Chapter 417: The Chase
The SUV Laz had taken wasn’t just a retail car. It had upgraded suspension, armored plating and bullet proof glass along with an engine that could pump out substantial horsepower. This type of vehicle was standard for those of the chosen who were called up to action and there were several fleets of them all over the country, built with the military budget. As for why they used these and not regular armored vehicles? These stood out a lot less.
Laz didn’t know any of this when he decided to take it and make a getaway, but he was having a hell of a lot of fun now that he was in it. Laz didn’t have a lot of experience with driving, but with his superhuman strength and enhanced senses, he was able to quickly adapt to it.
Flying down roads and over hills, Laz didn’t let off the gas once, much to Tezcatlipoca’s dismay. It had to be known that Tezcatlipoca’s ability to fly would technically allow him to go faster than this in the air. The biggest difference was that there were a lot less things in the air that you could crash into, at least back when he lived there was.
Right now though he was stuck holding on for his life to the seating assist rail and wondering just when the ride would end. Laz had gunned it almost the whole way, not even slowing down for turns but somehow getting the top heavy vehicle to actually slide around them instead. At first Tezcatlipoca was intrigued that humans could make something that travelled along the ground so fast. But after a while of hitting hills and launching themselves over them along with sliding left and right, Tezcatlipoca had a strange feeling in his stomach that he had never felt before.
"Hey. Wolf boy. Maybe you should get those spikes out of your head now while you have a chance," Laz said, laughing as he didn’t slow down for yet another turn.
"BOY. I’m not some kind of dog you can just order... WOULD YOU PLEASE SLOW DOWN!!!!" Tezcatlipoca yelled, gripping the handle again with white knuckles.
"Can’t. Pretty soon they will catch up and we will be screwed." Laz responded back, checking out the rear view mirror again.
"How would they catch up to us? Are their vehicles faster than ours?" Tezcatlipoca asked, curious. Considering how Laz was driving, he didn’t even think it was possible for others to catch them.
"Well. Sadly. I have no idea where I am going. And besides which, they have air support which I’m sure is already on our tail. So it’s just a matter of time since they will be able to find the fastest way to get us," Laz responded just as he noticed a spot light illuminate the SUV from above.
"And that’s them. Come on. I’ll yank them out for you," Laz said reaching over with a smile as though helping a friend with some small task.
Tezcatlipoca recoiled and moved to the side which didn’t help much since the stakes were keeping his head from moving around too much.
"Just keep us steady. I can do it on my own," Tezcatlipoca responded, upset.
’How dare this human act like we are friends. As soon as I get these things out, I’m gone. I’ve assisted him enough and got him out of that dangerous situation. My debt is paid and my conscious is clear,’ Tezcatlipoca told himself as he went to work.
One might think in this situation that removing the stakes would lead to a lot of blood loss, but just like how acupuncture is pretty gore free, so were these stakes in the gods head. Taking them one at a time and using his energy in controlled blasts, he was able to pry the stakes out one at a time.
Just as Tezcatlipoca was about to remove the last stake, located in the very front of his temple, Laz slammed on the brakes and the car came to a quick and unexpected stop, causing Tezcatlipoca to ram his head on the dashboard and drive the stake in deeper.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" Tezcatlipoca yelled as he winced in pain.
"What? There was something in the road and I didn’t want to hit it..." Laz said with a rather shy sounding voice.
"THERE WAS NOTHING IN THE ROAD!" Tezcatlipoca roared back his eyes tearing up as he tried looking.
"Sure there was. It was a cat... or maybe a chipmunk. Not sure. I was moving pretty fast and it dashed away right after we stopped," Laz said, sound hurt at the accusation.
"YOU LITTLE PIECE OF..." Tezcatlipoca started flinging curses before noticing the sly smile on Laz’s face. The stake wasn’t out yet and now it would take longer to pry it loose. And if Laz kept doing these again and again, only Tezcatlipoca would suffer.
Tezcatlipoca quickly shut his mouth after thinking about it.
As they were sitting there, a loud noise and a huge gust of wind rushed past them, causing Tezcatlipoca to look out his window and attempt to see it.
Laz just started up the car again while grinning and muttering something about the unicorn getting to candy mountain before he gunned it and took off again. Tezcatlipoca started the slow process of removing the stake from even deeper now. The only reason he could do it was because it was he himself who had developed these restraints in the past, never knowing that they would actually be used on himself.
Laz did have a reason to stop. He wanted to see just how many helicopters were chasing them and now he had his answer. Laz considered himself lucky that they were still in the hills of Colorado and therefor had an abundance of trees to hide underneath. Still though, now that there was at least one chopper radioing their position, many more would soon be showing up.
Laz knew he was running out of time and options. He needed to find someplace to stop, hide the vehicle and try to escape on foot. He would be a lot slower that way, but at least he would be a lot harder to find too since he would no longer have to stick to the road. And now was the only time to do that since most of the rest of the pursuit hadn’t caught up yet.
Looking ahead, Laz noticed the sign for a town ahead that looked super faded, so much so that while his eyesight, he was barely able to read the name of the town as Tin Cup.
"What a fucking weird name for a town..." Laz said out loud as he turned to look at Tezcatlipoca, only to notice an empty seat next to him.
"That son of a bitch ditched me before I could ditch him. Somehow I’m not too mad though. I wonder if I ever mentioned how infrared tracking worked? Ah well... he’ll figure it out soon enough I guess. Either way, Tin Cup, here I come," Laz said with a smile as he shot along the now gravel road, straight into a certified ghost town.
Tezcatlipoca hid behind a patch of trees just off the side of the road, his breathing labored much more so than a gods should have been. After he removed the final stake, he gentle set it in the back of the car, opened the door that he had figured out how to work and exited the car, all while Laz was distracted trying to read the town sign ahead. He figured that Laz would notice he was gone soon, but didn’t think it matter since there was nothing he could do about it.
Tezcatlipoca took a deep breath, the first in a while, while pondering what to do with his new found freedom. He knew that the first and most important thing was to quickly regain his strength and decided to hide himself while he tried to channel the energy into himself. Had he had his space sack from five hundred years again, there were several medicines and pills that could have helped him in this endeavor, but the sack had been taken away when his parents had found him and locked him up for his crimes.
As Tezcatlipoca rested his back along the sturdy tree, he could hear the sounds of air craft blasting by over head and soon he could even hear the vehicles approaching. Knowing he was hidden from view, Tezcatlipoca invoked a cloak of darkness to further hide his body, just in case they were shining lights on the tree line as they went by. Tezcatlipoca could have never imagined what would happen next as several of the vehicles stopped just off the side of the road where he was resting.
Just as a bad feeling started to hit the pit of his stomach, in came a barrage of gun fire and grenade rounds blasting apart the tree he was sitting behind along with the area all around him.
Furious, Tezcatlipoca stood up and decided to teach these humans a lesson they wouldn’t be alive to learn, just as several loud click could be heard coming from above before chopper mounted machine guns started laying waste to what ever was left standing.
"FUCK THIS!" Tezcatlipoca yelled and took off, knowing that with his weakened body, he wouldn’t be able to take the blasts from those huge guns.
Just as he got up and made a mad dash deeper into some thick woods, he could hear yelling coming from the open bays of the helicopter that one of the targets has just been spotted along.
"FUCK ME!" Tezcatlipoca yelled, not caring who heard as him. Reaching down deep, Tezcatlipoca found another burst of speed and ran harder, this time knowing he wasn’t alone.
"How did they find me?" Tezcatlipoca asked himself over and over again, but the only answer he got was gunfire aimed straight at him and a picture in his mind of a ginning Laz.
