Who do you think you are? A Superhero? ACT I The One About Trash

Chapter 14 - "The One About The Promise"

The trio moved like shadows through the desolate streets of the Stranded Zone leading to the abandoned ruins. The location was so deep in this area, Massimo would never have suspected the hideout to be located here. The hospital stood up ahead, some of its windows shattered and its walls with cracks all over. Faint lighting came from within with a few silhouettes passing by. All around were more old-world ruins, a few inhabited by people with no where else to go.
As they drew nearer, Massimo signaled to Dominic and with a sharp nod, he broke away and found his way up to a roof. That was his scouting position.
"Testing comms. Do you read me?" Dominic called into the device plugged in his ear.
"Affirmative," Massimo responded as he and Clarissa continued further. In an instant, the sound of movements reach Massimo's ears and he quickly grabbed hold of Clarissa, drawing her into a concealed alcove. He pressed her against the wall, holding a hand to her mouth as his eyes and ears tried to follow the movement, more than ready to attack if necessary.
The sound of pissing soon reached his ears and his nose scrunched in annoyance. Clarissa couldn't hold her laugh and it came out like a snort through Massimo's hand clasped against her face. Alerted, Massimo turned back to her and stared disapprovingly but that didn't wipe the smile away from her eyes. She did well to hold her tongue regardless.
Luckily, the patrolling hyena didn't hear Clarissa and he continued relieving himself for far too long than Massimo liked. When he eventually left, whistling, Massimo turned back to Clarissa and realized how close they were to each other, their chests heaving and their eyes locked into each other. He could feel her warm breath in his hand and smell her perfume.
Quickly, Massimo backed away and cleared his throat while Clarissa's cheeks flushed a hot red. Her eyes fell to her feet and she swallowed.
Massimo was quick to brush off the moment and he looked from the edge of the alcove. "Can you work here? I think this is the closest we can get," he told her.
Clarissa nodded and swiftly sat down, her small tool kit laid out before her. "Yes, I'm close enough to access their network," she told him, putting on her game face. Her fingers danced over her sleek portable device as she began hacking into the hideout's security systems. The soft hum of the device resonated in the quiet night as lines of code scrawled all over the screen.
Massimo kept on the look out, his alert eyes scanning their surroundings. "We stay here until we've got eyes on their cameras. No need to expose ourselves unnecessarily," he said for Dominic's benefit.
"Copy that. I can see you and everyone patrolling," Dominic noted. "I count over a dozen hyenas and a few suspicious half-breeds moving around."
"Good," Massimo informed him. He turned back to Clarissa whose brows were furrowed in concentration. The dull glow of the screen illuminated her face. The faint sound of movement and voices heightened the tension in the air. This was probably the least busiest place in the Stranded Zone despite the number of ruins around. Odd.
After a few moments, Clarissa whispered, "I'm in." Her eyes were still glued to the screen as she clicked through the secured areas of the hideout's surveillance.
"Good. Let's see what we're up against," Massimo said.
Clarissa switched from camera to cameras, seeing the interior of the abandoned hospital. Guards patrolled the hallways while a few lackeys moved crates around.
"What are you up to, Trash?" Clarissa said to herself, concerned. The both of them observed in silence, taking note of the guard rotations and potential entry points.
"Wait," Massimo said quickly, making Clarissa pause her switching on the view of a camera. It was a spacious room that looked like a repurposed ward with heavy curtains blocking all the windows. There's a throne-like seat at one end with a table. Weapons were strewn across the walls and more crates. "Trash." She sat in her chair with two other men across her. But that was far from the most shocking thing. The men were dressed with the characteristic of the uniforms of the Admirals of Nova Fauna, maybe the suspense where playing games inside of Massimo's head... Or maybe they were actual Admirals...
Clarissa peered closer at the screen. "You don't think any of The Admiral would actually work with The Lords of the Underground, do you?" she said quickly, voicing Massimo's very thoughts.
His response was a low grunt. "Do we have audio on this?" he said.
Clarissa fiddle with some keys and then shook her head. "No. It's older tech," she pointed out. There was clearly an exchange of information happening and it pained her she couldn't help get that information. They both knew Trash was planning something that may be linked with the army, and those crates... He needed to know what was in there, though he suspected weapons. Perhaps more like the grenades the hyenas had used on them. If they had more of old world weapons, then they really needed to shut this down.
"A group of hyenas headed your way, boss," Dominic's voice came from the device.
"Copy that. We'll meet at the vehicle."
Quickly, they packed up and Massimo led Clarissa through a alleyway. Before the guards sighted them, they quickly blended in with the few homeless people gathered around a bonfire. They wore rags and blended in seamlessly, raising no suspicions. The others around the bonfire barely looked at them, more focused on keeping warm by the fire.
"I can't stop thinking about the state of the East. So much suffering and pain. These people have nowhere to go and there's nothing that can be done," Clarissa said in hushed voices. "They deserve a warm bed and food. Why would they rather stay here in the Stranded Zone?" She looked at the bewildered faces around the bon fire and her chest ached.
"I don't know. Maybe they don't have a choice," he answered.
"It's Trash isn't it?" Clarissa said, turning to Massimo, her mismatched eyes locked on him. Massimo shrugged. Clarissa wrapped her arms around her body and she gritted her teeth so loudly, he could hear them. He didn't complain. "She's poisoned this place. Everything she does is... Look at the market from before. I can only imagine the pain they're all going through now. As if things aren't hard enough. We shouldn't be made to live in places like this. It isn't healthy, and she's making it worse."
Massimo who had been sending all the evidence and his report, stopped using his device and turned to Clarissa. "Don't worry, I promise I'll take down Trash. We have enough video evidence from you to make a report and get the mission approved. They have you to thank for, and because of you, this pain will not last for them."
"I know. And thank you too." Clarissa sighed. So far, her time in the K9 had been better than she had thought it would be. "You know, I almost have hope that things will change for half-breeds soon enough."
"Maybe." muttered Massimo. He looked around. "We have company," he noted, nudging towards an approaching armed hyena. Massimo extended his claws discreetly, ready to strike if necessary.
The hyena barked at them, "All right, move it along hobos or I'll be forced to move you." He raised an axe threateningly. Clarissa let out a breath. The homeless people complained about trying to keep warm but a few left and Massimo and Clarissa joined them.
A ping sounded in Massimo's pockets as they moved, and when he brought out the device, he had the K9's new mission from Admiral Nicholas; Take down Trash.
The next time they would be coming here, a battle would take place.
"Alright, team, listen up," Massimo announced. The entire K9 is geared up in the dimly-lit command room. A map another team had been able to draw up from the footage and pictures they provided was displayed on the screen. "Trash's office is located in Ward C on the second floor. We'll go in through the east side entrance, actually a maintenance door of some kind. We have a ten minute window in guard patrol for us to do that. We all have to be in our positions promptly."
He motioned to Clarissa who shared more details. "We've got four guards patrolling the perimeter. Most of the guards are inside. They have something to protect," she said, earning a nod from Dominic and Maui.She swiped back and forth on her device to reveal shots from the surveillance tapes. "Probably those crates so when I take over the cameras, a good number of them will go to Trash's office while others will come downstairs to stop you guys."
"That's assuming the hyenas are smart enough to notice you disabled the cameras," Izzy said, chuckling at her own joke. Maui and Dominic laughed too while Massimo frowned in confusion.
"You'll be surprised there could be smart hyenas," Dominic pointed out.
Clarissa chuckled too but continued regardless. "In any case, we have to neutralize the four guards patrolling so they don't signal to other hyenas outside this building," she said. "We need to contain the attack as much as possible."
"Izzy, you'll be on that." Massimo turned to her with a nod.
"Okay, captain," she answered, her ears perking in excitement
Massimo nodded. "Good. Clarissa stays somewhere safe to watch us and feed us information with the hijacked surveillance cameras. We suspect Trash may be on to us. We don't want to take chances so Dominic and I will go in through the maintenance door, clearing a path and then Dominic goes up."
"Up? For what?" Maui asked, his eyes squinting.
"To try to get more information on the with the alleged Admirals we saw while everyone else is distracted. Hyenas act before thinking so they may leave their information exposed. Somewhere," Clarissa explained. She tuned to Dominic and added, "I'll send you the possible locations."
Massimo turned to Sigrid who's glaring at Clarissa. "I'll need you going through the main entrance a few minutes after Dominic and I go in. They won't expect that and you will meet me..." He pointed at a space in the map they provided with the surveillance footage. "Here. By then, we may be facing the bulk of the guards so I'll need your strength."
"What about me?" Maui says quickly, a bit of offense in his tone.
"You're with Sigrid but you go up to the second floor to draw out those staying by Trash's door. Distract them and take them out," Massimo answered. "Does everyone understand their mission?"
"Yes, captain," they all chorused.
In minutes, they took off and made their way to the Stranded Zone in the cover of night. Massimo led the charge, taking them through the paths they'd marked the other night until they finally got to the cover of a half-broken fence closest to marked ruin. The same ruin that trash designated as home loomed ominously before them, lit in only a few areas and they could see silhouettes of guards going past the windows.
They waited for Clarissa to hack into the cameras, ready to disable them. And then she timed the ten minute window they had to go in undetected. Everyone got into position.
Massimo and Dominic moved towards the maintenance door quickly, barely making sounds. Dominic looked around, his ears perked and alert while Massimo broke the handle of the door quietly. They exchanged a look before going into the darkness beyond.
The musty smell of decay and something else was heavy in the air, and a dimly-lit corridor stretched out before them. Dust-covered broken furniture and discarded equipment littered the corridors, and there was the continuous sound of something dripping at one end.
They moved cautiously, their senses on high alert. Suddenly, footsteps arrived from a corner and halted quickly. Two hyenas stood, looking surprised at Massimo and Dominic.
"Intruders!" one of them yelled as the other lunged towards them. Massimo reacted quickly. He dodged the strike from the hyena's crowbar and, with a sickening crush, delivered a blow to his skull. The hyena crumbled to the ground.
Dominic followed suit, moving fast like a shadow as he reached the other hyena and twisted his neck before he could shout some more. He tossed aside the hyena's body and said, "More are coming, captain."
"You should continue with your mission. I'll handle them," Massimo told him, cracking his neck and slowly baring his teeth. Dominic shrugged and then sprinted down the other end of the hallway before taking stairs up.
Massimo waited a few moments as battle-cries and footsteps echoed from the area along with snarls and growls. He crouched, his sharp claws clicking against the linoleum floor and the hair on his body rising. Then he lunged forward with a powerful dash.
He fought hard and quick, using all his strength and skill to tear down the lackeys. Limbs were torn, bones shattered and blood painted the walls of the hospital as Massimo cut through them cleanly. He finished up with them easily and spat on the bodies before he continued forward.
"Come in, Sigrid, Maui.. you can come in now," he said, holding a hand to his ear.
Back at the main entrance, Sigrid held a hand to his ear too. He answered boredly from his cover at the side of the building, "Copy that, captain." He then turned to Maui who was crouched on the ground. "You heard that?"
"Of course, I did," Maui said. He then pushed his hands into the ground and quickly, plates of earth spread over his body as he absorbed its texture. He grinned happily, squeezing his hand shut and allowing bits of earth crumble to the ground. "Good."
They both jumped out of their hiding and Maui rushed forward, clasping his hands together and bringing it down on the unsuspecting hyena guard. Blood sprayed from the bashed skull.
"I think I was too hard," Maui said as he picked up the body and tossed it out of sight like it is nothing. Sigrid only acknowledged his words with a bored grunt before they both burst through the old doors of the abandoned Ruin. Maui recoiled from the stench as they appeared in what was supposed to be the waiting room. "This smells very bad. How do they live here?"
"Focus," Sigrid growled. As they'd predicted, Massimo's little ruckus had drawn the guards from the main entrance, leaving it mostly empty. Sigrid was then supposed to go towards Massimo's position and attack the unsuspecting hyenas from the rear.
Just then, Sigrid's keen senses picked up the scent of their enemies. He began scanning around instantly, his claws outstretched. Then, from a door to his right, a handful of hyenas rushed out, marching in Massimo's direction.
They noticed Sigrid and Maui in the middle of the waiting room and hesitated for a moment, caught off-guard by the sudden intrusion, before lunging towards the intruders. Sigrid met them head-on, his claws extended as he engaged the nearest one.
Maui barked loudly as he collided into the midst of the hyenas, like a bowling ball knocking pins down. He rose up quickly and delivered powerful punches at their faces.
Sigrid continued to unleash a flurry of strikes, each one finding its mark. The sound of bone crunching beneath his claws echoed through the corridor. The hyenas sprawled to the ground in twisted heaps of fur and flesh
They both fought side by side, as the sound of claws tearing through flesh and brute force crushing limbs mixed with the cries of the hyenas. When they were done, the entire waiting room was smeared in blood.
"You should go up and draw out the other hyenas out," Sigrid said to Maui. "I'll go meet Massimo." Quickly, Maui nodded and rushed ahead to find the stairs leading to the second floor, leaving the black wolf behind. Sigrid was about to proceed just like he said when he noticed a figure among the bodies of fallen hyenas.
She laid broken and bloodied, her limbs twisted in unnatural angles as she dragged himself across the floor in a desperate bid of escape. Sigrid took one step forward, his eyes fixed on the wounded hyena with a cold intensity. He didn't hesitate to bring his foot crashing down on the hyena's outstretched hand.
Arghhh!
The hyena's scream of agony echoed around. Her broken body writhed in torment as her cries continued. She turned around to stare at the ceiling, her chest rising and falling.
"Scream how you want. No one's going to hear you. No one's going to save you," Sigrid informed her with a dark smile. He loomed over the hyena.
With a hoarse and defeated laughter, the hyena coughed up blood, splattering across the ground and staining her mouth. "You don't know what's coming for you,"she wheezed between ragged breaths, her voice barely a whisper. "So many hyenas in one place. Do you know what could happen? You always think we're weak but you know nothing."
"What?" Sigrid said, unfazed. The hyena just laughed in response. Sigrid looked ahead, down the corner. Massimo was right. Trash knew they were coming and she must have something planned for them. All the hyenas are going towards Massimo. He could be in danger. With a thoughtful growl, his attention shifted to the hyena at his feet.
And then, in one strike, he silenced the hyena's laughter, his claws tearing through flesh and bone with a sickening crunch. The hyena's laughter was soon replaced by gurgling gasps as she lost consciousness, her eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. Sigrid looked back ahead, down the hall. He was supposed to go ahead to Massimo's side.
He took steps back instead, turning away from the path.
Meanwhile, outside the hospital, Izzy laid in wait, her senses attuned to the slightest movement. She couldn't hear a lot of noise coming from within the hospital, and if she couldn't then, definitely, the hyenas outside could hear nothing at all.
"They're coming your way, Izzy," Clarissa's voice echoed with a static in her ears.
Izzy gritted her teeth. "I can hear them," she snapped, her voice low. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness pretty well and she can see the first two patrolling guards come into view. She sprung into action quickly, her movements a blur of shadows.
In a swift and precise strike, she took care of the guards with brutal force, her claws slicing through their necks before they even noticed her. Blood sprayed in a macabre arc as the guards fell, their lifeless bodies crumpling to the ground. Izzy flicked her hair out of her face and smirked as she looked down on their bodies. Then she dragged them off to the corner, leaving a trail of blood.
"The other guards are coming your way now," Clarissa called into Izzy's ears. And sure enough, Izzy heard the voices of the approaching hyenas.
Regardless, she gritted her teeth. "Stop talking in my ears," she bit back at Clarissa.
"I was just--"
Izzy didn't let her finish. She pulled the comms out of her ears and tossed them away. Her heartbeat quickened as she did that. She was trying not to be as jealous of Clarissa or to hate her but, damn, that half-breed could be very annoying.
"That's weird. We should have passed by Frank and Peter by now," one of the hyenas said, snapping Izzy's attention back.
"Well, I'll be damned. Looks like there are smart hyenas indeed," she commented before stepping out of the dark corner she was in. "Looking for someone, boys?" she cooed, letting her claws grow once more. Her teeth glinted in the moonlight.
One of the hyenas jumped, taken aback. Izzy sprung forward and pounced upon him. She slashed at his chest repeatedly, ripping through his flesh and letting his cries of pain rise into the air.
When she looked up at the other hyena, her eyes reflected the light of the moon, making it glow. The hyena staggered backwards, his breathing uneven. He stumbled and hit the ground, whimpering and begging Izzy.
"Perhaps not so smart, after all," Izzy noted. Just as she leaped into the air, however, stretching her claws towards his throat, she saw him pull something out of his pocket. Izzy's blood ran cold. A grenade. The hyena tossed it at her in a scramble of movements, almost dropping it on himself.
Izzy reached for the grenade and sent it flying in another direction.
BOOM!!!
The explosion rocked the earth. "Shit," Izzy hissed. She knew what that meant. She'd just drawn the attention of the other members of the Crackle Clan around the Stranded Zone. She turned at the hyena beside her and dealt a finishing strike. Then, she braced herself for the onslaught of hyenas coming her way.