Hunter of Vengeance

Since Mara was a cop and my face still was popular on the evening news shows we decided on Lisa’s place to get some rest and plan our next move. I thought maybe Tony was paying for her place but she was insistent that the apartment was all her own. She brought us to an abandoned-looking building in a not-so-great-looking part of town. Maybe she had paid for the place herself.

“You sure you have room for us? We could always hit a hotel or something.”

“Ya can say it straight, Hunter. Place looks like crap, but one thing you should know ‘bout me is looks can be deceiving!” She opened the front door to the building and it looked like it was about to fall off its hinges.

“That place is pulling a lot of power coming from that place for an abandoned tenement.” There was a slight pause. “Actually, it’s pulling a lot of power for an NSA watch station.”

We walked through the door and up a short flight of stairs to another door. This one had a similarly weathered look but as Lisa opened it I could see it was much different inside. A steel plate ran through the door reinforcing it, and all the hardware was new. The door moved aside leading to an elevator up. This wasn’t an apartment this was Lisa’s own personal bat cave.

Once inside the thought of the bat-cave was not just pushed from my mind but atomized by the overwhelming presence of pink. Everything in her living room was some tone of pink, from the couch to the carpet to the walls, even the shelves that lined the room filled with figures of wide-eyed anime girls were pink. Lisa, finally home, walked off through a hallway peeling her shirt off as she went. I caught sight of several bandages still wrapped around her ribs before she vanished into a room, calling over her shoulder that we should make ourselves at home.

I looked around at the first real peek I had gotten into Lisa’s life. Some of the sculptures lining the walls seemed vaguely familiar. Kaylie had gone through an anime phase a while ago and had forced me to watch several of her favorites. I could hardly follow the story with the screaming and flashing lights that filled every moment but it was always nice to spend time together. One of the largest televisions I had seen dominated the south wall, I knew from experience how much a screen like that ran.

Another short hall led past a small balcony access to a bathroom with a more than slight contrast in expenses. Everything was basic, bare-bones fixtures except for the shower which was a full walk-in, multi-jet, something or other. I could guarantee my ex would know everything about it but all I could tell from looking was Lisa spent her money on anything she found important. I came back to the living room to find Mara napping in a chair she had sunk so far into that you couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. We were all exhausted and the sun wasn’t even due to rise for another hour.

I looked over the last exit from the living room as Lisa came back, dressed now in some kimono-looking outfit. She plopped right down on the couch and threw on the television not even seeing me. The door that held my attention though was out of place in an apartment. It would seem more at home in some bank heist movie. There were dials and levels all over the heavy metal door that made ARC’s security doors on their armory like tissue paper.

“Gotta make sure da kids can’t get in,” Lisa said not looking up from her program. “Couldn’t have that kinda mess on me. Would drive me nuts.”

“You live here all by yourself?”

“See many roommates?” She laughed to herself leaning back into the couch and pulling up her feet. “Took a few years’ worth of paychecks to get it to this point but, yeah, been just me here for a long time.”

“Must be hard on you.”

“Not really, people don’t tend to stick around once they see who I am so I’m very used to being alone by now. Sometimes it’s even a comfort, no one to look you in the eye when you get home. No explanations about why you’re covered in blood. It’s all good.”

“I-“ I wanted to give her some part of sage wisdom that would make everything in the world right. The problem was, I didn’t have any. Life can knock all of us down and sometimes seems to like kicking us a few times while we’re there. She knew that but still met each day with a bright smile and laughter. Maybe I was the one who should ask her for some wisdom.

“Something’s happening on the networks, Hunter.” Holly’s voice broke the awkwardness in the air. Lisa and Mara both sprung to attention as soon as I asked what was going on. “I don’t know, it’s like a virus, swallowing everything faster than should even be possible, they’re building up to a massive pul…”

“Holly? Holly?” I called into the air, trying to get her to answer. The TV stopped, going to a black screen. A blurry white silhouette appeared in the center of the set.

“Attention New York.” The voice came from the television, the transmitter in my ear, I thought I could even hear it from a radio in the next room.

“How can they interrupt a disc?” Lisa stood to play with the TV as the voice continued.

“You are at war, you have been for years without even knowing it. Shape changers hiding among you have struck again, this time destroying the facility created to police them.” The screen changed to a view of the wreckage of ARC. “They have convinced the government they are harmless but twice now they have proved they are not. Tonight, they will strike again, and where the government has failed to keep you safe… we will save you. We cannot tell you who we are right now, knowing they would pour their full vengeance onto us, but when you are safe you will know us… and we will work together for a better future.”

The screen changed back to the silhouette before a backdrop. “All we ask is you protect yourselves as best you can. They strike from positions of surprise and advantage, knowledge is their greatest enemy. Stay alert today, so that we may bring you peace tomorrow.” The screen turned dark once again, I could hear cheers and whoops rising from the street outside. The dawn at last broke on a new day, and a new purpose was taken up with it.

~ * ~

We all needed rest before we were able to even think about our next move. All communications systems were down, phone, radio, everything so we got some sleep. My mind kept racing as I lay there on the floor. This whole situation had spiraled out of control since I saw Nate. Now there was only one way any of us were getting our lives back to normal and that was stopping a plan we didn’t know enough about to figure out a way to stop.

I got up from where I was resting and made my way past where Lisa was snoring loudly on the couch. She had insisted that Mara take her bedroom and wouldn’t take no for an answer. I noticed the door out to the balcony was open and went to investigate. I found Mara, leaning on the rail in the midday sun staring off into the distance at a column of smoke.

“Couldn’t sleep either?” I walked out onto the small balcony with her. We were high up enough to see over some of the buildings nearby. We could hear shouting from different streets nearby as groups of people made their way through the city.

“A little difficult to sleep after some anonymous fang-boy calls for practically the extermination of my race. At least that’s how people seem to be interpreting things.”

“What do you mean?”

“See that smoke?” She gestured at the black pillar in the sky a few blocks away. “There’s a bar there, called Once in a Blue Moon. It’s a fairly well-known werewolf hangout. I’ve been watching it burning for over an hour… I can smell burnt wolves and bloody humans every time the wind shifts. People went there with the intention of ‘Getting those furry bastards’ like it was anyone’s choice to be like this. They’ve all but declared all-out war on us.”

“Is that why you take care of those kids back at the compound, you were changed against your will as well?”

“Against my will?” She let out a rueful chuckle. “A rather fancy way of saying mauled to death by an angry beast but somehow didn’t die. Laying there, in agony simply waiting for a death that never comes. They romanticize the change so much in the media and I suppose the more time passes the better you can focus on other things but…”

“How did it happen to you, if you don’t mind me asking.”

“Oh, you should never ask that. It’s considered incredibly rude and personal. Some people might just attack you rather than answer.” She looked at me a long time in silence, a strange look on her face. “Okay, I’ll tell you.”

“It was about three years ago. I had been a detective for a while and put in a transfer to SWAT. I had passed all the tests they threw at me, I knew plenty about different weapons, could center-punch a target at nearly any distance and they claimed I was the most even-tempered candidate they had in years. All that was needed left was the official paperwork to go through and I would be part of the Elite… the big boys.

A call came in, an anonymous tip that a high-ranking member of the Santiago Cartel was hiding out in a place downtown. SWAT was mobilized immediately to go and try to bring him in. Since I was all but transferred the team offered me the chance to come along and get a sneak preview of what was coming. I never squeed as a girl, not for a single boy, or band, or actor… but I think I did that morning. There were five members of the team not including myself and the driver, he was ex-SWAT himself but still felt it was his job to take care of the youngsters.

We rolled up to the house in full tac-gear, ready for a fight. It was a smallish house out in some burb, my memory is a little fuzzy since I was in the back of the van. It was a two-story house, white paint recently touched up, like something you expect your grandmother to retire to. The truck parked near the front of the house on the street and the six of us poured out the back. We advanced up the yard towards the front door, there wasn’t any cover but we thought it was a short enough distance. We were wrong.

Lloyd Fletcher, six-year veteran in SWAT, froze in midstride halfway to the door. We never even heard the shot that took him down. One second he was behind us, the next there was a ragged, burnt hole through his chest. He dropped to the ground, twitching and trying to breathe through the new hole in his lung. We turned as he dropped only to see the Bearcat in the street get rammed from behind by a modified and reinforced truck cab. The truck skidded sideways as motorcycles pulled to its front. Heavy artillery opened fire on the truck at the same time that breaking glass behind us warned us of more gunfire from the house.

We dove to the ground trying to get beneath the gunfire, Barry, the squad leader lobbed a flash-bang from his belt through one of the windows. Nearly the same second the bikers had broken the bullet-resistant glass on the truck and followed it with an explosive of their own. Jerry, the driver, still had moves left to him, he caught the grenade and threw it back. The bikers scattered, as the men in the truck opened fire. Jerry popped out the top hatch of the van and fired back at them, bullets tearing through the engine block. There were at least eight, not counting the cover fire from the house attacking one man. In less than a minute there was nothing left of Jerry, I let out a small cry as I remembered him showing me pictures of his first grandson who had been born the month previous as we loaded the van.

The flash bang went off and we leaped through the window before the reinforcements could turn their attention to us. Four men were waiting inside covering the windows, they fired blindly as we entered. Luke, a father of two young boys, took three rounds to the face right in front of me. He also took out one of his fellow men in the process, he and the others were dead before Luke’s body had even fallen to the ground. We didn’t even have the time to mourn before more men poured out of rooms upstairs and opened fire on us. Barry didn’t even hesitate; he cried out and charged up the stairs.

Faced with the surprising amount of rage in Barry’s attack all the men upstairs focused their fire on him. He made it to the top of the stairs, but only through sheer stubbornness of will. When he fell dead a grenade fell out of his grip, seemed he knew our chances were slim at best and at least he was determined to take some of the bastards with him. The last two men on the team, Kirk and Drake, grabbed me and pulled me around the stairs into a hallway beyond. We didn’t know if Barry got everyone upstairs or if the bikers outside were coming in after us. They said our only chance might be to make the back of the house and get out there. None of us ever even saw the end of that hallway.

We charged down the hallway, Kirk in front of me and Drake behind. Mere steps away from the door on the far end of the hallway the wall next to us exploded. SWAT training covered many different situations but even more than fifteen years after the alters revealed themselves we were woefully unprepared for anything like one. Kirk didn’t even register the attack before his head, sans body, was launched into me. I stumbled into Drake, in awe of the sheer power the were had displayed.

Drake recovered before me and opened fire with his shotgun. The were was faster than he was and dodged out of the way with ease. He turned to fire again but the were had apparently had enough fun and tore him limb from limb. That was when he turned his attention to me. Suffice it to say the last seconds of my life are still the most terrifying things I’ve seen in this lifetime. I had tried to fight back, I think I got it with my knife once but it simply laughed. As I lay there afterward, my blood draining into the same pool as Drake and Kirk’s, I knew no force in the universe could save my life.

I blacked out finally, willingly letting go of my hold on the world only to wake up again sometime later to the smell of smoke. I was coated in blood, many of my wounds were still only starting to heal but the house was on fire. I dragged my body through the house, past many other corpses that were unfamiliar to me. I made it to the front door before my strength failed me, the smoke was so thick I couldn’t see anything. The door was locked and bolted and I didn’t have the strength to force it open. I suppose that could be considered the second time I died that day because the next thing I remember was waking up in the back of an ambulance. The virus had taken full hold in another day.

Thorne found me a few weeks later, gave me a home. Everyone at the compound helped me return to a semblance of real life but no one seemed to know who the were that attacked us was. Maybe someday I’ll have the chance to show him all I’ve learned since we last met.”

“I can see why the memory was a sore subject when Toussard brought it up.”

“Oh no, Hunter, that was just the first time I was the only survivor of a botched operation.” She forced out a laugh. “He was talking about the second time I screwed everything up, a completely different tale.”

“If you’re willing to continue talking I’m more than happy to keep listening.”