Nina Clarke: ᴍᴀʏᴏʀ, ᴀᴜsᴛɪɴ ᴛx & sʜʏ ʙʟᴏʙ (commonlaw) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2016-08-04 10:33:00 |
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It all happened so quickly. Set for a meeting at the Greenbelt to discuss progress on the public safety problem at hand, as soon as they hear the roaring sounds of approaching motorcycles behind them, Nina knew the issue that had been plaguing her city for too long was about to be experienced firsthand. She'd never been trained to deal with this kind of thing. Maybe a more weathered public official wouldn't have reacted with such abject terror, but even the things she'd lived through over the last year -- a break-in at work and a prison bombing -- hadn't prepared her for this kind of direct attack on her. Then again, maybe she was jumping to conclusions. Maybe the men who'd gained ground on them were friendly Hellhounds. Maybe. "Should we be concerned?" she asked Luc, her driver, though the tone of her voice made it quite clear that she had very quickly surpassed concern. “Concerned? Possibly. Alert? Definitely,” Luc replied, his hands gripping the wheel tightly. The sounds of the bikes were definitely coming closer. Motorcycles didn’t necessarily mean Hellhounds and it certainly didn’t scream renegades but as the engines revved closer still, Luc suspected their chances of being ignored were slim to none. His eyes skimmed the front window, his peripheral, and then to the rearview mirror to catch Nina’s unsettled gaze. “Just hang tight, Nina,” Luc said, his professionalism slipping only to reassure his passenger before turning his eyes on the road again. Two motorcycles were coming up on their six, quickly closing the gap between themselves and the mayoral escort. “Everything is going to be all-” The car lurched violently followed by an immediate pop; they’d lost a tire. Luc turned into the skid, ignoring the shrieking from his horrified passenger, the side of the car kissing the guardrail before aligning on the road again with a swift, practiced maneuver. There was no way they could continue; they were already losing speed, they’d be risking a fire from the sparks made from running on the rim and he didn’t dare pull over to try and change it to the spare. There has been no debris in the road so the blown tire could only be accounted by the men who were now clearly pursuing them. The loss of acceleration did all the hard work for the men giving chase; they had closed the gap and now ran parallel to Luc and Nina. “Hold on and get down,” Luc said steadily, his eyes shifting from one bike on his left to the one on his right. He didn't have to tell her twice; she unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed into the backseat, flattening herself even as he continued to drive. With a jerk of the wheel, Luc cut off the biker on his driver’s side. His window shattered as the handlebar of the Harley careened into the glass Luc leaned the car into the smaller vehicle. The motorcycle wobbled and then keeled over to one side, sending the rider into a controlled slide. Luc lost sight of him in the rearview mirror but if he knew what was good for him he’d take off where he came from. The car had lost most if its inertia from sending one of their pursuers skidding and Luc had no choice but to stop. The still stalking Hellhound (and it was a Hellhound; Luc could see the dark leather of his cut) pulled his bike to a halt some 25 yards away. “Stay in the car,” Luc said, pulling out his weapon. “Call someone we know, someone we can trust that’s in the area. I’ll be right back.” He nodded. “I promise.” "You better come back!" Nina practically yelled after his retreating figure, taking her professionalism and composure with him. Her hands were shaking as she fumbled for her phone; she could barely see to operate the thing through her blurry vision. They'd been on their way to meet TJ Greenling, though, Tail Gunner for the Hellhounds and the most familiar with the safest routes between downtown Austin and the Greenbelt District. With great effort, she found his name in her contacts and hit the button. "I don't know where we are," she said into the phone once he answered. "Just past the park. They shot our tires out. Luc left, I don't know what he's doing." TJ hadn't been expecting a call from them before they arrived, so when his phone rang with Nina’s name showing on the screen he immediately felt a sense of unease. That was confirmed by what she said, and she'd barely given him a vague description of where she was before he was out the door and on his bike. “Sit tight, I'll be right out,” he said over the growl of the engine, taking off in the direction of the park as fast as he dared ride. Luc hugged the side of the car, mindful to put his body between where the rider had dismounted and Nina. His mind was ticking off and tracking a thousand different variables, all of them working to keep his charge out of harm’s way at whatever means necessary. The Hellhound lacked a bit of the swagger Luc had come to expect from the dissenters he’d heard tell about from freenet; he suspected the man wasn’t feeling quite as brave without the other member of his gruesome twosome to back him up. He looked vaguely familiar; a face from around the bonfire from whole different era in time. “I think you should go back to check on your friend,” Luc called, his pistol raised and clearly visible. “Make sure he’s more than a smear on the pavement. There’s nothing I have that you’d want.” He could have said ‘they’ but he didn’t want to alert the man to Nina’s presence if he wasn’t already aware of it. The renegade, half hidden behind a roadside sign, let out an ugly, humorless laugh. “Oh, ‘cause you know shit about me,” he scoffed. He gestured vaguely and Luc could see he was holding a weapon. “Maybe I like that suit you got on. Maybe those hubcaps’ll look good on my truck. Maybe I just feel like kicking someone’s teeth in. Pick one.” His gaze slid past Luc to the vehicle behind him. “What about your friend? Bet a fancy lady like that has some nice jewelry.” Luc’s face didn’t change, didn’t flinch. The fact that he knew Nina was in the car wasn’t what he had been hoping for and didn’t change his objective; but it did add a possible new motive to the mix. The new mayor was a key figure in Austin’s new regime. It was no secret that the rogue Hellhounds rebelled against the club and, in turn the city, for taking the government up on their offer of blanket immunity. No matter what this man’s rationale was, Luc was going to send this man on his way and get Nina to safety, no matter what he had to do to ensure it. “Do we have backup on the way?” Luc asked quietly, addressing Nina out of the corner of his mouth as he kept his eyes on the rogue. The man was too far away to be able to overhear the whispered tones so unless he was an excellent mouth reader, they’d have the element of surprise at the very least. Nina nodded before remembering that he couldn't see her. It was a miracle she'd even been able to hear him through the nearly-closed door; luckily, he'd left it open just a crack. "Yes," she said just as quietly, hoping her voice would carry. They were easy enough to spot once TJ got near the park - not like there were many vehicles hanging around out there. He could see figures standing by the car, and he was glad there didn't seem to be much backup around - for the other side, at least. There wasn't much time to figure out a plan or weigh options, so he could only hope whoever the other hellhound was wouldn't get antsy and do something even stupider once he saw him coming, because there wasn't much way to be sneaky about it. His engine roared as he pushed it faster, and he quickly assessed the situation better once he got closer. Luc had his gun out but so did the hellhound, and there wasn't much time to take chances with that. TJ leaned in and laid on the brakes enough to get his back wheel in the air, shifting his weight to get the bike to turn once he was close enough to use it to knock the hellhound down with the back wheel and let the bike drop down to a stop between the man on the ground and the car; its passenger screamed at the sight, reflexively, though TJ's arrival proved to carry no risk to Nina. “Stay down if you know what's good for you,” TJ muttered as he killed the engine, getting off and reaching down to snatch up his gun. “As far as entrances go, that ain’t too shabby,” Luc called to TJ, his guard still up but his relief evident once he saw their friend had the situation under control. He wiped a trickle of blood away from a shallow cut to his forehead, flipped the gun’s safety, and slid the weapon into his waistband for a moment before turning to the vehicle and to Nina inside. He opened the door and stooped down slightly, reaching out to put steadying hands on Nina’s shoulders. She reached up to take his hands in her own, grabbing on tight. Luc squeezed them reassuringly. “Are you alright?” Luc gave Nina a quick once over; they’d been jerked around and jostled quite a bit, not to mention given a hell of a scare, but it didn’t appear as if the mayor had been injured too severely. He didn’t want to leave TJ on his own with the rogue for too long but Nina was Luc’s responsibility, his charge to keep safe in an unsafe world. He needed to make sure she was safe and unharmed before he dealt with the cocky son of a bitch on the ground. She drew a shuddering breath, then another one, as she nodded. Her chest felt tight, perhaps from anxiety or the impact of her seatbelt over her torso and collarbone, but she was all right. Nina knew the outcome could've been a lot worse. And with the outlaw still on the ground just a few feet away, though he was under TJ's watchful guard, she didn't want Luc to take his attention off of him for too long. "I'll be okay. Go -- Take care of that." It was less of a suggestion, more of an order, but Nina didn't think she could bear it if Luc continued to look at her the way he was. Luc nodded, giving Nina one last questioning look before pulling back. He gave a cursory look over the vehicle; only one tire out instead of two, which was a godsend, all things considered. He moved to the trunk and after rifling through the contents, finally emerged with several zip ties and the spare tire. He set the tire against the car and approached TJ and his former brother-at-arms. “Couldn’t have asked for speedier service,” Luc said, clapping TJ on the shoulder. “Gracias, TJ. You really had our backs out there.” Luc sniffed derisively and gestured to the dusty and bleeding renegade on the ground. “If you keep your piece on him, I can get him hogtied and ready for drop off at the APD, if you wouldn’t mind doing us another solid?” TJ barely glanced over to Luc when he hit his shoulder, not trusting the guy on the ground not to try something if he looked away properly for a second. He was outnumbered and unarmed, but clearly stupid which made him still dangerous. “Yeah, just helping out how I can,” he offered with a shrug, gun pointed down at the former hellhound. “Go on and get him tied up. You gonna take him back?” Luc stooped down and none-too-gently put his knee in the middle of the rogue’s back as yanked the man’s arms behind him to bind his wrists. “Let’s get this turkey trussed up and then we can figure out how we’re gonna deliver him,” Luc replied grimly. The other man that had chased them was still out there, free to come at them or anyone else another day. Luc hated the thought but his job was clear. His eyes flicked to Nina by the car and then back to the task at hand. “One down, too many to go.” |