"The hard lines were successfully cut off but we were too late. The fugitives managed to get away with most of the data and are now making their way to the exit in Sector-C." Selina stated as the intel from the underground ONI base was relayed to her.
"Sector-C? That means they'll be needing to use the elevator." The Admiral pointed out as he inspected the real-time holographic map of the underground ONI base. He looked over to Selina. "Shut it down."
"Already done, but that hasn't stopped them." Selina said as a live video feed showed the double doors to an elevator being pried open from the inside. A man emerged from the inside, roughly in his thirties and wearing a leather biker's outfit. He was closely followed by woman who seemed to be carrying a small humanoid. The three quickly made their way down the corridor and disappeared off-camera.

The Admiral looked back to the real-time map and watched as the three red blips that represented the fugitives moved closer and closer to the exit. "Selina, where does that exit lead?"
"The highway. Shall I alert the local authorities?"
"The local authorities won't stand a chance. Launch our dropships. They don't seem to possess a means of transport as of yet but we can't take any chances."
"Aye sir." She paused for a moment. "Sir, Agent X1 also happens to be in close proximity to the base, shall I alert him too?"
Yusuf looked over to her and thought for a moment. He then nodded. "No chances, bring them in or kill them outright and destroy the data if need-be."

As they turned the final corner, the three were met with the sight of a locked blast door.
"Stand back!" Gavin said before transforming into the Ghost Rider. He then lunged forward and threw a massive fireball into the thick metal, burning a large hole right through it. He wasted no time in climbing through the hole and ending up inside what looked like a large garage. The garage contained a multitude of vehicles: civilian and military. The Ghost Rider looked around and laid his eyes on a Warthog that had a different gun attachment on its back compared to what he had seen before. A gauss cannon - perfect.



He walked over to it and got into the vehicle, starting the engine up with the press of a button. The Ghost Rider then gripped the wheel with both hands and channeled a burst of energy into the Warthog, enveloping it in a thin blanket of fire and enhancing its capacity for speed, armour and firepower. He looked over to Diana, waiting for her to get in.

Diana got into the Warthog carefully, looking to Gavin as she held Mizol in her arms. "What are you waiting for hothead? Punch it!" She set Mizol down on a seat beside her and turned in her seat, looking at the massive hole Gavin had just blasted into the wall. Reaching out a hand a groan began to sound throughout the room, Diana was attempting to reach out to the water that ran through the pipes in the underground facility. 

With a bang the pipes yanked themselves partially out of the walls, letting out a flood of water that Diana manipulated into the hole. Once the water reached out  a couple feet from the hole each way, she froze it, effectively plugging the hole and making it a bit more difficult to get through to the room. She did this with the actual entrance to the room aswell.

The Ghost Rider put his foot down and the Warthog suddenly accelerated full speed at the blast doors. The sheer velocity of the vehicle, coupled with the boosted armour and explosive ramming ability enabled him to ram through the blast doors completely. His fire powers shielded the other two from the explosive collision and before they knew it, the vehicle was in mid-air.

The warthog plummeted for a few seconds before landing hard on what turned out to be a highway. With the Ghost Rider's foot still on the accelerator, the Warthog practically launched itself down the lane, overtaking multiple vehicles in the process. He kept one arm on the wheel and swerved the car in and out between cars, constantly alternating lanes in order to prevent crashing.

Soon enough however, the familiar sound of Pelican dropship engines was heard from above, indicating that they'd have company soon.

Two Pelican dropships descended down onto the freeway, flying low along its path in pursuit of the Warthog that seemed to be moving at a remarkable speed. It was easy to spot due to its fiery appearance.
"Liberty actual, we have eyes on target. Proceeding with deployment, over."

The aft overhang of each of the two dropships had two specially designed mongooses each - four-wheeled army quad bikes armed with front-mounted grenade launchers that was operated by the driver. In addition to this, each of the four mongooses had another marine sat at the backseat of it, wielding a grenade launcher.

The four vehicles pursued the supernaturally enhanced Warthog, weaving their ways in and out of lanes to also avoid collisions, all the while maintaining pursuit.

Diana's eyes widened at the sight of the four vehicles in pursuit of them, especially at the sight of grenade launchers. "Are they crazy!? There are civilians here!" Standing up as much as she dared, Diana aimed her hands in the direction of the grenade launchers. Ice began to cover her palms as she flexed them, suddenly orb shaped balls of ice shot from her palms and plugged up the grenade launchers. That would hopefully buy some time.

The grenade launchers wielded by the marines on the backs of each mongoose were successfully blocked, causing them to direct their attentions on their weapons, trying as fast as they could to unblock the barrels of their weapons. However the front-mounted grenade launchers on the vehicles themselves remained unblocked due to their larger barrel size.

With a few swerves  and dipping in and out of lanes, the first mongoose driver had a clear shot at the warthog that it was pursuing. Wasting no time, the driver opened fire and the first pair of grenades shot out from the front-mounted barrels, one of them narrowly missing the warthog and hitting a civilian vehicle in front of it, causing it to crash. The other grenade however successfully hit the warthog right in the middle of its rear bumper. The force of the explosion caused Ghost Rider to temporarily lose control over the vehicle, the tires screeching against the tar road as he desperately spun the wheel around to bring the warthog back on track.

Meanwhile in this time, another mongoose emerged and started to bring the swerving warthog into its line of fire...

Diana had to grip the seat in a death grip to keep from being flung out of the vehicle, and she muttered an apology to Mizol for probably smothering him to keep him from going flying out of the warthog. When they passed the vehicle that had crashed, Diana shot a bunch of ice at it, then in midair let it melt so that the water doused the flaming vehicle. Diana hoped that whoever was inside now had a better chance of surviving. Turning, Diana attempted to do the same thing she had done before to plug the larger launchers.

The Ghost Rider glanced over to Diana while he tried to steer the Warthog out of harms way at the same time. The mongoose fired off two grenades, but they suddenly came into contact with Diana's iceballs and exploded halfway.

Meanwhile the Ghost Rider managed to successfully steer his vehicle into the middle of a group of cars. He looked back over to Diana, grunting at her to get her attention. Assuming she'd look at him, he'd nods his head back to the gauss cannon mounted on the back of the warthog, indicating that he wanted her to use it on the mongooses.

If Diana acknowledged his request and began to operate the cannon, she'd figure out through test firing it into the air that the massive cannon fires a powerful one-second beam of energy before recharging for two seconds to ready itself to fire again. This would mean that Diana would need to try her best to make sure her aiming is on point and eliminate the hostiles as soon as possible.

As it turned out, the Ghost Rider's tactic of using civilians as cover was futile, as a few grenades from the mongooses blasted the civilian vehicles out of the way, not caring about their lives whatsoever. This left the back of the Warthog open to attack by the now four mongooses that were all in clear space and had direct lines of fire at the Warthog. The Ghost Rider steered the Warthog left and right while keeping his sights on the rear view mirror, intending to dodge their attacks long enough for Diana to dispatch one or two of them at least.

Diana got Gavin's message, putting Mizol down on the seat so she move to operate the cannon on the back of the warthog. Aiming the cannon at one of the mongooses, she pulled the trigger to fire, holding it steady as she fired the beam at the vehicle. Once it ceased firing she did what she had done before with the civilian cars, firing ice and then water at them to douse the flames to help with survival rate. ONI was being careless, but Gavin was being a bit careless with the civilian lives as well. But dousing flames was all Diana could do.

The beam of energy hit the mongoose dead-on and the vehicle exploded into pieces in one hit, fire and debris flying everywhere with the remnants of its occupants almost non existent.

However due to Diana's being distracted, the other three mongooses managed to fire off two grenades each. The Ghost Rider quickly steered to the right of the wide lane, dodging two grenades fired at the warthog, and then to the left, dodging two more. However one of the two that he had jsut dodged still managed to catch the Warthog with its explosive radius as it landed near one of its wheels, almost causing the vehicle to topple.

As he struggled to get the Warthog under control, the third volley of grenades caught the Warthog right underneath the bumper and the vehicle was sent flying into the air, however still intact due to its enhanced armour. The Ghost Rider and Mizol were flung from the seats while Diana's fate would depend on how tight she held onto the gun.
Time seemed to go in slow motion as the Ghost Rider was now in mid air, with Mizol within arms reach of him, also in mid air. He reached his hand out and grabbed the small alien before looking around for the Warthog, which turned out to be two meters right underneath him - upside down still airborne.

The Ghost Rider thrust his arm forward towards the front of the vehicle (that was now, in its turned-over state, facing the rear). From his hand shot out a long chain and slammed into the underside of the vehicle, causing it to flip back over in reverse more rapidly and hit the road on all four wheels, facing the right direction. His chain momentarily retracted before shooting out again, wrapping around the top railing of the vehicle and pulling himself back into the driver's seat, and dropping Mizol back into the passengers' seat. Time then seemed to resume its normal speed.

If Diana failed to prevent herself from also being tossed out of the car, the Ghost Rider would have latched another chain onto her and pulled her back into the gunner's seat while on the way back down to the vehicle. He quickly grabbed the steering wheel and hit the acceleration again, this time increasing the vehicle's speed moreso than before to put as much distance between the Warthog and the mongooses as possible. The mongooses attempted to fire grenades after them but their increasing distance meant that it would difficult to aim their mounted cannons without steering off-course. Quickly, they too increased their speeds in hopes of catching up to the Warthog.

The Venator's hornet arrived on-site just in time to see a flaming Warthog perform an unnatural halfway-flip and then reverse-flip onto the highway, trailing explosions in its wake as three mongooses pursued it. Having taken position on the outer-passenger seat of the small aircraft, he had a good view of the highway below.

With one signal from his status light onto his comrades' heads-up-displays, he instructed the other Hornet to join the pursuit. The aircraft was outfitted with double machine guns and missile launchers, with a passenger seated on the outside of each side of the aircraft. Each passenger ODST was carrying a long-ranged Designated Marksman Rifle. The Venator himself was carrying a sniper rifle, which is why he instructed the pilot of his Hornet to remain high above the highway, while still maintaining pursuit.

As the remaining three mongooses tried to maintain their trailing of the Warthog, another Warthog suddenly appeared on the opposite lane. Upon seeing the Ghost Rider pass by, the driver hit the brake and aggressively rotated the steering wheel, sliding the vehicle onto their lane while doing a complete 180 degree turn. The new Warthog smashed its side into a mongoose while doing so, sending it tumbling off the highway. The driver then let go of the brake pedal and hit the gas, accelerating down the road and thus joining the pursuit.

Meanwhile the other two mongoose gunners had successfully unblocked their grenade launchers and began to open fire on the Warthog they were pursuing, however each volley of three grenades mostly missed their target with some lucky explosions sending the Warthog slightly off balance for a few seconds.
Diana now having recovered, grabbed hold of the gauss cannon again and carefully aimed it at one of the mongooses. She opened fire and the third mongoose went up in an intense explosion.

The last mongoose maintained pursuit while continuing to fire on its target, missing all of its shots due to the distance the Ghost Rider was able to put between his Warthog and its pursuer. The other Warthog soon caught up right behind the mongoose and smashed its front bumper into the back of the smaller vehicle, causing the driver to lose control, veer into the other lane and smash into a large civilian vehicle.

"It's a Spartan!" Diana shouted over the noise of the traffic. The Ghost Rider checked the rear view mirror and recognised Sebastian's armour. Two other Spartans also occupied the vehicle, no doubt the rest of Fireteam Aqua: Spartans Masterson and Kalashnikov.

They did not get a chance at a reunion however, as suddenly a barrage of armour-piercing rounds rained down on both Warthogs. The first Hornet had engaged them head-on and continued to pursue them down the highway. Kalashnikov, who was on the machinegun turret of Sebastian's Warthog, pivoted and opened fire on the Hornet. The vehicle took some minor damage before gaining altitude, above Kalashnikov's line of fire.

Meanwhile from above, The Venator, still sitting on the side of his own Hornet, was at work modifying his sniper rifle's ammunition. He took out the standard issue magazine and instead swapped it for a custom one that contained bullets laced in dead blood.

The Hornet that was still engaged with the two Warthogs strafed left and right, before gaining even more altitude and rising above Diana's line of fire as well. In response, it unleashed two missiles onto the Ghost Rider's Warthog, intending to take it out with a combined detonation.

The Ghost Rider was quick to catch onto the sound of two rockets being launched from far away. Quickly, he turned his head to see two missiles streak towards his direction.

The Rider quickly sat up in his seat and turned around fully, facing the rear. He held both arms out and within a second, a chain sprouted out from each hand, composed entirely out of fire. He then looked up to the missiles that were now three seconds away from impact and whipped his chains up at them, slamming their sharp tips against the two missiles.

The missiles exploded in midair, however the Ghost Rider did not stop there. As if with a mind of their own, the chains proceeded to straighten out and elongate at a rapid speed, aimed toward the Hornet. The pilot, overcome with confusion and a lapse in concentration as a result, failed to react on time. One of the chains shot through the glass of the cockpit and ripped through the pilot's chest. The other chain was aimed specifically at one of the ODST's sat at the side, who attempted to move out of the way.. only for his leg to be severed.

The ODST dropped out of his seat and attempted to activate his jetpack in panic, but ended up rocketing himself into the ground, splattering his head and helmet in a mess composed of shattered bone, metal and plastic in a pool of blood.

However the other ODST that had been sat on the other side successfully made it off and activated his jetpack, regaining pursuit of both vehicles. He chose to concentrate on the Ghost Rider's Warthog, aiming his DMR at Diana's head. However he did not have enough time to pull the trigger, as a bullet made its way through his skull and he too dropped out of the sky.

The Venator watched as the Hornet went down. One of the ODSTs had managed to survive the attack but was swiftly executive with a bullet to the head, fired by the Spartan who was driving the other Warthog. Spartan Duarte, he recognised. He had gone AWOL a few days ago. Well, now they knew why.

The Venator aimed through the scope of his sniper rifle, intending to take finish the job. He fired the shot but at the same time, the Ghost Rider had steered the Warthog onto another lane, causing him to miss the shot. The sound of the sniper rifle had been suppressed but its vapour trail was instantly seen by the three Spartans.
"Enemy VTOL!" Masterson, who was in the passenger seat, shouted to her comrades. She then turned and aimed her Battle Rifle in the air at the Hornet, firing off shots at the aircraft. The Venator's Hornet was forced to strafe side to side, making it almost impossible for him to have another clear shot.

The Venator ordered his Hornet pilot to resume contact with the enemy, while he and the ODST served as distractions.

"The Hornet just dispatched two passengers, one of them is a Spartan!" Masterson alerted her team.
Sebastian took a second to check for himself and sure enough, both a Spartan and ODST were using their jetpacks and attempting to flank them from either side while the Hornet proceeded to continue pursuit of the Ghost Rider's Warthog.

Sebastian put his foot down on the gas and sped the Warthog up, using the steering wheel to weave the 4x4 between the civilian vehicles. Spartan Kalashnikov meanwhile started to unload from the machinegun turret, aiming her shots primarily at the Spartan. This gave the ODST the entrance he needed to close in from the other side, descending down with careful bursts of his jetpack.

The ODST aimed his DMR at the Warthog's tires, but suddenly a bullet ripped through his jetpack and sent him flying uncontrollably off-course. Masterson reloaded her weapon before diverting her focus onto the mysterious Spartan in the air. The Spartan was quick, performing dives and barrel roles to avoid the machinegun fire while continuously closing in to their Warthog...

The Hornet had by now caught up with the Warthog and released a barrage of armour-piercing projectiles down onto the Warthog. The vehicle took multiple hits and finally began to show signs of deterioration. Bits and pieces of its metal armour chipped and broke away as the Ghost Rider worked to keep the vehicle on track despite the hail of bullets that were pushing against it.

He looked back at Diana, who had raised the gauss cannon up to its maximum articulation and hid underneath its protective metal shielding. Frustrated, the Ghost Rider stood up in his seat with the Warthog still in acceleration and walked over the seat, to where Diana was crouched. She looked up at him in confusion before he grabbed her and yanked her over, thrusting her into the driver's seat. He then channeled a bit of fire into the Warthog so that some of its additional armour remolded and shifted itself over the driver and passenger seats, covering them from enemy fire.

With bullets shredding through him, the Ghost Rider stood there on top of the Warthog, looking around himself at the different civilian cars that they sped by. He looked towards the front and caught sight of a lorry in front of them, laden with a massive trailer on its back. The Hornet unleashed a pair of missiles this time, but the Ghost Rider reacted the same way as before, but this time conjuring one large chain and whipping both the missiles into premature explosions with one strike. He then pulled the chain down and whipped it around to that it slammed its pointed tip through the back of the trailer. The pointed tip produced more spikes that anchored it into the trailer, after which the Ghost Rider yanked at the chain with his superhuman strength.

The top half of the trailer was ripped from the rest of the lorry as it was sent into the air at a high speed - heading straight for the Hornet. The pilot saw this coming and tried to evade, however the sheer size of the object made it impossible to do so and the Hornet collided with it, erupting into an explosion. The remains smashed down onto the highway and produced another, larger explosion and completely obliterating the VTOL.

"Roadkill..."

The Venator meanwhile had managed to bypass Kalashnikov's line of fire, sliced through the barrels of the turret with a strong and fast swipe of his Blizzard Machete, and landing on top of the vehicle.

Masterson was the first to react, getting up from her passenger seat to deliver a strike to the Venator's left knee with the butt of her rifle. However The Venator predicted this move and was quick to meet the butt of her rifle with the sole of his boot, effectively kicking her back into the seat. Kalashnikov was the next to attack, lunging from the rear of the Warthog at the Venator with her own Machete. The Venator turned to countere her machete with his Blizzard one that was lined with powerful electric conductors which made the blades spark the moment they made contact. Kalashnikov withdrew her blade and then struck at her target again, this time with a stab. The Venator swiped the blade from the right side, causing her aim to go off to the left. He then stepped forward and slammed his foot into her left shoulder, sending her sprawling into the back of the Warthog.

Masterson had already recovered now, and grabbed The Venator's ankle, pulling it down. The Venator lost his balance and one of his legs went down with her weight, causing his right leg to bend and his knee to slam into the central rail. The Venator looked down at her and raised his machete, ready to strike down into her head. However Sebastian quickly hit the brakes and swerved as a Hornet and some additional debris came falling down on the road in front of them. The sheer force of this sent The Venator and Masterson, who was still holding onto his leg, off the Warthog.

The Venator quickly engaged his jetpack and flew up into the air, attempting to kick Masterson off. She firmed the attacks however and climbed up his legs, before grabbing onto his jetpack and pulling herself up behind him. She then wrapped her arm around his neck, catching him in a chokehold. The Venator struggled, at the same time losing control of the jetpack and sending them flying uncontrollably down the highway. Both of them slammed into one of the Pelican dropships that were still maintaining pursuit.

The two Spartans struggled against the window of the cockpit of the Pelican, climbing up onto the back of the dropship. There, they stared each other down for a few seconds before Masterson lunged at him. The Venator, realising he had lost his sniper rifle in the struggle, resolved to engaging the Spartan female in close quarters.

Masterson sent a punch to his adbomen, which The Venator managed to counter with a stomach-level block. However Masterson soon followed this up with a swing at his head. Her fist slammed into the side of his helmet. She then dropped down and did a leg-sweep, tripping The Venator over but not flooring him as he was able to quickly regain his balance. Masterson, still on the floor, used her position to vault herself into his waist, aiming to wrap her arms around it and bring him down. The Venator was quick to react to  this however. Lowering himself to her level quickly, he sidestepped just as she was within reaching-distance of him and grabbed her left arm with both hands, throwing her to the back of the Pelican.

Meanwhile, the other Pelican had accelerated and was catching up to the Ghost Rider's warthog quickly, The pilot chose to resort to the use of missiles despite the potential civilian casualties it may cause to end this chase once and for all. The Ghost Rider saw the panels on the Pelican wings slide down to reveal four missile pods on each wing. He lunged forward quickly and grabbed onto the gauss cannon. Channeling energy through it, he increased its energy output tenfold, and then by twenty, and then by fifty. This caused a noticeable bright blue glow to emit from the barrel of the cannon.
Realising what the Ghost Rider was doing, the Pelican pilot locked onto the Warthog and prepared to fire all eight of the missiles.

However the Ghost Rider was the first to fire. A massive beam of energy exploded out of the barrel of the cannon and hit the cockpit of the Pelican dropship dead-on, causing an explosion to erupt down the middle of it till it reached the tail. The Pelican fell apart quickly, its wings dropping off and both sides of it separating and and falling onto two different sides of the highway as the beam effectively cut the dropship in half.

The Venator now had the advantage. Subduing Masterson wasn't difficult and now she was under him. He had her abdomen pinned with his body weight and struck down with blow after blow of punches. Her shields were gone and now he was really damaging her. She tasted blood on her lips as the punches continued to injure her further and further. All she could do was raise her arms up to protect herself but the weight of his punches were too much for her to handle and eventually he broke through her defense.

The Venator then stopped, only to pull out his machete. He raised it into the air but then a shot rung out and a sniper shot hit his back, downing his shields. The Venator quickly turned to see that Spartan Kalashnikov, standing on stop of the Warthog, had her sniper rifle aimed right at him. The Venator got up to move away but Masterson quickly lunged forward and grabbed his leg, restricting his movement. The Venator slammed his knife down into her back, kicking her off him before another shot ripped through his abdomen. The Spartan stumbled back and out of Kalashnikov's line of sight.

The Pelican dropship then shook suddenly as another shot fired by the Ghost Rider's gauss cannon penetrated its right wing.
"We're hit!" I repeat, we're hit and we're going down! Brace yourself up there!" The pilot shouted to The Venator through the comms. The Pelican shook and then dipped to the right side. The Venator lost his balance and fell onto the floor, but quickly anchored himself down with another one of his machetes. Masterson however rolled right off the Pelican onto the road, before the dropship uncontrollably fell away from the highway and plummeted into the thicket of trees off to the side.