A/N: I don't think Bull Halsey owns Chuck either, which is good. He's a pretty bad guy.
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Nevada Department of Corrections Transport Van
Ted "Bull" Halsey looked at the desert outside the window of the bus and sighed with resignation. Moving between Warm Springs and Red Rock outside Vegas was just exchanging one prison for a different one. He was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in the Nevada penal system and didn't much care where they kept him. It was all just shitty desert anyway.
The two guards up front, behind the cage, drove the prisoners through the early evening. They could see the glow of the city of Las Vegas in the distance, but wouldn't be traveling through it.
He looked around the bus at the other inmates being transported. Losers and no-loads. Maybe two real men among the nine of them. Not that he cared. He'd just form his own gang in the new destination.
One of the other prisoners began to gasp for air. He was an older man, with white hair and a fat middle.
"Guard. Guard. I don't feel good. I don't feel good. My chest. I can't breathe. I can't..." The man suddenly fell out of his seat and facedown into the aisle of the bus.
"Aw, shit," growled the guard, standing from the passenger seat up front and taking the keys from his belt to unlock the gate between the front compartment and the prisoners in the rear. "Back away guys," he ordered.
The prisoners backed off, giving the guard room to tend to the collapsed man. Halsey noticed that the guard, carelessly, didn't latch the gate between the two sections. The guard knelt down next to him and shook him by the shoulder. "Hey, man. Hey." The prisoner didn't even groan.
Halsey said, "I know CPR. Let me take a look."
"Awright, Halsey. Take a look."
Halsey moved up to the downed man and rolled him over onto his back. He gestured at something on the man's chest. "Aw, jeez, boss. Look at that."
"What?" asked the guard, bending over for a better look.
Halsey rose from his crouch over the man and slammed a knee into the face of the guard. He immediately reached for and drew the man's pistol from the holster at his hip. He whipped the pistol across the other man's head. With one hand, he threw the now unarmed and stunned guard back to the one of the other hard men among the group of prisoners. Halsey stepped through the gate and jammed the pistol into the ear of the driver.
"Pull over," he said.
"Aw, shit, Halsey. Seriously?"
"Pull over," said Halsey.
"Fine," said the driver.
Once the bus was stopped, Halsey said, "Put it in park."
The driver put the bus in park and turned to look at Halsey. Halsey shot him once in the forehead. The bullet passed through and shattered the window on the driver's side with a spray of blood and brain matter.
"WHAT THE FUCK?" screamed one of the men in the back.
Halsey stepped back into the rear portion of the bus and shot the other guard, struggling with the men, also in the head. The other prisoners were splattered with the man's blood.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," said a stunned prisoner.
"Halsey, what the fuck is the matter with you? What the fuck, dude?"
"Yeah. I didn't sign up for any of this shit, man. I'm just doing a few years for robbery. You're killing people. What the fuck, dude?"
Halsey pointed the pistol at those men and said, "You want out?"
The men raised their hands in a defensive move and said, "No, no, no."
"Yeah. I didn't think so."
"Bull, what are we going to do with him? He's sick."
Bull Halsey shot the sick prisoner in the head and said, "No problem anymore, guys. Awright, which of you guys and drive a bus?"
"Uh, yeah. I can," said one of the men.
"Get us going then. I have to look for the GPS tracker and destroy it," said Halsey.
The man moved the body of the guard aside and took his place at the wheel. The bus moved forward down the highway as Halsey used one of the dead guard's flashlights to search under the dashboard of the vehicle.
It was only about ten minutes later that Halsey found what he was looking for and smashed it. As he came up from the floor, he saw them approaching a busy restaurant, the sign advising that it was Bubba's BBQ. It was a freestanding building, surrounded by a parking lot, and was brightly lit in the otherwise blackness of the desert around it.
"Pull in there," he directed the driver.
"Why?" the man asked.
"Well, because I told you to, asshole. But mostly so we can get out of these bright orange jumpsuits and get civilian clothes and cars, you idiot. Or do you intend to blend in to the population dressed like this?"
"Ok, Bull," he said, as they approached the parking lot.
Bull looked out the windshield and said to one of the harder men behind him, "Joe, right?"
The man confirmed that that was his name. "Ok, Joe. There are two parking valets. Take the other pistol and go get them. I don't want them running off."
The bus stopped and Joe jumped off with the pistol to get the young men. Bull said, to the rest of the escaped prisoners, "Come with me." The driver pulled the bus to the back of the building, near the garbage dumpsters. He shut it down and turned off the lights.
Joe, from the side of the building, came back with two scared looking young men at gunpoint and met the rest of them. "What's the plan, Bull?"
"We split into two groups, each with a pistol. Half go in the back door and through the kitchen, driving the kitchen staff into the dining room. The other half of us push through the front door and take control of the room itself. Don't be afraid to shoot one or two to make the rest scared and compliant. Move fast and push hard. I'll take the front. Joe, you take the back. You got it?"
"Yeah, Bull," said Joe. He turned to the men behind him and picked three of them.
Halsey said, "When you hear a gunshot from the front, that will be your signal to come in the back."
"Got it," said the man.
Halsey took the rest of the men around to the front of the restaurant. Stopped before the door, Halsey said, "On three. One. Two. Three."
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Bubba's BBQ, desert outside Las Vegas
Sarah and her friends sat at a long table and drank Long Island Ice Tea and margheritas and beer poured from pitchers. Their visit to Bubba's had started over an hour earlier, when they arrived straight from the car racing facility, still buzzing with excitement from the ridiculous speeds they had experienced. Many cocktails had followed, some of startling imagination. After all, this was the only American barbeque restaurant with three Michelin stars. For all the praise heaped on the food, the décor was fun BBQ kitsch, with light wood and fun nonsense mounted on the walls. All of the women were more than slightly buzzed with alcohol and fun. The service at Bubba's was wonderful and the waitress they had serving them was attentive and professional while also getting into the vibe of the fun Sarah and her friends were having, grinning every time she came back to the table.
In front of them on the table was a mix of appetizers and other starters from the tasting menu. All of the women had elected to go with the tasting menu to taste the widest selection of the award-winning food. They had spicy chicken wings and fried shrimp, jalapeno poppers, chorizo in a blanket of fried dough, and fried green tomatoes. The ladies were sampling them all while continuing to drink excessive amounts of booze.
"Ok, so tell me what's coming up next," demanded Sarah of her friends.
Ellie and Rachel shared a look. "Nope," said Ellie, with a grin.
"Come on," said Sarah. "Spies hate surprises."
"Didn't hate that Ferrari too much, girlfriend," said Rachel, taking a large drink of her Long Island Iced Tea. "Here's an idea, Mrs. Bartowski. Why don't you just trust us."
Sarah started back a tiny bit at what Rachel had called her. "What?"
"Mrs. Bartowski. Go ahead and get used to it, honey. In a few months you'll be answering to it," said Rachel with a smile.
"What if I want to keep my name? After all, it's a merger, not an acquisition," said Sarah.
"Ok," said Rachel. "Fair enough. Do you want to keep your name, though?"
"No," said Sarah after a moment's thought. "No. I want to be Sarah Bartowski." She reached out and took Ellie's hand, suddenly slightly teary. "I want to be Sarah Bartowski."
Ellie grinned and said, "Perfect." She leaned forward and kissed her best friend on the cheek.
Ellie and Sarah grinned at each other for a few moments.
"Sisters," said Sarah quietly.
And all hell broke loose. Five men in orange prison jump suits burst through the door to the restaurant. The man in the lead had a gun in his hand and fired it once into the ceiling of the room, screaming, "NOBODY MOVE. EVERYONE STAY DOWN."
His men spread themselves out along the front of the room. Most of them didn't seem to have guns, but they looked plenty menacing anyway.
Sarah and her friends looked back and forth among themselves and sort of sighed. The vibe was, here we go again.
The door to the kitchen opened and the kitchen staff flowed in, followed by four more men in orange, one with a gun.
The leader, who seemed to be the one in the front with the gun said, "NOW I WANT EVERYONE TO BEHAVE AND EVERYONE GETS OUT OF HERE IN ONE PIECE. HERE'S WHAT WE WANT. CLOTHES, MONEY AND CARS. OK? WE DON'T WANT ANYONE GETTING HURT. SO YOU NICE FOLKS ARE GOING TO GIVE US WHAT WE ASK FOR AND WE'LL LEAVE. LET'S START. I WANT ALL THE MEN TO STRIP TO THEIR SHORTS."
The males in the restaurant looked back and forth at each other in shock. The leader seemed to accept that as inevitable and smacked a man in the head with the side of his pistol. Seeing that galvanized the other men to begin to strip.
"GOOD," yelled the leader. "NOW CAR KEYS."
The escapee who had brought in the car valets said, "No problem, Bull. They are on a pegboard outside."
Zondra said, under her breath, "Bull? More like mouse. That guy is fucking small. He makes jockeys look like giants."
"Irony lives," said Ellie in a whisper.
"Ok, then," said Bull. "Cash."
One of the other men said, "What about credit cards and jewelry?"
"No. Only cash. Credit cards will send an alert when used and jewelry is easily identifiable. Cash only," ordered Bull.
Before the men could organize themselves to collect the cash from the diners a half dozen cars from the Nevada State Police Highway Patrol pulled up outside with lights flashing. Bull looked through the windows of the building to see the assembly waiting for him.
The amplified voice of an officer from outside said, "Ok, Bull. You and your guys come out peacefully. No one gets hurt."
Halsey reached for and grabbed the young waitress who had been serving the bachelorette party. He pulled her to him and put the gun to her head. She began to sob with terror.
"FUCK YOU. COME IN AND GET ME, ASSHOLE. I'M NOT GOING BACK."
The ladies at Sarah's table looked at each other for a few moments. No words were spoken, but somehow an agreement was formed. Marie, Mei-Ling, and Zondra all pushed their chairs back a few inches, preparing to move fast.
Carina said to Sarah, "Don't miss."
"Never," said Sarah patting her friend's arm.
Bull held the crying waitress in front of him as he screamed at the SWAT officers out front, "I'LL KILL HER. I SWEAR I'LL KILL HER."
Carina got up and began to walk towards Bull and the woman, hobbling on her cane. She staggered slightly, as a drunk person might.
"Excuse me," she said. "Excuse me. I ordered the brisket and I've been waiting a while now. I think..."
Bull screamed, "SIT THE FUCK DOWN, YOU STUPID BITCH. GET AWAY."
"But I want the brisket," she said. She had approached to within about three feet of Bull Halsey.
He took the gun from the waitress's head and pointed it at Carina. "SIT THE FUCK DOWN YOU STUPID..."
Sarah threw the steak knife about 25 feet across the room to hit Bull in the wrist and sever the nerves controlling the hand with the gun. He dropped the pistol just as the tip of Carina's cane hit him squarely in the eye. He staggered back as the waitress pulled herself away from him.
Meanwhile, a somewhat overwhelmed and confused Joe raised his pistol to point vaguely in the direction of Carina and Bull. A plate, thrown like a frisbee by Marie hit him in the throat as a Zondra-thrown knife hit him in the gun hand, the weapon falling to the floor.
Carina followed up on her strike on Bull by hitting him in the groin with the tip of the cane spinning in her hands. She followed by hooking his leg with the curved handle and pulling it up to the ceiling, toppling him to the ground. With both hands, she swung the curved end of the cane like a golf club to his head, knocking him unconscious.
Meanwhile, Zondra leapt over two tables to slam into Joe with both feet, knocking him backwards. She followed up with a punch to the throat, sending him to the ground clutching at his neck and trying to draw a breath as she heel-stomped on his solar plexus. He began to pant for air when she kicked him in the head with the tip of her booted foot, knocking him out.
That left seven of the escaped prisoners left in the dining room, none of them armed. Sarah, Zondra, Marie and Mei-Ling ran at them and attacked. Five were beaten unconscious by the women spies in a flurry of fists and feet. The last two of the men threw up their hands in surrender and begged for mercy. Carina held back, unsure of her fitness to fight, but newly curious about the skill of fighting with a cane.
Before the last of the bodies hit the ground Rachel was out of her seat and walking to the door of the restaurant and the assembly of heavily armed police outside the building. She opened the door with her hands open and held away from her body.
"Hi, guys. How you doing tonight?" she said.
"Get away from the door," screamed a cop.
"Yeah," said Rachel, moving away from the door, stepping outside into the night. "Here's the thing. I'm a lawyer and my clients are federal agents. Ok, you guys understand? Federal agents. So let's all keep that in mind when we head inside. Right, guys?"
"Right," said the man who seemed to be in charge.
The police brushed past her and flooded into the dining room, weapons in hand.
The women spies had reassembled near their table.
Karen turned to Sarah and said, "Is your life like this all the time?"
"Yeah, it is. I'm sort of used to it by now, to be honest," she said with a small grin and a shrug.
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A/N2: The message of the canon episode Best Friend was that Sarah didn't have any friends except Chuck. Not my Sarah. Not in New Day. Here Sarah has good friends that love her. That's the message I wanted to share. Let me know if you approve.
