That morning
Monday
Safehouse F
As soon as I had dropped the twins off at school, I headed down to the Safehouse to check on Hailee.
Cathy was already there and checking on the patient.
"Hi, how you feeling?" I asked.
"I hurt everywhere – my first grenade!" Hailee grimaced.
"The girl is doing well," Cathy said. "If she behaves she can go home this afternoon."
"Oh, well, she'll be here till Christmas then!" I quipped.
"Thanks, Mindy!"
"Well maybe next time I say, 'get down', you will, 'get down'!"
"Yeah, I'm sorry!"
Cathy left the room and I got serious, throwing some photos onto the bed in front of Hailee. She stared down at the photos and started to bite her bottom lip.
"What the fuck were you thinking?"
"I wanted to help you, I..."
"Not fucking good enough – you fucked up and you almost got Megan fucked up! Fucking up has consequences, Hailee and you should damn well know better. I expect Megan to disobey me; she is only eleven, but you are almost eighteen and an experienced vigilante, Petra."
I was just building up steam.
"Look at those photos – Sentinel was beaten to shit by the Sicilians and you could have been just as fucked up!"
"Mindy, look..."
"Hailee, I've fucked up too many times so I know how easy it is to ignore shit in the heat of the moment – I DO NOT want to lose anybody and I fucking hate it when anybody gets hurt. I feel like shit lecturing you, but I had to say something..."
"Mindy, I'm so sorry – I'm not used to operating in a team. It's not an excuse; I know better, but I had to say something."
"Let that be an end to it – time to move on!"
"I can live with that."
"Get better, so I can kick your fucking ass!"
That afternoon
D-JAK
I picked up the twins, Megan and Curtis from school.
We headed to D-JAK for the late afternoon session. Megan could not train, due to her bruises, but that was not going to stop me tearing her apart!
"Curtis, get Danny and Anne-Marie changed and start them off on some movements," I instructed and Curtis grimaced knowing what was about to happen.
"Nice knowing you, Megan!" He whispered.
Megan looked a little apprehensive as I led her into the back office, nodding to Paige as we passed, and closed the door – she was next!
"You know why you are here," I began. "You disobeyed me again and now you're bruised to fuck!"
"I got caught up in the moment and I should not have spoken to you like that – I wanted to help Hailee..."
"You're grounded from all Fusion activities for the next week."
"You can't do that!"
"I make the rules, bitch – you break 'em, I enforce 'em!"
"Okay – I'm sorry I let you down again, Mindy..."
"I know why you do it, Megan and I can't blame you for it – I just want to keep you alive; you're my little sister. You never let me down though; I am proud of you for what you did, you're a very brave girl."
"Mindy – now Mom is running around killing cunts, when do ya think Marcus will become a vigilante?"
I laughed.
"Somewhere in between the United States becoming British and hell freezing over!"
..._...
"Hi Paige – how did Marcus take it?"
"It wasn't easy but I think I turned him around," Paige replied and then she smiled. "A set of handcuffs helped..."
"Oh I did not just hear that!"
I left Paige rather quickly...
As I headed over towards the twins, I stopped to say hello to Lauren and Lizzie who were practicing their movements on the mat with Kyle.
"How you doing, girls?"
"Brilliant, thanks Mindy!"
..._...
"Okay, you two," I said to the twins in a corner of D-JAK beside a pair of hanging punch bags. "If you get annoyed, if you fell emotions building up inside you, emotions of fear, grief, anger, pain and a whole host of those other emotions – you use those emotions. Turn them around and turn them into energy and put that energy behind your punches."
They both punched the bags – just not hard enough for me.
"Think of something that really makes you mad..."
Anne-Marie punched the bag hard and her face was full of concentration.
"Put your grief, everything bad into that punch, focus and punch..."
While Danny was doing well, Anne-Marie was doing better – she obviously had quite a lot of pent up emotions!
"So, Anne-Marie, what emotion did you use?" I asked.
"You grounding me!" She replied with a smug grin.
I laughed.
That evening
I was walking Sophia along with Anne-Marie.
We would walk in a large square, each evening and we knew the route by heart. We often met our neighbours, one of whom was Bill Wright and his wife Beth who, besides thinking that Anne-Marie was cute as a button, also had a very handsome German Shepherd, called Rex, who had a thing for Sophia!
Usually, they just played and chased each other, only this time they both vanished into the bushes followed by Anne-Marie. There was a scream and Anne-Marie came running back out again, her face very red.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Rex is banging Sophia!"
"Okay – why would you think that?"
"Mindy – I may be seven, but I'm not stupid, besides Megan showed me a YouTube video of two dogs 'at it'..."
The girl actually used her fingers to accentuate 'at it'!
"Okay, I need to have a word with Megan about what is appropriate for you two to watch...!"
Just then, the two dogs reappeared and they both looked very pleased with themselves...
The following night
Tuesday
North Central Chicago
I was fucking pissed.
It had to have been the Superintendent; he had set up the attack – it had to have been him. That bastard almost cost us our lives – he had almost caused the death of Josh, Hailee and Megan... I also knew why – the bastard wanted us to target him and then the whole CPD and the City would be gunning for us.
We had other ideas though to take down that bastard – Marty and Abby were busy with round one.
Dave and I had taken great joy earlier that evening watching as the Superintendent's credit card was destroyed before his very eyes. Marty had hacked into the Superintendent's schedule, and he had found out where the bastard was having dinner that night, with his wife and he had booked us a table... his wife was both humiliated and pissed!
Oh yes, they did the, err 'personal ads' bit, too!
Remember what Abby had wanted to call herself when she first joined us during The Week of Hell? 'Zero Cool' or 'Acid Burn'. She was a big fan of 'Hackers' and so was Marty – I will admit that I had watched the movie once or twice, too...
'MESS WITH THE BEST – DIE LIKE THE REST!'
..._...
While Marty and Abby were having fun with the Superintendent, they were also identifying the Superintendent's men and gathering key evidence against the Superintendent. The most important thing was for his men to be taken down by the CPD – Voight had that task along with Marcus.
Not that we did not intimidate them – we started to follow them around the City, stopping the various nefarious schemes that they were involved with; we must have hurt the Superintendent's cash flow more than a little!
Some of his men were freaked out by seeing a masked vigilante almost everywhere that they went; we made ourselves known so they had no choice but to behave.
We did however have a brush with the Sicilians again!
The bullet came out of nowhere and collided with Kick-Ass' back armour.
"What the fuck?" He demanded as he span around.
"We have some unfinished business!" A man shouted with a strong Italian accent.
There were eight men, all sporting firearms.
"Do you really want to do this?" Kick-Ass went on.
"We do."
"Your funeral!"
Bullets flew as I crouched down behind Kick-Ass, taking advantage of his heavier armour. As silence descended, I span from behind Kick-Ass and emptied both pistols into the men. The first few rounds shoved them back, but did not put them down; they were wearing body-armour – nobody said they were stupid!
I altered my aim, but not before the men began to fan out and I was only able to drop three. Kick-Ass had turned and drawn his own Glock pistols. He caught one man in the thigh as he dove for cover before advancing on the remaining four men as they took cover behind their SUVs.
I decided enough was enough and after checking that there were no innocents around I pulled the rings from two grenades, rolling them under the SUVs.
"Violent bitch!" Kick-Ass growled as he casually walked away from the SUVs.
I looked back just as the grenades exploded and I was suddenly awe-struck with the most amazing image of Kick-Ass in his new combat suit casually walking towards me as the two SUVs seemed to take off vertically behind him in a violent orange cloud of flame and destruction.
I was fangirling!
It was rare, but that night we had collateral damage, despite our best efforts.
As I went to re-join Hit Girl in Hound, I noticed something in the shadows. It was easy to miss and I almost ignored it, but something made me investigate.
"Hit Girl, hold up – I may have something here!" I called.
"Whattaya got big guy?" Mrs Kick-Ass asked.
What I had, was a young girl, lying on her side against a wall. She was unconscious and possibly a victim of the fight. Something told me that this was not just an ordinary young girl and an image of a certain apartment and a certain other young girl came unbidden into my mind.
The girl was dressed in black jeans, a black t-shirt, black boots and a black leather jacket that was unzipped. I placed my gauntlet onto her chest and could feel the rise and fall of her breathing; however, my gauntlet came away wet.
"She's hurt!"
I briefly checked her over and found a gash in her t-shirt from a knife, and what might be a close shave from a bullet. I also found something else that surprised me, and which proved that the girl was not just some innocent bystander. The young girl, and she was very young – younger than Mindy was when I had first met her, was wearing a shoulder harness and under her left arm was a small pistol, hanging in a holster. Under her right arm were two spare magazines. I also found a knife, mounted vertically, on the back of the harness as I picked her up.
I gently placed her onto the back seat of Hound and we headed back to Safehouse F.
Safehouse F
As soon as Hit Girl slammed on the brakes, I dived out and carried the girl down to the Medical Centre.
Cathy was on her way in, but she was still ten minutes out. Marty had the Medical Centre up and running ready for us. I placed the girl on the table and pulled off my mask and gauntlets, Mindy came through the door and started to wash her hands; I joined her. We both pulled on some rubber gloves and I removed the girl's jacket and shoulder harness. Marty took the shoulder harness and weapons to the armoury for safekeeping.
The girl was short and slim, under four and half feet and she had long blonde hair, which was currently in a ponytail. I pulled off her boots while Mindy started to cut away her t-shirt to get a better look at the girl's wounds.
The t-shirt was soaked in blood and her pale skin was awash with it. The slash across her stomach was oozing fresh blood and there was a bullet wound, which appeared to be just a flesh wound on her left side. Initially Mindy and I just covered the wounds to keep then clean and stop too much blood loss. There was bruising and some cuts to her face, but nothing a few days rest would not fix.
That was when Cathy and Chloe arrived. Cathy immediately took over treating the wounds with Chloe's help, while Mindy and I both headed upstairs to change and shower.
I awoke with a start.
I struggled to open my eyes; I felt weak.
Everything was dark, I tried to move and then I felt a searing pain coming from my stomach and left side, which had me gasping for air as tears fell down my face. My face felt bruised too. What was happening to me? Where was I? I reached down to my stomach, fearful of what I might find. I felt bare skin and then a soft material that was wrapped tightly around my stomach – a bandage.
As my eyes started to focus, I could see a dim light being emitted by a fitting on the wall. I was in a room that looked and smelled like a hospital – yes, I had been wounded before. I listened, but I could hear no ambient sounds, just the hum of the air conditioning. If I was still in the City, then I must be underground, which also fitted in with the fact that there were no windows in evidence.
I gently pushed back the sheet covering me and swung my feet over the side of the bed. I was at least wearing my knickers, but nothing else. I looked around the room and saw my clothes neatly hanging on a chair.
Ignoring the sharp jolt of pain, I slid off the bed and looked for my weapons. Not surprisingly, they were missing; however, my jeans, boots, socks and leather jacket were on the chair. My t-shirt was missing and so was the knife that normally lived in my right boot – bastards!
It took an age to pull on my clothes. Without a t-shirt, I zipped up my jacket to cover my chest – not that there was anything to cover. Once I was dressed, I hesitantly reached for the door handle and turned it, fully expecting the door to be locked.
To my surprise, the door opened as I pulled it towards me.
..._...
I was in a passageway.
There was only one way to go – to the right. At the end of the corridor was another door, again it was unlocked. I found myself in a kind of vestibule.
The door I had just passed through had a sign: 'Medical Center', which seemed logical. To my left was another door that read: 'Power/Generator/Pyro Store'. That door also had the usual 'DANGER – ELECTRIC SHOCK WARNING' type signs, plus a palm scanner for access. To my right was another door that had large bolts on the outside of it; the sign read: 'Interrogation & Holding'.
Ominous!
The other doors seemed to lead to couple of storerooms and all had palm scanners beside them. The final wall, farther to my right, was mostly glass and through the glass, I could see a Martial Arts training centre. Even more important, I could see Jō-staffs and other potentially lethal weapons in a rack off to one side. However, the glass door was locked with a palm scanner too!
All that was left were some steel stairs that led upwards.
..._...
I crept up the stairs, slowly and quietly.
Once I could see the next floor, I stopped and looked around. There was limited lighting, as according to the clock in the Medical Centre, it was shortly after three in the morning. As I emerged into what appeared to be a large cavern, I stopped dead.
I was roughly mid-way down the cavern. Behind me was there was a large vehicle-sized steel door and some large vehicles. I instantly recognised Iron Hide, not to mention the pair of Ducati Panigale motorcycles, one in blue and the other a purple colour and a larger motorcycle in black, yellow and green. They were parked behind an eight-foot tall armoured glass shield that ran across the available width of the forty-foot wide cavern and had a large six-foot tall figure '1' on it. The top of the shield was angled over at forty-five degrees away from me, to prevent anybody climbing the structure from the far side. The floor of the 'cavern' was ribbed steel and concrete.
Beside me was a large training mat and in front of me, at the end of the cavern and over to the left was a glass-enclosed room that housed computer equipment and large flat screens. It was obviously a Command Centre. Immediately beside the Command Centre was an external steel staircase leading up.
The staircase provided access to a walkway, which ran around the central section of the cavern and provided access to a number of rooms on the second level. There was another steel staircase, which came down behind me. The walkway was about ten feet off the ground and ringed with a steel and glass barrier that rose to a level of three and a half feet and the walkway itself was made of steel, but appeared to have a foam rubber covering. There were various doors, visible, that led off the walkway into rooms, with unknown purposes. The ceiling and some of the walls had foam rubber sections that I presumed were designed to reduce the echo in the cavernous room.
..._...
"So, you're awake!"
It was a statement more than a question.
I looked up to see a masked person looking down at me from the walkway that ran over the training mat. I kept my eyes on the person as they walked around the walkway and then down the stairs, behind me.
"Hi, I'm Shadow."
I said nothing, I just glared – I knew exactly who she was in her armoured combat suit.
"You're injured; you should be in the Medical Centre – in bed!"
I rolled my eyes and Shadow laughed.
"What do we call you?"
"They call me Psyche…" I offered, looking around and playing for time as I got to grips with the facility.
Shadow was watching my eyes.
"We're here to help you, Psyche."
"I want out of here..."
"Look, I know you're scared; I've been in your position, waking up somewhere strange and not knowing what the hell is going on..."
"I am not bloody scared!"
"Have it you way, then…" Shadow replied. "You're British, aren't you?"
"What of it?"
"Nothing – I have only good things to say about the Brits – honest!"
I had had enough gossiping – I flew for Shadow. I kicked out, catching Shadow in the chest and sending her backwards. She regained her posture, but did not attack.
"Come on, you muppet, do something useful!" I growled.
"I don't want to hurt you..." Shadow began.
"Your loss, tosser!" I called out as I span, kicking Shadow in the side of her head.
Shadow fell to her side, still not attacking.
"Pillock!"
Then I paused as a searing pain burst out in my stomach and I was forced to wrap both arms around myself. The pain was immense as I fell to my knees and then I fell onto my side. I heard voices.
A woman's voice: "Quick, get her back downstairs..."
I felt hands rolling me onto my back and then my jacket was unzipped. I was in too much pain to resist.
A man's voice: "She's bleeding again – her bandages are soaked!"
Shadow's voice: "Take it easy with her – she's hurting..."
Then I heard nothing more as I sank into blackness.