Six Pest Control guys jogged out of the camp in formation, leaving only four behind.If we could somehow manage to subdue half a dozen armed mercenaries, taking their camp should be no problem.We sprinted through the woods on a course to cut them off before they could surround Jarvis and Ash, and as soon as we were at the edge of the forest, Geri knelt and unslung her MP-7, pressing the submachine gun’s stock into her shoulder.
“You can’t just shoot them, Geri,” I protested, still trying to keep my voice low.
“Watch me,” she replied.“Besides, they’re wearing body armor.This won’t even penetrate.”
“Unless you shoot where the armor isn’t,” I said.“Which is exactly what you’ll try to do.”
“Why would you say that?”
“I’ve met you.Don’t kill anybody,” I ordered.
“Okay, fine.I’ll shoot for the armor or helmets.This little thing shouldn’t get through.Now go do your punching thing while I take care of whoever hangs back.”
“On it,” I said, seeing four mercs pick up the pace and run faster for the road while a pair of them split off the trail and took up positions behind trees facing the sound of Jarvis’s “singing.”
I got out of the woods a few seconds before the Pest Control douchebags, and angled my run toward them, picking up speed as I went.I launched myself into the air just as the first mercenary noticed me and brought him to the ground with a hugecrunch.I drove an elbow into his face and a knee into his nuts, then scrambled to my feet as he writhed on the ground.The nearest merc was trying to decide between going after the caterwauling Jarvis, who had stopped his screeching and was leaping down off the cart onto one of the other attackers, or to defend against the attack of a giant snow-covered redneck who probably looked an awful lot like the Abominable SnowHillbilly.
He decided on fighting me, since I was closer, but he was too slow making his choice, so before he could whip his rifle around to me, I was close enough to slam a fist into his mouth and kick him in the side of the knee.Body armor is great for attacks that come at you from the front or the back, but not so much for shots at an angle.I slammed my heel into the side of his knee, and it bent in ways that legs aren’t supposed to bend, eliciting a scream of agony.He went down in a writhing heap, and I turned to see what was going on with the cart.
Two Pest Control asshats stood in the road with rifles pointed at Jarvis and Ash, who stood in the cart with rifles pointed right back at the mercenaries.We had brought a few weapons through with us and picked up more typical faerie weapons like swords and a bow from Titania, but the guards at the gatehouse had been perfectly happy to part with their guns and ammo when we left.Okay, they weren’t really happy about it, but since we left them zip-tied sitting in a snowbank, there wasn’t shit they could do about it anyway.
“Lower your weapons or we will shoot!”one of the mercs shouted.
“Kiss my ass, you…asshole!”Jarvis replied.We’re gonna have to work on that boy’s banter if he’s gonna be part of my team on the regular.And he has to have the banter.He’s not big enough to loom effectively, and he’s not intimidating enough to be the strong silent enforcer.Banter is basically all he’s got going for him in a fight, so he’s gonna have to step that up.
I reached down and snatched the sidearm off the last guy I knocked out and fired three quick shots at the chest of one of the mercs.His body armor would stop the bullet, but broken ribs would keep him down for the count.He dropped, clutching his midsection, and I turned my attention, and my pistol, to the last guy, their self-appointed spokesman.
“Odds are a lot less even now, asshole.Drop the gun and put your hands up,” I said.
“Yeah!”Jarvis called.
“Jarvis?”I said.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t help.”I walked over to the mercenary, stripped him of his weapons and helmet, then used the flex cuffs on his belt to restrain him.
“As soon as our backup gets here, you’re fucked,” he said.
I punched him in the jaw, happy to finally get one of these douches without their helmet so I could throw a decent right cross.Then a flatcrackechoed through the forest, quickly followed by another.“I don’t think backup’s coming, dickhead.”
A moment later, Geri stepped out of the trees.“Yeah, they won’t be joining us this evening,” she said.
“You need to tie them up?”Ash asked.
“Nope,” Geri replied.
I gaped at her.“I thought you were going to aim for the body armor?”
“I did.But the MP-7 uses a special round designed to cut through body armor.”
“So you killed them?They werehuman, Geri!”I protested.
“Only kinda, Bubba.The US government spent a lot of money teaching me to kill monsters.Not my fault some of those monsters happen to behomo sapiens.And besides, Pest Control experiments on their mercs to give them superpowers, remember?”
She was right.We’d run into PC assclowns before that had werewolf blood, some had vampire strength, and who knows what other kinds of genetic modifications they had done to them.Didn’t mean I was okay with murdering them, but it seemed like I was the only one with that particular qualm.
Geri stepped over to the guy I’d just cuffed and leveled her gun at his face.“Now, I have some questions, and you’re going to answer them.If I don’t believe you, or you don’t answer me, I’m going to shoot you and move on to your friend.Do you understand me?”
