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045 “ “And Down It All Goes.”


The terrified face of the hostage who had plunged to his death earlier while he had been powerless to stop it, flashed before Tank’s eyes. At the time he had sworn to himself that he would never let anything like that ever happen again. No matter what it would take, no matter if it would mean that he would have to sacrifice himself, he would not let another person get killed right in front of him.

And yet now it appeared that exactly that had happened.

He’d had no choice but to jump with Kara Katanagi out of the window just a second before a massive explosion had annihilated the 74th floor.

He had felt his own clothes singe and burn as the resulting fireball had missed him by mere inches.

The landing had been tough but could have been a lot worse if Hot Rod had not managed to keep the SAFVe steady just a couple of floors below.

The force of the impact had been enough for Kara’s delicate hand to slip out of his and while he had managed to hold on to the edge of the shuttle, she had slid across the roof and gone over it.

“Kara!” he screamed from the top of his lungs, the tone of his voice an equal part of panic and desperation.

He quickly crawled across the roof and looked over the edge.

Katanagi was holding on to a tiny crease at the back of the shuttle with just one hand but her feet were treading nothing but empty air, hundreds of feet above the ground.

Tank didn’t allow himself a sigh of relief. Not yet.

“I … can’t … hold on,” she said, looking up at him, her eyes just as terrified as those of the hostage earlier.

Her grip was slowly slipping and there was nothing else she could hold on to at the back of the SAFV. Reaching the safety of the side-doors was out of the question from her position.

“I’ll come get you,” he said and then turned his head slightly. “Hot Rod, whatever happens, keep her steady, you hear me? Do not move this thing one inch,” he hauled, hoping she could hear him. Comms were still down and he didn’t have the time to crawl to the doors himself.

And Tank was aware of another problem. The building was likely to go up any second now and the SAFV remained far too close to the building, a mere dozen feet or so, to be able to survive the resulting explosion. But if Hot Rod moved now, Kara would most certainly fall.

He firmly took hold of the edge of the roof with one hand and then stretched as far as he possible could, trying to reach her. “Hold on to me.”

Kara looked up at him but very slightly shook her head. “I can’t … I can’t,” she cried. And she was right, the distance was too great and it was physically impossible for her to reach the arm he had extended her way.

“Damnit it,” he said when he realized that he couldn’t get to her this way.

“You may have to… let me go,” she cried with tears shooting in her eyes. “You have to save yourself.”

He looked straight down into her eyes. “I will get to you, you understand. I will not lose you.”

She tried to nod bravely.

The only option that remained was to try and lower himself down towards her and try to support both their weight with his feet alone. But the roof of the SAFVe was fairly slick with very few handholds which would have allowed for such a move.

He didn’t care. Either he would get her or they would both fall. As far as Tank was concerned, there was no third option.

Tank felt a niche just large enough for his boot to hook into and lowered himself towards Kara. It wasn’t much and the smooth material of his boot began slipping out of the niche the moment he tried to support his entire weight on it.

He pushed on regardless.

“I can’t hold on … I can’t hold on anymore.”

He made eye contact with her again. “I will not let you fall.”

Surprisingly she smiled then and she became very still. “I know you won’t.”

Then her fingers slipped free.

He grasped her wrist not a nanosecond later.

“Got you.”

And as if somebody, somewhere had just waited for their cue. Fed Plaza blew up.

It was quite the magnificent sight from where Tank was hanging, head down, from the back of the shuttle.

First came a series of individual explosions far below and seemingly originating within the basement of the building. It was a perfect chain-reaction as one bomb went off after another blowing up geysers of flames and fire dozens of feet into the air all around the skyscraper.

The building began to sway and tremble not a moment later. With its foundation being ripped apart the massive structure was coming down like a house of cards with such a roar, Tank was sure they could hear it all the way in Oregon.

And as Fed Plaza was beginning to fall in on itself a dense plume of dust, smoke and debris came shooting up towards them at breakneck speed.

“Go, go, go,” he screamed as loudly as he could but even then he could barely hear himself over the thunderous noise of a 2,000 feet tall building turning into a heap of trash.

He knew that if the shockwave of the explosion didn’t get them then certainly that quickly approaching dust storm would.

Fortunately Hot Rod had no intentions of staying to find out and the SAFVe shot away from the doomed building. Apparently still aware that she had two souls hanging on for dear life at the back of the shuttle, she quickly angled the nose downwards, taking off some of gravity’s merciless pull to which Tank and Kara were still exposed.

“Climb. Climb.”

With the shuttle’s favorable orientation, she was able to bring up her other hand, hold on to Tank’s body and fairly easily managed to climb upwards almost as if she was trying to navigate a steep hillside. Once she had reached the roof, she helped Tank back up again and the SAFVe quickly leveled out again.

Moments later the MSD agents inside assisted them both to climb through the open side door and into the safety of the shuttle’s main deck.

Kara immediately hugged Tank closely the moment they were inside.

“Are you alright? Have you been injured?” he asked but making no move to disengage from her.

She shook her head and the rested it on his broad chest. “I’m fine. Thanks to you.”

Gavin and the others watched on with big smiles.

“You guys want to get a room or something?” the rookie agent asked.

Tank freed himself from Katanagi and shot the young agent a venomous glare.

Gavin put his hands up in a defensive gesture.

The inside of the SAFVe was rather cramped with most of the CCiD strike team and some of the hostages all crammed together. Nevertheless Tank managed to get his huge bulk back to the doors for a nearly unobstructed view at the total destruction of what had once been the tallest and most impressive building in the San Fran skyline.

The tower was gone and a thick and seemingly impenetrable plume of dark gray smoke and dust now rose from the site of were the building had once stood, engulfing at least two blocks in each direction.

He hoped the emergency responders and other personnel had been able to evacuate the area in time. But it was somebody else he was concerned about more than anyone else.

“Good news,” said Jackson Slade from the cockpit. “The chief got out alright. The medics are checking him over now and he’ll meet us at HQ shortly.”

“What about Mech,” said Tank. “Did Mech get out?”

But Slade didn’t respond to that.

Tank looked back towards the thick smoke which was already beginning to blow towards the bay, swallowing up one block after the next and not showing any signs of dissipating. < Chief, I hear you are ok. Where’s Mech? Did she get out alright? >

There was no immediate response and there was no way to tell if it was because the comm was down or because Masamune couldn’t and wouldn’t reply.

< Chief, are you there? Are you alright? >

< I’m here Tank. I’m fine. >

< Where’s Mech? >

< Tank, >
he began but then stopped himself.

< Goddamnit, tell me already. Where is she? >

There was another short pause. < She was still inside when the building blew. Tank, I’m sorry but there is no way that she could have gotten out in time. >

With utter frustration he hit the side of the SAFVe so hard, the bulkhead actually buckled and bulged under the impact. “No, no, no! Turn this thing around,” he shouted, causing everyone in the shuttle to flinch and look his way. “Turn this thing around now. We have to go back and get her.”

“We cant go back. Not now,” said Hot Rod. “We have to ““

“I don’t care,” Tank barked. “We go back now and get Mech,” he said and turned towards the cockpit, ready to plow through the people in his way and take over controls of the shuttle himself if it came to that.

Gavin was the first to step into his way and it wasn’t too unlike a man putting himself in front of a runway train. “Tank, calm down, please. We’ve got scared and injured hostages on board. We have to unload them first.”

He came within inches of simply rolling over the young operative but then stopped himself just in time. He looked around and for the first time spotted the faces of all the men and women staring at him. Some of the hostages looked just about as scared as they had when they had been held against their will by those terrorists.

Still frustrated, Tank’s only apparent way to release the rage which was threatening to take him over was to put another dent into the side of the shuttle.

The few minutes it took for Hot Rod to land the SAFVe on top of the Civic Center seemed like hours to him and all the while he kept his eyes trained on what was left of Fed Plaza, trying to get his augmented eyes to peer through the veil of dust with little success.

The shuttle sat down and he was the first person out. “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go,” he said, helping the hostages to disembark and placing them into the care of the medics and MSD officers who had been waiting for their arrival.

No matter his impatience however he did take special care to help Kara Katanagi out of the shuttle. “I hope you find your friend,” she said with a sympathetic smile.

“I’ll find her,” he said with a sharp nod.

“Good,” she responded. “And when you do, tell her I want my dress back.”

With Tank’s insistence the shuttle was cleared quickly but before they could take off again, Jackson Slade turned to him. “Tank, listen, I’m sorry as hell for what happened but if the LT was in there when it blew up, there is no chance she could have survived,” he said and indicated towards the rising plume of smoke which now dominated the skies just as Fed Plaza had once done.

“You don’t know that. You don’t know her like I do. She’s too smart and resourceful to get herself killed like that. During the War she escaped things far worse than that,” he shot back.

Gavin turned to him as well. “Even so, we won’t be able to get to the site for at least a few hours,” he said and his deflated tone of voice made it clear that he thought just like Slade did. Any help for Mech would come far too late. “Not until the smoke clears.”

But Tank wasn’t going to have it. “We’ll go back and I don’t care if we can’t see our hands in front of our eyes. I don’t care if we have to turn over every single rock. We go back and we find her.”

Neither Jackson Slade nor Gavin made any move to follow Tank back towards the shuttle.

“We’ll find her. Dead or alive, we’re going to find her,” he added as he jumped back onto the SAFVe were Hot Rod now stood with an equally sad expression on her face.

“There is no need to go back for me.”

Everybody turned upon hearing a surprisingly familiar voice. A voice that belonged to a person who could not possibly have been amongst them.

And yet there she was, seemingly alive and well, without so much as a scratch on her or a strand of hair out of place, leaning casually against a nearby column with that sweet smile of hers decorating those full red lips. “To paraphrase Mark Twain; The reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated. I’m afraid the same cannot be said for Ms. Katanagi’s lovely attire.”

What followed were dozens of disbelieving stares and a whole bunch of gaping mouths.


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