October 26, 2014
12:06 PM

Crammed into the dusty underground service corridor with the four criminals, Rainbow started to feel claustrophobic as Wolf began drilling a hole in the wall. That wall led to the courthouse, she knew; the plan was to blast through it as Hoxton came by. She still couldn’t reconcile the idea of another Hoxton, as the one she knew was wiring the same wall to explode slightly further down from Wolf. She didn’t know what was happening upstairs, but hoped that they wouldn’t have to wait too much longer.

As soon as the drill had made it through the wall, somehow without breaking down in the process, Wolf pushed a rolled-up dollar bill through the slit. Rainbow didn’t quite understand it at first, and didn’t have much time to think about it before Dallas motioned for her to pull back. He put his ear against the hole, but through the thin wall, he needn’t have bothered. Rainbow clearly heard a man’s voice calling out, “Look at this! I’m rich!” Clearly, the others heard it too, as they started backing up from the C4. A short pause followed, then the same man shouted, “It’s payday, fellas!”

“And...” Bain whispered, as Hoxton hit the switch to blow the wall.

Just before the explosion, the man on the other side shouted again, “I said it’s fuckin’ payday, motherfu—”

The explosion censored the remainder of the exclamation, and Rainbow’s ears started ringing due to her more sensitive hearing. Pulling her hooves over her ears quickly, she stayed behind in the corridor as the others jumped out. Dallas immediately grabbed a man in orange, starkly visible against the white floor, and dragged him out of her sight. Three men in white uniforms with guns started firing on the crew. Chains fired at someone she couldn’t see, and Hoxton jumped in front of his back, blocking a shot from one she could. Wolf began firing in the direction Chains had before as the latter turned around to help Hoxton with the man she could see.

A piercing scream suddenly cut through the air, and she peeked out to see that Dallas had just pulled a large piece of shrapnel out of the leg of the man in orange, and was bandaging it up. “Relax, you’re gonna be just fine,” he said through his friend’s continuing exclamations.

“What cock-sucking motherfucker measured the C4?!” the man shouted, and Hoxton turned around to face him. There was a tense silence, until the man said spitefully, “Had to be you.” She got it, all of a sudden: the man in orange was the Hoxton that Dallas, Wolf and Chains had worked with before he was arrested. Hoxton, the masked one, turned away, and the other one shouted, “Hey, I’m talkin’ to you! That’s my fuckin’ mask you’re—”

“Jim, relax!” Dallas shouted, and immediately Rainbow filed the man in orange as ‘Jim’ in her head to keep him separate from Hoxton. She suddenly heard a gun clicking, and saw that a fourth guard, this one a woman, had managed to get Dallas at gunpoint from behind. Quickly, she pulled up the pistol that the Dentist had mailed her, drew a bead on the guard, and fired before she could blink. Everyone turned to face her, and Jim raised an eyebrow.

Before he could say anything, an alarm suddenly rang out, and Chains shouted something about having to get going. Jim grunted as Dallas and Wolf pulled him up, mumbling, “What took you so fuckin’ long, anyway?” Hoxton was the last one to leave behind her, dropping a smoke grenade to cover their exit. She followed him back up the stairs towards the surface. They quickly overtook Jim, who was swearing loudly enough to be heard over the alarms with every step.

As soon as there was no longer a roof over her head, she took to the air, watching Houston and Chains climbing into the armoured pickup truck the crew had built over the last week as Dallas and Wolf helped Jim into the back. Dallas tapped twice on the roof, and the truck started moving forward. Jim sat up and started arguing with Dallas, contradicting the order to turn right. Quickly, she looked up and called out, “Guys, you won’t be getting to Lowell’s at all, there’s...” She was too late to stop the two SWAT vans from pulling in front of them, though, blocking their path.

“Back up, back up!” she shouted, and the van started pulling back. Turning around to follow the truck’s movements, Rainbow suddenly saw another van pulling in behind the truck. “Turn left as soon as you can! There’s an alley that’ll get you outta here!” The truck stopped just before running into the van, turning left into the alley that she’d pointed out. She could hear the gunfire coming from below, and quickly flew forward on the truck’s path to try and guide them further. A group of SWAT officers was running up a flight of stairs towards the truck, which quickly turned right as Dallas and Wolf began firing on it. The truck continued weaving through the alleys unimpeded from there, but she could see that it was running out of room.

“I’m gonna cut through this parking lot!” Hoxton suddenly shouted, and she saw it driving into a large vertical building. Sighing angrily at having to almost immediately head back indoors, she dove to the truck’s level and followed it, paying little attention to the destroyed barrier. Earlier than she expected, the truck braked to a stop, and she looked around it to see an array of small pillars raised from the road, blocking its path. Hoxton immediately tried to back up, but a bullet flew over her head and bounced off the truck’s armour. The SWAT had already followed them, and they couldn’t pull back any further.

Hoxton pulled the truck forward as far as possible and climbed out of the cab, hiding behind the end of the truck. Chains did likewise on the passenger side. Dallas jumped over the edge of the railing, shouting at Wolf to follow him.

“Hey, where the fuck you going?!” Hoxton shouted.

“There’s gotta be controls for these fucking things somewhere! You two cover him!” He pointed at Jim as Wolf clambered over as well, emptying his shotgun in the direction of the SWAT team. “Rainbow, you come with us!” he added, and she started galloping after them.

“How about you give me a fuckin’ gun?!” Jim shouted, but any reply was cut off by more gunfire, forcing him to duck and hide underneath a plastic sheet as Dallas, Wolf and Rainbow ran off in another direction.

Wolf had pulled out his smartphone and was running a program to try and find the signal from the control room. “Fourth floor!” he suddenly shouted, pointing out a stairwell. Rainbow reached the door first and pulled out her pistol again, pointing it around the corners before sprinting up the stairs. A uniformed officer was already blocking her path, and she fired twice quickly at him before Dallas arrived, firing his pistol over her head.

The body fell down the stairs, and it drew her attention momentarily to Wolf firing behind them. She didn’t dwell on it, though, running up the stairs behind Dallas. They’d made it up a few flights when she suddenly heard a familiar whining noise, and Wolf’s screams coming from downstairs. Over Wolf’s screams, she heard a Cloaker shouting something about a drum solo. “I’ve got this! Help him out!” she shouted at Dallas, sprinting up the stairs as he looked back down them. She didn’t bother waiting to see what he did, charging through the door marked ‘4’ as soon as she found it.

The parking lot was empty, no cars or officers anywhere. She didn’t know exactly where the control room was, but there were only a few doors around; surely it had to be behind one of them. She bucked open one nearby, but there was nothing there but some blue barrels and a mop. Grunting in frustration, she quickly flew over to the next one she could see, at the top of a small flight of stairs. “Please, let it be the right one...” she muttered as she bucked it open. The door went flying straight off its hinges, and bounced off something inside the room. “Oh, fuck me—”

“Guess who’s ba-ack!” a voice that she thought she’d never hear again sang. Before she could react, the Skulldozer moved surprisingly quickly, grabbing her around the throat tightly with one arm, his other hand holding his machine gun. “Glad you could make it to the party! Now let’s give our other guests a proper welcome!”

~~~

Hoxton was not having a very good time.

Besides having been broken out by the faker, who had botched the C4 and injured him in the process, he was now cowering inside a pickup truck, letting said faker try to protect him from the incoming police forces. He didn’t even have a weapon of his own to shoot back with. All he could do was entrust his fate to Dallas’ new crew. As the gunfire from the crew’s side of the truck stopped, he could roughly hear the faker say that he was running out of ammo. If only I had a gun, I’d show that wanker how to handle things... he thought.

A sudden flash of purple caught his attention, and he turned under the sheet to see that two large assault rifles were lying next to him. He didn’t have time to check if they were loaded or not, and he wouldn’t have been able to check in the dark anyway, but he assumed that they would be. As he heard the footsteps pass around the truck, he grabbed both guns and jumped up, firing wildly at the two groups of SWAT officers. All five of them went down quickly, but he kept shooting a while longer, just for the sheer visceral joy of getting to fire a gun again after so long. “Got any more guns?” he asked, grinning.

The faker sighed, and suddenly pointed his gun at Hoxton, only to shoot another SWAT member behind him. He turned to Chains and shrugged. “At least he’s not completely useless,” he snarked, before ducking under another bullet. The next wave was already coming. He dropped the two large guns and jumped out of the pallet, grunting in pain as his injured leg hit the concrete. Pulling another assault rifle out of the cab, he took cover in between Chains and the faker, passing a clip to the latter.

~~~

Dallas and Wolf entered the fourth floor to a disturbing sight: the Skulldozer holding Rainbow in a hostage position, firing his LMG at them. They split up, diving behind two different pillars, which started to quickly disintegrate under the concentrated fire. Wolf tried to move first, aiming with his shotgun, but the Skulldozer was faster, moving Rainbow into the way. The heister hesitated for just long enough for the Skulldozer to fire first, knocking Wolf down.

He turned towards Dallas, who was sprinting towards another pillar, just barely dodging the incoming fire. As he tried to move again, a shot hit him in the chest, knocking him down despite the flak jacket under his suit. The Skulldozer took several steps forward, laughing to himself as he raised his gun to fire again and finish Dallas off—

A loud scream caught their attention, and Wolf suddenly tackled the Skulldozer from behind. Surprised, he dropped his gun and Rainbow, who fell to the floor gasping for air. “The control room!” Wolf shouted, and Dallas picked himself up, making a run for it as his cohort grappled with the maniacal enforcer. Rainbow looked at their fight for a few more seconds before deciding to run after Dallas instead.

Dallas was scanning a large number of screens until he found the one where his comrades were fighting a losing battle. Quickly, he tapped on the keyboard, and suddenly the bollards started to retract into the ground. The other three quickly noticed, and Hoxton climbed into the driver’s seat again as Chains and Jim continued firing at what she assumed were approaching police officers. As soon as he’d gotten past the bollards, they clambered onto the pallet and Hoxton drove off again.

“We’re done here,” Dallas said, and she nodded, looking just outside. By sheer force of will, Wolf had remained on top of the Skulldozer, and had also pulled out the drill, trying to push it down onto the mask. It bounced off several times, but suddenly it found a hole, and Rainbow grimaced and looked away as it pushed through, the squelching noise of what she assumed was his eye disgusting her even after everything else she’d seen and done. Wolf started laughing, until Dallas ran up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder. “For fuck’s sake, Wolf, let’s go!”

Wolf was breathing heavily and had to be supported by Dallas as they climbed down the stairs. The truck pulled up to meet them, and Chains and Hoxton jumped out when they saw Wolf. “Shit! Don’t worry, we got you, man! We got you!” Chains said as he picked up Wolf from Dallas. Dallas and Hoxton looked at each other for a moment as Wolf clambered onto the pallet with Jim.

“Hey, here’s a thought,” Jim suddenly said. “Now that I’m back, this fucker can’t keep calling himself by my name.”

“Yeah?” Hoxton asked. “You got an idea for a better one?”

“How about ‘Houston’? ‘Cause you’ve got a fuckin’ problem.”

Hoxton was stunned for a moment, but Dallas quickly stepped in. “It’s also another city in Texas. Perfect for my brother, right?”

“That wanker’s your little brother, Dallas?” the old Hoxton asked. Rainbow sighed; she was going to have to get used to calling him Hoxton now. He suddenly looked at her, and added, “Shit a brick, I thought Wick was pullin’ my leg when he told me about you.”

“We’ll have to keep the story for later,” Dallas said. “Let’s just get the fuck out of here.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something else?” Hoxton asked. “I need a mask.” Everyone stopped and turned to Houston, who looked back and forth between them before letting his head droop. Hoxton just laughed slightly, unzipping his jersey. “It’s alright. I came prepared.” Underneath his jersey was a mask, with a white base and a mockery of a face splashed in pink and black paint across it. He pulled the mask over his head, whistling a tune to himself.

“Fuckin’ twat,” Houston murmured to himself as he climbed onto the pallet next to Hoxton. Dallas got in the driver’s seat, Chains beside him as a passenger, and Rainbow climbed onto the pallet as well so she wouldn’t be left behind.

“Alright. I think I know the way back to the safehouse from here,” Dallas said, but Hoxton immediately cut him off.

“Bugger the safehouse. I’ve got a better idea. Just start driving, I’ll tell you lads on the way.” Dallas sighed angrily, but didn’t argue. As footsteps started echoing, the truck drove off, and Hoxton looked towards the roof again, letting loose one final shout:

“Did ya miss me, ya wankers?!”

Author's Note

And there we have it. A good stopping point for now while I work on other things loading down my brain.

Sorry it's not that long, but I promise I'll make good once I get to season two and the second part of the Hoxton breakout. We've still gotta find out who the rat is, and there's only one place to learn it...

Where are John Wick and Jacket? Will the Payday Crew get any larger? Who is responsible for Hoxton's incarceration? Are they related to why Rainbow is in this world? How does the Dentist know about Equestria, and what other heists does he have lined up for the crew? What happened to that FBI agent who appeared in two chapters before Falcon realised that there was already an FBI agent investigating Crime.net? How many more movie references can he possibly cram in?

Stay classy, Washington D.C.

Be prepared for Loyalty Among Thieves, Season Two: Effects.