The Metahuman Agency: The Superhuman War

Moving On

"Now..." Jason said as he opened the door to Madeline's room. "This, uh, looks bad. But..." He stopped and sighed, rubbing his neck. "Ah hell, I won't lie to you, this state of the house isn't good..."

They had been sitting in silence for sometime. But Madeline had finally rose and shakily said she wanted to see what had happened. Jason had obliged, exiting the guest room first and nervously warning the woman about the state of her house. Madeline brushed past him, looking about.

"Goodness..." She whispered. She slowly looked over the hallway, her breath catching in her throat. Jason silently watched her, swallowing. Madeline stared at the carnage and glanced up.

"My roof..." She muttered. Jason also looked up. He cringed.

"Uh...yeah, that was my fault. I had to make an entrance into the house and fast...sorry."

Madeline exhaled. She peeled herself from the wall and walked forward, stepping over fallen chunks of the roof. She froze when she looked at the bodies of the fallen mercenaries lying in the hallway. She whispered, "These men. Are they...?" Madeline hesitated but Jason knew what she meant.

Jason approached one and leaned down next to the man. He ripped the mercenary's bacalava off, exposing the man's bloodied face. The man was breathing, his breaths coming out in raspy spurts. Jason turned back to Madeline and said, "No, they're alive. At least...these ones are. I wasn't exactly holding back..."

Madeline nodded as she stared at the downed mercenaries. She shivered, rubbing her arms. "Course. 'Cause these men were here to kill you, right?"

"Yeah," Jason replied, rising to his feet. "They were. I don't they cared about you getting caught in the crossfire either. Hence ramming an APC through your front door."

Madeline blinked. She tried to speak but no words came out. She closed her eyes, counted to ten, and then opened them.

"...What? Was that the noise I heard? Felt like an earthquake slammed into the house. I knew they had a vehicle but still..."

Jason bit his lip. I could have approached that more tactfully. "Uh...yeah. I think they were getting desperate to kill me at the end. Nothing much I could do, I'm sorry..."

Madeline stared at the floor for a moment, her eyes looking over the bulletholes. She breathed out again and rubbed her hair, before casting a glance at the stairs.

"Well," She finally said "Rammed through my house.' She shook her head. "God. All the work I spent into this place, probably been undone in a single moment. How do you like that? I prepared for much but not this. Who could though? Might as well have set up a pebble to stop a wave."

"I'm sorry..." Jason said again but Madeline cut him off.

"Stop apologizing," She grunted. She turned away from him and began to slowly move toward the stairs. "Well...let's see what happened down there and how much my house has been ripped apart."

Jason rubbed his head again, feeling guility about all this. But he told himself that it was way better than the alternative, all of them dead. Jason began to move after her when James emerged from the room.

"Oh my look at this look at the damage quite a battle must have ensued small scale naturally perhaps paling to some of our larger clashes but that's probably good right right!" James hurried over to a fallen merc and began to search the man. "Ooh look at this you did a number on them Jason I wouldn't want to be them right now I hope you got some payback wish I could've too well more time for that later anyway I'm going to search these guys see what they have I imagine much of their equipment should prove most instrumental!"