Sunday evening
South Cottage Grove
Apartment 202
"I keep telling you, I am really sorry!"
"Don't believe a word of it!"
"Joshua!"
"Chloe – I hurt in more places than I care to mention – all thanks to your little prank..."
"I knew your armour would protect you... Probably..."
"You try my patience, girl – you really do, but unfortunately I love you and these..."
Josh ran his hands over my bare chest – I knew he would not be able to resist my naked body!
Two days later
Tuesday night
Eastern Chicago
It was a warzone.
Bullets were flying everywhere. Shadow and Hit Girl were pinned down behind a container in the capacious rail yard off West Ogden Avenue. Sixteen members of Fusion were now involved, fourteen of whom were now under fire at the rail yard, although at the beginning it had only been three. We had been fighting for over an hour – two hundred yards away the CPD were involved in their own firefight.
We were fighting the Sicilians while the CPD were fighting the Russians – somewhere in the midst of everything were the Superintendents Cunts orchestrating the whole, damn thing. As far as I could tell, we had been setup to be caught in between the Sicilians and the Russians, only the CPD had unwittingly intercepted the Russians.
It had been Jackal, Kick-Ass and Battle Guy who had been caught up in the opening fight – yes, Battle Guy! Battle Guy had been road testing one of our new vehicles – an armoured, dark grey GMC Yukon Denali. Kick-Ass and Jackal were providing escort on their motorcycles. Luckily, Battle Guy had been fully kitted out and so had the Yukon. That particular Yukon, one of two identical vehicles, which we had recently received, was called 'Sentinel', the other was 'Hound'.
It had been an ambush, which had forced the three of them into the rail yard. Jackal received several heavy rounds into his side and he was hurt, unable to ride. Thankfully, the rail yard was a little over four miles away from Safehouse D and F. The alert had gone out and everybody at the Safehouse, which was most of Fusion, had scrambled.
Some yards away, I could see Kick-Ass and Mist returning fire from behind Sentinel – the new vehicle was a mess, its armour having taken a pasting. The wounded Jackal was inside Sentinel with Battle Guy who was looking after him until Medic arrived. She was on her way in Titan, along with Splinter, Lynx and Eisenhower. Hal was in the Safehouse co-ordinating everything with the help of Hawk and Max. It was also the first outing for Lynx as an operator and she was nervous.
Hawk had been in the Safehouse with Matty and Hawk had been training, getting herself ready to go back out. I was alongside Trojan and Wildcat as we kept up a steady stream of fire towards the well-armed Sicilians. The final piece was Leon (the code name for Mathilda); she was currently on the top of one of the tall container loading cranes with her sniper rifle. She would take shots every minute or two when somebody came into her sights. She also provided and overhead view for us.
Down the road, with the CPD, Voight's team, along with Marcus's team and Mom were engaging the Russians. There were wounded on both sides and the fight was continuing in the semi-darkness. The rail yard was floodlit, but not all that well and there were plenty of shadows.
We needed to end the fight soon, before we ran out of ammunition.
Titan
We had to fight our way through the Russians to get to the rail yard and then through the Sicilians to get to the wounded Jackal.
I was driving with Lynx beside me; she looked nervous, but she also looked formidable in her full body armour with an MP7A2 on her right hip. Behind us sat Splinter, with Eisenhower beside him.
I floored the accelerator as I approached the CPD roadblock and leant on the air horns, which had the Police officers scurrying to clear a gap for Titan. We blazed through with inches to spare! I drove directly at the Russians who ran at the sight of the enormous vehicle, although I may have 'accidentally' clipped one or three shooters on the way through...
Behind a shipping container
On a whim, I had selected my full-face mask.
I was glad I had as the bullets were kicking up quite a bit of shrapnel, which peppered my head. Shadow had received several strikes to her armour, as had I. Our new armour was proving very good, but we were still pinned. I was down to my last pair of G36 magazines while Shadow had one more magazine left for her P90.
I could see Petra with the dynamic duo as they were trying to move towards us. Every now and then, there was a thud, as a heavy bullet from Leon's sniper rifle hit the ground, dissuading the Sicilian's advances.
Petra picked her moment and then ran forwards while Trojan and Wildcat provided covering fire with their P90s. Petra was part of the way to us when I saw a Sicilian pop-up and I saw him aiming a 40-millimetre grenade launcher. Petra was facing away from him as she ran towards us.
"Petra – grenade launcher – get down!" I yelled over the comms.
Either she did not hear me, or she ignored my warning. Either way, the grenade struck the ground and exploded just feet from Petra and her body flew through the air landing twenty feet or so away from where we were pinned.
"Petra is down – repeat – Petra is down!" I yelled in horror.
To add to my horror, I saw Wildcat and Trojan leap up and run towards Petra.
"Get back!" I yelled. "Wildcat, Trojan get the fuck back!"
"Like hell we will!" Wildcat yelled back.
"Grenade!" Trojan called, diving to the ground.
Wildcat was a little slow and the girl was just diving down as the grenade landed. The explosive force caught Wildcat and flipped her over several times, but after she hit the gound she just shook her head a few times and crawled over to Petra with Trojan beside her.
The rail yard
Petra was lying on her side.
With her full-face mask, it was not easy to see if she was breathing. I yanked off a gauntlet, shoved my hand under the mask to her neck, and was able to feel a pulse; it was strong and steady. Petra was just unconscious. After replacing my gauntlet, I ran them both over her combat suit and found several gouges, but I was unable to tell if any shrapnel had penetrated the armour.
"Petra's alive!" I called and then looked over to Wildcat.
"I'm okay, Trojan..." Wildcat said, breathing heavily.
I would have to trust her. I provided covering fire as Wildcat held onto Petra. Then I heard the blast of an air horn and the roar of a large turbo-diesel engine as the bright lights of Titan roared across the rails towards us. Twenty seconds later, it skidded to a halt, blocking us from the Sicilians.
The rear door flew open. Lynx and Splinter dived out to help drag the unconscious Petra into Titan. Once we were all in, the rear door was clammed shut and Medic drove over towards Shadow and Hit Girl. Wildcat and I continued firing out of the ports on the side and rear of Titan.
Titan stopped and we both jumped up just as a heavy bullet hit Shadow on her heavy chest armour.
The impact sent her flying backwards into the container. She hit the steel hard and fell to the ground; I seized her and dragged her towards Titan where several pairs of hands hauled her inside and I followed, heaving the door shut behind me.
The injured Fusion members were piling up fast!
Medic headed over towards Sentinel and the others. I jumped out with Splinter, Wildcat and Trojan on the way and we ran over towards the hidden Iron Hide. There I restocked my ammunition and we both headed towards a flanking position on the Sicilian's right.
Medic dived out of Titan, with Lynx covering her, sending out short bursts from her MP7.
Battle Guy dived inside and took over the driving. I helped the wounded Jackal inside and started kitting myself out for action. With help from Lynx, I clipped on additional armour to the front, rear and thighs of my suit. The extra armour added to the weight I was already lugging, but it would be needed if we were to finish that night alive.
I left Titan, with Mist, Lynx and Eisenhower. In my hands, I had my H&K 121, a 200-round belt loaded and ready. We ran towards the Sicilian's left flank.
"Hit Girl, Kick-Ass – moving to the opposite flank!" I called.
We had no idea how many of the Sicilians were left.
We were going in blind.
Altogether a crap tactical situation.
"Hit Girl; you have three targets behind the next container..." Leon called.
I nodded at Wildcat who pushed her P90 behind her, brought up her gauntlets – and she deployed both sets of claws from her knuckles. Wildcat moved around the container with Splinter following as backup. I kept my G36C raised and kept an eye open for trouble.
Wildcat was three feet in front of me as we came around the final corner of the container.
I moved wide to keep her insight, my Ninja-To in hand. There was a shout: "Dietro di te!"
One of the Sicilians span around as Wildcat somersaulted into the air and landed on a set of shoulders, burying the claws of her left gauntlet into the man's throat. Blood shot out as the claws were withdrawn and Wildcat jumped, kicking away an assault rifle that was being pointed at her. She landed on another set of shoulders, repeating the movement with her claws.
"Two more heading towards you, Splinter!" Leon reported.
I ran forward and drove my Tanto into the third man, just as another two men ran out of the darkness. They fired their assault rifles, catching me in the chest, but I span around, two knives embedding themselves in one man's throat. Wildcat plunged her claws into the other man's chest after she had flipped through the air avoiding the bullets from the assault rifle.
Wildcat landed heavily and rolled on the ground. Something was not right about her movements, but she regained her feet and retracted her claws, pulling around her P90.
"All clear!" Leon called.
Farther over to the east, we heard the loud report of a large calibre machine gun on automatic.
I pushed forwards the H&K 121 to my shoulder dropping Sicilians left and right.
Bullets were striking my armour, but thanks to the heavier composite panels, I was unhurt. Behind me came Lynx and Mist, both with their MP7s at the shoulder and firing short bursts, dropping more men.
As a distraction, Lynx would yell, "Schwanz!"
Eisenhower would dart in amongst the Sicilians and cause them to drop their weapons to defend themselves. Once a man was down, wrestling with the animal that was gripping his manhood, Mist would put a bullet in the man's head then call: "Tot!" and Eisenhower would move onto the next unlucky victim.
Periodically a man would fall with a large hole in his chest or head as Leon built up her body count.
Fifteen minutes later
The main road
I fired several more rounds from my Colt M4A1 Carbine before I ducked down beside the SUV.
"Still hot up there?" Voight asked as he changed the magazine in his own M4A1.
"Fuck, yeah!"
The Russians were playing hardball and several Officers were down. It was not all one-sided though, several Russians had been dropped too. I knew that Dave and Mindy were fighting the Sicilians a few hundred yards away, but apart from lots of weapons fire, I had heard nothing and I prayed that nobody was hurt.
I had seen Titan blaze through CPD lines, heading for the action. I hoped it was bringing in reinforcements.
Then over the sound of gunfire, I heard engines and beyond the Russians, I saw three large vehicles appearing. In front was Titan, followed by Iron Hide and another armoured SUV that I did not know that name of yet. They roared out of the rail yard and stopped a few yards behind the Russians. From the three vehicles, Fusion deployed.
I saw Hit Girl jump out of Iron Hide with Wildcat beside her. Kick-Ass was in the flatbed of Iron Hide and he was sending out bursts of fire from his machine gun. Then I was shocked to the core as I recognised Lynx firing a weapon, with Trojan and Mist alongside her.
What the hell, was she doing out there; the woman was almost three months pregnant! I saw my fiancée killing Russians with the rest of Fusion. The killing did not last long as the Russians soon figured out that they had been outflanked and they soon have up, throwing down their weapons.
I pushed through the mass of Cops, trying to reach Lynx, but Fusion rapidly mounted up and seemed to vanish amongst the chaos.
Safehouse F
I knew that I was in trouble, big trouble.
I had seen Marcus and it was obvious that he had seen me...
"What were you doing out there, Mom?" A very angry Megan yelled as she pulled off her mask.
"Doing what I needed to do, Megan – so keep a civil tongue in your head!" I responded.
"She has a point, Paige; you are pregnant and you were not supposed to leave Titan!" Medic exclaimed as she helped Jackal out of Iron Hide. "But arguments can wait; we need to get Hailee down to the Medical Centre."
As soon as I was back in the Safehouse, I pulled off my mask, dropping it with my weapons at the stop of the steel steps down to the lower level.
I ran down and went straight into the Medical Centre.
Hailee was lying on the table there and she was still unconscious. Her mask was off. Paige and Erika were helping Cathy to remove her armour. Sitting on a bed, in the corner was Josh with Kim winding a bandage tightly around his abdomen. Chloe was on a chair holding an ice pack to the side of her head. I could see no sign of Megan and knew that she had been hurt, too.
Fuck; what a fuck up the night had been!
I now had to call Vicki and let her know that her daughter was badly hurt. Marcus was also going to freak once he found out Paige had gone into action.
I was seething with anger.
The elevator down to the Safehouse seemed to take forever.
"Take it easy, Marcus – you don't know the circumstances..." Vicki said.
After an interminable amount of time, we excited the elevator and walked down the corridor, through another door and then through the kill zone into the Safehouse.
The place was busy, people moving purposefully around, removing combat suits, reloading and cleaning weapons. I saw Megan with Curtis and Tommy. Abby was with Marty in the Command Centre, but there was no sign of Paige or the other women.
Then I saw Mindy coming up from the lower level; she still wore her combat suit. Dave came out of the armoury having removed his own armour. Mindy saw us and headed over. Her expression told me that something was wrong.
"Don't say anything Marcus, not yet," Mindy said before turning to Vicky. "Hailee is downstairs, a grenade went off close to her – she's in a bad way..."
For a moment, I did not register what Mindy was saying, then it hit me, my daughter was hurt and she needed me.
The three of us ran down the steps to the lower level. When I entered the Medical Centre, I saw my daughter; she was out of her combat suit and just wearing shorts and her sports bra. I could see angry welts on her skin and several bloody injuries. Cathy was working with some surgical instruments, removing shrapnel from the wounds.
Cathy looked around and saw me.
"She'll be fine, Vicki; Hailee is young and she will heal."
I squeezed my daughter's hand and left the room with Marcus and Paige.
"What were you thinking?"
Marcus was mad.
"I got carried away in the moment and had to help; they were short-handed..."
"It's my fault, Marcus – I put her in danger – don't blame Paige..." Mindy cut in, coming out of the Medical Centre.
Marcus was torn between what he should do.
"God damn vigilantes!" Marcus growled and hugged his fiancée and daughter.
There was yelling coming from
The four of us ran up to the main level.
"You were hurt; I know it – get downstairs and let yourself get checked out!"
Curtis was yelling at Megan who was ignoring him.
"You were hurt! I saw you flipped through the air..." Curtis persisted.
"I'm fine..."
Tommy then poked Megan hard in the side and she screamed in pain.
"Point made!" Tommy added without any sympathy.
"I thought you had stopped hiding injuries, Megan?" I asked.
"I had – it's just a bruise..."
"Show me!" Paige ordered.
Megan hesitated, but pulled off the top of her combat suit. She was in pain just doing that, I noticed. She then lifted the bottom of her sweat-soaked t-shirt.
"Holy shit!" Marcus exclaimed.
Megan's stomach and side were badly bruised.
"Anywhere else?" I demanded.
"Mindy, I haven't looked yet..."
"Why did you disobey me, again? You and I are going to talk later, but for now – upstairs so I can check you over – move!" I was angry.
The following day
Monday
Early morning
Safehouse F
Things had settled down some.
Most had gone home. Once she had removed her combat suit, I had found that Megan was covered in bruises; her new suit had protected her from anything worse. I would talk to her later about her disobedience. Hailee was out of danger, but still unconscious. Josh and Chloe were at their apartment. Josh had bruised two ribs and he was in a lot of pain. Chloe had banged her head and had some blurred vision. Both would heal though.
Hailee was out of danger and she was resting in the Medical Centre overnight. Marcus and Vicki had left, along with Paige. Marcus was still very annoyed with Paige, but I hoped that they would be able to sort things out between them; I would hate it to be my fault that they had split up.
We had a lot of work ahead of us.
Central Chicago
"So, what happened?"
"The Sicilians and the Russians took a major hit and they ran..."
"Those fucking vigilantes?"
"All survived as far as we know..."
"We have stirred up a fucking hornet's nest – Hit Girl and Kick-Ass, along with the other members of Fusion need to die and soon!"