I wasn't kidding when I said 'end of the weekend'. It's literally twenty to midnight over here haha. Now hang on. It's Bunny's time to shine!
US-15 Interstate, Pennsylvania, 4:06 a.m.
Bang! Bang!
"Put your head down!" Aster shouted and Toothiana snapped her neck to her knees, pulling Jack down with her.
Bang!
The back windshield was hit again and Tooth yelped when a shard exploded from the glass, cutting her ungloved hand.
"W-What about you?!" she screeched. "You could get hi–"
But Tooth couldn't finish the sentence as Aster turned the wheel sharply and sent the coupé into the other lane. His green eyes were sharp and unblinking as he drove recklessly down the single-lane highway.
Their vehicle zoomed down the empty Interstate whipping past the town of Trout Run like a demon. Pitch's Nightmare followed in a black sports car, like its identical shadow.
They still had about two hours left to make it to–
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Gah!" Tooth gasped and squinted through her eyes. She eyed the trunk camera on Aster's monitor and its rear light lit up the front bummer of the car. Her heart raced painfully as she felt the quiet purr of Aster's car grew louder the more he pressed his boot on the accelerator.
Another chase was about to start.
"Bullocks!" Aster growled. The Nightmare's car was no match in terms of speed when it came to Aston's V12 engine. But that didn't mean the Australian wasn't naive. He tightened his glove on the wheel as he eyed the trunk cam. A car dispatched by a Nightmare would carry all the tricks and gear that Pitch wanted his men to.
But it wasn't like the tech analyst wasn't packed either.
With a dark flicker from his mirrors to the oncoming road ahead, Aster clenched his jaw and pulled off his right glove with his teeth.
"You gonna both be alrigh' back there?!" he called and Tooth lifted her head just the slightest to look at him.
"Yeah!"
"Good," he replied. "'Cause I'm about to go rogue on his ass. Y'ready?"
And Tooth looked him directly in the eye through the mirror. She shot him a determined look.
"Whenever you are," she breathed and that was enough for him.
That's when the bullets stopped for a moment as the Nightmare ran out of rounds and paused in his tirade to reload. So taking the opportunity, Aster sent a quick look through the trunk cam and at his blind spot. Then with a snap of both his wrists, Aster twisted the wheel (and the car) back into the lane ahead of the Nightmare.
Tooth then watched him swiftly press his palm flat against the touchscreen closest to him.
Immediately, it light up bright blue, and so did the one next to it, and the one next to it...until all the screens lit up and confirmed his handprint.
Beeep!
Suddenly, a clear visor dropped from Aster's overhead compartment. He caught it in his hand and shoved it over his eyes. As he did, two small keyboards slid out under the screen and a program started to run and chime.
"What's–"
"Initiating ElectronicAlpha Sequence Tracker: Engagement Ready...Priority Level?"
"Five!" Aster cried.
He then hit floored the accelerator as the screens lights started to dim instantly.
The dashboard dimmed so slow that Tooth could barely make out what they were showing and she looked at his shadowy features in the dark. She thought it was brilliant, knowing that Pitch's Nightmare wouldn't be able to see their silhouettes and get a clear shot through the window. But still–
"How are you going to see the screens?!" she asked worriedly. "Because I can't!"
"With these!" Aster's shadow of his hand lifted up and pointed to the clear visor over his eyes. And sure enough, when he flicked his green eyes down and looked through the clear lens, it reflected the computer screens on some night-vision level that only he could see. The words were bright and clear through the glass.
"My E-lens," he explained. "It can see for me so he can't. Designed it myself! Now hang on!"
When another gunshot went off, he didn't hesitate. Aster threw his fingers on one of the keyboards and typed in a quick command. The touchscreens flickered red for a second before the sequence started, and not even looking, Aster touched three of them simultaneously.
Tooth saw something flicker on the main dashboard, a CH³NO² – then it disappeared and read 'Nitromethane Boost'.
She gulped.
"Oh sh–"
Aster pressed it.
And his nitro compound sparked in the engine...and sent them rocketing forward!
Aster's back surged tightly back into his driver seat. He grunted under his breath from the light impact – but the same could not be said for the Princess Thia and Jack Frost in the back.
Tooth squealed as she smacked into the backseat. "HOOLYY CRAAP!"
The gravity seemed to suck her into the cushion as the few lights outside blinked out faster than she could see – it was Moscow all over again, and that terrified her.
When Tooth caught her breath and tried to help Jack's slightly bent form sit properly, Aster looked up into his rearview mirror.
"Y-You alrigh'?!" he asked her afraid that the pressure from the speed they were going was crushing her lungs or throwing her senses. But as he tried looking for her face, he froze.
He didn't catch her eyes in his mirror – he caught Jack's...and his blue, haunted gaze freaked out the tech analyst. It was so unnerving, seeing how catatonic the normally unyielding brunette was.
Aster shook his head a little and frowned before he focused on the road again. He glared at through his E-lens unblinking and controlled his steering.
"Keep an eye on the bloke in case this ride sets 'im off again!"
Tooth blinked and looked over. "Oh no!"
She reached over and grabbed Jack's shoulder before his head almost hit the window. God know what kind of memory that might've set off!
"Y-You okay?!" she asked him before she realised how incredibly dumb that was. He had no clue what was going on and when another gunshot went off far behind him, she gritted her teeth.
"You can do it, Edmund," she whispered firmly to herself as she saw his fist and his fingers dance wildly across the cars keyboards in the dark.
Jack meanwhile was dazed and confused...but at least he wasn't hurting (or pissing off) the Australian as he drove them from the danger.
"It's Pitch!...Damn, that...t's the sev–Priority level: 6!"
He slurred slightly as he mumbled to himself but Toothiana didn't hear it in the high winds outside, Aster's typing, and the deep purr of the car.
Letting go of Jack, she then heard something go clunk! against the door beside her. When she looked down, the tooth box with Tuhina's clone information inside was thumping against the door like it was trying to get out. She scrambled for it in the dizzying speed of the car and gripped it tightly.
A brief light from outside made the gold shine and she leaned forward slightly, bringing it close to her chin.
"I'm sorry..." she murmured.
When she peeked, Aster's eyes caught hers for a millisecond.
Tooth couldn't help it – her mouth flew open.
"I-I'M SORRY!" She shook her head slightly.
Bang! Bang!
A part of the Aston's roof got hit and a violent pang! made her skin crawl.
"I didn't mean...I d-didn't...for any of–"
"Princess, it's alright. We're gonna be fine, he ain't gonna catch us."
Suddenly, the first car in miles appeared ahead of them. With the gunshots still going off behind them, he tightened his grip and made a slight turn with his wheel. It sent the Aston in a sharp curve around the truck and back again. Tooth covered her mouth when she thought they'd clip the poor driver.
The speedometer through his E-lens kept ticking higher and higher. Aston Martins could hit 195 km/h in 3.5 seconds but with his calibrations, they were going 245km/h...and higher!
His heartbeat was steady and his fingers were twitching over the keyboard. He then looked at Toothiana again, sending her that calm and reserved gaze that Jack and North seemed to have. She dropped her hands from her mouth as he nodded his head.
"Don't worry. I've got nerves of steel, so you hang in there."
And Tooth nodded as she bit her lip.
He then turned back to the road and did a mental assessment with his head, like a true spy.
Positive: The interstate was dead, not a car or headlight could be seen for miles ahead, which meant he could swing his car into the other lane and have total command of both roads if he wanted.
Negative: It meant that so could the Nightmare, and from the curved ends and the circular insignia, he was driving a sports car with turbocharged engine...it looked like an Alfa Romeo, maybe Giulietta or a 4C.
That didn't deter him.
"But please, baby," he grumbled to his car. "Don't attract cops."
But with the Nightmare on his ass, that was highly unlikely–
BOOM!
The body of the coupé shuddered on Jack's side and a burst of fire lit up the window.
"H-He's–" Tooth's eyebrows shot up like no tomorrow. "H-HE'S GOT A BOMB?!"
Another violent explosion went off.
Aster glared through his clear visor and read the alert heat signatures that lit up on the touchscreen. He swiftly rapped his fingers on the keyboard to watch for any oncoming spikes in temperature. As he looked down through the trunk cam to confirm though, his wild, green eyes something mount on top the hitman's Alfa. It looked like a small rocket launcher.
"Nope," he growled. "A bloody rocket!"
"What?!"
As he brought both hands to the wheel and felt the Nitro boost start to wane, the dashboard flashed red through his lens.
Aster's subconscious kicked in and he impulsively turned left. The Nightmare let loose three more small rockets.
"Lean back but hide your head!" the Aussie ordered and he performed a quick serpentine effect with the car. It went into the tightest S-shape Tooth thought she'd ever experience.
The three rockets went off like bombs on either side of them. Her skin grew clammy and cold sweat started to form.
"A-Aah!"
Tooth hastily shoved the case into her coat pocket again and clutched both sides of her head. The powerful reverb vibrated the car and the air around them but luckily, none of them hit thanks to Aster's quick dodging. It sent her heart into near cardiac arrest.
"I-I'm gonna die young after all this," she heaved. But hopefully not too young – hopefully after she got answers about her past, stopped Pitch, finished school, got married, had kids–
The rumbling outside suddenly stopped and she blinked past her stingy eyes. When the fire vanished in the speed and high winds from the outside, Aster eased on the accelerator as a curve in the road came. Snow smacked the windshield but with North's expert inventions, his windshield radiated heat and they melted away before they touched the glass, giving him constant perfect view. But he was still pissed.
"Friggin' showoff," he grumbled and as the ex-spy read out his stats again, Aster gritted his teeth. He reached his ungloved hand over two monitors to hit a smaller touchscreen on the end. When it lit up, he then moved to press the activation button on the one closest to him.
Tooth immediately heard something shift and move under her feet.
"D-Don't tell me you've got a launcher too?!" she exclaimed hopefully but he kept his eyes on the road.
"Sorta!"
A moment later, a sound like metal unlatching from a hook was released.
Shiink!
Aster's two 'eggs' flew from beneath a tiny launch pad he had under the body of the Aston. When they bounced on the road leaving the three behind, their grenade hooks disassembled and they clinked in the path of the Alfa. The Nightmare had his own program scanner and smirked under his black hoodie.
Switching gears, the hitman tore up the road faster than Aster anticipated. He must have gotten a recalibrated engine too! Well, that was bullocks. And when the two eggs exploded, they didn't make a scratch on the assassin's car as he outdrove their fire radius.
He sped ahead after the hacker.
"Y'gotta be friggin' kidding me," Aster muttered. With another quick mental boost, Aster pressed the small touchscreen on the far right again.
Tooth didn't know what was happening. It sounded like war! But every time, she tried to lift her head and read the screens, they remained dark and barely readable, except for the occasional red flash indicating something was happening or coming at them. But one thing was certain – as she peeked at the blue-tipped brunette behind the wheel for some kind of clue, she was stunned.
Toothiana's mouth fell slightly open in anticipation.
"Sweet mother of..."
The princess looked on in awe as Aster's eyes went back and forth so quick between the road and his onboard system whilst driving effortlessly one hand and typing simultaneously with the other. He looked completely in his element, mumbling calculations, chemical elements, and algorithms before he pressed and tapped the touchscreen again. It was mind-blowing.
"Suck on this, y'gumbie!"
A heart-stopping second later, the weird shiick! sound under Tooth's feet went off again. That was when she knew he was the one who'd set off the previous wave of bombs – and he was ready and loaded to fire some more.
But Aster glared through his E-lens again and watched his one egg shoot away in the blacklight. He made sure his readouts of Alfa Romeo behind them were correct but he had to be sure this one would work.
This third egg was special.
It's dark, little body bounced and clinked away from the Aston Martin on the icy road until seconds later, the Nightmare's car appeared ahead of it. The second it sensed the vehicle's approaching distance, Aster's egg grenade started to count.
10 metres...5.2 metres...1.5 metres...
And just before Pitch's Nightmare whizzed past it, the bouncing egg recognised the car's body makeup, and a magnetic pulse went off inside it. Like a boomerang, it swung back around and tossed itself toward the hitman's car. It chased the carbon fibre and aluminum inside the vehicle and when the magnetic attraction brought it close enough–
BOOM!
The back of the Alfa flew up slightly in the magnificent fire causing both Tooth and Aster to pull their heads up. Tooth gasped breathlessly, watching through the trunk cam and the light of the fire. The Alfa buckled slightly on the road behind them and a chunk of its bummer fell off.
"Y-Yeah!" she cheered and Aster didn't waste time. He pressed a button on his E-lens to recall his last Nitro boost and commanded another. When it came up, he looked down with ferocity and hit it again.
The second surge of speed shot them away from the Alfa like a bullet and they flew down the US-15.
"Nice job!" Tooth offered nervously – but like a good spy chase, it wasn't over.
The Nightmare wasn't hurt in the explosion and after he and his vehicle recovered on the road, Pitch's underling tightened his fist and put his foot on the clutch. They weren't getting away with the case that easy. He then aggressively moved into 3rd gear and hit the gas...then he was flying again too, straight for Aster, Jack and the princess.
Beep! Beep!
Aster flit his green eyes up to the corner of his lens and read the alert – something just went through a sudden change in speed outside the Aston!
When he looked down at the trunk cam briefly, he clenched his jaw. Even through the Alfa's blacked out windshield, the cam caught a facial recognition of the Nightmare and Aster could see the outline of the bastard's face!
He glared darkly...How in the hell did they find him?!
Pitch's Nightmare was silent behind his wheel, his hunger set for the destruction of the Aston Martin ahead and the burning of everyone inside it. He didn't really give a damn if the car, the guy and the people he was carrying inside it would get totaled. As long he could grab the case in the wreckage, that's all Pitch would want – the box was indestructible, at least that's what Pitch's men told him when he'd been dispatched from HQ.
They'd reported the disturbance at the BNI airport and after he and a small team were sent to check it out, they'd hacked the entire airport's footage and destroyed the data so the police wouldn't get involved with Pitch's operation.
God knows he hated when others joined in his fun without his consent.
Then it was up to him and the team to follow the tall brunette with blue tips. The guy was seen on camera in the taxi responsible for the sinkhole – the cameras did not show Jack or Tooth. And like hunters, they tracked his destination...to an abandoned lot in Buffalo. The three had left by the time they arrived and the trail would've run cold, seeing as the Warren was perfectly designed to counter any scan above and below. But Aster forgot one slipup. Although he erased their earlier footprints, Jack's blood still left a spot in the snow and they used it, searching the DNA to every database they could hack – but Jack always being elusive, never got ID'd and that sent up the Nightmares' red flags.
The rest was easy, really – call in a quick search plane to scour the area in a 500 mile radius, find a tiny sinkhole suspiciously made in a field almost 70 miles south of their location, and...well, they don't get hired by Pitch Black for their sense of style and bloodlust.
The assassin then smirked under his black hoodie.
Whoever this tall clown was, it'd be fun to mess with him.
"Let's see what else you've got," he chuckled under his breath and kicked his Alfa into 4th. Then the Nightmare was drilling through the snowy road, shortening the distance between him and Aston's already supped up engine.
...
Both vehicles ripped down the US-15 like hell hounds as they tried to outdrive one another. Eventually the town of Trout Run was nothing but a memory as the dark forests and empty roads engulfed them again. Tooth wanted to grab onto something desperately – or rather someone – but with her only pillow still in possible assassin-mode (and Aster's car going double its speed limit), she didn't want to move.
'A-At least we're cutting time,' Tooth huffed as she tightened her coat around her. With the speed they were going, no doubt they'd hit Burgess before sunrise.
Wait, how was that comforting?
'Just keep your eyes on the road, then! Keep your eyes on the road!'
But that was easier said than done! With the Aston Martin and their crap-crazy friend behind them taking full command of the two tiny lanes, they were gunning at speeds of over 200 km/h! Every nice bit of scenery or light she could've looked at to help calm her nerves, was like a speck of dust in her eye before it winked away...So why bother!? And surprisingly, that's how the few people who spotted both cars felt.
Of the cars they whizzed past, the truckers they outdrove, and the one service stop they screeched by, no one paid any attention to both cars. The people thought they were just a couple of idiots out just racing before Christmas morning hit and their families caught them. How wonderful.
When both vehicles passed civilization again and were alone on another empty road, the hitman's restlessness started to show. He couldn't believe that with all the Nightmares' upgrades to the Alfa Romeo, it was no match for his 'buddy's' Aston Martin. Sure, the flashy, British supercar was supposed to be naturally fast but with his pumping a new v12 engine too, he should've run it down by now!
He tightened a fist.
Fine then, he decided. He'd have to do a little cat-and-mouse to get his way. The assassin eased on his gas little and lined up behind the black car for a good, clean shot. Then with a flit to his onboard control, Pitch's Nightmare hit a button and gave a voice command.
Two seconds later, four tiny yellow rings shot out from another launch pad under the Alfa's car. They went zooming for Aster's Aston.
...
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Aster's eyes widened through his E-lens when a red alert went off. On pure instinct, Aster swerved the car into the oncoming lane and avoided getting hit by the devices.
"Oy!"
His alerts were going off like mad and Tooth yelped as she buckled against the door and Jack's arm. When she opened her mouth to ask what had happened, her eyes widened.
"WATCH OUT FOR TH–" Aster steered violently back into their right lane.
He narrowly clipped the lonely Impala with one headlight that suddenly appeared. It scared the shit of the two of them as Aster tried to control his nerves again.
"Ho!" he gasped. "Bloody hell!"
Another alert went off again and when Aster and Tooth both looked at the touchscreens, something tiny and yellow was coming at them from behind.
"Oh no!" Tooth yelled but Aster was already reading out the stats. After he made a quick calculation in his head with their trajectory paths and the length, width, and wheelbase of his car, he gritted his teeth.
"Hang on!" he cried again and shifted gears again.
Aster made another daredevil serpentine to avoid the next set of circles being fired at them. The engine purred loudly and the tires protested against the hard and icy asphalt.
But he'd managed to do it – the yellow circles whizz past.
Tooth caught the yellow light from them fly past the window. She looked around the passenger seat to watch them fly on toward another lonely van ahead in their lane.
"W-What was that thing?!" she cried as Aster moved into the oncoming lane again (this time, with the Nightmare copying and keeping on his tail). He looked down at his monitors.
"Dunno, but I..." he faded out as he lifted a hand to type wildly and bring up another program sequence. Tooth bit her lip.
She felt so upset just sitting there and not being able to help him. Sure, she was doing her part by keeping an eye on Jack so he wouldn't hurt Edmund from behind, and yeah, she wasn't a tech whiz or a high-performance driver – but feeling like a bag of rice in the backseat who screamed alot didn't make her feel better. Tooth was brought out of her thoughts when he spoke again.
"What?" Tooth asked again not hearing.
"It's..." Suddenly, Aster's EA program redirected his front cameras to zoom in on one of the yellow objects still flying ahead (whilst he performed another gutsy serpentine when Pitch's Nightmare tried to shoot a bullet at their tires again – he kept missing).
When the cam caught the object, its lens zoomed in on it immediately and gave Aster a clear shot of what it was. It was a ring! A ring that pulsated yellow. Then when it hit the van ahead and stuck itself onto the side of the vehicle, it blinked several times and turned black. He scrunched his eyes through his visor.
It looked dead, virtually invisible...but Aster knew.
"Bullocks!" he cursed. "It's a tracker!"
And he looked in all his cameras knowing the hitman wouldn't stop shooting them until he'd hit the Aston Martin with one.
"He's trying to tag you?!" Tooth choked worriedly but it made sense. Even if they did manage to escape this hunt alive, the tracker would follow them back to Burgess – and who knew what horrors Pitch would bring to Jack's hometown if they went all the way?
It was too much and her heart twisted on itself under her turtleneck.
"C-Can you stop it?"
And like a breath of hope, Aster narrowed his eyes through his E-lens.
"I can do him one better!" he growled, ready for the challenge. The Aussie genius then typed furiously on his keyboard as his car nearly sideswiped the van with the tracker on it. Just as they passed it, Aster's quick fingers initiated a scanner on the right side of the car to scan the tracker for its carbon particles.
Like a camera flash, it got a reading of the tracker at the last second.
Beep!
As Aster got the results of the rings on screen he accepted them and his mind worked furiously.
His eyes darted everywhere and both his hands were violently quick. Tooth couldn't keep up as she tried to follow his fingers in the dim light of the car and knocked into the sides as he twisted through both lanes aggressively.
When her head hit the glass window, she rubbed it painfully. "Son of a– "
Then–
"Got it!"
Tooth looked up and saw Aster's green eyes narrowed through the windshield.
"Alrigh', ya bugger, come on!" he dared the Nightmare. "Try it again!"
"What?!"
And just as he said so, Pitch's assassin lined up behind Aster and he glared through his yellow visor. He mimicked the Aston Martin's movements and locked onto it properly – this time, he'd get him because the guy was running out of tricks and it was easy to predict his next moves. He wasn't that skilled in street racing.
But that wasn't Aster's downfall...
(And when Pitch's Nightmare fired another set of tracker rings, hell bent and red-hot determined on nailing him this time, the hacker smirked.)
...because his skill was in tactics.
The yellow rings soared through the icy wind and hoarfrost like bullets. Their trajectory was so spot on and inevitable, that even Tooth saw the monitor beep more than once in alert. She panicked and bit her lip, and in her blind fear, she reached for Jack's hand, completely forgetting how dangerous he still was.
Within two metres of the car, the trackers pulsed wildly and Tooth's mouth opened to yell out...but then Aster's program initiated a chemical sequence through the hydraulics – and a deep vibration started from the front of the Aston's engine and swiftly surged to the back.
The surge instantly pinpointed the carbon particles inside the rings coming straight for them, and let off a shockwave that the countered the active compound inside them. The shockwave was so strong, it zipped through the air like a blue flicker...but it sent all five tracker rings flying other directions.
The Nightmare was stunned and horridly pissed by what had happened. But so long as all the rings were made of the same carbon-base, none of them could touch the Aston after.
When a dead tracker ring bounced off his windshield and made a tiny crack, he growled angrily – this guy just outsmarted state-of-the-art Nightmare technology. Who the hell was he?!
Tooth choked slightly before a smile pulled at her lips. Before she knew it, she was leaning up a little higher than before and clapped like a ten-year-old.
"Y-You...Oh my god! That was amazing!" she applauded. "You stopped him!"
She knew she looked sorta ridiculous trying to be his cheerleader, but for Tooth it was better than nothing. She couldn't do crap but god knew she didn't just want to sit around and let him suffer in silence.
"You gotta tell me how you did that!"
And Aster smiled a little as he flicked his eyes up to the rearview to see her.
"Well, it–"
Vrrrrrrmmm!
He dropped his head back to the dashboard. From his outside scanners, Aster saw the speedometer readings of the Alfa behind him suddenly spike. He gritted his teeth – he didn't realise he'd been distracted by the princess and nearly lost all his acceleration. They'd been slowing down!
"Son of a–"
BOOM!
"Gah!"
Tooth was flung sideways. She smacked her chin into Jack's shoulder while Aster used his side cam to see what'd just happened.
The Nightmare had caught up. He rammed them violently from the back corner before he floored it and tried to steer Aster's car off-course.
Tooth recognised the motions instantly – It was another damn PIT maneuver.
"Oh, hell no, mate!" Aster griped and he aggressively veered out of the hitman's control and moved into the other lane again.
Tooth rubbed her chin and looked sideways to catch the dark Nightmare car. It was on her side, speeding up to get them again, and reminded her horribly of Moscow when the Militsya tried to throw Jack into a PIT too. Luckily he was skilled in getting out of one...she couldn't say the same if Edmund was trained to as well.
"You can do it!" she cried and shut her eyes.
Aster downshifted until the car was straight again. It was so hair-raising, feeling the dirt from the and thick ice chunks bounce under their vehicle but he was watched his blind spots and windows meticulously. Then when they were fine again, Aster shifted up to 3rd again and floored. But the Nightmare mimicked and soon, the two were trying to outgun each other down the interstate again.
"Oh, not again!" Tooth wailed.
"Just hang on!"
The two black cars raced and pulled swerves Tooth thought she'd never feel sick for unless Jack was driving – until eventually, the lonely interstate transformed into the Westbranch Highway and they pierced through a quiet town. Tooth had only a second to catch its sign under the lamplight. Was it Burgess?
'Welcome to Milton.'
Crap, nope.
Their deep engines across the sleeping roads made loud rumbles bounce off nearby buildings and it was all Aster could do not to get carried away and take over all the lanes. But he was making it very hard for the Alfa to stay on his toes...
...too bad their straight road was coming to an end.
Aster glared through all his mirrors and cameras before he caught a sign up ahead in the distance. With a quick key command to his computer, he zoomed in on it.
'Next ramp ahead, I-80 to Bloomsburg, 16.8 miles.'
He felt his heart race. That was it!
Aster needed to take that ramp! If he could make that sharp turn up and around on the ramp, the US-15 would end and they'd on the I-80 heading east – and that was the only quickest way to get to Burgess at this point!
"Buckle up, princess!" He cried just as they were within metres of the ramp and before she say a word, Aster downshifted swiftly.
Time stood still for a second as her heart leapt into her throat. Then...Aster's grasped the steel from underneath and turned it sharply with a stiff grip.
The Aston made a drift up and around the empty ramp, avoiding the black ice and surprise cars that would appear ahead and kill them in a big explosion.
"Ohhh, nellie!" Aster smirked and let out a slightly whoop. He hated twists and turns – they always made him sick – but the adrenaline in his veins and the energy from his gene pumped loudly under his skin.
Tooth wasn't having as much fun. She leaned heavily to the right and ended up using Jack as an airbag.
"Oof!" She coughed when his thick skull and soft hair smacked her in the throat. "S-Sorry, Jack!" she cried on behalf of both her and Aster.
When the ramp ended, Aster got out of the curve and shifted up into 2nd, then into 3rd, and left the US-15 behind and tore down the I-80 towards Bloomsburg.
"Only a couple more miles till we hit the PA-93! That'll take us down directly to Burgess, Thia!" he cried and as Tooth helped Jack settle upright again, she grinned breathlessly.
"But what about him?!" She jerked a thumb out the window. Since they were in a town, the orange glow from the streetlamps outside lit up the entire street – and the Nightmare's Alfa stuck out like a bat in orange juice once it came up the ramp too.
As they both heard Aster's computer alert a change in speed, the Nightmare's black car tried to gain ground on them again. When he did, both cars were almost neck-in-neck again, until Aster actually shook his head pitifully.
Tooth looked at him expectantly.
"W-What?"
"Ya just think he'd learn by now!" Aster joked and when the Alfa somehow almost lined up with the Aston, the Australian smirked through his tinted window. He chuckled darkly, thinking about the poor Nightmare trying to out chase a GUARDIAN.
"Heh, you don't wanna race this rabbit, mate!"
And with a violent oversteer, Aster rammed the body of the Aston into the Alfa's side. He then pulled away swiftly and after shifting up to 4th their black coupé sped further on ahead.
Tooth didn't understand the motive until Aster moved their car in line with the recovering Alfa from behind. Then after locking onto it with his trunk cam, the Aussie pressed a button on his touchscreen blindly and a wave of what looked like salt, shot out from under the Aston's bumper.
The princess watched in stunned silence as the salt pellets bounced toward the Alfa under the lamplights and mixed in with snow on the ground. But the second they hit the cold, each spread and flourished like wildfire. Her eyes widened.
Was it...She couldn't help but look over at Jack...Were those salt pellets...making frost?
As she watched through the camera more, the salt spread under the Nightmare's car. It reminded her so much of Jack's unknown ability to–
"It's liquid nitrogen!" Aster explained since he expected her silence to be out of confusion. "Drops below -210°C and will freeze then shatter anything it catches onto!"
And she watched in understanding as the flourishing salt-and-ice caught on to the Alfa's tires a bit and spread. It locked the front ones slightly but with the Alfa's thick tires spinning so fast and burning, it only stiffened its control. Pitch's Nightmare was in a daze – what was happening now?!
As he let go of the gas and aggressively tried to twist the tires out of their sudden restraint, he swerved a little and Aster smirked.
"Told ya, mate," he growled and after he lined up his car again with the Alfa, Aster lifted his fingers and touched a command on the screen. A second later, a bright light flashed from the back of the Aston and blinded the Nightmare through his visor.
In his impaired sight, the hitman sent his Alfa Romeo completely off the road and into the other lane, giving them a boosted headstart.
"Yeah!" Tooth cheered and even Aster sighed. As he rubbed his head, Tooth smiled up at him admirably.
She realised then that sure, Edmund may not drive high-performance like Jack but the ingenuity he'd made in his own car to suit his own strengths completely made up for it. Aster was a tech and tactics specialist.
She then leaned up slightly over the two seats.
"What else you got?" she asked in an impressed, light tone. Aster smirked, ready to open his mouth, when he eyed her more clearly and nearly jumped in his seat.
"SHEILA!"
Tooth panicked and jerked away.
"W-WHAT?!" She twisted her head around. Was he coming back?! Did Jack–
"Where's your bloody seatbelt?!"
She dropped her mouth flabbergasted. "Wh–"
"Ugh, bugger it!"
He then ignored her briefly as he realised they were leaving Milton and heading eastbound through the lonely highway of the I-80 again.
"He's gonna come back, so we need to take a more secluded route and lose 'im!" Aster muttered. "Otherwise we'll never get Jack home."And Tooth could automatically tell somehow that he was starting up a GPS as he started to press buttons on his touchscreen.
He searched the dimly lit monitors with his E-lens and picked out secret roads off the interstate. When he found one, Aster made a sharp turn and twisted the Aston Martin into a dark, sharp slope.
The thicket was rough and the snow was crunchy under their tires but thankfully it wasn't high. Tooth gasped every time the bumps in the road made her jump in her seat.
"C-Can you still see?!" she cried and Aster nodded his head even though she couldn't see it.
"Yeah!" he acknowledged. "I'm relying on the GPS and my program's ability to measure the distance ahead and under us. So don' worry! We won't fall into some hidden ravine or anythin'!"
"O-Okay, aw-awesome!" but when a deep pothole hidden in the show made the entire coupé bounce up violently, she still squealed and her attention was completely focused on keeping herself together.
Unlike Jack.
His head lobbed with theirs as the car drove violently through the dirt road on a mad dash for the next and final interstate to Burgess. But his mind was still warped and his memories were still attacking him.
"Keep going! KEEP G–You don't think, I don't know? Hmm! Do you?!"
Then suddenly–
Bang!
Tooth missed Jack take a pretty bad hit against the window on his left. And the last memory that was leaving him came flooding back, turning his Wonderland more violent...
"Wake up, eh? Wake up!"
Jack tried to blink steadily and keep his eyes clear, but when he looked away defiantly, the crime boss smacked his cheek gently with the back of his hand. Jack had to force himself to look him directly in the eye. His glare was dark but his face was still caked with dirt and bruises, and his split lip turned his expression more sour.
"You care to explain, son?" the man with the heavy accent breathed onto Jack's face. Jack's bangs were pushed in all directions showcasing the sharp blow he got to his head. The other dirty, greasy men around the room looked at the two of them blankly.
"You care to tell my men how you sign on six weeks ago, become my BEST facilitator, then suddenly under your watch, $20 million dollars just vanishes from our funds?!"
Jack said nothing. His eyes were cold and calculating and even as he sat in the chair with his wrists bound behind him, he exuded more boldness than the men had seen in weeks.
"You snuck it out. You undercover dogs!" the crime boss growled. "You play cop and criminal so well. Maybe you're really the worst of both us, hm?"
And when he got up and walked around the chair, a shiick went off and Jack felt the sharp point of a knife get shoved against his torso.
"Yield...Yield!"
And Jack narrowed his eyes when he saw the fresh blood still drying on it–but he didn't say a word.
"Well then fine," the leader taunted as he looked at Jack through the mirror across the room. "Let's use the same knife on you that I used on your partners until you do."
A second later, the blade drove deep into his skin.
"H...A-Argh!"
"Dunk his head in the water again!"
Afterwards, all Jack felt was a pain erupting at his torso, and cold water as his face went into the toilet again–
"Get ready, Thia!" Aster called as he pressed some programs on his computer he needed in case shit went down again. "I think the road is coming to an end!"
"I'm ready!"
And a second later, Aster followed the GPS and turned sharply up a short incline from the dirt path. They landed on the interstate again, half a mile from where they'd secretly driven into when–
BAM!
Tooth gasped and Aster turned his head sharply to the left. The Nightmare had come back. Having recovered from Aster's nitrogen trick, he sped after them but lost sight instantly. Still, he didn't give up – Operation: Nightmare needed that case! So he kept driving ahead remembering that even though they vanished into the darkness, they'd always appear – Pitch taught them that.
He also taught them that gruesome deaths were completely acceptable in the line of work – and as he rolled down the Alfa's passenger window and produced a gun, he held on tightly to that advice.
Aster's brows flew up and at the last second, he threw his seat back and grabbed the wheel.
"DUCK!" he shouted and Tooth pulled Jack down instinctively. The three narrowly missed getting shot in the face as they covered their ears. The glass in Aster's window shattered completely. He gritted his teeth as drove from under, using the cameras on the monitors to see where they were going.
Nightmares were such a pain in the ass.
"I've had enough," he muttered and with a quick grab, Aster pulled out a medium-sized assault rifle he had wedged in between his driver seat and the door. As he leant back and avoided the bullets, he eyed the bullet holes in the window and frowned.
"Sorry baby," he mumbled and clenched jaw. Then he quickly let go of both hands on the wheel and for a split second, Aster loaded the semi-automatic firearm with a cartridge. And with a poised aim against the glass, Aster pulled the trigger and fired through his own car's window back at the Nightmare. Tooth was astonished.
The sound of the bullets shattering the glass and hitting the metal body of the car beside them made their skin bristle with anxiety.
The assassin instantly let up on his gas to avoid getting hit, giving Aster much needed recovery time to pull his seat back up and sped ahead of the Alfa Romeo.
"Argh!" Aster used a powerful elbow strike to punch out the broken glass. The icy wind immediately stole the air and warmth from their lungs and lips and Tooth tried to push her hair away from her face.
As she did though, Aster was unbuckling his seatbelt.
"What're you doing?!" she cried as she was still bent over. This was insane! Any minute now the gunshots would start again – Aster shouldn't be leaning up again or he'd–
"I need to jump over and stop him!" Aster cried as he pressed a cruise control and speed changer on his touchscreen so the car would continue to keep going.
"What?!" she panicked as she pulled up to look at him.
The wind threw his short hair into a violent shake and the snow was already turning his cheeks raw red and his breath icy.
"It's the only way or he'll never let up, princess!"
And Tooth's mouth fell open – Is this how all agents, no, all GUARDIANs were?! Jumping cars and beating people up?!
"No, you big idiot! Stay here, we'll find a way to–"
"Princess, he won't stop unless I take an offensive. So it's now or never!"
And when he looked back at her with a heated gaze, she nearly choked again. She hoped nothing would happen as she saw him grip his rifle in his left hand.
"O-Okay...Okay fine!" she sighed angrily.
Aster nodded. "I need you to line me up with him since cruise control won't do that. Can you?!"
And Tooth surprised herself when she nodded determinedly and didn't hesitate to squeeze quickly through the seats to sit in the driver's chair. She suddenly felt more confident and brave, having been in the situation before and knew how to react.
Aster climbed and perched himself on the broken window as she leaned around him to see ahead. He ripped off his E-lens and handed it to her. When Tooth shoved it on, her eyes bugged out of her sockets.
"W-Whoa! Holy–"
The onboard computer system was so bright! Everything she couldn't read in the dark before were right there on the monitors through the lens.
It was breathtaking, but she didn't have time to gawk.
"Be careful!" she cried.
Then after letting up on the gas and lining up with the Alfa, Aster fired the first shot to distract the Nightmare and jumped across to swoop into the Alfa's open window, catching the hitman completely by surprise.
Tooth heard gunshots go off twice before they stopped, but loud grunts kept sounding which meant the fight was still on. So she tried to calm herself. Maybe they'd both lost theirs in the fight and were resorting to fists. She puffed her cheeks and gripped the wheel. As she drove in neck with the Alfa, Tooth was hard and focused. She sat, ready to swerve out of the way should anything (or the Alfa) get to close, and ready to catch Aster when he came back.
But she gritted her teeth, the longer he took.
"Argh!...Y-Gwargh!"
Tooth was pissed.
Pitch and his men were just the gum under all their shoes that would never give up. They were vile and cruel and...she dropped her right hand and put it against her thigh, brushing her fingers against her gun holster under her skirt.
Tooth couldn't deny it. She wanted to help Aster by pulling out her Taurus and firing a couple shots – he needed it since it sounded like they were now fist-fighting and her bullet would help give them the advantage. But she frowned and shook her head.
'No, Tooth! No! You only have one working gun left with five rounds still inside it...If you use it, then you can't get anymore!'
She needed to save it. Aster seemed fine so far, and she wouldn't use Jack's rifle either, even though it was still sitting in the passenger seat where she left it earlier. Suddenly–
Bang! Jack kept running–Bang! Bang! Tooth's light hadn't come back yet and while he was desperate to find her, he knew he had to keep the Nightmare from getting to her. It didn't help though that the memories got him punched in the stomach at least one or twice.
"Don't leave anybody to fend for themsel– Levez-vous! LEVEZ-VO–le gusta la gasolina...Dame más gasoli–What?!–You...understand, then?"
Tooth caught movement in the rearview mirror and raised her eyebrows. She thought maybe the Nightmare had skidded behind her but–
Jack's hand flew up to his bangs and pressed against his head. When he growled under his breath, her heart raced painfully.
"Jack?!" she called but he only made her stress rise when his head jerked slightly. She gripped the wheel but raised her other hand.
"No! No, stop it!" she cried angrily and pointed at him through the rearview mirror. "You stop it! You hear me, mister?!"
Her voice was high and shrill like a nagging mom or a cranky girl but she didn't stop. Tooth quickly eyed him again and saw his twitch get worse.
"Jack! You gotta teach me how to shoo–TIANAAA!–Let's play a game...Ah know ye like games, Jack."
"Argh!" He leaned forward slightly and Tooth reacted by looking sideways.
She caught his staff and rifle still lying next to her. With a quick glare, she reached over and threw them both on the floor so he couldn't see them in the dark and go for them. When they were virtually invisible, she glared up at him through the mirror again, balling her hand into a fist.
"I've had just about enough of you and your crazy Jason Bourne act, Jack!" and she swept her hand out stressfully to emphasize just how enough she was fed up with him. "And if you try anything right now, I swear I'll–"
In her blind yapping, her hand swept over the sensitive touchscreen. Tooth's eyes grew wide past the clear visor and tried to read what she'd just done.
"Oh son of a–"
Shiick!
A second later, a shelf under the glove compartment slid out and Tooth gasped. There was a silencer there, an emergency gun Aster kept hidden! She didn't blink.
Reaching over quickly, Tooth grasped the cold steel and looked at it briefly as she drove. With a dark frown, she clicked off the safety. She then turned back to the Alfa beside her. This was her one shot.
Easing on the gas and lining up the coupé with the Nightmare's car, Tooth blindly set the gun against the window ledge as she drove looking ahead. She needed to make sure she wouldn't crash or anything when she turned her head and fired. But it was all so nerve-wracking.
She still felt sick to her core and thought that every time she held a gun again, a piece of her soul shredded away. And all those men she'd...and the blood on her hands? Even though she'd never seen their faces still it–
She gritted her teeth. No, they were...they were...bad. And she could pretend...she could just pretend until the day her heart stopped aching.
So Tooth waited, skin electrifying and heart thumping wildly. And when she thought she got a clear line, she narrowed her eyes.
'Now!'
She then hoisted the gun over the window ready to fire. Then with a finger on the trigger, she snapped her head to the left and–
She froze.
Aster was looking at her wide-eyed from the other car, his short dark hair moving wildly about and his mouth was open. He looked like he was panicking.
And that's when she realised...he was the only one in the car.
CRACK! CRACK!
Tooth turned right just in time to see the passenger side's window get pierced with two knives. Then in one violent tug, the entire glass ripped away. More wind flowed through both open windows and made Tooth's lungs shudder with an icy chill.
He was on the roof. He was on the freaking roof!
Tooth instantly reacted and floored the accelerator, performing her best swerving technique the minute she eased off the pedal. Her heart pounded loudly in her ears that she almost didn't hear Pitch's Nightmare bounce around on top the Aston. With wide, cerise eyes she looked up at the closed sunroof.
Did it work? But a second later–
The hitman leaned over on her driver's window and ripped the silencer rifle from where she was poising it with her right hand. Tooth cried out painfully as she twisted her wrist in trying to yank it back – but his grip was far stronger than hers and with a guttural yell, the assasin tore it from her hold and tossed it away.
Tooth faintly heard it clank and vanish onto the dark road behind the two cars.
"Dammit!" she screamed and suddenly her control on the wheel started to slip.
"What th–Oh no!"
Tooth gritted her teeth. Looking through the E-lens, she eyed the road ahead of the car through the monitor and saw an alert...there was black ice on the road!
The wheels of the Aston started to slip on the icy concrete and Toothiana feared that she'd locked up the tires if she kept trying to control it. With a dry throat and wet eyes, she remembered Mr. Ty's advice.
"Careful with the ice, Toothie...Don't touch the gas, ease off the brake!
"W-Why?"
"Because you'll lock up the tires...Let the car slide on its own. When you think the ice is gone THEN you can hit the gas."
"Do it, Tooth," she murmured and she geared herself up as the black ice continued to show.
With a deep breath to ease her tempest heart, she let her boot off the gas, cringing as the coupé started to slow down immensely. The second she did though, the car was easier to maneuver and she bravely moved away from the ice into the other lane.
That's when she realised where she was driving – and her mouth started moving on its own.
"H-Holy crap, I'm breaking the law!" Well, there was one for her bucket list.
But she was safe! Thank god! And the monitor scans showed no more ice on the road ahead! And the Nightmare wasn't making any sounds on top so maybe he'd fallen over!
She huffed. Good, now she could speed ahead and get back to Aster before he needed to jump out. She hit the gas and tore off! As the Aston flew impressively, she leaned forward in awe by how awesome it was.
'Another note to self,' she told herself. 'Drive another one of these in the future. Heck, BUY one!' Suddenly–
Fwoomp!
Something black engulfed the space on her right and when Tooth turned her head, her heart nearly stopped.
The Nightmare didn't hesitate and after perching himself on the passenger seat, he went after Tooth. She screeched under her breath and tried to fight him off with one (sometimes two) hands.
Every time his hands reached for her, she knocked it away and when he grabbed her, she'd swerve the car to throw him sideways on his squat. It was the weirdest but the most terrifying thing she'd ever gone through – but at least, he didn't have a weapon, he just kept trying to use his hands.
The Nightmare growled viciously and kept trying to reach for the driver. When the Australian tried to pounce him in the Alfa, the two fought brutally. But the Nightmare was quick to realise that the guy wouldn't have sacrificed himself to come over if he didn't have the case – which meant it was still in the Aston Martin with whoever was driving it.
The Nightmare glared through his visor. He already couldn't properly see through his yellow visor in the dark, but the Aston was near pitch black inside so he couldn't see the person's face. How the hell did they drive and manage to evade him like this?!
The thought fuelled his anger and made him reach for Tooth harder.
"NO!" she yelled angrily. "G-Get away!"
"G-Get away!"
The Nightmare faltered for a millisecond – so it was a woman?
He gritted his teeth. No way, this would be too easy, especially since she sounded so afraid.
He reached for her sides with more violation, grabbing at whatever he could when she couldn't block him or knock him away. Tooth cried out and swerved the car more violently, begging some unknown grace that he'd fly out or smack his head against the windshield.
He suddenly grabbed her shoulder and Tooth didn't have time to react when he punched her cheek. Her eyes blurred from the light impact and she rolled in her lips – only one thing to do, hit the brakes and hope for the–but then he forcefully grabbed one side of her head and pulled her.
Tooth's hair pulled at her roots and she yelled out. "NO!"
"NO!"
And she felt more than saw his large glove hand rise to get in a perfect hit.
She shut her eyes.
Then he threw hand down–and Jack's hand shot out of nowhere and grabbed him by the throat.
The Nightmare growled off-guard and turned his eyes under his hood. His mouth fell open in Jack's death grip, his breath laboring. There was another guy?! But how could he have known, it'd been so freaking dark in–
Pitch's hitman immediately used his other hand and tried to rip Jack's leather glove from his trachea. But nothing worked – the blue-eyed brunette didn't say a word. His eyes were wide and clouded with such a cold, and his jaw was still slightly slackened...
...but only because he couldn't really see that the Nightmare was there.
Jack was still wandering through the forest in his head, still suffering from his paranoia and the bleeding effect. But Tooth's screams were so vivid and his heart raced suddenly under his chest that he couldn't control it. He'd sensed the real danger all the same and in his subconscious, he reached out and caught it – right around the throat.
"Don't you touch her!" he threatened at the approaching Nightmares and the trees stopped decaying around him for a moment.
Jack's grip tightened beyond what normal men could attempt, and the wind through the broken windows started to pick up violently.
Tooth opened her eyes – she knew instantly who was awake. But he couldn't move forward because his seatbelt restricted him.
"H-Hang on, Jack!"
With an angry cry and a heart pumping with adrenaline, she shoved the Nightmare's glove off her and looked down. Through her E-lens, she eyed the touchscreens fervently and spotted a command control that just might give them an advantage.
Reaching down quickly, she pressed 'Seatbelt Override' and Jack was instantly unbuckled from the backseat. He rushed forward with the Nightmare still in his hold.
Jack's eyes hardened as he leaned and over through the two front seats and extended his arm. The more force he pressed on the assassin, the more the guy kept leaning down and back towards the window. Jack's strength was incredible and as he dragged him more toward the open window, the winds grew more blustery. Tooth drove the Aston until the forest melted away and revealed another small, snowy field.
The Nightmare didn't want to go down without a fight but a second later–Aster's hands shot in from above the car and grabbed the Nightmare by the shoulders. Jack shoved the hitman up the rest of the way and with his help, the Aussie was able to haul the hitman's choking butt out of the window. With a powerful toss of his long arms, the tall brunette flung him into the passing snow.
Aster watched from his steady perch on the roof as the Nightmare rolled down a small hill into the field while Tooth watched the Alfa from the trunk cam. It slowed and swerved on its own without a driver, then it drove itself into the field a couple metres away from the collapsed assassin.
"Hah!" Tooth cheered under her shaky breath. As she gripped the wheel and blinked her wide pink eyes, she looked all around, trying to take hold of the situation.
"I can't believe we did it..." she mumbled as Aster swooped in back through the broken passenger window and settled into the seat. Then her cheer was loud. "I can't believe we DID IT!"
Aster wiped snow from his coat and hair as he tried to regulate his heartbeat again. Jack pulled his hand away and eased himself completely into the backseat to do nothing. He sensed the immediate distress was gone and reverted back to his fish-phase.
As Tooth calmed down instantly and looked through Aster's E-lens for any more black ice, Aster threw her another heated look.
"Let's get the hell out of here!" he screamed and Tooth was ready to floor it. Just one more pat on the case in her coat pocket then she'd–
Her fingers shook.
"W-Wha–No, i–Oh my god, NO!"
"What?!" the Australian shouted. "WHAT?!"
"THE CASE IS GONE!" she screamed.
And on blind instinct and vague memory, Tooth grabbed the gear shift and moved it violently down to 1st and made the Aston perform a twist. Aster was flung hard against his door and Jack's body fell to the right but Tooth didn't give a crap – Tuhina was all that mattered to her for the moment.
When the Aston Martin was facing the opposite direction of the interstate again, she gunned it up into 3rd and rushed down the road. Aster could only lift his eyebrows as she went off the road and drove down the small slope into the field. The silhouette of Nightmare already hobbling back to his Alfa was vaguely lit up by the sky. They could only see him from the white snow.
Tooth hit the brakes and the second she said, Aster jumped out of the car, ready to run. By the time she closed her door and went around to join him, the Nightmare already made it back to his Alfa. They saw his car door open before he vanished inside it and Aster lifted his ungloved hand, ready to throw his palm to the earth and create a fissure towards the car– but then the Nightmare reappeared.
He had a gas mask with glowing yellow goggles on under his hood. Aster instantly panicked and grabbed Tooth's arm with his glove as he skidded to a halt.
"NO, HE'S GOT A–"
And Pitch's hitman hit a button was holding.
Beeeep!
A second later, the back of the Alfa Romeo shuddered and the same heavy, black smoke that was used in Moscow spewed onto the snow. The two froze in fear.
As the gas particles started to duplicate and build behind him in the swirling wind, Pitch's Nightmare laughed darkly. He waved Tuhina's gold tooth box in the air.
"Four clones down!" he yelled evilly as he moved back to the car door. "And after I deliver this, only THREE left to go!"
"NOOO!" Tooth's throaty, horrified scream left her lips before she could even think. She tried to run again but Aster pulled her back. "Princess, no! The smoke!"
Suddenly the Nightmare put up his hand at him.
"Oh no, wait!
Tooth and Aster paused in fear, watching him freeze for a second, and watching the viral smoke continue to grow in the background. When he put his glove to his where his ear was, they realised he was getting a call on some hidden Bluetooth.
But then he laughed and moved again.
"Hah!" he cried back at them and twirled the case in his hand. "Make that TWO now!"
And before Aster could react and Tooth could scream again, he moved quickly back into the black Alfa Romeo and reversed into the smoke. They watched helplessly until the eerie yellow lights from his goggles and his headlights faded into the black.
And they knew that was the end of that...They knew they could do nothing and go after him into that smoke. If they did, Tooth knew the boys would inhale it and succumb to blood poisoning like it did for Jack and North.
"New invention of Pitch...His airborne pathogens weaken substrates, enter bloodstream. Designed to send body into shock then later infection."
And without Jack's help, they couldn't push the wind away.
"C-Come on..." Aster mumbled and reached for Toothiana's arm. When she didn't move and her eyebrows scrunched together like she wanted to argue, he tugged a little more forcefully. "Come on, princess! We gotta go before it catches up to us!"
Tooth finally turned on wobbly feet and numb senses as she gasped in short breaths. The stitch of pain in her side came back as she and Aster dashed for the car again to get away from the smoke – but the wind was slowly turning it their way.
When they reached their car, Tooth threw Aster his E-lens and the two immediately switched seats. As they shut their doors and the wind carried the smoke their way, Aster pulled on both gloves, shifted gears and floored it. The tires whirled and shot them forward until the Aston drove itself up out of the field and down the road again.
Neither said a word as he drove like a madman east on the interstate away to where they'd be safe. Only the loud wind from the broken windows and their short gasps for air could be heard until Tooth finally gritted her teeth.
Aster steered the car into the shoulder of the road half a mile from the field so they could catch their breath and take a moment. But–
Bang!
Aster instantly shot his head up and saw Tooth's fists leave the dashboard before she punched it again.
Bang!
When she pulled it back again, she then hit the side of her door...smacked her seat...slapped her legs, and screamed until she covered her face.
"N-Not again...NOT AGAIN!"
Aster looked at her with a sad, wide-eyed look. His lips parted.
"THI–"
"It's all my fault! It's always my fault! Tu...T-Tuhina's gonna be...a-and another's already been kidnapped in another city! And Jack, I just..."
She then sobbed.
"I-I just can't do anything right for anyone anymore!"
She then leaned forward on her seat to put her head in her arms – and all the emotions from the field earlier, the video, her mother, Mr. Sandy caught up with her in one violent, overwhelming choke hold.
"I..." she heaved angrily and swallowed down a hard lump in her throat. 'Don't cry,' she screamed at herself. 'Don't cry!'
And Aster lowered his hand from where it was going to touch her, even though she couldn't see it.
"I-I'm sorry, Toothiana...I..." Aster shook his head at himself in disbelief, seeing her shoulders jerk slightly. "I'm sorry! Argh, I'M SORRY!"
A second later, his fists slammed on the wheel and it honked loud like truck. Tooth jumped and pulled back from the dashboard with a scared look.
Aster's expression was furious, and one of self-loathing – all the nerve he had for her melted away suddenly and he was left so emotionally exhausted. After his fists tightened and he shook them briefly, he ran both gloves into his hair. His nostrils flared and Tooth's glistening eyes (from her own self-pity) widened.
"W-What're you talking about, Edmund?!" she sputtered and shook her head, her big curls smacking her cheeks desperately. "Y-You h-have nothing to be sorry abou–"
"I DO!" he shouted and he looked at her. "I...Tch, I let you down!"
"N-No..." she shook her head again, more wildly this time. "N-NO! You didn't!"
"I did!" And he shut his eyes and pressed a tight glove over his forehead. "You were countin' on me and I–I-I wasn't fast enough!"
"Edmund, st-stop it! You di–"
"And thanks to me too, now the bloke's runnin' outta time and I...I just...Argh, I'm not cut out to be this!"
"Be what?" Tooth demanded. "Be what?!"
"Being your protector!"
Tooth paused. Her mouth fell open.
"But...B-But you aren't my–"
"God, knows I want to, sheila!" Aster whirled on her. His eyes were so lit with a deep flame that Tooth's heart beat rapidly from the intensity. "I'm a protector it's what I do! It's what I've been doing for so long and you could've gotten hurt! You're a princess but with your size, y...your skills, they wouldn't have been enough unless Jack had–"
Toothiana frowned deeply.
What was he saying? ...Why was he saying that?
"I want to look out for you, I do!" he pushed. "I wanna be the one whose there's for you and gets the job done! But I..." And his eyebrows knit together irritably."But I keep messing it up. And argh, that's TWICE already!"
Aster then pressed both hands to his face and squeezed his eyes shut.
Tooth's mouth hung open for a while longer. The sheen in her eyes grew more and more prevalent – why did everything and everyone fall apart around her?
"I'm sorry, princess," he muttered as he pulled his gloves away from his face. When he placed them on the wheel with a tight grip, his eyes narrowed through the dark windshield. "I'm worse than 'im."
"Edm...Edmund..."
Tooth gulped again and shut her eyelids briefly. When she opened them, she wiped her eyes and reached over to grab his hand.
"Look at me," she said. "L...L-Look at me!"
Aster was trying hard to keep his glare on the darkness, jaw set and intent on holding onto his self-punishment. But Tooth was relentless, she couldn't give up. Every second that ticked by with his face growing darker, was just another reason for her to keep trying.
"Edmund! Please...LOOK AT ME!"
And despite himself, Aster finally turned his green eyes to the princess. His long, handsome features were cast aglow from his computer screens...but he didn't say a word.
Tooth took the plunge instead. She gave a deep breath.
"Do not ever, and I repeat, ever blame yourself for this," she said firm and serious. When he didn't reply, she softened her face and frowned openly. "You are protecting me a-and none of this is your fault!"
When the harshness around the corner of his eyes went away slightly she rolled her lips inwards. But they weren't completely gone, and that meant her tiny, princess heart was still aching with stress.
"Please, you gotta believe me," she mumbled and she moved her hand from his hand to his arm. She then gave a strong squeeze. "I'm sorry I-I freaked out just now! I shouldn't have reacted that way, so bitter a-and..."
"But your clones..." he finally mustered up. His voice was so deep it almost sounded like he didn't even speak – it sounded more like the engine of the Aston Martin when he started it up.
But Tooth bit her lip and looked around for a moment.
"The other two...th-they're still safe."
'At least for a while,' but Tooth really didn't want to say that.
"The case was my fault...and them finding you was Jack's. So you're not the problem. Really."
When Aster looked at her again, she frowned desperate for him to understand.
"...Really."
And he couldn't look away...She was trying so hard to be comforting, to make him her center of attention even after everything that revolved around her. So trying, so broken...
Yet he couldn't take it, his heart was still teetering on the edge.
"Princess–"
"No, don't say anything," she cut him off. For the sake of his bravado, the one he was always trying so hard to maintain, she'd didn't want him to get all uncomfortable. Instead, she nodded encouragingly.
"Just drive," she mumbled. "...We can do this."
Aster's mouth still hung open, desperate to hang onto this moment. He hadn't felt this way in such a long time – being looked out for, and having something to look forward to. She made such a turn on his life...and he wondered what it would be like to spend the rest of his life with someone like that.
But...could he? Could he give up everything, the life he only knew, for a girl like Toothiana?
He glanced back at her as he readjusted his mirrors and turned up the heat the counter the cold from the broken window. As she bundled herself up more and shot him a tiny, smile through her sadness from the passenger seat, Aster's grip loosened on the wheel.
The answer was yes. No argue, no debate...definitely, yes.
But he already knew she was looking at someone else.
Still, he then shot her back the most tender smile she'd ever seen, but she missed his neck grow red in the dark. To her, his protectiveness was so chivalrous, so older-brotherly. After he eyed the road again, his voice hit a level of soft she didn't realise was possible until now.
"W-We should hit Burgess within in the hour," he said. "Keep an eye on him."
And she nodded.
Then as he started to drive, Tooth decided to twist around and move into the backseats to keep an eye on you-know-who. She gave Jack a tender smile of her own albeit a lot less sad than Aster's.
"You hear that? We'll get to Burgess soon," she murmured loudly to Jack.
His open expression did nothing...but something in her tone caught his attention, and while he didn't see her, his face drifted to hers and he stared back, long and wistful...almost apologetic.
And Tooth frowned. She then shook her head before raising a hand to his cheek.
"It's not your fault," she whispered sadly and after a moment, she pulled away and looked out the window with her fist in her mouth. Tuhina didn't have much time and neither did her other sister. And as much as her chest flared with hot energy and her eyes teared up, that was what Tuhina was. Forever and always...not a clone, a sister.
But having sisters, it seemed to Tooth, always meant she had to suffer, always meant she was to blame.
"It's all my fault...It's ALWAYS my fault!"
And Jack shut his eyes and clutched his hair.
"I'm sorry, Em..." he mumbled. "I'm sorry..."
Chapter's Soundtrack: "First Person Shooter" – Celldweller One of the Aster's official tracks for all things gritty and 'electronic' lol. And creds to Perfect Disasters for providing me with such stellar new adjectives haha. You rock!