Author's Note: This is intended as a fun chapter for Christmas and yes, it rips off a certain cool movie! Enjoy...

Chicago
The John Hancock Center
41st Floor

It was the 23rd December, and we had been invited to a Christmas party.

Mindy was happily chatting with another woman, whom we knew from the school. Holly Rickman had a son in the same year as Danny and Anne-Marie. Her husband worked on the 41st floor of the John Hancock Center for some banking conglomerate that was hosting that night's party.

I was not a big fan of parties and knew that Mindy was only tolerating it because of her friend, Holly. Mindy treasured every friendship that she possessed; she had missed out on having friends for most of her life. I was starting to get annoyed with some dickhead in a thousand-dollar suit who kept trying to hit on Mindy.

I had decided to take a moment to freshen myself up – actually I needed a piss!

While I was in the bathroom, I took a moment to enjoy the silence – I had endured nearly thirty minutes of women jabbering away. Despite Mindy insisting that she did not get on with 'the Moms', she was getting on like a fire, fuel and air mixture – explosively!

..._...

Then my senses went on high alert – was that gunfire? Oh, fuck – I was in a goddamn skyscraper, at Christmas and something bad was happening – a plot for a bad movie? Actually, no, it was the plot for a fucking awesome movie! Anyway, we had a problem and I could be a part of the solution – Yippee-Ki-Yay!

There must have been some eighty people at the party and my wife was among them. We could help easily, but what about our identities? I suppose if I kept Mindy out of it, I could just Kick-Ass!

Yeah, that was funny...

Maybe not!

One of the side effects of being married to Mindy was that I had inherited some of her traits and not the good ones either – I had no need for boobs and other certain items!

I reached down and checked my left ankle – I carried a ceramic throwing knife with a six-inch blade in a scabbard. Being ceramic I had easily passed through the metal detector without incident. I also knew that Mindy was probably carrying an arsenal about her person. First things first, I needed to figure out what was happening.

I moved towards the doors from the bathroom and out into the corridor.

I was having so much fun.

Dave had actually had to pin my arm behind my back and march me to the car earlier in the evening! I was glad he did too; I could have fought him off, but a part of me wanted to socialise – it was a skill that was still new to me.

Four years earlier, Dave was my only friend – how sad was that!

Holly was great and so were her friends. Dave had started to get annoyed with an asshole called Jake, who was a total idiot, despite his expensive taste in designer suits. He kept leering at my subtle curves and exposed skin, not to mention creeping me and the other women out. Dave had wandered off to the men's room to cool off; we did not need a scene!

"What are you doing after Christmas – going anywhere?" One of Holly's friends, Rebecca, asked.

"We're hopefully going to spend a week in the Caribbean on our yacht – we all need a break..."

I was cut off as the gunfire ripped out from over by the elevators...

As I peered out into the party, I saw several armed men herding everybody together.

Some more armed men were heading towards the offices to clear them. The men threatened and swore at everybody, using intimidation tactics to overpower the men and women present. I saw two men heading in my direction, both armed with Cz Scorpion Evo 3 A1 sub-machine guns. Oh dear, it looked like I had brought a knife to a gunfight!

I dived for a door that opened up into an area for hanging up coats and shit. While I ran, I pulled out my cell and punched in the Fusion Alert code. Rather than beep, with the screen flashing green, the cell buzzed and the screen flashed red. I tried again, and again with the same result. Then I noticed the symbols at the top of the screen – there was no cell signal!

Fuck!

The men were shouting as well as shooting their Cz Scorpion Evo 3 A1 sub-machine guns.

It sounded a bit like German! I was getting a seriously bad vibe about all this – kind of reminded me of a film from way before I was born, which was one of my favourites. We were all herded into the southeast corner of the floor; many of the women were panicking, but I noticed that Holly was made of sterner stuff.

"Holly, stay close to me," I ordered and she nodded.

Under my limited dress I had a pair of throwing knives and a very small automatic pistol, a Glock 43 in a holster, up high on the inside of my thigh. It only held six rounds and I carried no spare magazines – hey it was a goddamn Christmas party for fuck's sake!

I was counting the men and I had reached fourteen, but I knew that there would be more as I could still hear gunfire on the far side of the floor. I also noticed that Dave had not returned from the bathroom. Where was he? What were his intentions? Would he do something stupid? No, I trusted him; he would know what to do.

"All of you – hands on head – now!" A voice called out and we all did as we were told.

If only they knew who they had under their weapons, just then!

I found myself by the elevators.

The buttons were red; I stabbed them, but nothing happened. The men were good, they had obviously locked out the elevators after their arrival.

"Hey!"

I turned to see a gunman aiming his Scorpion at me. I rolled as he opened fire and hit the fire-door and then started running up the fire-stairs. Up? Why not down? I had no idea why I went up – it just seemed the right thing to do!

Bullets struck the door frame as the heavy fire-door swung shut behind me.

I noticed on of the men who was not holding a weapon and seemed to be in charge.

'You are a dead man!' I thought to myself, taking a mental photo of his face.

Then a gunman appeared and spoke rapid German to his leader. The leader looked very annoyed at the news that he was receiving. He gave his man a curt order and he ran off towards the elevators. Then the leader raised his hands for silence and started to speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen..."

I left the fire-stairs at the 45th floor.

The place was like a building site with lots of exposed wires and incomplete office walls. Now, how to send out an alarm... I was interrupted when I heard the 'bong' of an elevator arriving.

A very large man stepped out of the elevator, his Scorpion held out in front of him. If I played my cards right, I might get myself an automatic weapon. I kept to the shadows, at least I was trying to until the damned asshole turned on all the goddamn lights! I was suddenly completely exposed...

I dived forwards just as the gunman saw me and he brought his weapon around to shoot me. I dodged the first burst of nine-millimetre projectiles as I dived behind a desk, the computer monitor taking the burst instead. I scooped a stapler off the desk and threw it as a diversion – and the stupid cunt turned away from me giving me the chance I needed to attack.

I drove a fist into his right side, causing him to partially double over. He dropped the sub-machine gun and turned towards me, lashing out with the fist of his right hand. I caught the blow on my lower right arm, kicking out and catching him in the right knee. He bellowed out in pain as I followed up with a punch into his stomach.

His elbow came around and caught me in the side of the head causing a burst of bright light in my head and I stumbled momentarily trying to regain my balance. I ducked as another blow was aimed at my head and I rolled backwards towards the fallen Scorpion Evo 3 but I was intercepted and missed it as he kicked out sending my skidding across the floor, away from the gun.

"Fuck!" I yelled out in frustration.

"Leck mich am arsch!" Came the crude reply. I did not speak German, but I caught the drift of the insult.

I took the moment to draw my six-inch ceramic blade from its scabbard on my lower leg. My opponent grinned as he drew his own nine-inch blade. I shrugged – size was not everything; just look at Mindy!

We circled for a moment before we began to fight.

"Fucking, Yank!" The German growled as he swung the blade forward.

I deflected it with my own, kicking out, but the man dodged and he was able to swipe at me again with his knife cutting my jacket.

"My wife would not like that!"

I slashed, catching the man in the right arm. Blood oozed from the wound but otherwise he kept moving, ignoring the pain.

'Impressive,' I thought.

Then he made a mistake and I was able to stab him in his right bicep. He yelled out and I seized his right arm, snapping it back and hearing the cartilage of his elbow cracking. I elbowed him in the side of his head and forced him to drop the blade.

I wrapped my right arm around his neck.

"You kiss my fucking ass, fritz!" I growled as I twisted his head until I heard a satisfying crack.

..._...

I pulled off my ripped jacket knowing that I would have Mindy to deal with – she had bought me the suit.

Next went my tie – I might as well fight comfortably! I retrieved my knife, cleaned it off on the dead man's clothing and returned it to its scabbard. I retrieved the Scorpion sub-machine gun and checked it still functioned correctly. There were about fifteen rounds left in the magazine. As I inspected the dead man, I found three more full magazines, two small blocks of C4 explosive, a remote detonator, a small handheld radio and a Zippo cigarette lighter.

All of the extra equipment was in a small black daysack. I stuck a spare magazine into a pocket and left the rest in the pack.

It was time for some intelligence gathering...

"I wanted this to be a professional operation, efficient – however, your boss; he will not be joining us for the rest of his life! This can go any way you want – you can walk out, or be carried out in a body bag... Have no illusions – we are in charge! Decide now, each of you..."

My mind registered the 'bong' of an elevator arriving as I listened to the 'leader' and his fairly standard demands. He was a professional, I had to give him that. His men, too. One thing – professionals were predictable. If they were mercenaries, then they most likely were soldiers – that meant that they had been trained and most soldiers the world over received the same basic training.

It was a weakness and one which could be exploited… A woman screamed and I turned instantly to search for the danger – oh fuck!

There was a dead body resting in the elevator...

At least it was not Dave... it was only a fucking terrorist!

I was lying prone on the roof of the elevator car.

The doors opened and I heard a woman scream – she must have seen the body – oops! A man entered the elevator – he looked to be the leader; he carried no obvious weapon and the other, armed, men appeared to defer to him.

I listened as they talked two feet beneath me.

"A security guard we missed?" One man inquired in English.

"They're usually retired Policemen, growing fat on a pension – no, no, no, this is something else, something different..."

The leader was obviously smart...

"We have to do something, Hans..."

"Yes, we do... We have to tell Karl that his brother is dead! Tell him to come down..."

"Karl... Herunter kommen!" A man said into a radio.

"Franco, you and Fritz take the body upstairs and out of sight; I don't want the hostages to think too much."

I looked up and saw movement on another elevator far above me.

As I watched, a gunman appeared from the elevator.

He was raging and kicking out at anything – he sent a table of food flying across the room. I smiled.

"God, that man looks really pissed!" Holly stated.

"He's still alive..." I said quietly feeling elated inside.

"What?"

"Only my husband can drive somebody that crazy!" I replied.

Other than me, of course!

I continued up to the roof and tried to use the radio that I had appropriated.

Damn! It was encrypted and required a code to be entered for use. I tried various channels but I was unable to transmit. That was when bullets came pouring in my direction – Karl, I assumed; he seemed pissed for some reason!

I returned fire with the Scorpion, being careful to conserve my limited cache of ammunition. I ran down one side of the building and found a hatch – I kicked it open and dived inside, pulling it closed behind me. There was a locking pin which I inserted into the handle, just as I heard pummelling from the other side.

I found myself at the top of a concrete staircase. I proceeded downwards, looking out for the enemy.

"Come to a party, get together, we'll have a few laughs!" I commented sardonically

..._...

Then Karl appeared.

I assumed that it was Karl – he was large and very, very pissed. He came around a corner and we both saw each other at about the exact same time which made firearms useless. He got the first punch in which sent me flying backwards – it fucking hurt like hell, too!

I dropped the Scorpion as I fell and Karl dived towards me, punching at me. I fended off many of the strikes, but not all – I had the advantage as I only felt some of the pain. I managed to kick out and Karl flew backwards into the wall. I dived after him...

"Motherfucker – I'll kill ya!"

The leader – he seemed pissed as he reappeared from an office.

He gazed around and he focussed on Holly. He strode forward and seized her arm, dragging her to her feet.

"Get your fucking hands off her!" I growled, yanking her back down to the floor. I stood up. "Take me, bastard!"

"No, Mindy..."

I shrugged off Holly's frantic hands and stepped forwards.

"Any woman in a storm...!" The leader said smoothly.

I was dragged away from the other hostages.

"I have a use for you... Mindy, did she say?"

"Yes, Mindy – but I'd prefer it if you called me Mrs Lizewski!"

"If you wish... Mrs Lizewski."

"You should have heard your brother squeal like a fucking girl as I snapped his chicken neck!"

Maybe not the best thing to say – it seemed to piss him off even further! The fight was getting nowhere; we were fairly evenly matched.

He reached for a pistol that had dropped onto the floor – Karl swiped it up and sent several shots in my direction. I rolled and dodged each one as they threw up concrete dust from the floor. I pulled my knife and flicked it back towards Karl.

Bullseye!

Karl fell to the floor, the knife dead centre in his forehead.

Now, to find the leader and the others.

I reached the 41st floor, only to find... Nobody.

All the hostages had gone – including Mindy. Think, Dave, think! What were they doing here? I checked every office and shot dead three more gunmen who had been checking each office for any stragglers. I was shocked to find a dead man in what was obviously the Boss' office. There were plans of the building arranged on a table.

I checked my weapons – oh, shit; I had two rounds left in my pistol! I checked the gunmen – their weapons were all empty – crap...

I checked the plans again; one particular page appeared to have been selected.

It appeared to be a vault...

On the 32nd floor...

We were on the 32nd floor and I was being dragged along by the man who I now knew was called Hans.

Most of his remaining men were guarding us, about six – although I thought that it may have been all of them. We stopped at a vault...

"After all your posturing, all your little speeches, you're nothing but a common thief."

"I'm an exceptional thief, Mrs Lizewski and since I'm moving up to kidnapping, you should be more polite!"

I rolled my eyes as the man went back to the vault.

..._...

"Oh, Hans!"

I snapped my head around at the sound of my husband's voice. Karl and his men did the same. Something told me that this was the endgame... I gasped as Dave came into sight and I saw the torn clothes, the blood on his face and shirt. He had a pistol raised towards Hans.

"Hi, honey!"

"Honey?" Hans echoed.

"Yeah, that is my wife and I am having a very bad day..." Dave growled back as he edged slowly closer. "Any chance that you can give me a hand here, honey – I'm feeling kinda down to two right now!"

I immediately grasped the situation – Dave only had two rounds left – there were seven gunmen, including Hans who had his own pistol a few inches from my head. The other gunmen were all reaching for their own weapons. Time to earn your keep, Hit Girl!

I thrust my head backwards, catching Hans in the nose which exploded. I rammed my left elbow into his chest and dived for the floor pulling out my pistol. I fired six times, catching six men – all headshots – and I dropped the pistol. Dave fired at Hans – two rounds. Both passed through him and hit the glass window behind him.

Hans stumbled backwards towards the window – he hit it quite hard. The glass cracked badly... It gave way and Hans fell through, but not before he caught hold of the window frame. I moved towards him and knelt down.

"Happy trails, Hans!" I growled, prising his hand off the window frame – he seized my arm.

Hans pulled out his pistol as he hung there, gripping onto my arm with his other hand. I yanked backwards and I watched with cold eyes as the man dropped the pistol and struggled to regain his grip, but he failed and he began to fall and fall.

"Yippee-Ki-Yay, motherfucker!"

I turned as I heard somebody approaching, it was Mindy.

"Where is the bastard?" she growled.

"I let him go..." I replied with a smirk.