Missile Attack

Missile Attack is the twenty eighth chapter in the Wombles Eight.

Cathy got back to Star City in time to see Dom’s team rapidly approaching the DIE convoy of three trucks.  Up above the road there was a giant blimp with a big Z on it and a machine gun mounted on the front.  “Zorin!” said Cathy.  She ran up the side of the nearest hi-rise and leapt into the blimp’s cabin.  There a very frightened Walter Steele just shook his head.  A winged vomble held a gun to his head.  Zorin strode into the room.

“One more move and he is dead ja!” said Zorin with a smug grin.  It wasn’t so smug when Cathy moved quicker than anybody could see to get Walter safely out of the blimp and into the street below.  Cathy was just about to go back in and fight Zorin when something was fired from the blimp.  Cathy looked in horror to see a heat seeking missile rushing at her.  So she ran!

She ran all through the city.  She kept running until she left the county.  The missile was still there so she just kept on running right across the state.  The missile was unshakable so she ran right across America to New York.  There was only one thing to do.  Dive into the big river Hudson.  So she dived!

The missile plunged harmlessly below her as she swam back to the surface.  “Are you OK?” asked a voice as she bobbed about.  “I’m fine but thank you for asking” Cathy replied.  “Are you sure?” asked the blond, muscly man.  “Yes really I’m supposed to be in Star City stopping a mass poison plot but the villain fired a heat seeking missile at me.” Cathy said in a matter-of-fact way.

The blond man replied “Oh I see!  I’m supposed to save a stubborn redheaded woman.”  But Cathy had already returned to the chase in Star City where Dom was shooting one of the lorries tyres.

Aquasam just shrugged and went to find Ginny.  He found her clinging on to the side of one of the highest skyscrapers in New York.

“What are you doing?” Sam asked, looking at Ginny as though he thought she was mad.  That was because he did think she was mad.

“Climbing.” Replied Ginny, as if it was completely normal to attempt to climb up a skyscraper.

“I see that.” Said Sam, “But… Why?”

“I told you before, I’m looking for a thrill.  Why is that so hard to understand?”

“But couldn’t you just… I don’t know, go snowboarding or something?  How are you not falling down, anyway?  And what’s that carved piece of wood in your back pocket?”

“That’s my wand.” Stated Ginny proudly.  “I’m a witch.”  It no longer mattered to her about hiding her magic from muggles.  Nothing really mattered anymore.

“Maybe you should see a psychiatrist.” Sam suggested.

“I’m not mad.” Snapped Ginny as she progressed further up the building.  “It’s true.”

“All right then. Prove it.”

“Okay.”

Ginny removed one hand from the high wall, pulled out her wand, and pointed it at Sam.  “Petrificus Totalus.”

Sam stopped moving completely, then Ginny completed her climb as the streets of people below watched in horror and amazement.  When she got to the top, she sat down tiredly, and nearly fell asleep.  She only stayed awake because she remembered that she’d intended to speak to someone.

Ginny pointed her wand in front of her and mumbled, “Incendio.”  Immediately a small fire lit in front of her, then a floating head appeared in it.

“Hello, Ginny.” Said the head.  “I haven’t heard from you in a while.  Why are you calling me?”

“I just need someone to talk to.” Answered Ginny miserably.

“Okay.  You can talk to me.” Said the head.

“But I don’t know if you would understand, Luna…”

“Maybe not.  But you’ll never know if you don’t tell me about it.”

“It’s about Harry…”

Cathy reached Dom just as he got into a black super-charged car with a visible roaring engine on the front. “Get in!” Dom shouted.  “I don’t need to.” Replied Cathy.  “Yeah, you do.” Cathy turned around and saw another heat-seeking missile.  “This car will confuse the missile.  It won’t recognise your body heat while you’re in it.  So as I said- get in!”

Cathy took one more look at the missile, then slid into the seat next to Dom and closed the door. Dom roared the car away very quickly.

Cathy looked out the window to look at the commotion.  O’Connor had got out of his car and was chasing someone down the road with his gun held high.

“What’s he doing?” Cathy asked Dom.  Dom looked. He just chuckled lightly, turned back to the steering wheel, said “Still a buster.” And then inserted nitrous oxide into the engine.  The car was moving even faster now, and the missile was quickly losing track of Cathy.

Dom picked up his communication link and spoke to the team.  “How we doing?” he shouted over the noise of so many screeching cars, lorries a missile and an airship.  “It’s not looking good, Toretto.” Replied Hobbs’ voice from the communication link, “O’Connor just ditched us, and Shaw seems to be running away… coward… The airship is closing in on us and those lorries are pretty dang close to getting us off their tails.”

After a moment of thought, and after performing a donut turn round a piece of road which had just started to crumble under the missile, Dom replied, “We need to split up.  Letty, you go after the lorries.  Hobbs, you go and find Shaw.  Roman, I know you’ve got a gun collection, so use it to slow down that airship.  Tej, it’s down to you to try and reverse those missiles.  Me and Queenie will try to avoid them in the meantime.”

“Sure thing, Dom.” Replied Letty, and Cathy saw her sharply turn a corner where the lorries had disappeared.

“Roger that.” Replied Tej, and Cathy saw his car come to a halt as he retrieved his computer from the back seat.

“Roger.” Replied Roman, and he turned his car around, narrowly avoiding falling down a newly made hole in the road, then he sped toward the airship.

Dom put his foot to the floor and Cathy gulped as a large cloud of mist blocked the view through the windscreen while Dom turned the steering wheel violently.  More missiles were coming, and Cathy hated to think what great idea Dom would have next.  She found out very soon.

“Buckle up, Queenie.” Dom said menacingly as he stopped driving and stared at the clearing dust. Cathy was relieved that Dom had stopped being insane and actually gave her a chance to put her seatbelt on.  But as soon as she did, she realised that he hadn’t actually stopped being insane at all.

“This is gonna be one hell of a ride.” He said calmly, as the dust finished clearing to reveal a road which was rising upward as a missile destroyed it.  Cathy was too scared to scream as Dom revved the engine loudly and began to drive toward it, getting faster every second.

Cathy closed her eyes as Dom raced up the crumbling slope and the car rose into the air.  She opened them for one second to see the car going down and the hard tarmac coming closer to the windscreen.

The car crashed.  The glass on the front shattered into pieces, then gravity pulled the vehicle to lay upside down on its roof.  Cathy thought she was going to throw up, but she just fainted.  Dom removed her belt so that she fell down and hit her head on the roof.  Then he elbowed the door off the side, got out and pulled her out with him.

Cathy was covered in bruises and cuts, but Dom knew she was going to be okay, because of her metahuman abilities.  So he pulled her along the road, ignoring her bleeding out, and then looked behind him. A missile was heading straight in their direction.  Dom glared at the missile.  It made a whining noise and turned around.

“Finally!” Dom heard Tej say through the communication link in his now very broken car. The missile picked up pace and shot toward Zorin’s airship, along with all the other missiles.  The airship got hit from all directions and exploded. Roman put his guns down on the roof of his car, then turned to Tej, and said, “Don’t any of you EVER make me do this again.”  Tej just laughed, got out his car, and said, “I won’t.  But do you really expect me to tell you that Dom won’t?”