Chapter 67

Raid on Lilylake Estate

"Oh no... No, no, no, no! He didn't... He didn't!" Anthony started breaking down after hearing Cailus' words as Alak took him into his arms. "I should have said something... This is all my fault!"

"Didn't what?" Egad asked. "Anthony... What is your father talking about?"

Anthony looked at Egad, tears in his eyes. "...There are 300 people... From a ship that was discovered on the edge of the Galaxy, adrift for more than 1,000 years.... They came from a galaxy far, far away, and one of my father's private merc companies made the discovery... He promised them jobs, homes, a chance... He is going to make them all slaves, and if that train reaches the border... Their freedom, their one chance... It will be robbed from them."

There was silence over the room for several minutes. Finally, Egad spoke up, anger in his voice.

"Anthony, chin up! Do not blame yourself for this, this was not your doing! Anyway, if my brother wants a final confrontation that badly... Then I am more than happy to give him one now. Hatred! Prepare everyone with armor nanosuits, and break out the reserved weapon stores. I believe it's time I gave Cailus my answer... By raiding his home for any toys we may use against him."

Everyone went wide-eyed. Then, Anthony spoke up once more.

"...Dad keeps a collection of military hardware at his house here at Lilylake estate. I can show you where he keeps it, I sneak in all the time."

"Good." Egad patted Anthony gently on the forehead. "Don't cry, Anthony. We will set this right. It's time for a response to this ultimatum. A response that will not be misinterpreted. It's time I gave the final insult..."

Lilylake Estate...

Two Hours Later...

Otto Wadsworth the otter, one of Cailus' top two personal butlers waited in sadness in the foyer with the other top butler, Draco Godfrey the Komodo Dragon. Even though they were both in Cailus' good graces, they were total opposites. Wadsworth was genuinely gentle, caring, and good-natured, especially when it came to Anthony. Godfrey, however, wasn't as authentic with his kindness, and would work behind the scenes to help Cailus with any means necessary to get the job done. The only way Godfrey made it this high up is by backstabbing and betrayal, only working for status.

"You do know that with Anthony gone, your days are numbered in this house, Wadsworth." Godfrey crooned. "And after all that talk of how honor, courtesy, and genuine punctuality got you to this position-"

Suddenly, there was gunfire outside, disrupting Godfrey's preemptive victory speech. Then, there was the revving of a car engine, followed by squealing rubber...

# # # #

"Mick! You do know that this will total the Audi, right?!" Xen shouted over the Audi's engine as Mick revved up the car using launch control in pursuit mode with the front brakes engaged, the car's ramming field engaged.

"Don't have much of a choice! Brace yourself, big kitty!" Mick replied. "Lincel! You better be ready with everyone else in that van to follow us in! I'm ramming down the gates in three... Two... One!"

Mick flipped the switch on the dashboard, disengaging the lauch prep mode! The rear tires, still spinning began to propel the car forward as the front tires regained their power and joined in, propelling the Audi forward down the drive like a rocket!

After several seconds, Mick saw the front gates ahead, closing the distance in seconds!

"Bail out! Bail out!" Mick and Xen threw open the doors and jumped out of the Audi as it tore down the drive at over 170 KPH, rolling through the gravel! Mick sat up just in time to see his prized machine ram into the gates of Lilylake Estate, knocking them clean off their hinges before the out of control four-wheel-drive sports car careened into a fountain!

Intruder Alarms then went off across the estate, strobe lights popping out of the gate posts as Victor's van roared up and through the breached gates, sliding to a stop right at the estate's doorstep as security ran out of the house to see what the commotion was! The back door of the van then flew open, and out jumped Egad Nob and the Elite Gallery of the Phoenix Coven, one by one! All of them were wearing military-spec nanosuits, armed with various guns and melee weapons! After Egad and Codec sent out a magic shock-wave to start the assult, Galen, Amon, and Silva added in by firing automatic blaster rifles at the security goons, Zhal joining in with twin high-caliber blaster pistols, and Uniko with two automatic machine blasters in his hands! Jet, Anthony and Alak joined in with matching automatic assault blasters! Zarch, Chaos, and Hatred brought up the rear with heavy weapons as security in Mech Power Suits started walking out from beyond the bushes! Tommy, Bishop, and Eli took flight with automatic pistols, rifles, and electric pulse grenades, raining down fire and electric explosives from above on the mechs!

After this incredible surprise display, security was neutralized in less than two minutes.

"So much for security." Victor said as he got out of the van with Ticcoran, Galileo and Ray-Ray. "Let's head in."

Anthony walked up to the door and punched in the security code on the keypad. The alarms were deactivated, and the mansion unlocked. The door then flew open a few seconds later.

"Anthony! How dare you!" Godfrey roared. "This is totally unacceptable! When I tell your father of this-!"

"Shut up!" Anthony snapped, whipping a rapier sword out of his storage buffer, holding it inches from Godfrey's nose. "Not. Another. Word. Step aside. We are coming in."

Godfrey was in little position to argue. He grudgingly stood down, and stepped out of the way. Anthony strolled into the mansion with Alak, Mick, Xen, the Pandemonia Detectives, Insepctor Jean-Yves Ticcoran, Egad and the Coven, strutting through the doors as if he owned them.

"Wadsworth! Are you still here?!" Anthony called out in worry. "It's me! Anthony!"

A few seconds later, Wadsworth appeared at the top of the staircase, looking over the Bannister. "Master Anthony! Is it... Is it you? Really you?"

"You helped me fix Father's bust after I knocked it over by accident when I was five, and we both like cherry kool-aid with Synthehol Vodka, since I cannot drink real Liquor until I am twenty years of age. It's me, Wadsworth. It's Andy, and I've come home to fix everything."

A few seconds later, Wadsworth ran down the stairs, and up into Anthony's arms as they embraced each other like long-lost friends. "Master Anthony... I was so worried about you! You had me terrified, good sir!"

"There's no more need to worry, my friend." Anthony said. "My uncle is here to help us, and we intend to fix this whole mess."

"Oh, please!" Godfrey scoffed. "You really think you can just waltz in here and use this house as a leveraging wedge? Master Cailus is not so easily swayed..."

Anthony drew his blaster and popped a few shots at Godfrey's feet, causing him to jump several times.

"Godfrey! Either shut your fucking trap or get out!" Anthony snapped. "And once this is all over, I want you to pack your bags and get the hell out of this house when I get back! When I return after confronting my father, consider yourself fired!"

With that, Anthony walked off, motioning for Wadsworth to follow. "This way, everyone!"

Anthony led everyone into Cailus' personal quarters. Anthony then took the fireplace poker out from the fireplace, and inserted it into a slot on the floor, turning it to the right. After a loud click, a trap door slid out from in front of the fireplace, revealing a staircase. Anthony led them down the stairs, and into an elevator with a glass window on one side, where he hit the button for the car to descend. Lights then popped on outside, revealing an underground complex below the mansion, filled with various military equipment, some even used for covert operations!

"Dad collects and retrofits a lot of earth military surplus." Anthony explained. "The majority of it comes from an old United Nations organization called Internation Espionage Services - IES for short."

"I can see that." Mick said. "I made a hobby of studying IES in my spare time, even Xen finds it intriguing. But I never thought I'd be seeing all the hardware up-close."

The elevator then reached the ground floor, and opened up. "If we're going to be any match for that train, we are going to need some of dad's favorite toys..." Anthony stepped over to a platform with a van, a VTOL vehicle carrier jet, and three cars. "Gentlemen, I give you the IES Spy-Hunter Interceptor line. The G-6155, the G-8155, and the G-10155. The G-6155 was originally armed with standard laser-targeting missiles stored in a roof panel, 15mm machine guns that pop out of the sides of the hood, an emp cannon and a rail gun that pop from the top of the rear above the wheel wells, with rear oil slick dispenser, a smokescreen dispenser powered by smoke cartridges and a rear flamethrower. Dad's tweaked the design, replacing the 15mm machine guns with rapid-pulse blasters, refitting the missile pod to carry micro-missiles for more shots, increasing the capacity of the smokescreen cartridges, and changing the oil slick formula to be degradable to leave no evidence behind. The G-8155 featured weapon arms that pop out of the doors, that can switch between .50 caliber machine guns that can also switch to rocket pods, and laser blasters as well. It also featured a missile pod that popped open from the back of the roof, along with a roof-mounted rail gun, and rear defenses consisted of a smokescreen dispenser, oil slick dispenser, and a mine dropper. Dad retrofitted the .50 caliber guns to rapid-pulse blasters, gave the rockets armor-piercing capability, and changed the lasers to chargeable fusion pulse cannons. The missile pod on the G-8155 was modded to accommodate cluster missiles, and the rail gun was changed to a laser beam cannon, capable of melting through titanium three meters thick. The laser beam cannon is prone to overheating if the beam is ran for more than ten seconds at a time, so it's best to use that in pulse-timed bursts. As for the G-10155, it was originally armed with .75 caliber machine guns that popped out from above the rear wheel wells, rockets that pop out from the side grills below the headlights, with chargeable lasers that pop out from above the front wheel wells, and homing missiles stored in a launcher hidden under a roof panel. The machine guns were changed to pulse blasters, roof missiles were refitted to cluster missiles, the rockets upgraded to be armor-piercing, and the lasers were changed to chargeable mini-scram rail guns that can blow a hole through titanium alloy 10 meters thick, so be careful with those. As for support, we are brining the Interceptor's mobile support vehicles: The Weapons Van, and the Weapons VTOL, both armed with pulse laser/rail gun combo turrets."

"Sounds good to me." Mick said. "With the refits, the Interceptors should be able to handle the trains defenses with no trouble, and even give us an edge against the merc escorts."

"Alright then. There's little time to waste!" Egad said. "Let's get these vehicles ready and online!"

"We will stay here to contain Godfrey, and protect Wadsworth." Jean said, referring to himself and the Pandemonia Detectives. "We may even find more evidence here to implicate Cailus in more crimes besides this one."

Thirty minutes later, the weapons van drove away from the estate carrying the G-6155 and G-8155, with Mick, Codec, Amon, Gareth, Jet, Galen, Silva, Uniko, and Zhal, while the VTOL Took off from a hidden launch pad on the estate carrying the G-10155 with Egad, Anthony, Alak, Zarch, Chaos, Hatred, Bishop, Tommy, and Eli.

The final confrontation was at hand.

"Good luck, Master Anthony..." Wadsworth whispered.