Epilogue

 

About a mile away from the warehouse a man sat and looked at the television. Same old news he thought, nothing new. The people changed but the stories always seemed to stay the same. At least until this morning, he hoped. Today the Program should have some information to use towards their new project.

 

He shut off the television and checked his watch, it said 5:00 a.m. “Where is he”, he thought. “He really should know better.” As if on cue there was a knock on his office door.

 

“Enter,” he said.

 

A strong looking man in a suit walked into the room. He walked up to the desk the man was seated at, raised his hand and saluted him. “Good morning sir, I have some news.”

 

The man seated behind the desk looked at the younger man and said “B, I have told you before to stop with that saluting bullshit. I really better not have to tell you again.”

 

“Old habits die hard s…..Mister A”

 

“That’s better, now what do you have for me? I really expected news sooner than this.” said the gray haired man.

 

“Sorry, Mr. A. The clean up took longer than we thought it would. Of course it was also hard to pinpoint the exact location that the bounty hunter used.”

 

“So your assessment of the mission was that it was successful?” asked Mr. A

 

“I would say that under the circumstances we did very good. Of course there’s always room for improvement.” Replied the younger Mr. B.

 

“Give me the report B.,” said the older man.

 

“We recovered the package exactly where it was supposed to be. There was no sign of the bounty hunter. The package had the blood samples and all of the doctor’s paperwork as promised.”

 

The older man looked at him and waited for him to continue.

 

“There was a Spanish gang banger there named Javier Arroyo, he was handed over to local P.D., there was a warrant out for his arrest. Also found at the location were Luscious Washington and Hugo Lorenzi. They were two local goons, one from a Haitian gang the other from the Mafia.”

 

“Found dead? Not at the hands of our group?” he asked.

 

“Well, it appears the heroine Whisper may have had something to do with it. Arroyo said that she told him to kill the others in order to save her friends. Who knows if that’s true though.”

 

“And the status of Volkov’s pet? I understand it escaped and is currently roaming the streets of the city?” The younger man cringed at the comment.

 

“Heading north through the sewer system. I did not dispatch the team to recover it. I put priority on getting the package back and debriefing you. Was that not the correct protocol to follow?”

 

“Actually I think the mission went off very successfully B. Let the dog go, I believe its heading north back to its daddy’s house. The video and computer files were received about 4 hours ago. A team is dissecting it now. Get the samples to the lab and go home. We’ve all had a long night.”

 

“One more thing, if I may sir. Sorry, Mr. A. I hope that what we are doing is right, do you ever doubt this mission?”

 

The older man looked at him and could tell how uneasy he was to have even thought about this question. “You know what? They give us a job and we do it. Things will get much uglier before they get better, I hope you realize that B. If not you may want to re-think your being here. Not that you have a choice anymore of course. We need their information for the better good of society. We need to understand what we’re up against. Now go home and get some sleep.”

 

“Thank you.” The man walked out.

 

Mr. A sat there and thought about what the man had said. He did have regrets about signing on. Maybe he was getting old. He was in his early 50’s now and had been doing this type of work for a long time. The women helped people, they saved people, they were good, but they had something they needed. He didn’t know what, but he knew they had to have it and would do anything to get it. Damn shame he though.

 

 

 

A car pulled up to a house about 35 miles out side of Tempo City as the sun began to make its ascent into the sky. The car door swung open and the man getting out studied the street. “No one here”, he thought. He closed the car door as slowly as possible and climbed the steps without making a sound. Again, he scanned the street and saw nothing. He tried the door and smiled as it popped open. “Just as expected”, he smiled and quietly entered the dark home.

 

He was very careful not to make a sound as he checked each room he entered. He saw a light on and walked towards the room. There was a blond woman in a silk robe at the kitchen sink. The man walked towards her and was no longer worried about being quiet.

 

She turned around and jumped. “You almost gave me a heart attack.” she said as he put his arms around her and kissed her.

 

“You left the door open and I thought I’d surprise you.” He answered.

 

“The kids missed you. How was the trip? Are they sending you away anytime soon or is this it for a while now? She asked.

 

“I think I did good enough this time so that I’ll be home for awhile now honey. But believe me when I say I think I do my job so good that I think they want to kill me.”

 

“Hey the kids will be sleeping for a little while longer, do you want to?” his wife asked him.

 

“You know any other time I would baby. But honestly, I’m spent. How about a rain check?”

 

“Ok, you go get some sleep.” Said the wife.

 

“Thanks”, with that he kissed her and turned around towards the stairs.

 

The bounty hunter known as the Cloud climbed the steps and headed for the shower.

 

 

 

One week later as the late summer sun sank below the horizon three women stood together on the top of the Tempo City insurance building in midtown.

 

“Anyone hear from Midnight?” asked Whisper.

 

“No” replied Lightning. “I haven’t heard anything. I mean after the ordeal she went through I guess she just needed to get away for a little while.”

 

“Listen, I’ve been thinking about something and I wanted to talk about it.” Here goes she thought. “We have been active for a while now in this town. After Tempest disappeared we all filled the void, and we’ve been successful. Think about how successful we could be if we were a team? Together we could make life so hard for all the scum in this city. Besides that, with these strange creatures popping up every once in while now like the one that we saw it makes sense to work together? Doesn’t it. Let’s be a team” Lightning looked at the other two ladies for a response. Surprisingly it was Dragon who answered.

 

“I can set up a web-site that will allow us to communicate with each other. This way it’ll be easier to share information and to set up meetings. As far as becoming a team, I don’t know I have to think about it. That’s all I can say right now.”

 

Whisper looked at Dragon and then back towards Lightning. She was used to being alone, she had been divorced for 9 years now and had no family and only a few inconsequential friends. Maybe this should be her new family. “Let’s think about it Lightning. We’re so used to fighting alone-that bounty hunter knew we wouldn’t work good together. I need some time. Besides I’m not going to go for any kind of cheesy name.”

 

“Ladies listen to me. The three of us along with Midnight can be a huge boost for this city. The four of us can learn to work together so that we can all become more effective crime fighters. Let that night last week be our beginning!”

 

Dragon and Whisper looked at the blond woman standing before them. She radiated power. She was unbelievably beautiful. Her short blond hair blew backwards in the breeze and she stood with her hands on her hips. She put her hand out towards the other two with her palm facing up.

 

Whisper threw her hand on top of Lightning’s.

 

Dragon threw her hand on top of the other two.

 

A team had been born.

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