[headquarters]

I will arrive thursday at 1800hrs at GPs pad .

Beers ,beef stew and bullet time will commence shortly after .

looking forward to it .

SHANDON ,CA OCT.11 0530 hrs TEMPERATURE : +3 C*

DeCorba racked and tapped his carbine and raised it to his shoulder .He held his sight on the corner of the bunker hallway 20 feet to his front, and clung to the wall.His right leg hurt like hell where the NDP soldier had gotten him with his trashing kicks before the last rounds in DeCorbas magazine had stopped him moving forever.Blood was still trickling down his face from that one -the NDP soldiers blood -not his own .Only now did he notice a bullet lodged in his protective vest right over his heart .

Probably a ricochet since it hadn`t penetrated.

He shot a quick glance behind him and surveyed their position and its carnage.

They were in a hallway with a corner 2o feet down from him ,and another one app 30 feet further up from him .Halfway from the corners his team -the team he had selected when he ordered the assault - had taken up firing stances in a small perimeter .Inbetween them, on both sides of them and at the corners lay the bodies of the slain NDP defenders.All in all 8 enemy soldiers had paid with their lives for trying to stop them .Two had gotten away further into the bunker. He lamented that one .No rapid advance possible now .And judging from the sounds at the entrance where they had come in , a platoon of infantry was preparing a counter assault to get them . So then - enemy at their backs and enemy in front .And still 1/2 a mile to go to the central bunker with its deadly stocpile.

General Pain was on one knee covering the front with his two sawed of ten gages. His armor had bulletimpacts in it ,and blood and brains had soiled it in manyplaces.Still the General felt at ease.Now, locked in mortal combat with an enemy of overwhelming strength he could relax .The pressures of everyday life far away .leading a death cult faction and trying to seize power through countless nefarious schemes was taxing .

As it stood right now,he could see no possible escape from certain death -although he wouldnt mention this to the others just yet .Chuckling he pictured their faces when he broke the news -".. we are in a bunker inside the NDP lines and they know we are here - we are all going to die.."

Anyways - he had a card up his sleeve that would put the others of their dinner for a long time if they ever found out.

Even if he wasnt to be around to see it .

Strange .The gnawing fear he had feltthe last few years when going into combat was gone .He holstered a 10 gage and took out a pack of combat stimulants with his free hand to check its contents. Nope - he hadnt taken to many .Nor had he had to much Scotch - ha had "checked " the silver and kevlar flask in his vest just a minute ago .Still 3/4 full.

He just felt great .

Takashi was creeping up the hallway along the wall in front of Pain with her two custom 10mm autopistols on outstretched arms .As she neared the corner of the hallway that lead into the adjacent room she looked back .And nodded.

Then she was gone around the corner.

Every step she made left a small bloody print on the concrete floor.

Hers or the NDPs- it was hard to tell.

Covering the area infront of her ,she carefully sliced the pai on her corner so that she only gradually exposed herself .An accesramp led up to the main tunnel of the bunker system .The corridor on top af the ramp had two corners.For a moment she paused and a glimmer of doubt raced through her mind .Images of her children.Memories of her hopes for herself as a young girl

But then the years of strict discipline made her mind reel from the images as if though having seen a ghastly sight.Her fate was to fight and ensure the future of those in her memories by acting with courage now.
.Going into a room like that alone and with multiple angles to cover made the tactical training alarm bells chime like they were hyperactive .It went against all shehad been thaught.It was foolhardy.

It was dangerous.

She took a deep breath and started up .

In the perimeter , Iron man was busy looting the dead and dying NDP troops that lay everywhere inside and around the little position they had set up in the bunker hallway .6 dead NDP and 1 dead San Simeon man was the result after the NDP cadres had tried to rush them and had gotten inbetween them .

Bloody hand to hand fighting at pointblank ranges had ensued , sawed of shotguns ,pistols and carbines used as clubs or fired with the muzzle in contact with the target had sprayed the concrete corridor with blood and gore -and the men and women still standing too..

He looked around and counted the heads.Not many of the original assault force left .A combat engineer and his assistant, the general,the fieldmarshall,the aristocratic lady - a nice troupe for what looked like it was going to be a final act .Nice script though .."all important mission to save the world in a nuclear weapons bunker infested with fanatics.." If only he could have gotten someone big to produce it .Like Fox or Warner.This thing needed a budget.He suddenly noticed that his refugee disguise smelled like rotten fruit.Typical lousy prop and custome department .Grabbing some old rags from a heap of garbage and rotting food.He clenched his teeth and pulled on another NDP army boot .Good leather boots were hard to come by .
His torn refugee shoes just were not going to cut it the rest of this fight he decided.

And more importantly -he was hell bent on going with his boots on.

After all - there would eventually be an eulogy in Variety when the world got back on its feet, and Hollywood got rid of the pesky cannibals that were currently using his favourite skin care treatment center as a ritualistic barbecue den.

Going out the hard way was the right way for Iron Man .After all,he wasnt "Cry your heart out Man" .He had worked too hard for the Iron Man image to have any question raised now. " God,I hope they dont get me in the face", he muttered.

The far sounds of NDP cadre firing suppressive fire all the way back athe bunker entrance where he and his comrades in arms had made their entry made him flinch.

He swallowed hard and finished lacing up his boots.