Symco stared through her scope, eyeing the perimeter of the water front warehouse. Her adrenaline was pumping. This was the first time she had actually been in the field. Although she had “seen” lots of action through the psychic link it felt totally different in person. The cold night air crept up her spine as feelings of excitement and worry simultaneously crowded her subconscious. She was perched on a sturdy tree branch about 100 yards away and a good 50 feet up. Hodge scrambled on the branches below her to get a similar footing.

“Why...is your body...so weak!” He gasped as he finally pulled himself up to her level. She ignored him.

“I've spotted four sentries guarding the outside of the compound and I can sense more inside.” She said. “I can't get a lock on how many...”

“Six more inside.” Said Hodge, “Two on the upper catwalk and four on the ground level.”

“How can you tell?” She asked.

“I can see through their eyes.”

“God I miss that.” She said. Hodge anchored a rope around a branch above them and took out a grappling hook cannon. On Symco's body's small frame it looked enormous, but would have looked like a toy if Symco were to hold it now. He fired and managed to get a secured footing along one of the chimney stacks on the roof.

“When I get close,” he said, “blast the window open with a steak.”

“Right.” said Symco. Hodge mounted a pulley onto the rope, turning it into a zip line and leaped forward, sending himself hurtling towards the warehouse. The wind rushed past his ears making a whistling noise. He tucked his feet up bringing his knees close to his chest, his concentration was laser focused. Just as he was about to hit the window a steak flew past his ears shattering the glass. Hodge let go of the zip line, using his forward momentum to propel himself through the window. He grabbed his two glock 17 pistols out of his rib holsters and held them out to the sides as he raised his feet now over his head turning his leap into a flip. He squeezed off two bullets, one from each gun, taking out the sentries on the upper catwalk. He allowed his flip to turn into a fall and then a dive as he hit the water below him that moored into the warehouse. Guards started firing into the water but they couldn't see any sign of him. Suddenly two bullets flew out from the waves lapping the dock, striking two of the guards square between the eyes. Hodge was getting used to this psychic thing. He grabbed hold of the edge of the dock and launched himself upwards, not enough to get out of the water, but enough to grab a third guard by the shirt and pull him into the water. He quickly trained a gun on the last man standing.

“Don't move!” He said authoritatively, although he thought he lost some of his command saying it through Symco's sing song mezzo soprano vocal chords. The man started laughing, at first Hodge thought it might be because of his appearance, but as he pulled himself out of the water he realized the true reason behind the laughter. He looked up. The two sentries on the catwalk began to stand up, rubbing their heads and spitting out some blood. They cracked some joints as the trained their weapons on him. The two men he had shot on the dock level also stood up. Hodge quickly reached for his comm link.

“They're vamps!” He said, flicking on his UV head lamp, causing the laughing vampire to stumble backwards. Symco wasted no time, she quickly leaped forward, grabbing hold of the zipline with her bare hands. Her now massive form broke the branch it was attached to but still allowed her to swing in several yards closer to the warehouse. She had her gun trained on the sentries outside and began firing. Hodge, too, acted quickly by breaking a dock board into splinters and jamming it into the heart of the formerly laughing vampire, sending him into a state of torpor.

“I'll be back for your head later...” He said as he dove behind a forklift, dodging the fire he was drawing from the now fully healed and fully pissed vampires he took out on the way in. Symco was charging towards the warehouse, she had already taken out three of the four guards that were patrolling the perimeter. She grabbed a grenade off of her ammo belt, bit the pin and hurled it towards the warehouse. It detonated and punctured a giant Symco sized hole in the side of the wall (technically it was a Hodge sized hole, but this whole body swap thing can get confusing). She burst through the hole holding her steak rifle like a shot gun and shooting anyone who crossed her line of site.

“Remember to leave one alive!” Hodge shouted from behind the forklift. He jumped out from his hiding place, guns in hand, ready and aiming for action. He was able to ineffectively pick off a few guards as they were able to get back up moments later. “Jeez, I may as well be using the paint balls!” he moaned. He quickly skirted over to Symco and they stood back to back like they had practiced in training. Hodge dropped his guns and grabbed two of the steaks from Symco's ammo belt. “Duck and launch?” he asked.

“Duck and launch!” She shouted back. She quickly dropped as low as she could while Hodge climbed onto he back. As soon as his footing was secured Symco stood up as fast as she could, launching Hodge through the air towards two other vampires. As he flew in between them he extended both arms wedging each steak squarely into their hearts and they quickly shriveled and dropped into torpor. That just left one more vampire who was now running for the door. Symco charged towards him as Hodge dove to pick up the guns he dropped earlier. Even though he could kill him with bullets he could certainly slow him down. Just as the vampire was reaching the door Hodge was able to squeeze off a few shots which struck him in the shoulders and back. He opened the door and bolted outside.

“I'll go around!” Shouted Symco as Hodge ran past her, body checking the door so that it would stay open. Still running with guns outstretched in front of him Hodge continued to fire, hitting him sporadically until he ran out of ammunition. It looked as though he was going to get away until a single headlight belonging to a motorcycle flicked on in the distance at the end of the road. The driver kicked it into gear and pealed out, speeding towards the vampire who was now looking behind him to see if he was outrunning Hodge. Symco came around the corner of the warehouse just in time to see the driver of the motorcycle draw a katana and slice off the vampires head as he was beginning to look forward. The head hit the pavement and rolled as the body slumped and collapsed several meters away. Symco and Hodge both stopped in their tracks. Hodge was about 20 feet away from the driver who was now parked with the engine running. The driver removed her helmet and shook out her short red hair. She looked directly at Hodge.

“Hey, sis.” she said. “Miss me?”

NEXT TIME: Casey