"We're almost on them!" a mobster yelled, finally breaking through the defenses and closing in on Mo Wang's van. Seeing the ordinary-looking vehicle, a sadistic grin spread across his face.
"You dare to bring this piece of junk to the Outskirts? You ignorant city slickers are about to get a taste of our Outskirts hospitality!" he roared, and pulled out an RPG.
But in the next instant, he froze.
With a press of a button, the speeding van began to transform.
"Wh-what the hell is happening?!" Pullman screamed, clinging to the seat in front of him for dear life. Miyabi, in the passenger seat, was equally dumbfounded.
K-CHUNK! K-CHUNK! K-CHUNK!
The van's exterior panels flipped, folded, and reassembled like a Transformer. The doors shot open, revealing a complex mechanical interior. The roof split in two and slid to the sides, and a cannon, a good twenty centimeters in diameter, popped out and aimed directly at the mobster's face.
The mobster's smile froze, his expression shifting from arrogant to confused, then to terrified, and finally settling on a look of "am I f*cking seeing things?"
"Welcome to the city's tech, you Outskirts hick," Mo Wang said with a cheerful grin, and pressed the fire button.
BOOM!
A blinding beam of light erupted from the cannon, vaporizing the mobster, his RPG, his custom car, and the entire line of goons behind him.
The remaining mobsters slammed on their brakes, their tires screeching as they skidded to a halt. "B-boss!" the leader stammered into his walkie-talkie. "The van... it... it transformed!"
"Are you f*cking high?! A van can't transform! What did it turn into, a steamed bun?!"
"N-no... it turned into... an Italian cannon!!!"
"RUN!!!"
The rest of the mob scattered in a panic.
The sheer power of the blast had stunned not only the mobsters but also Nicole and the others following behind.
"Belle, is that... the van you use for deliveries? Are you sure that's all it's used for?" Yanagi asked, her face a mask of disbelief.
"P-probably. Most of the time, anyway," Belle replied, her own expression just as stiff.
(Brother, when did you turn our van into this monstrosity?! And how much did it cost?!)
"Damn it! The intel said he was just a video store owner! Where did he get this thing?!" the leader of the fake military unit snarled. Anyone with half a brain could see the devastating power of that cannon.
"Damn it, those useless mobsters all ran away!"
But while the mob could flee, they couldn't. They were members of the organization.
"We have no choice. Signal the mercenaries. We're going in!" the commander ordered.
A new wave of well-equipped mercenaries began to close in on them.
"Well, this is a problem. These guys aren't as easy to deal with as the last bunch," Harumasa said, a grim expression on his face.
"Looks like they're not playing around anymore. Alright, you two, hold on tight. I'm hitting the gas," Mo Wang said with a nonchalant shrug.
He pressed a red button on the center console.
[Nitrous boost system activated. Please fasten your seatbelts. Countdown in 3, 2, 1—]
"W-wait! What's a nitrous bo—"
WHOOSH!
Four giant rocket boosters erupted from the back of the van, blasting the road with a torrent of blue flame and launching the vehicle forward at an impossible speed.
"Was... was that a rocket?!" the mercenary leader stammered, his sunglasses cracking.
"R-report, Captain... I think I saw the wheels retract and turn into hover jets when it took off..." a soldier with binoculars said, his voice trembling.
"Bullshit!" the captain yelled, slapping the binoculars out of his hand. "What do you think this is, The Fast and the Furious in Outer Space?!"
"S-sir! What do we do now? Do we pursue?"
"Pursue?! Pursue what?! There's no way we can catch that thing!"
...
Meanwhile, at a highway toll booth three kilometers away, a bored operator was startled by a blaring alarm. He looked up just in time to see a silver blur crash through the toll gate, the display flashing [Speed: 587 km/h].
"Holy..." he stammered, and fumbled for the alarm button. "I need to report... an Italian cannon-shaped UFO just robbed the toll booth..."
Inside the van, Miyabi was plastered against the window by the G-force, her face a distorted mess. "B-b-b-boss Mo! W-w-w-we're g-g-g-going way over the sp-sp-sp-speed—"
"Relax~" Mo Wang said, steering with one hand while calmly tuning the car radio with the other. "I've got anti-radar coating. The traffic cops won't be able to clock us... ah, found it. This time of day is perfect for some 'Déjà Vu'!"
As the music blasted, the rocket boosters ignited a second time, and a sonic boom erupted in front of them.
Miyabi was speechless. She was finally beginning to understand why the Cunning Hares had looked so terrified at the prospect of riding in his van.
(What about Pullman, you ask? He had passed out from the G-force at around 500 km/h.)
"Hmm? More trouble ahead?"
A new group of armed men appeared on the road ahead and fired a projectile at them.
"What's this? That's all you've got?"
But then, Mo Wang's eyes widened. A Hollow portal had opened up in front of them. The next thing he knew, they were hurtling into it.
"Target has entered the Hollow. Send in a team to follow," the leader of the squad said into his walkie-talkie, and then they quickly departed.
...
"Our van... can go that fast?" Belle said, still staring at the spot where her brother's vehicle had disappeared.
"Well, the Boss did say he was going to go on ahead, but I didn't think he meant that fast," Harumasa said, rubbing his forehead.
"Belle, tell your brother that if he has the time, he should upgrade our vehicles too. I think Section Six could use some of that black-ops tech," Yanagi said, ever the pragmatist.
"The Boss's driving has improved since last time," Billy said with a nod.
"You call that an improvement?! I'm never getting in his car again!" Nicole said, covering her face.
Just then, the mobsters and mercenaries who had fled earlier reappeared, surrounding them.
"Well, now that the Boss is gone, I guess it's up to us to take out the trash," Billy said, his eyes narrowing.
"Well, well, well, looks like we've been cornered," Harumasa said with a whistle. "There must be at least two hundred of them."
"According to the Boss," Billy said, cracking his knuckles, "this is what you call an 'EXP piñata'."
"Cunning Hares, Section Six, I suggest you surrender peacefully," the scarred-faced commander said, as three armored cars rolled up behind him. "We're very... humane."
"Ha!" Nicole kicked open her car door. "Two hundred of you surrounding a dozen of us. You call that humane?"
Snipers' laser sights danced across her forehead, and the armored cars' cannons swiveled to aim at their cover.
"Drip drip drip!"
Suddenly, Nicole's phone rang. A message appeared on the screen, and a wide grin spread across her face.
"Not surrendering? Very well. I'll just have to leave you all here then."
Just as the commander was about to give the order to fire, a thunderous roar echoed from the distance.
"What was that?"
A giant shadow fell over them.
BOOM!
A colossal robot landed in front of them.
"Was someone just now... picking on Nicole?" Anby's cold voice boomed from the robot's speakers.
And for the mercenaries and mobsters, it was a sound that might as well have come from hell itself.