The town of Libson in the late afternoon was nothing short of breathtaking. The sunlight beat down on the many red building tops, with trees to help give the place a touch of nature. Plus the view from the hilltops down towards the sea was a sight to behold.
In the middle of the city was the town's hall was completely abuzz with activity. The town's police and private high-level security were roaming the area, armed to the teeth. Given how dangerous the few weeks had been, they were not to let their guard down with the important VIPs.
Aside from the security, other people were hustling and bustling about. Catering, news stations, reporters, you name it, were all rushing about to prepare for the United Nations meeting that was about to take place in a few hours.
A couple blocks down, things were less hectic. Having taken a quick break, the two were now sitting in the rusted truck in a tight alleyway, both of them were planning their next move.
"How do we do this? Go in guns a blazing or James Bond style?" John was making finger guns, mimicking a shootout.
Vale didn't say anything as she was busy looking at the 3D holographic map and layout of the town hall that Eve had downloaded back in Germany.
"I can't go there head first. You and I saw the security that are making their rounds." Vale zoomed and moved the holographic map about. "If I know something big like is going down, they might even call the military. And we don't need another army after us."
John let out a heavy exhale from his nose, knowing that she was right. Leaning on the passenger door, the gears in his brain began turning as he tried to come up with another plan.
Then, it struck him.
A risky idea, but an idea none other the less.
And with time against them, it was worth a shot.
"Hey, Tom?" John picked up his AI companion, who was silent throughout their planning.
"Yes sir?"
"Do you have the layout of every town and city from our world?"
"I still do have the plans, sir. What is it for?"
"If you have any plans of Libson with you, dig them out."
"Very well sir. Give me a moment."
The AI returned to being silent as he was loading up the plans.
Vale, who was overhearing their
whole conversation, decided to find out what Tom was doing.
"What do we need the layout of the
town for? We have the map." Vale showed her AI's holographic projection.
"It's not a map," John stated, just as Tom rebooted back up, now with a layout of what John was talking about. "I'm talking about Libson's layout of underground pipework and sewage."
Using Tom, he showed the vast and complex system of Lisbon's underground network, complete with train tubes,
water pipes, sewage systems, gas ventilation, and much more.
The maps were downloaded into Tom and Eve in case John and Vale were to stumble into an alternate world or timeline where they may need a way around.
Vale looked at the hologram carefully. Then she realized what her partner was getting to.
"Are you suggesting that we go through the underground network?"
"That's all I can think of to bypass security," John reassured Vale.
"We will stand out in the town hall just from the smell alone."
"The water pipes are a no-go. The gas ventilation is out of the picture. The underground electrical wiring is too small to fit." One by one, Tom's hologram got rid of the fixtures that John mentioned, leaving just the train tube and the sewers.
"For the sake of your safety, I would suggest that Vale goes in there alone while John and I will stay at the nearby hotel for overwatch and to be your getaway drive in case things get awry," Tom added.
"That's the only worry I have."
John pointed out at Tom's suggestion, his voice being a bit softer. "I hate
that you have to go in alone."
"John?" Vale looked at him worryingly. "What's wrong?"
Then she saw her partner's fists turning white as it clenched more. Then she knew why. As if on instinct, she immediately reached out and grabbed his hand.
John's breathing got a tad bit heavier as he turned to face Vale. In his eagerness to go home, he didn't really take into account how dangerous Vale's mission would go. Best case scenario? They walk out of there without incident. Worst case scenario? Portugal's whole army comes after their asses. John was determined for both of them to make it back to their world in one piece.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have put you in a position like that." John spoke, looking into Vale's eyes. The swordwoman saw her partner's eyes starting to get shiny. "All I focused was on us getting home. I never thought about your safety or the stakes at hand right now."
"John." Vale interrupted him."It's fine. We were trained to handle this type of work."
Her partner wanted to say something, but Vale continued before he could speak.
"You know this is the work that we were committed to do, right? It's always going to be so dangerous and deadly. And add the unknown factor that we are always going to face, it's only going to get worse as we go on." She grabbed his hand and gave it a reaffirming squeeze. Her thumb
rubbing soothingly as to give another sense of comfort.
"And there is no one else I would do this mission with but you. I promise I will be fine. Besides, I got Eve with me." John gave a sad smile. She was
really like his anchor when it came to emotional support. But he couldn't get around the fact that she was also right. They must see this mission through to the end. Also, the fact that she had her AI was somewhat relieving for him.
"Your right. I just keep forgetting how risky these missions will be." He shamed his head to get the tears out.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. As long as I have you looking out for me, I'll be more than happy to work with that."
John's confidence grew as she gave her words of encouragement. He brought up her hand to his lips and gave it a firm kiss on her knuckles.
Vale blushed at his gesture. She wasn't used to romantic gestures like this. He always kept finding ways to make her heart flutter.
"Thank you, Vale. I really needed that."
Her hand moved from his lips to his cheek, caressing it with her thumb. John leaned into her hand, his hand placed over hers.
It was a few moments of silence between the two, enjoying the company of each other.
"Okay, John. Time to move."
John nodded. Without breaking his sight of her, he managed to get out of the car. His eyes still never left her even as he walked out of the alleyway, only looking away to see where he was going before he hit a dumpster head-on, which made Vale giggle at his clumsiness.
John looked out towards the view of the town of Lisbon. The sunlight shining down on the town's red rooftops made an excellent view to die for. Sadly, he won't have time to enjoy the scenery as he refocused on the mission in his mind.
Aside from the beauty of the sights, he was able to check into a high-level hotel room with a nice vantage of the town hall. He could see that the minuscule crowd was forming as the VIPs and their security had started making their way inside.
"Hey, Vale, you in the tunnels yet?"
John spoke to Tom, who was busy being both a radio transmitter between him and Vale and a holographic map for the underground network.
"Yep. Just got in." Vale closed the manhole cover over her head. Access to the tunnels was easier than expected, largely thanks to its position just right in front of the parked pickup truck.
"Alright. John, you can start plotting her course now." The AI started marking out the shortest and fastest way towards the town hall. The path is now being highlighted in red amongst the network of tunnels.
"Done. Once you are ready Vale, you can start by heading left on the first tunnel." Tom instructed.
"After taking the third right, you should be right under one of the rooms in the town hall." The male AI finished his guide of Vale through the tunnels.
Vale came to the manhole cover above her. The lack of ventilation and light has made her very sweaty and dirty due to the constant bumps she made with the filthy tight walls of the tunnels. Plus, the smell of the sewage had been bad, but now, it's even worse at where she was.
Breathing through her mouth to not take in the smell, she started to climb up the ladder that led up towards the rectangular manhole cover. As she reached the top, she stopped for a brief moment, and then leaned her ear towards the cover and listened. Vale wanted to make sure that there was no one around when she surfaced.
From what she had been hearing, the room that she was in was fairly quiet. And slowly, she pushed the cover away to one side.
Vale came up to the surface to only realise why the tunnel stank.
She was now in the bathroom. The lady's room to be more specific, thankfully.
Aside from smelling worse than rotten fish infested with maggots, she was now an obvious standout from the crowd. She now needed a way to blend in.
Her thinking was interrupted by one of the closed stalls. She tilted her head towards the stalls before the noise came again.
It sounded like someone was doing their business in one of the bathroom stalls. And it's not looking good.
As Vale listened on outside the stall, she then got an idea.
She first went to the entrance to the lady's room, closed the door and locked it so that no one could come in. Then made her way back to the stall.
"Excuse me? Are you okay in there?" She asks.
"I'm having a stomach ache. Must have been the Bifianas I had earlier," The voice came back, and Vale quietly thanked that this was an English-speaking person. If was in Spanish, she would have needed John's help.
"I got some medicine and ointment for your stomach ache," Vale suggested. "But it's a special type of ointment that can only work if applied properly. Let me in so I can show you."
The whole restroom suddenly had an awkward silence.
"... Okay." The voice spoke and the stall door was unlocked.
Vale entered the stall and shut the door behind her, locking it in the process.
There was some struggling and a muffled cry before absolute silence filled the toilet.
It was a full three minutes later that the stall door was unlocked and outcame Vale. She was no longer in her grimy hybrid camo top and pungent cargo pants but was now wearing dark blue pants with a casual grey blouse, complete with a name and ID tag that read 'Reporter'.
She was also thankful that the reporter also had deodorising body spray that she could use to cover up the sewage scent. And with a bit of a touch-up here and there, she was ready. But not before closing the stall that had the unconscious reporter inside, slumped off to the side as if she fell asleep.
Leaving the restroom, she could see the town hall's corridors full of reporters, security personnel and more moving about.
"I'm in the town hall." She whispered into her earpiece to John.
"Thank heavens. Did you get spotted?" John got back to her.
Vale looked around her surroundings to see if anyone was watching her, feeling a bit tense. "No. I think."
"Okay. Since this is a United Nations meeting, there should be some servers or terminals here somewhere. Look for a place that would have high security." John pointed out. "Please be careful."
"I will John. Out." Vale let go of her earpiece, walking down the corridor with haste. She had some exploring to do.
The view outside of the dropship was gorgeous as it flew just right above the clouds. The light from the setting sun bounced off from the top layers of clouds, making it as if sailing through the sea in the sky.
While most of the taskforce was busy admiring the view or having a small chit-chat, there was one that was buried in her work. Sombra was filtering through the live surveillance footage in and around Libson, trying to see through the crowd if John or Vale were among those in attendance.
While she was seeing the cameras, she was also running through the databases and networks in Libson. She was hoping to see if their name, or a name of similar nature, was used in and around Lisbon. From ID checks, card payments, check-ins at hotels and motels, she
would at least have a list of names that matched the two.
At this time, someone came and joined her.
"Aye, I'm no mode for la charla." Sombra felt the new presence next to her.
"Don't worry, I won't talk. I'm just here to help observe the cameras and see if anyone looks like our suspects." Echo sat next to her, now falling quiet as she watched Sombra's screen. "I hope you don't mind the extra help."
"Any help would be good right now."
Sombra swiped her holographic screen. They sat together quietly for the rest of the flight.
After exploring around the town hall's endless corridors, Vale finally found what she was looking for.
Well, kind of.
As she was exploring, she noticed that an open area was cordoned off away from the meeting and was only reserved for security personnel. She knew that they were there for a reason, most likely it might be the servers or terminals she was looking for, but she needed a way in.
She thought for a moment, looking at the environment and its surroundings in the cordoned-off area.
She immediately found two areas that she could exploit.
First was the false ceilings that were over in the area and around the town hall. It wasn't your boring squared ceiling tiles that are found in offices, but rather had a ting of beige and were given distinctive designs to help blend with the building's decor.
However, choosing this route would involve a lot of noise as it meant going past the hidden wires, and god-knows what's up there, and going around lights that were in the ceiling which would blow her cover. The other issue was that it doesn't really give you a gauge of how big or small the space between the false ceiling and the actual ceiling. If it was small, she couldn't really squeeze in.
The second option was the raised floor. Unlike the false ceiling, the raised floor only covered a small portion of the area. The downside was that the raised floor was only around the restricted area and did not go to the corridor. So she had to sneak her way into the area and under the floor. Another problem was that the raised floor panels were extremely heavy compared to the false ceiling tiles. Carrying one panel alone was a two-person job.
Vale had no choice but to use the ceiling route, but now she had to find an access point where she wouldn't be spotted.
Looking back around the corridor, she realizes that there is a male toilet right next to the closed-off area. Getting to the door of the men's
room, she whispered herself a prayer.
"Please let there be no one."
Vale barged in, expecting a few guys to be there.
She breathed a sigh of relief. As luck would have it, she managed to see only an empty restroom.
With no one around, she quickly locked the main door and headed towards the sinks, which were facing towards the out-of-bounds area.
She got up onto the sink and pushed onto one of the false ceiling tiles, managing to squeeze herself into the tight space above.
Once she closed off the tile, she rested herself against a concrete pillar, looking down at the security personnel below from one of the grated ceiling tiles.
She then saw what they were guarding.
In the middle of the room was a big container, and inside, it hosted multiple racks of servers and a lone terminal.
This was it.
This is what John and Vale have been looking for.
Their way home was riding on this intel.
The only issue was how to sneak her way to the servers.
She licked her lips, thinking of a way to above the container.
As she looked around in the dim void of the false ceiling, she saw that there was an overhead cable trunking that was heading towards the direction of the container.
Looking back and forth between the container and the trunking, she got onto it and quietly made her way towards the servers.
With the orange sky fading into a deep blue, the dropship just landed on a wooded area just on the outskirts of Libson that overlooked the city.
While most of the task force were prepping themselves, Sombra and Echo were still busying themselves with their intensive research.
Echo had already given up searching the town's many diverse buildings' surveillance cameras, so now she focusing on the town hall's cameras while Sombra was busy working her way on the last hotel's guest list.
They nearly spent two hours on this, with Sombra's eyes beginning to sore out from the screen glare.
Sombra was browsing another page of the guest list. Resting on her elbow, she flicked as the numerous names went by.
Then, she saw it.
Mr. John
And it was the only name there.
And to be sure it was him, she pulled the security footage of the hotel lobby. It wasn't long before she saw a familiar figure approaching the desk.
"Ah. Found him" Sombra said to herself. "But where is his partner?"
Echo was busy watching the surveillance footage of the town hall, pausing in between frames to see faces that were constantly disappearing and appearing every second. The footage shows a crowded corridor of people moving about. As she pressed to continue playing the footage, a door opened up. The ladies' room. When the door closed,
just one look at the person exiting the toilet was all she needed.
"Found Vale. She's at the town hall." Echo flicked her hand, moving the paused footage across the holographic display in front of Sombra.
"Big guy, we found them." The hacker called out to Winston. "One is at a hotel near the town hall and one of them is inside." She turned her holographic display towards the ape.
Winston adjusted his glasses to get a better view. "So, it's true that they are there." Then he turned to the taskforce. "The question is knowing that they have the prototype bomb, how do we approach them without any casualties or raising an alarm?"
A lot of suggestions went around amongst the heroes, some were stating that they should rush in, others gave the idea of infiltrating in disguises, and there was one that they should bomb the place instead.
Echo watched as the taskforce bickered amongst themselves. As she looked on, she noticed that Sombra a pulling a bit of a face.
"Sombra?" The robot kindly checked on her. "Something the matter?"
She just chuckled. "Just a dumb idea." Shen then whispered her idea to Echo.
"Dumb, isn't it?" Echo just looked at the hacker.
Looking back at the crowd, Echo raised her hand.
"I have an idea. How about we just wait for them to leave the town hall instead?"
Everyone just started at the artificial lifeform as if she was insane while Sombra just facepalmed.
"Well, why do you think of that Echo?" Winston was quite perplexed at her suggestion.
"I think we are going far ahead of ourselves of branding these guys as evil-doers, but rather just misunderstood individuals." She explained. "I know their actions back in the Netherlands have cast a negative impression of themselves, but we wouldn't know what their end
goal is until we apprehend them. Also, they never intended to harm anyone, even
though they had weapons on them. They namely targeted the onmics, not us."
Most of the taskforce, particularly Genji after being blinded by a flashbang, wasn't too convinced enough, so she decided to explain further.
"Also, if what we had learnt from the briefing earlier today, I don't think they have the knowledge of activating the bomb. From what General Alldic had stated from Winston's talk, they simply grabbed the weapon and escaped. The general had not taught them anything about the weapon nor did anyone else."
Some were beginning to see that Echo's logic made sense.
"And if the bomb were to go off, we would be well within the blast radius."
Everyone just stared at her, wide-eyed and horrified.
Echo saw that everyone was looking at her. "What? I thought everyone knew that? Besides, the meeting is about to conclude and we are still here, aren't we?."
"Um, that was one oversight that I may have missed." Winston gave a nervous laugh. "But if they were not to bomb the UN Meeting, what should we do then?"
"Roadblock," Sombra interjected. "In case they want to leave. Traffic lights in the city can be accessed by me. We can use that to lead them to an isolated place, catch them and we will get back the bomb. Having all of us together will make sure they can't escape."
Winston nodded his head in agreement. "Very well." He turns to the taskforce team. "Standby everyone. Prepare to engage once they are on the move."
The taskforce settled back into their seats in the dropship, some groaning about the waiting.
Winston turned back to the hacker and the adaptive robot. "Keep us posted when they are leaving. Remember to keep track of their vehicle."
Vale inched closer to the tile which she thinks is above the container of servers. So far, it has been nearly 15 minutes and she is already tired. Thanks to the tight space between the cable trunking and the actual ceiling, she made progress, but at a much slower rate than she wanted.
The only thing that was giving her some comfort was that from where she was now, there was another grated ceiling tile. She was able to see that she was just a few feet from the top of the container.
It was another 10 minutes or so before she arrived at the designated spot. She quietly lifted the tile to thankfully see the metallic surface of the hatch of the container below her. Luck was on her side as she managed to be on the spot where there was a hatch on top of the container that she didn't see. The gap between the false ceiling and the container is so close that they probably won't see her enter through the hatch.
She quietly got the hatch to unfasten as it swung towards the inside of the container. Slowly lowering herself into the container, she was careful not to lose her grip on the container or make any noise.
Eventually, she was inside. She looked at the many servers that were constantly running, lights were flashing as data and entries were transmitted from one server to another.
In the middle was a computer terminal, she went to it and plugged Eve in.
"John, I'm in the server container. Plugged in Eve." Vale responded to her comms.
"Great! Let's get some information baby." John celebrated, pulling off some groovy moves in his hotel room.
Vale snickered at his little cheer. She watched on as Eve did her magic on the terminal. The screen flickered to life as lines of coding appeared.
"This should be a moment. I have just bypassed the security login and now trying to see which servers contain our intel."
Vale could only wait as Eve did her thing. She slumped down to the ground, her back against the racks of servers.
She decided to reflect on how far both she and John had come so far in this world. She and John immediately assume responsibility for a bomb-type thingy, get away from what she presumes are mercenaries and robots called onmics in the Netherlands and battle and escape a group of thugs in Germany.
Man, she and John did have gone through in such a small timeframe.
But she was thankful that she had him by her side. Without him, this mission would have not been possible. And there was no one else she would do this with.
Her happy self-reflection was cut short by her AI assistant.
"Vale? You there?"
Hearing her voice, Vale stood up and went back to Eve, who had just finished with her hacking.
"Yes, Eve. I'm here. What do you have?"
The terminal's screen lit up as Eve showed her the hundreds of files.
"These files all have something related to the 'Overwatch 2' taskforce. Which one do you want us to start first?".
Vale was starting to get irritated.
It only had been five minutes and she is getting nowhere with the files so far. All the files are only various reports and procedures of how the taskforce is to carry out their missions. Nothing yet on the base information nor anything on the people who are associated with them.
Vale rubbed the bridge of her nose frustrated. Her time and luck were running out. It was only a matter of time before security personnel found out about the unconscious reporter she knocked out and her being in the server container.
"Vale. I finally found a couple of files containing the task force information about its members."
Eve's disc lit up as a projection with the first file of the member came up.
The file was named 'Sojourn'. The AI opened it and immediately, Vale's face paled.
Shown in its holographic glory was a familiar white-haired person. The same person with the same blue eyes with cybernetics below it.
The same person who was there back in the Netherlands.
She was part of the taskforce. The 'Overwatch 2' taskforce.
"No. No, it can't be." Vale shook her head, staggering backwards.
Before her AI could speak, the door of the container opened up.
"Hey! You're not supposed to be here!" Shouted the properly dressed security personnel pointing at them, his hand already reaching for his gun in his holster.
Without even communicating with Eve, Vale reached for the AI. Her hand passed right above the disc, spawning her riot police shield in her hand.
The security guard fired shots at her, the bullets bouncing off with each shot cracking the once-spotless bulletproof acrylic shield.
Vale grabbed Eve from the terminal, still raising her shield against the security guard.
"Watcher, this is Golf-5. I have an unidentified person in the server container. Preparing for detainment." The guard said into his comms, reloading his pistol.
Immediately, other security guards came and joined their fellow colleagues. All of which were standing by outside the container.
"Come and lay down your shield." Instructed the security personnel, his gun still aimed at Vale. There was no action from Vale as she had her shield up.
Vale, who was in no mood to comply, quietly hovered her hand over Eve, her AI spawning something in her hand.
As the security guard got closer to Vale, he noticed that something rolled from under her shield. Vale closed her eyes and looked away from what was going to happen next.
His eyes widen at the object.
"Grenade!" He shouted to his colleagues, running and jumping clear of the container.
The entrance of the container detonated, but not with an explosion, but with a bright light and deafening ringing.
The guards were blinded sighted and stunned, leaving them dazed. Vale looked at the blinded guards, before running out of the container and the restricted area and back to the corridor.
In the corridor, people and onmics who saw the commotion were now panicking at the explosion heard. Some reporters tried looking for the
source of the explosion, bringing their cameras with them. Others did not want to stick around any longer and took off to the nearest exit.
Vale was thankful that she still had her reporter attire. Coming up to the crowd, she blended into the chaos as she made her way to the front of the town hall.
"Vale, there's a big commotion happening at the town hall. Are you okay?" John's voice spoke into her comms.
"John. Got the intel. Meet me at the entrance of the town hall." Vale pressed into her comms, leaning into her ear. "Got something important you want to hear."
John was in his hotel room, observing the town hall. The number of people that were spilling out was incredible. He hoped that Vale made it out okay from the stampede that was happening down there.
He gathered up his items and Tom and left the room, rushing for an elevator that so happened to be on his floor. Once down at the main level, he tossed the keys to the counter, not caring what they were saying to him and ran out of the lobby and straight to the rusted-out pickup truck that was still parked at the isolated alleyway.
The truck roared to life as he started it up, tearing up the alley as he hastily departed for the town hall.
Vale was just coming down the front steps, the number of people were now quickly dispersing away from the town hall. She then made her way to the main street awaiting for her partner.
The screams, the panic and utter confusion were now all muted to her. Her mind goes back to the Netherlands. She was driving the Jeep right past what she thought were mercenaries.
Then she saw her. For a split second, she made eye contact with her. It was short, but she could recognise her thanks to her unique looks and cybernetic details.
The same look from what Eve showed her.
"-ale? Vale!" A familiar voice called out to her.
Vale snapped out of her thoughts and saw John waving at her in the truck. She quickly ran and got into the passenger seat. The vehicle sped off, dodging the many people who were running away from the town hall.
Sombra and Echo were watching the multiple camera angles in the town hall where the United Nations Meeting was.
Reporters, camera people, catering staff, and the United Nations leaders and their escorts were panicking, trying to run away from where an explosion was heard while the security team were trying to diffuse the situation.
There were no words to describe the utter chaos that was unfolding.
Some of the cameras had microphones, the screams of the distressed crowd coming in.
Switching to the outside of the town hall, the crowd had spilt onto the streets, blocking traffic as they were trying to seek shelter in nearby and opposite buildings.
Rushing in the distance towards the town hall was the same rusted pickup truck that was seen multiple times. It stopped for a moment for a figure climbed board, then sped off down the street.
Sombra switched cameras while Echo went to open of 3D view of the street they were on and headed.
"They're on the move, Winston. We can fly over the city and corner them in a remote area." Echo alerted the scientist.
"You heard her, Tracer. Let's move out."
With that, the dropship roared to life once again and took off into the night sky.
Once away the town hall disappeared from the rearview mirror, John checked on his partner.
"Vale? You okay? You blanked out."
His partner stayed silent for a while.
"Vale? Please talk to me." John looked at her for a brief moment, splitting his attention to her and on the road.
"John," The swordwoman said in a quiet voice. "I think we need to surrender ourselves."
John's face turned into a mixture of dumbfoundedness and confusion. "Wait, wait, wait, what? What do you mean?"
Vale fumbled to find her AI, then brought out a holoprojector. "Eve, show them what you showed me." Eve then showed an unfamiliar face to John.
"Who's she?"
"When we were escaping the base back in the Netherlands, remember we saw people attacking the onmics? And also the people who attacked us?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"She is part of the taskforce, the 'Overwatch 2' peacekeeping taskforce that the United Nations just assembled."
John's eyes widened at this revelation.
"No. No. That can't be them. Can it?"
Like her, he was also stumped, trying to deny what she was saying was true.
"Well, remember you attacked someone with a flashbang? Do you have any memory of what this person looks like?" Eve asked the bowman.
John stared at the quiet road ahead, his mind thinking back to the ninja-like dude who was giving them chase.
"He had a green visor, metallic face and…not much else to be honest," John recalled his features, but couldn't describe much because of the covered-up face.
Eve stayed quiet as she rummaged through her databanks, seeing if she could find someone who had the same description as what John as depicted.
Then she brought out and showed a familiar face to John. John's eyes became fixated on the holoprojector of the ninja's face for a brief moment. He didn't want to believe her.
"So this ninja dude and the white-haired lady are part of the peacekeeping taskforce? And the whole time we have been on the run from them?" John looked at Vale, pleading that whatever he said wasn't true. "Oh god. How do we give up ourselves then?"
Vale just glared back at him. The words wanted to spill out of her mouth, wanting to confirm what he was thinking when, out of the pitch-dark road, she saw a glint of silver from the corner of her eye.
She flicked her head back towards the road, seeing the same green ninja on the road, with his unsheathed katana, armed and pointed at them.
"Look out!" Vale cried out.
John tried to swerve to avoid him, but it was too late. Both of them expected the truck to ram into the guy and make him fly into the air.
Instead, the truck continued forward, a flash of green going right through the middle of the truck.
Before John and Vale could apprehend what had happened, the truck split itself in half.
The two halves of the rusted pickup continued to barrel the street at speed. Vale's half was trailing right behind and at the right of John's half, but both now hanging for dear life as each half started to wobble, now riding on its two wheels like a bicycle.
Having no choice, they both jumped clear of the split pickup as it carelessly travelled down the road, flipping and tumbling as it went before coming to a stop.
John and Vale leapt clear but were not able to stop rolling as the speed they jumped was too great for them to land safely. As they came to a stop, both were lying face down on the tarmac, groaning in pain.
John's eyes squinted, his vision spinning after the few rolls he had taken. He then notices a blade just right in front of his face. Blinking a few times, he noticed that it was a katana with a green glow.
He then looked up, seeing a recognisable figure standing before him.
"Oh crap." Was all John could mutter.