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The base of the Saints was a bigger apartment complex down in the heart of the lockdown zone. The place was abandoned and condemned, even scheduled for demolition, but the head of the Saints, a mysterious man even only know as the Boss, bought the entire complex wholesale and used it as a headquarters for his gang. With connections in gun running, moneylending, along with legitimate business, he was really rolling in it, and he knew how to spend his cash wisely. He left the exterior as is, but the interior was furnished and clean, so it was no wonder that I was skeptical when the cab pulled up to the building. We all hopped out and I paid Julio with two fifties.

"Thanks man. You can go home now, go be safe. We'll manage from here."

He nodded his thanks, took my money and left the three of us standing at the foot of the block. It wasn't that imposing, maybe only five storeys tall, but I knew the inside was crawling with Saints that wouldn't hesitate to draw blood, even though the war was now firmly in their favour. I was sure they were in there now, celebrating their firm victory over the Men, unaware that we were standing right at their doorstep. I glanced to my left to see Brandon fiddling with his rifle and checking inside his jacket. He caught my eyes and smirked.

"Just checking my ammo, mate. I've got barely enough to clear the whole building, but I'll make do."

"Well hopefully we won't be long in there. Y'know, since you said we're on a time limit."

"Absolutely right, mate. We'll have to hurry then. I'll take point this time, you take out anyone I miss."

"Got it. Lets roll."

He nodded and went ahead. The doors weren't locked so we made it in easily enough. Inside it was messy, eerily so, but the otherwise clean inside was image enough for the Saints. Still, there were boxes strewn about, bottles and other assorted mess, not much, but it suggested something was up. Brandon took up the first flight of stairs and we followed right behind him. As we proceeded up though, the signs grew worse. Furniture was strewn about messily and walls were even broken. That's when we started seeing bodies. There was a Saint sprawled out on what used to be wall material, Brandon went over to him and gave him a once over.

"He's alive. Out cold, but alive."

"Yeah, but who did it?"

Just then we heard glass shattering up above us, muted and barely audible.

"Well whoever it is they're still here, come on!"

We hurried upstairs. Our mysterious attacker wasn't leaving anything to chance, the higher we went, the more unconscious Saints we found. But even though they were all out cold, there weren't many of them.

"Maybe that police op did more damage on their numbers than we though?"

"Maybe."

Brandon shrugged and led the way up. We approached the fourth floor where he stopped us. He took a peek up and out of the stairwell and ducked back down almost immediately.

"Guard. Guess we're faster than whatever invisible death force is coming upstairs."

The guard in question was near the top and to the right of the stairs, in front of a window that I knew led out to a fire escape. Nothing special. He was armed with a baseball bat and had a cigarette in his mouth.

God I wish I had one. Sadly I couldn't smoke, not while Alex was around.

Suddenly Brandon hushed us and made us crouch down. I could barely see what was going on, but I caught a glimpse of a dark shadow appearing at the window. It slid open noiselessly and a pair of arms reached in, snaking their way around the man. In a flash he was gone with a shattering of glass and crashing of wood, a long scream piercing the silence as the poor man presumably fell to his death. Brandon pulled me down again and I lost sight of the window, only hearing the shuffling of someone climbing in through the window and footsteps disappearing towards the stairwell heading up. I shrugged off his hand and glared at him.

"Yo, what gives?!"

"We could've been seen! If that person isn't on their side, it's safe to assume that he ain't on ours either."

Fair point. I conceded him that and silently made my way upstairs, Alex right behind me, Brandon up front. I saw no sign of the guard that had been watching over the stairwell and hall, so I assumed he was done for. There was more muffled commotion upstairs, but it was the last floor before we hit roof, so we took it extra slow. Brandon advanced to the stairwell and stopped and kneeled down.

"Alright you two. Before we head up there, I wanna make sure this floor's clear. No sense bagging our guy then coming back down with his entourage waiting for us. I'll stay here, you check all the apartments, make sure they're all clear. Leave the idiots alive though, we want stuff left behind for the coppers."

I nodded and took stock of the fourth floor. It was a typical apartment block layout, with roughly five apartments on the level itself. The hallway took a left and went down a few feet, where all the apartments were, two on the left, two on the right, and one right at the end. I glanced at Alex.

"You take the two on the right. I'll take the left. Then we both hit the last one at the end. Deal?"

She nodded and went ahead without me, silently popping the door of the first room on the right as she disappeared inside. Regular little predator, she was, even though she never admitted it. I adjusted my grip on the ladies and went forward, testing the knob of the door on the left. It was unlocked, so I went inside at a crouch. Inside it looked like a regular, furnished apartment, complete with a TV and kitchen and everything else. Two guys were inside, watching the TV, one seated on a chair, the other sprawled out on the couch. The volume was on very loud, was no wonder they didn't hear their pal biting it outside. I saw that they both had weapons, nasty looking swords that I recognised as sabres that belonged in a museum from how rusty they were. One sat in Couch Guy's lap, the other was leaning against the side of the easy chair.

Leave them alive, he said. Well I'm not so sure they'd do the same.

I sneaked forward and cut into the open kitchen area, hiding behind the counter as I moved inside to get a better position. My eyes stayed focused on the sword against the chair. Needed to get that, either to use or to throw away. Couldn't have it in the hands of these idiots. I didn't know how many other people were in here anyway, so I decided to ignore the couch potatoes. Instead I turned away from them and crept inside, where I knew there were at least two bedrooms and a bathroom to check. Was typical of these apartments to have that many rooms anyway. The first door I came across was on my left, and I opened it gently. The room was a bathroom and no one was in there, so I left it be. Next was the bedroom on my left, where there was a guy sprawled out on the bed, obviously asleep. Last was the room at the end, where there were two guys, one sleeping, the other seated on the bed reading a book. The book reader looked like he didn't even belong in this part of town, let alone as a Saint. I had mixed feelings about this bunch, when I heard movement behind me. I whipped around to see the guy that was sleeping making his way to the bathroom.

Well crap.

Well at least I had some honour. I'd let the guy get his pants back on before I nailed him.

I sneaked back to the living room and parked myself behind the kitchen counter. The sword was still there, so I spread myself on the floor and crawled over, stretching out a hand to gently grab it. I only succeeded in making it tip over and it fell on my head with a soft thunk.

Ow.

I grabbed the sword by the hilt and quickly retreated, rubbing the little sore spot where the handle had clonked me. I hid the thing inside one of the many cupboards that lined the kitchen and then returned focus to the bathroom.

I heard a flush and moved in front of the door, standing up straight as it opened.

Well no going back now.

The sleepy guy's eyes went wide as I bumrushed him back into the bathroom. My momentum caused him to fly backward and through the glass wall of the shower stall, shattering it loudly and no doubt waking every other resident from their slumber or other preoccupations. I immediately pushed the door closed behind me with a foot and charged forward, bracing my forearm as I slammed right into his chest. His breath, stinky with alcohol, exploded in my face as I knocked the wind out of him. I buried a fist into his gut, then took him by the scruff of the neck, twisted round and threw him right at the door where I knew there'd be guys waiting. He flew right out, busting up the cheap door and landing in a heap of splinters and broken wood. I leapt out right after him and immediately stopped as a sword chopped through the air directly in front of me. The guy that held it reared back for another swing, but I caught his arm as it came down to hack at me. I twisted it round and slammed it and his wrist against the corner of the wall, making him drop the thing from the pain. With my grip still on his wrist, I bent his arm backward and used his own hand to slap him in the face. I curled his hand into an impromptu fist and slammed it into his gut, then as he doubled over I pushed him out to the side as the couch potato behind him charged at me with a knife.

I hopped backward to dodge the knife guy's stab, taking a step over the guy I'd laid out on the floor. I tried to take another step back but felt a strong hand grip my ankle. A glance down told me that the dude had a hold of my foot and he wasn't happy. at all. The knife guy smirked and advanced slowly forward. In my moment's hesitation I also felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around my entire body, arms included, and squeeze.

Crap I forgot about the two lovers in the back room. One of them was apparently a powerhouse, because his arms were like a vise around me, I couldn't move my arms an inch and breathing got hard. Instead of panicking like an idiot, I instead tried to focus. I was being restrained by two people, one of which had a weak grip on me. My mind told me to exploit that weakness and my body complied.

Instead of resisting against the guy pulling on my ankle, I went along with it instead. I could barely hop forward as I extended my foot and stamped right down on his chest, making him gasp, choke and, more importantly, release my foot. I took another hop into the air and both feet shot forward, slamming into knife guy's chest and pushing him backward. I used that momentum to land and then hop in the air one more time, pushing back against the tank to make him lose his balance, and sure enough he did. Like a tree, he toppled over onto his back and his grip loosened enough for me to struggle out of it. I landed on his chest and flipped over, rolling backward out of his grip and onto my feet again. As he struggled to right himself I stamped my foot down on his face and he stopped struggling. That left knife guy and his pal. They were regrouping at the other end of the hall, and sword guy had his sword back.

No fear. I had Betsy and Sue to back me up. Brass slamming into your stomach had a way of neutralising someone faster than a cut.

I relaxed my arms and settled into a stance, waiting idly in the corridor even as the other two idiots decided who would go first. Waiting here in a tight space like this limited how much they could put out at me. Just like Sun Zi had written in his book. Couldn't remember where, but I knew it was him.

Knife guy went first while Sword guy stood outside, perhaps to take of anyone outside that might want to interfere. He edged his way into the hall, avoiding the bodies of his friends as he approached me. We stood roughly an arm's length apart, judging each other silently and sizing one another up mentally. It felt like forever, but finally Knife guy decided to make the first move. He thrusted his knife in an attempt to stab me but I twisted to the side. Easy enough. We returned to sizing each other up, but it wasn't a minute before he tried again, stabbing at me again with his long knife. I twisted the other way to avoid it, and he diverted his stab into a cut sideways that made me duck underneath his swing. With barely any time to recover he stabbed at me again and I twisted round to avoid it a third time, but this time I reached behind me to grab his arm. I pulled it round in front of me and, with a firm grip on his wrist, punched his hand with Sue. He yelped in pain and dropped the knife as my knuckleduster shattered his knuckles and finger bones. I caught the falling knife by having it land on my shoe, flat side first, and I lobbed it back up and caught it as I let the guy go. With my hand on the blade, I threw it behind him, at his friend with the sword, and watched as the two weapons clanged together. The force knocked the sword out of the guy's hand and surprised him and his buddy, enough for me to charge forward, tackling Knife guy in the gut as I carried him forward and up. My charge knocked Sword guy to the ground, and as I reached him I had Knife guy up in the air. I brought him right back down on top of his buddy in a slam and they ceased to move.

Beating a guy with his friend. Now there's something you didn't see every day.

I panted. I was quite exhausted by the day's fights, and this was nearing my limit. A noise behind me attracted my attention.

I'd forgot about lover boy's, well, lover.

I went over to the door at the end and pushed it open. Inside, the guy sat on the bed, cowering underneath the covers as he stared at me with total and utter fear in his eyes.

Nope, not a Saint. Just some poor shmuck along for the ride.

"Listen bud, I respect you and all, don't worry, but you might not want to be here in the next few minutes. Cops are comin' down on this place hard. I suggest you scram if you don't wanna get caught."

He merely nodded and scrambled to get dressed. I left him be and went back outside, where Alex was just finishing her second apartment.

"Where were you, Dylan?"

"Busy dealing with shit. I'm tired, sis, and you know how I get when I'm beat."

She rolled her eyes at me.

"Whatever Dylan. Are you gonna deal with your next room?"

"Just a sec."

I went forward to the second door and popped it open to do a quick check of the interior. Empty.

"No one home."

"Well that leaves door number three, Dylan."

"Five, Alex. Didn't they teach you to count in grade school?"

She punched my arm painfully and stalked away, grumbling. I shrugged and went to the last door out front and jiggled the knob. Locked. I turned around to the end of the hall.

"Hey Brandon, lil' help?"

He came jogging down the corridor.

"What's up?"

"Locked."

He nodded and gently pushed me aside.

"You might want to cover your ears."

I did so and made Alex do the same. He took aim at the door hinges and blew them off with his bullets.

"Thank me later."

I kicked the door down and proceeded inside as he reloaded and went back to the stairwell. Inside I saw carnage, like a tornado had torn through the apartment and left bodies and destroyed furniture in its wake. One guy was left, and he didn't even notice me as he gibbered and backed up against a window, pointing his knife almost everywhere, like there were things in the walls that were trying to kill him. Then he finally noticed me and whimpered in fear. I could see his hand shaking where he held the knife. I expected him to surrender from whatever had just cleaned his friends' clocks.

I didn't expect him to suddenly disappear through the window, his screams fading as he fell towards the street and impacted with a sickening thump. As I backed up a few steps a pair of hands gripped onto the window sill and up came someone extremely unexpected. He saw me standing there with my jaw on the floor and confusedly looked around.

"What? Is there something on my face?"

That broke me from my trance. I strode forward and, without words, gave him a straight punch on the cheek. He staggered back, blood spraying a little out of his nose as he stared at me in shock. Then he sighed and shrugged.

"Yeah, I deserved that."

---

"So you managed to get out of the hospital early?"

"Yeah. But I might have to go there again on account of what your brother did to me."

Daniel nursed his swollen cheek and exhaled in pain as Alex applied a cold pack of ice to it. We were back in the dojo, even though everything was still mostly wrecked, though I knew we could fix it in time.

After Daniel so rudely reintroduced himself at the apartment, we'd all gone together to collar the Boss, who turned out to be a short, stocky man who knew almost nothing about violence, only business with the right people. He'd hired a lot of his gang by simply greasing their palms, and had called his crew the Saints after his favourite video game, just like I'd guessed. We'd left him cuffed and unconscious on the top floor of the block and gotten the hell out of dodge, even as the cops showed up to take charge of the situation. We took a few detours to get back home, and that's where we were now, nursing our injuries and catching up, so to speak.

At first, when I saw Dan climb in through the window, I was furious. Did he just lie to us about his injuries to get us to take part? That was the question I was waiting for him to answer.

"That's cause you didn't tell us you were out, asshole. Now answer my question."

He looked at me and sighed.

"No I didn't lie to you, I swear to God. I was right out of it, you saw me on that bed with all those tubes and things. I just got better really quickly after that, requested to get an immediate discharge from the doctor. He examined me and saw nothing wrong so he let me go. I can even give you his name so you can check with him yourself."

I sighed. Alright, I guess he had a point. I didn't want to question how he'd recovered so quickly, that wasn't my concern.

"Go on."

"After I left, I tracked the progress of the operation. Turns out the police taking down the bulk of the criminals downtown was taking quicker I'd though, so I had to hurry to where you guys were, but then Max called me. He said that Brandon told him that the attack down at the marina was going on just fine, so I diverted instead to the Saints HQ, and that's where you found me. I took my time since you guys were still busy, was left with the upper floors to take care of when everyone showed up to the party. At first I didn't know it was you, but after I heard Brandon talking I realised it was you guys. I thought I'd make my entrance a little dramatic, so yeah. That's when you hit me in the face."

"Damn straight. How could you not tell us?! Me and Alex were so worried for you, man!"

He shrugged.

"Sorry. I had to keep you in the dark, otherwise you wouldn't have been so effective. Look what you did today, Dylan. You and your sister successfully took on one of the biggest street gangs in Boston by yourselves and lived. Not only that, but you were the key force in stopping the entire gang war. If I'd said something to you two, then who knows what would've happened. An angry you is an effective you, Dylan. I had my reasons."

I sighed and shook my head.

"Sure you're right, Daniel, but look at us now. Our dojo's gone bust, we've got almost no money left, our city's trashed and I don't think we're gonna get business no more."

"Which is why the Bureau is willing to refurbish your entire place and revamp your school. They're even okay with giving you money to recoup your losses from the looting."

That last part stunned me. I never expected that at all. Instantly I felt guilty for doubting him, though a part of me was still angry that he'd did it.

"Thanks, Daniel."

He got up and patted me on the shoulder.

"No problem, Dylan. You know me by now. I take care of my friends."

He smiled and winced as he sat back down.

"Ow. My face."

Brandon shrugged and smiled.

"Well at least he decided to hit you there, eh? If I were in his shoes, I'd have hit you in the jewels. No offense."

"None taken, Brandon. Though, remind me never to get on your bad side, like, ever."

He chuckled. Alex dabbed at his cheek and sat down herself.

"So what are you going to do now?"

"Me? I'm gonna have to write up a report, send it back to the office to my boss, then head back to New York. I've got an assload of paperwork to do, and I think I need a break, especially after all this."

He sighed.

"Y'know, world goes round and all that. Life goes on."

Brandon nodded and stood.

"Well, I guess I'd better get packing then. I'll see you back in Manhattan, Daniel, I'll be heading back first."

"Right. I'll see you then."

We bade farewell to the Brit as he left the dojo. I turned back to Daniel.

"Daniel?"

"Yeah?"

"Nice to see you again, asshole."

"You too, Dylan."

He smiled and I smiled back. How could I stay angry at him?

---

"The young master's progress has been astounding, master."

"Yeah I know. It's amazing."

"Well he's going have to wise up sooner, otherwise he's going to have problems in the future."

"Don't worry about it, old man. It'll sort itself out."