Injustice Dies In Daylight: The Complete Saga

Truth and Justice

"OUCH!"
"Stop moving, the gunshot wound got infected. It's a miracle you're alive right now Michael."
Imani pulled another stitch through the half closed wound, inclining Michael to jump a little.
"What did I just say?"
"Sorry. I guess we need to find a way to get more anesthesia."
"I can buy it legally, I'm a licensed nurse."
"Right..right. I don't think my heads been glued on straight at all in the last month."
"Of course not. You've been burdened by so much stress, of course you will feel a tad loopy."
"The Ordinance, our death warrants, impending war, Captain Phoenix's murder. It's all just crashing down at once. Where do we stand in all of this? Is this war going to come to us?"
They both remained silent for a long time.
"I believe we should do what we always have done." She wrapped a bandage around the stitching. "We do our job. We're thieves, conmen, mercenaries, dirty work for hire. This war has nothing to do with us until it starts interfering with business. We stay out of this for our own sake. We aren't a part of this anymore."
Michael leaned forward, placing his clasped hands on his lap.
Imani stepped away to let him think for a moment.
We aren't a part of this anymore.
Impending war.
The New Ordinance.
Captain Phoenix. Roxanne.
Do our job.
We stay out of this.
I'll get my chance to kill Sebastian.
But for now, I can wait.
The Deserters needs me more than I ever could need revenge.

"-And you are POSITIVE that it was Banshee on the line?" Aaron asked with his mouth agape.
"Unless she got a body and voice doppelgänger it's her." George exclaimed joyfully.
"We saw the broadcast, you're sure?"
"She says she can explain when she gets here, my guess it was staged as a mass scare tactic."
"Wait but wasn't Michael Thorton with her on that broadcast? He lived, so why don't we ask him?" Veronica cut into the two men's conversation.
"We lost all contact with Michael after the broadcast, my suspicion is he was threatened into silence."
Jonas came into the discussion to correct her.
"We're getting off track, me and Jonas will head down there to get her. We'll be prepared should anything turn up sour." Gazes turned back as George redirected the conversation back to the task at hand.
"I want to go too. I want answers about my bro- about Michael."
"Alright, Aaron's coming too then. Anyone else you think should join us Jonas?"
"This group should be fine, I've requested three days leave for George and I, I'm sure we can get Aaron slipped in there too."
"Thanks guys, when do we leave?"
"02:00, we'll be there by 9:00 AM, and be back at 7:00 PM." Jonas replied.
"It's going to be rough, get good sleep tonight." George emphasized.
"Alright we better clear out and get to work, I'll talk to Richard about getting Aaron with us." Jonas waved as he slid out the door.
"Good luck guys! Bring her home!" Veronica added as she walked out of the room.
Leaving George, Aaron, and Robert together in Aaron's barrack room.
"I just bought a new story game, you guys wanna play it?"
"Sure."

The roar of a low flying four passenger plane echoed through the small forest in Guatemala. Through a pair of binoculars, Roxanne watched the aircraft circle back around, searching for some place to land.
"We will miss having your company with us."
She turned around to see Ahote standing behind her.
"Thank you for everything you've done. And for this-" She pulled the ancient-looking book Ahote had gifted to her out of her satchel.
"Use it wisely, learn what you can. Never use your curse for the wrong reasons. When you need me, you know where to look."
She bowed to him in respect, just before taking off for the plane in the distance.
Within moments, she was embraced by George's bear hug, and dog piled by two others.
"You have a lot of explaining to do ma'am." Jonas demanded.
She slipped out of the group hug and hesitated to speak.
"On a scale of one to Stevie Wonder how superstitious are you boys?"
Aaron laughed. "None at all, glad your humor is still intact."
He stopped when he realized that the other three weren't laughing.
Roxanne's face was dead set in a grimace.
"You remember when I fell into the gorge right?"
"Yeah, we thought you were done for then too." Jonas replied.
"Call Veronica." The demand caused confusion for the three men standing there.
George complied quickly and dialed his phone, handing it to Roxanne who put it onto speakerphone.
"Hey George! Did you find Roxanne?"
"Veronica, it's Roxanne, listen do you remember when I fell into the gorge?"
"Oh you are alive! And to answer your question, I don't think I could ever forget that."
"Tell them what you told me after I finally recovered."
"Ummm...Oh! You mean about how weirdly fast your body started to heal? I'd never seen anything like it, even Jason was very confused. Why?"
"Thanks Vee, I'll explain it to you when I get back. Take care."
"Get back soon!"
She hung up and handed the phone back to George.
"So you decided to brush us up on your medical history, what does this have to do with any of what we're here for?" Jonas gestured to the group.
"Stay with me here. When I fell into the gorge and bled all over the place. I invoked the island curse by accident. Turns out the legend is mostly true, and I found out the hard way. The curse allowed my body to regenerate itself from literal brink of death twice now. As well as some added side affects."
The three boys just stared at her.
Jonas laid his hand on her shoulder and looked her directly in her eyes.
"Roxanne....were you drugged?"
She slapped his hand off her shoulder.
"I'm serious, Jonas. Alright since I have away to prove it I will, back up."
She lifted her hand and focused all of energy onto her palm.
They watched as a tiny crackle of electricity began to grow, and eventually enveloped her right hand.
George and Aaron took it more seriously than Jonas. He stared at her hand and then looked back at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Hilarious, a cheap party trick isn't going to convince me Captain." He grabbed her hand to push it back down; only to be shocked the moment their fingers made contact.
"YEOWCH! Hey! How on earth did you do that?!"
He yelled, rubbing his hand in pain.
"That's not all." She stopped the fireworks show and extended her hand. George's gun went flying from his side to her hands.
They all gaped at what they had just witnessed.
"I KNOW I did not just see you use the Force to grab my gun."
"It's not the force. It's a secondary aspect of the curse. It's almost like magic but the old man who showed me how to do all that referred to the abilities as Kagara." She pulled the worn book out of her side satchel and showed it to the band.
"This will teach me more ways to use Kagara, and as well as how to undo Sugura."
George raised his hand like a schoolboy.
"What is it?"
"What's Sugura?"
"Kagara when used for the wrong reasons. I'm sure you've heard enough in movies about there always being a reverse to everything. The same applies to life too."
Jonas spoke up over top of Roxanne.
"Alright alright, you've got me a little more convinced now. But there is one other issue we have to address."
"What's that?" Aaron asked, still confused from Banshee's revelations.
"The ordinance thinks you're dead. Your family also thinks you're dead. We can't exactly find away to explain this."
"Easy enough." Roxanne responded confidently.
"Something tells me you had this idea planned beforehand." Jonas said rolling his eyes.
"You bet. Just tell everyone that it was never me, that it was a double sent to spy and was captured and killed in the belief that it was me. The ordinance can't dispute it, I wasn't with any American Soldiers. I was with the Deserter's League, those guys have been chased by the Army before so why would I, a respected US Captain, be with them?"
"Not bad, it might just work." George responded, grinning.