Val waited for night fall to make his move. The streets of "Home" were almost completely black. There was a full moon in the air, but it was covered by a thick cover of clouds. He had been crouched in the same location for going on two hours now, not daring to make a move. As of twenty minuets ago James was still with him, but he had gone out to scout the area, chances are he was gone, leaving Val alone against four men, at least that's how many there were, James could have taken one down with him, but Val didn't get his hopes up. James was a mechanic, not a fighter, but he enjoyed being on the field, Val told him that lust for adrenalin would get him killed one day, and tonight seemed to be that night. Val looked down at his weapons and went over what he had in his mind. One round left for the shotgun, full ammo for both Desert Eagles and the katana hidden away in his trench coat, though that wouldn't help him here because he couldn't use it. Val closed his eyes and took a deep breath, listening for any sounds. There, a crunch, someone stepped on a twig or something, not even 5 yards away, this is it, time to go for broke. Using the wall he was leaning against to help stand up right he let out the breath he hand been holding and rolled against the wall and into view. There were three of them there, and they all looked surprised to see him. Val pointed in the general direction and pulled the trigger of the shotgun while running across the gap between the house he had been hiding behind and the one nest to it. 'The fools came down an ally just wide enough for them to fit. They're asking for it.' Val though as he dropped the shotgun and make a grab for the Desert Eagles. The second and the third person rounded the corner before he could fully get his weapons out of the holsters and opened fire. They were both wielding assault rifles, so their chances of hitting were good, but Val didn't play on chances, he played on skill. He pushed both his feet out in front of him so he fell backwards. He could feel the shots flying over his body as he fell, seemingly in slow motion. Before he hit the ground he had both guns out and one pointed at each of his opponents. Pulling each trigger three times, Val sent all three rounds into the chest of one of them, and only two into the final opponents. He coughed as he hit the ground; it was harder than he had hopped. That was three of them, which left one. Before he could move, the final enemy stepped over him, dressed in a ski mask and full camouflage, and pointed the assault rifle at his chest and pulled the trigger. It felt like an eternity as the shots pounded into his chest, twenty in all. Once the clip ran dry, a siren sounded off in the distance. It was over. Flood lights lit up an illuminated the area. Smiling the person standing over him offered a hand to help Val up. Before he took it, Val looked at his chest; there was one massive red paint splotch on his chest. He took the hand and climbed to his feet, looking around, Val saw that the other three members of the team that he clipped were up and milling around.
"Very good. You guys are getting better and better, you actually beat up this time. When you first started, we took you down in less than twenty minuets. Now look at you, you dragged the battle on for over three hours and came out with the win. Now, who's the one that got me?"
Val turned to the person that would have cleared his chest had this been a real battle. With a smile the victor pulled off the ski mask. Expecting to see one of the people that had been training with them from day one, Val got a shock when long flowing red hair feel out from the ski mask. With a shake of her head, the girl pushed the hair away from her face and pointed the empty gun at Val and pulled the trigger, making the empty chamber clicking sound. She then smiled and blew him a kiss before she turned and left. James walked up beside Val, he had gotten it badly. James was covered in red paint on the front and side. It looked like they had each emptied a full clip into him.
"They thought I was you. They had a beautiful ambush set up, and I walked right into, literally. Don't know if you would have though, but they certainly were hoping you would."
"So who's she? And why haven't I seen her around before?"
"That's Lina, a last minuet addition to the team, one of the regulars was sick. She's one of mine, a damn good MS mechanic, I think you've seen her around, she usually has oil and or grease all over her face, and maybe that's why you didn't recognize her. And from the looks of it, she’s damn good on the battle field as well, she only fired one of these shot that hit me, this one."
James lifted his head and pointed to a single red paint mark that was smack dab in the middle of his neck. With a slightly depressed look on his face, James rubbed his neck, which must have hurt.
"How old is she and........ya know what, just have her come to my office in an hour alright?"
With that Val turned and began to walk away but he hadn't even gotten three steps when a shot was fired, a live shot, not a practice one like they had been using. Val's eyes widened as he felt the shot dig into his side and his breath escape from his lungs. The shot had come from the alley to the left, where he had clipped the first of the group in the exercise. Falling to his right slightly, Val dug his right foot into the ground and pushed off in the direction of the shot and reached inside his trench. His hand clenched around the handle of the katana and he drew it from the scabbard that was tucked away in the lining of the trench coat. Spinning around to his right he extended his arm fully and lashed the blade around at the assailant's chest, making a gash across it. Val stopped with his back to the assailant and spun the sword around so he was holding it backwards and thrust the sword behind him, pushing the bald into the chest of the assailant. Pulling the sword out, he stepped forwards and spun the swords around to he was holding it normally and listened for the assailant’s knees to hit the ground, as soon as he heard that sound, Val whirled around as fast as he could, bringing the blade into the side of the assailant’s neck, slicing clean through it and toppling the head off.
It was all over in a matter of seconds, half the people in the area hadn’t even realized what happened. Only the four members of the opposite team had reacted. Each of them had ejected the paint clips from their guns and entered live clips and had taken aim. The lowered their weapons once the final blow had been struck. James hurried over to Val, who had dropped to one knee and was breathing deeply.
"Now you see why I have everyone wear vests during combat practice?" Val said with a smile and a slight chuckle.
A few people let out soft laughs, not sure if they should have or not. Val shook it off and walked over to the body and pulled a flag out of a pocket which read "Free Asia!" Great, loyalists, just what every military leader loved dealing with. Leaving the others to tend with the body and cleaning up the combat area, Val hopped into a waiting Jeep and headed to his office. He draped his trench coat, which now had a hole under the left armpit, over a chair and grabbed the phone off the hook and dialed a number.
"This is Val. I need to talk with Lord Jyotika immediately. I don't care what he's doing, this can't wait, it's a matter of security."
After a few seconds there was a click and Val heard Jyotika's voice on the line, he didn't sound too pleased about being interrupted.
"We've got a band on nationalists on our hands. And they've got fairly good weapons. And they know where this base is and I'm assuming they know where you are. Just thought you'd like to know."
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