Picking Wendy up, Nick was just barely able to shield her with his body when the gunfire began. The sound of Uzi's and pistols rang out in the middle of Los Angeles, all the pedestrian who were around immediately fled screaming.
The bullets rained down onto the car and peppered Nick's back with lead, thankfully he'd gotten some mastery over the Bear body and was able to strengthen his skin, muscle and bones without having obvious signs of his transformation like his nails and mouth.
That being said, this transformation didn't make Nick totally immune to guns or else he wouldn't have been able to kill a polar bear in the first place! The bullets tore through his skin with ease and dug themselves deep into his meat!
Thankfully they didn't use anything other than small calibers pistols and sub machine guns so Nick had some protection against their gun, but Nick was more worried about the others.
Just from what Nick could see when he squinted his eyes open, the spot where he left the other three was empty! He didn't know if they managed to escape or they'd been kidnapped!
A feeling of overwhelming rage overcame Nick but the feeling of helplessness overshadowed it, he could only lay on Wendy and seeth in anger as bullets continued to rain down on him and create a mess of his body.
The moment felt like an eternity of pain but in all actuality was just a little over 10 seconds, it was only after that 10 seconds that the very faint sound of police sounds could be heard off in the far distance.
Shouts in some foreign language caused the gunfire to stop immediately as the squealing tires began to drive off.
With the last of his strength Nick turned around and saw that all of those who shot at him from their car windows all had asian features, as his conscious faded to black only one thought entered his mind.
This was a hit from Edward Kim, the bastard who loaded up flight 121 with snakes to kill a witness!
****
Inside a hospital located in Los Angeles, the emergency wing had Police officers stationed everywhere.
Sitting next to a bandaged and unconscious Nick, Holly's face was a mixture of emotions as she looked at his sleeping form.
Her eyes were covered up by sunglasses to help her sensitive eyes see because of the concussion, her arm was in a sling and her body had bandages everywhere. Despite these injuries, they didn't compare to the damage Nick had taken.
After getting into the major crash Nick had been shot 42 times, all the way from the top of his shoulders to his very ankles had bullet holes.
By some miracle none of them penetrated further enought to hit a vital organ but they hit other important areas, one bullet managed to cut Nicks femoral artery nearly causing him to bleed out and several bullets severed his right hamstring and Achilles.
The good news was that Nick's was gonna survive, the bad news was that the chances of him making a full recovery didn't look feasible. The doctors were surprised at how thick Nick's tendons were and surmised he'd be able to walk again after they did their surgery to repair them, but he'd have to walk with a limp from then on.
Grasping Nick hand, tears began falling beneath Holly's sunglasses.
"Thank you...Thank you Nick." Streams of thick tears began falling from her face.
After Nick dragged her and Rick over to Kevin, Holly watched the events unfold. She saw the Asian gang members surround her destroyed car and unleash a hailstorm of bullets. With a spike of adrenaline, both Holly and Rick managed to roll to cover and drag their son with them as the gang shot the car thinking they were all still in it.
She could only watch as her nephew get eviscerated as he used his own body as a shield for her daughter, blocking all but one bullet that just barely grazed Wendy's leg.
The twins had been put in a different hospital room together, their injuries being what you'd expect from a car crash. Fractures bones, cuts, concussions and Wendy's graze wound was all they face due to Nick saving them.
Rick was in a different room, his ribs had been fractured from the car accident and a piece stabbed into his liver but he would survive and wouldn't need a transplant. This hospital they were staying at had some of the best doctors in the surrounding states, their skill and speed helped mitigate much of the family's injuries.
Holly sat alone and sobbing for minutes in Nick's hospital room, she regretted all the discouraging things she said and how cold she was towards him at work so that others wouldn't accuse them of nepotism. She loved Nick like her own son but it only dawned on her that she rarely ever said it, she knew Nick would survive this but the thought of him dying after how she'd been treating him broke her heart.
Holly sat their for 15 minutes before she stood up and wiped the tears from her eyes, the sadness was gone and replace with only anger, she pulled out her cellphone, dialed a number and place it to her ear.
"Fury... I need a favor!"
*****
(Four weeks later, Washington state)
Limping out of his car, Nick pulled out his cane and walked over to man sitting on a park bench overlooking a pond. In the mans hand was bag of bread that he was tearing up and throwing at the ducks, in-between his legs was also a cane.
"So this is how you spend your retirement, here I was thinking you'd be neck deep in strippers and alcohol. I'm actually proud of you Willie." Nick said as he sat down next to his former partner and only friend in this world.
Nick originally thought Willie would try to rise up through the NIA after that venomous snake bit his leg and gave him a limp, but instead the man retired and began living a quite life.
"A man's gotta learn to tame the beasts inside himself Nick, Julie helps keep my 'beast' in check" Chuckling at the innuendo, Nick face became emotionless as he stared out into the pond, his eyes glazing over.
After awakening In the hospital room, the very first thing Nick did was unplug himself from the hospital monitors and jump out the window to escape!
The guilt was overwhelming for him, he felt like he was responsible for the shooting that nearly killed his entire family, he couldn't allow himself be in the same state let alone hospital.
Even when his phone rang from calls and he was text about his location, he didn't answer and absolutely refused to go, fearing that he'll cause another tragedy to befall his family.
When he left the hospital room there was only one goal in Nick's heart, to chase down and killed Edward Kim. It was only when he slipped into his car's backup shirt and used his work phone to go online did he realized he was too late.
It was front page news that Edward Kim had been killed in a swat raid and his entire gang had been rounded up, America had taken a big victory removing such a powerful gang and yet Nick felt empty.
The realization that he'll never be able to make Edward pay tore a hole in Nick's heart alongside the guilt, since then he's felt hollow.
"I heard your eligible for retirement as well, you can quit now and get disability for the rest of your life. Any officer or agent who takes 42 bullets because a vindictive Crime boss who wants them dead deserves to not have to work another day in their life."
Willie really did want to rise throughout the NIA, it was only after getting to know the flight attendant Julie did he switch up his goals.
Julie had retired from flight attending after the incident and wanted to travel the world after nearly dying, with both of them retired it allowed the two to travel without a worry in the world.
During the past couple months together, Willie had suddenly gone from a rash crude bastard to a caring family man with a child on the way. The 180 transformation left Nick startled, while he never knew Willie in his past world or actually spent time with him, he did have this world's Nick's memories and felt like he knew him well.
"Nah I'm not gonna quit, it's not like my hamstring is totally gone. I can still run and jump around, it just hurts a little when I do it now." Nick was half lying and half telling the truth.
Just walking around on his right leg was incredibly painful, anything more than a light jog brought searing pain to Nick's leg but his Bear Body eliminated this problem. Bear body didn't multiple his body abilities but instead increased it to the proportion of a polar bear, meaning the injury tendon would grow to the proportion of a bear and be just as strong as his non injured tendon when activated.
Of course there was a time limit on such a thing, during his time in alaska Nick tested the limits of his abilities and realized he could only keep Bear body active for a little under an hours.
He was currently on the hunt for an evil supernatural being that could regenerate, hoping to fix up this tendons but until then he'll just have to deal with some discomfort while walking.
After finishing up his reply, Nick watched Willie for minutes as he ripped the bread apart and threw it at the ducks. Nick waited for Willie to speak but the man remained silent, after all of the bread was gone Willie got up and began to limp back to his car with his cane.
"Wait, what the hell Willie! You called me out here just to watch you feed some ducks!?" Anger and annoyance was leeching out of Nick's voice, he thought his friend wanted to have a drink or atleast talk.
"I didn't call because I wanted you to watch me feed ducks, I called you on a favor for my former boss." As the realization of what Willie said kicked in, Nick turned around to see Holly just a few feet away!