似水流年
(sì shuǐ liúnián)
years flow away, just like a stream of water
FOUR MONTHS AGO
FLORENCE, ITALY
YVETTE WAS PERCHED ON THE ROOF, AWAITING FOR THE CHAOS TO TAKE PLACE. She nearly fell asleep as the sun beat down on her in a calming manner with the sound of civilian chatter down below when she heard the crackle of static in her earpiece.
"Six, where are you?" One asked through her earpiece, slightly panting — Yvette could tell they were now making a run out of the building. "Zero, do you copy? Where's the fucking car?"
"Calm down," she said, glancing down at her watch. "Six should be there in five, four, three — say hello to the green beauty. Like it? I picked it out myself."
"Zero, I love it," Yvette heard Two say, grunting in pain as she was hauled into the car by Five.
Yvette grinned, doing another quick scan of the bombs in her bag and making sure she had them all. "Wait a second — what happened with Two?"
"She got shot — " Five started.
"Holy shit," Six exclaimed as soon as he started to take off driving, the engine purring to life as the car roared down the streets of Florence. "Zero, she's bleeding on the seats — "
"Go, go, go!" One interrupted as Six stepped hard on the gas.
"We're going to need a hospital," Five breathed out.
Yvette slung her bag across her shoulders, strapping it on securely as she rose to her feet and paced the roof. "There should be one a couple of blocks from here," she said, fingers dancing across the screen as she searched for a hospital. "If we can get there once all this shit is over with — I can find Five an empty operating room."
"Perfect."
"Two — check under the seats, there should be a little compartment there. I put in some extra ammunition."
"Where did the guys come from?" Yvette heard Two ask One in her thick, French accent as she changed the magazine of her gun. "You said you were covering the door."
"I was covering the door," One replied. "You were shot through a window."
Yvette made a face. "Oh, ouch — I wouldn't have seen that coming either."
"Such an amateur show," Two seethed through her teeth.
"Oh, an amateur show?" One repeated heatedly.
"Yeah!"
"I know, you got shot through the window. God, that's so bad."
"Six," Yvette said as One and Two continued to yell at each other. She pulled out another device from her pocket and stretched it apart to open it widely. "I have the car's location in my software, if you take a right two blocks down you'll find a shortcut away from civilians."
She heard him follow her instructions and the pleasant squealing of the tires. "Thanks, Zero — I love you."
"The point is we got this," One's voice came through again her earpiece once they stopped bickering. "That's all that matters."
"Got what?" Yvette asked the same time Six questioned, "What's that?"
"It — it's disturbing."
"Six, left in three blocks."
"It's gonna hurt, okay?" Yvette heard Five say. "I'm gonna go in really deep and find that bullet."
"What are you doing?"
"No, no, no," Six said queasily. "Don't. No, you're not gonna put that in her."
"What are you doing? Don't perform a fucking surgery in the car!" Yvette exclaimed as she let her fingers fly across the screen of her device and activated the small phone she'd attached in the dashboard. Within a minute, she could see them inside. "What the fuck — don't bleed her out!"
"Shit," One exclaimed in surprise when he found Yvette's face in the screen. "Zero, you motherfucker — don't scare us like that. You made Six drive into a stall!"
"I'm in," Five called out to her before saying to Two, "Feel that?"
Yvette groaned loudly upon seeing blood spurt out of Two's right abdomen and splatter the seats. Six made a noise of disgust, eyes flickering up to the rear view mirror. "Oh, God — there it goes."
"Eyes on the road," Yvette snapped.
"Oh, that's so gross," One whispered in aghast.
"Zero, I'm gonna yak — "
"Six, shut the fuck up and don't you dare throw up in the car," she said before calling out to Five. "Below you there should be a first aid kit. It doesn't have the tools to pull a fucking bullet out of Two, but there's gauze and whatever you need to patch her up after."
"Got it," Five said before her voice was drowned out by Two letting out a short scream of pain.
"We got a tail," One announced, glancing at the side view mirror.
Two cocked her gun as Five hissed, "Stop playing with your fucking gun and let me work."
"Shut up," Two cursed. "You wanna die?"
"Hey, I think they got us," One said, turning to Six. "You wanna . . . ?"
Yvette zoomed out again of the screen of her device, opening the map that showed the car's location as she placed their video at the corner for her to still see. "Turn right now!"
"Yeah, here we go," Six said before sharply making a right.
"One, I left a little surprise for you in the glove compartment."
She watched the small video at the top corner of her screen as he propped it open and carefully took the minuscule bomb she'd prepared. "Zero, this is fucking tiny — "
"Jesus, One — just throw it!" Yvette swiped the screen and said, "On my signal — Six, make another left — One, throw it as soon as he makes that turn. NOW!"
She opened the monitor that connected her to the black box at the back of the car and watched as Six made a left at the precise moment One tossed the tiny bomb behind them. She watched it land on the car tailing them before it combusted into flames.
"Sorry for misjudging the little guy," One called out as Yvette widened the screen again to see them better.
She was about to make a witty remark back at One until Six suddenly glanced at One beside him. "What did you guys do in there? Why are you all covered in blood?"
"The head, neck, and face are very vascular, so it's a lot of blood."
Six groaned loudly. "Oh, please tell me you didn't kill a mafia guy in Italy!" He glanced up again at the rear view mirror. "This is getting a lot of blood on Zero's car — "
"Shut up for one second, there's a BMW chasing us," Five shouted, hastily whipping around to look behind her.
"Zero, any more of those little guys?" One asked, worriedly checking the mirror.
"There's one more, but it's massive destruction — so don't use it around all those people. Six, keep driving straight and you'll find me waiting for you."
Six nodded and stepped on the gas. "Can I just take a moment to thank you?" He momentarily took a glimpse of One beside him. "There's nothing else I'd rather be doing with my life."
One grinned broadly at him. "I don't care."
"We should call ourselves the Avengers," Yvette said, "One, can we please call ourselves the Avengers?"
"I second that," Two called out from the back, still wheezing in pain.
"We're not the Avengers — look at the fucking mess we just put ourselves into!" One retaliated. "Not to mention the number of people Six just hit with the car — "
"Six, turn left!" Yvette interrupted quickly as Six obeyed. What she didn't expect was for him to execute a perfect 360 turn and step on the brakes as a truck drove by and grazed the side of the car, the tremendous scratching noise practically causing a loud feedback in her earpiece.
"Whoo!" Six exclaimed victoriously before stepping on the gas again.
"SIX, WHAT THE FUCK — THAT'S IT, I'M GOING IN." Yvette snapped shut her device and stuffed it inside her bag before she took off running down the connected roofs. "Six, keep driving and I'll meet you halfway." She continued sprinting until she reached the end of the roof, and she scaled down the wall.
There was a loud sound of something hitting the windshield of the car. It was closely followed by Six's guilty groan. "Oh, I so had the right of way!"
Yvette dodged through the civilians, keeping her head down and her eyes alert as she ran as fast as her legs could take her. "What just happened?"
She heard Five below through her earpiece at Six, "You hit one more person, and I'm walking! You hear that?"
Six said gruffly, "A lot of backseat-driving going on."
Yvette continued down the street until she heard the wheels screeching as though Six was drifting continuously. "Somebody talk to me — where are you right now?"
"There's a statue and we're going in fucking circles around it," Two said bluntly.
"I think I know where you are," she said, picking up her pace. "I'll be there in a minute."
"Nice call on the Day Glo green," One said to her sarcastically.
"Too flashy?" Yvette grinned, slightly panting as she neared them.
"Blends into the Italian architecture."
"What, you don't like the color?" She laughed at that, hearing commotion up ahead as she ran towards the noise. "You damage the car again, and you're all walking next time."
Yvette entered the scene just in time to see the neon green Alfa Romeo Giulia swerve to avoid hitting a woman with a baby and a litter of puppies. She grunted under her breath, "This group is gonna be the fucking death of me."
"You're already dead!" One quipped back at her.
"Incoming," she said before she took off sprinting toward the statue, using it as leverage before she executed a flip that made her land perfectly on the hood of the car.
Six grinned upon seeing her steady herself as he said, "God, I love it when she does that."
"She's called the Archangel for a reason, keep up, kid," One said before pointing at the roof of the car. "Zero, get up there."
Yvette smirked and sent Six a wink before saying, "You better not fucking drop me." Her eyes flickered to the side just in time to see a gun directed at her, and she swiftly dropped to cover herself, slamming onto the windshield in front of One. She didn't break through it, but the impact helped charge up her white suit a little bit.
"You wanna make me one of those?" One asked as Yvette leaped onto the roof of the car.
"No," she called out to him, taking an explosive from her bag and throwing it directly at one of the cars tailing them.
One huffed at her. "Brat."
Yvette grinned and reached down to flash him the finger. "You love me."
"Zero, you might want to hang on for a bit," Six warned her before he teared down the streets in blinding speed.
Yvette, who was down on her front and clutching the sides of the car, glanced behind her and called out, "Guy in a motorcycle — he has a gun! Six, slow down so I can — "
"I got him," Two hollered up at her as her arm peeked out at the side and she started shooting at him.
Yvette propped a leg up, preparing to jump as soon as Two gets him. As the bullet impaled through his helmet and past his head, Yvette shouted for Six to slow down a bit before she soared into the air again. She landed on the motorcycle, struggling for a couple of seconds to kick the dead guy off before she revved the engine and took down the streets right behind the Alfa Romeo.
"Thanks, Two," Yvette said through her earpiece.
She was met with Two's slight groan of pain.
"She okay?" One asked as Yvette drove the motorcycle close by to be abreast with the car.
"She's lost a shit ton of blood," Five said as she brandished her sanguine colored hands.
Yvette spared a glance at the side to look through the window where Five was, and sucked in a sharp breath. "Damn, Two — hang in there."
"I'm not dying," Two protested, "and this isn't a shit ton."
Yvette heard Six groan into her earpiece. "Oh, it's leaking under my seat!"
"I'm the judge of what's a shit ton," Five said snappily. "You see?" Yvette glanced again just in time to see her wave a blood-drenched towel at Two. "Blood. Red."
One made a repulsive noise and said, "Can you just staunch it or whatever the fuck you call it? I can actually hear it pumping out."
Two let out another scream of pain as Five went back in there. Yvette drove a bit faster, glancing over to see Five's face splattered in blood.
"She squirted," Six stammered nauseously. "That was literal . . . She squirted."
A slight static in her earpiece, closely followed by a British purr, "You know — that reminds me of the time when — "
"Four, don't you fucking dare finish that sentence," Yvette snapped hotly as she swerved to avoid hitting a civilian. His deep chuckle could be heard, but he stopped talking.
"That's a lot of blood!" One was shouting in panic at the front.
"Tell me that didn't go in your mouth," Six exclaimed.
"Shut up and drive," Yvette growled and sped down the streets. "You nearly ran me over!"
"Sorry," Six apologized and kept his eyes on the road as he stepped on the gas.
"Guess this happens when you try to steal a whole country. Right, One?" Five asked sarcastically.
"Yeah, we probably could have used a warm-up mission," One admitted.
"You think?" Yvette muttered and rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, that's my problem," Six said, "I'm just getting warmed up."
As Six hurtled down the narrow road in immense speed, Yvette followed not too far behind. With a glimpse at her mirror, she found a black car tailing behind her. "I got this," she said to them through her earpiece.
Flicking open her bag, she rummaged through it to find another bomb before leading the car down the empty street. After swiftly making sure there was no more civilians, Yvette snapped her wrist and sent the explosive sailing behind her and detonating as soon as it smashed through the windshield.
"I'm starting to feel it," Six called out with a chuckle.
"I'm feeling fucking carsick," Two snarled in response.
They continued to drive until they could see the Cathedral up ahead. Yvette grinned to herself as One said, "One for Four?"
"Yeah, go for Four," repeated back the same English voice from earlier.
"We need you."
"'Course you need me," Four replied back smoothly, a hint of a smirk in that tone. "I'm here."
"Remind me," Six said, "where the fuck is 'here'?"
"Here, here — like here?"
"Specificity," One said in a forced patient voice.
"He's on the fucking Cathedral," Yvette said, making a sharp left.
"On top of the Duomo," Four said in agreement. "Like we talked about."
Yvette opened her mouth to reply to that, but a shout escaped her when she ducked just in time to narrowly avoid slicing her head from one of the stalls. "Behind us again," she cursed, unable to take her hands off the handle as she maneuvered through the winding streets filled with people. "Too many people — I can't blow it up."
"Oh, shit," Four said through her earpiece as he took in the damage below him. "I'm going down."
"Yes, please."
Amidst the chaos, One suddenly said, "Did you guys practice that innuendo or something? Because that's disgusting, keep it in the bedroom."
"One, shut the fuck up!" Yvette exclaimed as she shouted again from nearly driving straight into the wall. She made another sharp turn as the car behind her swerved to avoid the wall, flipping in the process as it landed on tables set outside of a restaurant. "Finally!" She pulled out another explosive and chucked it straight into the open window before driving away from the burst of flames.
"Right over you," Four said as Yvette glanced up in time to see him soar above them onto another rooftop. "Coming north. Down on Via de . . . Via de . . . There's so many fucking vias in Italy."
"Another car behind us," Yvette said, revving on the engine as she stepped on the gas.
"Round the corner," Four said as they followed. "That's it. Keep coming, keep coming." She glanced up to see him standing on the ledge, holding a rope that connected to a pile of bricks and a knife in one hand. The Alfa Romeo surged past under Four as Yvette spared a second to mock salute him before driving right after the car, barely hearing the grotesque pierce of the metal poles through the driver and passenger inside the black car.
"Thanks, Four," she said breathlessly, adrenaline still pumping wildly in her veins.
"Anytime, sweetheart," came his teasing voice in reply before he took off running again. Yvette rolled her eyes playfully before tuning back in on the commotion inside the car.
"Woah, wait — why are we stopping?" she asked, slowing down as they entered a dark alley. She stepped on the brakes and peered inside One's open window and let out a strangled noise. "Is that a fucking eye?"
"Looks pretty, doesn't it?" One said as he raised it by the optic nerve and leveled the eye above the screen of the phone.
"Whose eye is that?" Six asked, swallowing nervously.
"It's — it's the lawyer's."
"Did you just scoop it out or — ?"
"God, no," One exclaimed in disgust. "I didn't scoop it out. Two did."
Yvette pressed the back of her hand over her mouth to surprise the urge to throw up before mock saluting Two in the backseat. "Respect."
"Okay, here we go," One said, balancing the eyeball on top of the phone for a retinal scan. "All of Rovach's transmissions — gonna lead us straight to the four generals."
The siren of upcoming police cars pierced the air and Yvette cursed. "One, you better hurry the fuck up."
Six turned to the billionaire next to him and murmured, "I'm getting lightheaded."
"You're not the one holding it," One sniped back.
The sounds of the siren were getting even louder by now. "You got the generals? Can I go?"
Yvette discreetly glanced behind her to see a police car drive by and stopped directly at the mouth of the alley. "There's a cop looking right at us, hurry the fuck up — "
"Okay, I'm in — go, go, go!"
Yvette revved the engine as the car roared to life once again. She tore down the streets right behind Six as she spoke into her earpiece. "Four, do you have eyes on the chopper?"
A slight crackle of static before he responded, "Yeah — we really got to lose it."
"One, get Three."
Another feedback of noise in her earpiece before they finally heard Three's rich voice, "Buongiorno, Uno."
"Yeah, hey," One said, "Shit's gone — we're super fucked."
"Well, I could probably point you to il bagno."
Yvette snorted in amusement as she hastily checked how many more explosives she has left in her bag.
"Whatever," One cut in irritatedly. "Four needs an Uber."
"Way ahead of you, papi."
Yvette broke away from the road Six was driving down on, cutting through the winding street. "I'll take care of the chopper. Be back in a minute." She stepped on the gas, accelerating her speed even faster than she would have liked.
"On your eleven o'clock, up ahead!" Four called out through the earpiece, and Yvette saw a truck pull up with Three and Four inside. The latter jumped out, landing on the stair's railing on his skateboard with a gun strapped to his side.
"Great, because I'm gonna need your truck," she said breathlessly before doing a quick sweep of the place and mentally calculating which precise steps she'd need to take.
"What're you — HOLY SHIT, ZERO!"
Before either of the men could even see it coming, Yvette had leaped away from the motorcycle, sending it skidding into a water fountain as she grabbed onto the statue in the middle of it. Using it as leverage, she kicked off from it and used the roof of the truck as a stepping point that would help give her a boost. She grabbed onto the ledge of the roof, pulling herself up as she swiftly pulled out a special bomb from her bag.
"Hey, Three, check this out," she said, narrowing her focus to the open compartment of the chopper and using all her strength to send the bomb in her hand sailing towards it.
As soon as the chopper exploded in the air, colors bursted out in the open as the civilians gasped in a mix of terror and awe — fireworks were going off in the middle of the city.
"Fucking amazing," One said through her earpiece. "I think the entire Italy could see it."
The sound of incessant shooting caught her attention, and Yvette glanced down to see Four perched on a column as he shot down the driver of a black suburban. With a start, she took off sprinting before she soared into the air, executing a flip before she landed right next to him on the column.
"Zero, I swear to fucking God," he breathed out, holding her steady with a free hand.
She grinned rakishly at him as she winked. "You're not the only one with a few tricks up their sleeve."
"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow boldly at her, his blue eyes piercing into her chocolate brown ones. "Care to demonstrate these so called tricks of yours?" Without taking his eyes off of her, he raised an arm up to shoot the guy at the passenger seat who had stirred.
"You two seriously need to stop talking about the shit that goes down in your bedroom," One said through their earpiece.
The same truck skidded to a stop in front of them as Three stuck his head out and slapped the side of his door. "Come on, let's get out of here!"
Four jumped down of the column with Yvette right behind him as they hurried inside the passenger seat. Three stepped on the gas as she pulled out her device again, spotting the location of the car as she said, "Six, be careful there's a — "
She was interrupted by a series of gunshots ricocheting off the windshield followed by Six's cry of, "I can't see!"
"Drive faster, I can hear gunshots," she told Three as she zoomed into the map again. "Six, be careful — there's a lot of construction going on in there so — "
She didn't get to finish what she was saying, because there was a terrible screeching sound of tires skidding to a halt — and the grotesque piercing of metal through flesh.
Yvette froze. "What happened? Somebody talk to me — what happened?" Her eyes fell on the Alfa Romeo and Three slammed on the brakes. Within an instant, all three of them were out of the truck — the two men with guns in their hands as Yvette sprinted toward the car.
The breath rushed out of her lungs upon seeing Six's unmoving body impaled into the car seat with a large, metal mechanism straight into his neck. "Fuck," she choked out, stumbling toward him, but Five held her back.
"Zero, we need to go," Five said, her hands dried with Two's blood as she gripped Yvette and pushed her back. "We have no choice, we have to go."
Yvette was still barely reeling over the fact that Six was gone for good, allowing herself to be pulled away from the car by Five. Four was in shock, mouth agape as he took in the scene before him, until he quietly entered the back of the truck with everyone else.
Neither of the six of them knew his name, age, any other fact about him other than his love for cars and driving — but Yvette felt that they lost a friend and a family member.
A/N
AND THAT WRAPS UP THE SCENE IN ITALY! What did you guys think of it? Please vote and comment down your thoughts!
I'm super excited about this fic, and I can't wait to write more!
Thoughts on Four and Zero's relationship? What do you think is going on between them?
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!