Chapter 30
As the shower spray poured over his head Salvation's mind was spinning with everything that he needed to handle. People were vanishing left and right. Powers were going wonky for some and he included himself in that category. He couldn't seem to get the dumpster smell off himself. He needed to get everyone together in one place as best as he could. He turned off the water and got out of the shower. Putting a towel around himself he wiped the steam from the mirror. He went to his jeans that he had on when he landed in the dumpster pulling out his phone he cursed as it was destroyed. "Well there goes that fucking plan." A thought hit him and he wasn't sure it would work, but he had to try it. Closing his eyes he mindlink Reese. 'I need you to meet me at The Pit as soon as you can and I need Rycker to come with you if that is possible.' He hoped she wasn't eyeball deep in a mission. He got dressed and waited to hear back from her. If she ignored his mindlink he'd move on to his other plan.
Reese's brows popped when she heard Salvation's voice in her head. She made a face, because more than anything, she wanted to see with her own two eyes that Blade was alright. She knew he'd been hit and he was probably acting like it was nothing, but she couldn't help it, she worried. But how do you say no the the head Ghuardian in charge. Simple answer, you didn't. And like it or not, she had a job to do. Sighing, she linked back, 'Yes. When and where? The bar?' Turning to Rycker, she drummed her fingers on her hip. "We've been summoned. How long until you can have what we need to show Sal ready?"
Ry blinked at her. "Take a laptop and I can feed you what you need."
Reese shook her head and grinned. "He wants you too."
"Fuck," he growled. "What did I do?"
Salvation headed down to the bar. Hearing her voice he was glad she answered. He could tell she was stressed. 'However long it takes you to get here and I'm thinking back pool room. I appreciate it.' He linked back. He went into the back pool room and waited for them.
"You tell me," she teased, trying to look stern, but lost it when the snow leopard actually looked concerned. "Don't worry, he'll let you know if you sis something and in my experience he doesn't ask for you to come to him when you're up shit creek. He's proactive and comes to you." She grinned and patted his shoulder. "Gather up what you need and I'll meet you at the helipad. I want to be sure that everyone's breathing."
"Sure you do, or do you just mean Blade?" Ry smirked and made kissy noises at her as he began organizing the files that he thought the Ghuardian should see, because if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Ry wouldn't believe half of this shit.
"Shut you're mouth," she laughed. "Are you saying that it's that obvious? The me and Blade thing." She made a face. This she missed. The camaraderie that she shared with her team, even if it did lead to them giving her a hard time, although it only happened when they were alone one on one, or it was just their group. If everyone else thought she was hell to work with, they were all good with that.
"Naw. You two are subtle. Like a brick to the face," he snorted and rolled his eyes. "Go check, I'll take as long as you need, Boss Lady," he flashed a warm smile and the door clicked open when he tapped a key on the keyboard.
"Yeah, so are you," she shook her head and headed for the heliport t wait.
The choppers landed and everyone filled out. Blade was the last one off the chopper. His knee was killing him. He saw Reese not to far from the choppers. Limping he headed over to her. "Hey!" He trying not to grimace in pain.
"Hey," She winced, he was hiding the amount of pain he was in well, but she could see it in his eyes and his limp. "How are you really?" She looked him over, not liking the amount of blood drying on his clothes.
"Ducky! Not gonna lie I think my knee is blown out or almost. Other than that I'm peachy keen."
"Do you need to go to the clinic?" She winced, thinking of what Koen was going through there and she still needed to check in with him. "Either way, you need to recoup and I am going to wait on you hand and foot, but Salvation has requested my presence at The Pit." She sighed, because the timing sucked and she wanted to stay with the Panther. "So much happened while you were out. I'm glad you made it back, Fluffy." She stretched up and kissed him, not caring what anyone thought or saw.
Blade purred an kissed her back. "Should I be worried? Do you need me with you?" He asked. "I can go to the clinic later if I'm needed." He was her second in command going to see Salvation couldn't be good.
"He asked, didn't demand, so that's good," She smiled, his kiss worked it's usual magic and she felt herself calm. "He asked me to bring Ry, so I'm hoping it's an info exchange. If you want to come, I'm always happy to have you by my side. But if you need to get patched up, you should do that, Fluffy. I need you..." she trailed off not sure how to finish that and shrugged. "I just need you, but you have an excellent excuse to beg off."
He thought it over a moment. "If you need me you'll call me right? Cause I should get looked at. And wait he wants to see Rycker too? Like in the flesh?"
"You know it, get patched up so I can play nurse later," she teased and laughed at the shock on his face. "Ry had that same look and yes, in the flesh. Poor guy is shitting bricks, I think."
"Am not," Rycker growled from the the shadows before stepping out with a laptop bag over his shoulder.
Blade laughed at Ryckers comment. "Nurse Toots! I like that!" He said smirking. "Do I get candy an a sticker if I'm good?" He asked her.
"Yes," she grinned, "and beer. Let me know when you're done?" She kissed him again anfd eyed Ry, who looked like he was about to march in front of a firing squad. "You ready, Geek Squad?"
Rycker flipped her off, even though he couldn't help his smile. If Reese could find someone than ANYone could and that gave him hope, although that meant he'd probably have to leave his cave and yeah, not likely to happen any time soon. "Yes," he shook his head no.
"I will have to get shot more often." He said giving her one last kiss before limping off to the clinic.
"Not funny, Fluffy!" she called over her shoulder and watched him go inside. "We're in the back pool room," she grinned at Rycker. In all honesty, she was just as worried as the snow leopard, but letting it show wouldn't help. She grinned and crossed her fingers. After hearing the reports of ghosting gone wrong, as of late odds seemed stacked against them landing where they wanted to. Wanting them to end up in the same place, where ever that was, she laid her hand on Ry's shoulder and ghosted them out.
"Luck is on our side. Hope it holds," Rycker mumbled when they appeared in the hallway near the room that had been her office here not so long ago.
"A-fricken-men," Reese agreed and led the way through the bar, half expecting a Navarro to tackle them and demand they leave, again. She sighed her relief when they made it to the agreed upon place and spotted Salvation at a table. "Sorry we took so long. We had a situation and I needed to check that everyone was still breathing." She smiled and pulled out a chair to sit in.
Salvation stood up as they appeared. "No problem. Is everything okay?" He asked sitting down. He eyed the snow leopard a second. Rycker looked like he was gonna run for the hills. A waitress appeared and asked if they wanted anything. "I'll just have draft." He looked at Reese and Rycker.
"Sounds good, Reese agreed and Rycker nodded. Once the waitress had gone she shook her head no. "Things are far from okay. My people are not only fighting demons and shit that I don't have a name for, but they're doing a shit job at dodging the bullets of the damn military. Ghosting is as accurate as flipping a coin. Oh and there's a portal to somewhere, we don't know exactly where, in play." She growled. "Sorry shit has been hitting every fan it can find lately."
Sal shook his head it was as bad as he thought. "I asked you here, because I need help." He took his phone out and laid it on the table. "I mindlink, because this thing bit the dust. And I'm not good with a damn computer. Speaking of computers." He said grinning at Rycker.
"Name it. Alpha Pride is at you disposal, as it always has been." Reese leaned back in her chair. "As it stands, we have a shit load of information, but no context to know what it means. Maybe it will make more sense to you."
Rycker paled and lowered his bag to the floor pulling out the laptop and putting it on the table. Once it was fired up, he watched Salvation with his cool blue eyes and waited. Sal wasn't the kind of guy you wasted a lot of time chit chatting with. It left to many opportunities to say the wrong thing and wind up dead.
"Great. Well I need you to send out a mass email thing for me. I want some of the heavy hitters to all meet here to have a sit down about the shit that has been going on. I am not gonna do it myself, because franky I'm to fucking old to learn how to AIM or ICQ whatever the fuck you call it. And I figure Rycker would know how to do it and faster than me having aneurysm trying to do it myself. And breaking a shit ton of laptops." He paused a moment before getting to what Reese said. "What information do you have?"
She closed her eyes trying to figure out where to start, opening them when she heard Rycker chuckle.
"ICQ. Why not mIRC or MySpace?" He dropped his eyes and shook his head, not able to stop himself from laughing. He cleared his throat, " I mean, Yeah, I can do that. Just need a guest list and the when and wheres."
"Well, I bought a piece of property a while back and something has taken it over. I discovered it when I knocked myself stupid running into the invisible wall or some shit. Anyway," she grinned and realized she was rambling. "I went back, and with Dad's extra juice, I got past it. We took a team in, found an underground bunker and inside a portal. Caleb seemed to know what was on the other side, but I haven't had the chance to debrief him yet. It's been crazy. We put a camera on the other side and he said he felt Jared there. You know that Jared is missing, right?"
Salvation let out a long sigh of irritation. "Are you fucking serious?" He wanted to bash his head off the table. "I got a text about it, but I thought it was someone fucking with me. Well let's just add that to list of things that are fucking me hard and bareback." The waitress came with their drinks. He took his draft and drained. "Another keep 'em coming!" He said putting the glass back on her tray before she left.
"Blade, Mac and Ve went to check out the scene and saw some pretty crazy shit. Show him Ry," She tapped the laptop.
Rycker pulled up the footage of the drone ."It seems to be a rip in time, space, who the hell knows, but they were all over the damn place. It seems to be caused by War, but again, we're in, where no man had gone before, territory." He turned the laptop and tapped the key to show him what had been recorded, ending with Jared's voice before the it died.
Sal watched everything unfold and closed his eyes. "Well then we need this meeting yesterday. I don't like this at all not one bit." He said looking at the laptop and wondered how to replay it. "Play it again for me please."
Rycker reached around and tapped the key to make it play. "I have other stuff at HQ, but I didn't want to keep you waiting for hours while I burned it on this hard drive." He sat back down and sipped his beer, wiping the foam that clung to his lip on the back of his hand. He was beginning to relax, not that the Ghuardian didn't seem to have his name etched on a toe tag.
"Is there any way you can put it on DVD or some thing like that for? I wanna take a closer look at the footage. See if I can see anything myself. I may have to go there also and check it out. I'll add it to my list." Salvation said.
"Definitely," Rycker nodded. "I think your take on it might be helpful. The Doc has clearance to the database and I spent two days teaching him how to use it, so if I get called out on something or step into a pothole and step out on Jupiter, you have another way in."
Reese groaned, wishing that she could laugh at the ridiculous thought, but it was becoming more likely everyday. "If you're coming to the compound, then we should warn you that we have a dragon that popped trough one of these rip things. He's a little jumpy, expects us to put him in chains at any moment, but once he relaxes, maybe he has intel that will help." She finger-combed her hair back. "So who is on your guest list?"
Salvation's brow arched. "A dragon? Interesting. Cool I didn't know Asher knew how to use it or had access to one. The guest list first of all The Mangus Prowler leaders, Alpha Pride, The Morgan Clan, The Navarro's, some of the other clan leaders." He said not sure on how they would need.
Rycker turned the laptop back to him and began typing when he thought he had the gist of the message he began adding email addys that he thought would be the most beneficial, least likely to be pain in the ass, and had a stake in putting their asses on the line to wrap this shit up. When done, He turned it back to Salvation, "If that's good, then I just need a time and place. I added Venom and his pack. Anyone I missed?"
Salvation read the email and nodded. "No that about covers it all." He could do some amazing things, but understand how to use a computer seemed to be the one thing he wasn't not a master of. Idiotic things anyways.
Ryker looked up waiting for date and time info, and took a drink of his beer. "I might be able to salvage your contacts and files if you want me to try." He nodded toward Sal's smashed phone. I think i have one of that model in the bottom drawer of my desk. If you're not comfortable with having he see anything I shouldn't, I'm happy to give you the replacement."
"If you can save it, that would be great. I want it for tomorrow at 10am. If they don't show, then I'll be forced to end them. That might be the P.S." He said smirking.
Reese snickered as Rycker added the post script with a smirk. "Should we have the Docs too, then they can be prepared for whatever is coming?" She knew it drove Ana nuts that they were left out of the loop, but expected to be stocked for any situation.
Rycker nodded and pulled the phone to him, opening the back and removing the SIM card and sliding it into something else that he pulled from his bag and plugged into his laptop. "It looks like the card is fine. All I need to do is put it in the new phone and you're set to go."
"Yes I forgot the staff here well you know what I mean." He looked at Rycker a second. "Oh right the card. Thanks I'm sure the world will go to hell if I don't have a damn phone for people to bother me with." He chuckled. "More than it already is. Let's see did I forget anyone else?" He wasn't sure. Salvation did a mental check of all the people that should be involved. "I think its all covered. So, how many men are you down to now?" He asked Reese. "I mean if you are getting hit and all that."
"In all honesty, I have no idea. Our numbers are shrinking by the hour. My core team is still solid, except for Koen, he lost a foot on our last mission." Reese sighed and scrubbed her face with her hands. "I haven't seen Kota since the Navarros decided that our services were no longer necessary. I don't know if she's alive or not."
Rycker clicked send and put Salvation's phone back together as he listened.
Salvation sighed. "Well have you called her or anything? I'm sorry to hear about Koen. If I'm being honest with you all my Enforcers are dead, but two." He said his voice dropped. He hadn't let the process or even thought about what that meant in the grand scheme of things.
Reese blinked, shocked. "Was it a group mission or are they just dropping randomly? No I haven't. We set her up when you told me she was coming and then the shit with the bears happened and the world fell apart, so I dropped the ball."
Salvation looked up as the waitress came back with his beer. She sat a pitcher of beer down in front of him, and a new mug. Once she left he poured himself another beer. Putting his hands around the mug he looked at the mug. "Group mission." He said not looking at her. He knew there was chance they might all die, but he hoped he was wrong. The only one left that she would know is Brian. "I guess it was lucky Brian went to see you guys other than returning my text message." He said picking up the mug of beer and draining it. He refilled the mug again. He thinking to himself he should of asked for a keg.
"Holy shit, I'm sorry. For as long as we have people, you can use us if you need to." She smiled sadly and for some reason that she chalked up to having part of Ozzy in her, she knew that it bothered him more than he'd let on.
"it's good that he did." Ryker felt compelled to defend the bear. "Without him I wouldn't have put the pieces together to see that the activity lines were skipping Reece's property and we wouldn't have it under surveillance."
He nodded "I like the bear and I don't like many people. Though he thinks I want to hang him by his thumbs. And in the last few weeks I have till I got the memo about how real shit had gotten. The bear is smarter than he let's on. Course if you tell him I said any of this I'll deny it." He said realizing he still had to inform the families of the dead what happened. The joys of being him. He wondered if an email would do, but no he had to do it the old fashion way and face them all. "Did you get things straight with it?"
"yes," Rycker nodded. "It's some of the stuff that I didn't have time to download for you. "But now that we have something to look for, I can look globally and maybe we can find a pattern."
Salvation took a drink of his beer. "That would be helpful. When people reply to the email will it go to me or you?" He asked wondering if his new phone would explode with emails. "How much do you pay him?" He asked Reese thinking he may need a nerd of his own. Hell Salvation needed a lot of things now. The reality of it was mind numbing.
"It depends. Which do you prefer?? Rycker tilted his head to the side. "Like the Boss Lady said, we're at your disposal. All you have to do is ask and I can filter out the petty bullshit until stuff calms down and put the crap into a report and make sure you get the ones that need to be acted on ASAP."
"Not enough," Reese grinned. She honestly had no idea, but she didn't think that AP could run without the snow leopard.
"I think it would be better if you handled the replies coming in. I think you got lucky with him Reese. I may have to clone him." Salvation said laughing.
Rycker nodded and grinned, pleased that the Ghuardian saw his worth.
"I agree," Reese nodded. "He's an unsung hero." he arched her brow at the feline. "Don't let it go to your head, Cat."
Salvation itched his chin a moment. "Let's see I just need some blood, some hair, and a testicle and I make a small army of Ryckers."
"You lost me at testicle," Rycker growled and glared at Reese when she laughed way to hard at the suggestion.
"You got two man,right? That's enough to breed with. An besides I heard you like men so they are kind useless." Salvation teased him.
"I'm all for sacrificing for the cause, but I got a line. And you just hit it." Rycker shook his head and sipped his beer. Salvation joking, he wasn't used to. Joking with him? It was weird, but he could get used to it.
"Bahh!" Salvation said waving him off. "You didn't say no to liking dudes. So, then your furry balls are just squeeze toys. Unless?" He looked at Reese. "Do you play with them?" He asked
"No," Reese shook her head.
"are you hitting on me, Salvation?" Rycker arched a brow and eyed the Ghuardian.
Salvation made a face. "Who said I liked dudes?" He said taking a drink of his beer. "I know you and Reese aren't that way. Besides I don't think you'd be able to handle her. She'd break you." He said leaning back in his chair.
Reese arched a brow at Rycker and only got a shrug in response. "Thanks? I think."
"If I'm being honest I got a chicken fetish." He said pushing his hair out of his face. "And you can't tell me you don't think Asher is good looking."
Reese grinned. "You and the Doc?" She nodded thoughtfully. "I can see it."
Ry laughed, thinking about how everyone was flipping out by how the Doc had talked to Sal during the showdown between Reece and Damion. Now it all made sense. "Damn, is everyone finding someone but me?" He shook his head and laughed. "Asher's a good egg, a little bossy for my taste."
"Well I guess that cat's out of the bag now, but yes. You know you have to leave the bat cave to meet someone right?" Salvation said though it only took him well it seemed forever to let anyone close to him. "But what the hell do I know. The Doc seems to not be scared of me. At first I thought it was cause he had a death wish, but now I know he does." Salvation laughed.
Ry rolled his eyes and snorted.
Reese grinned, truly happy for them. "We'll have to double sometime, if we live through this. It's good that you have someone. I'm glad."
"Maybe you can weird science up a date." He said to Rycker. "Sure why not, never did that before. Though as long as The Doc is okay with it. I don't want to make him uncomfortable about it all. I really am new to this stuff anyways." Salvation admitted.
"Ha. Ha," Rycker made a face at the Ghuardian.
"You and me both," Reese laughed. "It's your story to tell, our lips are sealed." She grinned. "But I still think it's great."
"Thanks I'm sure I'll fuck it up soon enough, but it's been nice so far." He said thinking about everything. "So how's it working out with you and Blade? Gotta say that took long enough."
"What do you mean, took long enough?" She laughed. "And it's good. We've had to work out a few rough spots. Mostly my fault. I'm not used to having to explain myself, but he tolerates me. I don't care for the worry that comes with it every time he goes out on a mission, but the good parts are worth it."
Salvation smiled. "Oh nothing. I'm glad you got it worked out. The worry part won't get easier, but learning to work together will. Listen to be talk like I know shit about shit." He laughed.
She grinned, "I'll remind you of that when you need me to, and if you need to vent, my ear's always here." She grinned. She couldn't help it, but she felt a connection to Salvation since Ozzy had passed. Sometimes she wondered just how much of him had been left behind with his magic.
Like
"I meant about love smartass." He said shaking his head at Reese. "I'm not good with venting. I'm one of those bottle it up till I explode over nothing kinda people." He said honestly.
Rycker grimaced. "Yeah, nothing can go wrong that way."
"Maybe before the Doc's body parts start flying, you should come and explode with me. I do it too. It's hard to rein it in and talk it out. It's a skill I'm trying to learn." She smirked.
"Hey I'll have you know I've only killed.." He trailed off. "Never mind that wasn't a good example. I tend to kill a lot of people just cause. Now that I think of it." He said with a shrug. "Oh well I'm to old to change. You know the saying a leopard can't change his spots." He said looing at Rycker and lost it.
Rycker stared at him with his cool blue eyes and said nothing.
"If you say so. Offer stands anyway. I know you and Dad used to talk, and there's more of him in here than I want to admit," Reese shrugged and finished her beer.
Salvation reached over and clapped Rycker on the back. "Loosen up Kid. You'll give yourself hemorrhoids being this uptight! And I'll probably take you up on it, just to make sure The Doc doesn't end up trying to kill me in my sleep. I've had this dream with him trying to peak my eyes out. Probably in the past he's thought about it."
Rycker snorted, but smiled.
Reese laughed at the image in her head. "Is there anything else we can help you with Sal?"
Salvation looked at the phones on the table. "No, other than being here tomorrow for the meeting. Did you include Kara and Brock in that email? If not I'll go make a visit myself." He finished off his beer. He pushed the pitcher to Reese. "I have been wondering how you've been feeling with Ozzy's powers in you." He eyed her knowing she probably had no real answer, but thought he'd ask anyways.
"Brock yes, Kara, no." Rycker looked at the computer, wondering how he could have forgotten her.
"It's a challenge. Sometimes it's good, I can pull out some crazy stuff, but I have no idea where it came from or how to use it when I want to. Other times it's feeling about people that I have no issue with, but something gets growly about them. Particularly Damion. I'm working on it." Reese admitted.
"I'll go have a talk with her." He said looking at Reese. "Well it'll take some time to get use to all of it. And the Damion thing well that's between your old man and the panther. I'm not gonna open that can of worms."
"I know. It's on my to-do list when thing calm down," she rolled her eyes. "So, never, probably."
Salvation chuckled. "Probably, but one can dream. Thanks again for coming and helping out. I appreciate it."
"Anytime," Reese smiled.
"I'll get that phone to you ASAP," Rycker promised and he closed the lap top and shoved it back inside the bag at his feet.
"I also just realized I'm gonna have to do something I haven't done in forever." Salvation said as he touched his pockets. "Go to a bank. Lovely." He said with a sigh. "My cards are wrecked. I'd jack an ATM, but shit going to shit so fast I'm not gonna tempt fate."
Reese made a face and laughed. "Have fun with that. If you need help, Babs in Accounting is a god's send." She pushed her seat back and dropped enough cash on the table to cover their drinks and leave the waitress with a good tip. "As always, A pleasure, Sal." She smiled as Rycker stood beside her and swung his bag over his shoulder.
"Yeah a lot of fun. I may just go rob some humans for fun." He said getting up from his chair. "I'll see ya tomorrow morning." He said to both of them. "And I'm gonna have everyone leave their weapons with me before we start so I'm giving you a heads up. I don't want anyone getting into a fight fully loaded."
Reese didn't like the idea of being unarmed, but it was a good decision. "Understood, we won't come, packing." She patted his shoulder playfully. "Say hi to the Doc, for me."
"I'll do that. Have a good evening." He said pushing in his chair and following them out of the backroom into the main part of the bar. He looked around and decided he should try and see if his sister was around to let her know what was going on tomorrow. Just because Rycker had emailed Brock didn't mean shit.
"You too, enjoy the cell phone silence and we'll try to keep the flow to the clinic down." Reese grinned and led Rycker out side and walked ducked into the alley beside the bar to ghost them home.
Salvation shook his head and headed upstairs to find Kara.