Honestly!
Who the hell can concentrate, let alone brood, when the sound of chopping rotors and pure speed drills through your skull? Somehow she found a way.
"Tcht… dammit!"
The lone rotorcycle jammed down the lit highway and unleashed a screaming roar of pure power through the night air. Its navy blue, sharp and angular design knifed through the infinite walls of the ether as it banked hard and turned the winding corner, ascending higher and higher in the corkscrew turn… finally leveling out at 800 feet above the glistening city.
It was so beautiful… Being up there on the Skyway allowed for a sight indeed!
"Hmmph… it's like one giant black ice cube," Caerlise thought as she gazed down over the zipping magnetic guardrail at the monolithic buildings what lined the busy streets below. The lights of the city reflected with an almost epic flare off the girl's dark helmet visor. Even at 3 o'clock in the morning, Los Angeles was ablaze with activity. Be it other hotshot rotorcyclists causing mischief, people leaving and going to work, the odd hooker standing on the street corner; so much life was in that electronic, solar, California city.
The way how the numerous lights of the city shone brightly in the dark truly looked like a black ice cube glistening in the moonlight…
RaaRAAAAAAAANGGGGG!
Caerlise kicked it up a notch and swung into the far lane, blasting forward with another feral scream from the 20 rotor engine. To the unsatiably reckless, the speed and the sound was more theraputic than any massage.
"Boy do I need a break…" she grumbled inaudibly to herself as the Skyway, aptly named for its sheer height into the air, dipped down for its suicide descent to another sector of the city. Instead of reducing her speed as per protocol, Caerlise reared back and popped a short back wheelie. The hotshot jammed down even harder on the accelerator with her right foot and fluidly flipped the handle stick's Twin-Drive changer to rack the high performance engine into 7th gear.
GOOOWAMMMMMM!
The cycle's broad headlamp glared forward as the machine lifted off the decline and caught about 5 seconds of air before it touched slowly leveling ground once again to continue on its mad tirade. The girl grinned gleefully beneath the dark visor at the brief sensation of weightlessness. With surgical precision, Caerlise weaved and bobbed in and out of traffic, now much more active than what was on the Skyway.
VAVUM-VAVUM-VAVUM-VAVUM…
The girl blinked her honey brown eyes, her keen ears picking up on the sudden clash of the vibrations coming from the rotorcycle and another vehicle fast approaching from behind. Caerlise glanced in the streamlined side mirror at the red and blue flashing lights of an Earth Federation Military Patrol car. "Tcht… well … shit…" The girl gritted her teeth, knowing full well that traveling at 128 miles per hour was against the speed limit. Then again, knowing the brunette, she really didn't care.
With a surprising burst from its high performance engine, the marked car strafed out from behind Caerlise, its crying klaxon slamming hard into the girl's eardrums despite the noise of her own engine.
The finely tuned engine of the Military car was a far cry quieter than the rotorcycle's 20 screaming workhorses. The vehicle pulled up alongside the rotorcycle; the blonde female driver looked over at Caerlise with a purely condescending look as she gunned the engines slightly, zooming past the cyclist.
Caerlise's eyes flashed behind the visor with vigorous spite, her very core stirring up violently at the steely gray eyed gaze of the girl behind the wheel of the car. "Zenna!" she seethed as she watched the car flawlessly zip about traffic on its destination to who knew where.
The girl smacked the side of her helmet, activating its electronic sound dampener systems and turned on the Wide Ban Radio within the headset she wore beneath the helmet.
"Dispatch to all units, we have an Excel Class robbery on Wall Street and Boyd. Unit GZERO8 in the area please advance to sector 9A. Flag team Valiant-Garde has already been dispatched-KSSSSSSK…K...KKISSSHH-
"Ahhh … Damn you… you think you're just such hot stuff, huh?" Caerlise shouted, her voice booming in the now silenced helmet. With a resounding ROAR, the girl flipped to 8th gear and barreled down the busy highway, aiming to chase down that driver at any cost.
The cars seemed to warp by as Caerlise weaved in and out of traffic, each one a literal death merchant. Any small slip up and the brown eyed girl could find herself making a pretty purchase from death; a one way trip to the hereafter.
SKREEEEEEEEE!
The tires screeched and smoked blank as the cycle ripped out from behind the car before it and jammed down the straightway as the marked EF Car fast came into view. Caerlise closed the gap and finally pulled up alongside the roaring car, her anger obviously getting the better of her.
With a barely audible "thwink", the dark visor of Caerlise's helmet slid up and away underneath the helmet's crown, her eyes blazing their anger towards the woman behind the wheel of the cop car.
"Oy oy! You little punk! Yeah, I'm talkin' to you!" Caerlise shouted at the top of her lungs, her teeth bared and cheeks crimson with anger.
Inside the car, the only sound the driver could hear was the gentle blowing of the air conditioner and the blazing siren. The woman's attention drew to the passenger side window at the spitting idiot screaming unheard obscenities. The wavy blonde haired girl blinked her gunmetal gray eyes and minutely shook her head, noting the precarious hand gestures the cyclist was tossing about.
"… Moron… no regard for authority," Zenna Renault said aloud to herself as a small grin of amusement crossed her passionately beautiful young face. She wore the typical blue uniform of the Earth Federation Military Task Force, however her jacket was casually opened down the middle. "And that's the exact reason why you looked like such a fool today… because you're antiquated trash…"
"Huh? Whazzat? If you're gonna say something, have the balls to say it to my face!" Caerlise shouted irately. She could see the calm and collected Zenna mouthing something while still facing forward, her eyes adeptly on the road.
"… I think I already told you what I think of trash like you," Zenna replied to herself, perfectly reading Caerlise's lips from her peripheral vision. Zenna turned her head and pointed towards the roof of the car with a condescending grin.
Caerlise's angry expression glanced upward just in time to see a Blue and White Federation Flag nose dive sharply towards her, knifing down the busy street with a deafening roar.
The girl's face was ablaze with a surprised stupor as her eardrums rattled and screamed in pain. The blazing hot air behind the Flag's engines warbled her vision as she lost control of the rotorcycle. The girl jammed hard on the brakes and down shifted the enging as the nose of the rotorcycle nearly scraped against the still 100+ mph highway.
She looked up only to see the traffic light blazing red.
"Shit!" Caerlise risked a glance at Zenna who shot a "trademark" crooked grin her way… and gently raised her own hand and middle finger, generously returning the hand sign she had received earlier. "Dammit!" The biker swore loudly and struggled to keep the skidding two-wheeled deathtrap under control.
The agile EF car accelerated with a piercing scream and continued past the stop intersection with increased speed, leaving the still speeding bike on its own to deal with its own demise.
With a defiant shout, the girl slammed her boot heels down hard into the streaking highway sending a sudden dead shock coursing through her legs and spinal column. Despite the blistering pain, Caerlise locked her knees as her cycle boot soles quickly sloughed away, leaving her bare feet to take care of the braking.
!
The sickening sound of metal grinding against the highway could be heard as Caerlise continued her desperate braking maneuver, sparks flying like mad from the soles of her feet. The girl pulled back firm on the steering sticks to activate the wailing emergency braking system. "COME… ON….STOP!" she shouted as she gritted her teeth with closed eyes. She could feel herself overcoming gravity…
SKREEEEEEEEEEEEETCHH!
…
"…"
The blinding sound finally halted as Caerlise opened up one eye, seeing almost straight forward into the highway. The rotorcycle had stopped! It was up on its front wheel at nearly a 90 degree angle to the ground, but its forward motion was halted.
The bike slammed back down hard on its hind wheel as Caerlise let loose a thankful sigh. She gritted her teeth and looked down at the damage to her feet and knees. Wires and heat polished metal sparked and hissed all about her now flesh ripped and bloody feet; her knees seethed and crackled, their nanodrive motors fully maxed out. "Shit… I'm gonna hurt in the morning…" Caerlise muttered as she noted how her bike tires were more like squares rather than circles now. She winced, feeling the unshredded muscles in her toned thighs start to cramp up. "Ahh cra-
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEM BROOOOOWWWWW!
Caerlise's gaze snapped forward to see head on the headlights of an Earth Federation Tactical Gun Truck barrel-assing towards her. Her crazy braking maneuvers had caused the girl to swerve into the opposite lane! "Sonofabitch-
It was all she could do to force her dead legs to pop the rotorcycle in a quick hop to get out of the EF vehicle's path; she gunned the engine and veered hard to the right as the heavily armed and armored vehicle roared past her on thick armored tires supported by heavy duty repulsor lifts. Instantly her bike got sucked out from underneath her; Caerlise's athletically slender body was cast aside violently like a rag doll. She managed to close her eyes as she heard, with a sickening crunch, her beloved rotorcycle being crushed and mangled… such agony…
"GAHUH!" The girl hit the street hard, her biker jacket doing nothing to prevent the flesh on her right elbow from sheering clean off in a shower of blood and sparks to expose more metallic workings and wires. She rolled hard, the impact stripping away her right biker glove. The skin on her exposed palm flayed in a splurge of flesh, blood, and circuitry as she tumbled violently; her left knee cap cracked hard and popped loudly, sending metal shards knifing through her pant leg, tearing it to shreds. "GACK!" Finally Caerlise came to a rude upright stop, colliding hard with an Internet Newsstand on the far street corner.
"….Errrmmm…" The girl gingerly looked up at the mangled mess that was her ride… her vision quickly obscured by numerous vehicles whizzing past with nary a care for her whatsoever.
One of the bad points of Los Angeles… People were horrendously apathetic.
Caerlise let her head thud against the dense Newsstand as she let out an exasperated sigh. What a day.
A battle of egos on the first day of school.
A crappy start to classes.
Her totaled rotorcycle.
… The horrendous state her cybernetic parts were in…
The girl peeled her helmet off with her gloved (yet still throbbing) left hand, small plastic pieces of her mangled radio headset piercing her skin. Sweat drained down from her matted brown hair to mingle with the blood on her neck. Her hair was just past shoulder length, but it hung down lazily around her head in almost a stringy manner thanks to her hot sweat and blood. The exhausted girl winced and swallowed hard; her mouth was dry, yet she tasted nothing but blood. She breathed in short, pained bursts, trying her best to will away the sudden onslaught of nausea. The girl blinked her honey brown eyes and gazed up at the cirrostratus covered celestial night light source, her sad and pained expression gently changing to that of "c'est la vie."
"… Good ol'… Los Angeles moon…"
In the darkness of this broken world, you will become the beacon of "change."
So, knowing this, don't walk, don't run, but fly to your dreams...
And never look back...
~MOBILE SUIT~
GUNDAM 00
~SIDE STORY: ANTICIPATIONS~
Life is uncertain; it's something we humans can never fully understand.
Even so, I will never be content with the wiles of fate.
If ever I lose sight of "us" along the lonely path towards tomorrow, I know you would break through the dark hell of that unknown future.
With your life, shining brightly like a reborn star...
You would guide me!
In the darkness of this broken world, you will become the beacon of "change."
So, knowing this, I won't say things like, "You would never understand," or,
"It's impossible for me to share my pain."
The unique love we share, in this future we fight to create, is never a gamble.
So, knowing this, don't walk, don't run, but fly to your dreams…
Our dreams...
And never look back…