[h3][u][b]Pistolera[/b][/u][/h3]

It had arrived last night with a note attached; [i]I had a friend develop and manufacture this. It is a prototype, so bugs may be present. Friend will continue developing more tools for your use. Use it responsibly.[/i] The writing was neatly sterile, betraying not a shred of character or voice, the kinda writing that's damn near impossible to identify. Of course it would be, he didn't want to run the risk of anyone intercepting the message and realizing the sort of people he fraternizes with. Wouldn't do for his image or his legend, to be associated with the likes of her. The ultimate potential stain to his reputation, hanging around with a borderline gun-toting mercenary like me. Still, doesn't bother me all that much, I got what I wanted.

A brand new gun.

And it was a beauty. If Apple ever got in weapon designing business I imagine they'd look a little something like this. It's an assault rifle, but the kind you imagine folk blasting each other with in the future. An outer casing of brushed, blueish steel, slightly warm to the touch. That's probably cause'a the alien core vibrating away cheerily inside. The weapon sit's in my arms gracefully, so I can only imagine it was made with my measurements in mind. Slightly worrying how whoever made it [i]knew[/i] what my measurements are, but that isn't enough to dampen my ardour for my latest toy.

What? So some might think I'm using my new baby to distract me from the scary going's on outside, to help me ignore the horror that I bore witness to earlier in the week. To enable me to forget the literal cities worth of corpses the team were responsible for. To avoid the small matter of me letting the twins die, all so I could make a more effective end to the zombie apocalypse that threatened to go full on extinction level. So what if I'm repressing! It's worked for me so far. 

Course with all these emotional gymnastics I've been doing lately you might forgive a girl for only realizing at the last minute that we've got the United States military rolling up on our front door, eager to have a word and not willing to take no for an answer. I try and muster some shock, but in all honesty I knew it was coming. Buncha kids taking the law into their own hands, one of them wearing a big 'S' on his chest, in Luthor's country? It was never gonna last. It was always just a matter of time before things got heated. 

Doesn't take me long to pack up my new rifle and grab my bug-out bag. The military might have us cornered, but I'm confident I can slip away undetected, especially when they get tied up detaining the team. I feel bad about leaving the others, but really why shouldn't I do it? We're not really friends, and technically Luther is right. They did kill all those people, even if they weren't people at the time. Not that I think they deserve to be punished for it, they were just defending themselve's, but it would quell a lot of public unrest if there was at least a show of them being made to answer for their crimes. They'd never do the time for it, not really. The Justice League would never allow it. No, they'd get hauled into Washington, made to say their sorry's, then let off on some superhero technicalities, probably have to do some kind of extreme community service. After all, they did help to save the Western seaboard from a zombie apocalypse (Technically I saved the seaboard, but I'm more than willing to consider them accomplices) No, they'll be fine, even without me. 

It's surprising how easy it is to lie to yourself. 

I don't even bother grabbing my armour. I've got more stashed away elsewhere, and it's not like I'm going to need it right now. After all, who's stupid enough to fight the military?

[color=6ecff6][i]"Titans. Gather in the kitchen! We've got trouble! I'm gonna try and buy us some time to get away. Rao help us all."[/i][/color]

Of course. Sentinel would be stupid enough to fight the military.

I'm halfway to the kitchen before I realize what I'm doing. That idiot Kryptonian is about to give me the perfect distraction to exit, stage right without anyone noticing, yet I'm running to the rest of the team. Why? I mean really why? I can't understand it. Like I said, it's not like I'm particularly fond of the team. In fact apart from Evan's pert ass there's really not much to recommend the group of misfits. But, I realize, they are [b]my[/b] misfits, and are collectively so stupid they'll probably get themselves all killed before the sun's down without me. I pull out my communicator on the way down. 

"Sentinel, stand down, right fucking now!" I make my tone as icy as possible, the kind of tone that really brooks no argument. It isn't hard. I'm so sick of this Superman wannabe's macho bullshit that I'm [i]this[/i] close to doing my damndest to convince the rest of the team to abandon him to Luthor's mercy. Would certainly solve a lot of our problems. 

"Whatever good reasons you think you have for attacking the United State's military, forget them. They are not good reasons. We [i]could[/i] have gotten out undetected without you smashing the countries defense budget, but as usual you flew off half cocked without a real plan."

"The team can still get out, but you need to stop before you make things any worse for us. Run now, lose any pursuit, then make a roundabout route to Star City. We'll meet there when I've deemed it safe." I cut off then, hoping he listens but half expecting him to argue. So far every time he's been given the choice between an intelligent, well thought out, reasoned action and a dumbshit, knee-jerk, no-thought-spared-to-the-consequences reaction, he's gone charging happily off in the latter's direction. 

[i]"What now?"[/i] I hear Stunt Devil ask as I reach the others. He looks lost, dejected, like a puppy without an owner. He's looked that way for days. He's been so miserable that even [b]I've[/b] been tempted to give him a hug. I didn't though, perhaps unsurprisingly. Hey, it's not like he was dying or anything!

Cell gave one of her long, disjointed, vaguely foreign, and really time consuming speech. Time, I'd like to point out, we really don't have, but for some reason the others lap her sentimental we-are-a-team-and-we-stand-together stuff up, and by the looks of them all right now they really needed it. Still, I wish it could have waited until [b]after[/b] we'd safely gotten away.

"Beautiful Cell, really beautiful. Now everyone huddle in, because we don't have much time and I'm not in the habit of repeating myself. We are [b]NOT[/b] fighting the military. At all. Any one thinking along those lines is going to get us all killed. The public hates us enough after we made a ghost town of San Francisco without us attacking their sons and daughters who are just acting on orders. Besides, we do that and we're effectively declaring we believe ourselves above the law." If I'm honest with myself I kinda think that already, but there's no way I'm declaring it out loud. That's the kind of jackass maneuvering that get's you locked up in Belle Reve.

"In fact" I continue, "I imagine that's exactly what Luthor want's us to do. Instead we're just going to deny him the spectacle he wants, and just disappear. Luckily we have a magician who can help us do exactly that." I neglect to mention Sentinel's probably ruined the 'no spectacle' part of my plan, but I'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

I beckon Zane over and whisper a set of co-ordinates, one's that belong to one of my safehouses in Star City, in his ear. I don't want anyone not in the Titan's overhearing, and who know's what kind of listening equipment is fixated on us right now.

"Teleport us there right now Zane. We can restock once we're there, then decide our next move." Not that I particularly want the Titan's to be snooping around in one of my 'homes away for home', but you know what they say about desperate times. And seeing as I apparently find it a lot harder than expected to ditch them, and there's no way in sweet hell I'm going down with them, then I guess they have to come with me. Not a great loss, I've got other hideaways they don't know about after all, but still a touch annoying. Just another slight Sentinel has performed against me. 

Or at the very least I'll decide our next move. After what I've seen lately I'm not sure I'd trust these kids with sorting through a bus timetable, never mind organizing themselves when they've become enemies of the state.