Both guards in the front of the 'taxi' were unconscious from the crash, sitting limply in their seats with their eyes closed. Nero opened his eyes cautiously; being in the back of the car had been lucky for them. They hadn't felt the full force of the crash, which had left a rather large dent in the casing of the front of the car, but the back seemed to be more or less unscathed.

It took some force to try and lever the slightly dented car door open, but after the five seconds or so wasted, Nero wasted no time in hopping out of the car and heading quickly over to Raven, who was just waking up from her crumpled position on the ground.

"Raven?" Nero used her codename in case anyone was listening into their conversation, though he doubted it.

"I feel like I've been through a tumble dryer..." said Raven woozily, opening her eyes and shaking her head to dispel the dizziness.

"An understandable assumption," agreed Nero, helping his friend to her feet unsteadily, supporting her arm as she regained upright balance. It took a little while, but she was able to clutch onto her employer's arm to maintain her unsteady stance.

"Life isn't life until you've been in a car chase on a motorbike and been thrown into a wall, after all," Darkdoom reasoned with a straight face.

"True," Raven agreed with what might have resembled a slight smile, dispelling the last of the dizziness with a last shake of the head and regarding the crashed car balefully. "I think it's safe to say that they're not going anywhere."

"Better disable their communications just in case," Nero worried. "We thought they wouldn't be able to follow us last time, and they were able to kidnap us in a London taxi, of all things."

"I'll do some disabling," volunteered Raven. Darkdoom searched their unconscious kidnappers and found various walkie-talkies around the car, including three in their coats, one on both of their belts and another two in the glove box, which Nero decided not to enquire about.

"How are you going to -?" Nero started to ask, then saw the look in the Russian woman's eyes. Probably best not to ask.

"I suppose that's a method of disabling them," mused Darkdoom as they watched Raven destroy the communications devices with what seemed like a personal vengeance.

"And they say you've got a violent nature," commented Nero.

"Really? I wonder why?" Raven said with a deadpan expression, apparently finished completely obliterating the phones, the remains of which lay in a small pile of metallic fragments on the tarmac. Raven had been thorough.

Let us all take a moment to consider the sacrifice that the walkie-talkies made for the sake of this story.

"Now let's go. Not in a taxi. I think, under the circumstances, that a bus would be a safer bet," Nero decided.

"I don't think we'll be needing the bus," realised Darkdoom from behind them, gesturing to a sign on the street corner. It read 'Subway station'.

"Well, look at that," Nero commented. "The car chase did serve some purpose after all; it got us exactly where we needed to go."

"I could have done without being thrown into a wall."

"Apart from that."

"I hate being thrown into walls," Raven muttered grumpily.

"Don't we all," Darkdoom said wisely. "Not that I try to make a habit of it."

Leaving the smashed car and the unconscious guards behind in the quiet side street, the three villains walked away, Nero supporting Raven's elbow, who walked slightly unsteadily but would have been loath to admit it. Nero just hoped no passers-by would chance to walk down that particular street, at least not until the guards had regained consciousness. On top of it all, they really didn't need the London authorities on their case as well. They already had a teenager with anger issues and a band of accented kidnapping soldiers after them. What an interesting couple of days.

The subway was dim and smelt slightly of grease and petrol, but it wasn't a cell. And there was a small clothes shop set in the concrete wall, which was handy, since Nero wasn't sure that they would be allowed on a subway looking as they did. Raven had lost her black overcoat in the chase, and being thrown into a wall hadn't really helped her overall look. Or her mood, come to that.

"This time, we're all going in to buy the clothes," Raven said firmly. "That's the last time I leave you two alone in London."

"Oops," Darkdoom said, not sounding tremendously apologetic.