Hiatus

Posted on Sun May 1st, 2022 @ 8:17pm by Private Mattias Tonelly & First Lieutenant Bethany Harrison

Mission: The Mutant Underground
Location: Desert North of Reno, NV
Timeline: Present Day

Two months had passed since the initial HYDRA attacks, and Bethany had spent that time wandering the desert with her rather large bobcat kitten in tow. She wasn’t completely out of contact with the world, as Julius kept her up to date with relevant events, but the young brawler had been more interested in survival, and training the strange companion that Dyami had handed to her.

The distance from Jon was agonizing for her, but she was holding up because she had to. She had slowly closed off all of the negative senses and feelings, protecting the man that her soul was bound to from the worst of what was going to come, while she made sure that he felt just how much that she loved him. The distance was always painful, though, and she was grateful that he wasn’t feeling that.

The young light-bearer’s agonizing loneliness was something that she couldn’t shake, and sometimes she felt like she was just putting one foot in front of the other and barely making it through the day. Her nightmares had intensified, but there was always some respite. Bethany was pretty sure that Dyami had something to do with that when she couldn’t seem to pull herself out of it. Or perhaps it was Jon, still trying to protect her in some way.

Bethany sighed a bit softly, a sad, lonely sound. Mosi looked up from her comfortable position at the fire of their camp. The rapidly growing cat stretched and yawned, then rolled over on her back and started batting at the lead that the green-eyed brawler was finishing. “Hey, it’s not a chew toy. What? Do I need a chain for you?” she asked the creature that had been her only living companion for weeks.

In truth, the intensely intelligent cat was proving easier to train than she had imagined, especially since she had decided to start training her to respond to commands in Tsalagi. Perhaps that was why Dyami seemed to be able to control animals the way that he did. Was it some kind of natural magic language? Regardless, they would be heading back to the Mesa starting first thing in the morning, something that she was both looking forward to, and dreading at the same time.

The young soldier pulled her jacket on as the sun dipped below the mountains, her skin settling back to a natural tone as the dust-streaked skies appeared to be lighting on fire. She crouched down next to the fire and stoked the coals underneath the bubbling cooking pot.

Mosi heard it first, and she rolled over and sat up, her ears swiveling as she tracked the sound. It wasn’t long after that Bethany heard the distinctive sound of ATVs, followed shortly by the hoots and hollers of campers that had apparently decided to spend the weekend in the mountains. The young woman sighed, suddenly regretting the decision to camp so close to the state run primitive sites.

“Adisgalodi,” Bethany said, looking towards the direction of the bouncing, flickering lights snaking along the foothills. Mosi yawned, then got up and crawled down into a crevice of a rocky outcropping at the back of the camp, while the young brawler continued to tend to her fire.

A few minutes later, the group of men came to a stop just outside the light the fire put out over the dark ground. As they approached the campfire, the leader was quiet, as his eyes were locked on the beautiful young woman, seemingly all alone. His two companions were still excited about the ride they had just been on. They soon took note of their friend's change in demeanor.

"Hey hey, look what we found, all alone out here in the desert!" The one on the left spoke first, he clearly sounded like he had had a few beers along the way.

"Yeah, baby," the one on the right replied. "Looks like we done found ourselves a real desert rose here! What's the matter, baby, you lost and scared out here? We'll take good care of you, don't you worry about that." There were a few snickers of not-so-friendly chuckles.

"Boys," the leader finally spoke up, his tone causing his companions to look at his respectfully. "That is no way to talk to a lady." He growled at them slightly. Then he looked back at the woman and said, "Please forgive them, they're fucking idiots."

This caused his companions to chuckle again.

"My name is Deke. And you are..?"

Bethany sighed a bit and just stirred her pot for a moment more, before hefting it off of the hook and setting it down on one of the large stones ringing the fire, her black nano-armor creeping across her skin as the light of the sun continued to fade into darkness. She stood and turned to face the wayward boys, pulling the black dust cloth up to cover her mouth and nose, straightening her thigh length leather coat before crossing her arms over her chest. “A U.S. Marshal, so choose your next steps wisely.”

Though he didn't react immediately, Deke watched her every move. "A Marshal, huh? Well now, you must be the youngest, prettiest Marshal I have ever seen." He grinned at her, his teeth straight and white, while his canines seemed a bit pointer than what would be considered normal.

"And where's your truck or partner, Marshal? We've been riding around this campfire for a few hours now and haven't seen any big four by fours come in or out of here." He subtly indicated to his companions to start to circle the woman.

As they did, they got quieter, though the looks on their faces held dangerous smirks.

"Now, if I'm being honest," Deke continued, "and I always do try to be. I think that you are both alone, and not a Marshal." He took a step closer, his eyes never leaving hers. "I think, that you were directed here, by the Almighty himself…so we could have some fun." He let the implications of his words sink in.

"So, the real question is…are you going to enjoy the fun with us? Or are you going to be in a world of pain?"

A cold shiver ran up Bethany’s spine. She had been raised by brutal men and was rather used to being abused in horrific ways. Not that she was about to let this random group of thugs get the better of her. Her tactical mind was already tracking her overly confident opponents, her nano-armor’s AI silently communicating vital statistics.

The look in her green eyes darkened, sliding into that calculating frame of mind that combat always brought to her, though her casually challenging stance never wavered. “Believe what you want,” she said with a shrug and a cold, mirthless chuckle. “And I’ve been threatened by better. You’ve been warned.”

For a few tense seconds, nothing moved but the wind and flickering flames of the campfire. Then, Deke's cohorts jumped into action, coming at the woman together from both sides. They grabbed her arms forcefully, and pinned them behind her back.

Deke stepped up, grabbing her lower jaw with his left hand, while pulling out a vicious looking bowie knife from a sheath hidden under his coat, on his back. He brought the blade up to the woman's left cheek, gently scraping the edge across her skin. "Well, baby, looks like it's going to be the hard way for you."

He started to slowly drag the tip of his blade down her face, over her neck and down between her breasts.

Bethany hadn’t been surprised by the pathetic attempt at an ambush, and she didn’t even pretend to try to fight back. “Really? That’s the best plan you’ve got?” she asked, her voice devoid of emotion, shaking her head as if disappointed in the lack of creativity. She watched Deke coldly as he tried to intimidate her with the knife.

As the blade trailed down her face, a thin line of blood welled up, but she never even flinched, and she grinned as the shirt was cut, only to run afoul of her well hidden nano-armor that covered her strong, lithe form like a sleek, black glove. The laugh that escaped her came from the dark pit deep inside where she shoved all of her anger and rage.

The laugh was cut off abruptly and her gaze narrowed on the lead thug. “Digatilvsdi,” she said, and an infuriated hiss and growl echoed out of the small cave at the back of the camp, only a second before a dark, furry torpedo shot out of the opening, launching itself at the man holding Bethany’s left arm. The animal became all claws and teeth upon impact, and the man’s pained screams split the silence of the desert as they rolled out of the firelight.

In that moment of confusion, Bethany pulled back and spun out of the other man’s grasp, grabbing his arm and twisting it up painfully behind his back, putting him between her and Deke with the ease of a well-trained, well-practiced soldier. Without thought, or seeming conscience, she kicked him in the back of the knee, knocking his leg loose. As he dropped, she brought her knee up, connecting with the rapidly falling elbow, and a sickening pop echoed out briefly as his shoulder separated, his screams joining those of the other man that was failing miserably at separating himself from the furious cat.

Deke froze for an instant at the sudden turn of fortune, but then regained his footing quickly and reacted quickly. Lancing out with his left hand he aimed to punch the woman right in the middle of her face. The knife spun expertly in his hand, pointing the blade down and away from him. Clearly this woman was either trained, a mutant, or both. Either way, it didn't matter to the former All-American Quarterback. He was going to make her bleed. Then he was going to gut that beast of hers.

The green-eyed brawler gracefully dodged the first incoming attack, then the next, and the next, following his telegraphed blows almost casually, blocking and knocking them away with much more power than her petite form implied possible. “You kind of suck at this,” Bethany muttered. She spun behind him suddenly, almost too suddenly, and then planted a kick right in the arch of his spread legs, before a spinning back-kick connected to his lower spine.

Getting knocked down like that, infuriated Deke. Grabbing a handful of dirt he spun up onto his feet, throwing the dirt and pebbles into the woman's eyes. He then pressed his advantage. Jumping forward, he speared her midsection with his broad, right shoulder. After lifting her up, he slammed her back down on the ground, dropping atop of her, as he went in for the kill, the tip of his knife pressing against the middle of her throat. "You brought this onto yourself, Bitch!" He then moved like he was going to bury the blade in her throat.

And then, in a shimmering flash of light, she was gone. Deke’s weight dropped unexpectedly to the ground, the powerful thrust of his knife digging jaggedly into the rough terrain rather than taking purchase in the slender neck of his perceived victim. Then she appeared in front of him, though it wasn’t the image of an innocent woman fighting for her life. Her hair was a mix of bright orange and red, and her eyes were brilliant, violently swirling rainbows. She wasted no time in kicking him in the face, breaking his nose with a loud crack, then stomped down hard on the wrist holding the knife, her dusty combat boot grinding it roughly into the ground.

“I’m tired of men like you. The world would be a better place without the likes of you and your little idiot minions,” she said, her voice oddly calm and cold, staring down at him with those strange, brightly colored eyes. “I warned you, you vile piece of trash. But I guess common thugs like you never learn.”

Deke cried out in pain, first from his busted nose, then his destroyed wrist. To his credit, he didn't wimper away. Instead, he rolled away and pulled out the concealed gun he was carrying. "Mutant freak!!" He pointed the gun at her and started firing.

A bright, hot pulse of light rolled across the woman’s form and away from her, bullets melting and dropping from the air as they got too close, then out across the distance between them, singeing the hair from his face and head, and lighting bits of his dirty clothing on fire briefly. Following the movement of the staggering blast of light, she was suddenly standing only three feet in front of him, her own gun leveled on him.

“Strike three,” Bethany said. Rather than using her powers over light to end him, the mutant opted for the more mundane option, and fired one shot that hit the man in the chest, tore straight through his heart, and out the other side.

Deke's body and mind were overloaded with pain messages. In the end, he gurgled quietly as his head dropped back onto the ground, dead.

"YOU BITCH! YOU KILLED DEKE!!" The goon with the busted arm stood and pulled his own pistol, an old, dusty, .357 Magnum. As soon as the weapon was up, he started to pull the trigger.

In another flash of light, the woman seemed to blink out of existence just as the bullet was about to strike. It passed through the air where she had just been standing, burying into an ancient looking cactus just outside of the light of the fire. In yet another flash, she materialized again, aiming the .45 that Jon had insisted on getting for her at the broken, screaming man. “You’re next.” Before he could get another round off, Bethany shot him in the chest, watching coldly as his body jerked back violently and he collapsed to the ground, gasping his last.

The young woman then turned and walked over to where Mosi sat with a sour look on her blood-soaked face, her pink tongue dangling from her mouth as though she had eaten something bad. Once she confirmed that the other man was dead, she gave the still growing cat a once over, finding a couple of puncture wounds that made her cringe for the poor animal.

“Good girl, Mosi,” Bethany said, patting the overgrown bobcat on the head and leading her back towards the fire as she pulled one of her burner phones out of a jacket pocket. When the voice on the other end answered, she said, “Hey Boss. Yeah, I’m fine, but...” she glanced around at the carnage and sighed a bit. “I do need some help.”

FIN

----------

Bethany Davies
"Fractal"
Mutant Underground

Deke, Goon 1 & Goon 2
NPCs
Mattias Tonelly
Unawakened