After leaving the range, Jason returned to the Don's club; to find Butch and the others eating, Emerald having wine and eyeing up Butch in a way that made Butch uncomfortable; and Jason as well when he saw her leaning against Butch's shoulder; but then, he had never told Emerald Butch was only 12. Or wait. Was he 13 now? When was the kid's birthday, anyway? He should ask Valkyrie.

Jason settled in beside them, and leaned over to Emerald, whispering in her ear. "He's underage, and his mom scares me. I'd be careful."

Emerald, clearly already half-drunk, gave a slow blink as she turned back to Jason. "His mom scares ...you? Wow. Who is she? Hillary Clinton? Hera? Valkyrie?"

Jason sighed. "Alright, this one should probably get back home. Emerald, you know where your place is?"

She practically fell over Jason as she got up, wings knocking a few drinks off the counter as she spread them for balance.. the waiter shaking his head as she was gently guided towards the door. "W...Why? You wanna... take me home... big, bad, dangerous.... titanslayer?"

He looked at her in a slightly different light; a quick assessment; despite the scales, she was still cute, at the very least, but far too drunk for him to do anything with; then turned back to the bar. "Butch. Get a ride to the hotel, I'll be there in a few hours. I'll drop Emerald off wherever she's staying."

Clone had already risen to his feet. "I will give him ride back. I can take the dragon as well if you want?"

Emerald suddenly reared up, hissing at Clone. "Not... DragoN! Emerald!" And proceeded to fall directly onto her face on the floor, steam rising from a puddle of drool that started forming.

"...Nah, I got it."

"Good, good. I have happened across other job. Job that could use you for. Maybe her. Definitely Butcher. I think we made good team. Perhaps work together for more than just the drugs?"

"You know what? Definitely. I'd planned on keeping in touch with her and with you for the drugs, at least; we've already agreed on a split, and I'm keeping that going moving forward. You already got paid the first mil, by the way."

The russian gave a too-wide smile, and shrugged. "Yes, I saw. You keep word. Is why I am eager to keep working with you. Most, I must threaten to get money. And I do not think that work with you, but you pay anyway. Is nice."

Jason gave a low chuckle... "Well, at this point I could take out everyone in this room without much of a problem, so I suspect.... " He stopped. Turned, and looked at an empty wall. "You, fucker. You can take your sister home, you know where she lives. I didn't even think about that."

When the blue-scaled reptilian; wearing athletic shorts and a t-shirt still, just in green this time; seemingly popped in out of thin air, Clone was taken aback. Ripper, for his part, just grumbled as Jason practically dropped Emerald on him. "Goddamnit. I don't want to take her home, I was waiting for... uhm. Someone else to show up."

Nonetheless, Ripper still started dragging his unconscious, groaning sister to the door over his shoulder, as Jason, Clone, and Butch headed out; Butch listening in as the two discussed the next job.

***

"So you know about moon base, yes? LunaCosmo?"

"The first one? Like... rogue russian scientists fled the soviet union moon base?"

"Exactly!" The clone seemed intensely enthusiastic. "Brilliant scientists, some of them metas, build crazy things in Siberia for the motherland. There was a shrink ray, and a death ray. Lots of rays, all too expensive, no way to use on the battlefield. Then, they flee to moon. Big story. Everyone love. Help bring fall of soviet union."

Jason couldn't help but look up at the sky. That was the first moon base; at first, claimed to be an official one by the soviets. Now.. there were dozens of bases and mines on the moon, part of the great project to try to colonize space, get out and way from earth in case some aliens came by... again.. and won this time. It'd kick ass to get to space. Could he be the first-ever space pirate?

Of course, the moon wasn't out at the moment. He glanced back down to Clone. "Okay, thats all well and good. What does it have to do with us?"

"Salvage! They sort through ruins. If it looked useful, they tried to use it. If not, they threw it in a box. That box sat in a cargo container... and rotted for decades. Now? Smuggler selling cargo containers to highest bidder. And highest bidder... had it shipped over, with other things, on boat. To be picked up here. One of my brothers, he works on the boat. And the man who owns the boat? Hasn't paid him. Hasn't paid any of the crew, brothers or not. Only ones who get paid are men with guns; and this brother is not one with gun. So."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Clone grinned. "We kill men with guns. Pay crew what owed in exchange for cargo. Crew unload cargo. We leave. I am already inside man; tell you when, where, everything. Just need to kill a few men without killing my friends, and kill the owner."

"And let me guess. At that point you and your friends keep the ship?"

"Well, yes. Unless we find good buyer. But that, that is brother's business. We, we collect here. Now, this is my job. This time, I get forty. You get twenty. Dragon and giant get ten each. And then rest for the fence, yes?"

"...You know what. I'm in." He might argue. Honestly, he had enough money he didn't need to worry now. "When is it landing?"

"If the weather is fair? Two days. If weather bad? Maybe sooner, maybe later."

Jason nodded, and typed out a text message for Emerald; giving her a heads-up on the possibility. "Okay. I'll see about sorting some things out... get the operation down here going, and I was buying some property I wanted to see up north."

***

The next two days were hectic, albeit far less violent. Butch tried out a few different guns and armor sets he enjoyed; the new Gigafac was working wonders, able to build a complete firearm from plans, even something relatively complex. The new lab; setup in a warehouse on the edge of Vegas; was gearing up, everything being settled to start making Reflex; while the existing doses were being sold cheaply as 'samples'; Jason's biggest concern being that aside from a few of Clone's brothers, all of the people involved were Nicky's; so if Nicky wanted to take over the operation and take -all- of the profit, he could.

So far, Nicky had played them straight.

Jason built himself a variety of new grenades; and a revolver version of his 40mm grenade pistol; probably the most ridiculous gun he'd ever used, but it could do the job. He made EMP grenades, thermite gel grenades, Foam grenades, his own custom versions of Shroud and Bursters; by the time he was done he had dozens of types, and could load down a whole bandolier with them before going out on a mission.

He even came up with an improvement on his Shroud grenade; a short-lived but high-intensity sonic weapon that should stun them the moment they stopped 'vibrating through' air to get through something else, like water or the shroud grenade fog. For most people, it wouldn't be too useful; but for someone who could predict exactly where a speedster could be... potentially an enormous game-changer.

For his work up north, he didn't use Tops, or Nicky, or anything. Using another fake ID, Jason bought out an old mining company with a few dozen employees; left it running, raised the worker's pay a bit... and then quietly sectioned off a few pieces. Old abandoned mines and buildings he could turn into either a 'retirement home' or a new base.

He even spent a few hours installing the older, less effective, Fabricator, some solar panels, and a few weapons, hiding them away inside one of the old office buildings that hadn't been used in years, since the 'Prosperity Mining LLC' company had been steadily dropping operations.

Not too much. Just a nice little hidey hole not connected to Nicky or any of the vegas operations, just in case things went south.

Most of the time was driving; dropping Butch off to see his mother, who was enthusiastic about Jason's work so far, even if she disapproved of her boy using a gun.. and convenient enough a space to drop him off while he worked on his new hideout in the mountains.

***

When the time came for the new job, Jason met Clone... and his brothers... at the beach a few miles from the dock, alongside Butcher; who'd ridden there inside the truck with him; and Emerald. The weather was beautiful; the sun shining, vision clear for miles in every direction; pretty much the worst case scenario for this sort of operation, but the delivery was pretending to be completely aboveboard, so picking up at night wasn't an option unless they wanted to be out in the middle of the Pacific. Clone had acquired a boat; stolen, rather than purchased; and was waiting at the shore.

"Alright, gentlemen. Ladies. Here is my plan. We get close to boat. Emerald drops off Eyeball. My brother on the boat, he gets guards to go to front of boat. Eyeball kills guards. Workers toss guards off boat. Butcher climbs anchor chain onto boat. Butcher and men load cargo onto stolen boat. We keep cargo. Workers keep boat. We pay workers. We go home. Everything quick, painless. Except for guards."

Jason gave a low chuckle. "I don't plan on causing too much pain. Usually its over fairly fast."

"Not even guards then."

Jason glanced over at Emerald. "So, you good for this? How much can you carry while flying?"

She sighed. "It'll be rough. The more weight I carry, the faster and harder I have to flap. It's gonna have to be a quick flight... and an even faster drop. I wouldn't count on me for much in the fight after, and definitely no hovering."

On the plus side, she'd get to spend however much time she was in the air with her arms wrapped around an exceptionally well-built, dangerous man. And get to watch him perform all sorts of murdering after.

Jason laughed. "Well, good thing I can swim then. We ready?"

Butcher adjusted his helmet... and his air tank. Removing his gear would take a while; but he could withstand the pressure at the bottom here, so as long as he had enough air he was good. He gave a nod.

Emerald, for her part, stretched her wings a few times; she didn't seem to be trying to show off, but she was definitely looking good in the red athletic wear.. while drinking a can of Red Bull. Jason's initial thought of joking about that was immediately replaced by wondering why he didn't have an air tank for himself? His helmet would seal, but had like two minutes of air. At most.

And Clone... was already prepped. Assault rifle on his back; one taken from Wayson's lab not long ago; and a solid bulletproof vest over simple grey slacks and shirt. "Da. Lets have a little fun, yes?"