The Mount, Ex-Los Angeles, Monday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy stood under the Paramount Pictures arch, which at one point, had been the main gate separating the Mount from the rest of Los Angeles and the millions of dead that had been walking in it. She remembered it clearly, even though she wished she didn't. Her last memories of the gates had been fighting in front of them. She'd fought Gorgon there as one of Rodney's controlled puppets. And she'd fought Eliot there, trying to eat him while he'd tried to bring her home. In the end, he'd had to break her neck to get her to stop.

She wondered if that snap still echoed in his dreams the way it echoed in hers.

Not that she had slept much in the past few days.

"Hey." A familiar voice, but Kathy startled anyway, like a deer taken by surprise in the woods. "Easy, baby, easy, it's just me." From his wheelchair, Nick reached out to rub the small of her back, trying to get her to calm. "Admiring the Big Wall, huh?" he asked, looking over to where she'd been staring, blanked out to the rest of the world.

Nick wasn't going to judge. He'd seen that thousand-yard stare enough times in the mirror. And among the other survivors. And none of them had memories like hers.

"It's fifteen feet high, you know?" he said, casually. "In some places, it's almost a dozen feet thick. We built it by pushing cars together and stacking them one on top of the other." It had been long, tedious work, with dozens of men and women holding off the exes while dozens more pushed vehicle after vehicle into line. They'd lost people, but they'd kept going, stealing more and more ground back from the dead. "After it was all built, some kid told St. George that the Big Wall had exactly six thousand seven hundred and eighty-one cars in it. Of course, then Stealth comes along and tells this kid he's off by two."

He chuckled, like this was all easy, casual conversation and not him trying too hard to convince her that she was safe back here, behind the walls. "Then over here," he continued, guiding her to the right, "we have the East Wall, which are rows after rows of solid steel pipes..."

Nick kept up the babble as they followed the Big Wall over to where it met the East. He sounded like a real estate agent trying for a hard sell, but anything to try to get rid of that haunted look in her eyes; to ease the lines around her face that spoke of too much emotion and too little sleep. Turning right to start heading south, Nick rolled on for a few feet before he realized that Kathy wasn't walking with him. She was talking forward, one step then another, confusion mingling with horror as she peered through the pylons at the street beyond them.

"Nick," Kathy said, pointing at the the dozen or so exes that were milling about. "Look."

Exes	On the other side of the wall, a dozen exes slapped their hands together. They all wore the same expression, wide eyes and a grin that was closer to a sneer. "Things are lookin' good in there, esse," one of them called to Nick. It was a dead man with a missing hand. The ex beat the stump against its palm. "Lookin' really good. You, though, not so much. Still in the chair, holmes?"
Kathy	Kathy gasped, her hand over her mouth, and took a step back. "That's Rodney," she said, voice loud enough to carry. "But, no, he died, I remember--" She remembered the way that his control over her body had felt, like a cold ooze sliding into the absence of her mind and controlling everything. And she remembered how it had felt when it was gone--not the long withdrawal when he was done using her for whatever he'd wanted, but suddenly, all at once. And she remembered the frenzy that had followed, all of her instincts rushing back to the fore and surrounded by so much delicious, delicious meat.
Legion	The applause stopped. "I told you," said the dead man before the other exes joined it in one voice. "DON'T CALL ME RODNEY! IT'S LEGION, DAMMIT!"
Nick	"Doesn't matter what you're calling yourself these days," Nick snorted. "You're still out there. And you're not getting in. So why don't you fuck off?"
Legion	The one-handed man tapped his knuckles against one of the pipes and the other exes mirrored the gesture, sending a dull bong throughout the area. "That so, pendejo? Cause I'm thinkin' that someday soon, I'm gonna get in there. You know it's coming. You won't be acting so smart then."
Kathy	There were pikes scattered along the periphery of the fence, just in case weapons were ever needed for defense. Kathy picked one up and shoved it through the slats, directly into the one-handed zombie's skull. Bone crunched and the zombie crumpled. "Someday isn't today, motherfucker."
Exes	The other exes took a step back, then held their ground. They all glared through the pipes and bared their teeth. Then their expressions went slack and their teeth started clacking against each other. They pushed their arms between the pipes and tried to reach Kathy with slow, clumsy grabs. Kathy's bravado shattered as one questing hand brushed against her arm. Her pike dropped from nerveless fingers and she whimpered.
Nick	"Easy, baby, easy," Nick said, his hand on her back again as he guided her away from the fence and out of reach. "God, that was badass. And now they're just stupid exes, they can't hurt you."
Guards	Which was, of course, when the radio at his hip crackled to life. "This--this is--twenty...twenty-something...fuck it! This is the Northwest corner," shouted a man. A gunshot blasted over the open channel. "We're under attack! Two, maybe three hundred of them. We need help!" The call was punctuated by another shot.
Kathy	How many times had she heard that same radio call during the last days of LA? Too many times. There would be a desperate cry for help and then the sound of guns. And then the screaming would begin. "Oh god," Kathy whispered, hunkering down in the shadow of Nick's chair and burying her face in her knees. "This is all my fault, I pissed him off. And now he's trying to get in cause I made him mad..."
Nick	"Shh, nah, baby, that's not true," Nick said, running his hand over her hair. "He was planning on doing this, you heard him. Practically bragging about it. If you did do anything, you made him start the attack early, before he had a chance to finish gathering his forces. That's a good thing."
Kathy	Kathy peeked up at him. "You sure?" she asked.
Nick	"Absolutely," Nick said with more conviction than he'd shown in years. "Just watch, you'll--" The radio woke up again. This time it was the deep, resonant voice, the kind that sounded like it was coming from a well or something. The kind you only got from a very, very big man. "Twenty-four this is Seven," the man said. "Just delivered three minors to a deputy. I am en route to the Wall, eta no more than three minutes." Nick grinned, showing no signs that he still hurt at the mention of someone doing his old job as sheriff. "That's Captain John Freedom of the Unbreakables. Between him and St. George, they got this handled."
Kathy	Kathy shrugged off his hand and pushed herself to her feet. She still looked ready to bolt and her hands were trembling, but she was at least upright. Not cowering. Wasn't much, but it was better than nothing. She had learned, over the last twenty-one months, to take her 'better than nothings' when she could get them. "I'm going back to my apartment."
Nick	Predictably, Nick protested. "Your apartment overlooks the Big Wall," he said, as if she wasn't reminded of that fact a thousand times a night. "That's where the battle is. You don't need to see that." He looked up at her, face earnest behind his mirrored shades. "If you wanna be somewhere safe, you can go right to Stealth's office. Nothing's gonna get in there."
Kathy	"I don't want to go to Stealth's," she said. "I want to go to my place. And I'm not asking." She knew she probably sounded petulant to Nick's ears, just shy of stomping her foot and holding her breath until she turned blue. But how to explain that she'd rather watch than be ignorant, would rather know her death was coming than let it sneak up on her again? She couldn't. The words were too big for her throat. So instead she just shook her head again and started walking back the way they came.
Nick	Nick went along with her, shaking his head, but knowing better than to argue. The gunfire was near constant by the time they reached the northwest corner, making the front of the Mount sound like one of the gangster movies it had produced back when it was a studio. There were a half-dozen guards on top of the wall. Four of them were shooting down into the area beyond the barrier. The other two were pushing back against the figures climbing onto the upper deck. One guard was trying to keep the other five organized, but there was an air of desperation around them. Another swung his rifle like a baseball bat and clubbed a thin figure off the platform. He turned and swung again, clocking another on the side of the head and tipping it back off the wall. "Jesus Christ," Nick murmured, watching another three exes drag themselves up over the edge of the Wall and get knocked over back.
Captain John Carter Freedom	"I don't think he's present, Gorgon," Captain John Freedom said from behind them. "So it looks like we'll have to take care of this ourselves. Ma'am." He nodded to the young woman next to the other hero, not bothering to hide his curiosity. Stealth had briefed him that there were two new residents of the Mount, but other details had been fairly thin on the ground.
Kathy	That was fair; Kathy wasn't bothering to hide her curiosity, either. The man in front of her was easily seven feet tall and probably close to three hundred pounds of what looked like solid muscle. A leather duster hung open across his broad chest and a silver sheriff's star sat on one lapel. Underneath the duster, he wore a tan t-shirt and pants checkered with digital camouflage. Strapped to his thigh was a holster the size of a loaf of bread. And when he spoke, she felt it as much as heard it, his voice so deep in register that it rumbled in her bones. It provided for a nice counter to the sharp click-click-click of teeth that was omnipresent out here by the Wall. "Kathy," she said, holding her hand out for a shake. It disappeared into his, roughly the size of a catcher's mitt. "And you must be Captain Freedom. Is that your hero name, sir?"
Captain Freedom	He chuckled, shaking her hand three times before letting go. "No ma'am," he said. "I'm no hero. My great-great-grandfather was born a slave and then freed by the end of the war when he was four. At eighteen, he changed the family name to what he said was the greatest word in the English language and it's been that way ever since."
Kathy	"Oh," Kathy said, surprised to find herself smiling slightly. For one moment, the simple beauty of that story had her forgetting the fear that threatened to turn her knees to water. "Nick called you Captain Freedom, so I thought..."
Captain Freedom	"I'm a captain in the U.S. Army--or, was, when we still had one. I'm the ranking officer of the Unbreakables. We joined up with these fine folks about a year or so ago," Captain Freedom explained. "I would be happy to stay and explain further, ma'am, but--" Three more gunshots rang out and he nodded to the Wall. "Duty calls." He touched the digital camo cap he wore and took off at a run towards the Wall. Without breaking stride, his legs flexed and he jumped twenty feet into the air. He hit the wood surface just south of the large square that was the northwest corner and attempted to take in the situation.
Exes	Since the initial call, the number of exes attacking the Wall had gone from two or three hundred to well over a thousand. A handful of them had turned their attention to Freedom as he'd landed. Behind their dead eyes, Legion glared out at the giant officer. Many of the exes were running at the Big Wall, grabbing for handholds and kicking with their feet, pulling themselves up the barrier.
Captain Freedom	On the Wall, the guards were scared, all of them, even Makana, who was valiantly trying to hold them all together. Freedom wasn't so sure what had them all so spooked, but there was something off about the army of exes below, something his subconscious had noted as wrong, but his brain hadn't been able to figure out yet. Pulling back his boot, he kicked a climbing ex just as its head rose above the top of the wall. The dead man flew back into the crowd and Freedom took a second to register what he'd just seen. Most of the exes storming the Big Wall were wearing helmets.
Exes	The attack was spread across a section almost forty feet long here and another twenty or thirty around the corner to the west. Half a dozen civilians to defend seventy feet of ground against a thousand opponents. Not great odds. A dead man wearing a red construction helmet climbed up to the platform. Its fingernails clawed at the wood as it attempted to pull itself over.
Captain Freedom	Killing exes had always been a numbers game. Legion had always had the numbers, but his new tactics had shifted things more into his favor and shaken the guards in the process. Their practiced methods and procedures were crumbling in the face of panic, and they hesitated, second-guessing their shots. Freedom had to restore morale and get their fire focused before things fell apart. The Big Wall was on the edge of being overwhelmed. He stomped over to the scrabbling ex and stomped on its hand, then took its entire head off with another kick. "Take your time," he ordered. His voice bellowed out of his barrel chest, louder than the sound of teeth and rifle reports. "Make them count." To accent his words, he drew his oversized gun, Lady Liberty. She roared and threw two more dead things back from the wall. At close range, a twelve-gauge round packed enough raw force to shatter a Kevlar helmet and the skull inside it.
Exes	The panicked shooting slowed. A dead man in a biker helmet staggered back and fell. One in National Guard headgear stumbled back from a shot, then threw itself back at the wall. A figure in a football helmet dropped with a bullet in its eye. More exes fell, but that just cleared room for more exes to take their place. A dead woman made it to the platform, but a guard smashed her off with a baseball bat. A teenage ex in a baseball helmet and an Atari t-shirt fell back into the horde and was crushed under dozens of feet.
Exes	The guard with a bat swung a line drive that knocked one of Legion's puppets into the air. There was too much force behind the swing, though, and the man stumbled forward on the follow through. His body bent over the double line of ropes that served as a temporary railing for the top of the Wall and the lines flexed. He dropped the bat, flailed for the ropes, and added to his own momentum. An ex grabbed one of the waving hands and threw itself off the walls, dragging the man with it. The exes closest to the wall passed the guard back over their heads, carrying him away from safety. He had time to look back at Freedom before the dead things dropped him on the ground and fell on him.
Kathy	Kathy flinched when the screams began. She knew those screams, they still haunted her nightmares, if less frequently than they once had. She knew she'd be hearing them again, the next time she managed to sleep. Those were the screams of a man in fear of his life. Soon, they'd change to shrieks of agony when his flesh began to tear. She was intimately familiar with both. She'd caused both. Kathy pressed her hands over her ears, but it didn't matter. The scream lingered inside her head, blending with other screams like that she'd heard in the past.
Captain Freedom	Captain Freedom clenched his jaw and fired three bursts into the swarm of exes before his pistol ran dry. Half the exes surrounding the guard dropped and the guard himself stopped screaming. Freedom half-hoped he'd put the guard out of his misery. Kicking away another ex, he loaded a new drum into Lady Liberty. Movement caught the corner of his eye as his pistol spat out another three-round burst at the undead.
Legion	Taking advantage of the guards' momentary distraction at the loss of one of their own, another ex had made onto the platform, a gaunt figure with a bare chest and a black SWAT helmet. Ignoring the guards entirely, it crawled across the platform and rolled over the far edge. As it rolled over and crawled to its feet, several more exes dropped to the ground inside the Mount as well, all of them turning to the pair of weaponless humans standing just a few hundred yards away from the Big Wall. Legion was inside.
Nick	After one of the guards had been taken over the side, Nick grabbed for his radio. "All units," he called, "this is Twelve. We have a major incursion at the corner of the Big Wall. Request immediate assistance. You know if I'm calling, we gotta be in the shit, so let's hustle people." At least two people replied, but their words were drowned out by the small noise Kathy gave. Nick looked up and saw a handful of exes coming towards them at a run. "Oh fuck."
Legion	"Heyyyyyyyy esse," the exes said, in unison, their voices coming from every direction but from behind. "What was that about today not bein' what day? Cause here I am, holmes. And ain't nothin' you can do about it. Why don't you tell your little girlfriend to run away and I won't send none of my friends after her. Till later, I mean, when we have the run of this place."
Nick	Legion didn't recognize Kathy, Nick realized with a sense of distant relief. He probably hadn't gotten a good look at her through the fence and now had barely given her a glance. "Get outta here, baby," Nick said quietly, not taking his eyes off of the exes. He could hear her fast, panicked breaths to his left and that was enough. "You don't need to see this. You don't need to be here for this." Again lay heavy in the air, even if it remained unspoken.
Captain Freedom	Freedom watched the drama unfolding behind the Wall with one eye, mechanically fighting off exes as he tried to figure out what to do. St. George and Stealth had both spoken over the radio, but the gunfire had drowned them out and he had no idea if they were on their way or if they were dealing with their own problems at other points. One ex compromising the security of the Wall could mean the end of everything and there were at least five down there. Even as much as he didn't want to see Gorgon and Kathy killed, he wanted five exes wandering around inside even less. But it was too far away for a kill shot, especially for a pistol that hard started life as a shotgun, and he couldn't risk leaving the Wall with only five defenders. He was debating doing just that anyway when the girl by Nick's side exploded into action.
Kathy	All Kathy wanted to do was to take Nick's advice and run, run away as fast as she could. Maybe she could get high enough, get far enough, and she could be hidden before the real carnage started. But that would mean leaving Nick to die. He didn't have a gun or a pike or even a knife. And it would mean letting others die, too. There were literally thousands of survivors in this enclave and she'd be risking all of them just to save herself. She couldn't do it. She couldn't bring herself to run. And that decision made, her terror evaporated, leaving a cold clarity behind. Kathy walked forward into one of the exes' field of vision. "Hey, coño," she said, "remember me?" And followed it up with a spin kick to the face at full speed.
Legion	There was a harsh snap as the ex's skull shattered from the force of her kick. The ex collapsed into an ungainly heap. Before it even hit the grass, Kathy was onto the second one, bouncing up into the air to deliver an elbow to the temple and then a hammer kick to the back of its head. "I know you!" the other exes gasped. "Banzai!"
Kathy	"Fuck you!" Kathy screeched, running towards another. "You don't know jack or shit about me! All you need to know is that I'm going to fucking kill you for what you did to me!" She was on the next ex in seconds, all discipline and skill forgotten in sheer fury. Fighting real exes like this would be suicide, but Rodney still thought like a living person and his first reaction to her ferocity was to flinch, not fight. "My name is Kathy!" she snarled, kicking out the ex's knees and then stomping on its skull until it burst under her foot. "And you're going to end up screaming that while I make you pay for every fucking minute you puppeted me around, you--" she broke off into a torrent of Spanish learned from years of dodging the Seventeens growing up.
Captain Freedom	Not even a minute had passed and the girl had already taken down three of them. Freedom watched, loading Lady Liberty at the same time, and shook his head. It wasn't just adrenaline that had her going, no. He moved unnaturally fast, especially for a man his size, and this girl could run rings around him. She was like the wind. A very, very angry wind that knew a lot of Spanish profanity, apparently. The huge officer turned and found himself face-to-face with a dead woman in a football helmet. The ex lunged at him, but its gnashing jaws were blocked by the face mask. Freedom gut-punched the creature and it flew back and down into the chattering horde.
Stealth	"I am surprised you let yourself get distracted, Captain," Stealth said, suddenly on his other side with no indication of having arrived. "Miss Li is just working through some trauma. She should be physically fine. Even with Legion controlling them, the exes cannot match her speed surprise to see her again will undermine his already-limited ability to fight tactically." She drew a pair of Glock 18C pistols in one smooth motion. They barely cleared her holsters before she was firing. The rounds came so fast Freedom thought the weapons were on full automatic. Then he saw her aim twitch and realized she was firing single shots, each one finding a new target. More than a dozen of Legions puppet's dropped, their strings cut. Stealth took a step forward and her cloak swirled around her. The pistols never stopped. Every round found an open space in a helmet. Within thirty seconds, she'd dropped as many exes.
Captain Freedom	With Stealth's guns, Freedom estimated that they'd managed to kill over a hundred exes--an impressive number for the few minutes they'd been fighting, but barely a dent in the number crawling at the wall. Still, Freedom found himself relaxing, risking a glance down the lines. More backup had arrived, leaving defenses thin elsewhere, but this seemed to be the focus of Legion's assault. Given enough ammunition, Freedom had every confidence that Stealth could hold the line by herself long enough for Legion to get frustrated and go away. But where Stealth was... A man rose up into the sky, hovering in the air above the Gate. ...St. George was soon to follow.
St. George	St. George looked down at the writhing mass of exes below him, picking out individual faces in the crowd. They'd been people once, after all. Before they'd died. His gaze swept over a large, bald man in a hockey mask, who glared and gave him the finger with both hands. That helped him not get distracted by melancholy. Legion was here and needed to be stopped before someone else was lost. St. George took in a deep breath, felt the tickle of mixing chemicals in the back of his throat, and sent a wave of fire washing down the over the swarm. It lit up the intersection of Hollywood and Vine with golden light. He swung his head and washed the flames across the back line of the horde.
Legion	Half the exes stared at the flying hero even as their hair and clothes caught fire, their teeth still clacking away. The others, the one wearing helmets and hard hats, flinch. They moved in perfect synchronization, all turning their heads away to the right as they raised their left arms to shield their faces. A handful of them glared up at him as he floated down through the crowd above the weird scar melted into the asphalt, grabbing exes by their necks and hurling them into walls. Over a dozen of them went crashing into buildings and pavement before the horde took in a rasping breath and spoke with one voice. "Next time, pinche," they growled.
Kathy	Vault. Flip. Split kick. Snap. Bounce. Seven more exes had thrown themselves over the Wall while she had been busy fighting off the original five. Only two were left by the time St. George unleashed his flame. Kathy barely noticed the display; somewhere around the sixth ex, she'd slipped back into the rhythm of fighting exes, like she'd been doing it just yesterday. Backflip. Crouch. Sweep. Lunge. Springboard. Spin kick. She was close enough to the last one to see the cognition drain from its eyes as Rodney's hold faded. The teeth started chattering at her, right before her foot smashed into its face, shattering its nose and shoving the shard up into the remains of its brain. Snap. She landed, out of breath and sore, surrounded by the bodies of the now twice dead.
St. George	St. George drifted in the air, back up to the platform. A few more gunshots rang out, but the horde was settling down. There were still a few dozen pawing at the wall, but without Legion controlling them, it was a mindless action that would never get their feet off the ground. Those few that had been mid-climb fell back to the pavement, some unable to get back up. "I think he's gone," St. George called out. Wisps of smoke wafted from his nose and mouth, like an idling engine. His boots thudded against the platform over to Stealth. "Everyone okay here?"
Stealth	"Daniel Phong has been lost," Stealth reported. Another guard raised a trembling hand. There was blood on her fingers. "I...I think I got bit," she said. Stealth cocked her head. "You think?" "It was all so fast," the guard said, her eyes locked on the muzzle of a rifle that had suddenly been leveled in her direction. "I mighta just cut myself on something. That's probably all it is."
St. George	"Get over to the hospital," said St. George. "Captain, can you escort her? I'm going to go check up on our ground troops, if you're willing to finish cleaning up here, Stealth."
Guards	The other guards started murmuring to one another. "Did you see that girl? How fast she was?" "--a new hero, you think?" "Kinda reminded me of--" "--don't think it could be--"
Kathy	On the ground, Kathy was fortunately ignorant of the whispered rumors on the Wall above. After the adrenaline wore off, her triumph had faded into gut-twisting nerves, leaving her doubled over and throwing up on the ground. Stepping behind Nick's wheelchair to lose her lunch served the dual purpose of keeping everyone else from seeing and Nick from being able to comfort her. She didn't want to be touched or hugged or comforted. She wanted to be home.
St. George	The fates or god or the universe or whatever clearly didn't give a fuck about what she wanted, because here was St. George, landing right beside her and offering her a comforting pat on her shoulder. "Sorry you had to get involved, Banzai," he said. "Rodney's trying new tactics."
Kathy	Kathy shrugged his hand off, though more gently than she would have for anyone else. "I thought he was dead," she said, voice a little hoarse. "I thought Anders lit him on fire."
St. George	"He was," St. George said, uncomfortably. "Is. Sorta. It's a long story. We picked him up at Project Krypton, where we got Captain Freedom and the rest of the Unbreakables."
Nick	"When you put it that way, it sounds like you picked up VD and a couple of souvenirs during Spring Break in Tijuana," Nick snorted. "Helmets though," he said, nodding at the ex Kathy had taken down last. A shitty bike helmet hadn't kept his nose intact, but would have cost more than a few bullets before someone managed to shoot through the holes. "This is new. How much ammo did we go through?"
St. George	"Most of it would be my guess," St. George sighed. "I know Makana only had one mag left. Maybe a few others have a couple more clips? But our numbers are pretty low." And would only get lower if they weren't allowed to scavenge while Cairax stalked the streets for a way in.
Kathy	"The guy who went over, did he have a family?" Kathy asked, biting her lip.
St. George	"I...I think he had a boyfriend," St. George said softly. "I'll get word to him."
Nick	"I hate to be the heartless asshole here," Nick said, giving Kathy an apologetic smile, "but if we're close to being out of ammo, that's not great for us. According to Max, we're not supposed to leave the Mount for weeks. What are we gonna do when Rodney comes back? Hold him off with pikes and prayer?"
Stealth	"It's unlikely that Legion will make another attempt within the next three to four days," Stealth said. The open ground made it impossible for her to just appear, but her approach had been all but silent regardless. "His demonstrated impatience and the mix of headgear imply that this was the majority of his scavenged armor, if not all of it."
Kathy	Kathy raised a skeptical brow, arms folding defensively over her chest. "Are you sure?"
Stealth	"He had never returned in less than twenty-four hours once he has been driven back," Stealth informed her. "After a setback of this magnitude, he will need to regroup and consolidate."
Kathy	"But that doesn't make sense," Kathy objected. "He got twelve exes over the Wall. Twelve. If I hadn't been here as an unexpected line of defense..." She shook her head. She didn't want to imagine what could have happened with twelve exes behind the barricades. She'd seen it happen in LA once before already.
Stealth	"You are correct, a second incursion of that variety, especially under the cover of night, would be devastating," Stealth agreed, giving Kathy a nod as if she'd answered a question correctly in class. "I have already drawn up additional guard rotations to pretend this kind of occurrence. But the simple fact is, Legion is drawn to dramatic showdowns of overwhelming force. He is not subtle, nor particularly tactically-minded."
Kathy	That sounded like exactly the kind of underestimation that got people killed. "He was tactically-minded enough to equip his army with helmets and waste almost all your ammo," Kathy pointed out.
Nick	Nick raised a hand. "So, is this what things are gonna be like now?" he asked. "Because that sucked."
St. George	As always, Stealth's expression was hidden beneath the blank fabric of her mask. Her body language was another story. St George had known her long enough to see the subtle signs. "You've been expecting something like this, haven't you," he asked her.
Stealth	"I have," she said. "It was only a matter of time before Legion realized he could use the resources of the city to outfit the exes." Which was why Stealth had planned for that eventuality.
St. George	St. George's expression suggested he wished that Stealth had shared some of that insight with him. "So what's bothering you?" he asked.
Stealth	"I did not factor the return of Cairax Murrain into my calculations," Stealth admitted, a little grudgingly. "Our ammunition supplies are strained as it is and we have no feasible way to get more. Ms. Li's trepidation is, at least, partially deserved. If we have not found a way to recoup our losses, Legion could well make his way inside before we are able to stop him."
Kathy	You know, sometimes Kathy hated being right

[Heavily adapted from Chapter Two of Ex-Communication by Peter Clines because chronology isn't the boss of me! NFI, NFB, OOC is love. Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV and then onto Part VI.]