Hey everybody!
D again, and it's Wednesday :)
So, after spraining or twisting or whatevering my ankle, Willow getting stung by a bee (for the first time in forever), and now I think I've acquired a cold, this has been quite an eventful week for us. But I still managed to finish this week's chapter! Yea! I especially like this one, Conner's pretty awesome in it :)
But that's beside the point. This is one of my favorites, but I don't have much experience in chase scenes (I should've consulted Willow) so excuse that...
Well, time to post the seventeenth chapter of The Watchmen Files! *sigh* I never thought I'd get this far... but end is drawing near...
The miniature crowd of InterTech guards lead
by Lila Norris entered a dark empty storage room and set down the
containment unit with a booming thud.
"He's not gettin' out
of there anytime soon, ma'am," one of the guards reported as she knocked
on the human sized rectangle box four times to taunt him.
"Good! Better get it on a carrier..." she stood, staring at him and finally shouted, "Now!"
They all 'yes ma'am'-ed and stumbled out into the hall as she followed after them, barking orders and slammed the door behind her.
Just before it shut, Conner stuck his foot into he crack to stop it and quietly slipped through unnoticed.
Once inside, he hurried up to the large container and ran his hands
over it. "Doesn't seem to be any door..?" he pondered aloud to himself.
After carefully examining the entire human encasement, he
sat down on the floor and stared at it, befuddled. Maybe Mason wasn't
stuck in it like he had assumed?
Alright, if I were
designing a miniature prison cell, how would I lock it? It would have to
be secure, of course... some sort of key I could keep on me... no, I
can't think like me, I've got to think like her, he reasoned with himself.
She looks like someone who's pretty hands on, she had a mobile on her
and a gun... but this whole industry is very technological, maybe
there's a password or a secret panel?
It was worth a shot.
Having gone over the entire box already, he looked for the next most obvious way of finding it: fingerprints.
And he found them fairly easily. Touching exactly where her prints
where, he gently lifted his hand off of its surface and small simulated
screen came up. He smiled in awe at the technology. "Father would be so
pleased-"
All at once, one of the sides of the box swung up from the
bottom, smacking into Conner's chin as it veered upwards. He fell back
in surprise and landed on his back, joined momentarily by Mason who fell
out of the box itself and landed on top of Conner.
"Con?!" Mason shouted with relief as the blue glow faded from his arms.
Conner groaned and gasped for air in return.
Mason rolled off and helped Conner up to his feet again. "I was starting to panic there. You okay?"
"I'm alright-" Conner nodded, then stopped. "Mason, your hand! It's bleeding!"
Mason glanced down and suddenly he felt the pain come back. Trying to hide it, he waved it awkwardly. "I'm fine-"
"No, you are definitely not! We're not leaving this room till I get that wrapped."
He grasped his hand and clenched his teeth as Conner pulled out some
bandage material from his tiny medical pocket and carefully examined it
first.
"Thank the Lord it's just a flesh wound," he breathed with
relief and removed the bullet. "It got mostly skin right between your
thumb and pointer finger... it'll be alright," he smiled caringly.
Mason nodded back, but he still looked like he was in pain.
Conner began to wrap it up as gently as possible, but he could tell it
still hurt by Mason's obvious biting of his bottom lip.
"Mom said I had a really high pain tolerance," Mason seethed. "Not so much now, huh?"
"You're doing fine, just don't look at the blood," he continued, trying
to think of some way to distract him while bandaging his hand up. "Why
did she say that, do you think?"
Mason let out a smirk. "It took a lot to punish me," he
chuckled lightly. "Once, she had me do one hundred pushups, it didn't
even faze me. Or at least, I was pretty good at hiding it. Plus the kids
at school and I weren't exactly simpatico. What 'bout you?"
Conner gulped. "I hate blood."
"Really?" Mason shrugged. "I guess it's a family thing with the Krugers."
"My mum was a nurse and I learned lots from her on that subject, but it still makes me a bit nauseous when-"
"Hey, how'd you get out?!" One of the thugs burst through the door and spotted the two.
"Uh oh."
"Run!"
Mason leaped to his feet, threw the guard into the box and, along with
Conner, raced out the door and down the hallway, with two more thugs on
their tail.
Turning the corner, Mason stopped and used his fists to take one out as Conner stunned the other with his pistol.
"You don't have to just hit them with your fists," Conner noted reasonably. "There's something called a stun gun."
"Well," Mason rolled his eyes sarcastically, "there's something called theft," he answered, gesturing to his empty holster.
The shouts of more guards sent them running through the factory's
halls, trying to lose their followers and not to mention find an escape.
Conner's cellphone vibrated and he threw it to Mason who
could speed-read and run at the same time. "We have to getta Chestnut
ave.!"
Chestnut... Conner's mind was sent spinning with maps and directions. Chestnut ave. = North on 62d. "Follow me!"
Next thing they knew, they were shoving through the emergency exit and alarms were blaring from behind them.
Conner turned right and raced down the narrow ally to the back parking
of a city diner. There, a four door, shiny gray Hyundai Sonata was
parked in the corner, ready for their escape. Conner nearly slid over
the hood (or as he would call it bonnet), swung the right side
car door open and threw himself in. "Where's the wheel?!" he shouted,
flustered at not being in the driver's seat, then realizing that
American cars had the wheel on the left side, not like the British ones
that were on the right side. "Bloody Americans-"
Mason, who had followed in tow and gotten into the left
side of the car, stared down blankly at the wheel, shift, and pedals in
front of him. "Uh..."
"Start it!" Conner shouted from the passenger seat.
"Okay, okay!" Trying desperately to recall every movie
with a car chase in it, he fumbled with the key that was already in the
ignition.
While Mason was pretending to know what he
was doing, Conner looked in the rear-view mirror to find three sleek,
white motorcycles with InterTech henchmen as the drivers. "Mason, start
the car!" Conner's voice escalated as they drew nearer, checking the
alleyways for the pair.
"Trying!" He turned it left, then tried right, and finally the car's engine started up. "Ah ha!"
"Go already!" Conner's eyes were filling with fear as the motorcyclists spotted them.
Mason nodded and pressed down hard on the left pedal, ready to get out of there. But the car didn't move.
"Mason?!" Conner's voice had risen to soprano.
"I'm trying, it won't go!" Mason frantically scanned the floor where
two pedals were located and pressed harder on the one to the left.
Conner leaned over to see the problem. "The accelerator, for goodness sake!"
"Which one is that?!"
"Well what do you think?!" Obviously, Conner had found his angry-sarcastic mood.
Panicked, Mason stomped the pedal on the right down hard and
the car burst down the road with the three motorcycles in hot pursuit.
The two lane road suddenly acquired a road-rager in Mason Kruger as he
sped down it at ridiculous speeds.
"Slow down!!" Conner's eyes were as big as a Disney Princess's as he clung to the bottom of his seat in fear.
"I'm trying to lose them!!" Mason retorted back, making a sharp turn into the town park and running over a flowerbed.
"Mason!!" Conner shrieked as a woman and her two kids went
running for cover as the Hyundai went zooming passed them and through
the playground. "Kids! Kids!! KIDS!!!"
"Outta the way,
kiddies!" Mason swerved left and right again to miss the preschoolers
and moms that were fleeing, panicked (and rightly so). Moments later,
the small group of motorcyclists flew after them, maneuvering more
easily around the families with their smaller vehicles.
"Shift!" Conner ordered from the passenger seat as he heard the engine strain from the outrageous speeds. "SHIFT!!"
"How?!" Mason tried to watch the road while searching the wheel and buttons for a shift key.
"Haven't you taken Drivers Ed.?!" Conner questioned as he reached over and shifted it up a few gears for him.
Mason, now driven to the limit and arms pulsing a bright blue confessed with frustration, "I DON'T KNOW HOW!!"
Conner was down right furious. "You can't drive a car?!"
"I live in New York! I ride a bus to work!!"
"WHAT?!" He couldn't believe it.
"Gimme something!" Mason demanded and got back to the main road as Conner racked his brain for something, anything.
"Shut up and drive!!" Closing his eyes, he mentally imagined a map of
the city and the street names. Recalling which they one they were on, he
noted their destination and mentally routed the quickest, most complex
way there. "Give me the wheel!"
"I can't, I'm driving!"
"Driving?! More like crashing!!" Bringing the map back up in his head, he pictured the closest mall. "Left!"
"Right!" Mason confirmed.
"Left!! Turn left!!"
"I AM!!"
Leaving rubber marks on the pavement behind them, they quickly lost the
motorcyclists in the bustling outlet mall parking lot. Conner directed
them to the closest underground parking garage and ordered him to get
out of the car.
Mason, finding no problem with giving up the driver's seat,
speedily hopped out and they exchanged places in a flash (Conner
practically leaped over the hood to make time).
Conner was burning from the inside. Mason had never seen him so riled up, in a bad
way. Then, as he settled into the leather driver's seat and gripped the
wheel, running his fingers over it, he let out a breath and closed his
eyes for a moment. He was smiling.
Mason shifted uncomfortably. "Uh, Con, we better hurry, those InterTech goons are gonna find us real fast-"
"Hold on."
"Wha-"
In a split second, Conner's eyes snapped open and he put the pedal to
the metal (for you who don't speak car, he put his foot down on the
right pedal, hard). They went flying out of the parking garage and out
onto the street again, where the InterTech agents were waiting and
followed after them. Conner kept the engine at full throttle as he
swerved around the line of cars waiting for the red light to turn green
and into the oncoming traffic.
"Conner!!" Mason warned, but he didn't listen. The car
swerved left and right as to avoid a head-on collision with the other
vehicles as they honked their horns, braked and skidded to the
sidewalks. Conner kept the car steady down the middle of the road and
suddenly turned down another alley in an attempt to lose the guys that
were after them.
Conner didn't look back but continued to drive down alley
after alley, making sharp turns with a completely straight face as Mason
was cheering from the passenger seat. He was apparently enjoying all
the action, and he caused Conner to break a mini-smile and press a bit
harder on the accelerator.
Conner's gray-green eyes filled with a strange mixture of
glee and concentration as adrenaline pumped through his veins. All sound
was blocked out until it became like a faint background noise, even
Mason's shouts of exhilaration became distant. Conner's heart pounded
from it, and his strong reflexes lend them safely down the tight
alleyways as he shifted and turned in perfect synchronization. He made
sharp, clean turns with precision, not knocking into the walls or
hitting any stray garbage cans or vagabonds that happened to be hanging
about. This was his natural environment, for once in his newly acquired
career, he knew what he was doing, no exceptions. His place was at the
wheel.
Though they both seemed to be having a smashing time, the
InterTech goons were still on to them, even when they braved the
oncoming traffic and had gone through numerous alleys and side-streets
(not to mention the twelve tickets Jason would receive later).
"They're still on to us!" Mason clarified as Conner drove them smoothly along a construction site.
"I know what I'm doing," Conner retorted calmly. He had a little
surprise. Yeah, it was a crazy stunt move, and yeah, they could both
die, but he had pulled off years of training, he could do it.
"What're you doing?!" Mason queried when Conner turned them left into the construction site. He noted the 'DO NOT ENTER', 'DANGER!', 'SAFETY HELMETS REQUIRED', and 'CONSTRUCTION SITE'
signs set up all around. Up ahead, there was a half-finished freeway
overpass with construction tape and a small wooden barrier around it.
"Do you trust me?" He avoided the question with one of his own as they drove toward the unfinished bridge.
"Now is hardly the time-"
"Do you trust me?"
He was getting the idea of what Conner was about to do,
but he hardly thought he could do it. The motorcycles came into view on
the rear view mirror, and they were pulling out hand guns from their
belts. He gulped, but managed the words, "But you can't land-"
"My father works with cars!" Conner reassured him without
taking his eyes away from the windshield. "I know this sound crazy, but I
know this, it'll work! Trust me!"
He gulped down his stomach and nodded vaguely. "I do trust you!"
Conner took his eyes off of their on-coming doom to look him in the eyes. "Then hold on!"
The car drew nearer to the inevitable drop off where the noonday
traffic raged bellow. With the bad guys on their heels, guns draw and
ready to fire, there was no going back.
Without another word, Conner launched them off of the
bridge and down to the rushing freeway bellow. There was a moment when
they hung in the air, the car resting on nothing. With the throttle
still going hard, the tires smashed into the pavement and the Hyundai
skidded over the ground and through the traffic to safety. As they fled
the oncoming cars to the shoulder, the motorcycles braked hard and
looked over the unfinished bridge at the triumphant Watchmen bellow.
Mason leaned out of his window and waved his fist up at them, face bright with a smile. "Ah ha! Not so scary now, are ya?!"
Conner just laughed and did donuts in celebration.
Gunfire rained down on them and they quickly retreated
down the freeway from their short-lived victory, still laughing but with
more reservation. Once they were out of danger, Conner drove to the
shoulder and parked the car to give them a moment to catch their breath.
He hoped out of the car unfazed and ran his hand over the silver exterior. "Not a scratch."
"That was amazing!" Mason congratulated his friend with a punch on the shoulder.
Conner smiled back as he rubbed his now sore arm.
"Where'd you learn to drive like that?" Mason asked as he settled down from the car chase and clutched his now bandaged hand.
Conner glanced quickly at him, then back to the road and shrugged. "Oh, I guess it runs in the family."
"Dude, I wanna meet your family," Mason joked with a smirk.
Conner tensed up for a moment and laughed unconvincingly. "Ha ha ha... I doubt it..."
"Why? Nothing's wrong with them, right?"
"No, that's not what I meant-"
"That's what it sounded like."
Conner sighed, not liking the way the conversation was going. "Can we change the subject?"
Mason sighed also, but agreed. "Did you get the records about where they'll be shipping the titanium?"
"Oh yeah," Conner nodded. "Once the Watchmen process that data, we'll know the exact location of the Hydra base."
"But they probably have hundreds!" Mason brought up. "How do we know that Ava will be there?"
Conner pondered the thought, then shrugged. "We've got no other leads
to follow." Then he put a sympathetic hand on his friend's shoulder. "We
will find her, Mason."
He nodded halfheartedly. "I
suppose you're right. Now c'mon, we better back to the base. Graham's
gonna kill us for not following orders..."
Yea! Chapter seventeen is complete :) This one is a bit longer than normal (I think...) but I hope you still enjoyed it :) It was fun to write!
So, I have something to announce...
Willow's chapter of Friends and Enemies should be up this Friday!
Aaaaaannnnddd that's it. Really, this blog doesn't have much to announce anymore... humph... but anyway, have a good one! :)
Oh, and if you liked the car aspect of this one (as I did!), you can check out my board on Pinterest for them,
How They Roll. You don't have to be a member of Pinterest to view the boards, btw.
Always watching,
Darrion
