“Or rewarding us. Just stall them Kurt, we’ll be there with a ride as fast as we can. Keep the briefcase no matter what.” She sounded as worried as Jimmy.
“Not like that’ll help…you can’t run from Vice.” Kurt heard the sound of Jimmy racking his shotgun through the com link as he spoke.
“We stand a better chance behind the wheel, get in!” Gadot muted herself after Kurt heard an engine roar to life. He turned his focus back to Kitty, who had pranced over to the table and was flirting awkwardly with the man in the white suit.
“No, you show me YOURS.” She tittered and flashed him a smile while holding the suitcase behind her back, batting her eyelashes overtly at him. Kurt noticed with a small jump that the man’s partner was ignoring her and staring directly at him, his dark eyes gleaming in the streetlight pouring in from the window. He was still lightly rubbing his hands together, and gave Kurt a tiny nod when they made eye contact.
Kurt leaned against the counter nonchalantly, allowing his hand to crawl near his jacket and unbutton it while trying to look bored. The man narrowed his eyes at Kurt, but looked away when Kitty brashly leaned forward, brushing her open top past the men at the table. She giggled drunkenly, winking at them as she grabbed a toothpick from the far end of the table they were seated at. The man in the white suit took a more relaxed posture, smiling at her as he put an arm across the back of the booth.
Kitty took a couple of steps back, sitting on a swiveling stool at the bar and slowly turning in place while chewing on her new toothpick. As she turned away from Vice, she muttered under her breath into the groups voice chat. “Where the HELL are you guys…” She was all smiles when the stool finished its rotation.
The man in the grey suit jacket nudged his partner, seeming to snap him out of his reverie. He glanced back and forth, anger suddenly clouding his features. “Hey now, what’s the hold up? You bring the stuff, we bring the money, simple deal.”
“You think they’re trying to rip us off? Or maybe just stalling…” Both men produced guns. The man in the white suit drew a chrome handgun, and his partner pulled out a black snub-nosed revolver. Kurt stepped back behind the counter, drawing his Coonan and keeping it low.
Kitty grinned, turning with a shrug as she reached for her Raider pistol and gave Rouge a significant glance. The man in the white suit stood up, pointing his weapon at them. “IPD Vice, drop your guns and get on the ground!!”
The wall behind them blew inward, a purple four door Mustang sliding to a stop between the two groups as both scrambled into movement. Kitty had lifted her feet and legs into a high crouch on the stool to avoid the car, and used that position to slide into the open window in the backseat.
Rouge dove in headfirst behind her, as Kurt walked around the counter and opened the car door, squeezing in beside the cluster of women jumbled in the backseat. Jimmy leaned over Gadot’s crouched form and fired eight blasts from his shotgun into the table. Vice had ducked below it when the car burst in, and the shotgun fire kept them in cover while Gadot reversed out of the snack bar. She sat up as they bounced over the broken glass and bits of wall in their way, looking over her shoulder through the rear window.
Glancing at the tangle of people in the backseat, Gadot just shook her head and focused on her part of the job, spinning the car in a half circle and accelerating away from the shack. Kitty and Rouge managed to extricate themselves while Kurt clung to his magnum and stared out of the back window. He was not disappointed. A white 1986 Ferrari Testarossa chirped its tires as it came around the corner of the snack bar behind them, revving into pursuit.
“That looks like a really fast car.” Kurt nervously watched as they navigated the slopes of the drive-in theater, the Ferrari gaining ground on them with frightening speed. Sirens sounded from all around the parking lot, more police cruisers coming to support the Vice vehicle.
Gadot saw them coming and swerved, running down a chain link fence and reversing their direction. “It is. Much faster than we are, everybody guns up!”
The Mustang swerved and kicked up dust on the dirt road as they headed back in towards the Downtown Cluster, with Vice close behind them. Avoiding a police cruiser in front of them, Gadot cut the wheel and drove them up an embankment onto the freeway, cutting off the evening traffic and gunning the engine. She drove flat out, her foot pressing the gas pedal as she wove between cars and trucks. The white Ferrari never fell back, merely gaining speed and coming closer with each passed civilian vehicle, its police escort in tow. Kurt glanced at his phone to see there was no Heat rating, and concluded that the boxy looking early 90’s cruisers were a part of the boss encounter.
“How did I end up riding bitch??” Kitty grumped at them from her middle seat, Raider in hand as she searched about the car for a way to shoot at their enemies. “We need to lose the Company, Vice is so much easier without their support team.”
Kurt reached over and lightly slapped Rouge’s shoulder to get her attention, lifting his drum magazine to show her what he intended to do. She squinted at him for a moment before recognition dawned on her and she patted her pockets. Producing a long stick magazine, she slipped it into the mag-well of her micro Uzi and gave Kurt a nod.
Moving as one, they cracked open the Mustangs rear doors and began full auto fire at the tires of the vehicles on either side. The civilian NPCs swerved and smashed into each other, creating a moving pileup directly behind the Mustang that quickly spread to the entire freeway. Jimmy watched in his side mirror, before turning and offering his fist for Kurt and Rouge to bump when their magazines ran dry. Kurt smiled at his friend and knocked knuckles with him, turning to smile at the other players in the car. Rouge rolled her eyes, but knocked knuckles with Jimmy anyway.
“Nice, nice, we needed that breathing room.” Gadot kept one eye on the Ferrari behind them bogged down in the pileup they had caused.
Vice swerved from one side of the highway to the other, attempting to pass the traffic and accidents in their way, but were bogged down on all sides. They slowly worked their way around to the outside lanes, driving off-road momentarily as they passed the pileup. Once the Ferrari was back on the road, they began to catch up quickly. Their police escort was hopelessly jumbled in the pileup, and only a few of them managed to follow.
“Kitty! We need support, what can you scramble?” Jimmy leaned out of his window, firing his BAR at the rapidly approaching Ferrari.
She sat back in her middle seat, swiping at her phone. “Jerome darling! Yes…no, no report right now. I’m thrilled it went well, but we’re still in the shit.” She paused, her head cocked to one side. “Yes sir, we ended up with Vice. Need some help, what birds do we have in the air right now?” Kitty made a face, leaning forward to peer out the front windshield. “What are you doing Gadot?! We’re heading straight into GoonStorm turf!”
“I know! One member of Vice is terrified of machine gun fire, if we can get some Goons on us, they’ll accidentally help us get this kill.” Gadot leaned forward slightly, weaving between traffic and attempting to keep up their lead.
“Right, seems like some obscure mechanic has us enlisting the Goons to help us with this somehow. Have the full party at our border, and get us some air support to deal with GoonStorm technicals.” Kitty paused, nodding as she looked through her phone. “Perfect. Love you to bits Jerome!”
The Ferrari caught up, swerved out to the side of the Mustang, and tapped its rear wheel. Gadot clung to the wheel as they spun in place, her other hand working the gearshift while tire smoke boiled on all sides. With a quick flick of the wheel and a sharp gear shift, she turned the spin into a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree rotation, darting behind a civilian car to keep Vice from attacking them again. Gadot glanced at her mirrors, dodging and weaving in and out of the increasingly nervous traffic around them, attempting to keep civilian cars between them and Vice.
The freeway widened suddenly as it moved into the Downtown Cluster, with four additional lanes opening up and causing a large
gap in the traffic. Vice moved in, darting up on their left side as the passenger of the Ferrari began to take precise shots at their hood. Gadot leaned on the brake, jerked the wheel slightly, and nudged at the Ferrari’s rear wheel well.
The Ferrari went sideways, but the driver controlled the slide with one hand, and both NPCs opened fire on the vulnerable radiator block of the Mustang. Thick white smoke began to pour from the engine and exhaust, and the Mustang stuttered on the road before its engine kicked back in.
Gadot dropped back, shaking them loose and heading back into the crush of traffic. “Bad idea, sorry.” Jimmy leaned out of his window to cover their retreat, firing his shotgun at the Ferrari and causing huge disruptions to traffic. The passenger in the Ferrari reached out a sawed-off shotgun and blasted Jimmy with it, buckshot sparking off his door.
Ducking back inside, Jimmy set the shotgun between his knees and shook his hands, flexing his fingers. “Oh, ow…ow! That’s so mean! He’s aiming for our hands guys, watch out for disarms.” He practically hissed, while shaking the pins and needles out of his hands.
Kurt rolled his own window down, taking a few shots at them with his Coonan, but ducking to be a less visible target. He leaned forward and slid the gun along the side of the car, trying to take careful aim. The sawed-off shotgun poked out of the Ferrari again, blasting the door and Kurt’s hand. He jerked his hand away from the stinging pain, dropping his Coonan and yelping. Kurt glanced at his wrist to see his health bar blinking in the red, only a small sliver of it left, with his primary weapon slot now empty. He rolled his window back up, keeping ducked down out of sight.
Scoffing at him, Kitty turned and blew out the back window with one of her flintlocks, wincing at the loud noise and fragments of glass. Rouge immediately ducked low, dropping her legs into the space behind the driver’s seat and crouching to stay out of sight. Kurt saw her and mimicked her motions as best he could, with Jimmie’s somewhat larger bulk blocking him.
He ended up laying halfway on the backseat, ducked low to avoid fire from the rear window. “I thought that was bullet-proof glass!?” Careful to stay out of sight, Kurt watched his health bar creep back up to half, where it stopped.
“Yeah, but it’s all one way. You can shoot it out if you need to, but it can’t be shot through from the other side unless its durability is defeated.” Jimmy calmly turned and braced his BAR against the shoulder of his seat, taking carefully aimed shots at the distant police cruisers. He had loaded a magazine of explosive rounds, so each shot caused a small detonation when it stuck. The explosive rounds were not quite powerful enough to cause a car to explode with a single hit, but a few in the same area would typically do the trick, and the remaining police cruisers supporting the Ferrari fell away in flaming ruins.
The skyscrapers of the Downtown Cluster rose around them as they emerged from an overpass, hurtling towards the densely packed building. Gadot swerved, cutting off several civilians as she took an offramp into a crowded section of the city. She cut the wheel and slid around a corner, hopping up on the curb and driving directly beside a parked GoonStorm patrol. Kitty shouted something impolite and tossed an unlit Molotov onto their hood. Reacting in a predictable manner, the Goons gave chase, opening up with their mounted .50 cal machine gun. Ignoring the incoming fire, Kitty laid down on the trunk, her legs scrabbling at the inside of the roof for purchase as she fired her Raider until it clicked empty. One of her rounds lit the GoonStorm patrol on fire and they fell back as the players inside screamed and bailed out at speed to avoid the flames.
More Goons reacted to the incursion of their turf, converging on them as they fled through the city. Gadot used the Mustangs low profile to their advantage, staying in front of taller vehicles as they darted around corners and weaved in and out of the blocks. She began a long arc around the city, cutting through most of the Downtown Cluster with the Ferrari firmly in tow. Before they had made it more than a few blocks from the original GoonStorm patrol, they had several more following after them in a mad scramble to kill the other players and steal their boss encounter.
The continual machine gun fire kept Vice subdued, the passenger tucked into a fetal position in his seat. Both the Ferrari and Mustang were taking fire from the pursuing Goons, and neither vehicle was in good shape. The Ferrari began to spew white smoke from its exhaust, but it didn’t stop the driver from shooting at them with his chrome handgun. His rounds struck the car with uncanny accuracy, no matter how Gadot twisted and turned on the roads.
Kitty had wiggled her way back inside, but only to hurriedly reload before squirming back out onto the trunk of the car. Rouge and Kurt each grabbed a leg to keep her from flying out onto the road, and Kitty hooted with glee as she fought the Ferraris driver and any Goons that got in behind them. Her untrained and chaotic combat methods were surprisingly lethal, and several of the GoonStorm patrols were destroyed or driven off.
Jimmy rolled his window down and slid out, sitting on the windowsill with his BAR in his hands. He pivoted in place, reacting to GoonStorm vehicles and firing at windshields and tires with his explosive rounds to keep them from getting too close. Occasionally he would turn and drive back the Ferrari with a few explosive rounds, but the Vice driver would deftly dodge them and aggressively return fire. Jimmy glanced at his wrist, after getting hit by a barrage of the incoming fire.
“I’m running real low on armor here guys. Won’t be able to regen health like this either.” Jimmy spoke into his coms calmly, turning and firing at a new GoonStorm patrol vehicle. His explosive rounds coupled with a thrown Molotov from the back of the Mustang, and the blue digital camo painted Hummer fell back in a flaming ruin, its passengers screaming and falling to dust.
Gadot swiped at the map on the windshield, looking for something. “Kitty, where the hell is our air support!?”
Kitty flopped over with a giggle, reloading from her more stretched out position on the trunk. She slid part way off the trunk and flung another Molotov at a GoonStorm Humvee that swerved into the road beside them. “No idea.” She lit the Goons on fire while partially upside down, squeezing one eye shut and sticking out her tongue in concentration. From her position hanging half off the trunk of the Mustang, she swiped up her coms. “Jerome my dear…ok…yes great news. Be there shortly!” She banged on the side of the car, a request to be pulled inside.
Kurt and Rouge complied, hauling on her legs until she was more or less in the backseat with them. She swiped up her map and stuck her arm into the front of the Mustang, allowing Gadot to tap wrists with her. Gadot immediately flicked her wrist at the windshield, throwing the new map up onto it. Cutting the wheel, she dodged an incoming group of GoonStorm vehicles ahead of them and darted down a side-street. The Mustangs engine cut out briefly, before stuttering back to life. They roared down the side-street with black smoke pouring from the hood and exhaust.
“Fight to the dust Jimmy!” Kitty shouted as she leaned forward and hauled the massive four gauge sawed off from her rear holster, shoving it at Kurt. “I’m going to want this back Kurtis. Just keep Rouge alive, we still get credit if one of us is up at the end of all this!” She then ripped at the Velcro on her mostly tattered armor, tossing it on the floor of the car before she gripped a pair of Molotovs and started climbing out on the trunk again. “WITNESS ME!!” Kitty roared at nobody before launching herself off the trunk with a maniacal smile, a Molotov raised in each fist. She erupted in a puff of silver dust as she struck the front end of the Ferrari, her unlit firebombs splashing across the vehicle and its occupants.
Jimmy shook his head, but gamely reloaded his BAR with starburst rounds and turned to fire at the Ferrari. The driver deftly dodged his attempts to light them on fire, swerving between the streaks of color and smoke. Jimmy was forced to switch to explosive rounds again to fend off the encroaching GoonStorm players, a crowd of them having gathered without Kitty to cull them. Gadot floored the accelerator as flames erupted from beneath the hood, racing towards the line on the map directly ah
ead of them that indicated the Pirates turf. She ducked low as her window burst from a .50 cal hit, shouting in pain from the heavy round. Jimmy turned to try and shoot back at them, a grim determination on his face, but their gunner had the Mustang dialed in, and he took several hits before erupting in a puff of dust and guns on the side of the car.
Gadot stayed ducked down in her seat as .50 caliber rounds buzzed through the cars cabin, shattering the rear passenger windows and the front windshield. Kurt and Rouge huddled low in the backseat, trying to stay out of the line of fire while clutching pistols that felt inadequate. They both looked at each other as the sound of heavy rotors filled the air, reaching them over the constant machine gun fire. The Pirates air support had arrived. A long-bodied helicopter wrapped around a cargo container swung into the street ahead of them, its pilot attempting to match their trajectory. The back of the cargo container was hanging open, doors ripped off in preparation for the operation. Attached to the walls of the container by rigged harnesses, Jerome stood with Bonecrusher, FingerNels, and Godless. As one, they opened fire on the pursuing GoonStorm vehicles, raining bullets and explosives into the roadway.
Jerome lifted his M202 Flash launcher to his shoulder and fired all four barrels, shutting down the road behind them in a wave of explosive force and napalm, and lighting the night for blocks around them. Gadot floored the accelerator as flames erupted from beneath the hood, racing towards the line on the map directly ahead of them.
As they crossed into the Pirate’s turf, a pair of vehicles converged on them with Pirates hanging from the sides. A cargo truck normally used to transport excavated earth from construction sites raced into the road alongside a heavily modified school bus, both swarming with armed and eager Pirates. The cargo truck had a heavy spiked steel ram on its front end, and used it to smash the lead GoonStorm Hummer into a nearby brick warehouse. The Hummer vanished in a cascade of red bricks, and the cargo truck backed into the middle of the road with rhythmic beeps, deploying two pairs of hydraulic legs and making itself a roadblock across one half of the street.
The Life- Illusion Page 31