Earlier…
"Daito, I'm gonna have to split. Mind lending me a car after this?" asked Kira.
"No problem," answered Daito. He checked the GPS and map of his Aston Martin before asking one last question. "Where do you wanna meet?"
Right after he asked that, he heard a loud crash on Kira's end before the answer.
"Uh. Come over to Mu's place tomorrow unless you wanna help me pay for flowers."
With that, Daito heard the dial tone, indicating that Kira had hung up on him.
"See you there then."
Daito then looked at his rear view mirror to see if the Alfa Romeos were still following him and unsurprisingly, the thugs' vehicles were hot on his tail.
"Good luck catching up to this."
He floored the gas pedal and watched as his speedometer slowly began to increase and the needle began pointing at the right side of his car.
Suddenly, the rear windshield of his Aston Martin began cracking as dozens of high velocity projectiles began peppering the back of the DBS.
Daito didn't bother looking back and instead, intensified his focus on weaving in and out of traffic. Several times, he nearly collided head-on with an incoming car and other times, he heard the horn of an angry driver.
His luck finally ran out when one of the thugs on the Alfa Romeo threw a brick at a passing trailerless semi-truck, shattering the rear window and causing the driver to sandwich Daito's car between him and a wall.
Sparks flew and Daito narrowly avoided death as the truck's bumper smashed into his door and penetrated the reinforced chassis of his DBS. He tried to pull out and away from the truck but the driver seemed to ignore him as the truck continued to try and crush his car by moving to the right to avoid oncoming traffic.
Left with no other option, Daito opened up his damaged driver's side door and spun his car directly in front of the truck to escape the sandwich. The resulting stunt tore the door off completely exposing the Daito to the thugs and nearly killed him as he collided with the wall on his left and narrowly missed an oncoming truck. It also changed his car's colors as much of the black paint had been scraped off, leaving the car looking more gray and white than black.
The chase resumed and Daito managed to take out one of his pursuers by narrowly dodging another truck that crashed and totaled one of the 159s behind him. The other continued to ram his DBS and at one point, one of the thugs threw a makeshift pipe bomb at his car.
The explosion attracted police attention who heard the noise and saw the car chase unfold in front of them. As one officer began radioing the events and making calls for backup, the other got into the driver's seat and began the pursuit.
Moment's later, the DBS' hidden built-in radio scanner came to life, alerting Daito of police presence and activity.
"Station from Patrol 48 - gray Aston Martin followed by a black Alfa Romeo driving towards the quarries. Explosions head."
"Roger, permission to pursue - granted."
Within seconds, Daito found himself face to face with a Police version of a Land-Rover Defender 90 Station Wagon, cherries and berries blazing.
Acting quickly, he narrowly avoided the police car and made his way into a construction zone with the 159 hot on his tail. This time, the 159 had a new follower that didn't hesitate to use deadly force when necessary.
No longer on solid asphalt, Daito changed gears to gain better traction and control on the loose winding gravel road. Dust and sand from the quarry coated and scraped the DBS body further worsening the condition of the car and obscuring his visibility.
At one point, one of the officers noticed a thug lighting a pipe bomb and pulled out his pistol in an attempt to defuse the situation. The shots had the opposite effect as the explosive criminal turned his attention to the officers and threw the bomb at them.
The explosion blasted the Police Land-Rover Defender 90 into the air and sent it tumbling off a cliff where it narrowly missed colliding with Daito's car on the way down. However, the sight was more than enough to distract Daito so the thugs could catch up and box his car against the cliff walls.
Annoyed at being stuck again, Daito tried pushing the thugs' Alfa Romeo off the edge but quickly found himself being pelted with bricks and other throwables each time he tried to get close. Left with no other option, Daito reached for his last resort weapon but was unable to arm it before being slammed again.
By luck, a slow moving bulldozer caused the two cars to separate and gave Daito the time he needed to pull out his weapon, a HK USP pistol, and empty all 15 rounds on the Alfa Romeo. The bullets found their mark and in less than a second, the thugs and their Alfa Romeo smashed through the railing and flew off the cliff.
Now that the chase was over, Daito breathed a huge sigh of relief as he put away his empty pistol and activated his now barely functional GPS to drive back home.
Suddenly, a prickling sensation erupted at the back of his neck, a primal warning that sent a jolt through him. Instinctively, Daito flung his arm out behind him, a split second before a blur of metal and fire hurtled towards his car. There was a deafening boom as the pipe bomb detonated in mid-air. Though all the home-made explosive did was leave a red mark on Daito's hand, it was more than enough to let Daito know that the chase wasn't over just yet.
Now more than ever, Daito needed something that could actually fight back. His DBS proved to be clearly unsuitable for these situations and its lack of armaments meant that the Newtype was relying on speed and instincts to escape his pursuers.
He allowed his thoughts to wander for a few minutes when suddenly, a light went off in his head. Quickly, he inputted a special number on his cracked dialpad and waited for someone to answer.
"Daito? The hell you are calling me for? It's 2 in the morning."
"Yeah I know Ichiho," answered Daito. "Listen, is the Z8 still there?"
"Oh no you don't" exclaimed Ichiho. "I know exactly what you'll do with the car and I need that for my date with Ren tomorrow."
"Then I guess right now's not a good time to tell you that I'm dealing with some highly explosive car thieves, right?"
Daito heard Ichiho sigh as he pulled out a card and read off a number.
"The code's 4132. Do bring it back in one piece."
Daito smiled and hung up as he inputted the coordinates for the docks and sped away with a pair of stolen silver Mercedes Benz AMG GT Coupes on his tail.
"He should be in here."
"Yeah. There's no way he could've gotten that far on foot. You guys are still at his Aston Martin right?"
"Yep. He's not getting it back after this now."
One of the thugs drove their Mercedes through the dock warehouses while the other walked alongside it with a pocket knife drawn.
"It's suspiciously quiet down here," commented the walking thug.
Suddenly, one of the warehouse doors opened to reveal a bright pair of blue neon headlights which blinded the two would-be robbers for a few seconds.
"What the heck? Is that a-"
"Hasta la vista," declared Daito. He then pressed a button on his steering wheel to activate the missile systems on the Z8 before using the built-in mini touch pad on the wheel to target the bandit's car. Once the target was registered and locked, he pressed another button to fire a rocket.
"Son of a-"
The Mercedes exploded and its flaming wreckage flew several feet into the air before landing into the ocean where its mangled remains remained afloat for a few seconds before finally resting in its watery grave.
"Two down, two more to go," commented Daito as he drove his new BMW out of the warehouse and to the entrance of the port.
"Did you see that?"
"Yeah I did. Get in. We're leaving."
The two thugs abandoned their post at the wrecked DBS and drove away in their stolen Mercedes. However they didn't get very far as soon, a pair of familiar blue headlights lit up their rear window.
"He's right behind us!"
"I know and quit yapping. Let's see if this lumber mill has any good hiding spots."
Moments later, the two ditched their stolen car and ran into an empty lumber mill where they began looking for places to hide.
"Well will you look at that," smiled one of the thugs.
"What?"
"I just found our answer to our problems."
Meanwhile, Daito was carefully patrolling the mill in his Z8. When he had arrived, he found the stolen AMG GT Coupe abandoned with both of its doors wide open. Because of this, he knew that the thugs had tried to flee on foot and were probably at the lumber mill.
Though he was pretty sure that they weren't that dumb since the place had cameras at almost every angle, he knew it didn't hurt to check out the place. Besides, now that he had a more well armed vehicle, his chances of coming out on top was a lot higher than these guys.
His patrol paid off upon hearing a set of footsteps and seeing one of the thugs emerge from their hiding place and running further into the mill. Rather than pursue him though, Daito allowed him to run and reactivated his missile system in hopes of locking onto his prey.
Unfortunately, his target was too small and he was unable to achieve a missile lock when suddenly, he heard the sound of sawing blades coming to life. Turning around, Daito realized that the other thug he had been pursuing had managed to turn on a crane with a wood cutter attached to it.
Even more unfortunate, by the time he realized this, the saw blade had already begun cutting his Z8 into two. Any attempt to rescue the car was left in vain as the operator was protected by a bulletproof window that caused Daito's pistol rounds to harmlessly bounce off the shield.
The car's alarm system let out one last yell before shutting off completely with the rest of the car as the metal blade bisected the BMW into two.
"Ichiho's not gonna like this," he muttered, the humor of the situation finally dawning on him. Two high-performance vehicles destroyed in one chase. Maybe walking was a better option for a while.
His musings were interrupted by a triumphant shout. Two figures emerged from the shadows, the thugs Daito had been chasing. One brandished a baseball bat, the other a length of heavy metal chain. They looked like extras from a low-budget action movie.
Daito sighed. Dealing with thugs was one thing, but dealing with amateurs was another level of frustration. He reached for his pistol, a glint of steel flashing in the dim light of the lumber mill.
But before his finger could even touch the trigger, the thug with the chain lunged, wrapping it around Daito's wrist with surprising speed. A yelp escaped his lips as the chain tightened painfully, the gun clattering to the floor.
"Looks like the Newtype forgot his basic combat training," sneered the thug with the bat, swinging it menacingly. Daito glared, his newtype senses screaming at him to react, but the chain held him fast.
Suddenly, a loud crack echoed through the mill. The thug with the bat, overconfident in his victory, had stepped on a rotting wooden plank. With a sickening groan, the plank gave way, sending him plummeting towards a stack of lumber several stories below.
Daito winced. He might not have liked the guy's approach, but that fall looked like something straight out of a Disney movie – dramatic and surprisingly bloodless. The remaining thug, however, seemed less concerned by his fallen comrade and more focused on finishing the job.
He raised the chain, a cruel glint in his eyes, just as a massive steel beam clanged loudly above them. Daito watched in morbid fascination as the beam, suspended precariously on a forklift, began to tilt. This wasn't intentional, more a result of the jarring impact of the previous fall.
The thug's eyes widened in terror as both the beam and forklift tilted even more before the newtype yanked the chain from him and with one powerful kick, sent the man flying into one of the supports that kept the forklift and beam up on the platform.
The supports gave way and the vehicle and its cargo came crashing down, landing with a deafening thud directly on top of him and permanently silencing the criminal's screams. This, unlike the first demise, was undeniably a James Bond villain death. Daito winced again, more out of surprise than sympathy.
"Seems like his support system wasn't very strong."
Suddenly, the silence was broken by the distant wail of approaching sirens. Daito wasn't in the mood to answer questions, especially not with two bodies and a wrecked car on the scene. Besides, explaining how a giant hunk of metal "accidentally" fell on a thug while he stood there unarmed was going to be a challenge.
He spotted the stolen Mercedes sitting abandoned near the entrance. With a resigned sigh, he climbed into the driver's seat. This wasn't exactly the getaway car he envisioned, but beggars couldn't be choosers.
As he sped away, the flashing lights of police cars cutting through the darkness behind him, Daito muttered to himself, "Looks like four families are getting some condolence bouquets today." He wasn't proud of the situation, but at least he was alive. And alive, he realized, was a good start.
Pulling out his phone, he dialed another number and requested that his friend bring a large truck to load up his destroyed cars and take them to his place.
"You're joking right?" asked Kira. "And how did Ichiho react to the lost car?"
"I got him a new one," answered Daito nonchalantly as he threw Kira the keys for the Z3.
Meanwhile…
Ichiho and Ren opened the garage and to their surprise, there was a car in the garage. It wasn't the Z8 but still, it was similar enough.
"Looks like Daito's gonna need more than just glue for that Z8," sighed Ichiho as he got into the Mercedes AMG GT Coupe.
"Knowing him," commented Ren. "that Z8's not in one piece."
Ichiho chuckled. "Probably not. Still, this isn't a bad substitute." He gestured towards the Mercedes with a wry smile. "At least it has a roof that doesn't retract at the most inopportune moments."
Ren raised an eyebrow. "Speaking of inopportune moments," she said, her voice laced with amusement, "did he mention how he… acquired this particular 'substitute'?"
Ichiho's face flushed slightly. Knowing Daito, there was probably a story behind the Mercedes, but he wasn't eager to pry. "Let's just say," he responded with a shrug, "Daito has a knack for finding… interesting solutions."
With that, Ichiho and Ren climbed into the Mercedes, the disappointment over the Z8 fading as they pulled out of the garage. Daito might be reckless with his vehicles, but at least he knew how to find replacements, even if those replacements came with a side of unspoken mischief.
Kira looked at the keys in his hands and back at Daito who was heading into the truck.
"So is this my new car?"
"Your rental car. I got this from the Earth Federation and please, bring it back in one piece," commented Daito. "If you can. Also good luck with the cooking class and the manual is in the glove compartment."
While Daito left, Kira opened the glove compartment and to his surprise, found a list of armaments and their functions on the car.
"Damn! I wish I could afford one of these," commented Shinn. "Missile launchers, machine guns, ejector seats, this is one heck of a car."
Kira ignored Shinn and reparked the car before heading inside to hear what Dearka had to say about their first lesson.
Upon reaching the kitchen, Dearka handed him a piece of paper that were actually instructions for using kitchen utensils.
"Pots are for boiling, pans are for frying. Use spatulas on pans and ladles for pots," read Kira.
"Those are just the basics. Remember that," ordered Dearka. "Now first things first, let's start with making eggs. Boiled and fried."
Kira and Athrun looked at Dearka as if he had just spoken a foreign language.
"Say what now?"
"I said let's make some eggs and be careful with cracking the fried ones," said Dearka. "You don't wanna have any shrapnel in your omelets."
"Dearka. Please just talk normally," said Yzak.
"This is normal," informed Dearka.
Everyone gave a small sigh and followed Dearka's lead in making a fried egg. Several hours later, Kira, Athrun, Shinn, Yzak, Mu, and Andrew were all able to take a picture of their own cooked eggs to send to their girlfriends along with a caption by Dearka.
"Eggcellent job. Even the kitchen's happy."