| From: | Ratinac, Rand (NSW) RRatinac@*****.redcross.org.au |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Messy Work 2 |
| Date: | Fri, 7 Apr 2000 11:20:49 +1000 |
>>>>>[
+++++ BEGIN VIDEO
As the door at the head of the room opened, Seraph bolted to her feet. A
flash of long, blue-white hair was all she needed; then she was flying
across the room, throwing herself into the strong arms of the tall elf as he
stepped through the portal. "Oh lord," she murmured, pressing her lips to
his. "Thank god you're safe!"
The elf returned her kiss with equal passion, before he lifted his head to
look down on her. His golden eyes were sad, his lightly tanned face set into
a sombre expression. "I was lucky, cherie," he replied, holding her to him
tightly. "We...most of us were."
Seraph frowned, lifting a hand to stroke his hair back from his face. "How
bad was it?"
"It wasn't good." The elf squeezed her once more, then released his grip.
"The weapons have been destroyed," he reported. "There shouldn't be
anything
left to link us to the op."
Seraph sighed. "I'll be more convinced of that in a few days - if we haven't
been hunted down and exterminated." The elf grunted as he turned away,
rubbing a hand over his face. Seraph placed her hand on his back and bit her
lip as a shudder ran down his spine. "Nate? Nathan? Frag, was it really that
bad?"
Nathan glanced over his shoulder, then dug something out of his pocket of
his jacket and held it out to her. "See for yourself."
Seraph glanced at the object - an optical chip. Taking it, she let her hand
linger over his for a moment before turning to the trideo set that sat in
the corner of the room. She inserted the chip, then stepped back as it began
to play. Nathan stepped up behind her and she took his arms, wrapping them
around herself.
+++++ BEGIN PLAYBACK
"Get into position," Gryphon whispered into his transceiver as his eyes
scanned over the entrance to Darkblood's meeting place. "They're moving out
in force now. I count six...no, seven. There - Darkblood's outside. Okay,
people, switch to team freaks. Use the command freak only to respond to me.
Gold Team, it's your show."
Gryphon glanced around at the other six runners secreted in the darkened
alleyway with him. "Ready?" he whispered.
The closest figure, hanging by his side, tapped him on the shoulder and
nodded. "Just give the word, boss," came Ragnar's reply.
The sound of engines brought Gryphon's head around. He waved the other
runners back and they faded into the darkness as a small procession drove
past the alleyway. "Okay, this is it," he murmured, hefting the dark blue
Ares Alpha Combatgun he held. "Be ready to move." He felt the looming shape
of Thor move up to his shoulder as he peered around the corner.
As the procession, a large van following two cars, pulled up outside the
building, Darkblood's guards split to enter the vehicles. Suddenly, a globe
of brilliant light sprang up around Darkblood and two of his soldiers.
Lightning seemed to coruscate over the globe once, then twice and the goons
began to pull weapons.
"Damn it, he's warded!" Gryphon snarled over the command frequency. "All
teams, move in now. Volume of fire counts. Put him down before he can clear
the area." He glanced back at the rest of his team. "Okay, Greens, let's go.
Six, on me." He darted around the corner, his assault rifle coming up
towards Darkblood as a pair of vectored thrust Guardians, Loki's drones,
zipped past him.
Running forward, Gryphon yanked the trigger repeatedly, emptying the
magazine of his grenade launcher into the mass of stunned men who huddled in
the dubious cover of the three vehicles. Shrapnel tore into their ranks, the
metal fragments being joined by a hail of bullets and magic as the rest of
the runners attacked.
Laughing, DeKain stepped forward, his hands weaving in the pattern of a
powerful spell. "Frag it, Seven, get down!" Gryphon snapped.
DeKain thrust his hands forward and the spell detonated in the midst
Darkblood's soldiers. The return fire was sporadic, but it was enough to
make the mage duck. "What for, One?" he asked, his voice gleeful as he
jumped into the shelter of a doorway. "They couldn't hit me even if I was as
big as Six."
Gryphon gritted his teeth, his frustration growing as another voice crowed
over the comm-channel. "Way to go, Seven!" Gryphon recognised the voice of
DeKain's partner, Boomer.
"Shut up and move," Gryphon growled in response.
Green Team advanced purposefully. Their fire was unrelenting, chewing away
at the soldiers' cover and the barrier that protected Darkblood from harm.
Loki's Guardians zipped back and forth, laying down covering fire with their
miniguns, while Ragnar and DeKain kept up the magical assault.
Gryphon raced forward as fast as he could, ignoring the sporadic return
fire, the powerful figures of Thor and Heimdall close behind him. He was
little more than twenty metres from the cowering Darkblood when a new
element entered the fray.
Automatic fire rained down from the buildings overlooking the street.
Gryphon cursed and threw himself down as bullets glanced off his armour. He
rolled over, spraying fire at the heat signatures of the attackers. "Watch
it, Greens!" he yelled. "We're being outflanked!"
"Frag that." Gryphon recognised DeKain's voice. He turned in time to see the
mage step into view again.
"God damn it, Eight!" he bellowed. "Get your crazy partner down!"
Boomer scampered across the street towards DeKain, but even his jacked
reflexes weren't fast enough. Unlike Darkblood's guards, the new attackers
were neither disorganised, nor demoralised. Multiple lines of fire converged
on the rash mage and DeKain's body seemed to explode in a welter of blood.
Gryphon turned his head as Boomer darted away from the killing zone with a
howl of rage.
"Green One, Blue One." Gryphon recognised the clipped voice and the callsign
as Sweet Oblivion's. "I don't know about you, but we're in trouble here."
"Likewise," added a young man's voice - Nomad, perhaps. "They're all over
us
here. What do we do?"
"Close ranks and advance," Gryphon ordered, frustration building up inside
him. "We've nearly reached Darkblood. He goes down and we're out of here."
He switched back to Green Team's frequency. "Six, Three, Eight, form up on
me. Two, Four, Five, suppress those snipers. Let's do this!"
Thor let out a thunderous roar that seemed to shake the buildings themselves
as he and Heimdall closed in behind Gryphon and Boomer. The four samurai
charged forward, the fire directed their way easing as Ragnar, Freya and
Loki hosed down their attackers. Before they managed to cover more than a
few metres, a dozen men in heavy armour, brilliant white in colour, strode
into view, exiting the building behind Darkblood and his remaining
bodyguards. They were armed with a variety of weapons; assault rifles,
combat shotguns, machine guns and even nastier tools of destruction.
Gryphon's jaw went slack. "Frag, he brought Paladins," he muttered. He
flinched away as a grenade went off nearby. "Gold Team!" he barked,
returning fire, "give us some cover! I want those white-suits going down
hard!"
"Green One, Gold Three." Phoenix's response was soft and calm. "We've run
into some trouble of our own with the chameleons. One disengaged
successfully, but I had to help Two out and he's hurt. I can patch him up,
but our positions were overrun. We won't be able to provide covering fire
for another minute or two at least."
Gryphon gritted his teeth. Two of the Paladins had already gone down, but
the rest were pouring out an enormous volume of fire. They'd already moved
to cover Darkblood and a trio of them were hustling him back inside. Looking
around, he saw that of the three assault teams, Green Team was the closest
to Darkblood - and there was no way they could reach him without
support...support that did not appear to be forthcoming. A bitter taste of
disappointment filled his mouth. "All teams, fall back and disengage," he
ordered, his throat tight with impotent rage. "Rendezvous with your
transports at the prearranged locations."
"Go. I'll cover you."
Gryphon glanced over to where Heimdall knelt, Alpha to his shoulder, laying
down suppressive fire. "You heard the man, Greens. Let's go." Rising to his
feet, he backed away, triggering off bursts of fire at the approaching
Paladins. As he neared the alleyway where they had first hidden, he stopped,
switching to full auto as he emptied his clip at the Paladins. "Three, move
it!" he called, reloading smoothly. "Hurry up; those white-suits are nearly
on you."
"Roger, One," Heimdall replied. The samurai began to rise as Thor and Boomer
joined the rest of the team in the alley. Suddenly there was a blur of
movement above his head. A silver flash was all Gryphon could make out in
the darkness, then Heimdall stiffened. An enormous gash seemed to
materialise in his armour, slicing down from shoulder to sternum. Blood
pouring from the gaping wound, the samurai toppled over.
An ear-splitting cry of agony echoed inside Gryphon's helmet, drowning out
his own shout of rage. He squeezed down on the trigger, spraying bullets at
the chameleon-like figure of Heimdall's assassin, the chatter of his rifle
deafening in the void of silence left behind as Freya's scream died away.
The Ghost vanished - he couldn't be sure whether he'd hit him or not.
His jaw set, Gryphon turned away, hurrying around the corner of the alley.
Ahead of him, Freya struggled with Thor, but the giant held her back,
preventing her from running back into the fray. Slinging his rifle, Gryphon
turned to Ragnar and clapped his hands together. The mage tossed him a long,
thin box with multiple switches and labels on it. At the top sat a single,
red button. "Call it in," he ordered over the command frequency, his voice
flat. "Who've we lost?"
"Green One, Blue One," reported Sweet Oblivion. "Six and Eight didn't make
it. Seven was badly hurt, but we got her out. She'll live."
"Green One, Red One." Nomad's voice was weak. "We lost Four and Five. I'm
not so hot and Six is looking a bit chewed up, but we'll both make it."
"Green One, Gold Three. We're all intact, more or less, although Two's still
incapacitated. His injuries are worse than I first thought," Phoenix
finished.
"Okay, teams. Pull out now. You know where to meet." Gryphon swiftly flicked
six of the switches on the box. His finger hovered over the button for a
moment, then stabbed down.
"No!"
The cry froze Gryphon's finger mere millimetres above the button. Lifting
his head he saw that Freya had slipped past Thor and was standing at the
head of the alley. "He's alive!" she screamed. "He's still alive!
Heimdall!"
Thor moved, faster than anyone that big had a right to. Reaching out, he
scooped up his teammate and ducked back into cover as bullets scythed
through the air around them. She fought against him, but sagged limply as
someone spoke. "No, Four. Stay...back."
Gryphon's breath caught in his throat. Heimdall's voice was weak and filled
with pain. The gasping, bubbling sounds that came through even over the low
quality of the radio told the tale of a punctured lung and possibly even
worse injuries. "One...Three. Don't...don't let them...take me."
Gryphon and Ragnar exchanged swift glances, then raced back to the head of
the alley. Glancing around the corner, Gryphon felt his heart sink again.
Nearly fifty metres away, Heimdall lay prostrate, struggling weakly. Between
the samurai and his teammates, the Paladins were carefully advancing down
the street.
"Could you get him?" Gryphon whispered.
Ragnar's response was slow and pained. "No. Not before they got here."
"I was afraid of that." Gryphon glanced at Freya. He couldn't see her face,
but he could imagine what she was going through at that moment. "I'm sorry,"
he whispered as he depressed the button.
Heimdall's choked cry was mercifully short, drowned out by Freya's wail of
anguish. Turning to look back up the street, Gryphon saw Heimdall's body
shudder, then fall still. Liquid began to drip from the gash in his armour;
clear liquid that hissed and smoked as it struck the surface of the road.
With no further opposition in sight, three of the Paladins turned towards
the samurai, approaching the body with caution. Closing in on Heimdall, the
closest nudged his body with the muzzle of his rifle. When there was no
response, the Paladin knelt, bending over to examine the puddle. Suddenly
the liquid began to spray from both the gash and a vent in the rear of
Heimdall's suit. The Paladin let out a muffled shout and fell back as it
splashed over his armour, etching the immaculate surface in pale pink. The
other two Paladins stepped forward to aid their stricken colleague. An
instant before they reached him, Heimdall's body seemed to erupt in flames.
The explosion tore into the trio of Paladins, shredding them like rag dolls.
Heimdall simply vanished in the blast.
Gryphon closed his eyes as he turned away, Freya's sobs tearing at him. Only
one man spoke.
"Take your vengeance with you into the darkness, my brother," Ragnar
whispered.
+++++ END PLAYBACK
Seraph looked up, her eyes filled with tears. "Oh, Nate," she whispered.
"Freya must be shattered."
"They all are. Thor and Loki put on their stoic act, but I could tell they
were hurting. Ragnar...he's in mourning. I think he's gone off to the
mountains. He'll want to speak with Wolf at a time like this."
"And the others?"
"Well, Boomer took DeKain's death better than the Wolves are taking
Heimdall's - he's just baying for blood. I left him with Nightshade and
Rogue. I think she's going to adopt the crazy fool. Maybe he'll fill Nitro's
spot on the team. Then again, I doubt Rogue'll want to deal with him. The
others...I don't know. I don't know them well enough to say. Maybe it's all
just part of the job for them, maybe they're mourning their losses. I
couldn't say."
"Taledain?"
Nathan shook his head. "You saw the chip. He got away, the bastard."
"I know. I was just hoping..." Seraph sighed and closed her eyes for a
moment. "You told them how to disarm the booby traps in the armour?" she
asked.
Nathan nodded. "And gave them the replacement parts and the rest of their
payments, plus those for the people they lost. I expect they'll see the
money goes where it needs to. Some of them were mad about the booby traps,
but the bonus you added went some way to mollifying them. Maybe the lengths
we went to will impress the gravity of the situation on them."
"Good." Turning around in the cradle of Nathan's arms, Seraph pulled his
head down and kissed him, softly and longingly. "I'll go see Freya tomorrow.
Maybe she'll talk to me."
"Maybe."
Seraph could see the sorrow in the tall elf's eyes and she sighed, pressing
her head to his chest. "I know I should feel worse, but I'm just so glad
you're all right."
Nathan ran his fingers through her hair. "I know. I'm...it's..." After a
long silence, he spoke again. "I didn't know if I'd ever be able to hold you
again."
"Shhh. Everything's all right now." Seraph smiled, then wiped her eyes.
Reaching out, she took his hand and squeezed it. "Come to bed."
+++++ END VIDEO
]<<<<<
-- Seraph <??:??:??/**-**-**>
