So, this was Central Park.

I looked at the stretch of green in the middle of some of the more expensive real estate in the world, decently maintained, and had to admit I was impressed.

At least, it didn’t smell as bad as much of the rest of the city. Seriously, when were they going to clear up the emission laws? Did they LIKE smog?

It was a nice sunny day, and the weekend, so a lot of families and small groups were flocking to the place to enjoy the green and the sunlight. I had to admit I liked it here much more than along the city streets... and it was the scene of a lot of unreported crimes come the night, as certain predators liked to haunt it for victims who thought they lived in a safe city.

Don’t go running through Central Park late at night, doofuses. Your city has at least two clashing master vampires...

Red Eyes popped up in front of me, staring at a group of seven men in oddly long coats given the weather and the sun, heading up into the hills of the park.

I followed the direction of their travel, saw a family with two kids up there having a picnic, looked like they were getting ready to fly a kite, and further along the hill, a group of four guys who looked like they were out for a drink or something.

Long coats on the ground...

I looked at the dark-haired, muscular man there with his wife, son, and daughter, and narrowed my eyes as I began to pick up speed.

-You and your family are directly between two groups of Maggia people who are going to start shooting at one another any second!-, I Messaged him.

His head whipped around and took in the situation at a glance. Without an instant of hesitation, he grabbed up his wife, son, and daughter, and launched all of them with him down the side of the hill in the opposite direction from the approaching killers.

They were still in great danger as potential witnesses, but it gave him time, even if it was only seconds.

Their shouts attracted attention, heads turning their way, and then past them...

The four men there dove for the guns under their coats. The seven swore and pulled theirs out from under their coats, and the shooting began.

My Mask flowed up as I charged at the flank of the seven, bringing up my bracers.

The Bites hit the two furthest left, who had an angle on the family, launching them forwards in convulsing twitches as bullets flew about, and Red Eyes stared at them and let me know they were coming.

I blew past them in a vertical roll, wires snapping down as I crossed over them, and I relieved two of them of the automatic rifles they were holding with a flash of Repulse and shouts of astonishment from them.

The four men were flat on the ground, bullets chewing everything around them as they returned fire, one of them already dead. The incoming squad looked like they had body armor on, which didn’t do much to stop a Bite.

They were all astonished to see me landing between them and sliding downslope and backwards towards the family hugging the ground there as if the grass was ice.

“Shit!” someone said, and guns turned my way.

Fuuuck, this is going to hurt... “Can you use this? Take the left! I’ve got your family covered!”

Two automatic rifles hit the ground in front of the dad’s eyes, and Red Eyes stared as bullets started coming my way... and their way, as the ambushers moved to also shoot any witnesses.

The father surged up off the ground, snatching up the first rifle, bringing it to his shoulder like a professional instead of gut-shooting like the dummies to the left. He sighted and his first salvo was away in just a second.

A hundred feet away was not a long distance for an ex-Marine to put down a triple, and the first man shooting their way flew back, his brains coming out the back of his head.

The first bullets started smacking into me, and Red Eyes stared accusingly, because I was actually letting them hit me.

A bullet is a lot of force compacted into a small area. Repulse helped redirect some of the momentum, and my Damage Reduction dealt with a lot of it, which meant I twitched as my arms and legs danced, making sure none of the bullets got past me to the man or any of his family.

Braap, braap. Suddenly there was nobody shooting from the left, and he dropped the rifle, snatching up the other one as the remaining four men over there, one of them staggering with a leg wound, let up and stared as the targets of their assassination attempt stopped shooting, and then looked at us.

The guns turned in our direction.

Braap. The nearest shooter’s head exploded. The other two panicked and opened up with full-auto.

The bullets were spraying wildly, and I could only thank the heavens they were firing downhill, or the ones that missed would surely have hit passing cars or civilians in the distance.

Whamwhamwham... I twitched and danced as I moved in front of the bullets, only avoiding crits. My head snapped to the side as one bullet whined off my cheekbone and tore open two inches of skin as it did.

Bam. Bam. Bam.

Cool, calm, collected, like picking off skeet, the heads of the three shooters were targeted, and down they went, the last one trying to flee.

I went down on one knee gasping, while the boy set up a cry, drawing a sharp glance from the man as he looked over and saw his boy clutching at his face, the welt of a black eye already visible, and my fist right there in front of it.

I opened my hand, and the bullet buried a half-inch in my skin was forced out and fell to the ground, kind of bloody.

“Wipe the guns, put them in the hands of the shooters, and get the fuck out of here,” I said quietly. “Might want to leave the right bullets behind in them, too.”

He grunted once, looking over his family. “Maria, take Frank and Lisa, run back to the plaza, and wait for me.”

“But...” she began, eyes still wide as she tried not to look at the bodies slumped on the hill above.

“Now, Maria.” The quiet steel in his voice did more to motivate her than all the shouting in the world would.

He waited until she had brought the kids to their feet, turning them around and hurrying them away from the scene of the fighting.

He went left first, carrying both rifles, and taking two of their pistols from them. He quickly went to the men I’d taken the rifles from, wiped the weapons down, and put them back in their hands... then flipped them over and coldly buried four rounds, two each from the pistols in his hands, in the existing holes in their heads, before flipping them back over.

The two I’d hit who were unconscious he left as is, before going back and putting the pistols back in the hands of those they belonged to.

I stayed kneeling on the ground, silently Healing Reserving myself, but only enough to stop the bleeding.

He paused on seeing me there. “You going to be okay?”

I nodded slowly. “You have a bigger problem than you think. Go. Be very careful on the way home. Something powerful wants your family dead. Don’t let it win. I’ll cover you here.”

His eyes widened, and I saw him silently repeat, “Something...” before sprinting off in the direction his family had gone.

He had an extra pistol from the foursome under the remains of his picnic basket and blanket, and the frisbee and kite he had collected and wrapped up. I didn’t know how much effort Fate would take into trying to take out his family, but the diabolic force behind this aspect of it had failed.

I sighed as I pulled out my phone, and called the SHIELD desk again. “Hello, Agent Roman?” I asked when she picked up.

“Miss Dynamo. The Director would like to meet you with you again, if possible.”

“Well, if she’s free shortly, that would be ideal. I’m working something like three dozen bullets out of myself, and am not going to be doing much while that goes on.”

“Did something happen?” she asked quickly, ignoring how obvious it was.

“Maggia hit in Central Park. Fairly secluded area, amazingly doesn’t seem to have attracted much attention. Nine dead, two I stunned. I had to block a lot of bullets from hitting some civilians close by, but they’ve wisely run away.”

“Red Shield is one minute out. Do you need medical aid?”

“Not really. Everything will be fine by tomorrow, but right now I have bruises on bruises and some topical penetration that is getting on my shirt.”

“Do you know how to get bloodstains out?” she asked without missing a beat.

“Alchemist, yeah. Just working out the bullets, one by one. Shirt’s a loss, tho, too many holes. I think it made the pants sexier in certain company...”

“I’m sure they’d think the same of the shirt,” she agreed knowingly. “Red’s coming in from the north.”

“Hey, there, young lady, just coming in off the river there, be over the park in seconds. Whereabout you at?” Lemar’s smooth voice broke in.

“Do me a favor and swing over the 68 station on your way, Captain, and make sure nothing is going down there. I have the feeling someone else might be scheduled to be hit, too.”

“Uh, sure?” I could hear the wind shifting as he veered off. “Coming up on the station there... don’t see... wait, there’s a car there moving oddly, I’m dropping down... sensors show four men inside... I see muzzles!”

I looked over in that direction as there was a shriek of wind, a crash, and the roar of multiple guns pinging off an unbreakable shield through the phone. A very heavy caliber gun spoke several times, there was a rending of metal and squeal of tires hitting something.

There was more gunfire from elsewhere as the Red Shield raced up, pinging off his Shield, and he returned fire once, twice, and the shooting stopped entirely. There was an engine failing to turn over and dying badly, and it was over.

“Four shooters, look like Triad.” Red Shield turned around and scanned the area quickly. “I see a potential target getting hurried away by bodyguards, doesn’t look like he wants to stand around and verify the identity of these attackers. Damn, Dynamo, that was a good call.”

“There’s a Marine with a picnic basket nearby. Ask him what station he’s getting off at.”

I could almost hear both of them blink. “Marine! Girl on the phone, asking what station you getting off at!” The answer was unintelligible. “He says the F at Broadway.” He sounded a bit surprised.

“I’m gonna make another call. Be right back.” I hung up on the three-way, and dialed another number.

“Hey, girl, why you calling me? A man needs his beauty sleep,” Mr. Hill answered.

“Ten grand off your debt if you can get to Broadway station off the F and walk a family home.”

“That’s a pretty weird job, but for ten grand for nothing, sure. What am I protecting against?”

“Maybe a Fate Curse?”

“So anything up to planes falling out of the sky?”

“I’m fair. Bonuses if it’s ridonkulous.”

“Be there in five minutes. Should be able to just zip on over.”

“Thank you, Mr. Hill.” I gave him their description quickly.

“Sounds entertainin’.”