Jared
His eyes focused on the man in front, clearly some sort of leader.
“Who are you?” he asked as the Underground fanned out on either side of him, forming a wall.
“It doesn’t matter,” the other man said, his expression unchanging. “What matters is that you’re outnumbered. You can’t win.”
Jared snorted. “You must be new. This is barely even odds.”
There were sixteen Agents facing them, all with the calm demeanor of Extremis-injected humans. It was near impossible for him to tell the Enhanced apart from the regular Extremis, until the fighting started.
“So confident, even when faced with someone you’ve not met before?”
“J would have brought you in a long time ago if he thought you would be any help,” Connor said from Jared’s right.
The man’s brown eyes flicked to the other shifter.
“If you feel so strongly about that, come and find out. If you are brave enough.”
Bravery had nothing to do with it. The Agents were between the Underground and the exit. It was as simple as that. Both sides knew it too, which rendered the taunt impotent, as far as he was concerned.
“Follow my lead,” he said to his team, taking a step forward.
The Agents tensed as the battle began. Jared’s team followed him as he moved slowly toward the stairs and the descent into the final battle between the Underground and the Agency. He looked over his shoulder where Nadia was crouched, waiting for everything to be resolved. Jared poured all his emotions, his feelings for her, and the things he had yet to say into his look. He hoped she would understand.
Nadia looked right back at him, touched two fingers to her heart and mouthed two words. I know. Then she winked at him.
He grinned at her and turned the look on his foes, his lips peeling back to reveal his fangs.
“Follow suit,” he said again as they neared the cluster of bodies on the floor from their first visit.
He waited until his entire team was near a downed Agent until he made his move. Then, in the blink of an eye, he reached down grabbed one of the bodies and hurled it at the cluster of Agents ahead of them.
More corpse-missiles followed his and the Underground charged down the stairs after them, jumping from the last few steps as their animals joined the fray. Colossal bears shook the ground as they landed while the sleek figures of a pair of werewolves darted forward with more speed than they could match, reaching the first Agents in a flurry of snapping jaws.
Jared angled in at the leader, but he was cut off as a pair of Agents moved in front of their boss.
Fine. Let’s do it the hard way then.
All around him his team slammed into their enemies, using the chaos caused by their barrage to strike first against an enemy that was no longer prepared for them. Blood flew and battle yells challenged for supremacy over the roaring of nine very angry beasts as they waged war against each other.
Jared slid to a halt, staring daggers at the leader, who remained standing cross-armed behind the rest. What kind of person let their team take the brunt of the fight while they stood there and did nothing? That wasn’t any way to lead. Only a coward would act like that.
Focus on the ones actively attacking you first, dumbass.
With that thought in mind, he ducked under the blow of the first Agent, and then flexed his powerful legs, lunging up on the backswing. His jaws snapped closed on the man’s outstretched arm and he tore a chunk of bicep from it with a twitch of his powerful head.
Hammer blows rained down on him from the left side, battering his ribs with a speed that caught him by surprise. His initial foe momentarily overwhelmed by the pain, Jared turned his attention to the other. The man moved swiftly, his swaying movement keeping him out of reach of Jared’s attacks.
Must be an Enhanced, with speed instead of strength. That’s a new one.
The most common strain of the Enhanced serum was a boost to the strength. Speed was new, and he would have to figure out a way to defeat it. A second blow hit him from the right, and he realized his first foe—one arm now dangling uselessly at the side—was ready to re-engage in the fight.
Happy to oblige with a target he could hit, Jared threw his body at the man in a simple flying bodycheck the Agent never expected. The nearly two-ton animal landed on the man, and as he scrambled to get his feet underneath him, the long sharp claws on his feet ripped the man to shreds. A judicious stomp on his neck ensured that he was out of the fight.
Sensing more than seeing it, Jared threw all his weight to his front legs and did his best impression of a donkey-kick in bear form. His rear legs hit something solid, bone snapped, and he heard glass shatter a moment later.
He spun, seeing the limp form of the speedy Agent flop to the ground outside the building, a large chunk of glass sticking through his chest.
Jared trumpeted his victory, but the triumphant noise turned into a whuff of pain. His bear yelped and he was sent rolling across the marble floor, the blood coating it ensuring he continued to slide farther than normal. As he regained his footing, he saw the leader retract his foot and plant it until he was back on two feet. Then he extended his arm toward Jared, palm up, and bent his fingers repeatedly, beckoning the shifter.
He got up, and on a hunch, shifted back to his human form. Muscles coiled as he stalked forward. At one point he stopped, reached out, and grabbed an Agent who was trying to sneak up on one of his team. His massive arm flexed and the man was snatched up into a bear hug. He used his strength to try to fight free, but Jared was in no mood to mess around. His blood was heated and the full extent of his Alpha status came to the fore.
The overwhelming strength was too much for the Agent, and Jared slowly crushed the man’s ribs until the shifter gurgled, and with a final gasp died, his insides destroyed by the immense pressure the Sentinel leader brought to bear. He let the body fall to the ground and stepped over it with a casual air that he noticed inflamed the enemy leader. The other man’s jaw clenched tightly with anger at the callous treatment of one of his men.
Jared kept walking, even as he came into range of the enemy Agent. His unwavering progress caused the other man to step back as he tried to understand what Jared was up to, what his plan was.
The truth was there was no plan; there were no thoughts going on inside his head. He was simply moving with the flow of battle, preparing to strike when the moment was right.
Then it happened.
The Agent slipped slightly in his backstep as his shoe lost grip in a puddle of blood. Jared was on in him a flash, battering aside the man’s defenses and grabbing him by an arm. He whirled and threw the man bodily into a massive marble column, one of several that ran all the way to the roof, likely acting as support pillars.
The Agent slammed into it back first, dropped to the ground, and rebounded, charging back at Jared. It was as if the blow had done nothing. The human-sized dent in the column told him that he hadn’t landed easily. Clearly this Agent would require a bit more time to dispatch.
In the few seconds it took for them to clash again, he glanced around to ensure nobody was in trouble. A few Agents were down here or there, but for the most part, the battle had come to a standstill. These Agents were giving as good as they got, and his team was beginning to show the damage. They limped or labored in their movements, though they rarely bled. Their opponents were covered in blood, but their movements were still smoother.
Jared needed to free himself from this, to help turn the tide. Even as he watched, Madison went on the defensive as three Agents formed up around her. She turned away most of the blows and avoided others, but it was only going to be so long until one of them landed. To his left, one of the werewolves yipped as they took a blow to the head and went tumbling away. He couldn’t tell which of the siblings it was, but they got right back up and charged in. That was a microcosm of the entire battle.
That was all he had time for however, as the leader threw himself at Jared.
That was a dumb move.
Jared dropped to his knees, and as the Agent’s arms flew past him, accelerated himself back up, pressing his fists together as he drove them viciously into the soft flesh of the shifter’s stomach. The man’s leap became a tumble, and he flipped end over end, whirling away until he crashed into the corner of a marble bench that lined the sides of the bottom of the stairway. Blood, skin, and hair ripped from his head as he collided with it.
“That should do it,” he said to himself, stalking over to the man.
But as he closed in, the Agent rose to his feet, and Jared’s jaw dropped. The damage was already repairing itself, knitting closed so fast he could actually see it happening.
“Enhanced healing,” he said with a nod. “Interesting concept. I’ve never seen someone like that.”
The leader just smiled and came at Jared in a flurry of blows. He raised his forearm to block most of them, though several slipped through to rock him backward, accelerating his retreat under the onslaught. The man was no stronger than him; in fact he was possibly a little weaker. But the same DNA that healed his wounds would also keep his cardiovascular system in much better shape as well, which meant he would likely not tire as easily.
Jared’s backpedaling tripped him up as he stumbled over a corpse strewn across the open floor. He went down, and in a flash the Agent was on him, trying to get his arms around Jared’s neck.
Big mistake, pal. Big mistake.
Although all of the Sentinels were the best of the best, everyone tended to have a different leaning, an area where they excelled. Grappling was his.
The enemy leader was in his arena now.
The big shifter twisted with a wiliness that surprised many for his size, squirming around until he was face-to-face with his opponent. He gave him a grin and used one massive muscular arm to trap his opponents, locking it into his armpit. He reached out, grabbed the man’s wrist, and then flipped himself over.
Bone shattered and the man screamed as his arm was both bent back on itself and twisted at the same time. The break was so clean that the arm literally hung in two, halfway between wrist and elbow. The man now had a third joint.
Before his foe could react, Jared drove a knee into his face with as much power as he could summon. The Agent’s head rocked back and his eyes glassed over, though it didn’t last long.
A split second was all Jared needed to break the other arm in three places, leaving it to heal itself in a completely wrong way.
Unable to defend himself, the other man tried to roll himself to his feet to make an escape. Jared clamped down on his ankle, taking him back to the floor. He hammered the man’s shin until it collapsed, and continued to drive his elbow into it until it was broken in several places.
Then he spun back, locked in his arm under the man’s chin, and began to squeeze. His bicep slowly crushed the Agent’s trachea, and then with a savage wrench, he separated skull from spine. The body went instantly limp in his hands.
His bear roared inside of him, wanting to revel in his great victory. But Jared knew better. He got to his feet and charged at the nearest group of combatants. His bear leapt forward and he moved at a charge through the room. Claws took out an Achilles here, grabbed an Agent by his neck and dragged him down there, or opened him from neck to back with his long claws.
The battle turned in an instant as he exploited his freedom to throw his team’s foes off balance. It was working. Victory was at hand.
Glass exploded as a werewolf went pinwheeling through it with a yelp. A marble column disintegrated in a cloud of dust as a bear was sent tumbling into it.
Jared turned to see a man with a gray suit walk calmly to the center of the chaos, straightening his tie as he did.
“This is a disgrace,” he said, looking levelly at Jared.
The Sentinel Alpha shifted back.
“I agree. Your men can barely put up a fight,” he spat.
Madison appeared at his side, also in human form. Around them their brothers—and sister!—continued to fight off the remaining Agents. The numbers were closer to equal now, but if they couldn’t do anything about J, they were screwed, plain and simple.
He had to think of something, and fast.