Normal? Jonas lightly shook his head as he took another glance at it, frowning. He tightly gripped the steering wheel, lightly rapping on it with one free finger. Squinting, he turned to eye the younger, creepily immature passenger, via the rear-view mirror for a couple of seconds.
"Normal," he rhetorically asked in a light, quizzical sort of manner.
"Nah, that ain't even close to normal in the slightest," he murmured placing an arm on the window as he inconspicuously leaned his head to the side.
"... well, for people who aren't nomads, anywho..."Jonas kept tabs on the wolf-girl and Jotunn, nodding his head as he accelerated a bit to try and keep up with Otsana.
"That far away, eh," he spoke to Otsy, cursing mentally to himself. The rapping stopped completely and the doctor gripped the wheel much harder than before. How friggin' peachy...
"... gotcha', I'll do my best to make it t'the fight as quickly as possible," he shouted out, falling a little bit behind Otsana and Klara. This was obviously going to be a bad idea if he tried to match their speed... but heck, going in without a plan was going to be a recipe for disaster...
And even more disastrous was that one out of six people here wanted to destroy that mechanical monstrosity.
Jonas was a little bit miffed by Brenda's response to have them
not engage the dragon. His frown deepened as he passed through the traffic, eyeing the few fleeing civilians... some were even taking in the spectacle... well, they weren't paying em', so they would do them.
"Look, it doesn't matter if others have beaten us t'the chase, we gotta take that thing down too," he shot back, passing by a slow moving truck.
"YEAH!" Brown shouted, the last flakes of her chocolate spraying onto the back of Jonas's head rest as she spoke. Eyes peering into the distance Brown listened for the metal dragon's roar. Her heart began to race at the thought of fighting it, of
beating it like she had with the robot back at the arena. Countless fights before she had approached with either caution or complete abandon.
All that mattered was winning. Was breaking the opponent and achieving superiority over them. Before Brown's victories had felt fleeting or hollow, always against lesser foes or under questionable circumstances. But as she sat in the jeep with a monster in the distance just begging to be fought the memory of what she did back at the arena made her smile.
"We dunno if whoever is takin' the dragon on is capable of actually defeating it... and besides," Jonas accelerated a little more, nearly catching up with them and possibly breaking the speed limit for god knows how much he cared.
"There are multiple reasons to take it down - for face, to make sure it doesn't kill any more of the people who are going to pay us if we complete this task, and any sort of information we might get outta' them," he shouted the last part as he made a very steep turn.
"... tha's includin' any leads on your brother," he whispered loudly enough only for the brawny beaut. Hopefully that would give her more of an incentive to fight with Askin and... Klara.
Brenda nodded her head at the mention of her brother. She doubted that he'd be
here... but then again, a town being threatened by robots and willing to throw money at whoever solves it was going to be a Nomad magnet.
"We don't need a reason to fight the dragon! It's there, it's dangerous, and we can kill it without getting in trouble."The girl punched her hand into her other open hand as she looked over to Brenda, wondering briefly why the girl wouldn't want to fight.
But fifteen minutes?... hmm. He took a brief glance at the metal corpses once more that riddled the landscape... Maybe they could use these vehicles and robots alike t—
"Jesus Christ Askin, close th' door!" Wait, what the fuck?
"Askin, what the hell are you doing," he shouted, somewhat moderately befuddled by the gung-ho attitude of the midget man as the side door flew open at the guy's behest. The doctor was more than aware of what he was doing... even as absolutely foolish as this was.
Jonas' eyes widened a bit as he grind his teeth, watching as the guy slip off his seat-belt. Yeah, he didn't know what action movies he was watching, if he had been, but this was honestly stu—
"I have you, small one!" The motorbike swayed slightly as Klara bolted from the seat and swung an arm out in Askin's direction as he flew towards them. The pair of them were inches away, but in a moment of incredible coordination, or perhaps just blind luck, Otsana swung the handlebars around so hard the wheels left the ground just as Klara nearly swung herself out of the sidecar entirely, reaching out to grab hold of Askin. It looked as though Klara would miss him by inches, but by some miracle the ice giantess reached out and grabbed onto Askin's arm just as gravity took over and brought the bike back onto all tires with a slam.
"I admire your gall! she remarked with a out-of-breath sounding laugh, swinging him around to drop him onto the sidecar behind her seat.
"But perhaps a warning next time? I can't imagine a fall like that would be pleasant!""I had complete faith in you," Askin said serenely.
Jonas slammed onto the brakes, skidding as the idiot rashly jumped with the resolution that he was going to make it into the vehicle. Sure, he was a nomad, but there was a time and place for this... and this? This was not the time to be pulling a stunt... but thankfully as it turns out, he wouldn't go splat on the pavement... thank god for Klara's long reach over Otsy, jeez...
"Heh," Brenda said, "Maybe hitting his head will learn him."
... someone was gonna get their ass lectured after they took out this dragon.
Otsana 's tires screeched as she reflexively tapped the brakes, her eyes going going wide as the Nomad jumped between the two vehicles. She ducked as he barely passed behind her. Unfortunately for everyone involved, she had swerved to try to avoid him too. The motorcycle skidded as he landed next to Klara. At the speed they were going, she didn't have enough time to stop, and they went straight off the freeway. Branches whipped at her face as they careened down the mountainside. It was all she could do to keep them from hitting the big obstacles, every small bump threatening to flip them over. She breathed a sigh of relief as they reached the edge of the woods, only to realize that they were headed towards a rocky outcropping that just happened to form a perfect ramp to launch them towards town.
"Oh you're kidding me!""There are not more of those branches are there?" Klara, being much larger then Askin in addition to sitting farther up, had taken the brunt of the damage from the near misses with trees and had the leaves and twigs stuck in her now disheveled hair to show for it. Askin untangled a particularly unhappy-looking twig from her hair, and gave a small thumbs up.
Otsana pumped the breaks, but between the damp leaves and their momentum it was clear they weren't going to stop in time.
"Hold on, we're going flying!" "Flying? Flying to wha-aaaaaa-aAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Klara's exclamation trailed off as her question was answered, the bike sailing off the ramp and into the open air.
"Seems like a good time to ask, Klara" Askin shouted, as they went up, up, up on their weightless akimbo missile of a motorcycle,
"do you want to go up and punch that dragon now?"Klara's eyes went wide with excitement.
"If you are offering, I would be more then happy to wrestle this Nidhogg imposter!""Don't know what that means, but great! Stand still, don't move until you see the light!" The butterflies were going wild in Askin's stomach. Pain he could handle, but the unnatural height was something else entirely. It was all going so quick, the motorcycle gunning through the air, the wind rushing by, Otsana triumphantly gunning the engine—
Maybe if I reach down deep inside and find my inner wolf. Unfortunately, Askin found only more bouncing butterflies.
Steeling himself, Askin revealed two tiny bottles from beneath his cloak. In a blur of motion, Klara vanished into the left-hand container. As they reached the height of the arc, Askin swung back his hand, then threw, opening up the bottle at the height of the throw to send Klara rocketing through the air. With the other bottle, Askin fired a sharp shotgun blast of air at the frost giant's heels,
oofing a little at the impact.
"VAAAAAAL-HALLA!" Klara unleashed a war cry with a mixture of shock and bravado as she soared into the sky, past the wings of the great metal beast and flying out of sight of the people closer to the Earth.
"Vile beast!" Klara's voice echoed from beyond the dragon's large back as it started to jostle in midair to remove the unwanted guest.
"Now you will see how the Jotunn fight!"
... ok, maybe not a stern lecture, but more like an ass whooping after this all! Jonas' eyes widened as he continued skidding down the road, his teeth grinding as much as the wheels on the pavement. Squeezing the wheel as they slid down the road, the doctor looked over outside Brenda's window as he saw the trio tumble down the hill.
"Oh my g- uuugh," he groaned, shaking his head as the vehicle came to a stop with another truck passing by him as he did. He craned his head back staring at the overhead of the jeep; if his stares were any more fiery, he would probably burn the jeeps ceiling off.
Sighing, he turned his vision back to the road, breathing in and out for a few seconds as he accelerated forward, twisting the wheel to the side as he switched lanes. Good, at least those didn't fuck up... unlike someone else he was thinking of right now.
"I'm gonna smack Askin upside the head when we deal with this mecha-dragon," he mumbled, turning himself to look at Brown before motioning his index finger to the now open door.
"Brown... y'mind closin' that," Jonas spoke in an exasperated voice as he turned back to his usual position.
Brown reached out and slammed the door Askin had so carelessly left open when he threw himself from the car. Fingers still wrapped around the door handle Brown looked up at the Dragon thrashing around in the skies above with the snow women clinging to it's back like a giant, angry, snow born tick.
Once mosquito nips did as said, he began accelerating as he alternated between scanning the clearing and keeping an eye on the road. As Jonas began driving, he rapped his fingers a bit as he continued forward, speeding up as he ignored a few of the signs until reaching the turn off the freeway, leaving the forest out of the way...
As he drove, something popped into his head... he started alternating between looking at the side of the freeway and the road, humming a jazz tune as he began drawing up an idea.
"You two may wanna hold on," he spoke coolly as the jeep began to decelerate, as well as slowly diverging off the side of the exit.
"Hold on to what? Why do I want to hold—" "I'm about to test th' roll bar," he announced as he brazenly turned off the side of the road... and began skidding downhill in the somewhat open plains.
It was difficult to control as he was plagued with constant bumps on the mountainside, as well as obstacles that constantly threatened to damage the vehicle from time to time. Steering to avoid a capsized vehicle and other miscellaneous items, it was an agonizing thirty seconds of trying to avoid everything that got in the way before everyone in the truck received some sort of recoil upon successfully navigating the hillside. Jonas' head bobbed forward a bit in the process as he turned back to look at the other passengers.
"Y'two alright," he grunted, blinking a bit as the hood of the jeep was caked in a thin layer of snow.
"Yep! That was fun!" Brown threw the branch of an evergreen tree that and snapped off and fallen into her lap during Jonas's maneuvers. Pine bristles clung to her dirty hair like sprinkles on the world's most unappealing scoop of ice cream.
"Don't worry about me," Brenda stated.
Once they responded, Jonas lurched forward before bouncing into the back of his seat, mumbling
"Peachy..."Well... they seemed closer to the town, judging by how far away they were... give or take two minutes?
"Anyways, I think I gotta' plan on how to handle that... thing," he leaned out the window and jammed an index finger at the jet powered, fire slinging target. Leaning back into the jeep, he began driving forward once more.
"Problem is, I kinda' need the albino smurf to be here," he grumbled, steering to avoid a pile of robots. Jonas looked over at Brenda for a split second before continuing.
"Say Brenda, y'think you can make some large spears either out of rock or this stuff," Jonas quizzed, removing a hand from the wheel to point out the window at the wreckage's scattered throughout the landscape.
"I can do anything with stone," Brenda was quick to answer. "Just need to give me a minute to put together something that'll dent
that."
A few dozen yards down the road, a motorcycle flew through the air, a screaming metal deathtrap. A person went flying up and away at impossible speeds before the cycle flew out of sight, Klara's lingering roar of VALHALLA filling in the empty space the vehicle and its occupants had just crossed.
"I will kick your ass so hard Askin I swear to God you'll tie my boots with your tongue!" "I trust your judgment and accept whatever ass kicking or boot licking you feel appropriate," said Askin, untangling a few unkind branches from his hair.
"But you have to admit—that was pretty sweet."The woods quickly gave way to the outskirts of the town, the rooftops giving the driver a landing ramp. With a thud and some bouncing, they soon landed safely, speeding along a downhill road towards the center of town. Otsana's white knuckle grip loosened, her tail looking less like a pom-pom as she turned to glare at him.
"Is this the part where I tie your boots with my tongue?" said Askin.
"Or should I wait until after we kill the dragon?" He still felt a little loopy, but was otherwise upbeat. In fact, now that the whooshing panic of the motorcycle jump was comfortably in the past, Askin had to admit, it was quite fun.
Otsana replied with a swift punch to the back of the head, prompting a soft little
oof from Askin.
"Yeah, that comes later," she said, shaking out her hand,
"Im still using it." She swerved to avoid a stalled sauerkraut truck.
"Not today..." she muttered.
"If you say so," Askin said politely. They wove through cobblestone streets choked with abandoned vehicles and dozens on dozens of shattered robot corpses. It was like watching someone thread a cinderblock through the eye of a needle.
"A lot of work to harass a snowed-in Podunk in upstate Germany," Askin muttered. Podunk. An American word, apparently, unfamiliar on his lips but more than appropriate, Askin thought.
"There must be more to this. You know, Otsana, I'm starting to think we're going to see much worse than a dragon before this is over." "Mmm yeah not a lot of payoff. At least with the Rio attack you have the prize money to go after. This seems more like a test run than anything else." They passed a burning car.
"Lets you work out the kinks before you attack a bigger city. And, since it sounds like they're hiding in the Alps, you've got a place to hide should things go wrong." "A test run? That does make sense. I think this was the plot to The Incredibles, wasn't it? The final show these people must be planning..."Smiling then, Askin chanced his luck with a gentle, friendly punch to Otsana's shoulder.
Good thing we're here, huh?"Otsana rolled her eyes as she pulled into an alleyway, off the main roads but close enough to the action.
"Feh, they're just lucky they haven't brought in the Heer." She pulled out her phone, sending their location to Jonas via text.
"Either way, time to get paid."
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Punished GN
