"We are being followed." Janette's words broke through the heavy silence inside the car. Marcus turned his head, "Enemies?" Janette nodded, "Most likely. Two low level class holders. They are following us in a car about 100 meters behind us. Shall I shake them or do you want to take them out?" Getting rid of them would be best, Marcus thought. It would reduce the fighting strength of the enemy and ensure they wouldn't be followed. Or…. "What if we let them follow us? We need to end this eventually. The abandoned building would make for a good place to fight. No civilians, no collateral damage, plenty of cover and good tactical terrain," Marcus revealed his thoughts, and Janette made an unhappy face.

"I don't know. We sure can fight them out there, but the Brotherhood is huge. Even if we take out a bunch of them that might not stop the attacks. There is no guarantee that the leader will show up in person," Janette said, while she continued to steer the car through the heavy rain. She was right, Marcus thought and started to think of alternatives. "I can make sure he shows up," Ms. Han said from the backseat. Marcus turned around, "How?" The small woman started to rummage through her bag of war spoils. Like in their last encounter, Ms. Han had scavenged around and had gathered all kinds of useful things after the fight. Marcus saw several pistols, a set of tactical grenades, another combat knife and finally a smartphone, which Xiu retrieved.

"One of the class holders had this," she explained and worked the small device for a minute. "It isn't even locked…," she muttered. Then she facepalmed and showed Marcus the screen. Mandarin didn't tell him anything, which Xiu quickly realized and said, "It says 'Most Honorable Leader Liu'. They have the direct number of the leader in an unlocked phone. Is there no end to this? Has the power of the class holders completely fried their brains?" Without another word she called the number, and as soon as the call was connected she started shouting into the phone.

How such a small woman could produce such a large and deep voice was beyond Marcus. For a minute Ms. Han assaulted the phone and suddenly ended the call. A bright grin grew on her face. "This should do the trick. As soon as he knows where I am hiding, he will come to cut my head off," she said and laughed. Marcus turned around again and gave Janette a look, and saw that she was very amused.

Marcus wasn't so sure that this would work.

Oh, it will. She compared the genitals of the leader with, what I believe, is a small bulbous mushroom. That was before she insinuated that his father preferred congress with female dogs and that he was the result of such an act. I can go on, if you want that were just the opening sentences. Ms. Han has a way with words.

I get the idea, Marcus thought and felt a tiny bit of pity for leader Liu.

Later that night Marcus opened a can of tuna* (tuna replacement, there are no real tuna left on Earth) and took a sip from an off brand soda. The three of them were having a late night dinner, sitting on the floor in a badly lit room. Hours ago they had returned to the building and their 'secret' pursuers had left them soon after. "You two are looking extremely relaxed, given the circumstances," Ms. Han said, nomming on a pack of crab chips*(has never been crab).

"We have been through far worse than a bunch of half trained mafia punks," Janette said and grabbed her jet black rifle that had been leaning against the wall behind her. It was an experimental weapon, a replacement for her railgun. It weighed over 25 kg, fired special 20 mm bullets and was tough enough to withstand a small nuclear explosion, allegedly. Besides that, it had no scope or sights. Not even cool LEDs to show how advanced and powerful it was. Ms. Han oogled the obscene weapon for a moment and then returned to her meal.

"Why did you leave the Brotherhood?" Janette asked out of the blue. Xiu continued to eat her chips for a bit before she answered, "I wanted more than a life of crime and killing. Not that I wasn't good at it," she said with a grin. "What I dreamed of was a normal, boring life. Love, a husband, children, just the basic package of happiness. It must sound mundane to you, but for me it was something out of a fairytale."

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Janette stole the last bits of Marcus' tuna* and said, "Was there nothing good? Friendship, success, riches?" Xiu shook her head. "It was pretty much hell. I was being used like an attack dog. I had to kill or I would die myself. No fame, no glory, and definitely no riches. I was barely human…," the woman said and looked thoughtful.

It was a bad topic and Marcus tried to come up with something more cheerful. "But I had a friend. Kinda." Xiu said, still staring holes into the floor. A strange smile moved over her face, "Another girl, a few years older than me. We were from completely different worlds, but we were both prisoners. That united us." Marcus and Janette stayed silent and allowed her to continue her thoughts.

Xiu suddenly laughed hard enough to throw some of her chips through the room. "I had delusions of grandeur at the time. Thinking I was hot stuff, but then I met her and realized how big the world truly was. She beat my ass so hard, I can call myself lucky that we weren't enemies. But… we knew each other from the start. Just one look into her eyes and I knew she was like me." Xiu fell silent again.

"Do you know what became of your friend?" Janette asked, now strangely interested in the topic. Ms. Han didn't seem to notice and shook her head, "No. After I made my grand exit I had no contact with the criminal underworld until a few days ago, when somebody tried to murder me. But I like to believe Mio-sama somehow gained her freedom, too." Finally, Marcus understood why Janette had been pursuing this topic. This explained a lot, if things were as he expected.

Marcus really wanted to push the topic and dig deeper into the friend story. Was this the time for it? The answer was obvious and Marcus let things go. They finished their meal and moved to their positions. They only had a rough battle plan, too much was uncertain for detailed tactics. Marcus would be on the roof, Janette used a room about two thirds up as a sniper nest and Ms. Han hid somewhere between them.

In combat against advanced class holders traditional strategies of urban combat fail. The roof isn't safe, it is a weak point. Nobody will come through the main door and up the stairs. People can jump, climb, run or fly up buildings in record speed. It is all about compatibility and mobility. With Marcus on the roof they hoped to catch a few people off guard, while Janette would thin their numbers and play hide and seek using the many empty rooms of the building. All of this could instantly change, depending on the forces of the enemy and their battle plan. Still, Marcus hoped his idea wasn't half bad.

-----

An hour later Janette gently pushed the door to the roof open and found Marcus floating one meter above the floor, meditating under the stars. She smiled and swaggered closer to her big friend. "I'm not sleeping," Marcus said, with his eyes closed. "I never said that. Just, do you think it is a good idea to drain your endurance right before things go hot?" She asked, inspecting the hovering Marcus. He opened his eyes and smiled, "This isn't draining me. Force Control, as I call it now, is draining my endurance only based on the mass in the field and how strong I make the field. Countering Earth's gravity on nothing more than my own body is completely offset by my endurance regeneration."

Janette put her hand into the invisible field around Marcus and enjoyed the weird feeling of weightlessness in her hand. "This isn't going to be easy, I fear," she said and turned towards the approaching enemies. "They are coming?" Marcus asked and canceled the field. While her friend got up she said, "Yes, they are moving slowly. I think they are trying to sneak up on us." She squinted her eyes, "Nine or ten class holders. No grunts, which is good. They are all level sixty to eighty, which is less good."

Following an impulse Janette hugged her bear of a friend and then turned to return to her starting position. "This isn't where we will fall," Marcus called after her. Janette put on her helmet and said, "Of course not. I will never fall. I need to get back to my hot wife." Marcus behind her laughed as she vanished down the stairs.

-----

Three minutes later Marcus stared into the direction of the approaching enemy, but he could only see the dark jungle. "I think they have a Guardian. I will hold my fire until I see an opening," Janette's voice came clearly through his com-bead. Marcus confirmed and they waited.

Five minutes later the enemy force finally broke out of the jungle and slowly marched towards the building in a tight formation. They must have realized that they have been spotted, Marcus thought. But they were still not attacking…

The group of class holders was centered around a pair of men. One large, wielding a minigun and clad in heavy armor. The other was smaller, but his armor looked by far the most expensive. Xeen helpfully identified the classes for Marcus. The fancy one was a Firelord, the big one was the expected Guardian, besides them were two Monks, a Lancer, an Onmyoji, a Kage, an Arcane Master and one unknown class. "Quite the buffet," Janette acknowledged the information. She was right, there were a lot of problem cases right in front of them.

Through the gloom of night Marcus could see an object flying into his direction and by the sound of it, it was a drone. "It isn't dangerous, I think. It carries something," Janette let Marcus know. Seconds later the drone reached Marcus and delivered an electronic tablet. He picked it up and looked into the face of the Firelord below. He was rather attractive, but his face exuded pure arrogance. "Leader Liu, what brings you here in the middle of the night?" Marcus asked, with a bright smile. "Where is that murderous whore? I have something to show her," the man said in perfect English and he showed a smile that would win him the best 'Worst Villain' award without even trying.

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