One week later, Thursday. 20:30

John was walking back from the armory. He had a couple more tests he wanted to run on the amplifier. Thomas and Kevin both offered some sage advice how to improve it. They didn’t fully understand the psychic circuitry, but they could tell that it was highly inefficient. Their recommendations still didn’t make it perfect, but it was much better than it was.

Just then John heard tires squeal, he looked back and saw a white Cadillac SUV with its windows rolled down. John dove for cover just in the nick of time. A hail of gunfire was unleased in his direction. As soon as it happened it was over. John got back up and ran back to the armory, he fumbled with his tablet to make a call.

“Are all of y’all safe?” John hurriedly asked Alice.

“What kind of crazy question…” Alice caught herself talking. “What happened now?”

“You first.” John said forcefully.

“Yes, everyone is here and fine.”

“Good, mafia just tried to kill me. Stay put and contact the military police.”

“Where are you going?” Alice asked sternly.

“To deal with a rabid dog.” John cut the call short.

He ran to the armory and was granted access into it. He ran over to where the armor modules were and grabbed a stealth field generator. It wasn’t designed to work with his prototype armor, but he had more than enough spare power for it, and it would keep him largely hidden from view at a distance. He put on a void sheath and then activated the reliquary to put the rest of the armor on him.

John grabbed a battle rife, a pair of submachine guns and a pistol. He grabbed as many spare magazines as he could and ran out of the armory. He activated the stealth generator as he got to the main floor. John ran down the street as fast as he could. A flatbed truck was just pulling away at the stop light, John grabbed onto it and heaved himself on. He smiled as he checked the trucks navigation system. It was going to take him near one of Vito’s old haunts.

21:05 Scrap Metal and Recycling

John hopped off the truck and readied his rifle. A thermal scan of the scrap yard showed several people outside. No sign of the Cadillac though. Every person John saw was scanned. Four out of the five were confirmed members of the mafia. He took aim with the rifle and shot three dead. Two were left, unaware of what had been happening. He crept up to them and knocked the unaffiliated man out, then picked the other man up by the neck and slammed him down on the ground.

The man’s spinal cord was severed at the base of the brain. He was brain dead, but it would take a while for the man to expire. John put a single round through the man’s skull to hasten his end. He dashed toward the main building. He covertly entered the building from a side entrance. One hand was holding a submachine gun, the other had a bowie knife. John crept from room to room silently executing the mob members one by one. None knew what hit them.

John had eliminated everyone from the main floor. He slowly walked up the stairs and kicked the doors open to the boss’s office. Three portly looking capos were there. John fired the submachine gun at the one on his right, the bowie knife was thrown and struck the man on his left in the chest.

“Move and your dead fat man.” John had his voice masked. “Hand me your tablet.”

“You’re as good as dead you asshole.” He said as he complied with the order.

John copied its contacts then tracked where all the mafia members were. He found out who the three that were in the Cadillac. The safe house they were staying in was just a couple blocks away. He was about track down the rest of the leaders when the fat mafioso started to speak.

“You’re a de…”

John pointed the submachine gun and let loose a five-round burst. Two rounds struck his chest, one his neck, the last two struck his face.

“Who the fuck told you that you could talk.”

John walked over to the portly man with the knife sticking out of his chest. He pulled the knife out and wiped the blood off on the man’s bespoke suit. He sheathed the knife then fired a three-round burst into the man. He then turned and ran out of the building.

The stealth generator activated. He had several blocks to run to get to the safehouse where the attackers were holed up. They were next on his list. As John ran to the next location, he reloaded the submachine gun he had been using. The near empty magazine was tossed into a garbage bin that he had ran by.

“Evening.”

“How are you doing?” Alice asked, John didn’t like the tone she was taking.

“Good, one site down, three or four to go.” John paused. “Ooh. I shouldn’t have ended that call earlier should I have.”

“No, no you shouldn’t have. Should we expect you back for studying tonight?”

“Nah, probably going to break curfew but should be able to get back before I’d really get into trouble.” John said confidently.

“Ok, expect calls from Andern and Kevin later. Stay safe.” Alice ended the call.

21:45 Corner of 45th And Waverider Ave

John climbed up the corner store that was separated by a small alley from the apartment building. Four men were inside. Gaining entry was going to be anything but sneaky, but time was of the essence. John tensed up then flung himself at the wall twelve feet away. He slammed into the wall leading with an armored shoulder and created a man-sized hole in the wall.

“Goodbye assholes.” John said as he pulled a pistol and triple tapped the closest man to him.

He switched targets and shot at the man farthest from him three times. He rushed towards the man on his right. He punched him once in the gut causing him to bend over, he grabbed him in a headlock. John then grabbed his head and wrenched it to the left until there was a loud pop. Bones were broken and the spinal cord was snapped. He dropped the man and shot him twice in the back of the head.

“Hiding isn’t going to help you.” John hollered.

He pointed the gun at the wall and emptied the magazine by shooting randomly into the wall. He pressed the magazine release and let it fall from the gun. He loaded another magazine and racked the slide which loaded a fresh round. He looked at the dying man on the ground.

“Ooh, looks like you didn’t get that message out.” John aimed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger twice.

The fired another two rounds at the man that was gurling blood at the back of the room. John then activated the stealth generator and hauled ass out of the apartment. He left the way he entered, though with much less dust and noise. He ran off into the street and grabbed onto the back end of a tractor trailer. John was grinning in his helmet, only two places left to hit, by the end of the evening there’d be one less mafia family, or at the very least a mafia family that was decimated to the point of impotence.

“John, question for you on a differential equation formula I’m working on.” Kevin said. “Just sent it to you.”

John ran into the street and hopped onto another flatbed truck that was going the right direction. “Ok let me take a look. Yup, yeah that should work. Sending it back to you. Let me know if that makes sense.”

“Sweet. Ah shit, I knew I was screwing up a part there. Thanks man! Oh hey, how’s the suit?”

“Fucking amazing. Stealth generator works on it. How cool is that?”

Kevin laughed then asked a few other questions related to the suit. He had a few ideas he wanted to run by John. John had to laugh at that and told him to write them down and pester him about it over the weekend.

22:20 Corleone’s Pasta House

John knew there were several mafioso’s inside, but they weren’t the only ones there. The restaurant’s staff along with a few customers were just enjoying a quiet dinner. He opted against going in the front door since he didn’t want to actually kill everyone in there, only the bad guys deserved a good killing this evening.

He walked around to the back of the building. John noticed that three mob members were having a smoke. He readied his attack.

“You hear from Fat Jake at the scrapyard?” One of them said.

“No, the asshole hasn’t called yet.” Another one said.

“After we eat, we’ll go over there and figure out what the hell the idiots we….” The capo’s sentence cut short by a pair of 11mm rounds to the head.

John’s stealth field was shut off then he aimed at the farthest man and fired three times at him. He leapt at the last one and landed on his shoulders but ended up crushing his larynx and neck when John’s weight brought him to the ground. He fired two rounds into the man’s heart as he walked toward the rear door.

He reached out with his mind to find out who the bad guys were and where they were. Only two weren’t in the back storage room. John locked the pistol to his chest plate. He pulled the door open with his left hand; in his right a submachine gun was ready to fire.

When he let loose an automatic burst at the men to his right. He pulled the other sub-gun from his left hip as he stepped into the room. He began spraying the room on his left. The right gun’s bolt locked when the magazine ran dry two seconds before the left gun did. All the men in the room were dead or dying. He dropped both magazines then reloaded them with the last spare magazines he had with. He stowed the guns on the armor magnetizing them in place.

One man began to gasp, struggling for life, John walked over to the man and put his boot down on the man’s neck and pushed down as hard as he could. He expired as the vertebrae in his neck shattered under the force, shards of bone sliced through the spinal cord.

John activated the stealth field and walked out of both the storage rooms and then into the restaurant. Everyone in the restaurant heard the commotion in the storage room but didn’t know exactly what had happened. The restaurant was a well-known location for the Colombo family. No one was brave or stupid enough to go and look. The door suddenly swung open, and an unnatural shimmering of light began walking towards the diners. They could hear the hum of a power source and armored footsteps of some kind pass by them.

The front door opened and the too doorman met a similar fate as the men in the back. One was shot in the head, the other was lifted off his feet and thrown in front of a semi. Three more rounds were fired at the man’s mangled body in the middle of the street. Then the shimmering was gone.

“John, I’m really fucking bored of doing homework.” Andern said without a hint of emotion in his voice.

“Of course, why wouldn’t you be?” John was running down the street chasing after a semi.

“Because homework is the worst.” Andern was looking around the lounge. “Don’t you guys give me that look. I’m right.”

“Need anything from me?” John hoped up onto the trailer of a semi-truck.

“Not really, I just wanted to let you and everyone in this room know I’m sick of homework.”

“You know what I’m doing right?” John had a puzzled look on his face.

“Is that one of those trick questions where you ask what we all want to know what the answer is but don’t ask because we’d be accomplices after the fact.” Andern once again was looking around at the lounge. “Look, he’s the one that asked me that question, not me. I didn’t ask him what he was doing.”

“You want to cut this short so you can get back to your argument and not doing homework?” John was trying not to laugh.

“Yeah, I’m getting lots of looks right now. Have fun and stuff.”

22:20 Vito Colombo’s Home

John was inside the estate grounds. It wasn’t on high alert, but it should have been. Vito’s biggest weakness was he felt he was too powerful to attack directly. The grim reaper had already reaped a hellacious toll on the mafia family tonight. And the reaping wasn’t done yet. John eliminated three more guards as he encountered them along the perimeter of the estate using a bowie knife.

Vito’s fatal flaw with his estate was it only had one way in or out via vehicle. The members of his crime family inside were generally not in good enough physical shape to jump the fence surrounding the property. Their deaths were certain, how much pain they suffered before they went out was on the table though.

John called Vito. “You made a mistake. Send the maids, butlers, kids and wives out of there, you and your men stay.”

“I will have all my…”

“Your all that’s left.” John paused. “I’m not here to kill them, nor am I here to scar them. But whether you man up or not is not my concern, in five minutes all of you are going to be dead.”

John ended the call. He leveled his rifle and fired at four more men that were walking around the pool. There was another man by the tennis courts that he shot and killed as well. John walked along the fence crouched to see the garage. The garage door opened. John reached out with his mind and confirmed that inside the SUV were Vito’s and his underboss’ wives and six kids. A moment later the hired help left in a separate vehicle.

“At least he’s taking this with a degree of honor.” John jumped down onto the ground and deactivated the stealth field.

As he did, he turned on the amplifier and was running it about forty percent of its max power. The sickening aura it gave off engulfed the whole house. He compelled all the men in the mansion to freeze in place. Whatever psychic barriers the men had or could have put up were shattered in an instant. John made short work of each man. He walked up to each of them on the main floor and put a single pistol round through the forehead.

He repeated the same cold-blooded action as he went from room to room on the second floor. He left the main office for last. John kicked the doors in and shot the two guards in the room. The leaders of the mafia family were all that were left. He walked up to the underboss and decapitated him using the bow knife. He dropped the head on Vito’s desk. He powered down the amplifier and looked back at Vito as blood coated his armor.

“We had an agreement old friend, don’t go near me and I won’t get involved with you. Such is your punishment. I will at least thank you for being an honorable man at the end by not making your wife and children see this mess you put in action.”

Vito was about to say something when John grabbed his submachine gun and empty the magazine into him. He opened the patio door and jumped down to the main level. He jumped into the pool then hopped out and ran toward the street. The stealth field was activated. He hopped onto the first flatbed truck he saw and began making his way back to the academy.

23:00 Primary Armory

The reliquary was humming as the armor plating was taken off. John was aching all over, he ran more than he was expecting too that night. But the armor had held up well. Admittedly it wasn’t much of a challenge given the opponents, but the data he got from the day could be enough to green light making this version.

He brought the guns back and checked them in but left them for the armorer to clean. That was very much a dick move on his part, but John wanted to avoid any curfew violations. He replaced the magazines that he still had. He indicated that eight magazines we lost during use and ordered replacements.

After that he walked back to the armor and released the stealth generator. He plugged it into a nearby workstation and scanned it for any wear and tear. There didn’t appear to be any damage to it. While it wasn’t perfect it would still be useful during certain operations.

John submitted a requisition for a zero-g harness that would fit on his new armor. He wouldn’t need it until they went to Yeager station in the spring. But the sooner one was manufactured the better. He’d rather have everything requested and built prior to the new year than hope and pray it can be built after the new year.

The last thing he did was download the armor’s combat data. He was going to review it himself this weekend. He was sure there were some settings that could be optimize here and there. But the armor was already ninety percent where he wanted it to be. John wanted it running at peak performance as soon as he could get it there.

23:30 Co-Ed Dorm

Alice was asleep when John entered their dorm. He closed the door quietly and sat down at his terminal. He leaked every bit of dirt he had on Vito and his family. He checked the extra-net; John’s actions tonight were the talk of the town. Just then a call came in.

“Evening John, you had a busy night.” Deputy Director Matthias Barros smiled at him. “And a treasure trove of criminal acts just got leaked. Odd how that works.”

“Pleased to make your acquaintance. Congrats on the promotion, heard you were a damn good station boss.”

“Well, I can’t brag too much, I wasn’t lucky enough to have you work for me.”

“Ah hell, no one’s perfect.” John smiled. “I’ll send you the combat data on the new suit. Spendy for sure, but spec-ops are gonna love her if the military makes them available.”

“Thanks. We’ll clear things up, we can’t say that we’re happy you did that, but after that attempt on your life it was hard to not take more punitive action.”

“They lost all their leadership and those with the contacts and sway. Their family is as good as dead. I’ll send you over the list of known associates that remain. Perhaps someone can have a chat to stay far far away from me.”

Baros smiled. “We’ll have our friends in the bureau take care of that. Nicely done out there, no civilian casualties and no one has any idea what really did happen.”

“Roger that, I need to get to bed.”

John ended the call. He took a whiff of himself and figured a shower was more important. When he got out of the shower Alice was looking at him.

“Ok, look I know what you’re going to say, but they started it.”

Alice started to laugh. “Can you think of a better excuse than an eight-year-old could?”

“But they did start it, they shot at me.” John put his hands out. “I don’t like it when people shoot at me.”

She just smirked and shook her head. “So, what happened?”

“Closed a chapter of my life and eliminated some old friends who turned rabid.”

“Mafia?”

John shook his head. “Armor got a good test of its capabilities too. Got some excellent data from its maiden use in anger.”

Alice stood up and hugged him. “I’m glad you came back. But it’s late, I’m tired and we need to get some sleep.”

The couple kissed, then crawled into bed. The drifted off to sleep after a short while. John was exhausted, he got a hell of a workout in. But he was excited. The armor lived up to its expectations. Whether or not it would stand up to fighting the twins was an open question, one that John figured would be answered sooner than later.