A familiar ding occurred to her right, causing her to sharply look over. She was relieved to find a tram headed in the same direction about to depart. Careless about the busy street, she ran through it to get to the tram in time. She ran in front of cars as they sped by, some barely stopping in time. Horns blared, and drivers roared.
"Ey! Watch it, Sparky!" one barked.
"Get off the road!" another concurred.
Alas, she didn't care one bit about the dangers of the road. The only thing important to her at that moment was the tram moments from departing.
Seeing that the tram doors were closing, she quickly ran at it and leapt, barely making it on as they closed.
Now on board, she let out a huff and puff in relief, refocusing on the direction she was headed in. She made her way to the front as best she could to get a clear view.
Luckily for her, the bus was still headed in the same direction - borderline holding up traffic as a result. She sighed in relief, then quickly lapsed back into anger.
As if her anger had gotten bad enough, the bus divulged from the path, turning to the right. Ember sharply stared at it as it did, and it became very clear that the tram was headed in another direction.
She scrambled about in hopes to abort and get off. She looked over to the doors out of the tram, running up to it. She stood in stance, clawing both hands in it and beginning to jimmy it open. To her surprise - and the shock of the onlookers - it opened while the tram moved along.
Thankfully, it wasn't moving too fast, so it was easy for Ember to jump out and be on her way. She did so, barely managing to stick a landing on the road. She recomposed herself, resuming her careless running across the road, dodging cars and the like after the bus.
She safely returned to the footpath ahead. To her surprise, this street was just as busy as the last, filled to the brim with more dodgy-looking folks to boot.
This street is busy as well, full of more dodgy folks walking up and down it. Thankfully for her, the double-decker bus made another stop just up ahead.
"If you'll look either side..." the voiceover began.
She picked up pace once more in catch-up.
Just a bit further down the road, a rather familiar trio giddily stumbled out of one of the bars.
"Then I said 'You better watch yo' mouth, bushy-beard!" one said.
The other two laughed in tandem, holding their knees.
Suddenly, an angry Ember swiftly ran past the three, causing them to stare at her in wonder.
"Yo, is that-" one began.
"LB's chick?!" another added.
"Aye- I gotta see this." the third reckoned.
Intrigued by the familiar flame, the trio began to blindly follow in the shadows.
Unknowing, Ember ran along far ahead. Arriving just near the bus, she sharply skidded to a halt, staring up and down the bus, catching her breath.
Luckily for her, there was a clearer view of the bucket-hat-wearing Wade doppelganger on the top deck. She grimaced angrily, clenching her fists.
The bus parked to the side of the busy street, along with an argumentative amount of blaring horns from impatient drivers.
Ember did her signature set of 3 short huffs and puffs, sliding her hood on and jogging up to it. She remained staring at the top of it, just to make sure her Wade target wasn't moving an inch.
She arrived at the front door of the bus, taking a breath of relief and approaching to enter. Before she could, a short earthmen security guard halted her entry via the fanning of a hand.
"Halt. Here for the tour?" he asked.
Ember looked straight up at the top, ensuring that her bucket hat guy was still present. He was.
She let out a grimace, looking back down at the security guard.
"Yup! My- uhh- boyfriend has my ticket. He's right up top there!" she said.
She slinkily pointed her finger to the top of the bus in a roundabout way, causing the guard to look her up and down.
"No camera. You're certainly a bit-" the guard began.
Ember stressed herself thin, pulling a painfully fake smile at the guard. Without a word more, she shoved past the guard shoulder-first. He sharply went to deny her entry by grabbing her arm.
He did so...
...before realizing she was made of fire.
"Argh!"
The helpless guard grimaced loudly, holding his hand with his other. Feeling no sliver of regret, Ember slipped past, filtering through the busy bus.
"Hey- someone, stop her!" he barked.
Alas, not a single soul cared to stop the intruding Ember as she made her way deep into the bus. She made her way to the back of it, going up the stairs to the top deck.
As the security guard barely composed himself, the trio of afore shoved their way past in tail. Helpless once again, the guard fatiguingly yelled out.
"Hey- wha- c'mon! I don't get paid enough for this!" the guard barked.
Now at the top deck, Ember stood up in marvel at the busy area.
Things were about to get a whole lot more interesting...
"Moving along..." the voice-over said, now at a much higher volume.
The bus began to move along once more. With her relatively heavy bag on her back, Ember stumbled about, nearly losing her balance.
"Whoa- whoa."
Like a militant group of tourists, everyone present sharply took a seat. Ember barely managed to stumble over to a seat at the back of the deck she got up in.
Unfortunately, she found herself sitting next to an air guy who stank like a fart. She took a sniff in his direction out of curiosity, before sharply regretting it and retching. She blocked her nose with two fingers, giving him the side eye in disgust.
"Talk about a gag." she thought.
The bus began to move along merrily, filling Ember with an odd sense of curiosity once again.
"Back in the 1950s, the Red Light District was home to one of the most infamous gangs Elementopia had ever seen; the Red Inferno. Now, it houses sights and sounds far removed from its dangerous past!" the voiceover said.
Ember slowly looked about the decker, scanning about for her water guy of afore. She managed to catch a glimpse of the bucket-hat-wearing naughty boy way up at the front of the top deck.
She let out an agitated grimace, shaking her head in disgust and slowly rising to her feet. As she rose, the bus went over a bump or two, causing her to stumble about again. Trying to composure and stop herself from falling, she accidentally held onto a hairy earthman's hide in passing. She burned the poor man's hide clean off, causing him to look at her in disgust.
"Hey!" he barked.
"Sorry." she apologized.
Traversing onward, she slowly made her way toward the front slowly but surely.
Once again, however, the bus came to one of its stops. As a result, she lost her footing entirely, faceplanting relatively hard onto the walkway ahead. As careless as she was crossing the road before, the top deck tourists walked over her like she wasn't there.
With the heavy bag on, she struggled to get to her feet but eventually did so.
The moment she recomposed herself, she looked around to find that her water guy had vanished once again. She rolled her eyes, sharply turning around and heading back down frustratingly.
As she reached the staircase to the bottom deck, she ran into her three pursuers once again.
"Thought you could-" one perked up.
Without a care in the world for them, she fanned her arm in their faces. A solar flare of sorts lashed out, causing them to jump out of the way in fright as she rushed past.
"Damn that flamin' lady don't let up." one recognised.
Ember looked through the crowd ahead. Still, no sign of the bucket hat guy. Perhaps she'd lost him.
"And we've reached our final destination! Thank you all so much for joining us on this wonderful photo tour. We hope you've enjoyed it-" the voice-over interjected.
As a result, the crowd began to filter off the bus in a single-file fashion. Joining the line, she followed them out, staring ahead in search. Behind her, her three pursuers persisted.
She exited the bus with everyone else, looking them up and down as they stood like headless chickens. Quickly, she referred to Wade's story on Elementstagram once more.
To her delight, there was another fresh post on it, with a timestamp reading 'just now.' She looked the post over; which was a picture of a cool-looking bar.
She sharply looked up and down the street in hopes she'd find it there.
Luckily for her, she saw it just down the road. She lit up with a delighted stare, as well as a slight gasp in intrigue. She knew he had to be there somewhere.
With that, she slowly began to search through the crowd of photographers once again.
To her relief, her bucket hat-wearing water guy resurfaced. He watched as he stood, his back turned to her. She slowly walked toward him, knowing for sure that it was Wade under that hat.
The moment she reached him, she began to reach an arm at his shoulder, ready to claw at it out of rage.
Before she could, the water guy turned around...
"It's not him..." she thought.
The bucket hat guy was just a dead ringer for Wade, though with a bit more of a pronounced, moustache-esque extrusion on his face. He took out a vape from his satchel - the same that Wade had - and started to use it, moving himself aside carelessly.
Ember hunched in worry, her heart sinking at that moment. Did she just chase him for nothing?!
As the man got out of the way, it became clear that wasn't the case, as there he stood.
The real him. In plain view.
Wade stood a fair few feet away, standing starstruck with his Polaroid camera at his chest.
Ember blew up a foot in warning fury, immediately lapsing into anger.
"Wade..." she scowled.