The following afternoon...
Wednesday, June 25th
Mindy Macready had become a landlord.
She owned two apartment blocks within Chicago. There was also an agent to manage the letting of said apartments.
The first apartment block, in Lawndale, was the smallest and Marty wanted to take an apartment in the block as it was the closest for when he started university. Mindy had therefore directed the agent to let a two-bedroom unit to Marty at a reduced rent. She had also provided cash for Marty to secure and equip his apartment so he would be able to support Fusion from there if required. Marty was expected to move in, sometime in late August.
The second apartment block, off South Cottage Grove, was a larger block and currently empty but the agent was working on some tenants. They had taken ownership of one, two-bedroom unit on the fourth floor and one, one-bedroom unit on the first floor. Both were intended to become safehouses, in the case of this block, B and C respectively. The current safehouse would become safehouse A. Building work would begin immediately to secure both apartments and equip them for Fusion. The fourth-floor apartment had access to the roof which was flat, and it was possible to move across several of the adjacent buildings over the flat roofs.
That would allow covert access to and from the safehouse.
..._...
On another positive note they had received a call from Jack Bay concerning the bank yesterday.
It seemed that the only thing the idiots did almost right, was to try and disable the CCTV but they had managed to fuck that up, too. Mindy Macready on YouTube would not be very useful. The views from the available CCTV cameras proved to be interesting when combined with the girls' ball caps and sunglasses. The only people who actually got a close up look at them were dead. Apparently, as was often the case, first hand eyewitness statements seemed to disagree. Depending on who you asked, Chloe was anything from Chinese to Caribbean with dark skin. The description for Mindy could not agree on the colour of her hair, either, plus most agreed that Chloe and Mindy were definitely adults and probably 'hookers'. Wearing ball caps might have helped but Mindy considered that maybe it was time for her dye her hair again as she had let it go back to her natural colour. She considered red...
Anyway, there was an entertaining new YouTube video that had received a decent amount of hits: 'Hit Girl and Shadow show their attitude!', plus a variant that focused on Shadow: 'Don't mess with Shadow!'. It definitely helped that they had used fake voices when we were winding up the cunts. The video showed everything that had happened, from the start of the attempted heist to the end; with Shadow stabbing 'British Accent'. Mindy had had to admit that it was very cool to watch herself in action, flipping across the desk and taking down the four men. It was the first time she had ever actually 'seen' herself in action. According to some of the comments, Shadow's stabbing was also very popular.
The favourite quotes, among others, seemed to be:
'Big gun, huh! Compensating, are we?'
'Go suck a cock!'
'You are gonna kill the most vindictive, the most sadistic, and most violent assassin out there? In your fucking dreams!'
'Okay you cunts! Let's see what you can do now!'
'I am not a fucking slut, bastard!'
The audio was not brilliant, but you could understand all that was being said.
Mindy was actually very proud of Chloe, who was a little embarrassed and dreading going home. Dave thought it was all really cool and yes, he had heard everything that went on, but he liked the video anyway.
Apparently, he enjoyed seeing Midy flipping around the place.
That evening...
Safehouse A
Chloe still seemed insecure, so Dave suggested that he take her out.
Mindy agreed as she still had wounds to heal and did not want to over-stress them anymore than she already had. Just for once, Mindy was going to be a good girl. Out of character? Yes, but she knew that it was the sensible thing to do.
At seven o'clock, Mindy grabbed Chloe and took her upstairs to her bedroom.
"Get changed, you're going out with Kick-Ass, and you leave in five minutes," Mindy said.
"Why? I'd rather stay with you," Chloe responded.
"I want you to go out and have fun. Remember, Dave has been through everything that you have, admittedly, I was a bit more harsh with him than I was with you. Talk to him and listen to what he has to say," Mindy countered.
Chloe gave in.
..._...
It was after ten and the evening was warm.
Kick-Ass and Shadow headed towards the water in BEAST where they parked up and ten minutes later were standing on the top of a twenty-seven-storey building on the South Shore, looking out across the city of Chicago. It was actually a wonderful sight, all lit up.
Kick-Ass pulled off his mask and sat down cross-legged with his back against the top of the lift shaft. Shadow did likewise and sat down opposite him.
"You know, Dave, you look super gay sitting like that."
"Funny you should say that. Years ago, I spent three months pretending that I was gay. Speak to Marty; he enjoys telling that story," Dave replied.
"I assume you aren't..."
"No, I am not gay, although some people thought I was after I was found stabbed and naked following my first outing as Kick-Ass which did not go according to plan," Dave conceded, looking rather embarrassed.
"When did you first see people die?" Chloe asked, tentatively.
"The night I told you about, at Rasul's. When Little Miss Psycho sliced and diced, showing off to me," Dave replied. "That really shook me the fuck up. I was ready to quit, right there. I was in waaaaay over my head. Didn't help when I then got a visit from two fucking nut cases."
"When did you first kill?" Chloe asked.
"The night when I rescued Hit Girl with the jetpack and Gatling guns. I shot three guys, from a distance, but it scared the hell outta me. Then of course I blew Frank D'Amico out of the window with a bazooka. There, I was closer and got to look into his eyes as he saw his own demise. I felt no emotion, at that point, but later on, it hit me. Admittedly, killing with Gatling guns or a bazooka is not very personal, but both times I did it to save somebody, somebody I owed. At that point, I felt one hundred percent responsible for Mindy's Dad's death, so I felt I had to act, to back her up and save her life... Twice," Dave elaborated. "It took me a while to start to come to terms, with what I had done. I never have got over it, really. I always hate having to kill, but in this line of work, it is necessary. Kill or be killed. Some choices suck, big time, Killing eats away at you, but I have Mindy to talk to and she knows what I am going through. I don't even want to think about how many people have died at Hit Girl's hands and I have never asked, but I believe Mindy remembers every single person that she has killed. But after ten years of killing, she is able to bury the emotions. She can be a real hard bitch, sometimes, but that is just her way of dealing with things."
"Now, this is between you and me, nobody else!" Dave cautioned. "What shocked me the most about Hit Girl, when I first met her, was how cold she was about what she did. Even when her Dad died, she never cried or showed any emotion, except maybe anger and a desire to kill me! She channelled her anger into revenge and went after Frank D'Amico. She fucked up; she wasn't thinking correctly when she acted in the heat of the moment. If she had stopped, taken an hour to collect her thoughts, then maybe she might have been able to assault Frank D'Amico, without my help. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but at the time, not very helpful. Any of that make sense?" Dave asked, finally.
"Yeah, it does," Chloe admitted, and it did.
The more she understood how Dave and Mindy operated and coped with what they did, the more she was able to reconcile herself when she was forced to kill and take part in unspeakable acts. There were times that Mindy scares Chloe, but she knew that she would never hurt her, at least not intentionally. Had she made the right choice about becoming a vigilante? So far, she did not regret it, but the time might come when she would regret her choices and actions. She had to admit that Mindy had a 'Jekyll and Hyde' personality. She could switch instantly from being sweet and lovable to being a vicious, blood-thirsty killer. Chloe aspired to be like Hit Girl, but was that what she wanted to become? She understood that Damon, Mindy's dad, had been a little unhinged, to put it politely. Mindy had only had her dad to keep her right, but Chloe had Dave and Mindy, and both were doing everything they could to help her. The partnership they had agreed on, months before, was working. Every time Chloe made a mistake, or she encountered a problem, one or other of them was there to help her. It helped a bit that her mom knew about Shadow and what she did, but Chloe could not talk to her about things, even though she know that her mom was hiding something from her, something about her past. Dave and Mindy were like a big brother and big sister to Chloe, and she felt like she could talk to them about anything.
After forty-five minutes on the rooftop, they headed down and back to BEAST.
"Kick-Ass, Battle Guy. Er... Can you come back to the safehouse."
"Problem?" Kick-Ass asked.
"Possibly," Battle Guy replied, somewhat cryptically.
..._...
Forty minutes later they pulled into the safehouse.
When the lights came back up, Kick-Ass actually considered reversing back out. On the mat were four people. Mindy looked unhappy, Marty looked concerned, Curtis was smirking, and Dr Bennett, wow; he felt scared. Kick-Ass pulled off his mask and looked down at Chloe who pulled her own mask off, very slowly.
She looked scared, too.
Safehouse A
Chloe felt herself shaking; she knew why her mom was there: she was dead.
Her life was over, she thought. Her mom would probably lock her in her room and wall up the door. Chloe got out of BEAST and moved slowly towards Dr Bennett who met her halfway. Curtis started to follow, but one look from the doctor and he retreated to hide behind Mindy.
"Where do we start?" Dr Bennett began. "'Go suck a cock!' and 'I am not a fucking slut, bastard!'. Do any of these ring a bell?"
"You saw that, did you?" Chloe said, smiling briefly.
"My daughter, the vigilante, was one thing! I know you have taken a life, more than one, in fact. But I never expected to actually see my daughter take a life, on the damn internet!"
Chloe did not dare say anything.
"I will admit, though, that you didn't have much of a choice. It wasn't your fault the bank was seized, and I did admire your bravery. I also admired the way you stood up to those bastards and considering my past experiences, I can't hold that against you. The bastard deserved what he got," Dr Bennett finished.
"So, I might just live past tonight?" Chloe asked, tentatively.
"If you keep your wits about you, like you did at the bank, then yes, you probably will. Even '...the most vindictive, the most sadistic, and most violent assassin out there...' says you were brilliant," Dr Bennett replied as she looked at Mindy, who blushed, and Dave laughed.
Chloe ran forward and gave her mom a big hug. Her mom had let something slip: 'considering my past experiences, I can't hold that against you'; what did that mean?
"Isn't it past Curtis' bedtime?" Chloe asked, smirking at Curtis, who glared back, quite effectively she thought.
Updated: June 2024