This time Kurt staggered against the movement of the deck to the flaming NPCs and put them down with a quick headshot each. He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, before dropping out his Magnums magazine and loading a fresh one from his supply of armor piercing rounds.
Jimmy approached, tossing an arm over his friend shoulders. “You doin’ alright there buddy?”
Kurt waved him away, blinking a few times. “Yeah. Just…a lot of fire and screaming.” He holstered his Magnum, swapping to the Glock to allow for magazine recharging. “Pretty sure this is like…mentally unhealthy. I’m not gonna stop or anything, I just feel like I should probably should be aware of that, you know?”
Raising an eyebrow, Jimmy looked at Kurt sideways for a moment. “Did you mean to repeat that word?”
Glancing around the room, Kurt shook his head lightly and looked at Jimmy with mild confusion. “What?”
His eyes going a little wide, Jimmy backed up a step and nodded towards the newly blown open doorway. “We should probably…should get moving.” He shook his head at himself as he said it.
Kitty moved past them, shoving at Bonecrusher and FingerNels. “Yeah we should, I just got notification that our target is attempting to escape via chopper in all this mess. We took too long, obviously. His bolt hole is down this way.” She moved towards the doorway hurriedly, her long coattails sashaying behind her. Gunfire erupted from the darkened hallway and struck her in the chest plate a few times, causing her to grunt and drop behind the door with an irritated expression. “I do NOT have time for these damn company men!”
The rest of the crew had been following behind her, but Jimmy’s eyes went wide and he thrust out an arm to stop them when he saw the weapon she drew from a rig under her coat at the small of her back. “…oh shit, get down!”
Kitty lifted a side by side double barreled shotgun with comically large barrels that had been sawed off close to the trigger. The very tip of the long shells inside were peeking out, brightly painted in crimson. She stepped out into the doorway again with a swirl of her coat and braced her feet into a solid stance, taking a smattering of gunfire to the body again. She snarled, squinted, shoved the butt into her shoulder hard, and fired the monster shotgun. The windows in the bedroom blew out as bright sparks flew from the barrel to the sound of a rocking explosion. Kitty was knocked off her feet and tumbled over backwards.
She sat up with a small giggle. “I get em?”
Kurt peeked down the hallway around Jimmy, already hearing the screams and smelling the fresh fire. “Uh. Yeah.”
Moving to offer Kitty a hand up, Jimmy shook his head. “Sane people don’t use four-gauge sawed offs with dragon’s breath, Kitty.”
“Nonsense! If nobody used them but crazy people, why did they exist?” Kitty brushed off her coat and popped a couple of new flare sized shells into the monster sawed off, shoving it back into its holster at the small of her back.
“That kind of gun was for like…duck hunting. Mounted on a boat, on a LARGE boat, like a turret.” Jimmy sighed and motioned for the crew to follow him. “And I’m pretty sure nobody nice or good ever used dragon’s breath on a person.” He used his Super 90 to casually finish off the NPCs still screaming as he led the team down the pockmarked and scorched hallway. At the end, a door with a wheel handle opened onto the exterior of the ship. Jimmy sighed and shook his head as he heaved against the wheel and swung the door open. “This is the kind of stuff that made me leave.”
After carefully traversing the fire splattered hallway, the crew clustered outside on a small balcony overlooking the starboard side of the cruise ship. Below them was a modest helipad, a rounded abutment connected to the ships side by a covered walkway. Dark glittering water was encroaching fast on the helipad as the ship listed even further to the side, a fresh geyser of ocean water rising in a spray from below decks. With the main deck already underwater, their target was seeking his quick escape. The squat black and gold helicopter on the pad already had its rotors winding up, and a man in a suit carrying a briefcase was being ushered into the vehicle by armed guards. Kitty leaned over the edge, lifting a rope and plank emergency ladder with one hand before dropping it with an exaggerated sigh.
“Gadot? Be a dear and save the raid?” Kitty pursed her lips, looking at their only remaining long range specialist.
Gadot set the barrel of her gun on the ledge, leaned forward a bit to get the angle correct, took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly before gently pulling the trigger. Everyone leaned over the lip of the balcony as Gadot stepped back, working the action of her rifle and slipping a fresh shell in. Kitty let out a cheer as she saw the cracked glass of the cockpits windshield, directly over the now slumped pilot. She shoved Gadot in the shoulder, an approving look on her face as return fire from the last of the VIP’s bodyguards began to pepper the balcony around them.
A small smile on her face, Gadot stepped back up to the ledge alongside Jimmy and FingerNels. The three rifle armed players began firing back at the two dozen armed bodyguards on the helipad, while Kitty pointed at the ladder.
“Over we go people, and for the love of everything good and shiny, PLEASE be careful on the frigging ladder.” She raised an eyebrow at Kurt. “Ladders kill more players in this game than Heat, I swear.”
BoneCrusher stepped up, pushing past Kurt as he mounted the ladder and moved down a few rungs. “It’s not that hard, you just have to pay attentioAAAAAAAAH!” Kurt leaned over the railing in alarm as BoneCrusher slipped off the ladder and plummeted towards the main deck. He stuck a railing and instantly puffed into a cloud of dust, his scream of terror being cut short.
Kitty rubbed at her forehead with a hand, eyes squeezed shut in frustration. “…shut up Wesley.” She breathed it out in a sigh, turning to look at the ladder again while shaking her head.
Rouge stepped up and mounted the ladder, taking her time and ignoring the bullets spattering the wall around her. She skipped down the rungs in a practiced but cautious hurry, dropping the last few feet and rolling into a crouch beside the hallway. Kurt went next, being slow and careful the entire way down, in spite of Kitty being directly above him. Gadot stayed up on the balcony as the remnants of the crew descended the ladder, providing cover and being the last to go down. Once they were all tucked into cover beside the walkway, Kitty did a quick headcount and nodded to herself.
“Ok, Ladder Boss only claims one. It’s not ideal, but I’ll take it.” She reached for two flintlocks, crouching by the walkway as the deck shifted again, the ocean coming uncomfortably close to their level. “Let’s go get this sumbitch!” With that, she rose and began a rush down the walkway, drawing enemy fire and soaking a few rounds to her armor. The crew leapt up and followed her, Jimmy running and firing his BAR from the shoulder in an attempt to cover the pirate queen. She charged forward, recklessly firing her flintlocks point blank at guards and sending them spiraling over the edge of the helipad.
Their rush had the intended effect, as the remaining bodyguards fell to dust and left them in control of the VIP and helicopter. The VIP was an older man with a bald head and an expensive looking watch. As the last of his guards died, he began to attempt to unbuckle himself from the helicopter seat. Kitty stepped up to the door and slapped his hand away from the belt. “No!” He froze, looking at her with wide eyes for a moment, before his hand started moving towards the belt again.
She pointed a finger at him. “I said no.” Her eyebrows were raised in a serious expression and the NPC shrank back in his seat, hands clutching his briefcase to his chest. Satisfied, Kitty turned to look at her crew. “Ok, who’s flying? Cause we need to leave.” To reinforce her statement, the ravenous ocean spilled over the lip of the helipad, beginning to swirl around their feet.
Jimmy began firing his BAR back the way they had come as police NPCs began to encroach again. Gadot took a splashing step away from the cockpit, shaking her head. “I’m more of a winged flight kind of gal, sorry. Choppers don’t make sense to m
e.”
Rouge stepped forward and got into the pilot’s seat, firing up the engine and getting the rotors moving. “All good, I got this.” Kitty hopped into the passenger seat next to Rouge as the rest of them climbed into the passenger compartment. Jimmy continued firing at the police as the helicopter took off, banking sharply out over the water and turning away from the sinking cruise ship. “You guys are definitely going to want to strap in for this.”
Kurt’s eyes went wide, his hands moving to buckle himself in next to the VIP. The helicopter had seating for four, with two small bench seats facing each other. Jimmy and Gadot each strapped in before resuming fire on the surrounding police helicopters. Nels had crammed himself in on the other side of the VIP and looked around for a belt for a moment, before shrugging at Kurt and shouldering his rifle to help fend off the police on all sides of them. Rouge started climbing, causing a dozen of the helicopters around them to follow. She guided the helicopter straight up, rising at a rapid pace until the cruise ship was just a faintly gleaming blur receding below the waves and they were surrounded by choking clouds and angry police helicopters.
Jimmy and Gadot did their best to fend off the NPC police force, shattering windshields and punching holes in the engines of their helicopters, but the nine bar Heat meant constant reinforcements. Each time a helicopter would fall away damaged, Kurt noticed a fresh one taking its place on his map.
“Umm, what are we doing??” Kurt leaned forward, sliding the door on his side partially shut to cover himself from police sniper fire.
Kitty glanced back, her predatory smile in place. “Company has rules, Kurtis. We don’t.” She glanced at her wrist, flicking the map up onto their cracked windshield before gripping the armrests of her seat. “Hope you’re all strapped in!!”
Nels briefly raised a hand from his seat, gripping at a strap and bracing his feet while clutching at his rifle. “Miss Kitty? No belt for Nels…”
Rouge shook her head. “Sorry about your luck Nels.” She shoved the stick forward, beginning a steep dive and angling their approach over the barely visible city below them. Nels immediately bounced against the ceiling, let go of his strap, and tumbled from the open doorway as his rifle fired once into the cabin, causing Kurt to flinch away. He made a terrifying but mercifully brief grinding sound as he hit the rotors and Kurt purposefully looked away while silver dust puffed out around the top of the helicopter and trailed behind them, a glittering tail to their falling comet.
Kurt and Gadot shared a look of abject terror, each gripping their armrests as their vehicle plummeted from the sky. Jimmy merely hooted his approval. Mechanical alarms were barely audible over the scream of the wind past their open doors, and Kurt struggled to look at his map. The airborne police pursuit was falling far away, the extreme descent beyond their ability to follow. Rouge began to pull up, dramatically swinging over the city’s busy streets as she maneuvered the helicopter toward a nearby freeway overpass.
Gritting her teeth in concentration, she eased the vehicle underneath the overpass, earning angry shouts from civilian NPCs below them. The rotors screamed and spat sparks as she came a little too close to a traffic signal, before the light box spun off the pole and struck a nearby civilian. “Oops. I got this, its fine.” Rouge spoke while glancing at her rear rotor nervously, her eyes wide. “…yeah, we’re good.”
“You fill me with confidence as ever, Rouge my darling.” Kitty was still gripping her belt with her eyes squeezed shut. The helicopter’s engines belched thick black smoke and cut out briefly, causing them to slam onto the pavement as the windshield shattered and fell around their feet in shards.
Kurt lunged for the open door, being restrained by his belt. He fumbled at it for a moment, looking up in confusion to see Jimmy calm in his seat. “Should…should we run maybe?”
Jimmy barked a quick laugh at the ceiling. “Ha! Naw man, this isn’t even bad yet. Chopper is still in one piece, we’re fine. It’s just a little shot up, it’s still good.” The engines came back online and the helicopter lifted a few feet off the ground again, though it shuddered and made a metallic screaming sound as it did. They hovered there, hiding from the police helicopters that swarmed past overhead, each player watching the nine bar Heat blinking on their phones.
It dropped off and Kitty gave a cheer. “Easy as can be! Well done crew, let’s get this a-hole turned in.”
Jimmy nodded, a grim expression on his face. “Yeah, just like old times.” He sat back, one eyebrow raised for a moment as he looked at his phone. “Did that Heat drop seem fast to anybody else…?”
Before any of them could answer, Kitty groaned and stamped her feet in a petulant display. “He’s dead! There goes our bonus.” She arbitrarily glared at Kurt for a moment. “Thanks Kurtis!” He ignored her, rolling his eyes briefly.
The VIP had been slumped over clutching at the briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, causing the crew in the cabin to ignore him. Just another terrified NPC to them. But it appeared that when Nels had tumbled from the doorway, he had accidentally discharged his rifle into the hapless NPC.
“I HATE escort ops.” Kitty was still fuming, pacing in a short line beside the helicopter.
“We still have the case. That’s most of the take right there.” Rouge attempted to placate her from the pilot’s seat.
“Yeah, and it’s a huge take. But we just lost two hundred million because Nels couldn’t hold his fire.” Kitty put her hands on her hips and scowled. She took the briefcase, holding out the handcuff for Kurt to lock pick. He complied, and as soon as it was completed, the case came free and the NPC’s body fell to dust.
“I mean…the guy was getting killed. By the rotors no less, that’s pretty harsh.” Jimmy shrugged, changing out the magazine on his rifle.
Kitty glared at him for a moment. He calmly held her gaze until she huffed and got back into the passenger seat, grumbling to herself. “…acts like he never got killed by rotors before. I’ve been killed by rotors three times this week!” Her continued grumbles were cut off by the engine choking into life, a cloud of black smoke erupting from the exhaust above them.
“…maybe we should drive.” Gadot spoke to no-one in particular as she leaned out the doorway to look at their engine. It coughed fire as the rotors kicked back up to speed and they took off, hovering sideways out from underneath the freeway overpass. She grimaced and gripped her harness again. “I will happily drive us!”
They swung out over the city, approaching a series of warehouses on the northern coast. Wind whipped through the cabin and forced Rouge to squint as she attempted to fly. “There!” She shouted while pointing to an abandoned drive in theater. As they made their approach, the engines gave a final shuddering scream, belched another gout of flame, and forever stilled. Kurt gripped his harness as they began to plummet from the sky.
“I’ve got this….we’re fine!” Rouge hauled back on the stick, causing their descent to slow as she attempted to auto-rotate them down. The helicopter slammed onto the pavement, bouncing once and smashing their struts into the parking lot as they slid to a less than gentle stop against a nearby light pole. Rouge undid her harness and hopped out, performing an elaborate bow.
Kurt stumbled from the cabin, falling to his knees on the pavement and shaking his head clear. “This game is really not good for my nerves.”
Jimmy slapped him on the shoulder as he went past. “Sure it is buddy! It’s uh…yeah, it’s pretty rough at first. You’ll get there.”
Swiping at her wrist, Gadot turned in a circle before starting to walk towards the edge of the drive-in theaters parking lot. “I’m getting us a car, no more flying for tonight thank you.” She turned and glanced at Jimmy. “Back me up?” He shouldered his rifle and nodded once, his customary smile firmly in place.
Kitty watched them leave, hands on her hips and eyes narrowed. Once they were out of earshot, she turned and gave Kurt a significant glance. “WELL then. Shall we go turn this stupid case in?” Without waiting for a reply,
she sashayed towards the nearby building, humming along with a song only she could hear.
18. Vice
Chapter 18
Vice
Kitty casually swung the briefcase at her side as they approached a hollowed-out snack bar in terrible disrepair, with peeling paint and broken bits of plaster a defining attribute. Looking at his phone to check his skills, Kurt walked into Kitty as he attempted to enter the building. She had stopped dead, with Rouge standing directly in front of her whispering in a low voice.
“It’s Vice Kitty. What do we do, it’s frigging Vice!?” Rouge was clearly upset, but Kitty shoved past her, the picture of calm.
“We play for time darlings. Kurt, close your eyes and cover your ears. This is about to get weird.” She swung the briefcase cheerfully as she approached a table with two men seated at it. One was wearing a slate grey suit with a black shirt beneath the jacket. The man seated beside him wore a white suit with white pants and a pastel pink undershirt. He scratched at his stubble and waved a dismissive hand at Kitty.
“Late. Pirates are always late.” He fired up a cigarette and leaned back. “Never on time.”
His partner stared at them while rubbing his hands together lightly. “Oh is that what late means?” He spoke dismissively to his partner, his piercing gaze never leaving them. “That was a nice landing out there…real professional.”
Kurt walked around behind the counter and quietly swiped his coms channel open with Gadot and Jimmy. He spoke under his breath. “Guys, what is ‘Vice’?”
Jimmy immediately responded, concern in his voice. “Oh shit, you guys got Vice?!” His footsteps increased to a run, as did Gadot’s beside him. “Two boss fights in one day. AI must be pissy at us.”
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