“You’re a real troublemaker, know that?” Lisa groused as she sat beside me on the bench overlooking the ocean. “Didn’t I tell you to chill until I gave you stuff?”

  “Wasn’t an option,” I said with a shrug, glancing at her. “Besides, what are you complaining about? We nailed one of their capes and confiscated a ton of guns, this was barely anything by comparison.”

  “It was an arson,” she snapped. “That draws a lot of eyes, especially when you tell them you’re going to do it again.” I just shrugged again, getting a frustrated sigh. “Whatever, the fuck do you want?”

  “I want some hired help,” I replied, holding up a hand to stop her as she opened her mouth. “Come on, you’re smart enough to know it’s not you.”

  “Oh I was just going to say it’s about time you committed,” Lisa said with a smug grin. “Building a gang of your own, huh? I dunno, awful stupid of me to help someone who’s already said they’ll come after me next.” I frowned.

  “So you’re saying you don’t want us tied together more?” I asked, arching a brow. “Come on, think of the leverage you can wave over my head.”

  “Leverage you clearly don’t care about,” she said, rolling her eyes.

  “What do you want, a truce?” I said. “We practically have one already. I’m doing jobs for you too, and this would only make me more effective.”

  “What exactly are you after?”

  “A single mercenary,” I answered, staring out at the crashing waves. “Someone who has experience with training people and doing small unit stuff. Really not much to ask, right?”

  “Trying to make up for your lack of numbers, huh?” Lisa mused.

  “Pretty much,” I nodded. No point hiding it when she could just pluck the answer from thin air. “I’m trained decently well, my team less so. This gives us an edge that they can’t match, unless your guys start training them too.”

  “Not really part of my plan.”

  “So you get a better team going after your enemies and get paid on top of it,” I said. “Sounds like a win-win to me. Plus think about it, less likely to go after you if you’re helping me out, aren’t I?”

  “I see I’m starting to rub off on you,” Lisa said, her smile growing. “You know what? Alright, I’ll grant your little wish. Can’t deny I’m a little curious to see what you’ll do. I should warn you, their contracts are pricey.”

  “I can afford it,” I said simply.

  “You can,” she agreed. “Give me til tomorrow, I’ll find someone.”

  “Great,” I replied.

  “Why’d you leave that tag?” Lisa asked after a minute spent quietly watching the bay. “You got your payback and that would have been bad enough, but this is going to piss them off like nothing you’ve done before.”

  “More than blasting out Thurisaz’s kneecaps and getting him arrested?” I countered.

  “Yes,” she said flatly. “You don’t get it, that’s just part of the game. But you’re making it explicit that you want them wiped out. Nothing more dangerous than a cornered animal.”

  “Then call me animal control,” I retorted. “Their thugs shot at me and my friends on Christmas day. They’re welcome to know I’m coming, but they can’t stop me.”

  “That’s pretty cocky Lia,” she said dryly. “Forgetting your team isn’t bulletproof like you?”

  “I’m well aware, hence the training and bullshit.” I sighed and scratched at the wound hidden under my scarf. “At the end of this I want all my people alive and not a single Nazi left in the city. I know you don’t give a shit about that, but someone has to.”

  “Your funeral, or theirs anyway,” Lisa said, shaking her head. “You want anything else? Maybe a tank platoon to help your little war?”

  “Har har.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m asking for one guy to train people, stop making a bigger deal of it than it needs to be.”

  “I’ll call you tomorrow then,” she said, rising from the bench.

  “You do that,” I replied, quietly staring out at the waves crashing on the beach.

  This was it, this was what it would take to rid Brockton Bay of the ugly cancer that had spread through the city’s bones.

  So be it.

  “Line up the front sight between the two blades of the rear one,” I said, raising my voice only just enough to be heard through Joy’s ear plugs. I reached up and placed my left hand over hers, pushing her thumbs out of the way of the slide. “Hands like that. When you fire, the slide’s going to fly back and it’ll bite you if your fingers are there.”

  “Okay,” Joy said. I could hear her nerves despite my own hearing protection.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “Once you’re ready, just squeeze the trigger and—” BANG “Hey, not bad,” I said, grinning up at her. “Almost a bullseye on your first shot.”

  “That kicked a lot,” she said shakily.

  “Yeah, ten mil is pretty powerful,” I said, shaking my head. “But you’ll get used to it, don’t worry. Hey bend your elbows a little more, that will help absorb some of the recoil. Here let me…” I gently fixed her stance, then nodded. “Okay, try again.”

  Joy fired a few shots before pausing, breathing a little harder than before. I encouraged her, offered a few pointers, and got her right back to shooting. We didn’t have time to waste, I wanted her and Zeke to have a little experience shooting before we got working with the mercenary. Didn’t want to look like a bunch of dumb kids when I was trying to build a team that could take down Werwolf.

  We were at a range not too far out of town, empty save for us. It had taken a little convincing, but when I’d told Zeke he could finally use the MAC-10 he’d taken from the armoury, he was only too eager to drive for an hour or so to get here.

  Once Joy had finished the magazine, I walked her through reloading. We had practiced a few times back at Papa’s place, but I could tell she was a little frazzled. Still, Joy managed it without fumbling and got straight into firing again. Already she was getting more comfortable, settling into a less tense stance, not flinching when the pistol fired.

  “Good,” I said, putting a hand on her shoulder when she was done. “How are you feeling?”

  “That was...fun,” Joy said with a shaky smile. “Um, my hand kind of hurts.”

  “No problem, take a break,” I replied easily, patting her shoulder. She put the gun in her waistband and walked back from the line as I turned. “Zeke, come on up.”

  “Finally!” Zeke exclaimed, hopping up from his seat on a fallen tree. He held his SMG tightly, a wide smile on his face. “Can’t wait to test this baby out.”

  “I haven’t used one before,” I said, looking it over. “Fill me in would you?”

  “Full auto, nine mil, what more can I say?” he replied, racking the bolt. He held it out one-handed and I felt my eye twitch.

  “Whoa whoa whoa,” I said, getting a look of confusion. “What are you doing?”

  “Uhh, shooting?”

  “God dammit,” I sighed. “Two hands, otherwise you’re going to get one shot on target and the rest in the clouds.”

  “Shit, where?” Zeke asked. “This thing ain’t exactly built for that.”

  “Right in front of the trigger guard,” I said, pointing. “Here, let me show you.” He pulled it back when I reached out.

  “C’mon, I wanna put the first shots through it,” he complained.

  “I’m not going to shoot it, just show you how to hold it,” I retorted, reaching out again. He reluctantly passed it and I looked it over. Safety, fire selector for semi or auto…huh, open bolt. I raised it like I was going to fire, keeping my finger off the trigger. “It’s a little awkward, but you see where you grip it up front?”

  “Looks like you’re gonna blow your fingers off,” Zeke said dryly.

  “If I stick them into the muzzle like an idiot,” I said. “But I’d have to reach in front of the barrel to do it. Give it a try.” I passed it back and he did, frowning.

  “Feels weird,” he muttered.

  “It looks okay,” I said with a nod. “Hand’s clear of the barrel. Okay, go ahead.” He pulled the trigger and let off a long burst of fire. When he stopped, I saw his shoulders shaking. I realized a moment later he was laughing.

  “Hell yeah!” Zeke cried. “God damn, I feel fucking alive!” He raised the gun and fired until the bolt clicked empty. “Woooo!” I sighed and shook my head.

  “Zeke, did you bring another magazine?” He looked at me, then the MAC, and sighed. “Thought so.”

  “Dude did you shoot all your ammo that quick?” Joy asked as he walked away from the firing line.

  “I only got the one,” Zeke muttered, cheeks darkening. “Didn’t think to grab more.”

  “It’s fine, you can put some rounds through my pistol,” I said, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “And now you know why I didn’t opt for an automatic.”

  “Yeah…” he sighed and sat on the log, unloading the SMG. “Kinda see your point.”

  “Don’t worry, if you’re in a place where you’re using this, you’re going to make whoever’s attacking think twice,” I said, trying to be a bit more upbeat. Couldn’t let them get discouraged, this shit was vital. “Joy, want to give it another go?”

  “Sure,” she replied, rising from the log and loading her pistol.

  We continued the shooting practice for another hour, burning through a hundred of the rounds I’d bought just a couple days ago. Christ if it kept up like this caping was going to be expensive… Oh well, we’d taken almost a hundred grand off Werwolf, plus I had my own war chest to work with. If Tattletale fed us the info, I’d happily give her ten percent and keep the rest.

  In a perfect world I could keep the lot, but this world was far from perfect. Still, maybe something to look into in the future. If I could start putting intel together from my raids… Would Tattletale give me anything that might give me sources of my own? Probably not, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t do some digging.

  “Alright,” I said as Zeke fired the last rounds through my pistol. “This was a good start guys. Learned a valuable lesson in controlled bursts, right?”

  “To use ‘em,” Zeke said flatly, getting a chuckle from Joy and I.

  “Exactly, come on, let’s pack it up and head home.”

  We policed our brass, then packed everything up and headed back to the car. I was a little surprised how empty it was, but it was a weekday and barely late afternoon, in the middle of winter no less. I had a feeling no one else wanted to brave the cold, or else had better things to do with their holidays than we did.

  As we pulled out of the parking lot, I took a deep breath, filling my nose with the scent of gunsmoke. All of this was a prelude to what was coming next, something I still hadn’t brought up with my team. Well, I had a captive audience right now…

  “Hey guys,” I spoke up over the rap Zeke was playing, reaching out and turning down the volume. “I’ve got something I want to talk with you about.”

  “Sure,” Joy said, shrugging. “What’s up?”

  “Must be pretty important if you’re turning down Dirty Red,” Zeke joked.

  “It is,” I said seriously. “So we’ve been doing good, okay? But right now things are picking up and we need to get better. I talked with Tattletale, and I’m planning on hiring one of her mercenaries to give us a hand. Not in operations, just training us to be better than anything Werwolf has. And like, I don’t know how much experience Jeep has but it’s probably less than any of us. If we bring in more people like him, we’re going to need to make sure they know what they’re doing.”

  “Makes sense to me,” Joy said. “I mean, it’s kind of weird hiring a mercenary, but I guess it makes sense; not like Laffy’s going to teach us this stuff.”

  “That’s kind of it,” I said with a sigh. “I’d rather we just...know, but we don’t. What I do know is this will give us an unbeatable edge and we need it.”

  “Man this is gonna be army stuff, ain’t it,” Zeke said glumly. “They gonna be yelling at us and shit, right?”

  “I mean, maybe,” I replied. “Not super sure, but if they do then I’ll tell them to fuck off okay?”

  “We know you’ll have our backs,” Joy said kindly. “I think it’s a good idea. Kind of nervous, like I only just started shooting today you know?”

  “That’s okay, kind of why I brought us out,” I said. “Want a little experience first. You guys did good though, don’t worry, and we’re only going to get better.”

  We didn’t have a choice.