The Ultimate Rescue

Chapter VIII

LUKE

Music: A Way Out of the Difficulty from Gradius II Arcade

In a group like ours, you'd expect each individual to have their own skills or talents that, when combined, make for a powerful team. We're sort of like that, except our "skills" come in the form of a certain way we go about self-defense. Almost all of us are skilled with a particular kind of "weaponry" which comes in handy during combat.

For instance, Heath, Sam, Mia (kinda), and I are talented shooters (Heath more so than the rest of us), which, as expected, is useful when you're going up against a hundred guards. Mackenzie is the only one of us who doesn't use weaponry; she has enough acrobatic skills (some she gained from illuminati spy training, some from cheerleading) to handle any challengers on her own. However, she's not with us, so that won't be of any use to us this time.

The hovercraft's first stop is Heath's place. Heath and I walk inside while everybody else stays on the hovercraft outside. It doesn't seem like anybody else is home, so Heath and I head straight for Heath's bedroom.

Heath opens his bottom dresser drawer and pulls out two small pistols and a bag full of bullets. He tosses one pistol to me, and I barely grab it. Sam keeps his gun (and bullets) in the hovercraft, and Mia has her weapons belt for her.

"You've been working on your reaction time?" Heath asks me while he loads his pistol up. He's definitely got the fastest quickdraw out of us guys, but I'm catching up to him.

"I've gone out and done a bit of training," I reply. "How about you?"

"It's been a while... I hope I'm not too rusty."

"You'll be fine." Heath gives me some bullets to load up my pistol with, and the two of us head out.

Next, we stop by Elle's house. Elle and Skylar run inside, and return about two minutes later, each carrying a small brown bag.

"You got pepper spray in there?" Shanna asks.

"Three vials for each of us," Skylar answers. "Us" refers to her, Elle, Shanna, and Avery, who are our pepper spray "masters". Apparently it's actually useful for neutralizing opponents in a short amount of time.

"No offense to you girls or anything, but when are you gonna learn to use guns like we do?" Mia asks, twirling her pistol around in her hand.

"I'm not a fan of the idea of using a gun," Elle replies, and Skylar and Shanna nod their agreement.

"You people are pathetic," Mia sighs, shaking her head.

Finally, we stop by Sean and Shanna's place. Sean gets himself a crowbar he brings with him on these missions, and Shanna gets two extra vials of pepper spray for her.

"Were anybody else's parents home?" Sean asks when he and Shanna return.

"Mine weren't," Elle answers. Heath shakes his head no.

"That's a little strange..." Skylar mutters.

"Well, we don't have time to mull over it. We're all prepped and ready, so let's head back to the clubhouse and get ready to head out," Mia says.

As if to say, "I'm on it", the hovercraft automatically rises into the air and takes off in the direction of our clubhouse.

SAM

Music: Fire Tripper from Salamander 2

When our group first became affiliated with Avery, she wanted nothing to do with us. Then we had to rescue her from captivity... twice. Since the second time, she's stuck around with us and has been involved in just about all of our crazy expeditions. But throughout all of the adventures she's been with us, I never really saw her as much of a leader figure. She was always the kind of person who just did what she was told, but wouldn't be expected to rise up to the task of taking charge herself.