Unearthing The Hidden
“Haah,” Nol exhaled before lifting his rifle. He brought his feet to the stairs and went up. The rest followed after uncovering the fewer piles of gold. Fox saw Nol slowly getting encircled by a few figures silently moving towards him. Just as they were nearing him even more, and as Nala Loba stopped, making everyone else stay put, Nol dashed towards the closest figure.
Pi- pt- pi- pi- pi. Nol’s rifle fired away as the unknown special agent was surprised, but the latter held Nol’s rifle and tried to fight him over it. The other enemies approached closer. Nol suddenly sent a flurry of attacks to the enemy holding him off, resulting in too many hits for the latter.
Nol took the rifle off the enemy’s hands and hit their head with it before aiming its muzzle down, firing away quite a few bullets. The special agent had armor on, not something as simple as bulletproof vests, requiring for a higher fire potency for a successful slaughter.
Right after, another special agent motioned to tackle Nol down, but Nol side stepped with tapping stomps from his right foot. Evading the incoming enemy before aiming at the other still a short distance away, crouching. The enemy was surprised before their head was riddled with bullets.
The other special agent whose tackle failed returned in a hurry, but they were too late to save their comrade. However, their melee was much better. The special agent kicked Nol’s back, jolting him upwards, letting go of his rifle that flew across the air.
Nol turned around after tripping a few long steps forward, trying to counterattack, but the special agent attacked with high knees and kicks, forcing him into an immediate defensive stance. Nol was moved around like a punching bag, a resilient, high-quality bag. Blocking his head and sides.
With his sides hit nonstop, ribs, shoulders, and hip, the severity of the situation started dawning on him. Nol tried headbutting in a rare chance, but the special agent expected it. They threw their head away before biting Nol’s cheek. “Aaagh!”
Nol shrilly exclaimed before punching up towards the enemy’s throat, but they also expected it. Their hands held Nol’s wrists, forcing them to stay put in place, before kneeling Nol’s stomach again and again.
“…” - “…” Fox motioned forth, but Nala Loba crossed her arms and slightly turned her head to the right, towards him. Her eyes were downturned, not looking but looking at him at the same time. Fox ceased any further action and watched, wearing a hardened expression, albeit calm.
Even in this situation, Fox couldn’t deny how aloof, alluring, and exotic she looked. Regardless, he looked at Nol’s fight. His lips started pouring bits of blood, getting badly injured in some places of his torso.
Nol’s nostrils flared up and closed out of nowhere, a sign of breath. The special agent realized too late. Nol acted, using his left knee to block the enemy’s right knee. The special agent motioned his left knee, which Nol blocked once again with his right knee, still blocking each other with the other.
Together, they fell to the floor, landing on light steps and crouching. Nol almost formed a lock around their neck, but the special agent desperately sent a flurry of attacks with a right elbow, further worsening Nol’s right-sided torso injuries. Nol’s body weakened, unable to form a grip on the enemy’s most vulnerable extremity.
Nol was grabbed by the shoulders, thrown from one side to another with the special agent arching their back backwards, slamming Nol’s body on the ground behind them.
The special agent turned around, planning to continue and avenge their comrades, but what welcomed them was a comical yet ruthless sight. Nol’s head was hurt, indeed, against the solid ground as it bled and seemed a bit serious. However, his left foot’s arch headed to the enemy’s forehead with such, utmost precision.
Like a dancing practice gone wrong, Nol nearly hit the special agent, who dodged, self-breaking a few left ribs in the process, letting it go past their right temple, barely grazing their skin. A bloody trail was left behind, short but painful.
But just as the special agent felt the advantage coming to him again, Nol’s palms struck towards their neck. Nol had just impulsed himself upwards, using all his strength to push his forearms up from the ground.
“Mmf!” The special agent let out a soft exclamation, barely stopping Nol’s palms from breaking their neck. They still hit, just not out all-out, with less than half the strength Nol had put in his forearms.
But if the sound of the SA’s voice wasn’t enough, then the feeling of an apple from one of his palms let Nol know the SA’s sex. He immediately headbutted, finally succeeding. But this time, his target was a crotch.
“Aagh! Wua?- Ack-” Pa pa pa pa pa pa pa- bang bang! Patt patt patt patt pattth!!
Nol’s face became fierce, to say the least! His forehead crushed whatever manliness the enemy couldn’t protect in time, at last. Then, as the special agent groaned in pain, Nol kicked his lower chin with both soles of his feet. The enemy was disoriented, which Nol used to stand up, kicking him again in the face to push him against the floor.
Standing up, Nol hit the sides of the enemy’s knees, dislocating them, making the right leg bend unnaturally. Then, Nol straddled the man with both feet standing at his sides. Nol bent his back to hit the special agent. The enemy still had the guts to defend himself, which Nol had no problem letting his attacks get blocked, at first…
Once Nol had the man lift his forearms straight enough, he surprised the enemy by quickly grabbing his pistol, aiming down at the palms. The special agent only heard gunshots accompanied by terrible pain whipping his mind, turning his arms useless.
Then, Nol threw his pistol at the man’s face before resuming punching and palming, contorting his face in rage.
At the side, still waiting behind Nala Loba, Fox’s eyes slightly widened. Nala Loba looked at him, this time fully turning her head, and lightly muttered, “We don’t become Red Blood out of luck. It’s not polite to forget these things.”
“…” Fox fell a little pensive, but not too much. Nala Loba gave the wordless order, a nod, so the rest spread out and checked for guards, but there were none. They were also close to the rooftop. Nala Loba walked behind Nol, who stopped after his breathing became ragged.
Without having to treat him like a child, Nol looked back. His raging eyes became serene again, like an intelligent living being, and his breathing eased down. Seeing his recuperation, Nala Loba nodded before walking away.
Nol stood up, nearly tripping from the pain. Lyan walked to him and landed her hand on his shoulder before giving him a red and yellow pill. Then, she grabbed a paper sheet from under her clothes and put it under his clothes and uniform as he gulped those pills.
Afterwards, the team went back to surveying the building. From then on, all the way to the rooftop, they found no more people patrolling the rich storage. From the floor Nol fought, the piles of gold were less and less, probably separated like this in case the floors were affected by too much weight resting for an undetermined amount of time.
Reaching the top, the team considered how to move everything. Fox and Nala Loba stood before a group of bags and strange bag-looking contraptions. The former were resistant enough to drag the gold bars, from 2 to 5 meters long, even if they were to be hung from a high altitude. But not lasting enough. The latter, however, were mostly used for transporting through water.
The latter was not only more resistant than the former, they were also difficult to tear apart, and it offered cushion damage to whatever was held inside, as long as it wasn’t a living being.
Fox and Nala Loba looked at each other before Fox proposed, shrugging his shoulders. “If the truck can work wonderful magics, why not take those? It’ll be easier after we’re discovered.”
“After we are discovered?” Nala Loba lifted her right eyebrow, appearing exquisite, and lightly crossed her arms. Fox ruefully hooked the left corner of his mouth open.
“No, it’s a good option.” Nala Loba looked at his ‘grimace’ for 2 seconds before releasing her arms, nodding towards the water transporting bags. Fox nodded and bent over to pick some up, passing them to the others, who couldn’t help feel sore already.
“Let’s get moving.” Nala Loba grabbed a good bundle of those bags before setting the example, coming downstairs to begin. Meanwhile, the rest of her team looked at each other. They had to start from the top…
… With a few dozen bags set between the first and second floor of the building’s upper half, the team grabbed 2 each before coming down. They would have to make faster movements, but for now, they had to clear the path ahead, just in case.
And ‘case’ it was. With Nala Loba leading in front of Fox, both with their rifles up, one hand holding a bag, and the other attached to them, tied around a strap, they met a few guards walking around a corner in the distance.
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The team stopped for a moment, with Fox’s eyes locking onto them akin to a beast with prey in its sight. Nala Loba didn’t order for an attack, not yet. They continued walking forth, with the guards doing the same towards them.
They could hear the guards talking about them, but nothing to fear. Only that they couldn’t recognize them, and that no wonder there was no communication, as some were moving the gold again. However, they started to doubt just about 50 meters from the team.
“Go! Wheel, Bloodycoon!” Nala Loba crouched after shouting ‘go’, firing at the guards along Fox, who was more than attentive, and ready to kill. Nol and Lyan let go of their bags and rushed forth, taking the right. By the time they rushed onwards, Fox and Nala Loba cleared the guards.
They turned around the corner without fear or waiting another moment. Immediately, they lifted their rifles, firing away as some handguns were heard shooting from farther away.
“Alea, work the floor, we’ll go ahead of you.” Nala Loba looked back and commanded, with the redhead nodding as she let go of her bags, asking, “Who will take these then?”
Nala Loba frowned. Fox spoke at this moment, letting go of the bag in his left hand before extending it to Alea. “Let me, I won’t grow tired, nor slow everyone else down.”
“Both at the same time?” Nala Loba’s eyebrows jumped before they knitted again. Fox’s left arm remained extended. He said, “I can do it. And still hold onto my rifle.”
Not wanting to speak any further and waste time, Fox went over and grabbed the bags from Alea’s hands. She helped him a bit, but the strong grip she felt from his hand left her perplexed. Fox turned to look at Nala Loba and nodded. All she could so was nod in return before continuing. Meanwhile, Nol and Lyan finished firing after reloading once, spending half a magazine. They advanced a little while Alea returned, taking some small circular metal boxes from Akina.
On their way to the outside, with Wheel and Bloodycoon leading, Fox and Nala Loba exchanged some words, starting from Nala Loba’s part. “Does your arm make you more electric-conductive?”
“Uh? Er… I don’t know. Is it important now?” Fox hurried along, becoming startled before asking back. Nala Loba didn’t respond, frowning a bit and continuing running.
Stepping a little behind, she saw Fox’s toll on pulling 4 bags filled with gold bars. They could do it because it wasn’t that much, and their breath relaxed their bodies. It was more a matter of stamina. But when doubling the weight, it also involved strength to pull it.
While Fox seemed to have endless stamina, his body was overly stressed from the weight he was pulling.
In short time, making quick work of the guards ahead, the team exited the underground floor. They threw flashing devices, not just grenades, before going out after the guards either took cover or randomly fired, wasting their ammo.
Coming out, they barraged every single guard on sight. Even those taking cover were taken down. Their hearing aided the team recognize where others hid and killed them before they could peek out, or dare to.
They returned from where they came from, but had to stop after a minute and were forced to make another escape. Furthermore, they couldn’t jump the walls nor railings with those gold bars. So, what now?
“Let me,” Fox let go of his bags after moving for quite a while. 3 bags of golden bars made a number on the ground, lifting so much smoke it covered them and attracted attention at the same time. Nala Loba made everyone step back as Fox walked to the railing.
There was no wall around this spot, which would have made things easier if one just jumped and brought the car, but they couldn’t just throw the bags over the more than 7 meters tall railing. Knowing this, Fox extended his left arm, fearlessly gripping a few metal strings before pulling down, all in one rapid motion.
ZZZZZZZ! ZAAP!
The railing burst in shockwaves, so tense and rigid that flames burst around the hole Fox pried open. If the guards were doubting where the intruders were, this cleared their doubts a bit.
Fox gritted his teeth, but the expected pain and even possible death, or coma in the best case, never came. He looked up at the others to see if he wasn’t dead already, doubting whether he was alive when he saw they were unmoving. Out of half-fear and doubt, Fox shouted, “Go!”
Step, step! Drag~!
Everyone, except for Alea, including Nala Loba, rushed out of the hole. Then, they laid the gold outside. Nol rushed ahead, leaving his bags behind, and went for the truck. The others returned, with Nala Loba passing by him, stopping, glaring down at him kneeling on the ground with his palms against it and gasping for dear life. Then, she nodded at Akina.
Nala Loba left, with Akina helping him up. She checked his left arm, but other than a bit of heat, it was completely normal, still human-like. Fox looked at the beauty before him, who smiled when seeing he was unharmed, and said, “I guess I am.”
“Tehee. Let’s go!” Akina slapped his intact shoulder and rushed back for the gold bars. Fox’s slaughter machine mode activated. He covered Akina as she directly ran past everything, killing more than a dozen guards before running there himself.
The guards should have left in fear by now, anyone would’ve understood this was an impossible-to-solve situation. Furthermore, it wasn’t hundreds of them, like in Sargonde that night, but only a little over a hundred guards patrolling, including vehicles and entryway.
Something didn’t allow them to let go of their position. However, they wouldn’t throw away their lives. They tried holding them off, and even kill some intruders, which all ended up getting them killed instead. After a few rounds, with the secret stash leaving their facility rapidly, bag after bag, the guards were too scared to peek again, limiting themselves to wait for reinforcements.
… With Alea having softened the floor before they returned with a special dust, they simply lowered the bags down the stairs. Then, they slid them through, or kicked them, easily sending them tens of meters, enough to reach a corner, and even slightly farther.
Bag by bag, with Fox always following those bringing the bags away, and stayed a little to let Nol safely tie them to the back after they no longer fit inside the truck. It would be a heavy pull, but this was no ordinary truck, but one that Nala Loba herself requested to Colmillo.
While Fox covered for the runner, the other 3 would kick or throw the gold, chase after it a few times, and repeat until reaching the next checkpoint, which was another team member. Like this, time after time, and with little to no shots being fired at them towards the end, the gold was stuffed and then tied to the truck.
Fox let go of the last 2 bags, following closely behind the team, with Nala Loba turning to check him, covering him with her rifle. Even her just standing there and checking his rear was safe made her look gracious. However, he was too tired to let his emotions out to simulate.
“You wanna drive?” Nala Loba looked at him as Lyan and Alea helped tie the bags to the truck for him, shaking the keys. Fox shook his head, hyperventilating, “Noah- no- n… I can’t feel my legs.”
Fox walked to the truck’s co-driver seat. His brain could only think of easy things to proceed with after his body experienced such levels of stress. He walked to it with trembling legs, barely able to lift their feet off the ground, with a turtle speed pace.
Nala Loba looked at him again to confirm his speed and proceeded to cover for him until he opened the door to the co-driver’s seat. She rushed into the driver’s seat while Fox pulled himself into the truck, similarly as harsh as he did the last time.
“Let’s go,” Nala Loba murmured, letting her people feel excited about finally moving away. They only needed to get out to complete their assignation!
The truck drove through the obscured land, avoiding the hills and heading towards a large lake separating ANS from Lýmoca, one good reason the border was set there, stealing a larger chunk than necessary.
As they headed towards there; back at the facility, 3 thin, slender figures had just arrived atop a building. They wore masks, and whether they enhanced their sight or not, they stared in the direction of the truck as it headed into the lake.
VVVVUUUUUMMM… Just as the truck neared the water, and a helicopter’s light fell upon them, an obvious, thunderous sound of a plane flying nearby echoed. The helicopter immediately flew away, but still kept track of the truck, albeit it couldn’t direct its light on it again, and a not even a quarter of a moon was enough to illuminate the ground.
The plane they used before to come here, flying under the belly of a passenger airplane, moved towards the lake, seemingly in a hurry, and not specifically caring about the truck.
The helicopter had just arrived, and all they could see was some bags being dragged by the truck, which followed the routes any other programmed self-driving vehicle would take from their security measures.
Pvvvvwaaaaaaaaaang, pvvwaaang~! With this in consideration, the 2 warplanes flying towards the truck’s direction changed course, slightly arching in the sky and aiming at the plane instead. Within 2 seconds, hundreds of bullets turned it into a beehive, smelting from midair, falling with irrefutable momentum.
They also sent 2 rockets, but these were only to send powerful explosive waves, forcing the plane, which was arching far to the east, to come crashing down to the beginning of the lake in ANS’s side.
SPLASSHH… The sound of the plane crashing into the water could be heard even tens of kilometers away. Meanwhile, the truck slowly drove into the lake from the eastern riverbank, slowly becoming flooded and lost in the water.
Compared to the plane, the truck with possible fake bags was the least important, but there was still some personnel sent there. Yet, most of ANS responsive forces headed towards the plane, almost forgetting about the truck.
And in that very same truck…
Splutter, splutter, splash~~~. Fox turned his head back to watch with open, relaxed eyes, as water entered the truck from some holes beneath the windows. As for the windows, they closed with a metallic plate before it began submerging.
He didn’t dislike it, as it was a cold and comfortable, good-smelling lake water. But his mind wasn’t at ease. After sitting straight, with the water stopping flowing into the car when it reached their upper chest level, Fox turned his head to Nala Loba with a slow motion.
She looked back at him with those indifferent, aloof, cold gray and light blue eyes. Her irises were gray, her pupils light blue, but both seemed to have a bit of the other, with a notorious primary source respectively.
“We entered foreign territory, stole gold they ‘had’ from other countries, and are now successfully escaping. Am I right?” Fox voiced, feeling a rebellious, semi new emotion surge inside his chest. Nala Loba grinned a bit from the left corner of her mouth. Damn, she looked gorgeous.
“Eheh,” Nol emitted a silly chuckle. His wounds were patched by Lyan and Akina before the water flooded them.
“And now we’re returning to Lýmoca, with all this gold… how are we not sinking?” Fox wondered. Even if the truck had a ‘submarine’ feature, which he didn’t doubt as his image of Colmillo improved; with all that gold, they should’ve inclined backwards already, starting to spin nonstop. But they didn’t.
Fox thought back to when they were descending from their now long gone plane. That was when Nala Loba indifferently voiced, “This truck was part of an experimental submarine, only some military officers kept it as a souvenir.”
“In the world?” Fox wondered, surprised. Nala smiled, stupefying Fox. She shook her head, her neck; swaying all too beautifully, and shook her left index with nos before pointing at the front window. “From Lýmoca.”
Fox followed her finger, already frowning, and ended up inadvertently opening his mouth; startled, a bit stunned, but definitely taken aback.
…
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Let It Rain's note: Plot twist, Lýmoca is a country of sirens and start singing operas?!