"So what's the name of this spot you were talking about on the way down?" Ruri asked Mathieu, as she stood up after working her way under the fence. The group had just left the tower just minutes before and where now, one by one, working their way under the fence.
After a brief look over the course the group of Sumner, Ruri, Wes and the remaining members of the Gekko crew decided to leave the tower before they had a chance to be caught. As they were going down the winding stairs to the ground Moondoggy and Mathieu had started talking about how they knew of a spot where they thought they could practice lifting before the tournament; Ruri listened intently.
"Well you see when you mentioned Renton and Eureka earlier it kinda reminded me that there had been a lift spot Renton had kept talking about always going to in Belleforest. It's only a couple hours away by ship, so Doggy and I are thinking about heading over there." Mathieu explained and then pointed over to Moondoggie, who was brushing some dirt off himself, so that he could speak next.
"Well we still need to discuss it with the girls…" Moondoggie said, as he watched Hilda help pull Gidget through the hole under the fence wile Sumner also helped by holding the fence up for her. After a moment he continued "…but yea, if they say it's fine it'd be great for you guys to come along. We haven't hung out in forever, and it would be just like old times if you and Sumner came along."
Renton walked out of the jewelry store. His heart rate had still not slowed since he had entered the establishment and he felt like he was on top of a mountain. A sense of accomplishment flowed through him, but he felt like he needed more oxygen or he would pass out.
He looked down at the silver ring in his hand. Unlike before when he had entered the store the letters inscribed on the inside of the ring now read R&E rather than R&C. It felt light in his hand and seemed to shine a little brighter than it normally did, he noticed, even in the midday sun.
His attention was so fixed on the ring that he didn't notice that Heather, whom had brought him there, had already walked up to him and was looking at it as well. After a moment she finally spoke up, "You really have grown up a lot since you left, huh?"
Renton flinched, sending the ring into the air. He tried caching it a few times; it bounced out of his hands several times before he finally had hold of it. "Geez, why did you have to scare me like that!?" Renton said as he put the ring into his pocket so he wouldn't lose it.
She ignored him, "Well you got yourself a gift for her. I guess we should go find her so you two can have lunch like you planed… maybe even exchange gifts." She then winked at him before turning and starting down the road, leaving him to follow her.
"Give her a gift?" Renton thought in his head, as he started to follow the girl. He felt the ring in his pocket, "I don't know if I should give this to her yet. I mean I haven't even thought much about mar… marriage… much myself, let alone ask what Eureka thinks about it. Maybe I should ask her… maybe…" As these thoughts where flowing through his mind Renton's legs picked up speed. His inner voice kept getting louder and louder till he shouted out as he broke into a run, "Maybe it's time I stop beating around the bush and ask her!"
"Hey wait up Renton! You don't need to run! Geez, now what's got him worked up?" Heather said as she realized Renton had started racing down the road like something possessed.
Sumner and Ruri were enjoying the view out the window as the ship flew lightly through the air. They had been flying for a few minutes now and the tower was just disappearing on Moondoggie's radar. Before them, a great chasm spread like a scar across the scub. From the ground a person wouldn't see the feature until they were standing on its edge. But from up here in the sky the large section of scub that had separated from the ground during the Second Summer of Love could be easily seen. Later they would probably be able to look down and see parts of the Earth below them, as they flew over.
Mathieu walked up to them and asked, "So how you like the new Gekko?"
When Sumner and Ruri had first seen the ship, as it was being lifted from the hanger to the launch platform, at the top of the tower they had been quite surprised with the ship. It was much smaller than they had expected, it was just barely conceivable that four people could live comfortably on it. It was a basic military troop transport that had probably] been discharged some years ago, but had been refitted by some black market dealership. But besides all that, they liked how it had the same white and green paintjob as the true Gekko-State ship. And it also had enough cargo room for the crew's LFOs; the 606 and 808.
"It's not as big as the other one, but it is still an amazing ship." Sumner said turning around from the viewing window that surrounded the control room, to look at Mathieu.
Ruri turned her head to look at Moondoggie, who was at the helm. "It's almost just like the one I had. Back when we were having our own adventures, huh Doggy?" Ruri said to Moondoggy while giving him a wink. Everyone but Mathieu started laughing as they remembered about all the interesting and sometimes embarrassing moments they had spent on that ship.
Feeling left out, Mathieu continued with what he had wanted to say to Sumner's earlier comment, "Well it may be smaller but it's just as fast as the old Gekko. We should be in Belleforest in no time at all thanks to the Rift Flow."
Ruri turned back to the window and looked as they started to go over the rift. Sumner meanwhile turned back to Mathieu and asked, "Rift Flow?"
"That's right… you don't have a ship so you wouldn't know. Well just give it a minute and you'll see." Mathieu looked past Sumner towards the air in front of the ship. Sumner turned around to try and see what he was talking about. For a while nothing happened, they continued to lazily flow through the air, now over the rift.
Sumner was about to speak up again when the ship suddenly lurched higher into the air, with a force he was not expecting. Then after they had been thrown up and over the clouds that had been overhead Sumner was able to pull himself up from the floor and look out the window again. For as far as he could see massive waves of trapar were visible, ebbing and crashing all around them.
Moondoggie was grinning as he stabilized the ship and started weaving over and through the waves. Mathieu was still standing and helped Sumner get back to his feet. "This is the Rift Flow; ever since the scub had been lifted away the trapar has flooded into areas like this, making for fast but turbulent travel."
A sudden dip in the ship's flight nearly sent Sumner into the wall. "Is this safe!?" Sumner yelled, as he caught himself against the wall and helped Ruri keep hold or the railing next to the window.
"Course it is, most small ships have to go around, but that's cuz they don't have someone like Moondoggie at the helm." Mathieu replied as he walked up to the railing next to the window where the other two had been standing, like it was easy to stand at all, and pointed to the horizon. "Just a little longer and you should see it, Belleforest."
Renton was now half jogging down the road that he had last seen the other girls take Eureka down. It was less crowded than most of the other shopping areas in town. He assumed it was mostly because of a faint stench that was coming from the nearby factories that surrounded this side of the tower. As he finished following the road up a hill he could finally make out the two girls that had been with Eureka. They were standing next to one of the street stalls that randomly popped up in this part of town. As he got closer he noticed that Eureka wasn't with them.
As soon as he had realized they had spotted him he called out to the girls, "Hey you guys! Where's Eureka?" He closed the distance between them and started panting heavily as he bent over to catch his breath.
After a moment he realized the girls had still not answered him. He looked up at the two girls and noticed that they were visibly troubled. As Heather came running up behind Renton to join them they blurted out their trouble, "Renton we can't find Eureka! We left her here at this stall, but the man here says that nobody has come to his shop to buy anything from him!"
Renton could feel his blood run cold, "What do you mean you can't find her?" He said looking at the girls with desperation. They looked away, sorry that they had lost Eureka and made him so worried. Renton broke through them and went around the flower laden cart to its owner. He leaned down to put his hands on the old man's shoulders and asked him sternly, "Did you see her? You must to have seen something!"
The old man under Renton's hands looked like the kind of old person that needed to be in a bed at a nursing home somewhere, but probably never could afford such comfort. His bushy eyebrows that covered most of his wrinkled eyes, made him look as if he was asleep, and for a second Renton thought he was.
But the old man suddenly raised his hand slowly up and pointed the middle of the road, "The girl was coming, but didn't make it across the street. I only noticed because I thought she was heading this way but…" The man seemed to almost drift off to sleep again before continuing. "She met with someone… she fell asleep." The old man gave a big yawn himself. "And then the boy with the torn up military jacket picked her up and headed down towards the tower through factory district."
The slow pace the old man told the story only served to let the worry and fear building up inside of Renton grow until he couldn't hold back the tidal wave of emotions in his mind. As soon as the old man had finished he turned around and started scanning the area in the direction the man had apparently taken her.
He was about to run off down the nearest street to look for Eureka when the three girls stood before him with their arms wide, holding him back. "Wait Renton you can't just go running around looking for her! We need a plan."
Renton could barely hear them; his mind was racing about what might have happened to Eureka. He quickly gave the girls something he thought would help. "Head to the tram station, OK!? Go around and see if you can find them on the other side. If this guy is with the military he might try to leave on a ship, so head to the tower."
He then ran threw them before the girls could complain or ask something else. "Was the one who took her a soldier? And what would the military want with her?" Renton asked himself in his racing mind as he raced into the smog filled alleys of the factory district.
Eureka could hear her own breathing. As she woke, and became more aware, she slowly opened her eyes, wondering where she was. But all she could see where shadows in the dark room she was in. She lifted her hands to rub her eyes and looked around again. Now she could vaguely see a roof high above her, lightly shaded by several windows that let in only a few strands of light. She felt what she was sitting on was a large wooden crate. She shifted around to look at what or who was near her. All she could see was that something large and metal made a great U shape around her.
She then spoke up, hoping that she was not far from where she had passed out, "Renton! Are you there!? I'm scared Renton!" There was a great silence followed by a faint metallic echo of her words.
Renton, whose body, mind and soul was franticly searching for Eureka suddenly stopped in his tracks. As he had continued to search threw the massive district he had become more and more frantic in his search. But suddenly his mind had become clear. The emotions of fear and regret were still floating there in his mind, but the chaos they had caused subsided. His senses at once all became very aware of their surroundings, and a particular itching sensation started to form from what felt like the inside of his skull, right above the brow.
He put his hand up to his head, "What is this? This feeling… have I felt this before?" He turned his head and looked down an alley he had been about to pass, but was now greatly drawn to follow.
His senses all focused on the alley and the area beyond. He gritted his teeth, he was sure of what to do now. "Eureka is this way I just know it!"
It had taken them a while but the girls where now riding a tram car down thru the city to try and join Renton in the search.
They had thought about going to Axel, but they realized it would have taken too long to get to the garage and explain everything to the old man. They knew Renton was depending on them to be sure that nobody would be escaping out of the city with Eureka.
Eureka could barely see her own feet let alone see much of the surrounding area since the object around her was blocking most of the view. She was thinking of yelling into the air again, but a shift in the air above her, made her turn to her right. There, she realized that a person had been sitting on top of the metal machine and had been watching her. It noticed it had been spotted and jumped down from its perch, walked up to her and quickly reached into its jacket's pocket.
Eureka fearing some kind of weapon jumped from her seat and stood with the box separating her from the figure. "Who are you!? And what do you want!?" she half yelled at him.
The figure didn't seem to be worried about her sudden and loud movements. He continued to pull a large glow stick from his pocket and proceeded to break it.
Before the area in the semi-circle had been dark, but now, it had a low red-ish glow. As Eureka's eyes became adjusted to the light from the glow stick she saw that the man could have been better described as a teenager.
He was a good head shorter than her. His military uniform may have been all torn up, but it was obvious that it was much too large for him. And unlike before, in the road, his hood was down to revealed dark blue hair that went down over most of the boy's face, and came down his back to the waist. He also wore a pair of perfectly round sunglasses that gave an orange reflection in the red light under them.
She felt upset about the boy's appearance, it was strange, and his face held a completely emotionless expression that was almost alien to her. She backed up an uneasy step before asking, "What are you?"
The girls were now at the base of the tower, and as the tram was coasting to a stop they decided to jump off the tram at the station to buy time. But while they had thought that jumping off would have saved them the trouble of fighting with the rest of the people on the train to get off, they suddenly found a new obstacle in their path as they ended up crashing into a passing group of tourists on their way down. They and the people they had hit where all knocked to the ground.
Dawn shook her head and pulled herself to all fours. She realized she was on top of one of the people they had hit. The man had a dark afro and a refboard strapped to his back, with a very distinct wheel attached to its front end. Weeks of reading Ray=Out flashed through her mind, "Oh my gosh!! It's Mathieu from Gekko-State!!"
Heather looked down at who she was on top of. She squealed before saying, "It's Moondoggy!! It's Moondoggy!!"
Laura heard the other's cries. Before she looked down at the person under her she did a little math in her head, and came to the conclusion that with the other two men under the laps of her friends she would be the one to look down and find the legendary Holland under her lap. But instead when she looked down and saw that it was Sumner under her she frowned, "Who are you?"
Gidget, Hilda and Ruri ran up to the pile of people. "What's going on here?" Hilda asked, obviously annoyed.
Mathieu muttered some apologies to Hilda while Gidget tended to Moondoggy who was still lying on the ground, dazed from the impact. And meanwhile Ruri helped Sumner stand up without a word, but with a big grin on her face.
The girls all stood up on their own, and gazed at their idols. At least until the Gekko crew turned to stare back at them. Mathieu stopped apologizing to Hilda and turned his attention to the girls, "Hey sorry about that. We should have been out of the way for people getting off the…"
But then the girls, all at once, started apologizing and asking various questions at the same time, at such a speed that none of the crew could understand a word from any of them.
After a moment they all stopped and took a deep breath, and were about to start again but Moondoggy finally spoke up. "Hey! Hey! Hey! It's great to meet some people who know us, but could you keep it down." He leaned in close giving them one of his trademark smiles that made them swoon. "We're on a little practice mission for a lift tournament. So if you keep quite we'll answer any of your questions."
Gidget was getting red in the face that Moondoggy was using his charm on someone other than her. As he finished she grabbed him by the ear and pulled him to the back of the group for a chewing out.
Hilda then walked up to the girls and said, "Sorry but we really can't stick around for too long. We need to find a place to stay tonight and the sun is starting to go down."
The girls suddenly realized they had forgotten about Renton and Eureka. They all screamed at once causing the Gekko crew to all flinch at once. Hilda asked, "What's the matter?"
The girls holding each other said at the same time, "Eureka… she went missing… strange man in uniform took her… Renton ran into the industrial district to look for her."
The crew stared at them in bewilderment. The girls looked back with honest concern in their eyes.
"They're alive..?" Mathieu asked, more of to himself than to anyone else.
The figure turned his head to the side as if not understanding what her question meant. "What… are… you…" he repeated. He looked her over and then matched the pose Eureka was standing in, as well as a slightly off copy of her facial expression.
Eureka was taken aback that someone who had kidnapped a person would make such childish light of their situation. "Stop doing that! Where is Renton!? Why have you taken me here!?"
The boy dropped back into his usual expressionless self. He walked up to Eureka and looked into her eyes, through his sunglasses, without making any noise. She backed up until her back was against the cold metal object that surrounded them both. He then repeated himself, the words where more clear and direct. "What are you?"
Eureka realized that he wasn't repeating her this time but was in fact asking her the question she had proposed to him. In her mind she was fighting an urge to hit the boy, after kidnapping her he was starting to get way too close to her, and he seemed to be making fun of her appearance.
While she was fighting this urge the boy then cocked his head to the side again, as if childishly curious about her silence. She couldn't hold it anymore; she slapped the boy across the face, sending the sunglasses into the air.
The boy made a whimpering sound and raised his hand to where he had been struck. He slowly shuffled his feet backwards, until he found the wooden box behind him and sat down. The glow stick was on the floor now; he had dropped it when he had been struck.
Eureka looked at the boy and thought to herself, "Could it be that he wasn't the one that had taken me?" She felt the tingle in the hand she had struck him with. She had thought that this strange looking person had wanted to do her some kind of harm, but it was she who had harmed him. "How could I have been so rash? I judged him like so many have judged me for my appearance." She picked up the glow stick and crouched down next to the boy. "I'm sorry. Are you alright?"
The boy's bangs where blocking his downturned face from view, he didn't seem to respond. Eureka tried something else, "Come on now. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." She put a hand down on the boy's knee to try to get him to respond.
He finally looked up, his face was still expressionless and no tears seemed to be falling from his eyes as she had expected. The boy then looked into her eyes once again, and asked her something very particular, "What am I?"
The girls finished explaining to the group a very brief explanation of what Eureka and Renton had been doing earlier that day, before Eureka had disappeared. They then looked at the people they had idolized for years, asking for help with their eyes.
Sumner put his hand on Moondoggy's shoulder and gave him a nod.
"OK guys lets go look for Renton and Eureka." Moondoggy said turning from the girls to the group under his command.
"Yea, let's find our wayward comrades!" Mathieu added, as he pulled his board from the strap around his back.
"Me and Gidget will stay here with the girls, and try to get a hold of Renton's grandfather." said Hilda.
"Alright guys split up and find them." Moondoggy yelled, as he threw his board down and took off into the air. Mathieu, Ruri and Sumner followed close behind him.
In the air, there was a thin smog that filled the area above the factories. The four friends nimbly glided through warehouse clusters and factory smokestacks. After a time Sumner and Moondoggy flew close to each other.
"The buildings are so damn packed together I have to fly over several times just to get a look down all the alleys." Sumner complained to Moondoggy.
"We'll find them. This place isn't too big." Moondoggy yelled back as he continued to lift. After a second later Moondoggie flinched and reached down and pulled up a small walky-talky that was vibrating in his pocket. He listened for a moment before replying, "Gotcha!"
Sumner wanted to know if anyone had found anything. "Well, what's up?"
"Mathieu thinks he's spotted Renton running like a madman down an alley on the other side of the district. Come on!" Moondoggy replied, and then waved his hand for Sumner to follow.
Renton had been running for a few hours now, and he was now nearly physically exhausted. But as he continued to get closer to his goal the greater his need became to reach its end became.
Finally he made it to a lone warehouse that was in obvious disuse. A large garage shutter was in front of him. As he touched it the itching feeling that had been driving him to this place suddenly left him. He knew he was in the right place now.
He lifted the shutter and looked into the dark building. At first he couldn't see much; a few machines and boxes lined the outer edge of the building interior. But in the center he noticed a strange object lying alone in the center of the room.
Then he heard Eureka's voice call from the object in the center of the room, "Renton is that you?"
And at the sound of her voice, all the fatigue in his body left him in an instant. He jumped forward into the building, but when he did he had unknowingly tripped a motion sensitive light switch.
The lights in the building all turned on at once, giving Renton cause to shield his eyes. When his eyes had adjusted, a few seconds later, he saw that the strange object in the middle of the room was actually quite familiar to him.
The Monsoono KLF was in vehicle mode at the time, but as soon as its engines turned on it quickly started changing itself into humanoid mode. He watched as it stood itself up, to tower over him, nearly hitting it's head on the roof.
"Renton!!" Eureka yelled.
Renton looked down at where the LFO was standing. There in between its legs was Eureka, unhurt. He was about to make a move to get to her, but the LFO snapped down into a crouched position, using its left leg a barrier between him and Eureka.
The eyes of the LFO flashed green and it raised its right fist into the air, ready to smash him into the pavement if he got any closer to the girl he loved. "Eureka, I'm coming!! Renton yelled at the top of his tired lungs.