All characters and content of this work belongs to their respective owners, I own nothing other than my Original Character and the plot of this story.
Early the next morning, Emeraldblade and her friends gathered everything they needed for the long road trip ahead. In addition to the essentials they brought with them when they traveled to Earth via the Grimoire, such as extra clothes, they also packed several other necessities, such as their weapons and a modified GPS that Engineer had created to help them reach Louisville in the fastest time possible, as well as a portable teleporter for them to use in case something went awry. Sniper meanwhile took out the camper van to gas it up at a nearby gas station, whilst doubling the trip as a run to gather various on-the-go items, such as snacks, drinks, and other supplies for the long haul that awaited them.
When the time came, everyone except for Engineer and Heavy boarded onto the makeshift RV, with Sniper at the driver's wheel of the cabin, with Vaggie seated next to him followed by Emeraldblade at the opposite window. Moxxie and Millie meanwhile entered the back area of the van where they sat on a dining table located to the passenger's side of the vehicle; there was a small window just behind where Millie sat that allowed her access to communicate to her friends on the other side of the wall.
Once everyone was seated, they fastened their seatbelts, and Sniper proceeded to ignite the engine, before pulling away from the bunker. As they left, Emeraldblade took one last look back at the base, seeing Engineer and Heavy waving goodbye.
After a little over two hours passed after they set out on their road trip, Millie popped her body through the window separating the cabin from the sleeping quarters with something in mind.
"So Sniper," she asked.
"Yeah?"
"What exactly do you do for a living? Engie mentioned something about a "Gravel War" back at that hideout of yours."
"Well…it's a long story love," he replied.
"Let me guess, you specialize in using long-range weapons?" Vaggie asked.
"That's right," he smiled, continuing to gleefully drive his camper van through the Southwestern desert.
"Sniping's a good job love. Challenging Work. Outa Doors. I guarantee you'll won't go hungry, cause at the end of the day, as long as there's two people on the planet, someone is gonna want someone dead."
"Figures…" Vaggie said to herself.
"So your weapon of choice is a sniper rifle right?" Emeraldblade asked.
"Correct again love," Sniper replied, "Although over the years, I've branched out a bit in my specialties, for example, I'm also a skilled archer, with my trusty Huntsman bow, I'm like the modern William Tell."
"Oh yeah, I saw you use that to stun Merasmus during our battle against him." Emeraldblade said.
"Yeah, and then there's my arsenal of weapons for when I need to fight in close quarters. The one I personally carry is a large, serrated knife which I call the Bushwacka; it's great for picking off weaker opponents, so I brought it along for the ride, just in case. I also like to keep one super-secret weapon stocked up at all times..."
"What is this secret weapon exactly?" Millie asked.
Just then, Moxxie began to groan in agony.
"Oooh, my stomach hurts…" he complained, "Hey Sniper, do you have any coke or ginger ale or something?"
Sniper smirked, "Yeah mate, I have plenty of "lemonade" stored in several jars back there. Help yourself to one of 'em."
"Really? Thanks." Moxxie replied, feeling relieved.
Emeraldblade, Vaggie, and Millie were suspicious, why would Sniper store lemonade inside jars instead of a pitcher, let alone outside of a refrigerator?
Moxxie meanwhile didn't care about this anomaly, so he quickly got to his feet and spotted a jar full of the refreshing substance nearby, grabbing it carefully, not wanting to spill it as the van continued driving to its destination. He managed to make it back to the dining table and sat down as he began unscrewing the lid from the jar.
"Now to quench my queasiness," He proclaimed.
He then removed the lid and began to take a sip from the yellow liquid he assumed was lemonade. As the liquid touched his taste buds, he suddenly felt an unusually salty taste. A strange odor filled the cabin of the van, causing the girls to react in disgust, Sniper meanwhile was unphased, as he ignored the smell and continued focusing on the road ahead, all the while keeping the same smirk on his face.
As Moxxie was drinking the lemonade, the girls looked back at him, clearly shocked as they now suddenly realized what the "lemonade" really was. Moxxie noticed this, and shot them a look of confusion.
"What?"
"Uhh, MoxMox?" Millie told her husband, "I don't think that's lemonade."
"What are you talking about? Of course it's lemonade, Sniper told me it was."
"That's not lemonade Moxxie," Vaggie replied, "Do you smell that odor?"
Moxxie sniffed the room, and to his shock, the strange aroma caused him to become nauseous again, he then looked down at the jar of "lemonade".
"Wait a minute," he realized, "Is this…OH MY GOD!"
He then attempted to wipe the taste of the liquid with his hands before running over to the sink and trying to drink as much water as he could to get the aftertaste out of his mouth.
Sniper meanwhile let out a sinister chuckle, "That's my secret weapon by the way."
The ladies took a double take between Sniper and Moxxie, all the while keeping their jaws dropped the whole time.
"So your secret weapon is…piss?!" Millie reacted, "Ugh, that's so disgusting."
"Why would you use that in combat?" Emeraldblade harshly criticized her colleague.
Sniper just smiled, "Hey, it works great as a makeshift grenade. Besides it left many of my enemies back during the Gravel War defenseless."
The girls rolled their eyes.
"That's just too gross." Vaggie commented.
As Moxxie was continuing to clean his mouth of Sniper's "lemonade", the mercenary continued his monologue.
"Anyways mates, professionals have standards: Be polite, be efficient, and most importantly have a plan to kill everyone you meet."
"Well…that explains why you and your friends readied your weapons when we first met," Millie noted.
"Correct love," Sniper replied, "That's how you become a good mercenary."
Eventually, the quintet of heroes made it to Amarillo, Texas, where they decided to stop to get a bite to eat for lunch before continuing on their journey. As they were driving around the city, they found a small deli. Sniper pulled into the restaurant, and everyone exited out of the camper van; Millie and Moxxie even dawned some human disguises to avoid drawing attention to themselves.
"Okay everyone, let's have a quick lunch and then we'll hit the road again," Emeraldblade instructed.
"Ugh, after drinking that…stuff you had in that jar of yours, I definitely need a real drink for once." Moxxie complained, still recovering from the mishap with the "lemonade".
As they entered the building, a mysterious figure stood atop a nearby building watching their every move. He was looking through a pair of binoculars before removing them from his eyes, it was then clear that this was the individual Verosika had hired to sabotage Vaggie and Emeraldblade.
"So, it seems that shithead son of Crimson and his wife are friends with the two targets Verosika told me to take out eh?" he said to himself, "Well then, this job just got much more interesting hehe."
About half an hour passed, before everyone exited out of the deli.
"Man those were some gooooood sandwiches," Millie said, "Perhaps the best ones I've had in a while."
"I still can't believe you had to bore that poor cashier with that verbose order of yours Moxxie." Vaggie told the male imp, "Was that really necessary?"
"Hey!" he complained, "I'll have you know I have significant taste when it comes to the food I eat. Just talk to Blitzo sometime, he'll confirm it to you when we were held hostage once, I was asked for a coffee and-"
"Here we go again…" Millie noted, clearly annoyed having to hear the story about how he likes his coffee.
"-I told them I wanted a Neapolitan Cappuccino more cappu than ccino, make sure it's got no more than four ounces of milk as the beans won't have the right texture otherwise and-"
Just then, a shot rang out from the vicinity the group was in, followed by a strange bullet narrowly missing Moxxie's head, cutting his lecture short. The group suddenly turned to the direction the bullet came from and noticed a figure standing on top of the nearby building by the deli. It then jumped from the rooftop and landed in the parking lot nearby, while Vaggie, Emeraldblade and Sniper were confused by who this individual was, Millie and Moxxie immediately recognized them as an old adversary who nearly took the life of one of Blitzo's friends: an imp-demon assassin named Striker.
"Shit! Missed!" Striker shouted.
"Striker?!" Millie reacted, "What the hell is he doing here?!"
"I don't know," Moxxie replied, "But seeing him tells me that it's not good."
"Yeah, someone must've hired him to eliminate us." Millie continued.
It only took a moment for Vaggie to realize who could've hired a hitman to stop them from reaching Louisville.
"Verosika…" she growled, "Quick everyone stand your ground, we can't let this fuckhead stop us from reaching Louisville."
Suddenly, Striker readied his sniper rifle once again and fired in the direction of the team.
"Get out of the way!" Emeraldblade shouted.
Everyone leapt in different directions as Striker continued to take potshots at all of them.
"YOU FUCKING SHITHEADS!" he shouted, "WHY WON'T YOU STAND FUCKING STILL?!"
Sniper quickly made a dash towards his camper van in an attempt to start up the vehicle so that his team could make a quick getaway. Meanwhile Moxxie took out a revolver and exchange gunfire with his adversary.
"You three try to sneak up on him and attack from multiple directions," he instructed the girls, "I'll distract him with some cover fire."
The three women nodded and made mad dashes around Striker as the imp-demon was focused on shooting his rival.
Eventually Moxxie's magazine ran out of bullet, forcing them to replace the cartridge; this presented Striker with the opportunity to finish off the imp while he was vulnerable. He readied his sniper rifle once more, but before he could pull the trigger, a powerful force hit him from the side, it was Vaggie, would had kicked him in the face, knocking him back whilst dropping his sniper rifle in the process.
"Gaagh! Lucky shot girl," Striker ranted, "Perhaps I'll have to do this the old-fashion way."
He then took out a rope and attempted to lasso Vaggie as a means to incapacitate her. He threw the hoop in her direction, the fallen angel tried to dodge it the best she could, but Striker's rope proficiency was no match to her agility. The rope wrapped around her body so tight that she was unable to fight back.
"Now then, let's see if Verosika will give me a bonus for bringing you back alive," he laughed.
Just as he was about to hogtie Vaggie and kidnap her, a powerful green energy bolt shot in front of him, causing him to retract back. Another bolt narrowly missed him again as he began searching the permeance for the source of the green bolts. Soon enough, while he was distracted, a third bolt hit him directly in the back, causing him to recoil in pain.
"Keep your hands off my friend!" Emeraldblade shouted.
"Heh, I like your spirit kid," Striker chuckled, "But even then, your wit won't stop me from completing my mission."
He then motioned her to charge him, which caused her to oblige, but just as she was about to strike him with her sword, he somehow countered her attack and threw her down to the ground, causing her to drop her sword.
"Well now, what do we have here?" he said smugly.
Striker picked up Emeraldblade's sword, taking only a short moment to ponder what it was, before turning back to the warrior. Emeraldblade regained her footing, and attempted to retrieve her sword back from her opponent. Striker however was one step ahead of her, as he managed to block each of her advancing punches. Eventually, he caught her off-guard by using his tail to trip her, causing her to lose her footing once again.
"Now then, let's see how much damage this weapon of yours can do to you," he laughed.
Striker then attempted to thrust the sword into Emeraldblade's right foot, but just before the sword could connect to her femur, he was hit by yet another force, this time from the sharp blade of Millie's battle-axe. The sharp pain caused Striker to drop Emeraldblade's sword, as he hissed inn sheer agony.
Millie quickly ran up to Emeraldblade and helped her to her feet.
"Are you okay?" she asked, handing her the sword in the process.
"Yeah, I'm alright," Emeraldblade replied, "Quick, go untie Vaggie and take her to the van, I'll deal with that demon."
Millie nodded, before rushing over to Vaggie and untying her.
"Come on, we need to get back to the van," Millie told her friend.
"But what about Emerald?" Vaggie protested.
"She's trying to hold off Striker, now hurry!"
Vaggie was hesitate to the fact that Emeraldblade was fighting back against Striker single-handedly by herself, but nonetheless trusted her friend and ran back to the van with Millie.
Emeraldblade meanwhile took advantage of Striker's condition and proceeded to knock him back with a drop kick, launching him into a nearby wall. She quickly got to her feet and ran at the imp-demon and thrusted a barrage of powerful swings of her sword, but Striker regained his composure and responded by shifting his body left and right to dodge her attacks, he then tried landing several counter attacks with his fists as well as his prehensile tail, but Emeraldblade expected this response and blocked each incoming attack. Eventually, his attacks became so numerous that Emeraldblade feared he might break her guard.
Her worries seemed to come true when he responded with a left hook that was absorbed by her sword, followed by a sneaky spit take in her face while her front was exposed, causing her to recoil from the nasty trick. Seeing that Emeraldblade was now stunned, Striker then took the opportunity to land an incapacitating blow with his tail, but just before his attack could connect. A bullet struck it, disabling his tail.
Emeraldblade turned, and saw that Moxxie, blowing the smoke coming out of the barrel of his revolver.
"Direct hit," he replied smugly.
Emeraldblade smiled, before turning back to her foe, seeing that he was holding his tail in pain, Emeraldblade reacted by slamming him dead on with a backhand, knocking the would-be hitman out cold for the time.
"Quick Emerald, we need to get the hell out of here!" Moxxie called out.
Emeraldblade turned back and joined Moxxie in sprinting in the direction of the van, the two of them joined their friends inside the van as Sniper proceeded to back up and floor the gas pedal with as much force as possible, leaving the deli as fast as they could.
As they were leaving, Striker regain his consciousness and witnessed the team escaping. He rushed towards his sniper rifle that he had dropped earlier in the battle and readied the barrel in an attempt to snipe the van. He pulled the trigger, firing a powerful bullet from its barrel.
The bullet managed to hit the rear bumper of the camper van, causing it to ricochet off of it harmlessly.
Striker attempted to fire another shot, but before he could pull the trigger, a car horn honked from behind him, forcing him to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit. When he regained his footing, he noticed the van had vanished from site, possibly turning onto another street in the process.
"FUCK!" he snapped, "They got away…but not for long…"
At the same time, Emeraldblade and her friends were having a much-needed breather after narrowly escaping a near-fatal encounter. Millie and Moxxie had removed their human disguises shortly after returning to the van.
"ALRIGHT!" Sniper cheered, "Now that is how we do it in the bush!"
"Wow Emerald," Millie commended her friend, "For a human, you sure showed him not to mess with us."
"Yeah," Moxxie added, "I must admit, you're one badass chick."
Emeraldblade blushed, "I'm flattered, but it was nothing. I was just trying to help my friends."
"Don't be modest hon," Vaggie told her friend, "If it wasn't for you, who knows what that guy could've done to me or you."
Emeraldblade's smile turned to a concern look quickly.
"By the way, who was that guy?"
Moxxie huffed, "That…was Striker. He's an old enemy of ours."
"He tried to assassinate Blitzo's friend Stolas a while back," Millie explained.
"But who would have hired him mates?" Sniper wondered.
"Verosika," Vaggie responded, "I have a gut feeling she hired him to prevent us from reaching Louisville."
"I couldn't agree more," Emeraldblade replied.
"I doubt that will be the last we'll see from him," Moxxie noted, "Knowing him, he's very dedicated to his job as an assassin, so we better keep our guard up the next time he shows his goddamn face."
"You know it Mox," his wife smiled.
And with that the team left Amarillo and proceeded ahead with their long trip to Louisville, well aware that they would have to be prepared for the next time Striker decides to block them from reaching their final destination.