Chapter 5 - The Imperia Maglev Incident

"Stultic?!" Madica asked.

Her crosshair-eyed helmet broke apart into segments and retracted from her face to her back.

"Hey, Mads..." said Stultic with a forceful grin, trying his best to hide his nervousness as he got up from behind the chairs.

Stultic felt relieved that his life had been spared. Maybe she did have a soft spot for him after all, though he still knew that he was in for a treat after she came back to her senses and out of her "combat mode". Even though she was only five foot six compared to his six feet, she was more of a force to be reckoned with. On the other hand, Madica could've sworn her eyes were betraying her; she wished for her eyes to betray her. She felt an erupting anger push past her throat and out her mouth.

"YOU SON OF A B-"

She was cut off by Stultic's palm covering her mouth, operating solely on reflex. He felt remorseful since his hands were somewhat sweaty following the incident with the guards prior. Thankfully, his gloves kept her mouth safe from undesirably salty and sweaty lips.

"OKAY! WE DON'T NEED TO START SWEARING AT EACH OTHER!" he quickly yelled back. "That hurt my ears, y'know?"

He tried to de-escalate the tense situation, though he made it far worse than it was originally. Madica grasped the hand that covered her mouth and mercilessly squeezed it until they both heard a crack in his palm. Ironically, Stultic was the one who began hurling curses at her.

"OH YOU'D BE SURPRISED HOW MANY TIMES I'D WANNA SWEAR AT YOUR WIMPY-LOOKING FACE!" Madica yelled before holstering her hand cannons. "I hate you, but guess what? I don't have time for this because I have more pressing matters at hand than you... Now that I think about it, anything would be more exciting and urgent than you."

"I see... Now, why is it that you're so obsessed with arresting me every other day, huh? I'm SURE you had more pressing matters to deal with than me, Miss Myers-"

Her leg had rammed between his legs at full throttle. His balls felt pulverized. It was a solemn tragedy that left Stultic twisting on the floor with his soul being dragged out of his body by some benevolent force above. He was hardly able to get a grip and thrust his soul back into his body.

"SHUT IT, YOU OVERLY EDGY ASSHOLE!" she rebutted.

The sounds her teeth made while grinding against each other weren't human. It was as if she was filing down her teeth to dust with sheer willpower alone.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING AN OVERLY EDGY ASSHOLE, YOU TRIGGERHAPPY SADIST!" he said, counter-attacking her rebuttal.

As usual, her endless hatred and his cocky attitude brought them both into a locked state of combat. Their argument continued for the next four minutes with them slinging insults and gunshots. One is trying his best not to die from the gunfire while the other was trying to kill him with all her ranged might. If real judges had attended their informal combat debate, they both would've received shockingly exceptional grades if the judges could last through their bullet-ridden war.

"Whatever... What are you doing here?! This is a restricted area!" Madica questioned while somehow reprimanding him. "You do know the tunnels aren't supposed to be explored, right? You could've gotten hurt. I guess like the idiot you are, you did it anyway or else you wouldn't be here. You're not smart enough to get into the maintenance passageways."

"Hey! I'll let you know I was pretty close!"

"How close?"

"Well, maybe I was around fifteen feet away from the guard."

"That's not even close at all..." she said, rolling her eyes.

"Well, I'm not at fault for that! He had muscles that could crush me to bits!"

Madica's stares were lasers of disappointment that made Stultic feel more inadequate as they continued. However, a spark lit up when he truly thought about what she had said.

"You were worried about me, weren't you?"

"W-What?!" Her jaw dropped at the thought of her being worried about such a pathetic guy. "You wish! If you got hit by a train, I'd feel perfectly fine. I'm just saying that cause I don't think you'd be contempt with dying to a train."

"That's just cruel..." Stultic said, shedding fake tears to cry and make the moment more impactful.

Madica didn't take the bait.

"Think about it clearly, Stultic. It's not like you've done anything too important for me that I should be thanking you for. You're just a criminal and I'm just a cop."

Stultic couldn't pinpoint exactly why that sentence bruised him so greatly, but it did. He could feel an amalgamation of resentment and bitterness build-up.

"Is that really what you think of me?! What the hell is wrong with you?! What have I ever done to you that pissed you off so much, Miss---"

Stultic's angry scowl had oddly dissipated. His eyes averted their gaze from Madica's.

Madica had also reached her limit. "What have you done to make me--- Do you hear yourself right now?!" she thundered with a booming shout.

"Madica," Stultic said, trying to stay calm.

"You're such a pain! I'm hired to hunt people down and usually, they make it easy for me, yet not you. No... You decide to make everything difficult for me by slinging jokes my way and---"

"MADICA!"

"WHAT?!"

"WE'RE HEADING STRAIGHT FOR A WALL!"

Madica twisted her head to face the front of the Maglev, noticing that Stultic was telling the truth. The end of the tunnel was only a strangely perfect white wall. Madica rushed to the front cab in an attempt to stop the train before their inevitable demise. Stultic joined her in the cab with a frenzied panic, for he was still very set on not dying in a metal coffin of a train.

Stultic and Madica reached the controls, yet they'd been tampered with. It wasn't the conventional electronic control panel that she'd find in a typical Maglev. None of the controls were there. Everything was gone. The colour scheme was completely off and there was no obvious lever to activate the brakes. Whoever stole the train from its shipment line either had a death wish or were controlling it remotely. The only answer behind such awkward controls was that the Maglev was being used for smuggling purposes.

Even though she should've been horrified, Madica's worrisome appearance dimmed into one of normalcy.

"You got an idea of how to stop this thing, Mads?"

"Firstly, stop calling me Mads and secondly, I don't think we need to worry."

The train travelled expeditiously down the tunnel.

Stultic sputtered, seeing Madica so confident. "No need to worry? A-Are you serious?! THAT is something we definitely SHOULD be worrying about! Have you finally lost a screw or two in that over-inflated head of yours?"

"Just watch, dumbass."

Stultic's panic worsened severely, closing his eyes to lessen the shock of the eventual tragedy that would unfold. He couldn't handle witnessing the train stumble and split.

Ten seconds passed since he shut his eyes.

Then came fifteen.

Then twenty.

"Shouldn't there be more crashing for a train crash?" Stultic mentioned, apprehensively while taking his hands off his face.

Madica deeply exhaled. She lowered the door's glass window for Stultic to peek his head out. The Maglev was still running normally. What made him feel even crazier, was how their Maglev was chugging through the wall itself. The flat white wall that was supposedly going to slaughter them, didn't exist. It was an illusion. A large hologram. He felt relieved to not be a mangled body, but he knew what would happen next.

He returned into the cab to find Madica awaiting his return with a cheeky grin that signalled her triumph and supremacy. Stultic responded to her endless stream of victory with an aristocratic cough to try and change the subject.

"So, I'm guessing you knew that we wouldn't die cause you got info about the jerkwads running this thing."

She hesitated for a moment. It was obvious she never trusted Stultic with anything then and anything now, yet their current situation almost forced her to fill the fool in so he didn't get in her way. Hesitantly, she explained the predicament.

"I was supposed to be investigating something about disturbances in the tunnel system. Maglev conductors were getting confused when they saw two Maglevs pass surveillance, yet only one of those two would arrive at the station. Turns out the stations from which some of these Maglevs were coming from never even sent off two Maglevs. Random Maglevs were appearing and disappearing."

"So you came down here to find one," Stultic added.

"Yep. Turns out this is one of the trains that has been disrupting the flow of the system. Now that I know it's used for trafficking purposes, it was easy to figure out they'd use private tunnels to stay hidden for so long. Once we find the exact source of all this weird material, I'll just move onto some other investigation." Madica said. "Also, if you sell any of this information, I'll carve you into a living sculpture."

Those last words made Stultic exceptionally afraid to even think about what he just listened to, but now wasn't the time to worry about her. The Maglev was rushing through the makeshift tunnels with no clear visuals of what was up ahead. Madica wished she hadn't killed the driver so that she could force him to activate the brakes if there even were any brakes. Even with her vast knowledge of engineering and electrical work, it would take a while for her to figure out which wires did what and then isolate the brakes. Stultic could already see her struggling to find a way to stop the Maglev without causing havoc. He would've wanted to help if she didn't seem so determined to do it alone. He trusted her enough to know that she'd figure it out without him.

Unluckily, a different surprise awaited them when they turned the subsequent bend.

The tunnel wasn't as curvy anymore; it was straight, and straight ahead, was the checkpoint. It must've been where they unloaded the cargo on the Maglevs. It seemed much more advanced than he anticipated. Madica raised her head to view the front of the Maglev with him. She recognized it too. Numerous sensors and cameras monitored the rails leading up to the station. If they were caught on the Maglev, it would be a death sentence. More of the guards appeared; signalling to the Maglev with open hands, seemingly asking for the train to stop.

The brakes of the Maglev activated as its momentum rushed to the head of the train, hurling them both into the glass. The alarms went off in the tunnel. The dim lights in the tunnel had shut, leaving only pure, untamed shadows. You could see the countless red visors standing at the platform. Madica quickly pulled Stultic onto the ground to avoid their line of sight.

"Was that you?!" Stultic asked, shaking off the impact of the unexpected stop.

Madica shook her head. "No. They must have some sort of control room where they can keep track of each Maglev remotely. Probably noticed the two outlandish guests who hijacked and tampered with their Maglev."

There was nowhere to hide if they already knew they were on the Maglev. It was the equivalent of a checkmate in a game of chess. Their choices were slimmer than ever. Surrender was not an option for the king and queen, but in terms of raw firepower, the pawns had the lead. Even if they worked together and with the advantage of the Maglev's extensive size, they'd ultimately be hunted and terminated once the doors opened at the station.

It was a "do or die" situation.

That got Stultic's mind whirring. The cogwheel in his brain clicked into place and turned to move the others. He then looked outside. Outside.

"We jump," Stultic blurted out, unconsciously.

"Are you insane?!" she said.

There was only around a minute left to make the decision. Once the first car had entered, the station, it would be over. Taking into account every single detail of the predicament, the only way they'd both survive to live another day, was to jump out of the train and onto the far rocky strip away from the electric magnetic rails. It was that or they let themselves be shot dead. Madica understood where Stultic came from even if there was doubt swirling in her mind. He could see it too. Her whole body was stiff; her hands were tense and her eyes were locked to the ground. He knew if he tried to comfort her, it'd only make things worse; she disliked being consoled by those around her considering it made her feel inferior and inadequate. He quietly sighed with worried eyes.

Madica opened her mouth only to close it and reopen it in a trice. "Alright, I'm not gonna lie. Jumping off the train seems like our best option right now."

Stultic grabbed Madica's gloved hand, forcing the right-side sliding door to open. The train was nearing its destination but luckily, its speed had dramatically decreased to the point where they could jump. Stultic signalled for Madica to jump first. With a stubborn eyebrow raise, she jumped off. She floundered and twirled on the ground until she was left motionless. Stultic jumped next. His body endured the same pain she went through, slamming beside her.

"Get your arm off me!" Madica said, scoldingly.

The Maglev had already left them in its dust. Hiding behind a small stone arch, the two watched as the guards were met with a lifeless Maglev, though it did hurt Madica's pride to know that their trafficked goods were still onboard.

The guards held their guns tightly, waiting for a surprise to pop out from any location. It would've been fun to plant a stun grenade on-board, but the whole point was to stay low and avoid detection. It made Stultic feel like a true ninja warrior.

Now that the guards were busy, Stultic and Madica could finally take a well-deserved breather.

"Okay now, why the hell are you here, nimrod?" she whispered very harshly. "You came down here for some shady information for one of your revolting clients didn't you..."

Hate exuded from every individual part of her body.

"I- Well- You see- Yes. That's exactly what I'm doing here..." He tensely chuckled while scratching the back of his neck.

A stormy cloud of aggression began to hover over her head with her deep blue eyes staring him down from the darkness which only added to the unfriendly atmosphere. Her facial expression went from expressing a reasonable hatred to a more violent anger.

"So... What are you doing down there?"

"No."

"No what?!"

"No to that question."

Stultic sat cross-legged on the unrefined floor, intensely staring at Madica. Her eyes were solely focused on the station in front of them. Whenever he got the extraordinary chance to take in a close-up view of her, she was always focused. Focused on someone or something. Most times it was him which he found flattering although it was rather frightening at the same time. She stared with a ferocity that was unique to her being. No one was even close to being similar to her. The unbelievable dedication she put into her work was surprisingly captivating and what made Stultic so interested her to begin with, though it was also her most pernicious weakness.

Her social skills seemed to be particularly inadequate at best even though she slung insults at him every second he was remotely close to her. Furthermore, she never operates with others. Probably because she found them slow or incompetent. It made Stultic question why she hated him so much. She always yelled about how he was too much of a child or such an idiot, but he found it ironic considering he was likely the only one on the entire planet who could keep up with her warp-speed pace; plus, his quick-witted dialogue must've made her smile once - hopefully.

The guards looked quite hesitant. They were barely able to move a muscle to enter the Maglev and conduct a search. At least they believed that they were still inside, hiding inside the Maglev's darkened void. The noises that reverberated to them were very mute and nearly impossible to make out. It did seem like they were communicating with each other to try and find the best solution to their current problem. Madica tried to move in for a closer look, but Stultic cut her off with his arm.

"Wait a second, Mads," Stultic uttered in a strangely sedate tone.

"What is it?"

Stultic stopped breathing for a moment; he then spoke. "I don't exactly know what it is, but something loud is coming this way."

"Maybe another Maglev heading this way," Madica said.

Stultic shook his head. "The sounds of a Maglev don't usually contain turbine noises..."

The noise of the hologram distorting struck his ears like before. It was smaller than a Maglev due to there not being enough wind thrown into the tunnel. As the turbine got closer, a WARDEN shot past them both and braked in the air. It hovered above the ground, catching every guard's undying attention. The black and yellow armour it wore was stream-lined and built for flight, resembling a bumblebee. Every edge was smoothened and curved to add to its windbreaking potential. Even its movements in the air were advanced and comfortable, yet also carried a touch of aggressive drive and eagerness. The suit and whoever wore it looked to be one and the same.

Their voices were now evident. They were screaming. It was mostly a jumble of mysterious sounds and screams, but one voice was clearer than the rest.

"It's one of the Arch-WARDENs!" the female guard yelled.

"I'm guessing you're all affiliated with this so-called 'Tempest Imperia'. I wanna know where your boss is. Anyone planning on telling me where this person is?" The Arch-WARDEN asked while bringing out her massive yet compact axe from her back. She pointed the tip of the axe towards the guards in a sinister manner. "I love beating no-life trafficking criminals into the ground, but I can make some friends too! Anyone gonna tell me? Yes? No? Maybe so?"

You could undoubtedly tell her voice was leaning towards the feminine side; she did have a special grovel that emerged with her voice when she spoke. She also enwrapped herself in an identical cockiness that Stultic eternally smothered over himself. Stultic couldn't help but feel boundless joy at the thought of someone having a similar thought process to his. Madica proceeded to elbow him in the stomach after witnessing Stultic's shimmering eyes.

The guards answered the Arch-WARDEN unanimously with gunfire. She dodged their bullet rain and responded, sending out intense pulse vibrations from the palms of her hands. The vibrations had entered their bodies, passing through their armoured skin. A miniature earthquake rattled their skulls and bones. All of the guards simultaneously fell to the station floor, paralyzed.

She stared at them; the guards desperately tried to get up in their vulnerable, weakened state.

"Guess no one's gonna answer my question! Too bad, bozos. I was thinking about sparing some of you who showed good ol' fashioned potential too. Oh well! You win some, you lose some, and sometimes, you just--- Well, no this is more of a lose-lose situation for you people."

The way she moved. The way her weapons worked. Every detail led only to a single person.

"Carmen," Madica murmured.

—^𝐯——^𝐯— 𝐓𝐨 𝐁𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞𝐝 —^𝐯——^𝐯—