StrykeForce 1: Out of Their League

"Yeah?"

"I got a hot body on the roof.... looks like they have a sniper rifle.... I think."

Mac's spine tingled. "That's it! Damn! These chicks are ballistics trained, too. Damn!" He spat.

Peoter used his magnifier to bring the image in closer. He saw what appeared to be a young woman peering through the site of the gun barrel and moving slightly from side to side. Instantly he knew what to report.

"She's scoping us out, boss. She gonna be drawing beads on us."

Mac nodded. "No, shit! Damn smart bitches! See the other two?"

Peoter scanned the park but saw nothing.

"Negative. Just the one on the college building roof."

Mac decided to begin the evening's festivities and called two of his men over radio, "Kajhi.... Yoshiro... I got a bogey on the roof across the street. Packing a sniper rifle."

"Yes sir, we have it." The small radio augmented voices answered back.

"Peoter, start some noise. Get her attention on the park." Mac ordered. "It's time to play!"

Peoter pressed a few buttons on his control panel and the park became alive, part by part, section by section. Darkness was replaced by bright lights and moving rides and circus music, long thought dormant by many.

Gold and Silver froze in their silent hiding positions and for a moment were quite shocked to see the park systematically coming alive. Silver whispered over the radio, "Gold?"

"I see it." Gold responded, tensing up for anything and everything that might be coming their way. "Bronze, report."

"The whole park is coming alive.... someone knows we're here." Bronze reported.

Gold nodded. "Indeed they do... indeed they do."

Curiously, both Gold and Silver noticed the sudden appearance of small, metallic hovering balls that hummed with the sound of internal gyros. They wondered what the balls were, but quickly dismissed them in in favor of greater, more immediate threats.

"Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!" Shouted an automated carnival barker who stood a good ten feet tall and waved a hand in the air. His red and white striped suit hearkened back to a more innocent time. Multiple streams of carnival music at different levels filled the night air as millions of lights came to life with sparkle and flash to show the way to the good times to come.

Gold stood flat against the side of one of the walls of the spinning cups ride, looking back and forth in anticipation. Silver did the same about fifty yards away but behind the ball pitch stand.

"Bronze?" Gold whispered.

"Nothing yet." Bronze responded.

"Nothing over here by the fun booths either." Added Silver.

Just as she had said that, there was a buzzing sound from around the corner of the wall next to her and almost as quickly there was a small phalanx of six or seven remote control helicopters that came sailing around the bend, they all began firing bee-bees at Silver with their small, rotating machine gun turrets attached to their landing skids. Puh-ting! Puh-tang! Went the ammunition as it ricocheted off of the adjoining wall.

"Aggh!" Silver grunted. She then ducked out of the way and into the open area in front of the booth.

"Silver!" Gold called out with a terse command.

"I'm under fire..... remote control copters..." She said while rolling and jumping and spinning out of the way.

Gold tried to look toward the booths from her position, but her view was blocked. "No sonics unless you're in close hand to hand!!!" She ordered. "Don't get sucker punched."

"Hold your position... I've got this!" Silver offered as she pulled three small shurikens from the pockets of her hidden belt and tossed them the way of the flying copters. They struck and exploded with more force than necessary as the toys then ran into each other in a conflagration of flames and then crashed to the ground. BUDD-DUUUDD-DUUDD-WOOOMPFFFF!

"I got 'em!" Silver reported. More little metal balls silently dodged and darted into view and then disappeared around a corner. She began to wonder just what role they played in all this.

Gold smiled. Then Bronze piped up in the radio. "Gold, I have two enormous things coming your way."

Gold looked around her, listening carefully, she could hear clown laughter somewhere in the mix of carnival music. "What's their twenty?" Gold requested, watching small metal balls hovering just out of reach. They then harmlessly buzzed away.

"45 degrees to your left, coming up fast.... looks like giant ..... balloons." Bronze told her while looking through the gun site.

"The whole park has been rigged!" Gold reported. "Silver where are you?"

Silver had hardly had time to think as the copters had crashed before her, almost instantly the ball pitching booth had fired its cannons of baseballs and a few caught Silver by surprise. TOOTP! TOOPT! TATAT-TAT-TOOPT! Went the sailing baseballs. She was hit with glancing blows but then dropped to the turf and rolled to avoid the other two dozen or so that sailed high over her head.

"Confirming your hypothesis.... I was just fired upon by the booth! But I'm code 4!"

Gold went around her corner wall and viewed the oncoming ten foot balloons, they were both clowns with grotesque smiling faces and sporting machine gun looking arms under their balloon hands.

"Bronze!" She ordered. "Don't shoot these things, I got 'em ... they could be filled with exploding gas."

"Copy." Answered Bronze.

Gold then somersaulted into view of the on coming balloons, who seemed to be rolling on hidden wheels beneath their bulbous clown shoed feet. When they sensed her movement, they opened fire, but not with bullets.... instead the shells exploded all around Gold in various colorful explosions of paint. PUK-CLAGH! PUK-CLAGH! PUK-CLAGH!

Gold heard metallic laughter as small metal balls hovered and then darted away.

Rolling and tossing in the dirt, under the firing line of the clowns, Gold reached into her belt for her own throwing knives and then briefly stood and tossed them forward as she then disappeared behind another wall. The blades rended and tore the plastic bodies and immediately made deflating sounds as their inner gas support escaped into the atmosphere. PPPPUUUTTTTHHHLLLAAAPPPPPPP-TISSSSSSSSssssssss........

Gold mused to herself: I don't smell helium, but there is something.... some kind of gas. She quietly watched from around the side of the building as the balloons collapsed in a plastic heap.

Bronze then called out again, "I have three live ones coming your way, Gold. Around the other side of the building you are next to."

"Copy." Gold responded. She then prepared herself for the on coming live adversary by placing herself at the center of the wall between the two sides, thus making it impossible for the men to make a sneak attack. She then fired her sonics at the ground, creating a cloud of dust at both sides. DDDDEEEEDDRRRUMMMMBBBUUUUTTT!!!!! The sonics sounded as they dug up the ground.

"Now you can start firing, Bronze!" She ordered. "But only arms and legs, we don't want them killed."

Again, quickly moving metal balls hovered into view, and then quickly shot away.

"Copy." Replied Bronze as she prepared to draw a bead on one of the men sneaking around the side of the building.

Silver had rolled out of the way to avoid the cannon fire of the base balls, only to have a hidden seesaw trap come springing up out of the Earth with huge spikes headed for her face. "Aggh!" She grunted again, but then spun and tossed and somersaulted out of the way.

Instantly, from out of nowhere four large men in green body suits and full head masks tacked her from all sides. They all rolled and tossed in the dirt as Silver punched and kicked her way within the mass of bodies, her wrist sonics working in tandem with her hand work in order to augment the severity of her punches.

"GAGH!"

"PPOOT!"

"PLAGGHHHH!" The men grunted with each well placed connection.

Metal balls spun and hovered above them in the air.

As the men approaching Gold appeared on one side of the wall, they ran into the cloud of dust she created and temporarily lost their visual bearing. Bronze beaded one of them and fired a round into his leg. PIT-YOW!

"AAAAAGGGHHH!!!!!" The man screamed as he hit the ground. The others were startled and lost their focus for a second on Gold, which was just enough time for her to appear out of the cloud of dust, kicking and punching each man off of his feet.

"KAAAIIGGURAAAAA!" she screamed as she plowed into the men.

"I'm hit.... I'm shot!!!!" The man screamed into his ear piece as he rolled on the ground.

Mac heard his cry and called out to his men, "Kajhi! Yoshi! I need that bogey on the roof! We're getting picked off. "

"We're almost there, boss!" They replied with a heavy breath as they began scaling the building on the back side of Bronze's position.

"AGGGHH! My knee! My knee!" Called out one of the men wrestling with Silver as his knee exploded from the sniper round Bronze had fired. Silver didn't stop to rubberneck as she took advantage of the other men's sudden tentative attitude. She spun her legs beneath them and cut them down as their feet were taken out from under them. Each one spun and tossed and fell on his head as Silver performed her maneuver with a loud, "KAAAAiiiiiii!!!!"

"Kajhi!!!! Yoshi!!!!" Mac called out with a bit more anger as he heard another man go down.

"Dammit!" he spat as he headed out of his hidden command position and began to trot out in to the park to get more involved.

Gold hit one man in the neck and kicked another in the ribs, then she turned and grabbed a third man who had newly appeared and pulled him by the shirt as she ran backwards, ducked and rolled, then tossed the man over her head in a judo roll.

"GHHHAAAA!" He yelled as he was tossed in the air by powerful legs. He then landed in a heap upon the ground with a grunt. BUNPH!

"OOhhhgg!" He sighed.

Curiously, Gold quickly pulled three small balls from a pocket and slammed them into the ground. As the men worked to regain their footing, the balls exploded into dark clouds and obscured their view. When the clouds quickly dissipated, Gold had disappeared.

"Mac! Mac! One man reported into his radio. We got ninja tactics happening here..."

Flying metal balls circled the area and then quickly disappeared.

Mac nodded his understanding. "Not surprised. Not surprised. I am on my way!"

Silver had done the same once the group assaulting her had been tossed all around the grounds in the immediate area. A cloud of smoke had appeared and Silver had disappeared before them. They all stood around trying to see where the Asian dynamo had gone. They tensed and looked about with wide, searching eyes. The man who had been hit, lay on the ground groaning and holding his exploded knee.

"She's gone, boss!" they reported with a bit of fear in their voice. "We lost her!"

"Don't worry, boys!" Mac said with bated breath as ran to join the fray. "They won't go far!"

Kahji and Yoshi reached the top of the college building at the opposite side where Bronze was set up and they silently motioned to each other to quickly and quietly take her down. Yoshi pulled out a black jack from his fatigue pants pocket and showed it to Kajhi. Kajhi then nodded and showed Yoshi a strong knotted fishing net that he had in his back pack for just this type of situation. Slowly the two men separated to take opposite angles on the sniper.

Two of the men looking for Silver began to move off, steadily backing their way to a nearby wall , careful of any surprise attack. One man's suit exploded on his upper arm as he was hit with a sniper slug. PITUI!

"Agghhh!" He screamed and grabbed his arm.

Then the other man next to him also had his upper arm explode. PITUI! "GHHHAAAAA!!!" He screamed as he too grabbed hold of his injury.

Silver had ducked out of the way of their vision for only a few minutes before she again engaged them, spinning and kicking from out of nowhere. "KAIIII!!!YOOUUUUUU!!!!" She yelled, tossing small smoke bombs and exploding shurikens as she approached. The men ignored the projectiles and smoke and jumped to tackle her as she landed. Three of them did just that as they grabbed legs and her torso.

"Here's something new for you, boys!" She offered. Then she grabbed their backs with a claw like motion and her finger tips began to quickly glow. From her finger tips suddenly ran a row of sparks, much like a lit gunpowder trail, which snapped and sparkled and circled each man's torso. They then ended in small, yet powerfully contained explosions. BAD-dah-DOOM!!!!!

"GHAAAA!" The men screamed as they were tossed into the air.

Floating metal balls encroached to catch the action and then retreated out of view.

Gold watched from a hidden position as the men coughed and gagged from the smoke screen she had left behind. Then one man tried to move away, seemingly to get aid for the man who had been shot, who still writhed and twisted in pain on the ground.

She called out to the man, "Hey! Over here!"

He looked up and when he saw her waving toward him, he made an angry bee-line for the heroine. She moved back to disappear behind the building as she saw him charging, but her heel caught something she felt only slightly. Alarmed, she ducked and twisted and rolled on the ground as a hidden door on one of the walls responded to the trip wire being hit and flew open to fire a wall of darts in her direction. TYOOO-TYOO-TYOO! They passed over her and as the man charging her appeared from around the wall, he got a body suit full of the darts instead.

"GHHHAAAA!!!"

Gold went to sit up from her roll to see what had happened to the man as he had been hit, but suddenly a rushing wind of weight fell upon her from behind and she crashed headlong into the wooden wall of another exhibit. BUCK-CRAAASSSSHHH!

"You're not going anywhere, bitch!" The voice said as they rolled into the interior of the amusement ride.

She grabbed him, and tossed him over her head without even having seen who he was, and he turned in the air, spun and then landed on his feet like a cat. She turned and looked up at her assailant. She instantly knew just who the man was. She remembered quite well and she snarled at him with angry teeth.

"I know who you are.... you bastard! I know what you did to me!!!!"

Mac looked her dead in the eyes and said with a nod, "It's ON!"

Ziiiippppp! ZZZZoooooopppPPP! Went the metal balls as they flew around the men and women in combat. Silver pulled a small pistol from her boot at hipside and shot one of the annoying balls. It exploded and dropped to the ground in a heap of slag. The other balls all Zzzziiippped! out of range.

One of the men in the green suits came riding up to Silver from out of nowhere with a golf cart full of explosives. He jumped from the cart just as he tossed in a small lighter, the cart blindly made its way toward Silver's position. She ran a few fast steps and then jumped forward into a another fun booth where she could duck behind the wooded barricade. The cart collided with the wood and exploded in a conflagration of black, orange and red hot death. It lit up the night. BAWHOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHHH!

Silver avoided the explosion by ducking low, but then anticipated the follow up of charging men and jumped, then crashed through the back of the kiosk. The kiosk now erupted in flames and smoke as it caught fire from the golf cart exploding, and a column of black smoke began to rise toward the sky.

Silver landed behind the kiosk in a crouch and then had every intent of re-establisig her attack upon the group of men she had been battling. However, her small booted ankle was suddenly caught up by a tungsten steel cable noose snare that had been laid out on the ground like a rabbit trap. It caught the Asian completely off guard as she was pulled off of her feet by the noose, and a recoiling "fishing line" type spinning reel pulled the cable that held her foot up, up into the lights.

"Aggghh!" She spat. As she was surrounded by the enveloping smoke of the explosion drifting in her direction from gentle breezes off the east coast. Upside down and spinning out of control she fired blindly at the cable with her sonic disrupter, hoping to sever the cable that held her ankle high and out of her reach. The cable, however, bowed and wobbled but resisted the sonic attack. Silver spun and dangled and swung back and forth about five feet from the ground, she bent at the waist trying to reach her ankle while pulling some razors from her waist belt.

Gold had been the first to aggressively attack Mac as he moved backwards under the full force of her brutal, anger filled attack. He blocked and parried with each thrown fist, kick and spring jump she threw at him. But the double attacks were too much to handle as he might block a fist but not the simultaneously thrown kick from her booted foot, and visa versa.

He steadied himself and tackled her midsection as she tried to advance on him a second time. They hit the ground turning and punching and kicking, but Mac held on despite all the pinpoint accurate connections that Gold riddled his body with. He picked her up and then turned in a twist and threw her against a nearby wall.

"GHAAA! She spat as she hit the cement wall with her full body.

Mac charged her to make another tackle but she hopped over his back like a cat and kicked him with both feet into the wall behind her. He hit the wall head first.

"Guh-DAHHH!" He screamed and then held his head in pain.

Bronze called to Gold over the radio, "Gold, I have lost visual contact...."

Gold, rushing to her advantage, said quickly, "I am engaged. Assist Silver!" And then she leaped upwards and came down on Mac's back with her elbow. BUD-Dow!

"Check." Bronze replied. She then turned her sight to Silver's position to notice the spinning, warbling heroine, attempting to slice her way free from her snare. She could see a large group of men circling around Silver's position, they held long wooden boards, baseball bats and iron pipes. Her eyes went wide.

"Silver! You are in code red!" She shouted while lining her sight to the approaching men.

"Soot the cable up top! Shoot the cable at the top!" Silver exclaimed.

Bronze made her adjustments and drew a bead on the top of the light pole where the cable had been extended from, and then she prepared to fire. Suddenly a multi-corded fishing net slid quickly over her head and pulled her arms to her side, ruining her aim.

"Aggh!' She cried out in shock.

Stunned by the fact that she was covered in a tight fishing net and was being pulled backward from her gun, she looked around herself in panic. Unable to pull herself free as the two men who had sneaked up on her suddenly, and aggressively appeared, she snarled and cussed.

"Gah! Who are you???? Get off of me!!!!" She insisted.

Kajhi held her firmly in a bear hug as she struggled against the ropes and Yoshi quickly, deftly and silently swung his black jack against the back of her auburn haired head. CRACK!

Instantly Bronze went limp in Kajhi's grip and her head fell forward in silence.

"Boss..." Yoshi reported. "Object aquired."

Mac heard the report of his man, but at the moment couldn't have had more concern beyond his current situation. He lay flat o his belly, gripping the ground with his hands in frustration as Gold sat upon his back with his legs twisted in a knotted wrestling hold, causing him great pain.

"AGH!" He groaned, his hands reaching for some way to get the heroine off of his back. The pain in his knees was beyond what he had ever expected from such a hold. "Get off me, bitch!" He demanded.

Gold grimaced and pulled tighter on her hold to cause more pain. The result was successful as Mac groaned in response. "AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!" He reached back with all his might, against the natural curve of his spine and grabbed a fist full of Gold's shiny brown hair.