'BAM'; the loud noise rang out from the back of the ref-board shop. A few seconds later Renton stumbled into the room, limping on one foot. "Damn, jeez who left the chair out so I could hit my toe on it, huh?" Renton complained to himself under his own breath. He held himself up against the doorframe and tried to nurse his injured toe.

After a moment he let down his foot and looked around the living room of the shop. All around him were the sleeping bodies of his friends. In the corner Hilda and Mathieu were sleeping together on a futon. Sumner, Moondoggy and Gidget all neatly slept together in their sleeping bags, making a narrow row through the center of the room. Ruri was also next to Sumner, but was only covered with a blanket as she slept.

He turned his attention from his friends to Eureka whom had been given the overstuffed reclining armchair to sleep on. He walked over to her, silently as he could and came to look down at the sleeping form of the girl of his own dreams. From foot to the nape of her neck she was covered by a blue and white checkered blanket. Despite her hair being a mess, her eyes being so lightly closed and her pure pink lips where ever so slightly agape gave her an angelic aura. Renton leaned down, wanting to steal a kiss from the beautiful angel's lips. But right before he could steal a treasure from heaven a loud moan was uttered from the nearby couch.

Emrick had been sleeping since the sun had gone down hours ago. Nobody had bothered to try and wake him, as they really didn't know how to deal with him afterwards.

Renton had noted how Emrick was very quiet, much like how Eureka had been when they had first met. But unlike her Emrick had absolutely no experience with humans and it was easy to tell he was uneasy around them. If it weren't for Eureka being a coralian too Renton wondered if Emrick would have even stayed with them.

Looking at the young boy now Renton noticed that a layer of sweat covered his face which. On closer inspection Renton noticed that despite the fevered look on his face, Emrick's breathing was incredibly slow, almost like the children he had seen with Desperation Disease.

Renton shuffled over to him and reached out to Emrick's face to feel for a temperature, but he didn't finish for as soon his hand had gotten close Emrick suddenly pulled in a huge breath as his eyes flicked full open. Renton, who had been leaning over him at the time, fell back. Emrick sat up and started blinking as his breathing normalized.

"Umm… hey Emrick… uh, you OK?" Renton asked quietly so as to not wake anyone up. Emrick sat motionless for a moment and then slowly turned his face toward Renton. Emrick's gaze looked distant, more so than usual; it gave Renton a small shiver. Emrick continued to not answer and just stare off into the space behind Renton's head. So Renton tried asking again, "Bad dream?"

Emrick groaned and rubbed his neck. "It's dry…" He then groaned again and quickly stood up and walked around Renton to the center of the room.

Renton stood up and looked around to Emrick, who was now searching around the room for something. Renton put his hand on Emrick's shoulder, but quickly pulled it back when Emrick flinched. The two stared almost level to each other; Emrick's eyes only a couple of inches under Renton's. Renton broke the tense silence, "There's some water in the back…"

Emrick started making his way to the back of the store without another word. Renton followed behind him as they entered into the back room that served as a garage and board repair shop with an entrance to a bathroom. It was cooler here, due in part to the garage shutters letting some of the outside air in. Renton pointed toward the bathroom, "Water's in there."

Emrick was still silent, and without looking at Renton started toward the washroom. But only after a couple steps did he stop. Renton heard him moan like his head was hurting him. This was confirmed when Emrick bent his head down and put his hand up to his brow. Renton watched, still not sure if Emrick really wanted his help. But soon Emrick's entire body started to shake and Renton's inhibition ended.

"Emrick, hey come on, are you really OK?" Renton asked worriedly as he got closer. He could see Emrick was fighting back some kind of pain, sweat continued to roll off his face.

Renton reached for Emrick's arm, but Emrick felt the hand coming and swung himself around to avoid it. "Get… GET AWAY!" Emrick yelled at Renton. He then glared at Renton, with an intense look of pain and fear covering his face. Soon the pain overcame him again and Emrick reached for his head with both hands, "don't… DON'T KILL ME!" He bolted, rushing through the back door into the alleyway behind the shop.

Renton stood there shell-shocked from the pure paradigm shift in Emrick's behavior. When he regained his senses Renton ran out the same door as Emrick. He looked down the wide alley and could see Emrick, already halfway out of sight, racing for the outskirts of town. "Damn since when could he can run like the wind!" Renton exclaimed to himself. "I ain't going to catch him like this…"

Renton swung around and reentered the shop and quickly but quietly raced from the garage to the front of the store. He gritted his teeth as he quickly selected a properly sized board for himself off the wall. For a moment he wondered if it was wrong to be taking Kylee's board like this, but he quickly threw those worries aside and grabbed a familiar red and white ref-board and raced out the front of the store into the street.

The half moon in the sky lit up the open and empty road that was in front of him. Renton turned to the direction Emrick had run off to before raising his free right hand up into the air and closing his eyes tight.

After a few absolutely still and silent moments Renton finally reopened his eyes. "It's been awhile… but I feel a good one coming." And with that he started sprinting down the center of the street. He kept running till it felt like his legs where running more on air than ground, and then as if with instinct Renton threw the board before him and jumped on just as a small wave passed by.

With a grin Renton remembered the feel of the wind in his face and the feeling of freedom flowing throughout his entire body. He pulled himself up higher and caught another wave and was then off in search of the wayward Emrick.


Meanwhile, surrounded by the urban decay of old worn down homes, an old warehouse sat alone. It had been unoccupied for a long time but tonight the lights where on. As the lights dimly lit the confines of the storehouse the only thing that could be heard were the calls of crickets and cats.

If someone were paying attention thought, they would have noticed how the noise from these creatures had suddenly cut off. And if they had really been taking care to listen they would have been able to make out the tiniest hum drum of noise from the warehouse. And once the lights had been cut out yelling could then be easily heard.

With a loud clang the metal door in the side of the building burst open and dust bellowed out, accompanied with a long strangely shaped object. Seconds later a person rolled out of the building and skidded to a halt after rolling for a few feet. The person then scrambled to their feet and started running, stopping only for a split second to reach down and take the object that had exited the building before them.

As the fleeing figure disappeared into the nearby buildings several other dust covered persons raced out of the building though the same door. They coughed as the dust cleared around them. After a moment one of them spoke up, "Damn it! What the hell was that!" asked a dust ridden voice.

The tallest of the figures then spoke up as he wheezed the last of the dust from his lungs, "Shut it!" He then turned around and pointed at the shortest two of his associates, "You two up top." Then he looked over to his other two men, "You guys tail the SOB. I'm goin' round."

The men around the tall figure gave their leader their own signs of agreement before starting off on their appointed routes. The two short men ran into the now dust free warehouse and quickly returned with ref-boards in tow. As they took off into the sky the other two subordinates disappeared into the hundreds of rundown buildings that made up most of the city of Bester.

The tall leader watched his subordinates with calm pride for a moment. Then remembering the noise that had been made looked around to see if anyone was privy to the commotion. When he was sure the incident hadn't caused any kind of uproar he then raced off in a separate direction from the rest.


Emrick flicked his eyes open wide. He didn't how or why but he could tell he wasn't where he had been when he had first fallen asleep. At first he couldn't see anything in the dark space, but then a shuffling sound next to him made his heart skip a beat. The sound continued, and Emrick slowly lifted up his head to see the source.

Just next to him, parallel to his hip, was an old woman. She was dressed in a brown robe with a yellow checkered sash that went around her waist and had large oddly shaped earrings hanging from her ears. She was turned away from him but Emrick could see her putting a stopper into a glowing jar of yellowish liquid and place it onto a low shelf along with other strange flasks.

As Emrick considered what had happened to him and how he had gotten here a loud voice called out right over the top of his head, "HEY THERE! You're up!"

Emrick's heart jumped all the way up to his throat. Without thinking his muscles threw him up into the air but his legs caught in the blanket that was covering him, which promptly tripped him up as he rose and made him tumble across the room and land on his side.

"Woe, your kinda jumpy aren't ya?" The new figure continued, with a hint of glee in her voice as she watched Emrick's panicked reaction. She was skinny, and despite her tight blue jeans her other clothing was much like her older counterpart's. The shirt she wore was tan but it only went down to her thighs and she had two green sashes that wrapped around her arms, just under her shoulders, which hung down to her elbows. But of all this, the defining feature Emrick took noticed of was the spiky red hair that had been tied up into a long ponytail behind her. The two strangers stared at each other, one with a huge grin, and the other with an expression of bafflement.

The silence didn't last long as the elder turned from her salves and confronted the other woman, "Now why did you have to scare the poor boy? I just got finished patching him up and you got to get him riled up again?"

"Oh, relax grandma, it's not like he was bleeding or anything." the red head shot back.

"Don't start with that again, Abra!" the older woman countered. Both the woman turned their heads from each other and huffed. Emrick had a slight feeling that for a moment the two persons had completely forgotten about him.

So he once again flinched when the red head, Abra, suddenly snapped her gaze back to him. "So are you feeling better?" The earlier matter seeming to drop the old women turned too, to see Emrick's response.

After an awkward silence Emrick finally spoke up, "Umm… yea I'm fine, but… where am I? And how'd I get here?"

Abra stood up from where she had been crouching down next to the futon Emrick had been laying on. "You're at our house… or at least the one we're living in for now…" She seemed to lose her train of thought for a moment before continuing, "Anyway, I found you outside and brought you here for treatment."

Emrick understood her story thus far, save for one point, "Was I injured?"

Before Abra could reply the old woman stole the conversation, "You had several cuts and bruises." She then looked over at Abra and glared as she concluded, "And one nasty bump on the side of your head."

Abra smiled guiltily and played with a loose strand of hair in embarrassment. "Yea sorry about that." She replied, to both the old woman and Emrick.

Emrick reached up to the right side of his head; there he found a small bump. It didn't hurt much but he could tell when he had been first struck it had probably hurt much worse. "How?" Emrick asked.

Abra explained, "Well you see a little while ago I was heading home from the store when, all of a sudden, you appeared out of nowhere running at me like something possessed. I … kinda freaked out… thought you were a zombie… damn thriller movies… so I dropped my bags and picked up a two-by-four that was lying nearby and nailed you when you got close…" Abra chuckled, "… but then when you were on the ground at my feet I realized you were just a kid… but you were already out cold so I brought you here so Emese could fix you up."

The old women shook her head in disappointment while Emrick continued to rub his head and try to recollect what had happened. All he could call up was falling asleep on the couch with a massive headache and then… a dream? Emrick shook his head; his mind was too fuzzy. He looked at the pair before him, "Who are you two?"

"Oh, how rude of us, umm my name is Abra and the sweet old thing over there is Emese." Abra responded.

Emese gave Abra another glare, "'Sweet old thing' am I now?" She then turned her attention back to Emrick, "So how do you feel child?"

Emrick was confused on the way the two acted towards each other, usually he noticed how humans would spend time around people they liked rather than people that they disagreed and fought with them. He answered over his thoughts, "Umm fine… I even had a headache before and it's gone now."

"Yes took care of it with this." said Emese as she picked up the glowing jar next to her, "Liquid trapar, perfect remedy for the ailing coralian, hoo-ha."

Emrick noticed what Emese had said, coralian; they knew he was a coralian. Now he was worried for another reason; where these people holding him for some reason?

Abra saw some of the worry on his face, "Oh, don't you worry about it. We're Vodarac; we look up to your kind. Heck some sects would consider you a saint or living god."

Emrick had heard the title Vodarac before; he had thought it meant that the people called such would be different from the other people he had met. But they weren't; besides some obvious differences in clothing the two before him didn't look any different from the people who had taken him in.

He was still cautious but his curiosity was starting to get the better of him; so he asked bluntly, "How did you do this?"

"Oh, we've got our ways. I and Abra here have been around for a while and the history between your people and mine is much longer than you could know." replied Emese as she slowly stood up with her crackling joints singing with the motion.

"Speaking of which" Abra asked with an almost childlike expression, "How old are you?"

Emrick wasn't really sure himself, he didn't remember much before the incident in the one city that ended up with him chased out of town and into the next where he met Eureka. "All I can remember up to is around two months ago." he replied.

Abra seemed to have turned into deep thought. She mumbled a 'thank you' under her breathe for Emrick's answer before turning away.

Meanwhile Emese had finished putting away her medicine. She then turned back to Abra, "Set up some tea. It'll help the medicine go down. Sooner he's fine the sooner I can get my aching bones some sleep."

Abra set right to the task, but was still in deep thought. But then as if suddenly waking up from a dream she quickly turned to a more cheerful demeanor and the chance to make a jab at the other woman, "Sure thing… grandma."

Emese glared at Abra's back as she worked her way to the small table next to Emrick, but didn't take the bait. Emrick himself was still unsure about the whole situation, but decided it was best to wait till the old woman had given him a clean bill of health.


John was a man of medium build, but he, like his comrades, was physically fit as any ref-boarder. And also much like many other ref-boarders he had been hard up for cash. After being laid off in the military he had joined a group of mercenaries for his livings.

And now he was running around the residential district of Bester's south-east side looking for the man who had snuck into his gang's hideout and had stolen the squad boss' special long-board.

With all the twists and turns in this run down part of town he felt like he was a mouse running through a maze. This made him consider radioing in asking if they could just call off the search. He stopped running and leaned up against a wall to catch his breath, while also popping open a pocket on his old style military vest.

As he pulled out his radio and was about to call in when a familiar sound caught his trained ears. He looked up into the sky, and focused his eyes so he could make out the distinct green line zigzagging above him. "That's got to be our guy." John said to himself, exhilarated that the last few minutes of running hadn't been for nothing.

He radioed in, "Hey this is Joh … ugh… I mean Big Chin. I've spotted our guy in the air. Love, Needle go get him."

Static rumbled back at him as he waited for a response, he guessed the two twins that had taken to the air earlier where arguing as usual about who would be the one to answer. Eventually the older brother, Love, or at least that was his codename was, answered, "This is Love… it'll help if you could give something to work off of besides 'I've spotted him' we don't have trackers on each other ya know!"

John rolled his eyes, "Over the south-east side residential, where we saw the guy run to you dolt!"

"OK, OK, damn. Be there in three seconds." Love answered back.

John breathed a sigh of relief; he was getting to old to do all this running around. He sat down hoping to take a rest while the twins took care of the matter in the sky when his radio went off again. He picked it up and listened, "Hey Big Chin, Love, Needle this is Gear. I've spotted another dude with a board. It looks like the boss'. He's on the ground and I'm in pursuit."

John sighed, "Now which one is the real guy?" He wondered to himself. Likewise remarks came over the radio from both Love and Needle. He didn't know how to answer them so he kept quite.

Then a final voice came over the radio, "Guys think for a sec, you got two of you in the air and two of you on the ground with one for each group of ya. Just catch them both, we can worry about which on is the right one latter."

John knew this was the right idea, but he hated it involved him having to get up after getting so comfortable. He stood up slowly, listening as the other men confirmed the new strategy. Finally he confirmed as well, and raced off in the general direction he guessed Gear was in.


Renton had learned to appreciate what he had considered the lameness of the waves back in his hometown. While they had not made for fun rides, they had taught him how to make do with any kind of wave that was presented to him. So with all the abundant waves here in Bester, he felt like lifting was an effortless affair, which was good because despite his constant searching he had yet to spot a single sign of Emrick.

Luckily the half moon was high up in the sky, making it easy to search the ground below. He had been passing over this area several times; hoping Emrick hadn't gone any further and that he hadn't gotten into any kind of trouble.

His focus was so deeply seeded into his search that it was only a matter of trained reflex when he swerved sideways as two twin jets of trapar swung down from above him. He looked back to where the jets had gone. They were below him now, but curving around on a wave regaining the altitude they had lost when diving at him. He couldn't see much of the enemy riders, but he could tell from their form and movements that these two weren't amateur riders. "Damn it! This I don't have time to get mugged a hundred feet up in the air!" Renton complained to himself.

The riders road side by side, copying each other's moves perfectly. And in his fan boy way Renton admired that about the two opposing riders for a brief second.

As Renton continued trying to make his way from the attackers, they continued to follow him and gain altitude. Soon they were above him again, making use of the faster waves above him to close the gap. Renton thought they were going to dive for him again, but instead the two continued to race past him. He was confused; if they wanted to ram him they would need to be a little further back from him to have enough room to gain sufficient speed.

Or this is what he thought until the two riders did something unexpected; first one then the other reached down and pulled their boards out from under themselves. They then flipped their boards over so that they lost all buoyancy. The two of them then came crashing down at Renton, with the heels of their boots aimed straight at him.

They came in so fast, at such a dead vertical angle, that Renton didn't know how to dodge. He swerved to the left and avoided the first comet like kick, but the second nicked the backside of his board, flipping it out from under his feet.

For a moment Renton spun in the open air, not doing or thinking anything, as he and his board split apart. As the feeling of weightlessness left him Renton cried out, "CCCRRRAAAPPP!" and he plummeted toward the ground.


Down below Renton's cry of surprise startled the figure that had fled from the warehouse only minutes before. It stopped and looked up towards the sky, searching for the source of the desperate cry.

But then from around the corner of one of the buildings nearby came another person. A man who was covered in a long gray cloak that matched a similarly colored bandana that held up his long raven black hair from his eyes.

The man quickly caught sight of the target he had been pursuing and pulled out his radio and called to his comrades. "Gear here, I got the guy in my sights. Sending coordinates now…" He then reached under his cloak and pulled out a wide mouthed gun. At the sight of the weapon the thief turned and fled with blinding speed in the opposite direction, back into the darkness of the alleyways.

Gear pointed the weapon up towards the sky, fired his flare and continued his chase.

He flailed around, trying to reach for his board that was just a few feet in front of him. The ground was coming in fast and Renton acted on instinct and a little experience with free falling. He rolled forward in mid-air and finally caught his board, and with another full aerial flip he had it back under him.

He quickly shifted his position to catch a new wave. As he was finally getting himself stable a flare suddenly zoom past him, nearly renewing his fall. He watched as it went up over his head and higher still, until it was level with his attackers. Despite the sudden 'missile' attack from below the two enemies continued to circle above him like vultures.

"Looks like these guys mean business." Renton said to himself over the roar of the wind and streaming trapar. "Guess Emrick is gotta have to wait…" And with that self declaration Renton shifted his balance dramatically, bringing him high over the peak of the wave he was on. He pulled off his favorite move: The Cutback Drop Turn, and broke through several layers of waves, bringing him within striking range of the two enemy riders.


"Great now someone's firing off fireworks." Abra complained to herself as she heard Gear's flare gun go off. She and Emrick had jumped out the door just a moment ago to see who had been yelling. Emese hadn't followed because she had already retired to bed.

"IT'S FREAKIN' THREE A.M. YOU JACKASS'!" Abra yelled into the air with renewed anger as the flare came up over the top of the buildings and partly blinded her sight.

Emrick was still quite sore from his injuries but the sound of a familiar voice yelling had coaxed him away from the sweet smelling tea Abra had been brewing. "I think the yelling came from the air." He advised Abra.

Abra looked at him then turned, with a hand over her brow to block out most of the light the flare was making, to the sky. Emrick copied the action and found it was easier to see this way in the bright light. As the flair finally made its way to the top of its path they were able to see three figures in the air, fighting, as it seemed, on ref-boards.

"Great, some idiots finding new ways to piss people off…" Abra mumbled to herself.

But Emrick was more interested in the aerial scuffle for another reason, especially over the one person that seemed to going up against the other two. The light and the darkness that filtered throughout the situation made it difficult to see much in detail, but Emrick could just make out a deep red jacket on the single rider, a deep red that complemented the red flair that was now dying back down into the darkness below. Unsure Emrick commented, "I think that's Renton… what's he doing?"

Abra turned back to Emrick, "You know that idiot?"

Emrick cocked his head to the side, unsure of the question and his answer, "Kinda… He and the others have been taking care of me, and he's the one who always gets in my face about stuff. I don't why, but it's kinda annoying."

Abra looked at Emrick for a moment, trying to make sense of what Emrick was saying. As she did another yell could be heard from high above. While now, all that could be seen were the three green trapar lines twisting amongst each other, it was easy to tell that the yell was from the same source as the first.

Abra realized they were just standing there like idiots. She suddenly yelled at Emrick, "Hey if you know him why are you standing here! You need to go help him if he's you're friend!"

"Friend?" Emrick thought to himself internally. He then replied back to Abra "…But I don't have a board… nor do I know how to use one if I had one… "

Abra grabbed Emrick's shoulder and pushed him down the street towards the battle. "It doesn't matter what you can do, what matters is that you at least try to help out your friend."

"But I…" Emrick started.

Abra cut him off and pointed up towards the battle overhead, "Go!"

"Ah…" was all the reply Emrick could muster as he stood there confused. He was unsure what Abra wanted him to do. He was unsure if what he wanted to do.

As he continued to fight with himself he lost track of the world around himself. So he didn't notice as Abra stepped up to him and put her hands on both sides of his face. He only came back to reality as Abra then started giving him quick baby slaps to both of his cheeks.

Abra leaned down to be at Emrick's eye level once she was done and told him, "Helping each other is one of the greatest strengths in humans. Even if you can't help directly, the attempt is all that matters."

Emrick understood, or thought he understood the simplified lesson. He turned around and started running away. Abra smiled as he started on his way, but only after a few seconds did Emrick turn around and asked with a quizzical look on his face, "But since I'm not human, does that mean me helping him wouldn't count with the whole 'human strength, helping each other thing'?"

Abra gritted her teeth and barked, "Just get going smartass!" And like that Emrick ran off like a scared puppy from the fiery woman and after his friend.


Renton was running circles around these two enemies, after spending so much time with the members of Gekkostate they were nothing to his experiences. But still at this height any fall could easily be fatal and that's why Renton had to hold back, why he couldn't retaliate against his opposites to his full measure.

This was unfortunate for him because the other two riders didn't seem to have the same mindset about his own safety. And due to their unique technique of pulling the board out from under themselves it would be worse for Renton if he tried to get lower to the ground were the trapar was less fluid. All he could hope for was ether a lucky wave to help him escape, or for the enemies to get tired and leave.

He hoped one or the other would come soon.


High above the battle continued over Emrick's head. As he ran toward the area where the lifters were circling he kept thinking of the pointlessness of his actions and how he would not be able to do anything once he got close to Renton. "What's the point, I don't get it." He kept thinking to himself as he continued to look up and watch the fight and run at the same time.

His distraction to where he was going gave cause to a second blow to his cranium that night. It was so quick and sudden that he never noticed he had been knocked to the ground for several seconds after the fact. Emrick blinked as the realization of what happened fell upon him along with the renewed pain in his head.

He felt the weight and warmth of body on top of himself and an audible moan made this all the more apparent. He blinked again as the person raised themselves from his chest and looked down on him, almost face to face.

Against the girl's perfectly snow white hair the moon showed a pale blue in comparison. The bangs of her hair went down to Emrick's nose while the long braded ponytail behind her curled around her right shoulder.

Before he could observe more of the girl she opened up her deep red eyes upon his, stopping all breathe in his body. She saw the boy looking up at her and quickly jumped off of him and scooted back to the wall near them. Emrick quickly sat up to find the girl still sitting down, but frantically looking around for something.

She was wearing a white sleeveless hoody jacket and a pair of black jeans that stopped at her knees. Around her neck and wrists were black and white bands of cloth that matched the braided scandals that wrapped all the way up to her ankles.

"Hey, uh… are you OK?" Emrick asked dumbly.

The girl did not pay attention, instead she spotted something and quickly scrambled up and started racing for it.

Emrick jumped up too and watched as the girl reached down and picked up an incredibly long ref-board. Its shape was familiar but certain aspects of its design where different from other boards Emrick had seen at Kylee's shop.

Renton's plight completely forgotten, Emrick approached the girl and asked again, "Hey are you OK?"

Without warning the girl pulled back the board, ready to swing it at Emrick. Fearing another blow to the head Emrick dropped down on his knees then rolled to the side. He landed his back against the opposing wall of the alley and looked up. From there he saw that the girl hadn't been aiming for him, but instead a raven haired man that had been sneaking up behind him.

The man sunk down to his knees, the air knocked out of him from the blow to his lower torso. As the girl pulled back the board again for another blow the man said through wheezing breaths, "Damn it…" His plea was cut off as the girl quickly brought the board down on his head, knocking him out cold.

Emrick watched as the cloaked man fell forward onto his face at the girl's feet. He quickly looked back up to find that the girl was just then turning toward the nearest alleyway, ready to run. "Wait!" he called out, as he pushed himself up from the ground.

The girl stopped in her tracks and turned quickly back to Emrick, her slim but strong arms showing tension as she held up the long board and possibly preparing for another swing at Emrick. But unlike the quick glances from before, this time she looked, actually looked at Emrick.

For a second they stood there staring at each other. Emrick still couldn't get over the girl's white hair and how it was still glinting in the moonlight. Finally the girl spoke up, "… you could do…"

Confused and still a little dumbstruck Emrick grunted, "Huh?"

The girl heaved the large board around quickly and held it before Emrick, "I direct you to serve and protect me."

Once again Emrick let out a dumbfounded, "Huh?"

The girl did not seem to take notice of his confusion and thrust the board into his hands, "Take this and direct these men away from me. Do this and I will be sure you are rewarded."

Emrick looked into the girl's red eyes, there was little emotion in them but from what Emrick could tell there was no deception in them ether. Emrick stammered, "I…ugh… so you basically want me to be attacked by these guys instead of you?"

The girl answered matter of fact, "Yes, I wish you to take my place as I escape from these men. The board I procured from their residence has become too much trouble."

While Emrick could easily see that this girl was planning on leaving him with an unknown number of enemies chasing him, he couldn't shake a strange fluttering in his stomach. So despite all his common senses urging him to drop the board, Emrick instead pulled it up and tucked the board under his right arm. "OK I'll do it." The girl then smiled and the strange fluttering in Emrick's stomach got worse.

But before Emrick could comment on this a yell came from down the alley, where the first man had come from. "Caught up to ya, now hand back that board." The new man was broad shouldered and of medium height, with a large chin and wafer thin brown hair.

Both Emrick looked back to the girl but saw that she had already ditched him and was running down the alleyway to her freedom. There was no time to reconsider the deal he made as the middle aged man was coming for him. So he then turned in the opposite direction from which the girl had gone and ran.

"Now I gotta get away from here…" thought Emrick to himself after crossing several turns with the man right behind him. Suddenly he remembered Renton and looked up to see that the fight was still not over in the sky above.

He looked ahead along his path; spying a set of stacked crates a few meters ahead of him he could guess that they were stacked high enough he could make it over the buildings. Looking down at the board under the crook of his arm he realized there was only one way he could get away, run decoy and help out Renton; he would have to fly.

"I still don't know why I'm even doing any of this…" he though internally as he jumped up onto the first crate. "I don't even know how lift…" he complained as he made it up the second. "Should have stayed quiet and gone back…" he continued as he flew over the third and forth crates.

And on the fifth and final crate he leaped as high as he could into the air while also dropping the board unceremoniously in front of himself. His feet landed stiffly on the board and slipped causing him to fall forward so that he was holding onto the front of the long board with his arms.

Eyes shut tight Emrick winced as he imagined crashing back down to the ground, but the crash never came. Emrick opened his eyes to find the board was flying on a strait path over the tops of the buildings, while steadily gaining altitude. Emrick looked down at the passing buildings and grinned, he was doing it; he was actually lifting on his first try.

Then he looked forward and noticed he was quickly flying right for the side of a tall building, he leaned hard to the side and caused the board to flip sideways, but unlike other boards would have this one didn't lose its buoyancy when it turned on its side. In fact it did a complete barrel roll and dodged the house completely before righting itself.

Emrick realized with a mixture of remorse and gratitude that somehow the board he had been so delighted in the idea of mastering was designed to be idiot proof. Slightly demoralized from that fact he slowly worked himself up and came to stand on his new board.

He noted that the fighting was now just above him. Understanding the principles of lifting from some of the conversations he had overheard, he leaned into the force pushing on the board, or 'wave' as they called it, and started ascending higher into the sky.


The leader of the gang watched as his board took to the air and was lost. He had been following the others from the rooftops, but he hadn't gotten there in time to stop the thief.

As he lost the trapar trail particular to the board in the blackness of the night he caught a sound from below. In the alley below was a girl with clear white hair, who was running desperately from the scene. He recognized her as the one whom had raced from his hideout only minutes before with his 'custom' board.

Dean or his codename 'Boss' mumbled a small question to himself, "Now what are you doing over here?" He then looked back up to the empty sky, "But more importantly, how did that one get it to work?" He then turned back to the girl and smirked, if anyone knew the answers to his questions, this girl was probably the one. He skipped in place, readying himself for the chase.


Renton was becoming exhausted; the other two riders wouldn't stop harassing him, and they wouldn't give him an opening to get away or fly lower where he could fight without worry of permanently hurting them. "This isn't good… at this rate I'll…" he thought to himself as he considered his shrinking options.

But out of the wind and darkness around him came a glimmer, almost too faint to be considered light. It passed right in front of Renton's face making him temporary the direness of his situation. It floated there for a moment right on the tip of his nose and then shot up into the air. Renton followed it with his eyes and noticed the sparkle was not alone.

Faintly, as if created by ghost, a faint blue trapar trail cut up through the air before him, leaving in its wake faint shimmering dust. It was difficult to see in the darkness but he saw the trail swiftly roll up a tall wave and curve along another as it ascended higher toward the enemy riders.

The two attackers must have not noticed it because they made no motion to avoid the mysterious object until it was upon them. Which was unfortunate for them, for as soon as it had gotten close to them a sudden flash of bright blue sparked right in their midst. This display was promptly followed by a yell from one of the riders as he had been knocked from his board and was plummeting to the ground.

"Damn at this height he'll be crushed!" Renton yelped to himself. Spreading his hands out to feel the waves below him Renton corrected his balance to intercept the falling victim.

The blue trapar forgotten Renton raced after the falling person, who could be seen thanks to another red flair that had been shot into the air. The other opposing rider was also chasing after his partner but didn't seem to be catching up quick enough.

Suddenly the blue trapar was now visible again. Coming up from behind him he could hear a familiar voice call out over the wind, "…renton… Renton… RENTON!"

Renton looked back and saw the outline of another rider following close behind him on a particularly long ref-board. It wasn't like the long board that Ms. Talhoe had lent him that one time he spent with Eureka. It looked the same as any other board save for its length and the almost ephemeral trapar trailing under it.

Without warning Renton suddenly felt the front tip of his board get pushed from under him. The rider that he had been trying to save had taken the opportunity to kick Renton's board out from underneath him once again.

The rider grabbed Renton's board out of the air and tried to place it under himself. He managed to do it in time to save his own life, but not in time to catch a proper wave to get him over a two story building he promptly smacked into with an audible thud.

Meanwhile Renton found himself lying on the front end of the blue trapar rider's board. He looked up and saw that it was Emrick whom was riding the waves and had saved him. "Emrick how?" he started.

Emrick answered back with obvious and understandable directness, "I have no clue. Let's just go back, please!"

Renton looked around and saw that the other attacker was heading to where his partner had landed. This was an opportune moment, "I agree, let's get out of here." He pointed off in the direction he believed Kylee's shop was in and they stealthily flew away.


Abra watched from her window as the battle came to an end. "Well looks like the babe has got some skill." She chuckled and shrugged to herself as she turned back to Emese whom was lying in bed. "Or maybe he's got bunch of dumb luck." She finished.

Emese make no attempt to put the situation lightly, "You shouldn't have let him go. We have no clue why he was sent here or why He was trying to get into his head."

Abra continued to smile, the moonlight reflecting off her black eyes, "Meddling has always been the problem. Let's just watch how our hatchling does…"

Outside the noise of bugs and stray cats finally returned to the quiet slums.


Taking the time to finally to catch her breath the girl finally stopped running and leaned against the wall of the alleyway she was now in. She had lost the board, but she knew she could find another by day break; she just needed to figure out from where.

As she stood there catching her breath she started hearing clapping from down the alley. When she turned her downcast head back up and toward to the way the sound was coming from she nearly jumped as from the shadows came a tall figure within just a few feet of her. His hair was a deep purple and was short and shaggy just like his cloths which consisted of a cheap t-shirt with the Bester Lifting Tournament logo on it and a pair of camo shorts. He also wore unbuttoned floral over shirt that was covered in decals of tropical flowers and birds.

If it weren't for the fact that he had appeared out of nowhere, and so close to her, the man wouldn't have looked intimidating at all, in fact he would have almost looked comical. But after a second glance the girl took notice of a harness under the man's floral shirt. Attached to it was a pair of knives on the shoulder straps and a sword strapped to his back, along with other pouches that may have contained other surprises.

"Evening girly." Dean said as non-saliently as could be. "What'ca doin' out at a time like this?" He walked past her as he asked the questions, more to amuse himself then to get answers. He had been following the girl like a shadow, jumping from roof to roof without a sound, and now the chase was over. Now was the time for answers.

But the girl didn't answer and Dean quickly turned around again to stare at her, all humility drawn from his face, "Why'd you go and raid my place? That ain't cool any time of day… or middle of the freakin' night!" He rushed at her only to stop just out of arms reach.

The girl looked back at him, not showing any fear of him at all. This was surprising to him; he was tall and strong even against people his own age, but this girl was still not even fully grown and she acted like she had gone up against worse.

And then to his even greater astonishment the girl demanded to him, "Cease this at once! I will have no more of you, and you have no proof of me committing any wrongdoing."

Internally he was flabbergasted, "Who the hell is this chick?" he wondered. But he did not let his surprise show on the outside; instead he grinned and shook his pointer finger at her, "Not a smart move to steal from someone who's been running errand boy for too long. I gotta make my new rep count for somethin', ya here?"

He reached for the girls arm; he wasn't planning on hurting her or anything, he just wanted it to seem that he did to her. Once he got the info he needed to find her accomplices he would let her go free and clear.

Hell he thought, he may even have had it in him to ask her if she wanted to join his 'merry' band of misfits, but that all ended when the girl had grabbed his arm. Her grip was phenomenal for her size and before he could pull his arm back he was caught unawares as her palm slammed into his gut.

At first the blow was a minor inconvenience, barely hurting his fit body at all. But as he let his breath go from his lungs a sudden wave of green light flooded his vision and forced him back down the alleyway, through the air.

As he slowly fell unconscious under a pile of garbage heaped in the alley Dean thought to himself, "Who the hell… is this girl?"


"So you don't remember anything about you waking up and going nuts and then running out of the shop like a caged skyfish?" Renton asked again as he and Emrick rounded around the corner of Kylee's shop. They had flown most of the way there but were now making their way to the back door on foot.

Emrick was drained from the crazy exploits of the night and didn't much care for Renton's curiosity. And he didn't like the idea that he truly had no clue what had happened to him ether. "Yes, yes for the last time, yes. Just quit asking me about tonight… it just makes my head hurt more..." He yawned before finishing, "…need… sleep…"

Renton was feeling the effects of sleep deprivation as well and chuckled, "Ha, I know what you mean."

Emrick looked at Renton annoyed, "How could you? You didn't go through the mess I did."

Renton stopped at the door and thought for a moment, "It's kinda different than that…What I mean is I understand you want to sleep and I was laughing because I have the same feeling."

"How is being tired enjoyable?" Emrick asked while mentally trying to move Renton out of the way so he could reenter the building and get some shut-eye.

Renton half grinned, Emrick was a lot more responsive than before and it was becoming a lot more simple to explain things to him, "It's not the being tired I'm laughing about, it's that was are sharing the emotion, we're both miserable so why not just laugh at it together?"

Emrick still didn't get it and reached for the door handle, "Never going to understand humans…"

As Emrick did this the board he had gotten from the mysterious girl rubbed next to Renton. "Hey, I've been wondering about the board…" Renton asked.

Emrick swung the door open and pulled the board away from Renton, "Get your own." he exclaimed.

"But I…" Renton started; his mechanic and lifting passions both begging him to examine the strange board.

Emrick cut Renton off, "After sleep, PLEASE!" He held the board in front of him and made sure Renton didn't touch it as he jumped past him and into the shop.

Renton laughed again, seemed Emrick was starting to take a liking to lifting as well.

Emrick heard Renton chuckling and asked as he disappeared into the living room, "Now what are you laughing about?"

"Oh nothing, Emrick. Just a long night…" Renton replied. He looked to the setting moon and remembered Eureka was still sleeping alone; he couldn't wait to lie down and feel her warmth next to himself after such a long cold night.

Tomorrow was the Bester Cup Championship; it was going to be a heated day by contrast.