Chapter 9: Prison Break
The cabin door opens and the bandit boss comes out. He had on a nice suit, nice shoes, groomed himself well, and smelled of expensive cologne. It was like he transformed from bandit boss to esteemed gentleman. As he comes out, his henchmen praised him for his looks. He raised his hand to silence the praises and clears his throat. "Now, I am off to fetch the beautiful lady from her tent!" he said his accent and vocabulary even transformed to that of a gentleman. He proceeds with his henchmen following him. As they approach the tent, they notice that the guards of the tent are gone. The boss' accent and vocabulary revert back as he says, "What the? Where are da guards? Find 'em!" The henchmen look around and they find the two guards out cold among the crates. "Over here!" one of them shouts. "They're out cold!"
One henchmen enters the tent where Yang was held and quickly comes back out. "The blonde girl's gone!" he says.
"WHAT?!" the boss yells as he runs over to check the tent. Sure enough, Yang is no longer there, her shackles on the floor. "Where the hell has she gone?!" the boss asks. At that moment, a motorcycle is heard riding away. They all look and see a yellow and black motorcycle leaving the vehicle port. "Over there!" one of the henchmen calls out. "She's escaping!"
"Well stop standin' around and GET HER BACK! She ain't gettin' away from ME!" the boss shouts. "Wake the others too!" He and his henchmen start running to intercept the motorcycle.
Roland notices activity as soon as they leave the vehicle port. "It looks like they've spotted us!"
"What do we do?" Yang asked.
"Just keep driving." Roland then turns and raises his sword. The runes on it glow blue and he swings it down, releasing a blue wave of energy towards the vehicle port. The wave hits the dust crystals on the ground and causes them to glow and explode. The explosion of the crystals causes all the vehicles to explode and annihilates the vehicle port, leaving nothing. "Now, let's see them try to catch us now!" Roland says with a grin. Yang grins as well and looks back at Roland and gives him a wink. She turns right once they reach the edge of the camp and head towards the exit.
The bandit boss and his henchmen stagger upon seeing the explosion. They all stop and look confused. "Uhhh, n-now whadda we do boss?" one of them asks.
"Whadda we do?" he rhetorically asks and grabs the henchman. "We're still gonna CHASE THEM YOU IDIOTS! Get everyone up and chase them, even if we gotta do it on foot!" he shouts as he throws the henchman to the ground.
"B-b-but b-boss, they have a bike. W-we'll never catch them on foot." another henchman says, clearly terrified.
The boss punches him in the face. "Then we use da cars and bikes I keep for myself! Just leave that one bike for me! NO ONE ESCAPES FROM ME! GET ON IT!" he shouts. The henchmen scramble to fulfill the boss' orders as he heads back to his cabin to change.
Roland and Yang reach the exit road and head up the hill. Roland looks back and sees many trying to chase on foot. He cracks a smile. They might as well give up, he thought. There's no way they're catching us on foot. He turns around and says to Yang, "There a gate coming up with two guards in front of it. Be ready!"
"How are we gonna get past the gate?" she asks.
"Leave that to me, you keep driving and prepare to crack some skulls!"
Yang gets a grin on her face and says, "Aw yeah! Now we're talking!" They reach the top of the hill and begin to descend. The gate then comes in view shortly afterward. The guards see them and get their weapons ready. Roland raises his sword and the runes glow once again, but this time, the sword itself begins to glow blue. Roland swings his sword down and a bigger blue energy wave is released and decimates the gate. The guards stagger but recover and try to stop Yang and Roland from escaping. Yang gives a swift kick to the one on the left while Roland slashes the one on the right. The guard on the left is sent flying backwards while the one on the right falls to the ground. Roland and Yang enter the canopy of trees and he says to her, "There's one more exit that is camouflaged. Make a right from there and we're out of here!"
"Got it!" Yang replies. "Leave this one to me!" The road appears to end upon seeing the exit covered in camouflaged. Yang pops off a couple of shots from her Ember Celica and the camouflage burns up. Yang realizes that the rounds were loaded with red dust. "Sweet!" she says. "Roland, you have a good eye!" Roland grins at the complement. The two bust out of the canopy and Yang makes a right on the path and the two are off. "What now?" Yang asks.
"We get back to the sign from yesterday and take the other path that leads to the town," Roland responds. "The bandits will give up if we reach there. They won't want to deal with more huntsmen and huntresses as well as law enforcement."
"But that will take hours!"
"I know, but we don't have a choice."
"Alright, let's do that then."
Roland looks back. "It looks like we lost them," he says. He prepares to put X-Calibur away but then hears something. "Wait, do you hear something, like another engine?"
Yang takes a minute to listen. "No- Wait, yes I do. It sounds like more bikes and a few cars. It sounds like it's coming behind us." Roland looks behind him and begins to sees lights growing closer along with the sound of engines growing louder. More bikes and a few cars came into view. Some of the trees were shaking as several other bikes jumped out of the foliage in front of Roland and Yang. The bandits had caught them. "Not good! We're surrounded!" Roland said. "I guess they had more vehicles to use."
"Heh. Good!" Yang said. "Now I get to teach these jerks revenge is a dish best served hot!" She then swerved Bumblebee into one of the bandits' bikes, knocking them over. "I float like a butterfly and sting like a Bumblebee!"
"You're never gonna stop with these puns huh?" Roland says as he charges his sword with energy and releases a wave, taking out another bike. The bandits began to converging on them and shooting at them. Roland got out his shield and began to block attacks. He then slashes a tire of an incoming bike, taking it out. Yang punches the driver of another bike taking it out. She then nails the tire of another in front of her with a shot from her Ember Celica, lighting the tire on fire. The smell of burnt rubber filled the air as the tire snaps and the motorcycle crashes. "Phew. Burnin' rubber baby!" Yang said. She then grabbed the handle bars of another bike with her right arm and flipped it over. Roland was amazed at the strength of both her and her mechanical arm. Then, two bikers converged on them. Roland blocked the attack from the left and took out the bike on the right while Yang took out the bike on the left. Their teamwork and synergy in battle was improving. Roland then charges his sword with more energy this time and turned around and released it at one of the cars. The wave flips the car over and takes out one of the others. The last car pulled up right by them and the bandits took shots at Yang and Roland. "Hit the driver!" he called to Yang. "I'll create an opening for you!" He blocks several shots and wrestles the guns away from the bandits. Yang then gets a shot at the driver but instead nails the steering wheel, catching it on fire. The car spins out of control and crashes. All of the bandits were taken out. "Excellent work! I think that's the last of them." Roland says to Yang as he puts away his shield and sword after looking back. Before Roland can do anything else, Yang sees a flat rock in the road that looked like a small ramp. Yang gets a mischievous grin on her face. "Yang, there's a rock in the road," Roland says. She says nothing and starts to laugh. "Yang, you're going to hit it!" Roland begins to panic. "No, Yang! Don't do this! AHHHHH!" he screams as they launch into the air, holding onto Yang for dear life.
"YEAH! WOOHOO!" Yang shouts. "Nailed it!" she says as they stick the landing.
"Ok... Never do that again!" Roland says, releasing his grip.
"C'mon, lighten up Roland!"
Roland simply said nothing and looked disgruntled.
"Alright, alright, you're such a stick in the mud! Anyways, those bikes and cars seemed pretty high-end for grunts like those guys."
"Yeah, you're right. They must have belonged to their leader and that would explain how they caught up to us. I guess he was irked that we escaped from him."
"Yeah, well this night isn't going out with a Yang for him! He can wake up on the wrong side of the bed himself!"
Roland shakes his head and chuckles at the bad puns.
"AHA! I heard that! You laughed at my puns!" she shouts.
"No! That wasn't me. That was the, uh, wind!" Roland replied.
"Uh-huh suuure," Yang sarcastically said. "Nope! I heard you laugh, and I'm not going to forget it!"
"Alright fine, you win this time. I guess-" Roland suddenly stops. "I think we have more company!" He hears another motorcycle engine coming closer and pulls out his sword.
"Yeah, you're right, I hear it too!" The last bike was driven by the bandit boss and it was the finest-looking of them all. Rather than try and catch Roland and Yang, the boss pulled out his weapon, a simple gun and took a few shots. The rounds were energy, not bullets, and he wasn't aiming at Yang and Roland. "What's he even shooting at?" Yang asked.
Roland looked around. "YANG, STOP!" he shouted as he saw several trees in front of them starting to fall. Yang hits the brakes and stops just before the trees fell on them. The bandit boss pulls up behind them and stops as well. He then dismounts and walks over to Yang and Roland. The two of them dismount Bumblebee and get ready for battle. Roland gets out his shield and Yang loads another magazine of shotgun rounds into Ember Celica.
