Chapter 40 – Crazy Taxi
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I stare at all the vehicles surrounding us and the guns pointed in our direction. Waywright’s got some hellish connections, not that you’d need to give the cops much of a reason to come after me if they heard my name. But if the police have never stopped us before, why would they be able to when we’re like this? Shaking my head with a smirk, I slowly begin to raise my hands, my eyes darting about for a way out.

“...Break.”

Cat glances to the side at me.

“Are you sure Sue-Zee will be safe through that?”

My gaze shoots to Niamh, the snake giggling and nodding in response.

“Everyone will be safe, darling.”

“Then get ready.”

My partner nods at me as my hands reach their apex...only to pull one down and summon my guitar, wind at our backs as I strum and the enemies lock and load.

“She’s got a weapon!” I hear one of the idiots shout, bullets being flung our way the very next moment. 

As Niamh whips up ice and mists to handle the projectiles behind us, I zip to the side and scoop up Sue-Zee in my arms, making way for Cat to kick a sun bomb directly at the line of cars, her movements quickened by the wind that trails behind her attack. Wispy solar flares flicker off of the bomb before BOOM!! Cars and folks are sent flying, clearing a path for us as the sound of tired screeching can already be heard behind our mad dash out.

“So, any brilliant ideas to get us outta this jam, Fox?”

Cat brings up a good point, we can’t just exit the city normally with them on our trail lest we risk them finding out where we live. The last thing we want is to hide only for them to force their way into people’s homes looking for us. What to do...

“Ah! We’ve got something that can help!” Sue exclaims in my arms, reaching for her wristwatch to turn some dials and beep some buttons. “It’ll take a sec, but you shouldn’t have a problem outspeeding them, right…?”

I give our navigators a nod before flinching at the sound of more gunshots, looking behind us to see a hoard of vehicles swarming behind us. They’re speeding faster than any cars I’ve seen move before, fast enough to keep up with us even! Always hated how they got exempted from the ban on cars…

Niamh is able to handle the gunfire that could’ve hit us and Cat manages to toss some lantern bombs that send some of the vehicles swerving out of control, causing them to crash each other or a nearby streetlamp. That seems a whole lot less effective compared to the heavier trucks pulling in. What the fuck why do they have military grade automobiles in the city?! We twist and turn throughout Monorise, finding more police giving chase every which way, the hell kind of budget do they give these lunatics?!

Beep-beep-beep.

“It’s here! Turn left”

We follow our navigator’s guidance and turn, finding another truck screeching towards us and stopping, looking both much more heavy duty than the police trucks, yet much more shoddy and clearly not police owned. In fact, it looks a lot like Sue-Zee’s mechanical arms…

“Oh my god you two, you built a whole ass truck?!” I exclaim in disbelief.

We stop by its side, hurrying in with Sue-Zee nodding and smiling at me as they get in the driver’s seat. They start it up with a loud rumble.

“We find a lot of neat things at the scrapyard!”

“Do you even have a driver’s license, or any practice at all?!” Cat asks frantically.

“Don’t worry about it!” they answer, tires screeching as our pursuers turn the corner. “Just focus on taking them out with full force now!”

 

I nod and grin. Looking up, I find a sliding panel that I open to peek out at the cars and trucks trailing us. Their bullets leave small dents in our vehicle’s thick hull. Full force, huh? My hands make the motions once again, clicking and clacking their way around my windy instrument of destruction before I hop up and take a seat on the lip of the opening.

Pshoooo-- BOOM!!

A single rocket sends a whole bunch of cars spinning away, even making the heavier vehicles swerve and sway. I duck back down as the hail of fire continues, putting together my next weapon as quickly as I can before peering back up and over with just my head and arms, aiming my sniper rifle and shooting my windy bullets at the trucks’ tires and where I hope there are engines.

I start to feel pretty tired after a few shots, my mana being drained quick by these attacks. Thankfully my work made a serious dent in their forces, leaving just a few trucks trailing us. I slide back down and Cat looks at me, furrowing her brow and crawling out from the passenger’s seat to hop out and take her turn on the offensive.

I peek my eyes over the edge of the opening and watch as Niamh fends off the waves of projectiles thrown our way, some of those bullets looking quite a bit bigger than should be legal… There’s even teargas and the like being hurled at us!

“Cloud glove, snake. I’m gonna need some extra firepower from you.”

Niamh ooo’s at Cat, wrapping a layer of clouds around her paw before throwing some dark clouds above, matching Cat’s timing as she stomps on the roof of the truck, shaking it something fierce to summon another burning streetlamp ahead of our vehicle. She reaches to the side as she approaches it and tears it out off the ground, holding it high and waiting for Niamh’s lightning to strike. Power courses through her light just like our first encounter with the snake. My partner spins the entire thing in her palm before reeling it back like a javelin, sending it hurtling towards the remaining trucks with an almighty throw, the giant projectile exploding on the street into a mass of fire and electricity. The attack blows all the remaining enemies away, leaving them charred to a crisp and shocked to bits! Alright, bit of an exaggeration, the cars are heavily fortified yet out of commission, as we can see from the folks crawling out of their totalled vehicles. Cat and I pump our fists as we turn one last corner, only to find our victory short lived.

“Uhh…guys…?” Sue-Zee mutters pointing ahead at the gigantic police truck taking up all lanes in front of us. 

Alright, if we do end up talking to higher ups in this city over Ascended stuff, the police budget, fuck it, the police in general will not go unnoted.

“FLOOR IIIIIIIT!!” I shout.

 I pull Cat and Niamh down as Sue-Zee slams their foot on the gas and spins the wheel because our fucking lives depend on it. The roar of the giant truck’s engine is guttural and utterly terrifying, even more so as we watch it speed in our direction!

“Hey Niamh, you got a vendetta against giant automobiles?” Cat asks hopefully.

“Sorry, kitten, I only started making enemies again once I joined you all~”

My partner groans and shakes her head, looking to me as I hold my chin, deep in thought.

“Please tell me you’ve got something really smart going on in that pretty noggin of yours, hun.”

“...Rail-Sentence.”

Cat stares at me dumbfounded, but I can already hear Zee laughing almost maniacally from the front seat.

“Are you fucking CRAZY, FOX?!” Zee shouts, an excitement underlying their shock at my suggestion.

“Maybe. Just a little. I believe in us. C’mon, speed up!”

“Going as fast as this thing’ll let us!”

My partner is still very confused by what’s going on, looking between me and our navigators frantically.

“Would someone please tell me how we’re dealing with this thing?!”

“...Actually, we need you. I mean, I always need you, but--you know what I mean!” I shake my head and huff. “We need you on the back of this truck and you’ve got to light a fire under its ass, speed us up!”

Cat stares at me for a moment before nodding, hopping back out and hanging onto the back of the truck while Niamh protects her from the fucking cannon balls being shot at us, what the fuck!

With her free hand, my partner whips out a spotlight and lights it up. A giant flame bursts from it, sending our ride FLYING forward. This makes it even harder for Sue-Zee to control but we’re gaining distance now! Turning a corner, I let out a deep breath and hop into the passenger’s seat, Zee and I looking at one another and nodding. Before the giant truck has even turned the corner, our navigators drift and skid, making a u-turn and flooring it once more.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ALL DOING IN THERE?!” Cat screams.

“JUST KEEP SPEEDING US UP!! TRUST ME!!”

I am the luckiest girl in the whole damn world that my partner trusts me as much as she does, pushing us forward as I lean over the edge of my seat. Niamh must have caught on to our plan, because I start to feel extra soft and pillowy clouds filling the interior of the vehicle just as I start to focus my magic. Just like with our combo attack earlier, our speeding forward brings about the sound of a speeding train, only this time, it’s a GIANT windy train chugging around our vehicle. Cat’s added speed brings even more force to the upcoming impact. I can practically see the regret plastered all over the front of the huge truck as it turns the corner to see me pumping my fist in time with the sound of a train’s whistle.

“ARE YOU READY, FOX?!”

“I WAS BORN READY, ZEE!!”

“HERE IT COMES-- RAIL-SENTENCE!!” we shout simultaneously.

The windy train crashes into our target with such force that it begins caving in the hull of their truck before pushing even harder as the enemy vehicle is sent up and over our own, flipping it over before it crashes down behind us! And thanks to Niamh, the impact inside is cushioned.

My magic begins to dispel and Sue-Zee drives just a bit further to round a few corners until, oh hey, it’s the scrapyard! Once the vehicle has stopped, we open our doors, practically tumbling out covered in clouds. I stand up and shake my head, dusting clouds off myself and walking around to the back of the truck, only to find… Cat. Stuck to the back of the truck as if she were duct taped there with clouds, her face the picture of utmost displeasure.

“Laugh and I’m breaking up with you.”

But I can’t help it. That entire encounter, the final moments, and now this! I burst out with laughter as I help peel Cat off the back of the truck, the girl groaning and shaking her head.

“It’s a good thing I love you so much, you know that?”

Snrk-- Ehe-- Pfffhehehe! I love you too, stay puft marsh-meow-llow ma’am.”

Sue and Zee join us as Cat punches me in the arm, followed shortly by a full sized Niamh. We all look at each other in silence before a small snicker puts us all into a laughing fit, Niamh pulling each of us in with her wings as we hug and laugh it out.

“That was so freakin’ stupid,” Cat says.

“But it was awesome stupid!” Zee adds, my partner rolling her eyes and smiling at them as we all step back from the embrace.

“This is exactly why I like you human and Ascended types,” Niamh sighs wistfully with her cheek in her palm, looking up to the sky. “Well, I believe my job here is done. I’ll see you all again soon enough~”

We all nod and say our goodbyes as the serpent woman soars into the sky, up up and away, beyond our vision.

 

...Only to be replaced by another flying fuck.

“Yoooo, furry fucks!”

“Hi, Jay…” I groan through a smirk.

Thankfully, my partner is already pulling out the tiara from Minhocão. She throws it at the bird as if she were playing ringtoss with his head, but Jay catches it before it lands.

“Hey pal, you missed!”

“Shut up and give us our money, bird brain,” Cat says, getting a snicker out of the bird as he inspects the treasure.

“Not bad, not bad… Not my style though, so I’m taxing you for that--”

“I’ll make a roast out of you, bitch.”

Jay holds his hands up defensively, not at all hiding the smugness on his face. “Eyy. Eyyy. C’mon. Be nice. It’s my birthday. I’ma lil birthday bird. C’mooon.”

We both roll our eyes as Jay hands Cat our payment, only for us to notice that Sue-Zee had been hiding on the other side of the truck this entire time, peeking out at us.

“I-is it really his birthday…?” they ask.

I shake my head. “It’s not his birthday, he’s always been a kidder.”

But as I turn back to Jay, I see an odd expression on his face as he stares at our navigators.

“...Hey, ain’t you--”

“Nope! Nope nope nope nope we’re not here! Goodbye!”

Thus, Sue-Zee hides completely behind the truck. Jay squints with a feathery hand to his chin. But he just shrugs.

“Whatever. Not my division. Smell ya later, losers. Oh, and thanks for getting the pigs off our back for the night, the underworld thanks ya~”

As he flies off, Cat and I move to find our navigators sitting on the ground, seeming pretty shaken.

“...Hey you two, are you going to be okay…?”

They sigh and nod, taking my hand as I offer it and pulling themselves up.

“Let’s just get out of here, please. I really don’t like being in the city, especially at this time of night.”

We give them a nod and begin making our way out. It’s Cat’s turn to carry Sue-Zee, leaving me to pat the side of our trusty vehicle in appreciation of all its hard work tonight. With that, we set off for Railsent, just as we always do. 

I’m thankful for our luck as we near the town, as there don’t seem to be any more patrols. At least, not on the outside of town, allowing us to make it to our raggedy shack safe and sound.

Cat puts Sue-Zee down and the duo sighs, shaking their head.

“Hey, uhh…could we stay at your place for the night? I’d feel a lot safer with some friends around, not gonna lie.”

Cat and I look at one another and nod, smiling over at our navigators.

“It’s pretty run down, but we do have two beds, so as long as you can weather the lack of heating…”

Sue-Zee cocks their head at me.

“Won’t you need both beds? We wouldn’t want to intrude and have to share a bed with y’all.”

“U-uhh, no, Sue-Zee, Cat and I share a bed.”

“...Then what’s the point of having two beds???”

I snort at that. Cat shakes her head and sighs, opening the door and ushering the duo in.

“Don’t…don’t worry about it.”

My partner makes us all something to snack on before we hit the hay, Sue and Zee making themselves comfortable in my bed as Cat and I get cozy in her’s.

“How’re you feeling, kitty?” I ask as I slide under the sheets and find myself being pulled closer by my partner, giggling as I snuggle up close to her.

“I’m alright hun. Maybe. I dunno.”

I look up at her with concern, tilting my head before nuzzling my muzzle up to her cheek.

“What’s the matter, Cat?”

“I dunno. It feels gross, but…I guess I just feel kinda jealous.”

“Jealous? About the duet thing?”

“Yeah, I think so…”

Her tail begins wrapping around my leg, and I wrap mine around her waist.

“It’s just. Ugh…you got to fuse with them. They got to fuse with you. I can’t even tell what I’m more jealous of!”

“Well…next time, you can fuse with them. They were really excited to do it with me, I have no doubt they’ll love to have a chance to do it with you.”

“Mmm…yeah…I guess…”

“Plus… No one else gets to hold me like this…or…do this with me…”

I lean up and press my lips to hers, Cat’s hands coming up to the back of my head as she tilts her head and holds me into our kiss for a good while.

“Mmm… Fox…”

“Hmm…?”

“...I love you so much.”

“I love you more than anything, kitty.”

Her quiet purring fills our night with a wondrous joy, holding each other close as we fall into the slumber of another night together.

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