Chapter 23

"Amy, what the hell are you doing here?" I asked, mad as hell. Amy looked at me, pretending to pout, but her bright, twinkling eyes gave her away.

"Well, isn't that a nice welcome? I come all the way over here to see you, to snuggle with you, to give you those little neck kisses you like so much, to SAVE YOUR BUTT, and that's the way you greet me? I love you too, Daddy!" She giggled, hugging me close.

"Damn it, Amy, I told you not to come over here for any reason! I don't want you hurt, or killed, honey," I said in a nicer tone of voice. "I ought to spank your butt!"

"Ooh! That would be fun! You're going to be awfully tired, though, when you get through!" She giggled again, looking me with laughing eyes.

"And why is that, little girl?" I asked, making sure to smile when I said 'little girl', so she didn't get mad.

"Well, because you'll have to spank me. And Cindi. And Katie. And Becky. And Julie. And Sammi. And Megan. And Victoria. Then you'll probably have to spank Rhonda and Sarah too. Think you can handle all of us, Big Boy?" She was laughing at me, I could tell, as my mouth dropped open in surprise.

"You're all over here? And who is Rhonda and Sarah? I'm going to beat Megan! She's supposed to be the grownup here. I told her specifically... mmnphmmph!" I said as Amy put her hand over my mouth.

"Oh, shut up, Daddy," she said kindly. "We were right and Megan was wrong. You really are silly enough to believe we were going to leave you alone over here if you got into trouble! Besides, we obeyed you a little bit; we didn't bring Grampa too! As much fun as this is, can we continue this conversation later? We have about a hundred bad guys headed this way. We probably need to get ready for them. I think we want to meet them out there. We don't want them in here. I don't suppose I can convince you to stay in here while I take care of them, can I?" She giggled at me again, kissing me on the end of my nose.

I love Amy the killer when she appears. She is so focused, so happy, so sure of herself. I knew that Amy was going to be upset later, when it was all over, when she realized how many men she'd killed, no matter how bad they were. But when she was in 'Amy Mode', she loved what she did, she loved protecting me. There was no mercy. She was getting ready to do what she was born to do, what her purpose in life was, and she loved every minute of it; she was going to protect Daddy! She would never kill indiscriminately or without cause, but when it came time to dance, she was one hell of a dancer!

"Amy, sweetheart, I can't let you go out there alone. Even you can't handle 100 men!"

"You're right," Amy said seriously. I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe she was finally seeing reason. "I don't think I can handle more than 96 of them. Can you take care of the other four?" She asked, giggling again. What was I going to do with this girl? She didn't even answer that unspoken question; she just looked at me, smiled, and winked. I hoped I didn't blush, but her giggle said I probably did. I tried once more.

"Amy, honey, I don't want you hurt. Please don't go out there." She started to respond, then got a blank look on her face.

"Green means go. No one stops you when green comes; watch for it, let it shine, use it; trust it, don't fight against it."

"Trust the green, no matter what."

Her eyes cleared and she looked deep into my eyes.

"Still want to argue, Daddy? Trust me. Looks like we both go out there, because neither one of us is going to let the other go alone. It's almost time. Oh my, look at you! Nice eyes, Daddy! Don't you dare call it that!" She warned good-naturedly, and then her eyes changed also.

I knew what she meant. As she was talking, I felt myself switch into 'Amy Mode'. I had never felt closer to my little girl than right now. I knew what she felt now. I smiled at her.

"Sweetie, I still don't think we can take on 100 men alone," I said. "I hope you have something planned." She rolled her eyes and looked at me with that 'just how dumb do you think I am' look. One of these days, I was going to answer that question! Her eyes widened in amusement.

"You better not! Don't worry, Daddy. They are about to experience their worst nightmare. It won't last long, but they are definitely not going to enjoy this! Are you ready?"

I made sure the M-16 was fully loaded, and took all ten clips I had ready with me. I checked to make sure I was fully loaded with five grenades in the M203. I didn't take any extras, as I didn't think I would have time to reload the launcher. I did grab a few of the hand grenades. If I had known what Amy had planned, I might not have even loaded my rifle!

We waited, side by side, her soft little hand in mine, waiting for the right time. Amy was watching something intently, waiting for some unknown signal or mark to be reached. We were both completely relaxed; insane considering what we were about to do. Then Amy reached up and gave me a toe-curling kiss.

"Let's go, Daddy. God, this makes me so horny," she giggled. I let go of her hand, we both gripped our rifles in both hands, and stepped out of the cave to face a lot of men about 100 yards away.

It was not as if they weren't expecting to find someone near or in the cave. The firefight the night before, and the men escaping, had made it clear that someone was here. They just were obviously not expecting two people, one a teenage girl, to step out in plain site. The moment of surprise worked to our advantage.

Both Amy and I started squeezing off shots, one at a time, picking off men quickly and efficiently. I still didn't see how we were going to do this. Then, I found out what Amy's surprise was.

I heard two explosive 'whoomps' from off to the right of us, near the edge of the cave, slightly behind us. I recognized it as a grenade launcher, and watched in amazement as Katie and Becky stood up from the rocks, each firing grenades into the crowd. I recognized the launchers as the new M32's that held six 40mm grenades each. It was obvious that the twins, being of small stature, were tired of carrying these things around and had no intentions of carrying the heavy things back home, as they were doing their best to empty them in record time. At the same time, I heard the heavy beating sound of an M60 machine gun over to the left, about the same place on the left as where Katie and Becky were on the right. It looked like Megan knew exactly what she was doing, fanning the barrel from side to side, raking the area with withering fire. I noticed at the same time that Victoria was next to her, firing her M-16 into the area and lobbing an occasional hand grenade into the area. Just for grins, I shot off my five grenades also. I just liked the noise!

We did miscalculate in one small area. I found out later that the infrared proximity sensor I used only registered up to 100 data points. There were actually closer to 200 men approaching the cave. Apparently, I was the only one fooled. Amy told me later that she knew how many there were, but she didn't want to alarm me, so she said 'about 100'! Bless her little heart!

Amy said it would be a short nightmare and she was right. We did all hit the ground prone when they started firing back, but there was no way they could deal with the killing ambush the girls had set up. A few escaped, but largely, the destruction was almost total.

As fast as it all began, the area was suddenly very quiet. We waited a few minutes, until we were sure that everyone still alive had cleared the area. Then, we stood up cautiously. Katie, Becky, Victoria and Megan started walking in to meet us, but Megan just couldn't stand it anymore and ran the rest of the way, leaping into my arms and covering my face with kisses. Then she buried her head in my neck and cried. Katie, Becky and Victoria stood there watching us, with knowing smiles on their faces. Finally, Megan surfaced for air and whispered in my ear.

"God I missed you! You scared me so bad! You are never, ever going anywhere without me again!"

I kissed her softly and then lowered her down to the ground. She held my hand tightly, refusing to let go. I hugged and kissed Victoria, Katie and Becky, thanking them for saving my life. They all were very expressive in their kisses. Finally, Megan took charge.

"We meet the other girls at the LZ about ten miles from here anytime from now on. It's going to take awhile to get there, so we need to get moving." She looked at me strangely, as she could tell I was not listening to her. I was mulling something over in my brain.

"How did all of you get here?" I asked. They all started laughing.

"You don't want to know how Amy got here. We will discuss that later. A new friend of ours, Rhonda, a Marine Captain, dropped the rest of us here. We need to talk about her and her sister later, too. What are you thinking about, dear?" Megan asked. I think she was being nice to me because she knew she was still going to get a spanking later for allowing my girls to come over here!

"Can you contact her?" I asked. Megan nodded. "Get her back here. Change in plans, kids. We're not going to the LZ yet. We have some unfinished business here. We're going back to their camp." Megan looked at me, her eyes wide in fear.

"Patrick..." She started. I put my finger to her lips, to silence her. She took the opportunity to kiss it.

"You know what the 'prophecy' said, Megan," I told her. Just in case she had forgotten, I repeated it.

"Leave no one behind and get what you came for."

"We have to go back, Megan; you know that."

"I know," she whimpered. "I just don't have to like it, though!" Katie, Becky and Victoria hugged her, assuring her it would be all right. I don't know where they got that idiotic idea; I didn't know it would be alright, so how would they know? Oh, right. I forgot.

Rhonda showed up a few minutes later, and hoisted us back up into the copter. We found a flat place to set it down, and made our plans. Rhonda gave me a big hug and kiss and told me she was so glad to meet me, with everything Sarah had told her about me. I looked puzzled, I'm sure, and Megan told me she would explain later.

The rest of the mission at the camp was interesting, but anticlimactic, until we reached the bottom level of the bunkers. There weren't any soldiers left in the complex; I guess we had taken care of most of them, and the rest had fled. We explored the top layers and found little of interest to us. The Marines would be interested in coming back here, to either collect or destroy all the weapons we found.

We finally ended up at a door that had no handles. Amy, our resident lock pick and thief checked it out for quite some time, and finally gave up, saying she had no idea how to open it. I watched her with a little smile on my face, enjoying the little genius stumped for a change. Katie looked at it for about ten seconds, looked at the smile on my face, and walked over to me, kissed me sweetly, slapped me on the arm and called me a smartass, then reached into my pocket and pulled out the necklace I had found on the dead soldier! She laughed at the stunned look I must have had on my face.

"Serves you right, Patrick, for being a smart aleck," Megan said, laughing at me.

"How did you know?" Amy and I asked together. Amy's expression when she looked at me told me I was so in trouble when she got me alone!

"Easy," Katie said. "Daddy was standing there with that little smile on his face that says he knows something we don't and is being a jerk! There is a slight indentation in the doorjamb where something could fit in, there was a bulge in his pocket, and finally, as soon as we approached the door, I could see this glowing in his pocket! The indentation in the doorjamb is glowing also. Voila!" She grinned, looking so proud of herself. I love Katie!

We all looked at the medallion in her hand, and indeed it was glowing faintly. So was the doorjamb. We all prepared ourselves mentally, including the readiness to bring up shields instantly, and I held the medallion up to the indentation. The door slid open quietly and we walked in.

I would have been intensely disappointed if we had not found Mr. 'Black Energy' in this room. I was not disappointed. He was packing some things up, and turned to face us as we walked in. He smiled at us, a seemingly genuine smile of warmth.

"Katiro! Nagalla! How nice to see you two again. I've missed you two. It has been, oh, I don't know, how many hundreds of years since we met last? I see you've brought some of your children with you. If you want, I will let them leave now. This is between us, and I really do hate to kill children. Especially ones as pretty as these. On second thought, let them stay. I will really enjoy them after I've dispensed with you." He gave an evil little laugh.

"Bandor, must we go through this nonsense again?" I sighed in exasperation. "How many times have you tried to kill us? Give up and go back to your cesspool before you hurt yourself." Megan was not nearly as nice. Her face turned dark and clouded over. It had been a long time since I had seen her really angry. It still scared me just as much as it ever did.

"Bandor, you scumbag, you ever so much as touch one of my children ever again and I will personally kill you very, very slowly. You will beg me to kill you before I am through with you. Be warned; Katiro is the nicer of the two of us. You really don't want to mess with me!" Even Amy shivered when Megan was through talking. 'Blackie' looked at her seriously, and then nodded his head at her.

"I do believe you would, too, Nagalla. I always was more afraid of you than the creampuff here. But the time has come for me to take over here. This is your last chance to leave alive. Leave the cute black haired one and I will let the rest go. I am so looking forward to making her my sex slave, having her beg me to abuse her; she is so cute!" I felt Amy's anger crackle through the air. This guy always was stupid. Go ahead, tease an angry bear. Not one of us expected what happened next, though.

There was a flash of green light and a huge ball of green energy slammed into 'Blackie', hurling him against the wall. Just as he was pulling away from the wall and dispelling the green ball, a green lightning bolt hit him, slamming him into the wall again. After dispelling that, he moved away from the wall, wiping blood off his face. I could tell he was mad, but I could also tell he was shaken up.

"Tell you what, little man. Come get me. I will even let you have me anyway you want. It's the least I can do, as it will be the last time you ever touch a female again without screaming your brains out in terror and agony. That is, if you live! Believe me; I won't be as easy as my sister was!" Amy was livid. She raised her hand again and 'Blackie' actually flinched. I had never seen her so mad before. Amy had no use for sexual predators; none whatsoever. She obviously was not a prude, but rape, abuse, drugs or coercion were crimes punishable by death as far as she was concerned. I was startled at the implication by her that he had been behind the rape of Cindi in the last cycle. 'Blackie' tried to recover some of his dignity.

"Well, well, well! So the little Guardian/Protector has grown some teeth, has she? A little tougher than the little wimp lying in the hospital bed dying, are you? Just remember, little girl, I can have you dying again anytime I want." He laughed at her, but it was a strained laugh.

Aw, shit! He called Amy a little girl! Damn it! Remember 'Don't mess with Mommy's Babies' from the last cycle? Lesson number two: 'Don't call Amy a little girl'! Even Daddy was not entirely safe doing that! I saw it in Megan's expression; we were committed now. Amy was not going to stop. Amy's eyes were flat and devoid of all expression and she was not coming back real soon. Had it been anyone other than Amy, I would have said that 'Blackie' had achieved his goal and made them mad, prone to mistakes, giving the advantage to him. Anyone except Amy. He didn't know who he was irritating. This was not the same Amy he remembered from before.