Chapter 8

OK, thanks for the coffee at least. Well, I think this is coffee, anyways. What is that? No, I do not know what that is, but so long as it kind of tastes like coffee, that is good enough for me. Get on with it? Alright, if you say so.

Our first action? Well, that was about two months later. By that time, one of the speedsters who called himself “Racer” had joined the training sessions, and it looked like Dire Wolf, Fang, Racer, and myself were the only actual Paladins in the group. But most of the others were picking up the basics of at least the staff, or their fists and feet.

I got a call and Miss Smith said that a riot was about to break out between two groups in dockside. I told Control to activate the phone tree and assemble the group a block away and I would meet them there. By that time I had gotten some more clothes, one of them a black gi. So I stripped and got into that, then started up the trike and headed over. I was the first one there, and I could hear shouting on the next block.

OK, it sounds like they were still warming up, shouting insults and personal challenges at each other but not yet rumbling. And as the others started to trickle in, I told them what I expected of them. Hit only to put them out of the fight, no fatalities. I was only expecting a large gang fight, so deadly force should not be needed.

Then Dire and Fang showed up, and I quickly briefed her on what was expected. She then took charge, just as I hoped. She told Glenda to hang back and to go get her aid bag out of her car. “Glenda, you stay behind us, use your staff if needed, but ready to render aid to any that need it. Us first, then those we put down. Don’t worry, Fang knows what is expected already, there may be some bites, but he will not be going for the throat unless somebody will not stay down. OK, line up and get ready to move out!”

I was helping them all get into position behind Dire and Fang, as they were going to lead this charge. Then suddenly this big motherfucker just rushes in and yells “OK, I’m ready to fight!” And holy fuck, he was big! Not as big as me, but closer to seven feet than six feet tall, and built like a linebacker.

“Look, I don’t know who the fuck you are, but this is not your fight, buddy. Go ahead and step away, there will be no problems. This is just for us, no room for spectators or those with grudges to get involved!” I started to use a trick I had learned and started breathing a bit harder, letting tension fill my body. This not only started to key me up for fighting but caused my hair to stand up, making me look even bigger.

But then Dire stepped up next to me and rested her hand on the back of mine. “Clint, relax. This is Bohica, one of the newest Paladins in the region. You are Bohica, right?” The big black guy grinned and nodded, and said he was.

“OK, we have not met yet, but I have read your file. Bohica, I am Dire Wolf, my hairy buddy is Fang. This other hairy buddy is The Sensei. Clint, he is similar to you, strong as an ox and hard to damage. Bohica, we are about to go in. It’s just a gang fight, try to only knock them out of the fight, we want no permanent injuries or fatalities. Fists or non-lethal weapons only, got it?”

“Got it, Miss Dire Wolf!” he said and grinned.

The big dude nodded, and he took his place in line where I directed as Dire headed out. I tensed up a bit when I saw him reach inside his leather jacket, and pull out two batons. They were short, maybe for use in increasing his punching power, as they were too short to really be weapons in their own right.

Then after slowing to take in the scene, Dire yelled for the charge, and I saw him flick his wrists. I got it immediately, asps! I had trained with them in Special Forces and a great weapon for crowd control. In fact, even better than staffs. Less bulky, easier to learn, and with springs less likely to be fatal. I kicked myself as I picked up the first guy and threw him, wishing I had thought of teaching their use myself. I knew some Krav Maga techniques for them that which would be great.

Bohica did not have much style, but he used his wrist just right so the blows were not lethal. And 5 minutes later some were limping away, as the Police were rounding up the debris we left on the battlefield. It was actually a decent first fight, so now they group at least some real experience.

And that Bohica dude could fight. It was about equal between him, Dire, and myself how many each of us took down. I did a bit better, as I found it effective to just pick up one dude from behind, and throw him at another. So I got a 2 for 1 deal out of it.

Dire gave them a debrief, short and to the point, saying that since none of us were hurt and none of the other guys had more than broken bones, this was a win for our side. I then played Sergeant, saying that they had done well, in remembering to only knock them out of the fight and move on. And that there would be more training, so we could fix the things I saw that was wrong.

I then went up and shook the hand of our newest member. “Mister Bohica, sorry about that introduction, nothing personal. But if Dire Wolf speaks for you, that is good enough for me.” He asked how she knew him, and I laughed. I turned to look for her, but she was off to the side talking with Glenda.

“Oh, that’s simple. She actually works for Control, you might say she is the liaison between them and us. If you need anything, feel free to ask her. And by the way, nice asps!” And I had to laugh when he actually turned around, slapped his bottom, and thanked me! Fuck, something about him was weird, but he was funny and had some class. And I saw a news van parked a ways away, so after inviting him to my training sessions I headed home.

We had a few more minor incidents, nothing of importance after that though. The Ricci Family was cleaning house a bit, a new enforcer was starting to make a name for himself, and was only rumors from what I could tell. But a few bodies were pulled out of the river. And looked like they had been worked over with a baseball bat before being tossed in with a cement block belt.

Still alive.

I was about to start my after-lunch class when my new phone went off. Control had finally gotten me one I could use. It was actually a military-grade tablet, but they had some electronics whiz put in phone capabilities, so it was good enough.

Great, our first mission as actual Paladins! There was a Rogue near the airport, with a sonic scream. They told me they were assembling all the Paladins they could, and to meet up at Control.

“No dice, Miss Smith. Remember I am on the other side of the river! I will just head straight there and set up some initial recon. Don’t worry, I will not engage unless I have to.”

“OK, copy that. Sarge is going to be taking charge of the operation, we will call you if he has any instructions, or call me if you have anything to report.”

So I hopped on the trike and headed over. I knew I was there when I saw shattered windows everywhere, and then a car with people in it being pushed by what could only be a scream. I got off the trike and raced to a corner. I peeked around and saw the mutant was just a guy, maybe 30 and very average. And he was looking away, so I looked in the car. There were two people inside, and they were stunned, with blood running out of their ears. Not good. I grabbed the bumper and pulled the car around the corner so they were out of the line of fire, and called and told Miss Smith about the two victims, and that they would need medical attention.

“OK Sensei, Sarge is in charge now. Falcon is already overhead and giving us status reports, and has you in visual. The rest are already on the way, they will meet up in about 3 minutes near Front Street and Temple Avenue.”

“No can do, Miss Smith. This clown is between me and them. I will stay out of sight as best as I can, and move in when I see them moving. Tell Falcon to keep his distance, this guy has a scream that is good to at least 100 meters!”

I heard her relay that to others, and signed off, and started stalking him. I was alone, unarmed, and he had a scream that could knock me senseless from more than a football field away. But I picked up a brick I saw on the ground, if nothing else maybe I could hit him with it. Then I saw Falcon, and he was way too fucking low! I had already sent word that this guy’s sonic blast was good for 100 meters, and he was maybe 50 meters above him.

Then I felt a clenching in my gut as he turned to face Falcon, and screamed. Falcon was pushed about 20 meters sideways, then crashed into a building, and tumbled to the ground. Fuck! Fuck! Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!

A few minutes later, who shows up but fucking Fang! He saw me, barked, and came right up to me. I moved around a corner and asked if everything was alright. “Where’s Dire Wolf? Is she alright, does she need my help?” He then barked and spun in a circle. What was he trying to tell me? He repeated this again and stood there looking at me. OK, Dire was not hurt, or he would be frantically trying to get me to go to wherever she was. I was about to use the phone to call Control and find out what was going on when I remembered his harness.

Dianne was so fucking smart! Inside one of the pouches was a radio. Thankfully it was like one I had used in Iraq, so I pulled off the earpiece from its cable. Fuck, I literally had to shove it INTO my ear, but I clipped it to my belt and was able to talk to Dire.

“Clint, what do I do? Sarge is yelling we need to move tactically, what does that mean?” OK, time to take charge, this is still beyond her abilities. I calmed her down and quickly got ahold of Sarge. He gave me a full sitrep and turned it over to me for ground operations.

This was like Iraq or Afghanistan all over again. The Officer on the radio, telling the Sergeant how to move the people. But this I knew how to do, had trained for it and done it for years.

I quickly had each Paladin pair up with another and had Racer run around the danger area to me. And I saw that Fang was staying with me, so that was a help. Racer joined me a minute later, and I set up the attack plan.

Each team was to move to within 150 meters, and no closer. Try to get him to move south, teasing him and moving him where I wanted. Meanwhile, Racer was to play chicken with the guy. Run up as close as he dared, and get him moving.

Meanwhile, Fang and I crept closer to where I was going to pop the ambush. We hid behind a moving truck, and I could hear him moving closer. I then got out a flashbang when he was 25 meters away, and got ready.

At 20 meters, I threw the flashbang, and it landed right at his feet. It went off, and this was a new kind made just for us. Flashes of blinding light, loud noises, and a screaming whistle along with a scent that made a person gag. I was already up and moving, Fang right behind me. The guy was staggered, but looking at Racer just at the edge of his range. He started to use his scream at him.

And I simply smacked him in the back of the head with the brick. Not enough to kill him, although I wanted to! I wanted to keep on smashing him, to beat his head into a pulp with that brick. Until the brick and his head were battered and destroyed. Then stomp on him and break every single one of his fucking bones, to see his guts squirting out of his ass! Falcon!

But I took a long deep breath and yelled for Racer to bring the restraints.

By that time, Glenda and Dire were with Falcon. He was already gone.

Well, they came and hauled the guy away, who later I found out had called himself “The Screamer”. He was not even out for anything, other than destruction. Not trying to steal, not targeting anything or anybody. We were the third city he had hit, he just liked to appear, tear a bunch of shit up, then vanish.

We all headed to Control, and I thanked Dire for the radio. She smiled and said she was worried I would not get what Fang wanted, but she was glad I figured it out.

Well, Sarge did the Army proud. He chewed them up one side and down the other, saying he had seen recruits doing a Chinese Fire Drill that showed more organization. “Clint, good job. So you all know, Clint is the one doing the training in your district. He’s a soldier like I am. I am going to be stepping in just a bit, you need to teach them better to work as a team. I want you all to notice how much better it was once Clint got on the horn. Once we lost Falcon, I was blind. But Clint there took over and got you all working as a team again. And we need to keep working on that.”

Then as a good sergeant should, he started to praise the actions of those who did good work. Especially Racer and Dire, in helping keep him distracted and getting me the radio. And the next training meeting would be that weekend, here in the basement conference room. I spent a few minutes consoling Dire, then realized that Miss Smith was in the back and looked miserable.

I went up and rested my hand on her shoulder, and she turned and hugged me, crying. “It’s my fault, Clint! It’s my fault!” It took a few minutes until I found out what had gone wrong. Turns out it was just a case of the old game “Broken Telephone”. I had told her 100 meters, she had told the runner to tell Sarge to pass the word it was 100 meters. The kid that passed the message told Sarge 100 feet.

Fucking hell! She thought it was her that had fucked up, and I told her it was not. I bent over as far as I could and looked around to see that we were alone. “No, you did not kill him. I should know, I was listening in also. You told them 100 meters, he or she is the one that passed on the wrong information. Don’t blame yourself, but now we all have radios, so this will not happen again. But please, put this in a classified report, and do not tell them. But find them another job, so they do not put people at risk again.”

She nodded and said he was an intern. “And yes, you are right. I will tell Dr. Tran if we keep him we will put him somewhere else. So, it’s not my fault? I did not kill Falcon?”

“No, Miss Smith, you did not kill him. These things just happen, sometimes. It’s sad, but this is how we deal with it. We will be sad, and work to help make sure it never happens again.” Finally, I left and got one of the guards to contact the clinic and send them down to me.

They arrived and asked if I was hurt. “No, but I need some help. I am gonna sit down, get your biggest tweezers. I have a fucking radio earpiece shoved into my ear, and I can’t get it out.”

The guy laughed, and after looking inside my ear with a flashlight opened his bag. After swearing, he ran upstairs and returned with some really long tweezers. And it felt kind of nice as the female medic sat with her back against the wall, and held my head in her lap as her partner used them to get the damned thing out.

And for the first time, I realized just how sensitive my nose was now. I had my face pressed against her belly, as she used her hand on the back of my head to hold it still. And I could, smell her. And not just smell her but smell her as in her female scent. One I had not smelled since my last night with Kelly.

I let her up, and stayed on my side on the floor, saying I was fine and thanking them, but I needed to meditate for a few minutes about this loss before I could go home. In reality, I was lying there waiting for my boner to go down.

That Friday I went to Control and met Kirk, their tech weenie. He handed me a new radio and told me how it worked. “Since you are the one in charge, this is a commander’s radio. Here, press this button in, and if anything comes across channel 1, it will change to it automatically, same with this button and channel 10.”

“OK, thanks, Kirk. I actually already know how these work, we used them in Special Forces. But I am not going to be in command, we need a second one like this. Dire Wolf is actually going to be the one in command, give this to her, and get me another one.”

He laughed and said he could not do that. “Sensei, look at that again. I had that earpiece made special for you. I saw you on the ground, and I asked the paramedics after you left and they told me what happened. Now, this is not perfect, I want you to come in sometime so I can get a mold made so I can make one custom. But that is the same foam used in earplugs, it should work until I can get you something better.”

I then took a closer look, and it was indeed larger. I thanked him for that, and he said he had more in his office and would return with one for Dire with a regular earpiece.

The first part of the training that day was on how to use the radios, and proper radio procedures. Miss Smith was writing things for me on the board, and we went through all the proper procedures. “You this is me” took the longest to teach.

“Look folks, there is a reason for this. The first is who you are calling, so they know it is for them. Then, you identify yourself. Think to the TV shows in the 1960’s, most were made by old war veterans. Spock, this is Kirk. Command, this is 1-Adam-12. Rampart Emergency, this is Squad 51. Hearing your name gets your attention to listen, then you are told who is calling you. Reverse it, you may miss who it is wanting your attention.”

And thankfully they got that, and then we went over the phonetic alphabet, and how to relay numbers. “No, you do not say the license plate is Dee Eee Bee, four twelve. Delta Echo Bravo four one two. The person on the other end might hear DDB, or EED. Each letter said in that way, each number alone. Every military in the world, along with law enforcement and emergency services does it the same way.”