WD Rule nine is entitled 'The experience points needed to level up in badass is consistently one.'

Previous rule eight: Fighting a lot for a little bit of information is part of a spy's job description.

Next rule ten: Better a lifetime of emptiness or a moment of meaning?

Summary Page

-Short summary-

An unlikely participant in the not Mugen ordeal exits as another enters.

-Long summary- 

Nolan makes his way up the stairs after Matilde in an effort to find out just what ‘Satan’s Child’ is up to. The others had split off into separate directions, but he had made sure to keep his eyes on her. Although he does believe her earlier answer to whom had blown up an embassy in order to find him, he still as a whole does not trust the terrorist as far as he can throw her. Perhaps it is his inability to trust others quickly that makes him the most spy-like out of the Sevens. Though to say that this is his only reason for following Matilde would be a slight exaggeration as his reasoning is twofold. The second reason has to do with a nagging problem he had forgotten about after following the rest of the team…something that he had only realized a few moments ago. That is of course, that he’s not suited for combat at all. Chiaki had smartly stayed behind at the HQ, but he caught up in the furor of the moment had trailed the rest of the team, only realizing his folly when the bullets started flying and the bombs started bursting. Not wanting this joke of a mistake to be his last, he quickly decided to look for the safest place and remain there indefinitely. Noticing how confident Matilde was in her walk towards this building, he pursued her and figured that he could stay safe, stave off his curiosity as to her intentions and possibly bring good news to the team. Not just win-win, but win-win-win. So Nolan makes sure to enter the building a little after Matilde, watch her pop a cap in two guys with startling accuracy (and no hesitation), and trails her to a door that separates the roof from the rest of the building. He quickly hides behind the door, and using his palm opens the door a crack and holds it there with a finger.  He sees both Mugens (true and not) speaking to one another, (though they are so quiet that he can’t really hear what they’re saying) and things seem peaceful enough until a gunshot rings out shocking the Irishman.

Mo and Meifa find themselves in a tight spot with gangsters in front and nowhere to run behind them. Mo asks Meifa if she’s one of those who has a problem with seeing a dude or three get his comeuppance, and she latter shrugs replying that everyone has to die sometime. Mo grins and gives her a thumbs up. Correct answer.  Thug one prepares his weapon, but Meifa’s already there to relieve him of it by kicking him in the stomach. All guns are turned on her now, which is exactly what Mo anticipated. Their numbers are light, only about half a dozen guys are standing in front of them –possibly because they figured the intruders are just women, or the other guys are busy attending to rival gang members. Mo is confident in her abilities with a firearm, but she doesn’t dare to dream that she can take on all of them at once. Instead, she focuses on thinning out the numbers in an effort to decrease the amount of bullets they’d have to dodge. Meifa had disarmed one guy, which leaves five for her to deal with. Good odds. She fires upon another gangster, nailing a neat headshot, and gaining a little bit of leeway to pursue retreat. Meifa fakes back and avoids a few bullets whizzing past her, and using the fallen gangster as a pivot point launches herself at another guy and wrestling herself behind him, gets a successful submission hold off, giving her a meat shield and subduing an enemy at the same time. Mo pops a cap in another gangster and asks if they’d like to protect the little manhood they have left and call this one a draw? A voice from her side says they’d much rather ‘erase the evidence’ of this screw up, and so this will just have to continue. Now if they’re really the bad bitches they believe they are, then they should no problem with going for a ‘round 2’, right? Meifa and Mo turn in horror and see five more guys from the same gang powerwalking towards them with their guns locked and loaded.

Heike and Lukas are having a tough time of it as well, holding down their veritable fortress from outside attack. The bullets rain fiercely against the outside of the house they’re in, and while the men are able to return fire occasionally, it’s not enough to keep the gangsters from making a steady approach. It won’t be long until they make good on their threat to blow the building apart with them in it. If they weren’t careful, the gangsters could have stormed the building, but through some sort of unholy ability of precognition they are somehow able to tell that Lukas and Heike aren’t amateurs, and that taking the doors head on would be more costly than simply firing from afar until they nail them. Figuring this out, the two trapped sevens realize they’ll need to do more than return fire every couple of seconds if they don’t want to die. Heike asks Lukas if he’s got any one of those life-saving uber plans brewing? Cause if there was ever a time where they needed one this would be it. Lukas replies over gunfire that despite his track record, he’s actually not all that great at thinking under duress. Especially when the odds are so supremely stacked against him. It’s either they go out and die, or stay here and die, and honestly the former sounds a little unnecessary compared to the latter. Not Mugen must have said or done something for the gangs to believe that their major problem is them and not each other since they seem to have struck up some sort of front and attacked them separately. Once again, not Mugen proves how not stupid he is. Gangs killing each other might have made it easier for them to find him, but gangs united against them? He could tour the whole neighborhood taking the scenic route twice before they’d even realize he was there, oh and of course the mortality rate of this situation is rather high. Heike realizes that all not Mugen would have to do is flash around the picture real Mugen created with them being all pally-pally, and the gangs would realize they’ve got a heavy hitter in their midst. They’d be stupid to fight a pathetic little war against each other when the friggin’ angel of death is in their hood. Not Mugen isn’t just not dumb, he’s goddamn Sun Tzu himself! Lukas growls and wonders if Matilde knew all of this when she decided to have them come here? He wants to believe that she has nothing to do with this since her earlier speech seemed somewhat….authentic? She’s really not interested in dying…yet, and she wants them to protect her….so could this really be her means of training them?

Speaking of Matilde, on the roof of a certain building her meeting has sort of hit a snag. The sort of snag that involves her shooting the person she’s meeting with in the torso. Nolan watches in confused shock as not Mugen drops to one knee and holds his injury. If the Irishman was confused before, then what happens next throws all of his senses into disarray. Not Mugen doesn’t react with violence like one would expect, instead he looks up at Matilde who approaches him slowly like a Lion about to finish off a weakened gazelle with a look of genuine bewilderment. Not Mugen….actually didn’t expect her to shoot him? No….his expression is more akin to one who’s about to die at the hands of someone who betrayed him?

Not Mugen coughs and asks Matilde who stands over him with an unreadable expression why she’d do this to him? They’re like siblings…they were raised in the same place, grappled with the same emptiness. Didn’t she come here to meet him? She had called him and even offered her team as an act of goodwill. They were going to die here, and the two of them were going to cause mayhem together! Isn’t that what she promised? He had done so much to get her attention and prove that he is good enough for her approval….the others think of her as a bloodthirsty monster, but he knows her…the real Matilde. So why…?

Matilde tilts her head, her expression without remorse and her voice even as she replies. ‘I lied’.

Lukas is already mentally writing his last will and testament when he hears an earth shattering explosion and the roar of flames. Heike turns and asks if Lukas heard that? Lukas makes a face and Heike realizes the obvious answer to his somewhat (read very) idiotic inquiry. Lukas peers out of the window and looks around, gasping at what he sees. Heike crosses the room to the window, looks outside, and promptly freaks out.

Gangsters---no, their bodies are in awkward positions and on fire. A car in the vicinity is in flames, indicating a bomb had been used. Lukas recalls Matilde mentioning this so the appearance of explosives in itself isn’t surprising, but obviously the gang members wouldn’t hang out by something that could possibly go boom. So then this has to be the work of a third party….a new enemy? Or friend?

Heike and Lukas exchange glances and nod curtly, both slowly making their way to the door and opening it without going outside. They wait a few long moments before stepping out and examining the damage including the now almost completely melted car. Lukas notes that the explosive is a grade that isn’t usually seen on this site of the hemisphere, and wants to explore further but the door slamming behind the two startles them and they turn, guns ready towards the building.

Ricca stands with her good arm in her pocket and grins asking if they missed her.

Heike almost doesn’t miss a beat and replies that he didn’t think he could miss her more than this moment, and Lukas can only stare slack jawed at the appearance of their last team member. She’s dressed in a red and black flannel shirt with a white shirt underneath and has jeans on, she is now a brunette as well. The old Ricca never used makeup but now she has some black eyeliner and a little bit of lip liner. She hasn’t really grown much in the three year gap, though as Lukas had surmised, her haze eyes which were once full of sunshine have dulled considerably.  The sleeve where her missing arm would have been is flat, and Lukas can’t help but gaze there for a little too long causing Ricca to reach up and grasp it unconsciously. Lukas comes out of his stupor and with a half grin asks if she missed them as much as they missed her? Ricca grins back and replies that she wouldn’t have come if she didn’t. Heike whistles and asks if she’s gone and taken a level in badass since they last met? Even if these guys had it coming, he didn’t think she had it in her to end people. Ricca’s eyes narrow and she states bluntly that sometimes rabid dogs have to be put down painfully. Lukas and Heike keep their poker faces, but inside they’re both surprised and a little scared. She then points in the direction adjacent to them and says that they should find Mo and Meifa before they get put down. The men nod, and the three depart together.

Not Mugen is breathing heavily as he looks up at Matilde. The only question on his mind is the one he manages to stammer. ‘Why’? Matilde shrugs and replies that he was stirring up shit for her, so she has to end him. Did he really believe by running around and taking her identity that she’d be impressed? It’s actually quite the opposite…she’s pissed to be frank. She had retired the Mugen moniker cause it had served it’s purpose, and honestly a pissant like him shouldn’t go reviving ghosts. After seeing the info her slaves had stolen from the Govt, she had connected the dots and figured out what was going on, and why it was happening. It was his fault for agreeing to meet her without being suspicious, and so by extension his fault that he is about to die. He should have listened to the others who called her a monster, cause they’re absolutely right. Anything he thinks she felt for him back then was all part of a calculated fabrication to further her own plans.

Not Mugen glares at Matilde, mist forming in his eyes. He asks her in a silent whisper about filling that void within themselves….fighting against that nothingness…feeling alive? Did she really lie about all of that to him? Matilde clicks the hammer on the gun and points it at his forehead, and replies in a tone befitting death itself that she isn’t fighting against the emptiness of being because she is the epitome of emptiness. Embracing the void is impossible because the void has no shape to embrace. It is an ever living ever consuming existence which will one day converge upon all and consume it. So in a way he’s getting exactly what he wants now if being with her was the only thing that gives his miserable little life meaning.

Not Mugen is on the verge of saying more when Matilde shoots him in the forehead.  He slumps back, his face still frozen in shock, and Nolan quickly shuts the door amazed at what he just witnessed. His spider sense tingling, he quickly heads back down the building’s stairs, not wanting to face Matilde fresh after a kill.

A few small explosions later, Lukas, Heike and Ricca find their way to Mo and Meifa. With pistols trained on the gang members before them, and Ricca making it very clear that she can continue redecorating the streets with explosive flowers if they continue to resist the gangs wisely decide to cease and desist.  Meifa asks Ricca (using the exact same words as Heike) if she’s taken a level in badass, and she replies with a smile proclaiming that she missed Mei-mei too. Despite herself, Meifa gives her a big hug and the team is able to catch their breath, at least for a moment until Nolan runs up looking flustered. Lukas asks what’s the matter, and he begins to explain after a moment of wheezing until Matilde suddenly rounds the corner and asks why everyone is standing still? She sort of had to cap a guy to make her way here and now a bunch of them are after her. If they don’t want to be swept up they’d best keep up. Lukas groans, commenting that there must still be a few guys who didn’t get the memo. He orders his team to get moving, and upon finding their ride get out of town as fast as they can.

In the car Matilde seems subdued, as if she’s thinking and seeing something far away from their current location. Lukas begins to ask if her meeting went well, but he gets a text from Yelena asking if he’s looked over her findings. She cross-referenced a few of the sentences and got an interesting response, and she wants to know his thoughts on it. He texts back that he hasn’t, but to send what she has later as now he feels a celebration is in order. Ricca has joined the team, and they managed to survive the whole not Mugen ordeal. He then relays the celebration is on him to the rest of the team, and the once silent with weariness car erupts into cheers. Matilde surprises everyone by asking Heike (who’s driving), to take her back to HQ. She’ll celebrate in her own way. Heike shrugs a shoulder and agrees, while Matilde’s sudden attitude causes him to remember what Nolan was trying to tell him and turn over to his side. Nolan shakes his head and makes a ‘not now’ gesture, which only confuses Lukas more. The team bounces ideas of where to celebrate for a while until they drop Matilde off, and after deciding on D&B’s they’re off to Annerundel mills.  Matilde watches them go with a smirk and looks down at her gun saying in a quiet whisper ‘you’re welcome.’

The group sits around a table as Ricca explains to them how after she had talked to Lukas, she remembered what it had been like to be without family. Her Dad was killed in the line of duty, and her Mom passed away during childbirth. She had relatives, but not a true family until Jax called her in to join this little team he was cooking up----them. One thing her Dad had always taught her, among other things is that family is family no matter how you feel about them, or yourself. So if her family is in trouble, she has to be there to help them through it.

Lukas thanks her for returning and fully agrees. He’s been living these last three years, but this is truly the first time since then that he’s felt alive. Now they really are back in business, and no one---not even Matilde will stop them.

They are the Sevens, lucky to each other, unlucky to those who run into them. Once Yelena comes down, they’ll start the celebration in earnest. Meifa asks what they’d be celebrating since they’ve technically been back for a while, and after some thought the answer is unanimous.

‘Tonight we celebrate our homecoming.’