In a fiery confrontation on the road..
Lion mask stuffed five grenades on Vulture mask's vest. "Help me drop this bomb at them."
A man next to the driver with a plain mask sighed and climbed to the back. He put down his rifle and helped Lion mask carry Vulture's corpse.
Seeing that the van window wasn't big enough to drop a body, Lion mask unhesitatingly broke the windows until the size was satisfactory.
"Hey that's my boy that you're messing with!" The demon masked driver snarled at him.
"I'll pay you later." Lion mask paid him no heed. "Now, drive right when I say so, okay?"
The driver growled. "Fine, but you owe me a grand."
Not taking it to heart, Lion mask waved uncaringly at him. "Yeah yeah yeah." Lion mask pulled out a pin from one of the grenades.
They carefully put his body next to the window and dropped it.
"NO!" Gerald saw what they were going to do and shouted.
...
Fwoosh-
A body was thrown away from the van.
Crash!
Unluckily enough, it landed on Chester's car. He saw the body landing on his car and for a split second, he saw a grenade sticking out of the body's vest.
"They're desperate..." Chester laughed.
He immediately jumped out the window and rolled to the side of the road with a few wounds.
BOOM!
Chester's car blew up and went down in flames. Stray metal parts flew off in all directions.
The people around the gunfire ran away and one could hear shrieks of women and the cries of children.
Chester watched the vans getting farther and farther as well as the bodyguard's cars chasing after them. He clutched his left elbow that was bleeding from his fall. He looked around and saw a man looking at the gunfire with shock. Chester went towards him and grabbed his motorcycle.
"Hey! that's mine!" The man reacted and desperately tried to yank it back.
Chester grabbed a bundle of cash and gave it to the man. "I need this to save someone's life. Now get lost!" Chester got on and drove away, leaving behind a man bewildered with no idea what to do next.
...
After seeing that they got rid of Chester, Lion mask was quite happy.
"Woohoo! We got one down!" Lion mask happily rejoiced.
However, his happiness didn't last long when he saw a motorcycle with the same guy he was supposed to get rid of.
"The hell?! He's back?" Lion mask's left eye twitched.
Skull mask shrugged. "It seems that your plan didn't work out well enough."
Lion mask gritted his teeth in anger. "I'll kill him." He clicked his gun, but everyone in the van was suddenly thrown off balance because of a strong impact.
Bang!
A car from Chester's men caught up and rammed the van, damaging most of the armor from it.
"We can't hold on like this!" The driver reminded them.
"Split up! Tell the other guy to split up! They don't know which van has the target!" Lion mask shouted.
Plain mask nodded.
"Well if you say so." The driver grabbed an encrypted phone and told the other side to split up. "Hey, we need to split up. We're going to have to drop the hostage if this keeps going."
"..."
The other side told him something before hanging up.
"What did he say?" Lion mask quickly questioned him.
"He agreed. Hold onto your butts fellas." He quickly steered right.
The two vans split up and the men from Chester's side halved and followed a van each.
Chester followed the same van he was following all along. He had a feeling that Gerald was inside this one. If he was wrong however, he only wished that the other side could manage to save Gerald.
...
In an encrypted call..
"Boss, we're going to the bridge now." The masked man informed the mysterious caller from earlier.
"Good. I'll prepare them." The distorted voice said and then hung up.
The black masked man drove left and right until they reached a broken down bridge where it's not usually visited.
Gerald's guards followed behind without showing any signs of stopping.
But as they were about to continue the chase, the van suddenly stopped.
Gerald's guards immediately surrounded the van and left their vehicles. The "leader" of the guards shouted. "If you give up now, we won't shoot you! Exit the vehicle and hands in the air and you won't die!"
There was no response.
"I'll count to three!" He shouted.
"One!"
"Two!'
"Thr-" He didn't even finish counting before getting shot from behind.
The rest of the guards turned around and saw the other van from earlier shooting at them!
This was bad, they were using their cars to protect them from the van that they were chasing earlier, leaving them defenseless from the back!
They tried to retaliate but being caught in a pincer attack, they were eventually killed in the middle of the gunfire.
...
The plan was simple.
Bait some of the guards and wait until they get out. And once they do, the other van will shoot, catching them off guard.
"Woohoo! that worked?!" Lion mask was exuberant.
"That was smart." Skull mask praised their mysterious boss. "Now let's wait for Plain mask."
"Oh that guy..." Lion mask felt that plain mask was quite normal, but he couldn't shake off a mysterious feeling from that man. "Let's not talk about him."
The black masked man's van drove off with Lion mask's side and they were back on the road as two.
However, Chester's side lost half of their men.
...
Chester saw this and gritted his teeth. They were caught by the other side's trap! How could he have been so careless!?
But he couldn't do anything now. He could only speed up and hope to catch up with them.
No matter what.
...
They drove past the flaming cars of their comrades not knowing that someone was hiding in the shadows.
Just as Chester's side passed him, Plain mask came out of his hiding spot and held up a rocket launcher and fired.
BOOM!
It hit two cars and the explosion burnt them inside out.
Two cars down, one left to go.
...
The two vans turned around and opened fire without holding back!
Immediately, the last car remaining was bombarded by bullets and not only that, the gunmen rammed it using their armored van! The car tumbled upside down because of the impact.
The gunmen immediately exited their vehicle.
"Eat this!" Lion mask threw a grenade and blew up the car. Killing everyone inside.
Chester stopped the motorcycle.
He was surrounded from both sides. He has a motorcycle, sure. But plain mask behind him has the advantage because he has armored cars as shields..
He doesn't have any cover.
He will be easily shot down if he tries to go back.
But he wasn't planning to.
He parked the motorcycle and looked at the gunmen.
The van's door opened and Skull mask carried Gerald out and faced him with Chester.
"Looking for him?" Skull mask laughed with ridicule. "And don't even think of shooting us, before you would even raise your gun, you would've been turned into a body full of bullet holes."
Chester looked around and saw eight people pointing guns at him. Plus, Plain mask who was left behind to watch his back.
"What do you want from him?" Chester's eyes were full of hatred.
"Money, what else?" Lion mask laughed.
"Why don't you just kill me? That way you wouldn't have to worry about me being a problem right?" Chester mocked.
"Well, how about this... I'll have a fistfight with you, but if you win, we'll let you go." Lion mask laughed.
"Bull#$?!, like you'll ever let him go." Chester knew that there was no chance that they'd let him go regardless of what happens.
"You're right, but if you don't fight me.." Lion mask pulled out a knife and pointed it at Gerald's groin. "I'll make sure he'll never have a child."
"You!!" Chester was about to point his gun but he saw that everyone was not going to make it happen by raising their guns at him. "Fine! Let's do it." Chester gritted his teeth.
Gerald watched Lion mask face off against Chester with hatred. But no matter what he did, he couldn't free himself from his ropes.
Chester threw his gun.
Lion mask did the same with his vest, and other things that would hinder his movement.
"Sometimes, I like how desperation makes you do things that you don't even want to." Lion mask laughed.
"Can we start now?" Chester took off his suit, clearly uninterested in talking.
"Sure." Lion mask took on a fighting stance.
The two traded blows. Punch after punch, they didn't hold back. Lion mask was initially glad that he found an equal, but soon enough, Chester was dodging more and more of his blows.
"You're good at this!" Lion mask was getting more and more exhilarated.
Chester didn't speak, he only continued sending one punch after another.
Lion mask noticed that Chester's attacks were getting more and more ferocious as time went by. "Hmm, this guy's difficult to beat.." He thought to himself.
...
The black masked man shook his head and said, "Lion's going to lose."
"Hm? Boss, how could you tell?" A man in a tiger mask asked with curiosity.
"You see, Lion's getting more and more passive as time goes by. Most of his attacks aren't even touching his opponent anymore. He's bound to lose. It only looks like he'll win because his attacks are fierce, but the strong blows are only getting blocked." The masked man sighed.
"I see.." Tiger mask looked at the fight without the same excitement he used to have before.
...
Pow!
Lion mask staggered back as one of Chester's punches made him dizzy for a while. He tried stabilizing himself, but he was greeted by another punch.
He fell down, and Chester went behind him. Using his elbow, he squeezed tighter and tighter around Lion mask's neck. Lion mask was struggling intensely, but he lacked the strength to do so.
"GAHH! SHOOT HIM!" Lion mask shouted.
Bang!
Chester fell down.
His forehead was leaking out blood and parts of his brain.
He was dead.
"*cough *cough *cough*. I almost died!" Lion mask looked at Chester's body with apprehension. "Good thing I lived this time.."
Bang!
Lion mask's body convulsed as his body quickly lost its life. His eyes were filled with shock because he never expected to die this way.
Everyone was shocked and turned to Gerald who was holding a gun.
"HOW DID YOU-?!" Skull mask was shocked, how did Gerald free himself?
Bang!
He also fell down after getting a bullet through his head.
"DIE!" Gerald growled with tears flowing down his face.
Just as Gerald was going to shoot another man, he was the one who received a bullet this time.
Bang!
Plain mask shot him.
Gerald fell down with unwillingness in his eyes. And as he fell down, his last thoughts were..
"At least... I'll get to meet my mother again.."
Gerald was dead.
Plain mask shook his head. "We lost three on this day and even failed the mission.. What a pity." He looked at the wrecked armor of the van and saw the sharp edges protruding out of it. "He must've used those to cut the ropes loose and picked up a gun lying around inside. Make sure to learn from this so that it never happens again. Got it?" Plain mask stared at them.
"Yeah we'll remember it."
"Sure."
They began hearing sirens from the police.
"Let's go, the cops can reach us anytime." Plain mask said as he hopped inside the van.
They all entered the vans and drove off.
...
Greenwood manor...
Ring!
Daniel, who was doing his work as always, was being called by Lynn.
"Hm, out of all the times she decides to call now?" Daniel picked up his phone and answered it. "Lynn, why did you call?"
Lynn didn't speak for a while.
Daniel noticed how odd Lynn was acting and asked with a bit of worry. "Is something wrong?"
Lynn sighed and said, "It's serious.. your son..."
Daniel's chest tightened. "What happened to Gerald?" His voice was loud enough to startle the other housekeepers.
"He's... dead." Lynn's words drowned his strength almost instantly. Daniel lost strength from his legs and he fell back on his chair feebly.
"No! This can't be real!" Daniel shouted, trying to deny it.
"Watch the news... you'll see." Lynn then hung up.
Daniel scrambled to the TV and turned it on. The housekeepers were murmuring with one another.
When the TV was turned on, Daniel went to the news channel and saw the most horrifying thing he could've ever seen.
The reporter said, "This evening, the son of the renowned chemist, Daniel Greenwood passed away after being shot in a kidnapping incident. There were only a few clues leading towards the mastermind. The identities of the deceased found on the scene were-..."
Daniel couldn't stand up anymore and lost every bit of strength from his body.
He fainted.