As the armored van pulled out from the location of the apprehension, two escort cars placed themselves in front and behind it for added security. They weren’t armored as the van was, but they were still fast and heavy enough to come out on top in case they had to push assailants out of the way. Inside the van sat four guards, armed and heavily armored, around the stretcher where the Blood Maiden lay unconscious.
Their route had potential ambush locations, but it was the best they had come up with, bar closing all streets on the way to the HQ. Their superiors had deemed security to be enough, as no one on the outside knew what they carried. They’d all managed to keep a lid on the investigation and the arrest had been quick enough to rid themselves of evidence of what had happened. They just had to transport her to HQ, which would than take over and transfer her to Archangel.
Two black sedans further down the street pulled out from their spots as the escorts and the van drove by. The guards in the escort cars noticed them and reported them in. Though the sedans didn’t seem to be a threat at the time, driving calmly several meters behind the escort, the guards straightened up. Every perceived threat had to be observed with a close eye.
The ride went smoothly until they came upon a crossing. The red light lit up just as they approached it and they came to a halt. The two black sedans that still followed them stopped a comfortable ten meters away.
The guards should have noticed something was wrong. Even though the van and escort cars stood out, civilians wouldn’t mind pulling up a bit closer. The guards weren’t to blame though. While they were with the TSAB military, excessively trained in the art of combat, they were outmatched by the people in the sedans.
As the green light lit up, the black sedans suddenly shot forward in a cloud of smoke, their shrieking tires getting the guards’ attention.
The first sedan sped past the first escort and the van. It pulled up next to the lead escort and something fired from the front seat. As the blast of white light still remained on witnesses’ retina, the lead escort car swerved off and crashed into a nearby building. Two seconds later the other escort did the same from the same cause, flipping over on its roof as its tires went up onto a parked car. It skid along the ground until it came to a complete stop in the middle of the street.
The armored van took a right and leaped forward when its engine gave power to its wheel. The van swerved back and forth, scratching into other cars that tried to get out of the way. The two black sedans were right behind it, keeping up with ease. Now and then they bumped into it, causing the van to wobble.
Another crossing came up ahead, closing in fast. The van received another bump and first swerved left, then a violent right. The momentum proved too much for the tall van and it began to tilt. Another sudden jolt and it turned an abrupt left as the driver tried to compensate. The wheels on its left side left the ground and the driver wasn’t fast enough to correct it.
As became apparent, the black sedans panicked. It wasn’t going according to their plan, especially not what came in front of them. Both of them slammed the brakes and stopped their chase, coming to a stop at the sidewalk. A few of them, clad in some kind of uniform and visors over their eyes, got out and observed from a distance. One of them smiled, despite the plan that had fallen to pieces.
Thirty meters ahead the cause for the sedans’ panic closed in. The 18-wheeler slammed on its brakes when the driver finally saw what was coming towards him. The brakes spat sparkles and whined at the punishment. Its trailer began to drift to its left, heading for a collision course with the now skidding van. It seemingly went in slow-motion due to the distance involved.
There wasn’t an explosion when the two objects collided. Instead, the semi-truck’s trailer spat out hardened iron bars used for building construction when the van cut into it. The armored van got butchered, as its roof got cut off from the trailer’s belly, its walls pierced by the iron spears and the driver’s position collapsed onto itself. The driver and the passenger got squashed immediately and the guards inside tossed around like dolls.
The two vehicles didn’t come to rest until the semi-truck’s weight gave up to friction. As the dust settled and noise died down, peoples’ screams took over and some spoke into their cellphones with frantic voices. The two black sedans got back into action, hoping they could scavenge what they could before the authorities arrived.
The men stepped out of their cars and began to search the wreckage. They threw away metal slabs and ignored the cuts and bruises they recieved. Curious on-lookers got pushed away by gestures and polite, but hard, comments. Everything to keep a facade of professionalism and authority.
Eventually they found what they wanted; a badly mauled Blood Maiden, buried beneath metal and bodies. From the intel they had, they knew she was tough... But not even she could have survived something like this. Iron bars had penetrated her body at several points and a piece of metal had lodged itself into her leg. She wasn’t breathing when they got to her. Her own blood, mixed with the guards’, was splattered everywhere.
As they rushed back to their sedans, the Blood Maiden being carried in the arms of one of the men, they confirmed her blood loss was too great. While her heart frantically tried to supply her body with nothing more than air, they put her in the backseat in one of the cars.
*
“Good thing we didn’t need to bring her alive,” Rick said from the passenger seat in the lead sedan. “Sweet money, here we come!”
“Speak for yourself. We got blood and god knows what all over us back here.”
Rick turned around to look in the backseat. The Blood Maiden lay in the two men’s lap, staining their pants with blood. He couldn’t help but chuckle.
“It suits you, Mackie.”
“Shut up.”
As they entered the alleyway, the driver configured his back-view mirror. A frown appeared on his face. “Don’t shout about sweet money and pretty ladies yet, Rick. We got company.”
The three others turned their heads and spotted the white van behind the other sedan. Suddenly something shot out from the van’s passenger window, causing the other car to swerve.
“What the hell? Step on it, Jackie!” Rick yelled and braced himself.
The car behind them bumped into the walls, scratching off paint, while the driver tried to regain control. The communication devices between the two cars didn’t work as Jackie soon found out.
“Shit. They must’ve got a jammer or something. I can’t reach them.”
A T-crossing came up in front of them. Jackie stepped on the brakes and took a sharp turn to the right. The others looked back to see what happened behind them.
The other sedan came into view shortly, but took a left. It continued for a few meters until crashing into a lorry that suddenly backed up. The white van replaced it, speeding up to reach their car.
“Fuck! They’re gone, it’s just us no-” Rick started to say before his head met the panel in front of him. He narrowly avoided splitting his head open. “What the fuck are you doing, Jackie?!”
“I ain’t doing anything,” Jackie shouted back. He pushed the pedals frantically, but the car refused to move an inch. “The brakes are locked! We’re stuck!”
“Get your rifles, boys! Take them down!”
The four men grabbed their rifles next to them, while kicking open the doors. As soon as they got out they started to bombard the van with concussion blasts. Rick’s face turned from anger to surprise as the magic energy just reflected off the van, not doing any harm to the people inside.
“Magic resistance!” Mack yelled, switching to a more powerful setting on his rifle as the van’s doors opened. Out stepped a blonde woman in a dark blue bodysuit and a man covered entirely in black.
“Take them down!” Rick yelled and aimed at the male. He tapped the trigger, but his shots glanced off the target. He blinked and the target was gone from view.
“What the-”
Jackie screamed to his right and Rick brought his rifle to aim at him. The man was behind Jackie, in progress of breaking his arm. Before Rick made his mind up whether to shoot or not, the man had revealed a knife in his right hand which he slashed across Jackie’s throat. His screams turned into a gurgle and he fell.
“Son of a bitch!”
Rick fired again, but the man disappeared before the shots landed. He then switched targets to the woman, whom he discovered had already downed Mason. A blade stuck out from the back of his head, covered in brain matter and blood.
“We can’t do this, Rick,” Mackie screamed and slung the rifle over his shoulder. ”Let’s run for it!”
Rick decided it was an excellent idea, though the loss of his two comrades hurt him. He wanted to empty his rifle into the targets, not run away like a coward. He saw Mackie jump onto the car’s roof to try and get to the front. To Rick’s horror, Mackie didn’t notice a slight shimmer in the air on the car’s hood.
“Mackie!”
The man in black appeared right in front of him, driving his knife deep into his gut. Rick heard Mackie mumble something before rolling of the car, landing on the pavement with a grunt.
Rick dropped his now empty rifle while backing up against the wall. “Fuck this. You fucking monsters.” The fighting spirit went out of him and he slid down to sit on the ground. He ran a hand through his hair, feeling the sweat that had accumulated. Suddenly he felt very tired.
“You naughty boys,” the woman said to him as she knelt down in front of him. She smiled. “Thank you for bringing her to us, Black Siege.”
“How the hell do you know who we are?” Rick said without looking up.
“We are way out of your league, I’m afraid. We know these things.” She brought the claw on her right hand up before his eyes. “Xenon, is she dead?”
The man in black came to stand beside her. “Yeah, I just checked. Makes our task a lot easier.”
“Good.” She hadn’t taken her eyes off Rick who she studied with a strange look. “What should we do with this guy, then?”
Rick chuckled and finally made eye contact. “Cut the shit. Get it over with.”
The woman smiled back. Rick’s nerves managed to register the excruciating pain of the blades being driven into his eyes before they reached his brain and brought him peace.