An explosion erupted behind the car as Reaper drove as fast as he could, but to no avail. Mikhael was still closing in on them, and firing missiles at them periodically. Reaper looked at Wraith, saying, "Well don't just sit there, contact Foaly! We need to get authorization to use lethal force!"
Holly, who was bouncing around horrifically in the back, asked, "Why lethal force? I thought you were on a strictly non-lethal basis."
"What do you think rubber bullets are going to do against that thing," Reaper replied sarcastically. "We need something that can actually bring that helicopter down." He adjusted his rear view mirror to look up at the helicopter, he would have contacted Foaly himself but he needed to focus all of their attention on getting out alive.
He heard Wraith on the comm. link in their helmets, "Foaly, we got ourselves in something pretty deep. We need to use lethal force if we're going to get out of this alive."
Foaly's voice came to life on their helmets, "What kind of situation is it Wraith? Why isn't Reaper the one asking? He's usually the one that contacts me."
"Unfortunately Reaper is currently keeping all of us alive and can't really talk right now. As for the situation, we've got an attack helicopter on our ass!" Reaper could tell Wraith was stressed, he usually didn't yell, much less to the person who was paying them.
Reaper heard Foaly sigh, "Alright," he started, "I'll try to get you authorization but it needs to come from Commander Kelp. You'll have to wait for a few minutes."
"We don't have a few minutes!" Reaper shouted so loud that Foaly could hear it from Wraith's helmet, even though Reaper's microphone wasn't turned on.
"I'll do my best, but you'll have to hold on." Foaly said as he turned off his comm. link.
Reaper swerved out of the way of an explosion that landed in front of the car right before it killed all three of them, he heard Wraith ask, "Do you think he'll get us the authorization?"
"Yeah," Reaper said as he sped up to avoid another missile that landed next to them. "He will, because she's here," he nodded his head back
"What do you mean by 'because she's here'?" he heard Holly ask.
"We're humans, Miss Short," Reaper replied, keeping his eye carefully on the helicopter, "and not only that, we're mercenaries. It was made very clear to us that we were expendable. You, however, are not expendable since you're one of the people, and an LEP officer at that. Because you're here Wraith and I might get to continue living. So thank you for that much Miss Short." Reaper spun the car to where it made a 90 degree turn, narrowly avoiding another missile. "I think that was the last of the missiles." He stated, but not with any sense of relief in his voice.
As the car kept speeding on he started hearing the front machine gun of the helicopter spray bullets. Reaper began swerving the car around wildly, desperately trying to keep the car from getting hit by a single bullet. "What the hell is Foaly doing?" Wraith asked, it was more of a statement then a question really but Reaper wanted to ask that as well. This seemed to take a little longer then necessary, it was a lot simpler when they were just instructed to go out, kill someone, then come home and enjoy payment for a job well done.
Reaper could almost sense the bullets getting closer, turning the car to where it would be facing the opposite direction before they were filled with more holes than Swiss cheese and flooring it once again. The maneuver seemed to work, the gun stopped firing for a few moments anyways. It was at this time that Foaly's voice came on their helmets again, "Alright," he said, it sounded like he was panting, "I got you the authorization. But please try to keep whoever's driving the helicopter alive."
"I'm not making any promises," Wraith stated, almost laughing. They heard Foaly sigh as he signed off. Wraith unbuckled his seat, opening the sunroof that had been installed on the car, and reaching into the back to grab the rocket launcher on the floor that he had brought along for the ride. "See," Wraith said, "I told you I wasn't going overboard."
"Just shut up and shoot the guy already," Reaper said, annoyed.
"Alright, alright," Wraith laughed, inserting a rocket in the weapon. Reaper watched as Wraith maneuvered his body to where his torso and rocket launcher were sticking out of the sunroof. Reaper checked out of the rear view mirror one last time, seeing the helicopter again, he would have started swerving again but he knew that Wraith needed to line up his shot so he kept the car steady. A few moments passed and he heard the sound of the rocket launcher firing. He also heard Wraith swear under his breath.
"You missed?" Reaper asked, almost jokingly.
"Oh shut up, it's a helicopter that's not exactly easy to hit." Wraith replied, getting back into the car and loading another shot.
"You'd better not waste this one, that's the last rocket we've got." Reaper stated, swerving a bit to avoid the gunfire, "And I can't keep the car steady any longer otherwise we're all dead."
"Don't make it too easy for me," Wraith slipped himself through the sunroof again, taking aim as bullets flew through the air. For a few moments time stood still, the rocket flew from the launcher, flying straight as Reaper swerved to avoid the hail of bullets. The rocket got closer to the helicopter, flying true. Reaper took his last look of the helicopter before it burst into flames and crashed to the ground, to the right of it he saw a parachute deploy, realizing that Mikhael had managed to escape death at just the right moment. The helicopter hit the ground in a large explosion of mangled metal and destroyed weaponry.
The car stopped, the feeling of dread had passed over everyone and they began laughing again, this time sure that nothing else would go wrong. Reaper sat back in his seat, pulling his hat over the eyes of his mask breathing heavily after a hearty fit of laughter, "Ugh, alright," he said, calming down, "I'll call Foaly, tell him that we made it. I'm certain he and Commander Kelp are worried sick about Miss Short."
"Wait," he heard holly say, also regaining her composure, "you said that you were expendable. Can you tell me why?" Reaper sensed that she meant no harm but the question took the mirth out of the car almost immediately.
"We're soldier for hire, Miss Short." Reaper said, sliding his hat back up to its original position. "There's always going to be another person willing to take our position if we die, and for a cheaper price in some cases. Generally we don't live long enough to actually create bonds with other people so when we die no tears will be shed over our grave. Nobody cares about us and we only care for ourselves because that's how our lives tend to go. People see us as heartless monsters that will do anything, even kill our own mothers, for money. Of course that isn't the case for all of us, Wraith and me don't fall under that category anyways, but the misconceptions of other people make it nearly impossible to live a normal life."
"If it's such a horrible life then how come you remain mercenaries?" Holly asked, cocking her head to the side.
Reaper chuckled at this, "Because it's what we're good at, Miss Short, and to tell you the truth I can't really picture myself being anything else. What about you Wraith, do you have any other reasons why you stay a mercenary?"
Wraith shrugged, "It's a good way to see the world I suppose. Like our last mission before we met up with Foaly, It was in Moscow right?"
Reaper nodded, "Yeah, we needed to assassinate some mafia leader or something like that. Damn near froze to death on that one."
"How did you meet Foaly? I mean I certainly hope you weren't the ones to contact him otherwise you would have been mind-wiped instantly."
"That's true, we didn't contact him first. He sent us an email, of course we didn't know he was a centaur at the time but he didn't bother telling us." Reaper explained, "So when we got to the area he said for us to meet at we were totally unprepared for when we saw Foaly himself."
Wraith began laughing as he continued on where Reaper left off, "He nearly wet himself when we pulled our guns and almost shot him. The poor guy was quivering with terror."
Reaper sighed as Wraith continued laughing uncontrollably. Reaper continued, "That's when we met Commander Kelp as well, he explained the situation fairly thoroughly, although he didn't particularly care for us. But I can't really blame him; we don't exactly look like the friendly types. But that's how we came to know each other, not exactly the best first impression but we're here now and about to get paid for a job well done."
Holly nodded, sitting back in her chair, she looked up at Reaper's mask saying, "Thanks for the help, I don't think I would have made it out alive without you."
Reaper shook his head as he looked back at her, "Bah, don't mention it, it's just an occupational obligation. I should thank you, without your presence we would have ended up face down in the dirt, I should also apologize for the way we first met and all the trouble we've caused."
Wraith managed to stop his laughter for a few moments, nodding back at Holly as well, "Yeah, sorry about all that. I'm just happy we didn't end up dead."
Holly nodded at both of them while Reaper pressed the button on the side of his mask, "Foaly," he started, "we're alive and headed back now."
They all heard a sigh of relief coming from the Centaur, "That's good, do you have everything I asked for?"
"We couldn't get a demon but we nabbed a goblin that might interest you. He wasn't like the others, his abilities seemed more…enhanced, I want you to run a few medical tests on him, see what exactly is going on with him."
"Right," Foaly said, "Bring him to the meeting point and we'll get this straightened out."
"And our pay?" Wraith asked, anxious.
"You'll be getting that as well as your next mission as soon as you get here." Foaly said, a sigh of annoyance came from the centaur this time.
Reaper cut off the link putting the car into drive and put his foot on the pedal, "About time," he said, relieved. Of course he was a little upset that there would be no break in for them but there was no rest for the wicked, and in his mind he wasn't exactly a saint. The sun was beginning to rise and he yawned, he desperately needed some sleep but money and the job came before that so he sucked it up and kept driving.