The Store

Gunfire ripped through the metal leaving outward craters. Jarod, leaning around the car, had the foe in sight. An old jeep with a cannon, strapped to the back, let out shots bucking the jeep from side to side. Jarod, about to lean around and take a pot shot, was grabbed on the shoulder by Perception. "I wouldn't do that, unless you won't chicken soup for a face." Jarod looked at Perception and gave him an awkward glare, but when doing so a shell hit where Jarod would have leaned out. "Told yeah, Jarod you may want to start listening to me," Perception gave him the look of disappointment. When saying that, a large roar came from overhead, pushing both men's backs into the burning car. A jet shaped like a large V appeared, all black with no noticeable lines. The radio on Perceptions shoulder came to life.

"Two four two, Bravo six, we see your position," the radio yelled, "proceeding with counter strike." The aircraft ripped out a large missle from it's under-belly and then banked right. Streaming into the air the missle was vectored towards the Jeep. Seeing this, the pilots of the Jeep screamed the tires into the asphalt, but the action was little too late. All the men felt was the intense heat from the explosion as the Jeep was lit up, lifted off the ground for a half second, then dropped back down. Parts fell off, burning and smelting into liquid from the intense heat. "Confirm target was neutralized," the radio again belched.

"Target silenced Bravo six, thanks and good hunting," Perception announced. Relief filled both men, as the fight was over; however small, significant. "Just going to get harder from here out, hope your aim is good Jarod."

"Of course, bloody boys with the toy guns, no match," Jarod defending himself, cocked his large rail gun. "Time to get up and look at this store, cut the shut Perception, lets go." Mentioning his name, brought him back into reality. Perception viewed Jarod walking into the store, and he jumped to his feet, running into the store with him. Immediately when arriving they saw what caused the explosion, the shattered cylinder lay amongst the charred bodies. The charred bodies where small, lined up as to leave the store. It hit Perception like a shot in the head, this may not have been a store. Jarod called him over, and he knew what he had to do. Perception reached for the shattered cylinder; he dove into the depths of another vision.

He viewed the children, playing and laughing, going amongst others screaming and running. As he saw this, attention caught him, a man with a bag handed it to an elder worker. The man pointed at one of the children, and spoke to the woman. The woman nodding her head agreeably, turned and walked towards the child, she looked once again at the door to view the man. He was gone, not considering the gift anything substantial, the elder shook her head walking towards the child. The child ran towards her, seeing the bag was for him, and started to rip it open. His hands grabbed the bag, the bag blew a bright light and enveloped the child. In an instant, daycare was gone. Perception jumped back into reality with a cold sweat down his back, shuttering he looked a Jarod. "Fucking daycare, a bloody goddamn daycare!" He screamed towards Jarod, "children man!"

Jarod suprised by his outburst, "what happened?"

"This was a daycare, and a man blew it to shit." Perception tightened his fist as anger overwhelmed him. Another cold shiver took enveloped him as a whisper took over his body.

"Calm down, you boys can't hack this. Let me handle this one," the voice was cold as it drafted into his ear. Yet sweet and soft, like a bow string just plucked. Perception calmed when hearing this, knowing the sound of the voice.

"Ah Valid, who would have known, you showing up at such a scene," Perception turning and facing her, "so what's the news today?"

Valid, responding to the criticism, "well today we have a daycare torn to bits." Continuing, "tomorrow, who knows, maybe a school." Valid views Perception, and kicks her short red hair behind the ear. Looking downwards, Valid concedes and gets closer to Perception; touching his chest Valid continues, "I'm here for you all, here to help."

Responding, Jarod yells across the room, "or maybe you were just ordered here!" Valid gives Jarod a shot and looks at Perception again.

"Nonetheless, we gotta go." Valid reached towards her radio and called the dropship. "We have orders, something else has popped up," Valid insisted and walked towards the center of the street. Right then the dropship flew in, short stubby wings with the back wide open. The marine pointed the rear turret at them, they hop in the back and Valid, Perception, and Jarod sit down. Valid stares into Perception's eyes, "god I missed this."

"Missed what?" Perception questioned.

"Flying and killing with you, ah too much time spent away," Valid responded. The dropship banked to the right, and the marine let the turret rip loose. The pilot came onto the intercom, "folks seems we've run into some 'hostile' ground fire." The pilot laughing turned off the intercom, and Jarod had to add something.

"While you two love birds share memories," Jarod now smoking his cigar again thick with an accent, "we do have a fucking mission that I know nothing about." Cocking his head towards Valid, "Mind telling us what we are freaking doing?" Valid looked at him curiously, the ship bucked hard to the rear. The marine luckily was held on by a harness, Jarod was not so lucky. Jarod flew and hit the ceiling. Knocked unconscious Jarod started to slide out the back. Perception lunged towards his body, grabbing it before it went too far.

"Not so fast Jarod," Perception said grunting while pulling him back to safety. Valid looked at Perception and gave off a grunt, all while she held on for dear life. The ship, now turning was low to the ground, and it hovered above an empty parking deck. Losing altitude the ship slowly descended to a park. The marine viewed Jarod.

"Taking a little nap on the job." The marine laughed as Perception lifted him on his shoulders. They hopped out, the same time Valid pushed a large crate off the back.

"Weapons," she says, "kind of need them to blow stuff up." She smiled while saying this. Perception looked at Jarod as he gently layed him down on the platform behind a crate. He slapped Jarod in the face and Jarod woke immediately.

"What happened son?" Jarod looked confused and dazed. They both heard the cold sound of a sliding rifle bolt as it slid the bullet into the chamber.

Valid, holding her scoped weapon, smirked at both Jarod and Perception. "You boys ready to rumble, cause we have incoming." She pointed towards the sky, a shadow was casted on the ground around them as the ship came into view.