GuNNhead

A shadow passes over me as the intercom from the liaisons opens in static. I am only now informed that the pursuance may not have been entirely unjust. The Bodyguard. I lift my bike and start to get back on it when I am forced to dodge a direct aerial attack. It takes the brunt of the damage and flies back into a light pole while I roll and attempt to charge a Gravity Sphere as she circles back around. But she is too fast, and is able to pick up and throw a car into me, exploding it and sending me skidding face-first against the street. Still lifting my body, I see her lift another car, and slam it into me. Slowly standing and surrounded by wreckage and flames, once on two feet again, I look around for her, only for her to appear behind me, with yet another car, heaving it into my back; another blast propelling me back into the street, shattering it beneath my helmet. I am able to roll out of the way of her next attack, leaving her with talons full of roadway. As she ascends back into the sky, I am able to land a direct hit with a Gravity Sphere, destabilizing her flight enough so that I have time to rush back to my duocycle and get on it before she can fully line up and reach me again.

As I accelerate down the freeway she is right on top of me, through sharp turns and transitional jumps, she does not let up. I weave in and out of heavy, hurried traffic, barely dodging missile after missile until I enter a train tunnel. An oncoming train forces her to abandon direct pursuit in the tunnel and quickly pull up into a vertical climb on the outside. I continue through the tunnel on the second track, and soon see her moving towards me from the other end of the tunnel. She rushes through the air directly at me, talons focused. I slide beneath the attack, and grab onto one leg. Peeling out in the opposite direction. She attempts to break free of my grasp, but cannot. I drive towards a rapidly approaching bright light, and collide all of us with that train, obliterating my duocycle and derailing the locomotive.

When I regain consciousness, I step out of the remains, and see the sub-city laboratory crew, they have recovered the angel’s body, she is alive, and they will fix her, figure out what went wrong. My cycle is already repairing itself. I am thanked, and my tactics are praised for selecting an automated freight train rather than a passenger train. With the task at hand completed, I turn and begin sifting through what is left of the front of the train for duocycle parts, the more I find, the faster repairs go. A few of the other intermediaries to the tower also remain behind. They say aloud that they’re looking for part of the bodyguard… that she was once their close associate, collectively. She had been altered to provide a better life for her family, but was unaware that her humanity would also be taken in the exchange. They had recovered her after our battle, and improved her, gave her back her mind. But did not anticipate that on her first assignment that she would relentlessly slaughter her all those involved. They are unsure if it was the programming or if she simply took revenge, as these were past close collaborators with to the late Executive, and she did specifically choose this mission. But when she attacked both Techrider and I, they were fairly certain it was the former.

There is a brief pause before they apologize for rambling, and thank me again for apprehending her relatively unharmed. As in, not torn limb from limb or crushed to death. I find the primary throttle ignitor I had been searching for, walk over to my duocycle and affix it. I get on and run diagnostics. 70% repaired. I activate it and increase the speed of the engine without moving a few times to ensure functionality. Satisfied with the thundering rumble, I drive off into the darkness of nightfall.

Jumping from offramps to buildings, I close in on the chase in progress, finally landing not far behind Techrider. Feeling the power augment from the duocycle, the velocity, and the vehicle’s connection to the ground, I move far faster than I could have while flying before. I am about to take aim with a Gravity Sphere, but before I can remove my hand from the controls, I become aware that the cycle can channel my abilities through itself.

[Weapon Systems Available::]
[Gravity Bullets]
[Gravity Sphere]
[Gravity Rush]
[…]

I focus on this new auxiliary interface, and choose my preferred attack for its simplicity.

[Activate:: Gravity Sphere]

As I will it so, the duocycle fires from below the headlight upon my target. Chunks of street explode as the Techrider swiftly dodges multiple volleys. It is quickly obvious that I need to adjust my technique.

[Activate:: Gravity Bullets]

A rapid-fire barrage erupts from spinning emergences on either side of the front wheel. These cause far less damage when they miss, with an added bonus of actually being able to land a hit the speeding cyborg, destabilizing his hunt for justice. Having done that, I find myself quickly staring down the barrel of his scattergun, finally dividing its attentions. Without looking away from his true target, he fires upon me, but with my current amplification and steeling my defense in preparation, the damage this time is mostly superficial. He proves it to be much easier to shoot the ground in front of someone when you are also in front of them, but I am undeterred by the highway fragments being flung at me or the newly created craters in my path.

Sensing the reprieve of being the target of attack, the golden angel dives into a tunnel beneath our roads. Techrider does not let up, smashing through barriers and driving along buildings to enter the same tunnel. I follow, as he climbs the walls and positions his path on the ceiling, I pursue. Out into the sun and up the side of the building the tunnel passes through, I ride ever closer. We both leap into the sky at the top of the tower, and for a brief moment I see more closely than I ever have, this hunted angel. Brief in that, in that exact moment, both Techrider and I are caught in a tremendous fusillade of missiles and energy bursts pouring forth from her golden wings. He takes the brunt of it and is sent crashing down to the deepest levels in a ball of flames, the sounds of crushed steel follow each concussive ricochet of his wreck against the downward structures. I, however, am not so lucky, and plummet only to the main highway near the tunnel’s exit. I see a golden reflection from the sky against the windows of the next high-rise this thoroughfare passes through. My duocycle lands beside me with a crunch.

Throughout the following days, the rise in activity grows, and I am faced with primary factions from across the grid. All with their own champions. Those with conflicting beliefs and overlapping goals united and attempted to unleash a virus to kill all life by invading a bio-facility. There were attacks on the Generator, and then upon the Power Generator for the Generator. Then, the Central Guard Company’s new suit got fused with a demon. After that, a building gone rogue. The next day it was a cybernetic magician providing cover for more low-rent burglaries, and, of course, the trouble with the Kyuryu Science Institute. This day, however, I am called upon for a more interpersonal matter…

The short and tall ones have since taken up residence in Krokodopolis with multiple liaisons from the tunnels acting within the sub-city laboratory. They have been scouring the unimportant sub-systems of my craft, like scavengers going through cold storage. It briefly occurs to me that I could build this ship from the ground up in its original form, but I had not thought of it since it changed forms as I had. My musings are cut short by a panicked voice over the intercom: Techrider is back, and he has set his judgement upon one of their recent allies. It is requested that I intercede.

I arrive at the edge of the inner city and see a a golden-winged angel dive-bombing from the sky in a rapid attack and defense pattern upon the city skylines, dodging blasts that are tearing up the city, She is a beautiful and dangerous lustrous vision, shock white hair, noble in face and determination. Then I hear the roaring engine of her pursuer. Shining Booster Techrider.

I am contacted by the Krokodopolis Labs team, they say to maintain my position, as they are sending something to my location. They have been discovering multiple quickrail systems tunneling beneath the city, many connecting the two locations. Pistons wheeze as a hatch opens up and a platform is raised amidst the smoke and steam. As I see the figure emerging, I am contacted, and asked if I knew about it. I was, but had not thought of it since before I changed, as it was no longer necessary. They inform that they have repaired it in secret, and it may be capable of amplification of my power while I am in its presence. Much as my craft was. Before me stands the basic shelf model of the standard ATV equipped on all Guiding Star model single-occupant exploration crafts, an integrated GS-Duocycle. It, too, has undergone changes since I became the Gravity Surge, though still bone white and chitinous as my original armor.

I tear off towards the conflict on my Duocycle, screeching tires against ground emitting a thick smoke. Sparks fly off the underside as I leap from overpass to overpass in highly stacked interchanges, dodging other vehicles driving on these floating roads closed in amidst monolithic skyscrapers. I keep my eyes affixed to the chased shimmering angel in the sky.