Rock and a Hard Place: Chapter 8
Author's Notes: Well, loyal fans and reviewers Chapter 8 is here! And with it comes a start to the action of this Saga, and the building blocks of points further to come. I think you'll all enjoy this action packed chapter, please keep reading and reviewing! Thanks!
Two miles north of the mining site several MASK agents sat in their respective vehicles plotting out individual strategies. Rhino, Thunderhawk, Condor, and Gator were in standby mode awaiting the signal from Roxanne to attack.
Chameleon stayed in stealth mode as it approached the mining site. Roxanne radioed in, "Scott I'm almost there. I'll stir up some commotion then head them right in your direction."
"Roger that, keep me posted."
The motorbike came over the horizon skidding to a completely halt right outside the abandon building. The bike shifted out of stealth mode and transformed into attack mode revealing the two lasers embedded into the lights and the rocket launchers on both sides.
"Umm...Scott we have a slight problem."
"What is it?"
"They're not here...actually nothing here, but dirt and left over garbage. They must of abandon the place soon after we left."
"That sounds rather fishy," Bruce threw a curious glance, "We could be bait for the fish."
"Uh...yeah Bruce," Brad was uncertain if he should back his friend up or ask if he needed a fishing pole.
"Nothing on your radar?" Scott asked suspicious.
"Nope not even a speck of wild life. If you guys and gals want you can come see the remains of a true ghost town. I'm going to scope out the area a bit further."
"Hmmm...Alright team we'll move in, but exercise extreme caution," Scott reminded.
Thunderhawk, Condor, Rhino, and Gator drove up to the mineshaft minutes later.
"Well according to Rhino's scan there isn't another soul in the area," Bruce added easing the suspicion of a trap.
Jess hopped out of Gator and examined the tracks on the ground, "Judging from the amount of tire tracks and foot print, there must have been massive confusion here last night."
"But I don't remember the last time VENOM was nice enough to pick up after themselves," Brad reminded with uneasiness.
Scott radio to Chameleon, "Roxanne what's your situation?" Instead of receiving a reply he only received radio silence. She probably shut her stink'n radio off again. I'll have to talk to Buddy about fixing that. "Alright then me and Jess will check the mine out. Brad, Bruce keep an eye out. Do me a favor get in contact with Roxanne."
As soon as Jess and Scott took their first few steps into the mine, they heard a helicopter approaching from the distance. The two shared puzzled looks, but didn't think twice of it once the sound of missile fire could be heard outside. They rushed out to find Switchblade and Jackhammer both firing directly at Rhino, which was having difficulty solely defending itself. Condor was driving all over the place attempting to avoid Piranha's ground laser fire combined with Manta's aerial machinegun fire. In the middle of the massive chaos, Gator and Thunderhawk both stood still emitting dark smoke from their respective cockpits. Scott's heart pounded with fear and determination as he raced desperately towards Thunderhawk.
Jess shouted at him, "SCOTT DON'T, STAY DOWN!"
"I have to get Thunderhawk up in the air...it's our only chance. Stay here!" Scott sprinted towards Thunderhawk silently hoping the car would start up, and he could save his friends in a sudden act of heroism.
Jess chased after of him, "I'm not gonna to stand back and watch, while you go play hero."
VENOM paid little concern to the two individuals who appeared out of the mine. Jess and Scott halted alongside Thunderhawk crouching to avoid becoming a human target. The fire spread over the vehicle rapidly attempting to reach the gas tank. Jess activated Thermic, her mask, to reduce the temperature of the smoldering flames that were erupting from Thunderhawk. "Hurry up Scott, I'd like to put the fire out on Gator before there' s nothing left."
Scott shouted over the radio as he constantly turned the key in the ignition hoping for the engine to start, "It's an ambush! Roxanne where the hell are you we need you!" Jess then grabbed Scott's arm and yanked him out of Thunderhawk, the moment Manta's lasers chopped straight thru the front of the car.
"Come on we'll be safer in Rhino," Jess shouted as she pulled Scott off the ground.
"AMBUSH?!?"
Annie very nearly fell out of her chair back at Boulderhill's command post when she heard Scott's panicked voice. Miraculously, she somehow managed to stop herself from breaking into the communications link then and there; knowing the last thing the team needed was another distraction. She violently kicked the chair out of the way as she stood up for a better look at the radar image, fingers flying over the keyboard as she superimposed a topographical map of the area, intensely disliking what the combined image showed her. All four of the vehicles sat just outside the mineshaft entrance and two of them, Thunderhawk and Gator, disappeared from radar moments later.
"Aw hell!" She cursed the computer. Please just let that be because of internal systems failure. Please let them be safe, please... "Two down, leaving just Dad and Bruce against who knows how many of VENOM! How the hell did this happen? It was a confirmed all clear! Computer, I want an internal systems check of Rhino, and I want it yesterday!"
"Internal systems on Rhino functioning normally," returned the computer's female monotone.
"NO THEY ARE NOT YOU OUTDATED PIECE OF SHIT!" Annie screamed in frustration, shaking her fist at the computer. "Now give me something useful or you're going to be the first item in next week's recycling pickup!"
"Annie, calm down!" Buddy suggested futilely from beside the angry redhead.
She ignored him completely, refreshing the radar and map with a few more keystrokes, but the images showed the same sordid story. Only then did Annie realize that Chameleon hadn't showed up anywhere on radar since she'd been monitoring progress.
"That bitch is still in stealth mode!" She turned to Buddy and let loose on her only current outlet. "Damnit, I tried to tell you! I tried to tell you we needed a way to track Chameleon while it's in stealth mode, but no, I just got the usual 'Annie's-just-being-overly-suspicious-of-Roxy-can't-you-just-try-and-get-along' lecture! Now do you see what I've been trying to point out to you!"
She turned back to the computer screen before he could answer; refreshing the images in one last futile attempt to convince herself what she was seeing wasn't real. But the images stayed the same: Thunderhawk and Gator were still MIA, Condor and Rhino seemed to be holding their own, and Chameleon was nowhere in sight.
"This isn't helping! I'm going down there!"
Buddy caught her arm in a firm grip as she raced toward Phoenix. "Annie, calm down!" he yelled vehemently. "It's a four hour drive from here! Even if you did make it down there, you'd be too late to do anything."
"I'm not going to sit here and do nothing while they're out there getting creamed! Damnit, Buddy, I should be out there with them!"
"Annie, there's nothing you can do," Buddy argued, shifting his grip on her arm so that he could pull her into a half hug. "We just gotta have faith they'll make it out okay."
She took another look at the radar image, mentally cursing Roxanne, Rax, Vanessa, and the rest of VENOM as she leaned against Buddy. If anything happens to any of them, I'll never forgive myself...
Sly Rax chuckled wildly to himself. Only two minutes into their battle with MASK, and two of their vehicles were already down. This new armor almost makes this job too easy. Still though, he and Vanessa were having a hard time nailing down Condor, the bike currently swerved all over the place in front of them. Vanessa shot another barrage of laser fire at the bike's tires, but she missed entirely as Condor put on a quick burst of speed. Rax tried to follow up with a laser show but succeeded in only blowing up a rock formation as the motorcycle made a sharp left. Damn, this guy's good, Rax thought as he gave chase, just as good as that kamikaze on that new black deal I've been seein'. A sudden thought struck him as he realized that the newer bike was nowhere in sight, seemingly replaced by the older and more familiar Condor. Under his mask, Rax smiled a wide, malicious smile as he realized exactly what had happened. He decided to test his theory by keying up MASK frequency on his radio.
"Aww shucks, Daddy must not have let his little girl come out and play today," Rax said evilly. "Maybe he didn't like the little present I gave her yesterday."
He followed up his commentary with more laser fire, but got no response other than a sharp burst of speed from Condor. He kept pace easily with the other motorcycle, shooting off more wisecracks in the hopes of getting some sort of reaction. "That's really too bad, I was lookin' forward to a second date. That pretty red hair, those big, green eyes, those long legs. She'd be quite a catch if ya know what I mean."
Still nothing but silence, except for Vanessa's irritated interjection. "Rax, what the hell are you trying to prove?!?"
"Just testin' a theory and havin' a little fun," Rax replied in the same put off tone. "What, you suddenly have a change of heart or somethin'?"
"We've got them on the run, don't go stirring up trouble," Vanessa snapped, cutting him off from her communications link.
Rax ignored her, adding one final barb that he was sure he'd get a response to. "Come on Daddy, even you must know you can't protect your little girl forever."
Condor made a sharp right, but Rax couldn't slow down in time to make the turn. He skidded forward toward the open desert only to find his response waiting for him. The desert landscape suddenly shifted to the black abyss of the mineshaft as Piranha crashed violently at the bottom. The bike was practically totaled, and all of its systems were offline. Except for the radio.
A throaty chuckle emitted over the line as he finally heard Brad's voice. "I don't think there's a whole lot to worry about as long as you're still being fooled by holograms."
"DAMN YOU, TURNER!" Rax shouted into the radio. "You'll pay for this!"
Switchblade's lasers dented holes into Rhino's armor, and Jackhammer's frontal cannons distracted Bruce from attempting an offensive strategy. Bruce notice Jess and Scott heading towards him, while Vanessa landed Manta on the ground and was gravely distracted by Condor's shrewd trick on Piranha. Rhino drove toward their direction and slowed down just enough for the two to grab the door, as they ran along side it. "Going my way, my friends," Bruce tried to keep a hopeful smile on his face as he steered the truck.
"Thanks for the pick up," Scott replied as he rushed over to the control panel, "Let see if we can throw off switchblade." He then activated Rhino's multi-warhead missile launcher. The missile was a direct hit, but once the smoke cleared there wasn't even a scratch on the paint.
"I guess it's a little too late to assume they haven't already incorporated the metal into their armor. The most it did was shook him off course a tad." Jess reminded as she peered out surveying the damage the missile had caused. "If we don't do something quick were as good as dead."
"We need to fall back and regroup, but they'll just chase us if we run," Scott felt like he was on the spot and needed to reach a solution soon or else there would be nothing left of him or his comrades.
"We definitely won't get far in this condition, if we attempt to escape their trap," Bruce reminded.
Jess watched Brad swerved in between Manta's laser fire, "It's only a matter of time before Brad gets tired out there...and he's more vulnerable."
"What we need is something to blind our enemies to hide our tracks," Bruce suggested.
"What about Rhino's smoke screen?" Scott suggested.
"I'm afraid I already tried to activate it, but some of the circuits were badly damage during the first few minutes of VENOM's attack," Bruce sadly noted.
A sudden light bulb went on in Scott's head, "I got it...Bruce use lifter to put me in the back of Rhino, then I'll disconnect the rear."
Jess looked at him as if he was insane, "Are you NUTS...that little off road ATV only has two small cannons on it, and you'll be an open target. ON top of that we'll be sitting ducks"
"I know what I'm doing Jess. I'm going to distract them long enough so we can get a head start on our retreat."
"You're the boss...just be careful." Bruce reminded as he let Jess take over the wheel, and then attached a line between his belt and the inside of Rhino.
Scott sat in the passenger side seat focusing his mind at the huge task at hand, "I'm ready as I'll ever be." With that final remark he hit the button activating Rhino's ejection seat. The passenger side door slid open and pushed the seat a few feet out in midair. Scott undid the seatbelt, but at that exact moment Rhino hit a pothole left from one of Switchblade missiles. The whole truck shook violently and caused him to fall out of the seat towards the ground rapidly passing under his feet.
Bruce then rush over to the open door, "Lifter on!" Just before Scott hit the ground, he felt a sudden force levitate him and floated him towards the rear of the truck. Bruce leaned his entire body out the door, with the line being the only thing keeping him suspended. It was tricky, but he managed to get Scott on the very edge of Rhino's back. Once Bruce deactivated Lifter, Scott slowly crawled his way towards the center metal cover. Bruce's hand grabbed the seat and activated a control mechanism that retracted the suspended seat, "He made it now slow down!"
Scott could feel the truck slowing down just enough for him to open the metal hatch covering the seat and controls to the connected off road ATV.
"What does this idiot think he's doing," Cliff Dagger laughed. He then speed up Jackhammer along side the back of Rhino, "Hey let me give you a hand. Torch on!"
The sudden burst of flames cause Scott to lose his balance. As his body stumbled backwards, his hands gripped the metal door with the desperate attempt to stay on the rig. The metal door grew increasingly hot to hold, as Torch continued to heat it up. Scott screamed in pain, but if he let go he could fall to his death.
Bruce watched in the passenger side window, "Dagger is trying to make toast out of Scott."
Jess gritted her teeth, "Annie wouldn't like it if we let him come back burnt to a crisp." Jess slammed on the breaks and set Rhino into park.
Jackhammer continued driving forward slightly confused about the sudden halt, but this was just what Scott needed. He hastily jumped into the seat and separated the off road ATV from Rhino. Jackhammer did a 360 and turned around to head straight for Rhino. Without the rear attachment the vehicle was now immobile. Scott pulled the ATV right in front of Jackhammer's path then activated his mask, "SOLAR FLARE ON!" The mask emitted a powerful bright light right at Jackhammer's metal covered windshield.
Dagger started to scream as the light blinded him through the small rectangular opening on the windshield, "I CAN"T SEE...WHO TURNED ON THE LIGHT!" His sudden surge of panic caused him to make a sharp turn straight into Manta.
"WHAT THE HELL!" Vanessa cuss as she saw Jackhammer heading straight towards the side of her car. Jackhammer rammed right into Manta's driver side door forcing the car to be pinned in between a boulder and Jackhammer.
Vanessa hit her wheel with a sudden surge of anger. Neither car had extensive damage, but she was pinned tightly between the two that Manta was unable to break free, "YOU IDIOT! CAN'T YOU WATCH WHERE YOU'RE DRIVING!" What made her blood boil even more was seeing Condor doing a victory wheelie ahead of her.
"Three down...one to go," Scott reminded himself knowing the dangers were far from over. He then radioed to Brad, "I need to reconnect to Rhino...distract Switchblade for as long as you can Brad."
Brad acknowledged the order and converted Condor into helicopter mode. Condor few around Switchblade and fired its lasers attempting to swart its attention
Mayhem snickered, "Oh please that little thing...is hardly nicking me...I guess I'll have to clip your wings bird." Mayhem readied to lock his missiles on Condor's propellers, but felt a sudden violent shake when a rocket from behind had just hit the right turbo booster, on the back of switchblade. The only vulnerable spot not covered by the new metallic alloy.
Chameleon had just fired one of its missiles directly on target, as it sped towards the war zone. "YEAH well your the only blue bird who's gonna get shot out of the sky Mayhem!" Roxanne shouted as she locked her second rocket on the other turbo booster.
"Where the hell did she come from!" Mayhem shouted with displeasure. He managed to maneuver out of the rocket's path, but now Condor was also aiming for the second booster. "CURSE YOU MASK! RETREAT NOW!" Mayhem converted Switchblade into helicopter mode and took off south. Meanwhile, Rax raced out of the mine and pushed a still blinded Cliff Dagger out of the driver seat of Jackhammer. A few minutes later Jackhammer and Manta were closely following behind in retreat.
Condor touched back down on the ground, as the remaining VENOM members escape. He pulled off his mask rubbing his eyes, "I never want to do that again."
Jess and Bruce popped their heads out in disbelief. "Did we win?" Jess look to Bruce puzzled.
"Ah only the first battle," Bruce reminded, "...goes to show you should never think too highly of oneself...else it will come nib you in the bud in the end."
Scott re-hooked up the rear of Rhino and hopped out, "Believe me I'm just as stun." He looked down at his hands. The gloves on his uniform were burned thru and he could see blisters developing.
Jess took off his gloves and checked the burns on his hands, "Well it's only a 1st degree burn...would have been worst if you hadn't of worn your gloves."
Everybody's head turned as Chameleon pulled up, "Hey guys looks like everything's under control now."
"WHERE WERE YOU?!" Scott shouted enraged as he pointed a finger directly at her face.
"I told you I was scoping out the area." Roxanne spoke in a calm reminding tone.
"OH really? Forget to mention VENOM coming up the horizon did we?"
"I swear Scott I didn't see them on my radar, nor did I see any sign of them when I scouted the area. In case you didn't notice, I made it back here just in time."
Scott nerves were popping out of his veins, "Just...in time...JUST IN TIME!"
Bruce put a hand on Scott shoulder, "Well discuss this at base. Your hands need to be attended to...and we need to leave before VENOM decides to turn around for seconds."
Scott shook and spoke with a great deal of anger towards Roxanne, "HELP start up Gator and Thunderhawk...if we have to we'll tow them." Roxanne nodded and got to work.
While Jess wrapped up Scott hands, Bruce radioed into the base the current status, "Everybody is all right, Scott sustain some minor burns. Each vehicle has pretty much sustain heavy damage, except for Chameleon. Both Thunderhawk and Gator are currently inoperable. We'll keep you updated on our status, Bruce out."
Buddy watched a look of relief fall over Annie's features, only to be quickly replaced by a mixture of several emotions, only a few of which he could recognize. He caught her hand as it drifted unconsciously toward the radio. "I told ya to have faith," he said in a half-hearted attempt to lighten the mood. "Everyone's okay, and Bruce is gonna keep us posted. Try and relax."
"This should have never happened!" Annie spat in a deceptively soft voice. "And I should have been there!"
Pulling her hand out of Buddy's, she began what would turn out to be several long hours of pacing.