Four days later
Monday
The City had been in uproar after the lawlessness from the previous week.
Citizens wanted answers and the Mayor was not very popular – not that we gave a fuck about the Mayor!
I was very pleased that no member of Fusion had been injured. There were plenty of bruises, but that was part of doing business! Fellowes was resting at home, letting his arm heal. Murphy was back at work, ignoring his cuts. Cathy had received an enormous bouquet of flowers as a 'thank you' from the two Sergeants. According to Chloe, Cathy had blushed very badly when she had received the flowers!
Marcus had seemed to enjoy himself, hugely. He had also learnt that his second-in-command was an avid Vigilante fan, despite being on a taskforce intended to stamp out Vigilante activity! I had paid a personal visit to Mathilda at the weekend to say thanks for saving the hides of Petra and myself! Mathilda may have been struggling to walk, but she could still shoot and that had impressed me hugely.
Overall, Vigilante standing in Chicago had improved. We had save many lives, both civilian and otherwise.
The next task was finding out who had been behind the masterful attack.
West Ridge
We were going to have an emotional couple of weeks, to put it mildly!
We were still recovering from all that shit with the Sicilians, but now we had some anniversaries to, if not celebrate, at least commemorate.
Josh was gently rubbing his throat where there was a still a small scar visible.
"If you're trying to make me feel bad, then it's working!" Mindy said quietly.
Josh rapidly pulled his hand away from his throat.
"Sorry, Mindy, I did not mean that," Josh replied quickly. "I didn't realise I was doing it."
"Well you did almost cut his head off within five seconds of meeting him!" I growled.
"He has that effect on people!" Erika laughed.
"He does not!" I responded sharply, blushing a little.
"It was the best day of my life; I had found my Chloe..." Josh said, before blushing himself.
I felt my own cheeks getting very warm.
"For good or bad, one year ago, Josh was discovered in Safehouse A, before he managed to burn it down!" Dave said with a brief chuckle.
"Hey!" Josh responded defensively. "That was D'Amico's cunts!"
That discovery, of Josh, a year previously had been the start of a tumultuous week.
Chloe and I had discovered Joshua hiding out at Safehouse A, in New York City. Then we had spent the remainder of the week chasing down Ralph fucking D'Amico. That was the week, I had been separated from Dave by almost a thousand miles; it had been hell.
Yes, I had lost a Safehouse; but it had done its job; it had kept Joshua safe and we had gained a valuable member of Fusion.
"I don't regret a second of finding you, Josh," I said honestly. "You have paid me back many times over for that Safehouse."
"Thanks, Mindy," Josh replied, sounding a little surprised.
Five days later
Saturday
Safehouse F
It was the first day of August and it was roasting!
"You having fun?"
"Oh, yes," I replied. "The sun is so lovely."
"Never really saw you as a sunbather," Dave commented.
I was not a sunbather, but I could not resist lying on the grass, down at the park and just dozing. I was wearing shorts and a shot top. I knew I was showing a little too much skin, but what the hell! Sophia was panting beside me, having just taken a swim in the river.
"Dog, that water is cold!" I growled.
We were making progress in identifying what had really happened the previous week. Ignoring the shit caused by the normal wankers who caused trouble in the City. The hard-core of the trouble had been the Sicilians. It was also very strange that everything had stopped at the same time. They were sending a message; telling us what they could do.
Many people had died and many more had been injured. Okay, most of those killed had been the enemy, but that was not the point. However, we had proven what Fusion could do at short notice. Marcus was not having a good time however, having been yelled at for over an hour about not capturing any vigilantes!
One downside about the evening had been the damage to Iron Hide, Titan and my motorcycle. Tony had told me to get some perspective after moaning about two small scratches on my Panigale, when Titan required some twelve thousand dollars' worth of repairs.
Two days later
Monday morning
West Ridge
I had the house to myself for a change, well almost.
While almost everybody was down at the Safehouse, I was sitting in the living room, on a couch with Sophia, and we were gazing over at Chloe. She had spent the past half hour crying her eyes out. Today was not just the anniversary of the end of that appalling week; it was also the anniversary of Joshua throwing himself in front of Chloe, just as Ralph D'Amico had fired at her, almost point-blank, with her own FN Five-seveN pistol.
Sometimes my life sucked!
That evening
West Ridge
The Bennett family were over for dinner.
Chloe had even chosen to wear a dress, which was a little out of character, but Josh was not complaining. In fact, Josh was a little uncomfortable with the night ahead of him. It was in his honour, after all! At the table, were Dave, me, Ryan, Cathy, Chloe and Josh. Curtis was spending the night with Megan.
"I would like to raise a glass, to a very special young man," Ryan Bennett announced, standing up. Josh slunk down in his chair trying to hide. "Without him, my daughter would be dead, or very badly injured."
Josh and Chloe were both looking distinctly uncomfortable. Chloe was absent-mindedly rubbing her right shoulder.
"Yes, he might be loading his torpedo into a tube that I may not approve of..."
"Ryan!" Cathy growled as Chloe blushed a mortified shade of red and Dave did his best not to laugh.
"I promised Cathy that I would behave – I may be an old bastard, but I can remember what it was like to be in love. I can also vividly remember the looks I used to get from Cathy's Dad when we started, err..."
"Dad!" Chloe growled her eyes wide and her face a deep red.
"Okay, enough humiliation for my little girl!" Ryan laughed turning to face Joshua. "Everybody, I give you our British friend, Joshua Williams, who almost gave his own life, to protect my daughter from some very serious harm."
There was cheering from all those present and the two youngsters looked like they were about to die from embarrassment.
Three days later
Thursday
Morton Grove
"I assume you gave Chloe her present last night?" Ryan chuckled, enjoying the two fifteen year-olds' discomfort.
"Daddy!" Chloe warned.
"Okay, I'm still getting used to my little girl growing up!"
"Daddy, I may be fifteen and an ass-kicking vigilante, but I will always be your little girl," Chloe said, giving her Dad a hug.
"Look after her, Joshua, although you will have your hands full!" Ryan said with a straight face.
Chloe just scowled good-naturedly at her father.
The following afternoon
Friday
D-JAK
"Well look at you!" Nikki said.
"Look at what?" Megan demanded of her friend.
"You look different," Nikki continued. "No more black hair?"
"Oh, that!" Megan replied with a laugh. "Wanted a change; I thought I needed to lighten up a bit!"
Megan's hair was now the natural auburn colour it had been previously and was up in a neat ponytail.
"She does look different," Jake commented then smirked. "I see two more changes, too!"
"Yeah, on her chest!" Zach added checking out Megan's top.
Megan scowled and Zach hit the mat in short order.
"Okay; no talking about her tits!" Zach groaned.
I laughed.
"You want to join him, asshole?" Megan growled at me, so I just smirked and shook my head.
..._...
"Why did Megan hit Zach?" Paige asked.
"Zach made a comment on her tits!" I replied honestly.
"That would explain it!" Paige chuckled as she went back to her work.
I had to admit, Megan looked a lot better now that the black hair had gone.
Later that afternoon
Megan screamed.
"What now?" I yelled over.
Megan looked white. She just pointed towards the cupboard at the back of the room that stored the mats. I looked over at the cupboard and saw two people sneaking out of it. Kyle and Avery!
"You two are fucking disgusting!"
"Megan, language!" Paige called over.
"Well you shouldn't have been peeking!" Avery retorted, looking a little pink in the face. Whether that pinkness was from embarrassment or from whatever she and Kyle had been getting up to, I had no idea!
"What part of Martial Arts was that then?" Megan persisted. "I've read a few books, but never saw any chapters that involved handfuls of boob and a hand down a girl's knickers, not to mention the moaning!"
Paige laughed and both Kyle and Avery really blushed.
"Can't you control your daughter, Mrs Wilson?" Avery moaned.
"I just pretend I don't know her!" Paige replied, hiding behind the computer screen; Kyle grinned.
"Kyle, you're supposed to be defending me!" Avery continued.
"Megan, when you are older, then maybe Curtis will be squeezing your boobs and have his hand down..."
"Keep me out of this!" I groaned, as Megan seemed to be getting a little bit annoyed and more than a bit embarrassed.
"I still think it's disgusting and well, people have to use those mats for other things!" Megan went on.
Avery went to say something in response, but just turned, grabbed her things and headed for the door. Just then the door opened and Chloe breezed in followed by Josh.
"You need to control your feisty little friend, Chloe!" Avery said in passing as she flew out of the door. Kyle just shrugged apologetically as he went past.
Chloe looked more than a little confused, but then she focussed on Megan.
"What have you done this time, you little shit?" Chloe demanded.
Josh rolled his eyes and went to stand out of the line of fire. Megan rounded on Chloe; I could sense a fight brewing.
"Your friends are dirty little fuckers; I came across them feeling each other up, just like you do with him!" Megan said, indicating Josh who just smirked.
"Why can't you learn to control yourself? Stay away from my friends; you always cause trouble, wherever you go, and I don't like my friends getting upset by you," Chloe said menacingly. "Stay out of my way, too, you scruffy little..."
Chloe was interrupted by a stiff punch to her left side, followed by a kick to the back of her legs that dropped the girl to her knees, then a fist struck her left cheek and she fell to the mat.
I stared at Curtis as he glared down at Chloe.
"Wow, what the hell?" I exclaimed.
"Do not talk to my girl like that, ever!" Curtis growled at Chloe.
"That was awesome, Curtis!" Jake said and Zach seemed to approve, too. Nikki was frozen in shock while Paige just put her head in her hands and groaned.
Megan however, seemed rather amazed at Curtis defending her like that; flooring his own cousin! I ran forward and checked on Chloe. She was a little dazed and there was a bruise developing on her left cheek. That boy had one hell of a strong punch!
Curtis showed no remorse, however he smiled at Megan who actually blushed, but he ignored his cousin completely and went back to talking with his friends who seemed in awe at what he had just done. Megan soon drifted over to Curtis, while I picked a rather shell-shocked Chloe up off the mat.
Never a dull moment!
The following afternoon
Saturday
West Ridge
Paige had been unable to contain herself the previous evening.
She had come around within seconds of coming home and had told me all about what had occurred at D-JAK, earlier that afternoon. We had both had a huge laugh about it and then I had got on the phone to Cathy. Cathy had initially been concerned when she had seen the bruise on Chloe's check, but when Curtis had happily informed her that he had given Chloe the bruise, Cathy had just laughed. I understood that Chloe had not retaliated towards Curtis and neither had she actually spoken to him since he had attacked her.
..._...
Megan breezed in, around noon, looking very pleased with herself.
"Heard lover boy stood up for you, yesterday," I said offhandedly and Megan stopped dead in her tracks.
She turned to me and went a little bit pink before slumping onto the couch beside me.
"He was awesome; I've never had somebody do that for me before. He said that I was his girl!" Megan said wistfully.
Dave started fiddling with his iPad and then a tune started playing.
'Love is in the air,
Everywhere I look around
Love is in the air
Every sight and every sound'
I started laughing, but Megan just scowled and blushed.
"Chloe is a fucking bitch and if I see her again, I am going to plant my fist squarely in her smug face!" Megan stated very convincingly.
I looked at Dave who just shrugged.
"Megan, look..."
I was interrupted by a different tune.
'I don't give a damn 'bout my reputation…'
"Hey, asshole, that's my tune!" I laughed.
That afternoon
Safehouse F
Dave had things to do, so I took Megan down to the Safehouse on my BMW.
Chloe was already there. I had seen nothing wrong with that and had not really believed a word of what Megan had said at the house. However, in hindsight, maybe I should have been prepared. I was just saying 'hi' to Josh, when Megan launched herself at Chloe and shoved her to the ground and started to punch her, just as she had said she would.
I seized hold of Megan, dragging her off Chloe who had tried to protect herself, but still had blood streaming from her nose. Wildcat was living up to her name – she was hissing and spitting, desperate to get her claws back into Chloe.
"What the fuck, Megan!" Chloe exclaimed. "You're fucking out of control!"
Curtis came pounding down the stairs followed by Cathy and Ryan.
"I love a bitch fight, just like any man, but..." Ryan began before a glance from his wife shut him up.
"Mom, look what that bitch just did to me and that shit yesterday," Chloe moaned bitterly.
I was very familiar with the expression on Cathy's face.
"Cut the waterworks, Chloe; you're fifteen, not five..." Cathy said.
Jeez, it felt like yesterday that Marcus said that to me. Chloe just stood there.
'Bet you're feeling stupid, right now!' I thought to myself.
"You're really going to stand there; a fifteen-year-old Shadow, and bleat about being beaten up by two, almost eleven-year-olds?" Cathy lectured.
Ooh, that stung!
..._...
"You two going to bury the hatchet?" I asked seriously.
"In her fucking head!" Megan retorted.
"You could never reach, you stumpy piece of shit!" Chloe countered.
"Look, either you two end this, or Dave and I will!" I said angrily.
"I'll end it if that walking disaster stays away from me and my friends!" Chloe growled.
"Fine by me; they're all disgusting little fuckers, just like you. I'll stay away just for some sanity!" Megan spat back.
"That is enough!" I yelled back. "Go suit the fuck up! One word from either of you and I'll Taser your fucking asses!"
..._...
Ten minutes later the two girls were back, on the mat, in their full combat suits, but unmasked.
"You two are going to fight it out – with no outside assistance," I instructed, glaring at Josh. "Only one of you leaves that mat, still standing. Mask up, bitches!"
Both girls pulled on their masks and readied themselves.
"Oh, one more thing – anything goes!"