When we finally burst out the door to the roof, my legs started to burn in protest.
Sam was moving around in my peripherals while I was busy trying to catch my breath. I heard the loud squealing of tearing metal and looked over to see she had ripped several air conditioning units right out of the ground and stacked them up against the door. The immense strength gave me pause. First the Mentalist bullshit, then super speed, and now this? What other powers was she hiding up her sleeve?
“Okay, now what? Should we try to find another roof access door so we can circle back around?” I asked, looking around for an exit. I couldn’t see anything screaming ‘obvious escape route’ so as far as I was concerned, we were at a dead end. “Hope you’ve got another plan because I don’t see a way off here.”
Aside from climbing down one of the fire escapes and getting caught by ECU guards, I couldn’t see an exit.
Sam grimaced. “I have an idea but it's probably not something you're going to like.”
“It couldn’t be any worse than what I thought.”
Sam chuckled. “How’re your legs?”
I stared at her and blinked.
She jerked her head to the nearest edge of the roof. If death wasn’t guaranteed from the fifteen-story fall, paralysis, a hundred-and-something broken bones and a world full of agony were almost a certainty.
“Fancy a jump?”
“I take back what I said, it is worse,” I snapped. “You might be able to survive with whatever your powers are, but I won’t, see?” I jumped up and down to emphasize my point. “I’m not going to fare well against solid concrete.”
Sam rolled her eyes.
The door leading to the roof jerked against Sam’s makeshift barrier. I heard voices from behind it as the door struggled to open. Bonesmith, probably, and whoever else he had brought with him. Maybe some mooks if I were to hazard a guess. Banshee was injured so I doubted she was going to chase after us with a limp.
“The fire escapes,” I said, looking toward the edge of the roof. “There has to be dozens around the building. We can use one of them to get down.”
“No, they’ll be guarded,” Sam countered. “We don’t have time to get interrogated by the ECU. They won’t be lenient just because we’re kids!”
“The alternative is jumping and breaking my legs,” I argued. “I’ll risk the interrogation.”
“Yes, I’m sure they’ll be oh so forgiving when they find you in possession of that,” She pointed to the gun in my hand. I stared at the weapon in my hands and scowled. She had a point. “We have to jump. I can carry you and absorb the impact force with Red.”
“Red?”
The door to the roof heaved and the screech of metal could be heard as the air conditioning units slowly moved, inch by inch.
“Red, my super strength. It’s what I call them,” She explained in a hurried tone. “We’re running out of time, we need to go!”
Sam already turned and ran toward the opposite end of the roof. I hadn’t even had a chance to ask her what she meant by ‘them’ but the priority right now was escaping. I broke into a sprint to catch up with her and by the time I did, we had reached the opposite end of the roof. Peering over the ledge, I saw a stomach-churning drop into a darkened, unoccupied alleyway.
“Ready?”
I swallowed and stuffed the gun into my jacket.
“No. I hate heights.”
She stiffened and her shoulders went rigid. When she turned to me again, her brow curved downward and her expression turned angry. I could have sworn there were red lights in her eyes.
“Hold tight.”
She scooped me up before I even had a chance to protest and vaulted over the ledge. My stomach flipped as we fell. I couldn’t even scream. When we hit the ground, the concrete cracked and splintered under impact.
“There,” Sam huffed, dropping me back to my feet. “Now, pick up your panties and let’s go.”
“I think I left my stomach back on the roof,” I groaned, scowling at her. Sam’s head twitched, almost like a muscle spasm. “Are… you okay?
“I’m fine. Where’s your car parked?” She asked, leading me toward the opening at the end of the alley. The closer we got, the quicker I noticed there was a chain link fence blocking our way. We’d have to climb it to get out.
“Section A, front of the building at the back.”
“We’ll make a break for it,” Sam said. She was going to continue and say something else but a black figure in padded black armor stepped in front of the fence. “Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me. Just what we were trying to avoid…”
“Hey!” The ECU guard snapped, pointing at us. “What’re you kids doing down there? Get out here, now!”
“Damnit,” Sam hissed. “Okay, let me take the lead.”
She had gotten us this far so I wasn’t about to argue with the request. “If you get us arrested, I’m blaming everything on you.”
Sam chuckled as we approached the fence.
The ECU soldier opened it and allowed us to step through.
“Did you kids miss the point of the fence? Those areas are off limits,” He pointed to the ‘no trespassing’ sign. There was a small little picture of armed stick figures shooting a running stick figure. Morbid but incredibly accurate. “What were you two doing down there?”
“Oh, you know…” Sam’s characteristics changed on a dime. It was much more bubbly, girlie even. “Really hard to find some privacy around here. I really wanted to do it in the car but he didn’t want to get his seats dirty.”
Mortification surged within me.
Of all the things to fucking say…
The armed man just stared at her. It was hard to get a read on what exactly he was thinking because his face was completely concealed by his headgear. Finally, the soldier turned to me.
“This true?” I could have sworn I heard amusement in his tone.
I didn’t want to answer, so I just stared. As the saying goes, I had the right to remain silent.
Sam scooted next to me and hugged my right arm like some kind of clingy girlfriend.
“Sorry. He’s really shy.”
The soldier shook his head and sighed. “Alright, get out of here you two. Don’t let me catch you again or the consequences will be severe. Next time, just… wait till your parents leave the house.”
Once we had walked far enough, I pulled my arm out of her grip. “Thanks for making me look like a degenerate. Is that seriously the best you could come up with?”
“Oh, quit whining you baby,” Sam rolled her eyes. “He bought it and we’re not on our way to an ECU holding cell. A little gratitude would be nice.”
My thoughts lingered for far too long on her reasoning as we fast-walked through the parking lot toward my car. After a minute or two of contemplation, I caved. She was right. Without her, the Cains would’ve gotten to me by now and I’d likely be tied up and gagged in the back of a van or something.
“Thank you,” I said, swallowing my pride. “Today would have gone a lot different if you didn’t show up.”
“Don’t mention it,” Sam replied sincerely. “Trust me, I am thanking myself for actually following through with stalking you. If I hadn’t, I would have missed my opportunity and they would’ve gotten you.”
“Yeah, they…” I trailed off as I saw a group of guys hustling through the car park toward us. At the front, I recognized Bonesmith. All of them were jogging, slipping through the spaces between the cars. They were a hundred meters from us and steadily getting closer. “...just don’t quit, apparently.”
Sam turned and followed my gaze. “God damnit.”
It was my turn to lead.
“This way!”
We made a mad dash for the car. At the same time, so did our pursuers. My car was closer to us than it was to them, so we reached it with time to spare.
“Let me drive!” Sam called, pushing me to the passenger side. “Hack the exterior cameras around the mall and turn them off. Things are about to get wild.”
I didn’t argue. I unlocked the car and we both dove inside.
“Lock the doors!”
The doors locked and I fumbled around with my phone, disabling the mall's exterior cameras. I had a feeling that our escape was going to be noisy.
Seconds later, the Cains were on us, harassing each side of the car trying to get in. They were pounding on the glass and trying to open the doors to no avail. A couple of them even tried tools specifically designed for breaking glass – the type car thieves used – but found they were completely ineffective against my upgraded glass.
“Keys. I need your keys!”
I shook my head. “There are no keys! It’s a fingerprint ignition.”
“What the hell!? This thing’s like ten— oh, you’ve used your power on the car.”
I reached across her and thumbed the ignition. Bonesmith seemed to be waiting behind the car, his arm slowly shifting into something twisted and horrifying. From the rearview mirror, I could see his whole forearm shift and reshape itself into some kind of bone-white blade with jagged edges. My car’s bodywork was durable but I wasn’t sure it could handle being attacked by something like that.
“We need to go, like yesterday!”
Sam didn’t move.
I stared at her.
“Hey! You said you’d drive so drive—!”
Her hand’s shot out, one gripping the steering wheel and the other on the stick shift. She wrenched my car out of park and into reverse before slamming her foot down on the accelerator. We shot out of the parking space and swerved. Bonesmith must have ducked to the side just in time because I heard a skin-crawling sound of my paintwork getting gashed as we drifted.
My tires screeched as we came to a stop.
Sam punched the car into drive and we shot off toward Bonesmith. This time, he wasn’t so lucky. We bowled him over and sent him sprawling across the pavement. In seconds, we were zooming out of the parking lot and onto the main road.
I hastily turned, remembering the incident earlier in the week with Banshee, and felt around in the backseat.
Nothing there.
I released a shaky breath.
“That was too close for comfort,” I breathed, finally managing to find my voice. “You certainly know how to handle a car. Is this another one of your powers or are you secretly a professional driver?”
Sam was tense, eyes locked onto the road ahead of us. She was driving about five kilometers over the speed limit – just enough not to draw suspicion from the drivers around us. Not only that but she was focused – so much so I’d claim she was suffering from a bad case of tunnel vision.
“Sam?”
No response.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Loosen up a bit. You’re making me nervous.”
“Can’t. Right. Now,” She grounded out. “Can’t. Talk. Well. When. Orange.”
Orange…?
When she turned onto the motorway was the moment I started getting concerned. Sam drove in a direction that led away from my house and while I wasn’t expecting her to take me there, my paranoia was starting to get the better of me. Was she really my ally? This could be an ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’ kind of situation and I wouldn’t be any wiser.
The car suddenly jerked and I found myself thrown forward.
Thank goodness for seatbelts because without one I probably would have kissed the dashboard and shattered my teeth.
As I tried to steady myself, I turned and looked through the rear window to see a black jeep and three other cars speeding along behind it.
These guys just won’t give up…
Bullets impacted my rear window.
Even though the windows were bulletproof, the impact was more than enough to cause me to duck and shield myself with my seat. Sam didn’t even react. Not an ounce of panic on her face, just an ironclad focus on the road in front of us.
One of her eyes flickered to the rearview mirror and she pumped the gas. The car accelerated so quickly that I was convinced we were going to rear-end the car in front of us until she veered into the right lane. There was a cascade of honks from behind us as Sam began weaving in and out of traffic.
I felt my heart drop into my stomach when we started to climb past 140 kilometers an hour with no signs of slowing down. Fear gripped every fiber of my being as I imagined slamming into a car or a wall at this speed. I wondered if it would hurt to die like that. Would I even feel anything? Surely at that speed, my neck would just break and I’d black out before I had time to suffer.
I honestly couldn’t say how long I sat in the passenger seat, too terrified to move because all I could think about was dying. In the end, it was Sam’s voice that snapped me out of it.
“Do. Something. I can’t. Lose them. Like this!”
She was right. I had to do something otherwise we really would crash and die.
It’s one of her powers. She’ll keep us alive.
I reached down and snatched the gun from my jacket. I still had enough shots in the magazine to do something but what that something was, I wasn’t entirely sure of yet. Holding the weapon tightly, I tried to focus while putting my trust in Sam. It’s not like I had much choice but I’d be damned if I just sat in the passenger seat to just wait for my demise.
I had nine shots left. Nine shots and four cars. Not ideal. I needed something that would be able to disable their vehicles.
[Charges: 13/25]
[Ammunition]
* Standard (9/12)
* Armor-piercing (Cost: 1)
* Tracer (Cost: 1)
* Incendiary (Cost: 1)
* Hollow Point (Cost: 1)
I disregarded tracer and hollow point rounds as they wouldn’t be helpful here.
Armor-piercing would be ideal. I could shoot at the engine and hoped it would disable their vehicles but I’d have to be a good shot. That wasn’t even counting for them trying to dodge out of the way.
Incendiary rounds were another option. I could potentially set the cars ablaze if I managed to hit the right spot but that could end up messy. We were on a motorway with hundreds of other innocent people. The chase was bad enough but a firestorm of cars was not what I wanted.
I’d have to trust in my aim.
Armor-piercing it is.
A single charge and about a second later it was done. I steeled my nerves for possibly the stupidest stunt I was ever going to pull in my life.
I pressed the switch to lower the window and waited for the next car to try and run us off the road. One tried and I could see from their passenger window they were getting ready to shoot at us. Unfortunately for them, I was ready before they were.
I pulled the trigger, aiming for the front of their car.
I counted the bullets.
One, two.
The driver slammed on their brakes to try and dodge more shots but ended up spinning out. I watched as the vehicle careened into the left-side motorway barrier. We were moving too fast but I could hear the screeching of tires as the people behind that car tried to avoid it. We were too far ahead to hear if there were any more crashes but I hoped I hadn’t caused a pile-up.
I refocused when Sam changed lanes again.
Seven shots left.
The jeep pulled up to my side and didn’t hesitate to try again.
One, two, three. I paused for a moment to readjust my aim. Four.
The bullets punched holes through the black steel of the jeep. My gambit wasn’t working and the armor-piercing rounds weren’t doing what I had hoped.
Three shots left. Fuck, what now?
I flicked the switch to pull the window up just as the jeep swerved, trying to run us off the road. Sparks flew on the collision, the superior weight of the jeep overpowering our smaller vehicle. Sam braked and switched lanes with such masterful ease the jeep almost spun out and crashed. Unfortunately, the driver managed to steady it just as Sam pulled ahead.
I was running out of options and ammo. The later gun upgrades utilized non-physical ammunition types that required an electrical power source built into them. Without it, I’d be stuck with physical materials for bullets.
I need a battery.
Frantically, I turned my attention to my surroundings. I needed to find something I could combine with the gun to give it a power source. I needed a battery of some kind – anything would work.
I flinched when the window next to my head had a large chunk taken out of it, a bullet firmly lodged in the glass. Another car had managed to pull up next to us. It wasn’t the driver shooting us, it was another guy leaning out the backseat window. Through the large pockmark in the window, I could garner he also had a pistol – but one that packed a much bigger punch than the dinky thing I had.
“They’re right next to us!”
The only evidence she heard me was her violently jerking the steering wheel to the left. We crossed the lane and slammed into the side of the car, the damage to my window worsening. The driver fought furiously for control and Sam took that opportunity to pull ahead of him.
My search through the glove box yielded no results, so I turned my attention to the compartment under the armrest. Opening the top, I dug around inside. I didn’t find any batteries but what I did find was the garage remote.
It would have to do.
Removing the cylindrical battery from the back of the remote, it occurred to me I wasn’t entirely sure how to remove a magazine from the pistol so I just had to hope movies and video games wouldn’t steer me wrong. It took a couple of seconds of fiddling but I was finally able to get it to drop out harmlessly onto my lap. With haste, I dropped the battery inside the magazine and shoved it back into the gun.
[Charges: 12/25]
[Battery Component Detected]
[Integration Status - Available. Cost: 3]
I paid the three charges and my power activated. When the gun reformed in my hand it looked exactly the same, except this time, the bottom of the magazine had changed from black to silver and there was a small blue light on the left side of the grip indicating battery level.
Pulling up the upgrade tree, I directed my attention to the ammunition.
[Charges: 9/25]
[Ammunition]
* Armor-Piercing (3/12)
* Standard (Cost: 1)
* Tracer (Cost: 1)
* Hollow Point (Cost: 1)
* Incendiary (Cost: 1)
* Intensity I (Cost: 4)
* * Electrified (Cost: 2)
* Intensity I (Cost: 4)
* Duration I (Cost: 3)
* EMP (Cost: 5)
* Intensity I (Cost: 4)
* Duration I (Cost: 3)
What? That’s it?
That’s all that was able to do? Just EMP and electrified ammunition rounds?
Where were my lasers? Plasma? Concussive blast? Looking further down the tree, I gleamed at the disheartening information.
[Charges: 9/25]
[Ammunition]
* Laser (Cost: 4) (Requires USP-S MK III | Recharge and Capacity MK IV | Laser Weapon Mechanisms)
* Plasma (Cost: 6) (Requires USP-S MK IV | Recharge and Capacity MK V | Plasma Weapon Mechanisms)
That wasn’t as bad as I anticipated but still not achievable right now. Too many upgrades and not enough time. It would take me a day or two to get to that stage. For now, I have to deal with what was already available to me.
Electrified ammunition looked like it was just a much nastier version of my taser. Put a hole in them and make them spasm so they couldn’t save themselves. What I really needed was the other upgrade. EMP ammunition was exactly what I needed in this situation. With the intensity upgrade, one good shot anywhere on those cars and I’d fry every electrical system.
We pulled off the motorway and I spent my last nine charges on the two upgrades.
I wasn’t the best shot but I was confident I could at least hit each car. Rolling down the window again, I was about to make another risky decision when I noticed the wailing of sirens trailing behind the cars chasing us. The police were after us and they’d undoubtedly have dash cams.
Just more technology I had to disable.
I fiddled with my phone and found half a dozen orange dots trailing behind us. I thumbed each one and waited for my phone to crack their security. I counted the seconds, each one feeling longer than the one prior.
I need to upgrade my breaching software.
After disabling the police’s dash cameras, I went on the offensive and leaned out the car window. Three pursuing gang cars, three bullets. I could do this.
I aimed and fired.
One. Two. Three.
I hit all three shots, I only needed to get near them one for each vehicle. I pulled myself back in and rolled up the window before turning my gaze out the rear. The effects weren’t obvious at first but I could tell it worked when we started pulling away from them. Their vehicles weren’t able to add any more power and just started slowing down until we left them behind.
With the road cleared behind us, I spotted the police finally catching up to our slowing pursuers.
“Adios, assholes,” I muttered under my breath.
I looked over to Sam with a relieved smile only to see her still hyper-focused. Her eyes remained locked on the road.
“Sam? We’re good now, you can relax.”
She refused to say a word, but she had slowed down to something resembling a legal speed now that we were out of danger.
Sam took me on a detour through the city, ducking into various tunnels and turning down some very barren streets. It wasn’t long before I realized where she was taking me.
Groves Den.
There were buildings here the Architect hadn’t constructed and had been put up by mundane laborers. It bordered a fairly large forest hence its name. It wasn’t very well maintained and the housing was rather cheap. It was an area stricken with poverty and naturally because of that, it meant that it wasn’t the safest neighborhood.
Just driving through here was unsettling but after what I had just been through, adrenaline was pumping through my body and I was ready for just about anything. We had managed to escape both a kidnapping and arrest, but it didn’t necessarily mean we were out of the woods yet.
Groves Den was a no man’s land, sandwiched right in between Pandora and Queen’s Court territory. Neither seemed particularly interested in claiming it because of its rundown state but it was well-known that Pandora snatched up recruits here.
Sam made a few more turns before we came upon an old, decrepit apartment building. It was about five stories high and looked ready to collapse in on itself. The exterior was littered with graffiti which was probably the only decent paint job it has seen in many years. As she pulled into the opening leading to the underground parking garage, exhaustion hit me like a truck.
With a deep breath, I allowed my body to relax.
I was out of danger, for the time being. Now, I just had to see why Sam had been so kind as to stick her neck out to save my life.