Chapter 18 -Rage Uncaging-

  It was well that Paulie and the others were wearing their special electronic earplugs or the percussion of his revolver going off would likely have deafened them as it reverberated off the metal walls of the enclosed space. The same couldn't be said for the armed alien that had been in the process of aiming its gun at Officer Sasfren. The bullet tore through the thin metal of the opened panel like it wasn’t there and punched a hole straight through it rge enough for light to shine through as the rest of the officers turned towards the threat.

  But all they were met with was the wet thud of the twitching body as it tumbled from the opening, several of the officers turning astonished eyes towards Paulie as he realised what had happened consciously. He took a deep breath, he had acted without thought. Instinctively, and far quicker than he might have otherwise believed he could.

  Now he shuddered, the adrenaline making his shoulders shake slightly. That had almost been bad, what if they had managed to get a shot off? What would have happened if..

  ‘No, I can’t dwell on it.’ He told himself silently even as the sound of more hatches opening reached his ears.

  Almost immediately, Mack shouted for them to push out of the kill box as hatches swung open all around the room. It was an ambush! They must have been waiting for them to get further into the room, but one of them had jumped the gun. Giving them just enough time to take cover from the rest.

  Officer Sasfren screeched, “Take cover!” And then the air was awash in sparking purple psma and shes of molten metal from near misses. Paulie ducked down behind a box of what looked like thick pstic tubes, the thermal mass of the unknown cargo easily absorbing the psma fire directed his way as the crackling energies hissed overhead.

  He saw one of the special operations security get hit on their shoulder, the armour ptes spitting violently as the abtive coating worked to dissipate the heat and shock. Still, the viltessian trooper hissed in pain as they fell back to be dragged into cover by one of their fellows while molten drops of alloy dripped from the damaged pte.

  This was bad, they were well and truly pinned down. Paulie looked around, Jakiikii was attempting to get an angle but amid the chaos of the room and the cacophony of light and sound, the termaxxi woman seemed overwhelmed.

  He tensed and then swallowed heavily, setting his gun down on the floor he tested the weight of the crate next to him. It was heavy, but not insurmountably so. A pn formed in the back of his mind, and he smiled. The bad guys wouldn't know what hit them. There was surely no way they knew of his true capabilities, he was called an apocalypser for a reason after all.

  He called over to Jakiikii, “Hey, I am going to make a distraction. Get ready to shoot!” He saw her look at him, all six eyes focusing on Paulie’s features as the alien woman seemed to freeze slightly. He supposed that she was as ready as she could be, given that he was about to do something completely ludicrous and stupid. But as his uncle had once told him in a partially drunken stupor, it is only stupid if it doesn't work.

  He gripped the rge crate with both hands and then with a yell of effort, picked it up and hurled the heavy piece of cover towards one of the open vents. It was less a direct attack and more-so a distraction to give Jakiikii and the other officers an opening to move into better cover.

  It worked, kind of, the crate smashing the vent door with enough force to sm one of the offending aliens to the ground amid the sound of splintering wood. Mack had the presence of mind to use the distraction for what it was, the miriam detective leaning out of cover and putting down another of the criminals with a well pced shot to the head.

  Jakiikii leapt for another stack of crates as the other officers looked around in apparent confusion. Paulie grabbed his revolver and dived to her side, the two of them pressing their backs into the rge psteel container as the intensity of the incoming fire faltered a little.

  He gnced at Jakiikii, her eyes had a sort of wild gleam to them that he was unfamiliar with. Her breathing slits fred as she took another heavy breath and then spoke in that husky tenor, “I think you caught them off guard with that move.”

  He chuckled a little. “Yeah, them and everyone else it seems.”

  Officer Sasfren had already recovered, the maggastium woman shouting directions to her pinned down troops as Mack let off another series of shots with his rifle.

  Paulie had two choices in that moment, he could try and gain a more advantageous position and maybe take one of the thugs by surprise, or maybe he could try and distract them again. He looked towards Mack, his muscles tensing as he prepared to make a decision. The wrong choice here could mean injury or death.

  He never got that far though as he heard something rge smack into the box next to him and bounce across the floor with a metallic ctter.

  A moment ter he was smmed to the ground by a bck-suited blur as Jakiikii bore him to the floor while shrieking, “Down!”

  Paulie had only time to open his mouth in surprise when there was a loud noise and light filled the room along with a pressure wave that knocked the air from his lungs. He hit the ground hard enough to bruise, Jakiikii y slumped across his chest. The termaxxi woman seemingly dazed as she blinked her pink and orange eyes while one of her secondary arms raised to rub her angur head. Even with his hearing protection, that had been loud

  He gripped her shoulders and asked loudly over the ringing in his ears, “Jakiikii, are you alright?!” She nodded after a moment and pushed herself off him allowing Paulie to scramble into a low crouch.

  He seemed much less affected by the concussion of the bst than she had been, he noted as he looked around at all the other officers who were still down. There was a smouldering mark on the floor where he had been standing only a moment before. He frowned, his lips pulling back in a snarl as he saw Mack’s still body on the other side of the scorched mark.

  ‘No!’ Paulie cried internally as he saw a spsh of blue near Mack's unmoving body. He heard gunfire ssh towards him as he broke from cover to rush to the miriam’s side. It was stupid, it was rash. But his friend was hurt, and he would allow nothing to get in his way.

  He skidded to a stop, heedless of his surroundings. Mack was hurt, and hurt badly. Paulie’s eyes filled with angry tears as he saw the ruined stump of the detective's leg and the slowly spreading blots of dark blue on his undershirt from fragmentation. The miriam was still breathing, but he had lost a lot of blood. Maybe too much.

  “Help, somebody help me!” He shouted, one of the other officers who had managed to drag themselves back up crawled his way. It was the viltessian, they had cracks in their carapace that leaked streamers of smouldering purple blood that hissed and popped upon exposure to the air. But they opened a pouch on their lower side and pulled out something that they strapped to the remains of Mack’s leg.

  The insectoid eyes of the creature were dark, but their chittering voice was filled with pain and anger as she spoke, “I have to stabilise his wounds or he will surely perish.”

  Paulie nodded numbly and sat back down with a grunt. He looked around the room, the other officers were stirring, many of them now risen and firing back at the gangsters that surrounded them.

  They were doomed, they were going to die. Everything he had been through would be for nothing, all the pain. All the suffering…

  Paulie felt something snap in his mind, the feeling of a wall being broken down or perhaps the foundations of his self control shattering as they crumbled and a white hot rage boiled up from below. They would all die here, but Paulie would make those who hurt him bleed first if he could, he would make them suffer.

  He stood, ramrod straight as he took a breath and closed his eyes. He let it out explosively and gripped his revolver tightly as he rolled his shoulders. His eyes snapped open, and he grimaced like a pained animal as he finally let go of his self control.

  Gone was the false veneer of calm that he had projected like a bnket of wellness. The screen of lies he had worn like a veil to cover the murderous intentions of his soul. He was wrath.. he was rage. He was death.

  Lights fshed by and illuminated the dim room in purple and blue strobes as Paulie felt the adrenaline surge in his bloodstream, spittle flying from his lips as he let out a roar of pure, unfettered rage that seemed to shake the small room and caused more than one of the CenSec officers to cower in terror at the sight. He was Paulie no longer. In his pce was a beast, the fear and horror that had been festering in his heart now released. Given savage direction by his pain and fueled by the anger that burned like a dying star in his mind. Without really thinking about what he was doing, Paulie took two long strides forwards and kicked one of the rge metal crates hard enough to dent its surface inwards.

  The heavy box was catapulted through the other crates it was stacked atop and impacted one of the thugs that had been sheltering behind with enough force to shatter bones and rupture flesh.

  They died silently amid an explosion of gore as Paulie raised the revolver and fired it twice upon the other enemy that had been revealed. The huge hand cannon roared its hatred and spat fire, one bullet taking the dark cd heechian in the upper chest. They were thrown against the wall behind them, the light dying in their eyes as they left a spsh of blood that dripped down the wall behind them.

  But Paulie wasn’t looking any longer. He had already left them behind. He was fast, far faster and stronger than any of these evil creatures had realised. He leapt over an entire stack of metal crates and charged a terrified vekegh, the pink furred alien’s breathing slits fring wide as it let out a horrified scream. He saw it raise its psma gun and fire several times. Paulie grunting as a superheated bolt spshed against his armoured chest, one more passing close enough to singe the skin of his cheek. Another impacted him right in the center of his chestpte, the high energy impact rocking him back slightly.

  But it was too little too te. He didn’t even bother to slow as he simply tackled the criminal with enough force to halt its screaming forevermore with the sound of shattering bone.

  As he scrambled back to his feet amid the sptters of gore, he heard more gunfire coming from the opposite side of the room. It was still dim, but the fshlights of the officers were illuminating the room enough for his widely dited eyes to see.

  He was breathing heavy and the roar of his own blood pumping filled his ears, alien blood and other fluids dripped from his huge frame, though most of it wasn’t his. A small part of his mind did register several new cuts and bruises forming on his arms and legs from his wild flight but it was not a concern. He shook his head with a low growl, dark hair filing as he looked around the dimly lit room. Some of the rage bled from him as the red seemed to recede from his vision. But he was still angry, more than angry enough to kill.

  Paulie checked his gun, still three bullets in their chambers. More than enough to mop up the remains. Stalking forwards towards the commotion with much more internal deliberation than he had shown a moment before he rounded another crate to see two more of the thugs firing their weapons towards the still hunkered officers. His friends were over there, and Jakiikii.

  He gave another shout, this one less primal but no less startling in its volume and potency. The thugs jolted, one turning his way right as Paulie shot it in the chest. The flimsy armour it wore did nothing to stop the kinetic projectile, the bullet passing right through them and hitting the alien behind them in the shoulder hard enough to knock the second one to the ground with a chirp of pained surprise.

  Before he could step forwards to finish it off there was a loud hissing snap and the creature’s skull was painted across three meters of concrete floor. Jakiikii stepped from around the corner, her energy rifle cradled in a four-armed grip. She waved him over with one of her longer primary arms and he stepped to her side carefully, doing his best to avoid the slowly spreading puddles that the gangsters had become.

  He opened his mouth to speak, but he didn’t get the chance as the termaxxi threw herself at him and let her gun hang by her side as she gripped him fiercely in a five-armed hug, seemingly heedless of the gore that was spshed across his body. He could feel her shudder as a low keening sound rattled from her chest. She was likely afraid that Mack might not make it, hell, he was too and he had only known the dour miriam detective for a few weeks. She had known him for years, he was like a father to her, or the closest thing her species had anyway.

  She continued like that for another few moments, Paulie just reached up and rubbed her upper back gently, taking care not to cover either of her breathing vents near her upper shoulder bdes. He heard more shots as he stood there, but in only another second it was over. He felt the rage drain from him slowly, the raw emotions being repced by a deep feeling of anguish that threatened to drag him down into despair. But he couldn't let it take him. He had to be strong for his friends.

  He gripped the termaxxi’s shoulder, fingers brushing her fuzzy neck fur as her eyes slowly swiveled away from her head to look at him. He swallowed, what did one say in a situation like this. He had no idea, so he winged it. “We will get her, Ooounoo won't get away with this.”

  His appeal to vengeance must have been the right choice as he saw steel in her eyes. The hard look repced the fearful vulnerability he had seen in them only moments before and she nodded. Her voice gurgled slightly as she took a deep breath. “No, she won’t.” She gnced down at his hand on her neck with two of her nearer petal-like eyes and then back to his face. “We will take her down, together.”

  Paulie smiled, that was more like it. He shivered internally as he saw the murder in her alien expression. He had spent enough time around the strange woman to have gained a basic understanding of her expressions, and this one was far from pleasant. He smirked internally, Ooounoo had better look out. Because if he didn’t kill her, then Jakiikii probably would. And she would make it hurt.