MASK Legacy Saga 3: The Fallen Part 2

Chapter 12

Author's Notes: Thanks everyone, even my co-author Darcy, for the reviews. Their always good means of inspiration for us both, so please keep them coming. To celebrate the 4th of July and this author independence from her parents. We're gonna have something better then fireworks, but your just gonna have to read below to find out. Enjoy/And please read and review.


"Same old song and dance…" Vanessa muttered under her breath as she turned Manta just enough for Condor's anti-matter blast to barely clip her left wing tip. "You'd think he would have gotten the point and given up the chase a long time ago…"

A laser blast came across her windshield from the right and she was forced to dodge again before Firefly hit her engine. "All right, this is really getting old…" She slammed the radio's comm. button and yelled at Roxanne, "How much more of this crap do I have to put up with before your wonderful plan kicks in!"

"Miss Roxanne needed to leave unexpectedly, but don't worry, I'm engineering the world's biggest fly swatter as we speak…"

"Oh Good Lord!" Vanessa cussed. "I don't need help from a sniveling idiot like you! Go back to your damned bootlicking and let me handle this my way!"

She scanned her side mirrors to find Condor still hovering to her left, and Julio in Firefly, sticking her literally with glue, on her right side. On instinct, she looked down to find she had circled above a familiar flame streaked motorcycle, sitting idle in the middle of the desert. She could barely make out the black and burgundy clad outline of her daughter huddling against the rear of the bike with a long rifle in her hand. Vanessa couldn't help a sadistic chuckle as she aimed her missiles.

"Hey Turner, maybe you should change your daughter's name from Annie Oakley to Sitting Duck!"

"What!" The comment took Brad totally by surprise, until he looked down to see two of Manta's missiles bearing down on an immobile Phoenix. Oh Dear God…she didn't!

"DAMN YOU, VANESSA!"

Brad's only reply from the radio was static, and he didn't waste any time pounding on it further.

"Brad, I'll take care of Vanessa, stop those missiles!"

He never heard Julio's radio reply, he simply sent Condor into a swan dive and fired two anti-matter blasts toward Annie's bike.

Julio honored his word, when he continued to fire Firefly's frontal tripod laser ray at Manta. Several shots were dodged by Vanessa's cunning flying. Yet the purple sports car shook violently as one of the laser blasts hit the back wheel, which acted like a jet turbine on the right wing.

"He's still back there," Lester opened his mouth forgetting Vanessa's golden rule of no talking.

"NO SHIT!" She shouted as she noticed her turbine was smoking. "I still might be able to out maneuver him."

Julio noticed Manta was gaining altitude, "That's not very bright Vanessa. You're not going to get very far on one turbine." He was ready to follow her until her vehicle was forced to make an emergency landing, but without even touching his controls Firefly forcibly dived forward into an uncontrollable spin. Both his hands pulled up on the stick, but the controls were not responding. Sweat dripped down his face and his breathing hasten as he saw the point of no return getting closer. There was one last thing he could do, but that would mean the death of his long time friend. Julio hit the eject button and the seat came flying out of the rocket glider. The chair slowly parachuted towards the ground. While below Julio's dangling feet was a wreck Firefly soon to burn out it's last light. "This is not how I wanted to end our final run, but I know you'll forgive me old friend." He mentally saluted as he watched his vehicle go up in a blaze of glory.


Annie had following the radio transmissions intently, listening for anything that might help her get her bearings or provide any clues as to Roxanne's location. She sat stiffly behind Phoenix, rifle in hand, ready to shoot at a moment's notice. Unfortunately, the rifle was not going to be any match against the missiles she saw heading straight for her. Instinct was the only thing that made her sprint away from the bike at her fastest possible speed, curling up into a tight ball as she dove for what little cover the desert sands provided, activating her mask in the process. She spared a glance toward her previous location, expecting to see a pile of wreckage where her bike had once been. Instead, she saw a brilliant anti-matter fireworks show as Condor's blasts disintegrated Vanessa's missiles. An expression of relief spread across her face, once the oncoming danger had dissipated sparing her bike from being scattered all over the place. "WAY TO GO DAD!" She shouted in a jubilant cheer. Her sudden smile drifted from her face as she noticed Condor was still swan diving towards Phoenix, "PULL UP! PULL UP!" She shouted half expecting him to hear her. She stood there trembling as she hopelessly watched the bike fall closer to the ground. Not your bike too! Without even realizing it she cried out to the top of her lungs, "DADDY!"

Brad Turner was cussing with frustration under his mask. He just successfully stop on oncoming missile fired at his daughter, but now his helicopter/motorbike engine had stalled. "Come on baby, you've never failed me before," Brad spoke nervously to his bike as he turned the engine key on and off, while Condor freefall from the sky. If it were just the propellers causing the trouble, he could change Condor back into a motorcycle and make a semi safe landing. Without the motor running, he was falling straight to his death. "That parachute I always refused to wear is looking mighty good at the moment."

Manta was slowly losing altitude, while these events unfolded. "Watch where your flying?" Lester screamed as Manta grazed the top of a palm tree.

Vanessa didn't respond to him, instead her eyes were also on Condor. She had expected Brad to stop the missile with no hesitation at all, but why wasn't he pulling up. What the hell do you think your doing Turner? Trying to get yourself killed! She soon realized she had her own landing to think about, but somehow it seemed unimportant in the face of the scene unfolding before her.

Within an instant that felt like slow motion thought Annie's eyes, Condor crashed directly into Phoenix. The two bikes intertwine and burst into flames.


Back at Outlaw control station, Nash Gory screamed with frustration and banged his foot on the ground, "IT'S NOT FAIR! I wanted to play with him for bit and the bastard had to stall his own engine before I even get a chance!"


The smoke emitting from the fire was so thick she couldn't see her father's body anywhere. Moments before the two MASK vehicles had collided Brad had taken a leap of faith several feet up in the air. Annie wondered if he was all right and if he was conscious. A jump from that height at such high speeds could still cause considerable damage to the human body. She activated Firewall and began a slow and deliberate search for her father's body, trying to keep what little composure she had left as the smoke and flames dissipated around her. Annie caught a flash of yellow out of the corner of her eye and dashed over to where Brad's body had fallen safely from the twisted wreckage of their two bikes. She knelt down beside him, first removing Hocus Pocus, and then her own mask so that she could have a better look at his injuries. Thank you, God, she sighed in relief, as she reached and found a steady pulse at the base of his neck although he was totally unconscious. It looked like he landed hard on his right side; his right shoulder seemed to be disjointed, and his right leg was turned at an ungodly ankle, probably broken.

"Dad? Can you hear me?" She brushed her hand against his forehead in hopes of a response, but she didn't receive a reply. She tried again, but to no avail. "Come on, Dad, wake up!"

A few unwanted tears fell from Annie's eyes as she bowed her head, trying to decide what to do. Anything that she would have improvised and used to bind her father's wounds burned up along with her motorcycle, and she didn't dare try anything that might make his injuries worse. I could really use Julio's help right now…

A hand fell onto her shoulder, and Annie jumped up in surprise, whirling around to find Julio standing beside her, slightly bruised, and still holding the pocket knife he used to cut himself loose from Firefly's parachute. She wanted to break down and cry at the sight of him, or faint in relief, but she did neither and simply asked him, "Are you all right?"

"Other than losing a good friend, I'm fine," Julio indicated the remains of the parachute on his back. "If only your stubborn father had taken my advice…"

Annie nodded solemnly, and together they knelt down beside Brad's unmoving form. "How bad does it look?" Julio asked her, knowing she had probably checked him over already.

"I think his right shoulder is at least dislocated, his right leg is broken, and I can't get a response from him."

Julio nodded back, then dropped the rest of the bad news. "I wish I could tell you this was the worst of it, Annie, but I only hit one of Manta's turbines. Vanessa was able to make an emergency landing just before your father and I crashed."

"She's still out there…"

Annie's voice was soft, but Julio immediately read the look on her face. "Annie…"

"Save it, Julio. We've got three vehicles down and two VENOM agents out there that could sneak up on us at any moment. I'm going to provide a diversion. Stay here with Dad. Do what you can to get him up and around."

It was the same tone Brad used when he was about to do something really foolish, and Julio knew there was no arguing with her. "How will I contact you if I can do this?"

"If Vanessa landed on one turbine, she can't be far. Hocus Pocus' range should be long enough to send a holographic image…we'll figure out what to do from there…"

Julio knew it was pointless to argue, not that Annie had given him the opportunity. She slipped her MASK back on and headed back toward the wreckage of Condor and Phoenix. He watched as she recovered her long rifle and started out for the direction of Firefly's debris.