Come up trumps: a card playing idiom; to complete something well or successfully, to have a better performance or outcome than is expected (trumps are playing cards that are chosen to be ranked higher than the other cards)

Prompt from hsolomons1: Sylvie gets kidnapped by an enemy of the Crowns from before Coulson was killed by Loki. The Crowns plus Sevasey work together to get her back.

In other words . . . boss fight time! Whew - my apologies to hsolomons1 for taking such an ungodly amount of time to finish part two of the prompt. I had so many other stories on my mind, and a hell of a lot has happened since part one was published. Better (way) late than never, though, right?

Happy holidays, all!

***

Few things scared Matt in all the years he lived. His father, before his death, had been one. Losing men on the job was another. The very thought of losing Kelly and Sylvie made him nauseous and light-headed. He had just watched Jay Halstead brutally overwhelm his opponents in the loft and manhandle them like Voight without batting an eye, so he could add the detective to the list. He wasn't even going to start on how delighted he was to have Will Halstead as a friend after watching the good doctor's telekinetic prowess and ruthlessness.

As he sat, one hand clenched tightly around Kelly's, and watched the man across from him sit one leg crossed over the other and expertly clean his gun without looking at his actions, Matt decided he was absolutely terrified of Sonny Carisi.

Perhaps part of that was due to the fact Matt didn't know much about the Manhattan SVU team, but he had seen Jay and Will in action. He knew exactly what the two men were capable of, and from the way Jay's hand clenched in a fist on the arm of his chair, there was still more to see. He knew absolutely nothing of what the fourth member of the Crowns could do, other than he had to be one hell of a sniper to make the shot that killed David Seldon and he had to have ridiculously fast reflexes to catch a knife thrown at his eye by a telekinetic. Peter Stone considered him his best friend, and the man was both a detective and a bar-licensed lawyer. Out of everyone in New York, Sonny likely would have been the last person he thought of as the King of Clubs. Guess that's the whole point, Matt determined.

"Tell me what happened," Sonny said, eyes level on the Halsteads.

"Foster still hasn't woken up, so we don't have her exact account," Will answered as he came out of the kitchen, two glasses of water in his hands. The beautiful blonde perched on the arm of Sonny's chair took them both, taking a sip from one and putting the other on the table in front of Sonny's supplies before going back to casually leaning against his side. Matt knew Amanda Rollins was a spitfire, he had seen firsthand her drive in the hunt for David Seldon. The picture the two made . . . yeah, Matt decided to never piss either of them off like HYDRA had just done. "But Sylvie and I both had a bad feeling at Med. They were on their way to another call when they were run off the bridge. Foster was drugged and left on the scene. Sylvie was abducted."

"Voight found a HYDRA coin at the scene," Jay added. "Then HYDRA went for Casey and Severide. That's when we found them."

Sonny nodded, looking Kelly up and down. "How are you feeling now?" he asked.

Kelly twisted experimentally, then gave a small wince. "Sore, but I've felt worse on the job before."

Sonny smirked. "I know the feeling." He set his tools down, then went about reassembling his gun. Once again, he never looked down, he was so comfortable in his actions. "What's their goal?" he asked, placing his gun on the table and turning fully to Jay and Will. "Pick us off one at a time? Or use her to lure us all?"

"We haven't figured it out," Jay admitted. "We think they may have gone for Casey and Severide to see if they knew who we are."

"Killing us was an excellent way to go about it," Kelly sighed.

Connor smirked. "You aren't truly all in with the Crowns until you're attacked by HYDRA."

"You were attacked by HYDRA before you were in with them," Hailey snorted.

Connor shrugged. "Tomato, tomato."

Kim gave a grimace. "He's not wrong, though."

"You, too?" Amanda raised an eyebrow.

"I owe Jay everything," Kim said simply.

Amanda nodded. "Same with Dominick."

"That was Getz, wasn't it?" Jay asked, tapping the tablet and displaying the three files.

Amanda flinched at the name, and Sonny's eyes narrowed to slits. "Few kills were more satisfying than that one. That was a deliberate abduction to get me to reveal myself."

"And obviously failed, since none of us had any clue who you were," Hailey quipped.

"The only other person in that motel room who knows has been sworn to secrecy," Sonny smirked. "And he's not gonna be a rat any time soon."

"Considering what you did to Getz . . . " Jay shook his head with an impressed whistle. "And I thought the Rob Miller kill was pretty."

Sonny scoffed. "Pretty," he muttered as if insulted. "It was poetic."

Will rolled his eyes. "Of course, that's your complaint."

Matt turned to look at Connor with wide eyes. "How the hell is this now our lives?"

"You started dating our sister," Sonny deadpanned, raising an eyebrow pointedly.

Kelly gulped. "Can we count you cleaning your gun as the shovel talk?"

Sonny smirked but didn't answer as he turned back to the holograms. "Getz has been handled, and he wouldn't have put a hit out on anyone," he said, swiping the file out of sight. "Markeevious Ryan is just a cocky bastard with a lot of money. Not HYDRA affiliated, I checked."

"He's still one that Stone is ridiculously proud of," Amanda snickered.

"As he should be," Sonny grinned. "Does Liv still have the picture of the mural?"

"I think it's her phone wallpaper, actually."

Sonny threw back his head and laughed. "That's our captain!"

"So that just leaves . . . " Hailey eyed the final man in disgust as Jay enlarged the hologram. "Sir Tobias Moore."

"Sleazebag," Amanda glared.

"The only reason we got him arrested in the first place is because the new member of the SVU team, Officer Tamin, went undercover," Sonny steepled his fingers, eyes like ice as he looked at the smirking man. "He's a slimy, sick son of a bitch, but he's wicked smart and very slippery. He's good at covering his tracks; it took a long time scouring footage to catch him. He's powerful, he's moneyed, and he's very influential."

"HYDRA influential?" Will asked.

"Always possible," Sonny said gravely. "I woulda dug further into him if Liv and Fin hadn't pulled Kat into the field."

"He's a mogul in his field," Kim shuddered. "I remember seeing the news that SVU arrested him and the crowd of women in front of the courtroom, holding their signs accusing him. For a man to have the influence he did . . . "

"I'll start crossing his actions with known HYDRA ones," Will decided, taking his tablet back and tapping away at it. "Even the smallest similarity will flag."

Connor's phone chirped, and he pulled it out of his pocket, nodding when he read the message. "April and Ethan agreed to watch Owen for the night," he said. "She's on her way over."

"Did she ever get her memory back?" Amanda asked curiously.

A wide smile formed on Will's face. "She did," he confirmed. "We picked up where we left off."

"Just no rings," Connor added with a smirk. "Yet."

Will scowled. "You suck."

***

Matt and Kelly both looked warily towards the door when they heard rapid footsteps approaching, then checked around the room. Kim and Hailey looked ready to reach for their guns, but Jay and Sonny simultaneously looked to Will. The ginger-haired mutant never looked up from his work, and Kelly could see the other two agents relax. If the telepath wasn't concerned, there was no immediate danger.

Kelly was proven correct when the lock to Will's door clicked open, and Natalie all but tripped into the apartment, her dark eyes whipping around the space before they landed on Kelly. "Are you OK?" she demanded, storming over and dropping her keys on the table, her eyes raking him up and down. "Will and Connor said you were hurt – "

"Backstabbed," Kelly gave her a strained smirk.

Jay coughed into his sleeve from where he sat scouring through a tablet, and Natalie scowled. "That is sliding only once, Lieutenant," she declared, poking him in the shoulder. "But if you're sure you'll be OK . . . "

"I will be, Nat," Kelly promised with a smile. "I've been in pretty good hands."

"Are we talking mine or Will's?" Connor asked with a frown.

"Just remember who saved your ass, Severide," Will said, not looking up from his work.

Natalie giggled. "You both are wonderful, and you both have big enough egos without me stoking them."

"That's true," Jay agreed, not looking up from his work, even when Hailey giggled. "You should've seen how offended Will was when he realized who we were extracting from deep cover all those years ago."

"I think that was his contact photo in my phone for years, at least," Sonny remarked.

Jay snickered. "I would be extremely disappointed if it wasn't, Clubs."

"Wait," Matt turned to Sonny with wide eyes. "He means . . . you?"

Sonny nodded, placing his files to the side and steepling his fingers. "I met the Halsteads when they were assigned to pull me out of a deep cover assignment in the Middle East. It's the reason I'm known for my undercover and stealth work."

"He's compared to a viper or a cobra in the field," Will nodded. "You never see him coming."

Sonny grinned viciously. "Just ask David Seldon how that worked out for him."

"Or Rob Miller," Amanda added.

"A little difficult, now that they're all six feet under," Kim pointed out.

Sonny shrugged. "Then don't endanger my family."

Jay suddenly tensed. "Well, looks like you didn't hammer that into Sir Toby's head."

Will and Sonny swiveled to stare at him. "Moore did this?" Sonny demanded.

"He has the connections," Jay said darkly, putting his tablet on the table and activating the holograms. "Look at the names."

Will's eyes narrowed. "He knew Senator Stern."

"Wasn't he arrested by the FBI shortly before you came to Chicago?" Kelly frowned, attempting to piece together the timeline.

"Which you said was when the Triskelion fell," Hailey said slowly. "That was when HYDRA came out, wasn't it?"

"And Stern was HYDRA," Will nodded. "But that's not what's catching my eye right now."

Sonny groaned, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose as Jay scrolled down the list. "Please tell me that's not who I think it is."

"Oh, that's exactly who you think it is," Jay nodded.

"Who does he think who is?" Matt frowned, not recognizing any other names.

Sonny sighed. "Our old director loved his tactical units. The four of us were versatile, he could plant us anywhere he needed. Deep cover, assassinations, recovery and rescue . . . honestly, I don't know what we didn't do. Black Widow and Hawkeye were a team of two. But the big name was the overall STRIKE team, led by Brock Rumlow. Basically, the entire team was comprised of HYDRA plants. Rumlow was killed in Lagos, but his second-in-command has been running the rest of STRIKE as a mercenary gang. They've been under the radar for years . . . but not so much now. Apparently."

"And he knows very well who we are," Will added. "That's the headline."

"Agent Jack Rollins," Jay rattled off, showing the man's profile. "Think of everything Sonny can do, he's just a bit worse at it."

Amanda did a double take. "Seriously?"

Sonny sighed. "That would probably explain a lot of this, actually."

"Who didn't we compete with in SHIELD?" Will wondered.

Jay snorted. "Widow and Hawkeye."

"We had the same handler. Like he would let that happen."

Jay rolled his eyes. "Jack Rollins is an expert in undercover, a great marksman, excellent combatant. Sonny can do all of that and is better at it. People in SHIELD would have to go to exhausting lengths to even try to match Hawkeye's shooting abilities. It was effortless for Sonny."

"That's a bit of an exaggeration," Sonny winced.

"Yeah?" Jay raised an eyebrow. "Says the one who made not one, but two impossible shots on David Seldon."

Sonny waved the praise away. "One shot was to make sure he didn't shoot you."

Jay rolled his eyes. "My point still stands."

"Alright, look, if this Rollins was behind Sylvie's abduction, he'll know we'll find his trail eventually," Will said, pulling a tablet closer to him. "So we need to get on this now, because Rollins knows Sylvie's our weak point. When he finds out we're on him, she'll be gone like that."

He snapped his fingers, and the two firefighters flinched. "Don't let that happen," Kelly begged. "Do whatever you need to do, I don't care what lengths it means you go to. Just get Sylvie back, please."

"We will," Sonny promised, his eyes narrowing. "I promise, Severide, we'll get her back. I'm not leaving Chicago until she's safe and sound."

***

Sylvie had been sedated enough in her time at SHIELD to recognize the feeling of almost waking before going back into deep slumber. She also knew multiple ways she could be woken from light or heavy sedation.

Getting a bucket of ice water dumped all over her was one of the best ways to wake her. It was not one of her favorites, though.

She sputtered when she came out of the sedation, feeling her lungs burn as she tried to breathe through the water. She spat out a mouthful and coughed, spitting hair out of her mouth. "Oh, look," a familiar cruel voice chuckled. "Not so much the put together queen now, are you?"

Sylvie knew that voice as well as she knew those on her team. "Rollins," she croaked, blinking water out of her eyes to look up at the known HYDRA agent. "Never took you for a fan of the Bears or the Cubs."

"Oh, I'm not," he smirked, crouching down to where she was tucked in the corner of the dirty room of what had to be a warehouse. "I am a fan of trick-taking card games, though."

"Are you," Sylvie deadpanned, narrowing her eyes. "You should have tried taking a higher card."

"Why would I do that when the one card I'm being paid to take would only crawl out of his hiding place for you?" Rollins gave her a devilish look, reaching out and taking her chin between his fingers. "But considering what I could get if it means every last one of you Crowns ends up six feet under . . . " His lecherous grin made Sylvie's skin crawl. "That's too good of an opportunity to pass up."

"My brothers aren't easy to kill," she warned.

"I'm hoping they aren't," Rollins patted her cheek. "It's no fun otherwise."

"Sir!" an agent clad in black jogged into view, his face worried. "Cameras confirmed. Clubs is already in the city."

Rollins froze, and he whipped around quickly. "What?" he demanded.

The agent gulped and nodded. "One of the Quinjets from New York has been spotted," he explained. "We have visual confirmation as well. It's Clubs, sir. We know it."

"How did he get here so fast?" Rollins growled, rising to his feet.

Sylvie, however, just burst out laughing. "You crashed my ambulance and abducted me, and you thought it would take my brother longer to get here? You're stupider than I thought!"

The slap across her face was no surprise, but she simply spat the blood from her bitten cheek onto the floor, and she smiled as she listened to Rollins yell and attempt to prepare for the oncoming slaughter.

And she knew, without a doubt, that it would be a slaughter.

***

"I think I got them!"

Will's excited shout made everyone in the apartment look up from their equipment. "You do?" Matt asked urgently, seeing Kim and Connor crowd around the doctor.

"I think so," Will nodded, tapping on his tablet and tossing a holographic map into the air. In between when he was running whatever programs he made, he had changed into what appeared to be a black tunic-like uniform, a matching set of gloves next to his tablet. "I've been combing through any accounts linked to Toby Moore and to Agent Rollins, and just looking at HYDRA activities in the city, the only thing everyone has in common is this warehouse located close to Navy Pier. Right now, that's all I've got looking in the city."

"Then that's what we'll roll with." Kelly looked up to see Jay emerge from the back hall clad in black tactical gear similar to what Intelligence wore, a long case in his hand. "But once we're in that area, we'll need you to get a sense of what we're dealing with. If you find Rollins or Sylvie, we're going in, no questions asked. We get one shot at this, and if I know Rollins, he's not going to wait around for us to find him again." He set the case on the table and flipped it open, revealing a wicked-looking silver sword with ruby red accents in the metal. "We get in there, we get Sylvie, and if there's anyone trying to stop us . . . " He hefted the sword in his hand, then made a sharp twirl. Amanda yelped and backed away as another blade emerged from the other end, and suddenly Jay was holding a double-bladed sword, the man's eyes dark as he looked the blade up and down. "Well, I'm not feeling merciful. I don't know about anyone else."

"Definitely not," Will shook his head, turning off the tablet.

"I didn't come here and expect not to fight." That was from Sonny, who, up to this point, Matt had been attempting to ignore. There was something very intimidating about the agent in blacks and assembling a sniper's rifle like it was second nature. "So all you have to do is point and I'll shoot. Capiche?"

Jay snickered, twirling his sword experimentally before twisting again, taking it back down to one blade. "Great, there won't be any left for us to kill, Will."

"Speak for yourself," Will snorted. "I could bring that entire warehouse down on them, and you know it."

"I can't believe this is normal for me," Hailey murmured to Amanda as she fitted a bulletproof vest around herself.

"You start to believe it after your boyfriend single-handedly saves you from one of the damn rats," Amanda snorted, checking her gun.

"Voight says he'll meet us there," Kim reported, checking her phone.

"Great," Jay nodded, turning to Matt, Kelly, and Connor. "And I assume – ?"

"We're not staying behind," Kelly's eyes flared angrily. "Don't you dare finish that sentence."

Jay merely nodded, turning to Sonny. "Rollins is all yours."

"Excellent," Sonny smirked, looking down the barrel of the rifle before checking the scope. "That's what he gets for screwing with our sister."

***

Hank's SUV was located a few blocks from the warehouse, easily visible to Jay's highly trained eyes as he led the trio of vehicles to the pier. As soon as he left the driver's seat, Hank left his, clad in the same black, unmarked tactical gear as Hailey. "Thanks for this, Sarge," Jay said appreciatively.

"I wouldn't miss this," Hank assured him, following the group as they approached the warehouse.

"Well?" Kelly asked, looking at Will impatiently.

Will had his head tilted, eyes glassy as he looked at the warehouse next to the pier. After a moment, his eyes sharpened. "She's in there," he confirmed, making Matt narrow his eyes. "And I found Rollins's mind, too."

"Do you know how many we're facing?" Jay asked as he opened the back of his unmarked SUV.

Will sighed. "Well over two dozen. I can't give an exact number."

"That's enough for me," Sonny smirked, slinging his rifle onto his back. He was by far the most armed out of any of them, and Matt was including the bandolier of pitch-black throwing knives slung around Will. Sonny, after all, was the one with two handguns, a sniper rifle, and God only knew how many cartridges of ammo hidden on his body. "We get Sylvie, we kill whoever's in our way, and we get out."

"And free drinks to whoever kills Rollins," Jay added, twisting his sword to extend the other blade.

Hank raised an eyebrow, noting the gear that didn't match three occupations. "Civilians are coming in?"

"You really think Sylvie didn't let us know who she is without making sure we could handle ourselves if necessary?" Matt countered, accepting the gun handed to him by Will. "We aren't perfect, but we know how to fight."

"But while Will may be able to kill, we aren't there," Natalie shook her head, taking another gun. "That's why we've got these."

"They're called ICERs," Will nodded, passing the final of the three to Connor. "You hit them with a bullet, you put 'em to sleep. Simple as that."

"We go in three teams once we're inside," Jay decided as Sonny flipped open a box containing earpieces. "Dominick up top, Will in the middle, me on the bottom. Will can track down Sylvie, so I imagine Casey – ?"

"I'm going with him," Matt said firmly.

Will nodded. "Connor, do you mind going with Sonny?"

"No problem," Connor answered.

"I'm staying with Dominick," Amanda folded her arms, glaring around the circle.

Will held up his hands placatingly. "I figured."

Jay turned to Hailey and Hank, and his girlfriend scoffed. "If you think I'm following anyone but you, Jay, think again."

"We've got your back on this," Hank agreed.

"And that leaves us running comms and keeping track of everyone," Kim told Kelly with a wry grin. "The one downside of being pregnant. I can't go into an op like this."

"That's the downside of being stabbed in the back, I suppose," Kelly quipped in reply, looking at Matt. "So shoot some of these bastards for me, got it?"

"Copy that," Matt smirked, taking one of the earpieces.

Jay grinned. "Let's get our girl."

***

Rollins had departed to coordinate the HYDRA men in the base. Orders were echoing and bouncing off the walls, even to where Sylvie sat against the wall of her corner, her cerulean eyes alert and constantly moving. Rollins had decided he wanted her awake . . . to "witness the carnage," had been the way he put it.

That was the first mistake.

Her "cell" was actually more like an office off of a large area of the warehouse, with one guard on the outside and one on the inside. As orders came shorter and sharper, the men grew more wary, but that wariness was directed away from her and towards the other entrances to the overall room. Rollins's men seemed to have the opinion that since it had been relatively easy to capture her, she was the weakest link of the group and her brothers were the dangerous ones.

That was the second mistake.

They were smart enough to keep her restrained. While Sylvie had been known to be one of the two medics on the team – and the main medic in the middle of combat, to be precise – she still had a deadly array of talents up her sleeve. She knew exactly where to simply nick a person and make them bleed, and where Jay had strength on his side, Sylvie had dexterity. In the right circumstances, that gave her a significant advantage on missions. The first thing Rollins had done before he left was to chain her to the wall, her hands cuffed . . . in front of her, and together.

That was the final mistake.

All it took was a sharp movement to dislocate one of her thumbs and pull that hand free, and she quickly looked up to make sure her current guard hadn't noticed. He hadn't; he was too busy looking out the door with narrowed eyes, finger on the trigger of his assault rifle. Sylvie craned her neck to look at the table nearby, and sure enough, the key to the other cuff was in plain sight. She inched across the floor to the table, slow enough that the chains only quietly rattled, barely audible. In a quick motion, she swiped the key off the table and jammed it into the other cuff's lock, completely freeing herself.

When the guard finally turned around to check on the prisoner, Sylvie launched at him, wrapping both her arms and her legs around him, maneuvering her grip into a chokehold. The guard clawed at her arms, trying to free himself, but Sylvie merely gritted her teeth and held on tight. When the guard went limp, she lightly dropped back onto her feet and with a sharp twist, she broke his neck. The crack echoed into the room, and she winced at the noise before dropping the corpse. It fell at her feet like a sack of potatoes, and this time, she had been heard.

The guard from outside ran into the room and saw her standing above his deceased comrade, and when he reached for the radio on his shoulder, Sylvie found one of the pens on the table and sprinted. Just before he clicked the radio on, she jammed the pen into the side of his neck, not reacting when the man let out a loud cry. She yanked the assault rifle from his grasp and swung with all her might at his head. She watched his eyes roll into the back of his head, and he fell to the ground beside his comrade, out cold.

Sylvie let the gun drop, and she panted heavily, sinking into a crouch, her heart pumping with adrenaline. She kept her position, listening intently for anyone that might have come to investigate the noise. She heard nothing and felt nothing except from HYDRA operatives a few rooms away, and with a smile on her face, she pulled the combat knife from the second guard's vest. With a deft flick of her wrist, both men had their throats slit ear to ear, and she carefully tucked the knife into one of her belt loops before taking the first guard's sidearm.

She had some work to do.

***

Matt thanked every god in existence that his time fighting fires had honed his instincts to duck and weave as he took shelter behind one of the armored vehicles in the warehouse, bullets whizzing past him and embedding in the wall behind him. Natalie had sprinted to the opposite side of the room, her face pale yet her expression determined as she took aim and fired, the blue bolts cutting through the air with precision. It was both a pro and a con that they had an abundance of targets, for Matt had his pick of who to shoot and stun, but just as often, he was taking cover behind the vehicle.

One of the armored vehicles next to him vibrated and creaked, then it abruptly lifted from the ground and tumbled end over end through the air until it bowled through seven of the ten operatives firing on them, pinning the seven to the wall. The other three simultaneously turned their focus to Will as the mutant raced across the warehouse, launching two knives simultaneously. One operative went down with a knife in his throat and another in his heart, and when Will reached the final two, the operatives rushed Will with desperate moves. Will avoided each hit with ease, making a sharp gesture with one hand. One operative jerked in ways that were far from natural, and Will jabbed another knife through the final operative's neck. Both fell to the ground at the same time.

A pair of operatives ran in through the doors on the other side, but both fell to bullets at the same time. Jay, Hank, and Hailey ran to join them, the latter two with their guns raised vigilantly. "Lower level is clear," Jay reported, looking down at the operatives on the ground and wiping off one of his blades on him. It didn't help much, as the steel was stained with blood. "Heard anything from upstairs?"

"Not yet," Will shook his head and looked around. "Sylvie's on this level. I can feel her."

"Rhodes? Rollins? Clubs?" Kelly asked in their comms. "Did you catch that?"

"We heard it," Amanda confirmed. "We're on our way."

"Does this feel easy to anyone else?" Hailey asked uneasily as they made their way through the warehouse, she and Hank keeping their heads on swivels as they watched their surroundings.

"We're probably walking into a trap," Jay shrugged nonchalantly. "Rollins is a tactician, so he'll try and ambush us all at the same time."

"That's encouraging," Matt muttered, his grip on his ICER's trigger tightening as he stepped closer to Hailey.

Footsteps ran from another direction, and Jay immediately brought his sword up in a defensive position. Will raised his hand and deflected the bullets shot at them, and Hank and Hailey immediately began to fire in retaliation. Matt and Natalie stuck close to the two Intelligence members in a search for cover, but Jay and Will ran straight into the fray. Jay was a blur of motion as he moved through the operatives, steel singing in the air as his sword cut through the air and flesh and bone. Will hovered into the air and held out his hand, and the weapons of fallen operatives floated and aimed at the operatives that kept pouring through the doors. Had Matt been watching a movie, he would have found it comical how HYDRA men screeched to a stop at the sight of the wall of guns aimed at them, but he had no time to dwell on the thought as Will directed each gun to fire, downing the operatives in the blink of an eye.

The pitifully few operatives remaining turned tail and ran back the way they came, Jay right on their heels. "Eyes peeled!" Will shouted over his shoulder as he sprinted after his brother.

"Rollins and Rhodes are right around the corner!" Kim told them.

Jay burst into the next room and abruptly skidded to a stop, his eyes wide. "Sylvie!"

Matt's heart leapt into his throat when he saw Sylvie, disheveled and drenched, sparring with three operatives at the same time, her dexterity obvious to all as she ducked, dove, and wove effortlessly out of the way of weapons and limbs. The sight seemed to invigorate the Halsteads, who charged into action without hesitation. "Watch your aim!" Hank warned as he reloaded his ammo.

Matt barely saw Amanda and Connor run from the opposite direction, but a few of the operatives certainly did as they turned with the hope of taking out the pair. Amanda's face was set in concentration as she returned fire, shielding Connor behind her as the surgeon's ICER fired stunning shots. Sonny was nowhere to be found, but as Matt crouched behind cover and watched Jay nearly decapitate one of the operatives who had lunged to plunge a knife in Sylvie's back, he remembered the rifle that had been slung onto his back.

As if on cue, a gunshot rang out in the warehouse, and Sylvie shrieked and recoiled, the sidearm in her hand falling to the ground as she dropped it in favor of clutching her side. "Brett!" Hailey shouted worriedly.

Jay and Will swung around, Will placing himself between Sylvie and the shooter: a cruel-looking man in tactical gear with his hair slicked back, his face set in a sneer as the men behind him aimed at the three agents, paying no attention to their companions. "Rollins," Jay spat angrily.

"Halstead," the man smirked. "Both of you. Excellent."

"You went into a lot of trouble to get us here," Will scowled, crouching down to check where Sylvie had been shot.

"I watched your team every chance I could get in preparation for when we finally revealed ourselves," Rollins told them, his finger on his rifle's trigger as his eyes darted between the three agents. "When you finally started arrogantly targeting us here, I knew it was time to strike."

"You're a fucking bastard, Rollins," Jay growled.

"It takes one to know one," Rollins riposted.

Hailey's grip on her gun tightened, but Sylvie suddenly bursting into laughter made everyone stop. "He can't be that stupid!" she choked out, somehow still giggling despite cringing and doubling over in pain.

Rollins snarled. "I shot you once. I can shoot you again and shut you up."

"Yeah," Sylvie shook her head. "You never won that bout in SHIELD. How can you win that here when you can't even count?"

Matt saw Rollins frown, but when the firefighter glanced over at Amanda and Connor, he made the connection. He started scanning the warehouse, but he found no sign of the one agent missing. He heard the crack of a sniper's shot loud and clear, though, and Rollins's head snapped back, a perfect bullet hole in his forehead, blood and gore splattering the helmets of the operatives behind him.

Jay and Will were moving before Rollins even hit the ground, and Hank, Hailey, and Amanda rushed to join them. "Matt?" Kelly called desperately. "What happened?"

Matt cautiously checked to make sure no other operatives were in the area, then he ran as fast as he could to join Connor, who had taken cover behind Amanda to get to Sylvie. "Rollins is down," he answered. "The HYDRA Rollins." He winced at another sniper's shot, and one of the operatives who had been taking aim at Amanda fell like a marionette with its strings cut. "Sylvie was shot."

"Not the worst I've been injured in this line of work," Sylvie wheezed, leaning into Matt's arms as Connor went to work on peeling her clothes away from her wound. "It's just a graze."

"She's right," Connor nodded in agreement as Natalie joined them, her ICER tucked into her vest. "It's not as bad as I thought it would be."

A third shot rang out, and Matt shuddered when he felt the gust of wind as the bullet flew over his head. This one punctured through the neck of the operative about to shoot Hank, and the sergeant turned away from the spray of blood. "Damn," Natalie watched with wide eyes. "Carisi's accurate as hell!"

Sylvie chuckled weakly, leaning her head on Matt's chest. "You should see him in a shooting gallery."

"I'm tempted," Matt admitted, hearing the fight die down as he reached up and brushed Sylvie's bangs out of her face. "Thank God, you're OK."

"It takes more than that to take me down," Sylvie smiled up at him.

"You're a fighter, aren't you?" Will grinned as he joined them.

"You should see the idiots Rollins posted to guard me," Sylvie said cheekily.

Hank shook his head in amusement as he walked up to them, holstering his gun in its holster. "If I get to see what you can do, I'm very tempted."

"Burgess, Severide, we'll be out soon," Jay reported as he crouched to check on Sylvie. "Free drinks go to Clubs."

"What's his poison?" Kelly asked, his relief obvious. "He'll get the best I can afford."

A chuckle came from behind them, and Matt looked up to see Sonny cross the floor towards them, his sniper rifle slung over his shoulder. "How does scotch sound to you, Severide?"

"You got it."

Connor shuffled out of the way so Sonny could take his place, and Sylvie smiled happily at him. "You came."

"Of course, I came," Sonny chuckled, carefully hugging her and dropping a kiss to the top of her head. "What kind of brother would I be if I didn't?"

***

"Well, we don't need to worry about cleaning up the mess we made," Jay announced as he walked into the living room, tucking his phone back into his jacket. "Hill is sending a clean-up crew. We just need to lay low until they're done."

"Well, I'm not going anywhere," Sylvie gestured to her bandaged side.

"And Liv told us to take all the time we want," Amanda added, taking one of the tumblers offered by Kelly. "So we're here for a little while longer."

"Awesome," Jay grinned. "Family hang-out!"

"Wish it was better circumstances," Natalie sighed sadly.

"The only way I think it could be better is if we don't have a HYDRA threat hanging over our head," Sonny shook his head. "But one can hope."

Connor smirked. "Maybe if wedding bells are in the future?"

Hailey choked on her drink, and Jay, Will, and Sonny all simultaneously glared at Connor. "That's the one con of being with two people at once," Kelly chuckled. "I can't marry both of them."

"If that's the only con, I think we're doing just fine," Matt laughed.

"There is a bright side to this, though," Sonny said. At the firefighters' intrigued looks, Sonny smirked. "I think by this point, it's a rite of passage when one of you is targeted by HYDRA."

"Oh, my God," Natalie dropped her face into her hands.

"He isn't wrong," Amanda laughed.

Hank shook his head with a fond chuckle as he listened to the bickering. "I can see the family resemblance."

Sylvie just smiled and nestled back against her boyfriends, who tightened their hug around her as they listened to Jay and Will get into the verbal spat, Sonny content to watch with a smile, his arm around Amanda. "Really," Kelly glanced at Sonny. "Thank you for coming."

"Of course," Sonny smiled. "Family shows up for each other, right?"

Matt smiled down at Sylvie, who beamed up at him. "Damn right."

***

Man, I can tell I'm rusty with fight scenes. Still, I'm pretty happy with how this ended up. We got all four being badasses, and that's good enough for me.

It goes without saying that, while I didn't specify exactly when this takes place in the "Warriors" book, there are a few gems that spoil some events that will happen. I'm crossing my fingers that inspiration will bite and get me back into that book soon, because there's a lot planned that I want to write.

Anyway, those of you who have kept up with my "First Responders Files" series know my newest obsession is Law & Order, and my uncontested favorites are Sylvie and Nolan - so count on that sibling dynamic being included in prompts from here on out. If anyone has specific prompts that might involve that relationship (and a certain prosecutor and detective pairing that I am going to miss now that the detective is out), you have my attention!

I've collected a lot of prompts from readers and from my own brain, so we'll see what I come up with next!

graphic by marvelity