FIRE [FIRST DRAFT]

Chapter 1: Never a Dull Moment

Some taxi-rides away, Stefan and the others were fending off the copious soldiers who had swarmed into that miniscule office.

"You just had to be smug," Valerie respired, while helping Dominick fight off the four men who climbed upon them at once.

"I'm sorry!" uttered Stefan, for what could very well have been the sixth time.

The men were AIM America soldiers, they figured, camouflaged in their pharmacy garbs. For a moment, while blocking a punch with the hind of his forearm, Stefan wondered whether these men really knew what they were a part of. If their base was all the way in America, what role did they play in Abba's plans? Were they going to be taken out along with the rest of America? After all, Abba did not seem like the type to bother with forming a rescue team, even for her own men.

Stefan knocked out the guy whose fist he had deflected, and then threw a punch to the jaw of a brute who was charging at Finn.

"Thanks bud," Finn smiled, sighed tiredly. "Now for the other," – he kicked the brute in the stomach, and then drove their head into his knee – "hundred and one!"

As the brute's body fell to the ground, another emerged from behind him and struck Finn's cheek. Stefan motioned to help him, but before he could, two men rammed him into a wall conjointly. Dominick equipped the grappling hook from his belt and it soon delved into one of the men's backs. His feet in position, his muscular arms bulging, he hauled the man away from Stefan, and reminded himself to ignore the man's agonising cries. Stefan shoved the second body off of him and fought the man vigorously.

Once he had knocked him out, Stefan looked to his friends. He could not decide who needed help most: swiftly after coming to Stefan's aid, Dominick was tackled by multiple heavies, and Finn's speed served him well, but he was surrounded, it was only a matter of time before someone managed to knock him off his quick feet. What Stefan hadn't seen was that four men were charging towards him. Valerie saw it all, saw that they were outnumbered and losing, saw Dominick on the ground piled underneath men as enormous as he was. Suddenly, she ran, and punched and tripped and bicycle kicked anyone in her way. She had to get away from the crowd.

Finn waited for someone to charge at him, to break the manmade coop he had been stuck in, before he made his escape. One man aimed to tackle him at the waist, but Finn used him as a ramp, jumping on his back and off again. One way or another, he brought each of them to their knees where they were, in their circle, like it was some children's' game.

"Look out!" Valerie called suddenly, tossing something into the air.

It was a grenade of some sort. As it detonated, an emerald green light engulfed the room before darkness fought back again. Altogether, the men dropped to the ground, paralysed by the pulse sent out by the grenade. Valerie, Finn, Dominick and Stefan were unaffected, thanks to the deflective soles of their fancy GINM boots. Finn and Stefan tiptoed over the bodies, towards Val.

"Take all the fun out of it, why don't you," Finn said to her.

"I don't find wrestling large men very fun," she dusted off her hands and the rest of herself. "Unless there's something you're not telling me, Finn..." she joked.

"Oh, very funny!" he said, through Dominick's uncontained amusement. "Like you should laugh."

There were three bodies upon him, practically sleeping, but Dominick hardly cared. He shoved them off and stood up promptly, and then joined his friends on the other side of the room. They started searching for the documents they had come for. Valerie moseyed to the most obvious place, the filing cabinet, but when she got there, she realised the drawers were locked.