2019-10-28 - TLM 2: Two Girls, One Escape

Last Time on Threat Level Midnight...

Tessa was sent a text message to meet her partner-in-law-enforcement on the boardwalk. Instead, she ran across the very suspicious, very Cartel-ish Very Large Man. Having no recourse, the Detective surrendered her weapon and allowed herself to be taken, much as Liam Neeson would have advised.

Upon arriving, there was little doubt in Detective Chen's mind that they were going to be unceremoniously executed and have their bodies dumped somewhere. Probably. Wasting little time after finding out she was being held in the same room as Detective Stevens, Chen freed both herself and Sarah. Now they prepare to bust their way out of this abandoned industrial complex with nothing but their wits and a single jagged piece of metal as footsteps approach.

The thrilling conclusion of the two-parter Threat Level Midnight begins now...

---

As footsteps get closer, Sarah whispers for Tess to get back in the chair, hide the piece of metal she used to cut the other woman free, and wait for her signal. Removing her belt, the blonde dashes behind the door just as it begins to open, slowly wrapping the leather around each of her fists and drawing it taut.

As the door opens, two men enter, neither of whom look familiar, both of whom are very Hispanic. One of them, the shorter one with a slender, yet chiseled, build and a goatee, is telling his larger friend a joke. The large one is balding, but what's left of his hair is in a ponytail, and he is what they call 'fat-strong', big, and thick, but not well-defined. Both of them are dressed like hoodrats.

The shorter male speaking in Spanish stops short when he sees one broken chair, Tessa supposedly still tied up in hers. He draws his gun and advances towards her, speaking rapidly in his native tongue. About the only word Tess can make out is 'mamacita', but he's probably asking where the fuck the blonde-haired bitch is.

A sudden choking scuffling sound and choking makes him turn around. Sarah has leapt upon the bigger guy's back, using her belt as a garrote while he desperate claws at it. With a strangled noise, the hoodlum runs backwards into the wall behind him, causing a pained grunt from the blonde-haired detective as she impacts the solid concrete barrier. But she maintains her grip, nevertheless.

The shorter man, six feet or so from the 'tied up' Asian woman, spins around, pointing his gun at Sarah, lining up a clear shot on the crazy puta currently choking out his sidekick...

Tessa isn't good at deception, and thankfully this is not going to be one of those situations where she has to rely on it. Instead, much to the bittersweet effect of being allowed to punch someone harshly while Sarah is in danger, Chen is faced with her partner being pointed a gun at.

The piece of metal cracks to the side of the man's head with a violent, somewhat wet thud, the Chinese-American cop not really all that bothered about the fate of this man as she lets out some frustration on his dome.

Not a psychopath, Tessa doesn't follow up with more strikes. As soon as the man hits the ground, she takes his gun.

And shoves her sole on his face, one more time, for effect, the stomp surging from her other foot, all the muscles of her wiry body turning and shifting to pack quite a wallop when it is all said and then done.

Okay, maybe just a little psycho.

Next, she advances on the man currently battling the blonde, and quickly she takes a sidestep to twist around her own axis and slam her heel right to his gut. Not her soles, but heel to the liver, with a brutal scream that is frankly hateful.

As the man topples from the sheer violence of it all, Tessa is readily going to Sarah, worried about Hollywood. "Can you walk? Are you all right?" Her voice is worried, which is uncommon. She helps the blonde up regardless of whether she wants it or not, and quickly reaches for their pockets, trying to find something useful.

"We are gettin' outta here, Sarah, I promise you. I am takin' you out here..."

The man Chen strikes with her improvised weapon flops to the side, limply falling with a dull, fleshy slump to the ground. His wide, dead eyes stare directly ahead. She doesn't need any more strikes, that piece of metal firmly now embedded into his skull, his lifeless fingers surrendering his weapon. The crush to his face proves unnecessary, but probably satisfying in the way it... crunches.

Just a little psycho.

Sarah, meanwhile, is riding her bronco, attached to the man's back like a lamprey, getting her spine liquifyed as he slams her into the wall repeatedly in an effort to dislodge the woman strangling him to death, his face a mottled shade of purple. With his partner felled, he's begining to reach for his gun when Tess advances on him, kung-fu kicking what is left of the wind out of him.

Doubling over, the big guy takes a knee, practically throwing the blonde forward as he does so with the suddenness of the action. She manages to keep her grip as she's flipped over and forward, her athletic body tensing, muscles showing beneath Hollywood's flawless skin as she grits her teeth and lets out a loud, feral grunt. Now it's the man's turn to be glipped ass-over-teakettle, shoulder thrown by the belt around his neck as Sarah hurls him into the wall.

He hits it face-first, with a sickening snap as his neck twists at a funny angle, slumping in a lifeless heap, his head twisted around at an impossible cant.

The blonde is breathing hard as her partner checks up on her, a hand going to her back, spine arching in a stretch. "Yeah... Yeah, fine... Don't think he- nnngh- dislocated more than three or four discs. Fuck."

While Chen searches pockets, Sarah grabs the second man's weapon and his spare clip. The Asian detective comes up with a set of car keys and a couple of wallets. The IDs in them are fake, but might give them a lead. If they can get out of here alive.

Detective Hollywood flashes her brilliant smile, tinted only a little with the pain in her bruised backside as she checks her weapon and readies it, nodding towards the door. "Yes, we are. We might have to shoot our way out. There's about a dozen of them. Some of them could be gone. But I doubt it, they mentioned someone big coming." She looks at the other detective, then the door. "You ready?"

Tessa picks the fake ids, and stashes them in her back pocket, frowning as she always does. Weapons are picked up, and she curses at the lack of cellphones. Who doesn't carry a fucking cellphone nowdays?! The Chinese-American hisses, and shakes her head, "I don't like our chances in a shoot-out like this. We need to lit out of here fast, or we are goin' to be in an all git-out shitstorm."

Tessa eyes Sarah, trying to figure out if the discs situation is real or not, but she ain't no doctor! She is just worried, and that frown deepens. "Attackin' that fellow was a few pickles short of a barrel, Sarah. He's twice your size at lease. Should have let me handle it."

Super Cop Chen can handle anything*!

Still, she caresses the other woman's back briefly, and sets herself to moving. Tessa takes point because of course she does, but unlike when she does in normal situations, always bitching about Sarah being too slow (even when she isn't), this time Chen is always looking back and trying to check on the supposedly wounded woman.

Tessa will try to avoid shooting if she can, her primary objective being taking them out of there, and not staying to see the arrival of this supposed big deal kingpin. The Texan can only imagine the sizeable amount of crooks and murderers he would bring in his little entourage.

'Wow.' The word is mouthed by the blonde, along with a cocky grin, as she goes Full Texan with the slang and the accent. It seems to come out the more stressed the woman is, and it is also adorable. But now isn't the time to ask Tess to say a bunch of words that sound weird in Southerner.

"We're a team, Tess. If we're gonna make it out of here, you're going to have to learn to accept that I am the Chris Tucker to your Jackie Chan. And sometimes that means tackling a very fat Latino hoodrat."

The two women share a look as Detective Chen tries to use a backrub and x-ray vision to determine the severity of spine damage, and then they approach the door...

---

It really shouldn't have surprised either of them that they didn't manage to sneak anywhere. As soon as the door was opened, three men turned and stared at them. The two women froze in place, looked at each other, and then split apart, raising thier firearms.

Sarah is diving behind crates, firing wildly at the men as she slides along the concrete ground, scraping up and leaving behind some of the skin off of her shoulder as she scurries behind the best cover she can manage. The blonde doesn't hit anything, but she at least manages to make the men seek cover and prevent them from shooting HER, as well.

Still, she's crawling madly as men shout and the crate she ducked behind suddenly begins to be peppered by bullets, wood splinters exploding next to her face as she scurries like an animal between two rows of shelves lined with more barrles and boxes. Plywood crates aren't bulletproof, but hopefully she'd find one that's filled with something that is!

Two more men enter the warehouse from a nearby open rollout door, bringing the total assailants to five. For the moment. One of them wields a twenty-gauge shotgun, another a Chinese AR-15 knockoff, the others using pistols. Each of them seeks cover and split up to draw down on the two escaping policewomen in a deadly game of hide and seek, punctuated by gunfire.

Tessa doesn't really notice she gets more and more Lone Star as her stress levels rise. It is really not something she would notice usually, let alone in a situation like this! The Asian-American woman stares at that smile, however, in disbelief!

"This really ain't the time to be smilin' and chawin' the rag!"

There she goes, wondering what the hell Hollywood was going on about! Jackie Chan she knows, he is the martial arts fellow of the movies, but this Chris Tucker is just beyond her understanding of anything.

And so it is that, when the door opens, and three of the thugs show up behind her, Tessa stares at them with a frown. She crouches, ready to drive her fist into a gut, when the door behind them opens.

Stealth is dead, there is no escaping this place peacefully.

"You really fucked up now."

Those are the the last words she gives to one of the thugs before shoting him in the chest and diving to another cover, diferent from Sarah's. "TALK TO ME, STEVENS!" Worried, Tessa grits her teeth, and readies herself to take down every mothefucker in the compound before they can take out her partner.

Tessa's moment of respite is short-lived.

As soon as the woman shouts for Sarah, the sound of a man huffing comes from behind her. The Chinese-American woman only has the briefest window to turn around and strike her foe's weapon in a powerful upwards swing. The sound of gunfire rips through the room and Tessa charges the man.

Surprising the cop, the man can block her hook, and even when she tries to follow it with a strike to the man's gut, he seems competent enough to sway the other way. Tessa yells and goes for a kick, but her leg is caught and she is thrown onto the ground.

With the heavier man soon following on top of her, the Texan can only curl up as fists rain down on her form, hitting her arms, even if the impact of them sure is felt by Tessa.

As the woman endures a barrage, she awaits the briefest moment to strike back, and when the man pauses to fetch his sidearm, Tessa strikes the man's throat with extreme prejudice. It is enough for her to roll him over, and get out of the bottom.

Clutching his gun, Tessa slams the hardened piece of metal against the side of her foe's head enough times to make sure he won't wake up. She is surviving mostly on instinct, as the woman stands up, nose bleeding some, looking for Sarah and the other men.

Tess shoots a cartel mook in the chest, and the man goes down, twitching a bit as he gasps his last breaths. As she rounds for cover, shouting for her partner, Sarah is nowhere to be seen. And she doesn't answer back. That might be worrying.

Or maybe the blonde is simply playing hide and seek and trying not to be found.

The man that engages Detective Chen next is competent enough to not get splattered the instant she turns on the martial arts training. Though not formally schooled himself, he's been in enough scrapes to know how to hold his own. Still, even as gunshots go off elsewhere in the large warehouse building, the man is taken down.

Three left.

Pistol shots ring out, followed by the thundering roar of a shotgun. Sarah pops out from behind cover and plugs another one of the thugs in the head, causing him to crumple to the ground immediately as a new hole appears in his skull. Almost immediately upon giving away her position, return fire from the man's buddy is underway.

The shotgun tears a chunk out of the crate and through the aluminum wall behind her, but misses the blonde-haired Detective as she whirls, stepping quickly to the side for more cover. Even while moving, she calmly brings her weapon up, disciplin and training forcing her to conserve her ammo and wait for a good shot.

The pump action is actuated, a second thunder of the shotgun, more debris flying up in the air. Sarah finds her aim, and releases. After the noise of the scattergun, the POP of her pistol is almost unheard, but it is there. Another goon goes to the ground as Detective Hollywood places her back to a wall.

"One left! Why don't you just give up? You're all by your lonesome!"

Tessa Chen has been in firefights before, back when she was in Texas. Gray Harbor is usually more dull and more frustrating for that reason, but she has never been so invested in a situation as she is right now. The stakes have never been higher, too, and she realizes that.

First off, her partner is in danger and they have no backup. Getting caught means, in the very least, death, and they won't be able to leverage their badges with these guys. Sarah and Tes will be in a ditch somewhere before people start looking for them.

Secondly, Sarah is in danger, and although Tessa has laways felt responsible for her partners, Sarah and her have developed a strong bond, and if there was ever a partner she would hate, hate to see become a smear on the wall, that would have to b the blonde, even if she did say some nonsense from time to time.

Muttering a prayer briefly, Tessa then moves. She finds the goon before the goon finds her, and Tessa can see how the man is conflicted. These sorts always lose the courage as their numbers go down, and this is no exception.

Just as he is about to make his move, either to drop his weapon or charge in Sarah's direction, the Texan exits her cover behind the crates.

"HEY!"

BLAM. She shoots. Nobody is leaving this place alive today, they have all seen their faces, one of them probably has their IDs, and Tessa starts looking for that immediately.

"STEVENS! You doin' all right over there, woman?" Tessa is quick, and finding those ids or not, she is standing and rushing towards the blonde so they can get the hell out of dodge.

A shot rings out. A body crumples to the floor. Sarah's blonde head peeks out from over the top of a crate as an eerie silence fills the enormous room. Dust and packing debris still waft here and there from where bullets punched holes in plywood crates, but both women have emerged from the firefight relatively unscathed.

Detective Stevens approaches Chen slowly, always glancing around, alert for anything out of the ordinary that might mean a last ditch villain popping out of nowhere. Her gun is held down in front of her, angled towards the floor, in both hands as she steps surely, carefully, and quickly towards her partner.

She looks Chen up and down, flashing her a quick smile. "Never better, hon. Let's find those car keys, yeah?"

The pair search around, Sarah reloading her pistol and pulling the shotgun off of the man as Tessa roams through their pockets. She comes up with a few more (fake) IDs, some drugs, and, at last, car keys! They are attached to a little panda bear keychain, and hitting the button on them causes an SUV outside of the huge rollup door to unlock its doors and flash its lights. She also finds a couple of burner phones.

Both women are running outside, just as two more black SUVs are pulling up around the corner. They halt, then speed up, coming on far too quickly. "SHIT!" Sarah raises her gun and fires at the lead vehicle as she grabs Tess by the arm and pulls her towards the vehicle. She grabs the keys. "I'm driving! You shoot!"

The SUV fires up, is kicked into drive as Tess enters the vehicle, where she has the slug-loaded shotgun and several pistols, as well as a semi-automatic Chinese knockoff rifle to choose from as armaments.

The chase is on.

Let it never be said that Sarah doesn't have good ideas. She really does. Like rushing for the car and getting Chen to follow her, otherwise the Texan would have focused on shooting better instead running -and- shooting.

Tessa goes with the blonde, and soon enough they rush into the car, Tessa holding the phone in hand and gettin midway through the dial before it becomes obvious they are going to have another situation in their hands.

"SHIT. We are all grass and no dog here, Stevens! We need back up!" The Chinese-American dials and kneels on the seat to aim her pistol, ignoring the heavy arms right now in favor of something more comfortable and known. The bullets zip past their vehicle, break glass, and Tessa hisses.

She is not going to have the time to deal with all these goons. They are too underpowered here. She has to go for something drastic, something she is not a fan of.

"This never works...," she mutters, eyeing the tire and concentrating before she shoots three times, her wrist aching from the wallop of the gun. However, today Chen is on fire, and with much skill and or luck, she hits the tire.

THe first SUV becomes a rolling ball of dust and it vanishes in the rearview of their car, while another keeps coming. Tessa's eyes go wide. Oh SHIT. She was not expecting success there! She tries to talk to talk on the phone, if the call completes, but in the end, her focus is on the next SUV, awareness her clip is emptying fast all too urgent in her head.

"I don't know what that means! Speak American!" Sarah shouts back at her partner as gunfire erupts around them and she floors the pedal. The rear windshield breaks, and bullets begin to pepper the rear of the vehicle they drive. The driver's side mirror is taken out by one, causing Sarah to flinch. "FUCK!"

While Tessa shoots and calls for backup, the first SUV careens into a wall and flips over, rolling end over end as its occupants are splayed all over the inside. Should have worn their safety belts!

But the vehicle is large and unfamiliar to the blonde, who seems to loose control as they hit a pothole. The SUV behind them rams their rear end, a moustachioed man leaning outside of it to fire wildly into their vehicle as they catch up and pull alongside, both cars now racing pellmell down the small, stuffy road between warehouses.

One of the bullets grazes Tess, giving her a nasty war wound across the underside of her arm.

"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!"

Tessa is existing in a state of hyper-awareness where she is stuck in the moment but strangely disconnected from it. A quick passing of her gaze by Sarah tells her the blonde is struggling, although she doesn't know if Sarah's issue is with the vehicle or the situation in on itself. She doesn't have time to make that judgment.

The SUV rams on their car, and Tessa feels the frontal panel of the car dig into her back, her head hitting against the windshield. The Chinese-American can feel the pain in her scalp, but her eyes are on the approaching SUV and Sarah's screams.

Sarah doesn't seem like she got hit, but a sudden bite on her arm tells Tessa she probably did. It is one of those. It might have been bad, it might have been a grazing, she will know if her body starts to shut down. Right now, the only focus in her life is the one shooting at them.

Tessa doesn't take any more time to aim than she takes to make sure she is not going to hit Sarah, and she presses the trigger.

"CALM DOWN, SARAH!"

Sarah is making her nervous, she keeps eyeballing the woman to make sure Sarah herself isn't wounded, only to find her partner panicked. She has the right to be, but fuck, Tessa needs to focus!

The other shots that follow are more to suppress fire than anything else. "Hang in there, Sarah. We are almost in the clear," she murmurs, eyes narrowing at the shooter in the other vehicle as he just... leans over the window, bleeding. At least that should earn them some reprieve.

Tessa's marksmanship causes the man shooting at them to slump, hanging out of the window as Sarah growls and sideswipes at the SUV currently keeping pace with them. It does little more than jostle the two vehicles together violently, tossing them both a bit in their seats with teeth-rattling force.

"DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN, MAKE LIKE JAMES BOND AND SHOOT A BITCH!"

Sarah raves as she hammers on the accelerator. Slowly the other car falls behind, and then stops short. Apparently the driver is unwilling to continue the pursuit alone, with no backup and the rest of his squad taken out. The two detectives can see his SUV pull up and around, making U-turn and hauling ass back the way it came.

Sarah slows down with a scowl. "Should we go get him?" A glance at Tess. "Oh fuck, you're bleeding!"

The car clears the rows of warehouse and barrels onto a side street, Sarah rocking it to a complete stop so she can turn and inspect her partner, reaching for her arm. "Shit! Is it bad?"

Just then a slew of distant sirens can be heard, three police cruisers roaring in Code Three coming around the bend. They careen to a screeching halt in front of the two women, Sheriff's Deputies swarming out, five in total between the three cars, guns out. Some of the new arrivals recognize the GHPD detectives and tell the others to stand down.

Paramedics are called and two of the cruisers move to secure the crime scene while one of the officers remains behind with the detectives.

Looks like our heroines live to fight another day!

---

Next time, on Threat Level Midnight: Episode III... Bloodroad! Two women must cross the forested roads of Oregon and northern California on a mission from the US Marshalls to transport their sole surviving convict to LA jurisdiction. What will happen?

EXPLOSIONS!

SCREAMS!

JUMPCUTS!

Tune in next time for... THREAT. LEVEL. MIDNIGHT!