“Fried chicken makes everything better.”
“I told you, man.” replied the clone as Nate took another piece of chicken from the bucket he held and shoved it in his mouth. Nate mumbled something completely incomprehensible around the food in his mouth. Not even the clone understood. But he did ask “Feeling better?” Nate nodded but only half paid attention to the clone, electing instead to check out a blonde that passed them on the street. The smiled at each other as she passed and it took all of Nate's inner strength to not follow her. Fried chicken was good but he knew something that would make him feel a lot better.
“I'm glad you're feeling better,” said the clone. “Because you're probably going to feel worse in a moment.”
Nate slowly turned back to his clone with a look on his face that the clone entirely understood to be him asking
'What now?'The clone stopped and turned to face Nate. “See the guy over my shoulder? On the other side of the street?” Nate glanced over the clone's shoulder to see a man in sunglasses across the street, trying to look inconspicuous. “He's been following us for a while now. And he's not alone.” the clone informed him. Sure enough, as Nate looked around, he spotted several others taking up positions. He had been trained in this line of work and he knew how to spot an undercover tactical team.
“This way.” he told the clone as he took another bite of chicken before ducking into a nearby alley, his clone close behind him.
Everything kicked off then as the tac team knew they had been spotted and gave up any pretense of being average people on the street. They shot after the two identical men who had now slipped in through the back door of a Chinese restaurant. The Nates scurried through the confined space, being yelled at in Cantonese as they went, but didn't have much time before the tac team burst in through the door with one of them yelling “Freeze!” as he pointed his gun at them. The chefs screamed in fright and out of panic, headed for the door, causing enough of a distraction and a roadblock for Nate and the clone to get out of the kitchen.
They shot into the main restaurant, knocking down a waiter as they went. Two more FBI agent's, these ones much more obvious with their blue wind breakers, were waiting here but were taken entirely by surprise by how fast Nate and the clone were. As they began to raise their weapons, Nate's boot was planted full force in one of their chests, sending him careening all the way through the glass door he had just entered. The clone was only a fraction of a second slower but elected not to dropkick the second poor schmuck and instead grabbed the other agent by the arm as he moved out of range of his gun, lifting him up over his shoulder and slamming him down onto a table, utterly ruining a young couple's meal. The entire move was so fluid that it barely slowed the clone down at all and he was quickly following Nate out onto the street, jumping over the broken glass and the agent writhing on the sidewalk.
In a blur of motion, both men shot across the street. Nate narrowly avoided being hit by a car and leaped over the hood. “Hey! Watch it!” yelled the driver as he stuck his head out of the window. He only grew more annoyed when the clone did the same thing. Seeing the FBI team following after the twins, the driver slowly rolled up his window and made sure he didn't get involved.
Running down the block, Nate and the clone found themselves cut off by an SUV coming the other way. The car pulled up onto the sidewalk and another couple of agents jumped out. Nate and the clone ducked into the nearest doorway, finding themselves in a tiny little chapel. Nate's reaction to the location surprised even himself. As the clone did his best to barricade the door with whatever he could find nearby, Nate stopped dead in his tracks, staring up at the crucifix with a look that seemed a mix of awe and horror. Memories of Sunday school came flooding back and made him cringe. The clone was having none of that though and grabbed Nate by the arm, dragging him through the back door.
In the alley behind the building, they found themselves running again as another SUV pulled into the far end of the alley, forcing them to run the other way and scale a steel gate to get away. “Shit!” yelled one of the agents as the car slammed into the gate, sending the clone off the other side. The clone barely managed to land on his feet and grunted in annoyance at landing so awkwardly. He was quickly back up and running, albeit with a slight limp now.
They rounded a corner and found themselves alone. Finally out of sight of their pursuers, they had a second to breath and ducked into cover just before the two agents from the car rounded the corner and came barreling past them. They didn't see the Nate's slip away in the other direction.
A few minutes later, Nate and the clone had made it back to the car Nate had stashed a few streets away. “That was actually a lot closer than I thought it would be.” said the clone with a smug smile as he slid into the passenger seat, finally taking a moment to rub at his ankle. It was swelling quickly after his bad landing earlier and as the adrenaline wore off, he was finally starting to feel it.
Nate took the drivers seat and replied “Yeah well it's not over yet. It's time to get Tweedledee and Tweedledumbass and get the hell out of this town.”
The car hummed to life and was quickly on the move again, zipping in and out of the city traffic with ease and a little recklessness. After the adrenaline fueled past few moments. The come down in the car was almost unbearable. The long silence, broken only by the dull sounds of the city on the other side of the window was practically painful for Nate and his clone seemed to echo this feeling as he tapped the foot that wasn't aching like an impatient child coming down from a sugar rush. After a long moment, after he could bear the silence no longer, the clone turned to Nate with a smile and opened his mouth to say something.
He didn't get the chance though, as the car was suddenly t-boned by an SUV that slammed into it's side after speeding through a junction. The much smaller car that Nate drove went careening off to the side of the street, jostling it's inhabitants around like rag dolls. Nate's head smashed into the side window and as pain rushed through him and blood whipped across his vision, a face popped into his mind for a split second. Someone he hadn't seen in a long time. He didn't have the time to reflect on this vision though as he was still being smashed around and felt the distinctive sensation of a rib being broken. Something heavy slammed into his side. He couldn't see what it was but he had the sickening thought that it was his clone.
When the car finally came to a rest, upside down, there was a silence that was eerily reminiscent of the silence Nate had felt a few moments earlier. It took him a moment to realize that this silence was because he had smashed his head and his brain was readjusting. When the sound finally returned, there was an ear splitting alarm in the air that only made his head hurt more. His eyes were squeezed shut in an attempt to lessen the pain but when he realized it wasn't working, he opened them and was immediately disoriented by the fact that he was upside down, hanging from his seat belt. He looked around, his vision fading in and out, and spotted his clone propped up against the passenger side window.
For a second, Nate panicked, thinking his clone was dead. But when the clone jerked awake, his heart settle. For a moment at least.
The clone looked around at the situation he had found himself in and groaned in annoyance. Nate's vision continued to fade in and out and he felt like he was about to pass out but he saw the clone give him a smile, teeth coated in blood, and say “I don't think fried chicken can make this better.”
Even in the situation that he was in, Nate couldn't help but chuckle at that. He laughed until he physically couldn't anymore. And the clone did the same. He laughed at his own terrible joke and the last thing Nate saw before he passed out was his clone being pulled from the wreckage by unknown hands, laughing the entire time.
