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_ Dedicated to my good friend Taro619 for use of his Character Shadow "RazGriz" Salanath in this chapter. _

Certified a Psychopath at the age of five, Alex spent much of her childhood in and out of mental institutions. Many of these hospitals subjected her to torture and treated her horrifically. At seven years old, Alex brutally killed a nurse that had abused her by bashing his head in with a tree log, and subsequently crippled and maimed two police officers sent to help subdue her. At the age of 16, she was drafted into the Us Military, where she became a helicopter pilot and met Gabriel, her future mate and co founder of Shadow Company after the nukes fell. She would lose everything to Raul Holden, after he lied his way into the company, and then used his bandit clan to steal Shadow Company for himself.

Six Months Ago

Houston Texas, District 1

Shadow Company-Disbanded

Commander Alex

Alex's feelings were mixed. For her, that was a rarity. She had the best grip on her mind of anyone she had ever met. She had to, all those years in the asylums broke her of any feelings, other than, of course, the rage that never seemed to stop slugging through her very soul. She hated herself for it. She hated the way the anger burned the very fabric of her mind, her being and her soul. Years of state enforced torment at the hands of animals who couldn't have given less of a fuck about her. That stole her from the animals that did, and forced them to leave her in that wretched place. She stood in the darkness on a roof top, some commotion was happening outside as the Mech and Shadow Company operatives that were still loyal to their cause brought the prisoners back to the land of the living. Ten in all. While standing in the darkness, she felt strangely empty as she inspected the weapon she would use to end the terror Houston was experiencing. An aluminum bat, filled with a mixture of fine gravel and Plaster of Paris to give it weight. A tow chain salvaged from an old truck had been brazed on to hold it in place. She had spray painted it black, to avoid glare. She had used it against Rabids mostly, but now, she had a brief flashback. It took her back to that horrific night 20 years ago. It seemed like yesterday. An asylum guard, coming by her room, forcing her to undress in front of him. She had hidden a weapon under her bed, a big, thick tree branch that some other girl had helped her smuggle into her room. When the animal had bent down to touch her, she had pulled it out from underneath the sheets and bashed him in the head as hard as she could. When he went down, she didn't stop, she just kept going until nothing was left of his head. She had experienced true joy while killing him, and still, she had never felt that same joy again.

Sure, she enjoyed saving lives, and she would much rather save a life than end one, but she couldn't seem to quit a sickening grin that was crawling up her face. Tonight, ten terrorists would pay for what they were doing.

She stepped out of the small control room, the roof of the skyscraper was lit by a four construction lights, illuminating the ten prisoners, all wearing the same uniform. Black multicam battle dress pants, solid grey combat shirts and white Shemaghs. The patch on their shoulder was a wolf's head against the state of Texas with an open mouth and embroidered lettering that read "Shadow Company". A patch that had once been worn proudly by all but three animals on the roof. They had all been stripped of their combat equipment and made to kneel, and most of them stiffened when Alex stepped into the spotlight, all but one, an American whitetail deer.

Alex walked up to the deer, the bat under her arm. The open front of her Gorka jacket blew in the breeze. She looked down at the deer, who met her gaze. His face said rage, his eyes said fear.

"Hey Raul, nice night isn't it?"

Raul said nothing.

"No answer?", Alex asked. She shrugged, beginning to walk up and down the line, once, twice, before stopping at Raul again.

"Raul, I do not appreciate what you've done to Shadow Company. I don't appreciate you murdering the animals of Houston who are just trying to get by. Not cool bro. Not fucking cool. You have no fucking idea just how not fucking cool that shit is. But. I'm gonna educate you."

She panned a look across the group, taking a step back, she dropped the bat into her gloved hand, "in a few minutes, the ten of you are gonna fucking regret crossing me", she smiled, "yeah...you're all gonna fucking regret it."

Some of the animals exchanged glances among each other.

"Now, that's a big pill to swallow isn't it? I get it. I do. Y'all went to bed in your encampment about three hours ago and then you wake up on a fucking roof at the mercy of an animal your boss told you would never be a threat again! Yet, here she is, holding all your lives in her hands and just waiting for someone to give her a reason to pop right the fuck off! See, no matter what there is one rule that you always fucking follow no matter what, and that rule is that you leave the innocent out of your bullshit!", Alex snapped, kicking rocks into the face of one of the animals who was shaking his head, "or, at least it fucking was! Swallow that pill, you most certainly motherfucking will!"

Alex paused for a moment, observing everyone in the group, zeroing in on another deer at the end of the group, next to Raul. She hadn't seen him before, but holy shit, he was the spitting image of Raul and his mate. Nice lady she was, actually. Alex wondered if she had any clue her mate was a serial killer. She smiled, walking up to him, it caught Raul's attention immediately. She could see the panicked look in Raul's face as she approached.

"Gentlemen", Alex addressed her Shadow's in the background, "These animals are wearing our uniforms. They are but simple bandits. Please, if you will, strip them of said uniforms and patches."

Alex's animals did not hesitate to strip the bandits of everything, patches, uniforms and then underwear. All but one, the deer knelt next to Raul. This was by Alex's orders.

"Good. That's a start. From this moment on, only Raul and this deer are allowed to speak. Anyone else says anything, cut out their tongue and feed it to either of the animals next to them."

"Kid, what's your name?", she asked, using the bat to make the deer look up at her. He was terrified, she could see it in his eyes. He may not even know who she was. She knew who he was though. Eric Holden. He was up and coming in the Shadow Company ranks. Not for his combat skills, but for his engineering skills. He was a hell of a plumber and carpenter, and had spearheaded the Houston Growth Project. A massive hydroponics and gardening project, and had built that project up into quite the monster before his father had ruined everything. She sort of wondered if he knew, the project had his soul woven into it, the way her guys talked about him. How he ended up here, she didn't know. But she wasn't going to touch him.

"Eric"

The deer gulped.

"Eric?", Alex asked, "fuck me sideways Raul, he looks just fucking like you! I mean, as much as you can look like a spineless pile of shit who murders innocent children for sport and still managing to make a female crazy."

"Goddammit Alex!", Raul snapped jumping out at Alex, only to be grabbed by one of the large Coyote's in Alex's ranks and forced back in line, his voice was one of agony and rage, "get your hands off me carni!! I'll skin you alive!"

"Come now Raul, we have polite company on this roof. Good, god fearing folks, I'm sure they don't appreciate you taking the lord's name in vain."

"Boss just let me kill this damn racist!", the Coyote yowled placing a hand on his sidearm, "after what he did to my pups..."

"Calm down private", Alex said, "you'll have your shot, after I have mine."

Raul hissed, "You'll all go to the kettles for this Alex, everyone on this roof is already dead!"

"You better shut the hell up Raul", Alex pointed the bat at Raul's face, "you're in no place to be threatening me! Plus, we haven't even gotten to the best part yet."

She turned back to Eric.

"You're the spittin' image of your Dad kid", Alex said, "He teaching you how to be a good little serial killer?"

Eric turned to face his father, after working up to the question for a moment, he asked, "Dad...what is...what's she talking about?"

"You mean he didn't tell you?", Alex asked, waving the bat in Raul's face, "welp. How about I do it?"

Raul hissed at Alex, "I'll send you to the kettles for this! You and all your damn Mercs!"

Alex smiled, then burst out laughing.

"That. That right there. That fucking attitude that got you here in the first place, you and all your cronies Raul. Look around. You and your little bunch of thugs are utterly powerless. You ruled the roost from your ivory tower. Shadow Company gave you everything, and you threw it in our face, betrayed us, the animals of Houston and, what's worse, your own family! Like you said, you SHOULD have killed me when you had the chance. You didn't. You've made your bed and now its time to lay in it", she crouched down next to him. She lowered her voice, "I believe, firmly. If someone wrongs you, revenge ought to be equal. You killed my Shadows. You didn't just kill some. No, of course not. You killed a whole fucking damn shitload of my shadows, not to mention a bunch of innocent people that used to look up to you. And then, you couldn't leave well enough alone, you killed Gabe, the animal that took you in, and then you took my son from me in a pot of boiling water, and you forced me to eat him in a really, really fucked up stew. You think I'd just let that shit go?"

She looked at the Coyote, "Justin, tell Eric here what his father did to your pups."

"Impaled them on rebar and roasted them over a fire, then fed them to his dogs right in front of me", Justin howled, trying hard not to snap right there.

"Mary?", Alex asked.

"Forced the mate to drink drain cleaner until his gut rotted out", Mary said coldly.

"Do I need to keep going?", Alex asked, "that's just two, I ain't even started yet."

"Hell, he fed me my own fuckin' wings", Nolan, the bald eagle, said from the back, "fucking gashes in my back still haven't healed."

"Not to mention what I watched him do to that family after the Coup."

"See what I mean?", Alex asked, "You think the Shadows that survived that are just gonna let that shit go and that you would be free to rape and kill your way across the state of Texas and SOMEONE wasn't gonna do SOMETHING!?"

Alex paused for a good minute. The tension could be felt by every single animal on the roof. Alex grinned, a smile that made everyone on the roof thoroughly sick.

Alex sighed, swinging the bat around, "I'm gonna beat the holy fuck, fuckin' fuckity fuck outta one of you. Maybe two, three if I'm not satisfied that the lesson is sticking."

She knelt down in front of Raul, he didn't make eye contact.

"Whose first?", she demanded, "either you pick, or I'll pick for you."

Raul spat in Alex's face, "go fuck yourself Alex. My Animals will find you. You can't run, you can't hide. You'll die in the kettles like the rest of the trash once we round them up. Maybe not tonight, probably not tomorrow. But I'll be watching when the water peels your skin off."

She sighed, wiping the spit off her face with her gloved hand, she stood up and began walking up and down the line, stopping again at Eric.

"Eric, you hear what your Dad's saying right?", she asked, "what your former allies have all said right?"

Eric didn't answer. Alex could see he was entirely too frightened of what was going on to speak. She knelt down next to him and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Eric, breathe. You, are not on trial tonight."

The young buck stiffened at Alex's words.

"Eric, you'll find lack of oxygen is as bad if not worse for you than getting your head smashed in, breathe buddy."

"Please", Eric's voice trembled and cracked, "please...."

"Please what Corporal?", Alex asked, addressing him by his rank, a privilege she would grant none of the other prisoners. As far as she was concerned, Eric was as much of a Shadow as the animals on her side.

His lips trembled, "please...."

"You have to ask for what you want before I can say yes", Alex stated calmly, "what do you need kid?"

Tears started streaming down Eric's face, "me....kill me. Spare my Dad...my Mom..."

"What about your Mom?", Alex asked.

"I have little brother and a baby sister on the way", Eric balled, "please, torture me! Kill me! Let my dad go! If he dies my Mom will too! Please don't do that to them! ME! TAKE ME!"

Eric broke under the pressure, leaning over and starting to ball. In the background, Alex heard one of her Shadow's, a female wombat by the name of Mary, snicker loudly.

"What a fuckin' pussy", she scoffed.

"Furthest thing from it in fact", Alex corrected her subordinate harshly, "I implore you not to insult him. Would your cub offer their life in place of yours in the face certain death like that?"

"Dunno boss, Raul beat me until I miscarried", Mary snarled, "let me take a swing at him."

"You'll get a chance, don't worry about that sister."

Alex looked Raul in the face, "I don't know why your boy would care so much as to try and bargain his life for yours. As I recall, I told you that you had to pick who died. Instead, you threatened me and what? Expected that your son would just take the punishment for you?" She grabbed hold of one of Raul's antlers, "fitting, I suppose, you're a 45 year old six point and your son is what... Ten? Or is it eleven? And he's not even 18 yet!"

"Boss that was cold", one of the Shadow's in the back ground said.

"Hey, its true though."

Alex started walking the line again, growing more and more agitated when no one offered their life in place of Eric's. It enraged her that his father was so willing to let her beat his son to death in a way she had never been before. She grimaced and then started yelling as loud as she could.

"Shadows, look at this big ol' bunch of spineless fucking cowards!", she barked, "look at that boy at the end of this line! He's a quivering sobbing mess because he's so scared of what's fixing to happen to him! Offering his life for someone who wouldn't do the same for him because he fucking loves his family so much that he would rather die than leave his baby brother and sister without both parents! How DARE you call yourselves Shadows! Fuck me! This is what Shadow Company was founded on! Destroying evil at a cost up to and including your own life so that others can live free!"

Alex turned to her Animals in the back.

"SHADOW COMPANY! WHAT RULE DO WE LIVE BY!"

"WHERE THERE IS DARKNES, THERE IS SHADOW COMPANY, WE OWN THE NIGHT SO DAY SHINES FOR THE FREE!", Alex's Animals bellowed.

"Take notes Raul!", Alex said, "without loyalty, what are you!?"

"Suck my dick Alex!", Raul hissed, "you'll die for this!"

Alex rubbed her face.

"Wow...just...wow. Raul, it takes a lot to stun me. But you've somehow managed to leave me so furious with you that I can't even swear. Your son is up here offering his life so you can take care of your unborn daughter, and you don't even care do you?"

Raul stared daggers at Alex. She tapped the sole of her boot with the bat.

"You're not trying to trade places with your boy because you really don't care do you? You don't care if I beat your son's brain out do you?", Alex grabbed Raul's head, forcing him to look into the eyes of his son, who was sobbing almost uncontrollably.

"Look at him Raul", Alex hissed into the deer's ear, "look at him. He fuckin' loves you, his mom and his sister so much that he's willing to let me smash skull into pieces and turn his brain into a bloody soup so that you can live. I dunno how someone like you can raise such a respectable child, its beyond me. I can tell you one thing, I will make it quick, because he shouldn't have to suffer because he has such a spineless father!".

She forced Raul to look her in the eyes, "Raul, I said I wouldn't. But since you're damned and determined to push me beyond my sense of reason, you brought this on yourself. Eric wasn't on trial tonight. In fact, I don't know how the poor kid got mixed up in this. Nevertheless, I'm going to kill him now. And, because he doesn't deserve to suffer for the sins of his father, I'm gonna do my damnedest to do it in one, nice, hard swing. Then, we'll start the real fun."

"Do it. Do you think I care if you kill him?", Raul paused for a moment as Alex's face twisted in anger, then, he began to smile, "does that bring your oh so beloved Gabe back? Or does that get the taste of your son's flesh out of your mouth? As soon as you swing that bat, you lose! You lose again Alex! I took the company from you once! You really think beating the life out of someone is gonna help you get it back!? You, Mech and whatever Shadows decided to desert are all gonna die in the kettles! Maybe later rather and sooner, but fuck will I enjoy lighting the fires myself!"

Eric started balling uncontrollably, no one on the roof could make out what he was saying.

Alex looked into Raul's soul, "Wow.....just...wow Raul. To just...forsake your own son like that."

"Care clouds judgment Alex", Raul scoffed, "that's why it was so easy to break you."

"You really wanna see what a broken animal looks like Raul?", Alex asked calmly, "okay, let me show you."

She stood up and walked over to Eric. After a moment of standing over him, he looked up at her.

"Eric. I am so very, very sorry for what I am about to have to do to you. Your father needs to learn a lesson tonight, and you're going to help me teach it to him."

Eric's lips quivered, "...make it quick."

Alex raised the bat over her head, Raul made eye contact with her.

She grinned, "Yeah, that's not how this work's Raul. I'm in charge here. Henry, take Eric out of line, he's not a part of this mess."

"Yes Mam", Henry said coming forward from the darkness, he cut the zip ties bounding Eric's wrists.

"Come on buddy, let's get you out of here", Henry said, leading a still sobbing and shaking Eric inside.

Alex turned to look at Raul. Good, he looked right frightened.

"Sucks don't it?", Alex asked him, "realizing that you really don't know shit huh? See, I'm sure you thought that I'd just kill Eric in your place. Or, maybe you threatened some kind of awful torture to his brother or Mom to make him step up? Knowing you, it was the latter. Since you couldn't decide who was gonna die first, now I will, and I got the best way to pick."

Alex began walking up and down the row, playing perhaps the sickest game of Enie Meanie that had ever been played. She dragged it out, excluding Raul from the line up on purpose and sometimes pacing the role multiple times before saying another phrase in the sequence, but eventually, she arrived at the fatal four words.

"And you, are, it", she stopped at a rather large dragon that had been staring daggers at her since she had shown her presence.

"Anybody moves, anybody speaks or tries anything, cut out their tongue and feed it to the animal next to them and then we'll start. As for the rest of you, what you're about to see, will shock you. You can flinch, you can blink, you can breath, and hell, you can cry or scream if you want. I get it. Some of you may even think I'm a monster. But I just want you to remember, you've all sent children to boil to death in those kettles. Be thankful this is as far as I go. And, to my animals, this first hit, is for all of you who have lost your children to this pile of shit!"

Alex took the bat, raised it up over her head and swung down on the dragon's skull as hard as she could manage. It collided with the dragons head with a crunch that sent a surge of morbid satisfaction down Alex's spine. The dragon yelped with the hit, crumpling to the ground like a wet newspaper. Brain matter was visibly swelling up and out of hellish gash she'd left in his head and blood and other bodily fluids poured down the sides of his face as she spun around on one foot. Most of her animals were grinning from ear to ear. Revenge always felt good, especially when it was fully justified.

Nolan cackled from the back ground. The dragon had been the one who sawed his wings off on Raul's orders. Nolan was still barred from combat duty because of his in ability to wear a plate carrier, "he's still breathing boss! Fucking wack him again!"

"God damn you are one hard headed mother fucker!", Alex laughed, "I felt that and I'm the one swinging the bat!"

The dragon slowly pulled himself up, spitting out blood, "Is...that...all? You...hit...like a...bitch. Suck...my...cock."

Alex took a second, hard swing, this time colliding with the side of the dragon's head, breaking his jaw and sending teeth flying. She had hit him so hard that one of his eyes popped out of his head, hanging by a few grisly fibers. The dragon sputtered, no one could make out what he was trying to say.

"Excuse me?", Alex asked with a smile, holding the bat behind her, "are you trying to say something? I'm sorry, but I just hit you so hard one of your eyes popped out. It's nasty as fuck! Looking like one of those kids you beat to death with a bat of your own! Now you feel some of their pain!"

Alex grunted as she landed another swing as hard as she could manage, this time cracking the dragon's right shoulder. A morbid crunch shattered the night air as she opened a gash a good five inches wide and caused a compound fracture in his shoulder, making a piece of jagged bone tear through his flesh. A fourth hit on the left shoulder, he fell onto his back. Hit number five was to the abdomen and it ripped his stomach open. Six and seven, one to each knee, shattering them. Alex sounded like some savage cave dweller as she beat the dragon mercilessly, each hit causing ever quieter yelps and grunts from him and harder and harder flinching from his comrades. She kept swinging that bat with everything she could manage. Again. And again. And again. And again. Each time, the dragon's body deformed more, and more, and more. Until, after a brutal forty or forty five swings, he had been reduced to a little more than a pulp, the consistency of which could be compared to what used to be found in orange juice. Or perhaps a watermelon shot on a gun range. What was worse? Death had only come for him after perhaps hit number thirty five. Bits of flesh, bone and brain were stuck to the bat and blood had soaked the roof's gravel. Alex's heart was pounding. She had forgotten just how much she fucking loved this shit.

"Holy fuck, I miss doing this!", she laughed, swinging the bat around, splattering blood and bits of brain and organs on the other nine prisoners, a few of which had seemed to start praying, "guys, did you hear that he asked me to suck his cock right before I fucking popped his eyes out? Holy shit! It just went pfftt!"

Now, many of the other Shadow's found Alex's work hard to stomach. She was a brutal executioner, when she had to be. Then again, all but one of the Animals on her side tonight had a close friend or even loved one go to their death in one of Raul's kettles, or some other form of sick torture he had concocted. While the act was hard to watch, even for the hardest among them, there was no objection to its application.

"You're insane!", one of the two female prisoner's sobbed.

"Sure am!", Alex agreed, "I have the goddamned paperwork to prove it. Did we not discuss what would happen if someone talked."

The prisoner gulped audibly.

"Anyone got a rag?", Alex asked.

One of her shadow's tossed her an oily, carbon stained rag, which Alex offered her to wipe her tears.

"Girl to girl?", Alex said, "you should have stayed on my side."

Alex stood up, 'well, back to it!"

Alex promptly swung at the head of the female prisoner, breaking her neck and killing her instantly. When the prisoner crumpled over, Alex looked dissatisfied.

"I want my money back Raul. That one was defective."

All of the color had somehow left Raul's fur and his eyes were wide. Alex grinned, spinning the bat a few revolutions.

"Did ya fuckin' think you were gonna out crazy me?", she asked, "I'm no stranger to torture and subjugation Raul. I was a child when I was first introduced to it. I grew up with it. I was damn near a grown ass female before the US Army handed me a flight suit, and gave me a real way to get my shit together. How ironic is that? The fucking Army broke me out of that terrible place, and then put me in the cockpit of the most dangerous helicopter ever built. What about you Raul? What's the most humiliated you've ever been? The most pain you've ever felt? Was it when you sob to your father as the state pries you from his grasp at gun point? And you see the hopelessness in his eyes as you scream and promise to be good? Or, is it when the one nurse won't stop goddamn fingering you after light's out and then using a dick that's entirely too fucking big to rip you apart to the point you need surgery to correct it at the ripe age of five motherfucking years old!? Or, better yet, is it when they damn near fry you to death in what amounts to a goddamn electric chair because new research shows that electro convulsive therapy can rewire the brain and shock the crazy out of someone?"

She grinned, "or...was it when your sixteen year old son who never wanted to do anything other than help animals live a better life, offers his in place of yours", Alex showed her fangs, hissing her next words.

"And you fucking spit it in his face!"

Alex slammed the bat down on the head of the Raccoon kneeling right next to Raul. Alex saw him flinch when she made contact. The Coon's skull split almost completely in half, being held together by just some grisly fibers. The Raccoon pulled himself up and stuttered something incoherent. She stepped back, letting the coon try to work both his eyes back into his skull. They had popped out from the hit.

She paused for a moment, then sighed, "nasty as fuck ain't it? Gross as shit watching someone try to fix a lethal wound when it's not so lethal as to result in instant death. I'm not growing a garden Raul. I mean...I was. You and your cronies burned it and then filled the basin with oven cleaner so nothing could grow there. Can't have the animals supplied with a clean source of food and water now can we? They might be harder to control and subjugate that way!"

Alex finished the raccoon in a second hit, bashing him so hard that his brain flew out of his shattered skull in pieces. The body fell backwards, splattering blood in Justin's boots.

"Fuck boss, you got that shit all over my new boots!"

"Aww it'll wash out Justin", Alex argued.

"You know what the difference between you and me is Raul?", Alex crouched down, pushing his face away from hers with the bloody bat, "through all that torture, all the rape, the electrocution and the hell that the state of Texas put me through, they never broke me. You never broke me. Tonight? I will brake you. And there's not a goddamn thing you can do about it."

Alex went down the row, one at a time, beating Raul's officers into a bloody pulp. Each one taking longer than the last. Eventually, just shy of day break, Raul knelt in a pile of bloody, shattered bones, shredded meat and liquefied organs. Alex's uniform and bat dripped with sweat and blood. The stink had set in hours ago and the flies were beginning to arrive. Alex's Shadow's had watched the entire thing. Some of them were queasy, not because of what Alex was doing, they couldn't really care less about how these scumbags died, after what had been done to their children, friends and teammates, along with all the innocent animals Raul had butchered. But they rarely saw so much gore in one place. Besides, they all knew what Alex was capable of. She had never tried to hide it. Some of the Shadows had taken their turns at the prisoner's as well as Raul. Currently, he had been redressed in the gore of his deceased officers. It brought the Shadows a sick pleasure. None of them were usually like this, it gave them small comfort to mock and humiliate the animal that had thought of such barbaric ways to end the lives of their children. Who even cared any more?

Covered in blood, Alex smiled at Raul. She was out of breath but smiling widely, "Raul. We can do this all fucking day. Where are those Shadows you were so sure were coming for us? Mine are still here. I know they hate this shit with a passion, I have no doubt in my mind that, if they were in charge, you'd have been shot in the head and dumped for the Biomass hours ago. These are not violent animals! They'd much rather be out in the field helping animals and rebuilding their lives that were taken by the nukes. And they could be, if you hadn't fucking betrayed them."

Alex spun the bat around and held it out , waving the handle at her Animals.

"Who wants to do the honors? Who wants the first swing?", Alex smiled darkly, "at the terror of Houston? Who wants to kill The Cooker?"

Justin and Mary both answered at the same time.

"Oh, sorry guys, but only one Animal can swing first!", Alex giggled, "rock paper scissors for it, best of three."

"But who gets to make the first joke?", Mike asked.

"Whoever doesn't get to make the first swing", Mary suggested.

"Bet", Mike agreed.

Justin and Mary threw hands.

"Scissors", Justin said.

"Rock", Mary grimaced, "fuck!"

"Three, two one draw", Henry grinned.

"Rock", Justin said.

"Rock", Mary shrugged.

"Mmmm", Alex smiled, "anyone have popcorn? The suspense is killing me."

Justin and Mary threw one more time, Mary won the draw with paper.

Alex grinned, "hell yes sister! Raul! You get to get nailed by the female you beat half to death with a two by four!"

Alex tossed Mary the bat as she stowed her shotgun, "now remember, you only get one Mary. Don't bash his brain out, yet, you gotta make sure everyone else gets to hurt him too."

Mary caught the bat mid air and stood in front of of Raul. He smirked at her.

"You pussy", Raul scoffed, "murdering me on my knees like this?"

"You mean just like you did to Justin's Mate?", Mary asked. She spat in his face, "asshole, this is for Tim", she looked over at Alex, then to her teammates, "and for Rabbit!"

Rabbit, a deceased remember, was Mary's little brother. He had been the first one to die in Raul's kettles. It had taken him a good three hours to do so. Mary still had issues sleeping, she could hear him screaming in the darkness. Every. Single. Night. Mary raised the bat over her head, took a deep breath, and swung it as hard as she could. She cracked his left arm, tearing it almost completely off with the swing. Raul yelped, it was uncontrollable. It made Mary smile, as horrible as she felt.

"That was for Rabbit! Motherfucker!", Mary howled, tossing the bat to Justin.

"Great hit Mary", Justin grinned, "let me see if I can do better! Just so you know, I'm really, really going to enjoy this! You impaled my pups on a rebar stick, I wish I could do the same to you, but this will have to do."

Justin landed an even harder hit, this time tearing Raul's arm off completely. It slopped to the ground, falling into the gore that was accumulating on the roof top.

"Not so fucking tough are you? You fucking racist", Justin threw the bat back to Alex.

Alex stepped up, "Anyone else want a go at him?"

Nobody came forward, only Nolan spoke up.

"Boss, standing around on this roof is getting old. Just finish him so we can go home."

Alex shrugged, and swung the bat as hard as she could on Raul's other arm. She moved down his body an inch at a time, breaking almost every bone in his body over the course of about 24 swings. He stopped reacting to it about the 13th. By right around seven AM, Alex was satisfied that Raul was sufficiently broken.

She looked him in the eyes and smiled, "told you I'd break you."

She dragged his broken carcass over to a skylight and with the large duct ties she kept in her belt, tied him to the old skylight.

"This madness ends now", Alex said raising the bat over her head, "this is for everyone you've killed Raul!

Alex readied the swing, as the door burst open. Six more armed animals burst through the door, a combination of Shadow Company and US Army Remnants. Alex paused, the bat still over head as she heard a familiar voice.

"ALEX! You will stand down immediately!"

She turned around as a large western dragon landed on the roof. What of the dragon's scales were exposed were almost a fifty fifty split between white and red, with blue markings on this thighs and ankles. The dragon's eyes were a cold, crystal white and his equipment was entirely UCP pattern, aside from the white Shemagh that was wrapped loosely around his neck. He had a large, 20mm auto cannon and an M249 machinegun strapped to a hard vest that most western dragons used to mount their weapons. The dragon's signature feature was his hammer forged aluminum mask. It started at the tip of his snout, wrapping all the way around the back of his skull. The holes cut in it for his horns held it in place. It covered the top of his head fully and stopped just below the bottom of his mouth, only a small part of his lower jaw was visible when he spoke. Two red stripes ran along the sides of the mask, starting the back, they ran underneath the small eye slits, curved out and then circled around, meeting in the front in such away, it gave the mask a smile that could even make someone like Alex consider her next move carefully. Alex knew who this dragon was, and if he was showing his face, it was just so he could kill her himself. Nevertheless, she smiled, spinning the bat around and flinging off bits of blood and brains.

"Hahahah", she cackled, "the mighty Razgriz! What brings you to my fuckin' rooftop!?"

"This madness MUST end now!", Razgriz hollered, "you were hired to kill Raul Holden and ONLY Raul Holden!"

"Yeah, well, the rest of the work was free", Alex snickered.

Razgriz growled, putting the fear of God in every animal on that rooftop. Most had only heard stories of the "Demon of North Sea", where this dragon had first appeared. He slaughtered Chinese Soldiers by the thousands during the North Sea Campaign. No one really knew what army he belonged to, despite the fact he used US made gear, the US government claimed they had nothing to do with the dragon. Alex wasn't sure who he was supposed to be allied with back then either, but, these days, it was rumored, not proven, that he was the Leader of Mech. Of course, they also say that he's a literal demon, sent from hell to test the will of the faithful to remain loyal to god.

"Work!?", Razgriz snapped, "WORK!? This is murder!"

"You'd know a thing or two about that wouldn't you? This is actually the furthest thing from it, Mr Razgriz. I can recall a story I've been told about a certain someone murdering an actual innocent dragon with a pitchfork", Alex frowned, pointing the bat at Razgriz. She was no more intimidated by him than he was of her, "and as we both know. There's nothing I hate more, than killing the innocent."

Razgriz stared down Alex, and she smirked her trademarked smirk.

"Or, should I call you Shadow?"

The dragon hissed, "I hate the guy you've got ziptied to that skylight just as much as you do. Maybe you didn't go far enough, maybe you went too far. It doesn't matter. This kind of justice isn't yours to distribute."

"Was it yours to hand out when you disemboweled maintenance worker on a freighter where the Chinese took you prisoner?", Alex asked, recalling a story she had heard from the dragon's own mouth, she wondered where he seemed to be drawing his inflated sense of morality from, "Was it yours to hand out when that officer murdered your father in front of you? Or kept your mother in captivity for the better part of your life? I'm not bound by your goddamn sense of holier than thou morality. I'll get payback for all those children who went to horrible, agonizing deaths in boiling swamp water, however the holy shit fuck I see fit you goddamn reptile!"

"You better stop cursing at me", Razgriz growled, "you're going to regret it."

"Wanna take a shot at me?", Alex said holding the bat like she was going to use it for its intended purpose, "I'll send you home to that dragoness of yours with one hell of a concussion!"

"Oh, I promise that you do not want to follow through with that", Razgriz stated, "I will tear you to ribbons."

Mary walked up to Alex, "boss...come on. That's Shadow Salanath. He will fuck our shit right up. Not a lot of use we can be to the animals of this city if he adds us to his kill list."

"He ain't adding me to no fuckin' list Mary", Alex grinned turning around, "and he won't stop me from finishing the job!"

She raised the bat over her head to kill Raul. Faster than anyone could track, Shadow closed the distance and threw Alex into the side of a large Trane package unit. Alex kissed the sheet metal hard, losing her grip on her weapon and falling face first into the gravel as Shadow pinned her in place.

"That's enough of that", Shadow said, "Toby, a hand please."

One of the grey squirrels that Shadow had come up ran up and ziptied Alex's hands behind her back and then helped her stand.

"The rest of you", Shadow said turning to Alex's animals, "I understand the rage, the pain and the hate you feel having lost your children to the psychopath ziptied to the skylight. You will understand that this is not the way, and there are rules we must follow."

"Fuck your rules Shadow", Alex spat, "Shadow Company fight's for what's right!"

"Until tonight Commander, that was true", Shadow sighed.

"The right thing is rarely pretty or fun", she spit again.

"You're out of your mind Alex", Shadow shook his head in disappointment, "You'll see I'm right in time."

Razgriz ordered both his and Alex's animals off the roof at once. As Shadow spread his wings to leap down, Raul gurgled behind him.

"What...about me?"

Shadow hissed, "I won't kill you Mr. Holden. But after all of the torture you've inflicted on innocents, I refuse to save your life. Count yourself lucky she never had a chance to swing that bat of her's at your head. I hope you suffer for a while before you die. You've certainly earned it!"

Shadow laughed before jumping off the roof, leaving the maimed traitor to his fate.