PrettyWings

The Divine

Working on my character!

♥ Really, Another Zombie Story!? ♥ (OPEN & ACCEPTING)

Name
Daphne Davenport

Nickname
Daph

Age
25

Gender
Female

Sexuality
Heterosexual

Resides
Rich Side

Personality:

Positive:
Loving – Dedicated – Intelligent

Negative:
Low self esteem – Depressive/Anxious – Socially awkward

About Personality
Daphne is a sweet girl who feels the most comfortable by putting other people’s need before her own. Although this quality makes her an excellent caretaker, it is also the manifestation of her highly codependent nature. She is generally light-hearted and kind in her interactions with others. However, Daphne is prone to depression and anxiety, which she deals with as privately as possible as she feels like a burden to those in her life.

Appearance
Blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. Daphne is 5’5 and a womanly 135lbs. Daphne can get up and go when she has to, but she is by no means athletic. She dresses casually in jeans and t-shirts, sweaters when it’s cold, and skirt/dresses when the occasion calls for it.

Life Before the Apocalypse
Daphne is originally from the state of Washington, where she was working as an emergency nurse practioner at the hospital. She was visiting her Canadian neighbors to attend a medical conference when the world started falling apart. With the borders locked tight, Daphne had no choice but to remain in the country, eventually finding herself in the city of LunaVale.

Skills
Daphne has poured herself into the practice Emergency and clinical medicine

Anything Extra
*while remained on the rich side when the wall was built, it is not uncommon for her to aid those on the poor side the opportunity presents itself
* she was on prescription medication for her depression/anxiety and has secretly developed an bit of an abuse problem to the meds she hoarded when all hell broke loose

♥ Really, Another Zombie Story!? ♥ (OPEN & ACCEPTING)

I will have my CS Pm-ed by today sometime.

♥ Really, Another Zombie Story!? ♥ (OPEN & ACCEPTING)

Im quite interested if youre still accepting. Love zombie stuff *^_^*

Pariah

The SRHRT sat around the conference table in the tactical operations center, Alpha Team on one side and Bravo on the other, waiting for Harkins to start the brief. The eight men sat casually in the room, some reclining back, some with their feet up on the table, to the perpetual consternation of Elaine Townsend, the Chief of Operations. However, she knew better than to set herself up to be insulted by complaining about the men’s lack of discipline. She eyed the Alpha Team leader covertly from the head of the table, concealing her gaze with a stack of papers she was pretending to organize.

Director Harkins came in before Elaine could indulge in any of the usual thoughts she had about the man. She pushed her blonde hair behind her ears and cleared her throat.

“As I’m sure you’re all aware, we have a hostage situation on going in the Warehouse District,” he said indicating to the live feed on one of the big monitors in the back of the room. “The Chimera goon we nabbed awhile back finally coughed up some actionable intel on another one of their computer geeks, but as you can see he got tipped off somehow.”

The live feed showed New Haven PD surrounding the place already, setting up a perimeter. It was an older storage warehouse that had not yet been renovated, set against the edge of the river.

“All the necessary surveillance will be in place soon,” Elaine said avoiding speaking directly to Alpha One. She adjusted her thick round spectacles. “We will have to generate the map as we go. We didn’t have time to get a thorough recreation uploaded.”

“Alright,” the Bravo Team leader said standing up. “See you guys there.”

“One more thing,” Director Harkins said. “New tactical policy from FBI brass says we have to start taking field medics with us. Her name is Daphne Davenport. She will be waiting for you on site. Try not to break her. She’s on loan from civilian EMS. Don’t’ worry, she’s a graduate of the international school for tactical medicine. It’s this new thing, I don’t fucking know.” He threw his hands up helplessly.

“A chick Doc,” Michael said nudging Cameron with an elbow. Cameron shook his head with an exasperated smile.

“Alright, you know what to do,” the director said. He trusted his team enough not to micromanage their tactics.
As they all got up to leave, he added, “Oh, and don’t start firing off that fucking fifty-cal.” Everyone in the room chuckled at the director’s irritation.

“You got it,” Bravo Team leader said with a goofy salute, which did not instill any amount of confidence in the director whatsoever.

________________________________________

“Well, we’re in the shit now!” Cameron called to Sebastian from across the warehouse floor.

They had made contact with Chimera security as soon as they breached the building, and were now taking cover behind pallets of boxes near the stairs that would lead them to the administrative offices. Gun fire was ringing out everywhere as Richard and Michael flanked from the other side with the medic, Daphne Davenport.

Sebastian gestured at him by putting both hands around his neck, and Cameron understood. While Sebastian leaned out to provide cover fire, Cameron pulled a chemical smoke grenade off his vest and threw it as hard as he could up toward the second story walk way. It sailed through the air and smashed a window out of one of the offices. As the chemical smoke billowed out in dark yellow clouds, the two got to their feet and ran up the stairs, popping off shots as armed security came running out coughing their lungs up. The two veterans had become immune to the stuff and they swept through the complex of offices, which the TOC had not yet been able to get eyes inside of.

They found their HVT and his hostage in one of them. It was a girl. She was coughing so hard on the floor that she couldn’t move, and when the man saw them rush in he pointed his MP5 at her. Sebastian threw himself across the floor and scooped the girl into his arms as the man pulled trigger in desperation to not go down without doing some damage. The automatic weapon fired a long burst of nine-millimeter before Cameron emptied the rest of his magazine into the man, realizing that in doing so he had extinguished their next source of information.

He would answer for that later, though. Cameron rushed to Sebastian, who was already getting up.

“I’m good!” he said. He and Cameron ushered the girl out of the office and to the top of the stairs where the smoke was not as heavy.

“You have to run,” Sebastian told the girl through her screams. “Run down the stairs and out of the building. Go!” He knew that the New Haven PD would be waiting for her with open arms.

The girl complied, screaming when she wasn’t coughing.

A look of pure confusion had come across Sebastian’s face.

“Let’s go," Cameron said. “Hey, what’s the problem?”

Sebastian looked into his friend’s eyes, slumped against the wall, and collapsed to the floor. “Maybe I’m not good,” he groaned.

“Motherfucker,” Cameron gasped.

________________________________________

When the battle was finally over and the gunfire had ceased, Cameron pulled Sebastian across the warehouse floor by the handle on the back of his plate carrier with one hand, and held his friend’s HK416 in the other, desperately trying to get him back to his teammates and the medic that had accompanied them.

“Doc!” he screamed. “Doc, we got wounded!”

“Shit,” he heard Richard say from somewhere in the warehouse, and the man appeared from behind the crates that they had been using for cover.

Michael was right on his heels, both of them rushing to help Cameron move their injured leader. All three of them picked Sebastian up and took him back to where their medic had taken cover during the engagement.

“Oh my god,” she said when they put his still body down in front of her. She took her helmet off and pulled her brown hair back, then pressed her cheek and ear against his face and took one of his wrists in her fingers. Seconds later she was pressing them against his neck.

“He’s still breathing but no radial pulse. He’s bleeding out from somewhere. Help me get his gear off.”

The three worked quickly to disconnect and remove Sebastian’s helmet and to take off his plate carrier. The rear ballistic plate was shattered from absorbing multiple bullets. Daphne pulled the bandage scissors off her kit and cut Sebastian’s combat shirt down the middle, then pulled it away from his torso. There was a hole in his left flank with blood coming out of it.

“One went right under his fucking plate,” Richard said.

“Cam, you gotta call it up,” Michael told him. With Sebastian down, Cameron was the next ranking operator.

Cameron backed away from his friend slowly, watching Daphne pull medical supplies out of her vest pouches to begin working.

“Cam!” Michael shook him by the shoulder.

Cameron shoved him off. “I fucking heard you!” He took a deep breath and got on the headquarters frequency: “TOC, this is Alpha Romeo. Alpha One is down. I say again, Alpha One is down. Requesting MEDEVAC.”

Silence on the net, and then Elaine’s voice, shaky and strained: “I… Roger…”

“TOC, we need a fucking MEDEVAC, right now!” Cameron yelled over the net. “How copy!?”

“I got it, Alpha Romeo,” Elaine responded quietly. “EMS en route. ETA: 20 mikes.”

“We don’t have-!” Cameron started to respond, but he cut off his own transmission before he screamed at the girl unnecessarily; it wasn’t the TOC’s fault.

He stormed back over to Daphne, who had directed Michael to hold pressure on the gunshot wound, and was peeling a big square of plastic out of its wrapper, the aid bag she had been carrying open at her side.

“What’s going on, Doc?” he asked urgently. "Jesus, he was bitching at me to leave him alone just five minutes ago.” He looked anxiously at the pool of blood that had formed on the floor.

“His left lung is collapsed.” Daphne pushed Michael's hand away and placed the occlusive dressing over the hole. She handed him her roll of three-inch nylon tape and he began placing strips of it on all four sides of the dressing to keep it secure. Both of them carefully lifted Sebastian’s torso up. She checked for an exit wound and removed the remains of his shirt. There was not one and they carefully set him back down.

“Then drop a needle in his chest, already,” Cameron told her. “Your buddies are on the way.”

“It’s too late for that,” Daphne said donning a pair of latex gloves. Sebastian’s skin was cool and clammy and she could see his jugular veins beginning to distend from the pressure against his heart and trachea. “He’s bleeding internally. I have to put in a chest tube to drain it and give his lung some room to expand again.”

Daphne was already pulling out the necessary supplies as she explained the situation. She tossed Cameron an IV kit, normal saline with all the necessary needles and tubing. “Start that.”

As Cameron started fishing for IV access in Sebastian’s right arm, Daphne proceeded with the chest tube, talking herself through it in her head as she went.

Fifth intercostal, mid axillary. Posterior and lateral to the pectoralis. She wiped the area with chlorhexidine and placed the sterile sheet that came with the kit around the wound.

Now the lidocaine with epi. She injected the incision site liberally with a 25g needle and syringe, then pushed the needle between his ribs and into the pleural space. It filled with blood as she aspirated it and she knew she was in the right place.

Let’s go, Daphne. She cut a three-inch incision into Sebastian’s flank, put her scalpel down, and picked up her 9-inch Kelly clamp. She pushed it into the incision, between his ribs, until it popped through the parietal pleura and into the space filled with air and blood. She spread the clamp open in one direction, twisted it and opened it in the other direction, creating a big enough hole in his body for the tube to fit. She pulled the clamp out and stuck a gloved finger in the space, feeling and pulling to confirm without a doubt that she had the right location.

Nice and easy, girl. Daphne pulled the thick plastic chest tube out of its wrapper and began inserting it into the hole. She went in slowly until she saw condensation in the tube, indicating it was properly placed.

Shit.

“Hold this,” she told Michael.

He handed the bag of fluid to Richard and quickly stepped over to hold Sebastian’s chest tube. She nodded gratefully as she saw the saline successfully infusing into Sebastian’s arm. In a couple quick steps Daphne pulled the pieces of her portable suction drain out and assembled it, beating herself up inside that she hadn’t already prepared it, and then relieved Michael of the chest tube and connected it to the device.

Tie it up already! She pulled out some sutures and began approximating the edges of the incision site until they were snug against the tube. Another suture horizontally, then she tied it off in a surgeon’s knot.

“Let’s move, Doc,” Cameron urged.

“I’m done. Just need to dress it.” Daphne watched her drain. It was pulling out blood. She sighed heavily and dabbed away the sweat on her brow with a sleeve. His breathing was shallow and his carotid pulse was weaker than before, but he was still alive. She wrapped some petroleum gauze around the tube’s insertion site.

Antibiotics, now. No morphine or you’ll kill him. She opened a new needle, drew a syringe full of saline from the port on the IV bag, and injected it into a bottle of Levofloxacin powder. She quickly mixed it, pulled it back out with the syringe, and in injected it through the port and into the bag of saline.

The moments they waited for EMS to arrive seemed like an eternity. Sirens finally came screaming down the street and stopped in front of the warehouse. The team, carefully but quickly, carried their fallen leader to the ambulance and rode with him to New Haven General.

________________________________________

Stephanie Albright had just finished charting on her last patient when the head nurse, Claire, had asked if she would take another one that was incoming. It was a gunshot wound, one of many that they had seen in the last few days in the emergency room. Claire had told her that she already called the OR to get ready.

“Sure, why not?” She walked from behind the nurse’s station to start getting a bed ready. “Just another day at the office.”

New Haven General had been more of a trauma center in the last few days than anything. It was great experience but it was exhausting. Stephanie was working her fifth twelve hour shift of the week, and all she wanted to do was get home and into a bubble bath. But the doors to the ER drop off site swooshed open then, and Stephanie went to get the report.

When she saw the faces of the men escorting the gurney, Stephanie froze in her tracks and the deepest feeling of dread began to wash over her. She had met them a couple times before. They recognized her, and the look in their eyes told her all she needed to know.

“No!” she cried and tried to run toward the gurney as it wheeled into the ER. The girl with them was spitting out her report but Stephanie did not hear a word of it. Before she could reach the bed, one of the men intercepted her and held her back as she began to sob hysterically.

Her brother, Sebastian, was on that bed, and he was on the verge of death.

“You said you would take care of him!” she screamed as she pounded her fists against Cameron’s vest. “You said you would!”

There were no words for him to say that could possibly be enough. All he could do was wrap his arms around the girl to control her, gritting his teeth against the stinging in his eyes as his friend’s sister sobbed and cursed him for failing to protect her brother.

Claire came to see what all the commotion was about. She told Cameron to get Stephanie out of the ER, and he dragged her away screaming. The hours that past after that were the longest of their lives.

________________________________________

Cameron, Michael, and Richard sat with Stephanie Albright in the ER waiting room. She was crying on and off, but had calmed enough for them to tell her what had happened. Stephanie nodded through her tears as they told her what details they were authorized to disclose about their assignment. When there was nothing left to be said about it, silence reigned for many minutes.

Stephanie finally looked up at Cameron. “I’m sorry,” she said weakly. “I know it’s not your fault. I shouldn’t have said all of those things.” She could see that the men were deeply grieving their leader in their own way.

“You’re fine,” Cameron told her gently. “He’s your brother.”

“And he’s a goddamn hero,” Richard added emphatically, and Michael clasped a hand on his shoulder in agreement.

A surgeon came out of the ER then and walked over to them. They all stood up in anticipation of the news. Stephanie was wringing her hands like a nervous wreck.

“We were able to stop the bleeding,” he said, and they all released a heavy sigh of relief. “Whoever put that chest tube in bought him just enough time.”

Daphne Davenport had been released back to the unit for a debrief. They made a mental note to buy her a beer or five after all of this was over.

“He’s in the ICU for now,” the surgeon told them. “But you guys can’t roll in there in there with all that hardware. Come see him tomorrow on the recovery ward.”

He smiled and shook all their hands, giving the nurse he had worked with many times before a hug before heading back through the ER doors.

________________________________________

The next morning, Daphne was awakened in the chair of the patient room on the surgical recovery floor that the staff had allowed her to wait in for her brother to get transferred from the ICU. Claire was standing over her, and she told her that Sebastian had arrived.

Stephanie jumped up and hurried to the room they had put her brother in. She stopped at the door for a moment to collect herself as she caught sight of the man in the hospital bed. But he wearily turned his head and looked right at her, and she rushed in to see him.

She hugged him and cried, so happy that he was still with her. His wincing was the only reason she let him go.

“A Little banged up, here,” he said. When she pulled away he looked into her teary emerald eyes. “I told you I’d come see you at work soon. Here I am.”

She laughed in spite of her tears. “I can’t stand you.”

In this rare moment Sebastian smiled. “So do I get to put on a shirt?” he asked looking at all of the wires and bandages on his bare torso.

Stephanie eyed her brother shyly. “I think you’re doing just fine.”

Sebastian shook his head. “I’m sure.”

It would be many hours before Stephanie left her brother to go home, happy that she would get to see him again the next day.

Pariah

I have seen true evil in this world. I know that it exists, and that beholding it in its truest form will leave a man changed forever. I have looked into its eyes, peered into its gaping maw as it swallowed me whole, and I have lived in it for longer periods than I care to confess. Yet I find myself able to live with knowing that in some instances evil has been upon me so quickly, so completely, that coexisting with it is the only way that I could have survived those coldest of nights.

But what I cannot release myself from is those moments when evil took my hand in its own wicked claw, and I allowed it to lead me down the darkest of paths, even against my own screaming internal protests. We do not fail to execute on our objectives, we do not fail to accomplish the mission no matter the cost, even if the cost is one piece of our humanity at a time, until we are lost forever.

I have escaped that final eventuality. In my experience with Variants and their struggle to find a place in normal society, I have slowly begun to rely on what I once knew-that I have always known- to be right and wrong. There can be no more compromise with evil. It must be destroyed, Variant or human, just as those doing good must be upheld and protected. I believe that there is light yet left inside of me somewhere. However, my fear is that I do not possess the courage to embrace it.

S.A.

________________________________________

Alpha Team threw all of their gear into the cage in the team room and slammed the doors closed; the days training was over. They finished changing into civilian clothes and gathered their things to leave, ready to take advantage of a little rest and relaxation before the alarms sounded again.

“You guys been following the news?” Richard asked as he finished getting his things together. “Those N.O.V.A. assholes got all the credit for busting that fucking Variant.” He shook his head, the unforgettable feeling of being unnaturally blinded by the thing playing through his mind.

“What do you think, boss?” he then said to Sebastian stroking his beard. “Alpha One should have been on all the late night shows after that one.”

“I’m not worried about it,” Sebastian said flatly as he started putting his personal things away. “We did what we had to do.”

Richard scoffed. “Well, you’d be a shitty interview, anyway, if that’s all you have to say about it. You ever gonna grow a personality?” he joked.

He looked at his watch suddenly. “Damn. I gotta get going before the wife starts bitching.”

But the team already knew that this was just tough-guy talk; they were all aware of how head-over-heels in love with his wife the man was, and that he could not wait to go running home to her every day.

“Better get moving, then,” Michael said with a grin. “I’ll walk you out. I’m getting together with my girlfriend tonight.”

“Which one?” Cameron asked throwing a used towel at him.

Michael swatted it away. “Both of them, if I’m lucky,” he replied with a wink and a toss of his freshly washed hair, drawing laughter from his teammate. He and Richard headed out of the room to begin their respective festivities.

Cameron stood with his pack slung over one shoulder, watching Sebastian take his time packing up and making sure that everything was neatly placed in his backpack. There was no humor on the man’s face, only the quiet reservation that seemed to persist at all times.

“You should come out with us,” he stated adjusting his thin glasses.

Sebastian glanced over his shoulder briefly before returning to his pack. “Maybe some other time.”

It was the anticipated response. Sebastian had not been seen by the team outside of being on missions since they all started.

Cameron and Sebastian had become friends since they began working with the SRHRT, or as close to being friends as they could be for only ever seeing each other when it was go time. It was clear that the Alpha Team leader endured a different level of conviction for the life he left behind to work for the FBI, and it saddened him.

“Listen,” Cameron said walking over to his teammate. “I don’t presume to understand what it is that you’re going through. Hell, we’ve all been in the shit more times than we can count. I get that you went deeper than the rest of us. You Delta guys are spooky.”

“What’s your point?”

Cameron sighed. “My point is that secluding yourself in that apartment of yours, staring at the four walls, is only going to drive you deeper into whatever hell you’re still living in. You want to take care of Stephanie, I get it. She’s a good girl and she’s proud of you. But you’re no good to anyone until you can look at yourself in the mirror again.”

With no reply forthcoming from Sebastian, Cameron headed out, leaving him alone in the team room.

________________________________________

The evening bustle of Midtown was in full effect, lit up and alive. People were walking along the sidewalks, coming in and out of bars and small eateries along the way. The traffic was busy and loud, its usual commotion, filled with drivers going home or heading to more relaxing destinations to escape the chaos of the inner city.

Sebastian noticed none of it as he walked aimlessly through it all, both hands in his jeans pockets and looking at the ground. He was a ghost to all who passed by, and they were but phantoms harmlessly surrounding him as he headed to no destination in particular. He did not know what had possessed him to venture out onto such an excursion in the first place.

Perhaps it was Cameron’s words still echoing in his head from earlier that day. The former Special Forces weapon sergeant had a way of doing that to him. Sebastian couldn’t decide if he was grateful or irritated by that fact. The impact was greater this time because he had brought his sister into it, which Cameron had identified as the best way to try to get through to him.

A buzzing in his pocket, then, and Sebastian felt a sense relief come over him at the thought of being called back into action. But the feeling was short-lived as he realized it was just a text on his civilian phone. He stopped at the corner of a busy intersection, zipped his black hoodie up against the chilly breeze, and swiped his screen open.

It was Stephanie.

[Are you working?]

For a split second Sebastian considered telling her that he was, but he knew he could never lie to her.

[No]

[You’re avoiding me. Haven’t seen you in weeks.]

[Been busy.]

[But I miss you… :-( ]

Sebastian looked away from the text and glanced around at the busy city, trying to think of how he could possibly respond to that statement by his sister. Of course he had been avoiding her. It had been many years since they last saw each other before he returned to New Haven. The person that she remembered was simply not there anymore, and he did not want her to ever have to know about the things that had transpired during his long absence, or to get to know the person that it had left behind. He kept their encounters brief-coffee here, breakfast there-just enough for him to see that she was happy and safe.

At length, he said the same thing that he always did, because, as always, he just did not know what else to say:

[Soon.]

He jammed his phone back into his pocket, gritting his teeth, and decided that he had enough excitement for one night.

Taking Back a Kingdom

This looks interesting

The Divine

I am interested.

Pariah

Sebastian had been engrossed in Dante’s Inferno when his phone started blowing up from everyone in the goddamn bureau. He laced up his coyote tan tactical boots as he received the hurried situation report from the director of the FBI Variant division.

“Any reason why we’re having to react to this with no heads up?” Sebastian asked into the little ear mic and pulling the bottoms of his jeans over the boots.

“N.O.V.A. was all over this before we knew what was happening,” Director Harkin’s gravelly voice responded. “Whatever this variant is, we weren’t tracking it until it started to tear the city apart. Bravo Team is currently en route to the damn thing in the APC. Alpha should be at your door any minute.”

“Roger that,” Sebastian said already running down the stairs of his Midtown apartment building. “We got eyes in the sky?”

“The TOC will be giving you satellite coverage, just stand by for them to get online. I’ll spin up a couple drones, but no birds. M.A.D. is just as likely to shoot our asses out of the sky.”

Sebastian ran through the parking lot and stood on the sidewalk, looking down the street for his team. “What do you want us to do with this thing?”

The retired Ranger Battalion commander chuckled. “Killing it would be good, don’t you think?”

“Too easy, Sir," he said flatly. "Alright, I’m out. Tell those nerds up in operations to move their assess.”

The connection ended and Sebastian pulled the earpiece out, tucking it into a pocket. He caught sight of the black SUV weaving its way around traffic. It pulled right onto the sidewalk and sped toward him, coming to a screeching halt right in front of him. The back hatch opened and the three other members of Alpha Team jumped out of the vehicle. Sebastian immediately went to the open rear of the SUV. The space in the back was outfitted to carry a small armory of weapons and operational gear.

Michael, Richard, and Cameron joined him, with Cameron carrying all of Sebastian’s personal gear from the team room back at headquarters. They had not had time to change into their fatigues, either.

“I had to cut the lock,” Cameron said as he started handing the equipment to the Alpha Team leader, referring to Sebastian’s gear cage. His own equipment was on over a short sleeve button-down shirt and khaki cargo shorts.

“You forgot the combination?” Sebastian chided him as he quickly pulled his multicam plate carrier, covered in magazine pouches and all other manner of attachments, on over his black t-shirt. He strapped his knee pads around his jeans and put on his Kevlar-knuckled gloves. Finally he took his tan helmet, heavy with audio technology and night vision goggles, and buckled it over his chin.

“We were kind of in a hurry, princess,” Michael told him, turning Sebastian around to connect his audio cable to the SATCOM receiver strapped behind his shoulder. The white under shirt tucked into Michael's slacks and shiny silver belt buckle indicated that he had had more sophisticated plans for the evening. “Now, if you’re happy that your white pearls match your sea-colored gown, we’re going to be late to the gala.”

“This is bullshit, man,” Richard said as he took the wheel and the team loaded into the armored vehicle, with Sebastian taking the front passenger seat. “You see all those N.O.V.A. choppers flying around? Bet those boys aren’t going to be happy to see us”

As the vehicle sped back into the street, earning blaring horns from every car it passed, Sebastian watched the city fly by through the tinted window and prepared himself for the coming task.

“’They yearn for what they fear for’", he said to his reflection.

________________________________________

“For fuck’s sake.”

Richard was getting irritated as they neared the area where N.O.V.A was doing battle with the massive variant. The path of destruction leading there had been treacherous to navigate in the SUV, with toppled buildings blocking streets and cars strewn about everywhere. There were still civilians screaming and running about, trying to escape the calamity. Fires burned all around and the streets were filled with smoke. They began pulling nearer to the squad of M.A.D. armored vehicles and HMMWVs. Their mounted machine guns were alternating bursts at the thing from all around the perimeter while heavily armored dismounts bounded in and out of cover, trying to find a location to press the assault even harder.

“Avoid this,” Sebastian said, and Richard veered away from the main effort. “Bravo, this is Alpha One,” he said switching over to the squad channel. “I’m heading around the east end of the block. Swing around to the west and see what you can do on the other side of all this N.O.V.A.”

Helicopters executed strafing fire maneuvers intermittently over head before pulling back into the night sky to reset.

“TOC, Alpha One. What are we looking at?”

“A fuckin’ shit show,” Cameron answered drawing chuckles from Michael and Richard.

Elaine’s voice sounded over the headquarters frequency: “I wish I could tell you. Looks like a huge, nasty Variant from here. You’re clear on your flanking route, but N.O.V.A. already has a patrol blocking it in from the other side.”

“We’ll take our chances,” Sebastian said. “What about air assets?”

“I’m authorized to send surveillance drones out for you, just give us the word.”

“We don’t need surveillance, we need ordinance. These N.O.V.A. choppers are only annoying it. Tell Harkins I want a Predator in the air.”

“That’ll be a tough sell. He doesn’t-“

“Tell him I said ‘pretty please’,” Sebastian interrupted her. “Alpha One out.”

“Very smooth,” Michael said rapping his knuckles on the back of Sebastian’s helmet. “Playing hard to get, are we?”

Alpha One’s customary middle finger drew laughter from the team as they cut their way around the city streets.

________________________________________

The SUV pulled down the street on the other side of the N.O.V.A. perimeter just in time to see huge shadowy fists pummel the armored patrol cars stationed there to bits. Richard slammed on the breaks and Alpha Team watched the ensuing scene blankly. The few surviving M.A.D. agents stumbled out of their smashed vehicles and attempted to return fire on the thing, but it charged right through them and sent them flying in all directions.

The team remained expressionless in the moments of silence that followed, until the Variant slowly turned and looked straight at them.

“What do you think it wants?” Cameron finally said scratching his chin absently.

“You did some time in Civil Affairs, didn’t you?” Michael responded. “Why don’t you go offer it some pencils and a dental hygiene kit or something.”

They looked at the huge shadowy figure as it looked at them, the two entities studying each other.

“We’re not going to get very far if we-“ Cameron started to say, but he suddenly grabbed his helmet. “My head,” he tried to explain but was soon incapacitated by a sudden and intense pain.

“Shit,” Sebastian said, and he had a feeling that he knew where the attack had come from. “Engage.”

He jumped out of the passenger seat followed by Richard and Michael. They walked slowly and smoothly toward the Variant in a tight 'V' formation, alternating volleys of fire from their assault rifles. The Variant was backed up a few steps as the rounds impacted on its large body, but Richard was suddenly veering out of formation, sweeping his weapon around erratically.

“I can’t see shit!” he cried.

Michael tackled him against the wall of the building to their left, while Sebastian dove behind a car to the right, all of them narrowly escaping the N.O.V.A patrol vehicle the Variant had just hurled at them as soon as Richard had lost control.

Sebastian saw Cameron stumble out of the SUV, but he held up a fist to keep the man where he was. He gave Michael a nod and then leaned out from behind the car to suppress the Variant while he moved Richard across the street to join him behind the vehicle.

“Goddamn fog in my eyes, I can’t see,” Richard said in bewilderment followed by an elaborate string of expletives.

“Hey, get your shit together, Ranger,” he told him. “TOC, what’s the status on that Predator?”

“I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but ETA: five mikes,” Elaine said barely audible in the chaos.

Sebastian pulled a flash-bang out of a pouch on his vest, pulled the pin, and then threw it at the Varient. The team ducked their heads down and braced for the deafening detonation. When the flash of blinding light hit, they immediately leaned over the vehicle and resumed firing at the thing.

The Variant did indeed seem stunned by the grenade.

“He didn’t like that shit,” Michael said trying to keep Richards weapon pointed in the right direction as the man fired blindly. The bolt to his assault rifle locked back and he went down behind cover to change magazines.

Sebastian pulled Richards flash-bang off his kit and lit the Variant up one more time. He winced through the deafening ringing in his head as another blinding flash lit up the night, and the Variant recoiled dramatically from the bright light. His own weapon locked back and he took cover to reload, wondering how long they were going to be able to keep this up.

“Yee-haw, motherfuckers,” Bravo Team leader’s voice suddenly crackled over the squad net, and the beautiful sound of the Stryker APC’s fifty-caliber machine gun filled the air as Bravo Team flanked the Variant from the west.

Cameron took advantage of the distraction to rush over to his team. “It’s about time, Bravo,” he said over the net.

“You done crying?” Sebastian asked his friend offering a fist, which Cameron met with his own as they smiled.

A massive surge suddenly washed over the area that sent their audio devices screeching loudly into their ears. They all exchanged confused looks, including Richard, who seemed to have recovered his senses, as they huddled behind the car.

“TOC, Alpha One.” No response. “TOC, what the hell was that?” No response.

A sudden screaming of something big falling out of the sky came from over their heads, and Alpha Team all looked up to see their two-point-two million dollar Predator drone smash into a building at the end of the street and explode into a gigantic ball of flame.

________________________________________

The entire SRHRT stood in a semi circle around the downed Variant as a horde of N.O.V.A. agents swarmed it with tech that none of them recognized. M.A.D. had surrounded them as well; there was nothing left to do but watch as the highly specialized organization proceeded to contain the thing and take it away in a special detainment vehicle.

As the vehicle disappeared into the city, a man wearing a suit and tie began walking toward them, slow clapping and grinning from ear to ear.

“Now that’s what I call teamwork,” he said when he was standing in front of them “What a show, indeed.”

Sebastian took off his helmet and sweat ran down his face. He watched as N.O.V.A. began cleaning up its crew and evacuating the area. “What the hell was that thing?” he asked the man.

“Only one of the most dangerous Variants we have ever had contact with,” he answered. "A shadow variant, apparently. Nothing a group of battle-hardened individuals like the SRHRT couldn’t handle. Obviously.”

His voice was dripping with sarcasm.

“You owe us two million dollars, fucker,” Richard said to deflect the insult, and Bravo team laughed.

“Were you really prepared to destroy yourselves along with half the city by dropping hellfire missiles on a Variant?” When Alpha Team only stared intensely at him, his smug expression changed to one of disbelief.

“EMP,” the man stated, his admiration for the squad dissipating. “The biometrics we were gathering on the Variant during this little exchange led us to believe we could incapacitate it temporarily with a massive pulse of electricity. Hence,” -he sailed his hand through the air with a low whistle to mimic their precious drone- “boom.”

Alpha Team looked at each other casually and shrugged.

Sebastian turned to Bravo Team’s leader. “You guys are all set. Get our APC out of here before we have to bill N.O.V.A. for that, too.”

The man gave an emphatic ‘roger that’ and collected his team into the Stryker. They pulled it out of the street, its six wheels crunching over debris as it left.

“So now what?” Cameron asked the man.

“Now we consider this a step toward improving relations between our organizations,” he answered gazing about at the destruction all around them. “If you hadn’t provided such a critical distraction, we would not have been able to secure the Variant.”

And with no further dialogue the mysterious N.O.V.A agent spun about and walked off down the crumbling, burning street, leaving Alpha team, battered and dirty, to stand amidst the wreckage.

“’The devil is not as black as he is painted’", Sebastian said quietly into the night.

Pariah

@Nate1008I think we can do something like that. What are your ideas for how that would go down?