Chapter 13: Aerial Assassin

“Fourteen, fourteen times we’ve attempted to transport Eve and she’s dodged every single one of them,” Wheeler complained.

“Actually I’m pretty sure we’re up to fifteen” Abeona pointed out.

Wheeler had barely come to terms with the morality of what he was doing. He didn’t expect physically pulling it of to be this difficult. Yet here was Eve, outmanoeuvring him at every turn. “How the hell does she keep dodging me?”

“Don’t worry, it happens to a lot of trucks. Just relax and we can try again.” Abeona quipped.

Wheeler’s horn blared in frustration. “I’m not in the mood for your *HONK*ing joking and innuendos right now.

Abeona seemed to oblivious to Wheeler’s obvious irritation. “We just need to try a different position.”

“What did I say about the innuendos?” Wheeler shot.

“I mean attack from a different angle.” Explained Abeona.

Wheeler began listing of the multiple failed attempts he had made to transport Eve. “If you haven’t noticed, we are fast running out of angles. I’ve tried driving direct at her at full speed, I've tried reversing, I’ve tried swerving, I’ve tried side on...”

Abeona interrupted him. “But we haven’t tried from above.”

“Ok, how exactly do you propose I do that? I’m not sure if you knew this, but trucks aren’t know for being capable of flight.” An increasingly exasperated Wheeler spat.

“They aren’t know to backchat either, but that doesn’t stop you.” The goddess snarked back.

“So does that mean I can fly?” Wheeler began fantasising about soaring through the sky. He’d never have to worry about traffic again.

Abeona’s charm figure rolled its eyes, “No that would be impossible.” She then segued immediately into outlining her plan, “First we need to get onto the roof of Eve’s building, for that your gonna have to climb up the drainpipe .”

“Ah yes, let me just set my gearbox to the climb setting”. Wheeler’s gearstick started shifting wildly searching for the non-existent option. “Oh wait, what a surprise I don’t have one.” His internal voice was bristling with steadily rising anger once more.

“You need to go into miniature mode smart ass.” Explained Abeona. “Then from there, since you’ll weigh far less, the special tires I built you with will allow you to stick to and scale walls. It’s kind of like your a gecko and the tires are your sticky feet. You should be able to drive right up the inside of the drainpipe.”

Wheeler exasperated, had at this point given up on questioning Abeona. It seemed calling her out on her nonsense, always led to a somehow even more ridiculous explanation. He just listened quietly as she continued to outline her insane scheme.

“From there you drive into the guttering, onto a roof while still in miniature mode.” Abeona continued. “Then we wait until Eve comes out. At that exact moment we drive of the roof, return to full size and crush her from above. She’ll never see us coming.”

So with that, Wheeler found himself in miniature mode, slowly driving up the drainpipe. The inside of the plastic pipe was coated in slimy, decaying, leaves which squealed under his wheels. Fortunately these actually seemed to provide more purchase for him to scale upwards. Eventually he reached the top and was perched on the roof of the building which housed Eve’s dorm room.

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Abeona’s charm, peered though Wheeler’s windscreen while seated in the drivers seat. Unlike Wheeler, the Abeona charms size was unchanged, which meant it took much more space of his now tiny cabin. “Wait for my signal” the goddess demanded.

Wheeler, like he had done for every previous attempt, turned of haptic feedback, then quietly awaited Abeona’s signal.

Inside the dorm, Eve was getting ready to leave to do her usual early morning raining at the campus gym. After drinking her own cup of coffee, She switched the machine back on so it would be ready for Lily once she awoke.

She put her hands inside the pockets of her tracksuit, finding the note safely tucked inside, just as she’d left it the night before. Clutching hold of it, she closed her eyes. Was this the right thing? Would this be the final time she’d end up encountering this mysterious metal assailant?

Eve cast the complicated questions from her mind, wishing to avoid thinking about what she was about to do too deeply.

She opened the front door and looked around, confirming no truck was in sight. Although she was certain it would put in an appearance at some point. The past week it hadn’t been a question of if a truck would try to run her down, but when.

“Whoever you are, Wherever you are” she whispered into the world, hoping that somehow, the one behind the truck attacks could hear her. “It’s been fun, but if this is to be the last time, then give me your best shot... then watch me dodge it!” She smiled at her quiet declaration. With that she stepped out the front door onto the street.

“NOW!” Abeona shouted at Wheeler, giving him the green light to set their plan in motion.

Wheeler accelerated forward full force, down the sloping roof and ramping off the guttering. Moments after his wheels left the gutters surface, he returned to full size. The sudden increase in his mass, caused Wheeler to come crashing down to earth at high speed.

*SMASH* He hit the ground like a meteorite, the impact shattering the concrete of the sidewalk below. A cloud of dust and debris was flung into the air, obscuring Wheeler’s vision, preventing him from seeing what became of Eve

“No way she avoided us this time!” cackled Abeona in triumphant glee.

As the dust settled, it slowly revealed a swift figure moving within it, gracefully pirouetting away from the devastation.

That initial celebration of victory, had been somewhat premature. Poised on all fours a few feet from where they had crash landed, was Eve. Her tracksuit was now filthy, but she herself was unharmed.

“NO *HONK*ING WAY.” the pair of attempted aerial assassin’s exclaimed in unison. Wheeler’s horn honked in a cacophonic chorus, signalling his internal disbelief to the outside world.

Eve grinned as she heard the bellowing horn blare. “Feeling frustrated? Have to hand it to you that was close, I’m not even sure where you came from.” She picked herself off the floor and pulled the note from her pocket. “Now its my turn to hit you with something, take this!”

Eve started sprinting full force towards a stunned Wheeler.

“What the hell is she doing? We’re meant to be charging at her!” Wheeler exclaimed.

“Who cares, just drive at her now!” Abeona demanded.

As Wheeler tried to drive forward he found himself unable to move. The sidewalk underneath him had been completely obliterated, his wheels just span uselessly on the shattered shards of stone and cement.

His engine roared under the strain of trying to advance out of the hole Wheeler had found himself in. Meanwhile Eve was getting closer by the second. A panicked Wheeler yelled at Abeona, “She’s coming right at us!”

“Technically isn’t that exactly what we’d want her to do?” Abeona pointed out.

The dodgeball prodigy flipped onto Wheeler’s bonnet with an audible thud. Then she crawled up to the windscreen and tucked something under the trucks wiper.

As she did Wheeler finally was able to get enough grip on the ground to lurch forward, finally freeing himself as Eve clung to his bonnet.

“We’ve got her now! Drive, drive, drive”! Chanted Abeona encouragingly.

Wheeler’s movements were to slow and sluggish. As he juddered forward, Eve simply rolled off him to one side.

Wheeler, despite still being numb with his haptic feedback disabled, couldn’t help notice the difficulty he was having moving.

“Shit...” Abeona’s voice was seemingly, for the first time, filled with concern. “Wheeler, we’ve got to get out of here immediately.”

“Why? What about Eve?” Wheeler asked, confused by Abeona’s sudden urgency.

“Forget her for now, we can always try again later, but if you don’t go now, there may not be a later.” The goddess warned.

As Wheeler departed the scene, Lily came charging out, still in her pyjamas, with her curly hair in a mess. “Eve, I heard a crash, are you alright?” She paused as she felt the broken pieces of sidewalk under her bare feet. Quickly she grasped the door frame to avoid sliding into the pit that now lay outside the front door.

“What the hell happened?” she demanded.

Eve tried to play off the devastation around them. “Oh just our friendly neighbourhood truck tried to attack me again.” She said nonchalantly before giving a cheeky wink. “I still dodged it though.”

“Did it have a bomb strapped to it this time?” Lily spat, while gesturing at the smashed sidewalk and ripped up road surrounding them.

Before Eve could answer, they noticed several people from the surrounding buildings gathering outside their houses. Pointing at and discussing the chaotic scene.

Eve quickly bounded over and began shepherding Lily back indoors. “You better get dressed, everyone is staring at your pyjamas.”

“Umm... I’m pretty sure they are actually looking at the massive hole on our doorstep.” Lily retorted.

Eve attempted to shift the topic of conversation away from the truck. “Where did you get those anyway they look cute on you.”

Taken aback by the sudden compliment, Lily blushed as Eve pulled her inside. “They’re cu... cute on me?” she stuttered.

“Yeah, sure” Eve reassured as she took Lily indoors, away from the carnage and curious eyes outside.

Meanwhile, Wheeler was fleeing the scene of the incident. Two questions nagged at his mind. Why had Abeona been so insistent on leaving and two, why couldn’t he drive properly?

He recognised the familiar disconnection from the world around him, which reminded that he forgot to turn his haptic feedback on after the failed attack. He reengaged the function to regain his physical feelings once more.

As Wheeler did, he heard Abeona’s voice cry out to him. “No Wheeler, wait!”

He skidded to a sudden halt as his giant truck body was wracked by an intense sensation he hadn’t expected...

PAIN!