by P. S. Power
The next few weeks went on the same way, more or less. Brian took people's places several times, fighting to the death more than once, and Marcia stopped cutting him as much, but made up for it with increased bruising. He didn't talk to Penny, but she seemed fine with that so he let it go and tried to focus on his own work. It still hurt a bit, he'd thought they might be real friends at one point. Apparently she hadn't.
The only thing he actually enjoyed any more was running in the mornings. And eating. That at least, running, had gotten easier. Karen stopped coming at all, and no one mentioned it, so he didn't either. He just did the exercises she'd shown him before as soon as he'd healed enough to make it work. For the most part, except Marcia, Mark, and Jason, people ignored him, giving him funny looks and otherwise not even talking to him.
To his surprise he realized that he'd almost made it to his birthday, only two days away, a kind of milestone for him, twenty-three. He kind of found it hard to believe and wondered to himself if he was going to die the next day, like the bomber pilot three days from retirement in a war movie. Well, he'd be careful not to show anyone the old photo of his "girl back home" since that always seemed to be the thing that really got that guy in trouble.
No need to tempt fate.
At three he went outside to the range, only to find a crowd had gathered near the front gate, chanting something. Poorly. It was almost an incoherent mess of sounds, with at least three different ideas being used by different groups. The only thing they had in common was that they all sounded aggressive.
He looked at the weapons that had been laid out for him that day, by Jason Montrose no doubt, and picked up a fifty caliber machine gun, a huge thing that he could barely hold and fire, but that looked damned impressive. It had a belt feed and rounds as thick as his index finger and nearly as long as his hand. The black and silver weapon pointed upward, he approached the gate to see what the situation might be.
On his side of the gate, people stood as if to prevent entry, Lauren and Prime in the middle - at the front, looking massive and intimidating - to each side most of first and second team were arrayed out in a single file line, looking ready to fight.
Lady Glory moved to the front and spoke loudly, over a bullhorn, her voice still sounded digitized and tinny, which might be an effect of her power, after all if it made her glow, it could also be distorting a lot about her. Possibly even her attitude? Brian wondered. She didn't seem quite all together mentally as far as he could tell.
"We understand your fear friends, but we can't help being what we are... Please, let's not have violence here today..."
On the other side of the fence, between the protesters and the fence, were riot police in full gear, they held rifles and stood facing inward, their backs to the crowd. They had clear plastic shields, which they hit with the side of the rifles, trying to intimidate the people inside the compound. Kind of brilliant, facing off against the IPB like that. If he changed the definition of "brilliant" to mean mentally challenged at least.
Morons.
A large tank-like thing pulled up, and aimed what looked like a huge gun at them. Brian pointed the fifty caliber without thinking and almost opened fire before realizing it was just a battering ram and not something more dangerous.
Pointing the barrel back up, he walked forward until he stood behind, but between Lauren and Prime. They were both bullet proof, if it came to shooting, so that meant leaving them in front just made sense.
"Guys, what's going on here? Did someone get too rowdy last night, drinking in town? Sleep with the mayors daughter or something? Prime? Tell me you didn't get his wife pregnant again..." Speaking loudly so as to be heard over the chanting, he waited. Lauren turned and saw him, then looked back at the threat.
"Not... really sure, though that would at least be a reason... they just showed up about twenty minutes ago, obviously organized, but a lot of police seem to be with them. Until we learn otherwise we have orders to treat them as a hostile military force, so if they attack us, we fight back. That's all we know." The giant armored woman sounded hesitant. Scared.
The golden man nodded and looked down at him slightly.
"Charlot told me to expect something like this about a week ago. It seems related to the Hooper bill, which will basically make it illegal to be Infected. The government would be allowed to arrest anyone, just on the suspicion they might be Infected, and execute wholesale anyone deemed "beyond their ability to control". The danger for us there is that, by definition, all of us here are beyond their ability to really control. We choose to work for them. That doesn't mean they could lock us up easily. We have administration people that would be put to death under those rules. Hell, we have food service people and doctors that wouldn't make the cut."
He sounded worried about it, which was out of keeping with his ego, wasn't it? Because as far as Brian could tell he wasn't worried about himself, just the others.
The name Hooper sounded familiar to Brian, but he had to think about it for a bit to make the connection. " Hooper... like the little girl and her nanny that Lauren saved?"
The black and brown armored giant looked down at him, an obvious and huge gesture though only her head actually moved.
"I seem to remember you tackling a man a dozen times outside of your power class and getting the girl to safety, not me, but yes, that Hooper's father. Instead of seeing it as good guys versus bad, he seems to have fixated on the idea of bad infected being responsible for everything that ever happens in the world. Possibly including his parking tickets and bad attitude." Her voice, coming from behind the solid face plate, echoed a bit, sounding lonely and sad.
Brian belatedly got down on the ground and set up the two-legged stand on the weapon in case he had to fire it. That should have been automatic, but the fifty caliber was just too new to him. The small metal legs folded down, letting him take aim far more accurately than if he had to try and hold the thing to fire it. He targeted the armored vehicles tracks on the right side. If it moved on them, it wouldn't get far.
Then they all waited.
The crowd grew anxious and finally rushed the fence about an hour later, patience seeming to be in short supply. Brian didn't fire, since the vehicle hadn't moved and hitting the crowd with this weapon would simply be murder. Even though things were flung over the fence, no one on his side moved much, though a few dodged missiles. A full and closed soda bottle flew over the fence, a remarkable throw, since it came from the back of the crowd, and hit Brian in the back with a loud thud, knocking the wind out of him.
That didn't feel good.
Immediately and without hesitation, Lady Glory turned and hit him with the full impact of her talent, radiating pure love and compassion, which didn't do a thing to mitigate the pain he felt. Brian knew it wasn't that serious, he'd be bruised and might even be bleeding a little, the stinging being the kind that indicated the skin being torn open due to impact forces. Nothing big though. Sighing he got up and walked into the beam of pure, radiant blue, not stopping or hesitating at all. When he got to her, the glowing form cringed, as if in fear, and intensified the beam so much he actually felt it pushing him back physically. Not hard, like a warm wind of about thirty miles per hour. Filled with love for her he stepped in and stared at her, smiling.
"Seriously, LG, stop it. I don't know what your deal is, but enough already. OK? If you do this every time someone tries to hurt me, it's eventually going to get me killed. Is that your plan? Do you really want me dead so badly you can't just wait a few months?" He grinned and patted her on the arm, or tried to, she pulled away from him violently. He stepped back, still smiling.
"Right, anyway, stop now. We have things to do and while compassion and love are great, I think your efforts might be misapplied right now. Raging crowd to attend to, remember? Over there? Looks ready to kill us all? Hard to miss really..." Brian gestured with his head, a sweeping motion to indicate who he meant. "Go to... Get the bad guys... sick'em."
She kept hitti
ng him with the beam and didn't stop.
Finally he walked back to the weapon he'd set up on the ground and picked it up, then moved back toward the main building. The crowd, realizing that Lady Glory, American icon, had targeted one of her own people - one that held a wicked looking weapon - pulled back, which probably meant at least a few of them were smarter than they seemed as a group. She kept after him with the full might of her power, which made him feel sorry for the confused people in the crowd, and even for her, this powerful woman that didn't seem to know he was her friend. The barrage stopped when he moved behind the main building, using it as a shield.
He looked at the low overhang of the structure and wondered if he could set up on the top of it? He could climb up, Jason had shown him how on an obstacle course on level fifteen, one meant for really agile people, but that an in-shape and motivated person could manage if they cheated and ignored some of the challenges. The trouble would be getting the weapon up too. Running to the weapons supply area he got an extra ammo can, a green metal box that held a hundred rounds and weighed more than it looked like it should. Brian also procured a heavy length of nylon rope.
He had to make three trips to get everything set up on the roof, but managed to draw a bead on the tracked vehicle, peaking over the roof, just as it began to move to take part of the fence down. Taking a deep breath, he slowly squeezed the trigger, then released after four rounds had fired, like he'd been shown. Go slow and aim, Jason had told him. It saved ammo and kept the weapon from overheating. On his third group, four rounds in each pretty consistently, the police starting to fire through the fence.
He stopped the vehicle, shredding the right side track. Lady Glory turned on him again, instead of trying to calm the crowd. He ducked down until she stopped, using the roof to block the beam.
Playing hide and seek with her, popping up to look and then quickly back down, he saw a truck - beat-up looking, red, not anything official - charging the fence, speeding up as it went. He trained the weapon on it and took out the front tires rapidly, taking the right one all the way off, stranding that vehicle in place too, then had to duck again as a wash of blue hit the whole building.
After a few minutes Brian had to repeat the whole thing again as a white and tan motor home tried to charge the fence as well.
As he hunkered back he had to wonder what these people thought they were going to do when they got through the fence? Did they think that Prime and Lauren would just let them invade? Surrender once they saw the crowd's flimsy wire fence bending might?
Some of their people inside the fence were down, it looked like, or had hit the dirt, as the police kept firing. Creeping his head up he took aim carefully, not on any of the attackers, but on the dark colored police vehicle, a huge thing that looked like a bakery delivery van, and took out the visible tires. Then had to duck again as the blue beam sought him.
Prime flew up in the air, taking round after round and started to glow, a black nimbus surrounding him, he aimed at the police and hovered menacingly. But, Brian notice, didn't attack. The man was just playing decoy. It was working too. Lauren hopped the fence and closed with the crowd, walking quickly, but not hitting anyone yet. As she passed shooters, she gently plucked weapons from them and broke the hardware easily, crushing and tossing them back over the fence casually.
Team two worked fast and hit... with amazing restraint, taking out the shooters without actually hurting anyone. The precision scared Brian a little, they worked almost as if this were all planned ahead of time. He didn't understand everything they did, but Goblin started singing, an eerily pretty sound that seemed pink and green to Brian, while several others - some wearing body armor like the police, but in dark black, not blue - jumped the fence and easily subdued the crowd, most of who started, wisely, to run away.
If they would have done that an hour ago, the whole day would have gone much more smoothly. Shrugging to himself Brian shook his head. Too late for that now.
From behind the disabled police van a man in a blue jump suit popped his head around the corner and aimed something at Lady Glory, it looked like a rocket launcher to Brian, a thick tube set on the man's shoulder. He recognized it from several video games he'd played.
And here even he had thought that was wasted time. Go figure?
Taking a deep breath he drew a bead on the man and fired, the three rounds from his own weapon causing the rocket to fire upward, instead of toward the woman that stood in the open, trying desperately to hit Brian again with her power.
Stupid blueberry.
He shook his head and hid again.
Prime held back, but drew a lot of the remaining fire as he moved slowly around the sky. The fight lasted about three more minutes, and ended with the police lying on the ground, largely unconscious, disarmed but alive. Mainly alive.
Holding the position felt right to Brian, so he waited, hoping that no one would be hurt too badly and knowing he lacked the medical skills to help them if they were. Staying alert paid off, as another vehicle charged the fence, this one exploding when hit by the fifty caliber in his hands.
A suicide bomber?
What the fuck?
How much did these people hate them that they'd be willing to die in order to try and kill them? Or really, give their lives just to breach the wire perimeter.
He ducked again to avoid Lady Glory. Then watched carefully until it got dark. Not having night vision made it useless to be up there, so after lowering the remaining ammo and weapon, he climbed down himself. The director stood in front of the building looking distraught, waving his hands and talking on a black plastic head set. Heatedly.
"Under attack! Police backing a crowd of... insane people I guess would be the best descriptor. We subdued them with only a few casualties... Rocket launcher and car bomb. We have footage of it. Luckily none of our personnel is badly injured..."
That made Brian feel a little better. As distant as he felt from everyone, they didn't deserve to be hurt. He didn't even want the confused people that attacked them hurt. He'd grown used to seeing evil in the eyes of people and fear as well. These people had seemed angry and some of them scared, but evil? Not really.
Stupid he couldn't vouch for.
"Let's go and attack a base filled with super-humans that put their lives on the line protecting people all the time. That'll show those pesky Infected how brilliant we are." Brian muttered softly, knowing he sounded a bitter. The Director obviously heard him, because he gave a short nod and flared his nostrils angrily.
Military forces came in next, making Beatdown really uneasy, so they both set up firing positions with heavy arms and waited, just in case it turned out to be a trick to get another attack force in place. They didn't try to come inside the wire, except three people who seemed to all be in command of different units. Brian held his position, back up on the roof, waiting for something to happen, hoping nothing would. The wood shingles scraped against him when he moved, leaving knees and elbows feeling raw and abused. Lady Glory wasn't trying to hit him any more at least. That not only would be annoying, but would light up his position for everyone that didn't know where he was yet.
Really, she'd be pretty handy if you ever had to find something at night. Like a blue spotlight. She'd never need to scramble for a flashlight if the power went out either. Or, if she glowed like that in her sleep, need a night light.
Lots of useful things she could be doing rather than making his life harder and more dangerous.
The local police came to get their people, which caused problems, because they were now considered terrorists, having attacked the federal government, apparently with the desire to create fear in the public mind.
Kind of an "oops" moment really.
Brian knew that wouldn't stick, but it sounded good when Director Moore said it on the phone to the police chief, who'd ordered his men to surround the compound. They didn't have enough people for that and the military personnel weren't giving up the areas they'd staked out either.
In other words they had a few clumps of police in front of the compound. The red and blue lights were freaky, but reminded him to stay ready, even when it got boring.
It did that after a few hours, so he tried to force himself to be watchful, checking for suicide police attacks he knew would never come. That kind of thing took commitment and bravery, which most police only pretended to. No, they'd try something sneaky, if they thought it would work, like an ambush with a crowd of people. Just attacking wouldn't happen though. Not outnumbered and outclassed like they were.
This time the situation resolved itself peacefully when the director walked out and spoke to the chief personally. Brian didn't know what he said, but it got them to pull back down the road. The military took their time, but had the situation cleared up about ten hours later. They had control of the prisoners, protesters and cops. It should have been the local police handling it, but that wouldn't work well at all.
Staying on the roof seemed like a good idea, given the car bombing attempt earlier, but nothing else happened. Marcia finally came over, her own natural suspicion allayed by the cooperation of the military it seemed, convincing her they were on their side, for now, and spoke to the special forces commander, a fit man in black and gray digital camo that shook her hand when she approached.
"Marcia Turner... I should have known." He looked at the rifle she held and pointed. "You take out the rocket? That was good shooting, I saw a live feed of it. Thought your Glory would buy it for sure." He put his hand out when she got close enough.
"Bill, thought I recognized you, but wasn't sure, one crew cut looks a lot like all the others..." Her face seemed flat, without expression, but the tone she used sounded happy enough. Her white uniform had turned tan somehow and matched the dirt around them. The cut looked identical to Brian, he'd have to ask how she'd done it, because he didn't think she'd changed. Her face was covered with dirt or black make-up, cutting the shine from her white skin.
