Oblivion

Homefront

Beast

We spent the remainder of the morning training. Slade led us down to a large concrete basement that he illuminated with more generator powered light bulbs. On one wall of the room there were tables and racks lined with weapons and tools of all sort. Rifles, pistols, swords, shotguns, knives, axes, bows, and explosives, as well as ammunition.
Training one at a time with weaponry, the remainder of us were left to run drills, lift weights, battle obstacle courses and spar. Bug and Xena spent a large portion of their time marking up leaf paper in an attempt to form a plan to take down Hydratech. Occasionally they would step in and demonstrate fighting techniques and takedowns. Arrow had taken a liking to throwing knives which seemed fitting with his girlish figure. Eagle had tried a variety of weapons before settling on a large axe that he was actually fairly good with. Even Bug had snagged herself a bow and quiver which she proved to be quite lethal with.
Slade was actually a fairly cool dude. He knew what he was doing and shared my sense of humor. He was a good teacher too, and refused to take shit from anyone. He served us a lunch of crackers and dehydrated potato soup. The water her was actually fresh in comparison to Xena's.
By sunset we were sweaty, hungry and exhausted. We sat around the table on the main floor and attempted to cool off and reflect.
"Thanks for helping us out Slade." Xena commented.
"No problem. I'll get to you two tomorrow by the way." He directed towards Ghost and I. "I don't suppose you have a weapon of choice or something you want to try out. Speaking of which, you better take care of my bow Bug."
"Okay what is up with that name?" Arrow blurted.
"It was her mom's nickname." Xena said somberly. After a few moments of silence Slade changed the topic.
"Anyway, weapons?"
"Ghost is good with a pistol. I've been wanting to try out a shotgun."
"Sweet. I'll hook you up."
"No that's okay. Guns don't exactly work on these guys." Ghost slid on her worn in leather jacket, sorrow lined her face. She was thinking about Thunder.
"Neither do knives and fists. But it's better than nothing. Besides, maybe you can do to Hyde what he did to Thunder." It felt weird saying his name out loud. Eagle had told me about how Ghost felt responsible for Thunder's death. We were all just trying to move on from it.
"We'll figure it out tomorrow okay?" Slade had obviously caught on to some of the unspoken dialogue. Eagle walked over to Ghost and held her hand.
"Yeah, sounds like a plan, see you tomorrow." Xena pulled up her hood and exited through the steel door, we followed behind her.

==================

We arrived back at Xena's place after sundown. The streets were fairly uninhabited with the exception of homeless people huddled around trash can fires and shop keepers cleaning up. I was tired and hungry, and found that even the nasty ass grits we'd had for breakfast sounded edible. Bug entered the window followed by me and everyone else. By the time Xena entered, Eagle and Arrow had already collapsed into their sofas.
"Wait!" Xena urgently whispered. I froze in the entryway as she pulled out her retracting blade. Brenda slid silently towards us, slipping into battle mode. Eagle and Arrow stood up, any sign of their fatigue now replacing by adrenaline.
Xena clicked her tongue, intently listening to the echo that returned. She repeated this action several times, centering herself in the middle of the room. She held up a hand that instructed us to stay where we were.
My eyes searched the area frantically. Everything looked exactly as we had left it.
Except when we left, there weren't shadows hiding behind the pillars.
I carefully observed them shift around the concrete columns as Xena moved around. I nudged Bug, who just happened to be the person closest to me, and silently pointed to the shadows. She immediately snagged an arrow from her newly acquired quiver and aimed her bow towards the black figure.
As soon as the dick realized we knew he was there, he flung a knife straight towards us. Bug released her arrow as I pulled her towards the ground. The knife flew where we were standing and hit the solid wall before clattering to the floor. The arrow pierced the chest of our assailant and he fell to the ground.
At the sudden outburst, seven other soldiers appeared from the darkness. If they were Hydratech, they were lacking in the testosterone advancements. Lasers were poised at our chests as the men converged on us. Bug had already loaded another arrow into her bow and Arrow had taken the fallen blade. Xena stayed where she was, but it was obvious by her fierce expression that she knew exactly what was happening.
Without warning Bug released another arrow and after another soldier fell, Xena began partaking in the spilling of blood, taking down two men without struggle. Arrow threw his knife, and it lodged itself into a leg of another soldier. He let out a animalistic cry, and fell to the ground. Eagle and I ran into battle and each worked to take down a black armor suited cock.
A punch locked onto my jaw causing my head to immediately ach. I kicked my leg up and drove my knee to his dick. He doubled over and I put him in a headlock, driving my fist into his stomach again and again. Once his body fell limp, I dropped him to the ground. My attention flew over my companions. Eagle had taken down his man which left us with two soldiers. One of which had a knife in his leg. The other was fighting Ghost, and was winning. He stood behind her, his arm around her throat. She backed up quickly and slammed him into a wall, causing his arm to release her. She removed one of his knifes and pressed the blade into his abdomen over and over.
The guard on the ground removed a knife from his belt, and aimed the blade at Arrow. He let the blade fly from his grasp and we watched as it lodged itself in Arrow's bicep. Before the soldier could witness his victory he was decapitated by Xena's sword.