European Intro:
Life was peaceful in this little slice of Wales, it was early summer and it seemed it was shaping up to be quite warm. But not unbearably so, in fact it would seem much of the populace on the local streets all had the same idea. Many where adventuring out to enjoy the finally warm and cooperating weather and making the most of it, adults could be seen tending to their lawn and gardens. While children played and made a general ruckus as only children could do. It was calm and peaceful, no one really had any serious worries about their lives. They all went to work, and new almost everyone in a general sense that nobody could say there be any shocking surprises. The only real 'news' as it where was a new family or couple seemed to be moving into the open house just a house up the street, moving trucks could be seen coming, unloading their contents then leaving just as soon.
The couple in question seemed quite ordinary nothing stood out between them, they directed the movers with almost practiced ease and where quite friendly to the passing person on the street. Eventually it seemed everything was accomplished and the last truck pulled out of the drive way and sped off from the house and the couple retired inside.
Sean watched absent mindedly as the truck drove off, making his way down the street and up the drive. He hitched up his shoulder back as he walked, taking care as it contained his favoured possessions, his laptop, his YuGiOh Cards and his DS complemented with Pokemon Fire Red and Pokemon Soul Silver. You may be wondering where the accompanying pedometer was, well his Poke-Walker was attached to the hip of his jeans, his croconaw bouncing up and down with each step. He could be considered as the definition of 'Dork'. Well that was up to Captain Piccard to decide. He knocked a few times on the wooden door of his friend Tom's house, awaiting a reply.
Tom had been bobbing behind the door for a few seconds; he always looked for his friends when they were on the way, nervously so. He waited until the first knock, then wrenched the door open, meeting Sean with a grin. "Sean!" he said happily, arms open wide and revealing his 'Weird Fish' T-shirt that lay crumpled on his body "Hey dude, finally got here." He would wait until Sean got in before giving him a hug. "Man your beard's getting awesome." Tom chuckled as he stepped back for Sean to come in, itching his own curly beard out of reflex.
Sean grinned, running his hands through his hair, a habit of his which he rarely left home without. "Thanks, I grow it myself." Sean chuckled, he loved beard humour. It made him feel distinguished and grown up, although the action itself was the opposite. "Yours too, although I think you should try mutton chops again, they suited you." Sean noted, stepping into the threshold, giving Tom a quick hug before closing the door behind him.
"You'd be amazed how many strangers start talking to you though,"
Tom said with a bewildered shake of his head, "It's as if growing facial hair makes you somewhat of an oddity." He shrugged slightly and turned around, walking into the front room. "Wanna drink or something?" Tom asked, turning back to grin at Sean.
As Tom and Sean were talking on the front steps a middle age man could be seen jogging down the street. He was fairly nondescript but in good form and health from the obvious way his clothes where snug but not overtly so. About half after passing the house he leaned down to tie his shoe and said "Unknown person approaching target house, can any one id?" before smoothly getting up and continuing on down the street..
Panting as he ran down the street leading to Tom's house,
Howell ran around the man, knocking on the house door as he stopped to catch his breath. He was usually breathing heavily by the time he reached Tom's house, normally due to the slight distance, but mainly the fact he always carries his backpack, containing his laptop, primarily used for games and the internet, a game controller for his laptop or an Xbox, paper, pens and pencils, for drawing or writing down things for games, a few work books he couldn't be bothered to remove, and the various chargers needed for the various devices, like the PSP, 3DS and phone in his left pocket, while his right contained his wallet, keys dangling from a chain attaching it to his jeans. Despite all the things he was carrying, the main reason for his panting today was due to rushing, due to lateness.
"Bleeding hell, you can run?"
Tom joked, grinning slightly as he opened up the door; he just spotted Howell coming in as well, and the guy he ran around... he lived in a pretty secluded place, but he did have a main road slightly up from his house, and a walking path that ran right by it. He always hated people going past the house though. It was a bit weird. "Sean got here... though you probably saw that." he nodded to howell "Just offering him a drink, you want some of your pink stuff?" The pink stuff being concentrated grapefruit juice, very sweet and definitely Howell's type.
"Hey! Yes...I can run. Sorry I'm late, could not wake up this morning."
Howell smiled awkwardly, he always seemed to be late, and normally due to sleep. On the offer of 'pink stuff', he nodded. "Yeah, pink stuff'll do nicely" He preferred drinks with a flavour, be the alcoholic or otherwise. At that point, his stomach grumbled loudly. "Aaaand any chance for a sammich?"
"Yeah, but we're running out of cheese, so try not to use it all,"
Tom said, nodding towards the kitchen and standing aside, then looking to Sean "What did you say to a drink then? We've got normal cola as well this time, not just diet stuff." He could never keep track of who liked what kind of cola... he just drank them all.
Across the street unknown to the young men joking and generally acting their age, a camera was snapping photos. Inside the house where the new family had moved in about half dozen men and women where working. It was obvious this was some form of staging house, as there where computers set up, surveillance cameras on the street all discretely hidden from the public view. A young man's voice rang out as he punched in information on a desktop he was working on. "Pulling up facial recognition software and running through all known databases." The man said as his finger ghosted across the keyboard in a flurry of typing.
"We have a second subject entering the house as well photos incoming." Another voice rang out that was stationed at window with a high-powered digital camera.
"Acknowledged.
" The man called out as he waited for the data to process through the computer.
"Erm I'm good thanks, maybe some diet coke later." Sean smiled as Howell requested a sammich, he himself never ate much around here, or much anywhere to be honest. He proceeded to take his shoes off, black smart shoes which he'd taken to wearing recently, and spied a cat pass him which he kept well away from, being allergic and all. "Hey, I've got some new cards by the way!" Sean grinned, he'd bought a new deck recently and decided to mix and match with his previous, something he was fond of doing.
"I'll be good, or if not, I'm fine with a ketchup sammich." Overhearing Sean's mention of cards, Howell smacked his forehead. He grumbled as he continued making the sandwich. "Damn, I left mine back home...And I had new XYZ monsters..." Since university, he had been re-reintroduced to Yu-Gi-Oh, but still wasn't a big fan, just big enough to get a new starter deck, which worked quite well with his old cards too. "Ah well...We'll duel next time, kay?" He finished up preparing his sandwich, and put on a plate, and into the microwave, a habit Tom had gotten him into, to melt the small amount of cheese within. "There's still a bit of cheese left, I was good."
"Ah... piss. I mean, cool on the new cards and all, but I've still got a pack full of old ones. I barely stand a chance against people when they've got the new ones." Tom shook his head, then chuckled good naturedly and said "Well maybe I'll have to buy myself a pack as well, catch up to you guys. It might completely screw over my methods though..." He looked thoughtful for a moment, then shrugged and went into the kitchen to go make some of Howell's pink stuff, "I'm up for a duel against people later though. Just don't think I'll do too well."
"Nah you'll do great, my plans are always too complicated or simple to work out... can never get the right mix." Sean sighed, he tended to over think things alot, not a good quality when playing a strategy game. "Shall I just..." Sean motioned towards the living room, thinking it'd be less cramped in the there than three of them in the hallway.
"Sure, you can set up in there," Tom said, waving off to Sean with a grin, "It'll probably take a little while for you to do it. Whenever you two come over my place it's like setting up an airplane." Tom was pouring the pink juice into a glass, making a drink for Howell "It's three plugs, when not charging phones or DS's, checking whether we've all got the password to the WiFi, at least five passwords, engines on, lights down, flaps up..."
"I only need one plug!" Sean pipped up, grinning. He held aloft a bundle of wires as he entered the living room. "I got a multi usb charger! Phones, DS, Ipod, PSP, and general micro usb." Sean listed, setting his bag down and taking a seat in the large leather armchair, sitting so far back his feet dangled a centimetre off the floor.
"Ohhh, Mr fancy over there." Tom said with chuckle, shaking his head and offering the drink to Howell "Sounds pretty cool actually... wonder where he got it." He had a few pounds knocking over from Christmas and his Birthday, it might be one of the few things that he could buy that would be of use.
Ding! Howell opened the microwave, grabbing his plate just as Tom passed his drink. "Danke." He walked into the living room, smiling at Tom's comment on the plug usage, before placing his plate down, and taking out his laptop, plugging it in, and logging on the internet. He went onto the usual sites, which had him end up with 34 tabs open, ranging from comics, to gaming news, to Facebook. "Hmm..." He noticed that, even for all the tabs being opened at once, the internet seemed uncharacteristically slow, but shrugged it off.
Inside the house across the street a voice rang out "IDs of Unknown Subjects identified, pulling up to the main screen." Fingers could be heard clacking against a keyboard before two large photos appeared on a wall of Sean and Howell. "Subject one is Sean Outen, age 18 student at university studying to be a Doctor. Something of a dreamer and some may say a bit of geek. No known association with any known terrorist organizations. Nothing much but a ordinary kid, might be being black mailed, or a evolving Anarchist. Searching for all relevant data as we speak." The man situated at the computer stated before moving Sean's picture to the side and pulling up the second "Second subject is Howell Dugan, age 20 student and this one seems to be something of a computer prodigy, nothing illicit or illegal but he might just be good to not have been caught yet. No known ties to any terrorist organization, searching through all database for any relevant data."
The man sitting in the chair in front of the computer spun it around before asking "Sir, this doesn't seem like a terrorist plot, or if it is we are being run around by our noses. How do we know the intel is viable?"
A older man with silver gray hair turned to the voice and said "I don't know, but there has been a increase in chatter on known affiliated websites of something in the works. Any chance they could have a secondary computer not on, that has information we need? Or possible a fourth person we haven't found yet and they are just biding there time waiting for their handler acting like normal kids?"
"It's possible sir, I'll start working through their fire walls and security to see if I can find anything of value." The main at the desk said before turning back around getting to the task.
"Hey, is the internet running slow for any of you guys?" Tom said, gazing at his computer screen and frowning slightly as it churned through another page of information "I think something's up with our net... it's crap right now. Like... seriously. The only way to actually get it to work again is to switch it off for about a minute..."
"Yeah, wasn't gonna say, but it's kinda bad, for here at least." Howell was used to router issues back home, it seemed to always happen, but at Tom's, it was pretty rare. "Gimme a sec." After closing many tabs of comics he'd read in previous days, and closing the gaming news pages as well, keeping them for later, he went onto a speedtest site. "Hmm...pretty slow, yeah." He then closed the internet, and opened the command prompt. "I'mma ping Google, see what happens." Typing into the black box, he shrugged. "Wait, it's taken 2 seconds to ping Google...Is that bad? I think so..." He had to admit, he knew how to access this information, but didn't always know how to apply it.
"I'm switching it off. I'll tell you when it's back on alright?" Tom said, running upstairs at once and finding the router; he fumbled for a second, then pulled the plug on the WiFi; he would leave it for a little while before plugging it back in though. For now he went back downstairs, grinning at the others "So how's things in the doctor... business... stuff?"
Sean had opened his laptop and was in the process of closing some programs that had started automatically, something that was much of a routine nowadays. He turned his head when Tom asked him. " Yeah not bad... had an incident in the lab last week when I spilled some Chloroform, the lecturer wasn't too happy when he had to clean it up, he cancelled the next lecture because he was feeling too out of it." Sean chuckled, he wasn't usually that clumsy with chemicals but when you're receiving a thorough poking from your lab partners who have no care for safety, you tend to be a little off balance.
"Good way to get a day off I suppose, spill a little chloroform on the tables, make the teacher too out of it when he's cleaning up and everyone gets to go home early and get drunk." Tom let out a little laugh, setting up his own computer but knowing that there was no internet right now anyway "can't exactly do that with mine... throwing paper all over the place just means that all your classmates have more paper to write on."
"Sir, pulling up list of recent browser history of all connected computers and cross-referencing for all known or affiliated terrorists websites or common denominators between." The young tech at the computer said.
A few seconds later there was pinging noises heard in the house, and the young tech pulled up the results then moved them to the main screen. "Nothing of note, but there seems to be a lot of chatter about this. I think it's a card-game but they could be using that as a cover and speaking in code. There are a few other questionable sites as well in the history of one of their computers."
"Yeah that would suck, I don't think I could handle English now that I'm doing Medicine... In the past three biology lecturers I've learned about nerve bundles around the body, how to paralyse someone and give them an orgasm. It's a pretty extensive topic... and I love it." Sean said whilst typing on the laptop, he opened the usual tabs, his uni course webpage, elftown and facebook. Now it was just a matter of waiting for them to load once the internet was back up.
Tom blinked, then pulled an imaginary pen and paper out of thin air, leant closer to Sean and said slowly "Go on..." Heck, if he could get taught how to incapacitate people, via nerve paralysis or orgasm, he was all ears. Alright, mainly the orgasm. what could he say? The idea of going past people in the street and making the pavements sticky with shame was a fun idea.
Howell sighed, not genuinely, more with mock embarrassment. "Thomaaaas..." What with the internet currently unplugged, he decided to pull out his PSP, out of habit more than anything. His attention was still on his friends, but that didn't stop him from pressing 'Load' on his extensive 'Kingdom Hearts' save file. "So yeah...why do they think it's a good idea to give you chlor- wait, they give you chloroform, and tell you how to give people...ahem...What kind of people are they training?" The words 'Turn your head and cough' played over in his mind, along with a Family Guy quote he decided to say out loud. "Trust me, I be a doctor, WAHAHAHA!"
"Relax it isn't the same lecturer, and the orgasm thing was more of a titbit that everyone took notes on." Sean chortled, "And incidentally it's located above the right kidney, you need to rub it hard and slow for several minutes to generate a response." Sean went on speaking matter-of-factly.
The silver hair man that appeared to be in charge of the surveillance was on a phone listening for the moment. He had all the available data they had collected over the past few weeks strewn about in front of him so he could reference it if need be. He continued to listen, as the rest of the occupants went about their business as usual. About five minutes later he nodded his head and said "I understand." Before hanging up the phone and moving to the center of the room everyone was located in.
"Listen up everyone!" He called out in a somewhat raised voice, and waited for everyone to stop what they where doing and turn to look at him. "That was Base, they seem to think something is going on or may be going on. We have been given orders to initiate a search and seizure." The man continued as he turned and nodded his head to one of the computer techs. Who took his que and popped up on a large display three photos.
"Are targets are the following, there is nothing to say they are violent or will resist. That said I want this done by the books! I want all gear accounted for and checked. I want blue prints of the house now!" The man stated before turning back to the pile papers that was on the desk behind him, as flurry of activity took place.
"Right kidney... yeah... now... where is that?" Tom frowned, prodding himself in the stomach area with no idea what was going on; if he suddenly had an orgasm it was going to be news to him, but rather good news, that made him all tingly inside. "You learn weird stuff in your class... most I learn is..." Tom paused, looked thoughtful for a second, then said gently "Give me a second... I'll think of something."
"Books!" Howell spoke, giving Tom the worst hint of his teachings ever. "Still, can't complain, at least you didn't have to draw naked people last term...Bloody life drawing..." He then clapped his hands, jumping up slightly. "But meh, animation is alright, and SHOCK! I'm starting to make COMPUTER Games! In a Computer Games Design course!...Speaking of..." He put away his PSP into his pocket, putting it onto standby mode. He then opened a file on his computer, and a small, very rough test of a game was playing. At present, the sprites used looked good, but the gameplay was entirely testing what he could do with GameMaker to make a shootemup. "How's it look?"
"Look? Kinda fancy. Stick a multicoloured background on it and you could flog it on XBLA..." Tom let out a little laugh and shrugged his shoulders "Seems pretty good though. Your strange obsession with bullet hells where the main antagonist is a little girl with extensive magical powers does you well I see."
"Not bad, I like it." Sean smiled, Howell was doing well in his uni course and the game really did look good, who knows, he could be playing something by Howell Produggantions soon. He had little experience with computer games other than the norm, but, with the exemption of big shooters he pretty much was willing to try anything.
"Right," Tom said with a firm nod "Time to switch the internet back on. It should be alright by now." He stood up, went upstairs, and started to plug the bits and pieces of the router back together again, seeing if the internet would behave now. He wasn't certain it would, but there was hope.
"Danke danke, I do try. I'll give you all links to download it when it's all done, or close to done." Howell did a mock bow, smiling to himself. "I say close, as, you know, nothing is ever perfect, so I'll probably keep fiddling." As Tom disappeared upstairs, he opened an internet window, constantly refreshing it, as often, the browser would realise there was internet before his laptop told him so.
Sean smiled, constantly refreshing elftown and facebook, waiting for one to load up on his comp. He was close to pulling out his ds and restarting pokemon fire red again, but he hesitated, he didn't wanna lose himself in that game again, it'd just be twenty four hours of ev training and breeding, followed by an all too easy defeat of the elite four and a blank stare at the end credits with bugger all left to do but restart.
Tom plugged the router back, grinning as the device was flashing frantically. "How's that working boys!?" he yelled down the stairs; he had a rather impressive set of lungs on him, so it echoed throughout the entire house, and even could be heard outside. He would probably get a text as a reply.
Sean mini fist pumped as the refreshed pages loaded. "Starfleet command, we have established contact." He smiled, that was something he'd do earlier, stick on another episode of Star Trek TNG, he was only halfway through the series so he still had another three seasons of Patrick Stewart, good times.
The room in which the agents were working was a flurry of activity, it was a well organized machine running and coasting along smoothy. Everyone was doing their assigned tasks and research as required. Everyone knew this was going to be tricky, they had been here about a week now and whom ever they were tracking was slippery. Or it was the three young men they had been watching since weeks out. Though many could hardly believe the later there wasn't much evidence supporting anything else.
The silver haired man, who seemed to be the defacto leader was pouring over all their intel in case he overlooked or missed something. But everything was falling into place, but something was off. He couldn't put his finger on it, but a gut feeling was telling him he was missing something. But sadly he was out of time, he had gotten word from the top they were going to bring the three in and see what they knew. He was just waiting on the warrant, sighing he turned around to the center of the room and called out "Alright, listen up. Brass seems to think there is ample evidence of wrongdoing and enough for a warrant for search and seizure. Are targets are these three." Pulling up on a large plasma display the pictures of Sean, Tom, and Howell. "All intel says they are nothing but young kids, but looks can be deceiving so I want this done by the books. I want all entry and exit points covered in case one of these guys does a runner. We go in fast and hopefully no one gets hurt and then haul them out of there back to HQ. Any questions?" He asked and looked at all his people. "Alright then, get ready we move as soon as the warrant comes through."
Tom let out a small noise of thought, staring down at the computer beside him for a moment. He wondered if he should use his laptop downstairs, or try for his old busted up one; as broken as that old thing was, it wasn't as slow as the new one. He had no idea what the hell was wrong with the new laptop, but it was just so... damn... slow.
Sean tapped on his laptop keys for a few seconds before pressing enter. He waited for a few moments, everything was moving at a crawl. It was at times like these that he forgot he still had the rest of his laptop which was in full working order. He browsed through his files and found the one he was looking for, the Uncanny X-men series. He was at a loss for where to begin, there were 544 issues after all.
Everything was falling into place, it seemed that orders had come down, breach the house and arrest any and all inside to bring in for interragation for possible links to terrosist activities. Looking around the room the silver haired man sighed but knew his hands at the current moment where tied. Grabbing a vest and checking his side arm he put the weapon in it's holster then strapped his vest on before turning to the room.
"Alright everybody listen up!" He called out and moved to the center of the room. "I want all of you to gear up we are going in I want team one and two on the back porch, team three you on the front door with me. Team four you are on the garage to look for runners." He said as he paced about the room, "I want this clean and by the book, no unnecessary heroics and no shots unless fired upon." He finished as he moved to the door and the rest of the team gathered their gear and headed out, they quickly moved across the street and set up around the house ducking down under windows so those inside wouldn't be able to see them stacking up.
Bringing his hand to his mouth he called out "All teams in position?" After hearing back a adequate response he nodded to the man at the front door before grabbing his pistol and bringing it up in a ready position. The man at the door nodded took a step back and with a step foward brought his large booted foot out and smashing into the door breaking it open. As this happened everyone rushed in and the silver haired man yelled "No body move! Interpol!!"
Tom, being upstairs with the internet connection, had spotted out of the corner of his eye what appeared to be a group of black shadows dashing along the road. When he looked around however there was nothing there... He frowned in confusion, then bent down to adjust a pillow on the couch in the room; as he did the door was caved in downstairs. Tom panicked. He had to admit he panicked. His eyes wide, his brain numb, he didn't even register the muffled yells downstairs, the only thought in his head was "burglars". In a fit of panic he grabbed the couch, dragging it in front of the door and blocking it; he wasn't intending to do that, it just happened. What he was intending to do was go to the area under the stairs, which was blocked by the couch. He hauled the wooden flap up, digging into the Christmas decorations and stored train sets for the thing he knew was in here.
As the door collapsed, Howell shot up, turning around and noticing some figures rushing past the large front window as well. "Hoooooooly crap." Interpol? He may have been panicking as he shoved his laptop behind the chair he was sitting on, sitting on the top of the chair now, close to the front corner wall. Whoever these were, they didn't sound friendly. But if they weren't really the law, then good lord this could get interesting.
With all the commotion, Sean didn't remember to put his laptop away, his first thought went to the wall above Howell head. He jumped towards it, contemplating the vast array of antique weapons that lay there, before pulling the sabre off it's hooks. Grabbing a sword may not help against guns, nor may it be productive, but he felt safer hiding behind it.
As all hell broke loose the silver haired man went room to room before coming upon Howell and Sean and yelled again "Interpol! Drop the weapon!" HE said as he raised his pistol, he be damned if he let the kid come charging at him with sword or any of his team. He could hear the rest of the teams clearing the other ground level rooms and calling out clear. He knew behind him was team three so he was covered.
Team five was heading up the stairs and called out "Interpol! Come out with your hands up!"
Tom was tossing stuff about loudly in the room with the computer in it, throwing away boxes of things as he searched for the item. The door was blocked with the couch for now, and he was in a rabid fury to find the item that meant that he couldn't hear what people were yelling as they barged through his house. It had to be here somewhere. He spotted it, and yanked it free. Lets see them face this.
"You first." Sean glared, with no intention of leaving himself defenceless. "Now look, we're all civilized men, at least I assume so. So why don't we calm the hell down and talk." He went on, he didn't expect this to work but it'd be nice if it did, he kept eye contact with the silver haired guy, not wanting to break before him.
Hoping Sean was keeping the man busy, Howell reached for something at least slightly familiar to him. A miniature crossbow. "Ok, whatever the hell you are, you deserve to give us a reason as to why the hell you're barging into this house!" He had a look of determination, with slight fear. "I don't want to use this, he doesn't want to use that, you better not want to use yours. Now speak."
The silver-haired man moan internally in his head, dumb kids just had to go and make this worse. He knew Team Four were behind them, and the sudden cocking and flicking of safeties of at least four weapons confirmed his fears. "Listen it doesn't work like that, We are Interpol." He nodded his head behind him and the four guys off to the side behind Howell and Sean. Slowly reaching into a pocket on the vest with one hand he pulled out a leather flip and tossed it to Sean. "Check for yourself, Agent John J. Connelly." He said softly hoping that no one made any sudden movements, he really didn't want to have to right up a incident report today.
As all this was happening downstairs Team Five, slowly made it upstairs to a landing seeing all open doors they stacked up on either side and knocked before calling out. "This is Interpol, open the door."
He had it... great. Now... ah yes. Tom scrabbled up the second pair of steps, heading upstairs into his parents room; he was certain they were around here somewhere as well. If these guys were taking their time getting through that door he could go do a bit more searching. Interpol... he'd worked out that word at least... but he had no idea what the hell it meant. "PISS OFF! You're not getting my money!" he yelled as he ran upstairs, carrying something in his arms and hoping he found the other ones.
"Interpol? As in the international police thing? Think I saw you in a movie once..." Sean straightened up, his sword pointed at the floor as he relaxed a little. "Look, I consider myself smart enough to hold a conversation, I'm guessing you are too. Undoubtedly you have us surrounded so where are we going to run? So please, let's just talk about why your here and what's happening... do you mind if I?" Sean said, motioning to the seat next to him.
"Do we even have Interpol around here, I forget?" Moving back to his old seat, still holding the crossbow for safety, Howell retrieved his laptop, and searched for confirmation. "Ah, so we do. Okay, I'll give you that." He sat down, his laptop closed on his lap, the crossbow resting atop it. "Explain."
John smirked, they certainly had some balls to make demands but then again this just might make this a little easier on him. Nodding his head to the team behind him and off to the corner to stand down, he holstered his side-arm and took a relaxed pose. "First off, there are three of you here. Where's your friend? Rather not have to go over this three times because someone wasn't here from the beginning." John said as he looked around the room, and was quickly thinking that maybe his intel was wrong. But something wasn't adding up if it was, why the surveillance? Why this house? Why these three kids?? It just wasn't making any sense, thinking also on the fly he realized team five was still sweeping the house. He brought his hand up to a mic attached to his wrist. "Team Five do you copy? This Team Lead."
It would have to do. Tom peeked out from the stairs to his parents room, sliding down out of sight of the doorway, which had a glass panel in it. He couldn't see what these people looked like, and to be honest he didn't want to. "Alright, you guys, piss off!" he yelled from beside the door "There's no WAY you're stealing from this place! So I'm giving you a chance. Leave peacefully and I won't get the police involved. There's a phone in here," it was in sight of the door, a risky venture to go after it "And you don't want to mess with me right now! I'm in a bad mood!"
Sean hovered over the seat for a second, before standing up slowly again. "Yeah that's Tom, he's can be erm... resourceful. One moment." Sean nodded, holding his hands up just to show he wasn't going to try anything, diplomacy was the best thing at this time, he didn't wanna screw that up through misinterpreted intentions. "TOM! RELAX AND GET DOWN HERE NOW!" He shouted from closer to the stairs. He was closer to the head guy of the operation, and he immanently felt awkward. Breathing slowly, Sean rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Look, he's not gonna believe that I'm speaking for myself." He said, knowing Tom wouldn't budge unless he had proof. That these guys were sorta the good guys.
"Am I really going to have to do this?" Truth be told, Howell still didn't believe the so called 'Interpol', but getting Tom with them would at least increase their odds, especially with whatever he got from upstairs, with one item in particular making him smile. "Gimme a second, and let me upstairs, okay?"
Before Howell could move out of the room John bought his gun back up and pointed it at the back of Howell. "That's not how this works son." He said in a cold voice as he clicked off the safety. "If you think I'm stupid enough to let you walk out of here by yourself to go grab who knows what you are really idiotic. Now get back in here and sit down." John hated this about his job, but he had been agreeable and not in a bad mood. But when people just took him for granted, and didn't understand the shit they where in. Well, that's what it went to hell in a hand basket really quick, and he wasn't about to get anyone on his team injured because of his incompetence. "Now, listen here this is how it's going to work. You are going to take your phone and call your friend. Get him to give up, and come downstairs so we can talk about this peacefully. I have you out gunned and outnumbered. That last thing you want to do is act like heroes on a trip from one of your video games. I commend you to sticking to your guns, but I have a job to do and orders to follow. And I'll do that however I have too." John said his eyes betraying nothing but cold resolve.
Hearing the gun behind him, Howell turned slowly. "Right...Guns." He really didn't like guns, finding it took the fun out of shooting, hence his preference for archery. That and the re-usable ammo. "So, I guess I'll be phoning Tom then." He took out his phone, unlocking it, before presenting it to the man. "So, you wanna find him number, or do you trust me not to phone someone else?"
"We're idiotic? You're the one holding three barely out of teens hostage?" Sean questioned. But he backed down, sitting back down on the leather chair, the guy was talking peacefully and reasonably, why would he question that? Looking up at both Howell and the army guys, Sean waited for things to proceed.
"Look at it from my perspective and were I'm coming from kid, you are told to watch a house because there are high value persons of interest potentially entering and leaving the premises. That's it, no other information to go on, so you take what scraps you can get and try and form the whole picture from bits and pieces. Try to disturb the haze of a morning fog as it were so that you can see clearly. That's what I had and have to do on a daily basis, and sometimes we are short on information because examining from a distance and casing the place doesn't give us everything we need. So, we make a informed decision with what intelligence we have, and I follow my orders when I'm told to go in and bring in whom ever is on scene." John calmly said as he lowered his pistol again and took a deep breath before continuing on. "With all that said, when I go to enter a house I'm going in blind. I don't know what could be hiding behind that door. For all I know you could be a cult that think the doomsday is coming and is willing to kill themselves. You could be terrorists and have some sort of home-made bomb or any variation of weapons meant to cause massive amounts of damage. There are just too many unknowns to set your mind at ease and not prepare for the worse in today's society. And that's the shitty realistic nature of things, but if that means I have to scare the living piss out of a group of teens to make sure that time my team and I are prepared and don't get lax in our training? I'll do it all the time." John finished before nodding to Howell and saying "Just put the phone on speaker please."
If Howell was to be honest, he still thought it was going a bit far, but still, he found Tom's contact info, and rang, putting it onto speakers as instructed. "Just as a warning, my phone is pretty quiet. I tend to put Tom on speaker anyway, and he's a loud git usually." Despite this, most of the room could hear the ringing. "Ring ring, c'mon Tom..."
Tom slid the phone from his pocket, dropped it onto the floor, answered it and put it on speaker. "'lo," he said loudly, enough that the guys outside the door and everyone on the other side of the phone would be able to hear "I'm guessing you guys haven't told them to piss off yet then?" His friends were captured. This wasn't looking too good for the future.
"Well, we did try, but I don't think they're budging. Something about..." Howell looked towards John. "High value persons?" He sighed loudly, "I'm doubting they mean us, so I'm guessing we're just kinda in the way." As he spoke on the phone, he paced around the room, a nervous habit. "So, could you come down and stuff? At the very least, the three of us together MIGHT be a better solution if these guys ARE just crazy people."
John chose this moment to speak up, "I know this is unusual, and that your friends and yourself don't believe a word I have to say. Nor would you believe a international police force would storm your home in the suburbia you live in. Fact of the matter is, we had intel we had to act on." John spoke softly, and knew the longer he dilly-dallied the longer something could go wrong. John was beginning to think these young men had nothing to do with what they were looking for or anything to do with what they'd been told to watch. However, he knew at some point in time they where going to be involved and he had to get them to egress to a safer location before the shit hit the fan as it were. "Listen, I'm gonna call my team back down and ask that you come down stairs. Then I'll call my command and put you through to my boss so you can understand this is legit. Fair enough?" John asked as he watched the other two men in the living room.
"Yeah, you take these gun totting loons out of my house and explain why you decided to break down the door without a single warning before I can say the word law suit." Tom barked down into the phone "From the sound of it, you've REALLY cocked up here today. And I'm talking REALLY. I don't care how legit you try to make it sound, you've got to explain why you bust through the door of a urban home with obviously no evidence of anything, and pointed guns at three unarmed teenagers! Cause I'm pretty sure stuff like that doesn't sit well with the press!" He was yelling so loudly that they could hear him through the ceiling, and the phone was acting like a translator to the muffled angered yells from above.
"Tom, be nice, these guys are just doing their job." Sean piped up after a while of listening, raising his voice so that he would be heard. He was mulling things over and thinking of the possibilities. These guys seemed the real deal, why wouldn't they trust them? Since the guy was offering proof, Sean was ready to go when the others were. "Well I'm in, take me to your leader as it were."
John sighed inwardly, he hoped this paid off and that things got moving soon, however the more he thought of it he didn't hear the normal commotion outside that would normally follow something of this nature. That struck him as odd, and a little worrisome, usually neighbors, gossipers, and nosy busy bodies stuck their noses in to see what is going on and as far as he could tell there was nothing. Bringing a hand up to his throat he keyed a mic there and said "Team Two Report."
"Hey, you know he said he'd put us through to his boss?" Howell smirked, thinking of a way that might get Tom down with them. "If you really want these guys to go, why not just tell the boss exactly how you feel." He chuckled slightly. "I mean, is his boss gonna want to know he's been bothering kids?"
"Well there's still a bunch of guys with guns outside the door," Tom grunted "I'd rather not head outside until I know that they've gone. Guns make me nervous. At least when other people have them." He didn't fancy moving until people with guns were gone from his house. Then he would be the only one with guns.
"Yeah I don't think they have a complaints department." Sean mentioned, his eyes trained on the distance, not looking at anything in particular, just not wanting to look at anything in the room. One thing he didn't understand was why they would get a tip for here, why would they focus on this house?
"Hmmm...a thought." Howell looked at the officer, and to his phone, and back again. "I'm phoning Tom. You phone your Boss. We should chat, I think." He was being arrogant, but right now, he was in a different mindset, almost acting like it was a game. But there seemed to be a rule. Even if they weren't the target, they were important. They needed cooperation. Even if they weren't needed, they couldn't harm them, for fear of public outcry. They were almost untouchable. He almost chuckled, thinking of the democracy of war.
John sighed before turning away from the two kids and made contact with his squad making a motion with his head to watch them and he move towards the main door way. His hand coming up and keying his mic again "Team two report in!" He demanded in a soft crisp voice wondering what the hell was going on. Glancing outside the window and door way, he couldn't see anything out of the norm. "Cortez you there?" He tried a different person this time and waited for a response.
Static crackled for a minute before a voice came back over his receiver. "This is Cortez boss, problems?"
"Nothing yet, but Team two isn't reporting in do you have eyes on them?" John asked again as he continued to stare outside wondering what the hell was going on.
"Wait one, I need to reposition." Cortez came back and could be heard shuffling out of a room.
"What the hell is team two?" Tom said into his phone, clutching the deactivated M14A to his chest as he spoke at the phone. He didn't have a real gun, of course he didn't, this was Britain for god sake. But he did have a deactivated model that looked as real as anything else. The only way to tell that it wasn't real was to try and fire it. He was just holding on up there, trying to get things going his way. He didn't trust anything going on downstairs.
As the minutes ticked by John was becoming increasingly on edge, and knew somethign wasn't right. Something wasn't adding up but for the life of him he was missing a piece of intel and he didn't know what. Before he could continue his thought his earpiece crackle to life.
"Boss, this is Cortez." A voice said in to the earpiece.
"Any sign of Team Two Cortez?" John spoke as he looked back to where therest of his team was.
"Yeah boss.... " The voice crackled for a moment then said "Team two is down boss, I repeat team two is down."
"WHAT?!" John bellowed before spinning around eyes blazing.
"It sounds like you were watching the wrong house." Tom said, there wasn't any sign of mocking in his voice. A team being 'down' usually meant dead. He wasn't that cruel. "What happened? Where's team two then?" he asked, trying to peek out of the windows.
"Boss... We got a problem. Contacts one-hundred and fifty meters out and closing fast. Same description and appearance as the other times... " John heard in his ear bud before a shattering crack of noise could be heard followed by a whistling noise screaming through the air.
"Get DOWN!" John bellowed before diving with the rest of his team towards the teens and covering his head. His only thought that he had tried to get them out before this, and he stalled too much. He had tried to gain their trust and was now paying for it with potentially all their lives.
Sean's eyes had opened wide at the 'down', running forward and barging into the French windows at the other end of the room. They flew wide open, and after leaping backwards flat against the floor, covered his head and waited for the barrage of bullets or ripping explosion. All he knew was, he'd either be glad he'd opened the door or sorry for wasting time.
It was like a dream, or more likely, a nightmare. Just like whenever things became too scary in a dream, Howell dove to the ground, and shut his eyes. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to be something to wake up from. Unlike Sean however, outside was the last place he'd want to go. Outside, people could see him. Right now, he'd pay to be invisible. He began mumbling to himself. "Not happening. Not happening."
"What the hell is going on?" Tom muttered, picking up his phone and sticking it in his pocket. He began to pull the couch out of the way of the door. He had a feeling that something was going horribly wrong. Who the hell was using their house as a cross fire area?
The seconds ticked eerily by as the whistling increased in volume and pitch as whatever it was rapidly approached. IT was quickly becoming ear deafening before it suddenly stopped and a split second later the front face of the house shook and imploded inwards a ball of fire racing in after it. Whatever the object was it was some sort of explosive and blew out a section of the wall. Dirt and debris cluttered about the room making the air thick and heavy. Men could be heard coughing upstairs and down as they tried to gain their footing and get a vantage point on whomever was attacking.
John coughed and tried to breath in but coughed more as all he brought in was dirt filled air. Wheezing and slowly pushing his hands in-front himself he pushed himself up till he was on his knees with his arms braced in front of him. Shaking his head he slowly took in the room. Where they were was mostly fine though the dirt, wood, and other debris littered the room. Looking towards the front of the house he could see about a ten foot wide or so gap in the front of the house and off to the side. He couldn't see clearly but the dust was quickly settling. Moving a hand he pressed his fingers to his mic "All teams report in, and take up defensive positions. Call out targets." He ordered as he look around the rest of the room he called out "You two kids alright?"
Howell had been covering behind the settee when the explosion happened, and so was glad to be safe. He poked his head out, to see the massive hole where the front window had been. "Holy shit! You told us you were looking for someone! You said NOTHING about people bombing us!" He was visibly shaking, though whether it was fear or anger was unknown.
John pushed himself up and grabbed his pistol before aiming out the blasted open wall and firing off three shots. He turned his head slightly and exclaimed "What do you think you would have done, if I told you there is a group out there that want to kill you and cut you up and dissect you?!" Not waiting for a response he jogged to the opening and took up cover on the left hand side and peered out in the streets. He could see about dozen and half well armed combatants scattered and closing in from the right hand side of the street. "Cortez you got eyes on the left side of the street?" John asked as he squeezed off another two round and saw one guy go down.
Slowly rising from the rubble, brushing dirt off of his face, Sean stood with a clothes slightly torn by shrapnel, a few cuts and bruises scattered over his body. After the agent said his piece and ran out, Sean stood there silent for a moment, a touch of panic spreading through his limbs. Plucking the courage to move, he picked up the sword that had been blasted near the fireplace, holding it steadyish infront of him. "Good thing I know a little about dissection." He muttered with a nervous laugh following slightly afterwards that lasted a little too long, fear evident in his eyes.
"WHO FUCKED WITH MY HOUSE!" Tom yelled as he stumbled down the stairs. He had blood coming from his head where he'd been struck by a brick, and looked somewhere between delirious and mad. He was holding a pistol and an M16 in his hands. Strangely, instead of going with the automatic, he began to shoot at the intruders with the pistol. Which, again, strangely, didn't make a bang noise. He was shooting at them with an airsoft gun, but he was aiming for any exposed flesh he could see. Face especially.
John heard more then saw the kid from upstairs and groaned in his head, he was shutting down from shock and acting tough. This was going to get him killed before he could move he was pinned down by fire and covered his head with his arm as pieces of the wall started to break off. After a lul in the fire he stuck his head out and emptied the rest of his mag making each shot count before dropping back into cover and yelling "Get the hell down kid! These guys are playing for keeps!!"
"Cortez we need some fire support!" John barked a second later as there was increasing amounts of fire coming from the street. He knew this wasn't going to work they were out manned and out gunned. Thinking quickly he looked back towards the living room. "Is there a way out back or a Garage that leads out to the other side of this house?" He yelled out loud trying to get to their suburbans packed on the opposite side of the house.
"Those doors," Tom indicated the ones that Sean had thrown open a moment ago, stumbling slightly and falling sideways so he was hidden from fire. He looked dizzy "Goes out... behind the house. There are thick hedges back there. No vehicle could get through, but people could."
"Dissect..." Howell stood there for a moment in awe. 'Why us?' He turned his entire body around slowly, before walking towards the glass doors Sean had opened, deciding against the crossbow, instead picking up a cutlass that had fallen from the wall. He continued his slow walk through the doors. 'Dissection of a specific target. Are we different? Unusual? Paranormal?'
As shot after shot from pistol and automatic fire rained down from upstairs and out the blown out wall. John knew that they had to move, they couldn't defend this position as they where. "Cortez! Collapse downstairs we are leaving!" John barked into is mic as he reloaded his pistol and squeezed off two more shots. Turning with his back against the wall he yelled out "Is there any way out of your back yard? Fences? Obstacles??" He needed a clear picture if he could get out of here in one piece.
"Hedges. That's it. Neighbour is separated by a hedge. Right at the back is a hedge. And... WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN COLLAPSE DOWNSTAIRS? My parents live here!" Tom yelled, managing to shoot one of the attackers in the face with a pellet. Probably didn't do anything, but it made him feel better. They were going to just bring his damn house down?
"I don't think anyone can live here anymore." Sean muttered, looking around the wreck. "So, shall we make like autobots and roll out?" Sean yelled over the noise, nodding towards the door.
By now, Howell had walked out of the glass doors, already beginning to walk towards the hedge. Everything was going on autopilot, as his mind reeled. "They've blown up the house...They'll probably follow if I went to mine, even if I did just grab one of Dad's bows and a quiver. Or a gun...." He quickly span around, calling out to those in the house. "So where the hell are we going?"
John watched the young men exit out the back door, and slowly started making his way there providing covering fire as they did. "Nothing is coming down less these assholes from outside do! Collapse down is term for fall in and get ready to Evac. Once we hit the back yard we need to egress out to the street and to the house four units down to the left. That's where we set up and there's vehicles we can use there." John exclaimed as he watched for Cortez who was coming down the stair well with his team in tow and nodded towards the back. "I'm gonna take the kids with me, Cortez lay down covering fire and egress as protocol."
"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!" Tom yelled as he stumbled through open fire and out of his back door. He wasn't sure if he'd been shot. Not in the head at least, but he wouldn't feel it right now. Too much adrenalin, too much anger and shock and random pain. He just ran, going out the back into the garden and moving as quickly as possible towards the back of the garden. It was quite a long run, and they were going to need to get through a rather thick hedge when they got there.
Sean followed Tom down the garden, he ducked ever time he heard gunfire, which was constant so he pretty much kept his head down, occasionally looking up to see where he was going. He couldn't believe any of this, things were getting too freaky, perhaps they'd been sucked into a video game without realising it. "Where's some lag when you need it eh?" He breathed, slightly heavy from the run as he approached his friends.
Howell's daze was broken by a bullet to his left shoulder. It grazed him, but it was a definite shock to his system. "Fuck." He then began dashing to bushes, to hide behind them. "Run like hell! Use cover! Get your asses over there fast!" He never thought he'd be wishing for chest-high walls to exist.
John saw Howell stumble slightly as a bullet grazed him but paid it no mind. "Right I'm going first through the hedges and over and out. Follow me, and I'll get you to a safe house and answer all your questions." He said as he trudge and pushed through the hedges pushing them aside as best he could to make a path and also keeping a lookout for other people trying to box them in. Sighing in relief he saw a clear opening and moved through it and took up a defensive position waiting for the other three to follow through. He could hear Cortez and the rest of his team laying down fire and slowly moving towards him. Worse case he had to get these kids out, Cortez and the rest were trained professionals and could take care of themselves. They had two more evac routes in case things went fubar'd.
Sean came stumbling through the hedge, relatively unscathed but for a few scratches from broken branches. Brushing himself off with his non sword holding hand, he went to stand next to John, awaiting instructions on where to head next. He'd fight if need be, but as long as they other guys were using guns, he wasn't much of an option for combat.
Leaning against the house on the opposite side of the hedges John leaned out and surveyed the open area in front of them.
There was blood coming from somewhere, Tom hoped it wasn't anywhere vital. He stumbled slightly, but began to force his way through the hedges. He grunted as he did so, seeming to walk along as if in a daze. He didn't know what was going down right now, and he almost didn't want to know. What he did want to do is find a chainsaw and get retribution.
As Howell reached the hedge, he immediately looked for the least thorny patch, and began hacking with the cutlass. He probably could squeeze through, but it would be easier for the others too. Hopefully not too easy for whoever was shooting though.
John leaned back against the house and looked at the three kids, and knew deep down they weren't ready for this sort of thing. Sure they might have adrenaline running through them but eventually they'd crash or shut down from the stress. He knew they had to get out and fast. The gunfight was slowing down which couldn't be a good thing. Looking back he spoke "Right, you see the brick house about three houses down and across the street? That's where we were setup/stationed. The door is unlocked when I give the go I want you to run as fast as you can there. Soon as you get to the door way go in and too the right it'll lead down a hallway and into the garage. Wait for me there I'll be right behind you in about a minute I'm going to cover our escape." John knew this was gonna be close there was a possibility Cortez and his team were dead but knew if there was a way he'd get them out if possible.
"Alright, whenever you're ready." Sean looked on with lost eyes at where John had indicated. He was quite a fast runner when he needed to be, be it running from shooting villains or friends playing tag.
"God sake I can't run..." Tom coughed, some pain fading back in already, his hand snapping up to clutch at his arm. He was breathing hard already, and he knew he had to run for his life, but even then this sucked. "Time... time to run I suppose..." he said, getting ready to pelt it for the house indicated.
John took a deep breath and looked back towards the kids and frowned for a moment when he saw only two of them. "Where's your frien....." He called out before raising his gun at the hedges behind him as he saw them move and rustle. Taking a step forward and moving in front of Sean and Tom he aimed his weapon.
Sean stood in wait for the others to post, ready to run when the order was given.
Cortez coughed once and winced pressing his right hand to his left arm where a bullet had grazed across him. His left hand still clutched his pistol, and for some reason or another it seemed the flow of the fight had slowed or they were waiting for something. Not taking the chance to find out what he ordered his team down and out the back following the path John did. As he exited the back door he saw one of the boys hacking at the shrubs with some sort of sword. Not wanting to alert anyone and not spook him "Yo, Swordsmen wanna stop that wild chopping and swinging before you hurt yourself or someone else?"
Howell blinked a few times. "Wait, where'd people g-oh..." He'd been making his own hole to go through, and they'd already found an easier one. "Uh...sorry?" Perhaps wielding a saber, and the adrenaline, had blinded him to what to do. He ducked his head again, almost more in embarrassment than in safety. "I'm just gonna...go with them...you coming?" With that, he ran and squeezed through gaps to meet up with his comrades.
John holstered his pistol as he saw Howell shuffle through with saber in hand before Cortez followed a moment later. Looking the man in the eyes he knew whomever else was left was in for a hard fight, or were already killed in action. Motioning to Howell he filled him in on where to go. Looking back towards the street he motioned to those behind him. "I'm going to go out and start, wait twenty seconds if you hear nothing run for it. If you hear firing of any kind I want you to go through this house and exit it out the back and find another way to a side street or something." He said as he took a steady breath and prepared himself. A few seconds later he pushed off from the wall and took off at a sprint to around the house, and into the front yard before crossing the into the road. Twenty seconds passing no firing or noise could be heard.
Cortez was internally counting and motioned to the three guys. "Right when you run don't go single file stagger yourselves and don't get distracted." He nodded his head and added "Go!"
Tom went first. He just knew he was pretty staggered from the get-go so he was uncertain how fast he could run this sprint to the other houses. He was trying his best, all concept of shame thrown to the wind, but he made a hell of a noise as he pelted towards the goal. He still didn't know what the hell was going on. He wanted answers. And his mum. He would settle for just answers.
Howell followed shortly behind, but weaved in a fashion that, in his mind, would at least make it harder for anyone to shoot them both down in seconds. "Mr. Outen, you up next?!" He still had no clue of what was happening, nor why. But if this safehouse was where he'd find answers, that's where he'd go.
Sprinting forwards with the others, though with a slight curve in his path, Sean imagined a trail of fire behind him, as if he were beating the flash in a race. Of course he wasn't running that fast, but he kept quite a good space. He followed Howell and Tom indirectly to the house, hoping to get the hell out of here soon.
John didn't stop sprinting as he rapidly approached the door instead in a smooth motion threw his foot forward at the hinge of the door knob and kicked smashing it inward. As the door was moving he brought his pistol up and did a quick scan of the room seeing nothing out of the ordinary he hoped their luck held. He turned back and saw the other three young men sprinting across.
Cortez waited a few more seconds after they left to catch his breath before pushing his body forward and following, almost catching up to Sean as they approached the house. In a swift motion he dug through the front pocket and grabbed the keys to the car in the garage and tossed them to John. "Lets get the hell outta hear huh?" He said as he winced in pain from the jostling of his one arm.
"Right everyone lets go." John said as he moved off to the side and down two steps into the garage waiting for everyone to catch up he jumped in a dark blue suburban and started it up.
After a few moments, Sean stepped through the house following John, making his way to the car where he wrenched open the back door and jumped in. Screw not getting into a car with a strange man, it was better than the alternative.
Tom barreled into the back seat, grunting and shuddering as he felt a rush of pain running through his body. "I'm in!" he screamed out, half in pain, half out of shock... He had no idea what was going on, where he was hit, why people were trying to kill him... He just wanted out.
Following a little while behind Tom, Howell entered the car. "Let's go, let's go!" He wasn't the biggest fan of keeping still while being shot at, less so without having his own weapons. He was making use of other chairs as cover, and was currently curled up in the gap between a chair in the front, and the back seats. He loved being flexible enough, while not feeling too uncomfortable in most positions.
John wasted no time as soon as he was in the drivers seat, he jammed the keys into the ignition and turned while pushing the accelerator down. The car roared to life as all the cylinders started firing and the display lit up. Nodding to himself he looked back quickly making sure everyone was in and somewhat secured before throwing it into reverse and jamming his foot down on the gas. The SUV sprang to life the tires squealing slightly at the sudden movement on the smooth surface before moving at a quickening pace and barely a second later crashing through the garage door that was still closed. Whipping the wheel around as he approached the end of the caused the car to squeal again as the tires slide and swung quickly around. Quickly shifting gears with out looking John sped off out of the neighborhood and trying to think the next best course of action. Looking in the rear view mirror he saw the three kids relatively unharmed, and Cortez slightly bleeding from a wound on the shoulder. "There's a first aid kit underneath the passenger seat" John said as he quickly moved his eyes back to the road.
"I believe that's my territory." Sean answered the call pretty quickly , reaching for the kit. Opening it on his lap, he uncovered the usual, bandages, anti septic, gauze, painkillers, alcohol etc. And pulled out most of the contents, leaning over the agent. "Mind if I borrow this?" He asked, not waiting for an answer as he pulled out the agents combat knife. Sean quickly cut the fabric around the wound with the knife, and began his work. He wasn't used to working in such bumpy conditions, and nearly stabbed the agent once. Once he'd finished though, the wound was dressed and cleaned up, and he began to summarise, "OK luckily the bullet went clean through, you can take some pain killers if you'd like but if we're gonna be doing any more fighting, I'd rather you didn't, adrenaline alone will keep the pain at bay for now, the pills will only numb your senses." He finished, pouring a few drops of the alcohol into his palm, then rubbing it over his hands.
John kept driving with out looking back, kept his mind focused yet running through situation after situation. Where had they slipped up, they were careful almost too careful maybe? Sighing to himself he glanced up in the rear view mirror for a moment before saying "I'm taking you to our headquarters probably the safest place we can go, and I'm sure you all are looking for answers as well. There should be time to get them and get everything squared away for you." He said softly hoping that he wasn't lying to these young men.
"I'm pretty sure people are going to get... concerned why there are BULLET HOLES IN MY HOUSE!" Tom said loudly, half shaking in his seat and clutching his arm tight, feeling the blood seeping from it. He cursed under his breath, panting hard and wondering what the hell was going on.
John winced slightly at the truth of the statement before saying "Possibly, but it's gonna be played off on a gang chase or terrosist gone awry. I wouldn't be surprised if some government types show up after everything is cleared to smooth things over with money to pay for repairs." John continued to focus on the road before turning and slowing down, "Right we are here, so lets get you lot sorted out and your questions answered."
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