"Shoot 'em all. Let God sort it out." Old Soldier Phrase

After she had left the ground behind her burning like the Hell she imagined all humanity living in by the time she was done, she heard a scream. She took a drag off the cigarette. She hadn't had one in years, but she found that the taste was still blessedly unchanged, except maybe the one she was smoking now was a bit stronger. She managed to absorb most of the cigarette in one long drag and threw the rest over her shoulder as she exhaled and started to run. She simply ran above the firefights as she came across them, following that one seeming continuous scream like it was her one link to life and death. She finally broke onto the scene and stopped in mid-air, checking out her surroundings. In front of her looked to be a big mutant, perhaps a clone of Fredrick Dukes... she couldn't tell since his back was to her. Whoever the hell it was was in the process of trying to undo his pants while also pinning Romany to the ground with his other hand. Katya pulled out one of the guns she had picked up off the fallen soldiers, clicked the safety off, and shot into where she imagined his heart would be. It was otherwise hard to tell since he was a big bowling ball from her perspective.

The bullets seemed to absorb into his flabbiness and she gritted her teeth as she took the kick from the too big handgun, standing in a two handed firing stance as she emptied the clip into his back. Not to kill this time, but merely to distract him if she could off of Romany. That didn't work either. She watched as the bullets absorbed into him with something akin to awe, and looked for another alternative quickly. Romany must not have liked whatever she saw as she glimpsed at what he had pulled out of his pants because she started to scream louder and kept hitting away at that one beefy arm, looking more and more upset and outraged. Katya glanced around her quickly and saw an option. To her right there seemed what was left of a utility closet -- or it had once been before they had tractored the building apart -- and, sitting in the middle of the small space still left, was a nice big sledge hammer. Who knows what they used it for, she reflected silently, but it would hopefully do the job she wanted it to now. She reached over as she ran, solidifying to get a good momentum going and grabbing the heaviness of the hammer up, and quickly tested the balance and grip of the head by swinging it around a couple of times. She smiled in humorless and malicious anticipation. She was going to enjoy this.

She didn't bother to stop as she reached the large figure standing before Romany. She instead used her momentum to run up the whole of his body from the back, her one inch combat heels on her uniform sinking into his back quite nicely. Her weight was enough to get his attention on its own even with the padding, but when she swung the hammer in a wide arc and brought it down across his head he seemed to notice. She swung the hammer around again and nailed it off his ear as hard as she could, figuring that, if his outside flesh was impenetrable, at least the ear would have the same ability to rupture. He let out a scream, blood coming from his ear, and he did what her objective had been... he let Romany go as he reached up to cover his ear and take on his new enemy. Katya swung the hammer to meet his upcoming hand, swinging it above her head to get the maximum momentum she could out of it, then, as she saw his hand come up in front of his face and then over his head, she hit the tips of his fingers as hard as she could with the hammer from the opposite way that nature had intended and from the side a bit, using the angle to get a good disjointing swing out of it. She heard the fingers give with a crack and then she heard his scream through her feet where she had them planted on his massive shoulders. He swung up with his arm and she jumped up to avoid it, ending up coming down on one shoulder instead of both. She managed to keep her balance by sheer force of will on the shifting surface of his skin, and she swung back the hammer again, aiming a golfer like stance at the front of his face. She heard the crunching of bone as his nose gave way and heard the new scream of rage and pain he emitted, but it wasn't taking the SOB down, which was what she wanted.

He was waving both of his arms around his head now, as if to ward off some pesky gnat, and she decided that it was going to be too hard to avoid his flaying arms from her angle. She flipped off of him and, coming down on the ground in front of him, she swung around and aimed with all of her might for a very sensitive nerve cluster that just happened to be exposed. His fault for taking off the cup with his shorts, she figured. He immediately keeled over to protect his exposed parts, giving her once again a free shot at his head and she took it, swinging her whole body around twice, pivoting on her right foot and then swinging down and out, watching as the blow took him across the ear with a tremendous whapping sound. The rebound down the hammer was enough to partially numb her arm and she wondered if it was enough. She retracted the hammer before he could grab it and watched for a couple of seconds, and then, figuring he wasn't going down, she gave the same thing to the other side of his head. He keeled partially over, his head nearer the ground, and shrugging she planted her foot in the middle of his forehead hard and taking aim swung the hammer with tremendous strength into his nose. She heard the sickening crunch as his nose went up into his skull and he backpeddled from her. She ended up in a half crouch, the sledgehammer held ready in front of her almost like a fencing sword, and she watched as he slowly fell backward. He hit the ground with a sickening thud and lay still.

She thought of checking for a pulse and then, looking at the flab at the side of his neck, figured not to. God only knew if she'd be able to find anything resembling one in the middle of all of that fat. She dropped the sledgehammer beside her and turning looked at where Romany was trying to salvage her outfit with a few tugs and pulls. Katya looking at it knew it was useless to try, but also knew that Romany needed to do something to recover herself from that experience. She'd been there a time or two, in some very nasty sticky situations in some of her nicer little missions. She knelt beside Romany and, reaching into her uniform, pulled out a bunch of leather strips and handed them to her. "This'll at least hold up the shirt and stuff until we can get out of here. Secure your pants first though... God only knows what some of these people can call on with powers." She then looked down at her body armor and, reaching down, took off her outer guns quickly and yanked the body armor off. "Here wear this." Romany didn't ask twice, but merely grabbed the body armor from her and yanked it over her own head. Katya resecured her guns and let Romany have the two that were secured to the vest in a nice cross draw on the front. She'd forgotten about the velcro securely sealed guns Pete had insisted she put in there. Wasn't her usual MO to wear that stuff.

The thought of Pete brought with it a flash of severe pain, but Katya hid it well as she yanked Romany to her feet and pushed her toward the east. "We've gotta get down to the beach and off this God forsaken piece of shit rock. Head for it and keep low. I'm going back for R and Rahne." Romany nodded as she pulled out one of the guns, already securing her pants to her vest with one of the leather strips. Katya had to give her credit as she ran for the beach in a low crouch... she pulled together fast. She still had one slim vest of body armor left on her so she was going to be more cautious to get to the others. Hollow tip bullets were something she didn't want to screw with in her current slimly armored state. She stuck to cover as much as possible and preserved what was left of her phasing power if she could help it, knowing that she had to keep that for whatever escape plan they could come up with. She zigged and zagged around Muir Island soldiers shooting it out with Black Air and cursed silently that they had taken long enough to get with it that they'd be lucky if they weren't all overun.

She saw the soldiers before her and snarled as she saw the characteristic markings of Black Air agents, making a vow to herself that they were all dead, everyone that had anything to do with this operation... they just didn't know it yet. Any means necessary. She didn't slow down as she reached the line of soldiers, she instead hit the first one with her feet in the center of his chest, knocking him into the others as she phased him. He must have realized what she was planning because he started to scream long before she let go of him in the middle of the five men behind him and let him soldify into her very own killing projectile. There were no screams because he had been too big, but others did as she ripped into them with her claws and used her body as a weapon. She spun on the bodies of the dead men she had just phase-killed and let her fury loose on those deserving. She put the claws of one hand back into her wrist holder and pointed two fingers, the rest fisted, of one hand and, spinning, pictured her hand coming out the top of his head. It was all visualization Vic had taught her. You couldn't see them as a thing that was almost impossible to kill... you had to see the ending of your motion and what you wanted to accomplish to get the most out of it. So, in a milisecond, she pictured her fingers coming out the top of his head and brought her two fingers up and into his windpipe. The force from the blow and the leverage lifted him off his feet and flung him into his comrades, his windpipe gone. She saw the fly kick coming from one of them and she ducked down almost into a Russian kick dance stance, her booted foot coming up and out just the same, except she put her hands down on the ground and threw her whole weight behind the kick. Her right leg connected with his ribs with a crack, and then as her right leg came down onto the ground she lifted her left leg and threw herself into a spin, her left arm leaving the ground so she could get the maximum momentum out of it. Her foot connected with the side of his neck and flung him to the side as she finished her spin and rolled to her feet.

Her claws were already out by the time she reached her feet and she slashed across one guy's throat before punching her fist through another one's chest, going up and under his ribs to his his heart. She had put so much force behind the blow she had to take her hand out with a slurping sound, and she jerked it out at the last with a sharp movement so that her elbow hit the guy in back of her, connecting with his windpipe. She decided to use that body to her advantage so she took his falling form and threw it forward into the waiting knives of the people rushing her, effectively pinning the knives and creating an opening for her. Her foot lashed out with accuracy as she smashed one nose into the skull, and then she lashed out in an air kick to take out another guy in the throat, her claws lashing out at the sides in swinging arces to catch the flesh of the ones coming at her from the sides. She landed, slightly winded, and, taking a look at the body count around her, waited for one of them to move. She saw one twitch and, going over, shoved her claw through the vunerable tissue that was exposed, and he stopped twitching. She nodded. Some bodies didn't look dead enough to her when people took them down cleanly and it had always bugged her. Dead bodies should look dead. These guys fit the bill. She saw another group of soldiers headed her way and quickly ducked into the shadows. As much as she'd like to stick around, she had to get to the shore or she wasn't going to get out of here alive. And she had a death to avenge.

She ended up tripping over X. Literally. She tried to jump over what she thought was a dead body as she ran toward the beach and ended up flat on her face in the dirt, coming up with a gun aimed at his head. It wasn't until she saw the eyes staring up at her almost blindly that she realized who it was. She saw the blood coming through his body armor and cursed as she rolled till she was beside him. "X...can you hear me?" His eyes locked with hers and he coughed before he could speak. "Flesh wound through the shoulder and some missing teeth, but nothing I can't handle. But my legs are pinned. Grenade took out the support." Katya glanced up to where the wall had been beside him and then down to where his legs were pinned by a very thick slab of concrete. "If I phase the wall, do you think that you can get your legs through?" He gritted his teeth and nodded, not even bothering to tell her that it was going to hurt like hell to pull two broken legs out of that mess... they both knew that. She reached over and placed her palms flat on the wall and, taking a deep breath, concentrated on the wall below her. She imagined the wall as see through so that she could lift it easily if she were so inclined, making it lighter and lighter so that it would sit on mid air about a foot off the ground. She heard his gasp, not seeing the shocked look on his face as the wall started to float as if by some magical hand. She ignored his gasp and any other sounds, figuring that he'd pull out quickly... least she hoped so, considering she couldn't keep this up for long. She heard a muffled screaming groan if that were possible and then, "I'm free." Katya let the wall go, hearing it smack the ground with resounding force as she took some deep breaths and pushed the sweaty hair out of her eyes. Her hands were flat on her knees as she caught her wind for a couple of seconds and then, getting up into a crawling position, she got close enough to see his legs. And she cursed and cursed some more. They were a bloody mess and she knew for certain that there was no way in hell he was going to be able to walk anywhere for a while.

X looked down through a slight haze of pain and shook his head. "There is no way in hell I'm going anywhere, Cat. Leave me here." She gritted her teeth and literally hissed at him, "I'm not leaving anyone else in this hellhole, you got me, X? You're coming with me if I have to drag your ass and mine down to that beach myself." And, she figured silently through her bravado, that was about what she was going to have to do. She crouched beside him and, studying him for a few moments, shrugged and said, "When I put you there, throw your arms around my waist as well as you're able or you're going to be dragging them on the ground, alright?" He nodded and knew immediately what she was going to do as she grabbed him around the waist and leveled him up onto her shoulders in a fireman's carry. It took her three tries to get the leverage to get herself to her feet and knew it hurt X, but it couldn't be helped. Someone her size had to adapt as well as she was able to her size, so Katya had weightlifted. She took the crouching steps forward that would allow her to carry his weight for a while and started toward the East. And ran right into the friendly people with the gas masks and containers right when her knees were starting to give out due to the weight and the majorly uneven terrain.

She looked her death in the face and let out one soft word, "Shit." It seemed to sum it all up, and it worked for her. She knew she couldn't reach a gun in time to stop them from taking her down, she'd known that when she picked up the man that was down, but she'd been hoping that she'd be at least able to get him to safety. She knew her armor wasn't going to save her from this one because her armor right now sucked major donkey, and she also realized in that moment she really didn't give a shit anymore. She braced her legs further apart, hoping her body would act as at least a half decent shield from the gas when she fell so that X could get her mask on, that was still attached to her belt. She then expected to die and looked it straight in the eye. What she hadn't been counting on was help. She felt the kick of a gun and watched as four men went down as their knee caps exploded into a gory mess, and more were following before anyone knew what hit them. She looked down and between her legs to find X smiling up at her through his pain. She hadn't even noticed him shifting position as she had run and noted that getting dragged along the ground like that must have hurt like hell, but he hadn't said anything. She was actually holding one of his guns and half of his body armor over her shoulders right now. She'd laugh if it hadn't been so damn convienent. She looked at his upside-down countenance and said, "Nice shot." He just smiled and continued to shoot at the people now lying on the ground, emptying his clip into them like it was no big deal and he wasn't aiming upside down and wans't slung over some almost stranger's shoulders.

She adjusted X on her shoulders and asked, "Do you still have your communicator?" As she got him as comfortable as she could and started off across the ground again, he replied, "Yeah. It's inside my armor. It was below the cement blocks or I would have called for help to beat hell when that wall fell on me. Why?" Katya had lost her communicator a while ago, so she just said, "Can you reach it and plug me in?" He nodded as he quickly reached down and, pulling out the slightly bent up commincation device, plugged it into her ear and adjusted it around her face so that the mouth piece was where she wanted it. He then hit the "on switch". Katya heard the communications going back and forth looking for them and said, "This is Katya -- would everyone SHUT UP for a minute?" Suddenly the line was filled with silence, and she took a deep breath and blinked a couple of times, to give the sequence of events. "Alright, now I have X and Pete is dead. Who's unaccounted for?" There was such a shocked silence over the news on the radio that she almost checked to make sure the thing was still on. Harold's voice came over the line first. "We know about Pete, Katya. We heard the sequence of events and I watched it from up here. Scratch got the jump on him by having a shape shifter take his place in front of Pete and then he got him from behind, the fucker. I... watched it all. What did you do with the body and what was with all that Valhalla crap, anyway?" Katya sighed as she staggered forward, the sweat starting to run a bit into her eyes. She blinked a couple of times to clear her vision and replied, "Because he was strong. He was brave. He didn't deserve to die. He didn't deserve to go to the Christian hell. And he sure as HELL didn't deserve to come back here like my religion would believe, so it seemed the best of all possible alternatives. If there is somewhere for the brave and noble to go, he should go there. That's why I sent him off in Viking fashion. Any other questions?" There was only one, coming from Rahne's pain filled voice on the other end of the line somewhere, "Is he dead? The miserable pratt that killed Pete... is he dead?"

"Yes." The finality in that one word didn't warrant any question as to whether she had checked for a pulse on Pete's killer, because they all knew that there wasn't enough left to chec, just from her tone. "Good." The voice was grieving and Katya almost felt like saying she was sorry and that she wished he hadn't been killed. She hadn't felt this much pain in a long, long time -- maybe even ever. It felt like someone had ripped out her heart and simply burned it to ash. She could imagine what Rahne and the others were going through who had known Pete for years. Romany's voice came over the radio next. "Katya. I'm aboard. You and X are now the only ones unaccounted for. Get it in gear." Katya nodded and then, realizing what she was doing and that they couldn't see it, muttered, "I'm hurrying as fast as I'm able."

She heard the click of the gun before she saw it and stared into the eyes of a man she hadn't met but had heard about. "Ah... Black Tom Cassidy, isn't it? How great to see you here." She knew that Agent X had finally passed out, a while ago, and she wasn't going to get any help from his quarter. She thought of the odds of being able to drop his body and get to a gun before she was shot, and knew she was never going to make it. But she decided to try it anyway, figuring she'd at least not be sitting here waiting to die. She threw the body backward to get it off her quicker, and watched as he pulled down the trigger.