Emap Ch. 03

"Car 547 and Jaguar back on the air, base is FUBAR. We have the equipment and are moving for the docks now. Send a search team and ambulance to the base, encountered light resistance in need of medical. Large number of automatic weapons are gone, exercise caution." He says into his hand held then looks at me. "Get in no reason for you to get there minutes before me, may not need to get its attention, these are long range."

I open up the back door behind him and hop in, then switch my radio back to my channel. It looks strange to me, the lights are on but there is only a blue light as we race through the streets to one of the main streets. Not long after we get on this it turns into an overpass and traffic is at a standstill.

"Car 547, traffic is not moving we are exiting vehicle and continuing on foot."

He exits the vehicle opens my door for me, there is no handle on the inside I noticed that after I got in, then gets out the launcher and rockets. He starts trotting along I follow him on the slim gap between cars and the rail, thankful he had not asked if I could carry him. I could it's just a man his size with the things he is carrying would limit me to on the ground only, with traffic not moving doors opening is a painful danger. My radio squawks then Derek comes through asking if we are on the street we are on, the patrolman looks back then nods.

"Yes why?" I had to pull my hand held up it caught on the belt then tumbled free.

"There is a second tank on that street it has not fired though the turret is rotating. Frank says lethal force authorized use the anti tank. If you are on the overpass section from the base it is a mile and half ahead of you where it goes back to level."

The patrolman stops, puts a rocket to the launcher, gives me a grim look then runs. Around the bend of the overpass we catch sight of it, there is indeed a tank sitting astride the street, traffic on the other side is at a standstill. The tank is a light tan color with brown stripes here and there the turret is rotating to look at the other traffic when we see it. The patrolman raises the launcher fiddles with something then it starts to beep, when the beep turns into a squawk the rocket launches with a fizzling whoosh noise.

He pulls me low as the rocket turns almost straight up trailing a lot of smoke. He fits the second rocket to the launcher as the rocket seems to disappear in the night sky then with a whoosh something slams into the tank. The tank seems to open up to the sky on top with a resounding boom there is some zinging noises then all is quiet besides a small fire inside the newly opened tank.

"That tank was either just back from or going to Iraq, sucks I had to destroy it. Come on let's see if we can borrow a car from the front of the parking lot." He takes off at a run I follow then get an idea.

"Derek do we have any cars near the tank? It has been a little blown up." I ask into my radio, the patrolman ahead of me cackles.

"Jaguar this is central, we have two patrol cars on the way, should be there in twenty. They are on traffic direct duties feel free to take one of their cars."

Ahead I can see the lights of two patrol cars they reach the tank before we get more than thirty cars ahead of where we were. The patrolman slows down then stops breathing heavily to catch his breath then looks at me.

"Run ahead collect the extinguishers in their cars then put the fire out, if it reaches any munitions or the gas lines big explosion."

I nod, hop over the car next to us then run fast over to the patrol cars. One of the patrolmen is just getting out of his car when I get there he pops his trunk for me then moves to the other car to pop that trunk. I grab up the extinguisher in the trunk, these are larger then the ones they keep in the door then hop nervously onto the tank. I pull the pin then start spraying, lots of smoke comes up. It takes about half the can to get the fire out and the smoke to stop rising.

"Hey don't look in there it's not pretty." Patrolman says he catches up while I am looking inside the tank.

"I don't smell death, is it possible there was no one inside the tank?" I ask as I get down.

"No, they were cooked fast, don't worry they felt nothing." He tells me as he gets me into the front seat of a patrol car.

There is no more conversation on the matter I really did not want to know more. We race down the streets lights flashing siren blaring, the radio crackles with some regular reports of shots fired. Things turn scary when we get nearer to the tank, the road behind us explodes. He curses swerves us around then off the street into a warehouse parking lot. I can hear a powerful rumbling engine and the creak of metal moving against metal.

"Tank is following us please tell me you can hit a moving tank." I say getting out of the car fast.

"Yes no problem there so long as I can see it long enough to lock on. Listen be careful there is a machine gun built into the turret." The patrolman is talking fast as he pulls the launcher out of the back seat.

I groan then get moving when I reach the street I see the tank rolling along the turret is swiveling back and forth. I get moving when it turns back to see me, I just run along the street, the boom of a shell launching has me across the street, the street explodes a little past where I would have been if I had stayed on that side. The machine gun opens up getting me to dart to a side street. When the fence explodes behind me I get a little impatient, I speed up race to the next street then slide into a turn to back the way I had been on the next street over.

I get back to the patrolman right as he launches the rocket the tank is turning the turret back toward us. When I stop next to him he looks at me, then the tank and curses. When he starts running toward the warehouse I get the idea, I pick him up on the way earning me a groan. About halfway along the warehouse I set him down, the corner of the warehouse blows up behind us. He curses again looking at me then we hear the whoosh boom followed by some more zinging noises.

"Ah fuck I thought we had it there, tanks have really good heat sensors. You would be easier to track being warmer than a regular person." He has a smile on his face, my radio crackles.

"Jaguar nice job on the tank we are not quite done yet however, we found some of those missing weapons, convoy of semis bristling with people carrying those are trying to move something out of the docks. We could use you those trucks are not easy to stop." Frank comes over the channel, I groan.

"Hey listen, those trucks are not that hard if you simply take out the front tires. They can't turn worth a shit then you can also take out the driver, which is probably not something you want to do. Trust me there are no straight roads in the warehouse section. Do you want my submachine?" The patrolman says to me holding up his submachine gun, I shake my head then bring out my claws.

He whistles in admiration, I grin at him then take off toward the docks. It is not hard to track down these semi trucks from the rapid fire the men in them are doing. The first truck is easy, I simply come upon it from a side street slash the first tire then run in front of the truck and do the second. The second truck is a little harder the men in the back of the first truck notice me and open fire. Going for the second tire they switch to full auto, I take a bullet in my arm, my chest and down low on my side. I stumble for a brief second then explode into fury driven motion the first man in the back of that truck never knew what hit him.

The second and third man are left lying there holding their insides in, the fifth actually jumps out the back of the truck in pure fear. The second truck has stopped, the driver got to see what I was doing to the men. He is sitting there holding his hands up, the fifth man that had jumped out climbs into the compartment with him. There are patrol cars all over with cops everywhere carrying shotguns and submachine guns. A few look in then back away crossing themselves I am still crouched over the fourth man, he isn't screaming or crying anymore, I'm snarling and growling.

"Jaguar calm down everything is all right, you are both fine." Tony's voice comes over the radio.

I let out a breath, look down at what I have done then look at my bloody hands, bits of people hanging from my claws. I scramble out of the back of the truck lose what was left of dinner, along with things I never want to know, then dash for the ocean. I stop at the edge of the water drop the radio then go right in to clean myself. Tony comes in to pull me out Frank is waiting on the little expanse of beach holding a big blanket.

Frank wraps me up in the blanket wet fur seems to not be itchy at least. Tony takes off in a different direction, Frank holds on to me when I try and follow then takes me back to the street. Past the truck I had gone overboard in there is a media circus, Frank takes me along toward that.

"Come on Jaguar you gotta tell them you are pregnant and only exhibiting mother's instincts on a predator's level. You will go home with Tony right after that I swear." Frank whispers to me as we are getting closer.

"Please no questions, I just want to go home." I say as we get up to the reporters, Frank stops me there. "Since he won't let me go on yet, the reason I did what I did is simple, I am pregnant they shot me low endangering my child, I may have overreacted if you ask the family of those men, anyone else will understand I hope."

Frank takes me past the silent reporters Tony is there in his giant car. Frank opens the back door shoves me in saying to stay here for now then shuts the door behind me. We drive in silence I just curl up on the back seat feeling miserable, at a stop light Tony looks back at me.

"Do you feel up to getting dressed and coming up here?"

I look around and see a sun dress folded up on the seat near me, I lose my fur it was getting itchy anyway then put the dress on. I climb over the back seat getting a scolding since the car is in motion at the time. I land on my radio I shove it to the floor then put my head on Tony's lap. He puts his arm over me, I sigh then thank god for automatic transmissions.

"So what kind of ice cream do you want to get?" Tony asks as we pull into a corner store.

I just go in with him I end up getting five different of the little expensive ice creams. The clerk gives us a raised eyebrow, Tony says I'm bummed then puts down two one liter cokes. He nods then expresses his condolences as he rings it up, Tony pays gets the bag of ice cream and cokes then puts an arm around me to lead me back out to the car. After we have reached our building I realize he bought cokes and we have two unopened boxes.

"Why did you buy cokes, we have a bunch still?" I ask on the elevator, he looks over at me then grins.

"Because you are seriously upset, you also bought five of those ice creams. Each one of those one liters is like four cans, I'd like to have some left over for tomorrow and I wanted one." I groan at him.

When Tony opens the door to our apartment we find Constance and Sally sitting on the sofa watching a movie. They both look over at us in surprise Sally is the first to recover she runs over.

"Hey you OK, what happened?" She asks looking at the bag of ice cream and cokes.

"Mother's instincts come on clear off the sofa, Constance could you get a spoon for her." Tony says taking me over to the now empty sofa.

Sally stops the movie Netflix on the Xbox is very good for this then goes through to comedies. We end up watching Office Space with me curled up on Tony eating three ice creams. When the movie ends Constance hands over the movies from Netflix, I toss Kick-Ass across the room when Tony says what it is about. He groans when we put Gone with the Wind on the Xbox. Constance and Sally have seen the movie already but not read the book, I've read the book so they are interested when I start talking about the things they skipped or altered.

When it is over we all laugh when we notice Tony has tears in his eyes, he simply says he got something in them. I crawl into his lap and give him a kiss, then hang on when his phone rings. Tony pulls it out then sits down again before answering it, he listens for a second or two then looks at me.

"Sally turn it to TV, this is interesting, anything local with news on."

Sally gets up turns the Xbox off then switches the TV for the cable box, news appears on the screen. It is a reporter talking to an older man the reporter is asking what the man thinks of my actions earlier.

"On a basic level I'm going holy fuck I'm glad that wasn't me. When I think about it though, I'm glad Jaguar is here, she's protecting all of our children and us from our children. I can say that because she arrested, or well apprehended my oldest son after he took part in a shooting. Maybe he will learn his lesson from his time in prison maybe not, I don't know but fuck it he deserves it for taking part in a fucking drive by. I don't live in the greatest of neighborhoods so I have to worry about the kids I still have at home, plus my wife and I. Jaguar is making it safer I've been calling the cops forever, now my neighbors are doing it and we are seeing them again. I don't know if crime is down, maybe we should let Jaguar do that to everyone she goes after so we can fucking leave our doors unlocked again, used to be you could do that. That's all I got to say on that." The man waves then walks away, the shocked reporter looks at the camera for a second then composes herself.

"There you have it, I've asked random people and there is a consensus, Jaguar is on the right track and excuse my language but fuck the bad guys, these people want their nights back. I for one agree with them, Jaguar wherever you are, if you are watching this know that the good people of Los Angeles are behind you." The crowd behind her cheers then starts chanting Jaguar.

The home phone rings, Sally picks it up listens for a moment then hands me the phone.

"Emap listen I don't know if you have seen the station that has it or not so I'm just gonna tell you, stop me if you heard it. One of the guys in that first truck, his family called the station from the hospital. He's touch and go, they were supportive of you, his mom said she knows her son has fallen in with a bad crowd and won't listen to her and she knows about protecting your children. She wishes you had gone easier on her son, but she does not hold it against you, she is only mad at the man who put him on the truck." Frank tells me, I sigh then he continues before I can say anything. "Listen, those trucks, they had a lot of cocaine, I'm not talking just some kilos lot either, I'm talking almost a full ton."

"My god, I did not smell it, even before I lost all sense of where I was. All I smelled was fear, gun oil, and some strange chemicals." Tony is looking at me curiously.

"Yeah because they packed it in aluminum foil and plastic, weighted it then sank it into all sorts of shit, acids and kerosene and I think formaldehyde. Listen stay home tonight but tomorrow if you are up to going out again keep in mind not all of those guns taken from the base were found, there's still upwards of thirty floating around. The guard hasn't gotten back to me on it yet and the patrolman that went with you is only estimating that there are still thirty three missing, he says add or subtract five." Frank hangs up after that, I hand the phone to Sally.

"We caught about a ton of cocaine today they packed it in chemicals I never knew it was there. He also said there are still those guns out there, not all of the ones taken were with the trucks." Tony sighs, Sally curses then picks up the phone.

Constance pulls her cell phone out of her purse then walks into the kitchen. I pick up my coke to find it is empty, I eye Tony's it is half full. Tony looks at me then puts his coke down below the side of the sofa and shakes his head. I sigh then get up to get a can, Constance is talking to Madeleine, Sally is talking to Derek.

"I get Constance being freaked out Madeleine is her first cop, Sally I don't get, Frank gets shot every couple of years she grew up with it." Tony says to me as I sit down.

"Tony sometimes you are a dense man, Sally is freaked as you put it because Derek is her boyfriend. It's harder to have your boyfriend getting shot at than your dad, besides she wants to make him a dad. Don't tell him that she's going to pretend like it was not planned I think."

Sally comes and sits down looking really worried Constance does the same a second later. I realize I never put the roast on so get up then ask if they want to help me get the roast going. Constance and Sally look at me then get up happy to have something to do. While we are getting the roast into a cooking pan and covered in aluminum foil I realize I have everything to make cookies but chocolate chips.

"Tony run to the store and pick up say two bags of chocolate chips if you please, we can do cookies, I need to have the stove hot for a half hour anyway." Tony gets up with a smile then is out the door.

"So come on fess what was the real reason you ran him off?" Sally says with a grin.

"Honestly I really want to make cookies. Course I am also curious as to how your search for real wood chairs went."

"Well I found some nice ones, they are not all that cheap, one hundred thirty being the cheapest and those are not that nice, for every two chairs. The biggest problem is simply the chairs need simple assembly nothing says what said assembly is. I think you are going to have to live with more of Tony's chairs." Sally looks a little bummed Constance puts her head in her hands.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right at least the chairs are nicer than his plates." Sally laughs, Constance looks confused.

We are describing his plates when Tony gets back, he groans puts the bag of chips on the counter then goes play Xbox. I get out two bowls we load the two sticks of margarine into each, after loading both bowls with the sugars I pull out two hand blenders. I hand one to Sally and one to Constance, both look at me funny.

"I have two because he let me do it and the site was updating slowly, they were really cheap anyway. We are blending the margarine and sugars because it works better that way, just press it into the bowl until you get little peas, work it around."

While they are doing that I go and get the oven preheating then go get my coke. I pull out the other ingredients for the cookies, get a third bowl then combine the dry ingredients. Constance is actually the first ready, I hand her a wooden spoon then pour the dry ingredients in to her bowl, after adding the eggs and vanilla extract I hand it back. I do the same for Sally when her bowl is ready then go put the roast in the oven.

Tony's phone rings, making him curse and pause his football game before answering. The home phone rings making Constance and Sally dash for it, during the ensuing scuffle for it Tony picks it up and tosses it to me. I hand it to Constance when Madeleine asks for her the relief on her face is almost comical. Sally looks dejected until Tony hands over his phone then follows me into the kitchen to help finish the cookie mixing.

Constance and Sally return to the kitchen when I am pulling the first two pans of cookies out. Tony takes the walnut cookies off while I get the just chip cookies. Constance and Sally are like a couple little kids begging to get a cookie, finally I give in and give them both a little plate with two cookies, one of each kind. Neither likes walnuts which makes Tony happy, he takes both walnut cookies and puts them on another plate while he fills in his pan with cookie dough.

After we put the pans in the oven Constance and Sally beg for a second cookie. Tony is washing his hands so I let them go get one cookie each. Tony squeezes my butt making me jump then turn to him he wraps me in his arms and kisses me. I melt a little at his passionate kiss with tongue, he lets go of me. I stand there breathing a little harder and wanting to not stop then the timer goes off. After we put the pans back in I wash my hands, I am out of dough.