Grinner was positively delighted. Sure, things in Millpoint hadn’t gone exactly according to plan, but now he had a prize worth more than anything he originally came here for. A Seraph of the infamous Wings of the Empress and a high-ranking noble of the Therult courts in one! Lady Jaigra Vrath would be a goldmine of information he and his fellow planner agents could use to infiltrate the Therult Empire and exploit it from the inside in a way they never could before.
The only real hiccup had been that aggravating Stranger, but she too had turned into a grand prize. The Herald of Therult’s divine empress, replaced by a homunculus right under everyone’s noses! Grinner couldn’t believe his luck, if he brought this information back to Partee they could clip the Wings of the Empress, maybe even take control of them! With Grinner’s arcanum and all of this newfound intelligence, the sky was the limit. He would get a promotion, perhaps even a celebration in his name!
“Do you think I should jazz up my mask? Make it a bit more extravagant?” he asked his captured Seraph.
Jaigra walked dutifully behind him, rigidly at attention as they made their way to his getaway car. She said nothing, just looked out over the horizon with those empty doll eyes he so loved.
“You’re right, it’s high time I gave myself a little treat. Something small though, maybe just some gold trim?” Grinner nodded at the statuesque Seraph as if she had commented, “Oh alright, twist my arm why don’t you? I’ll do some gold *and* a few diamonds. I’ve earned it!”
He gave Jaigra a pat on the cheek and glanced around for his truck. It was right where he’d left it, just a few meters away from the mine's entrance buried in some fake shrubbery he’d scattered on top of the truck when he’d arrived. A truck wasn’t exactly his style, but he wasn’t about to try and cross the hostile terrain around Millpoint in a hot air balloon or something. He was unhinged, not crazy.
He patted his clothes in search of something, then reached inside of a sleeve and procured a single key with a small bell strung to it by a purple ribbon.
"Come along my dear, our chariot awaits" he said in a sing-song voice. He hopped over to the passenger door and popped it open, waving a hand towards it with a little bow, "After you milady!"
Jaigra climbed into the seat mechanically, sitting with a straight spine and staring directly ahead. Grinner shut the door behind her and skipped around the back of the truck to the driver's side. It was as he opened the driver door that he suddenly stopped and tilted his head.
There was a noise. A low rumbling noise getting steadily louder the longer it went on. It felt vaguely familiar, but Grinner couldn't quite pin it down. He stepped back from the truck to look around him.
There shouldn't be anyone here, the townsfolk didn't even know about the mines, let alone their entrance up here above the town. It couldn't be the Stranger either, she was probably dead by his pet Paladin's blade by now. Even if she wasn't, he was confident there was no way for her to catch up.
So what was that noise? It was getting genuinely loud now, a bellowing guttural roar that rose and fell in pitch. And it was getting clearer too. It sounded like a VROOM sort of noise. Or maybe it was more of a VROOOOOOOOOOOOM. It could also be a VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.
Wait. VROOM?
Grinner whirled around and saw a light emanating from the entrance to the mines. One that was getting brighter and brighter as the noise increased to a deafening pitch. His eyes widened and he threw himself into the driver's seat, jamming the key into the ignition and slamming on the accelerator before the engine had even started.
The truck's engine bellowed as it belched a cloud of black smoke and surged forward, its wheels kicking up a cloud of dust behind it. Grinner had the truck up to top speed quickly, though that top speed wasn't terribly high, and the truck peeled away from the mines along the edge of the ravine.
Grinner adjusted his rearview mirror and got a look at the dust cloud he had kicked up behind him. Light illuminated the cloud from within, scattering through it like lightning in a storm cloud. A shimmering ribbon of magic looped as if it were a lasso emerged from the cloud, glowing like the sunset. A darkened silhouette appeared below it, with wings that spread out behind it like those of a great bird.
The accelerator pedal was already to the floor or Grinner would have slammed it down even further. "Kill her!" He cried.
The Seraph leapt into action, throwing open the passenger door and climbing into the truck bed with pistols drawn to unleash an opening salvo of lead into the cloud.
The silhouette swerved to the side and the ribbon of light shot forward, wrapping itself around the trailer hitch at the base of the truck bed and pulling taut in a shower of sparks.
There was the thunderous roar of an engine and Grinner risked another glance over his shoulder. He saw Andromeda Flynn rocket out of the dust cloud on his right, riding a beast of a motorcycle built like a tank of chrome and blackened leather. She held her blade level with the truck and her shawl flapped behind her like a flag in a windstorm, as if she were geared for a joust like the knights of old.
She met Grinner’s eyes behind her mirrored glasses and smirked. Annie reached down and dragged the tip of her sword in the dirt, kicking up her own dust cloud and obscuring herself from his view.
He dragged his gaze away from the cloud to look ahead of them. The edge of the ravine was creeping up on the truck’s left, a sheer drop hundreds of feet down with a sickening crunch waiting at the bottom for anyone unfortunate enough to fall into it. Grinner wouldn’t let that be him, he twisted the wheel and veered the truck away from the edge and towards the Stranger.
He caught a flash of light at the corner of vision and turned just in time to see another ribbon of light wrap around the truck’s mirror. The dust cloud beside the truck fell away, leaving the Stranger exposed.
She stuck out her tongue at him.
Jaigra unleashed another volley of bullets and Annie’s lips moved as she flicked her hand. A net of light appeared next to her and the bullets popped like firecrackers as they made contact with it, leaving the Stranger irritatingly unharmed.
“Magic?” Grinner hissed and looked back at Jaigra, “You told me she couldn’t weave anymore!”
“It appears that has changed.” Jaigra said flatly. The Seraph walked over to the edge of the truck bed, within spitting distance of the Stranger, and tapped her vambrace.
Jaigra’s armored forearm lit up with threads of emerald light and a small pipe of some kind rose from the metal. Suddenly a jet of flame gushed from the vambrace, causing Annie to swerve and drop back, allowing the truck to gain ground and pull away from the motorcycle.
The thread Annie had latched to the back of the truck stretched and then snapped. The Stranger careened wildly, just barely managing to keep her ride from driving off into the ravine by grabbing the thread of light dangling from the mirror. She yanked on the thread, ripping the mirror from the truck as she regained control of the bike.
Grinner was getting tired of this. He yanked on the wheel and drove the truck straight for Annie. He was going to run that damn Stranger under the wheels and end this circus right now.
Annie didn’t swerve as the truck closed in on her. Instead she let go of the handlebars and rose into a crouch on the seat. She left off just as it began to topple and crash to the ground, rapidly disappearing in the dust cloud behind them.
“Stop the car, Grinner!” She shouted.
Jaigra answered for the planner agent by bringing one of her pistols to bear on the Stranger. Annie had just enough time to realize what was happening before Jaigra pulled the trigger, and the Stranger sidestepped out of the way just as the bullet left the chamber, letting it speed off into empty air.
”Jaigra!” Annie grabbed her wrist and the Seraph twisted violently, throwing Annie over her shoulder and flat onto her back before planting her boot on her stomach. Annie screamed in pain and blood leeched from her side onto the truck bed beneath her.
Grinner turned to focus on the road, he would have smiled were his lips not made of porcelain, “Good girl!” He snickered.
There was a crunching noise from behind him and the screech of tearing metal, then the truck shuddered and suddenly lifted off the ground. Grinner had just enough time to catch a glimpse at the Stranger’s blade thrust into the truck bed before the airbags deployed and the vehicle fully flipped over. There was a split second of weightlessness that lifted him from his chair before the truck plummeted into the ravine and Grinner’s vision went dark.
