Chapter 35

I watched Amy enter into 'Amy Mode' as she slipped towards the men with guns. I felt myself kick into the same mode. I then discovered another feature; I could watch all of the girls at the same time. What I saw amazed even me.

Once Amy goes into 'Amy Mode', nothing affects her. She has one objective; to protect everyone that needs protecting. I am first on that list, with all the other family members next in line. With all the time we had spent with the President's family, and just the fact that he was the President, put him high up on that list also, and of course, his family was in the room.

The point is, as I said, nothing affects Amy when she is in that mode.

I saw Sarah tilt her head slightly to the side.

"Guns," she whispered quietly to herself.

Amy never even blinked when her gun suddenly appeared in her hand, loaded, a bullet chambered and ready to fire. She shot the first man in the head just as he was bringing his gun up to fire towards the platform. The other two men fired simultaneously at the nearest Secret Service agents, who hadn't even gotten their guns out yet. As the agents went down, Amy kicked the first shooter in the head, probably breaking his neck if the way his head and neck bent at a strange angle was any indication. As she spun from kicking him, she brought her free hand up and slashed the other man across the bridge of his nose with the flat edge of the palm of her hand. I was close enough to hear the bones break and see his eyes defocus and roll up in his head.

It was apparent from the start that whoever these guys were, they were targeting the protective agents first.

Megan only blinked once rapidly when her fully loaded gun appeared in her hand at about the same time as Amy's gun appeared. She shot the man closest to her between the eyes just as he shot the nearest Secret Service agent and then she started looking around to see who else needed help.

Sammi, Julie, Becky, Katie and Cindi were a little more excitable than Amy and Megan, and they flinched a little in surprise as their guns appeared like magic in their hands. That half-second or so was all the assassins were going to get, however. The girls dispatched the men nearest to them smoothly and looked around also to see who else needed help.

By this time, which was a much shorter time than it took to write this, the room was full of screaming people, most of whom were diving to the floor to escape the gunfire. The shots were coming so quickly together that it was almost impossible to tell how many were being fired or where they were coming from.

Victoria responded much the same way as Megan did. She hardly reacted at all when her gun appeared in her hand, and proceeded to shoot everything that moved that had a gun and was not dressed in a suit or was not a family member of ours. She had seen, as I had, that the Secret Service agents were being targeted, so she proceeded to protect David and Russ as they headed towards the President. She had seen that the President and his family were standing on the platform alone, completely unprotected. All the agents around them were down.

Victoria, Russ, David, and Cindi all arrived at the platform at about the same time. They formed a protective shell around the First Family, ready to take on anyone that appeared. I was seeing a side of Cindi that I had never seen before. With Amy around, she had never needed to show off her physical abilities before. I couldn't even tell you when my gun had appeared in my hand. I had not fired it yet, but I was prepared to protect the First Family in any way I could. I was preparing to head for the platform to add protection when things started to go down the tubes around Amy. I saw Becky and Katie heading for the platform, so I stayed near Amy. Katie veered off to approach Amy and me as she saw the complications arising.

Suddenly, it was almost completely quiet. I say almost because there were still a few screams and I could hear the sound of gunfire outside of the room. That worried me most of all. I could tell from just looking around the room that most of the Secret Service agents were down. Julie and Sammi were guarding the door, worried expressions on their faces. Apparently, they had heard the sounds of firing in the halls also.

The most dangerous part of any situation like this was people shooting other people who were on the same side by accident. There were local deputy sheriffs and municipal policemen in the room providing crowd control, and they were not nearly as well trained for these situations as the President's bodyguards were. Even most of the Secret Service would not have recognized us as the good guys, and having a gun in your hand made you suspect. My girls recognized that danger, and so as soon as the situation was under control, each of them raised their gun hand into the air, barrel pointed towards the ceiling, and released their finger from the trigger, trying to show they were not a threat. In most cases that was appreciated and good enough. Not, however, for the jerk that was approaching Amy.

Apparently, this deputy had seen Amy shoot one man and take two others out and decided she was a threat. He approached her, gun pointed at her head, and told her to drop her gun. My breath caught in my throat as I thought of all the possibilities that could happen here.

I have always told the girls, time after time, that you always obey police officers. You don't shoot them or injure them in any way unless your life is in imminent danger, no matter how big an asshole they are being. You obey everything they tell you to do, unless it will cause immediate harm to you or others around you.

Amy apparently learned that lesson well. We had had a long talk after the incident in the last cycle when she disarmed the policeman when he tried to arrest Victoria. She had been perfectly justified in her actions that time, but I made sure she understood that that was a unique case. She slowly stooped to the floor and laid her gun down. When she stood up, he approached her and proceeded to handcuff her hands behind her back. I was so impressed with my Amy; she let him do it. The look on her face would have killed him instantly if looks could kill (I was never sure they couldn't with my girls!) but she let him do it. Unfortunately, I had not been involved in Sarah's training on this issue, and Katie wasn't as well trained as Amy was, apparently.

The deputy had just finished cuffing Amy and had just started turning around when I heard Katie speak.

"Not gonna happen," she said softly. I heard a clank of metal on the floor. The Deputy and I looked at the same time and saw the handcuffs lying on the floor, open, behind Amy. She was standing there, smiling sweetly and dangerously, her hands still clasped behind her back. His face turned red as he bent down, picked up the handcuffs, and put them on Amy again. He hadn't even turned around yet when they clanked on the floor again. As he bent down to pick then up again, I heard Sarah speak.

"She said no, God damn it!" Sarah hissed. I watched as the handcuffs flew rapidly across the room. They struck the far wall so hard they embedded into the wall and stuck there.

This deputy was a real dumb shit. He raised his gun in a threatening manner, and went to pull the slide back on the automatic, preparing to fire. The slide stayed right where it was, refusing to move, as I saw Katie concentrate briefly. Then the gun flew across the room, joining the handcuffs.

"Jackass!" Sarah breathed quietly. She underestimated how stupid he was. He pulled out a stun gun, pointed it at Amy and fired. Katie laughed as nothing happened. She laughed again as the stun gun fell apart into a pile of pieces.

I was watching Megan from the time this all began. She did something I had never seen her do before. In fact, I had never seen anyone do this before. She turned around and walked up to the President. Nothing unusual about that. The unusual part was that she walked by everyone between her and the President, while clearly holding a gun in her hand, past police officers who didn't know her at all, and not one person seemed to even notice she was there, much less try to stop her. They had threatened to shoot other people attempting to do the same thing. Megan is quiet, but she usually was not invisible. She reached the President, standing right next to him, and reached out and touched his shoulder. He jumped as if he had never seen her. I just had to eavesdrop on this conversation.

"Mr. President, we need your help. Amy saved all of your lives, and that deputy is trying to arrest her and threatening her with bodily harm. Please do something before someone gets hurt," she said softly in his ear. She didn't say that it wouldn't be Amy that got hurt. The President spoke briefly to Russ, and immediately afterward, the Deputy was escorted to another part of the room.

I quickly told the girls to all assemble around the President and his family. Soon, we were all surrounding him. I quickly did a head count and realized that John and Rhonda were not with us. That was when I saw John walking towards us, carrying Rhonda in his arms.

It didn't take a genius to be able to tell by the look on his face that the news was not good. I really didn't care for the amount of blood that was soaking his shirt. Megan quickly joined him and together they laid her on the floor. I walked over and asked Megan how bad it was. She looked up at me, with tears in her eyes.

"It's bad. I need to get her somewhere private and safe where I can help her, like now, or we are going to lose her," she whispered, a look of worry on her face. I saw Sarah heading over to see how her sister was and I grabbed her arm, leading her instead towards the President. Sarah was not stupid. She saw John carrying Rhonda, she saw the blood all over his shirt, and she saw her sister not moving and Megan with tears in her eyes. She was frightened.

"How's Rhonda?" Sarah asked, near tears. I put my arm around her.

"Rhonda will be fine. Right now, I need you for something else. Come with me, Sarah." She followed obediently. I walked up to the President.

The President was still in a state of shock. In less than a minute, he had seen his Secret Service force almost completely taken out. Russ and David were the only ones left standing in the room. He was afraid for his family, what was going to happen to them. He was concerned about my family. He was concerned for Sarah and Rhonda. He could see that Rhonda was hurt. Finally, he could hear the sounds of gunfire in the halls. This was not over yet.

"Mr. President, we need to get you and your family out of her, now," I told him, trying to get him to focus. He sighed heavily.

"I'm sorry, Patrick, but those doors are the only way out, and you can hear the gunfire out in the hallway as well as I can." He sighed again, looking distraught. "I'm sorry I got you all into this. I always knew there was a chance I could be assassinated, but I never thought I would lose my family at the same time. I am just heartsick that all these precious girls, my wife, your sister and girlfriend are all going to die. I'm sorry," he repeated. I looked at his daughters, their eyes wide in fear, but trying to be brave, trying not to cry. His wife was a little more successful at acting brave. I shook him gently to get his attention.

"Mr. President, no one is going to die here that has not already been killed. We need to get you out of here because you are in danger. There is another reason we need to get out of here, now, which will be obvious in a few minutes. Where is the safest room we can get you to? Don't worry about whether we can get there or not; just tell me where you would go to be safe if you could get there." He looked at me oddly, and then told me where he would go. I turned to Sarah.

"I know where that room is. I can do it," she said confidently. This was better than I had hoped; I remembered that she had been a frequent guest of the President and his family during her recuperation.

"Then do it now, honey. We need to get out of here while everyone is still in shock, and is too busy ducking bullets to notice what we are doing. We need to help your sister, too. Do it now, Sarah," I told her. She called us all close together, with Rhonda in the middle of the circle. I looked around and noticed no one was really watching us. It had only been a short while since the guns had stopped firing. Victoria leaned over and whispered something into David's ear. Russ and David didn't know what was going on, but they picked up that for some reason we didn't want witnesses, and that we were going to save the President and his family. They pulled their guns out and fired a couple shots each into the air, to keep everybody's heads down.

Sarah asked us all to join hands, including Rhonda's hands. I assumed with as many of us as there were, she would need to use The Ceremony for more power. She looked into my eyes.

"Daddy, do you love me?" She asked solemnly. Huh?

"I love you, Sarah," I answered. Daddy?

"Daddy, do you trust me?" She asked, just as solemnly. I still didn't understand. Daddy?

"I trust you, Sarah," I assured her. She tilted her head to the side, and the whole room radiated with a silver glow. There was a bright silver flash, and then we were in another room.

I looked around me. I was still standing next to the President. The look on his face was priceless. His daughters were standing there with their mouths open, eyes big as saucers. Grace seemed very surprised. Russ and David had the normal stoic look on their faces that Secret Service agents were known for. I motioned for Megan to start preparing Rhonda. I was afraid she was running out of time. Then, I gathered all of the First Family together, along with David and Russ. I could still hear gunshots; in fact, they sounded closer. The President spoke first.

"I don't know how we got here, but it seems like we are actually in a worse position. I guess I didn't choose very well. I just hope help arrives soon enough, but we seem to be cut off. Radios, cell phones, none of them are working." He looked at me sadly. "The odds don't look good, Patrick." I smiled back at him.

"You're right. The odds are not good. I really should send Megan and Amy home. Then the other guys would at least have a chance. Oh well, they started it. They deserve what they're going to get." They all looked at me with skepticism. "I told you, none of you are going to die."

"I don't understand," the President said. "You have a bunch of girls. How are you going to keep us safe?" They all looked at me as if I was crazy.

"Mr. President, before this is all over, you will have a whole new respect for what a 'bunch of girls' can do. At least, this bunch of girls. Have you forgotten already about the medals you just issued them, and what they did to earn those medals? Of course, I doubt that your military advisors told you the whole story." I dropped my voice to a whisper. "Do yourself a favor, sir — don't ever let my girls hear you call them just a bunch of girls. At least, not Amy, Cindi or Sammi. Being President of the United States won't help you if you do. I'm their Dad and I don't dare say that!" I smiled and winked at them, trying to lighten the mood. Valerie, Christina, and Grace at least smiled a little.

"Ok. What do you need us to do?" The President asked, trying to sound convinced.

"The only thing I need from you and your family, and these two agents, sir, is all of your firm promises to never talk about anything you see out of the ordinary today. Public disclosure of what has happened and what is about to happen here today would cause serious problems for me and my family. It may also get you locked up in a mental hospital and will certainly cost you re-election. Do I have your promises?" They all nodded their heads 'yes'. The President smiled slightly.

"Would you not save us if we didn't promise?" He asked jokingly. I answered him seriously.

"I am not going to save you, regardless. That bunch of girls are going to save you. They will do so whether you promise or not. That promise only makes all of our lives easier." I then became serious, as I could see Megan was in position.

"First of all, Megan needs to help Rhonda. She is badly hurt, and there isn't time to wait for a doctor. Please don't be alarmed at what you see."

I turned to Megan and asked her if she was ready.

"I think I am going to need you and Julie for this, Patrick. She is not doing well. I also am not going to be able to be subtle here. Purple and pink lightning is going to be flying everywhere. There are going to be witnesses that might cause repercussions." I saw the First Family look at her, confused, trying to understand what she was saying.

"That's ok, Megan. We are in the middle of an attack. All kinds of weird things are happening. It will be blamed on hysteria. Look how long swamp gas lasted as an explanation. We don't have a choice. I won't let her die. Do what you have to, dear," I commanded her. She smiled, thanking me with her eyes for taking the responsibility. I just hoped we could get this done before we got busy again. I saw the fear in Sarah's eyes as I mentioned the possibility of Rhonda dying. I hugged her close and told her it would be ok.

Megan, Julie, and I joined hands, and then Megan and I each took one of Rhonda's hands. Megan tilted her head, and for a moment, nothing happened, except a soft purple glow throughout the room. I was about to brace myself for the shock of what I knew was coming when I felt as much as saw a flash of multicolored light fill the room briefly. I saw Megan's eyes open in surprise, and then I felt something soft brush past my leg. Cire walked over to us and sat down a few feet away from me. I heard his voice in my head, and knew by the look in their eyes that Megan and Julie heard it too.

"Now you can start. You need my help for this one."

Megan closed her eyes again, and the room glowed purple again. Then the now familiar 'all hell' broke loose.

At first, purple lightning flashed from the corners of the room and the ceiling, bolts coming from everywhere, too numerous to count. The bolts struck Megan, then crossed over to me, and emerged from me as white light, entering Rhonda. I saw the looks of disbelief on the faces of the First Family. It didn't help their disbelief any when the pink lightning bolts, speckled with strings of white light, began to flash from the corners and ceiling also, striking me directly. They looked even more startled when the wide rainbow colored lightning bolts began to flash from the walls and ceiling, striking me directly. The white energy coming from me then was even brighter, so brightly white it was difficult to look at, as it entered Rhonda's body.

After a minute or so, the bolts of energy died out. We just sat there, watching. A minute later, Rhonda's eyes opened, and she looked around the room in confusion. Cire walked over and licked her nose. She giggled, then took Megan's proffered hand and stood up.