Out of the Black - Lee Doty [155]
"You think that's a flebotomist?" Miranda asked, clearly amazed.
"Don't whack it on the head." Elena replied.
The cop took a kick to the gut, then a fist to the face as she doubled over. To Elena's surprise, the cop didn't go down. Hands on the barrel of her weapon, she swung it into the demon's right knee, then slid one hand to near the pistol grip as she stepped forward, bringing the weapon up, connecting with the thing's chin. As the thing stumbled backward, she swept its arms aside with the barrel end of the gun then twisted the gun so that the barrel controlled the thing's arms while she broke the folding stock on its face. Without stopping, she gripped the barrel with both hands again and struck another demon in the face with the pistol grip. She turned back to the fallen demon. The high tech club raised and fell three times as she insured the thing wouldn't get back up.
Elena wondered why with so many firearms in the fray they were all being used as clubs. It was like watching a second-rate action film, only with no slow motion or hokey spinning head kicks.
The guy with the sword swept a demon's arm off, and the big alien leapt a full meter into the air, spun through about 270 degrees, and kicked the demon in the head so hard that its feet flew over its head before it hit the ground.
Well, no slow motion anyway.
"Did you see that?!" Miranda shouted, eyes wide.
"Don't shoot the humans or the flebotomist." Elena said, aiming at a demon rushing toward the guy with the sword. She pulled the trigger. There was a click, but nothing else. "Jammed!" she yelled.
"Me too." Miranda said. They both examined their weapons. The electronic diagnostics were offline, but it was obvious there was a mechanical jam.
"Check this out." Miranda held up her gun so Elena could see the length of the barrel. It was warped slightly. Elena examined her own weapon. She noticed similar deformities in the metal. With a little more inspection, they discovered that their pistols hadn't been spared either.
"Great." Elena shook her head.
It was then that she noticed Kyle. He was swaddled on a gurney near the center of the fight, looking like a new resident of the maternity ward. With this realization, her eyes went to the other gurney. She saw blonde hair, dark suit cut to allow surgical access, she saw blood, saw Hawthorne.
She flipped her weapon over, grabbed the barrel with both hands and rushed forward. "Come on!"
***
"All fighting breaks down to resolve and geometry, Tian Fu." His Dad used to say, usually right after compromising Ping's geometry and giving him a friendly fist in the face.
Good ol' Leung O'Bannon, now Leung Bannon (Americanized), was known internationally as a great teacher, but that's just because most folks didn't know how good a father he was. Sometimes you become well known for things other than what you're best at. Ping was familiar with this phenomenon.
Ping spent his childhood in "Gun Fu", the Hong Kong Wing Chun Kwoon Granpa Sean and Grandma Yao opened when his dad was little. He spent his adolescence in the Chicago extension Dad opened. To add to the all-important Asian mystique such establishments require outside Asia, they'd called the Chicago branch "Chong Fu"- "Gun Fu" in Chinese.
When dad found out the name of the school had to sound mysteriously Chinese, he'd initially come up with "Bu Xue Wu Shu Dao", or "The Way of the Gomer". Good humor and hard heads- it might as well be the O'Bannon family credo.
Life was simple growing up in the Kwoon. He'd been happy, surrounded by stimulating activity, plenty of exercise, and family. His Dad was the biggest influence in his life. He'd taught him to think, taught him to meditate, to explore. He'd taught him to fight.
Ping had broken with two generations of tradition on his father's side and eight generations of tradition on his mother's side to pursue a career outside the Kwoon. It's not that he didn't like his world, but he loved to listen to the students talk about