Chapter 176: Are You Ready? My Paratroopers!
"Ugh! Sorry, I got distracted," Ron apologized awkwardly. "Penny, use the Momentum Flip!"
Upon hearing this, Penny shifted her weight to the right. The model quickly used all her strength to pull her to the left, but Penny suddenly used her opponent's momentum against her and pivoted left, grabbing the model's hands and spinning behind her while dropping to one knee.
The model was thrown against the wall by Penny like a ragdoll.
K.O.!
"I declare Penny the winner of this bout!" Ron ran over ceremoniously and raised Penny's fist to the sky.
"Thank you, Sensei!" Penny jumped up excitedly.
"This isn't over, bitch! Get out of my way!" The model reluctantly got up from the ground, but she didn't fight back. She had been rattled by Penny's beatdown. She could only leave a parting threat and push past the four nerds with a vicious look on her face before storming off.
Honestly, the three young geeks who had been initially attracted to her immediately lost all interest. No one would find her attractive after seeing that ugly scowl.
"How was my fighting, Sensei?"
"Well done," Ron praised, quickly removing Penny's arm from around his waist. He even tried to capitalize on his victory: "Keep up the good work."
"Ron, welcome home! Would you like to have lunch with us?" Leonard took the opportunity to quickly intervene and invite them.
Ron politely declined: "Thanks, but I actually have to head out on another business trip soon, even though I just got back. Rain check?"
"Okay, back to London again?" Leonard asked. To be honest, he breathed a sigh of relief, as he noticed Penny trying to get cozy with Ron again.
"No, Barcelona this time."
Half an hour later, at the private airfield in Los Angeles, all four operators—Ron, Ghost, Tank, and Rookie—were present.
"This time, we're facing one of the most ruthless terrorists in the world. I received intel last night that these bastards are planning to hit a NATO base in Spain," Ron said, standing in front of the aircraft.
"Are they insane?" Rookie scoffed.
"They're not insane, Hobbs is insane," Ron smiled helplessly: "This moron actually believed this intelligence was credible and decided to move the assets under military protection outside the base!"
"Originally, if the package had stayed in the military compound, even if that psychopath Shaw really wanted to grab this thing, the base defenses would have chewed him up."
"But once the package left the base and went mobile, I have to say it became a sitting duck. Anyone could take a shot at it. This has got to be the dumbest operational decision I've seen all year, hands down!"
"I predict Shaw will definitely hit the convoy during this afternoon's transport, so we need to move out immediately. Don't worry, I've had someone file the flight plan.
This bird will take us directly over the Spanish countryside and drop us off. Are you ready? My paratroopers!"
"Excuse me, sir, is Hobbs really that much of an idiot?" Tank also knew Hobbs, but he had never had a good impression of this supervisor who was all muscle and no brains.
"I think he is," Ron nodded, "but because of orders from a certain unnamed superior, I have to clean up this idiot's mess. So, let's move out, guys, let's go to Europe and kick Shaw's ass!"
"Let's kick Shaw's ass!" Ghost and Tank, two seasoned veterans, naturally didn't get too excited about the pre-mission rally that Ron had learned from old Patton. Instead, young Rookie shouted enthusiastically in support.
As expected, rookies and kids are the easiest to fire up, and Rookie happened to be both.
"Alright, load up," Ron said with a wave of his hand, being the first to board.
...
In Spain, on the coastal highway not far from the NATO base, Shaw had indeed attacked the transport convoy, just as Ron had predicted, using Toretto's signature mobile heist technique.
First, Shaw's crew used the lead vehicle to get men from the rear onto the transport truck's roof, then opened fire directly on the cab with assault rifles from above, eliminating the two agents escorting the cargo and taking control of the vehicle.
"Clank!" A menacing steel beast roared as it burst from the truck's cargo bay.
"Guys, we need a new game plan!" Tej was stunned, quickly grabbing the radio to inform his crew: "They've got armor!"
"Sorry, I thought I heard someone say the word 'tank' just now, didn't I?" Roman repeated in disbelief.
"BOOM!" The tank's main gun fired, the shell barely missing Roman's car as it landed behind him. Terrified, he screamed for help, "It's a damn tank! Do we have a Plan B?"
"Plan B ain't gonna cut it! We need Plan C, Plan D, Plan E... We're gonna run out of alphabet!" Tej babbled frantically.
"Just wing it and adapt!" Brian tried to calm him down.
Just then, a C-130 military transport plane streaked across the sky, dropping two dark objects. Upon closer inspection, they turned out to be two vehicles.
"Oh hell no! Don't tell me those are Shaw's reinforcements! If they are, I'm going home right now!" Roman cursed into the radio.
But Toretto, equally focused on the plane, smiled. "Negative, that's our cavalry. It's Ron."
One of the two cars was the Chevrolet Camaro that Toretto had helped Ron soup up!
"Tej, Tej, if you copy, please respond," Ron's voice crackled over the radio.
"I copy," Tej replied quickly.
"Find a way to clear all civilians. From now on, this is a hot zone!" Ron commanded. "Everyone listen up? Use your rides to block the side streets."
Emergency broadcasts went out simultaneously on both sides of the highway, as well as on all local radio stations. Toretto and Brian's cars blocked both ends of the road. Vehicles still on the highway scattered, and pedestrians who hadn't had time to evacuate abandoned their cars and fled, with radio announcements promising compensation for their losses.
Two cars fell from the sky, their parachutes deploying wide, and quickly touched down.
"What the hell is that! Take them out!" Shaw, sensing trouble, quickly ordered his crew to rotate the turret. But before he could complete that maneuver, Tank had already shouldered an RPG and aimed at the armor.
"Whoosh!" The rocket, trailing a bright flame, narrowly missed the tank, but just as it was about to sail past, it mysteriously curved and attached to the tank with an electronic whir.
His crew panicked and reported, "Boss, our fire control system just went dark!"
(End of Chapter)
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