ATTENTION EVERYONE: I'm sorry for taking forever to update. I got hooked on online video games, Flyff is a killer. But in further, more related news, I have realized that almost everyone is pretty out of character, when I saw Ex Machina, I saw it in Japanese with subtitles. With subtitles you get what they say, not how they say it. When I saw it in English, I realized a few things:
Tereus is a bit of a jerk
Deunan is a pretty playful person
Briareos has a sense of humor
And since it's too late to change the story from the beginning I've got to work that into what I'm doing now. And by the way, I have a sequel lined up in my head so be ready for that come spring or summer. Now on to what you're really here for.
"You remember the rules rookie?" Deunan asked as she sat up straight on her impressive looking red motorcycle. She raised her visor from her eyes, revealing a competitive yet friendly smile. She kill-switched her engine and folded her arms.
"HQ and back, by any means." I said as Tereus and I exited the house, punching my arms into my jacket sleeves. "I'm a rookie, not senile." I replied, returning her smile with one of my own.
"No, helmet, huh?" Deunan asked smugly.
"No visor." I replied. "If I don't have the whole thing I don't want it."
"Don't fall then" Deunan chuckled.
"I won't." I smiled.
"Briareos is waiting on the street in front of HQ." Deunan said. She reached into a pouch beside where the removed passenger seat was and pulled out two sets of ES.W.A.T headset radios. She tossed one over me to Tereus and reached out for me to take the other. "He'll give you a confirmation when he sees you. They're all on the same private frequency so we can all communicate through these."
"You're going to talk trash the whole race aren't you?" I said as I placed the headset over my ears and pulled a few caught up strands of hair free.
"No," Deunan said. "Maybe at the starting line though."
"Okay. So you ready?" I asked as I walked to my bike.
"Whenever you are." Deunan replied, lowering her visor. She started and revved her bike on her way to the street. I kicked my leg over mine and did the same.
"You two ready?" Tereus asked over the headset as he walked into the street in front of us.
"Yeah," reverberated Deunan's helmet-muffled voice through the headset. "How 'bout you?" I could tell by her voice that she was smiling.
I turned to her with a stone-faced expression as I started for my jacket pocket. She raised an eyebrow at me as I slowly covered my eyes with my slightly opaque lime green sunglasses, never breaking the glance. She chuckled as she faced forward.
"Okay." Deunan said.
"You two read me?" said Briareos' gentle rumble of a voice.
"I hear you." Deunan replied.
"Loud and clear," I responded.
"Alright ladies. How about you Tereus?" Briareos said.
"I read you." Tereus said. "You ready down there?"
"Whenever you are." Briareos retorted.
"All right. This is it. You go on my mark." Tereus said professionally as a situationally correct breeze blew, carrying Tereus' ponytail, mine and as much hair as Deunan's allowed along with it. Deunan revved her engine in what seemed like an attempt to intimidate me. I didn't respond to it, though. I planted both feet firmly on the ground and waited for Tereus the start the race.
"Alright this is it." Deunan whispered through her microphone.
"Three . . . ," Tereus began.
"That is the moment of truth; it's time to shine." Deunan mused. If I didn't know any better I would think that she was my conscience speaking audibly to me. Now I didn't know if the anxiety building inside me was negative or positive anymore.
"Two . . . ," Tereus continued.
"You can prove yourself right here." she said again. "Don't blow it."
"One . . . ,"
"I prove myself on the battlefield." I confidently replied. "This is just another training session."
"Good answer." Briareos said, seemingly out of nowhere.
"Go!" Tereus said. We both took off simultaneously, exploding past Tereus and swiftly making the first turn out of the complex. It seemed that Deunan didn't switch gears as quickly as most. Going by the sound of her engine, she waited until the last possible moment to shift her gears. If she continues to do that then it could be hard to catch her. So I guess that knocks out 'making sure she shifts first'. She gracefully swerved around corners and onto the highway. I almost mirrored her movements as I followed in pursuit. I hardly knew where I was going so the plan was to follow her there and take my own route back. She wasn't trying very hard to lose me. She took a pretty straightforward route, the way I usually take to get there, but I wasn't about to let my guard down. We weaved in and out of parkway traffic almost effortlessly.
The exit to HQ was quickly approaching but it looked like Deunan wasn't making any attempt to try to make her way towards it. So either she's trying to fool me or she knows another way. But the parkway goes completely away from HQ after this. It would make a lot of sense to follow someone who knows where they're going, I thought. But this is Deunan and this is a race. Would I be wrong to follow her? There's no time to think I have to act. I quickly leaned towards the exit and zoomed down the ramp. I sped through any traffic and speedily turned the corner. I was literally around the corner from the checkpoint when I heard a zoom over my headset.
"Deunan's passed first." Briareos said. I clenched my teeth as I slowed down to turn the corner and accelerated around the corner and past Briareos. Deunan was already long gone; I couldn't even hear her bike anymore. "Tenari's through." he said as I passed.
"I was right about to ask who's winning." Tereus said.
"Did you really have to? It was obvious who was gonna win from the start." Deunan said cockily.
"Don't underestimate me." I growled, my frustration was on full display.
"Come on rookie, lighten up. It's just another training session, remember?" Deunan replied with that same cocky tone. I raised an eyebrow and smiled.
"You know, you're right. This is just a training session." I sighed. "I've been schooled too, but I can bring this back. I sped down the street and towards a side street and down an alley which led to a busy marketplace. I wove around people and merchandise carts and into another alley that led to another side street that was a straight shot to the complex. Further down, I saw a plank of wood propped against a dumpster like a bicycle ramp. I never went off a ramp with my motorcycle so why not try now?
I slowed my speed as a precaution and aligned myself with the plank. A burst of excitement hit me as I approached the 'ramp' so I sped up and elevated from it. I soared through the air in what seemed like entire seconds. Without realizing, I sat completely upright on my bike and loosened the grip on my handlebars. Before I knew it, I was fighting to regain balance on my bike, which completely failed, and I found myself laying face up in a pile of empty cardboard boxes. My bike was idle against the opposite side of the alleyway, almost as sprawled out as I was.
"What was that?" Deunan asked. I chuckled to myself at her confused tone.
"I fell," I snickered. I heard a soft zooming from the street behind me. "Looks like you win." I said lazily.
"You're giving up?" she asked.
"Look to your left at this next turn." I said. I'd say no more than 3 seconds went by before she flew past.
"Wow, how'd that happen?" Deunan giggled.
"What happened?" Briareos asked.
"Tenari got separated from her bike." she said.
"What happened, Kickback?" Briareos chuckled
"It tried to hit a ramp for the first time." I sighed. "I didn't think I would mess it up this bad." I rolled over and tried to get myself onto my feet when I heard whooshing that sounded like it came from a WASP. Then I saw it fly over rather quickly. "Deunan, did you see that?"
"Yeah," she said softly, "WASP's don't fly that low in residential areas except for on missions."
"I haven't heard about any missions lately," Briareos said, "and with the Bioroid suspensions there aren't too many available squads that aren't on escort duty for the politician Bioroids."
"So what should we do?" I said, slowly rising to my feet.
"I think we should find out what's going on," Deunan replied. "Anyone else notice that Tereus has been rather quiet since Tenari passed the checkpoint?"
"It could be another attack." I said, staring blankly at my motorcycle.
"Tenari meet me back here," Briareos ordered. "We've got to try to top this before it becomes a problem."
I know, kinda devoid of action, but the best is yet to come, stay with me people. I won't let you down.