Chapter 30:

The K.O. goes K.O.

Cooper Black: Heist


"It's been two days… TWO DAYS, I TELL YOU! And still no progress!" Rogue Jacob and the others sat against a bricked wall. "How long will it take for Cooper Black and his brother to rendezvous? Let it be. Let's just hope they aren't dead. Bring in the prisoner, LJ."

Li'l Jacob brought forth the limping Dorritor Kho. All 3 Dogs had shot at his right leg so many countless times that it was of a corpse than living flesh.

"What d'you guys want from me?"

"Stop trying to act innocent. We know who you are! You are the one who helped Rickardo Viz escape. You are the one who robbed the bank, remember?"

LJ kicked him to a kneeling position. "No, I don't know… aaah! Yes… it was me, yes! I yield!"

"Good. Now what kind of skills do you have? Handling guns? Stealth? Anything more?"

"Yeah, I can do that."

"Do what?"

"Shooting, stealth and violence."

"Good. Very good. You'll be quite useful to us. Now c'mon."

They led him to a Ferrari Enzo, parked 3 blocks from their location. RJ gestured to DK. "Break the lock."

"Are you guys stupid?"

Carl Jason smacked him on the back.

"Mind your tongue, Kho. I might have to put a bullet through it."

"Fine. Just give me a gun. An assault rifle will do."

CJ passed him a (empty) M4.

"Now watch," he used the gun's butte and knocked it at the car window. When it cracked, he used his bare fists and smashed the glass. Then it was just a piece of cake to open the door and twist some wires under the dashboard.

"NOT A SINGLE MUSCLE!" a rude voice interrupted.

When Rogue Jacob turned his head to look into the direction of the voice, he felt like a mouse being trodden on.

About five SWATs appeared from a nearby bookshop. And they didn't look happy. One of them shot with an Uzi SMG.

Everyone ducked and ran for the car. But the car door snapped shut and drove away. Oh great! It was a setup! Dorritor Kho had tricked them!

"Separation barrage formation!" Rogue Jacob commanded.

The City Dogs rolled sideways while shooting back at the SWAT. But shooting wasn't enough. Even though the bullets hit the SWAT, they were absorbed by the flak jacket.

Now what would they do? Just keep rolling? Never. There had to be a way out. What was their location? Queens? Then it wasn't far from the Lucky Charms.

The ground shook like it was shivering and out came…

…a GSFER! None other than T-DOG!

"HOSTILE ACTIVITIES DETECTED," T-DOG's robotic voice spoke. "KILL CODE ENGAGED!"

It opened its mouth and shot a 4000⁰C white-hot flame at the SWAT. Lasers locked onto their guns and got attracted to its magnetic mouth. The GSFER munched on them like scrap metal. "DELICIOUS!"

"Hey, T-Dog! Can you take us to Times Square?"

"LOCATION TIMES SQUARE…. PROCESSING… YEAH, OKAY, HOP ON!"

It let out some retractable flaps for the trio to hold onto.

"Carl Jason, you've been promoted! Drive that snake bot outta this place."

"Got it, bud."

When everyone was holding on tight, T-DOG buried itself into the ground and things went flying by.

***

30 minutes later…

The GSFER changed direction and burst out of the ground, onto Times Square. The core of the Kor Ondrone was hovering just 2800 metres above their heads. Great sparks of energy escaped from the craft and landed just 2 metres away from T-DOG's position.

"Quick! T-Dog, switch to WCFR mode!" Carl Jason had to shout out loud to let his voice be heard among the hubbub of the buzzing of the K.O.'s core material. The core glowed as brightly as the sun but with a bluish light.

"What's a WCFR?" Rogue Jacob wondered.

"Winged creature, flying robot. T-Dog, switch to WCFR, now!"

"PASSWORD?"

"Um… ah, got it! H loves A."

"ACCEPTED."

The retractable flaps closed in and dropped the humans to the ground. Then the GSFER transformed into a WCFR. The fire-breathing head remained the same but all the other segments were folding in and compressing itself. Now the snake robot looked more like a beetle with drills on its legs and a much bigger drill for its tail.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! CJ, you cannot just go in there!" RJ tried to hold his friend back but he was too fast.

"T-Dog, go to the Kor Ondrone."

T-Dog's lasers locked onto the core. "COMMAND UNKNOWN. WANNA TRY A HOMING MISSILE INSTEAD?"

"Hmm…" Carl Jason squinted up at the thing in the sky. "Okay, then. T-Dog, rapid fire at target."

"OKAY, SIR!" The WCFR ejected two rocket launchers on either side. "PREPARE TO BE BLOWN—"

Too late; one of the energy sparks landed on top of the robot. Carl Jason was thrown off by the impact force. As for the robot, it had become a giant toast for your afternoon tea.

"Fallback, fallback!"

Both the Jacobs ran into a 16-storeyed structure to hide themselves.

"Ah… ow… ah…" Carl Jason tried to sit up amidst all the broken glass, steel and alloy. One of the rocket launchers was still good as new. He staggered to it, but tripped over one of the drill 'legs' of T-DOG.

He had to move on. This was his chance. But even his legs felt like a heavy burden to him. He proned to the launcher and inserted the missile. But this was no ordinary missile. It had some fragments of the 5:FT nuke.

He held it up, his hands not able to cope up with the weight for long.

He tried to aim but his eyes couldn't focus properly.

Then… he pulled the trigger.

The missile propelled towards the core. Inside the core. Finally… KA-BOOM!

Everyone cheered, including the US Marines (who had been hiding inside a home décor shop nearby).

The Kor Ondrone burned inside out and split into a thousand pieces. The shrapnels exploded in all directions. The shockwave destroyed the tips of the Empire State Building and nearby skyscrapers. The war had been won. The first war, that is.