《Angel and Wolf: Open War》


 Introduction

    The little girl hid behind her bed, terror coursed through her being. Though little, she wasn¡¯t exactly a child. Underage, but that didn¡¯t stop him. The man had cased the house for a few days, waiting for a window of opportunity to get to the girl. They went to a conference and wouldn¡¯t be back for quite a while, which gave him the opportunity to visit her, to physically explore, touch, violate and defile her.


    He stood outside her bedroom and grabbed the door handle. Unlocked, the door opened quite easily. He walked in with a smile and looked towards the girl. Though she sat against the wall in terror, she was frozen. Fear induced paralysis had set in when she realized that this wasn''t a burglary. The man walked over to her as if he was simply going to put her in a shopping basket. Grabbing her by the neck, he stood her to her feet and peered his eyes to her full figured breasts that were identifiable even through her loose t-shirt. He put his hand on the side of one and began breathing a little heavier. "These are great," he mumbled, "now I''m gonna see them bounce when we do the sex thing."The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    The girl began hyperventilating, her hands shaking, she tried to scream but the man put pressure on her neck as she opened her mouth to make noise.


    With no warning, the glass of a nearby window shattered. "Excuse me motherfucker!" Was the last thing that the man heard before he was airborne.

 Chapter 1: Retrospective

    Michael lay quietly on a roof with his weapon, a customized post conversion clone of an old marksman rifle. Though outwardly it appeared to be a Mk12 Special Purpose Rifle with its 18 inch match barrel and elevated top rail with the variable power optic mounted, it had one critical difference; this one was chambered in .300 Blackout.


    He lay in position on the roof in a small run down neighborhood, still populated by people, that had little to no police presence. Someone was hiding here, and Michael was planning to flatline them quietly and leave without disturbing the locals. He had studied the individual enough to know that they would arrive at an address some time during the hours of darkness. He sat two hundred meters away, and had a getaway car staged under a tarp. His plan was to put a shot in the brain stem and leave.


    Chicago, a landmark city with a diverse range of social classes and a contrast between the thriving inner city and the rotting outer suburbs awaiting renovations and restructuring. With the state having let go of many gun control laws, the private citizens had armed up and defied the old criminal chokehold that once gripped the population. The shot-spotter never left, as it was still hailed by many as a way to discourage irresponsible behavior with firearms. This system could detect gunfire around the city and automatically notify the authorities with a dot on a map. On some days, it could get the police with a street of the point of origin, and others it could get the police within a meter.


    Michael had subsonic ammunition racked into his rifle, but the system had detected silenced weapons before. He could take absolutely no chance, and knew that once he fired his first shot, he had five minutes to be gone. He glanced around while keeping a specific point in view.


    Meanwhile, Lani looked around in all the other directions and made sure that nothing would compromise their position. She was lightly equipped, being that she didn¡¯t really expect to get into much firefighting during this mission. She simply had her USP9 in a plastic holster sitting just below her belt. She wore athletic figure hugging pants with reinforced knees, and a dark red hoodie under her low profile plate carrier.


    Beyond the basics, Lani was what was officially titled an Enhanced Individual of Power. Having stumbled into a power crystal that chose her, she was given an immense amount of strength and speed. The crystal also gave her something else, as it was the second half of the same crystal that gave Michael the same capability.


    The little known fact about two people being enhanced by the same crystal, is that the second person would have an insight into the mind of the first one. Lani had seen into Michael, not knowing who he was. Before being put in place with him as his housekeeper, Lani had a couple months of training in martial arts, firearms handling and some introductory level lessons in tactics.


    Michael, having been enhanced many years prior while serving in the United States Army, he had much more time and experience to hone his craft of hunting, killing, fighting and causing problems for bad people. During his time, however, he hadn¡¯t encountered any other Enhanced Individuals of Power. For the longest, he believed he was the only one until a brutal attack nearly succeeded in killing him. One where two enhanced men had tried to follow him home, it was only because he was the superior killer that he prevailed and made it home where he collapsed and was treated back to health by Lani, who had been keeping it a secret until that time that she was also enhanced.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    The existence of enhanced individuals became public knowledge when others who had stumbled upon power crystals that had not been met by government agents shortly afterwards had decided to use their newfound capabilities for the purposes of terrorism. Others simply didn¡¯t care about fighting or doing good or bad to anybody. These folks typically found jobs in warehouses or mundane labor that could make benefit from how strong they were. Then you have people like Michael, the type of person who could never put the gun down even years after he hung up his uniform.


    Michael knew that the world was a horrible place, but he also knew that sitting on the sidelines wasn¡¯t an option for him. Not as long as other individuals with this great power he had were out there willing to hurt others for the show of force simply to exert some kind of dominance over others. Having retired from his time in the army, he set about wrecking life for horrible people such as pedophiles, rapists, drug distributors, terrorists and others who did disgusting things to other people.


    Lani only knew what little she read about the world in her orphanage years ago, as well as how much she cared for Michael. Michael was not on a path of self destruction, but Lani had seen him get so focused that he forgot to care for his own well being. She knew that he had seen horrors, and had been through some life traumas in his years, but he held it together much more of the time than most people with issues like his. Having had to patch him up after his first time fighting against enhanced enemies, there was one thing she was grateful she never had to put up with. Michael treated her with respect. It took a couple displays of her proficiency with violence, and for him to realize that he couldn¡¯t fight alone anymore, for the big brother to accept that the little sister wasn¡¯t some damsel.


    Michael focused through the scope, a light had just come on in the house he was watching. After a few more minutes, the door opened. His window was about to present itself, but he was interrupted by a grabbing sensation on his leg.


    ¡°Michael, we got a creep in that house across the street.¡± Lani said whispering urgently.


    ¡°Now?¡± Michael muttered, knowing that he had to take this shot.


    ¡°He¡¯s in the room with her,¡± Lani started frantically barking through her whispers. Her teeth clenched, ¡°He¡¯s grabbing her!¡±


    The target stepped onto the front porch. Michael fired a single shot. It landed in the targets neck. Michael turned to Lani and nodded, ¡°go,¡± he said softly, knowing what would happen now that he had effectively unleashed an animal.


    As Michael got back on glass to observe his target fall, Lani leapt from her spot to the yard across the street. A second movement got her to the window. Michael fired one more shot into the targets head to ensure that it stayed dead. He had four minutes and fifty seconds to get gone.

 Chapter 2: Direct Action

    Lani leapt through the window as she observed the man with his hand cupping the teens breast, as he choked her screams away. ¡°Excuse me motherfucker!¡± she shouted as she made her way through the glass of the window and snatched the man by his belt, throwing him towards the window. As the man slammed his way through the rest of the window glass and down from the second floor to the ground, Lani gave a look to the girl, a soft smile. She said no words to her before leaping back out the window and landing next to her prey.


    Michael shoved his equipment into the back seat of his getaway vehicle. An old suburban, armor fitted with a ballistic windshield, armored seats and some blast proofing in the undercarriage. The engine was very well customized to efficiently move this metal box at high rates of speed. The fuel tank was enhanced beyond the normal 40 gallons of diesel that it was meant to hold, though Michael had stored fifteen spare gallons of fuel on board. The reinforced run-flat tires were dual purpose, for highway comfort while being able to leave pavement at will. He hadn¡¯t lifted the truck, though it naturally sat high enough to cross country his ride as he saw fit. He started it up, with the soft purr of a well silenced diesel that it made with the high end muffling technology that he had installed to keep his truck from being the attention getter that most super trucks were.


    He came around the corner to see Lani kicking the ribs in on this man who had just been thrown through the window. He could hear Lani¡¯s loud roaring voice as she loomed over her prey. ¡°I¡¯m gonna do what I want with you!¡± ¡°You¡¯re too weak to stop me!¡± ¡°You¡¯re so cute on the ground!¡± and ¡°Shut the fuck up with that crying shit!¡± resounded clearly through the air of at least four front yards.


    Michael noticed the front door looked as though it had been forced into. He looked up to see the young girl sticking her head out to watch Lani brutalize the almost-rapist. He got out of his vehicle and walked briskly into the house and up to the girl. The girl stood there looking at Michael with confusion. He spoke softly to her, ¡°This wasn¡¯t your fault, you didn¡¯t ask for this.¡±


    The girl began to sob as she nodded. ¡°Thank you,¡± she managed to say as she pushed words through tears.


    ¡°You have to call the police,¡± Michael said sternly, ¡°They have to know what happened.¡±


    The girl shook her head. ¡°No, I can¡¯t do that,¡± muttering through stammered words and more tears, ¡°your friend,¡±


    Michael interrupted. ¡°We¡¯re effectively exempt from the battery charge someone might get.¡± They weren¡¯t, but they had more ways to stay out of trouble than the average person. ¡°We¡¯re trained to know when to intervene, and you definitely needed intervention.¡± This was another lie, but Michael had to bullshit this girl so she¡¯d do the right thing and keep herself from being silenced by fear. He turned and left quickly, he had one minute to be gone.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Lani looked deep into the man''s eyes as he sobbed and struggled to breathe. ¡°You¡¯re lucky,¡± she said through her teeth as she scowled hatefully at him, ¡°I have reservations to be somewhere or I¡¯d make ¡®spit on your grave¡¯ look like a goddamn family movie!¡± She cocked her foot back and kicked the man in his head. In field goal fashion, his head detached and smashed into the door frame of the teen girls house. Lani grinned with excitement as she turned and got in the suburban.


    Michael accelerated down the street as he handed Lani a towel and a plastic bag to clean the blood from her shoes. He scanned the area in front of himself as he drove the lightly enforced speed limit out of the neighborhood. The target was killed, a child was preserved and they were gone before law enforcement could respond to the potential shot-spotter alert.


    As the suburban drove away, gray in color with minimal noise for its size, someone had watched from the safety of obscurity. This was not a child, but she had a very youthful face and long black hair. She was barely over five feet tall, and had very slender dimensional measurements. She wore a dark blue dress that reached just below her knee, with high topped cloth boots that reached the edge of her dress. What couldn¡¯t be seen was the black yoga style leggings underneath, or the blades that sat on her hips. Her skin was pale, her eyes were black and her face was void of emotion. She wore no kind of makeup, and the only decorative thing she did was wear a black bow in her hair.


    She watched the entire incident, and stood in dead silence with perfect stillness. Many things were going through her mind, but an observer would never know that she was capable of thought, much less movement. After watching the suburban leave the area, her lips parted and a word escaped in a whisper. ¡°Home.¡±


    In the meantime, Michael continued to put a great amount of distance between his vehicle and the area they had just left behind. He glanced over to Lani as she cleaned off her boots. Thoughts and words stirred, he struggled to pick which ones to say. Lani looked up at him and started giggling. ¡°Michael,¡± she said softly, ¡°you have that look.¡±


    He raised an eyebrow and wondered. ¡°The fuck are you talking about?¡± he asked in a low tone.


    ¡°You¡¯re doing that thinking thing that you act like you don¡¯t do.¡± She handed him a water bottle with the lid removed. ¡°You need this,¡± she said with a gentle sternness, ¡°then I can give you caffeine.¡±


    ¡°What we need,¡± Michael began to say as he took the water, ¡°is to get in contact with dipshit and let him know that the chief distributor of that stupid hyperdrug is in the next life without a brain stem.¡± He drank the water down almost instantly before crushing the bottle down and putting the lid back on it. He turned on the music and smiled. ¡°I¡¯m proud of you Lani.¡±


    Lani was caught off guard. Simple emotional expressions were not easy for Michael, which meant to her that if he was saying this, that he was thinking about something. ¡°Yeah?¡± she answered, ¡°what are you proud of?¡±


    ¡°If I didn¡¯t have you with me, that girl would have suffered a fate worse than death.¡± Michael uttered this in a flat tone, locking his eyes forward. He had begun to take deep considerations on their next move while Lani sent an encrypted message to Bernard.

 Chapter 3: Soured with Age

    Years before


    Around the same year that Michael had retired from his time in the Army, he was doing some contract work to facilitate security operations. More specifically, he was aiding in personal protection. During the period known as the Time of Secrecy, when Michael was the only enhanced individual that was known to exist, he had to prevent himself from being put in any situation that would cause him to be forced to show his abilities in public. This meant that he could not stand next to a VIP and perform physical interventions. Instead, he had to be a stalking shadow and intercept enemies without drawing attention to himself.


    He wore a radio with an earpiece, with a dark gray suit. He wore black boots, and his belt was a reinforced leather belt with nearly a duty belt worth of items on it. A Glock 17 sat in a kydex holster, equipped with a flashlight and a dot sight. He wore two spare magazines, which was pretty normal. Next to the gun was a fixed karambit blade with three and a half inches of edge. Behind the spare pistol mags on his non dominant hip was a 30 round Pmag with ammo for a shortened M4 that waited for him in a bag in a staged point at the venue. The rifle had a nine inch barrel, but with the silencer adding seven inches back to the length, it was effectively a 16 inch barrel. This meant that he could not just wear it on his back since he had to look unimportant.


    Michael was ordered to roam around and seek out threats. He was also on hand to lend support in the event that something catastrophic took place. He had a diplomat who was visiting a work office to interview someone about matters that meant nothing to Michael. Your business is yours, he thought to himself, I¡¯ll just keep you safe while you do it.


    However, he had a secondary objective. There was a woman he needed to keep occasional tabs on. Nobody could state what she was or why she mattered, but it was something to do while roaming around. Fair enough. The woman had blonde hair, a heavily endowed chest and seemingly athletic legs in a blue dress. She seemed to be well aware of her figure as she dressed to display. Her hair was tied in dual pigtails, her front was low cut and her waistline was slimmed with a waistband under her dress. This made her very easy to keep track of, though her demeanor and personality didn¡¯t seem like someone who conducted any kind of business that would make her a target. She walked and talked politely, she didn¡¯t lean herself at anyone in particular, she didn¡¯t partake in the alcohol available, and she didn¡¯t hold anyone''s hand. Not a wife or girlfriend of anybody?


    She was not the VIP, and he saw no reason why his handler cared so much about this woman. The diplomat had white pants and a black jacket with a yellow tie. This man apparently hadn¡¯t been told that it¡¯s okay for all three pieces to match, but this made him easier to identify. He was also the only one surrounded by big men in black suits with MP7¡¯s hanging off their arms. He would glance over to the woman occasionally, but he mainly focused on the VIP and the areas around the building where intruders might slip into the building. The outside of the building didn¡¯t have outward security since the people running things didn¡¯t want to give away to any observers that there were things inside worth taking an interest in.


    Michael made rounds, though Bernard hadn¡¯t given him a detailed route. This was ideal because it meant that his movements wouldn¡¯t become predictable. Being paid to roam around a building with a gun and maybe shoot people, most people dreamed of such assignments. Things stirred in Michaels mind however, because something felt not right about something that he couldn¡¯t quite figure out.


    ¡°Heya bud,¡± a voice crackled through his earpiece, ¡°time for your radio check.¡±


    Michael said nothing.


    ¡°Heya, buddy,¡± the voice spoke again after a moment of no reply.


    Michael moved to an isolated room and spoke into the mic fitted in his wrist. ¡°Last calling station,¡± he said quietly, ¡°Nobody on this freq goes by the callsign Bud-Dee, over.¡±


    A moment went by before the voice replied. ¡°I¡¯m not calling you that name,¡± the man on the other end spoke. ¡°Your self appointed name is stupid and I won¡¯t play along with it.¡±


    Glaring at literally nothing, Michael replied. ¡°I guess you¡¯ll never know if my radio works or if I¡¯m paying attention.¡±


    ¡°Ess solver, you there?¡± the voice responded.


    ¡°I don¡¯t understand you,¡± Michael snapped, ¡°don¡¯t make me lecture you about radio etiquette!¡±


    ¡°Why won¡¯t you cooperate with me and just admit that things are okay?¡± the voice said.


    Michael waited. This time he gave no reply. He began walking downstairs to a booth where a man waited for a radio reply that wasn¡¯t coming. He found Bernard and glared him down, knife-handing in his direction, his hand held at eye level to indicate that he was genuinely pissed off.


    ¡°Michael, please,¡± Bernard said nervously, ¡°I don¡¯t wanna cuss on a radio.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t come as far as I have,¡± Michael barked through his teeth, ¡°to have some unserving little fuck mouth off at me and rectal-dive the shit out of a radio check that you¡¯re not even meant to initiate!¡±


    ¡°Hey!¡± Bernard barked back, ¡°I tell YOU what to do!¡± he tried with failing effort to establish dominance he never had.


    Michael stepped within an inch of Bernards face. ¡°Handler,¡± he growled, ¡°Not commander. Got it?¡± Michael waited for him to reply. His teeth gritted harder, his hard exhale through his nose pressured the room with tension, even the young booth operator who stood watching the exchange trembled. Michael noticed.


    Bernard swallowed and began to speak, ¡°I¡¯m a human be-¡±


    ¡°Barely,¡± Michael barked in interruption. ¡°I¡¯m due for my radio check in seven minutes. Don¡¯t use that computer clock to determine time, that thing is off by forty seven minutes.¡± Michael turned to leave the room, pausing to look at the young guard. ¡°You ever do a radio check before?¡±If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    The guard nodded, ¡°I dunno if you would have liked it though,¡± he replied nervously.


    Michael grinned, ¡°in six and a half minutes you¡¯ll hear what it¡¯s supposed to sound like.¡± He walked back to his route quickly, finding his way to a room he hadn¡¯t been in. He looked at his watch. Having taken his time, he was down to five seconds. Those seconds elapsed.


    Michael keyed his radio. ¡°Bunnyboy, shit-solver,¡± he spoke with cynical confidence in his voice, ¡°radio check, over?¡±


    A moment went by before Bernard responded. ¡°Shit-solver, Bunnyman, loud and clear, over and out.¡±


    Michael scrunched his face from the cringiness of that transmission. He was ready to go toss someone through a window but he knew that would distract him from doing his job. He turned to resume his walk when she appeared in his path. The woman in the blue dress approached him with a soft smile.


    ¡°I¡¯ve noticed you,¡± she said in a calm friendly voice, ¡°You look my way and say nothing to me. Who are you?¡±


    Michael paused, near frozen, he turned his head slightly to reveal the tell-tale earpiece on the side of his head. He hoped that this would answer her question, but she still looked at him as if she expected a response. Realizing that nonverbal answers weren¡¯t gonna be accepted, he spoke up. ¡°I¡¯m part of the security detail.¡±


    She giggled faintly, stepping a little bit closer to him. ¡°I¡¯m Sarah,¡± she said quietly, ¡°I own the building.¡± Sarah put a hand on Michaels elbow and ran her thumb along his bicep. ¡°Did your supervisor ask you to keep an eye on me?¡±


    Michael raised an eyebrow. Outside of work hours, he would gladly let this woman lead him to a closet somewhere to make some intimate irresponsibilities with her. Or, with how out of place all of this felt to him, he¡¯d jerk his arm away from her and storm off to preserve his self respect. He did not perceive himself as a good looking guy, nor did he think that he had any kind of charm about himself whatsoever. He saw himself as the most boring option on the buffet line out of all the big bad dudes roaming around that she could go put moves on. Why the fuck have you taken an interest in me? His paranoid thoughts began rumbling and making internal noises inside his head.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay,¡± she whispered, ¡°you¡¯re the only one who hasn¡¯t looked at me like I¡¯m a fuck-toy.¡±


    Michael slowly took a breath, his calm coming back to him. ¡°I have things to check on.¡± he said as he moved to step around her and continue on his walk. Gradually increasing his pace, he walked down the hallway as Sarah peeked around the corner and watched him stride away.


    An hour went by.


    Michael rounded a corner and saw Sarah standing in a man''s arms. This wasn¡¯t a hug, because the man held a knife against the back of her head. Michael drew his weapon and aimed for the head of the man who had just begun sinking the knife into her. Michael fired one shot which struck the man''s temple. He was dead before he hit the ground, but he wasn¡¯t in time to save the woman.


    As Sarah fell to the ground, Michael keyed on the radio, ¡°Second floor, homicide, perp is down.¡±


    Down on the first floor, the meeting with the diplomat was abruptly ended. The security team with him immediately began rushing him to an exit vehicle. Men began grabbing their rifles from hard cases in ready rooms and clearing the rest of the building. The exits and fire escapes were locked down and nobody could get in or out. In under a minute, the building became inescapable.


    Michael jumped from the balcony that overlooked the lobby and grabbed a first floor ledge. Making his way to a ready room there, he grabbed his rifle and the chest rig that were staged. Donning the rig and slinging the rifle, he made his way to the surveillance booth on the second floor. On his way he encountered Bernard.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on!?¡± Bernard shouted as he flailed his arms about.


    ¡°That blue dress woman got stabbed in the head,¡± Michael barked back, ¡°got the motherfucker responsible.¡±


    ¡°Sarah¡¯s dead?¡± Bernard asked. Before Michael replied, he realized something about Bernard''s voice. He didn¡¯t seem very concerned that she was dead, but simply seemed to want to hear it again that she was in fact dead.


    Are you in some kind of denial? Michael asked in his own mind without actually saying any words. He walked back to the body upstairs and led Bernard to the body.


    After a moment of staring uselessly at both bodies, Bernard shrugged. ¡°At least we got our VIP out quick.¡±


    At this point Michael was unable to hold back his suspicions. ¡°How¡¯d that knife get in this building?¡± he asked with the full intent of accusation. Before anyone could answer, Michael piped up. ¡°Everyone was searched, right?¡± He began rummaging through the dead killers pockets. He found a concealment configured duty belt that was very close in resemblance to a police officer. There was a Glock 22, spare magazines, handcuffs, a flashlight, and a can of pepper spray. Michael dug deeper in the pockets and found a wallet. In that wallet was a badge and identification papers. He looked closely at the document. Since when do we let the FBI around our shit? That was the thought that began bouncing around in his head. They¡¯re unreliable, easily compromised, perfect pawns.


    Michael stood up and held up the ID and badge. He walked down to the lobby where some of the senior members of the security detail were waiting for people to intercept. ¡°Since when do we have the FBI involved?¡± he asked loudly. ¡°Why is there a Field Agent that we never cleared to be here, lying dead on the floor next to a murdered woman?¡± he looked around for someone to answer. Most of the reactions were of shock, surprise, and a couple faces of anger.


    ¡°We don¡¯t have FBI here,¡± one of the guards replied.


    ¡°Well he got in somehow,¡± Michael barked, ¡°He sank a knife into a womans neck,¡± he continued, now at a raging shout, ¡°Why the fuck was I not informed of his presence!?¡± He turned and threw the badge at Bernard. It hit him in the eyebrow.


    Bernard fumbled about as he tried to catch the badge holder. ¡°Are you out of your mind?¡± he tried asking. ¡°That could have taken out my eye!¡±


    ¡°I could take the entire face if you like,¡± Michael growled. ¡°You¡¯re the only one here who could have bypassed someone through security.¡±


    Bernard fell silent. Michael had said something that hit his nerve and prevented him from saying something bureaucratic. He stared back at Michael with no words to utter.


    ¡°What did you gain from her death?¡± Michael asked, now standing inches from Bernard.


    ¡°She was a liability,¡± Bernard finally piped up. ¡°She could have learned something, or said something.¡±


    Michaels teeth clenched, his head got slightly dizzy with rage. ¡°You mean to tell me,¡± he said through a snarl, ¡°that you arranged for Sarah''s death,¡± he grabbed Bernard by the collar of his shirt, ¡°because she was inconvenient?¡± Before Bernard could open his mouth with a reply, Michael slapped the side of his head hard, causing him to double over and fall to the ground. ¡°You¡¯ll forever be a piece of shit to me,¡± Michael said in a surprisingly calm voice, ¡°this is my resignation, effective once I¡¯ve stepped a hundred meters away from this building.¡±


    Bernard blabbered incoherently as Michael walked away. None of the security team dared to stand anywhere near his path. Most of the other members gathered around Bernard, looking at him with disapproval.


    Michael left the building, left the nameless government task force behind and rode a bus with the equipment in his belt and his permanent pensions. From that point forward, he had decided that he would decide his own assignments, and he would make his own decisions on who was allowed to die around him.

 Chapter 4: Her Hand

    Present Day


    Michael pulled into the parking garage as he showed his ID to the guard at the gate shack. Unlike traditional parking guards who were usually old, burnt out and overweight, this guard was quite well fit. This was one of the few things that gave away just how important this building was.


    As Michael pulled into a parking space, he backed in and locked up the doors. Though his Glock 19 sat under his seat in a secured container, he wore a USP9 with a pair of spare magazines on his belt. This gun was a second choice to him, but Lani had the same gun and he wanted to ensure magazine interchangeability.


    Lani grabbed a garment bag and stepped out of the truck. Seeing Michael grab his own garment bag, she held up hers and asked, ¡°Are we being all government looking today?¡±


    With an old mans sarcastically scrunched face, Michael replied, ¡°yeah, we¡¯re gonna look government,¡± he said through his scratchy near-impersonation of an old clint eastwood accent, ¡°prim and proper, with white paper coffee cups and leave your brain in the truck, we can¡¯t be using common sense or they¡¯ll know we aren¡¯t governmental.¡±


    Lani giggled as they shut the suburban and walked into the building, heading for the changing rooms to put on their governmental clothes. As they stepped away from their vehicle, they clipped their badge cards to their shirts and walked through an automated door. Guards in kit with helmets stood inside the door next to concrete barricades. Lani smiled at them and waved with excitement, being that this was her first time walking into one of these secure facilities.


    Michael stepped into a male restroom and began changing his clothes, quickly putting on a business suit. The pants and jacket were dark gray, with a black clip-on tie. The shirt was a slightly off-white cream color, while underneath it was a level IIIA soft armor vest. He swapped out his kydex in-the-waistband holster with a leather outside holster, made of black material. Mounting his knife and spare magazines to his belt, he slipped into his police style shoes. These were best described as an ¡®athletic dress shoe,¡¯ being that they had a sleek formal appearance with treaded soles and flexible padded interior to preserve the feet during running and other constant movements.


    Lani had her own suit, which was custom made. In addition to a standard level IIIA soft vest like Michael had, she also had a unique ballistic lining in her coat. The coat was black, while the pants were black with red threading. Her shirt was red, though she had no tie. As she placed her pistol in a holster similar to Michaels leather holster, she made sure to leave the top two buttons undone. She had a sports bra under her shirt, but her form was well displayed, as was the window she left open to relax the efforts of mens imaginations. I might need to be charming or some shit she thought to herself as she checked to make sure she was being cute without doing anything that might draw negative attention. She tied her shoes and put her previously worn clothes in a plastic bag and rolled up her stuff before walking back into the hallway where Michael waited.


    ¡°You¡¯re doing that thing again, aren¡¯t you?¡± Michael asked with an eye roll.


    Lani pressed up against her bra, ¡°These might make someone be nice,¡± she retorted at him as she let out a slight giggle, ¡°this is kinda exciting.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a government building,¡± Michael said in a seemingly exhausted tone. ¡°You aren¡¯t gonna want their eyes all over you.¡±


    Lani gave a sarcastic pout as she rolled her eyes. ¡°Maybe so,¡± she said softly, ¡°but you don¡¯t want me punching fuckers.¡±


    Michael let out a chuckle. ¡°I totally want you punching fuckers,¡± he said through a smile, ¡°I just don¡¯t wanna hear about it from douchebags.¡±The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Bernards familiar voice squeaked, ¡°You don¡¯t want your morality called into question.¡±


    Michael glared down Bernard as he heard the word morality spew from his mouth. Knowing Bernard to be little more than a septic bowl of immorality, he would not at any point in time take this office lackey seriously. ¡°Bernard,¡± Michael said through his teeth, ¡°I¡¯ll take my ethics lecture from someone with a grasp on what that actually is.¡±


    Lani squinted her eyes at Bernard. Though she didn¡¯t know the full story, she knew that Michael didn¡¯t trust Bernard in the least. This meant that she had to be watchful of him around Michael. While Bernard looked towards her, he first noticed her open shirt. He almost had a half smirk before he realized that she was in fact glaring him down. He shied away from both of them and left. As he left, Lani gently grabbed Michaels arm. ¡°Hey,¡± she said quietly, ¡°Is he one of those who needs thrown in a burning dumpster?¡±


    Michael had an interrupted reflex as she touched his arm. His arm tensed up as if to pull away, but he immediately relaxed as he reminded himself that it was Lani and not some stranger trying to have a go at him. His mind had wandered back to that evening when he had watched Sarah fall dead with a knife in the back of her head. He looked at Lani with a soft smile. ¡°That would be awesome,¡± he said in a low tone, ¡°but he has to stay alive for a while longer.¡±


    Lani nodded with understanding. ¡°Don¡¯t jerk from me,¡± she said with a low but stern voice, ¡°I¡¯ll make you nap till you feel better.¡±


    Michael shook his head, ¡°I don¡¯t like sleeping,¡± he grumbled, ¡°I don¡¯t like where I go.¡±


    Lani grinned in a way that revealed her sinister inner nature. ¡°I know about your nightmares,¡± she said as she placed her hand on his wrist as if she were checking a pulse, ¡°and I won¡¯t leave you alone in the dark.¡±


    Michael nodded slowly as he looked down the hall. ¡°We have Tom,¡± he said as he patted her hand softly. Lani looked down the hall to see Tom, the guy Michael actually cared enough to take any kind of direction from.


    ¡°Hey Michael,¡± Tom said with relaxed excitement, ¡°Hey there Lani, you look good today.¡± As Lani smiled and Michael chuckled, Toms seemingly happy facial expression wiped away and a look of displeasure took form. ¡°Care to explain why I had Chicago PD calling our division?¡±


    Michael scoffed. ¡°No, I don¡¯t care to explain that we dealt with a rape in progress,¡± he said with his eyes narrowed.


    Lani giggled, ¡°You mean because we were in the right place when it mattered?¡±


    Tom facepalmed, turning to walk away so he could enter a break room where a coffee pot had finished brewing. ¡°You two are gonna make me have migraines,¡± he said with a frustrated tone, ¡°They only heard rumor that there might have been a sexual assault nearby and that the murder victim barely fit the description.¡±


    Lani took the coffee pot from Tom before he could pour it into a cup. Grabbing another white cup, she poured it as she glared at Tom. ¡°I saw his hand on her neck,¡± she said with a harsh tone of annoyance, ¡°I saw a hand on her boob,¡± handing the first cup to Michael, she poured herself another cup and set it aside. She then took Toms cup and filled it halfway for him. ¡°So yes, I kicked his ribs in and I may have kicked his head a little hard.¡±


    Toms eyes widened. ¡°First off,¡± he said as he looked into the cup, ¡°This cup is half full. Secondly, the victim they found wasn¡¯t kicked repeatedly. He was pentagram¡¯d.¡±


    Lani took her black coffee and sucked it down like an eight ounce shot. She gestured with her hand as if she were going to say something, but paused. After a brief moment, a squeaky ¡®owwie¡¯ escaped her lips as she tried to talk around the immense heat of her drink. As she regained her speech, she finally spoke out. ¡°I couldn¡¯t have done that, cuz I don¡¯t know what that means.¡±


    Michael leaned in. ¡°It means he was pinned to a wall using five knives,¡± he said softly while still giggling about how fast she drank the coffee. ¡°Whoever killed the other person must have put them on display.¡±


    Lani shrugged. ¡°Wasn¡¯t us. You shot one guy twice, I kicked the fuck outta the pedo.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that man with the removed head?¡± Tom interjected. ¡°They¡¯re praising you even though they have no idea who you are.¡±


    Lani smiled. ¡°Just doing what¡¯s right.¡±


    The three of them eventually made their way into a meeting room and took their seats around a presentation screen.

 Chapter 5: The Coming Darkness

    The lecture commenced. Weird shit was taking place. From what was talked about, there were some occult rituals taking place, and some of the members participating were Enhanced Individuals of Power. Intel had been gathered from informant phone calls as well as fliers published by anti-occult organizations. While the name of the organization hadn¡¯t been confirmed, there were abductions and wild displays of violence in public places by masked men in hooded robes. Their fast movements and displays of strength caught on video by witnesses were the key indicators that these were EIP¡¯s.


    The task being given was for Michael to figure out where these people were, and what they were doing. As such, he was expected to put a stop to their activities. He sat there staring at the powerpoint as Tom laid the details out. Lani appeared to be the only one who was excited to be sitting at the table watching the powerpoint presentation.


    ¡°What¡¯s our rules of engagement?¡± Lani asked with her hand halfway raised.


    ¡°With what,¡± Bernard piped up, ¡°why is she asking that?¡±


    Michael raised an eyebrow as he squinted angrily at Bernard. ¡°I didn¡¯t know you were giving this brief,¡± he said through his teeth, ¡°But since you wanna participate, answer her question.¡± Lani lowered her head and started leaning back when Michael placed his hand on her wrist and looked at her. ¡°You asked a good question, Bernards just a bitch.¡± Lani giggled as she lifted her head back up. Bernard scowled, knowing he had no ground to gripe from.


    Tom threw his hands up, ¡°I agree,¡± he said with a big smile as he tried to bring the focus back to the brief. ¡°If they¡¯re armed and doing something that they shouldn¡¯t, then do something about it.¡± He clicked the next slide. ¡°As you know, EIP¡¯s are subject to different rules. They cannot be arrested, they are not subject to nonlethal considerations and you might know by now that announcing what you are to people might be best left not done.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re a lesser people now?¡± Lani piped up as her smile left her face. ¡°We need to be just killed off?¡±


    Tom''s eyes went wide as he started to realize how his explanation sounded. Before he could speak up and clarify, Bernard opened his mouth with words that began to spill out. ¡°Clearly they¡¯re a threat to others and need to be dealt with,¡± he started to speak up, ¡°They¡¯re excessively dangerous and you shouldn¡¯t take any chances.¡±


    Michael slammed his fist on the table. A slight dent formed where he struck. The room fell silent. Michael looked directly at Bernard with a wrathful gaze. ¡°Do you not hear yourself,¡± he asked, ¡°Do you not listen when your mouth starts shitting?¡± He stood up, walking to the front of the room, looking at Tom. ¡°May I?¡± he asked before starting in and taking over the briefing. Tom nodded and stepped away from the projector screen. ¡°Thank you,¡± he said calmly to Tom before addressing the rest of the table. ¡°When you refer to Enhanced Individuals of Power, you need to remember the one thing that they have in common with the rest of you,¡± he said in a well projected voice. ¡°They¡¯re people. Constitutionally protected people, with the same human rights as everyone else.¡± He turned to Tom. ¡°Take no chances against armed individuals, minimize collateral damage and treat noncombatants with respect, would that be a fair understanding of the rules of engagement?¡±This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    Tom nodded, ¡°I should have had you give this brief.¡±


    Michael shook his head, ¡°the fuck you want me to do that for, so I can offend the lieutentative folks in the back?¡± Before he could take an answer to his remark, he walked to the door as he gestured to Lani for her to follow him.


    As they made it down the hall, Lani grabbed Michaels arm to stop him. ¡°Michael,¡± he said with a seemingly frantic sadness in her voice, ¡°Are we the new scapegoat? The target race? The new genocide punchline?¡±


    Placing a hand on her shoulder, Michael looked into her eyes with heartfelt sadness from what he was hearing. ¡°We¡¯re not being exterminated,¡± he said softly, ¡°We¡¯re targeting people who made bad choices, enhanced or otherwise.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s now how they made it sound,¡± Lani said as her eyes watered.


    ¡°Tom misspoke, and Bernard¡¯s a piece of shit.¡± Michael pulled a napkin out of his pocket and tore it in half, placing the two pieces under her eyes. ¡°Years ago, that little fuck had a woman killed because she was an inconvenience.¡± As Lani¡¯s tears began making their escape from her eyes, he caught them with the torn napkin. ¡°She owned a building and her tits were heavy,¡± he said as he dried her eyes. ¡°He saw her as a liability and had her assassinated during some diplomat meeting. He doesn¡¯t respect human life, which is why we don¡¯t take direction from him.¡±


    Lani¡¯s saddened facial expression slowly transformed to one of gentle hatred. ¡°He had someone murdered because she was inconvenient?¡± she asked as her voice began to shake. Michael nodded softly. ¡°How is he still here?¡± Michael gave no answers, because he had none. ¡°You brutalized entire teams of people for less, why is he alive?¡±


    ¡°Because I did something worse than physically destroying him,¡± he said as he pulled her close and held her tightly in his arms, ¡°I left this agency behind and worked on my own. That¡¯s why I¡¯m an outsource asset instead of ¡®Agent Kramer¡¯ or some bullshit.¡±


    ¡°But he¡¯s alive,¡± Lani whispered.


    ¡°At the time I would have faced more trouble for killing him,¡± Michael said, ¡°But now that I¡¯m not his coworker, he knows he can¡¯t give orders and if he ever tries a stunt like that again, he¡¯s got a list of old crimes to pay for.¡±


    Lani nodded, her anger slowly subsided. ¡°Occult rituals, huh?¡±


    Michael chuckled, ¡°yeah, probably some fairytale bullshit. Big battles, property damage, some crying bitches, some idiot shit.¡±


    ¡°And more guns for our collection?¡± Lani giggled. ¡°I want food, you should feed me.¡±


    Michael chuckled. ¡°Food? What are you, a hungry girl?¡±


    Lani glared at him. ¡°Yes!¡± she yipped at him, ¡°I am a hungry goddamn girl! Gimme food before I break into Bern-heads office and chew his computer cables!¡±


    Laughing, Michael turned to the exit and went with Lani to the Suburban. Tossing their jackets back on hangers, they went on to a McDonald¡¯s drive-thru and ordered food.

 Chapter 6: The Flame in the Shadow

    In the meantime¡­


    Her dark blue dress had spots of blood on the skirt. Her youthful face had a smear of blood on her cheek. Her cloth boots were torn. Her black hair was glossy with blood. The iris of her jet black eyes had a faint red glow to them. The only part of her clothing that hadn¡¯t been contaminated by anything was her black yoga pants. Her knife held loosely in her hand dripped with blood. She stood over a bleeding man who lay on the ground with barely enough life left in him to writhe about. Next to him lay four more bodies.


    The man opened his eyes and looked up at her, matching her seemingly lifeless gaze. ¡°You don¡¯t feel,¡± he choked through his mouth, ¡°bitch.¡±


    She knelt down and placed her hand on his forehead. ¡°I don¡¯t feel,¡± she said with an expressionless monotone voice, ¡°I can read your feelings,¡± she placed her knife against his neck. ¡°You feel fear, some panic, and indignity.¡± She rubbed the flat side of her knife against his chin. ¡°You feel this is unjust.¡±


    ¡°Fuck you,¡± the man muttered with labored breath.


    ¡°I shall,¡± she said as she took the knife away from his neck. She repositioned herself and pushed his knees apart and knelt back down between his legs. She placed her hand carefully on his inner thigh for a moment before driving the knife abruptly between his rectum and scrotum. The man screamed in short shouts of pain. She pulled the knife out slowly, only to thrust it back in. She began running the knife in and out of him, twisting it as she looked at his face. ¡°Please look at me, I want to know if I¡¯m doing this right.¡± The man writhed a little more before finally stopping his movement, exhaling one last time before he stopped taking any more breath.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    She stood up again after wiping the excess blood against his pant leg. Putting her knife back in its sheath, she took the ritual book from the workbench in the garage and placed it in a bag. Pulling out a set of five thick handled throwing knives that had been wrapped in a fabric holding case, she unrolled it and set it on the table. Turning to a bare wall in the room, she held up her hands and moved them around, as if each hand was forming a half circle. As she did this, a circle burned onto the wall. She then cut downward and away with her hands, before bringing them up and out, then swiping one hand across horizontally. With these hand motions, a pentagram formed in the circle.


    Holding one hand towards the man she had just tortured to death, she held her palm towards him and slowly clenched a fist. Raising her fist up, the man began to float up. With a quick movement, she faced her palm towards the circle. This caused the man to fly into the circle, his arms and legs sprawled out towards the star points. With her free hand, she waved her palm down over the set of knives which began floating out of their slots. Sending her hand towards the man in the pentagram, the five knives shot into him. One in each wrist, one through each ankle, and one into his neck.


    She turned and left, taking the ritual book with her. Before leaving she looked at the man one last time. ¡°You don¡¯t honor my father,¡± she said softly, ¡°he shall not have his sacred name used for your selfish games.¡±

 Chapter 7: The Flashpoint

    Back in town¡­


    Michael sat in the passenger seat of his suburban. Lani drove, which allowed him to look at maps and documents. He read up on how there were cults who had been trying to perform rituals, while some of the ritual sites had been ravaged and destroyed, others were simply interrupted by police or abandoned when ¡®nothing happened.¡¯ He took a particular interest in the sites where things got bloody.


    ¡°Did you ever read much about this summoning shit?¡± Michael asked as he skimmed through the documents.


    ¡°In what culture,¡± Lani replied, ¡°pretty sure most people who read the book that can understand the languages of actual demon are smart enough to stay the fuck off it.¡±


    Michael shrugged. ¡°Apparently people are getting close enough and butchering each other.¡±


    ¡°Not all rituals require blood,¡± Lani droned, ¡°And the ones that do, pretty sure they don¡¯t need the person butchered.¡± she paused for a moment, then spoke again. ¡°Pretty sure there¡¯s something missing from that one pentagram¡¯d dude.¡±


    Michael pulled out the picture. He looked it over carefully. ¡°He¡¯s stabbed five times.¡± he kept looking. ¡°There¡¯s a good bit of blood behind him,¡± he looked closer, ¡°if I were stupid I¡¯d think he was on the floor.¡± He looked at other photos from the same scene. ¡°He wasn¡¯t bleeding when he was dragged,¡±


    ¡°Or he wasn¡¯t dragged,¡± Lani interrupted. ¡°Like he was thrown perfectly flat, caught against the wall and held in place while someone stuck five well placed knives in him.¡± Lani opened a can of drink and sipped it slowly. ¡°What¡¯s that pentagram made of?¡±


    Michael looked at the perfectly drawn circle, the lack of smearing and undisrupted nature of it. It went over some uneven surfaces while still being perfectly drawn. The symbol appeared to be a burn mark. ¡°Nobody can burn a mark that big on an uneven wall that perfectly.¡±


    ¡°Ever hear of telepathy?¡± Lani asked as she scanned the roadblock ahead. ¡°Got your badge?¡± she asked as they got closer to what looked like one of the local militias.


    Local militias were a recognized entity, but they had rules to abide by. One of those rules was to refrain from obstructing freeways. Though Michael had a badge and had federal agent authority, he did not have the interest in meddling with people who were simply exercising their rights. There was just one problem: this wasn''t a good militia.


    Lani ducked her head down as rounds started striking the windshield. Michael leaned down and grabbed his short M4 from next to his seat. "These fucks need dealt with," Lani shouted as she floored the accelerator. As she sped towards the ambush, she glanced at Michael. "We''re gonna kill''em all, right?"


    Michael nodded as he racked the charging handle back. His weapon had a twelve inch barrel with an aftermarket flash direction attachment that would send all the unspent gas forward. He had a holographic sight attached and a 60 round ''fat mag'' loaded. He gripped it firmly with the stock against his shoulder. He braced as he waited for the impact.


    As Lani drove straight for the front of the vehicle in front of her, she reached for her own M4. Her weapon was identical to the one Michael had. Racking the charging back and letting the bolt carrier slam into position on a round, she gritted her teeth as she waited for the suburban to slam into a Dodge Ram so she could get out and start spraying people. They won''t survive this her mind pulsed with fury as the bull bar crushed two men into the side of the truck.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Michael opened his door as the suburban stopped and pushed his muzzle through the opening. A five shot burst erupted, landing in a man''s collarbone and shredding his throat. He stepped out and turned toward the crushed men. Three shots each through their jaw through the forehead and the writhing arms stopped moving as they slumped over. He moved toward the back of the Ram as he ducked down and scanned below the truck for ground shooters.


    Lani leapt from the drivers side and fired three through the pelvic bone of a man who had tried to run. Her muzzle came back up to engage another target who had tried to come around the front of another vehicle with a weapon of some sort. He caught four through his sternum before she climbed his chest and let seven more go through him, the last two going through his jaw. She moved quickly as she looked under the vehicles to make sure there were no feet moving around that didn¡¯t belong to Michael.


    Michael also went down to look under the vehicles, seeing Lani¡¯s athletic shoes, as well as her face. Both of them pointed their weapons away as they realized they were looking right at each other. Standing back up, they cleared the rest of the roadblock only to find that they had killed everyone. Michael looked for wallets, finding none. Strange, not one person carrying an identifying thing on them, he thought to himself as he heard a distant boom. Incoming fire?


    ¡°Michael,¡± Lani asked nervously as she saw the look on Michael''s face, ¡°should we go?¡±


    ¡°Incoming,¡± Michael said loudly, ¡°we gotta go!¡±


    They hurried back into the suburban and took off the other way. They knew that most people would try to hurry in the direction of travel, as most operating books would tell people to do. Michael was smarter than this, and knew that most doctrines were public knowledge.


    ¡°What was that?¡± Lani asked as they sped down the road. A second after she asked this question, a mortar round struck the ambush site. A very large white cloud plumed, the dried foliage around the vehicles began to burn, and the vehicles in the area began to burn.


    Michael observed in the mirror, then turned around to look. ¡°That was a war crime on American soil,¡± he said with a grin, ¡°someone¡¯s getting fucked for this.¡±


    Meanwhile, off in the distance, an observer keyed his radio. ¡°Target going wrong direction.¡± a moment went by with no response. ¡°You listening?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡± the radio voice responded. ¡°Pack it up and come back. We did what we needed to do.¡±


    ¡°Roger,¡± the observer said exhaustedly, ¡°out.¡± As he shoved his binoculars into his backpack and placed his folded map back in his pocket, a soft hand touched his shoulder and spun him around. In a panic, he grabbed his pistol and swung it at the face of the person who grabbed him. The black haired woman didn¡¯t feel the impact, nor did she feel when he fired five rounds into her chest. She didn¡¯t budge when he kicked at her knees, and he couldn¡¯t move when he tried to push his way out from under her.


    ¡°You are weak,¡± she said flat and monotone. ¡°My father''s greatness protects me,¡± she said as she casually picked the gun out of his hand. ¡°I wonder though,¡± she said ponderingly as she placed her hand on his mouth, ¡°that burning thing you attempted, do you think you can control flame better than me?¡±


    His lungs got really warm, so warm in fact that they began to burn. He tried to scream, and though her hand wasn¡¯t tightly held over his mouth he could not scream. He no longer had the lungs to do so. He writhed about on the ground under her. His skin began to char and darken after a few moments. She looked deep into his eyes and waited until his body stopped moving.


    She stood up and looked at the burnt vehicles and destroyed road where the mortar shell had landed. ¡°Very foolish,¡± she said softly as she walked off, vanishing into a cloud of smoke that dissipated quickly.

 Chapter 8: The Clashing

    Further Down the Road


    Michael and Lani raced down the road, now having found another route to the same location that they were originally headed.


    ¡°Is anyone following us?¡± Lani asked with a slight hint of excitement in her voice.


    ¡°No,¡± Michael said flatly, ¡°Nobody at all.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Lani said softly, ¡°you sound like that shouldn¡¯t be.¡±


    ¡°Well,¡± Michael said with narrowed eyes, ¡°They blocked an interstate, and fired white phosphorous at us.¡± he paused for a moment before continuing his realizations. ¡°That¡¯s a lot of effort for someone to just quit once we run away.¡±


    ¡°Should we go back and ask them what the fuck their problem is?¡± Lani asked, ¡°I¡¯m kinda curious what¡¯s up their ass, as well as if they knew who they were fucking with.¡±


    Michael laughed. ¡°I know you wanna go back and burn more ammo on people,¡± he said through his smile, ¡°but we can¡¯t chance them using that mortar on anyone else.¡±


    Lani glared as they continued travelling down the road. She wanted blood. She wanted to kill the people who put her purpose at risk. While they knew each other''s secrets at this point, Lani still withheld verbalizations about her thoughts and feelings for fear of adding to Michaels stress.


    Michael got on his phone and called Tom. After a brief two ring moment, he picked up. ¡°Hey Tom,¡± Michael said with noticeable agitation in his voice, ¡°you¡¯re about to find out about a mortar attack on local grounds.¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Tom groaned as if he were in pain, ¡°We just intercepted police chatter, care to tell me why someone is using white phosphorus to make an attempt on your life?¡±


    ¡°The fuck if I know, Tom!¡± Michael barked with agitation, ¡°We just got out of there before anyone could set off IEDs or let off any more rounds at us.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m actually glad you called,¡± Tom said with a slightly improved tone, ¡°We need you to go back and find those mortarmen.¡±


    Michael rolled his eyes before glancing over to Lani who had unsoured her face and was smiling with joyous cheer. ¡°Sounds good,¡± Michael replied with a smirk on his face, ¡°we¡¯ll figure out where they got their ordinance.¡± He disconnected the call.


    Lani let out a squeal as she turned the suburban back around to head back to the area they had just left. Her grin nearly stretched across her face as she sped down the road faster towards the ambush point than she had been driving away. She grabbed another 60 round magazine and handed it to Michael. ¡°Please?¡± she asked in her sweetest begging voice, ¡°load my gun for me while I drive.¡±


    Michael took the mag and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. ¡°Okay,¡± he said slowly, ¡°but I¡¯m gonna pout the entire time I do it.¡± He grabbed her weapon and replaced the mag. He didn¡¯t rack it since it was still chambered from the previous magazine. He set it next to her where it was usually kept for drivers. He smiled once he was done reloading it.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± Lani said softly. She smiled softly as she looked onward, seeing the burning cars they had just left behind. They looked around for signs of observers. Knowing they needed to be somewhere not in the kill zone of an old ambush, they noticed a small house less than a mile off. Lani turned and took to off-roading their vehicle as they drove at the house.


    Michael grabbed his vest and put it on. He checked that he had the right magazines in his pouches, then reloaded his own rifle. He watched as they got closer to the house, a man stepped out from behind the house and opened fire. The shots pinged off the ballistic rated windshield. ¡°Turn left,¡± Michael said calmly, ¡°that house might not be entirely hostile.¡±This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°Okay,¡± Lani replied as she turned to the left. As she turned to ask what next, she watched as Michael jumped out of the seat and ran toward the house, firing at the armed assailant. The door latched shut, and her teeth clenched as she turned to look to the other side of the house. She smashed her way through a wood fence and stopped. She grabbed her weapon and stepped out, moving quickly towards the house. Closing in on the side of the building, she peeked quickly through a window and noticed a hiding family. They¡¯re not alone she quickly concluded before moving to another breachpoint. Finding an empty room, she forced the window open and climbed in.


    Meanwhile, Michael dealt with a shooter who had fired from inside the house. Two shots hit his plate, but this left him unphased as he fired ten shots through the window and house wall, killing the shooter. He ran full charge at the window and leapt through the remaining glass. A man had made the mistake of having a weapon in his hand as he came through the doorway into that room. Michael fed his chest five shots. He aimed up and let off five more through his mouth. He was gone before he could fall to the floor.


    Lani heard Michaels weapon on the other side of the house from her. She stepped through the hallway, looking quickly around before proceeding to the room with the trapped family. Finding the man hiding behind their dresser, she shot through his head with a long burst. He fell, his blood smearing on the wall.


    Michael heard Lani fire her weapon in a long burst, which made him fully aware that she was in the house. He moved with caution and speed as he went room to room clearing out the rest of the threats. He had one try to grab his weapon. He shoved it down on his sling and immediately sent a fist straight for his face. The attacker moved with abnormal speed and struck Michael''s chest hard. The blow knocked him into the wall but he wasn''t slowed as he struck the man''s forearm. He''s enhanced Michael realized quickly as he followed up his parrying strike with a series of hits to the assailants chest. The blows he landed would have had a normal man on the way to the emergency room, but this enhanced person took it.


    Lani heard the lack of shooting, her ears picking up sounds again. She heard the fistfight and knew that no normal person usually hit back when Michael hit people as hard as he had hit this man. She moved quietly down the hall and turned a corner. She heard a thud against the wall beside her. Another target? She heard a click, then a magazine drop to the floor. As the sounds of a magazine being inserted into a magwell echoed, Lani pushed her muzzle toward the sound and let off 20 shots.


    Michael continued to pound away at the enhanced one, landing effective blows as he absorbed the strikes that his assailant was trying to land. The man grunted as he tried to grab a vase to throw. His throw was so ineffective that he missed Michael completely. Instead, it flew across the room and hit Lani in her forehead. Michael lunged at him and kneed his chest several times. His target grabbed Michael by the vest and tried to pull him to the ground. His attempt failed as Michael simply struck upward at his elbow, snapping his arm.


    Before Michael could make his next move, Lani walked over and grabbed the man''s jaw and tore it from his face. She turned it and started beating him in the head with the tooth side. Short screams let out with each hit she landed. The man tried his best to block but that just got him more suffering as she ripped the arm off completely. She twisted his forearm and used the jagged wrist to stab his neck and chest. Occasionally shouting ''fuck you!'' Every few hits.


    Michael let her continue destroying the bleeding man on the floor while he checked the last room for any enemies who would have potentially taken the chance to attack with the distraction going on in the hall. A few turns and steps, and the room was clear. He came back to Lani and put his hands on her shoulders and turned her towards him to check her forehead. It was bleeding a little bit, but the small cut was very minimal compared to the damage that would have been taken by an average person.


    ¡°He tried to hurt you,¡± Lani muttered, ¡°I can¡¯t have you getting hurt.¡± She grabbed the edge of his plate carrier and lay her head against his chest as she grit her teeth. ¡°Last time you fought an enhanced, I almost lost you.¡±


    Michael let out a sigh, moving a hand to the back of her shoulder, his other hand patting her head. ¡°That was a team effort,¡± he said softly, ¡°and I only collapsed cuz my self aid came undone and I forgot to check it.¡±


    ¡°We were so fucking focused on secrecy,¡± Lani said looking up at him with a glare, ¡°you put more effort in hiding the fact that you were hurt than getting un-hurt!¡±


    Michael went to say something about the importance of not terrifying what used to be a little girl fresh out of orphan high school, but he couldn¡¯t. She¡¯s right, he thought to himself. He looked into her eyes and calmly said in low tones, ¡°I have you here with me now,¡± as he placed his thumb under her eye to wipe an escaping tear, ¡°and you have me, we¡¯re a team in this.¡± He looked around. ¡°We still gotta figure out who these fucks are and why they were on that road.¡±

 Chapter 9: Discoveries

    Elsewhere


    A man sat next to a phone, his hands shaking. He knew that his plans had gone haywire before it could be contained. Special individuals had beaten the ambush and it was only a matter of time before he was discovered. He kept checking that it had a signal. He checked the battery level, even though it was still plugged into a charger.


    He picked up the phone and dialed it. He listened to it ring for a prolonged period of time. Finally he heard someone answer it.


    Meanwhile


    Michael and Lani heard a ringing, coming from the man with the removed jaw and the punctured throat. Michael dug the phone out of his pocket and hit answer. He held the phone to his ear and waited to hear who spoke on the other end.


    ¡°Did you seriously use phosphorus stateside?¡± ¡°Whatever, did you get away?¡± ¡°these freaks are relentless¡± ¡°you can¡¯t let this lead back to me, do what you have to¡±


    Michael recognized this voice. Bernard.


    Lani leaned in and listened, not yet recognizing it for herself.


    ¡°That ordinance I gave you wasn¡¯t meant to be used in America,¡± he continued on.


    Michael had a choice. He could continue to listen to Bernards bullshit, or he could make it clear that he knew what kind of traitor he was, which would cause him to wreck his nerve and start making panicked mistakes. He went with the chaos option and spoke into the phone. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± he said softly into the phone, ¡°it won¡¯t happen again.¡± He hung up the phone before Bernard had a chance to respond.


    Lani took the phone and shoved it in a pocket after taking the battery out. ¡°Who the fuck was that?¡± she asked with an agitated tone.


    ¡°Our favorite weasel,¡± Michael said, ¡°that bern-headed fuck whose cable you wanna bite on.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Lani replied angrily, ¡°that little motherfucker!¡±This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    Back at the office


    Bernard stood up in a cold sweat. He stepped out of his office, stumbling about and leaning against a wall as he moved. His breaths grew shorter before he clutched his chest and fell over. He tried hard to pick himself back up, but he collapsed a moment later and blacked out.


    A guard walked by and noticed Bernard had fallen. He touched his shoulder to get his attention, but there was no response. Quickly making a call, he had medical personnel rush to his location and carry Bernard outside to the entrance where they attempted to resuscitate him while waiting for an ambulance.


    Tom rushed out as the ambulance found the parking lot, followed by two contractors. As the ambulance stopped, He turned to his men and said with slight urgency in his tone, ¡°get in your truck and follow the ambulance.¡± The men nodded and ran to their patrol vehicle and prepared to escort the ambulance to the hospital. Tom meanwhile went to Bernards side, his presence well timed as he jolted back to consciousness.


    ¡°He¡¯s gonna kill me!¡± Bernard shouted, ¡°Michael¡¯s coming! We¡¯re gonna die!¡± He couldn¡¯t do much shouting as his efforts to talk wore him down. The medics placed an oxygen mask on his face, giving him the finger against the mouth gesture, requesting as politely as they could for him to please shut up.


    Tom stood there, knowing full well that something wasn¡¯t right. We¡¯re gonna die? He couldn¡¯t quite understand why a man having a heart attack was afraid for his life from Michael, who was many miles away. He quickly walked back into the front door and dialed Michael.


    Down the road


    Michaels phone rang, though this time he was in the driver''s seat. He glanced down and saw that it was Tom. He hit the answer button and handed the phone to Lani. ¡°Driving,¡± he mumbled, ¡°Let¡¯s see what Bernard¡¯s trying to do to cover his scheme.¡±


    Lani brought the phone up and put it on speaker. ¡°Tom,¡± Lani said with detectable frustration in her voice, ¡°Stay away from Bernard, He¡¯s a traitor!¡±


    ¡°Is that so?¡± Tom replied, ¡°He just had a heart attack.¡±


    ¡°Good,¡± Lani snapped, ¡°fuck him, we¡¯re still headed to his office, he might have something proving that he helped get criminal shit into peoples hands!¡±


    Michael had to interject, ¡°she means phosphorous,¡± he barked into the phone, ¡°they shelled us with white phosphorous, and he called the enhanced that I just had a fight with-¡±


    ¡°Enough of this!¡± Tom shouted through the phone. He paused for a moment, then resumed talking with his calm and collected tone, ¡°Don¡¯t jump into any kind of action just yet.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll link up with you first, then we¡¯re going into fuckers office,¡± Michael said firmly into the phone. ¡°If we find out that he¡¯s willfully trying to have us killed off, we can fuck him right.¡±


    Lani giggled a little, ideas already going on in her head.

 Chapter 10: Consequence

    A short while later


    Michael parked outside the office. Lani had put on her vest and duty belt, almost looking like a bail bondsman about to drag someone back to jail. Michael had also grabbed his duty belt and got it put on with Lani¡¯s help while driving. They stepped out of the suburban and walked to the main entrance. Tom was waiting with a singular escort.


    Tom held his hand up, ¡°now now, let¡¯s be calm about this,¡± he tried to say in hopes of keeping tensions down.


    Michael shrugged, ¡°he¡¯s croaked isn¡¯t he?¡±


    Tom shook his head. ¡°He woke up as he was being loaded into evac,¡± he said calmly, ¡°he said you were coming to kill him.¡±


    ¡°Kinda deserves it,¡± Lani piped up, ¡°but if we build a case we can destroy him worse than if I choke him with butane.¡±


    Tom''s eyes went wide, ¡°Why do I believe that you¡¯ve done exactly that?¡±


    Michael chuckled, knowing that there was a small amount of truth to what Lani said.


    Lani shrugged. ¡°I mean, it wasn¡¯t butane but sure.¡± she turned to Michael and in her chibbiest loli grin possible, she leaned to him. ¡°Someone tried to bug the old house, and I may have burned him from the inside with gas stuff.¡±


    Michael wrapped an arm around her shoulders with a big smile and leaned his head to her ear. ¡°Trying to send a message?¡± he asked her as he tried to contain his chuckling. All Lani could really do was look at him with a straightened face of darkness. Though most men would fear such coldness and brutality, Michael smiled. ¡°That sounds like my little sister doing work.¡±


    Lani smiled wide as she felt Michaels approval.


    Tom stood there with his arms crossed, waiting for someone to remember that he was still standing there. ¡°Wanna look in his office then?¡± he piped up trying to get the focus back on the issue at hand. ¡°I¡¯m sure we can administratively log into his computer,¡± he said in something just above a mumble.


    Michael looked up at Tom, his eyes narrowed. ¡°He might not have left anything on his computer to be found.¡±


    Lani started walking towards Bernards office, ¡°Worst case scenario I can hang him with his cable!¡± She continued to walk to his office where she was met by two guards standing in front of it.


    Tom had chased behind her, waving the guards out of her way. One of them stepped back immediately, the other grabbed a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door before stepping out of her way. ¡°Here you go ma¡¯am,¡± the guard said softly, ¡°We¡¯ll make sure you don¡¯t get disturbed.¡±This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    Lani walked in and sat at the computer, she went first to the drawers where she found some of them locked.  This didn¡¯t matter as she simply ripped them open. Shuffling through papers, she found nothing unusual. She moved to the computer and turned it on. After a few minutes, she found that it didn¡¯t require a password to get in. You¡¯re a government worker and don¡¯t protect your shit? Lani started sifting through emails and files. She found an alternate email under some encryption, but the encryption was so weak that she didn¡¯t have to spend much time digging through it. Eventually she found a correspondence with someone calling themselves Shinigami. Japanese, God of Death? The messages between them were weird. They were talking mostly about where Michael and Lani had been going, and when to avoid going to those places. There were more recent messages about delivering weapons, including the phosphorus ordinance. 81mm Mortar tube, and a truck to move it around in. There was even an instruction manual tossed in to make sure they could use it right. The last message stated that Michael and Lani were headed down a certain highway, and that they could be ¡®dealt with¡¯ there.


    Too convenient, Lani thought to herself. She printed out all the emails before ripping the power cable from the computer and taking it with her. She took the stack of documents and fed them into a copying machine. She had three copies of the entire stack made. One stack, she left on Bernard''s desk. One stack, she handed to Tom. The original print she handed to Michael, and the last copy she kept as she walked to the suburban.


    Michael got the hospital location before jumping in and driving.


    ¡°Michael,¡± Lani said softly, ¡°these motherfuckers are gonna murder people.¡±


    ¡°I see that.¡± Michael said flatly.


    ¡°They¡¯re gonna burn people, blow them up,¡± Lani continued to go on.


    ¡°Lani,¡± Michael interrupted, ¡°I get it just as much as you.¡± He grabbed her hand and held it firmly. ¡°We¡¯re gonna make this right.¡±


    Lani clenched his hand tight. ¡°They weren¡¯t extorting him,¡± she said through her teeth. ¡°He jumped at the opportunity to throw us to these people!¡±


    ¡°I get that,¡± Michael said firmly, ¡°And it¡¯s no different than when he had Sarah killed for convenience.¡± He kept his focus on the road while still holding Lani¡¯s hand. ¡°He¡¯s been scum from the time I¡¯ve known him all the way till now.¡±


    ¡°Convenience?¡± Lani had sorta heard him say this previously, but she hadn¡¯t put much thought into the backstory of it. ¡°What convenience did he get?¡±


    Michael rolled his eyes, having tried not to put much thought into things that bothered him. ¡°She owned a building,¡± he said through a grumble. ¡°I didn¡¯t care enough to ask what he gained from her death.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t usually miss a chance to question people,¡± Lani said softly.


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t allowed to kill him then,¡± Michael said back, ¡°if I had continued the conversation he¡¯d have probably killed himself with his answers.¡±


    For a moment, there was silence as they rolled down the road toward the hospital. Lani sat staring out the windows for a few minutes before finally uttering some words. ¡°We¡¯re the consequence for shit like this.¡±


    Michael nodded, with a soft smile.

 Chapter 11: The War Opens

    Down the road from the hospital


    A black Escalade sat in a gas station parking stall. The windows were tinted so dark in the back that the three passengers seated in the second row couldn¡¯t be seen. The two closest to the doors were geared up in dark grey uniforms, black vests and helmets, neoprene face coverings, and protective eyewear. The driver wore a button up shirt with an underlayer of level 3 body armor. The man in the front seat wore a suit jacket over his own level 3 vest, with sunglasses and a cab hat. The man in the middle of the back seat however, he wore jeans and a black t-shirt, and didn¡¯t bother to wear protective equipment beside a metal mask and a chest rig with two long belts of 7.62x51mm in 200 round bags for a M240B that sat between his legs. The men sitting beside him each carried a belt for his gun, but they had drum fed M4¡¯s, as did the driver and the front seat passenger.


    Across the street and another gas station, there sat an Econoline cargo van filled with men dressed in the same grey uniforms and black vests as the men in the Escalade, but their M4¡¯s were not drum fed. Two of the eight men had M249¡¯s, and of the six M4¡¯s, two of those had under-barrel mounted M203¡¯s. Another two had old generation experimental shotgun attachments. The drivers sat watching each other while waiting for signals from sources at the hospital.


    At the hospital


    Bernard sat on the table with a blank stare, an oxygen mask feeding air to his lungs as an orderly checked his IV bags and recorded his stats from the monitor. In the room sat a guard from Toms department within the agency. He watched the nurse perform her checks, an earpiece sitting snug in his ear as he waited for communication from Tom as to any updates on what was going on.


    In the guards mind, he was worried that Michael was on his way to snuff Bernard out.


    After the nurse had finally left the room, the guards phone vibrated quietly in his pocket. He stuck his bluetooth headset in his other ear and answered.


    ¡°Listen very carefully,¡± Tom said in the headset, ¡°Your mission has changed.¡±


    ¡°Yes?¡± the guard said quietly.


    ¡°You are currently guarding a prisoner,¡± Tom said, calmly as if this wasn¡¯t the lead in to tragic and epic action to follow, ¡°he is not to be left unattended. Michael is not hostile, we have evidence to deal with Bernard through procedure.¡±


    The guard nodded once, though there was nobody for him to nod for because nobody was looking at him. ¡°I understand,¡± the guard said before Tom hung up.


    Bernard heard the guard acknowledge something on the phone, not knowing exactly what was said. He looked at the guard and tried to reach out to get his attention. This was quickly halted as the guard grabbed his wrist and cuffed it to the bed. He moved to the other side of the bed and cuffed his other wrist to the bed. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Bernard tried to ask, but he got no response. After a moment, the guard stepped back to the door and stood where he could watch the door and the bed. ¡°Please,¡± Bernard spoke again.


    The guard put his hand up and interrupted Bernard¡¯s whimpering. ¡°Listen guy,¡± he said with a blend of snark and disinterest, ¡°Your status changed from endangered to imprisoned, so do us both a favor and shut the entire fuck up. Got it? The complete fuck up is what you¡¯re gonna shut, before I have to smack the sass out of your mouth.¡±


    Bernards eyes went wide. He never expected someone beneath him to ever speak this way, nor did he expect to be caught, compiled with the shock of not knowing exactly what was figured out or how much anyone knew.


    Another nurse walked in with a clipboard. The guard stepped in front of him. ¡°Sir, his status is changed to a suspect in custody,¡± he said trying not to sound too far from law enforcement lingo. ¡°If he speaks any words to you whatsoever, you have to stop what you¡¯re doing and leave the room.¡±


    The nurse nodded, not really giving a shit what this brutish looking guard was saying. Instead of walking around the guard, he produced a knife and thrust it forcefully toward the guard. The guard caught his arm and yanked him sideways. Though the guard was not an Enhanced Individual of Power, he was extensively trained in this exact type of fighting.


    The guard lifted his leg and shoved the nurse against the door frame and drew his gun, shooting the nurse three times in the center of his chest and one more through his nasal cavity before he could fall down.


    Panic in the emergency ward erupted, a preteen child began screaming loudly as other orderlies and staff ran for alarms and tried to lock doors. In the lobby, another guard who heard the shots and knew something was very wrong leapt from his seat and ran toward Bernards room. His sprint was interrupted as two shots hit him in his lower back. Though he was wearing armor under his suit, the rounds were high pressure magnum rounds from a full frame revolver. The guard fell to the floor, only for a man in a janitor uniform to walk up to him and fire two more shots into the guards head.


    More people in the room who watched this man execute the guard froze in terror, staring at him, unsure of what to do. The man in the janitor''s uniform looked back at them with an unusually calm expression. He then pointed with an empty hand toward the door. ¡°That¡¯s the exit,¡± he said softly, ¡°you wanna go that way, yeah?¡±


    After a brief moment, people started slowly making their way to the exit of the room, watching the janitor, fearful that he might open fire on people running.


    ¡°I¡¯m not a mass shooter folks,¡± the janitor dressed man said a little louder to the crowd of cowering onlookers, ¡°I actually want you all to leave, the less of you getting hurt the better, okay? Bye bye, fuck off, go away?¡±


    As he waved at the crowd to get out faster, he turned to see the other guard sighting in on him. The guard opened fire, though the janitor simply twisted his body and dropped to the ground, shooting the shoulder and pelvic bone of the guard with the last two shots. The shoulder of the guard was near amputation, and the shot landing in the pelvic bone shattered it, sending the guard to his back unable to move. The janitor walked over, one round left in the wheel, and leveled the barrel off at the guards head.


    ¡°You see,¡± the janitor said with a half smile, ¡°I¡¯m enhanced, and you¡¯re dead.¡± He fired his last shot through the jaw of the guard, the shot resulting in the spreading of blood and brain material several feet across the floor.


    Bernard sat in the bed breathing heavily. As the Janitor fished the keys from the guards belt, he turned and looked at Bernard. ¡°I¡¯m here to help you outta here lil¡¯ fella.¡±


    Bernard shook his head. ¡°I can¡¯t participate in this,¡± he said with a cracked squeal in his voice, ¡°wasn¡¯t giving you weapons enough?¡±


    ¡°Well, you helped us a lot,¡± the janitor said as he began unlocking Bernards cuffs, ¡°I¡¯m sure you have information on the people who will come after us, and it would be kinda lousy if we just left you to get eaten by dogs.¡±


    Bernard began sobbing. ¡°Please, I don¡¯t want war in America,¡± he said through his cries and sobs, ¡°I wanted you to go to Europe or something, far away where this wouldn¡¯t come back on me!¡±


    The janitor rolled his eyes. ¡°We¡¯re still saving you,¡± he said unimpressed by the waterworks. He grabbed his phone and hit the dial button. After a single ring, someone picked up. ¡°The Minute is Nigh,¡± he said, ¡°bring me warmth.¡± he hung up before anyone could reply. After shoving his phone back in his pocket, he turned to Bernard and put a hand on his shoulder. ¡°I need you to chill out,¡± he said quietly. ¡°I can guard you in this room from other people, or go room to room and stay with you, but someone else is coming to actually get you out of this place.¡±


    ¡°Please,¡± Bernard said through choking tears, ¡°don¡¯t hurt any more people.¡±


    At the gas stations


    A moment after the econoline whipped into traffic, Michael came around the corner in his suburban. As Michael passed the gas stations, the Escalade pulled into the road. Michael took a turn to go to the back of the hospital, so as not to just walk straight into the Emergency Room door where they had the only metal detector. The phone rang. Michael put it on speaker as he answered it.


    ¡°We¡¯ve intercepted 911 traffic,¡± Tom said in a less than calm tone. ¡°Shots have been fired, three dead, someone might be making their move on him now, my guys aren¡¯t answering their phones.¡±


    ¡°We got this,¡± Michael said into the phone. ¡°We¡¯re gonna take a different door, we¡¯ve got our badges, I¡¯m guessing we need full kit for this.¡±


    ¡°Do what you do, but be careful because that hospital¡¯s getting evacuated and the police don¡¯t know who you are.¡± Tom hung up after informing them of their anonymous status to law enforcement.


    Lani climbed over the seat and grabbed the bag with her special armor suit in it. She quickly began putting on her arm and leg guards, the torso piece and the chest rig over it with her magazines. She grabbed her Rec7, with a 1-6x short dot optic and slung it to herself. She then grabbed Michaels heavy vest and unfastened its side and shoulder connectors and slid it around Michael¡¯s torso, adjusting it for him as he drove quickly toward the hospital. ¡°What gun are you needing,¡± she asked as she looked in the bag, ¡°I¡¯ve got six eight on me, you want that too or something meaner?¡±A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    Michael pulled a magazine out of his vest and looked at the rounds in it. ¡°Three oh-eight¡± he said with a smile. He held up the magazine, showing an AR10 formatted magazine with unmarked ammo. This meant to Michael and Lani that it was M80 ball ammo and that he didn¡¯t intend on perching up with a sniper rifle.


    Thankfully he had a short AR10 with an Eotech, a ten inch barrel with a permanently affixed four inch can that had no real sound dampening qualities, but allowed him to have a short barrelled .308 without the nasty light show that shorter rifles in full power chamberings usually caused. Stacked up with a full set of 25 round magazines, this configuration was good for fighting hardened persons, either because of enhancement or excess armor. Lani grabbed a 50 round drum and loaded it into the weapon and placed it next to Michael.


    By this time, Michael had pulled into the parking lot and parked in the middle of the lot in the nearest empty space. They got out together and began moving quickly toward the hospital. They scanned the building as they approached, watching for potential shooters on elevated floors. They made it inside without issues. Once they stepped in, Michael walked briskly ahead towards a stairway. He looked at the signs for arrows pointing to the emergency ward.


    Lani followed behind, looking around. ¡°Mike,¡± she said nervously, ¡°why are there no security telling us to stay out?¡±


    Michael paused, realizing that this side of the hospital had been too well evacuated for how fresh the incident was.


    Meanwhile


    Bernard struggled on his feet, the janitor held him up and tapped his gun against his face as he struggled to move. ¡°Mister Bernard,¡± the janitor said impatiently, ¡°The rescue team is just about here, we have to go.¡±


    The eight men who had departed the van made their way up and entered the ward. They stepped around the dead guard in the lobby, moving towards the pool of blood which made it obvious where they needed to go. As they walked in, stepping around the blood, they lowered their weapons and started stepping back into the main hallway.


    "Please," Bernard said through tears, "I don''t want it like this."


    The janitor grabbed the hair on the back of his head and jerked him back. "I don''t care," he said through a growl, "shit isn''t gonna go your way today."


    As the team began moving from the lobby to the stairwell, two loud shots rang out. Michael had found them. The first man fell as the back of his head exploded through his helmet, and his abdomen was shot through, the exit wound throwing a couple spinal discs across the room, shattered into smaller blood drenched bone fragments. As another one raised his weapon, he was met with his forearm and the side of his face being shattered by another two shots.


    The janitor knew he wasn''t going to be able to get Bernard through the gunfight that was erupting. He pulled him into another room and threw a chair at the window. As the glass shattered out, he looked down. Only three stories he thought, I can withstand it.


    The team of men was down to six already in just a second and a half. They thought they¡¯d be tactical and move four of them to the other stairway to try and flank their shooter. This turned out to be a mistake when they got halfway down the stairs and stepped into another volley of fire. Lani shot through the throat of the first one. He fell kinda slow, almost as if he was too stupid to realize that he had died. The second one got hit in the fingers that he had wrapped around the forend of his rifle. This was followed up by a tightly grouped pair of shots to his collarbone.


    The rest of the gunmen were guarding the room that the janitor had run into, laying down suppressive fire at the stairways. The Janitor had gotten Bernard held tightly in his arms, his legs wrapped around his waist so as to minimize the damage done to Bernard during the jump that was about to take place. He stepped out of the window as Bernard watched two more men fall down.


    Bernard had been around while Michael worked, but he never had to actually witness the killing for himself. Now he was watching as a .308 round tore through the neck of a man, spinning the dying man''s head half off. From the other direction, Lani hit someone square in the forehead with a pair of 6.8mm rounds. That target slumped down, his head tilted back. A moment later, he saw the window of the building moving further away from him, he looked up as the window moved away from reach, he could feel himself in flight as gravity took hold of him.


    As Bernard was carried away in the janitors arms in freefall towards the ground below, Michael shot the side of the head of the gunman aimed in Lani¡¯s direction. Lani shot the wrists of the gunman facing Michael. Michael turned his weapon on the wrist-shot man and shot his knee. The shot to his knee shattered and amputated his lower leg, tumbling him down against the wall. Lani ran to the doorway of the room as Michael ran to the falling gunman. As Michael grabbed the vest of the surviving fighter, Lani entered the room and ran to the window, aiming down to see the Janitor fumbling about with his footing as he carried Bernard. She aimed and lined up a shot at Bernard, firing two shots into his lower back.


    The Janitor turned and opened fire with his large revolver, firing six shots in rapid succession. The rate of fire which he fired these shots was as quick as Michael or Lani would fire their rifles on Auto. These shots flew very close together straight at Lani. One came very close to hitting her, grazing her hair. She threw herself back in time not to have her head taken off by the volley of shots.


    Michael saw the shots land on the ceiling above Lani. Knowing that Lani was okay, he moved to the next room and looked for the source of the shots. He saw Bernard laying on the ground trying to crawl, next to a man in a janitor''s uniform holding a large revolver. He watched as he quickly shoved a speed loader to the cylinder and close the wheel, quickly aiming for Lani¡¯s position again to take more careful aim. Michael took the chance to open fire, placing the dots on his eotech reticle in line with the janitors shoulder line and abdomen.


    The Janitor dodged the shots, though it was not easy for him to do. Some of the shots were getting closer the more he moved. Why is he not surprised at my speed or accuracy? The confusion didn''t last as he realized, This is them, the enhanced interference.


    Lani realized that they¡¯d have to leap after him to catch up. She yelled through the wall, ¡°Michael, throw more bullets at him while I chase his fuckin ass!¡±


    Michael dropped his nearly empty mag and slammed a new one into his weapon. As he lined up his next shot, he yelled ¡°Go!¡± As he started firing, he aimed more towards the legs after having watched the Janitor weave and dive his upper body out of the way of incoming fire.


    While Michael fired rapidly at the Janitor to keep him from aiming at Lani¡¯s fixed direction of movement, she leapt from the window and landed hard on the ground below, the weight of her armor causing the sidewalk she had landed on to crack beneath her. As she landed, she leveled her weapon and fired rapidly at the target and opened fire. She aimed for his hips rather than his head or his legs, keeping him from being able to pick up on any kind of pattern.


    Seeing that Lani had begun to suppress the Janitor, Michael reloaded and jumped from the window, landing on a small honda to cushion his fall. Before engaging the Janitor, he fired two shots at Bernard, the shots tearing through his gluteus tissues and up into his lungs and stomach area. Once he fired those two shots, he locked eyes on the Janitor, his weapon sight following. The time interval between shooting Bernard the first and second time, and his third shot going toward the Janitor, was synced perfectly enough that a blind man would not know that Michael had engaged two targets with his volley of fire.


    Lani ran in a direction away from Michael in order to widen the angle that the Janitor would have to defend against as they continued to attack. Michael moved forward, as one of his shots hit the revolver and blew the cylinder from the frame. The Janitor responded to this by hurling his broken gun at Michael as hard as he could, which turned out to be a tremendous amount of force. Michael raised his weapon up to block the chunk of flying metal, which struck the receiver hard enough to dent the side of the metal in such a manner that it trapped the bolt carrier in place, while moving it just out of battery to the point where it couldn¡¯t be fired anymore.


    As Michael threw the rifle aside and started a flat sprint toward the Janitor at such a speed that it looked like he was just taking a few very long leaps forward, Lani kept firing as the Janitor grabbed another gun from his pocket, this one a small 9mm handgun. He fired at Michael twice, the shots hitting his plate. He quickly fired one more shot at Lani that bounced off her wrist worn armor, though the shot had been aimed for her head. He emptied the rest of his magazine at Michael, the shots cracking his plate. The last shot would have hit Michael in the face, but by the time he had fired this shot Michael had closed the distance.


    Michael shoulder¡¯d the Janitor hard, sending him to the ground. As he shoved, he drew his Karambit and threw a hard right hook at the target''s chest. Though the Janitor met the blow by catching Michaels hand, it was a simple matter of turning his hand and slicing his way through with enough force behind his movement to cut off the Janitors fingers.


    As the fingers dangled on his hand, the Janitor grabbed a knife with his other hand and tried to icepick hammer swing it at Michael¡¯s neck. Michael caught him by the wrist and squeezed with a death grip.


    Lani watched on, seeing the knife and remembering the night that Michael had collapsed on the floor at their home. She remembered feeling him lay near death in her arms as she finished fixing his hasty self aid measures that had come undone. She remembered fighting an E.I.P. with a knife had almost cost Michael his life.


    Michael crushed the bone of his wrist, grabbing his hand with his free hand and twisting it to further the damage being done to where he had broken the arm. The Janitor tried to kick his way out from under Michael but he wouldn¡¯t be budged.


    Lani fired twice into the Janitors leg, the impacts tore through both legs. This ended his ability to put up much further resistance.


    Michael tossed the knives away from reach and began striking the janitor in the face. At first, there was an effort to evade the strikes. Michael grabbed him by the forehead and held him down, striking his jaw and cheek until the skull began to fracture and break under the force of his strikes. The Janitor eventually realized he had lost, and lay there staring back at Michael as he continued to be beaten to death.


    Once Michael was satisfied with how dead the Janitor had been beaten, he stood up and walked over to Bernard. He was still alive, choking on blood. Michael kicked him in the ribs, flipping him on his back. He grabbed him by the head and sat him up. He knelt down in front of him and held his jaw, making sure he didn¡¯t look away. ¡°Not one mother fucking person has escaped me,¡± He said to him, ¡°you will not be the exception.¡±


    Bernard tried to speak, but was unable to say much.


    Michael struck Bernard across the mouth with the back of his hand. ¡°I don¡¯t wanna hear a fuck of what you wanna say!¡± He grabbed him by the side of the head and slapped his face a few more times. ¡°You can¡¯t lie anymore.¡±


    Lani looked around, noticing a small crowd gathering. She saw an Escalade back out of a parking space and floor it to the street and flee. Looking around, she gripped her rifle and watched the people who were starting to come out of hiding places.


    Michael gently wrapped his hand around Bernards throat. ¡°It¡¯s time,¡± he said softly as he tightened his grip, ¡°time for you to die.¡±


    He squeezed. a crunch could be heard. Bernard¡¯s head slumped back. Michael shoved his body to the ground and stood up.

 Chapter 12: The Wolf and the Fire

    A moment later


    Lani grabbed Michael''s shoulder and pulled him toward the hospital. They ran into the building as the crowd grew, they knew they couldn¡¯t be observed going to their vehicle. As they moved, Michael bumped his shoulder against a wall. ¡°Michael,¡± Lani said to him as she noticed, ¡°we¡¯re almost there.¡±


    ¡°Surviving guy,¡± Michael mumbled as he looked for the stairs back to the third floor, ¡°we gotta question that fuckin asshole.¡±


    Lani sighed, realizing that they didn¡¯t have time to question him, but they had to go deal with him. ¡°Guess leaping from the third floor of a hospital wasn¡¯t exactly planned.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯ll be pissed that Bernard¡¯s dead,¡± Michael replied, ¡°I think they just wanted him questioned, but most of what we¡¯d have asked him about died cuz some cute put holes in people.¡±


    Lani blushed slightly, he¡¯s never called me that in the field she thought to herself as she followed Michael up the stairs. She shook it off for the moment. ¡°You shot them harder than I did,¡± she said with a slight giggle in her voice, ¡°I think they nearly shit when you shot them with yours.¡±


    Michael laughed, ¡°you mean with my busted gun?¡± He rolled his eyes as he rounded the stairs and made his way to where he had left the wounded man in the hallway. The man they had left was no longer laying on the floor alive, but pinned to the wall in a pentagram drawn in burnt blood.


    Lani remembered the case pictures that she had been shown when she had brutalized the pedophile back in Chicago. She grabbed Michaels shoulder as she turned and looked down the hall to see a slender woman in a dark blue dress, brown cloth boots and long black hair. There was no expression on the girl''s face, nor was she moving. Dead silence. Perfect stillness. Her skin pale skin was almost as white as the floors of the hospital.


    This isn¡¯t right Michael thought as he shoved Lani back to the stairs and drew his handgun. He kept it pointed down, as he was trained to avoid aiming his weapon at people who hadn¡¯t made acts of aggression. ¡°Did you see who did this?¡± he asked with a loud firm voice, ¡°Do you know what happened?¡±


    Lani watched the girl, and prepared to raise her weapon at her. She wasn¡¯t trained as Michael was, and was very distrusting of the suspicious figure. ¡°Something¡¯s wrong,¡± she said with agitated nervousness to Michael.


    ¡°You¡¯re the one,¡± the girl said in a flat tone, loudly enough to be heard from the end of the hall where she stood, ¡°The hand of furious justice, the lone wolf who kills everyone who does what you perceive to be evil.¡± She began taking steps toward them slowly. ¡°And you,¡± she said looking at Lani, ¡°The angel, the sister and the protector who kills everything that endangers the one you love.¡±Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    Michael backed toward Lani and got in front of her, aiming his weapon at the girl as he tried to nudge Lani behind something. ¡°Alright,¡± he shouted, ¡°Who the fuck are you?¡± As he aimed his weapon, flames ignited on the walls next to the girl. Fuck! He reached toward Lani and shoved her forcefully down the stairs.


    Though Michael knew Lani would be unphased by a tumble down the stairs, she still looked at him with shock and surprise as she stumbled back. You little fucker she thought as she felt the floor beneath her hit her armor. She watched as flames engulfed the hallway, almost making an impassable wall that trapped Michael in a rectangular arena. She shrieked as she saw Michael open fire on the girl, going through an entire magazine before a chunk of floor was hurled at him. Though he had evaded it, he was reloading and still engaging.


    As Michael fired, each shot that would have hit the girl square in the face didn¡¯t. Some shots changed direction, other times she appeared to be teleporting out of the way, making progress closer to him. She could kill me instantly, he thought as he slowed his shooting down, why isn¡¯t she!?


    The girl finally made it within grabbing distance and placed her hand on his vest. She picked him up with what seemed like no effort, almost as if she wasn¡¯t so much lifting him, but rather floating him telekinetically while controlling his movement in the air with her hand. She pulled him close and whispered to him, ¡°someone wants to meet you,¡± before shoving him into a portal where he vanished.


    As Lani watched Michael get thrown effortlessly into the portal, tears began to pour down her face as she screamed, firing at the wall of flames that seemed to keep the shots from hitting the girl. She reloaded quickly as her bolt locked back, but a hand quickly pulled the weapon from her grasp. The girl wrapped her hand around Lani¡¯s neck and pinned her against the wall behind her. Lani struck the forearm and elbow attached to the hand that held her. As she did, she noticed that her full strength wasn¡¯t budging this girl. She swung her fists furiously at the girls head, but still no effect. The expressionless face continued to look at her eye to eye, unphased by the furious blows being landed on her. Lani even tried kicking her knees, but it was still useless. She hadn¡¯t been this helpless since she was nine years old in the orphanage being kicked by groups of kids twice her size.


    The girl leaned in and pressed her body against Lani, pinning her more. She whispered in her ear with her flat emotionless tone, ¡°your efforts are valorous but vain.¡± She tightened her grip on Lani¡¯s neck, pinching the arteries and bringing her close to passing out. Before Lani could pass out completely, the girl whispered one more time. ¡°He¡¯s not gone, and you¡¯re not dying,¡± she said firmly, ¡°I need you still.¡±


    Lani tried to push a fuck you out, but couldn¡¯t quite say it as she blacked out, feeling terror for the first time in a very long while. The last thing she saw was the stairwell around her begin to burn rapidly.

 Chapter 13: The Murdered

    Beyond the portal


    Michael fell to the ground, the surroundings unfamiliar. He stood up quickly and looked around. He was in the dead end of a cave, but the ground seemed developed like a professionally designed sidewalk.


    Steps echoed down the hall. The feet making them moved slowly.


    Michael removed the magazine from his gun. The last round had chambered, the mag was empty. He dropped it and grabbed a fresh magazine. Last mag, he realized as he patted the side of his vest, you¡¯re fuckin shitting me.


    From around the corner, a blonde haired woman with a torn blue dress, heavily breasted and smiling appeared. As she got closer, she began to look much more familiar to Michael. ¡°Hey there,¡± she said sweetly, ¡°It¡¯s been a very long time for you.¡±


    Michael tightened his grip on his gun. That voice was too familiar, but he still wasn¡¯t ready to accept it.


    ¡°It¡¯s me, Sarah,¡± she said as she reached out to touch his arm.


    Michael¡¯s feet slid back and took a stance for a fight as he aimed his weapon at her head.


    ¡°You don¡¯t remember me,¡± she said with sadness in her voice, ¡°I was there when you walked away from the government.¡±


    ¡°I was there when you were murdered,¡± Michael said through gritted teeth, ¡°You were killed for some fucks convenience!¡±


    ¡°And you avenged me,¡± she said calmly, still taking a step toward him, reaching to touch him in an effort to calm him, ¡°I¡¯m not an illusion, it¡¯s me.¡±


    Michael stepped back, keeping his gun pointed at her. ¡°Why are you here?¡±


    ¡°This is one of the realms between the destinations of death,¡± she said as she stepped to the side. ¡°I¡¯ve been brought here to show you that¡­¡± she paused as she turned her head to the side and saw the black haired pale girl.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been following you,¡± the slender woman said flatly, ¡°I¡¯ve observed you for a very long time.¡± She stood next to Sarah. ¡°I brought her here because familiar things normally invoke sensations of safety and acceptance.¡±


    Sarah turned to her. ¡°He thinks I¡¯m an illusion,¡± she said with sorrow in her voice, ¡°that we¡¯re trying to deceive him.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll find a way to kill you,¡± Michael said through his teeth as he went back and forth between aiming at the two women, taking gradual steps back. Without warning, it became harder for Michael to breathe. He did everything he could to stay on his feet and keep the gun aimed at them both.


    The slender black haired girl stepped toward him and grabbed his wrists, pointing the gun up at the ceiling of the cave. Her movement took seemingly no effort, like overpowering a child. ¡°You saw my power in your world,¡± she said in her flat but firm tone, ¡°It¡¯s much worse here. I could decide for your heart to explode, I can shut your lungs off, I can blind you.¡±


    ¡°Please stop!¡± Sarah cried out, a tear running down her face. ¡°I don¡¯t want this, please stop hurting him!¡±


    The girl held Michael in place but allowed him to breathe. ¡°Something I can¡¯t do no matter how hard I try,¡± the girl said through her flat tone, ¡°is feeling your mortal feelings.¡± She placed her hand softly on the side of his head. ¡°What I am cursed with instead is the ability to read yours, and hers. And there¡¯s only one person who has more feelings than Sarah.¡±


    ¡°Shut the fuck up,¡± Michael said through more tightly clenched teeth, ¡°or tell me why I¡¯m here.¡±


    The black haired girl rubbed the back of his bald head, in sort of a scrubbing way. ¡°You should relax,¡± she droned out in her expressionless tone, ¡°your hate is kinda loud.¡±


    Sarah moved in and placed her hand on the girl''s arm. ¡°Please, you¡¯re doing that wrong,¡± she said as she placed her other hand on Michael¡¯s shoulder. As the black haired girl pulled her hands back, Sarah wrapped her arms around Michael and held tightly. ¡°She wants you to fight someone who¡¯s been trying to summon her father.¡±


    ¡°I have to finish tending to Lani,¡± the black haired woman stated bluntly. ¡°Apparently talking to her didn¡¯t work, but she¡¯s unharmed.¡± The girl turned around and took two steps, vanishing into a portal that closed behind her.


    In real life


    Lani woke up in the back seat of the suburban. Her arms were crossed, a hand wrapped around them. An arm was wrapped around her, holding her elbows close to herself, preventing her from having any range of movement. As she opened her eyes, she saw the face of that black haired girl, her chin an inch from her shoulder. ¡°Let go of me,¡± she calmly said before turning and screaming out, ¡°you fucking bitch!¡±


    ¡°If you keep trying to fight me,¡± the black haired girl said quietly, ¡°I¡¯ll start breaking bones that I don¡¯t know how to put back together.¡±


    ¡°Give him back you bitch!¡± Lani said loudly into the girls face. ¡°Break my arms cunt fuck, I¡¯ve stabbed people with bones before, I don¡¯t care if they¡¯re mine!¡±This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    ¡°Michael has a serious battle he¡¯s about to get into,¡± the girl said as Lani drew breath to scream more hate and rage at her, ¡°I need you to help me on the outside of the realm.¡±


    ¡°You burned a hospital with patients down,¡± Lani shouted at her, ¡°you murdered a ton of people you stupid fucking bitch!¡±


    ¡°I destroyed an evacuated row of rooms,¡± the girl retorted back, ¡°and the most harm I did to anyone was choking you harder than I meant to.¡±


    ¡°The fuck are you talking about?¡± Lani questioned furiously with confusion.


    ¡°I could read their terror before I moved you into this truck,¡± the girl said softly with her flat tone, ¡°they were scared, but my part didn¡¯t kill anyone but that guy you came back for, who I got all his secrets from.¡±


    Lani paused for a few moments, catching her breath. ¡°Okay,¡± she said with much more calm than she had before, ¡°I guess you¡¯re useful. Who was giving him orders?¡±


    ¡°A cult,¡± the girl said to her. ¡°I can read that you are feeling violated, if I let go of you will you continue to be rational with me?¡±


    ¡°Okay,¡± Lani said softly, ¡°I can¡¯t really hurt you if I wanted to, and Michael loves this suburban more than anything.¡±


    ¡°No,¡± the girl said firmly, ¡°There is something he loves much more than this suburban or any of his possessions in it.¡± She let go of her arms and elbow, and whispered in her ear, ¡°He loves you.¡±


    ¡°I may not be able to shoot, stab or beat you,¡± Lani said through gritted teeth, ¡°but if you start playing games with me I¡¯ll go back to screaming and ignoring you.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s my favorite kind of love to read in people, it¡¯s so rare,¡± the girl said like Lani hadn¡¯t said to drop it, ¡°it¡¯s not the love one has for a lover or something they ¡®fuck¡¯ as you put it, but it¡¯s stronger than a normal brother and sister bond.¡± She paused for a brief moment and waited for the screaming to resume. Lani didn''t say anything. ¡°Even before he found out who or what you were, as you spent time together he bonded with you. He was scared that you¡¯d run away if you knew what he was doing on his trips. But he didn¡¯t know that you were intuitive about his activities, or that you had been told about him in a vague sense.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s my sole reason to exist,¡± Lani said to the girl, halting her rambling monologue. ¡°My life in that orphanage was hell, being kicked and beat on by bullies and treated like an inconvenience by the headmasters.¡± she continued as a tear escaped her eye, ¡°when you¡¯re 17 in an orphanage you were put in at two, it makes you wonder if it¡¯s okay to live.¡±


    The girl sat silent. She stared blankly at Lani, who was just now figuring out that she really couldn¡¯t feel or express most emotions.


    ¡°You said you needed me to do something?¡± Lani said as she wiped the tears from her face, ¡°I need you to do something.¡± She turned around in the seat and reached into the back and opened a box. She grabbed an AKM and fed a drum into it. ¡°First I need you to tell me what you think I need to do,¡± she said as she grabbed a fist full of pistol magazines for the pistol she knew he had. ¡°Then when I go to do that, you need to give Michael this bag I¡¯m gonna pack for him.¡±


    As Lani packed the bag with the AKM, the pistol magazines and some more AK magazines, the girl looked over her shoulder at the bag. ¡°Do you have any swords? Axes? Shields?¡±


    Lani looked at her with a really bitch look on her face. She grabbed a Katana from under a seat and set it on the bag and handed it to her. ¡°What do I need to do?¡±


    ¡°Go outside and kill everyone in the house,¡± the girl said in a matter-of-fact manner.


    Lani glared at her. ¡°Who are these people?¡± she waited for a moment to give a chance for a response. ¡°I don¡¯t murder indescriminately,¡± she said sternly, ¡°that¡¯s the kind of thing our enemies do.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re the head of the cult,¡± the girl said in a low yet still flat tone, ¡°they¡¯re trying to summon my father. They¡¯re getting close to succeeding.¡±


    ¡°Where the fuck are we even at?¡± Lani said with agitation in her voice. ¡°And why can¡¯t you just waste them as easily as you took us on?¡±


    ¡°I have to be at the other side of the door,¡± she said flatly. ¡°Is your bag ready for him?¡±


    Lani nodded. She handed the bag to her, which the girl stepped out with quickly and stepped into a portal. The portal vanished for a few seconds before reappearing. The bag was thrown back through. Lani picked up the bag and looked inside it. There were AR10 magazines. He really is okay, she sighed with deeply felt relief.


    Meanwhile


    Michael finished shoving magazines into his pouches, racking his weapon and slinging it. He affixed the katana to his belt, smiling. He finished preparing before looking up and walking down the cave length. There were no straight lines long enough to be considered a great distance, but it did feel like it was designed sort of like a strange bunker network.


    Sarah followed behind him with a sense of calm. Though Michael didn¡¯t want her there, he didn¡¯t really have much say in the matter.


    The girl stood at the cave beginning for a moment, still and motionless. She felt through the cave the dangers that would come. Not that she bothered to mention any of it, but she knew that Michael would momentarily face the cave dwellers before walking through crystals that would read him and bombard him with the people whose lives he had taken. What she also knew was that he had taken quite a lot of lives.


    Sarah grabbed Michaels shoulder. ¡°Wait,¡± she said panicked, ¡°there¡¯s something she isn¡¯t telling you.¡±


    Michael turned and looked at her. ¡°So she¡¯s a secret keeper,¡± he asked in response.


    ¡°Not quite,¡± Sarah said, ¡°She probably thinks it doesn¡¯t matter, or that you don¡¯t care.¡±


    Michael shook his head. ¡°I¡¯d rather people let me decide what doesn¡¯t matter or what I don¡¯t care about,¡± he said in a low grumble, ¡°but chances are, it won¡¯t make a difference.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a portion of this tunnel that¡¯s meant to punish those who try to go through it.¡± Sarah stood motionless as she pushed the words out.


    ¡°Punish for what?¡± he asked in response.


    ¡°I dunno,¡± she said nervously, ¡°I just know that it¡¯s called the walk of punishment.¡±


    Michael turned forward again and drew his katana. ¡°Don¡¯t follow me,¡± he said calmly. ¡°I can¡¯t have you dragged into whatever this walk decides I did wrong.¡± He began walking forward, his rifle pushed all the way to his back. Clutching his weapon, he knew that in no capacity or interpretation of any writing or doctrine would he be seen as innocent, and he walked ready to face the potential suffering.


    Sarah watched him walk forward, her hand over her stomach. She turned her head a little to see the girl standing there.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t tell him,¡± the girl said softly, ¡°did you?¡±


    ¡°That you didn¡¯t explain what he was walking into,¡± Sarah asked, ¡°or about my murder?¡±


    The girl stepped in front of Sarah, glancing down at her stomach, then back up at her face. ¡°You were both murdered,¡± the girl said painly, ¡°so he doesn¡¯t know.¡±

 Chapter 14: The Walk

    Near the barn


    Lani slowly approached the barn. She had grabbed an M4 from the suburban and a bag of explosive charges that she had learned how to prep from Michael teaching her how to be utterly destructive and ruthless. Keeping her eyes on the surrounding area of the house, she was shocked that nobody was outside waiting for her. She made her way to a window and peeked in. It was plenty dark out, so she was able to look without being seen.


    Inside the house, a man with an MP5 cut up random food items on the kitchen counter. He¡¯s an armed belligerent, she thought to herself. She quietly climbed the two story house to look for more indicators of hostility or activities to ensure that she wasn¡¯t about to destroy a house with innocent people.


    This was the first time she had gone on the offensive without Michael giving her detailed instructions on what was to be expected, or how things needed to go when it happened. She had to piece together this mission herself, and could only hope that she made the right choices.


    As she looked through the other windows around the house, she saw that there were more armed men walking around. MP5¡¯s, AK¡¯s and a couple shotgun looking weapons. These guys are definitely viable targets. She went back to the ground and started placing the charges. Taping the blocks to the corners of the house, she set them for two minutes. This would give her enough time to place the charges and get away. She moved fast but quiet as she placed them before running away from the house on a side that wasn¡¯t overlooked by as many windows, minimizing her chances of being observed.


    Once she got to where she knew she was safe, she faced the house and lay flat down on the ground and waited. By this time she had twenty seconds before things were going to get very loud.


    In the Hellrealm


    Michael clutched his sword as he saw the first thing running toward him. It had red skin, a slender build and a flat face, much like someone had taken a tomato and drawn features on it with a pair of paint pens. He held his blade low, with the edge facing the creature. As it got within striking range, he swung the blade up to point it at the things chest, allowing the momentum of the running to impale itself on his sword. It still tried to swing a clawed hand at him, but with the sword in its chest he was able to turn the thing and draw the blade out, cutting it in half. These things die at least, he thought to himself as he proceeded onward.


    Another pair of them came running down the cave, letting out growls and yells that didn¡¯t sound much like anything he had heard before. He cocked the blade back over his left shoulder and waited till the first one got within range and swung it horizontally through one, turning the blade over and swinging upward in a bottom-right to upper left diagonal motion to cut the other one down. They fell easily. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Gotta keep moving he thought to himself as he started moving forward at a more brisk pace. He started shuffling to almost a run as he pushed on, swinging his blade through the creatures as they ran at him. Not feeling punished right now, might not be there yet.


    Back at Headquarters


    Tom stood over a body. The metal mask had been smashed into his face, his M240 had been rendered useless by some well placed .40 S&W rounds, his friends had been shot down and his Escalade sat in the front door of the building, the radiator broken and the tires flattened. Tom clutched his M&P40, newly scratched from having been used as a hammer to kill the enhanced attacker he had just faced.


    Behind a coffee stand, a barista lay crying as a medic rushed to her with his aid bag. ¡°I¡¯ve got you ma¡¯am,¡± the veteran doc said to the injured coffee server who was laying in blood as her foot lay detached from her leg and her arm lay useless from being shot through twice, ¡°you¡¯re gonna be alright.¡±


    As Tom stared at the door, an agent approached him. ¡°We haven¡¯t been able to reach Michael.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s either incapacitated,¡± Tom said with a smirk, ¡°or he¡¯s operating.¡± A moment went by, the agent continued to stare at him. Tom turned and said with a faint chuckle, ¡°you think someone who¡¯s killing these assholes is gonna answer his phone?¡±


    As he spoke, another man in a suit approached. ¡°Tom,¡± he asked frantically, ¡°what the fuck just happened?¡±


    Tom took a slow breath, pulling a cigar out of his pocket and lighting it. As he puffed the smoke, he turned to the suited man. ¡°We¡¯ve just had war declared on us,¡± he said with no longer the friendly voice he usually spoke with, ¡°by someone with the same resources that we have.¡±


    The man began to hyperventilate. He grabbed his phone from his pocket and made a call. With two rings, the phone was answered. ¡°Papa,¡± the youthful voice on the other end said.


    ¡°Mein liebling,¡± he said with a deep sigh of relief, ¡°wie geht es dir heute?¡±


    ¡°Es eine gutes tag Vater,¡± she replied, ¡°Du klingst besorgt.¡±


    ¡°Gotta go sweetheart,¡± he said as he switched to English, ¡°just wanted to hear you.¡±


    ¡°Awe, I love you papa,¡± she said as the man hung up quickly and shoved the phone back in his pocket.


    Tom smiled, the sound of that call gave him that nudge to keep his typical positive attitude and high hopes. ¡°Folks,¡± he said as he turned to address the people who were gathering around him, ¡°We¡¯ve got an open war on our hands. Chances are, the secret is gonna get out.¡± As he puffed on his cigar, he chuckled. ¡°It was in wait for this day, that I wanted all our gifted special people to be on their best behavior. Worse than the fight against our enhanced enemies is the damage control we¡¯re gonna have to do now that the first thing the public is gonna see will be the terror being wrought upon them.¡± He set his cigar in the eye socket of the man he had stood over and walked back towards his office. ¡°What are you waiting for? We¡¯ve got work to do.¡±