Tcr 38) Take it to the man.

I looked across the lake at the small collection of buildings. "I expected a compound. You know. Chain link fences with barbed wire on top. Sandbags. Out of shape guys in camouflage. That sort of thing.”

Aug continued her slow scan of the place with her red tinted glasses. Faint glimmers of yellow light flashed on the inside of the lenses. “It used to be a summer camp. Originally built by a German American society that used to dress up like Nazis before everyone found out they were the baddies.”

We had parked on the other side of a lake with a clear line of sight of the Earth Free chapter office. As well as some picnic tables and a bait shop with an old guy at the counter who showed no sign of waking up from his mid-afternoon nap.

My sister tapped the side of the glasses. “Earth Free likes to style themselves as a purely political group, so they don’t want to look like some loony militia. But they got cameras all over the place.”

I slowly nodded. “So how are we going to do this?”

My sister stared at me for a moment. “We? We shouldn't be doing this as a we. I should be doing this. You’re a civilian Scott.”

I stared her down. “I’m immortal. And this isn’t something sanctioned by your superiors, is it?”

She squirmed a bit. “...well. Not officially. What about my new sister in law?”

Scorn’s eyes widened a bit as she took a step back.

I tried to smack my sister upside her head, something I hadn't been able to do since she triggered, and still couldn’t do now. “She can tell when someone’s lying.”

Aug locked eyes with my woman. Who in return slowly nodded confirming my guess, I mean she is an empath, so I kind of assumed she could notice lies. It’s not like I had ever lied to her so I would know myself.

Then Aug looked at the tiger. “And him.”

Khan lifted his head and gave Aug what could be described as a smile, or at least something that showed off a lot of teeth.

I pointed at him with my thumb. “He gets people to tell the truth.” Seriously Aug, what did you think he was here for, shilling for Frosted Flakes?

She thought it over before holding up her finger at Scorn. "Leave the rifle in the truck, it would give them a legal excuse to shoot first.”

Then we got in the truck. No sneaking, no real plan, we just drove up to the front gate of the grounds which was sitting wide open, and then headed up to the parking lot.

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Aug jumped out of the car and walked in the front doors of what looked like an official building. Then she proceeded past a secretary who let out an "eep" sound as my sister kicked in the inner door. “Don’t mind me, your boss wanted to talk to us anyways.”

I proceeded past her, with Khan walking in behind me as well. “Hi, Mr Khan wanted to register a complaint about your group’s goals.”

Did you know that Earth First, while opposed to Artificial intelligence, uploaded minds, and intelligent super animals, does not in fact have any problem with Supers humans? Such as the two guys on the other side of the door who had stood up at Aug's entrance, then started moving as I began to follow her inside...

A big balding guy, well over six foot had made the mistake of grabbing at my grinning sister. At which point he found out how a skilled and Superpowered five foot six woman could toss around a much larger opponent.

Right into a wall in fact, as well as part way through it, but the guy shrugged it off as he ripped more of the wall off getting to his feet.

Meanwhile, the other guy, shorter, and with a slighter build, had a gun in his hand faster than I could see it.

It was some kind of automatic. I wasn’t really into guns so all I can say is it was rather small, something reasonably sized for a guy his build to shoot. And he was aiming right at me.

At first.

Then his eyes went wide as he began to shift the gun over at Khan as the tiger followed me into the room.

I’m not sure if a gun that size would kill a tiger, or even seriously injure one, but I did know that the cat wasn't a regenerator, at least no more than Rank .1 or so.

So I didn't stop when I came into the room but instead marched up to the guy until the gun he turned back onto me was up against my chest. “Get out of my way.”

Really, I was expecting him to just shoot me. Which would hurt like hell, but was unlikely to kill me.

But instead, he took a step back and nervously tried to raise the gun at my forehead. Which could kill me, or at least wreck my brain to the point of damaging my memories. It's not like I knew for sure, the one time I died I was back in my body before oxygen starvation could kick in and kill brain tissue. And I had never taken a serious blow to the head.

Khan growled, the guy’s eyes jerked over to look a the tiger again, which let me take the gun out of his hand. Grab ahold, push it backwards, and twist, just like I had been taught too long ago.

Turning around at a crashing sound I saw my sister on the other guy's back, grinning like a mad woman as she held onto him with a choke hold, with the toe of her boot wedged into the back of his pants to give her the footing to drive the knee of her other leg into his ribs over and over. "Hey Scott, I think this guy's a Brute 2 or so, have your tiger bite him or something. We're on a schedule."

Have you ever had a tiger roar from two feet away? Loud doesn't describe it. Also, slamming your hands up against your ears to try to protect them from the sound of an apex predator screaming right next to you while you’re holding a gun in one hand stings a bit.

So since we were on a schedule, I left Aug behind to finish up with her dance partner, and Khan to stare down the other one as I kicked in a door labeled Director Bhrams. Inside I saw a white haired older man holding a shotgun aimed at the door from where he was crouched down behind the other side of a desk.

And was now aimed at the idiot standing there holding a gun and giving him an excuse. Me.

I had enough time to brace myself.

It hurt, it hurt, it hurt. Narrow choke buckshot from five feet away. The force of it hitting me made me take a step back, and it took something with it as some of it passed through me and then out of my back.

Scorn let out a yelp and I felt her horror and concern as she projected her feeling. I think everyone did.

Holding up my index finger to the man who had shot me. I asked him "One moment." Then turned half around to check on my woman. She stood there with her hands over her mouth, and then she looked up from the hole going through me to look up and meet my eyes.

I let myself put all my feelings for her into my eyes and smiled. Then I turned back around. "Bhrams right? My name is Scott Morton. You took my grandparents and I want to know where they are. Don’t deny it, don’t bullshit me. Tell me where they are, now.”

The guy's mouth was moving, but he wasn't saying anything. He just stood there trying to wrap his head around me still standing there with a lethal wound, talking to him.

I walked the rest of the way to his desk, grabbed the front end of his shotgun, and pulled it up against my chest. "Or did you want to try again, who knows, it might work this time." I adjusted my grip on the pistol in my hand before pressing the barrel up against his forehead. "Or should I take my turn?"

I glanced at the side of the gun, does the red dot mean the safety is on or off?