Young Gods

YG: Fire and Family

"I just don't know how I feel about those three vigilantes roaming around Metropolis doing what ever they please!"
" Oh Ben don't be so hard they are saving people and that's what matters."
"Mary, they have no checks and balances, nothing to keep them in line. Just like the Bat in Gotham."

Madi's ears burned as she sat at the breakfast table listening to her half sober stepfather bad mouth the people who had risked their lives for her, she could not understand why he couldn't just appreciate a good thing. It had been 6 months since superman and his friends had shown up and made a name for themselves in Metropolis, in that time they had shut down two organized crime rings, stopped a gang war, and squashed numerous black market deals keeping illegal fire arms off the streets. Madi's boss had not contacted her since and she was starting to feel like she had gotten her freedom back, she felt for the first time in a long time that she was a kid, just a normal, fun loving, flashcard studying, high schooler. No more case files, no more extortion, no more secretive ops, she finally had time to herself, she had taken her horses out more, her grades had improved, things were finally looking up.

"Superman and his team might save your ass one day Ben, and you'll end up loving him then won't you." Madi smirked.

"I can handle myself, I don't need some homo in spandex to come and get me!" with that pleasant ode he poured another shot of whiskey into his coffee and made for the truck sitting in the drive way.

Madi's mother looked down at her, "you better hurry up, or you are going to be late for school!" Madi finished her food and slipped her jacket on. That's when she heard the rumble of car engines turing into the farm, her heart sank like a rock when she looked out into the yard. Four black SUVs came rolling up the drive and out came four men from each car, they were all armed with sub-machine guns and grim determined faces. Ben put his sloppy self in-between the sixteen armed men and the house in some poor excuse to stop them, he shouted at them in a vain effort to halt their advance but one of the men simply jammed the but of his weapon into his gut and put him on the ground. Two more put a bag over his head and cuffed him, tossing him into a trunk.

"Mom! we need to go now!"

"Who are those men out there, what do they want?"

"Mom out the back no-" she was cut off by the shatter of the kitchen window, a small black cylinder came crashing through the glass, a single red light in the center of it blinked faster and faster. Madi's eyes went wide as she put two and two together, she  scooped it up frantically and tossed it into the next room, it clattered to the floor and slid behind the couch. Madi couldn't believe her boss would stoop so low as to make this bold assault.

She tackled her mother and covered her body with her own in a rash attempt to keep her safe, the thermite charge detonated sending sparks and heat throughout the first floor, anything made of wood or cloth went up first engulfing the dwelling with flames. Madi rose to her feet the air was ripped from her lungs as the intense heat only grew hotter. She lifted her half conscious mother up and stumbled with her to the back door. The armed men circled around the back and stormed the porch, Madi drew her pistol and fired two rounds into the chest of the lead man dropping him like a bag of bricks. She was flanked and blindsided with the force of a linebacker. She felt something hot on her shoulder, a small pain that grew substantially hotter, she felt her pant leg being soaked and unusually warm for a cold winter morning. She continued firing rounds, barely aiming, returning fire out of anger. She put down two more agents before the gun clicked empty, she reached for her boot to grab another magazine but she was kicked in the ribs by another mercenary. Madi howled with pain, while she struggled to compose herself two more men grabbed her mom and subdued her like they did Ben carrying her off to the convoy. The lead man, one who Madi had never seen before was dressed in a red suit with slick black hair and horrifying glowing red eyes crouched over Madi, "your employer sends his regards!"