Severa's Tale: Act II
Section C
Puppets Don't Cry
Prelude
Author's note: I recommend listening to Un-Gravitify from Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity for this entire chapter.
Bright lights lined the rooftops of Ylisstol, set against the green haze of the night sky. A myriad of colors danced below the girl as she stood on a roof, her eyes searching through the dance and trying to find a passage to her target: the Grimaret.
Some minutes passed. The ramp at the base of this building was the start. Her course was set as she stepped away from the edge of the building and walked to her two-wheeled Cycle. She climbed aboard the seat and put her feet on the guards, placing her hands on the handlebars and squeezing the triggers next to them.
"Right is go, left is stop…" She played back her training in her head while the red crystal in the center of the back wheel flickered to life, unlike the green crystal next to it. A central panel connected the bars with a green button and a blue button on them.
Sirens cut through the light noise of the cityscape below, growing louder and louder as she loosened her grip on the handlebars. A quick glance was given to the mirrors; her violet hair was unkempt and flowing in the wind. But it began to shake more, almost as if something was displacing wind near her.
"Stop the vehicle and get on the ground now!" A squad of pegasus riders appeared behind her as she slammed her hands on the right trigger and propelled her Cycle forward. The edge of the building drew closer, as did the distance between the trigger and the handlebars.
She leaned back, lifting the front wheel into the air and using her free hand to tap the green button on the center panel of the Cycle. The green crystal flickered to life. Air blasted out of the bottom of the Cycle's center, pushing her into the air and letting her clear the railing of the building. "After her!" The riders screamed as they followed on her tail, barely audible over the rushing wind as she descended towards the ground's downward slope and the colors from before. Leaning forward in her Cycle, the violet girl kept track of both the ground and her central panel, waiting for just the right moment.
Mere moments before she reached the ground, she slammed the button with her fist. The Cycle stopped its descent, peaked its nose up a bit, then landed on the slope. She rocked her head from the impact but nothing felt injured.
Civilians darted away as she drove through the streets. The sirens grew louder and louder from their faint buzz as she looked up and saw hooves in the sky.
"Vulture Squad, this is Omega Team. Creating roadblock now." A voice could be heard from their crystalline communicators. More and more buildings passed by the violet girl, but her focus was on the intersection ahead, now swarming with shield-bearing troops.
She grabbed the left trigger and turned the handlebars to the right, stopping her Cycle and drifting towards the intersection. Her grip quickly switched triggers as she approached the armored troops, driving her down the rightward street instead of the one they blocked.
"Reposition! And cover all the streets!" The riders called out, thrown off by her course correction and flying down the wrong street. With another turn, the violet girl was back on her straight path to the Grimaret, eying the massive tower as it loomed above. She leaned forward, scanning both directions for an obstacle.
A hill approached. At its peak was a collection of pegasus riders holding what she thought were long tubes. One of the tubes fired a net that she steered around, making their plan clear. Behind these riders was a clear shot through the skies to the Grimaret.
Her eyes focused on the green button on the console panel, just begging to be pressed. Every situation she could think of played out in her mind, almost all of them ending with her tangled in a net.
Except one.
With her hand covering the green button, she waited to press it down. She squeezed the right trigger as hard as she could as she weaved past more and more nets, reaching the apex of the hill and slamming the green button.
The riders watched and yelled as the violet girl flew above them on her Cycle. Her other hand was holding down the green button with as much strength as she could muster, pushing her further and further into the air. As she ascended towards the Grimaret, she felt her Cycle briefly dip. The green crystal in her wheel flickered on and off, almost spent.
She searched for something, anything that could get her to that tower, eventually settling on the blue button. The green crystal sputtered out and her Cycle began to fall towards the ground, underneath the flying blockade of riders that had just formed. She punched the blue button; wings sprouted from the sides of the Cycle as she dipped the center towards the ground. The base of the Grimaret was approaching and she was set to nosedive into it.
As they watched from afar, the leader of the flying blockade saw the violet girl disappear past the city skyline. She reached for her communication device, only to see the girl was back and now flying up towards the Grimaret at a one-hundred and eighty degree angle, using her momentum from the dive as a boost. They could only gasp and watch with concern as she climbed higher and higher, past each and every floor of the mighty tower. She eventually cleared the top and disappeared over it. "Don't just stand there! After her!" A shrill voice called from the communicators, only for them to point out one rider had already reached the top of the tower.
The violet girl laid in a heap at the top of the tower, gasping for air and staring at her broken Cycle. A rough landing would be an understatement of what she just experienced.
As she got to her feet, she felt a rush of cold wind blast her in the face. She shut her eyes and opened them to see a woman with ash-white hair and a black pegasus land on the tower. The ash woman dismounted from her steed and approached the violet girl.
"Layla, what the hell are you doing?" The ash woman asked.
"Get out of my way," Layla replied with a cold tone, staring down her foe with her fists clenched.
"You're never going to win charging into the heart of the enemy like that." The ash woman walked towards her; her left hand was enclosed around something. "It's risky, it's insane, it's unplanned, and it is not how I raised you."
"It worked, okay? There was nothing else I could do!" Layla yelled back, bending her knees and preparing for a fight.
"No, there was." Her mother replied, handing her a small key. "You could've asked nicely." Layla's eyes darted back and forth from the key to her mother. "Take it. They're keeping him on the fourth floor."
"Thank you, Aversa." Layla grabbed the key and hurried past to the nearby door. The door that would take her down the floors of this twisted tower and to Inigo.
Author's note: I'll see you all again in however long it takes me to get the first third of Section C done. I promise it won't be a year and a half this time. Hopefully. 50% odds. Okay, 25%.
