"What's the hold up... We been standing here for an hour already!"
A young woman shifted in the backseat, bored out of her mind. Sticking out her head out the car window she glanced and the wide, electronic billboard that hung in front of them said "Road temporarily closed. All vehicles must remain stationary until further notice. -PPD"
Rolling her eyes and releasing an exaggerated groan, the woman plopped back on the seat.
"Honey, relax. I'm sure there's something serious is happening if they halted all the cars."
An equally bored young man replied to his girlfriends whining.
"There's nothing there, look!" pointing at the completely empty road ahead of them.
The man only rolled his eyes, not bothering with a retort. He didn't want to get in trouble with the police, even if they weren't here - there were plenty of cameras that were monitoring the roads.
Silence filled the car again, with the woman continuing looking out the window at the cloudless sky, while the man looked at the lightly swaying tropical hula girl toy on the dashboard. As he continued to stare at the toy, the man noticed that the toy slowly but surely started shacking faster. To his shock soon the whole car was lightly vibrating.
"Wh-What's going on?!"
Turning to his panicking girlfriend, the man's eyes widened when he saw something big approaching on the opposite lane. In a flash a giant tank sped by them, only inches away from the car. The couple didn't have time to react as what looked like a huge, armored robot ran past them, screaming bloody murder. The said robot tore off the electrical billboard on its way and threw the board at the fleeing tank.
In a split second the tank maneuvered away from the billboard as it crashed on the road and proceeded to crash and roll on the ground, breaking apart into million pieces. Hail of missiles rained down on the tank, some missing, some hitting their mark, but the armored mammoth didn't even lose its speed.
"I love this thing!"
Bixby exclaimed steering the tank avoiding another rocket.
"Do not get over confident! It may take four or less hits to make the Future Tank to start taking serious damage!"
Right behind him Heimerdinger was furiously typing something on a holographic keyboard and mumbling to himself. In the corner of the tank sat a visibly distraught Ziggs. He was missing his helmet and goggles, revealing his dark blue eyes. Bixby was worried about Ziggs' condition because right now the Dean was sitting in the corner, covering the wound on his head with one hand and staring blankly at the opposite wall, completely unaware what was going around him or where he was. The sniper could only bet that his friend had an emotional shock, and he was like that ever since he dragged him away from the stage back at the expo.
Right when that robot started the massacre, Bixby quickly acted and instead of running away from the stage like most of the people, he ran towards it. Since he was practically on the front row, the yordle vaulted over the metal fence and ran under the stage. It took him some time, but he finally managed to find his way to the backstage and proceeded to run to the door. The only noise the sniper heard were gunfire and explosions, but as soon as he ran through the red curtain to his surprise he saw Ziggs duking it out with the metal monster. Furiously throwing bombs at it, disrupting the robots aim and barely dodging the battering ram, the enraged Dean wasn't ready to stop fighting any time soon even after he threw the last bomb into the robots face.
The battle abruptly ended when the floor that the robot was standing on broke. Suddenly losing its footing the robot wildly shot its weapons while it was falling down. Bixby could only watch in horror how one of the bullets hit Ziggs. As soon as the robot got stuck halfway in the stage, Bixby ran for his fallen friend, quickly picking him up and jumping off the stage.
Bixby ran towards the armored truck nearby, putting down Ziggs to check if he was still alive. The Dean was bleeding from the top of his head. Taking off the broken helmet Bixby could see an elongated scar left from the bullet. To Ziggs' sheer luck, the bullet only grazed over his scalp.
While Bixby was busy trying to stop the bleeding, he was approached by Heimerdinger. The professor nearly faltered when he saw his dear friend in his current state. Upon seeing Heimer, Bixby was five seconds away from punching him out, but decided against it because it would be a huge pain in the ass carrying both of them through this chaos.
Pushing aside Heimer, Bixby picked up Ziggs and soon the yordles were running for their lives. It didn't take long for them to run into dead ends that were caused by some fallen stands, and things didn't get any easier when rockets and hanging platforms started falling down on their heads. The situation looked bleak until the trio saw the Future Tank and ran towards it.
Getting inside and putting Ziggs down, Bixby immediately jumped into the driver's seat, randomly pushing buttons just to start the tank. In the meantime Heimerdinger kept typing something in that holographic thing on his wrist, even as he was climbing in the tank. Bixby didn't know what Heimer was doing, but just as he was about to yell at the professor to help him, he heard an excited 'Eureka!' and something about 'aerial drones'. After doing that, Heimer turned off his holo-wrist thing and pressed one button that made the tanks interface lit up like a Christmas tree.
From there on everything seemed like a big blur to Bixby. He remembers powering up the tank, recklessly driving through obstacles, activating the jet boosters gaining ludicrous speed, and finally ramming head-on into robot sending them both crashing through the wall outside.
Once outside Bixby and Heimer thought it was over, but before they knew it the metal thing was getting back up, looking pretty pissed. Punching it forward, Bixby decided to at least lure the robot away from the expo.
Where? Even now he has no idea.
To make matters worse, the damn robo-thing could skate apparently. The wheels on its heels shifted under the feet, granting the it surprising mobility and speed. Soon after, it was on the tanks tail shooting rockets and tossing cars, getting closer each minute.
"Please don't have grappling hooks, pleeeease!"
Thankfully there weren't a lot of cars on the road at the moment, most probably because everyone was at work. Dodging another car flung by the robot, Bixby made a wrong turn and the tank went downhill, crushing trees and couple road sighs until ending up on a freeway. Bixby pressed on, not stopping for a second, noticing the robot descending down the cliff on the road and resuming the pursuit.
"Careful!" Heimerdinger scoffed at the sniper when the tank hit yet another road sign and nearly crushed an incoming car.
"OH, I'm sorry! It's only my second time driving a flippin' tank in my life!" Bixby barked back at the professor. "It's a damn tank, why can't we just turn around and shoot that hunk of junk in the face?"
Heimer let out low grunt. "Do you honestly think that we will put live ammunition into an unfinished vehicle?"
Bixby felt like laughing at this point. "And you were fine with putting live ammunition into that thing?! Way to go Heimerdicker!"
To Heimerdinger, the retort felt as if Bixby spat on his face. "You... You think that... That.. Is my doing? No. No,no..." This was probably the breaking point for the yordle scientist. Raising his voice loud enough to snap Ziggs out of his stupor. "THAT ABOMINATION IS NOT MY CREATION!"
The sniper seemed unfazed by the scientists rage. "Pray it's the truth." He muttered darkly, "Because I won't hesitate blowing your brilliant brains out."
Before Heimer could reply he was stopped by Ziggs. "Stop... Both of you.. This isn't the time for this!"
Bixby was relieved hearing his buddies voice once again. "He's right. I'd love to hear some ideas on where should we go. We can't run away forev-" He was interrupted when a truck was thrown on the road right in front of him, forcing the sniper to pull the lever to the right. Tearing apart half of the truck with it massive threads, he drove the tank to a tunnel that led downtown. He knew the place a little, and he vaguely recalled there being a police station. Though what good that would do he didn't know, because it seemed all the police in the city just dropped off the face of the earth.
Driving out of the tunnel, the mammoth ignored all stoplights as it sped further down the streets, narrowly avoiding incoming cars. It didn't take long for the robot to gain up on the fleeing tank. Riding down a cliff, landing on and jumping off a department store, it proceeded to skate and wildly shoot rockets at the tank, occasionally swatting away a car and almost gleefully ramming into an incoming bus, tearing it in half. Covered in flames the robot continued rolling, finally arming the big rocket on its back.
Inside the tank the small radar started beeping, warning the driver about the incoming rocket.
"Ah, crap..."
Bixby swallowed hard raking his brain for ideas. If this rocket hits the tank - they're done for. Right before he thought that things couldn't be even worse, the sniper realized that there was a bridge on their way. By the looks of it was one of those double leafed drawbridges that provided clearance for boat trafficking. Red lights were blinking indicating that it was about to open up.
An insane idea flashed in Bixby's mind, but at this point it was the only one that could work. Gripping the lever that controlled the jet boosters and setting his finger on the button that read 'JET MODE', the sniper grinned like a maniac.
"Hang on to your furry butts, cuz I'm giving it the juice!"
The sudden realization of Bixby's intentions hit Heimer like a bucket of cold water. "No, stop! One of the jet engines is damaged! It could-"
The sentence was cut off when the scientist was jerked back from the sudden burst of speed. Both he and Ziggs were pushed against the back wall of the tank unable to move. The heavy tank shifted some of its armor parts around, extending small wings on each side and gained speed in an instant, quickly jetting away from the incoming rocket. Going much faster than the last time Bixby activated the jet boosters, he could only keep the tank steady, cackling loudly along the way.
The metal mammoth sped to the slightly raised bridge and easily scaled it. Even thought the bridge was halfway raised, it was enough to make the tank fly through the air when it reached the end of the bridge.
A powerful explosion shook the entire construction when the rocket hit the raised bridge, destroying one half, sending the wreckage to the river below.
The mighty H.G.T.D. soared through the air as gracefully as an elephant with a jetpack, until one of the jet engines finally malfunctioned. After one of the engines stopped working, the jet-tank started rapidly losing altitude, and soon after the tank has flying towards one of the multi-story car parks. Bixby could only buckle up his seatbelt and brace for impact.
Crashing into the fifth floor, the metal mammoth tanked all the parked cars on its way, crushing all the fancy vehicles under its powerful threads, all the while pushing some with itself as it went further. Finally busting through the opposite wall of the garage, sending all the collected cars and debris raining down on the streets below, the tank continued to crash down to a nearby park, scaring the crap out of everybody who was relaxing there. Landing hard on a playground, it skid forward breaking a couple of trees on the way until hitting a fountain, smashing it into pebbles and finally stopping.
Bixby slowly regained consciousness feeling that somebody was shaking his shoulder. Opening his eyes, he let out a long grunt, lifting his head from the control panel. Touching his forehead he could feel a lump forming on the side.
"I'm gona feel that in the morning..."
"Thank goodness you're alright!" Heimers voice was filled with worry, their previous dispute all but forgotten it seems.
Bixby unbuckled the seatbelts and stood up looking at Heimer and then at Ziggs who was leaning against the wall. He still looked like he didn't understand what was going on, not to mention looking paler. He only gave Bixby a weak nod.
Heimer pressed a button that made the hatch open up, letting in the much needed fresh air. Heimer climbed out first, followed by Ziggs, and Bixby. The three yordles examined their surroundings, checking if the robot managed to follow them, but it seems they finally lost the pursuer.
Making sure that the robot isn't coming, Heimer soon activated his holo-screen again and started clicking away. Bixby on the other hand looked at all the property damage he had caused hoping that he won't be forced to pay for any of this. Ziggs just stayed near the tank, leaning against it trying to come to his senses and process all that happened just now.
"You ok there buddy?"
He turned to Bixby who put his hand on the Deans shoulder. Drawing an uneasy breath Ziggs muttered a "No". Feeling light headed, the Dean hastily pushed past Bixby and turned away. Everything that had happened today, every bit of it came rushing back into Ziggs' mind, and it was too much.
He vomited.
The sniper looked away, waiting for his friend to let it all out. As soon as Ziggs was done, he shuddered in disgust. Bixby led away Ziggs from the mess, and the two plopped down on the ground leaning their backs on the tank treads. While Ziggs was wiping his mouth and occasionally spitting to get the awful after puke taste out, Bixby took out a mangled pack of cigarettes and after finding a non-broken one, lit it up, taking a long, satisfying drag.
Heimer was still typing on his holographic computer, but so far nothing seemed to work. Just as he was about to give up, he heard static on one channel.
"...me...n...Heim...D...ad...Ov..."
Hemirdingers face lit up. "Yes! Yes! I can hear you! I'm going to try adjusting the frequency." He answered, moving closer to the tank, making Ziggs, and Bixby look at Heimer in confusion.
"...mer? Yer al...Whe..e ar...ya?...tin-can...Over..."
The static seem to be getting less persistent. Entering more codes, Heimer finally managed to set the frequency. The static was gone and the yordles could clearly hear an aged, raspy voice.
"Damnit Heimer! Don't yah disappear on me now! Over."
Heimer was relieved upon hearing his old friends voice. "I am here Corki! I have set the coordinates, you should see the Future Tank on your radar."
"Thank the skies yer alive! Hahaa-Ya crazy old sonofabitch! I got the tin-can on radar. Sit tight, I'm goin in! Over."
"What about the robot?" Bixby quickly asked.
After a brief delay Corki responded, "My team got that big puss running fer its life, but when we were about to slag the thing, it shot out smoke screen! We cleared the smoke an it was gone, just like that! I ordered my team to search the area and went to search for yeh."
Heimer furrowed his brows at the information. "Even your radars couldn't pick up the machines heat signals?"
"Negative. The thing just-Wohohoa you went through the fifth floor?- the thing just up and vanished!"
"Invisibility cloak?" Ziggs mused, looking at Heimer.
"A possibility, yes."
The trio heard the distinct helicopter sounds in the distance as it flew closer. It was Corki's custom heli that he used only for serious situations. Swiftly landing on the playground, the copter slid the door open for the yordles.
Standing up, Bixby gave Ziggs a hand. The three yordles were about to run for the copter when Bixby suddenly stopped.
"Wait! We're just gona leave the tank here?"
Heimer was quick to answer. "We have far more pressing matters at hand, than worrying about leaving a non functional tank that no one knows how to operate!"
Even though he was kind of right on that regard, it still seemed like a bad idea for Bixby.
"Screw it. I'll stay here and watch over this thing until the cops show up."
Heimer seemed not to care one bit about the idea. Turning, he ran to the heli. Ziggs on the other hand, gave Bixby a reassuring grin and a thumbs up, before running to and climbing into the heli.
Sitting atop the tank, the sniper looked on how the custom battle-copter gracefully took off from the ground and soared to the skies, quickly disappearing behind the tall buildings. Finishing the cigarette, he flicked the butt away, slowly looking around him. There were a couple of curious onlookers, but nothing out the ordinary.
Still.
Bixby had this nagging feeling that he's being watched.
"Well... So much for our vacation time."
How is that when you try writing action you get much shorter chapters, I don't get it.