"Jesus Christ! Can't this go any faster?"
Desmond covered his head with his hands as he ducked down in the back seat, with Lucy beside him, and a quickly-shattering windshield the only thing between them and Abstergo Industries.
"Shaun just had to pick the one piece of crap in the entire lot, didn't he?" Rebecca shot the driver a glare from the passenger seat, her hands pressed against the driver's seat and the window in a vain attempt to not flail about the car.
"I'm no stunt driver, I'm just the bloody analyst," Shaun muttered beneath his breath before making a sharp left at an intersection that was blatantly not green. He slammed his foot down on the gas, and the dodgy '88 Volvo sped through the midnight streets, flanked by the towering skyscrapers that nearly pierced the heavenly sky.
Another spray of bullets shot at the back of the car, the clunk of them piercing the metal of the trunk was all too much for the small company speeding along the downtown streets.
Lucy, ducked down in the backseat, glanced to Desmond and their eyes locked for a moment; she was about to speak before Rebecca quite loudly interrupted,
"There, underground! Shaun, quick! Turn left – no, other left, Shaun!"
"I see it, I see it, Rebecca! Stop with the childish chattering." He spun the wheel as the car drifted and sped down a declining ramp to an underground city-street; they heard the helicopter flying off, the revolving propellers turning faint in the distance. They all breathed a sigh of relief, except Rebecca.
"Keep going, Shaun, fifth right. The hideout shouldn't be five blocks from that exit."
Shaun simply nodded and set his gaze ahead. Lucy and Desmond positioned themselves back accordingly on the backseats; exchanging a weary glance. Desmond finally piped up,
"I thought Vidic scrammed?"
"He's not that much of an idiot; those men back at the hideout weren't his battle. They're coming for us Desmond, something about what you saw…what we learned," Lucy said, almost in a downcast manner as she looked at the blood on her hands. "Do you think we'll just keep fighting? We were just born to fight, weren't we? All we've done is fight and fight since we were ever Assassins. Is it even all worth it? We just kill. Don't you guys ever think none of this justified? Like Altaїr and Ezio, I think they both knew this, they both realized the violence was everywhere, and they couldn't escape it."
Desmond swallowed, and Rebecca and Shaun were not paying attention, or speechless, like him. Rebecca broke the silence,
"Shaun, right here, make a right." The car, which was smoothly sailing, turned around the corner seamlessly, and sped up along the inclined ramp. Lucy sighed to her questions unanswered. The helicopter was waiting for them.
"Shit, that's not a-!" Rebecca shouted and a missile shot out from its launcher, held by some Templar on the hovering helicopter. Shaun changed the direction of the car into opposing traffic, narrowly missing the propelled missile – which slammed it into the middle an eighteen-wheeled transport behind them. Explosion. Screaming. Chaos. They Volvo turned and accelerated into oncoming traffic. Rebecca looked into her passenger-side mirror,
"Shaun, faster, they're gaining us! I highly doubt that was their only one!"
"Are you sure, Becca?" Lucy said sharply. Shaun made another pointed turn, and the honking off opposing traffic was nearly deafening.
"Where all the bloody round-abouts I say," the analyst muttered again, his head moving to-and-fro with the car, as if he truly was a stunt driver.
"Oh yeah, I think I saw Vidic too, and they-" Rebecca leaned in to look at the passenger-side mirror closely before it was quite rudely shot off.
"Grah! Shaun! When I said faster, I meant FASTER! They just took off your passenger-side mirror!" Rebecca shouted at Shaun, and he made a soft gasp in her direction,
"Those bastards." His hands moved over one another as he spun the car about in a U-turn. The civilians honked their horns in protest.
"Shaun, damnit, you're driving straight back at them!"
"Rebecca, stop being a backseat driver! You're not even in the backseat!"
Lucy and Desmond flied about the backseat, and ended up on top of each other briefly. Desmond smiled up to her,
"I suddenly feel like Ezio."
Lucy just gave him a flat stare before she was flung off as Shaun made another angled swerve.
Desmond banged his head against the window and cursed beneath his breath, Lucy was scavenging underneath the seat, clearly taking the time to act as the rain of metal had ceased, for now.
"Lucy, what are you doing? It isn't exactly the time to be looking for quarters beneath the cracks," Desmond said dryly.
Lucy gave him another flat stare, before she pulled out a magnum from underneath the cracked leather.
"Here, take this." She tossed it to him; Desmond held it clumsily in his hands.
"What? A gun? Where in the hell did this come from?"
"We are Assassins, you know, Desmond."
"And how would I know how to use one of these!" He waved it about. "Altaїr wasn't exactly a skilled marksman, and Ezio was more of a swordsman."
"It's not that hard, dummy." She leaned over to flip off the safety, and then whispered to him with a level of severity. "Just point, and shoot."
Meanwhile, Rebecca was having a mild panic attack.
"Shaun, they're getting clos-!" A spray of bullets fell upon the windshield, Rebecca flinched and raised her arms, and Shaun's lips formed a crisp, stern line.
"I know there getting closer, but maybe if I can outmaneuver them…"
"This isn't one of your 'bloody' simulations, Shaun! Those are real guns and rockets, and God knows else what they have in that helicopter!"
"Look at this way, at least we're going with the traffic now," was Shaun's rebuttal. Rebecca hit him.
"Rebecca, calm down. Desmond and I will handle this," as Lucy cranked down one of the windows in the back the old-fashioned way.
"What? We will?" Desmond was slightly alarmed, but not exactly surprised – everything was permitted, these days.
"We will, Desmond. We need to get to that safehouse, and Abstergo clearly doesn't plan for us to live to get to it." She propped herself up, and leaned on the outside of the window and began firing at the ever-approaching helicopter.
"How do you even expect me to hit it?" He exclaimed.
"Point and shoot, Desmond!"
He took a breath, and closed his eyes momentarily. When he opened them, everything was different – shades of blue, coloured outlines, and…strange symbols. He didn't let this distract him, and he positioned himself to lean outside the window as Lucy did.
He saw him; he was the only one in the helicopter, who wasn't outlined in red, but black,
"Vidic…"
He fired at the helicopter; the recoil of every bullet fired was not a foreign feeling to him, not as he thought it would be. As he fired every bullet in his magazine, he felt like he was the bullet, he felt every single measure of force involved. It was such a practiced grace; such a rush of power that he could only be reminded of what he felt when he witnessed the power of Altaїr and Ezio.
With his vision and surprisingly substantial skill, two of the handful of the 'Abstergo Employees' plummeted from the sky. Desmond heard Lucy holler over the midnight traffic, the propeller of the helicopter, and the gunfire,
"Where did you learn to shoot like that, Desmond?"
He didn't even know. Ezio had his gun attachment, but he used it infrequently next to his blades. Altaїr never even used a bow before – what was happening to him?
Then it happened all too suddenly. Lucy was reloading, one of the Templars fired, there was blood, and he heard Rebecca scream; Shaun veered the old '88 Volvo in an alleyway. Sharply, too sharply. Cold air was speeding past him, he was falling, flying, plummeting, like an eagle. Concrete.
Minerva.
"You must save us, Desmond. You must save everything we worked for. You cannot let the Templars win; you cannot let them find our creations. They will not save the world. They will not stop it all from ending. They are the snake in your ear, and you are the First. You are the eagle. You must fight the serpent. You must find your Apple. You must find our Lost City before it all ends; the end to it all."