[Cafe Aurores, 66 Lumina Lane | 1500 Central Time, Day 1]
Becks' trusty Toyota 86 skidded into the hook where the cafe was located. Foy was close behind as he rode a chopper motorcycle.
As they sped through the lane towards the hook, Mendez spotted a disconcerting sight.
An all-black SUV was parked outside Cafe Aurores. Didn't take too long for Mendez to deduce the SUV as Blackpoint property; they have arrived for Morgan well before Mendez.
If they're still inside, we can catch them by surprise, thought Mendez optimistically.
Unfortunately, Mendez' quarter-plan was shut down immediately, as he saw four men exit the cafe dragging a hostage between them.
Obviously, it was Morgan.
Mendez saw that the SUV was parked at the right side of the cafe just off the hook. Judging from the approach of Becks' 86 towards the cafe and the way the SUV was parked, it was possible for the two cars to form an inverted "L", with Becks' car taking the vertical line and the SUV the horizontal.
Morgan and her captors has disappeared behind the SUV now. They are probably shoving her into the car and be gone within minutes before the trio can catch up.
Hence, Mendez' solution.
"Becks, slam that black car!"
"Wha--fuck no, man! I ain't crashing this thing!"
Of course, a man's loyalty can only stretch so far.
Luckily for everyone involved, Mendez had thought of Becks' rejection in advance.
"Eh well," replied Mendez calmly as he unlocked his door and took out his revolver. "Hit that handbrake!"
With that, Mendez grabbed and jerked the steering wheel to the right at the same time Becks pulled the handbrake--causing the car to turn sharply to the right--swung his door open, jumped off the car as it skidded, and using the momentum of the car's drift, was able to propel himself outwards and land directly on the asphalt behind the black SUV and its occupants!
Rolling into prone position with La Mutilar on hand, Mendez saw three figures lined up in front of him: Blackpoint merc was the closest to him, followed by Morgan, then another Blackpoint lackey.
After he took aim, Mendez pulled the trigger.
BANG!
Closest one went down.
Mendez saw the farthest one reaching to Morgan, likely looking to use her as a human shield.
Naturally he went for the closest and easiest target: the legs.
BANG!
Blood spurted out of the Blackpoint merc's shin, followed by a wail of agony and a loud thud on the concrete.
BANG!
Silenced.
However awe-inspiring Mendez' entrance was, there was no time for celebration. There's still two more Blackpoint mercs to go.
Mendez got up and went for Morgan, who kicked him one of the dead mercs' gun: an Uzi submachine gun.
Leaning to cover beside Morgan, Mendez noticed that the other two Blackpoint mercs were shooting at Becks' direction from the other side of the SUV. Apparently Becks made for a good enough distraction.
"Hurt?" Mendez asked Morgan. Morgan shook her head.
"Good," quipped Mendez quietly before he circled around the SUV to flank the Blackpoint personnel.
Seconds later, he was right up their backside, who was preoccupied with Becks.
And with a squeeze of the trigger, both of them went down.
The streets went silent. Nothing but echoes of gunshots that rang the block mere seconds ago. Becks came out from the side of his car, while Foy emerged from the other side of the street, his bike lying sideways on the concrete.
Mendez noticed the two now-dead mercs each had a gun on them. Mendez brought with him two people. It's only natural that these guns answer to new masters.
"Becks, Foy," Mendez called them as he tossed each their new guns. Foy barely caught his, seeing that Mendez threw from his offhand. "Upgrade," quipped Mendez.
Becks got an Ithaca 37 shotgun. Foy got himself a PP-19 Bizon submachine gun.
"What now?" asked Foy.
"Get Morgan the hell out of here," suggested Mendez as he reloaded his revolver. "Becks, get the car."
***
With a nod, Becks up and went for his awkwardly-parked car behind the SUV.
Once he was on the driver's seat, he glanced on his left rearview mirror, where he saw something.
Realizing what that 'something' was, he jammed his foot into the pedal.
A group of four Blackpoint mercenaries. One of them was pointing a rocket launcher at the direction of his car.
The second Becks' car roared to life, the rocket went off--
--swooshed through the empty street--
--cruised right at the tail end of Becks' car--
--before the 86 moved by millimeters, which caused the rocket to barely clip the car's taillights--
--and propelled into the cafe instead!
BOOM!
***
The explosion was right in front of Mendez' face.
Luckily for him the epicenter of the explosion was further inside the cafe where the barrista bar is located, but that didn't change the fact that the impact was more than strong enough to knock Mendez off his feet.
Mendez knew that both Morgan and Foy were a bit further off the blast radius, and thus was less affected by the blast. Still, he imagined such an explosion would have stunned them as well.
Mendez was thrown back, only to be stopped by the SUV door behind him. After his back hit the SUV, he fell to the ground completely dazed and incapacitated.
***
Becks didn't know how much of a close call that was between his car and the rocket, but he knew for sure that the others are in trouble.
He's the only one with wheels right now, why not just drive off this whole mess?
What, and risk Mendez coming back to kill him later? No way, thought Becks to himself.
And so he maneuvered the car to a stop right in front of Foy and Morgan.
As he got off the car, bullets rattled everywhere around them, from the sidewalk to nearby buildings to the SUV he used for cover.
"Shit!" he exclaimed as he stumbled off his vehicle, bullets ricocheting off his car. He then noticed that his once-slick and shiny car now has bullet holes on it. "God-fucking-damn it!"
There he saw Foy lying beside the SUV dazed from the blast, and Morgan slightly to his left, also dazed.
"Hey!" shouted Becks into Foy's subconscious. "Shit's hit the fan, man! Wake the fuck up!"
Foy's eyes fluttered open groggily, as if he'd just recovered from a kick to the face. But that's all Becks needed to see before he went to Morgan's aid.
When Becks got to Foy, he also got the chance to spot Mendez. He was lying prone beside the SUV, not fully out cold but clearly not in the state to fight, least not right now. Becks quickly grabbed Morgan by the arms and dragged her to relative safety in front of the SUV before going for Mendez.
To do that, he figured he's going to need his shotgun.
Once he got to Mendez' side, Becks tried to shift Mendez' position from parallel to the SUV to perpendicular, since he'd be less exposed that way.
That is, before a bullet whizzed through the air--
--barely missing his right cheek!
Alright, maybe take care of the goons first?
Pulling out his shotgun, Becks crouched and leaned beside the SUV taillights, daring to take a peek at the battlefield.
Soon after, one of the bullets hit the SUV taillights millimeters off Becks' cheek, shattering it to pieces!
Now this is just annoying, thought Becks as he pulled his shotgun out of cover to blind fire. The shotgun went off. He pulled the trigger once more. The shotgun clicked.
Empty? No...
Oh shit, he thought to himself. He'd forgotten to pump the empty shell out. After seeing a shell drop following a hefty pump, Becks continued his offense as he let off another shot.
The BP suppression on their position did not seem to cease. Are the pellets even hitting anything?
Becks then heard a barrage of gunfire coming not so far from his position. He also noticed that none of the Blackpoint mercs are making a move, all of them sprawling behind their cover as bullets riddled newspaper stands, post boxes, cars, and whatever cover they were behind.
Foy's buying some time, figured Becks.
He went for Mendez yet again, dragging him by his left arm towards their shared cover. Not long after, the mercs started firing again, with bullets raining on the concrete where the two were mere seconds ago.
As his right hand pulled on Mendez' left, Becks looked up--
--only for his gaze to be met with a Blackpoint merc appearing from the back of the SUV!
A burst of gunfire exploded as Becks tried to go for his shotgun.
There was a merc, then there was none.
Mendez had regained his consciousness and sprayed the merc with his secondhand Uzi. Lot of prayer went into that, since Mendez had aimed the Uzi using only his right hand. Fortunately, his prayer was answered.
Now all four of Mendez' party were huddled in their shared cover between the obsidian Blackpoint SUV and Becks' perforated car. Morgan slouched against Becks' car, Foy leaning against the SUV keeping Blackpoint busy, and Becks beside him awaiting further instructions from Mendez, which Mendez promptly gave him.
"Right, we stick to the plan, get Morgan out of--"
Mendez was interrupted by the SUV's windshield exploding to pieces.
Mendez turned towards the cause. Three more Blackpoint personnel advancing towards!
Dropping on his side, Mendez opened fire at the two Blackpoints advancing on the sidewalk--
--one down, the other got caught off-guard--
--click!
The Uzi ran out of ammo, and the Blackpoint merc was still looming over Mendez!
There was a fair bit of distance between them, if Mendez could sit up just in time--
Suddenly, the merc stopped on his tracks.
And Mendez got a good look on what caused the halt. Someone's firing at him from his right side!
Although none of the bullets hit him, they'd ricocheted close enough to shift his attention away from the then-vulnerable Mendez.
Mendez looked around. Foy and Becks were pre-occupied with Blackpoint coming from the other side, Morgan didn't even have a gun on her, not to mention the angle of the projectile would not have made sense since the merc was struck from his right side, not his front.
So Mendez took a diagonal peek past the cafe on his eleven o'clock side.
A familiar figure indeed.
Kyle Sui with a pistol in hand. A surprise, but a welcome one.
As he peeked, Mendez noticed that Sui's entrance shifted the flanking Blackpoint's attention from himself. The three mercs turned and unleashed a barrage of bullets on Sui, who promptly disappeared behind a sedan parked in front of the cafe.
This bought Mendez time. More than enough time to take out his revolver and aim it at the merc closest to him.
BANG!
Down. His pal noticed, though.
BANG!
Another one.
As Mendez stood up and hugged the cover to his right, he assessed the incoming threat.
More Blackpoint.
Problem is, there's more of them this time around. Mendez spotted seven of them, give or take. If at first they were 'only' outnumbered, now Mendez' party were both outnumbered and outmatched.
Mendez sat beside Becks, who was firing at the Blackpoint group flanking them.
"Looks like Sui had a change of heart," quipped Mendez as he reloaded La Mutilar.
Becks sat down next to him. "Yeah. Fucking hell, you's lucky."
As if on cue, Foy stopped firing and leaned into Mendez' conversation.
"I'm out!" he shouted through the cacophony of gunfire rocking the street.
Mendez reached out to his left near the dead body of one of the Blackpoint mercs who rushed him earlier. He'd conveniently dropped his gun within Mendez' hand reach.
"Merry Christmas," said Mendez who handed Foy a new gun. A K23B Stubby submachine gun. "M4's little brother. Now listen up..."
***
What the hell was I thinking, coming all the way down here?
Kyle Sui must have ran that question on his mind over a hundred times by now.
He had come down into this fabled 'Cafe Aurores' on his own volition, keen to join Mendez' cause. He had serious doubts about this decision--going as far as to refuse his offer earlier--but after an hour of temple-scratching contemplation, he had decided to join Mendez. The guy was right: Blackpoint was after him, and that botched assassination attempt wouldn't have been their only attempt. The way he saw it, at least Mendez won't try to kill him if he showed up on his doorstep. He had even brought his own gun, a Glock machine pistol that he had never used in his entire life, just so that Mendez did not have to fumble around looking a new gun for him to use. The Glock is pretty much the only gun he was familiar with, in real life anyway.
Just as he had arrived on the scene, he saw Mendez--and that prick Becks--under heavy fire. Bullets flying everywhere. Absolute chaos. Something he was never cut out for.
But then he saw three Blackpoint guys flanking their position. At the time, they haven't noticed him yet. An element of surprise, or so they say. In an act of stupid bravery and low accuracy, he took cover behind a parked sedan, aimed as how they do it in that FPS game, and squeezed the trigger.
Goddamn recoil was way more than he'd expected. It hit everything, and yet it hit nothing.
And now here he was, huddling in between cars parked in front the cafe, gunfire thundering and bullets ricocheting all around him without even moments' peace and quiet. It was too much, WAY too much to handle.
BANG!
There's that distinct singular gunshot. He'd heard it before. Back when Mendez and Becks barged into his apartment to save him.
Didn't Mendez have his own signature gun? he thought.
He peeked towards the source of that sound. In front of him, a Blackpoint goon collapsed. From then on, a sequence of events:
Hoodie-wearing Becks getting into the white sedan parked beside of a black SUV, which has been acting as Mendez' cover for the last ten minutes of bullet hell. Sui also noticed the car shifting weight, meaning someone else had gotten in after Becks.
The white sedan roaring to life and on full throttle, reversing--as both Mendez and another big guy provided cover fire--and then zooming off. It was a small miracle the car didn't explode in that whole maneuver.
All that's left behind the battered SUV was Mendez and that familiar-looking buff guy in a grey sleeveless shirt. Sui'd seen him somewhere before, but where?
As Sui peeked, his gaze met Mendez'. Not just a passing meeting between eyes, but more like a lock, as if Mendez was trying to get his attention. Naturally Sui diverted his full attention on Mendez, since he's the only person that Sui can look at without getting shot anyway.
After Mendez' gaze met Sui's, Mendez immediately went on to fire his shotgun at the BP personnel across the street while the big, burly man sprinted to his position. Clearly, Mendez was providing cover fire while this gentleman went to take cover beside him.
"Sui? Foy," the man introduced himself curtly. "Mendez is waiting for you to provide cover fire."
"Eh? Yeah," replied Sui as he shifted his gaze to Mendez again, who looked back at Sui. Looks like he was waiting for Sui to take action.
Think there's still some left in the mag, thought Sui as he sprang up from his cover and fired at the general direction of BP mercs across the street.
Sui's gun went off wildly alongside Foy beside him until both their guns went click, after which Sui shrank into cover and noticing Mendez was already beside him and Foy.
"We'll lose 'em in the rooftops," instructed Mendez as he gestured to an alley behind their position. "Start from this alleyway. I'll provide cover fire."
Sui saw Mendez loading a fresh magazine into his Uzi submachine gun.
"Go!"
With that exclamation, both Foy and Sui sprinted into the alleyway as Mendez fired away.