Chapter 7: Baptism by Gunfire
"I wonder if that's normal?" I asked, rapping on the gate with the knuckles of my right fist. Something that I found odd was how even though I knew I was super-durable, I could still feel how cold the metal was. Would've thought that being this tough would make me immune to that sort of thing.
"Hey!" A voice yelled from the other side, causing me to hop in fright. "I swear if you fucking kids don't stop banging on that gate, I'll come out and not even your own Ma would be able to recognize ya!"
"OI!" I yelled back, deciding to mess with the man. "This is the Police, Detective Stabler," There was a gasp from the other man, something that put a smile on my face. "Open up, we've gotten reports of gunfire coming from the docks, we need to check it out."
"This is private property," The said back, his voice trembling slightly but not giving away much else. "We're just practicing."
Oh, that is a poor lie.
"Going to need to see some papers about that," I leaned my back against the gate, hoping that the man wouldn't check with any cameras that could see me. "Can't just take your word on it, even on private property, ya need a permit to place shooting in an open area."
There was a period of silence, but then the man started yelling once more.
"Ya don't look like any pig? In that hoodie I doubt it's standard-issue," he asked, his voice tinged with so much suspension. "And ya the same name that the detective from SVU has? Don't tell me that your Catholic as a while?"
"And I bet you've never met anyone named Rodgers? Who worked in the army? I replied back, getting bored with the game already, it made me wonder how much I could scare them by breaking the door down. "And clothes… that's just what's called plain clothes, used so suspects don't know they're being tailed."
There was a scratch of metal, the sound of the gate unlocking through what sounded like a series of electronically controlled locks.
Something that I took advantage of as I squeezed my eyes together, thankfully activating my thermal vision and letting me see the trio of men holding up a few meters behind the gate, hands clearly holding up some automatic weapons.
I just smiled and leaped over the gate before it could fully open. There was some exclamations what the hell before I fell beside them…
"Hello, boys," I said, swiping my arm across their rifles so fast that none of them actually managing to pull the trigger before the guns were smashed against the wall, the resulting gunfire hitting harmlessly into the ground. "The man in blue is here."
I let the three guys jump back in fright before I decided to lightly, for me, smack them away by the shoulder. The gasped in my pain, something that did nothing to mask the sound of more guns cocking behind me.
"Take the fucker out!" Another man yelled out, this time I didn't manage to turn around before they opened fire on me, the bullets hitting into my back feeling like hail hitting my skin.
While I could feel my clothes start to gain holes, start to rip, I couldn't find it in myself to care, not since none of them were even bothering to aim for my head.
That meant I didn't have to worry about my face being identified.
"Guys!" I yelled out, trying to be heard over all the gunfire I was still soaking up. "You do realize that I'm bulletproof!" Making my way towards them slowly, it was only as I was within a few meters of the men when they stopped firing.
"He must be wearing from fancy vest!" One of them yelled, taking the butt of the gun and then whacking me across the face with the Barrell. It was an interesting sensation as it hit my jaw like I'd been to the dentist and was numbed.
There was a loud crack, then the rifle fell to pieces.
"So…" I cracked my neck slightly. Letting them hear the bone pop and watched as their faces went white. "What's in the back?"
I didn't even bother to wait for a response, instead, I just blew through the crowd of mafia goons in front of me like they were nothing but a bunch of bowling pins. Their groans echoing out throughout the docks even as I made my way towards some cargo containers.
There were about fifty of them on the docks themselves, it looks like they were still working on unloading the containers from the ship nearby, the crane still had a hook on to another one at the moment, but it looked like due to all the commotion that I'd made, the operator had thrown themselves out of it.
Once more I concentrated and let my vision turn thermal once again. I looked around the area, searching for the heat sources that should've been there if the girls were in one of them.
It didn't take long before my eyes had taken note of all the containers on land, finding them empty… expect for the one that mooed… but I doubt that the cow shapes inside that one were fakes.
If there weren't any girls on the docks, that meant that they could still be on the ship.
"This night just gets longer," I mumbled, my eyes having spotted the next ship over before I could even bend my knees. "Is it odd that I can't see any more ships nearby? Isn't this meant to be a docking area? How isn't this as suspicious as hell."
Suddenly my ears started to ring, a loud kaboom going off beside me. It was the first time that I'd felt pain since I got here, taking me off my feet and splattering my blood over the concrete ground as if I was nothing but a normal person.
"Proper paperwork punk!" I heard a strong Irish bogue yell down at me, their voice coming in and out of focus as the world above me swirled. It didn't last for long, just long enough for the man to come into my view,n their big brown beard thick with grey strands. "Did you think that you could just walk in here and take what was ours?"
He shoved the barrel of a shotgun into my face, one of those expensive shots guns that I've only seen in video games.
"Now, you're going to squeal about who told you about our cargo," It was then the man slapped me in the face with the barrel, something that didn't go as planned for the man. The metal bent in the shape of my jaw rather smashing it in.
Suddenly the pain in my side muted, I could even feel the strength in my body return to a state where it was like I'd only been scratched.
"Wha-" Before I got a chance to flip back to my feet, I could only watch as the butt of a clearly empty pistol snapped into my only successful attacker's nose, crushing it in a splatter of blood that rivaled my own from moments earlier.
I rolled back as a man dressed black dropped down from one of the cargo containers. His clothes were simple, looking close enough to sports gear that I wouldn't be surprised if it was true but they were painted black to mask the white lines that would usually be there.
His face had some sort of self-made half mask, covering his eyes from view and looking like it was made of two parts, a white layer of cloth with a black one on top of it.
"You make too much noise, too many risks," The Man In Black told me, his voice low and breathy like he was trying to do a poor job to make it. "You could've gotten both yourself and those girls killed."
I ignored him, not out of any inherent lack of respect for the man, it was obvious that he was here for the same reason I was and meant that I had to give the man some respect.
No, it was instead out of how my attention was completely taken by the popping noises that I could hear coming out of my back.
It was the shotgun pellets being pushed out by the regeneration that my back was currently undergoing.
There was a twitch from the man's eyes, another from his nose and that told me all that I needed to that he'd noticed what just happened.
That was only a little suspicious, it's possible that he'd seen the pellets hit the ground but from the way his mouth gaping in surprise, I think he could actually hear the same thing that I did.
"As you can see-" The Man in Black scoffed openly as I said this for some reason. "-ain't nothing that can hurt me. How you learn about all this?"
My rapid change of tone and no doubt I deflected his insult towards me, seemed to take him off guard. That was If his body tensing was other to be believed.
"I overheard some goons talking about some merchandise," I could sense the air quotes in that sentence even if the man hadn't made any. "Taking about how they might be allowed to take some of the juicy desserts home to bake with… yeah, they mixed their metaphors."
"Eugh," It didn't matter, I got what the man was saying, and while disgusted with it, I couldn't be any more glad that O'Reilly thought that this was the one criminal enterprise that he wouldn't allow his group to engage in. "Well… that is an image that I will never get out of my head. Thanks for that."
"You're welcome," The Man In Black smiled, cheerfully at that. "I try and please."
"As nice as this conversation is, we do got some girls to find don't we?" I wasn't an egotist, I didn't care about doing this solo in any way, so if this guy can help me find the poor girls then it was always going to be something that I'd welcome. "Any idea if they're on those ships?"
The Man In Black simply nodded, waving his arm for me to follow him as he turned his back to me and started to walk towards the larger of the two ships. It was the one without the crane connected to one of its cargo containers.
It also wasn't the most impressive ship that I'd ever seen in my life, it was rusty in places and the pain on the edges was peeling off but it was large enough to hold over a hundred cargo containers.
Definitely, the first place that I'd have looked for the girls after the docks themselves.
"Found them.," We both suddenly spoke at the same time as her feet hit the ramp leading to the ship. My head turned to face his, while he seemed to turn his ear to hear my next response better.
"Seems like I'm not the only one that is special," I sniped, grinning at the rather unamused stare I could sense the other man was giving me from underneath his mask. "Come on, I-" I stopped, my thermal vision spotting a man around the corner, with a rather oddly shaped object on his back.
"What-" My fellow vigilante was interrupted, but rather me or even himself stopping mid-sentence, no it was instead the man from around the corner, jumping around his hiding spot and letting loose a spray of flame from a flamethrower he'd been carrying.
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