Melanie's Dark Secret
By Littlesilverstar, silverstar222b@yahoo.com
Female detective helps a friend deal with trouble from the past

NOTE: The main characters in this story appear in my previous stories
"Assassin By Night" and "Murder Mystery Cruise." The inspiration for this
story came from several readers who emailed me thinking that Melanie was
the killer in "Murder Mystery Cruise." So I got to thinking...Melanie may
not have been the killer in that story, but what if she really did have a 
dark secret from her past?

Melanie O'Connor lay awake in her bed, unable to fall asleep.  Her 
conscience was troubling her.  She had a dark secret from her past that
she was keeping from everyone, most notably her best friend, police
detective Sara Ramos.  Of course, it wasn't like she wanted her secret
shouted out to the world, but she knew she could trust Sara.  They had
been best friends for seven or eight years and it wasn't like Sara would
arrest her or something.

But if it wasn't that, then what was it that was making her afraid to tell
Sara?

Deep down inside, Melanie knew what it was, although she didn't like to
admit it, even to herself.  She was ashamed.  Ashamed of her past, ashamed
of the things she had done, and afraid of what Sara might think of her if
she knew.  And that side of Melanie was currently in control of her mind.
But there was another side, a part of her that told her to come clean to
her best friend.  After all, hadn't Sara told her everything about her
past, including her rough, violent life as a teenager?

But, said the other side, what good could come from telling Sara now?  
Melanie was a new person now.  She had rejected her dark past and had a
new name, a new life, and a nice, safe, respectable new hostess job.  Why
drudge up the past?

The conflicting parts of her mind tussled with one another for another
hour, until she finally fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.

Several hours later, Melanie was awakened by a strange scraping noise.
She sat straight up in bed and listened.  The noise stopped briefly, then
came again.  Then came a thump, a muffled grunt of pain, and an annoyed
voice hissing, "Shhhh! Keep quiet!"

Melanie's eyes grew big. Intruders, breaking into her house! She reached
into the drawer next to her bed and took out the .45-caliber pistol that
she always kept loaded and ready.  Gripping the gun tightly, she silently
climbed out of bed and padded across the room, dressed in black panties
and a matching black bra (typical sleeping attire for her).  Her long,
muscular legs and firm, hard abs were very well displayed. Her sexy black
bra gave a nice hint of her firm, round, C-cup breasts.

She opened the bedroom door slowly and cautiously.  No one in sight.  She 
advanced slowly down the hall, pistol at the ready.  Suddenly, she heard a 
faint footfall and turned.  A masked man, dressed all in black, stood 
there, holding a pistol with a silencer.  He raised his gun, but Melanie 
was faster.  Before the masked intruder could fire, she nailed him with a 
clean shot right between the eyes.

Another noise came from behind her.  Melanie whirled around.  A heavy
form came around a corner and collided with her, sending her gun flying
across the room.  The form revealed itself to be a large, masked man,
holding a silenced pistol in his right hand.

With lightning speed, Melanie kicked the gun out of his hand, sending it
clattering into a corner. She then performed a high kick to the intruder's
jaw.  Even barefoot, her kicks were dangerously powerful.  The man yelled
in pain and staggered backward as her kick impacted his face.  Not giving
him any chance to recover, she performed a front flip kick, her bare feet
smashing into his head as she flipped.  She landed neatly on her feet, 
while her opponent landed in a heap on the floor.

He leapt up with a furious animal roar.  The man took a wild swing at her.
She ducked under it and stung his cheek with her fist.  She then kneed
him in the stomach twice in quick succession and followed that up with a
vicious elbow to her opponent's face.  Finally, she delivered a powerful
spin kick that slammed into the thug's head and sent him to the floor in
another heap.

With a shrill warrior scream, Melanie leapt onto the intruder, ripped off
his mask, and began punching him repeatedly in the face.  Her well-toned 
arms and hard fists did their work well.  It was not long before her 
opponent's face was a bruised and bloody mess.  

She stood up, leaving the intruder semiconscious and groaning.  For good
measure, she kicked him hard in the side, hearing a satisfying crunch as
one of his ribs broke from the impact of her brutal kick.  She then 
gathered up both her own gun and the big intruder's silenced one. Holding
a gun in each hand, she aimed them both at the thug, who had now raised
himself to a sitting position. "Freeze," she said.

The intruder was seriously pissed off.  He had been brutally beaten up,
his partner was dead, and to make it all the more humiliating, the person
who had done those things was a beautiful blonde woman dressed only in bra
and panties.  Although there were two guns pointed right at him, the thug
arrogantly thought he could get out of the situation.  He reached for the
backup gun in his ankle holster.

Before his finger could get anywhere close to the trigger, Melanie fired 
one shot from each of the guns she was holding.  Two bullets slammed into
the intruder's chest.  As he fell, with his last breath, he hissed, "We'll
...still...avenge...Baselton!" 

The words hit Melanie like a thunderbolt.  So these weren't just ordinary 
home invaders!  They had come to avenge the man she had killed, many years 
ago.  Just one of the men from her dark past...

She knew she had to tell Sara now.  She knew that no matter how hard she
tried to deny it, her dark past was still part of her life.

Detective Sara Ramos was awakened from a sound sleep by the ringing of the
telephone.  She looked at the clock beside her bed and saw that it was 
3:54 in the morning.  Picking up the phone and expecting it to be the 
police department calling her to a crime scene, she was surprised when the 
caller turned out to be Melanie.

"Sara, I'm really sorry to bother you in the middle of the night, but I've
just had an emergency and you're the only one who can help me," came
Melanie's voice. "I can't explain it over the phone, but it's something
really serious.  Please, come alone and don't tell anyone."

"All right, Mel, I'll be right over," said Sara, a puzzled look on her 
pretty face. "And you'd better have a good explanation when I get there."

Fifteen minutes later, Sara pulled her car into Melanie's driveway. 
Melanie met her on the porch.  She looked as if she had been crying. Sara
put a comforting arm around her friend. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Come in and I'll tell you," said Melanie.  They went into the house and
through to the kitchen. "Would you like some coffee?"

"Yes, thank you," said Sara, rubbing her eyes.  Melanie handed her a cup
of hot coffee and took another cup for herself.  She then stood there 
nervously, playing with her blonde hair.

"It's a long story and I don't really know where to begin," said Melanie
finally, still playing with her hair. "Uh...er...remember when we were on 
that murder mystery cruise and that one chick thought I might be the killer 
because I might have some dark secret from my past?"

Sara nodded.  Melanie said, "Well...er...I really do."

"Really?" asked Sara. "So what is it?  Were you a professional assassin
who bumped people off before you moved to this town and met me?"

Melanie's mouth dropped open and her coffee cup dropped to the floor,
shattering and spilling hot coffee everywhere.

Sara stared at her friend's reaction. "You mean I was actually right?!" she
said. "I was just making a crazy guess!" As the shock hit her, Sara dropped
her coffee cup.  It shattered as it hit the floor, spilling hot coffee
everywhere.

Melanie nodded. "I have something else to show you," she said. She led her
friend into the living room.  There, lying neatly on the floor, were the
corpses of the two home invaders.  Sara was glad she did not have a cup of
coffee in her hand at the moment, because she knew she would have dropped 
it.

"Let me tell you the whole story," said Melanie as she and Sara sat down
on the couch. "My dad was a lazy, no-good bum who walked out on us when I
was five.  My mom was an alcoholic and a cocaine addict.  Most of the time,
I had to fend for myself.  We lived in a really bad neighborhood in New
York City.  There was one nice man who lived down the block - he saw the
situation I was in and sympathized with me.  He gave me a gun and taught
me how to use it.  Then, one day when I was sixteen, a man broke into our 
apartment.  Apparently, my mom had been buying cocaine from him and she
owed him money.  When she said she couldn't pay him, he threatened to kill
us.  That's when I pulled out the gun that the nice man gave me and killed
the intruder." She swallowed nervously.

Sara leaned over and squeezed her friend's hand. Melanie continued, "I got
this weird feeling after I killed him.  For the first time in my life, I
felt like I had some control over what would happen to me. I felt powerful.
I saw killing as a ticket out of that hellhole.  So I made a plan."

Melanie brushed a strand of blonde hair out of her face.  She went on,
"During one of my mom's few moments where she wasn't drunk or high, I got
her to help me dump the body in a dumpster.  I knew the dead man belonged
to this one drug gang, and I knew they had a rival gang.  So I went up to
a couple of the rival gangsters and said that I'd knocked off one of their
competitors, and they could look in the dumpster to see for themselves.
When they saw the corpse, they looked really impressed.  I said I'd be
willing to do it again in exchange for money. The drug dealers would never
expect a pretty blonde teenage girl to be an assassin, and I told them I
could get access to their enemies a lot easier than they could.  They
agreed and told me where this rival drug dealer was hiding out.  They gave
me a $1000 advance payment and said I'd get another $4000 when the job was
done."

Sara squeezed her friend's hand more tightly as Melanie continued her 
story. "I went up to the hideout wearing a miniskirt and a tank top," she
said. "The gun was strapped to my thigh under the skirt.  I just went up
and knocked on the door.  When the drug dealer opened it, I said in my
sexiest voice that I had something to show him.  I reached under my skirt
and he grinned.  Then I pulled the gun out and he looked like he peed in
his pants.  I shot him right in the head.  Then two more men came out and
I...I killed them too." Her voice was shaking now.

"I went back to the people who'd hired me.  When they heard I'd killed two
henchmen as well as the drug dealer himself, they gave me a $3000 bonus in
addition to the $4000.  As I walked home with my newfound wealth, I was so
conflicted.  I felt guilty about killing those men, but I also felt strong
and independent.  I went into my room and just lay on my bed, trying to 
make sense of it all.  When my mom got home, she was in one of her drunken
moods and she was roaming through the kitchen, breaking things.  That's 
when I decided to run away.  I had $8000 with me and I knew that anywhere
had to be better than that place."

"I took odd jobs here and there, but the money from them was never anywhere
as good as the money from killing," she went on. "Eventually, I became a
full-time professional assassin.  As I got better and better, I got paid
more and more.  I learned new ways of killing people and took on more
dangerous targets.  But as I became a truly independent woman, I didn't
need the killing anymore to feel in control of my life.  And the part of me
that felt guilty was growing stronger and stronger.  Eventually, I decided
that I couldn't do it anymore.  I got a new name and a new life for myself.
I moved to a quiet, medium-sized town on the coast and got myself an honest
job.  It wasn't long after that that I...I met you. When you asked me about
my past, I remembered a killing I did once on a plane disguised as a 
stewardess, so I told you that I used to be one.  With my new life and my
new friends, I thought I could leave all the horrible things I did behind.
But that dream disappeared this morning, when those two guys came in here
to kill me.  Before he died, one of them said he'd come to avenge the death
of someone I killed several years ago.  I tried to run away from my past,
but it's...it's just not something that can be run away from!" She buried
her pretty face into Sara's shoulder, sniffling.

"Oh, Melanie," said Sara. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?  I would have
sympathized with you.  I wouldn't have arrested you, even if you told me
when we were first getting to know each other." She paused. "Well, maybe at
the very beginning I might have.  But that's not the point.  The point is,
I'm your friend and I'm here for you."

"I know," said Melanie. "Thank you, Sara.  I'd be totally lost without you. 
There wasn't anyone else I could go to.  I know Baselton's men are going to
keep trying to kill me and if I went to the police, I mean the regular
police, they'd just arrest me."

Sara nodded. "Tell me about this Baselton guy," she said.

Melanie looked up at the ceiling and squinted her eyes, trying to remember.
"I think it was about nine years ago," she said. "Baselton was a wealthy 
guy who tried to give the impression of being a regular businessman, but he
was running a major smuggling business on the side - drugs, weapons, you
name it.  Anyway, something he did upset one of his clients and the client
hired me to kill Baselton.  I disguised myself as a maid and went to the
hotel where Baselton was staying on a business trip.  I knocked on his door
and said, 'Housekeeping!' When he opened it, I just grabbed him and snapped
his neck.  I don't know how his men found out that I was the one who did it 
so many years later."

Sara stared at her friend in wonder.  Perky, friendly, blonde Melanie a
professional assassin?  It was certainly a strange world. "First thing we
gotta do is get rid of those bodies," she said. "Then, we have to get you
out of this house.  Oh, and it wouldn't hurt to clean up the coffee, too."
Melanie managed a laugh.

The two women began the task of moving the bodies.  First, they picked up
the corpse of the smaller intruder. Although neither woman was particularly
big (Sara was a slender 5'7" and Melanie was a slender 5'9"), they were 
both quite strong and managed the body easily.  They carried it outside and
placed it in the trunk of Sara's car.  It was still pitch dark outside, so
no one was likely to see them.  After that, they did the same to the corpse
of the bigger thug.  His weight made the task somewhat more difficult, but
the women managed, dumping his body into the trunk next to his companion.
Melanie then quickly packed her essential belongings into a large suitcase,
while Sara cleaned up the blood and the spilled coffee.  It was still dark
when the two friends drove off in Sara's car with a suitcase on the back
seat and two corpses in the trunk.

Melanie looked over at her friend as they drove along. "So you never
wondered how I saved enough money for a nice big house on a stewardess's
salary, or why I always insist on paying whenever we eat somewhere 
expensive?" she asked.  She grinned and said teasingly, "What kind of
detective are you?"

Sara playfully punched the blonde on the shoulder. "I thought you inherited
the money or something, and just took the stewardess job because you wanted
to work while traveling," she said.

Melanie smiled. "So where are we going?" she asked.

"I know a place," replied Sara.  About twenty minutes later, they pulled up
to a lonely cliff overlooking the ocean.  The sun had not yet risen, but a
faint tinge of light was starting to be visible in the eastern sky. "Here
we are," she said. "Bernsen's Bluff.  Isolated and quiet. The perfect place
to dump a body over the cliff.  I should know...I've been called here 
several times to investigate bodies that are dumped over. Never thought I'd
ever be the one doing the dumping." She looked at Melanie. "You owe me big
for this," she said. "If anyone from the force ever finds out about this,
my ass is fried."

With a grin, Melanie said, "Don't worry.  I'll make it up to you.  If you
ever have a body, I'll help you get rid of it, or provide you with an alibi,
or something."

Sara laughed, then grew serious as she opened the trunk.  They dragged the
bodies one by one to the edge of the cliff, then pushed them over.

The two women got back in the car.  Sara drove back towards the center of
town. "There's this guy who operates a quiet, out-of-the-way rooming house,"
she said. "We use it sometimes when we have to hide witnesses.  I'll get 
him to let you stay there.  Also, I'll dig up what I can at work on that
Baselton character."

Melanie leaned over and hugged her friend. "I don't know what I'd do
without you," she said.

"Just make sure to pay the next time we eat somewhere expensive," responded
Sara with a smile.

Soon, they pulled up in front of the rooming house.  By now, the sun was
beginning to rise.  Sara quickly talked with the manager, pretending that
Melanie was a witness who needed protection.  He quickly showed Melanie to
her room.  It was small, but clean and comfortable. After the manager left,
the two women began talking as Melanie unpacked her things.

"Aren't you mad at me for all the horrible crimes I committed?" asked
Melanie.

"Mel, I did some nasty things myself in my teenage years," said Sara. 
"Sometimes I'm amazed that they let me become a cop at all."

"But you never murdered anyone," said Melanie. "What I did was a lot worse
than what you did." Sara was about to respond when her cell phone rang.
She listened briefly, then said, "All right, I'll be right over."

"That was headquarters," said Sara. "Apparently, someone found a couple of
corpses dumped over the cliff at Bernsen's Bluff." She winked. "I have to
go over there and investigate."

"Wow, that was fast," said Melanie. "I guess I'll see you later, then. 
Good luck and thanks again for everything."

"Take care and stay safe," said Sara as she hurried out to her car.

It was late afternoon before Sara got off work and hurried to the rooming
house where Melanie was hiding out.  She waved the file she had brought
with her as she entered her friend's room. "Here's what I've got on
Baselton and his buddies," she said.  Sara handed Melanie the file and
began reciting what she had already found out.

"Baselton was under investigation for fraud and smuggling at the time of
his death," said Sara. "I had to read through the whole file, since I was
just a lowly patrolwoman at the time it happened nine years ago, and since
the killing took place in another city, I wouldn't have had any reason to
have known about it earlier.  According to the file, Baselton was 
assassinated nine years ago in a hotel room in Denver by an unknown
assailant.  The assassin was never caught and everyone in the investigation
thought it was a very professional job." She paused and winked at Melanie.
"After a little while, the case was filed away as unsolved.  Quite an
interesting read this was.  Although my boss, Lieutenant Peters, almost
caught me reading it.  I would have had a hard time explaining why I was
reading that instead of working on the case of the two corpses that were
dumped at Bernsen's Bluff." She winked at her friend again.

"Now on to known henchmen of that Baselton character," said Sara. "Several
of them are dead, so I excluded their files.  I also excluded the files of
two guys who are currently in prison.  I want to interview them as soon as
possible.  I don't think they'd have enough access to information to be
involved with what happened this morning, but they can probably tell some
things about their comrades.  Unfortunately, they're in prison way over in
Texas.  I'll have to wait until I get a day off to fly over quickly and
question them, and that won't be for a while."

By now, Melanie had examined all the files on Baselton's loose henchmen.
"None of these are the two who tried to attack me today," she said. "You
saw the bodies.  Did any of the files you looked at resemble those two
guys?"

"Nope, none of them," said Sara. "I couldn't find anything on those two
guys.  The gang's new leader must be using a lot of new men." She patted
the file. "Keep this with you and memorize the faces of the people in it.
If you see any of them, call me and make sure to kick ass first and ask
questions later."

Melanie smiled and gave her friend a hug.  Sara hugged her back tightly,
then left for her own place.  As she drove along, Sara was still somewhat
in awe over what she had learned about her best friend.

Several days passed.  Melanie continued to hide out at the rooming house,
which Sara visited at least once a day.  Sara herself succeeded in 
convincing her boss, Lieutenant Peters, that the two corpses found shoved
over Bernsen's Bluff were most likely victims of a gang initiation.  There
was no sign of any of Baselton's henchmen.  Finally, Sara was granted a 
day off, which she used to go on a trip to question the imprisoned thugs.

She caught an early-morning plane to Texas.  After a three-hour flight,
it was another hour and a half to drive to the prison.  The first prisoner
on her list was named Jefford.  He was whiny, weasely, and unhelpful.  In
fact, his first action upon seeing Sara was to hit on her.  The pretty
brunette was dressed fairly conservatively in black pants and white blouse,
but that did nothing to deter the thug. Coolly and professionally brushing
aside his lewd comments, she went straight to questioning him.


He was not interested in cooperating.  Since she was merely a visiting law
enforcement officer, Sara had neither carrot nor stick to manipulate him
with.  Most of his comments were complaints about prison life and rants
about how he deserved to be free.  He clearly felt no remorse over the
crimes he had committed.  With a weary sigh, Sara moved on to the second
prisoner.

He went by the name of Smoky and luckily for Sara was considerably more
cooperative. He said that after Baselton's death, the gang had been thrown
into disarray.  Documents that had been found in Baselton's hotel room
were used to round up many of the gang, including Smoky and Jefford.  

She asked him about more current events.  She was very good at reading
people and decided that he was most likely not involved in the attempt to
kill Melanie.  He provided a name and description of the new leader of the
gang, who went by the name of Napoleon.  He also provided descriptions of
several other thugs who were not in the files.

It was late evening by the time Sara got back home.  She visited Melanie at
the rooming house and gave her the new informantion.  Then she went home to
get some much-needed sleep.

She awoke a few hours later.  She didn't know exactly what it was, but she
had the strangest gut feeling that something wasn't exactly right.  The
clock by her bed read 11:27 in the evening. Making sure to keep the lights
off, she peered out her front window.  Everything seemed normal...except
for one thing.  There was a car parked across the street with a man in it.
He didn't seem to be doing anything - just sitting there.

"Of course," thought Sara to herself.  The thugs didn't know where Melanie
was hiding, but somehow they had found that she and Sara were best friends,
and they were now staking out Sara's place in the hope that she might lead
them to their target.  She was about to call Melanie when she realized that
the thugs might have bugged her phone and her apartment.  She decided on a
plan.  It was risky, but if it succeeded they could finish off the whole
gang.

Slipping her cell phone into her pocket, Sara stepped outside to the alley
behind the row of apartments.  She called Melanie and explained what the
situation was.  She then explained her plan.  Melanie agreed to come right
over.

Fifteen minutes later, Melanie phoned to say that she had arrived.  She
parked out of sight of the spy and snuck around to the alley.  Sara handed
her a small but important object.  Melanie then headed back around to a
position close to the thug's car, careful to keep out of his sight.  Sara 
nodded in satisfaction.  Now, to see if the next phase of her plan would 
work.  Would the spy take the bait?

She walked onto the lawn in front of the building, yawning, tossing her
hair, stretching her arms, and pacing, acting as if she needed some fresh
air.  She reached into her pocket, pulled out some papers, and examined
them.  She then put the papers back into her pocket, but pretended to drop
some of them on the grass and not notice. She quickly hurried back inside.

Sara peeked out from the front window.  Just as she'd hoped, the man
climbed out of his car and hurried across the street to the grass where
she'd dropped the "important" papers.  Unnoticed by him, Melanie crept out
from her hiding place, planted the homing device that Sara had given her
on the spy's car, then quickly retreated.  A few moments later, the thug
hurried back across the street and got into his car, carrying the papers
(which were simply advertisement flyers for local businesses).  

Melanie then entered Sara's apartment from the back so that the spy could
not see her. "Good job, Mel," said Sara.

"Nice plan, Sara," replied Melanie with a grin. "He fell right for the 
bait."

"Now all we have to do is wait until he drives off, and we'll be the ones
tracking the tracker," said the detective. "Of course, he'll be very
paranoid about making sure that nobody follows him, but with the tracking
device, we can follow him without being seen.  He'll lead us right to the
gang's headquarters."

"I'll stay up and watch," said Melanie. "You need to get some sleep after
your long day." Sara gratefully accepted and was soon fast asleep in a
comfortable chair.

A couple of hours later, Sara felt herself being shaken awake. "He's 
leaving!" said Melanie.  They gave him a fair head start, then followed
him in Sara's car with the homing device.

About twenty minutes later, the device indicated that the spy had 
stopped.  Sara drove along cautiously and pulled up to an abandoned
warehouse on the edge of town.  Both women recognized the spy's car, which
was parked in front of the building.  Two other cars were also parked near
it. "Looks like this is the hornet's nest," said Melanie. "What do we do
now?"

Sara sighed.  She had been thinking about this for a long time. "We can't
just leave them alone, or they'll keep trying to kill you," she said. "And
if we call in the police, I mean the other police, to arrest them, you'll

be arrested too.  There's only one way left.  I'm afraid you'll have to
bring in a bit of your old life.  I'm sorry."

"Don't be," said Melanie. "This is different.  This isn't killing for
money, it's self-defense.  But you're the one I'm worried about.  I can't
ask you to commit murder.  Your job is to uphold and defend the law.  I'll
go in alone."

"No," said Sara. "Believe me, I've had a hard time justifying this in my
mind.  But it is justified.  I don't look at it as murder.  I look at it as
standing by my friend. Sometimes, you have to put values ahead of the law.
We'll go in together."

Melanie leaned over and gave her friend a tight hug. "To friendship and
victory," she said. "If we die, we'll die like men.  I mean like women."
As they got out of the car, both clutching their guns, she added, "Let's
hunt some orc." Sara smiled at this reference to one of her favorite
movies, Lord of the Rings.

Sara took the front door, while Melanie took the back.  A guard was seated
on a box near the front entrance, clutching a semi-automatic rifle.  Sara
snuck around behind him. "Hey, baby," she whispered softly.  He whirled
around and was greeted by her fist smashing into his jaw.  Before he could
shout out any kind of warning to his comrades, she began choking him with
both of her hands, cutting off his air completely.  He began turning blue
and purple.  The muscles on Sara's big forearms stood out sharply as she
squeezed harder and harder.  She grunted and panted with excitement as the
man slowly died.

Meanwhile, Melanie had snuck around to the back.  Another guard was on duty
there, sitting on a stool and holding a shotgun.  She noticed a metal bar
hanging several feet in the air and going right behind the thug.  With a
wicked grin, she leaped up and grabbed onto the bar with her hands.  She
then swung herself forward and wrapped her deadly thighs around the guard's
neck.  He had no chance to defend himself as she squeezed incredibly hard,
then brutally snapped his neck with a powerful twist of her hips. Melanie's
legs had killed many an unsuspecting victim back in her assassin days.

Both women then entered the building, meeting in a hall. "The rest of them
are in there," said Sara, pointing to a room off to the side whose door was
slightly ajar.  Guns at the ready, the two friends kicked open the door.
The four men inside stared in shock.  Two of them reached for weapons, but
Sara and Melanie each took one of them out with clean shots from their guns.

The two remaining thugs stared at the women in fear.  One of them was the
man who had been spying on them earlier that evening.  The other was
recognizable from Smoky's description as Napoleon, the new leader of the
gang.  He was a tall, husky, ugly man.

"How the fuck did you find us here?" whined the spy, whom Sara decided to
call Weasel, since he reminded her of one. "I made sure I wasn't followed!"

"Should have checked your car for homing devices, Weasel," smirked Sara as
she held up the tracker.  Weasel looked like he wanted to cry.

Napoleon snarled angrily and pointed at Sara. "You're a cop," he said. "You
have to arrest her," he continued, pointing at Melanie.

Sara cheerleader-kicked him in the face, sending the gang leader flying
backward into a pile of boxes. "I'll tell you what I have to do and what I
don't have to do," she said. "What I have to do is stand by my friend. What
I don't have to do is take orders from a slimeball like you." She nodded at
the blonde and both women put their guns away. "Come on, fight us, you
pussies," sneered Melanie. "At least give us a fight before we kill your
sorry asses."

With an enraged roar, Napoleon got up and charged Melanie. As he approached
her, she used a judo throw to launch him over her shoulder and send him
flying into another pile of boxes.  Jumping back to his feet, he snarled
again and began swinging wild punches at his opponent.  She dodged them all
easily and socked him right in the nose.  She followed that up with a 
vicious knee to the groin and a powerful roundhouse kick to the side of his
head.  The force of her sexy kick knocked Napoleon into a wall.

Meanwhile, Weasel and Sara were circling each other, fists raised.  Weasel
was a somewhat slender man of average height.  He was taller than Sara and
probably outweighed her, but thanks to her conditioning her arms were 
bigger than his.  Weasel swung a punch, which she easily blocked with her
arm.  He swung two more.  She ducked under the first one and grabbed his
arm as he launched the second.  Twisting it viciously, she smirked at him
as he howled in pain. "Now, here's how to punch," she taunted him.  Still
holding and twisting his arm with her left hand, she fired a powerful
barrage of punches into his face with her right.  Her strong punches
quickly bloodied his nose, blackened both his eyes, and bruised his cheeks.
Finally letting go of his arm, she kneed him in the stomach, then
headbutted him so hard that he was sent flying back into the wall.

Melanie did an amazing-looking front tuck somersault to bring her right in
front of her opponent.  Napoleon tried to charge her, but she knocked him
back with a kick to the chest.  His head hit the wall again with a
resounding BOING, like on a cheesy martial-arts oriented TV show.  She
then began pummeling his large but soft gut with powerful punches.  After
working him over like this for a while, she stepped back slightly and
balanced easily on one leg.  With her other leg, she fired a flurry of
brutal kicks into all the soft and vulnerable parts of his body.  Napoleon
groaned and howled as each sexy kick smashed into him.  He was completely
helpless.  Finally, Melanie pinned him to the wall, still balanced on one
foot, her other foot pressing hard against his throat. "Thought you could
just kill me?" she snarled. "Thought you could just ruin my life? I don't
think so, asshole." She pressed her foot into his throat harder and harder.
Napoleon began making choking sounds. She toyed with him for a while, then
finally released him.  The gang boss's hands immediately went up to his
aching and bruised throat.  The blonde Amazon wasn't finished with him yet,
however.  She performed a powerful backflip kick on him.  Her feet smashed
into his face as she flipped, and he was knocked to the floor.

Weasel, recovering from his painful meeting with the wall, charged Sara
angrily.  She sidestepped his charge and smashed her elbow into the side of
his head as he attacked.  While he was still dizzy, she kicked him in the
gut, causing him to double over.  He was straightened out fast, however,
when she delivered a brutal cheerleader kick to his jaw, breaking it.  As
Weasel felt his broken jawbone, he moaned like an animal in distress.  
Before he could begin to recover, Sara attacked again.  She performed a 
standing back handspring, kicking him in the face as she flipped.  His
howls became even more like those of a wounded animal.  He knew he had to
try something.  He swung a desperate punch at his pretty brunette opponent.  
Easily seeing it coming in advance, she grabbed his arm with both hands, 
then gave it a sudden, sharp twist, harder than the twist she had used last 
time.  The sound of bone breaking was accompanied by Weasel's horrible 
scream.  Sara then kicked hard into his broken arm, shattering more bone 
and making him scream even louder.  After a while, he stopped screaming 
and began trying to beg for mercy.

"You have no respect for the law," said Sara coldly. "You and your friends
would have murdered a woman in her sleep.  Don't complain because the law
now has no respect for you." With that, she launched an incredibly fast and
powerful barrage of high kicks to his face.  Weasel's features, which were
already severely damaged, became almost unrecognizable under the repeated
impacts of Sara's boots.  She paused for a brief moment and then put all 
her strength into a lethal spin kick.  As the kick impacted her opponent, 
there was a sharp CRACK as the attack broke his neck.  Weasel's corpse
slumped to the floor with a THUD.

Sara let out a feminine moan of satisfaction, then turned to see how her
friend was doing.  Melanie was doing just fine, it turned out.  

Napoleon finally managed to get to his feet after being hit with the impact
of Melanie's brutal gymnastic kick. "I'm going to kill you, you filthy
bitch!" he roared.

"Come and get me then," taunted Melanie.  Napoleon let out a bellow and 
fired a kick at the sexy blonde.  Displaying her fast hands, she grabbed
his ankle before the kick could hit. "Looks like you're not quite as good
at balancing on one leg as I am," she smirked.  She then gave his ankle a
sudden, sharp, and brutal twist, breaking it.  Her opponent fell to the
floor with a howl of pain.

"Finishing time," she thought to herself.  She kicked him hard between his
legs, sending his family jewels back up somewhere into his body.  She then
fired some vicious kicks into his side as he lay on the floor, breaking
several of his ribs with CRACKs and CRUNCHes.  Moving on up, she launched
eight or nine soccer kicks into his head.  When she was finished, Napoleon
was completely unconscious and blood was oozing from his head.  He could 
clearly not survive for much longer.

"Time for the closer," said Melanie aloud in a sexy and deadly voice. With 
that, she raised her right leg high above her head in a full vertical split.
Then, with a shrill warrior scream, she smashed her foot down onto her
opponent's head.  The force of her lethal kick shattered his skull.  Blood,
bone, and brain matter stained the floor.

The two women warriors turned to each other, both a little shocked at the
amount of violence they had just committed.  Then they hugged each other
tightly. "It's over now," said Sara.

Even as she said those words, however, she was wondering if she would ever
be the same again.  Melanie, for her part, was wondering if she would ever
be fully rid of her dark past.

The best friends walked out hand in hand to Sara's car, leaving six corpses
and a bloody crime scene for the police to find.

THE END

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