"Come on... Come on..." Diamondback telepathically muttered. Fifteen minutes after he gave the orders, he was still the only person standing outside EarthGov Headquarters. Now, tapping his foot, he stared at the entrance, hoverboard in hand. "The hell's taking 'em so long?" Suddenly aware of a faint whirring noise made by a hoverboard, Diamondback glanced upwards. The noise gradually grew louder, and suddenly, Avatar and Ripple burst through an open window a couple floors up and rapidly fell to the ground, using the hoverboards they were riding to slow their fall.
"What is it with you two and entrances?" Diamondback said with a laugh. "You wouldn't know these things are illegal inside HQ," he added, getting a couple of laughs. "Where's everyone else?"
"Checking their weapons, mainly," Ripple explained. "When you said we were walking it, some of them also went to find alternate transportation."
"What do you mean by 'alternate transportation...'" Diamondback's question was answered before he could completely ask it, as four hoverbikes roared around the corner of the Headquarters and joined the small group, Gravedigger, Vaxoin, Dakota, and Shell X riding them. "...That answers my question. But where's Andrea?"
"Her hoverboard was... uh... having some trouble," Avatar explained. Diamondback slapped his forehead. "It wasn't anything major, so she took it upon herself to fix it. She said she'd catch up with us." Diamondback shook his head.
"We can't wait any longer. Ok, the base is outside Mega City, near Vesperton. We'll split up to go through Mega City, as it is the only way from here to Vesperton. Everyone's comms working?" Nods. "Good. Choose the route you want to - hopefully everyone knows where Vesperton is. Ok, move out." Whoops sounded as the four hoverbikes and three hoverboards split up from the entrance.
"WAIT!" a female voice yelled from the entrance, unheard. "Damn, they left without me..." Spirit complained and took off after the retreating Diamondback.
"Fifty five bottles of beer on the wall, fifty five bottles of beeeeeer!" A shoe took flight and nailed Dias squarely in the jaw. "What!?" Everyone on the shuttle groaned as the squirrel continued the flight.
"What exactly is the situation?" Matsuoka asked, quickly changing the subject.
"Pretty simple," Snipe explained. "The Mavs are readying a volley of missiles to launch at Mega City. Our job is to make sure they never get off the ground, or, if worse comes to worse, make them cause as little damage as possible." Everyone shuddered. "Hopefully we won't have to worry about that." Silence took over the Heaven's Hand for a full minute.
"...Fifty four bottles of beer on the wall, fifty four bottles of beeeeeer..."
Ripple shot around a corner, turning right at the intersection of 3rd and 5th Avenues, thoughts flying through his mind faster than he was flying through the streets of Mega City on his hoverboard.
I can't believe they got Shatterstar... he thought, being careful not to broadcast his thoughts to the public. She's got some explaining to do later... He was torn from his thoughts as his communicator bleeped. Raising the wrist communicator to his face, he said, "Rip here, whassup?" The voice at the other side cleared his throat.
"I've really got to program these things to receive telepathy..." Diamondback muttered, stumbling over most of the words, and his thick British accent, which he didn't have when using telepathy, showing through. Being an enhanced, he wasn't used to speaking aloud. "Anyway, you heard anything from Spirit? I don't know the frequency for her communicator."
"No, haven't heard from her," Ripple replied quietly. "I wonder what's taking her so..."
"YAAAAH!" A feminine yell from the other end of the communicator forced Ripple to move the communicator away from his face.
"...Here she is," Diamondback said rhetorically. "Anyway, from your current location, hang a right and meet up with Shell, who is approaching you from that side. The two of you will split up at the intersection of 7th Avenue and Washington Street." Ripple nodded, and cut the communication.
7th Avenue's right ahead... he thought, looking ahead and seeing the sign designating the intersection he was looking for. Looking down the right side of the intersection, he saw an abnormally empty street. A lone hovercyclist sped up the road. There he is... "Hey, Shell! Over here!" The hovercyclist looked up from the road, acknowledged the young man, and sped by. Ripple fell in behind him, remaining on the sidewalk. I hope we can pull this off...
"But I don't see anything!" Firebrand complained.
"Now what makes you think a top secret missile base would be above ground, genius?" Snipe retorted. "And why do you think I'm scanning this place for an entrance?" Firebrand shied away from his commander. Silence reigned, until Snipe tapped the scanner he was carrying. "Bingo..."
"Bingo from the man in two rows back, call out your numbers, please..." Dias cracked. As usual, nobody laughed. "Well, bah to you, too..."
"As I was saying... There's an entrance into the base over there." Snipe motioned to a small clearing in the woods not twenty feet away. Getting up silently, he and everyone else walked to the clearing. "Ok, Grave, this is where you come in." The silent Reploid made no move, staring up into a tree. "GRAVE!" With that, Gravedigger joined whatever it was he was watching in the tree. "Idiot..." Snipe walked to a spot in the grass and tapped the ground with his foot. "Whenever you want to come down and dig, there's an entrance here..." Gravedigger snorted from the tree and leaped to the ground, landing directly on the spot. To everyone's surprise, Gravedigger's especially, the ground gave way under him, and the Reploid disappeared from sight.
"What the...!?" Dias started, but never had a chance to finish, as the ground around the spot where Gravedigger had landed began to give way, dropping everyone twenty feet and into a long, empty hallway.
"Oooowww..." everyone groaned.
"That didn't exactly work like you'd planned it, eh Snipe?" Paladin muttered, throwing Slasher off of him and standing up, dusting himself off. Slasher banged against a wall, letting off a loud, resounding clang.
"...Brilliant move, Paladin..." Snipe smacked his forehead. "Might as well jump around yelling, 'Hey! We're the Special Unit, and we're here to kick your asses into next Tuesday!'"
"Patience, John, patience..." Iceman said coldly. The eight Special Unit members were suddenly aware of footsteps running down another hallway ahead, the sound of metal striking metal quickly approaching them. "Ok... Patience ain't gonna work..." The eight looked around for a quick escape route. Finding nothing, not even a vent, Snipe gave the obvious command:
"RUN!!!" The eight Hunters turned and bolted in the opposite direction. "There! Turn!" Snipe pointed to a hallway branching off to the right just in front of them. Picking up speed, they bolted to the right just as the Mavericks turned the corner where they had just left.
"Where'd they go?"