Esto Significa Guerra

[Anna Fernandez]

It had started as a celebration day. Anna declared it a holiday, and let everyone off the hook for chores. And then they'd gone out to dinner - no where really fancy - they were still on a budget, regardless of the infusion of grant money.

She was happy, and those around her were happy, too. They'd taken the van, all squeezing inside, and after as much salad and bread sticks as they could handle at Olive Garden, the troupe was headed back to Rendencion House. Anna let Jake drive home, giving herself a few minutes to her thoughts as they drove down the darkened streets toward home.

There had to be an easy way to tell everyone her news. Well, there was, but she was demasiado miedo de decirles simplemente. Right now only Jake knew... and she could keep it a secret for a few more months. But eventually everyone would find out. Better to tell them first.

The van pulled into the driveway and people started piling out, the jokes flying as everyone felt full and happy. Anna smiled, opening her door and stepping down, blissfully unaware of how terribly wrong everything was about to go.

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

"Hey, hey, put this in okay?"

Vipul, eyes reddened with the effects of a bit too much wine, pushed his iPod forward and over Anna's shoulder. He grinned conspiratorally as he selected a particularly frenetic hyphy mix he'd been nursing for just such occasions.

"You know, we should all go out dancing tonight. I feel like dancing. I haven't felt in such a good mood in a long time."

They pulled in to park, and Vipul reluctantly took his iPod back, and opened the sliding door, being the first to pile out. He ran around to the front of the van, jumped up to sit on the hood, and bounced on it a little to cause the van to rock.

[Jamie Morrigan]

Jamie wasn't sure how many bread sticks she'd eaten, but it was probably somewhere between ten and a billion. On any other night, she'd feel sleepy after eating so much, especially since it was already getting close to her bedtime, but right now she felt so excited she thought she might never sleep again. She didn't want the night to end; she wanted to stay up late watching awful movies and playing games and making the first annual Redencion House Grant Holiday last as long as possible. She was fairly sure with enough concentration she could make all the clocks in the house run at half-speed.

She squealed as Vipul started bouncing the van and tumbled out of her seat after Ronnie. Then she stared up at the black, starless sky and wondered how it'd look with about a million fireworks going off from one end to the other, each one a different color. Or maybe she could make one really big one, like in Lord of the Rings, that flew around like a dragon and then rocketed straight up and kept exploding and exploding.

"We should dance!" she said, grinning at Vipul, even though it had been ten minutes or so since he'd said it. "We can move the coffee table out of the way and put music on really loud and be like, Wearing a raincoat is flying around in a yellow rubber airplane, made out of a raincoat!"

She sang with an exaggerated operatic vibrato, whirling around until she crashed into somebody, laughing helplessly.

[Ash Addams]

Thanks to Vipul's choice of driving tunes, Ash heard the 'gang' before he saw them. A glance out the window at van rolling into Rendencion House's drive confirmed the boy's suspicions. Though the invitation to dinner had been extended to all members of the house, Ash's mutation made prolonged periods of time around anything organic – especially food – a exercise in self-torture. His celebration, instead, had been a couple of beers which had gone some way to loosening up his usual anxiety. When he slouched out onto the porch, however, the boy still wore the protective clothing and gloves which ensured he wouldn't turn anything – or anyone – he touched into dust. Leaning his weight against the door-frame, Ash watched the group pour out of Anna's van, giggling and grinning at one another.

“If you're gonna dance, someone other than Vipul's gotta pick the music.”

[Feral]

Feral sat in the very back of the van with some of the others. He had not at all been in any way a main part of the spectacle that was the celebration. Mostly he was content to listen and watch the others celebrate their victory. They didn't need him doing anything special to have a good time. Besides, it wasn't really his thing to be in the center of the attention for things like this. His spotlight was in conflict.

Nothing was conflicting anymore. The house was in great shape, and so was the bank account. He was needed for absolutely nothing. But still, he didn't feel unwanted. Maybe for the first time in a long while, he belonged. Maybe.

Jamie bumped into him during her spin. He caught her easily by the elbow, took her hand, and spun her around a few more times. "Just don't spin so much you get dizzy and make a mess on the lawn.

Anna seemed to be somewhere else in her head. Maybe she was like him: quiet at celebrations. Or maybe it all hadn't sunk in. Or maybe she was finally at peace. He felt glad for her.

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

“If you're gonna dance, someone other than Vipul's gotta pick the music.”

"Come on now, everybody likes to go dumb from time to time!"

Knowing that hyphy was probably not a consensus builder among the group, the Indian shrugged and held up his iPod.

"Try me, I've got something for everybody in here. You want some Rajasthani trip-hop?"

[Jacob Foley]

Jake hadn't said a word since his first bite of tiramisu, restaurants did something to him and providing that the meal was good and the company enjoyable, he was always left feeling quietly content. And sleepy. He rubbed wearily at his face after closing the van door, and trodded past Vipul, who was still talking about music. His hand was aloft and his guard was down.

"Play whatever bollywood tunes you want, provided you keep the volume... down!" he said, performing a masterful nipple-twister as he passed by which, in turn, elicited a comical yelp from his victim. His wicked chuckles morphed into a wide yawn, he stretched and wandered over to Ash when behind him a resounding clang rendered the party silent. He turned in time to see a red brick roll idly to a stop upon the lawn and the mailbox bore a wild indent and hummed tenderly from the impact.

[Nicole Morley]

:: Nicole watched the antics from the back of the van quietly. Vipul's "music" left alot to be desired, she lost herself in her own <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POuW4L7lcGE>tunes</a> on the way home from dinner ::

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna couldn't help but laugh at Jamie's antics, hugging the girl tightly as she crashed into her during her 'dance.'

"C'mon chica, its past your bedtime." Jamie pouted, and Anna looked up sharply at a loud clang from the other end of the driveway. A car had been driving down the road, but it had stopped in front of the House, blocking the driveway.

Anna caught a glimpse of a gun, and then from the backyard there was a crash, glass breaking.

"Vete a la mierda, mutantes!" Suddenly there were running figures all over the lawn, and more sounds of chaos from the back of the House. Anna pulled Jaime down beside the front wheel of the van, the hedge that ran down the far side of the driveway at their back and the vehicle between them and what had to be Tres Once.

[Jamie Morrigan]

Startled, Jamie shrieked and pressed herself against Anna. She looked around, but she couldn't see anything from their hiding place.

She looked up at her foster mom with bright, frightened eyes. Then she looked at the van, which started twisting and reshaping into a gigantic metal monster. It turned on rubber-treaded feet and menaced the neighborhood with a motorized roar.

"Please let's get inside," she whimpered.

[Feral]

Feral instantly settled into a fighting posture. Bones prickled under his skin. He had a hard time seeing in the dark, but he could start to make out friend from foe. No one was in the backyard yet.

Feral burst past Ash and through the house into the back yard. Bones burst form his fists and forearms and started to shed through his legs. He would be in full array soon and he needed to destroy these...things...without the House residents knowing he was Feral. They needed to continue seeing him as Apollos.

HE needed them to continue seeing him as Apollos. He jumped off the porch and onto the first figure outlined in the dim night light. Bones entered the body of his victim to his knuckles.

The blood felt good running across his fists. More blood. He needed more of their blood. But he had to hold back. He couldn't risk being Feral in front of those kids.

[Ash Addams]

There had been a screech as the car ground to a halt outside the House. When Anna called out a warning, anyone who had spent anytime in her home knew that the arrival of the 3-11's meant bad knews, and to get to some place safe – but with the House apparently under attack, where was safe?

One of the gang came at Ash, who had paced out onto the driveway to help with unloading. Masked, he swiped a switchblade through the air and though Ash ducked away, the tip of the blade caught against his left arm, tearing through the specially-formed protective fabric and piercing flesh. Something like a fine smoke rose from the wound as his blood touched clothing, though neither he nor the 3-11 noticed the knifes point had somehow blunted too.

“Motherfuck-!”

Another slash came, and this time Ash was quicker to react, impulses sharpened by a sudden rush of adrenaline. Yanking off one glove, he smashed his palm against the thug's face and was rewarded with a gasp of pain, on top of the jarring shudder through his arm. The 3-11 staggered back a step, clutching at the woolen mask which had once obscured his features – but now had a hand-shaped hole in the centre.

“You fuckin' freak!” he spat in horror and disgust, prodding the tender surface skin that felt ready to peel and flake away.

[Freight Train]

Little Train had been knocked out by the heavy food of the restaurant. Ever the heavy sleeper, the antics hadn't disturbed her, and only now did she stir, sitting up and unsticking her cheek from the van's window. She climbed out, jolted into alertness by the sudden movement around her and the shouts of surprise, and pain. She took five full strides towards the nearest hostile figure, blowing him back a few paces from whoever he was about to hit. She spun, seeing the cars on the street spilling enemies, and felt a sudden stir. She grinned and ran at a full sprint towards the street.

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

Vipul froze for a moment in the sudden violence of the ambush, the alcohol vanishing from his system. He rolled forward off the hood of the van and sprinted toward the side of the house, cell phone in hand in an instant and "9-1-1" speed dialed. No sooner had he rounded the corner than another vato faced him down coming around the back. Fight or flight kicked in, and Vipul turned to run, still hoping to connect with the operator.

The 3-1-1 banger drew up a Hi Point 9mm pistol, and stitched three bullets across the Indian mutant's back.

"Aaagh!"

Stumbling mid stride, Vipul pitched forward, losing his grip on his phone.

[Anna Fernandez]

The van reared up on its wheels, turning and menacing the gang members' car that blocked the driveway. Anna knew it was just an illusion created by Jamie in her fright, but if she hadn't of been leaning against a wheel she would not have been able to tell the difference. Screams rang out against the night air, fear, pain, and anger fueling them.

Vipul ran towards the side of the house, his phone in hand. Anna clutched at Jamie, still not sure what to do as the other residents of the House scattered. Three loud cracks made her wince and the girl in front of her jump. Someone was shooting.

"Jamie, follow Vipul - to the side door into the garage." They pushed up to their feet and started to move just as a dark figure ran towards them from where the Indian mutant had disappeared. Anna had barely enough time to register seeing the gun in the 3-11's hand before she thrust her arm forward. The young man screamed, a high pitched, frightening sound, as his gun hand froze solid, ice creeping up to his elbow.

Anna ran past him, pulling Jamie along.

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

Vipul lay on his side, twitching as he began to bleed out. The operator on the other side of the line had picked up, but Vipul couldn't waste breaths to talk to her. He laboriously crawled along to the hedgerow, trying to get some kind of cover before he died. He didn't have another duplicate around for miles, and it would be too late for them to help.

Reaching the bushes on trembling, bloodied forearms, Vipul gasped for air, his pale face looking up at the sky as he weakly tore at his button-front shirt.

[Jamie Morrigan]

Jamie was more scared than she could ever remember. There was screaming and cursing everywhere, and something that sounded like big balloons popping, only she knew it wasn't balloons. She stumbled after her foster mother in terror, unable to make sense of anything until they reached the side entrance of the garage.

She threw a harried look back over her shoulder and saw Jake still out there on the lawn. "Jake, come on!" she shouted. She just wanted the whole family in the house. Because in the house they'd be safe.

A brick crashed through the garage window just ahead of Anna and dented the side of the pick-up truck. Jamie shrieked in fright and pressed herself against Anna.

[Feral]

Apollos--Feral--rounded the corner of the house on the garage side in time to see a gang member throw a brick through a window and into the garage after Anna and Chimera.

Feral--Apollos--growled. "YOU!" He bellowed, pointing at the good-for-nothing with a long thin blade.

Bones continued to shift and move under his clothes. The spikes protruded through his jeans and his shoulders. The bones in his face lengthened and sharpened, giving him the wild and bloodthirsty visage that struck terror into the hearts of countless humans before this cattle came along.

Feral stalked towards the gangster, watching him hesitate, look for help or cover, and finally break away into a full sprint for the property line. Feral picked up his pace into a run with long strides. The distance closed up quickly. Feral pounced. The long thin blade found the space between the gang-banger's ribs and pierced the thing's heart. One brutal swipe to the side rent flesh and sprayed blood. The blood spurted in Feral's face, turning his vision crimson and painting a warmask there.

Vipul lay bleeding in the bushes. Anna stood bravely between her daughter and the house. There were still plenty of 311's left and not a lot of them. He couldn't let them die by these worms' hands.

"JAKE!" Feral shouted in the cacophany. "How many are left?" He knew better than to ask Jake to use his powers. But Apollos was nearly Feral again. He had not mutilated any of them yet, but the desire to desecrate their corpses and leave them unidentifiable and unsuited for proper burial screamed in the back of his head to the wardrums pounding in his heart.

"ANNA! ARE YOU AND JAMIE HURT?"

[Ash Addams]

No blood splattered Ash as he knelt over one of the fallen three-elevens, one bare palm pressed against the thug's chest and the other clamped against the side of his skull. The body beneath him had gone rigid as a plank, whilst the young mutant quivered as spasms rippled through his body. By his touch, the thug's flesh was crumbling away, skin peeling back to reveal muscle, muscle sloughing into bone and bone hollowing into dust. His teeth gnashing together, Ash's eyes rolled back into his head, his face a contorted mask twitching between pain and pleasure.

“Fffffffffffuuuuuuuuuu-!”

[Jacob Foley]

Jake had been elsewhere. He was impaled through the chest, gargling blood. He was curled in resignation upon the floor, riddled with bullets. His flesh decayed so fast it was like time itself had betrayed him. The images and pain were still fresh in his mind when he heard his name called and found himself just in time to avoid a knife thrusted at his stomach. Panic and adrenaline guided him away from the thug and his wild sweeping attacks.

"Five!" he called out, "No, six! Get the phone!"

Before he could explain further, he tripped and fell backwards, overturning a garbage can. His attacker, sensing victory, closed in on his pray with murder in his eyes. There was a ping as the knife was intercepted by the lid from the garbage can. Jake cried out in desperation, feeling the knife edge scratch the metal milimeters from his skin. And then with a startled gasp, the thug was lifted into the air and thrown from the garden, landing on the hood of a car.

"We need to get everyone inside!"

[Anna Fernandez]

"We are okay!" she shouted at Apollos, then pulled Jamie inside the garage. Anna shoved her panic aside, and yanked open the door to Aiden's truck, depositing Jamie inside. Before she closed the door she made solid eye contact with the girl. "Agacha la cabeza, keep down, and use your gift to stay hidden. I have to get the other kids."

She shut the door solidly, and headed back outside. A gang member was bending over a body in the bushes, and she grabbed him with ice cold hands, shoving him screaming aside. Vipul lay on the ground, bloody and writhing, hands plucking weakly at his shirt which was unbuttoned.

Anna put her hands firmly on the bullet wound, murmuring that it would be okay while she looked around for Chelsea, Ronnie and the other teens that lived at the House. People were shouting and yelling, and she was fairly certain that Chelsea had just flattened a gang member out in the street.

Another Tres Once went flying, landing on a car parked on the side of the street. Jake yelled, "We need to get everyone inside!"

[Feral]

He could feel the rage boil as Jake's voice reached his ears. The thought of Anna and Jamie pinned in with no escape made his jaw go tight and his stomach tense up. These...things...wanted to kill mutants?

"You want to kill a mutant?!" Feral shouted. He lunged and grabbed one of the 311's by the collar. The bones in his face shifted to make his features pointed and sharp, tugging his mouth back into the sadistic smile that harrowed his victims' last thoughts. Then his body locked into full battle array, covering his arms, legs, chest, and even his face with hard, white bone.

"Then kill me." Feral gutted the gangster and stood tall with head held up and shoulders squared. He bristled with spikes and blades from his shoulders to even the tips of his toes.

He was Feral. And now every human he found would die until he could find no more.

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

"I n-n-need..."

Vipul, breath ragged, blinked at Anna with glassy, unfocused eyes. His hands feebly pushed at hers, as if he was trying to tell her to back away from him.

At his abdomen, a bulge began to quickly grow, and with his last moments alive, he struggled to bring forth a doppelganger.

[Anna Fernandez]

She'd knew what Vipul's mutation was, on a purely intellectual level. Faced with his macro-mitosis in the middle of such chaos was another thing entirely.

Anna turned her head as her stomach churned and retched into the bushes beside her fallen friend.

[Jamie Morrigan]

Jamie tumbled into the passenger seat of the truck and sat there, taking short, rapid breaths and staring at the door. It would open soon, and Anna would be there with Jake, and Vipul, and Chelsea and Ronnie and Apollos, and they were all fine because the police had come to catch the bad guys who had all run away or had crashed their stupid cars and were dead because who attacked a family coming home from a celebration dinner anyway--

There were two more popping noises from outside, and it was too much for Jamie. She wanted to create some kind of fantasy that would chase all the gangsters away. She wanted to visit such horrors on them that they'd never sleep again, that they would spend the rest of their days in mortal terror of the monsters that hid inside their eyes, monsters of such primal and visceral horror that they could only have come from a child's nightmares. She wanted to make them suffer.

But she couldn't. The fear was too close. She rolled off the seat and curled up quivering on the floor mat, holding her head in her hands, pressing herself tightly into the little space below the glove box until she was completely cocooned in rubber, plastic, and metal. She squeezed her eyes shut and filled the truck with darkness. Anyone who looked inside would see an endless abyss, never suspecting that hidden at the bottom was a frightened little girl.

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan Fox hadn't joined the rest of the House's residents for dinner. He'd told Anna there was work at the garage he just couldn't get around. He sincerely hoped she didn't follow up on her threat to call his boss and give him a pedazo de su mente for taking him away from a family holiday. Fortunately, Jake had his back. They'd been covering for each other a lot ever since they started dealing with La Raza.

Aidan was tucked in a dark alley with his bike, watching across a parking lot as a Tres Once lieutenant and a couple of his pals as they entertained themselves and their girlfriends to the seismic throbbing of two overamped backseat stereos. He'd been tipped off already that the Three Elevens were planning some sort of hit tonight, and that it was Julio's handiwork. Aidan had tracked the bastard here, but he didn't seem interested in doing anything but blasting his eardrums and sharing a couple bottles of tequila with his crew.

He was just making up his mind to call it a loss when his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and read the caller ID.

"This is Fox."

A woman's voice answered him. "Hey, Zorro. Listen, you at the diamond lot watching Julio?"

Something in Shadow's voice set off alarms in Aidan's head. "Yeah. Why?"

"I think you been set up, ese. There's gunshots on Banyon, near that house of yours."

"What?" He felt the ground drop away from him.

"Somethin's goin' down, smells like Tres Once caca to me."

"Shit!" Aidan was already straddling his bike and turning the key. "You got anyone nearby?"

"Jus' me an' Slim, there's too many for us to handle."

"I'm on my way, just back me up when I get there," Aidan said, and he shoved the phone back into his coat pocket and kicked the bike into gear.

As his engine screamed out of the alley, he saw Julio raise a bottle and a finger his way.

"Damn it!"

[Jacob Foley]

The cellphone scraped along the driveway, and accelerating it leapt into Jake's hand of its own accord. He pressed it to his ear and barked at the woman on the other end of the line:

"Redencíon House. Banyon Street, Los Santos. Please hurry! They have g-aaargh!"

Jake dropped the phone and clutched his belly. He gasped, staring into the wild eyes of Apollos, then blinked only to find himself on the floor again. His eyes watered and he surpressed the urge to wretch, fingers fumbling under his shirt to find his insides still intact. Then another ragged gasp, the kind released when unexpectedly doused with icy water, and Jake scrambled to his feet, pushing off at a sprint across the lawn.

"Anna!" he cried out as brick and wood exploded behind him from a string of unsuccessful gunshots. Oblivious, he charged his vulnerable sister and collided with a gangly thug, sending them both careening over the bushes, a kitchen knife clanged at Anna's feet.

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna staggered to her feet from the bushes, trying to figure out what to do with Vipul without actually looking at him. Jake shouted at her from across the lawn and she turned to look at him, shrieking as he leapt at her. Her brother slammed into a gangbanger behind her, and they disappeared over the bushes into the neighbor's sideyard.

A knife landed at her feet and Anna gasped, realizing that Jake had just saved her from being stabbed. After a moments pause she bent over and picked up the knife, charging the blade with her power. The blade frosted over and steamed in the warm evening air.

In the distance police sirens started wailing.

["Slim" Joel Ranes]

The party was almost over by the time Joel arrived, the wheels of his bike still spinning like roulette tables as the BMX clattered against concrete. The gun that'd been stuffed into the waist-band of his boxers was in his hands within seconds, though he'd no idea where to shoot.

“Careja,” he swore, ducking behind the arguably minimal protection of a car parked across the street from Redencion House. Gunfire sounded across the avenue like a death rattle and on a frenzied whim Joel jerked up to his feet for a moment, squeezing a wild shot off at one of the Tres Once bangers.

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

Vipul's eyes opened and he gasped for breath. Newly born, he looked back at his progenitor, now dead from his wounds. Still breathing heavily he brought himself up into a crouch.

"I've got Jacob. Protect the others!"

He took off into a sprint, bounding over the hedge toward the brawling pair, a lump forming on his back as he focused to bring forth another of himself to aid in the fight.

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna goggled a bit at the sight of the naked Indian leaping over the hedge, then recovered sufficiently to turn and call out to Ronnie who was hiding inside the van. "Come on!"

She'd lost track of Chelsea, though the sturdy girl seemed to have made quite a dent in the bangers' get-away car. Ronnie crawled out of the side of the van, his face white as he met her along the side of the driveway. "We've got to get inside."

There were some screams coming from behind the house where Apollos had disappeared, and for the moment it seemed safest to try for the front door. "Go, go!" Anna pushed at Ronnie, and the frightened teen rabbited across the dry lawn, leaping in abnormally long jumps that carried him quickly to where Ash was still holding the front door open.

Anna followed him, knife still clutched in her hand as she ran. A husky Hispanic teen loomed at her, hands reaching for her in the darkness. She heard another gun bark from across the street and the Tres Once stumbled, then fell. She kept going, gathering Nicole and Chelsea from where they were holding their own against four thugs near the sidewalk, and meeting Ash and Ronnie on the front porch.

[Ash Addams]

Wide-eyed and with his shoulders heaving with breath, Ash's gaze twitched up at Anna as she joined him on the porch. His hands were balled into tight fists as he pointedly avoided looking at the gruesome mess that he had left behind on the lawn: one of the Tres Once boys, with half his head and thigh eaten away as if by some rabid flesh-eating virus.

“What the fuck,” he managed, under his breath.