Operation: Healing Shadows

The scent

Mason's POV
I sat at the table shifting through file after file, the paperwork seemed endless but I needed to know if we got anything, I glanced at the clock and saw it read 23:57 I sighed at the time but stood and headed over to the coffee pot and poured the last of it into my mug. I heard a soft yawn behind me followed by Luna's voice, heavy with fatigue and grogginess she asked "Still up?" I nodded as I sipped on my coffee she looked at the clock "You know what time it is?" I nodded again as I realized what she was wearing, or lack there of, she wore one of my worn out t shirts that was 2 times too big on her and her black panties, she had just woken up I asked "Did I wake you?" She shook her head no before replying "nej(no), I rolled over to your side of the bed and didn't feel you there so I thought I'd check on you" I placed down my coffee before looking at the illuminated table, most of the room was bathed in dark shadows but the light over the table shined a small orb of light. I looked at her as she suggested "why don't you come to bed and we can finish looking through all this tomorrow morning?" I looked at the table before shifting my focus to Luna and nodded "yeah, I could use some sleep" she smiled slightly as she extended her hand towards me, I walked over after dumping my coffee and gripped her hand having her drag me towards the bedroom as I stumbled, letting the focus of combing through the files drop destroyed the last cognitive resistance I had offered and my brain allowed the tiredness and exhaustion to wear onto me. When we reached the bed I simply face planted into it, I tried to stay awake to at least talk to Luna but my eyelids were weighed heavily by concrete and I dropped into the abyss of sleep.
      I jumped awake as my body did the stupid falling thing, Luna woke with a start "What? What is it? Was it Rainbow? Did they find us?" I sat up and rubbed my face seeing that it was 0100 "No, my body just did that falling thing where you jump awake. Sorry to wake you" she nodded before teasing "oh you poor baby, I can't believe that happened to you. It must be so difficult" I sighed as I leaned back staring at the ceiling "You know it's only a matter of time before Rainbow finds us, right?" She sighed but replied "Ja, I do. I'm hoping we'll have some sort of a lead by then" I looked out the window at the permanent sunset "I wonder when this will end, when we'll be able to be normal again" she replied with a knowing tone "Soon, it'll be soon" I looked over my shoulder as I carefully removed my prosthetic "How do you know?" She looked out the window as she spoke "just a feeling, and my feelings haven't been wrong yet" I shook my head as i looked at my phone seeing a message from Aaron, which had arrived last night. I pulled up the chat and typed back "hey, sorry I didn't reply Luna and I hit a target. I hear you have more information for me?" He replied quickly "Yeah, the Agents have gotten their panties in a twist since you guys hit the Everglades. Yeah, I know it was you. Anyway they're getting nervous, I think you're getting close to finding something. I'd hit the target in Africa if I were you, I heard some whispers about it between the Agents team"
I typed back "Alright, thanks. We'll check it out when we have a chance" he replied with a final message "Stay safe, I'll let you know if anything important is found out. Oh, before I forget, Grace keeps hearing the masks talk about someone called Kingpin" I typed back "I'll see if we can find anything about it" I closed my phone and leaned back as Luna asked "Who were you texting?" I replied as I stared at the ceiling "Aaron, he suggested we hit the African target and tomorrow morning we gotta go through those files for any mention of a Kingpin" she yawned with a stretch before crashing her face into her pillow, her onyx hair splayed out around her like tendrils of darkness as she turned her Golden eyes on me "Go to sleep, it's late" I yawned and replied "you go to sleep, you're not my mom" she lazily swung her arm and whacked me garnering a laugh before I rolled and got comfortable. I woke up to my alarm and slapped wildly at it before growing increasingly annoyed with the beeping causing me to push myself up to my feet as I grabbed the alarm clock and threw it at the wall in full force, I watched it shatter as it impacted only to hear Luna behind me as she sat up "Temper, temper" I spun breathing heavily as she continued "Careful beast, I know that big bad clock insulted your honor but your tempers gonna ruin the walls" I sighed as I looked at the impact mark in the drywall "Sonuvabitch, I'm gonna have to fix that now"
      She nodded as I saw her look down at my leg "How are you standing? You don't have your prosthetic on" I looked down and saw it leaning against the nightstand "Huh, well would you look at that" I sat down and pulled on my prosthetic before walking to the kitchen and shifting through the files. I slowly scoured the papers until Luna sat across from me sliding me a cup of coffee "Found anything?" I shook my head no as I finished this file and found nothing. I placed it on the pile and motioned to the pile to my right "These are I searched you might find something I missed" she nodded and pulled the file off the top and started searching. I continued reading for another half an hour until Luna spoke "hey, I got something. This file mentions a report where a mask squad met with the two man team codenamed Kingpin" I asked as I laid the file in my hands on the table "Does it say where they met?" Her eyes traveled across the sentences before she replied "Africa... Tanzania, our next target" I went to stand when I heard a helicopter in the distance, I looked at Luna "It's Rainbow, choppers don't come this way. We have to get out of here" she stood and turned as we ran into the armory and switched into our gear before running to the bedroom and grabbing the essentials like MREs, knives, clothes anything that could give the operators an idea of where we were going. I ran to the kitchen and shoved the unread files into my bag before pulling the pins on a couple Thermite grenades and tossing them in key rooms before following Luna out the back door and into the forest as we watched Rainbow fast rope in.
     I nudged her and whispered "Come on, let's go to the bunker. It leads to the bay" she nodded before stealing one last look at the house as it erupted in flames, I looked at it longingly before I crouch walked behind Luna as we made our way through the underbrush. I heard Tina(Frost) talking to someone "I'm telling you I don't see any sign of them, there's no tracks or broken branches that give me any hints" the man replied angrily "You're fucking lying! I know it! You're supposed to be the best so find something!" Tina snapped back "Well then you fucking look if you know so much" I battled the snicker back as we moved only to hear Luna softly laughing infront of me. The forest shifted with each gust of the wind, Luna and I decided we'd use the roar of the wind as our cover and only move when it drowned out the world. It was slow moving only for the relief of arriving at the door to be replaced by dread as I stared at two men in all black stood guard outside the open door to the bunker, I looked around on the forest floor and found a heavy tree branch laying on the ground. I lifted it and rushed from the under brush and swung the tree limb like a bat feeling the jolt as it impacted with the first guys head, I dropped the tree branch and tackled the second guy quickly maneuvering him so I got him in a triangle choke hold and then I just waited until he went to sleep.
      I heard Luna as I pulled the unconscious man into a near by bush "you could've told me what you were doing" I glanced over before replying "I didn't think about doing that, I'm sorry" she chuckled before lifted her shotgun "Come on, let's hurry." I urged "Nøkk, non-lethal only. I don't want to give the agents another thing to try to use on us" she nodded before walking into the bunker, the lights above us lead the way through the tunnels, I patted her shoulder as I moved past heading down a small side tunnel into the generator room. I smirked and pulled out my knife cutting every wire and tube I saw before I turned to Luna "Hey, wanna do me a huge favor?" She replied with a small laugh "do I ever, what do you need?" I motioned to the now silent generator before speaking in my on point darth sidious impression "Shoot it, shoot it now" she sighed before muttering "you fuckin geek" I laughed as she lifted her shotgun and fired "There, now come on" I smiled to myself before we ran through the hallways, ducking into dark corners and small cubbies as we watched soldiers marching past heading towards the generator room. It wasn't that long before we reached the docks, I barricaded the door while Luna climbed into the boat and untied the ropes. I jumped in and scrambled to get the engines going before the soldiers broke through the barricade, I heard them on the other side "Come on! Hurry! Before they get away!" The engine started and we pulled out of the dock case only to have the door bust open, I looked back when we reached open water and saw the 6 of them standing helplessly at the docks, their rifles hanging uselessly by their sides.

A/N hey guys sorry if this chapter feels rushed, I'm trying to get it done before I have to go for graduation. I hope you enjoyed it regardless but I felt it wouldn't be fair to not offer and explanation to the feeling