The Omnicron Imperative (Part III)

(Continued from Part II)

The remaining attacker overcame his initial shock at the unloaded weapon and exposed a mouthful of golden teeth. He began his downward killing stroke and unleashed the traditional ululation of triumph as was the custom of his tribespeople. He did not notice Captain Awesome had swung his improvised weapon until it had already struck him squarely in the right temple.

Individually, dime-store sparklers and throwing snaps are harmless fun for children.  But when hundreds and hundreds of the poppers are combined with the crushed up casings of sparklers and crammed inside of a tube sock, he knew from his Master's Degree in chemistry, the result is an explosive mixture that could vaporize a human skull.

The attacker's cry of joy was cut short as the impromptu mace impacted its target and detonated turning everything north of his lips into a cloud of bone fragments and goo.  The sword clattered to the ground and what remained of him swayed backwards and crashed onto the debris-littered floor.

Captain Awesome dropped the smoking remains of the sock onto the corpse and lowered his sidearm.  He opened up the Webley, refilled five of the six empty chambers, then gave the cylinder a good spin before returning the weapon to its home in his custom made boot holster. He hated dry-firing the gun but it was worth it to see the grin on his opponent's face just before he wiped it off. Permanently.

Upon completion of final training all members of Team Alpha Ninja Omega Niner performed one ritual that distinguished their group from the hundreds of other independent covert ops organizations in America : each graduate ceremoniously crippled their primary weapon in some small but critical way. 

Some chose to replace their firing pins with a soft metal that would wear down with time.  Some took a rotary filing tool to their gun's sights.  None of these modifications disabled the firearms but this process significantly reduced their reliability or accuracy at critical moments, forcing each ANON team member to become either master improvisors or instantly dead.

This is why they are the best of the best.

At the ceremony for then-Cadet Awesome, instead of filling in one of the chambers with lead solder as planned, he swore an oath to always carry one round less than his Webley could hold so he would not have to damage the antique firearm.   It was his own choice, however, to randomize the cylinder after he loaded the gun so even he didn't know where the missing round lay. A colleague once asked him why he handicapped himself even further than the team charter dictated.

"To give the bad guys a fair shot," he replied with a grin.

Looking around at his handiwork and helping up the filling station patrons he noticed that each of the attackers bore a tattoo on his right palm of a violet poppy wrapped around a swastika.

He grunted with recognition, pulled out his encrypted cell phone, snapped a picture, and pressed SEND.

(To be continued...)