Injustice: Gods Among Us - Lady Killers #1
“Everything is fine.” The dark skinned man dressed in military fatigues yelled down the phone over the sound of mortars crashing down in the city that surrounded the presidential palace. I assure you that we have the situation well in hand.” He added as an RPG streaked past the window and smashed into the masonry of the west wing. “Hello, hello…” He asked before slamming the phone down. While most days had fighting in and around the ruins of Gorilla City the last few hours had been particularly fierce and Major Johnson knew that he was on thin ice with his superiors back in the states to keep the city in regime friendly hands and out of the opportunistic rebels who were looking to get their hands on salvage left behind after the fall of Solovar at the hands of his one time ally Kal El, the leader of three quarters of the planet.
“There must be a problem up the trunk line.” Johnson mumbled as he went to the window and looked out at the firestorm of armoured vehicles, gunships and soldiers all fighting to hold the line. And even though he could scarcely believe it, in Johnson’s eyes they appeared to be breaking as more and more rebels came surging forward.“What is going on? The Insurrection has never been this aggressive or this organized?” Johnson asked.
“Your about to be commander of a ghost town.” A woman’s voice stated causing Johnson to spin around and face the figure clad in matte black armour from head to toe complete with what appeared to be a standard air-force helmet apart from the violet visor. “Right now some of my girls are whipping the rebels into a frenzy while the rest take inventory of the remaining tech left behind by its former owners.”
“You are not permitted to be here.” Johnson bellowed, “This command centre is off limit to anyone without a proper ID card.”
“That’s what you’re focusing on.” The armoured mercenary spluttered,“Not that there is a fully armed and armoured mercenary in my residence who is in a good position to not only put a bullet through my head but also do me a favour. I can make your problem disappear in just over two minutes.”
“I’m not authorized to hire mercenaries.” Johnson replied regretfully, “Only someone higher up on the chain of command can do that. I can’t even call to make a proposal since the phone lines are down”
“Luckily my cyber warfare expert was able to get through to a King Faraday, he just deposited thirty grand into my organizations account in Andorra.” The mercenary announced before tapping the left side of her helmet. “Hunter Five activate the first wave.” She ordered before gesturing for Johnson to come to the window overlooking the battle for the main plaza. Several rebel fighters had made it into the area and were savagely charging right into the machine gun fire of the tanks parked outside, most of them seemingly oblivious of the storm of lead slamming into their bodies.
“The rebels paid for us to give them strength enhancing surgery, enough to throw your men around like ragdolls, unfortunately for them we decided to insert something extra inside as well.” She added waving her hand over the scene and the tide of insurrectionists storming up the road to join the front runners. It was then that the first of them began to shiver before their skin begun flaking off and their muscles incinerated leaving behind charred skeletons. Within a minute the whole rebel army was nothing more then a blazing pile of bone and dropped weapons.
“Impressive hundreds dead in two minutes and twelve seconds.” Johnson stated before pressing his pistol against the mercenaries head. “Now on your knees, if you hadn’t blabbed about supporting the rebels you may have walked away.”
“I still will.” The mercenary answered as telescopic blades sprang from her back through Johnson and out the other side. “But you won’t." she added as she retracted the blades again letting Johnson fall to the floor. “Hunter Five activate the second wave.” She ordered as she propped the dying major against the wall and looked him in the eye. “Ever wonder what nasty disease the mosquitoes in these parts were carrying? Let’s just say your men will have pain like they can’t imagine for the last two minutes of their lives.” She added as Johnson watched the skin of his hand turn ash white before flaking off. “Oh and the name is Hawker not that it will do much good for you.” she finished before walking to the window and flaring her wings again, thin sheets of Mylar extending from the blades before they started beating furiously, propelling the pilot through the window and up away from the sea of dying men below her.
“This is Hunter Lead.” Hawker stated over the radio, “I need confirmation that all Hunter units have returned to Wyvern Actual.”
“Affirmative.” A voice replied, “Sending you intercept coordinates now.” Hawker looked up and saw a battered Tupolev 114 come thundering out of the cloud layer. Increasing the rotary motors in her wings she accelerated up towards the plane and headed to the rear before watching as the tail ramp dropped allowing her to land in the cargo bay. “Hunter Lead has landed, rerouting Wyvern Actual to Somalia for the hand over, someone contact the ugly man and tell him his new technology will be landing in a few hours.”
“You think Intergang will really keep up their end of the bargain?” A voice over the PA system announced.
“They’d better Thorn unless they want to end up like Johnson.” Hawker answered, “I’ll be up soon, tell the others to break out the champagne, we have just become very rich women.”
“How rich?” Thorn asked as Hawker retracted her wings and took off her helmet to reveal an olive skinned face with hazel eyes framed by long ebony locks. Walking up the stairs and into the crew corridor she heard a loud whistle come over the PA system. It was well founded; Intergang had paid forty thousand for the salvage attempt, the insurrection had paid a further twenty thousand and the Superman regime had topped their fee off with another thirty thousand, a good payment even when split six ways. Slipping into the galley Hawker was not surprised to see her teammates already pouring the expensive champagne (stolen from a French Château last mission) into six plastic glasses.
“Nice of you to join us Hawk.” A woman with stunning platinum blonde hair purred as she occasionally beat her beautiful white feathered wings. “I was thinking I would have to retire for the night without seeing our stemmed leader.”
“Well I’m here Silver.” Hawker replied, “A toast to the continent’s best mercenaries.” She added raising her glass, the others following suit and clinking them together. “And to some of the best people I know.” She added, a cheer replying to her toast.
“I have to go.” Silver announced, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Night Helena.” Hawker called as the Silver Swan ducked out of the galley and headed towards one of the converted rooms that served as make shift suites when the team was in the air. “If you need anything…”
“I know I’ll call you.” Helena answered. Turning back to her remaining teammates Hawker took a sip before turning to the woman dressed in gold armour, tiny red LED’s glowing through her mask as she tapped on the laptop. “Doc how long till we land?” She asked.
“Three hours.” Doc replied, “Looks like we got out just in time, the regime are sending in Hawkman clones into the ruins to aid in securing the area.”
“Are we far enough away from ground zero?” Hawker asked as she watched Doc’s eyes run across the visor from end to end as she processed the data.
“Just about, as far as they know we are a commercial cargo hauler moving along a well traversed flight path.” Doc answered, “If we do have problems we can always activate the third wave pathogen.”
“Hmm Menagerie are we close enough to remotely activate the remaining vector units from here?” Hawker asked.
“We could be in Beijing and I could still awaken the hive.” The pale green skinned woman answered, the occasional ripple moving across her flesh. “I’m assuming you would rather I simply put them on standby rather then released them straight away.”
“Do neither.” Hawker ordered, “We don’t need to advertise that we are responsible for the deaths of their Marine Expeditionary Force.”
“Got it.” Menagerie answered trying and failing to hide the disappointment in her voice. “If you change your mind let me know.” She added as Hawker drained her champagne and got up before giving a nod at Thorn as she poured a second round and held out her glass.
“I’m going to get some sleep.” Hawker announced, “Wake me in two hours.” She added before leaving the room.
“So who gets the joy of waking up our esteemed leader?” Thorn asked as she took a long sip from her glass.
“She won’t sleep.” Doc told her, “She never does, not after missions like this.”
“What do you mean?” The last mercenary, dressed in a blue leotard with a silver crescent tattooed on her cheek.
“Because she feels guilt.” Doc answered, “Not for the people she killed but for the ones she failed to save.”
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