Summary: Armored trucks are heavy and Ryan is still a filthy fucking murderer.

Chapter 11

The cop in the passenger seat of the Gruppe Sechs armored truck leaned forward, frowning at the Sedan in front of them. It had cut them off five minutes ago and had dramatically slowed down, bringing traffic around them to a crawl. He rolled down the window, wondering if he should call it in. duffel.

"Somebody call my grandson!"

The cop rolled his eyes and put the window back up. "Damn elderly drivers," he grumbled to the driver, a Gruppe Sechs employee.

"Tell me about it," the driver grumbled sympathetically. "We got another one to our left. We're stuck til they exit."

"Ugh," the cop groaned. "We'll be late for our first pick-up. Could this day get any worse?"

"Fuck I can't put my mask on!" Michael shouted. "I must have fucking dropped it in the river." Michael grumbled for a bit before looking ahead of him at Jack. He grinned at Gavin and said loudly, "I'll have to get out."

"Don't you fucking dare," Jack replied instantly.

"ETA Hesity Beard?" Ryan asked.

"30 seconds Frylord," Jack said. Ryan could practically hear the eye roll at the ridiculous code names.

"All right guys," Geoff said, ensuring his mask was in place as he kept his car and the armored truck at a very slow place. "Let us know when you're approaching."

"We're approaching now," Michael said. Michael approached the hook and yelled for Jack to lower it a bit. Jack did as asked and Michael steeled himself. There was no river to break his fall this time and no chance for do-overs if he messed this up. Resting one foot on the hook and gripping the rope, he stepped out from the chopper, swinging out above the road they prepared to lower it completely. Gavin raised his gun to cover Michael.

"All right," Geoff said again, palms sweating as they always did with nervous anticipation. Was there a better rush than this? "Ryan do you wanna move over to left side I'll move over to the right and we'll sandwich it?"

"Ok…" Ryan said dramatically. "This is it!" He yanked the steering wheel and pulled in front of the armored truck. In his rearview mirror he saw Geoff slide in behind the truck. "Ok guys he's not going anywhere!"

"We can do this, we can do this, no whammies, no whammies-STOP!" Michael shouted as they drew level with the stopped car.

Ryan twisted in his seat and took a moment to fix the scene in his mind as his gang mates shouted encouragement and something about topical cream every day in his ear. The driver of the armored truck hesitated, trying to look for a way out. He could see the cop escorting the driver tense up, he could see Jack's chopper inbound perfectly from the back with Michael descending on the rope, he could see an angry driver getting out his car as traffic stopped, he could see said angry driver running at Geoff's car, reaching for the door handle—

Oh no.

"Geoff you're being jacked!" Ryan shouted, just as Geoff was thrown from the car.

Geoff hit the pavement hard as chaos erupted around him. The driver moved to attack him, yelling something that was lost over the noise of a low flying chopper. Gavin, Michael, and Ryan were all yelling in Geoff's ear as he jumped aside, trying to avoid his attacker.

"Grab the car, grab the car, grab the car!" Michael shouted over the din as Jack swung him into position. In one fluid movement, he stepped off the hook and onto the armored car's hood. He crouched and neatly slid the hook under the armored truck's roof rack and redoubled his grip on the rope. He just managed to brace himself when he felt a huge shuddering jolt as the Jack slammed the controls on the chopper and lifted the truck, Michael, and everything else.

The was a gong-like noise and Geoff, still on the ground, felt something relatively similar to a brick wall slam into his head and knock him off of his feet, leaving him dizzy and in pain on the asphalt. Geoff's attacker jumped aside as the armored truck, i.e. the brick wall that had hit Geoff and rang like a gong, swung backward with the momentum of the chopper as it left the ground, Michael riding it like a surfboard and whooping in excitement...until the truck swung inevitably forward. Michael, not expecting it, just managed to grip the rope with both hands as the armored truck swung out from under him completely.

"We got it!" he yelled triumphantly, dangling above the highway and spinning as the truck swung back and forth. "We got it! Go, go, go, go! And pull me up for fuck's sake!" Jack lifted the truck up a few feet and Michael pulled himself up the rope and back into the chopper. He lay paralyzed for a moment with gratitude at the relative solidness of the helicopter floor before grabbing his gun and leaning out to cover their escape.

The cargobob shuddered and groaned as they rose higher in the air, their ascent much slower and rougher than usual due to the weight. Gavin and Michael could hear all kinds of whistles and bells as various sensor and alarms went off, warning Jack that they we overburdened. The engines started heating up as they tried to compensate and the chopper veered slightly back and forth as the truck swung beneath them.

"We're away!" Jack yelled to the others. "Ugh it's heavy," Jack groaned, pulling at the controls with all his might. "Oh my God it's so heavy."

"How far away are we from Ray?" Michael shouted, stumbling into the cockpit and eyeing the flashing and beeping controls nervously.

"Uh you know...a ways," Jack said, eyeing the GPS and the distant ping that was Ray.

They could barely hear it, but the sound of police sirens below warned them a split second before the danger was on them. "We got choppers!" Gavin shouted, cocking his gun and bracing himself to lean out. Michael ran back to his side of the chopper and took aim as police chopper zoomed in on them, moving much faster than they could in light of their extra cargo.

"Turn!" Michael yelled as the police chopper veered off to their right. "Turn so I can shoot 'em!" Jack slowly turned the chopper and Michael released a hail of gunfire. After a moment, a body fell out of the back and the enemy chopper swerved as the pilot tried to avoid gun fire.

"Oh man, we're smoking!" Jack announced, a split second before a huge puff of smoke slammed into Gavin's face. The alarms we going wild now and choppers were closing in on them. Gavin and Michael shot for all they were worth and managed to keep the police off of them...barely. Sharp metallic pings and pops were testament to the times they were wrenched away from a line of sight as Jack fought cargobob and armored truck. More than once, the chopper shudder and dipped like it was going to crash and more than once Gavin and Michael had to grab the side to prevent being dumped out on to the road so many feet below.

Ray paced on top of the parking structure, eyes on the sky and gun ready as he waited for a cargobob that seemed unlikely to ever come. Waiting was the worst. He could do nothing but listening to the cacophony in his ears as Michael, Gavin, and Jack fought for the lives while Geoff and Ryan shouted commands from below.

Geoff had managed to pick himself up and was now in a stolen car with Ryan as they followed both freeway and cargobob to the parking garage, Ryan did not like how their aircraft was flying and did not like the panic he could hear in the chopper team's voices.

Suddenly in the chopper all of the gauges and thermometers spiked and there was a loud groan from one of the engines as a spray of police gunfire ripped into them. "Oh god, we're on fire!" Jack shouted. "Oh god we're on fire!" They weren't on fire, not yet, but Jack knew it was only a matter of time. He made a decision. "We're going down!"

"NO!" Gavin shouted as the chopper jerked hard.

"Don't go down!" Geoff yelled squinting up frantically at the swinging truck. "Don't abandon the mission!"

"Keep going!" Ray shouted. He could almost see the chopper in the distance. They were so close!

Jack grit his teeth in frustration. It was all well and good for them to say that, but they weren't the ones trying not to blow up.

"Michael, get that enemy chopper down!" Ryan shouted, referring to the police helicopter that was firing at their engines. Ryan cut across three lanes of traffic to stay under the chopper. They were close, so close, Jack just had to keep them airborne just a little bit longer…

An explosion ripped across the sky and for a moment, Ryan was terrified the Michael, Gavin, and Jack had all blown up. It wasn't until Michael's triumphant yell rang in his ear that he realized the enemy chopper had gone up in flames.

"I GOT IT!" Michael yelled. "I got it! Keep going!"

"Fight through the flames," Gavin added, frantically trying to reload and scattering bullets everywhere as he jolted with the helicopter.

"Keep fighting Jack!" Ryan said, staring as the wreckage of the enemy chopper crashed into the lake off the side of the highway. They were heading back into the city now and were fast...ish approaching Ray. They just had to make a little longer.

"All right, we're heading to Ray." Jack wrenched the controls hard, but there was a loud clank and huge spike in the temperature gauges. Michael leaned back in as a jet of fire exploded out of one of the engines with a wave of heat and the chopper began to lose its fight to stay up. "Aw shit, we've got fire coming out of the engines!" The chopper began to very slowly descend, oblivious to Jack's attempts to keep it in the air.

Gavin grabbed the side of the chopper opening and swung outward to look at the engines, but the flames shooting by his head were not what caught his attention. Instead he happened to see a gleam of metal—a streetlight—coming dangerously close to their swinging cargo as the chopper sank lower and lower.

"Jack!" Gavin yelled. "Jack! Pull up, pull up, pull up-!"

CLANG!

The armored truck collided with the streetlight and snagged hard. The rope, already weak from holding such a heavy load, snapped with an incredibly loud crack and Ryan and Geoff watched helplessly from their car as the armored truck and all of their hopes crashed to the ground beside the highway.

"We lost the truck!" Jack shouted. Ryan looked up as Jack maneuvered the now flaming helicopter around. Inside the cockpit, Michael and Gavin abandoned their guns and held on a tight as the cargobob turned crazily and hovered over the armored car.

"New plan!" Michael yelled to Jack. "Someone's gotta drive it!"

"All right, we're heading back for the truck!" Ryan replied, slamming on his breaks and jumping the highway divider. If he could get to it in time, they could drive it out of there and the others could escape.

"No, I'm going for the trunk, I'm going for the truck!" Jack grit his teeth and carefully began to lower the burning cargobob. If they could land and get out, they could still save the truck. It would be fine if they could just land. "We got this!"

"Ryan!" Geoff leaned forward and pointed to a broken section of wall on the highway. The nearest exit was too far away and Ryan read Geoff's intent clearly. "Take the jump! We got this Ryan!" Geoff shouted leaning back and gripping his seat.

Ryan floored the gas and shot like an arrow down the highway, He turned the steering wheel as he approached and leaned forward as the car flew through the gap and into the open air. The nose of the car angled downward and the asphalt rushed up to meet them. The undercarriage crashed hard into the pavement, lifting both Ryan and Geoff out of their seats and smashing them against the ceiling. The back end of the car landed just as hard but miraculously they zoomed forward when all wheels touched down, dizzy from their crash but still on the ground and still able to move and drive. Geoff couldn't help it and he let out a triumphant yell.

With a loud thump and yells of protest from Michael and Gavin as they nearly fell out, Jack managed to land the chopper on the ground. "We're on the ground!" Jack said as Michael and Gavin leaped out and ran for the armored truck. Michael fired two shots and took out the passenger that had apparently been screaming the entire ride and had miraculously survived until this point. Jack kicked the cockpit door open and jumped out as well. "The chopper is down, I repeat the chopper is-"

A deafening clunking noise sounded behind him causing him to whip around. The blades of the chopper suddenly sounded strangely like a blender as they started to grind to a halt. The engines whined and the whole chopper shuddered. Jack turned to Michael and Gavin who had also stopped to look at the chopper.

"Oh shit, ru—!"

Jack never finished.

Ray saw the explosion from his position on the roof and heard Jack, Gavin, and Michael cry out as the chopper finally gave up and went out with a literal bang. Ryan, coming around the bend just a second later slammed on the breaks as bits of flaming metal shot up into the sky and small pieces fell on their car like rain.

"Oh shit…" Ryan said, his face white.

"Jack!" Geoff shouted. "Jack!"

No answer.

For a moment no one spoke, No one moved. They just stared at the cargobob and the seemingly unharmed armored truck in shock, although at this point hadn't they learned that all of their plans ended in fire and defeat?

"Nope," Geoff said suddenly, his voice even. In fact he was strangely calm. "Nope. I'm not buying it. Every time I've thought you idiots were dead you've magically escaped without a scratch. So, unless I see their fucking bodies all burned up, I'm not going to think they dead. I'm not that fucking lucky." Geoff kicked his door open. "Let's get the fucking money and get out of here."

Ryan and Ray chose not comment.

Since it was Ryan's heist, Geoff allowed him to approach the truck first. The flames from the chopper had already died down as the initial explosion had consumed most of the fuel. There was no sign of Jack, Gavin, or Michael so Ryan hoped they had taken cover, or were more likely knocked unconscious somewhere. He didn't waste time looking—they had a mission to complete. Ryan walked around to the doors and examined the lock for a moment.

"Fuck that," he muttered. He raised his gun and swung the butt of it down hard...right as Geoff leaned down to examine the lock.

Geoff felt a sharp blow to the back of his head and as everything went white, he couldn't help but reflect on this new feeling of regret that he had once hired Ryan.

Ryan looked at Geoff lying on the ground in a tiny pool of his own head blood, completely nonplussed. "How the fuck- I hit Geoff! With my gun!"

Ray kicked a motorcycle in frustration. "What are you doing? You said you wouldn't kill anyone!"

"He's not dead!" Ryan said, panicked. Just unconscious. Ryan looked frantically around as sirens split the air. He didn't have time to contemplate what had happened. Instead he smashed the lock open and flung the doors wide.

"FUCK!"

Ray winced at the shout. "What's wrong?"

"There's no money!" Ryan shouted. "They must not have picked anything up yet for the day! GOD DAMN IT!" Ryan slammed a fist into the truck doors and screamed in frustration.

"Well fucking perfect," Ray said, ripping off his tourist hockey mask and flinging it across the roof. "Listen...should I just come to you? You fucked this all up!"

Ryan growled and stepped out of the truck. "Yeah...I think you'll have to come to me. We'll meet somewhere in the middle." Ryan paused and looked at Geoff sprawled on the ground and fuck if he didn't feel guilty. Instead of leaving him there to get got, Ryan bent down and grabbed his boss under the arms and dragged him back to the car. He heaved Geoff into the back seat as police came screeching around the corner. Wasting no more time, he slid into the driver' seat and took off, the cops not quite yet able to process that he was their target.

He heard a motorcycle rev up. "I'm going to take the jump since I set the bikes up," Ray informed him. Ray released the break and shot across the roof and up the randomly placed ramp that was up there with him. He let out a gleeful whoop as the ground slipped from beneath him and he soared gracefully over the ramp...for about five seconds.

"Oh shit." Ray noticed too late that A) he wasn't going to make it too the street, B) there was another roof below the parking garage that much wider than anticipated, and C) said roof had a raised section of bumpy skylights and he was going to land right on it. The motorcycle bounced and threw him off onto the rough tiling of the roof. The bike itself crashed over the edge to the ground below. Cut, bruised and woozy, Ray picked himself up and peered carefully over the edge he had almost fallen off of.

"I'm ok," he told Ryan, "but uh…" he looked around hopefully for a ladder and naturally did not find one. "I think I'm stuck." Ray had to laugh. After everything, he was stuck on a roof –a roof just high enough where he would break his neck if he fell wrong, but not high enough that his parachute, which he always kept in his weapons bag, would be useful. He could jump he supposed, but he wasn't sure if it was worth the risk.

"All right, I'm coming to you," Ryan said, accelerating past the cops who had finally thought to tail the speeding car driven by a crazy masked man. He made a mental note to apologize to Geoff in the backseat for his bumpy ride and tried not to wince as Geoff smacked the roof and windows as he flopped around bonelessly.

"What are the chances this umbrella would break my fall?" Ray asked curiously, peering over the side at the bright green umbrellas below. "Pretty good right? I'm gonna wait for you though." Mostly because Ray didn't actually think a flimsy umbrella would save his neck.

Ray looked around again, pacing back and forth on another roof. That was all he had done for a full day was paced around on first the parking garage roof and now this roof. Could he be more useless to the mission? He noticed a sign above one of the adjacent business offices and laughed again. "Schlongberg-Sachs," he told Ryan. "I'm right by Schlongberg-Sachs. It's like a Jewish dong."

"Oh good we can invest the money we didn't get!" Ryan said bitterly, making a quick turn away from the cops. The Gruppe Sechs and Schlongberg-Sachs building were directly ahead and Ryan jumped the sidewalk, whacking Geoff's head with the roof again as he bounced into the courtyard toward the masked man on the roof.

"Oh I see you!" Ray said. "Ok wait there, I'll jump on your car." This was stupid, Ray knew that but what choice did he have? The sirens in the distance only reinforced the fact that needed to go and needed to go now. Not only did they need to escape, they also needed to find the others, and hit the convenience store, not necessarily in that order. Who knows, maybe when Ray broke his bones in this jump, the clerk would take pity on the Mexican with a broken leg?

With that cheerful thought, Ray backed up to the edge of the skylights and took off running as fast as he could. He threw his weapons bag ahead of him, approached the edge, and jumped—

He immediately knew he had jumped wrong He tipped forward, head over heels, and had a dizzying moment of confusing before the sidewalk slammed into his ass. "Ow…" Ray said, dazed as the world went grey with pain and Ryan laughed at his ridiculous landing.

"There is a cop right there that you almost landed on!" Ryan said through his laughter. "Get up! We gotta go." Ray somehow managed to stand up and grab his weapons as the cops open fired on Ryan's car. He didn't remember getting in the car, but the next thing he knew, they were speeding off with the cops in hot pursuit.

"Ugh," Ray groaned, shaking his head and getting a grip on himself. "Hey Geoff," he said to their unconscious leader." He shook himself again before focusing. "Ok. Heist is on. We're hitting the convenience store."

"Are you sure?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah let's do it!"

"Ok, but let's get into the subway and lose the cops," Ryan said.

"Eat fresh!" Ray sang weakly.

Ryan, through some miraculously fancy driving, managed to get into the subway entrance with the car and jumped the turnstile. The tires barely gripped the slick linoleum, mostly because all four had been shot out, so they skidded around the corners of the subway station, running over several spectators by "accident" according to Ryan. They finally slammed to a stop by a set of stairs that the car could not traverse.

"We'll have to go on foot," Ryan decided.

"What about Geoff?" Ray asked as Ryan rummaged around in the glove compartment.

"Got it covered," Ryan said, coming up with the car registration sheet and a pen. He flipped the paper over and hurriedly scrawled "Sorry Ray and I left you for dead. Hope you understand, no hard feelings. –R Connection."

"Great," Ray said dryly as they got out of the car. "Now Geoff can put that in our file when he both fires and murders us."

Ryan and Ray sprinted down the stairs and into the dimly lit subway tunnels. Ryan consulted his map and realized that they had quite a ways to go before they came upon the exit. The cops had long since lost them he figured, not having seen them flee into the subway tunnel at all.

Running beside Ryan, Ray attempted to inquire about the rest of their team, asking through the headset if anyone was still alive. Unlike Ryan, Ray actually gave two shits about the team…or least half of one shit about the team. There was no answer and after a moment, Ray stopped trying and looked sideways at Ryan. Now that the chaos had subsided, Ray realized he was all alone with the Mad King.

"So…" Ray asked carefully, well aware of Ryan's propensity for backstabbing. "What uh…what happened to Geoff."

"Well…"Ryan said, just as carefully. Of all the AH Crew, Ray was the quickest, the quietest, and the most deadly. It was why he had been recruited. Ryan had to tread carefully here because Ray was also somewhat loyal to the gang. If he thought Ryan had double crossed Geoff, Ryan might find himself dead in the subway tunnels.

"We were at the back of the armored truck and I had to bust the lock," Ryan replied honestly. "Geoff's face got in the way, I took a swing—mistakes were made."

Ray supposed it was possible. Unlikely, given Ryan's track record, but possible. Given that Ryan had left Geoff behind in the car, Ray wasn't inclined to believe it. At the same time, Ryan had grabbed Geoff and not left him at the scene of the crime. Ray wasn't sure what to think.

"So, this convenience store," Ray said slowly, testing the waters. "We uh…have no plan but for the two of us to rob it?" An open ended plan, no witnesses down here in the subway, Ryan's somewhat hazy explanation of Geoff's state…Ray was growing more distrustful by the minute.

Ryan look sidelong at Ray as well. Ray was a quick draw, there was no one in the subway, he clearly didn't believe what happened to Geoff…that distrust was surfacing and Ryan wasn't about to get on the wrong end of it. "Yeah well…" Ryan started to move his hand back to his pocket carefully so Ray couldn't see. "There doesn't have to be two—."

"Don't you do it!"

BANG!

Ryan took the slug right in the chest just as he leveled his gun. Ray somehow managed to level and shoot his own weapon in the time it took Ryan to squeeze the trigger. Ryan's shot went high as he fell backward, breath knocked out. The vest had stopped the bullet, but damned if it didn't feel like his ribs weren't trying to stab into his lungs.

Ray waited for Ryan to hit the ground before he rummaged in the wheezing man's coat and found his wallet. He opened the wallet and counted the money. "Hmm," Ray said, not even looking at Ryan as he gasped for air. "Yoink!" Ray pocketed Ryan's money and tossed the wallet on Ryan's chest.

"Four hundred and fifty five dollars," Ray said, grinning down at his victim. "I'd say that's a successful heist. No need to rob the convenience store." Ray stood back up and punched the air.

"Ray wins!"

Ryan closed his eyes rather than face the man who had bested him. Son of a bitch.

"GEOFF! RAY! SOMEBODY!"

"Michael? Holy shit, what happened?"

"I'll tell you what happened, Ray. You fucking shot me in the chest!"

"Shut up Ryan, I am trying to talk to Michael!"

Geoff came to in the car, groaning and putting his hand to his aching head. Something wet coated his palm and drew away a hand that was tacky with blood. What the…oh yeah. Ryan had tried to cave his head in. The heist! What had happened? Where was he?

Paper rustled as he sat up and he saw a note laying on his chest. "Sorry Ray and I left you for dead. Hope you understand, no hard feelings. –R Connection." What?

That's when Geoff realized he was in a car in the depths of the subway station. Ray and Ryan must have hauled him here and the dumped him when they couldn't get the car down the stairs that were to his left. At that same moment he realized that Michael, Ray, and Ryan were all shouting in his earpiece.

"You god damn pieces of shit!" Geoff shouted, making his head throb. "God damn it I am getting sick of fucking Ryan trying to fucking murder me! And Fay, you just fucking left me—!"

"Geoff!" Michael shouted. "Oh thank Christ! Geoff we've got a problem!"

Geoff noted the panic in Michael's voice, which normal might have meant nothing but something about it made Geoff get an uncomfortable feeling in his gut. "Michael what happened?"

"The chopper blew up!" Michael shouted back. "It blew up and we took cover, but Jack! He was blown away from the chopper and we lost sight of him and then you guys took off by the time we were able to look for you and Jack was nowhere and then—"

"Michael, Michael, slow down," Geoff said, getting out of the car. "What happened?"

"They got him!" Michael shouted. "The cops got him!"

"Got who?" Geoff said, dread uncoiling in his stomach. "Gavin?" Please say Gavin…

"Jack!" Michael said frantically. "They got Jack!"

End Chapter

Author's Note: In the actual heist, Ryan did get the money from the armored truck, but it all vanished when Ray killed him. Since that is again not how reality works, I adjusted it so that Ryan never got the money.

Also, just a couple of things to clarify in case you were wondering:

-The Fake AH Crew has headsets in at all times. That is how they are able to chat with one another when they are all separated.

-The Crew also constantly has bullet proof vests, duffle bags with their weapons, and parachutes in their duffle bags. That is how they can seemingly carry a variety of things on their person and survive a lot of the attacks.

-Most of the stuff that happens would kill the Crew, but I have stretched reality to make a better story.