chaos reigned – I so loved being Hit Girl! I stabbed a man, who was wearing a balaclava, through the heart, with the knife in my left hand and followed up with a bullet to his face. I double tapped another man, and then followed through with a shot at a man holding a shotgun; my bullet took him in the chest. The slide locked back on an empty magazine. I switched out the magazine, released the slide, and then shot another cunt in the leg and chest, dropping him.
Some fucker dared to fire in my direction; he went down to another bullet. A gun appeared around a pillar, being fired wildly in different directions. When the man wielding the pistol came around the pillar, I dropped him with a single bullet to the head. A gunman, further over, must have seen my muzzle flash, as he got a shot off in my direction. I ducked behind the pillar and then...
Oh, fuck, fire!
I ran towards Daddy, I was not thinking. The flare of the fire was dazzling my NVGs. I pulled them down off my face so I could see.
Daddy was on fire!
"NO!" I shouted – very stupidly in hindsight, as I attracted several bullets.
"Take cover, child!" Daddy called out, as I turned and made for cover.
As I ran, I jumped and span around, firing off a few rounds to cover my retreat. Once in cover, I dumped the NVGs. I then heard Daddy's anguished bellow of assistance.
"Now switch to Kryptoniiite!"
I thought quickly.
"Kryptonite!"
I felt behind me, seized the flashlight for my pistol and attached it below the muzzle of the USP, and set it to rapid flash. In the disorienting light, I saw men covering their eyes and trying to see their prey – me. Two shots and they both fell.
I heard my Daddy screaming as the fire took hold, but I blocked him out; now was not the time for emotion. I kept dropping D'Amico's gunmen with impunity. I took cover and switched out another magazine. The men were using sub-machine guns now, on full automatic. The adrenalin surged through me – I could do this; I had to do this.
"... Go to Robin's Reveeennnge!"
Again, I thought quickly, removed the flashlight and knocked a can out of the way on some shelves, and I placed the flashlight in its place. The flashlight was targeted by the D'Amico gunmen, but not hit. Using that flashlight as a distraction, I ran around behind the men and came at them from their rear.
I dropped the man with the MP5 and then the final man. I shot out my own flashlight and ran over to Big Daddy, sweeping the cape off my back and over his body, extinguishing the flames. I felt the anger boiling inside me and I strode directly over to the camera, raising my pistol for what I expected to be the last time.
"Shows over motherfuckers!"
I then calmly turned to face the squirming Kick-Ass and shot him in the head.
I awoke with a scream.
The real world
West Ridge
"What the hell, Mindy?"
"Hold me Dave, please, just hold me."
Mindy had just awoken me, rather forcefully which while not exactly unusual, the fact that she had tears streaming down her face, was. Mindy also looked the way that she did when she had just done something that she knew I would disapprove of.
"What did you do?" I asked with a calming smile.
"I shot you in the head!" Mindy stated, burying her face into my chest and rapidly soaking me with her warm, and very wet, tears.
Yeah, I would disapprove of that! It could only be one thing –
"Damon at the warehouse?" I asked rhetorically.
Mindy replied by sobbing even harder. She had these nightmares periodically – I did too; however, that night was the worst that I could remember.
Not to mention that she had never shot me before!