AN: This is the chapter that had me using chapter titles.
But personally, I still hate titles that spoil a chapter, thus the random, usually food related titles. Hopefully not too random for finding your place in the story.
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And just to clarify, Bucky hasn't smiled yet, not including the time with Wall-E. He has attempted in his point of view near the beginning, but in reality, he didn't. T^T
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Chapter 13: Bucky Barnes - Demons Outside
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"M-m-mission report."
"It's done," I responded. My own mind screaming at me. For the disobedience. For the black and red wounds left on that face. "Captain America is dead."
Whoever he was, all I knew was that I'm supposed to protect him. I don't know what this is, I just know I'm supposed to do this right now. Whatever this is. I'm supposed to protect this for some reason.
And Hydra wanted him dead. They're responsible. They made me…. They made me.
A sigh of relief snapped me out of my head.
Break skull with metal fist. Target incapacitated.
Slam metal tray into the throat. Target incapacitated.
Break table leg. Impale through the eye. Target incapacitated.
"Mercy! Please! I have a daughter! P-please please! Ha-have m-m-m-mer-mercy. My daughter. Pl-hic-ease," a snivelling lab coat begged, scrambling away with weak little kicks. Curling up into a ball when his back hit the wall. His face a mess of tears, snot and splattered blood. His words turning incoherent in his desperation.
Slam foot into rib cage. Target incapacitated.
One kick. That's all it would take to finish this.
But I couldn't….
"Go."
My cold numbed fingers squeezed the trigger. The recoil absorbed into my shoulder. A green clad soldier dropped from the ruins of a building. A base…?
Through the scope the fire breathing, horned demon raked his thumb across his throat. A threat.
'NO!' This wasn't right. 'He doesn't breathe fire. He doesn't have horns.'
Everything flickered.
It was a salute. The threat was a salute. The body near him no longer resembled an American soldier. The uniform much darker. Almost black. Hydra.
My arm… there was no metal. Flesh and bone.
At the sound of a twig snapping, I whirled around and found movement all around me. The figures flittering back and forth between green and black. There were too many of them to fight. The cliff behind me was too high to make an escape with a…? With?
A small person dropped down from the tree next to me. A kid. A young boy. His height changing with his blond hair. From light to dark. Caught between a little blond who scurried under a bed and the older one. More than likely someone I'd long forgotten.
"I don't want to go back…" he whispered. His words heavily accented. French.
"Get down the cliff and hide. I'll buy you time," I said, preparing for battle. I knew I didn't have enough bullets, but more than enough to stop them from taking me. They weren't taking me. Not again. I either make it back to Steve or die trying.
A little hand pulled at my trousers. "Bucky," the kid whimpered, his body practically vibrating.
"Get to St – "
The boy's eye glowed something silvery and pops rang out all around us.
The forest rained blood with each body that exploded with a pop. Mere seconds passed before the rustle of rain faded to a cold silence.
No survivors.
There wasn't even much of a body left for anybody to bury. Bits and pieces strewn in the trees.
"What the hell…?"
I glanced down at the boy next to me. His skin was covered in red patches. With a gurgle, he fell to the wet dirt in a coughing fit. A pained whine escaped him when I placed a hand on his shoulder. He leaned away from the touch. Fear so clear in those bloodshot pale eyes.
He was bleeding out under his skin.
"What just happened?"
He shook his head desperately. "No one can know," he managed to get out, pausing to spit out more blood. "Maman…. They took Maman because – because she can…. They don't know that I can. They'll…. They overheard Papa talking and took us."
"Will she hurt any of us?"
The boy quickly shook his head. "We're not supposed to use…. No one can know."
"Alright. I won't tell anyone. I promise. I'll… forget this happened, alright kid?"
'No telling what Hydra would do with this kind of power.' I could only wonder what they were doing with his mother now. What awaits us in those ruins, where she was supposed to be.
"Thank you, Bucky."
I sent him a smile, resisting the urge to pat him on the back. "Now let's go save your parents."
"Bucky?"
I couldn't escape the light. No matter which way I ran. No matter how fast I sprinted. The light followed.
The thrumming filled my ear. They were on my tail. Been there for hours. Been on this mountain for hours and I was tiring out. The muscles in my legs screaming at me. Going numb. Everything felt numb.
But I had to get away from them. Had to get away from there.
Somewhere I had to go…. Somewhere….
"Come on, Bucky. Rise and shine, beautiful."
Where…?
Where am I going…?
Someone. There's somebody I have to find. Someone….
Who…?
St – ?
"Bucky… seriously, you need to get up."
Why… why am I running?
I-I should… I should go back…?
I need to go back.
And then a net slammed into my side. Before I could even struggle, electricity seized my body.
"Damn it! Bucky! Wake the fuck up!"
I shot up from the floor and found my arms bound by the blanket wrapped tightly around me.
"Finally," two voices echoed.
"Valeriy?" I called out, trying to find my bearings only to have her walk right up to me. I scrambled away not trusting myself not to lash out.
"Good, you're dressed. Get ready. Backdoor in four minutes." Her voice steady and clear. Her lips pulled a semi apologetic smile as she picked up my notebooks. "Apparently Hydra's about to find this place?"
Ice ran through my veins.
"Still got some room in my pack." She waved my notebooks over her shoulder as she hobbled out of sight. "I still got room in my pack."
I could not get out of the comforter tangled around me faster. Amongst the rain of down feathers, my body carried out her order, pulling out a bag I had just retrieved 55 hours ago from under a freeway. The arsenal I had raided from the bank.
"Mr. Barnes, please wear the earbud. I will be your guide. I'll need your cooperation to get out of this one tonight."
Nodding, I slipped the little device into my ear before it could slip my mind. "I'll get her somewhere safe, and lead them away."
It unnerved me how a tension released once I hid all the various weapons on my person.
"As things are, I can get you both out. Please stick together and avoid drawing attention to yourselves with the loud guns."
'Knives it is.' Got eight of them.
Before could I exit the room, I slung the modified OM 50 Nemesis over my shoulder and plucked a cap I had stolen months ago that Valeriy returned to me.
"You don't know what they're capable of."
"If I hear you offer to be fucking bait again, I'm drugging you and dragging you out of this mess myself," Valeriy snapped from the dining room. "Not entirely sure how I'm going to drag you… but I will… somehow… probably…."
Highly doubt she'd be capable of any of that. My metabolism would do away with anything in my system and it'd be a miracle if she could manage ten steps even without Hydra outside.
"This isn't some game," I stated, turning the corner.
"And you're not bait, Bucky," she fired right back, tucking her long locks under a knitted hat. "Eve's got this. We've transported people through shady situations before."
From head to toe, she was completely covered. Her special glasses hid her eyes. A scarf hid the rest of her face. Loose clothing of different hues of gray made it difficult to tell that she's a woman.
"Want to cover your face?" Valeriy asked, scarf in hand.
I shook my head. I needed to stay away from what they made me. Reminded me too much of the muzzle. I could almost feel it scratching at my skin. I didn't want to chance turning on this young woman if I lose control. The chance was already higher than I'd like with how hidden her appearance was. She wouldn't have a face to stop me like last time.
They're here for me. No point hiding my identity. Hopefully they didn't know about her.
"You can't run," I realized. Not with how her ankle had only gotten worse and worse.
The timing of this was horrid.
The arm was still in need of repairs. She only had two days to work on the new damage. At least it no longer shocked me when I used it. Still a tad too twitchy.
"Should be okay?" Valeriy shrugged, tapping the toe of her left shoe on the floor. "Don't feel a thing. On Amber's nerve blockers."
She reached into her pack strapped to her back and around her waist and tossed an odd revolver at me. The shape and weight was off.
"Special dart gun. Pretty silent? Iffy on distance since an air compressor thing? Yours is loaded with tranqs."
That explained the fire arm strapped to the small of her back under the gray hoodie. Again, the taser sat in her right pocket.
"Should take down most guys in about a second?"
A lot could happen in a second.
"Thought you might give it a try for minimal damage? Then again, these fucks are Hydra, so up to you what you want to do with them if they get in the way. And here's a bunch of darts."
A quick glance into the case told me there were thirty darts.
"…We should get going," I said, reaching for the backdoor only to have Valeriy slide right between the knob and me.
Slam skull into the doorknob. Target incapacitated.
"Not until Eve gives the green light. We do our best to follow her moves, and we just might get out of this?" she said, glancing over her shoulder and out the window.
"They have eyes in the sky. Human eyes…. Stick to the shadows. I got the cameras. They'll be everywh– Go!"
With that, Valeriy stumbled at the door colliding into her back. A loud whop whop filled the house. A helicopter. Lower frequency. Moving away.
Fear snaked its way up the back of my neck. I didn't get away. I couldn't escape the bright beam of light.
"Hey, hey, Bucky. I need you to stay with me." Gray eyes peered over the darkened lenses. Warm fingers tangled into my hair at the base of my skull and a thumb brushed against my cheek. "We need to move. Just stay with me, Bucky. We've got this."
"Now," the voice echoed in my ear.
Valeriy's hand slid down the metal arm, roughly grabbing onto the gloved hand, and at a turn of her heel, she raced out the door. A sudden jerk on the arm had me kicking off a step to follow her leap to the bottom staircase.
We'd have to move at her pace, which wasn't as slow as I thought. But slow nonetheless. She couldn't be expected to keep up with me. It'd give me time to provide cover.
So far it was clear. No one I could see. No one I could hear. Not over the sound of blades slicing through the air.
I took a risk and glanced up at the sky. A black helicopter could barely be seen against the night skies. There was no beam of light. There was no way for me to tell if we've been spotted.
My eyes snapped back to the ground when Valeriy squeezed down on the hand, glancing over her shoulder at me.
The way her head tilted, I could practically see the smile under that scarf, and with that, she let go of the hand to shove hers back into its glove. Grabbing the top of the wooden fence, she partly jumped and partly hauled herself over. A roll eased the landing better than her leap off the stairs and the moment she was upright, she sprinted for the next fence.
I had a much simpler time with the process. Didn't have to even touch the fence. Didn't need to add more sound or movement to our escape. And a sideways swing of the body kept my profile low. Less risk of being spotted.
The helicopter turned. Not quite headed for us, but it wasn't going away. They've narrowed it down to this area.
Another fence. Then another. Sticking to the shadows created by the houses.
"Hide."
I barely managed to grab onto Valeriy's pack and dragged her back into the hedge. A quick search through the spaces between the leaves, I spotted a pair of legs. Legs belonging to a too heavily armed uniformed police officer strolling into the backyard.
Next to me, the young woman heaved for every breath, her elbow muffling her exhales. She wouldn't be able to handle an all-out sprint out of this. We'd have to stick to short bursts.
Even so, we needed to move.
I pulled on her arm and she got the hint, following me up through the mess of branches of the massive hedge. I kept my weight near the trunk and on the thicker branches I could find. Breaking a branch would give us away. A slight rustle might be dismissed as a squirrel. Some part of me was more than relieved that the young woman behind me managed to be just as silent.
"Sorry to wake you, Ma'am. We are currently searching for two individuals."
I froze and Valeriy rammed face first into my back. She tilted her head in question and I whispered in her ear, "They know about you."
"Oh well?" she shrugged off, her voice coming out crystal clear in the earpiece when she had barely mumbled the words.
How the hell she was so carefree about the whole thing baffled me. She gave my shoulder a heavy pat and even pulled a smile. Going by how the corner of her eyes crinkled over the edge of the glasses.
Blue lines and red dots were reflected off the moisture of her left eye. A map of the neighborhood. The dots likely being Hydra agents. Eleven close by.
"…Are those Pacman ghosts…?" Those weren't merely red dots. There was even two little circles practically on top of each other with a moving mouths. One blue. The other purple.
"…Y-yeah…?" Valeriy responded rather cautiously.
But I dropped the annoyance at how this was being treated as a game in favor of listening on the agent's conversation with the neighbor. "A man and a woman. The man's large, built, with shoulder length brown hair. The woman has long hair. Dark. Might be black or brown. About average height and a broken foot."
"Do you have a picture?"
"No, I don't. Have you seen anyone new around? Any unfamiliar faces? They may not be together."
It made sense that they weren't plastering my face everywhere. They didn't want another party to find me first. But they would have released Valeriy's photo if they had it. They didn't know who she was. Her foot wasn't broken and the hair color was wrong. They didn't see her themselves and whoever did likely spotted her in low light.
"There was a man two days ago," the woman replied, and I could feel my stomach drop.
That was the day I left for hours. Wandering the streets.
"Did he enter a house?"
"I didn't see. He was headed down the street."
I almost didn't contain the flinch when a hand clasped my shoulder, squeezing tightly. "Eve's got this," Valeriy assured.
"I was seen the other day," I admitted.
"That wasn't you. We weren't so careless. She saw somebody else. Keep your head in the game, Mr. Barnes. The next bit is a tad iffy."
"No shit, Sherlock," Valeriy muttered as the lights in the yard chased away all the shadows. "Fuck. Jinxed it."
"…On my mark, get to the other side of that yard."
A second scout entered the yard. There's no way to get
Shoot him between the eyes. Target incapacitated.
And that would have them descending on us in seconds. Even if I could put down both agents before they could do anything.
"Might have a possible – "
"Now!"
Valeriy leapt out of the tree, rolling onto her feet, and raced for the other side. The complete faith in the A.I. ghost she had was insane. She didn't glance in the direction of the Hydra agent remaining in the yard. Even if his back was turned to us. Distracted with reporting to whoever was in charge of this retrieval.
" – sighting here."
I quickly followed after her. The dart gun at the ready. Aimed right at the agent.
It only took a slight turn of his head to be spotted.
We were in the open. In the light. Exposed.
We made it to the next yard. Leaping over the fence without a hitch.
This wasn't what I was hoping for. Just as lit up as the last one. Except this one was empty. Just the pavement under our shoes and the hoop at the back. Couldn't hide a stick here.
The pitch of the helicopter changed. Higher. And with a glance up, I spotted it in the sky. Headed straight for us.
A flurry of options and tactics raced through my head.
Switch to OM 50 Nemesis. Shoot at helicopter. Targets incapacitated.
Run away from it and back into the previous yard with the agents.
Run for the house and break in.
Run for the back alley.
Run for the next yard.
"Hide."
I grabbed Valeriy and threw her, racing across the paved yard. The moment my hand touched the fence post, I spotted the muzzle of a M4A1 peeking out from around the front of the house. Just as pops echoed through the air and all the lights cut out, I pulled the young woman out of the air and landed in the shrubbery below us.
By some miracle, we made it and she wasn't screaming. Be it from being tossed around or the darkness all around us with only a thin sliver of moon in the sky.
"Thanks?" Valeriy said lightly, lying there on her back.
"That was cutting it close, huh?"
The young woman slipped her glasses down her nose for a second before shoving them back in place. "Thank bloody hell for night vision."
"Why would they cut the power?" I asked, ducking my head to keep hidden in the short shrub.
Wouldn't that make it harder to find us? To find me.
Had they found us?
A snap of a twig caught my attention and my eyes landed on a beam of light. A flashlight. Searching its way to our hiding spot.
I quickly ducked, pushing Valeriy down to make us smaller. Less of us to be seen. I quickly hid the metal arm in my jacket, in case it reflects any of the light as it shines through the foliage. My heartbeat sped up, muffling part of my hearing.
Shoot the spinal column. Target incapacitated.
Valeriy's hand squeezed down on mine as the light passed over us. Not lingering. Just continued on down the fence.
Though I knew it was only a matter of time. They always found me. Why would this be any different?
'I should go…. Be… before they find her. 36 tranquilizer darts. 8 knifes. Total of 96 bullets. It'll take them a while to capture me. I have a chance at escaping even if I lead them away…. I should go back. I have to go back. I need to go back.
I flinched at Valeriy's hands grabbing at the base of my skull, pulling me down to her. Her fingers digging into my neck.
"What did I say about being bait?" she hissed at my ear. "I don't care if we're fucking surrounded. We can get you out of this."
"The blackout's my doing this time. The chopper was cutting too close for my liking."
When Valeriy suddenly made a move to leave our hiding spot, I quickly shoved her back into the ground. Far harder than I should have. Both of us tensing up. Waiting for that thud to be our downfall.
"…Looks like no one heard you…. I'd suggest the both of you work on the being quiet part of hiding, and stop it with the stupid self-sacrificing ideas."
"Sorry," I whispered. "Are you hurt?"
The young woman shrugged. "I can't feel shit. No pain. No sense of touch. It's been so weird moving."
That explained a few things.
"This isn't some game you can just restart. What were you thinking?!" I snapped in a whisper, trusting that the earbuds would make my words clear in her ear. "Do you have any idea what they'll do to you?!"
"It'll better than what you'd go through with them. Only a matter of time before they figure out I'm worthless. Just outdate info? Plus I'm the one slowing us down."
"You two seriously suck at the concept of silence…."
I had to bite down on my lip to keep my mouth shut. To stop the words from tumbling out.
A knock on my thigh shook me out of my irritation. A finger pointed to the side. I could hear the agent patrolling the back alley. A two fingers raised, pointed in front and a thumb thrown over her shoulder. Two in front of us, and two in the yard behind us. Three finger pointed at the front of the house.
"You have a better chance of getting away from here. Without me," she stated. Not a joke found in her tone.
"Seriously suck."
I shook my head.
As much as I knew that was true, I also knew that if I go with them, we'd all be gone from this neighborhood. It'd be safe for her to walk right out of this. She'd be safe.
As long as they don't ask me about the girl they think I might be with, they wouldn't know of Valeriy. She'd stay safe.
"Get in the car."
The young woman sat up in confusion, barely keeping under the top of the plant. "What car?"
"In front of the next house."
"Well, there's like five-ish asshats in the way of that. No way we can get into that car and drive off unnoticed."
"A distraction should do the trick."
"Can you manage one more fence?" I asked.
She nodded.
"When you see a chance, get to the car. I'll be right behind you."
"…." Her eyes narrowed at me over the rim of the glasses.
"I'll be right behind you."
"That's a lie."
"You're both got potential distractions strapped to your arms."
"Wouldn't that just get everyone here? The opposite of what we want," Valeriy stated.
"Idiot."
"The river," I said. "I can throw it to the river." Minimal amount of causalities if I could get it that far.
"Can you throw it so far?" she asked, removing her bracelet.
"Maybe."
It was a little light. So I plucked a garden gnome from its perch among some flowers and wrapped the bracelet around its neck.
"That looks more likely to make the trip. With that pointy hat."
"The river's in the opposite direction so this should work in theory. I'll be jamming all signals in this area. Nobody will be communicating with each other. That includes us. I'll still have my eyes. Follow the lights when you get in the car. Good luck."
"Eve, wait," Valeriy called out in the smallest voice. It no longer came through the earpiece and there was no reply from the A.I. ghost. "…Eve…?" Her body language tensing up more and more with each passing second.
I placed a hand on her shoulder and turned her towards me, remembering that she couldn't feel much. There were no lights reflected off her eye. No lines. No game creatures.
Only what haunted my dreams. In the eyes of my victims. Paralyzing fear.
"You worry about getting to the car unnoticed. Wait until they've scrambled," I told her. "If I don't get to the car ten seconds after you, drive."
That seemed to have snapped her out of the cloudy haze, glaring at me with such ferocity I expected a slap. Instead, Valeriy grabbed my collar and growled into my ear, "You get in the car before ten seconds are up."
An order.
At my nod, she turned away, scuttling quickly to the gate that separated the front and back yards. Not a rustle of a leaf or a crunch of a twig in her wake before she disappeared from my sight.
"Hello? Anybody there? Hey, my comm's not working. Yours?"
"Command center, come in. Command center."
"Try turning it off and on."
Taking in a deep breath, I glanced up at the barely star speckled sky. The revolver loaded with six tranquilizer darts in the metal hand and the bejewelled gnome in my hand.
'Please let us make it out of this. I don't want to go back…. Please….'
"Command center, come in."
"Are we being jammed?"
When the searching lights weren't around me, I popped up and threw the garden gnome as hard as I could. The revolver already firing a shot at one of two the Hydra agents in the yard with me. Automatically my mind made a note to raise my aim since I barely cleared the armored vest.
"Shit!"
As one dropped to the ground, I had already fired a dart at the other. The twitch in the hand was enough for the little dart to miss.
Wide eyes stared at me. The M4A1's muzzle lifted from pointing at the ground.
I quickly released the revolver, letting it fall into my hand and squeezing the trigger. Landed the dart on the unarmored thigh.
In the second it took to bring him down, the agent held down the trigger and a blindingly bright light flashed from the horizon. The pops completely overwhelmed by an earth-shaking explosion.
And an explosive of that magnitude was strapped to my one good arm….
A mustached man popped up from under a Panther tank and plugged his ears with his fingers.
A couple of seconds later, an explosion engulfed the tank in flames.
'Jac – ? J…?'
"Move and I'll slice your throat."
'Valeriy.'
I ran. I had to get there before he killed her or she decided to do something that'd end up with a gaping wound across her throat. My legs just couldn't move fast enough.
"Where is the Asset?"
"The what?" Valeriy responded.
"Don't play dumb, girl. The man with a metal arm."
"I have no fucking clue as to what you're talking about."
Blood.
"Him," the man hissed in her ear, staring right at me and shifting the knife just enough to cut deeper into the young woman's neck, a young woman who had no reaction to it. "Drop the gun Soldier."
I couldn't help but squeeze down tighter on the revolver handle, knowing well that no matter what enhancements were made to me, there was no way I could move fast enough to do anything before that knife finds its way too far in her neck.
At least it was just him. No one else was on the street. No saying how long that would last.
"Drop – "
"Um excuse me?" Valeriy cut in and the knife moved dangerously closer. "But I really need to sneeze."
And at the agent's confusion, our hands raised. Hers to the hilt of the knife and mine to aim at his unprotected face.
He barely got out a "Wha – ?" Before Valeriy's head flung back, smashing his nose with her head. His body fell against the pavement with a thud.
The young woman stumbled a couple of steps right into the open car door. Likely grabbed while slipping into the driver seat of the little white and black car.
Then her revolver was out and another dart joined the one on the agent's face before I could get to her. I grabbed her hand, demanding in a harsh whisper, "Are you trying to kill the guy?!"
"No? Trying to stop the memory forming process. He saw my face. I rather be forgotten," she replied, shaking her head and immediately pressing a palm to her forehead. "Fuck. That made the spinning worse."
I pushed her the little bit it took to tip her over and she landed on the driver seat. "Let me see your neck. You're bleeding."
"Shit." She waved her fingers by the cut and checked them with a shrug before fixing the scarf to cover her face again. "I'm not squirting blood. I'll be fine. Get in the car. You've got less than ten seconds."
"Do you know how to drive?"
"Of course," she chirped, buckling in and tucking her revolver under her thigh. "You're the better shot, so I'm driving."
With a flip over the short hood of the car, I quickly slipped into the passenger seat. The second my feet were off the pavement, the car jerked forwards, slamming the door shut. The acceleration foreign to me for a car. It just moved, topping out at 93 miles per hour.
Too fast for her to survive a crash. I doubt I would be able to walk away from it either, leaving me at the hands of Hydra. Again.
"You're driving on the wrong side of the road," I pointed out, shifting in the seat at how wrong everything looked. The street lamps were out. Our headlights were off. I had to wonder if she could see where she was even driving. If the glasses she wore could see far enough.
"Oops, heh," she laughed nervously, giving the wheel a little wiggle that sent the car swerving into the correct lane.
"You're sure you know how to drive?" I asked, taking the moment of peace to reload the revolver. I could easily drive and shoot at the same time. I should have tossed her in the passenger seat….
"Sorry, last drove at one of the ex-colonies," she stated lightly. "Really shouldn't drive imports. Gets confusing as f – "
A distant street lamp gave a dim flicker and then a bullet nicked the chair just above her right shoulder.
" – UCK!" The car violently veered to the side.
Through the cracked windshield, beyond the darkness stood a man in the middle of the road and Valeriy was erratically swerving her way right for him. I had little doubt that she had every intention of plowing right though the shooter while attempting to dodge the bullets raining around us.
A contraption covered his eyes. Likely what let him spot us in the darkness without a flashlight.
Switch to Glock 21. Shoot the nose. Target incapacitated.
Before the blood could paint this car, his or our own, I rolled down the side window, the wind roaring into the car, and adjusted my aim. Another bullet made it through the windshield, and luckily bouncing off the metal shoulder. One squeeze of a trigger, one second later and there was another jerk to the car. Barely made it in time for her to miss his crumpled body on the road.
She didn't need blood on her hands as much as I didn't want to be a killer anymore. As much as they were Hydra, I didn't want to kill. Not anymore.
Two streets lamps on my side of the street flickered once with barely any light, and in that moment, I spotted another uniformed police, again too heavily armed, walking away from a house by the light. The same contraption on his head. He'll spot us. Hopefully he was too distracted by the flash to notice us barreling down the street.
Shoot at neck. Target incapacitated.
Just as I was about to pull the trigger, I barely managed to stop my head from bouncing off the dashboard at the sudden snail's pace. The screeching of the breaks gave us away.
At the car turning around the corner the agent stood, I landed a dart on his cheek. He didn't even have time to process a thing by the time Valeriy's foot floored the accelerator, throwing me back into the seat with a high pitched hum of the car.
"Sorry about that," she yelled over the roaring wind. "I'll try to remember to warn you next time. I had my doubts that this car could handle a turn at that speed without flipping. But I love this little guy." There was even a little loving pet she gave the steering wheel.
"Who the hell taught you how to drive?" I questioned, strapping myself in in time to spot another pair of street lamps flash once.
"Turning!"
The A.I. ghost had to be behind the lights. Drove home just how everywhere she could be. Always watching.
"My father," Valeriy said when the car sped back up. "Man races far too much for his own good. But if Mother's in the room, we've all got perfect driving habits, 'kay?"
After a few minutes of speeding down dark roads and flickering lights triggering sudden turns, no more agents could be seen. We either broke the perimeter or the A.I. ghost found a route to avoid them.
A few more minutes, houses turned into buildings. Apartments, restaurants, stores and offices.
"Are we headed to Mexico?" I asked when I realized we were mostly headed south now.
"…I sure hope not. I don't want to deal with that kind of heat. You see any more of those asshats? Can I slow down yet? Well shit. Guess not…."
The light bathing the little car reminded me too much of the helicopter. Gaining on us. Fast.
Especially when Valeriy slowed to take a turn at the A.I. ghost's prompting. "Brace your – !"
Shoot driver between the eyes. Targets incapacitated.
I leaned out the window, drawing the Glock 21 and lowering my aim to one of the tires. But before I could squeeze the trigger, a loud crunch hit my ears. The momentum forcefully shifted into a swing. A blow to my left knocked me back into the seat, searing the skin on the side of my face, as the car spun out of control.
With another jerk of momentum, it all stopped.
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.**.
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AN: Whoot! They're on the move!