Unloading the civilians and the farming equipment, Ford brought men over to help unload everything. Noticing that we had gathered an awful lot of farming equipment, he understood what I was suggesting. Saying he would have his engineers begin working on greenhouses, Ford thanked me before leaving to help get people settled.
"That was boring...", Juri complained, "Did he not acknowledge all the work we did?"
"He did say thank you.", R. Mika reminded her, "It's more than what he did on our arrival."
"True...still though I thought this heroic stuff was supposed to be rewarding. Chun-Li always kept lecturing me on how it was rewarding doing the right thing, I don't see anything or feeling anything different.", Juri stated.
"If you do deeds expecting something most likely you won't get it.", Cammy sighed.
"Wait...you are saying you sometimes don't get rewarded!?", Juri shouted, "What sort of lame ass shit is that!!"
"We got paid very well, but now that money is useless.", Chun-Li admitted.
"So we get nothing special for our work today?", Juri groaned, "Jeez that was a letdown, the only exciting thing was getting to fight. Victor...you maybe have an hour you can lend me?"
Telling her to try again later, she sighed and just sat back looking up at the sky. Asking me about our plans for this evening, Ryu wanted to get an idea of how we were handling it. Getting a map of the local area, I marked down where the compound was in the forest. When they asked how I could be so sure, I said I saw it when we flew in.
There were several roads leading towards the compound, and each one would need blocked to prevent escape. We would make seven groups that would each block an access road with trees and wooden spikes. I would use telepathy to communicate with everyone as radios may get intercepted. Once the roads were blocked, we would head towards the compound making sure to stay off the roads as they were likely to be patrolled.
"If you are able to sneak by, do so that way it's less of a chance that someone will get spotted. In the event conflict is inevitable, we kill them no questions asked. These people likely have contributed to the deaths of many survivors. The only ones we are going to spare are the hostages.", I stated.
"Isn't that a bit extreme?", Zangief questioned.
"If the old man was right, I don't think we have the resources to undo all the mental trauma Old Gus has done.", Laura remarked, "It's a mercy kill as far as I am concerned."
"Agreed.", Jin said, "This is merciful, they will likely be murdered by survivors if we don't do it."
"So when are we heading out?", Mai asked.
"We will head out around 6:30 this evening. I will teleport us to the Farming Supply Store, and we will move on from there. It goes without saying, but we have to do this as quietly as possible.", I said glancing over at Oriha.
Looking away from me, she acted like she never fired those rockets earlier. Telling her she would be paired with me tonight, I would make sure she didn't go overboard. Puffing her cheeks she asked me how that was going to work. Stating that she was going to show Lara and Nathan how to wire explosives, they were the ones that were going to do it.
"Wow hold on there...since when are we your demolition team?", Nathan remarked.
"I can trust you will use the right amount of explosives, you work well under pressure, and if shit hits the fan I know you can improvise.", I stated.
"Shit he's got us there.", Lara laughed, "Come on Nathan, it's a challenge!"
"I swear...fine we will do it.", he sighed.
Telling him it wouldn't be just them alone, I would pair them with capable people that could watch their backs.
"So you are saying I don't get to blow anything up?", Oriha asked with a disappoint look.
"Correct, I do promise you will get to blow some things up soon though.", I told her.
"Okay, I will trust you on this.", she agreed, "Alright, I will give these two a crash course in demolition."
---Dusk---
Having rested up for this mission, I asked Ford to provide men to help us carry away supplies and injured after we finished up. Telling him we would have the area secured before opening a portal for his men, he readily agreed as Old Gus had several things they needed that his people had stolen from them...including tear gas and badly needed MRE's.
Teleporting us to the store, the city had a much different feel to it at night. With the wind howling down the streets it really did feel like a ghost town. As we made our way towards the compound, we got a better sense of how messed up Old Gus was. Finding heads mounted on pikes, many of them had the words "Unworthy" or "Non-Believer" written on a sign underneath them.
"This...this is really bad.", Mai said grabbing my sleeve, "I get this is survival of the fittest, but this is like Dark Ages level gore."
"Agreed, it's even too much for me.", Juri stated seeing piles of decapitated corpses hanging from buildings, "I really hope all the children in these homes got away."
"There is a large group of kids at the base.", Guile advised, "The Former Base Commander and Captain Ford wouldn't have let this slid if children were involved."
"You sure?", Ken asked.
"I knew the Base Commander, he was a good man with a big heart. If children were being hurt over here, he'd come guns a blazing to save them. Captain Ford also seems like the sort of man that wouldn't just let that slide.", Guile replied.
I had already checked in advance to see if there were any children at the compound as seeing them hurt would be overwhelming for a lot of people here. Gus had twelve children locked up in cages with others awaiting his mental reformation. I would do my best to keep the group away from hostages, and get to keep the children out of sight as long as possible. Knowing the men here, they would go ape shit if they knew how Old Gus was treating them. Going into this fight I wanted to make sure we all had level heads in case something happened.
Getting to the edge of the forest, we split up into groups and went to block off the roads. Sticking close to me, my group was almost on my back trying to not get left behind. Ilulu, Zero Two, and Lucy thought it was a game, but the others were a little unnerved by the atmosphere this place gave off. Not being able to see that well, the unnerving sound of the wind blowing through the trees, and the knowledge there may be corpses of Gus's victims around us made them very jumpy.
"Are you okay?", I asked the others ignoring the soft sensations that kept bumping into my back.
"Well...I don't do well with horror.", Mai laughed dryly.
"Neither do we...", Piña said shaking in her armor, "Don't go to far away Victor."
'Apparently the fact I can kill anything that is out here isn't registering with them.', I thought before feeling Mai's chest on my back again, 'Or they are faking it and this is just foreplay.'
Using their Vectors to silently chop trees down, I had the three women chop down a total of sixteen trees to make our roadblock. Ensuring that the logs weren't going anywhere, I contacted the other teams to confirm they were ready to go. Waiting for them to give me the all good signal, all of us made our way towards the compound.
Using our enhanced vision Ilulu, Zero Two, Lucy, and I had no problems traversing the dark forest. Unfortunately for the others...they didn't have the same luck. Hearing them telepathically curse and swear as we made our way forward, there were several times I had to catch people in my group from crashing into the ground. Of course they didn't let the good deed go unrewarded as every time I got a face full of boobs...a fitting reward if I do say so myself. That said, Piña's group was wearing the armor I made so it wasn't nearly as pleasant as the others.
"We are in position.", Ryu reported.
"Same here, we had to take five people out. Thanks to Renka, we almost got caught.", Ken chuckled.
"That was Sakura's fault. She stopped, and I could see her!", Renka refuted.
"Don't blame me, you should watch where you are going.", Sakura corrected her.
Getting the check in confirmation from the other teams, I gave them a rundown of what we were dealing with. Using my map to pinpoint areas of interest to them, I dealt out objectives to everyone so we all knew what we needed to do. Zangief's team would focus on Old Gus, Ryu's would focus on securing the lost assets Ford wanted, Chun-Li's would handle the people trapped in the brainwashing area, Cammy's would focus on the fuel trucks they had stolen that were still full of viable fuel, Karin's was tasked with taking out the Undead that Gus was keeping, Terry's group would hang back to intercept fleeing enemies, and my group would focus on securing the prisoners.
With objectives set, we gave Karin's team a five minute head start to allow them to get into a better position. The Undead he was keeping were in the back of the compound so they needed more time to get over there. Once we they gave the go ahead all the teams moved in.
Stealthily making our way into their camp, the kiddy gloves came off as we started picking off people one by one. To me, it was like Assassin's Creed meets Hitman as I watched dots get snuffed out. With my enhanced hearing I could hear necks snapping, faces being caved in, and plenty of chest crushing attacks being used.
"This reminds of my past.", Juri softly said punching man in throat before putting her fist through his skull.
"What sort of past did you have?", Mai questioned cutting a man's throat open with her fan.
"I used to be bad person.", Juri told her.
"Used to be?", Chun-Li questioned over the shared telepathic link.
"Shut up!", Juri huffed.
Maintaining a watchful eye on the area, I provided information to teams as time went on to prevent us from being discovered. After a while though the people started to notice that people were disappearing, and that was when I gave Nathan and Lara the order to wipe out the Undead in back. A few moments after that, the ground shook violently as their explosives detonated blowing the Undead to bits. Of course the explosion awoke everyone in camp, but as they rushed out of their locations to find out what had happened we massacred them.
With the need for stealth gone, we all went loud and started making our way to our objectives. My group made a beeline for the captives as the surprise attack had left them mainly unprotected. The few guards they had left were mercilessly torn to bits by Ilulu and company on my command. Running over to the people in the cages, all of them ran up to the bars pleading for us to free them.
"My word...", Mai said seeing the people covered in shit and mud, "This...this terrible!"
"Even Bison wasn't this cruel...", Juri muttered having witnessed first hand what he did.
"How do we get the cages open?", Piña asked me.
"Like this.", I said grabbing the door and ripping it off the hinges.
"Oh right...I forget this is like opening a soda can for you.", she laughed trying not to grin like a fool.
With a snap of my fingers I cleaned the people off, and continued freeing people from the other cages. Thanking us repeatedly for saving them, I asked if there was a teacher who had left people by a Farming Supply Store with some elderly people. Making her way to the front of the line, a young woman said she had.
"Are they alright? They were my students, and I left them there to find food. While I was out rummaging around that man attacked me and dragged me back here.", she told me, "Please, are they alright?"
"They are fine, we found them this morning and they are at the military base now.", I assured her.
"Thank goodness.", she sighed, "I was afraid they were going to starve to death."
Telling her we would get everyone to the base, I checked in with the other teams. Everyone said they were good except Zangief's group who were having issues with Old Gus. Apparently the old man was a lot stronger than we initially thought, and they were having problems.
"I am going to need backup!", Zangief shouted in pain.
Joining up with the other groups as we rushed over to Zangief's team, we found them struggling to stand up in front of Old Gus. The old man didn't look like an normal old guy he had blue skin, red eyes, and his head looked a bit swollen. On top of that his right arm was hulked out like Zangief's but the other looked normal.
"Zangief!", Mika screamed running forward to help him.
Sensing something moving from behind him, I moved in front of Mika and caught a piece of rebar a few inches from her throat. Seeing how close she came to dying, Mika fell on her butt in shock. Staring at me, she was relieved that I had reacted in time to save her.
"So you can use telekinesis and have mind control abilities...interesting. You got bit by an Undead didn't you? I bet the infection gave you powers, and changed your appearance.", I stated, "You aren't the first person we have met with powers. In fact, I know someone that can manipulate the Undead like you do."
"You are faster than you look.", he replied, "I received these powers because I am God's Chosen One!!"
"Hahaha!!", I laughed at him, "More like his Court Jester, have you looked in the mirror? You look like something that should be a Carnival Freakshow."
"Silence!", he said trying to use his ability on me, "I am God's Chosen One, no one can question my authority! You will bow to me as your better!!"
Walking forward as I gave him a smirk.
"Are you trying to make me do something? If you are, I can't feel anything.", I mocked him, "You sure you are even trying? If you are God's Chosen One this should be a cake walk for you."
"I said silence!!", he growled releasing Zangief's group and focusing on me, "A mere human isn't fit to challenge God's Chosen One!! You are-"
In Darth Vader fashion, I used my power to grab him by the throat and hoist him off the ground.
"This is how you do it.", I said squeezing the life out of him, "How does it feel when I do it to you? Hurting my comrades is quite a problem Gus, I think you need a lesson in humility. There is always someone better than you out there, it just so happens that I know the only person better than me. I highly doubt he is going to notice if I kill you."
Thrashing around trying to get free, he started snarling like a rabid animal. Suppressing his attempts to harm anyone with his power, I just shook my head at him.
"If you are God's Chosen One, you can tell your god to kiss my ass!", I stated crushing him into a bowling ball sized gore ball.
Incinerating the ball, I turned back to Zangief and company. Making sure that their minds were okay I removed the weapons Gus had used on them, and healed their injuries.
"You guys okay?", I asked.
"Yes...", Jin groaned, "That was rough, I am going to need an aspirin."
"Thank you for your assistance.", Zangief laughed, "I didn't think he could use telekinesis till it was too late."
"You okay Mika?", I inquired.
"Yes, thank you for saving me.", she replied rubbing her neck, "That was closer than I want to believe."
With another snap of my fingers, a portal to the base opened up and Ford's men came pouring out. Having decided to trust me, they were only equipped with medical gear to treat the wounded. Along with them the group we brought to the base came through to look for missing people of theirs.
"Teacher!!", the children shouted running over to her, "You are alive!!"
Dropping to her knees, she hugged her students tightly thanking god they were still alive. Getting the civilians back to base, my group helped bring over the assets that Gus had been hoarding along with supplies I purchased and added to the trove for the bases benefit.
"Well shit kid, you are a lot better at this than I gave you credit for.", Ford said, "With these supplies we can start to rebuild properly, and stop eating those godawful rations from the seventies."
"Even you agree they are horrible!!", Ilulu shouted.
"Yes even I do, we didn't have choice because we needed to keep our base safe. With the horde gone from Tacoma, Old Gus dead, and these new supplies I can start doing what I promised the Base Commander I would do.", Ford sighed with a small smile.
"I have been meaning to ask, how did he die?", Guile asked.
"He was the first to dive head first into that horde that took the lives of my family.", Ford said with sad look, "That old man kept fighting up till the moment he was going to turn, and then shot himself in the head to prevent needing someone to do it for him."
"That certainly sounds like something he'd do!", Guile chuckled trying to mask the pain.
Getting everything back to base, Captain Ford decided to have a small celebration to mark this big day.