Chereads / The Losers of Lumina Lane / Chapter 29 - Takedown

Chapter 29 - Takedown

[Kincaid Street | 1240 Central Time, Day 2]

Foy and Mendez' technical pickup zoomed through the empty lane of Kincaid Street with Becks and Sui's SUV ahead of them and Cezaro's BP battalion hot on their heels.

"That a chopper just now?!" blasted Sui through the earpiece.

"Fuck you say?! A chopper?" replied Becks from beside him.

"Eyes on the road, Becky!"

"Whatchu think I'm doing all this time?!" rebutted Becks. "What's the play here, Rock?"

"I say we split up, pretty sure Caesarino would've wanted me more than he'd want his merchandise."

"And what if they keep on chasing us?" asked Sui.

"Well, what are those guns for?"

"Shit, you're right," agreed Becks.

As soon as the two cars came upon a T-junction, they split up. Becks' white Pajero SUV turned left while Mendez' technical took a right. Just as Mendez expected, a good majority of the Cezaro's pursuing force turned right; only one BP SUV turned left in pursuit of Becks. Hope that's not too much for you, thought Mendez.

"Alright Foy, things might get messy from here on out, you ready?" asked Mendez from his earpiece.

"As long as you stay alive back there," quipped Foy.

"Y'know, if I die back here, they might just stop going after you."

"That is not going to stop me going after them. Not after what I saw on that ship."

"Hey, just saying. Glad we're on the same page, though."

And just as Mendez ended that sentence, the Black Hawk attack helicopter started raining down lead on the pavement, chipping away chunks of concrete around them!

In response to the firing chopper, Mendez fired the mounted gun while Foy tried to swerve his way around an idly slow sedan in front of them, only for the technical's front bumper to clip the sedan's taillights--

--after which the sedan almost got shredded to bits by the Black Hawk's barrage of bullets!

"Oof!" exclaimed Mendez due to the impact shaking him off balance as the technical propelled at an angle towards the pavement!

Fortunately for the pair, Foy managed to yank the steering wheel the other way, causing the technical to 'only' clip a row of newspaper boxes, sending pages all over the road.

"Sorry!"

"Could've gone better, but at least we're still alive!" shouted Mendez amidst the lead hailstorm falling around the car.

Before long, the technical entered a highway, with the same three cars from Cezaro's convoy right behind them and the Black Hawk looming above them.

As soon as the technical entered the highway, it received a slam from the left side.

Another BP vehicle, this time a black open roof jeep occupied by three BP henchmen!

Soon after registering the vehicle from over his shoulder, Mendez starts to rotate the mounted gun--

--but one of the mercenaries jumped on the flatbed of the technical mid-rotation!

Of course, Mendez saw that one coming.

With a swift motion, Mendez gracefully parried the merc's tackle, spun his body while backstepping at the same time, causing the merc's leap to overshoot, throwing him off the technical completely!

But before Mendez could react to the second merc, the latter grabbed him from behind by the arms!

In response, Mendez launched his entire body backward, throwing both him and the merc off the technical and onto the black jeep!

Freeing himself from the merc's grasp, Mendez elbowed him on the face for good measure.

He then shifted his view to the front of the car, only to be greeted with the driver pulling a pistol to his face, which he kicked away.

Once the gun was taken care of, Mendez started climbing to the front--

--only to be tackled from behind, causing him to land face-first on the jeep's dashboard!

Mendez instinctively reached out to his left, grabbed hold of something, and yanked to the right--

--of which it was the steering wheel, throwing the merc that tackled him off his back!

Mendez spun his body, saw the driver throwing a punch at him from a seated position, parried the blow, and delivered two counterstrikes of his own--one to the liver, and one to the groin, effectively stunning him!

But as soon as Mendez released his attention from the driver, he saw the other merc regaining his balance, ready to have another go at him, to which Mendez reacted by kicking him on the chest.

The merc was still on the jeep, but by now Mendez had already fully regained his footing.

The BP merc charged at Mendez, who ducked and threw him over the shoulder, well over the jeep windshield and off the jeep itself!

Suddenly, Mendez was thrown off to the jeep's right. The driver had made a hard left in an attempt to throw Mendez off the jeep!

Reflexively, Mendez managed to grab hold of the jeep's frame--

--while at the same time using the momentum to swing back into the jeep and launch a double-legged dropkick at the driver, knocking him off the jeep!

Mendez is on the wheel now.

"Yo Foy, in case you didn't notice, I'm not on the car anymore," announced Mendez, panting.

"What?!"

"Not to worry, I'm on that jeep that went into us earlier. Just keep it steady, I'm getting back on the truck."

Mendez jammed on the gas pedal and aligned the jeep on the technical's flatbed.

As soon as Mendez let go of the steering wheel, the jeep started to wobble.

Without wasting to much time, Mendez made his way to the back of the jeep and jumped as the jeep toppled behind him in a heap of messy metal wreck.

Once Mendez got on the technical, he was immediately notified of an old problem that is the Black Hawk helicopter.

Mendez quickly locked on a new target: the helicopter's rotor.

The Black Hawk and the technical on the highway traded shots, ripping apart almost everything between them; the asphalt around them, the overhead highway signs, all the way to the surrounding traffic of sedans, SUVs, and other less-armed pickup trucks.

That is until Mendez managed to hit the Black Hawk's helicopter rotor, causing it to spin uncontrollably, causing it to crash directly on the highway, and on top of one of the SUVs from Cezaro's convoy!

The entire smack-dab explosion formed a large ball of flame enough to engulf the two opposing highway lanes.

Relieved as he was, Mendez somewhat hoped the SUV that got flattened wasn't Cezaro's. A bit anticlimactic, honestly, he thought.

As if answering his questions, two SUVs sped past the fire and gained ground on the technical, allowing Mendez to recognize its occupants.

Cezaro, shooting at the technical alongside the passengers of his SUVs!

Mendez readied the mounted gun again but noticed the gun wasn't spitting any bullets when he pulled the trigger. It had overheated after the tradeoff with the helicopter!

"Shit, gun's overheated!"

"Oh no, what do we do?!"

While ducking from the incoming fire, Mendez spun around to assess his options. That's when he saw a flyover arcing towards the left side over the highway lane he was on.

"I'm taking over the wheel. Foy, scoot!"

"What are you planning?"

"Something to get them off us!

As soon as Mendez said that, he saw something on the horizon beyond the arcing flyover with an entrance branching from the rightmost lane.

Becks' SUV entering the highway with a BP SUV in hot pursuit behind him!

"Fancy seeing you here, Becks!"

"What?!" replied Becks.

"Shit Becks, Mendez' right behind us and he's got the entire cavalry with him!" exclaimed Sui.

"Least I got rid of that pesky chopper!" said Mendez as he climbed into the technical's driver seat.

By this point, Cezaro's two SUV had caught up with Mendez; they are practically next to him.

"What is this plan of yours, if I may ask!?" asked Foy, his voice understandably louder than before.

As if on cue, the technical received a slam from the left side--

--the momentum of which Mendez used to propel the technical right to the arcing flyover lane, effectively separating them from Cezaro's SUV convoy with not enough reaction for Cezaro to switch lanes!

"That's not too bad, although I believe they will go for Becks now." assessed Foy.

"And that, my friend, is where part two of the plan comes in."

"Wait, there's more?"

"Part two is where you might wanna fasten your seatbelts!"

And with that statement, Mendez slammed on the gas pedal, going up the flyover with near-terminal velocity. The technical's dead-straight trajectory did not make it seem like Mendez wanted to speed on the flyover, but rather, speed THROUGH the flyover.

Almost as if he wanted to run the technical off the flyover and back onto the highway. Matter of fact, that was precisely his plan.

200 meters to the barrier separating the road on the flyover from nothingness.

"Oh, I see what you are planning," said Foy, gripping the car ceiling handle hard.

100 meters.

"And Mendez?" proceeded Foy.

50 meters.

"Yeah?" said Mendez.

The technical crashed through the barrier...

...glided through the air for a moment...

...before plunging down into the highway below it!

"SCREW YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUU!!" shouted Foy as the pair briefly levitated in the cockpit during the dive into the highway!

The technical landed square on BOTH of the BP SUVs!

Debris flew all over the highway as the three vehicles rolled together in violent entanglement, sending away shards of glass and metal chunks on the pavement!

***

Mendez coughed out dust as he regained consciousness from the vertical vehicle takedown.

He saw the road in front of him in a sideways angle; that's when he knew the technical had been turned on its side.

"Foy, you alright?"

Foy coughed and groggily let out a small but assured 'yeah'.

With that reassurance, Mendez pulled out La Mutilar and climbed out of the wreckage.

There, he saw the two SUVs behind his pickup, amazingly (and unfortunately) still on their four wheels. Both the vehicles were positioned on either side of the highway lane, which leaves a gap fit for a single vehicle to squeeze through in between.

That was also when he saw the SUV cars opening and its occupants exiting. Two from one and four from another; Mendez assumed the four-people SUV belonged to Cezaro.

It didn't take long for all the dazed and confused BP personnel to spot Mendez, which prompted them to open fire at him.

Using the technical as cover, Mendez ducked back inside the wreckage and idly checked for his rounds inside his revolver; its fully loaded.

A couple of seconds later, he returned fire.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Three down.

Mendez jumped down from the wreckage. From there, he spotted another BP from Cezaro's SUV; another well-placed bullet, and he's down.

Beyond the two SUV wrecks, he spotted a couple of figures limping away from the scene. It did not take long for Mendez to deduce the two figures being Cezaro and another BP mercenary.

Making his way to one of the SUVs to get a better shot, Mendez noticed another similar-looking SUV entering the highway from the entrance Becks used earlier. Reinforcement for the Italian fellow?

Just as Mendez shot the BP mercenary...

BANG!

...the SUV stopped in front of Cezaro, and out came its occupants raining down bullets on Mendez, forcing him to take cover on the SUV wreckage.

That is backup alright, evidenced by Cezaro coyly limping into the SUV's open door.

Peeking around his cover, Mendez spotted another passenger exiting the black SUV; a dark-skinned man with a bald head, a neatly-cut goatee, and a pair of round sunglasses decked out in full tactical gear.

Mendez had seen the guy before. Not just in pictures, he had seen the man more times than he can remember.

Mikey Kenburn, Blackpoint's Head of Security.

Shifting his attention away from Kenburn's squad firing down on him, Mendez noticed Foy climbing out of the pickup wreckage complete with his HK21E light machine gun. Climbing out of the wreckage would have made Foy an easy target for the newly-arrived squad, so Mendez has to quickly find a way to provide cover fire.

And that's when he found a SCAR-H rifle on one of the dead BP mercs he shot earlier.

Leaning against the SUV door for cover, Mendez started to fire at Kenburn's squad.

BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!

One down, but Kenburn fired directly at Mendez, grazing his cheek!

Mendez was staggered by the hot lead barely missing his face.

Turning to Foy again, he found his accomplice already made his way to the adjacent SUV.

"Do we wait until they reload?" asked the mixed-martial-arts master.

"Knowing Kenburn, he wouldn't let a reloading break happen in his firing squad. On my mark, put the gun on the hood and spray it out."

Foy narrowed his forehead. "Kenburn is here?"

"I know, right?" replied Mendez before switching on again. "Now!"

Mendez was slightly earlier when springing out of cover, firing precise rounds at the squad.

BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!

While Foy followed up half a second after Mendez fired, putting lead downrange, not letting go of the trigger. A steady stream of bullets came from the duo, forcing the opposing BP operatives into cover.

Mendez hit one of the squad members while Foy hit another, forcing Kenburn to duck from their line of fire.

As soon as Kenburn disappeared into the SUV, the car roared to life and sped past the gap between the SUV wreckage, completely ignoring the combined fire from the pair.

The second the black SUV zoomed past them, Mendez noticed something being dropped from the window and onto his foot.

A hand grenade.

Kicking the grenade away and towards under the SUV, Mendez tried to sprint away from the blast radius alongside Foy--

--barely making it as he was thrown away from the explosion!

Mendez coughed out dust and ash as he lied on the pavement.

"Classic Mikey," he then looked at Foy. "You alright?"

Foy's response was a cough and a rhetoric question. "So that is Kenburn?"

"Yeah. Lucky you, getting to meet two of the big guys on the same day."