Thrill of death
Carl stood on a high cliff near Easter Basin airport, his heavily modified stunt plane nearby, its' engines ready for take-off. In the ex-gangsters' hand was a small remote, adorned with only a single button. He knew he was being watched constantly. He was all too aware of the fact that if he so much as pushed this small red button, dozens of lives would be extinguished and the full fury of the state police and army would fall on him like a million tons of lead. But memories floated up in his mind of everything he'd lost, the friends who'd betrayed him for cash and drugs, the family members who'd bled their lives out on the tarmac of Grove Street so that the GSF might survive. All had come to nothing. His possessions had been passed on to the Four Dragons' Casino, with enough kept aside to persuade Zero to modify this stolen stunt plane. Despite its' cobbled together appearance, it was now equipped with at least forty flares, missile warning systems, a larger tank of fuel, and rudimentary weapons. Carl hesitated briefly; it wasn't the fault of the civilians on the freeway that his gang had degraded into chaos and murder, that his brother had been so uptight about taking on the Ballas that everything else had ceased to have meaning. However, the Ballas were mostly to blame for everything he'd suffered for, and right now, right and wrong were at the back of CJ's mind. Right now, he didn't care whether or not some jubilant civilian was going to the hospital to see their newborn relative, or that a young couple were spending time together in the back seat of their car with a blatant disregard for protective measures. Right now, he wanted to lash back at the world that had caused him so much pain, and cause as much pain as he could before he passed on to the next world. Right now, he wanted REVENGE.
And he didn't care who suffered whilst he was getting it.
His thumb pushed the button in.
Light from the freeway suddenly intensified as a column of fire and smoke blossomed upwards like some bizarre flower. Even at this distance, he could see cars plummeting to the ground below. After some ten seconds or so, the noise of the blast reached his ears, thinned out and weakened as it came, but still loud enough to be heard easily. Behind him, two flares burst into life, signalling to the police where he was. CJ looked at the ruined freeway, where death stalked the smashed hulks of cars and cracked concrete, where confused and terrified citizens were grievously hurt and dying by the score, where already, a dozen people had passed away into the next world. The fire seemed to dance in CJ's eyes in spite of the three kilometre gap between the killer and the killed, and an immense rush of satisfaction filled his chest, and a grin slashed across his face. Already he could hear the wails of distant sirens as the emergency services leapt into action, but another set of sirens could be heard much closer to him. Turning around, he saw three patrol cars tearing up to the hilltop, their red and blue lights blazing as they came. CJ dropped his left hand to his belt and lifted up a gun, silently contemplating the weapon as the cars stopped. Six police officers exited their vehicles and yelled for him to drop his weapon. In four seconds, every single one of them was dead, shot neatly between the eyes by CJ before one of them could think to counter against the insane gangster. CJ made to walk up to the police cars, thinking to maybe scavenge the weapons for himself, when the whirring of a helicopter filled the air. He turned back towards his plane, firing a careful shot at the fuel cap of one of the police cars. A deafening explosion lit up the sky, followed by two more as the other cars went up in flames. A flashlight landed on CJ as he climbed into the cockpit of his plane, and a voice, amplified by a megaphone, yelled into his ears.
"…and alert Easter Basin Naval Base we'll need them to launch Hydras! You! Stop!"
CJ made to pull down the canopy when gunfire erupted around him from the helicopter. The bullets rattled against the stunt plane's hull, but the craft held. CJ gave a gasp of pain when one bullet breezed past his knee and cut a furrow into his left leg. Slamming the canopy down on top of him, he opened up the engine and felt the plane move rapidly across the ground, lurching as it cleared the small ridge over the cliff. Pulling up, he quickly managed to level off and banked sharply to his right. The helicopter was still hovering over where he'd been, the flashlight now dull. CJ pulled a wire from a console labelled 'Power' and plugged it into the small board labelled 'Weapons'. He armed the minigun, and let out a burst of fire even as he turned to fly over the harbour. Even all the tinkering in the world wouldn't change the fact that this was a lightly built acrobatic plane, not designed for combat of any variety. As he sped away, he slowed down, going just fast enough to stay airborne. After a few seconds, CJ turned and brought the helicopter back into his view. It was damaged and trying to set down in one piece. Dark smoke poured from the back section, seemingly where CJ had hit. Satisfied that the helicopter would pose no more threat, CJ turned away and flew over towards the ruined freeway. As his plane drew closer, he saw signs of activity on the docked aircraft carrier in Easter Basin Naval Base. Ignoring the military personnel, he tilted the aircraft's nose down, the better to look at the damage his bomb had done. A gaping hole had been blown out of the right side of the freeway, but the left side seemed undamaged. Fires blazed on and around the freeway, and the bright lights of the emergency service vehicles flashed, although CJ's cockpit was not entirely devoid of light itself. CJ levelled off, when a sudden beeping alerted him of a more present danger. The icy claw of panic clutched his heart as, by more luck than judgement, he snap-rolled and accelerated to the left, away from the huge buildings near the freeway. A missile, no doubt launched from the aircraft carrier, rushed past him, not ten feet away, curving in to intercept him on a fatal collision course. CJ calmed down and opened his throttle to full, speeding over the city with his deadly pursuer in tow. He had no idea how much fuel a missile carried, but he guessed that he could out-manoeuvre this one until it self-destructed. Beneath him, the city flashed past until he was in more rural country. He idly realised he was heading towards Mount Chiliad, and that he had lost his mechanical pursuer. Grinning, he flew on towards the peak of the mountain, climbing upwards. CJ was so lost in the exultation of having dodged the missile he was shocked to see a pair of Hydra jump jets heading towards him. Hastily levelling off, he opened fire on the rapidly approaching fighters, with little to no noticeable effect. Dog fighting in a cobbled-together stunt plane was a fancy term for a humiliating death, and these advanced jump jets could outrun him on only half throttle. However, CJ had one advantage. The stunt plane could snap-roll and evade missile fire much easier than the two Hydras could, although the Hydras would be unlikely to come under any missile fire from his plane. Deciding to try the smaller plane's agility in the air, CJ accelerated towards the peak of Mount Chiliad. Behind him, the two Hydras swerved to acquire missile locks. In seconds, CJ was above the mountain and climbing fast. Beeping sounded from his cockpit as one of the Hydras fired at him. Glancing at his radar, CJ snapped into a dive just before the blip representing the enemy missile merged with his plane. One of the Hydras shot on upwards, the other turned to match him in a dive. CJ smirked as the peak of Mount Chiliad rushed up towards him, and barrel-rolled out of his dive and back into normal flight a mere hundred feet above the plateau on the mountaintop. Behind him, the diving Hydra didn't fare as well, and clipped a tall tree with its' left wing, sending the military jet into a spin, smoke pouring from the fuselage as it fell to the rocks below. CJ smirked as the crippled Hydra exploded, almost not noticing as the other Hydra opened fire with machine guns. Many of the shots missed, by a narrow margin or a wide one, but a few scored direct hits on the crimson stunt plane. CJ spat a curse as he began to go into a series of evasive manoeuvres, but the second Hydra seemed determined to finish him off. Almost settling on the mountaintop as CJ dived towards the rocks below, the Hydra casually let fly with three missiles. CJ's missile warning system was going crazy as the three deadly pursuers gave chase. Even with his best dives, rolls and evasive flying, the three missiles continued to edge closer and closer. Deciding to try his luck one last time, CJ opened the engine up all the way, roaring up into the darkening sky. Behind him, the nearest missile was a scant forty metres away. CJ gritted his teeth, hoping he could outrun the missiles until they self-destructed. Realisation hit him like a battering ram. At this height, and this proximity, if the missiles DID explode, his plane would get hit by the shockwaves. Perhaps not destroyed, but enough to make the descent very unpleasant, perhaps even fatal. Although he didn't plan to live for long as it was, he didn't want to die in a nosedive on the ground below. Just as he started to bank right and dive in a corkscrew, all three missiles exploded at once, practically kicking the stunt plane a dozen metres forward. Carl clenched his fists painfully tight around the joystick, and just when he dared to think things were going right for him, the engine groaned, sputtered and went completely flat. CJ managed to turn his nosedive into less of a steep angle, but he was plummeting to earth at a gobsmacking speed. After six seconds, the engine coughed back to life, and CJ was able to pull out of the dive, but by then the Hydra was marking him closely, staying within a hundred metres of CJ. No matter what evasion CJ tried, the Hydra stayed on his tail, not firing, but not letting the stunt plane out of his sight. Another pair of Hydras descended out of the sky, and formed up behind the first. Already, the four planes were over Easter Basin, CJ veering towards the desert landing strip he'd once owned. Glancing at his fuel supply, he saw he had enough left for another hour or so. As he glanced irritably at his radar, a fifth blip appeared from the direction of the desert. CJ frowned and looked up. Already, in the far distance, he could see a smudge of a helicopter flying towards the bay. Behind him, the three Hydras kept their mark on him, and taunting him with idle missile threats. CJ flew towards the enormous Garver Bridge, noticing that the helicopter had changed course and was moving to intercept. He sighed and began to slow down as much as he could, the Hydras following suit. Just as he flew over a cargo ship in the bay, a line of bullets lanced out in his general direction. Behind him, he could feel the buffeting from the explosion as one of the Hydras was destroyed. Over his radio he could hear Zero's voice.
"Hey Carl, looks like you picked up some company there!"
"Zero? What the fuck you doin' out here man, I told you to keep away from alla this shit."
Despite his irritation at Zero's interference, he began to hope maybe he wouldn't die. Zero was flying a Hunter, a large military helicopter armed with heavy guns and rocket launchers. There was another burst of machine gun fire, and the two remaining Hydras peeled off, one badly damaged and only staying airborne through its' jump jets. Zero's Hunter hovered over the cargo ship as CJ turned his plane around.
"So what's the plan Carl? What are you trying to destroy?"
CJ was utterly thrown by the question. What was he going to eliminate? What target was worth all this pain and suffering? As he finished the turn, his eyes fell on the aircraft carrier in the military base.
"Zero, are you gonna stick with me on this one homie?"
"F-for sure Carl, until the end. What's your target?"
CJ lined up his plane and began to empty the minigun's barrels into the side of the distant aircraft carrier. He accelerated and made a flyover of the aircraft carrier, dropping flares to distract the heat-seeking missiles.
"Our target homie, is that big mother fucker down there. How many rockets you got?"
"Eight rockets Carl. Can you take out those missile turrets? This copter's got no flares."
Even as Zero approached the aircraft carrier, soldiers on board the ship began to shoot at the encroaching Hunter. Bullets rattled off the helicopter's hull, but Zero kept on coming. Two rockets ignited and flew into the ship's side, blowing a small chunk out of the carrier's hull. Klaxons began to blare as the ship sustained damage, and the few soldiers not thrown off their feet or killed in Zero's attack redoubled their fire on the Hunter. CJ zoomed past overhead, spraying the deck with fire. A concealed turret opened up on the deck and began to add to the troops trying to shoot down Zero. Somehow, Zero was either suicidal or far braver than CJ remembered. No matter what happened, he held his position and fired his six remaining rockets into the ship's hull. By now the damage to the warship was so great, it had begun to tilt, showing that it was taking on water. CJ veered around for another pass on the deck, when Zero's Hunter began to give off thick, black smoke. CJ hastily grabbed his mike and spoke to the Hunter.
"Zero, you gotta bail out man!"
Static filled the response, but most of the words came through.
"…great fighting…you…this, Carl. Just…the prototype…baron."
Mere seconds later, the Hunter exploded, showering the aircraft carrier with red hot debris. CJ sighed, and began a final line up on the aircraft carrier. His revenge would not cripple the Ballas, but it would certainly be a huge blow to the authorities that had made his life hell. He aimed the plane at the damaged aircraft carrier and accelerated.
On the other side of Easter Basin, Zero watched as Carl's plane exploded on impact. Although it was dark now, the fireball from CJ's death run lit up the area, and already emergency helicopters were assessing the damage done. Zero raised his binoculars and looked long and hard at the listing carrier. Whether or not it would go down, he couldn't say, but he knew that CJ had dealt the police an enormous blow. He put his binoculars down and threw a control panel into the water, from which he'd controlled the Hunter CJ had once possessed, and watched the small box sink into the depths.