Chapter 134: The challenge for leadership
Note: Readers please listen to Slade cos I love while reading this:
I'm still in the same situation as chapter 133, and have been in the same nightmare for 7 chapters now, but at least I have more of an awareness of what's going on, now I know the end game of Neptune in this nightmare, and that's nothing but total destruction of what I'm sure is my ancestral homeland at a previous time.
I cannot allow that to happen as I cannot begin to imagine what would happen if this place was to become the hell hole of our nemesis which she considers to be a utopia, a place where we have no identity, no history that we're allowed to be proud of, no prosperity, no progress, no wealth, no democracy. Along with no beauty, no human rights, no intelligence, no justice, no security, no pride, even no food, along with no monuments, no sports, or even hygiene.
Even if it's just a nightmare I don't think I can bear to face the consequences of her succeeding, it'll probably be the most horrible and eternal, and no doubt it'll involve Lastation's complete destruction of everything, the last hope of the world we're currently in to say the very least.
It's not too long before our car collides with their roadblock producing quite the shock even though the seatbelts that we have quickly put on will have helped, in which we hoped that we could get through, and without looking to see if we're through because of concerns of us being shot by whatever enemies that surround us still standing, Noire then presses her foot down on the accelerator. She's understandably very eager to get away in the hopes that we are through and can evade our pursuers and continue our pursuit of our purple haired enemy, in our hopes that we'll soon have allies who can help us even the odds.
It turns out that we are able to move and quickly after the collision, but knowing that because of where we may have crashed through the roadblock due to the glorious CPU of Lastation swerving to make it harder for the enemies, she takes a quick peek to ensure that we don't crash into a car, a lamp post or into buildings on either side of the street. I in fact do the same to see where the enemies are, and it turns out that they're in front and there are a few of them on either side of the street firing their guns at us as accurately as they can.
Nuts, we have to take cover once again and reload our weapons, deeply concerned with how much ammo we've used to get this far and it can't be that big of a distance. At least we have a really good amount of ammunition left but how long will that last considering what we've already gone through, and how much more of this there will be, especially since I have no idea of how long this car chase will be considering in particular how far away the witch's destination must be. I and I'm sure my heavenly goddess Noire is thinking the same thing, are hoping that we don't have to spray and pray at least too much and just be able to conserve our ammunition, but I doubt it's the case because of how many of them there are and how spread out they are.
I thought at first that if there is to be lots of enemies with guns firing at us, then if we can shoot them down, we can pick up the weapons from them when we run really low on ammunition, but would that work considering we'd have to slow down and expose ourselves, and all that just for a few clips at best? More likely the long silver haired goddess empress, will eventually have to resort to running the enemy soldiers over using this car as a weapon, but how long will that work considering the health of this car, which while it is certainly difficult to tell from where we are, I'm sure that it's been shot at a significant amount of times, and it will be a contributing factor.
Interestingly enough after spending a clip's worth of our weapons spraying and praying at the enemy, in which despite the ammunition we still have remaining, each clip's worth agonises us, because of the stressful situation of what to do when we run out, trying to keep them at bay, not one but two cars can be seen. These two purple cars are of a similar make to Neptune and they come from the right as we approach a four way junction only for them to turn so that they're in front of us.
Ah nuts, well it was only a matter of time before the purple haired villain would have escorts to protect her, and there are three of them, one in front, and two in the back in each car with their rifles and sub machine guns trying to take us down. I switch to the FN FAL semi-automatic and switch tactic with regards my shooting, since at least now they're closer together and they're not as numerous meaning more windows of opportunity to take them down, in fact I might be able to take them down without having to reload this weapon. But the thing is I worry that knowing my nemesis, my new tactic of timing could strike against me and as I try to bleed the enemies with my rifle, more of them will show up, I'm sure.
Annoyingly though, I find that the passengers take turns to fire at us, effectively making their fire continuous and difficult for us to hit them, weirdly enough though, I can hear sirens and before I know it through peeking as best as I dared, a white cop car then comes through a 3 way junction from the right only for them to drive in front of the two enemy cars. This car happens to be an Austin 1800, and has two people in it dressed in the distinctive uniforms in which they're a navy blue and have the old fashioned custodian helmet with a metal badge on it which is the Brunswick star, and have Webley revolvers as their weapons.
While I am really concerned about how they'll fare against these two cars due to the differences in firepower, I welcome their presence for they can provide an excellent distraction, and they fire their guns quickly, trying to aim for one of the enemy passengers, and while I'm pleased that they did get one each, they're at the front and so they haven't managed to take enough of the heat off, but maybe just enough so that I'd feel more courageous in engaging the remaining enemies.
I do manage to take out a couple of enemies, all of them in one car, but just as I find myself having to duck, a purple van comes from another t junction from the right, ramming the cop car to the building before shooting at the cops inside, and opening the back doors where a squad of half a dozen of enemies with automatics come out quickly.
It's so sad for our allies to have fallen so soon, after helping us to even the odds against those two cars, but somehow I saw it coming and I cannot be too upset for I would be too distracted from what is at hand, and what is at hand right now is dealing with the enemies in front who could potentially replenish the passengers of the car, and bring us back to the problem we had just a few moments ago.
As a result of this my gracious ally Noire then kindly calls for help on the radio in which she's already tuned I into a frequency used by our side, asking if there's anyone nearby who can help us and if there's anyone who can aid the fallen cops. The tragic thing is though, we'll have to wait considering all available units are pinned down and while there's more coming, it will take time before they arrive and even then they'll probably be intercepted. It's ever so annoying considering surely the army and police of this country outnumbers the army of our nemesis, but it's her nightmare.
It's a shame as I thought that there would be more than that one cop car in the area and I become even more concerned, as I notice that the people from the van do in fact intend to refill the car where it's passengers have been killed, bringing the situation back to what we had earlier for sure. This cannot be allowed happen for there won't be any cops this time to provide the necessary distraction to help us out.
I therefore despite knowing it won't be easy getting at them considering the weapon of choice is a semi-automatic, and knowing that the window of opportunity is limited because of the car already parking by the van where the troops are, spray and pray while hiding behind cover hoping that I can get enough of them. While I realise that one of them will be at the back, as a result of having to pick them up, meaning less people that could shoot me, I realise again that what if I get shot at in the back, as I know well that it won't be easy taking part in a gunfight on two fronts.
I just have to hope that I can get enough of them so that they won't be as much of a threat, considering how I dare not expose myself to see if I've got them. But then, knowing that by now they'll have already got in the car and will wait for me to pass, I bravely after considering the risks of getting shot myself from the back or by doing this action expose myself. I do this action quickly as well as shoot at the front tyre and back tyre of the purple car, before hiding again in which these two other actions I do as fast as I can, and this was ever so close as bullets whistled above my head.
I breathe a huge sigh of relief to have survived that, and to know that the car behind won't be able to pursue, and while there is still gunfire coming from it, it's only semi-automatic fire and it seems to be only one gun. Now it's just one car left for now for us to deal with, though oddly enough they're not shooting at all, in fact it must be just the driver left as Miss Lastation already shot the enemy, ah that's nice and it does make me think that it's down to her that I didn't get shot from shooting the tyres.
"You saved my life back there Noire as I was shooting the tyres. Thank you ever so much." I say to her with much gratitude and a huge smile.
"As you have saved mine back at the truck, one of those guys there almost got me. And it's thanks to you that I'm still here. I look forward to defeating our nemesis Neptune, and for us to celebrate our victory together." My sexy driver replies in a thankful tone while sounding kind, posh and flirtatious, as if to say that she intends to reward me in her usual and fun ways, which we both enjoy.
We reload our weapons; feeling even more relieved that for now, we can just focus on catching up with our nemesis who tries so hard to get away from us, and exploits every opportunity when we're facing enemies. Tragically though it is to be expected, there are more enemies for us to deal with, even though weirdly enough they're from the windows and with their automatic weapons they open fire forcing us to duck, and for us to spray and pray with our own weapons in return to try and keep them at bay, which slowly but surely eats into our overall ammunition supply.
The thing is we both then realise that there's more to it than just more enemies for us to deal with, as at the same time as us seeing the enemies, Neptune then makes a turn to the right, hoping that with us taking cover and the noise of the bullets masking the sound of her car, we won't know that she's no longer on the same road as us, and we'll have therefore lost her. Nice try Planeptune CPEwwwww. You won't win that easily, but we cannot be too smug for having outsmarted her there, because I have no doubt she'll have laid out a trap for us when we reach where she is. For now though we just have to ward off the enemy soldiers from the windows of the buildings of this street, and ensure that we turn right exactly where she did.
Doing this will not be easy for the amount of enemies means that they can fire their guns at us, and by the time they need to reload, we'll have gone past, forcing us to take cover and not be able to see the turn she did. Worse still is that our car has been shot lots and lots of times, and I worry that it's taking its toll, making it harder for my ally Noire to drive the vehicle, and I've no idea for how much longer can we drive this car.
They underestimate us however, as although we don't have our visions to see through the car in which we're hiding right now, we are able to peek just enough and with enough frequency that we can work out as best as we can when to turn. In fact we get lucky in being able to reduce the enemy fire power just enough, that we can peek for a bit longer than before, and we can see that we need to turn right at the next junction and it's quite close. Alas it's not close enough and we are forced to duck again and do a right turn, hoping that even if it may be too far away from the junction to do a daring turn that we can reach the road and not crash into the buildings on either side of the street. The maneuverer must be perfect; it's the only way for us to succeed.
At any rate without daring to look, and when my gut tells me that we have successfully turned right, I spray and pray in case there are any enemies waiting for us. The interesting thing is that after firing with my weapon, there's quite a loud explosion which worries me at first since I feared it would engulf us both, killing us and leading it do a defeat at the extreme least, but then after waiting for a few moments, we're not engulfed in fact we're perfectly fine. I bravely look to see that there are two Opel Blitz army trucks in front in a purple camouflage pattern, full of guards on both including an MG42 machine gun.
It's a bittersweet moment for us, as while I barely stopped the bazooka from killing us, the bazooka didn't kill the rest of them from the shell that was misfired, and instead there's only a couple of them died from my gunfire, in fact there's still a few of them left. Nuts, nuts, nuts as they're steering a lot so that it's hard to move through without being hit hard by them in the side, causing us to spin, or crash, which in the state our car is in, neither of us wish to risk it, and worse still is that I know the enemies in the truck which had the bazooka will take turns to use it again.
Despite the situation however, we both know what to do and that is to ram the truck repeatedly to knock them off the floor and to spray and pray the rest of them, and then do the same to the other truck. After which because of the terrible shape of our car, board one of the trucks, take over it and finally to use it until we can get another car without too much trouble and continue our pursuit against our nasty nemesis.
Noire then rams the rear of the truck as often and as effective as she possibly can, while I fire at the people in the truck blindly, doing our best to avoid getting shot by them. I do a sneaky peak after firing what I reckon to be a clips worth from a sub machine gun to see how many more I've got.
I am so glad that I did, as I could see a grenade being thrown towards our car, and dodging it will not be easy considering the size of our vehicle and how it's barely able to keep going.
There's no choice but to fire at it, but will I have the bullets, since I won't have time to reload my weapon? I can only do my best to shoot it and hope that I have the bullets, and the skill to destroy the grenade as it flies.
I take a breath as though I'm firing a sniper's rifle and aim and press the trigger of my submachine gun.
The grenade explodes… in mid-air. Yes I am so relieved, that we've had stopped the grenade and while it exploded close, it wasn't close enough as Miss Lastation also managed to steer away just enough for the blast to harm our car. In fact we both look at each other and breathe a huge sigh of relief. We have been lucky a few times but how much longer will it last? I don't know, but we cannot drop our guard, as there's still the issue of catching that purpled haired moron, and we're the only ones standing in her way between her and her ghastly goals, and between us and her for now at least, there are two trucks, and I think only one of them has passengers that need to be taken down.
I quickly reload and fire at the other truck, keeping myself covered as best as I can under the fire of the MG42, and hoping they won't try throwing a grenade at us or if they do they get shot, or even better I shoot it while they hold it so that it explodes so that it kills them there.
I've fired a couple of clips worth of bullets from my gun, and the enemy gun fire appears to have died down, so at the risk of getting shot after ensuring that my clip in my submachine gun is fresh, I expose myself to see what remains and there's just one reloading the machine gun, and a couple of troops reloading their automatic weapons, and so I manage to mow them down before they can finish their task.
Yes, that's it for now, no more enemies it seems in this area apart from the people in front of the two trucks. I look around to see if there is anyone and there aren't at least for now. I try to think as quickly as I can as to whether to switch vehicles or not, whether to swap increased exposure albeit brief and reduced speed for increased toughness and health, but then I find that because of the repeated shooting at our vehicle, our car isn't faster than the trucks, so even if we could get ambushed, even if we may not be able to drive the trucks and only ride on the back of them, it appears there's no choice but to board them.
At least the window of the front of the car is destroyed, and so if I can jump first with my revolver, my glamorous goddess empress Noire can pass me the weapons and she can then join me, and hopefully we can quickly come up with a way of commandeering the trucks when we get there.
I therefore take the risk of getting shot by an enemy soldier and I stand up, stepping on the dash board before stepping over the window, on to the bonnet and take the jump towards the truck, and making sure I can jump over the side or rear fender which helps to keep its cargo secure.
I make it to the truck without incident, and I then lie down to better protect myself while moving towards the centre, and motion my sexy smart kind waifu with my arms to throw the weapons over, in which she does, and then she manages to jump to the truck, where I am.
Before anything else happens though, there is a loud shot which my gut tells me comes from a sniper rifle. After hearing this my heart sank, and was thinking of screaming no, as even if this is just a nightmare, the death would mean the death when we're awake and that would be tragic, for it wouldn't be just a loss for the greatest nation of Lastation, but a loss for the family especially considering the love there is, the memories, and the excellent qualities of them and it will be gone, all gone, never to return again.
It is then I quickly realise that the loud shot wasn't at us, in fact I think it's at a sniper from an enemy helicopter, as I'm in no pain and Noire while lying down, is smiling in a flirtatious manner like the way she lies down inviting me to come closer to her, and there's no blood on her whatsoever. In fact were it not for the circumstances her pose, would be excellent for a photo shoot, and her clothes look really nice.
Seeing her like this cheers me up no end and it reassures me so much that despite the sound making me think the worst, it didn't happen, and seeing her like this also reminds me of one of the many things I'm fighting for. Furthermore there's also the fact that I look forward to seeing stuff like that and to have fun with her, and with other people, that is of course if we can complete our nightmare and the completion will result to me waking up with Noire Black Heart, no, we will I know we will. That fight with Honda merely knocked me out, and because of my evil purple haired nemesis, I have to face the nightmare until I recover, and my only way of recovery is to complete the nightmare and to defeat Neptune.
I very quickly realise that I cannot spend any more time thinking like this for either her or me or both could fall unless we're extremely careful, and that will be disastrous and I don't think I can bear that for the rest of my life, if I get to live that is. I then see her look up and look at where she's looking and find that there's a large black Westland Sea King helicopter which has a flag on the side and is the same as what's on our tops.
Leaning out with an L42A1 sniper rifle is the youngest sister of our family Uni, with her usual silver hair curled up in the way that I'm familiar with, though her outfit is different. It's actually almost the same as Noire's is in this nightmare, only her top has a see through part on the bottom part. Apart from that though she's wearing exactly the same as Noire, and she sees us and is therefore waving to us, before she aims her rifle scanning the area, looking for targets to shoot that could be a threat to us.
Note: Readers please listen to Silent Scope Downtown theme while reading this:
It's so nice to see not just another friendly face but to see Uni here fighting with us. It's such a relief as she's not just part of the family but she's an excellent sniper as well, and this will be of great use in taking out the enemies. Though I am concerned about potential enemy anti air units, as while I can't see them expecting us to have another chopper let alone a sophisticated chopper, it's their nightmare and they're bound to be prepared. Furthermore while she's able to track our Planeptune target from the air no matter where she is, it is too bad we can't take her down, but hopefully we will be able to later.
While I'd love to spend time with the family and friends and catch up, and see how things are in Lastation along with getting some enjoyment while fighting this war, to not just recharge ourselves but to remind ourselves that there is a purpose to this fighting, and when and I insist when it's won it'll all be worth it, now is the time to focus. This is especially the case since I hear another shot from the CPU Candidate, this time it's at the driver of the truck who has exposed themselves to us, after stopping the truck with the intention of taking us down.
I then begin to think that we ought to commandeer the truck before more enemies come and try and kill us, because even with Uni providing us covering fire, she can only provide so much since her weapon is a bolt action and it's only 10 rounds before she has to reload again. And I come to that conclusion just before the dead driver is kicked out, and is shot by Uni as soon as the passenger shows themselves, and so I get out while Miss Lastation Noire passes me the weapons which I throw into the truck next to the seats on the floor, only for her to then get out while I get in the truck, pick up some of the weapons and move to the passenger seat, after which she gets in the driving seat.
I find it odd that despite us both getting ourselves and our weapons into the truck as quickly as possible, no one tried to shoot us down. In fact the only opposition being an incoming enemy car with the passengers trying to shoot us, but they got shot by Uni before they even had the chance to expose themselves pleasing me very much. In fact the tyres then get shot stopping that car in its tracks, preventing them from trying to ram into us, who I'm sure that was their intention where they would get out and try to shoot us while we're in the truck.
Interestingly enough, though I should have expected this to happen considering the fact that they would have different ideas as back up, in case one strategy in trying to stop us doesn't work, they have half a dozen cars in a line coming straight for us intending to ram us, surround us, and take us out. They must have prepared for the possibility of us defeating their trucks or perhaps taking them considering our car would be heavily damaged from their attempt at pinning us down in the hope we lose track of Neptune.
But this time with Uni in her helicopter, I can't see how that would happen, but I'd still like to keep track of the pathetic excuse of a CPU, and I worry that the longer we'll remain in this truck the further away she'll be. We need to get back into a car, but hopefully the CPU Candidate in the sky will negate this problem completely.
Initially I hoped that due to the gunfire, we can hide and that our ally in the chopper can just take them down, but sadly they have long ranged machine guns that can get the helicopter from where they are, which will force our CPU Candidate to go higher to avoid getting shot, since her weapon has a better range. This concerns me deeply because this makes it harder due to the support being delayed, and the support having more of a challenge, and I worry that we could crash and they may pin us, but I realise that we just need to focus on one car, and dealing with that one car will break formation and produce a gap in it.
Although there is the issue that they'll still pursue us when we break through, we can just ram them off with us being in a stronger truck, and when there's only one left we can just take out the occupants and commandeer the car and continue the pursuit of the nasty moron in that.
I do hope we can do this, for I notice in the distance that I think the idiot in purple intends to drive through the mall in the centre, no doubt intending to lose me in there, and I do find myself wondering what challenges will be there in the shopping area, or is it just trying to outdrive my Lastation CPU considering it being a tight compact space, or maybe she's got traps in her vehicle. But whatever it is the annoying thing is that with it being in a large building, our chopper will not be able to track her down and can only hope that Uni can find the right exit the Planeptune CPEwwww goes through and follow her there.
I cannot think too much about the likelihood of going in there and what could happen upon being inside, I must think about the now and that is dealing with these cars, and then getting in one of them, and continue with the pursuit against the purple haired witch. I find that the enemy gunfire has died down a bit, and my gut tells me that there is a window of opportunity, and so with my rifle I take out a couple of drivers, which slows those cars down, and it's nice to see that the smart candidate do the same to a couple of other drivers, slowing them down as well.
I know that the front passengers will just kick out the drivers and become the driver, but the fact that the formation is broke allows Miss Lastation to drive through without crashing, and now we can wait for them to drive by where we're seated, and deal with them one by one.
It is then I find that they are trying to ram us in the back, hoping to try and get us to turn, stop us in our tracks and to then surround us where they'll kill us, but with sniper shots being heard, at least the drivers of those cars are getting killed, preventing them from effectively ramming us. After which the other four cars surround us with two of them in front, and the other two at our sides.
It is now that they're not trying to shoot at us compared to before, in which I'd rather they actually do try do so, as that way we can shoot back at them from cover, but at least our sniper from above is able to take out one of the drivers forcing them to stop, and allowing us to drive past them. This shot even forces the car on our left to move around in which that car's driver gets shot, stopping them in their tracks. After which the car to our right then tries to shoot at us, and yet with one shot from The future proof CPU's pistol, the enemies in the car no longer shoot at us, no doubt because the driver has been taken down.
My ally in the driving seat for her next move tries to drive past the car in front, and the passengers in that car then try to shoot at us forcing us to duck, but then the CPU Candidate takes both of them down as quickly as she could with her bolt action rifle.
Though I am pleased to see the enemies being taken out, I am concerned about the pace of this considering how close Neptune is getting to the mall, but we cannot give up, we will do this and I think one of the cars no longer has any more passengers who are alive. Annoyingly though the remaining enemy cars are all back and are going to try and box us in again, this time they're all trying to shoot at the truck forcing us to duck, leaving Uni to take them out one at a time starting with the car who just had a driver left, who I see by taking a brave short peak.
I tell Noire that this has happened so she can drive around and hopefully break free of them trying to box us in, but even then it's no good as not only are we still surrounded, but we're slowing down quite significantly due to trying to navigate, and I'm trying to hold off the enemies to the left of me with my weapon, because I know that if any shots hits the door to my left, the door will not stop it, and the bullet will go through and will kill me, or even if it doesn't wound me too severely for me to carry on in this nightmare.
Interestingly enough as well as it being lovely, I never have to worry about getting shot to my left, neither does Noire to her right, and this is because once again, Uni manages to take out the drivers of both side vehicles slowing down a great deal, not only this, but we're travelling quickly again thanks to Miss Lastation's successful navigation, and my gut tells me there's less of them now.
I'm so pleased for Uni to have come to our aid like this, as she's been able to wipe out almost all of the enemies surrounding us, and had it not been for her, we would have most certainly have been dead. I can only hope to return the favour to her, in this nightmare. It's amazing how she's able to shoot the drivers when they're hidden behind glass, they're moving and it's so far away, even more than when she first fought them to get away from the gunfire.
With this good fortune, I bravely have a look around and find that there's only three of them left and yet while the friendly sniper takes out the remaining occupants of the car in front, the cars from the back attempt to go around the side before ramming it at the back of the truck, trying to slow us down and get us to turn. Worse still, it appears to be a success, but then something crosses our minds, that we are better off getting out and boarding the car in front and continue the pursuit of that nasty Neptune.
It's risky as they could notice us and shoot us down, but then they could surround us anyway and so under the cover of Uni's sniper, I get out with the weapons followed by my waifu, and we quickly head into the car, with the intention being that I sit in the passenger seat while the CPU of Lastation sits in the driver's seat.
I hear a sniper shot once again, which makes us realise that they are out of the car and no doubt knows that we are making a run for it, and because the car is too far away we have no choice but to go prone and hold the enemy off while our candidate picks them off one by one. This is extremely risky with us being exposed, not to mention our nemesis getting away, I can only hope that we are able to not just survive, but to get through this quickly, but it won't be easy even if there's just about half a dozen of them remaining.
The sniper from above fires again, and it's then that I see one of them taking cover by the bonnet of the truck and tries to fire at us but I shoot first killing the enemy. Annoyingly though and I expected this, I feel like it's taking much too long, and with this in mind Noire goes for the car while I provide covering fire, because at least she can get the car turned around ready, saving a significant amount of time.
Uni fired her gun once again, and weirdly enough although no one else has exposed themselves, my gut tells me that there's still a few more left, but do I wait for them to come out which will cost time or do I just go at the risk of being shot? I decide to stand up and walk back just to make sure that the enemy doesn't intend to attack us now. It's just as well that I do this because the enemy lifts their gun over the door, in which I respond by shooting through the door, with an entire clip's worth from my sub machine gun, confident that it'll wipe them out.
After which and satisfied with them all being dead, I then rush for the car as quickly as I can while carrying both weapons, in which by now Noire has already turned around and is waiting for me with the door open, seeing ahead that Neptune is approaching the mall, and will go through in a fraction of the minute, and yet we're quite far away from them.
I hope that we can catch up now, considering her intention will be that she'll turn around in there and we won't know where she is, thus losing her and with that the mission. If only I can shoot the tyres but that would just stop her, and I'm not allowed to defeat her just yet, only pursue her until she reaches her destination.
I like to think that we can get close to her, since I know Noire to be an excellent driver with how she wins loads of tournaments, and the way she drove around Lastation and to Heihachi's place is incredible not to mention exciting with her speed, her slaloms and her drifting. While this is a nightmare based on where we came from, with different rules and mechanics, and I'm sure that driving won't be easy, I have faith in my driver's abilities, and I'm also confident that she'll do well against the driver of Neptune's car, even if the driver is the best that the rotten CPEwwww has.
With this said I am concerned that because of the fact that we're in a nightmare, the difference in skill levels between both drivers perhaps not being that much, and the difference in speed and handling between both cars, it may not be easy in negating the significant distance between our cars, and while I had a quick thought that if we can see Neptune and where she turns, does it matter if we're not close as we can continue to follow her as we know where she's going?
But then unlike right now with us being in the streets with long roads, in the malls the floor outside the shops won't be anywhere near as long, and it'll especially be noticeable with us in the cars, making it harder to see where they went forcing us to choose directions, considering there's different routes to take in there, and even if it would just be four or three or two choices, the odds are not good.
At least our ally in the sky could pursue that moron in purple since she's got to leave the mall somewhere, but what is the likelihood of this happening considering the numerous places that she can escape, and if the Planeptune CPEwwww goes out via a different exit to Uni, would the candidate be able to look for the target from where the chopper will be in time? And even if that's to be the case with us losing our enemy, but our ally from above finding her, is there any way of knowing this fact to be true and the pursuit is still going without us?
Maybe the HUD would say, but would it? And even if so it might be a failure as I feel that we need to be pursuing her, and this is if we can survive our pursuit of her in the mall, especially since will it just be the two cars, ours and hers or will there be a load of enemies in there? There might be allies but probably not considering this is her nightmare.
As we head for the shopping centre which has a huge white block over the doors telling the name of the mall in a distinctive font of the time, and see the car we're pursuing go through smashing through the doors causing lots of people with shopping bags to run away in panic, all we can do is our best, and be ready for anything, and so with our guns in our hands ready to engage the enemy, we carry on with the pursuit, looking for any enemies who wish to ambush us.
Interestingly enough the first enemy to ambush us is disguised as a shopper not really looking like a soldier or showing Planeptune colours, and is armed with a machine gun who destroys our front window completely, forcing us to take cover as the glass falls around us and we try and avoid exposure to the glass as it is sharp and could even kill us if it hits us in the right area.
Though it isn't nice seeing the glass falling and hoping that it doesn't injure us significantly enough to impair our abilities to continue our pursuit, it does end soon. With this said sadly though I realise that this is nothing compared to what our nemesis is doing, running over innocent people and getting such joy from it, subjects from our nation in a previous time being massacred like this just for being subjects from our nation. It's sickening, and the enemy soldiers there are also mowing them down with their weapons. It just shows how little they care about other people and only about themselves.
How very disgusting, and while I can take comfort in knowing that this is a nightmare, and we'll punish Neptune for this, this has happened before by her. Who knows how many deaths she and her kind are responsible for? And worse still is that we're in a situation where we can either run over or kill civilians by accident, and I worry that it'll be mission fail if we do. Nevertheless although we have to be careful not to harm any innocents, we'll have to prioritise pursuit as that is the main mission that we'll get us up and back to liberating the world we inhabit. Besides which if we can stop our nasty nemesis here, she won't be responsible for any more deaths.
At least if there's one good thing about this, is that her eagerness to have people run over will slow her down, but this is not enough as there are more enemies disguised as members of the public with their automatic weapons shooting at us, and while I spray and pray in response to their fire while hiding to avoid being shot, it's only a few bullets because I don't want to kill any civilians in which they're running all over the place, and it's just too easy to accidentally kill them.
I feel it's the same for Noire my companion but with running over civilians but at least she's doing alright and in fact with the civilians at least are being sensible and running to the shops, and in fact with the Lastation CPU trying to follow the Planeptune CPU's path, there isn't any civilians to shoot, or to run over there for that matter, but with the enemies who are now in a significant number shooting at us, it's hard to do it accurately, and we have to manage by brief regular peeks to continue driving cautiously.
I quickly realise that they're trying to do the same trick again where they are trying to get us pinned down for as much as possible, so that we don't see or hear for that matter where Neptune turns, but like before they've failed because Lastation's bright intelligent CPU does a brave peek at the right time, when we notice our nemesis taking a right turn when the section of the mall outside the shops leads to a corner. The thing is just as my sexy female ally does her turn to the right, I just know that there's going to be an attack by the enemy there, and so I quickly scan the front of the car to see any enemies that wish to attack us, and I'm glad I do this as I manage to take out a bazooka operator hidden behind a chocolate store, with the bazooka hitting the ceiling above.
Interesting how this is exactly like before when we're in the streets. Is Neptune that predictable? Predictability is a weakness, but I cannot be too smug to have outwitted her once again, for there are a few more soldiers with machine guns forcing us to hide.
At least there's less civilians here no doubt due to already hearing the noise of terror from the cars and gunfire making it easier for us, as for one thing when we do peek briefly to spot any enemies, we find a deadly one like a sniper who was aiming for one of our tyres, which would have stopped our pursuit of our nemesis in its tracks had it not been for me shooting the enemy dead first. There are still more enemies coming out who force us to hide armed with different automatic weapons, but with there being less civilians, with more frequency and with more bullets I shoot from cover at the enemies there.
I peek again to see where the enemies are so that I can conserve my ammunition and shoot more accurately considering I only have a fraction of the bullets at the start of the car chase, and it's at that point that we see our nemesis turn right around the last shop of the row of shops on this side once again at the appropriate junction. Interestingly enough yet understandable considering what we expect is waiting around the corner, Noire then decides at the appropriate moment to turn right, but instead of hugging the corner like previous times, she goes to the left and then turns. This proves to be just as well since there was a sniper waiting for us, and while the sniper fired at our tyres as we drove past, it was close but not close enough, and with the sniper having a bolt action rifle, nothing could be done on their part before I dispatched the target quickly with my rifle.
At this section thankfully for us and them there are no civilians, but there are enemies though this time they are armed with grenades who they try to throw at us, knowing that an explosion if it doesn't take us out, could spin our car, or even cause it to flip over, any of this will hinder or prevent our pursuit. Fortunately it means I don't have to hide and I just need to shoot the grenades down with my rifle which has a lot of bullets, so I can afford to miss the first shots.
Annoyingly though after throwing a barrage of grenades which we either manage to avoid or shoot down, they throw lots of smoke grenades all over the area, makng it hard for us to see our nemesis. At least it doesn't choke us but it's hard to see through the smoke, but then while we are unable to see if our nemesis has turned, we can hear screeching from her car when she does.
We both giggle in a smug manner knowing that her plans to outsmart us have back fired once again, she should know that she's only distorted our vision but not our hearing, unlike before when there was much noisy gun fire which caused us to hide and it's was only us peeking discreetly on occasion that allowed us to see when and where she turned. In fact when one sense goes, the others heighten in compensation, and even if we only knew she turned it's likely to be the one on the right considering the layout of the mall, and if it happened to be left we could just go the other way.
With us going right, and with there not being anyone in this area, not even any enemies, there are a set of stairs that are quite big, just big enough for her car, though I do notice that she has activated a minigun in the boot which forces us to hide and to avoid those bullets since they would cause serious damage to our car. At least the mini gun has limited ammo, and can only fire in a fixed position at the opposite to where exactly the car is going, but even then avoiding it will be tricky, especially if she happens to have any obstacles in store for us at the upper floor.
The trouble is though that due to the size of the stairs, the mini gun held us back until they got up the stairs, and I worry that if they were to drive in a straight line, we will not be able to follow until they turn. With that said however, at least it was such that by the time we reached the bottom of the stairs, they were at the top so we can continue to follow them, and while going up the stairs is uncomfortable to say the very least, the constant bumps are the least of our worries, as I fear that we'll be ambushed and be taken out but we have no choice, and even if so we could easily reverse back, perhaps find another way or even take out the ambushers.
Oddly enough when we reach the top of the stairs, we find that there is no one up there, nothing, except for Neptune's car but even then they're not directly in front, and so their mini gun while still firing is nowhere near where we are, allowing us to carry on the pursuit. But while we grew concerned that she could just drive directly in front of us forcing us to drive around and avoid getting shot, that worry is gone as she turns to the right around the shop at the corner, and her mini gun has run out of bullets.
Come on Neptune I know you all too well why would it just be us, considering the fact that since when apart from a few times and that's one game and against the CPUs with just one being once, and the other two being four times, do you fight alone? You rely on other people to fight your battles and then take all the credit. You can't have just that lot, where are your minions who are too stupid or brainwashed to not be fighting for you? Or if you haven't got troops then what have you got up your sleeve, since you use the script to win, your precious nonsense script that allows you to win despite being the laziest CPU?
I suppose it's good for us if it's them and us, it means there's less to worry about, but I still have something in my mind warning me that there's a huge ambush, that it's the calm before the storm, but it is then that after I see her do a turn that her car produces smoke.
At first I think she's being a moron because what good is that for, as Noire can just follow the smoke no problem, but then I realise that even if it's not known just yet how she'll get us, it's got to be a part of her plan to succeed in this matter, as she does her right turn at the appropriate spot where people would walk outside the shops. There's got to be an ambush around the corner but we have to take the turn now, and so with our guns reloaded we travel around the corner, waiting to see what awaits us, and it's soldiers in formation consisting of blocks trying to open fire at us, forcing us to take cover and for me to spray and pray from cover.
We still peek occasionally and see that we're following the smoke from her car, and to the sides of the smoke, more blocks of soldiers open fire with even more troops than before, and it is then that our enemy CPU must have exited through the window by smashing it, considering how the smoke has gone through the wall of this mall, intending to continue travelling in the streets towards her destination.
It is at this point that we find that although we can still follow her, because of the shape of our car being full of holes from being shot at loads of times, I don't know how much longer we can carry on like this, and yet there is no car to change, and I fear that we may not be able to leave the mall. We can only hope that we do and that there's less enemies, and a car that we can commandeer.
Suddenly as if out of nowhere, just before we leave through the smashed window, we slow down and by the time we stop it's only the front half of our car that's at the edge, and it's due to going over a spike strip.
At this point I don't know what would be better, whether to be shot by the enemy, who are so numerous and are approaching us, or whether to fall at the risk of significant injury? I think it's better to fall because we could still land in one piece, but would there be a car, would there be no one there to attack us? It's a shame for this to happen but what should I expect from someone like her? It is quite nerve wracking to potentially fall while being in a car, even if it's just several feet, but we cannot be scared because that is what our nemesis wants. We have survived before and will survive again, but how right now, I'm not exactly sure.
Time is running out as our car rocks in an unnerving way, and enemies rush closer and closer towards us, trying to get our car to fall in a decent manner, as getting out would result in us getting shot, hoping that after falling we can get away even if it look bleak. It looks like we're on a cliff hanger only in some respects… a literal one.