Safehouse F
We started just before ten that morning.
Selina and Bruce looked very much refreshed after their day off; that would soon change!
"Please be gentle, Mindy; I'm still sore!" Selina moaned.
"It was that sort of day off, was it?" I teased with a look and a smirk.
Selina blushed and Bruce just stammered out denials.
"Ignore the bitch; she's just being an ass!" Dave laughed.
Dave and I left them to settle down in the briefing room and get comfortable. Chloe and Josh were going to debrief them while Dave and I went to do some paper work!
We needed to do some reviewing of Fusion members.
Boring, but necessary, if we were to remain a cutting edge organisation. I decided to start at the top – Kick-Ass! Assets... plenty – oh yes, some very big assets that kept me very happy and – STOP! Get your head out of the Whore House, Mindy. Handsome, muscular, stunning when naked... Get a grip, Mindy, for fuck's sake! Like a battle tank as he forces his way through the enemy, striking them down with punches and his batons – I love it when he forces his way into me and...
Dammit – I was getting very damp down below!
Okay!
Hit Girl. Now where do I start?
What sticks out about Hit Girl? A couple of things pop immediately to mind – well they don't stick out all that far, but what there is, is very, very... I had a one-track mind; Mindy was right about that. Did I care, though – did I hell!
Hit Girl had many appealing attributes, both as a vigilante and as other things...
I sat back down again, with some clean knickers on, and got back to work.
Skipping Kick-Ass for the moment, I moved onto Shadow. Now, Mindy, get serious.
Shadow had been with us the longest, not counting Marty. She had been thirteen and a handful when Dave and I had first met her. Now, though, she was a very striking and beautiful fifteen-year-old – and still a handful! I looked down her 'rap sheet' that Marty had painstakingly maintained.
Her first kill had been in defence of me; she had coped in her own way and now she would not think twice about killing somebody who deserved to die; she could also be vindictive too. Many criminals were almost as scared of her as they were of me; she could intimidate with only a glance. She had been shot, twice. The first time two bullets had nearly cost the life of her boyfriend as he had dived in front of that bastard, Ralph D'Amico's bullets. Her right shoulder still bore the scars of that fight...
Her skills were exceptional, her courage immeasurable. Mind you, we had had our run-ins, together. I had kicked her out of Fusion after one of her ill thought out escapades, but we needed each other, so I let her back in. She was my right hand, especially when Dave was not around. Other than Dave and Marcus, Chloe was one of the most important people in my life; she was a sister to me and there were few secrets between us. Okay, she had ruffled my feathers once or twice; she had crashed two motorcycles among other things, but she was a very good friend and err, sex partner?
Ultimately, to show what she meant to me, I had asked her to be my Maid of Honour for our wedding; the poor girl had almost collapsed in tears when I had asked her and Josh had had to guide her to the couch!
..._...
Next, I supposed, was her British partner in crime, Jackal. Joshua was her partner in more ways, than one! She loved the boy more than she loved anything else. I had to admit that I had been unsure of the kid at first, but then he had thrown himself in front of those bullets and almost been killed. Chloe had been distraught when she thought that he had died; but the kid was made from stern stuff and he beat all the odds and survived.
The boy had survived five bullet wounds, including one received while outrunning gunman alone and at night. If all the British had his courage then they were a force to be reckoned with! His father had been murdered on the orders of Ralph D'Amico. He had been in a coma for months – however he had prevailed and he was now a key member of Fusion, second only to Shadow. He was fifteen, too and as I saw the other night – well equipped and very handsome! To me he was a brother and somebody I could talk to about anything.
..._...
Next on the list was Hal.
Abby was a complete nutcase and a genius with the computers. She was fifteen, but had the skills and maturity of somebody much older. She had fought well in Gotham, killing for the first time, almost face to face. She had courage; I had to give her that! I trusted the girl with my life and I enjoyed having her funny, geeky humour around. Without her as support, Fusion would not be able to function.
What was more amazing about Abby was that her own mother still had no idea what it was that her daughter did for her extra-curricular activities!
..._...
Hawk!
Well there was not much to say about her, considering that she had been pregnant for the past nine months. Yeah, there was that time I had tried to kill her – and I had almost succeeded before Marty had Tasered me – that still rankled, too!
However, despite that, we were good friends and I was Godmother to her son.
..._...
Medic, a key member of the team – without her many of us would be dead or badly crippled at best!
Despite being Chloe's Mom, she had a different character. However, I had seen her kill with my own eyes; she was cold that woman, very cold. On the other hand, she was very gentle and caring in her capacity as a Doctor. Mind you, her no-nonsense medical check-ups were something to be feared!
She had been a surrogate mother to me and provided me with guidance when I needed it, not to mention plugging a few holes when I got myself shot!
..._...
Trojan – now he was a challenge.
Curtis was still only eleven, but having lost both his parents in a car crash almost a year ago – I was not looking forward to that anniversary – he bore himself like a pro who was years older. As one of the younger members of Fusion, I worried about him a lot and I hated it when he was injured. He was an amazing kid and I respected him for his accomplishments.
As Chloe's cousin, he had picked up many of his skills from watching her both in training and in action. While Chloe had hated her cousin for most of his life, the antagonistic behaviour between them had long passed and they were now more like a brother and sister, than as cousins.
The boy had been shot, three times, but he had survived our time in Gotham. As he got older, his skills would improve steadily and he would be a force to be reckoned with.
..._...
Following on from Trojan, we had to talk about his partner in crime.
Wildcat was a conundrum. I hated it when people called her a 'mini-Mindy', but I had to admit that maybe they were right. Sometimes I did not think that that was a good thing, at all! Megan was very headstrong and she often found herself in trouble, both at school, home and as Wildcat. She insisted that trouble always found her and not the other way around!
The girl is tenacious and very brave. Sometimes, though, her bravery tends to get ahead of her brain and things happen. One bad result was her being stabbed, three times, when disobeying orders. Some treated her as the 'baby' of Fusion, but her skills showed that she was anything but. Many looked at her short stature and laughed; they were usually very sorry when Wildcat had finished with them – if they lived!
Megan was my little sister; well she would be when her mom, Paige, married Marcus. We were very much alike, which as I mentioned earlier, may not have been a good thing and sometimes the thought scared me. I also worried about what she and Curtis got up to behind closed doors... Did we have another Chloe/Josh couple here?
..._...
Mist...
Erika, the cause of my sexual deviation from the norm. She used to be Marty's squeeze, but no longer. She was a stunning young woman of twenty-two and... I was feeling hot and aroused again at the thought of her in bed… She was also sexually willing to partner with either sex, as the threesome with Chloe and Josh had proved, while in Gotham.
She was also one of the few in Fusion who had been around that night, in New York and been shocked to the core by the live showing of the death of Big Daddy and my own antics in the D'Amico Warehouse. She was tremendously caring and extremely vindictive when fighting. As one of our newer members, she wielded her chain-whip and Sais with vicious abandon and blood lust.
The girl also had a craving for high-powered motorcycles, not that I could fault her for that!
..._...
Splinter – what can we say about Splinter.
An amazing young twelve-year-old. Tommy was a fascinating person to talk with. His experiences were wide and not to be envied. He had been taken off the streets of New York and made to fight for the gratification of various mobs and mafias. Finding him had been a fluke at best, also leading us into another trap! He was a tremendous asset to Fusion and I enjoyed sparring with him; his fighting skills were a challenge for to, to say the least.
With him had come his Mom and Dad, both vigilantes of sorts that Dave had met in New York at 'Justice Forever'. His Dad, Tony, looked after everything we required when it came to vehicle and weapon maintenance and repair. He was highly skilled and I compensated him accordingly. Tommy's Mom, while a quiet woman, assisted with a lot of the behind the scenes asset management and record keeping.
I saw Tommy, Megan and Curtis making one hell of a team.
..._...
Now we came to our newest member, Petra.
Another young woman with a destroyed youth. Initially, I saw her as a threat, but now she was a good friend to me. Hailee's fighting skills were legendary and we could often spar to a stalemate together. While her skills should have made Hailee my number one Operator, there was no way I was going to dislodge Chloe. There had been a limited amount of animosity between the two girls initially, despite Hailee being three years older than Chloe. I had promised Chloe that Hailee was no threat to her position as my number one in Operator in Fusion.
I respected Hailee's experience as a vigilante as well as her skills. We did not use ranks in Fusion, anybody could lead an operation if their skills were the most suitable. I was happy to take orders from Dave, just as much as I would accept orders from Megan, or Hailee as the circumstances dictated.
..._...
Now for the most important member of Fusion, without whom none of it would have ever got off the ground.
I was of course, referring to Battle Guy. It had been Marty, who had pointed Dave towards Chicago. It had been Marty, who had helped Dave track me down. Without Marty, I would most probably have been dead long ago and I would never have found Dave. Without Marty's technical knowledge, we would never have been able to operate as an illegal vigilante organisation.
Damn, I was tearing up at the thought of what Marty meant to me and how without him, things could have been so different. He was a wonderful guy, sometimes a bit too geeky at times, but a great joker and it was to be an honour to have him as Dave's Best Man at the wedding.
..._...
Last, but not least, we had our favourite dick-eating bitch, Eisenhower.
Admittedly, men were not always her biggest fan, but she loved men, in her own uniquely special way and what they had to offer! She was getting older and we had limited her activity as Eisenhower. As Sophia, she was a loving, if lazy, animal and was loved by all, especially the twins.
..._...
Many other people contributed to Fusion, mostly behind the scenes.
Marcus (Rhino), Paige (Lynx), Vicky, Ryan (Neptune), Mathilda, Fellowes, Murphy and Kyle (Max), to name but a few. They all contributed to helping our organisation flourish in the face of adversity; Dave and I owed them everything.