War Fields: Chapter 12


"YEE HAW!" Dusty yelled as he gave Sly Rax in Piranha a run for his money.

He currently had Rax on the defensive as they zigzagged through the Venitian waterways. He could see the barest outline of the submerged sidecar in the water just before him. Dusty was just about to release a depth charge when he heard the explosion above him. Switchblade had fired a heat-seeking missile at Condor, which Brad had deftly avoided at the expense of one of the nearby buildings. Dusty turned his attention back to the water when he saw the building collapse, almost right on top of a boat passing by. Uh oh, probably some unknowing tourists who just happened to sail by. Better go see if they need some help.

Dusty released the depth charge anyway, just to keep Rax occupied, before he turned Gator in the direction of the boat he saw. With exceptional experience, he steered Gator quickly and deftly through the wave front of the building's collapse and stopped parallel to the stalled boat. "You folks need any help?" he called, careful to make sure Backlash was still on tightly.

He wasn't prepared for the sight that greeted him. Roxanne's brunette head poked up over the side of the boat and peered at him quizzically. Inwardly, she cringed. Of all the people to rescue us, it just HAD to be the one agent who truly hates my guts, and the one agent who dotes on Annie more than Brad does! Just my luck! She didn't let any of these thoughts show as she flashed Dusty her most charming smile and said a little too sweetly, "Uh, hi Dusty..."

A jolt of relief rushed through him, quickly followed by unbridled fury. "Don't you gimme the innocent routine!" Dusty growled as he picked her up underneath her arms and dumped her unceremoniously in Gator's back seat.

Roxanne bit back a scream of immense pain. If I didn't know that he didn't know about my injuries, I would SWEAR he did that on purpose! She settled for grunting at him, "Ouch! Hey, take it easy...I'm hurt you know!"

"Well, don't expect any sympathy from me," Dusty snarled back. "You got yourself into this mess."

"Yeah, well you should be thankful I got us out!" Roxy snapped back.

She realized belatedly that this was exactly the wrong person to say that to. "Listen here, Roxy, you might be able to snow Matt, Brad, and some of the others with yer little sob stories, but I ain't fooled. You should be thankful I even pulled your sorry ass off of that boat! Now where's Annie?" he asked, taking a menacing step toward her.

If I weren't in this condition I'd rearrange your face! She held her fist tight fighting back the urge to yell. I'd rather be left on that boat, then rescued by you anyways. "I think...she passed out," Roxanne said with unusual quietness and with little care in her voice, the force of Dusty's reply drove the fight out of her.

"You better hope nothing's wrong with her."

Roxanne crossed her arms knowingly that Dusty reaction to Annie would make her gag. Nothing wrong with her? Where should I start you yellow bellie hill billie? She's got a big mouth, can't defend herself, so full of herself, and oh that head injury she must of gotten a LONG time ago, before I ever met her.

Dusty gracefully hopped onto the other boat and knelt beside Annie in one fluid movement. Gently he rolled her over to see the two nasty cuts on her forehead crusted over with dried blood. He pushed a stray piece of hair out of her eyes as he propped her up against his shoulder. Vanessa Warfield's daughter or not, the girl had captured his heart since the time she was two, when she had crawled up courageously in his lap and stared up at him with those big green eyes, saying "Hi Unca Dusty." Brad certainly was right about one thing, there was going to be HELL to pay if something happened to her, and Dusty Hayes planned on taking it out of Roxanne Trakker's hide.

"Annie, wake up sweetie." He shook her shoulders gently.

Green eyes so glassed over they looked blue blinked up at him. "D-D-Dusty? Are you...real?"

"I'm real, darlin'," he answered softly, pulling her gently upright with him. "You're safe now."

Annie threw her arms around his neck and began to shake. Dusty felt her body begin to go limp in his arms. Damn, she's goin' into shock right in front of me.

"Annie," he said, more seriously than he had ever spoken to her in his life. "We ain't out of the woods, yet. I need you to stay with me just a little longer, honey."

She pulled back a little and nodded wordlessly up at him. Dusty swung her easily into Gator's front passenger seat before climbing into the driver's seat. As he put the orange boat back into motion, he handed Annie the microphone for Gator's radio.

"Why don't you give the other boys a holler and let 'em know the good news?"

If Annie could have seen his face, she knew he would be grinning impishly. With the polite protocol she'd learned with the rangers, Annie keyed the mike and said, "This is Phoenix calling the MASK team."

Phoenix? Dusty asked himself. Must be one of the Rangers gave her that.

Radio silence reigned for a moment. Buddy must have recovered first, because it was his surprised and relieved voice that asked, "Annie...is that...you?"

"Yeah. Roxy and I are here with..." She paused to think of Dusty's codename. "...Powderkeg."

"Good! Now get the HELL off the radio before I have an accident, and tell POWDERKEG to use a little more common sense next time!" Brad's voice was a paradoxical mix of relief and anger.

Annie giggled wildly, shock and the repeated blows to the head making her feel quite a bit unsteady. "He said to use some common sense next time," she repeated literally.

"I heard what he said, honey," Dusty replied, amused.

Roxanne sat back rolling her eyes, Oh yeah that was very funny. While you're at it, why don't you tell Brad she took a couple knocks to the head, maybe he'll crash his bike.

Matt's commanding voice broke into their midst. "Dusty, I don't care what you have to do, but I want you to get the girls to safety as soon as possible! We'll handle VENOM."

"Yes sir!" Dusty acknowledged smartly as he steered Gator back toward the main part of the city.

Dusty sped up Gator thru the waterways, to find a more secure location from the eyes of VENOM. Although he felt the mixtures of relief and rage running thru his veins, his attention was more diverted towards the well being of the girls. Roxanne was fighting to keep her eyes open and rested a protected arm around her torso. He remembered her mentioning she was injured, but she deserved whatever it was she got. Dusty half heartily thought she was playing a sick routine to make her injures look worst then Annie's. That was always her best gimmick to pull the wool over everyone's eyes. Annie on the other hand still looked pale and shaken, but she had a reassuring smile on her face knowing that soon she'll be with her father. Despite the throbbing headache, she felt safe next to Dusty, and she sat as close to him as she could without interfering with his driving. Now that he was here, she would no longer have to listen to Roxanne's lies and threats.

I wonder if either of them would notice if I fell off the back? Roxanne eyed suspiciously expecting one of them or at least Dusty to turn around and continue yelling at her. She closed her eyes feeling as thought the boat accident and Dusty's forceful pickup had just ripped open another stitch. She could hear Rax's voice in the back her mind, "Stay in bed if you know what's good for ya. If you move around too much it's not going to heal up." But she couldn't stay even Vanessa knew that. Her train of thoughts was broken, by a slightly violent tug on her leg.

"WAKE UP!" he snapped at her with one hand steering the boat the other yanking on her leg.

"OUCH! She shouted into his ear, "Do me favor and don't touch me!"

"I'll be damn, if I let you sleep this off before you get what's coming to you."

What's the point with arguing with the man, he'll always see Annie as an angel and her as a devil. She would of loved of given him a long lecture as to why her injures were far worst then little darlin' Annie's, but the man too blind to see it or read between the lines. She then changed the subject hoping to delay the long tale of misery she had to endure, "How's the fight going?"

Dusty didn't want to reply to her, but he saw Annie's big green eyes stare at him also wanting to know. "A bit unexpected. We had just manage to weasel information out of VENOM's contact about their base location, little did we know VENOM had found ours."

Roxanne gulped slightly in the back seat, but she wasn't ashamed for what she did.

"They were hitting our vehicles pretty hard, before we had the chance to get to them. Luckily Buddy's a handy mechanic when you need him. Condor and Rhino were the only one on the battlefield. Brad made an attempt to divert their attention with Hocus Pocus. Unfortunately Vanessa saw thru that little trick of his and started a little game of cat'n mouse. Thunderhawk took most the damage during the surprise attack, but Buddy assures us most the weapon systems are functioning. Got to praise the man for getting our vehicles running, even if there not 100% combat ready. So far nobody has gotten hurt. From the looks of things, we manage to reverse VENOM advantage into their handicap." Dusty said with some pride in his voice. "We hinted the police the location of VENOM base, before the battle commenced. We were actually hoping to pick you up tonight, but I feel much better seeing you with my own two eyes." Dust remarked mostly staring at Annie who had a bit of a blush. He then pulled Gator up against a dock that was far removed from the battle, yet the air war was still visible from their location, "The only thing that puzzles me is how VENOM manage to pick up our location?"

"Oh that's pretty easy," a wicked smile developed on Annie's face, "Roxy told Mayhem everything he wanted to know.

Roxanne was well aware that Dusty shot a cold look under his mask, "YOU LITTLE TRATOR! That don't surprise me one bit.

She shouted in defense, "Well I didn't exactly have a choice now did I!"

"You could of kept your mouth shut!" He huffed back her enraged. "You know your dad tried to fire his rockets to deflect that missile from Brad. Unfortunately his rockets went off line, and Brad had to maneuver his way around. That's exactly why that piece of building nearly clobbered you out there!"

She starred him blankly in the face, "I have no regrets for what I did, and I don't expect you understand my reasons."

Dusty looked over at Annie, then back at Roxy. His rage towards the girl was surging, but he wasn't about to do it in front of innocent Annie.

The three watched the sky eagerly as Thunderhawk, Switchblade, Manta, and Condor flew back'n forth hammering lasers, missiles, rockets, and everything in their arsenals against one another. For the first time Roxanne realized how ironic the situation was, it was like a never-ending custody battle. Her father Mathew Trakker would do anything to ensure she would never work for VENOM under Miles Mayhem again, a man who she once considered a father before learning the truth. Annie's father Brad would do anything to get his daughter back, and Vanessa would gladly hand her back on the grounds of letting him suffer a bit. She smirked slightly as she watch amazed.

Annie turned around looking at Roxanne finding nothing amusing about the battle, "What's so funny? Our dads are fighting for their lives"

"They'll be fine, besides if I told you you'd never get it."

Once Annie turned her head back up to the sky she saw something that nearly caused her to stop breathing. Manta had managed to hit Condor with one of its missiles. Manta then circled around its prey in a celebrant victory roll. Condor fell from the sky in a cloud of black smoke. Dusty couldn't grab a hold of Annie, she just ran out of Gator and headed in the direction her father fell.


Vanessa glanced down as Condor's propellers slowly spin around attempting to stay airborne, yet the damage she did was far more then it was capable of handling. All she could see was a trail of black smoke surrounding the bike, as it zoomed towards the ground. "That's another strike for you TURNER!" She howled with wicked laughter. She circled around curiously wondering if he had survived the crash. Yet her curiosity was shattered, once she realized Thunderhawk fired a heat-seeking missile in her direction. Manta flew away attempting to dodge the oncoming surprise. She drove Manta low in-between the closely structured buildings hovering over the waterway. The missile seem to be gaining on her, she had to shake it some how. Manta then took a hard nosedive and leveled out within inches above the water. Up ahead was a stone bridge. Vanessa knew she was taking the risk of clipping both her wings, but it was the only way to rid herself of the pest. Manta's wings scrapped up against the bridge with sparks, yet it barely managed to squeeze under. Vanessa pulled hard on her stick and fired Manta rockets, causing Manta to shoot straight up into the sky. There was large explosion behind Manta as it took off. As she glanced back, there was nothing left of the bridge, "That was close."

Just before she could turn around and head back, she heard Mayhem voice broadcast over her radio, "Our base has just been compromised!" Before Mayhem could devise an alternative strategy, Rhino shot an unsuspecting surprise from its cannon right thru Switchblade's left wing, "NOOOO!" Mayhem had no choice but to convert Switchblade from jet mode to helicopter mode. "RETREAT, we need to regroup!"

Vanessa grunted with utter frustration, "I was on a roll, and as soon as he manages to get hit he calls the whole thing off. THIS IS REDICULOUS!" She screamed as she hit her steering wheel. She started turning Manta in the direction Switchblade retreated, "Just you wait until next time MASK, this isn't over with!"