The Metahuman Agency: The Superhuman War

Close Quarters Combat

The ground came up to meet them quickly. Audrey landed hard, the pavement cracking beneath her feet. Jason shook from the impact. He looked up. The mercenaries were gathered several feet in front of them. They had broken down the building's door. Several turned toward them, raising their guns.

Audrey immediately dropped Jason and Laureen before charging forward. She raised her massive arms in front of her as the men opened fire. A hailstorm of bullets slammed into her, ricocheting off her carapace.

The mercenaries tried to move back but Audrey was upon the closest ones. She grabbed one man and using him like a club, slammed the guy down on another. Another man shot at her flank but she deflected the bullets with one arm. Audrey then violently kicked the fallen mercenaries and they skidded across the ground like a hockey puck, slamming hard into the third man. The merc fell forefront, smashing his face into the ground with a crack. He shakily tried to rise but Audrey brutally slammed her foot down on back. There was a loud crunch and the man's body spasmed before he went still. Audrey removed her foot off him and Jason grimaced slightly at the sight.

More bullets tore through the ground in front of Jason's face. Acting on instinct, he grabbed Laureen's arm and yanked her behind a vehicle. Laureen took a quick peek out from behind the vehicle and growled, "Mercs on the second floor. I saw two in the windows." She whistled. "Hiroshi! Second floor! Take them out!"

Hiroshi zoomed over them and Jason risked a look from behind the vehicle to see. He caught a glimpse of two men on the second floor, their rifles poking out of open windows. They fired on Hiroshi but he strayed through the air, bullets narrowly missing him. He then fired an energy blast, hitting one mercenary and sending him flying back inside and out of sight. The other man ducked back inside, Hiroshi's energy blast the window where he had been. It exploded, chunks of debris and glass raining down. Jason quickly ducked, some bricks bouncing off the roof of the car.

He and Laureen then got up, smoke billowing from the building where Hiroshi had shot it. Hiroshi floated there and looked at them. He made a "Sorry" gesture down at them.

The brief respite quickly passed, cut short as the sound of gunfire roared from inside the building. Screams followed it. "Some got fucking inside!" Laureen snarled. She gestured at Audrey and Jason. "Take point you guys! I'll catch up."

Audrey stomped ahead, her expression one of pure fury. Jason ran alongside her and they reached the front door. Jason looked up, more gunfire echoing from within. He turned to Audrey and said, "Let's hit them." He then leaped forward onto the wall and scurried up it, right to the second floor windows where the mercs had been shooting at them. Audrey flew up behind him, her fists clenched.

Reaching a window, Jason clung to the side of the wall and arched his neck so he was peeking inside. A small apartment was within, looking utterly trashed. The door at the end of the apartment was broken open, riddled with bullet holes. A man lay in front of the smashed door, his chest blown open, the walls around him splattered with blood. Lying against a fallen table was the mercenary Hiroshi had blasted, who appeared to be unconscious. No sign of other mercs. They must be elsewhere in the building.

Jason swung himself through the window, rolling across the floor and jumping to his feet. He ignored the unconscious merc, crossing to the room to the man who had been shot. He was an old guy, wearing little more than a wife beater, his eyes wide and lifeless, his mouth agape in a final, silent scream.

Jason looked sadly down at the old man's corpse. "...I'm sorry." He muttered. He then bent down and closed dead man's eyes. It was the kind of thing people did, right? Jason stared at the unmoving body before grimacing and getting to his feet.