A/N: Hello again readers! Malaysianpro here, and first I must apologize for my extremely long hiatus. I was developing this long one-shot given to me as a challenge in a writer's group in Facebook. So, the challenge word was 'Ghost', and you'll certainly find lots of the word. Anyway, if you're a new reader and just about to understand the canon of this series, feel free to check out my previous works. Enjoy!
Disclaimer
I own nothing but plot.
Geronimo Stilton: INTERPOL-The Adventures of The Ghosts
Chapter 1-How It All Happened
The Arif Estate, 107 Richmond Drive
Quarter mile west outside of New Mouse City
Saturday, February 1, 2014
8.12 a.m.
It was still winter in New Mouse City, it was still snowing heavily outside, temperatures were as low as 5 degrees Celsius below zero, and meteorologists predicted that in two days, snow will cover the ground about 4 inches. For that cause, all mice have been advised to stay inside. Anyway, it had been a month since the new year, and my resolution for this year was to be a better person and kid than I used to be. And to loose some extra weight.
Sorry for not introducing myself again. My name is Danial Arif, 14-year old orphan, multi-billionaire and cyborg, former iOS software designer for Apple Inc., video game developer, full-time Interpol Junior Special Agent, and a Junior Special Correspondent for New Mouse City's most famouse newspaper, The Rodent's Gazette, a subsidiary of the Stilton Media Group. I'm also the first human to ever reside in the city.
In the middle of last month, I released the final update to my second video game, Fields Of Battle 2: Modern Warfare and in the same time, released the third and final game to the series. Named Fields Of Battle 3: Rise of The Dark, it sold 3 million copies the first day I released it in stores.
For the weekend, The Crew an I planned to go to the New Mouse City Forest Reserve for a survival training and camping trip, a direct order from the General Secretariat of Interpol. The purpose was for it to build teamwork among the members of the team, and to hunt down poachers that have been illegally hunting a Mouse Island endangered species, the Mouse Island Horned Deer. It's antlers can reach half a million dollars in value each if sold in the black market.
At the moment, I was in the armory of my cozy mansion, gearing up in digital arctic camo combat clothing. I was wearing my camouflaged tactical bulletproof vest over the camouflaged shirt that came complete with a hoodie and a mask, zipping it up afterwards. I slipped on my white gloves, got my polarized-tinted goggles, slid the elastic band behind my head and wore the goggles on my forehead.
After I crouched to tie the laces of the combat boots I put on, I went to fetch the supplies I collected before I came down from on the servicing table. A backpack full of food, a sleeping bag, two 2-liter thermos flasks of hot water and hot chocolate respectively, a survival kit, a first aid kit, a fire-starting kit, 6 flares, and a pot for cooking. For protection, I had armed myself with a Glock 18 machine pistol with six extra extended 60-round quad-stack magazines, my trusty Heckler & Koch HK416 carbine rifle tinted in white to blend in with the winter, along with five extra quad-stack 60-round magazines, six-newly-built lightsabers to complete my first one and to give the others each in case. (Did I ever tell you that I was a Jedi?)
I packed my weapons in a rifle-carrying bag with along with the ammunition, with the exception of my sidearm which I slid into the drop-leg holster I had tied on my hip, and zipped the whole thing up. Next, I wore the shoulder straps of the backpack and lifted it up off the table. I added more weight to myself when I carried the rifle bag on my right hand, tallying up the weight of the gear and myself a total of 67 kg.
I rode the elevator back up to the living room, and sat on the three-seater couch in front of the lit fireplace, waiting for Thea to pick me up in her Bugatti Veyron, named Sebastien. "Who would you like to drive today, sir?" J-Son, my smart home system, offered.
Lazily chilling on my couch, I answered; "No one, J-Son. Thea's coming to pick me up today." Then I had a single thought popping up in the empty space of my mind. I've been overworking my cars too much, so I thought that I'd give one of the elite teams in my garage a time off. "Instead, connect me to the Ghosts. I want to talk to them."
The Ghosts are an elite squad consisting of my 12 smart autonomous supercars built by the Swedish automaker, Koenigsegg, and each car is a model of the car that the company had ever built. Their leader is a 2013 Koenigsegg Agera R named Phantom, painted in black with red stripes along the edges and ridges of his bodywork.
J-Son connected their comlink signals with the microchip in my head, allowing me to communicate with them as they were parked in the underground storage parking. "Ghosts?" I called.
Phantom responded as the leader should. "Yes, sir?" he said in his slightly computerized British-like accent.
"I've been thinking. I think I've been overworking you and your siblings lately and...uh...I think you guys deserve a day off."
Phantom being a smart autonomous car didn't completely get what I said. I never programed him or the other cars to accept the command "take a day off" or, "go on a holiday". But they all do learn. "I'm sorry, but I don't quite comply on what you're trying to tell me," he said.
"I'm saying that I'm giving you a leave from your duties temporarily. It's like taking a short vacation."
"Oh, I now understand. But, what will we do?"
"I'm...just gonna set the twelve of you free for the weekend. You know, scoop in some air into your intakes, cruise slowly on the roads to warm up your Michelin tires..."
"But where will we go?" asked his sister, Banshee, the Koenigsegg Agera S. Her coat consists of arctic white paint with no stripes, and she's the only female in the squad.
"I don't know. Up to you. Take a self tour around the city or, see the happenings and events," I suggested. Then I heard the sweet hum of a W16 engine from outside the mansion, getting closer by the tick of my watch. In reaction, I peeked out of the window, seeing that Thea had arrived and had already stopped in the courtyard, in front of the front door. "Alright, gotta go. Thea's here to pick me up for survival training. See you guys in Monday!" I ended the transmission, grabbed my gear and marched through the front door. I dropped my pack and weapons bag in the luggage compartment in the front, then rode shotgun beside Thea in her Bugatti.
Thea who was in the same outfit as I were, looked enthusiastic and adventurous. "Ready for the trip?" she asked.
I glanced at my left and replied; "Am I..."
The hums of multiple V8s came from outside, piercing the glass and entered our ears. More specifically, they came from the garage entrance beside the house. They were actually emitted from The Ghosts, they have came out of their home and went to get some fresh, cold air.
"Are The Ghosts coming along?" Thea curiously wondered as she raised an eyebrow. She's already familiar with them, FYI.
"No-no, they just took my words when I permitted them to a leave. They're free to roam the city for the weekend," I answered.
With Thea nodding as a way of understanding, we followed behind the Swedish cars to outside the property, and drove on the streets to our destinations.
Whilst Thea and I had got on Highway 45 to the north, The Ghosts continued westward through the underpass, an proceeded into the city from the east.
As Thea drove in fifth gear in Street Driving mode, we both revised the plan that we had already discussed last night. "So, let me get this straight. We're cooperating with the Forest Rangers, while they start canvassing the reserve from the east to the west, we start west to east. We camp for the night, then continue our mission in the next day?" I re-explained to myself, hoping Thea would confirm what I had said.
"Exactly the plan," she squeaked.
Meanwhile, 5 minutes later
The Ghosts had arrived in the city, lining up at a stoplight in both lanes. As they waited for the green light to shine, they discussed on where should they go. As they stopped, they caught some attention from the mice who used the sidewalk. Like any other people, they took out their smartphones and started snapping picture and shot videos of the exotic cars.
"So, where should we go?" said Spook, the milk white Koenigsegg CCGT. He's one of the veterans of the Ghosts.
"The master did say that's its all up to ourselves," clarified Specter, the graphite Koenigsegg CCXR to his brother.
"In that case, I don't know about you lot, but I think I'll head to the pier at the Waterfront," stated Wraith, the grey and blue-striped Koenigsegg Agera.
The leader of them all had came to a decision. "Let's put it this way. From this crossroad, we split up. Drive to the places we want to see," Phantom proposed. "Is that clear?"
"Yes sir!" the others replied.
The light turned green, they all put their transmissions into first gear and accelerated away. Three Ghosts turned left while putting on their turn signals, seven went straight, and two took right also putting on their turn signals.
Meanwhile...
New Mouse City Forest Reserve, Upstate New Mouse City
0845 hours
Thea drove up to the west entrance of the forest reserve, where Geronimo, Trap, Benjamin, and Pandora that had arrived there in Geronimo's black Cadillac named Terra, were seen grabbing their weapons from the trunk and prepping themselves up for the mission in the woods. They were also wearing the same camouflaged combat outfit with the hoodies covering their heads from the harsh cold.
Thea stopped Sebastien next to Terra, cutting the engine off and unbuckled our seatbelts. As we came out, we flipped our hoodies up to keep our heads warm while the snow kept falling with some chilly winds blowing past us.
Thea and I took steps to in front of Sebastien as he opened his trunk, which is the hood. "Ready for the mission, G?" I wondered, slightly shouting because of the noise of the wind.
"Uh...sort of," he replied from the back of his Cadillac, holding the body of an M40A3 marksman rifle with its muzzle pointed atop as his other hand was loading it with a magazine of 6 tranquilizer darts.
"Close enough," I responded, feeling slightly agitated by his lack of enthusiasm. After Thea lifted up the hood of her beloved Bugatti, we picked up our heavy backpacks, unzipped our rifle bags and took them out. While I was inserting a magazine into the mag well of my white carbine rifle, Thea was holding up her white-tinted FN SCAR-L which she kept since our last major adventure while filling up the magazine carriers on her vest with the extra ammunition she brought.
"Hey Dan! Thanks for sponsoring the gear!" Trap showed his gratitude, loading the tubular magazines of his Kel-Tec KSG 12 gauge shotgun with 14 shotgun shells.
"No problem! It's the least I could do," I said. Then I realized something, I didn't have a flashlight with me. The only source of light for the night was my flashlight attached to the bottom rail of my HK416, and the lightsabers I brought along. "Um...did anybody bring a flashlight? Or at least have a flashlight attached to their guns?" That was when everyone was looking at each other with awkward stares. No one had a flashlight.
"I've got a flashlight on my SCAR," she told. I looked at her assault rifle, and a relief for my feelings because another flashlight was present. Though I wasn't very satisfied.
"Great. Just great," I said sarcastically, getting annoyed. "Alright, this is how it's gonna be. When the night comes, everyone stay close to me and Thea. We're the only ones who has light sources."
They nodded and continued arming themselves up, including myself. I finished with inserting a magazine into my Glock 18 and cocked it, Thea with priming her SCAR-L, Geronimo by sliding the priming bolt of his rifle back into place, Trap by pumping up the slide of his shotgun, and finally, Benjamin and Pandora cocked their SCAR PDWs. The four other mice lifted up their backpacks from the trunk and Geronimo closed it up. So did Thea with Sebastien.
"Is everyone ready?" Thea shouted.
"We're ready!" everyone replied, grouping up in front of Sebastien.
"Okay, equipment check," I declared, just in case we forgot something. "Geronimo! Trap! Tents?"
"They're in our packs," Trap squeaked for the both of them.
"Benjamin! Pandora! Binoculars?"
"Check!" shouted the two mouslings back with a confident smile.
"Thea, walkie talkie and GPS?"
"In the side pockets of my pack," she responded.
"Me, seven lightsabers. Check."
"Seven lightsabers?"Pandora reacted, looking at me in disbelief.
"For emergencies," I solemnly stated. "Okay...masks up, goggles down because this mission starts...now. Terra, Sebastien, we'll see you at The Rodent's Gazette."
Everybody wore up their masks up their faces and or snouts, wore down their goggles to cover their eyes, then we went to embark on our mission in the snowing woods.
Meanwhile...
The Ghost had scattered themselves all over New Mouse City to see the places and things they've always wanted to see. While some were either stopping to see a monument or just cruising the streets, Phantom couldn't resist working on his leave. He was patrolling rather than taking a relaxed drive.
"Ghosts? Status," Phantom solemnly demanded as he turned right into Police Plaza.
"At the Pier in the Waterfront," Wraith reported. "I can see the Statue of Liberty from here."
"Empire State Skyscraper," Banshee reported. The structure was just the same as the Empire State Building in New York.
"I'm driving along the coastline. The ocean is amazing even in winter," Haunter awed. Being a Koenigsegg CC8S, he is the oldest member and veteran in the team. He's coated in all black.
"Singing Stone Plaza at The Square," Spook stated, following the flow of traffic around the roundabout.
"The Rodent's Gazette," said Specter the Koenigsegg CCXR.
"Seeing Chinatown," Vision the Koenigsegg CCX Edition told.
"I'm being surrounded by paparazzi at Main Street," Shade the Koenigsegg CCXR Edition said, being halted at the infamous stoplight.
"Some mouse is challenging me to a drag race in Rev Avenue," said Spirit the Koenigsegg CCR. Rev Avenue is where most performance cars' showrooms and dealerships are located in the city.
"At the lighthouse," reported Ghost the Koenigsegg CCX. The team was named after him.
"Driving near Agent Thea Stilton's house," Shadow reported. He's a Koenigsegg CCXR Special Edition.
"Cruising in Cuisine Avenue," stated Ghoul the Koenigsegg Trevita.
"What about you, Phantom?" Banshee wondered.
"Patrolling near New Mouse City Bank," he said. See, I told you he couldn't resist working. Even on a leave.
"Patrolling?"
"Just in case anything happens," he replied. New Mouse City Bank is New Mouse City's largest bank. The building was white, had an outside profile of a New York courthouse with columns out at the front and steps to the small entrance, and despite its guards stationed inside and out guarding the bank 24/7 with M4 carbines, it's constantly being targeted for heists. Major heists.
Which Phantom was unaware of at the time. He was remained stationary at a red light at a corner of a three way junction, with the bank at his right. He was fourth in the single file line at the stoplight, the first car in the line was a silver Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid, behind it was a red 2014 Aston Martin Rapide S, and in front of Phantom was a BMW i8.
Just when he thought about leaving his patrol duties and resuming his leave, the bank sounded its loud emergency alarm. Before even a second had past, four mice came bursting out of the front doors. All of them were ski-masked, carrying MP7 personal defense weapons, and one of them had a black duffle bag in his paw.
This only meant one thing. It wasn't an ordinary case of armed robbery, this was a heist.
They scurried down the steps, looking everywhere in desperation for a good getaway car. They're eyes were locked onto Phantom, but he could only seat two. Then there was a second option, the Aston Martin. They set paw on the street and hijacked the four-door sports salon, pulling out a female mouse out of the driver's seat. The one with the bag hopped into the back, while the others into the driver's seat and other remaining spots. They left the mouse behind as they took off in squealing tires, cutting the line and running the red light by driving at the wrong side of the road. Luckily no cars were incoming at the time.
This was when Phantom had to cancel his plan of resuming his leave. He had to do the right thing as a full-time Interpol chase vehicle. He switched to Sport Driving, set his specially engineered Michelin tires to tread themselves to wets configuration, and his active hydraulic suspensions dropped his ride height just to 1 cm ground clearance. All of this was done in a fraction of a second, just when Phantom acted and cut the line like the robbers, maneuvered around the fallen female mouse, and turned on his lights and sirens. Automatically, they were engaged in a Code 3 pursuit.
"Dispatch! This is Interpol chase vehicle Phantom," the supercar identified himself. Don't worry, the NMCPD knew who he is.
"Go ahead, Phantom. What is your situation?" the NMCPD dispatch responded.
"Emergency is taking place, there was a robbery in progress at New Mouse City Bank. Four armed and masked suspects are escaping in a hijacked red Aston Martin Rapide S, with license plates Zulu-Tango-Alfa-six-six-seven-four, traveling dangerously fast, westbound on the Financial District. I need reinforcements from the Street Racing Intervention Division at my location, A-S-A-P!"
"Affirmative, Phantom. Hang tight, backup is en route to your location in a minute."
As he chased down the red Rapide in the narrow streets while his 1200-horsepower V8 propelled him forward with the additional aid of forced induction, he decided to get more help form his teammates and siblings. "Ghosts! We have an emergency. Robbers are escaping in a red Aston Martin Rapide, I need backup to take them down. I'm sending you all the coordinates of my location," he said.
"What about our leave?" said his sister, Banshee.
"THIS IS A DIRECT ORDER. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT DISOBEY THE CODE OF ETHICS!" The Code of Ethics is the code that Geronimo's friend (also my friend), Professor Paws Von Volt implemented into the software of his own smart autonomous car, named Solar. The code is created so that Solar would fight, stop, and prevent crime from from happening, either when it is happening or not. In this case, The Ghosts whose softwares which have the Code of Ethics installed obeyed the code, and went to chase down the felons.
"Ten-four, Phantom. Coordinates received, heading to your location as we speak," Banshee stated, starting to speed in the streets towards Phantoms location.
All of them stopped what they were doing, and went to assist their leader in the chase.
Meanwhile...
New Mouse City Forest Reserve
0927 hours
In the forest, we covered 4 out of 20 miles on foot and paws of the snowy wilderness. While panting as we stayed in the tree linings away from the roads, slowly moving forward as we kept a lookout for dangerous animals and poachers or hunters. The snow was falling much faster, and stronger winds were starting to blow. By then, it was time to record the first log entry of the mission, so I pulled out the GoPro camera from the side pocket of my bag, pulled my mask down and lifted my googles up, pointed the lens towards my face, and started recording.
LOG P ENTRY #1
Me: This is log entry number-one. It's Saturday, February 1st, 2014. (Pant) Time; oh-nine-seventeen hours. (Pant) In terms of progress, we've covered 4 miles out of 20 (pant), and until now we still haven't come across any poachers (crackling sounds). Just now we came across a deer, a normal deer. (Pant) It had an offspring, so not to make the mother feel threatened, we went around them so that the mother wouldn't attack us (crackling sounds). (Pant) In terms of our condition, it's really cold out here. (Pant) And as you can see and probably hear (pant), the snow is starting to fall at a faster rate than when we just embarked, and the wind is blowing stronger and colder. (Takes out phone from pocket) Well, I can't tell the weather by my iPhone because the wilderness's temperature is beyond it's operating temperature. Therefore, it has shut down. The GPS is durable and alive though... Thea! Your GPS has a weather prediction feature, right?
Thea (camera turns to her in the front): Yeah.
Me: What's the weather for now?
Thea: (Takes out GPS from side pocket of backpack) Hold on... (Checks GPS) Temperature; 9 degrees Celsius below zero. Wind speed; estimated 20-30 kilometers an hour. Weirdest thing is, it's snowing faster here than in the city.
Me: (turns camera back to face) Well, (pant) could be worse. In addition (pant), as you can see that I'm panting, well, everyone's panting (swallows saliva), we're really tired from walking four and three-quarter miles non-stop. We're gonna stop for a break when we reach the fifth mile which is about...(checks survival watch)...600 meters ahead, break out some food and hot chocolate, build a fire to warm ourselves, and resume on our mission. Well, this was Junior Agent Danial Arif, signing out.
Meanwhile, back in the city...
1035 hours
The robbers were seen tightly drifting their getaway car to the right from one street into the other at a crossroad as Phantom followed their every move. With Phantom having backup from the NMCPD and his team tailing behind to assist him with the chase, The Ghosts came up with a plan to trap the Rapide.
"What's their twenty, Phantom?" Wraith asked, driving with five other Ghosts and two police Corvettes.
"Their heading up the street, block their path!" ordered Phantom.
"Ten-four."
The rest of Phantom's backup sped to the end of the street where the pursuit was happening, and they all blocked their escape. Or so they thought.
Instead of stopping after the blockade was setup, the driver of the getaway car was keen enough to spot an alleyway at the left side of the street.
"He went around the blockade, go block him in the neighboring street!" Phantom ordered his teammates.
While the blockade J-turned and drove back into the street from they once came with along with Phantom's backup, Phantom drifted into the narrow alleyway to take the pursuit inside it, missing the walls of two buildings by a spec of fur. The Rapide smashed through trash cans, ran over garbage bags and a small, empty, plastic dumpster that flew above the roof of the Aston. Everything that hit the British luxury car hit the Swedish supercar, but it didn't do any significant damage to his self-repairing body panels.
After bursting through a stack of empty boxes at the end of the alley, the Rapide made a right turn back into a street, missing a car that was about to hit them head-to-head by a whisker upon exit. The pursuer which fishtailed stylishly out of the alley, kicking it into low gear to gain more torque and speed.
Phantom turned on his built-in megaphone and ordered the robbers as lights and sirens didn't stop them; "PULL YOUR VEHICLE OVER TO THE SIDE OF THE ROAD! I WILL USE FORCE IF YOU DONT!"
Instead of listening to what the autonomous automobile had demanded, the three of them stuck their bodies out of the windows as they looked backwards with their MP7s while the driver kept attempting to evade Phantom. The masked mice set their sights at the hood of the Koenigsegg, and unleashed a rain of bullets at the car. As they ricocheted off the bulletproof body panels and glass, they were disillusioned by Phantom's ability to fend himself off of the lead projectiles.
As the two cars ran a red light at a crossroad, the rest of the cars involved in the pursuit glided into the street the two were in, tailing behind Phantom.
"Dispatch, suspect vehicle is not slowing down. I'll do a PIT maneuver to try and stop them," Banshee told.
"Proceed with caution, Banshee. Suspects are armed and dangerous," the dispatch warned.
She overtook her brother as all of the speeding cars entered Rodeo Drive going southbound, a street in the north of New Mouse City where the rich normally go to on a shopping spree. She closed in on the side of the rear end of the Aston Martin, attempting to nudge and spin the car out. But, the robbers once again pointed the MP7 out of the window and left a bullet hole in her front left tire, deflating it instantly and making her slow down.
"Shots fired, tire down. Slowing down to re-inflate," she reported to her brothers.
As she moved to the back of the pack to settle her flat tire problem, the rest kept the pursuit going until they reached Swiss Lane, the street where The Rodent's Gazette building is located. Above them all, multiple helicopters from various news stations and from the NMCPD were hot on their trail to get a hot scoop, and to assist the ground units below. Including The Rodent's Gazette helicopter.
Swiss Lane was a narrow street. Two lanes for each flow of traffic. At the junction where The Rodent's Gazette was built at the corner of the street, the V12-powered salon cut the line at a red light by driving on the wrong side of the road. At the same time, an oncoming BMW i3 that turned into the street was about to collide head-to-head with the evading robbers. It stopped just when the two cars were about to crash into each other, but in reflex, the driver swerved left onto the snow on the sidewalk, ground the left side of the car with the brick fence that left a major scratch on the paint job, and ran over a fragile lamp post afterwards, thus bringing it down like a falling tree. The car drove over the fallen lamp post as sparks emitted sourcing from the electrical cables planted in the sidewalk being ripped from the lamp post. The robbers continued to advance forward, leaving the scene.
Meanwhile, Phantom who didn't see what was in front of the Aston before it swerved, instantly braked hard and slowed down drastically to a stop, right before the bumpers of the BMW and his kissed. Banshee who caught up and overtook the whole pack saw what was happening, and took the same path the red Rapide did, and following her was Phantom, then the rest of the cars involved with the Code 3 chase.
They saw the robbers made a left turn further down Swiss Lane, and the Ghost along with a sum of Corvette interceptors sped after them. But when they went to the street to continue the Code 3...
They were gone. Without a trace. There were no tire tracks, no hum of the Rapide's V12, not even another Aston Martin seen along the stretch of the road ahead. They've officially disappeared. All that was there was an empty road surrounded by some tall buildings, and a Shell gas station next to the building at the corner of the street.
"Charlie-5-9, have you got a visual from the air?" asked one of the Corvette units. Charlie-5-9 was the NMCPD air unit.
"Negative. We lost visual of suspect vehicle when we were flying around The Daily Rat," the pilot reported.
They all drove slightly below speed limit, scanning the area as their strobe lights flickered on and off. Phantom declared it when he reported it to the dispatch. "Dispatch, we've lost him! I repeat, WE HAVE LOST VISUAL ON SUSPECT VEHICLE!"
"Attention all units of the Code 3 chase, suspect vehicle was last seen eastbound on Riverside Drive. Suspect vehicle was a red 2014 Aston Martin Rapide S with registration numbers Zulu-Tango-Alfa-six-six-seven-four, set up a containment in a ten-block radius. Call is Code 2, standby for updates," the female dispatch recapped and ordered. A Code 2 means that only lights or sirens are allowed to be turned on. In this case, the lights.
All of them split up at a crossroad, and went to canvas the ten-kilometer radius with a team of cars in each quadrant. Phantom on the other hand, stayed behind at the same street while sluggishly and alertly driving along it, letting the others pass him.
"Dispatch, this is Charlie-Echo-4," he was one of the Corvette drivers, "requesting 10-85, I'm the only one in this quadrant," he requested, ending with a bleep. A 10-85 means that he was requesting for more units.
Meanwhile, Phantom who went lone wolf dropped his speed to 6 miles an hour to scan the area as his suspicions about the place grew bigger.
"Dispatch, this is Charlie-Echo-2. I saw a car with matching description at The Square, I'm gonna check it out," radioed another Corvette unit who just came for the containment. Impossible the robbers could have gotten away far. The Square is 5 miles south from where they were last seen.
"Units of the Code 3 chase, call is still Code 6, advised to check your screens for containment information and location. Standby for updates," said the dispatch with a bleep. A Code 6 means that the chase condition was 'loosing suspect'.
The Shell gas station mentioned had a drive-in car wash behind the convenience store that's faced the road. Little did the ground units of the chase know, the robbers were hiding in there to cool down and to drop some heat. They shut the engine down, turned the lights off and waited for Phantom to drive away. As for the driver of the car, he went out to peek whether the Interpol Special Pursuit Vehicle had disappeared or not.
"This is Charlie-Echo-6, requesting aerial support at my quadrant," squeaked another Corvette unit as Phantom rolled along.
"Negatory. Chopper's low on fuel, we only got a few miles to bail on this pursuit," rejected the pilot.
"Charlie-Echo-2, sending another chopper at your twenty. Stand by," the dispatch informed.
"Roger that," replied the unit.
Phantom who was still unaware of their presence had an intuition as he drove past the gas station. In response to the intuition, he braked into a screeching stop near another stoplight. Glaring blindly at the empty street in front of him, he had suspected something. Something about the gas station. He felt like it was pulling him towards it like a magnet.
The robber was already breaking a sweat when he saw Phantom coming to a sudden stop.
Phantom revved up his 1200-horsepower engine overwhelmingly until a pop of backfire spat out of his center-mounted tailpipe. He was thinking about going to check the place out by the way he steered his front wheels to the left, until...
"Suspect has been confirmed to be escaped. All Code 3 units are to return to your regular patrols while the SRID takes over the canvas," declared the dispatch. The SRID is NMCPD's Street Racing Intervention Division.
Phantom cancels to check out the gas station. He turned his strobe lights off, steered back to straight, redlined, and shifted from neutral to first, leaving a pair of long stretches of tire tracks on the road as he drove away in a burnout.
Meanwhile in hiding, the robbers were relived when the driver broke out the good news. "The coast is clear. We can move," informed the driver.
"But we gotta ditch this car. It's packing to much heat," stated a second robber in the backseat.
"Good idea. I saw a 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 out at the station when we came in. Let's hijack it!" suggested the third robber in the front.
They left the damaged Rapide in the car wash and went up front still masked, armed, and had the bag full of cash with them. They saw the large, silver SUV parked in front of the convenience store with the engine still idling and the doors unlocked. And with the owner in the restroom, they climbed aboard and sped away from station as the owner had just finished using the bathroom.
Meanwhile, in the forest reserve...
1314 hours
We've covered 12.5 miles total from when we embarked. After heating ourselves up by the campfire built using the fire starter kit, ate some energy bars, and drinking some homemade hot chocolate during the rest stop at the 5th mile, we continued to difficultly walk through the thick linings of the forest, enduring the harsh winter cold to keep the species that lived in the reserve safe. Only that time, the weather was much worse when we reached 8th. Thea's GPS showed that temperature had dropped drastically to 18 degrees Celsius (subzero), winds were blowing at 40-60 kilometers an hour, and snow was falling at a very fast rate, blinding our eyes of what was 400 meters ahead. With only the two flashlights Thea an I had on our guns, they weren't sufficient enough to penetrate the fog. Because of that, it slowed both the forest rangers and our team down.
I pulled my mask down. "The weather's getting really bad!" I stated the obvious, shouting to pierce the wind as the it blew the loose parts of our hoodies. "We should look for somewhere to take cover until the blizzard settles down!"
Thea took her mask down. "Where should we take shelter?!" she wondered, yelling and stopping to engage on a discussion. We looked around for a place to get shelter, then saw Geronimo coming out of the snow fog from behind us, then Benjamin. But no sign of Trap and Pandora. We took some steps back to check on them.
"Guys, are you doing okay?! Where's Trap and Pandora?!" Thea asked.
Geronimo brought his mask down. "Benjamin, Trap, and I are fine. A little tired though," he informed, panting. Then he glanced over his shoulder. "I wish I could say the same for Pandora." Then out came Trap from the snowy fog, carrying Pandora's gear and weapon, also carried Pandora in his arms. She was shivering of the cold. Thea and I were shocked upon seeing that she had fallen.
"Oh God! What happened?!" I demanded imperiously.
"She's suffering mild hypothermia. If we don't find shelter fast, she won't survive anytime soon!" Geronimo stated.
Benjamin unveiled the concerned look on his face when he pulled his mask down, panting with mist coming out of his mouth. "We gotta find somewhere to warm her up, man!" he expressed. "She's my best friend, I don't want to lose her!"
The mouseling looked so helpless. We needed to find somewhere to settle until the blizzard clears up before we lose a friend. All of us shifted our heads around desperately, seeing nothing but trees and fog.
"Thea, walkie talkie," I requested, extending my hand at her. She handed my the device from the pocket at the back of her vest, and I contacted the rangers. "Rangers! This is The Crew! Do you copy?!"
"This is Ranger One, loud and clear," he responded.
"Agent Pandora Woz is down, she's suffering hypothermia. Can you check our position on your GPS for a place for us to seek shelter?!"
"Just a sec...yeah! There's an abandoned bear cave just fifty meters west of your position! It's totally safe to take shelter there!"
"Copy that, thanks! Over!" I returned to the group. "Let's move it, Crew!"
We took a speedy walk through the pine trees, burying our feet and hind paws in the snow for 5 inches deep. We saw the cave on our right, with the entrance pointing northwards. It looked like it'd fit the six of us, so we quickly went inside.
Thea and I shined the place with the flashlights on our rifles, discovering that the cave was empty and safe...also cozy. It fit us all, and there was enough room for all of us to stand in. It was dark, and we needed some light to shed the whole cave. What better way to solve the problem than breaking out the lightsabers. Those plasma blades can light up dark places in a radius of 20 meters and they can emit heat as hot as a bucket of lava.
Trap laid Pandora on the cave floor as I took out the six saber hilts, with mine joined. We set our guns and gear down as I activated the lightsabers with plasma blades of random colors and started to put them down one by one in a circle, piling up the blades at the center. Finally, I split the hilt of my double-blader and turned them on, making them join the other sabers. The heat given out was immense, it warmed and lighted up the whole empty cave.
Everyone sat down, lifted up their goggles, folded their hoodies back and gathered around the lightsaber 'fire' to warm themselves up as I was still bending down at my backpack to get the pot and a packet of instant chicken soup I packed. "Okay, everyone. Warm up. I'm gonna fix some chicken soup for Pandora. Meanwhile, I want Benjamin and Thea to hug her as much as you can. You guys need to share your body heat with her. The rest of us...let's just enjoy some more hot coco. And...uh...I guess we'll be stuck in here for a while."
As I teared the packet of soup open and poured every content inside it into the pot, Benjamin and Thea got Pandora to sit and moved themselves closer to the lightsaber pile, each putting an arm on Pandora's shoulder. I took out a portable cooking tripod out of my backpack and set it up on top of the blades, not letting them touch the legs. I then set the pot on the tripod, and let the soup cook.
Meanwhile, Geronimo checked in with the forest rangers. "Rangers, this is The Crew. Do you read?" he started over the walkie talkie.
"Roger. What's your situation?"
"We're seeking shelter in an empty and abandoned bear cave to wait out the blizzard. We managed to build a 'fire' by only rubbing two sticks together," he secreted my status of being a Jedi, "and we're heating ourselves up and aiding our downed team member. Total distance covered, 11 miles. What's your condition, rangers?"
"Total covered distance, 10 miles. The blizzard's slowing us down. We found a log cabin in one of the campsites, and we're staying here until it stops."
"Good news, Over..." He set the device down on the cave floor. "Great. They've found a log cabin while we're stuck in a bear cave," he said, feeling slightly annoyed.
I was agitated when Geronimo was whining about not finding a proper shelter. "Oh, come on, G. I think this cave is wonderful! Plus, if the rangers didn't point out where this was, Pandora could have died in the cold out there."
He looked a little ashamed. "You're...you're right. I should be more grateful. Thank you for slapping some sense into me," he said, overwhelmed with remorse.
The instant soup was all ready boiling in the small pot, so I brought it down from the 'fire' to let it cool, blowing into it. I turned to my backpack to get a spoon, came back to the pot with it and stirred the soup around inside the pot to help it cool.
Pandora who sat while hugging her legs with the other two mice had her eyes opened narrowly, staring deeply into the lightsabers. That meant that she was feeling better although she was still shaking. I took the moment to feed her a spoonful. So I crouched in front of the group.
I scooped some from the pot and held the spoon out in front of Pandora's mouth. "Here, have some chicken soup. It'll make you feel better," I said. She took a look at the soup, then launched her head forward with her mouth open as I inserted the spoon into it.
She gulped down the soup and smiled faintly at me. "Thanks, Dan," she expressed, chewing on a small chunk of chicken. "Thanks to you guys too," she continued, looking at Benjamin and Thea, "...for keeping me warm. Especially you, Benjamin."
"Aw, don't mention it," Benjamin blushed, rubbing the back of his head. "It was no big deal..."
To shut him up, Pandora pouted her lips and gave his friend a gentle kiss on the cheek with a silent smack. That made Benjamin shy away, and his face glow redder. Pandora giggled by his reaction.
I was adored by this stunning feat. I could only smile proudly and stare at the two, unable to take my eyes of them. "Ah, young love. Stay warm, I'll be back with hot coco." I squatted back up, went to my backpack to get the thermos flask which I filled the beverage in and a few small plastic cups, then walked back to the team so they could help themselves to some of the hot chocolate.
I sat next to Geronimo at the cave walls, leaning against it as we both had a cup of chocolate in our grasps. I checked my watch, it showed 1337 hours. I was supposed to record a log entry an hour and a half ago, so it was time to record a late one. I reached into my pants pocket and faced the lens, then started recording.
LOG ENTRY #2
1337 hours
Me: This is log entry number-two, recording at thirteen hundred-thirty-seven hours. We're currently sheltering inside of an empty and abandoned bear cave to heat ourselves up. The weather outside is worsening, with temperatures down low as minus eighteen degrees Celsius, the snow falling at a very fast rate that almost blinded us, and wind speeds up to sixty kilometers an hour, it's a blizzard out there. We were slowed down by the harsh conditions, so we only managed to cover twelve point five miles total with no poachers or hunters in sight. And from the blizzard, one of us had fallen into mild hypothermia. Agent Pandora Woz was carried here by Agent Trap Stilton while carrying all her gear, her weapons and herself in his arms all the way until we got here. So congrats to Trap for that. So anyway (cough), we're currently in the bear cave as mentioned, taking a load off while we wait for the blizzard to clear up, and Agent Woz is now feeling okay by the looks of her face after feeding her some chicken soup. So...uh...I think that's about it. This was Junior Special Agent Danial Arif, signing out.
I kept the GoPro back in my pocket as I pondered aloud; "I wonder what The Ghosts are doing?"
"Aren't they in your garage?" Geronimo interrupted, shifting his head to look at me.
"Not today, I set them free on a leave for the weekend," I clarified. I sipped my hot coco and uttered; "Hope their really on a leave and not in some crime-stopping situation..."
Meanwhile, at the same time...
During Phantom's patrol around the city and as he was halting at another traffic light, he was called to NMCPD's main precinct at 1 Police Plaza, situated 3 miles southeast from The Square.
"Attention Interpol Special Pursuit Vehicle Phantom, you have an urgent call with Detective Corelli Razortail. You are to report yourself at 1 Police Plaza immediately, call is a Code 3," the dispatch radioed. If you don't remember from The Crew's adventure in the Christmas Special, Detective Corelli Razortail was formerly an officer serving in the NMCPD's Street Racing Intervention Division. He was promoted to detective after we, The Crew took down an international underground racing league known as 'The League' during New Year with his help.
Anyway, Phantom was in the north at the Fashion District, so he had to head south. "Copy that, dispatch," Phantom responded. "ETA, four minutes."
Another Code 3, meant that he had to go lights and sirens again. So he activated Sport Driving mode once more, ran the red light and made a right towards the city center as he did a burnout, cutting in front of a car that was on its green light.
He contacted me by my microchip while I was in the bear cave. "What is it, Phantom?" I started.
"Sir, can I trust a mouse by the name of Detective Corelli Razortail?" he asked as he drifted into another street.
"Yeah, he's a detective working for the NMCPD. Why do you ask?"
Then he started to fake about the transmission going bad. "I don't...transmission...losing...over..." That's when the line went dead with static filling my head. He obviously did that so I wouldn't know that he was on duty during a leave. I just scratched my head through my gloves in confusion.
Meanwhile, he made a left turn to the precinct 2 minutes later. With the mid-40s mouse standing outside the glass push doors in a winter trench coat, he turned his attention to the black Koenigsegg with its strobe lights on speeding through the street on its way to the precinct. At the same time, Phantom's camera vision was scanning the detective's face, to confirm that he is who he is. In his HUD, a window displaying Detective Razortail's information popped up next to him in virtual reality.
After making sure that everything about the detective checks out, Phantom parked himself in an empty parking box just in front of the yellow-furred, grey-haired mouse and turned both lights and sirens down. "Are you the mouse I was asked to see?" Phantom asked as he moved into the parking spot.
"Yeah. I'm Detective Corelli Razortail from NMCPD's Street Racing Intervention Division," Razortail introduced himself in his Boston accent. "You must be Phantom, one of Agent Danial Arif's talking cars."
"Yes, that's me. What do I owe the pleasure of meeting you, detective?"
The mouse slowly strolled down the small steps. "It's about the robbery of the New Mouse City Bank at the Financial District. Reports from other officers told me that you were coincidentally at the scene of the crime when it was in progress and you were the first one to respond in the situation."
"Correct."
"Then we'd hoped that you'd help us in this case to bust the robbers. With a computer intellect like yours, I'm sure we could do it together."
"I'm sorry, but I was sent on a free leave of my duties. And my software is programed to obey my master's commands and orders."
Razortail was turned down by the statement. "Well, we tried. Maybe we could just work it out ourselves..." he said, just about to turn around back into the precinct.
"But," Phantom countered, stopping the detective, "in my programming also consists of a code, called the Code of Ethics." Razortail turned back to confirm if what the car said was true. "The code is inserted into my software programming so that I would fight, stop, and prevent crime from happening. Either when it is in place, or when it's not."
"You'll do it?" squeaked the detective with an anxious smile.
"Exactly."
Razortail felt smug. "This is great news! So, where should we discuss? It's not safe to talk out here."
"Climb inside, we'll talk in the cockpit," Phantom proposed. He opened his left dihedral-actuation door, waiting for the detective it get in.
After admiring Phantom's complexity and after going in, the Koenigsegg closed the door back up and darken his window tints until they became completely opaque, letting them discuss in private. In the darkness, lit up the red furnishing lights from all the edges, ridges and curves of the interior so that the detective could see.
"Beautiful," Razortail expressed.
"Let's get down to business, shall we?" Phantom said. "So, tell me what progress have the NMCPD made in tracking down the suspects?"
"For starters, we put out an APB and a BOLO right after Code 3 chase units lost visual. Just a few minutes after the robbers escaped the Code 3, another vehicle theft was reported at a Shell gas station in Riverside Drive," explained the detective.
"That was the location of where the robbers were last seen," clarified Phantom.
"So when a couple of our officers got there to get the owner's statement, one of them went to check the place for clues. Guess what he found in the car wash: an Aston Martin Rapide S that fit the description of the APB. Inside the car: rich with clues and evidence. We found furs belonging to four different mice. Antony, Gordon, Robert, and Luther Ratcliffe. These four brothers were the ones that pulled of the heist at the bank hours ago. But they aren't first time rookies; they're big time pros. They pulled heists in all of Mouse Island's major cities; San Mousisco, Swissville, Cheddarton, and this time, New Mouse City. And we cannot let them get away with another two million dollars of stolen cash!"
"Have these mice been wanted?"
"For a while. Ever since they robbed the Bank of Mouseport back in August, last year."
"So, we have wanted criminals who travel all of Mouse Island to rob major banks. Were their past robberies using 4-door getaway cars?"
"Yeah. They'd use a stolen car, evade us, the cops, ditch the car and steal a new one to lower the heat, and go enjoy themselves wherever they are with the stolen money. And speaking of getaway cars," Razortail pulled out a flash drive from inside his coat pocket, "in here is the footage of the surveillance camera at the gas station," he said, holding it up.
"Insert it into the USB port on the front console so I can watch it," ordered Phantom.
As the surveillance footage played in Phantom's computer mind, he appeared a holographic screen of the footage hovering in front of the front console. So what Phantom sees, the Detective sees.
"Whoa! Fancy!" Razortail commented, feeling awed.
"Don't tell anyone else about this," Phantom requested.
The footage started off at a corner angle showing the rear end of a silver Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 parked in front of the convenience store, idling with smoke coming out of its tailpipe. Then came the four mice, getting into each door the vehicle had, then sped away.
"We managed to get their registration plates off this footage and had another APB and BOLO issued, this time, for the Jeep. We deployed every Corvette interceptor we had to patrol the streets especially areas around Angorat International just in case they plan to flee the island, and we've set up police checkpoints on every road that led to outside the city. So they have no way out. And if we're lucky and if they're stupid enough to drive the same car again, we'll make sure we'll give 'em hell when we engage!"
"Then what am I supposed to do?"
"I need you and your squad to do the same with the Corvettes, patrolling the streets. Because we've seen how you guys work ever since the first time you moved here last September, chasing and taking down bad guys in cars like a pack of fierce bloodhounds chasing meat. And you do things clean, little to no public destruction during your deployments as a pursuit vehicle. Plus, you guys are New Mouse City's fastest pursuit cars the city has ever seen. So when you set sights on the Jeep, you can get a head start. Remember, serve and protect. Try not to endanger the public."
"Roger that, detective. My squad and I will try our best."
"Good, now get out there." The detective taught himself how to open the door, and exited the Swedish auto-beast.
Phantom started up his V8 and reversed himself out of the parking box, then drove away, leaving the precinct as the detective watched him go.
Phantom updated his teammates while rolling smoothly down the street. "Ghosts, time to come back from your leave and begin patrols," he began. "Update on the robbery situation; NMCPD have identified the suspects as brothers Antony, Gordon, Robert, and Luther Ratcliffe. They were last seen at a gas station at Riverside Drive in a silver 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 with registration numbers Sierra-Romeo-Tango-eight. A citywide APB and BOLO has been issued, I'll send the details on your HUDs."
"Details received, Phantom," confirmed Wraith who was driving near the factories of the Industrial Zone. "Orders if encountered?"
"Attempt to pull a 10-96. Call is Code 3 when suspects make break for it. IS THAT CLEAR, GHOSTS?"
"YES SIR!" they all replied.
Meanwhile, in the forest 3 and a half hours later...
The blizzard had eventually stopped, lasting 3 hours. Pandora was no longer suffering from hypothermia, she was all well and warmed up as well as the others. With sufficient energy, we continued on our mission in the woods. We picked up the pace so we could make up for lost time.
Outside, temperatures rose back up to 4 degrees below zero, the winds calmed to 15-25 kilometers an hour, so all was good. Except that the snow on the forest floor was then 7 inches thick resulting the blizzard, slowing us down as we had to take big steps.
I had everyone to carry a lightsaber each, to use as a melee weapon if things get tough.
"Hey Thea!" I called from behind her as she lead in front. "How many miles have we done since we left the cave?"
She stops to check her GPS. "We be covered two and a half miles since we left the cave. We've got like seven and a half more to go."
"What's the time now?" Pandora interrupted.
I checked my survival watch. "Time now is 1730 hours. We won't be able to make another mile when we reach sundown."
We all stopped as Geronimo brought up his point. "But we need to make at least 15 miles before the day ends to cover up for the lost time."
Everyone was silent as I thought of a plan. I glanced at my watch again. "Let's put it this way. We'll stop to camp for the night at 1945 hours. Until then, we walk as much distance as we can. Agreed?" All mice nodded.
We stuck to the plan, picking up the pace with bigger steps. We made 50 meters, until we halted once again when came across a trail of peculiar footprints. Small ones, in fact.
I got Thea's attention by nudging her at her arm. "Look," I began, pointing to the ground. "Footprints."
We all approached the trail. "They look familiar," Geronimo stated, crouching down to examine.
"Let me take a look," Benjamin volunteered, stepping to the front. He got out his weather-durable Ben Pad, crouched down as well, and snapped a photo. "I'm matching this with other samples in a wilderness survival app I downloaded lately. And this print belongs to..." The device beeped as it found a match. "...the Mouse Island Horned Deer."
"They're still fresh. They weren't covered by the blizzard," Thea concluded as Pandora moved past us all.
"So is this," squeaked Pandora, staring at the snow on the ground.
"What is it?" Geronimo asked as we all went to her.
"Another set of footprints. Belonging to a mouse," she added. The prints trailed away toward the north.
I investigated the print to make a deduction. "Size 10 winter hunting boots. He was definitely hunting down the deer," I said. "We're looking for a big guy, probably 180 lbs."
"The deer and the hunter headed north, so..." Pandora brought the goggles that dangled on her neck by a strap to her two eyes, scouring for something northwards of our position.
"What do you see?" Trap wondered.
"I spotted the deer, just standing in one place. It's at an empty field, a hundred and twenty meters away from us," she answered. Then she turned slightly to the right, spotting something by the way she frowned. "And there he is, the hunter. He's crouching and aiming down his scope. Distance; hundred and ten meters, northeast."
Geronimo scoped on the hunter with his marksman rifle to describe him. "Yup, he's a big mouse. About six-feet two, I estimate. And he's armed with a Dragunov SVD," said Geronimo, trembling. The Dragunov SVD is a Russian sniper rifle. It has a high caliber, so if one of us were to me shot by it while not having a vest on, chances are we might die. Especially if it was fed with hollow point ammunition.
"We gotta stop him before another endangered animal dies," I said. "Let's move!"
We took cover behind random trees, closing in slowly on the hunter when I gave the signal to advance to the next cover. In the same time, I mounted my GoPro camera on the top part of my vest by a clip and recorded that whole event as a log entry.
The dark-furred hunter was still trying to get a good aim at the deer down his scope, not noticing that we were taking our time to find more places to hide as we made our approach. We made the closest we could between The Crew and him, nodding at each other as a ready signal to identify ourselves.
Thea meanwhile, asked for instructions from the forest rangers through the radio on how to apprehend the hunter according to how the they do it. "Identify yourself, order him to drop his weapon, and to put his arms up. If he fires, you may use force to drop him," instructed the ranger.
We peeped out and took aim at the hunter. "THIS IS INTERPOL!" I shouted. "DROP YOUR WEAPON AND PUT THOSE PAWS WHERE I CAN SEE 'EM!"
As that scared the deer away, the hunter shifted at our direction and took a shot at us. We hid behind cover as the bullet hit a tree where Benjamin was hiding while the hunter made a run for it. "Shots fired, shots fired," Thea reported into her walkie talkie.
"You may return fire," permitted the ranger.
Immediately before everyone opened fire, I called Geronimo. "G! Tranquilize him!" I ordered.
He came out of cover and crouched while aiming through his scope. "Affirmative. Thea, wind speed and direction?"
She grabs her GPS. "15 to 20 kilometers an hour. Blowing north," he confirmed.
"Perfect..." Geronimo squeezed the trigger and released a feathered tranquilizer dart out of the barrel, achieving a direct hit. Instantly, the runaway hunter ate the snow when he fell to the ground.
"Ooh, right in the left butt cheek. Nice shot, cuz!" Trap commented.
"Suspect is down, I repeat, suspect is tranquilized," Thea spoke into her walkie talkie.
"Affirmative. Do you need transport to bring him into custody?" asked the ranger.
"A helicopter would be nice. Emitting homing beacon for tracking us."
"Ten-four. Dispatching helicopter from Helipad 2 to your twenty. ETA, 60 seconds."
"Roger that, Ranger One."
After the heli arrived and took the illegal hunter away, we resumed to venture further into the forest.
1945 hours
4 miles later
We've managed to cover four miles of ground before we came to a stop. The sun was setting, the skies were darkening, and stars were starting to appear to light up the night of the Northern Hemisphere. The moon wast there though, because it was still in the new moon phase. As it all took place, the two tactical flashlights mounted on the bottom rails of me and Thea's rifles were turned on to shine the way. Though, they didn't satisfy. So I had everyone to activate their given lightsabers to light up our surroundings.
At the moment, we traversed on another empty field near the woods where the blizzard didn't hit. So the now there was just 2 inches thick, suitable enough to pitch up the tents and clear a bit of the snow at one spot to build a fire. You know, if we could find any firewood in the snow.
"What time is it, Danny?" asked Thea in exhaustion after a few hours of walking, holding her green lightsaber in front of her.
I was tired too as anyone could tell by my panting. "Nineteen forty-six hours," I informed after pulling up my sleeve to check my watch. "Distance?"
She took out her GPS again. "We've officially covered sixteen point five miles," she replied, sighing in relief as she tilted her head up with a smile. "We made it!"
Everyone cheered victoriously, holding their lightsabers up.
"Oh, thank Gouda!" Geronimo exclaimed.
"Okay, you guys can drop your weapons and gear, but we're not done yet. We still need to set up camp and build a fire," I stated. "Geronimo? Trap? You think you guys can work together as a team and pitch the tents?"
"We can...if Trap won't be goofing around," Geronimo said.
"Of course we can! And I promise not to goof off this time," Trap pledged.
"Good. While you two get to work, the rest of us will find some firewood," I said.
"Uh, reality check! Have you seen any wood on the snow for the rest of the training?" Thea reminded.
I tried to recall every moment from the whole training for a sight of firewood lying on the snow. Nothing. "Now that I've thought about it, no. Looks like we'll be helping you after all," I said, looking at the two adult orange mice.
"But what will we do for heat and light?" Pandora squeaked.
Benjamin looked at the lightsabers and thought of an idea. "I got an idea!" the teenage mouseling exclaimed. "Everyone! Gather your lightsabers!"
He cleared up the snow at one spot so his plan can continue. It was to collect heat from the lightsabers' plasma blades being together. He told us to bury the hilts in the ground in a circle and tilt the blades towards the inside and let the blades touch, forming a cone. It brightened up our campsite even more, and the way the different colors of the blades mixed looked beautiful in the night.
"Brilliant mind you have there," I praised after executing his idea.
"Thanks," he responded.
We continued to set up the tents and were done 5 minutes later, sitting down around the lightsaber 'campfire' to warm ourselves up, eat to replenish our depleted energy, and just to hang out and bond.
"The stars are really bright at this time of year," I commented, looking up at the sky.
"Pretty, aren't they?" Thea added.
"Yeah," Pandora continued.
"You know what's funny? They sparkle brighter here than in the city," Trap stated.
"It's true. You can't see stars like these back in the city," Geronimo clarified.
"Why not?" questioned Trap.
"The lights in the city are producing light pollution, Trap. The lights of the stars are blocked by the city lights, thus reducing the stars' visibility in metropolitan areas," Geronimo explained.
"You know what will make this moment complete? Campfire music. I just wished that we had brought a guitar," I said hopelessly.
"I think I can make that problem go away," Benjamin cut in. He went into the men's tent which was large to fit all four male members of The Crew. He pulled his backpack out of the entrance and detached a part of it at the back, which he unzipped to reveal a wooden foldable guitar with its neck touching the body. He brought it near to the group.
"So that's why your backpack was twice the width!" I exclaimed. The instrument was given to him as a present for his birthday in October last year by yours truly.
"I'd just thought it would necessary," he said. He then sits back down next to me and unfolded the neck and screwed it into place. "So, who wants to go first? Danny?" he suggested as he looked at me.
"Nah, I'm gonna let someone else get a chance this time," I declined.
"Oh! Let me try! I've got a really good guitar cover," Thea begged.
Benjamin handed his aunt the guitar and she sat with her legs crossed so the guitar could rest on her lap. Her left paw held the neck as the other was for strumming the strings.
"I hope my guitar plucking is still good as it used to," she expected. With a deep breath, she started to pick the melodies of the intro of one of the modern classics, Creed's With Arms Wide Open.
Well I just heard, the news today...
It seems my life is going to change...
I close my eyes, begin to pray,
Then tears of joy stream down my face...
With the absence of drums, I started to pay my laps to create beats for the chorus.
With arms wide open,
Under the sunlight...
Welcome to this place,
I'll show you everything...
With arms wide open,
Now everything has changed...
I'll show you love,
I'll show you everything...
With arms wide open...
With arms wide open...wide open...
2105 hours
After being handed the guitar, I played the melody of Robbie Williams' Better Man and sang solo while The Crew clapped in a rhythm, then it was time to hit the hay. Geronimo suggested that we'd take shifts to stay awake and guard the campsite from wild animals, so I volunteered for the first shift until 2200 hours, then I could get some sleep when it was Thea's turn to guard.
I stared at the beautiful night skyline, admiring the twinkling stars near the lightsaber fire while plucking soothing tunes on the guitar. I realized something then, I hadn't recorded another log entry yet! Not bothering my white HK416 carbine lying in the snow, I pulled out a portable camera tripod out of the pockets on my vest, spread and extended its legs at face level and mounted the GoPro camera to face away from the lightsabers and started recording whilst I continued to pluck the six string of Benjamin's guitar.
LOG ENTRY #4
2047 hours
Me (plucking on guitar): Log entry number four. Time; twenty forty-seven hours. It's nighttime, and as planned, we stopped at nineteen forty-five hours, which is about an hour and fifteen minutes ago. We've picked up the pace to cover up for lost time and go the distance that we were supposed to reach at the end of the day which was fifteen miles, and our team has managed to achieve sixteen point five miles. So basically, this means that we only have like three point five miles to go. Right now, the weather is just a minus three degrees Celsius with blowing winds just up to ten kilometers an hour. So it's not so cold. And as you can see, it's just me out here, taking the first shift to guard the camp from wild animals as the others are getting some shut eye in the tents. I'm armed with my carbine rifle, so it'll be just fine. This was Agent Danial Arif, signing out.
I pressed the record button again to stop, and continued strumming. I deeply stared into the lightsaber 'fire' as if it was the bottomless pit of emptiness in my heart, beginning to start soul-searching. I was thinking of my deceased family again and how much I missed them, especially my beloved young sister, Sarah.
The sad thoughts were cut of by the sound of the tent door of the men's tent being unzipped, escaping from inside was a very loud snoring sound. I looked at the mouse crawling out as my strumming was disturbed. It was Benjamin, he zipped the door up and sat next to me near the warmth of the plasma blades.
"Whatcha doing out here, Benjy?" I wondered.
"It's Uncle Trap. He his constant snoring's making me can't sleep," he stated.
"You're welcome to join me," I offered. "Grab a sleeping bag for my backpack. It's next to the tent."
He went to fetch the camping item and came back, spreading it on the snow and sat on it like a mattress.
"Wait, if you can't sleep, then how's Geronimo sleeping in there?" I asked as my strumming was off key.
"Earplugs. Always bring them around when he shares a sleeping space with Uncle Trap," he answered.
He observed me for a while before breaking the silence. "You're thinking about them, aren't you?" he started, referring to my family.
With a sigh, I answered; "Yeah..." with a heavy heart.
"Sarah?"
"Mostly Sarah..."
He moved closer to me and wrapped an arm on my shoulder. "I feel for ya, Dan. Be strong..."
Then another tent door was being unzipped, this time, the one from the girl's tent. Coming out was another mouseling, Pandora. We turned our heads around as Benjamin released his arm, watching her crawling to us then sat next to Benjamin on his sleeping bag.
"You too, Pandora?" I asked.
"Yeah, I overheard you guys were still awake, so I figured that I might as well join in," she replied.
As a Jedi, I picked up another sleeping bag from my backpack with Force Telekinesis and gave it Pandora so shed have the same level of comfort as Benjamin.
"Thanks," she said. She spread it out on the floor and crawled into it.
"You know what we need? A lullaby. That'll help us sleep," Benjamin stated.
"I think I can help," I said. "But be warned, it's gonna get a little bit emotional." I started to pluck the melody of Let Her Go by Passenger. It wasn't a good lullabye, but I sang what I thought was perfect for the mood. Or my mood at least.
Well, you only need the light when it's burning low...
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow...
Only know you love her when you let her go...
Only know you've been high when you're feeling low,
Only hate the road when you're missin' home,
Only know you love her when you let her go,
And you let her go...
Staring at the bottom of your glass,
Hoping one day you'll make a dream last,
But dreams come slow and they go so fast...
You see her when you close your eyes,
Maybe one day you'll understand why,
Everything you touch surely dies,
But you only need the light when it's burning low...
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow...
Only know you love her when you let her go...
Only know you've been high when you're feeling low...
Only hate the road when you're missin' home...
Only know you love her when you let her go...
Staring at the ceiling in the dark,
Same old empty feeling in your heart,
'Cause love comes slow and it goes so fast...
Well, you see her when you fall asleep,
But never to touch and never to keep,
'Cause you love her too much,
And you dive too deep...
Well, you only need the light when it's burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go
Only know you've been high when you're feeling low
Only hate the road when you're missin' home
Only know you love her when you let her go
And you let her go...
I looked back at the two mouselings, seeing them fast asleep in their sleeping bags. I gazed back up at the North Star, shining brightly down on us as I waited for my shift to end.
Meanwhile, back in the city...
After further planning on strategies with Detective Razortail, Phantom was cruising down Goldmaus Road in the night, where the jewelry stores are located in New Mouse City. He scanned every car that he drove by to find a match of the SUV, but no dice.
"Ghosts, any luck?" Phantom asked as he drove past the jewelry shops.
"I think it's safe to say that all of us haven't found a single trace of the stolen SUV for the past five hours," Wraith reported for the whole squad.
"Hang on a second, I think I see something...no, wait, false alarm," Banshee said while waiting for the red light to turn green. "Proceeding to Rev Avenue."
"Detective?" Phantom called. He joined in the patrol in another NMCPD Corvette C7.
"I'm gonna have to agree with Wraith. I haven't seen another Jeep in hours," he squeaked. "But keep looking. We don't give up."
"Understood," Phantom complied.
Meanwhile, the infamous Ratcliffe brothers were ready to execute their plans of fleeing the city. After splitting the money, they drove along Rev Avenue in the same stolen Jeep to target supercars for a speedy getaway to out of the city. Little do they know, Banshee was just half a mile of their position.
"Why are we here for again, Luther?" asked the youngest of the brothers, Antony, to the eldest of them all.
"Didn't you see the news? The cops have been putting out an APB on this Jeep. It's packing up too much heat. We're here to steal new cars, fast ones if we wanna escape the Corvettes and especially those Koenigseggs," Luther said.
As Banshee turns into Rev Avenue, she detects a sight of the silver sport SUV. She zooms in to confirm, and it was them. Everything was according to description. "Squad, I think I see the car matching the description. I'm gonna go ahead and check it out."
"Ten-four, Banshee," Phantom acknowledged. "Proceed with caution."
At the same moment, the Ratcliffes have fix their eyes on a Pagani showroom. Behind the glass walls inside were four 2014 Pagani Huayras.
"Hey Luther, look! Paganis!" Gordon pointed out.
"What do we say, boys? Wanna steal us some Paganis?" Luther suggested.
"Hell yeah!" Robert the second eldest agreed.
They pulled up at the sidewalk between two trees and exited the SUV, each carrying their own split money in their bags and their guns and waltzed into the showroom like a bunch of, sorry for my bad language, badasses.
The manager of the Pagani showroom was just about to close up shop when the Ratcliffe brothers came in. "What the cheese are you guys doing here? We're closed!" he rudely stated.
"Listen up," Luther started, "keys to these Paganis, NOW!"
The black-suited and spectacled grey-furred mouse knew what was happening to him. He secretly pushed the button under his desk which triggered the silent alarm. "What makes ya think I'm giving up four million dollars worth of cars?" he said.
Immediately, Luther shot a burst of three rounds from his MP7 at the ceiling without aiming, just to intimidate the manager. "Holy cheese!" the manager exclaimed in terror. He ducked down and shielded his face as small bits of plaster fell from the ceiling.
Luther then aims to the manager's head. "I won't ask again," he warned.
"You know what the problem is? You didn't ask at all!" replied the manager.
"What I tell you about that?!" Luther shouted, giving him his second warning.
"Oka-okay! I'll go, alright? Cheeses!" the manager said. He then goes into the back room, where the keys are kept. But he wasn't there to mainly fetch the keys, he stalled some time by pretending that he was searching for them so that the police would get there before the Ratcliffes escape.
He knew who the four brothers were from the issued APB, although masked. To ensure that the cops got the info on who was robbing his cars, he dialed 911 anyway. Even when he did sound the alarm. "You've reached the New Mouse City emergency line. How may I help you?" greeted the operator.
"Hello? I'm in the middle of a car theft situation with the Ratcliffe brothers! They're trying to bail out of the city with fast cars!" whispered the manager.
"Okay, I need to know your location so I could send officers."
"The Pagani showroom at Rev Avenue..."
"So you're the one who pulled the silent alarm?"
Back outside, Luther was beginning to become impatient. "What's the hold up in there?! Hurry up! I haven't got all night!" he shouted.
"Just wait! I forgot where I put them!" the manager lied to stall. "What should I do? If I stall them any further, they'll suspect something!"
"Give them the keys, we'll chase them down. Details on the target vehicles?" the operator asked again.
"They'll be driving two unregistered Pagani Huayras." He wanted to make the chase a a lot easier for the cops and the Ghosts.
"Thank you for your cooperation. Chase units will be en route."
Then, Gordon was about to blow a fuse. "Don't make me come in there!" he warned with a threat.
He hung up in a hurry and grabbed the two of four keys that were only at his right, then he stepped back outside. "Okay, here's the keys. But I can only find two. And please, go easy on 'em, will ya?" the manager begged.
"I said four," Luther growled as his temper was magma hot, making him aim at the showroom manager again. "WHERE THE HELL ARE THE OTHER TWO?!"
The manager was startled by Luther's raised voice. "Look, I'm-I'm sorry," he trembled, "but I can't find the other two anywhere...please don't shoot me..."
The manager's excuse was getting in Luther's fur like a flea. However, he was grateful enough to take the offer and swiped the two keys off the paws of the manager, then tossed one of them to Robert. "Gord, you're with Rob. Tony, you're riding with me."
Meanwhile, the 911 call was responded and all the units including the Ghosts that patrolled the roads were informed of the situation by the dispatch. "Attention all units. We have an emergency call going on at the Pagani showroom in Rev Avenue. Suspects involved are Antony, Gordon, Robert and Luther Ratcliffe, suspects involved in today's bank heist at the Financial District are attempting to leave the city in two stolen unregistered Pagani Huayras. All chase units and the Ghosts please respond. Call is a Code Three," the dispatch radioed, ending with a three-tone beep.
Phantom and his assigned team of Corvettes as planned directed to assist Banshee in chasing down the cars directly as a part of their scheme to spook the Ratcliffes if they tried to escape. Meanwhile, Banshee cut through moderate traffic to get to the scene in the street she was already in as her beacons flashed and strobed blue and red while her sirens wailed. "Roger that, dispatch. I'm just a quarter mile from the scene," she reported.
In the showroom, the Ratcliffe brothers heard Banshee's siren in the distance, getting louder as she got closer. "Boys, quiet for a second," Luther ordered. They focused on the sound, standing still so they can make out what the sound was.
"Sounds like a cop car's siren," Antony identified.
Gordon blew up like a C4 explosive. He then aimed his personal defense weapon at the manager's head. "SON OF A TOMCAT! You called the cops on us, didn't you?!" he spluttered.
"Whoa! I swear to Gouda I didn't call the cops on you!" the manager denied, shielding himself again.
"Easy, Gordon," Luther squeaked, calming down his impatient brother as he pushed the gun down. "We don't want the cops to come after our asses with a murder charge now, do we?"
Gordon sucked in his brother's squeaks. "Your lucky that I'm not a murderer, punk."
"Excuse me, but who's the punk here?" sassed the manager.
"What 'chu say to me?!" Gordon squeaked, feeling cheesed off as he aimed at the manager again.
"Gordon, that's enough! Let's bail before the cops get here," Luther suggested.
He pressed a button on the keys, unlocking a red Huayra's doors as it's alert beeped. Robert pressed his, unlocking a metallic beige Huayra. They hopped in and closed the gullwing doors that almost touched the roof, fired up the pair of Mercedes AMG V12s.
Just a hundred and fifty meters from the scene, Banshee was still gliding through traffic as some of them gave way when they heard the siren. "I see the Jeep with matching description parked outside the Pagani showroom. They're here," she reported.
"Roger that, Banshee. Standby, backup units and the rest of the squad will follow," Phantom informed.
Just when she was approaching the showroom at a hundred miles an hour, the two Paganis crashed through the tempered glass and burnt rubber and raced through the streets.
"I have visual on the Paganis. They've burst out of the showroom an they're heading northbound towards Downtown. Attempting 10-96, standby," she told the other units. She turned on her built-in megaphone and warned; "You can't outrun me! PULL YOUR VEHICLES OVER!"
Being ignored the warnings, Luther and Robert gained more power and torque when they jumped into third gear at 130 miles an hour, into Downtown. Also, joining in the pursuit was Phantom and 4 Corvette interceptors who drifted from another street, chasing side by side as the Corvettes tailed behind. Began Phase One of their plan.
"Suspects aren't slowing down, initiating Code Three pursuit," Phantom declared.
It was then a chase to bring down the Ratcliffes once and for all. They all continued straight, nearly missing cars by half an inch, running a red light and turned to Central Park.
"Suspects are now heading westbound at Central Park, we really need to clear the streets. These guys are driving dangerous," one of the Corvette units reported.
Meanwhile, the Ratcliffes communicated through their walkie talkies. "What do we do, Luther? The Koenigseggs are back!" Robert panicked.
"Follow the plan," Luther replied. "Shake 'em if you can, then we get out of the city through Interstate 104 via Highway 45, then we head to San Mousisco to lay low. If that fails, we split. We'll rendezvous upstate."
"Gotcha..." Robert acknowledged.
Ahead, they saw more flashing strobe lights as they neared the Empire State Skyscraper. They were Spook and Haunter, the two veterans of the squad. They lead a pack of 4 more Corvette interceptor vehicles. They waited at the crossroad for Phantom's signal to engage the two Huayras. They were a part of Phase Two.
The Ratcliffe brothers, knowing they've raised themselves to a new heat, made a swerve to the left while slightly fishtailing. "Spook, Haunter! Engage!" Phantom cued.
"Ten-four," said Spook. As soon as the Huayras past, the pack launched after them and joined the cars that had already been chasing.
"Phase Two has began, suspects are now heading northbound at Ashburry Street," Phantom informed. "Heads up, Phase Three. They're coming your way."
"Roger that, Phantom. Standing by," Wraith replied. He was leading a half dozen more Corvette interceptors with Specter, holding back at Hector Road. Although programed without feelings, the two Koenigseggs revved up repeatedly in anticipation and anxiousness.
The Paganis and the ground units continued speeding towards the north, closing in on the next part of the spooking phases. "Oncoming, Phase Three!" Banshee alerted.
They all sped past the next backup, thus triggering their role in the plan. They shifted into first gear, accelerating into the street and joining in the hot pursuit, totaling up to 20 cars chasing the Ratcliffes.
As for the getaway brothers, they were starting to freak out by the numbers that were pursuing them. "We can't lose 'em, Luther! There's to much heat!" Robert squeaked.
"Plan B, split up!" his big brother ordered. Robert turned right and drove towards the Industrial Zone, while Luther made a left to east of the city.
"Suspects are spooked, they've split. Time to divide and counquer," Phantom announced.
"Roger that," Banshee obeyed.
They split into two groups of tens. Banshee, Spook, Haunter and a sum of 7 Corvettes went after Robert and Gordon while Phantom, Wraith, Specter and 7 other Corvettes were trailing behind Luther and Antony.
Phantom and his division drove Luther and Antony to where the two cars wanted to go; out of the city by forcing him to stay on the route. They approached an underpass at the west onramp of Highway 45, but the road to the rural areas were blocked by police cruisers that lined up along the width of the road. So Luther had to take on the freeway and forget the rendezvous point, and avoid being stopped by the cops. Gordon and Robert had been through the same fate, and took the onramp to Swissville up north.
"Bad news, we can't reach rendezvous! The roads were blocked!" Luther radioed his two other brothers.
"Uh...us too. We're headed up to Swissville," Gordon responded.
"Look, just keep running. We'll meet up wherever we can," he squeaked.
But they we're in for another and final surprise. A few miles later and speeding at nearly 290 kilometers an hour with no traffic, ahead of them was another roadblock that closed up all four lanes, constructed by Spirit, Ghost, Vision, police Corvettes and officers that took cover behind them as they aimed their pistols. Including Detective Razortail. Upon sight, Luther applied the brakes hard enough so they'd stop before they ran into the block. They halted as all four ventilated disc brakes glowed bright orange and hot from the friction.
Luther wasted no time at all to put the Huayra in reverse. "Crap, crap, crap, CRAP!" he swore while reversing.
Before the spinning, smoking rear wheels could even bring them out of the scene, Phantom and his team who deliberately let the brothers pull away a few seconds ahead had shown up from behind and covered any room for them to slip through. Before they knew it, they were already trapped.
"GET OUT OF THE CAR WITH YOUR PAWS UP!" the detective harshly ordered.
"Uh, Luther? I think we're done for," Robert squeaked over the walkie talkie. "They've got us trapped, there's no way out."
"Stand down," Luther responded. "Do what they say, it's not worth risking our lives."
Antony looked at his brother in disgust. "Give up? After all we've been through, we're just giving up?!"
"We're done, Antony. It's time to come clean," Luther replied. Antony faced away in disappointment of Luther's decision.
Phantom popped out his front M134 Vulcan turrets from his fenders and spun the barrels in case someone tries to pull of a dumb move. "It's over, Ratcliffes. Your days of becoming professional robbers are behind you. Surrender NOW!" he demanded.
Luther took a deep breath and sighed it out, then he opened the gullwing door. "Don't shoot! We're coming out!" he shouted, raising his paws as he stepped out. Antony had no choice but to do the same.
"Turn around and on your knees, with paws on your head and interlock your fingers!" Detective Razortail yelled, barking more orders.
The only one slowly following those orders was Luther, taking his time to kneel and rest his paws behind his head to ensure that the police won't shoot him. Antony on the other hand was standing still on the same spot beside the Huayra, looking and feeling as angry and confused as ever.
"Antony Ratcliffe! Turn around and on your knees!" Detective Razortail shouted again.
"Do what they say, Antony!" Luther advised.
Antony didn't want to be taken alive. So he did what he had to do. "He's got a bomb!" he lied as a distraction.
Luther quickly took his winter jacket off to prove that he didn't have a bomb. "I DON'T HAVE A BOMB! DONT SHOOT!" he yelled.
"ON YOUR KNEES, KNOW!" Razortail directed.
Out of the diversion of the cops' attention, he looked up at the interior panel of the gull wing door that was over his head, and saw the MP7 already planted there. All he needed to do was reach for it, which he did.
Luther knew what his little brother was doing, so to avoid stray rounds, he ducked for cover. At the same time, Antony pulled the trigger at full auto, spraying a rain of bullets at the cops randomly which hit one of the officers in the shoulder.
"NO!" Luther shouted.
All the officers and the detective returned fire to put him down, with exception of Phantom because 6000 rounds a minute is a little too excessive.
Mmm, whatcha say?
Mmm, that you only meant well,
Well of course you did...
Mmm, whatcha say?
Mmm, that it's all for the best,
Of course it is...
Mm, whatcha say?
Mmm, that is just what we need,
You decided this...
Mmm, whatcha say?
Mmm, what did she say?
Antony died a dramatic death. Time slowed down as he thudded on his back after being hit by multiple rounds to the parts of his torso, and lied limp on the wet and nearly snowy road with his body covered in so many bullet holes. Luther could do or see nothing of what happened, but cry remorsefully over the sound of gunshots and his brother's demise.
Two officers came out of cover to cuff Luther, while another went to kick Antony's MP7 PDW away and checked his pulse at the neck.
"Nothing, sir. He's gone," said the officer. Razortail who holstered his SIG Sauer P226 hung his snout in failure, when Luther was escorted in front of him on his way to the Ford Taurus interceptor vehicle.
"Hope this was worth his life. This couldn't have happened if you hadn't started all this in the first place," squeaked Razortail, making Luther drown in regret. He was continued to be escorted to the car, got in the backseat, and was taken away to the precinct.
Detective Razortail returned to his Corvette to radio the dispatch. "Dispatch, get EMS on scene. We've got an officer down at Highway 45 east, near Interstate 104...uh...make that two ambulances. We've got a dead suspect."
"Copy that. ETA, 5 minutes," responded the dispatch.
Meanwhile, the other two brothers northwest of their direction had the same fate. "Banshee to Phantom, suspects are in custody. I repeat, suspects are in custody," she reported.
"Ten-four, Banshee. Great job everyone, mission accomplished," Phantom congratulated.
The detective approached Phantom with his paws in his pocket. "We did it, detective," Phantom declared.
"No, you didit," he said with a different thought. "If we, the NMCPD, didn't call for you and your squad's help and without your logically well-thought plan, we could have never accomplish such a feat. We've been hunting down these brothers of bank robbers for months, and now they can be brought to justice."
"It was never a problem, detective. We were only doing jobs," the smart car replied with modesty.
"Well, now that your part is done, it's time to do ours. Cleaning this mess up. You can leave to resume your...leave or, stay here and be interviewed by paparazzi which is my job."
"Going home would be fine," Phantom proposed.
"Heh...alright. EY! I NEED ALL O' YOU TO CLEAR THE WAY! THE GHOSTS ARE PREPARED TO LEAVE!"
With the Corvette blockade moved, the six cars of the the division went straight back to the mansion, while going Code 3. "Ghosts, time to call it a day. Return to quarters, our mission is done," Phantom declared.
"Ten-four, see you there," Banshee acknowledged.
The following morning...
New Mouse City Forest Reserve
Sunday, February 2, 2014
0910 hours
We packed up and moved out at sunrise about two hours ago during Geronimo's shift, had some carbohydrate bars as a minor breakfast on the go, and drank the last few cups of hot coco. Sure, the snow on the ground was then 8 inches thick, but hey! Look on the plus side, temperature was just -3 degrees Celsius, and windspeed was only at ten kilometers an hour.
At the last mile, we decided to follow the trail to our final checkpoint, which was a wooden lodge at Helipad 1. We only had a quarter mile left, so we tried to pick up the pace. "Thea, how much more distance have we got?" I asked.
She then checks her GPS. "Four hundred meters. The lodge should be at our twelve o'clock," she stated.
"I see it," Benjamin interrupted while scouting ahead through his binoculars.
"Alright then, let's move," I said.
It took us about five minutes to make the length to our finish line. We saw the ranger stationed at the lodge looking around for us in front at the porch as he held a wooden rifle. Beside the lodge, there was the helipad occupied by one of the forest rangers' helicopters. That was our transport home.
We all shouted out and waved our arms around to get the ranger's attention. He seemed to hear our call by the way his ears twitched, then twisted his head towards us. "There you guys are!" he responded. "I was wondering where you were!"
"Well, we made it. Safe and sound," Geronimo concluded, walking ten meters to the lodge.
"Woohoo! We did it! We passed the survival training!" Benjamin victoriously yelled.
"So, one hunter?" the ranger said as we made our way to the porch.
"Eeyup..." I replied. "What about the rangers?"
"Three. You'd be surprised how much deer live in the northern parts of the reserve," he stated. "Alright, enough chit chat. I've s'mores inside and made hot coco for all of you. C'mon in!"
A half an hour went by, and we boarded the chopper and flew off for The Rodent's Gazette. In the middle of the helicopter ride, I recorded another log entry with my GoPro.
The Arif Estate, 107 Richmond Drive
Few hours later, 3.34 p.m.
After Thea dropped me off at the front stoop of my mansion, I walked inside with all my gear on my back, my weapon carrying bag on my hand and the outfit I wore by a hanger on the other. By the time I got to the couch in the living room, I got so tired and just let everything down on the floor, and then proceeded to throw myself on the white, Italian leather couch.
"Phew! I'm beat," I said, lying down on the couch.
"How was the survival training, sir?" asked J-Son.
"Just fine. Pandora nearly died out of hypothermia, but she's fine. One hunter arrested, that's all I think." I turned on the 70-inch flatscreen smart TV that was mounted above the mantle of the fireplace.
Just before I was about to enjoy an episode of BBC's Top Gear, an alert pop-up appeared in the HUD of my eyesight. It said; "incoming transmission from Phantom."
I touched my right temple to respond. "Yeah, Phamtom?" I began.
"Um...sir? I have...we...have...something to confess," he said, sounding a little guilty.
"What is it?"
"When you let us free to roam the city on a leave yesterday, we didn't quite actually went on for a leave."
"What'd you do, then?"
"I came across the Ratcliffe brothers, in the middle of a robbery in progress. We had to take them down so, we resumed our duties and had to forget about the leave for the whole day."
"W-w-wait, you guys took down four mice wanted by all of Mouse City's police departments by yourselves?" I was so surprised, it left my jaw wide open.
"We're really sorry sir..."
"Sorry? For what?"
"You're not crossed with us?"
"Crossed? What are you talking about? I'm proud of you! You took down four of Mouse Island's hunted mice without my single command!"
"But we disobeyed your direct order."
"Order? Going on the leave wasn't an order, Phantom. I was just giving you guys some time for yourself!"
"Oh, so you don't mind if we attended an award ceremony? The mayor wants to give us a praise for our service, and being the first group of smart autonomous cars to take down wanted criminals without any command."
"Nope, and I might as well cover it because this is a piece of news I wouldn't wanna let go. I'm gonna call The Rodent's Gazette and tell Geronimo about this. Anyway, congratulations, fellas!"
"Thank you, sir."
The Rodent's Gazette/City Hall, Downtown
Monday, February 3, 2014
9.30 a.m.
It was time for the award giving ceremony at the city hall to start. The camera crew with anchorwoman, Serena Tomahawk, was about to cover the event live while the rest of us stayed at the studio for the morning news. The ad we ran was about to end, so I initiated countdown to broadcast because I was the producer.
"We're going live in five, four, three, two!" I shouted.
Geronimo (camera focuses to Geronimo): Welcome back to The Gazette News At 9. And now, for a special event, we bring you a live broadcast from City Hall with correspondent and fellow colleague, Serena Tomahawk. Serena, can fill us in?
The visual editors switched feeds to Serena at the city hall while I cued the cameramouse at the scene that they were on air.
Serena (with Ghosts on stage and flashing lights in background, Mayor giving speech): Thank you, Geronimo. Now, here's to the viewers at home that's been dying to know what this is all about. Well, this is an award ceremony dedicated to the cars that brought the infamous Ratcliffe brothers to justice with the help of the NMCPD. Yes, you heard it right, cars! These are the first group of smart autonomous cars to ever take down criminals without command from anyone. They call themselves the Ghosts, an elite squadron of Interpol Special Pursuit Vehicles. The squad's leader known as Phantom was the one who thought of the plan of how to apprehend the Ratcliffes with help from Detective Corelli Razortail of the NMCPD. And a little bit of fact, these cars were manufactured by the Swedish automaker, Koenigsegg, and each are at a market value of over a million dollars. They were fine-tuned in aspects of performance, weapons and defense systems probably by Interpol for high-speed chases (yes, she knows that I own them and I was the one who fine-tune them). So street racers out there, beware. You wouldn't want these cars on your tail. And it appears that Mayor Fredrick Fuzzypaws is done with his speech, and now he's starting to place the Badges of Gratitude and Achievement onto the bumpers of the Ghosts. (Serena steps aside, camera zooms into stage)
Mayor Fuzzypaws: It is with great honor that I present you these badges to show our thanks for your service in New Mouse City. (Sticks badges onto Ghosts)
Phantom: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. It is a pleasure to fight crime in this beautiful city, and make sure that the beauty is not morally polluted by criminals. (Crowd applauses)
Mayor Fuzzypaws (turns to Detective Razortail beside him): And to Detective Corelli Razortail, for the arrest of Mouse Island's most wanted criminals, I award you with the Medal of Honor. You made our nation proud.
Razortail: I wish I could make them even prouder, Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Fuzzypaws: Maybe you can. You have been serving in the Street Racing Intervention Division for quite a while. For that I award you with your own personal unmarked Corvette C7 Stingray. Use it to rid the roads of speeders. (Yellow Corvette drives in, camera zooms out)
Serena (camera focuses back on Serena): There you have it, folks. The new heroes of New Mouse City. This was Serena Tomahawk reporting from City Hall, back to you, Geronimo.
10.10 p.m.
10 minutes after broadcast
"Well Danny, your cars have certainly made you proud, haven't they?" Geronimo said as he and I both walked the hallway to his office.
"They surely have," I agreed, feeling pleased. "They're like my children, and what kind of parent wouldn't be proud of their children's achievements?"
We waltzed through the door and entered the office, seeing only Trap and Thea talking to each other while Benjamin and Pandora was at school. Thea as usual, sat on Geronimo's desk. "Another successful broadcast!" I announced.
"As usual with you as producer," Thea commented.
"Oh...you!" I blushed, throwing my hands at her direction.
"So, all of our correspondents are out on the field for a scoop, we just have wait for them to come back," Geronimo stated.
"Squeaking about correspondents, shouldn't you be out at the field, Thea?" Trap questioned.
"I was just about," she replied.
In the middle of the conversation, another transmission signal came into my chip. It was Phantom according to the popup alert on my HUD. "Excuse me guys, I've got another transmission coming in from Phantom," I informed all the mice in the room. Then I held my temple to respond. "Yeah, Phantom?" The others kept quiet and observed.
His engine was whirring at high volume in my ear. "Sir, we've got a speeder in a Ferrari 458 Speciale on Highway 45 and is running, permission to engage!" he said.
"Uh..." I responded as I shot a look at Geronimo. In turn, he shot me back with an intrigued face expression. "Do whatcha gotta do, Interpol Chase Vehicle Phantom. Lead your team."
"On it, sir," he replied. With a high rev from his engine, I terminated the transmission.
I let go of my temple as Thea asked me: "What was that about?"
"Phantom and the Ghosts came across a speeder in a Ferrari 458 Speciale on the way home. They're now in a pursuit, if you ask me."
Then Geronimo's iPhone which he left behind during the broadcast rang on his desk as it vibrated. He got his paws on it and answered. "This is Geronimo Stilton..." he introduced. "Yes, Alex?" Alex was one of the correspondents. "A warehouse is on fire in the Industrial Zone? We'll be right there."
"A fire?" Trap wondered.
"Yes Trap, and we're called to cover the scoop. Danny, get the camera," he ordered, getting a microphone from one of the drawers of his desk.
After getting the camera from one of the chairs in the office, Geronimo, Thea and I rode the elevator down to the basement, hopped into Geronimo's Cadillac and drove off to the scene of the fire.
The End.
A/N: If you guys have any suggestions for my next fanfic, please feel free to message me about your ideas. It will be very much appreciated.