After saying his goodbyes to Rick, Sly made his way out of the building alongside the others. The two androids on either side of him while the rest of the Fourclaws walked behind them. He briefly stopped as they came to the end of the alleys, glancing back he spoke to them “I won’t ask again, you follow me out of this alley and there is no going back. We will no longer be simple thieves, we will no longer be a street gang. We will be terrorists, under the Military’s radar and K.O.S.”

They glanced around at each other, Colorado was the only one to respond as they looked back at Sly with a smirk “Having second thoughts already?” he asked.

Sly snorted before looking forward with a grin “No…I’ve thought it all through enough. It’s time I act.” As he said so he walked out of the alleyway and into the open street, a market street, a block away from the edge of the district. Today no shops lay open though, no citizens walked around.

Spread out around the open street either standing around in groups, laying their backs to storefronts or sitting on the side fences were dozens of thugs, thieves, and general gang looking individuals. Mostly everyone turned to look at the Fourclaws as they walked out into the street, expectation, greed and amusement clear in their gazes.

Sly glanced around as one of the larger groups, about nine of them, approached them. “Looks like you decided to come anyway.” said Sly as Check approached with her small group.

“Couldn’t pass the offer, I must admit I didn’t expect you to use me as an advertisement platform so I figured if you can surprise me, then I can’t wait to see what you got for the Mils.” Said Check as she gestured down one alley “You know they caught word of this, they’ll be ready and reinforcements will be on their way.”

Sly’s grin widened “It won’t matter, there’s only so many bodies they can huddle up inside that station.” He said whilst glancing up at the buildings “You reckon they’ll send riders too with those reinforcements?”

Check glanced up trying to see what he was looking at “I can assure you they will…why do you ask?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.” He told her before glancing around at the rest of the thugs that had showed up “Ya’all get yourselves ready, you’ll know when to act.” He declared before continuing on to the other side of the street and back into the opposite alleyways as the others quietly followed.

They made their way deep into the block, about midway to the other side before stopping. Sly turned around to face them all “York disrupt.” He told the android who proceeded to activating a communication disruption mechanism.

“I guess good luck’s in order.” said Tell as he glanced around while fingering the pistol in his belt.

“Luck’s not part of the plan, never was.” replied Ray with a sigh.

“Plan’s just guidelines, follow them till you can’t no more. Fuck the plan at that point, you all know what’s our goal.” said Sly as he took out his pistol “You all know your roles, let’s get this started.”

Several minutes later, an odd sound could be heard moving through the sky above the 13th district’s streets. Three vehicles in total flew dozens of feet up through the sky, rectangular in shape with armoured plates of dark grey surrounding it’s entirety. A shimmer of green could barely be seen surrounding the three plain vehicles as they flew one after the other through the district going at a seemingly agitated pace.

The lighting within the district began to slowly dim, the day/night system going into night mode. The streets below were clear, utterly empty to the eyes of the soldiers within the convoy. Too quiet the district was throughout their passing, something that didn’t sit right with any of them.

Several turns ahead the street was just as empty, except for a few individuals high up on the plain buildings. Six, Colorado, Tell, Zey, York, Lesha and Sly stood barely at the edge, at the very top of one building in the corner of it’s block.

Each of them wore metallic looking boots with straps going up their legs, all but the two androids. One of the androids, Lesha, was staring emptily at nothing in particular when suddenly it’s eyes blinked “ETA 2 minutes.” Her out of place female voice said.

Tell glanced down the building “This is fucked.” Before glancing over at Sly who looked even paler than him “You sure about this?...”

Sly glanced over at him “Fuck sure.” Then back down the building at the street several hundred meters below “I call this therapy and it’s why I wore the brown pants today.”

“Brown pants?” Tell repeated in slight confusion.

Author: Shit’s going down, thought I’d let you know

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsDL2w5HQso

But he was given no answer as the sound of low pitched whistling got closer and closer. “Let’s go!” said Sly as he grabbed Tell by the shoulder and alongside everybody else leaped off the building.

Sly fell with eyes wide open, glancing around at everyone else falling he watched Six closely and waited for the signal. Seeing Six clench his right palm Sly and everyone else did the same as the gravity boots they all wore activated, slowing their fall and allowing them to turn upright as the three armoured vehicles flew right into their path.

Each of the five thugs landed on either the second or third vehicle with a mild bump, Six and Sly being on the third while Zey, Tell and Colorado on the second. York and Lesha on the other hand instead used their internal gravitational mechanism to mildly slow their fall and slammed down onto the first vehicle.

Six glance back at Sly and gave him the most maniacal grin he could muster as he took a step forward to the very back of the vehicle as the back of it opened up into two doors, as if his feet where the centre of gravity Six walked around the edge of the vehicle to stand upside down in the newly open doorway with a pistol raised within each hand.

As he suddenly appeared into the soldier’s vision so did a projectile pierce through their helmets and heads, systematically Six killed every soldier inside leaving a dozen armed corpses laying on the ground. Leaving not a second to waste Six -still running upside down on the ceiling- rushed to the front of the vehicle where a door separated the infantry from the driver.

Sly followed Six inside, also on the ceiling as the doors suddenly closed behind him “Guess they’re panicking.” He said pointing out the closed doors.

Six didn’t respond as he pulled out a device from inside his jacket, an orange circular vial with a cylinder on one end like a light bulb. Six placed the device’s cylinder onto the very middle of the door and stepped back as the device lit up a yellow hue.

Suddenly the device flared up with sparks that quickly turned into flame as a bright yellow light burst out and through the door utterly melting the metal in a wide three meter circle. The door and most of the wall melted down into molten liquid and fell to the ground as Six quickly shot twice killing the driver and officer that were behind the wall.

Six glanced back at Sly giving him a knowing grin.

“Yeah yeah ‘What the hell am I even here for’ don’t get ahead of yourself old man.” said Sly rolling his eyes as he rushed around the inside of the vehicle to stand up right, making sure to avoid the molten metal on the ground he pulled out the driver and took the seat for himself as Six did the same with the seat to his left.

Ahead of Sly lay five monitors each showing different directions from the vehicle’s perspective, left and right, front and back but only the bottom. Taking over the controls by placing his hands over the two spheres beneath the monitors Sly drove his vehicle to the right and began taking over the next one over.

He watched as Zey wrestled a turret that had appeared from her vehicle’s roof out of it’s platform and threw it overboard. Colorado held on to the very back watching the infantry’s doorway while Tell stood behind Zey while taking out multiple devices similar to the one Six had used.

Tell placed three of the devices in a triangle right where the turret had come out from, the difference with these devices was that only one of them was orange while the other two where green and purple respectively.

Tell shouted something and both him and Zey stepped back as each device glowed it’s respective colour. The orange device burned up melting a decent amount of the vehicle’s armour while the purple device exploded downwards blasting through what remained of the armour. The green device also exploded but instead of a blast let out a green gas that filled the inside of the vehicle.

The green gas quickly dissipated leaving any metal it touched rusted, through the hole that Tell made a soldier in full body armour and helmet with gas mask suddenly tried to drag himself out. Half the soldier’s face was melted away and covered by molten metal while the rest of his suit was either rusted metal or dissipating cloth, his only remaining eye was blood red but no pain seemed to be visible in his expression.

Zey walked back up to the hole and kicked the man back inside with a single stomp, stepping inside the hole briefly after followed by Colorado. Tell shouted motivation down the hole as the vehicle suddenly spun around twice forcing Sly to move away as to not slam into Tell who swung off the vehicle’s roof screaming.

A disoriented Tell dropped into the second armoured vehicle as Colorado’s voice sounded off from the vehicle’s coms “We got it, who there?”

“We got ours too, York? Lesha?” said Sly as he drove further up to fly side by side with the first vehicle.

Looking through the monitor that showed his left Sly saw the vehicle’s back doors busted open and three still living soldiers being thrown out, each slammed into Colorado’s vehicle but only one managed to hold onto the plates on the side. Zey opened the side door as the soldier pulled out his sidearm and tried to shoot her, mildly hitting her left shoulder she managed to kick him off.

Sly checked one of the smaller monitors to check if the coms where working as he spoke “York? Lesha? Come in.”

“We’ve commandeered the vehicle.” Responded York. “All hostile androids destroyed, the human officer is alive but restrained. What shall we do with him?”

Sly came up with a blank on that question, he didn’t consider taking prisoners “Uhh….Keep him restrained? Kill him if he poses too much of an annoyance.” He responded as the sound of muffled screaming came in through the coms.

“Yes, sir.” York confirmed back.

Sly glanced around the monitors trying to get an understanding of their current location “On me, we’ll pick up the rest on the way.” As he said so Sly also typed out a few messages into his phone.

“Right behind ya.” Replied Colorado.

“Following.” Replied York.

Lead by Sly and Six’s armoured military transport all three turned around and made their way back through some side streets, carefully flying through it took them a few minutes to get there but eventually they arrived back at the street they encountered the gathered thugs.

Seeing the three armoured vehicles each thug ran off, each to their own they scattered into the various alleys and side streets. Sly snorted as he watched them scatter then spoke after tapping a button on the many controls ahead of him “Stay put you sackless shits, Fourclaws coming down.” His voice was amplified several times as it echoed through the street.

Hearing his words the thugs still took cover and prepared to bolt away anyway but remained long enough to watch the vehicles land, seeing one’s busted back they seemed to mildly relax but still kept their ground.

They watched anxiously, waiting to see who came out of the vehicles. Many a sigh filled their ears as Zey climbed out of one’s top “You bastards need a ride?”

“Riders? How the hell did you get these?” asked a thug as some made their way to the vehicles while most continued to keep their distance, feeling it better to be safe than sorry.

“With my gadgets? No safe is safe.” Tell proclaimed proudly as he pulled himself out of the same hole but only up to his chest leaving his lower body hanging inside. Zey rolled her eyes and elbowed him on the forehead sending him falling back inside, chuckling loudly after.

“Well what you all waiting for?” asked Sly as he stepped out of his vehicle while the doors opened up on the back “Load the hell up!” he shouted at the thugs that had stayed back. Glancing at each other briefly the thugs slowly made their way up to the vehicles, each large enough to hold three dozen of them if they huddled up.

Making his way back inside Sly watched and waited as the thugs made their way inside the vehicle, smiling to himself he watched as Check seemingly appeared out of nowhere from among the thugs. Sitting right behind him she stared at him briefly then sighed “The old man was right, you’re all the craziest mother fuckers I’ve ever met.”

Sly snorted as he turned to face the monitors “You haven’t seen shit yet, should meet my new gang.” A sad smile briefly went over his face but he shook himself out of it and regained focus “Everybody in yet?!” he shouted out.

“Loaded up and ready boss!” replied a random thug as most cheered alongside him while others remained deadly quiet, clearly showing the difference between the kinds of thieves present.

“Alright then! Let’s take this party to the station!” exclaimed Sly as he flipped a switch to close the doors on the back, taking out his phone he looked at it briefly before setting it behind the AR monitors and connecting it to the vehicle via wireless connection. He scrolled through a list on the phone while flying the Rider off the road, finding what he was looking for he tapped the song selection and fully took the vehicle’s controls.

Author: In light of recent events, I couldn’t think of a more appropriate song to listen to while writing this chapter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnuuYcqhzCE

District 13-14 Station

A few minutes later

The sound of very loud music neared closer as dozens of stationed Android soldiers stood aiming down the sights of their rifles from within the metallic bunkers, small buildings half inside the ground and built into the very border of the 13th district’s sphere.

There were five rectangular bunkers in total, each one having two short barrelled rotary anti-infantry turrets above. Patrolling around the old waiting area were half a dozen large machines, canine in shape and twenty feet tall on all fours the massive robots had a rotary gun for a head, shoulders, elbows and tail.

All around the station, right where the city started was a tall thirty feet high metallic wall with a twin high above at the district’s ceiling. In between each wall was a shimmering green light, a disintegration barrier. The wall down on the ground had no gate, the only way in was over the wall and through the barrier, which would result in molten metal falling down to the ground at best.

Yet the music only got closer and closer…

Off in the distance down one street taking to the wall three armoured vehicles came into view, the closer they flew the closer the music got. Already knowing the fate of their reinforcements each turret turned, each Androids aimed at and each K9 watched as the first armoured vehicle neared the barrier.

A loud cracking noise echoed throughout the station as suddenly the barrier blinked out once, twice then on the third never returned online. The barrier had been taken offline, the turrets already began to fire, Androids rushed around the bunkers taking better positions whilst K9s rushed towards the vehicles then leaped up at them.

All hell let loose, all the while the music was turned up higher.

Sly swerved over one K9 as it leaped up with it’s long curved metallic claws trying to grapple the twice as large vehicle, firing every rotating gun on it’s body as it did sending electrically charged metallic projectiles at the Rider.

The turrets burst fired at the three Riders, in perfect cohesion with the K9s as they leaped and harassed them. Two of the K9s managed to grapple onto the last Rider, slowly tearing away at it’s armour with it’s rotary guns at close range but the Riders had managed to reach the station’s entrance.

An entrance that had been sealed.

The three Riders landed in front of the entrance, one’s back faced the sealed wall while the other two faced the incoming K9’s. The turrets turned to full auto as they did so, shredding the two lightly armoured K9s that had hung on.

The Rider with a busted back revealed York and Lesha in it’s doorway as their arms changed turning into two wide metallic cylinders with a green lens at the front, the other Rider facing the entrance opened up it’s back as three thugs aimed a large rocket launcher out of it.

The remaining four K9’s charged at the open Riders, their rotary guns in full auto and aimed at the defenceless Androids and thugs. Yet suddenly a red light blasted out from both Riders, a barrier of red light grew in a semi-circle around the vehicles blocking the K9’s and turret’s gunfire.

The three rocket wielding thugs fired away their weapons releasing an instant blue beam of light each, each piercing through a K9 and blowing it up in a white flash. York and Lesha’s weapon arms glowed a mild green similar to Shelbert’s as three bursts of green flew at the last K9, weaker than the rocket launchers the small blasts of green were also much slower.

The K9 evaded most of the blasts but got hit by three, having it’s tail and front right leg destroyed. Yet it continued charging forward, no longer firing it’s guns the K9’s sole objective became to enter the red barriers and get into range.

When suddenly another green blast exploded on it’s left hind leg sending it tumbling over, a second hit it’s back on the way down and a third it’s chest as it lay on the ground leaving it disabled.

The third Rider’s back opened -the one with a busted ceiling- revealing Zey holding up a large weapon under her right shoulder “Time to blast this bitch open!” she exclaimed with wild eyes as Tell stood beside her seemingly explaining the weapon’s controls.

She ignored him completed whilst pulling on the weapon’s trigger, a bar of light began charging up on the weapon’s side as Tell’s face drained of all colour. The bar lit up to seven bars, eight, nine and at ten the barrel shone a dim dark violet before a dark light-like energy blasted out of the weapon and slammed into the sealed entrance made of metal.

The energy pierced through the metal like a hot knife into butter, Zey laughed madly as she moved the weapon around like a laser pointer and cut out an entrance out of the thick metallic wall. Having some problems turning the weapon off she swerved to the side accidentally blasting a bunker and melting a turret off it’s top before Tell rushed to the weapon’s controls as it’s bar beamed from white to red.

Being covered by the red barriers the turrets had long stopped firing and being out of K9s the Android soldiers began rushing out of the bunkers and towards the barriers to get into firing range. As they did the thugs all ran out and began taking shots at the androids, their projectiles going cleanly through the barrier while any fire coming from the outside was negated by them.

Sly walked out of the Rider alongside Six and Check “Fucking one-ways, talk about making them choke on their own medicine.” He exclaimed with a chuckle while glancing at the red barrier and firing away with his own pistol “Lesha get that thing open!”.

The demon possessed Androids turned to his order and walked over the to cut metal wall as the pseudo trench war went on around her, raising her large android arms as they changed back to hands she slammed her palms to the wall as the joints of her robotic body opened up releasing white smoke. Lesha pushed and alongside a creaking metallic sound of metal sliding off metal she pushed the slab of cut metal inside and to the ground opening the entrance up.

No android had made it into the red barrier yet, each being shot down before they made it anywhere close. Most of the androids had remained inside the bunkers and were firing at the barriers to take up the vehicle’s energy reserves but weren’t getting much further either.

“Load back up! These things can’t move with the barriers up!” exclaimed Tell as he managed to convince Zey to drop the laser weapon, it’s charge bar beeping from white to red like a ticking bomb.

Quickly the thugs rushed to get back inside the Riders, not liking their odds of gun fighting Androids without the barrier. As the last thug made it inside York stepped to stand at the very back of the Rider with the busted back, kneeling down he raised his robotic arms ahead and a blue barrier shimmered to life shielding them from fire.

“In we go!” said Sly over the loudspeaker alongside the loud music that was still going on repeat.

The three Riders rose from the ground and after Colorado’s turned around one by one they made their way through the cut open entrance followed by several shots from the turrets. The androids still inside the bunkers all rushed out and charged to the now open entrance, taking position on either side they took a single glance inside to see only darkness.

None of them noticed that the thugs had left behind a very rapidly beeping weapon. The laser weapon’s bar turned completely red as black energy suddenly surged out of it and exploded into a dark purple blast covering the entire entrance briefly before dissipating into falling dirt and smoke.