Jared was a content man.

  How could he not be?

  He gets paid enough money to live in a comfortable house with a big ftscreen TV. A Luxury sports car parked in the driveway, maids to clean the pce up.

  New name brand clothes filled his closet and even fancy Dragon-tech electronics filled his home.

  He even had a pet parrot, named Pete.

  He didn't have a wife or a girlfriend, rather hard to find them attractive when you had his tastes in women.

  He liked them pale, ashen with blueing lips and the warmth slowly leaving them.

  Hard to come by women like that in his day to day.

  But his boss somehow did.

  The mysterious man had always managed to obtain prime women for him when he did a good job. Coil even had the disposal perfectly pnned out as well.

  No fuss, no trouble.

  It's why he always puts maximum effort into following orders... Even if the orders made no sense.

  But the current job was leaving Jared feeling ill at ease.

  First it was the target, some little girl from one of the more high end parts of town. The area that screamed connections far more than his middle css neighborhood.

  But it wasn't the target that was causing the feeling, He'd done simir jobs in the past with no issue.

  It wasn't his job to judge the boss's proclivities, nor some of his coworkers', what with his taste being as they were.

  No, the issue came when they were loading up the target and over the radio Coil was just about to tell them to move to the extraction.

  The man cut off his radio along with a moan of pain.

  Jared looked over to Chris and gave him a questioning look. The 30 year old vet just shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.

  With their package secured in the back of the Bug Exterminator beled van they decided to at least get inside and wait for further instructions.

  The interior was sparsely furnished, basic jumper seats lined the walls for the 4 other operators who weren't in the front seats. in the center was their unconscious target hidden inside of an opaque dry cleaning bag and trussed up like a burrito inside that.

  Dave bounced his leg as he waited. Martin drummed his hands on his disguised rifle. Charlie was staring at the package with a hungry look. and Juan was busy catching Zs, using the prop sprayer tank as a head rest.

  Jared and Chris closed the back doors behind them as Frank and Jerome entered the front.

  "So anyone know what the fuck is up with Bossman?" Jerome spoke to the crew as he buckled in. The boss was very anal about obeying the street ws when not engaged.

  Dave's leg paused as he answered, "I bet he was having a panic attack. Dude's been on edge the whole fucking week, and Tyler in Beta squad said that his op almost went sideways due to Bossman radioing in them to attack before then telling them to retreat!" Dave crossed his arms over his Bright yellow coveralls. "'Said if it was any ter, Johnny would have been killed by one of Hook's mooks."

  Jared HAD noticed that. He's been on 4 different ops, not including this one, since the sirens went off and just about each one of them could have been FUBAR because Coil was sending conflicting orders.

  "Oddly enough it happened most often near the boat graveyard area. Did the Merchants get themselves a new cape?" Jared let out a snort at the thought.

  Said snort was heard by Dave.

  "Something funny, Jared? Wanna share it with the css?" He extended a hand to the rest of the visibly attentive crew.

  Jared rolled his eyes at the man's dispy and scoffed, "What's FUNNY, Dave. Is the fact that ever since the Endbrigner Sirens went off st week, Bossman has been giving out shit orders whenever we got near the Boat graveyard. And I'm sure Tyler and Beta Squad were near there. Something fishy's going on in Methnd, USA and I don't think it's the crack whores spreading their legs open."

  Frank let out a chuckle at the joke as Chris just smiled and shook his head.

  Juan let out a tired groan as he sat up, "Shit's prolly that Puta Negra on the news." He opened his eyes and panned them across everyone. "Listen, I ain't a fucking pensador, but my gut's telling me El Jefe has been trying to de with that monster, or at the very least that puta has been fucking with him. Shit just fits too perfectly together, ya know?"

  Everyone stilled at that.

  "Ah, FUCKING SHIT!"

  Frank yelled out as he started up the van, quickly shifting it into drive and roughly pulling them off the curb.

  Martin unzipped the coverall partially, revealing the pte carrier and spare magazines. Dave's leg started bouncing frantically as he copied the man, showing off several grenades on his rig. Charlie finally took his salivating gaze off of the little girl and copied everyone else. Jerome extended the stock of his SMG and checked the chamber for a round.

  Chris and Jared both followed suit ensuring they had ready access to both spare mags and the ser repcements.

  Juan unscrewed the chemical sprayer's tank and pulled out a rotary grenade uncher.

  Everyone made sure their safeties were off.

  The hum of the engine was loud in the silence. Frank was doing his best to get them all out of there, even if they had no real idea of where the boss wanted the package to be dropped off at. But seeing as they hadn't gotten any further orders, they weren't going to stand around with a thumb up their asses waiting for the man to get his shit together.

  Though maybe Frank should have at least followed Coil's rules about obeying the driving ws as.

  It might have made it harder or at the very least extended the time it took for what happened next.

  One second they were driving down the road and the next three long talons tore through the driver side of the cab. The windshield shattered into thousands of fragments, the steering wheel torn from its housing with an agonizing groan and shredding the upper half of Frank. His seat met a simir fate as it showered everyone in the yellow foam insides and tore Dave's arm off as it exited the van's side like a can opener.

  Dave cried out in pain as Juan pulled him from his seat, onto the floor and tried his best to stem the bleeding.

  Chris keyed his radio, "CONTACT, CONTACT, CONTACT. ALPHA SQUAD NEEDS BACKUP ASAP!"

  "FUCKING SHIT FUCK!", Jerome yelled out as he tried to stop the van, Franks dead weight start to accelerate the vehicle to dangerous speeds. He faces severe issues as Frank's lower half was still in the way as well as his barely connected head.

  He couldn't move the deadman's legs enough to get at the brake, nor move them to let off the gas.

  "BRACE FOR IMPACT!" He quickly yanked up on the now blood slick E-brake.

  The Screeching of the brakes grinding on the accelerating wheels was worse than nails on a chalkboard and it made Jared thankful that Coil got them all noise reduction earbuds. That man always had the weirdest priorities, but at the moment he was looking like a true saint.

  Despite the Van slowing down it did nothing to fix the fact that it couldn't be steered as the vehicle veered off to the side clipping some shitbox sedan. Jared felt the impact and was again thankful he remembered to buckle his seat belt as the world almost slowly began to tilt as four wheels turned to two and the momentum turned that into none as the whole van was flipped on its side.

  Juan and Dave barely missed the package as they went flying through the van, impacting Charlie and Martin, getting Dave's blood everywhere and knocking Charlie's head against the metal wall of the van.

  The van skidded across the asphalt for several yards before it came to a shuddering stop. The seatbelt dug into Jared's waist, the only thing preventing him from falling on top of a groggy Chris. His rifle dangled from its sling as he looked around the interior of the cargo space.

  Groans could be heard throughout it from everyone still alive, and it even came muffled from the little girl that was strapped to the floor, her bag shifting as she struggled within.

  Jared abruptly tensed as the sound of tearing metal came from the double doors to his right.

  Four obsidian talons punctured through the wall near where he knew the door hinge was. Then came the next set of four that came through the other hinge.

  He scrambled to grab ahold of his rifle and managed to get it up in time. In the next moment and with the blood curdling screech of tearing metal, the door was torn off of the van.

  Jared was blinded by the light of the midday sun for a moment and instead of shielding his eyes from the light, he held down the trigger and dumped his mag into the open.

  The gun fire created a deafening cacophony inside but Jared did not care. He heard the click, ejected the mag that fell on to Chris. He didn't care. Smming another mag into the port, rack the slide and keep firing into the aether.

  The operation was FUBAR already, might as well get the BBPD involved.