Free H.E.R.O. - Horde by Kevin Rau

Unfortunately, the man I threw crashed into a display case extremely hard.  I cringed - I hoped he wasn't hurt too badly.
    Something flew into the room from the back section, and the sound of metal bouncing off the concrete floor rang out in several places near me.  Gas poured out from the canisters.
    What did Black Tiger say?  Take a deep breathe and then hold your breathe for the rest of the fight?  That sounds right.
    I inhaled deeply, but a harsh smell struck my nose and I began choking and coughing hard.  My eyes burned and I had difficulty seeing anything - the smoke made it impossible to see.
    Something slammed hard into my throat, causing me to choke.  Just after that, I heard a really loud shot go off.  I fell to the ground holding my throat.  It didn't feel wet with blood, but was extremely hard to breathe.  I finally sucked in some breathe, only to get another mouthful of the smoke stuff and began choking and coughing even worse.
    Many of the machine gun shots went off from the back section of the store.  I put my arm up in front of my face and neck to try and block any more shots at me, but I didn't even hear any bullets hit anything around me, much less hit me.
    Some crashing came from the back section along with more machine gun fire.  Another loud bang went off, along with an "Unh" from a woman.
    Something wrapped around my waist and I felt myself flying through the air.  I couldn't see, but in a moment, I struck something soft, and then flew into some kind of shelf based on the sound of items crashing to the ground.  A male's grunt when I first landed told me I'd been thrown into someone.
    I could barely see, but a shape was in front of me, and then bright flashes erupted as someone shot a machine gun at me from a few feet away.
    The shape suddenly jerked forward into me, and I felt a person's body.  I grabbed them and swung them around me.  I was rewarded with a crashing sound as the person hit the remains of the shelves I'd struck moments before.
    I kept blinking and coughing, and noticed the gunfire had almost stopped.  The shape of a man was before me, so I swept my leg around and tripped him.  He cried out in pain when my shin hit his.  A cracking sound came from it.
    I heard a woman's voice - I recognized it, but couldn't place it with my ongoing coughs.
    She said, "I think that's all of them."
    Psystar's voice sounded painful, "Yeah, none got out the back."
    The other woman said, "Stay still honey, I'm going to put drops in your eyes."
    A hand grabbed my chin and attempted to force me to look up.  She wasn't strong enough, and I had to force myself to look up for a moment.  Cool wetness hit each of my eyes and my vision began to clear.
    It was the most I could do to hold still, and I went back to coughing harshly.  Silverlash knelt next to me, along with Psystar about ten feet away.  Bright red ran down Psystar's chest from a large wound on her left shoulder.  Another bright red spot bled from her right abdomen.
    Silverlash squeezed my cheek - or attempted to, and quickly moved around to the various men on the floor.  She seemed to pull silvery ribbons from her left hand.  These ribbons wrapped themselves around the men's arms, body and ankles.  Then she took out a knife and cut away their weapon straps.
    Psystar said, "I'll let the police know to come in."
    She walked toward the back and left my sight.  Silverlash walked back over to me and helped me stand.  She brought me over to a water fountain.
    "Go on, honey.  Try to wash out your nose and throat."
    Using the fountain, I was able to clear some of the nasty stuff and begin breathing.  The choking from the shot in the neck had already faded.  Once I was breathing fairly well I realized she was staring at me.
    I said, "What?"
    "Why did you breathe in that stuff?"
    "I was told that's how you do it - take a deep breath and then hold it for the rest of the fight."
    "No, no no.  You hold your breathe before the gas, and