“MEDIC!” Mal screamed as he saw the Sons had retreated back.
Mal ran up on the bodies realizing that no medic was going to be able to deal with the situation, they were dead or nearing dead.
“Help…please…” Said the young woman he was staring at her arms and legs all blown off including her hips.
Mal froze.
To him he wasn’t just seeing this young woman. He was seeing Lisa, his wife. There he was back on that bridge.
Let me go…Said a voice on the wind in the back of his head.
He didn’t believe it was actually his long deceased wife but, it was maybe something he needed to hear. Leaning down to the woman, Mal lifted her head.
“It’s okay,” Mal said with tears in his eyes and pulling the morphine syrette from his pocket and inserting it into the only vein he could find, “This will help with the pain.”
The girl’s eyes rolled to the back of his head.
“MORTARS!” Screaming the man behind him has the mortar landing feet to the left of Mal and shot him through a deli window.
Knocking him unconscious to the world but to Mal, it was a little different.
Tye rubbed his eyes, clearing his eyes of dust as he walked down the back alley he was taking his team to.
“Armas, we have to get to the wall. Wound them best we can and draw them away from downtown.” The two raced in the humvee, Rebecca and the two soldiers in the backseat as she aimed down her sights, picking off the targets to her left as they drove parallel down the road.
“There’s a whole bunch of them.” Armas said as two bodies limped from her fire.
The men who saw them fire pointed at the humvee as it raced down the street, slowing at the entrance of the town. The four hopped out as a large piece of weaponry was being set up.
“That’s not good.” Rebecca said, pointing at a tall man with a long beard ordering them around as they pushed the singular large missile.
“Have detonate a hundred and fifty feet off the ground, that way everything gets covered in it,” Carl ordered.
The missile has at least the length of most tractor-trailers on semi-trucks.
“Call it.” Rebecca said to Tye as a familiar face, Tim was moved with a teenager into an armored Humvee with the large man.
The two looked at them being moved as Tim stood there, refusing to be put in the humvee, as a hand wrapped around Tim’s head, slamming it into the vehicles frame.
“Be a good little boy,” David Daniels says.
“I have eyes on Ares.” Tye said to Wallis, “Mal your kid is headed your way.”
“Mal’s radio is out, ever since that last missile barrage hit.”
“Is he okay?” Rebecca asked.
“His vitals are stable.” She said, “just unconscious.”
David talked to the three men as they armed the missile.
“Wait for us to clear and then fire, it should lean out their forces. Until we get the Dispersal device and the Aegis unlocked, we will have to use these.”
Tye tapped Rebecca on the shoulder as the two soldiers behind him looked at Tye.
“That missile…that’s Leviathan. We have to stop it. It will kill anyone who is disabled, has genetic impurities or has a hint of melanin.” Tye told them.
Rebecca would be perfectly fine but she was the only one. Racking her rifle and reloading her magazine.
“I got no plans for tomorrow night.” She said to the three of them as they leaned behind the short wall. “Wait for them to leave. Then let’s hit them…hard.”
Three trucks shot past down the road that wasn’t collapsed from the EOD team and passed the four of them as Tim saw Tye hiding, the two caught each other’s eyes. Nodding towards the missiles.
“You got it boss.” Tye said.
“All troops fall back…”Said the man by the missile.
“What would he say?” Tye asked with a smile on his face as the four reloaded their rifles.
“Execute.” Rebecca said as she stood up and squared a shot into the first Son’s head, a look of surprise painted on his face as Rebecca’s face was covered in righteous fury.
Tye stood and shot off a volley in the direction of other Son’s, pinning them down as the other soldier’s ran forward.
“I can disarm this thing…” Said the soldier as Rebecca drew her sidearm destroyed the electronic components that fired the missiles.
“Put C-4 on it…there’s no one but us down here and based on-” Tye said before popping out around the corner and firing out, “what I have heard…it’s flammable.”
One of the soldiers got hit and thrown to the side, thrown to the ground as heavy fire hit them.
“Set!” Said the man holding a detonator as bullet hit him in the brain, dropping the detonator with a delayed fuse to the ground.
“THIRTY SECONDS!” Rebecca screamed as she pulled Tye with her, catching a bullet in her left arm as she pulled the muscle bound black man past the armored humvee, taking another bullet in her right leg.
Tye scrambled to her feet as she fell to the ground, grabbing the loop on the back part of her Kevlar. They needed to get just a little further to at least stand a chance of surviving.
“You shoot. I will run you…” Said Tye as he dragged Rebecca, her kicked her hands as rounds shot into the faces of two men as they rounded the corner around and up the street.
Her rifle kicking as she dropped it and drew her sidearm, firing off every round straight into the chest of every advancing troop until the two were on the other side of the barrier on the other side of the blocked off street.
BOOM!
The missile exploded in a fiery blaze that shot over the two soldiers heads, as Tye peaked his eye over top.
“Good work, Chief.” Tye said looking at Rebecca.
Very luckily, she was shot in non-mortal areas.
“Can we get to a doctor? Like…” Rebecca stopped mid-sentence passing unconscious from shock.
Throwing the young Chief over his shoulders he looked around to confirm they were alone before hoofing it back to the Humvee.
You did good Becs, you got your justice. He thought to himself
?????
Malcolm Daniels woke up from what seemed to be a nightmare in his home in Coronado, California.
“Hey sleepyhead,” Said Lisa Redhouse-Daniels as she slunk back into bed, her lanky tan frame was spread with that beautiful smile that made Mal fall in love with her in the first place.
“Where am I?”
“You’re unconscious,” Lisa said as she sprawled on the bed.
Her tan skin was beset with long brown hair, something about her had driven him crazy as a teenager.
“What are you? Some sort of crazy, come towards the light moment?”
Lisa smiled.
“Unfortunately, not this time,” She said, “I do miss you though. Miss you as much as you miss me. Sadly, you still have a fated opponent to stop before you can be with me…forever.”
Mal couldn’t contain himself emotionally anymore as everything ran back through him, all the pain and rage.
“David?” He asked as she pulled Mal to his feet, the two looking at each as she squeezed and relaxed his shoulders.
Smiling as she kissed Mal on the lips, it all felt so real to Mal. He could smell her perfume, feel her lips on his and the softness of her skin on his hands.
“No…I am afraid he’s just the beginning of the The Legend of The Wolf. No, you will be remembered across the ages. You will destroy one thing to save the world.” Lisa walked Mal towards a covered wall, something covered in a tarp before she pulled it off.
A mirror was underneath and it first it was just Mal and her.
“Keep looking at it.” She said as Mal stared at it, she massaged his shoulders as Mal saw his image splitting off from himself many times. “One day, soon really. Someone is going to try to make a bunch of you. Poor copies really and yes this isn’t a literal prophecy. You will stop them from destroying the worl
d. You will save…everyone Mal.”
Mal blinked and the two were back laying in bed.
“I am here to tell you that the man I married wouldn’t ever give up on those people. He would fight and die if necessary, on his feet. Not in the back of a Deli counter unconscious as some idiot puts two in his head.”
“I can’t. I can’t save him…” Mal said.
“I know,” She said with a flat face, “I don’t expect you to. Right now, The world doesn’t need the empathetic man who understands peoples needs. They need the other guy.”
Mal could feel, an unyielding rage that pulled out of him. Like someone was allowing a Demon to possess him.
“These people they need the Monster, They need the Wolf.”
She smacked his face as Mal woke up, in the deli as he heard footsteps around him. Turning his back to the counter he realized that his rifle had shot free from his hand and he was out of pistol ammo. Clutching his chest, he realized his knife was missing and his boot knife was lodged in someone’s face…somehwhere.
Fuck me.
“The rifle!” Screamed as one of the Sons told everyone around him that the one they want is there.
Mal heard four sets of feet surround the small shop as he searched for any sort of weapon until he pulled a knife…a butter knife.
Better than nothing I guess.
Spinning around the table he felt the primal rage of his past self rush back to him, as the butter knife slashed into the first man’s carotid artery. Pushing him forward into the fire of the other two men, he kicked the body into the man furthest away as he slammed the butter knife through the man nearest to his skull and he pulled the Son’s sidearm from his holster and shot the man on the ground in the head. Spinning to see three more men as he used another victim as a human shield until he could spin the pistol in his right hand to a reverse grip, firing off shots down range that hit all three men eventually. Two of them were fatal, the third caused the man to run bleeding from his right shoulder. Lining up a shot with the man as he ran away, Mal squeezed the trigger.
CLICK.
“Lucky mother fucker,” Mal said as he saw a large Kraken tank walking forward towards him. Mal scramble as he ran to grab his rifle and find cover.
Mal felt the buzz of a railgun shot pass over his head. Attempting to re-rack his rifle he saw he had a stovepipe of some kind and with the sons penetrated to the East side of Mount Vernon. Mal was all on his own.
“Mal,” Said a mysterious voice over his ear-piece, “you were right.”
BOOM!
The sonic burst of a predator drone flew over his head as the kraken fell to the ground.
“They will not advance any further, I promise.”
Mal looked up and saw a whole fleet of drones advancing on the sons.
“Martha…I…” Mal struggled to get the words out to express his gratitude.
“Save Carter, we can call it even.”
“Where is she?”
“I believe your friend took her to your home but your son is behind her with Tim,” Martha said, “Remember the lesson you taught me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
You face me Madman
Twenty-Years Earlier
Coronado, California
Mal was asleep on the couch, like he was regularly on a Saturday afternoon. David had a movie he wanted to watch with him and at eight years old he took every moment he could with his father.
“It’s three, I am pretty sure you can wake him up,” Lisa said as he walked over gingerly to his dad who had been gone the previous eight months and was just recently released from the hospital for a gunshot wound that almost killed him.
“Dad!” exclaimed the young son of the warfighter as Mal jolted awake.
“I am up, I promise…” Mal said as he got back to a seated position.
“Can we watch this?” David showed him a film on the TV of an adaptation of a comic book called The Guardian, pretty standard comic book stuff from his experience but, Mal had missed it.
“Of course,” Mal said, “we can watch all the movies now that I am on leave. I promise.”
They slunk back on the couch and watched the film, about a child who had to inherit great power from his parental line.
“You face me, madman, you face The Guardian.” Said the Main Character as he showed up for the final conflict.
David hit the pause button.
“Do you say things like that mid fight?”
“I don’t usually talk that much,” Mal said with a chuckle.
“Why not?”
“My enemies usually aren’t worth talking to,” Mal said, “if I ever said anything like that it would be to a person…I didn’t want to fight.”
Malcolm Daniels saw himself in The Guardian as he was a child of two different things too. The Hero and The Wolf were like Lucian and Balor in this film in a lot of ways. Two opposites, searching for balance as the person who carried both inside of him.
Present Day
Jace was pinned down in the house with the president of the United States as David and Karl peppered the small house with shots.
“Come out Jace,” David said, “then I won’t have to kill the teenager and Tim.”
The teenager’s blond-haired face and smile was recognizable.
“So he’s not dead,” Jace said as the click on her rifle let her know, she was out of ammunition.
She looked in her reverse mirror as both men were out of rounds as well.
“Well…great.”
Jace whipped out her collapsible baton.
“Madame president, go to the garage and wait, wait for an opening to drive away and don’t stop driving until you get to Martha.”
Hopping out of the window, she stood in front of the two men. Karl’s gigantic frame made the man she killed earlier seem tiny.
“I won’t let you past me,” She said, “you might as well tuck your tiny manhood between your legs and run back across that wall because you people have taken enough from me. I won’t let you do this.”
David laughed.
“Don’t get it twisted Jace, you’re outstanding but the two of us at the same time? Hell even me alone. That’s not going to happen,” He said, “surrender. I will protect you…you have my word. Unlike my father, you know I don’t lie. Besides there’s no one else to face me.”
Jace shook her head, she was very, very serious. Karl began walking forward, as Tim struggled against his bonds to get out and fight the gigantic man. David’s hand met Karl’s chest.
“Don’t, she’s mine. Cover the driveway, anything comes out of the garage and I want it to be filled with rounds.” David said, predicting Jace’s diversionary strategy.
Jace turned but saw the President wasn’t in the driveway, she was headed to the armory. David and Jace circled each other as the two circled each other. Two predators ready to solve a territorial dispute, with blood. David slipped the knife out of his sleeve and slashed forward as Jace side-stepped his knife strike. Unlike David, Jace had already been in a couple of fights today and was tired, the fight was full of punches and kicks. Slamming his knife into Jace’s shoulder as he threw her down to the ground, struggling against David.
“You’re good but you’re not that good, Jace. Sorry.” David said as she struggled against him.
David heard something coming up the road, turning to look at the Driveway as a blur slid into the driveway and took out Karl’s legs, pinning him to the ground. Karl’s face looked up at Malcolm Daniels, begging to not be killed but the man he met before wasn’t there. He was looking straight into the eyes some filled with unbridled and unstoppable rage and hate.
“Please…Please don’t-” Karl begged but he was interrupted.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
CLICK!
For the first time David saw the face of the monster that so many people feared, they saw the Wolf, as he did
n’t even bother at looking at what used to be Karl’s face. His eyes had connected with what The Wolf called his son. Carrying the empty pistol up the small hill driveway as the two squared off, Kyle looked up at his neighbor. The Wolf, wasn’t bothered by the fact that he would have to fight his son, either. Based on their earlier confrontation, Malcolm Daniels alone couldn’t stop David. He was too old and not strong enough.
“You face me, Madman,” Mal said Jace slunk behind him, over to behind the Humvee where he saw Kyle...
He’s not dead.
The Wolf focused his gaze on David, bearing his teeth back at his son as he pulled the knife from Jace’s shoulder. The Wolf inside of him stared back at Kyle, then quickly was given a short wink. Kyle smirked.
“I thought you weren’t going to fight me,” David said as Mal stood prepared for action but wasn’t going to take the first action.
“He wouldn’t...” The Wolf said, “ but, I will. I will kill you, without a thought. Runaway and hide boy…A monster’s on the prowl.”
David slammed forward attempting to plunge a knife deep into his father’s side The Wolf caught the plunging strike as he stepped to the side and smacked the knife from David’s hands. Neither man went for the weapon as they circled each other like two Alpha predators about to clash, which they were. Mal struck first as he step kicked forward and followed with an elbow that David stepped around, slipping his arm around Mal’s neck and armpit throwing him to the ground.
The two tumbled on the grass outside of their family home. Mal moving to attempt to sweep his son onto his back. David positioned himself up and began to throw punches down at his father.
“Dear god,” Jace said as the two got back to their feet and David raced forward, tackling Mal into their family home.
Crashing through the glass cut the two of them up quite bit as the blood splattered between the two in David’s visiting bedroom. Running inside of the House with one bleeding shoulder, Jace kicked open the door to the garage and grabbed Carter by the shoulder as she drug her out to where Tim and Kyle were.
“You’re dead old man,” David exclaimed as The Wolf was slammed him through the door out into the living room.
Mal got back to his feet, spitting out blood from his mouth. The two warriors were unsteady from their feet as David struck him across the face with back spin kick, knocking The Wolf on his back.
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