"Get back here, Ripple!"
Clearly, Wade's taking of the keys was far more consequential a move than he thought it would be.
He found himself running as fast as he could to EBID's underground parking lot to get to one of the company cars whilst his former boss and coworkers gave chase.
He stared front and back between one of the cars directly ahead and a tailing Mutrick. With the vehicle's window having been left open a crack, Wade dove through it, sloshing in. He reformed in the driver's seat, quickly locking the car and winding up the window before the others could reach him.
Dusty, Rocky and Boulder stopped just behind Mutrick as he leapt at the door, attempting to open it. He clawed both hands at the window with a feral scowl.
"Ripple! You drive that thing out of here, you'll be committing a criminal offence!" he barked.
As nervous as one could expect Wade to be in such a circumstance, he struggled as he shakily got the keys out, trying his best to put them into the ignition. After a finicky 10 seconds, he managed to turn the ignition, bringing the car to life.
Mutrick slammed a fist on the window.
"I'm being serious!" he barked.
As the vehicle was readied for take-off, Wade slowly peered over from looking scared at Mutrick to a genuine smile as he realized - he was home free. He let out a thankful chuckle as the adrenaline within him ate up his nerves.
He slithered his hands up and down the steering wheel in admiration, looking about the driving controls in wonder as Mutrick screamed in the background. He closed his eyes in admiration, letting out a prideful smirk.
"Wait a minute...
I can't drive." he realized.
He let out a frustrated grimace in realization, holding his fingers at his mouth as he looked out the car.
He quickly detached himself from his driving fantasy, frantically taking the keys out.
He whipped open the car's door, not realizing Mutrick's standing right in its way. He knocked his former superior over clean onto his buttocks.
"Ohh- sorry! I didn't mean to." he yelped.
Now out of the vehicle and vulnerable, Rocky, Dusty and Boulder resumed the chase.
"Wait- that's right. I don't care!" he exclaimed to himself.
Wade's eyes nearly bulged out of his waters, shuffling on the spot as he scrambled to run away. He dropped the keys as he did so square onto Mutrick's face, sending him back first onto the ground again with a grimace.
Wade did his damnest to run off of the EBID premises while his former coworkers gave chase. He ran onto the ridiculous quad-elemental sidewalks, nearly running into people in the process.
"Awwh- sorry! Sorry!" he cried.
His chasing cohort didn't have the same care as he did, straddling elemental lanes without care in the spirit of the chase.
Once the pedestrian density died down, the rock chasers had a clear shot of a sprinting Wade. Both Rocky and Boulder picked up steam, attempting to tackle him to the ground. Wade turned around, letting out a frightened yelp.
However, Wade's very being blessed him as the two dove right through his watery being. They both slammed head-first into the ground, grimacing wearily.
With a lot of pent-up anger toward him, Dusty gained on Wade, rushing up. He managed to trip up the water guy, causing the two to come to a grinding halt as Wade nearly faceplanted. Dusty - without a sliver of hesitation - threw a swing at Wade, causing a few onlookers to gasp. The throw simply passed through Wade, giving him ample chance to retaliate.
Though he normally wouldn't, given the way the three had acted toward him, Wade let his composure go just this one time. He swung at Dusty naively, and the hit connected like a tidal wave. Dusty flew to the ground, thrown to the curb by the hit. Wade let out a sharp grimace, instantly feeling sorry the moment he fell.
"Ooh- gee! Sorry! That hit a lot harder than I thought." he apologized.
Dusty let out a groan and grimace, struggling to get up off the floor.
Wade quickly shifted his attention to the escape while he had a chance, looking about aimlessly in a panic. To his delight, his eyes fixated on a lone scooter just across the road.
"Ooh! That'll do." he recognised.
With his chasers stunned, he capitalized on the moment, running to the curb. He stopped in his spot, looking either way in a frazzled manner. He let out a deep breath to compose himself before diving onto the road, turning into a puddle on impact. In his puddle form, he slithered along the road like a snake, unbeknownst to just how many vehicles were on the road.
As he slithered along, car after car drove over him.
"Ow- ow- ow- ow." he sounded.
Luckily, he managed to make it to the other side of the road before it could become too excruciating, leaping up and ballooning back into his elemental form. He quickly looked behind him to the other side of the road, where a fatigued Rocky, Dusty and Boulder stood with aggressive sneers.
"I'm gonna evaporate you in a minute, Ripple! Do you hear me?! Get back here!" Rocky barked.
Wade sharply bruxed his teeth in fright, scrambling on his spot and racing toward the scooter nearby. The thing was an ugly fluorescent yellow, with thick black text that read 'HydroScooter'.
He picked it up off of the pole it leaned on, quickly getting on it and stumbling about. He tried his damnest to drive the thing away in a hurry. However, he neglected to realize the thing was brake-locked. He let out a frustrated grimace, looking down at it.
"Agh- come on!" he exclaimed.
He looked down, reading a small screen on the handle;
50 Shell$ for a 1-hour ride.
"50 Shell$?! Ugh, whatever," he exclaimed.
He frantically scrounged around his satchel, throwing 50 Shell$ into the in-built dispenser. It roared to life, causing Wade to lean forward and let it rip.
Unfortunately for him, it would seem that the city capped its speed to a mere 1 or 2 miles an hour, crawling along at a snail's pace. He frantically looked backward, watching as Rocky and co crossed the busy street and picked up the chase. They ran twice as fast as his damned scooter could go, causing Wade to rock it back and forth impatiently.
"Agh- can't this thing go any faster?!" he exclaimed.
In his growing fright, he clenched his hands onto the handles and rolled them forward as hard as he could. To his shock, the thing really roared into life. It picked up pace to an almost bruising 50 miles an hour with Wade barely holding on in the process, drops flying in the wind.
"Geeeyaaah!" he yelled.
With no hope of keeping up now, Rocky and his cohort slowly stopped their running, watching in aggressive disbelief as Wade rode into the distance. They all let out a frustrated grimace, fists clenched.
"I won't forget your face, Ripple! You hear me? You're flushed!" Rocky barked.
Wade looked back in worry as he heard the yell in the distance, realizing at that moment that they had stopped giving chase. In that, his fright soon faded, slowly shifting into a relieved laugh. He composed himself from his shaken tendencies, grimacing in confidence as he rode along.
With tails a distant memory, he gently got his phone out as he rode along, placing it in a holder the scooter had.
He went between riding along and typing into the phone's web browser;
Aquatecture intern news
He shakily pressed the search button as he rode along on the streets, with the feed returning him search results;
Flame on? Aquatecture examinations are off to a fiery start!
He quickly slapped a finger onto the link, skim-reading it through as he rode along.
"...police sanctioned off the Magma Street site an hour or so ago..." he read.
"Magma Street..." he realized.
He quickly opened up his map app on his phone, plotting out a route to the top end of Magma Street.
"A few blocks away." he thought.
He let out a thankful grin, locking his phone and refocusing on the road ahead.
"Hold on, Ember. I'm coming!" he thought to himself.
After roughly half an hour's ride, Wade scoured Magma Street from the top all the way to the police attraction right near the bottom.
As he approached the sight, he leapt off his scooter while in motion, running along whilst the scooter fell side-on and skidded. He ran to the edge of a sizeable crowd around the police-taped entrance of the exam site, with white, red and blue lights illuminating the night sky.
Wade bounced up and down in his spot in an attempt to get a better look at what was going on. To his displeasure, he couldn't see squat.
"Ugh." he grimaced.
Using his life-given self to his advantage, he turned himself into a puddle, slithering along the ground like the road a while before.
He reformed right at the front of the police tape and barriers, clenching his hands onto it. He looked dead ahead, slowly lapsing into a stare of horror as the news came to life.
A stinking black mound of burned glass sat in the middle of the lot whilst a small group of Aquatecture officials stood in a frazzled huddle.
Wade leaned further over the police barrier, waving a hand to grab their attention. An officer standing with a baton in hand fanned his other in halt, causing Wade to back up a hair.
"Sir, please stay back. Authorized personnel only!" the officer barked.
"My girlfriend was the one involved! You have to tell me where she went!" Wade exclaimed.
He tried to push his way forward to survey the damage up close and speak to the officials. The cops present held him back with a hand on his chest.
"Stop! We will use force if necessary." an officer barked.
Not being the offensive type - especially toward police officers - Wade stopped in his spot, letting out a defeated grimace and pouting.
As the police commotion ensued, one of the Aquatecture representatives caught wind of the chubby water man trying to make way. He let out a gentle gasp, ejecting himself and quickly racing over to the other side of the barrier.
"Excuse me!" the official barked.
Wade watched as the official ran up just behind the defensive police, causing them to slowly look back and stare.
The official looked at Wade with a frazzled, cold stare. The water man could only return a confused, blank stare in return. The official slowly approached Wade on the other side of the barrier. He reached past the officers, pressing a finger on Wade's chest.
"You're Wade, aren't you?" he questioned.
Wade looked about from side to side in an off-guard manner, bruxing his teeth.
"Can I help you?" he asked.
The official looked at Wade with a stern, angry look about him. Before long, that anger faded and soon switched to a look of relief.
"Thank Rock you're here." he expressed.
"Sorry- who are you?" Wade asked respectfully.
"I'm... Ms Lumen's trainer." the trainer said.
Wade's eyes widened instantly as he realized he must have been on site when Ember had her moment earlier.
"She- she's told me a lot about you. Well- enough for me to get an impression." the officer
The official quickly extended a hand to hold, staring at Wade in the eyes.
"You are a fine gentleman, Mr. Ripple, and Ms. Lumen... that is one of the most intense adorations I've seen in my life," he admitted.
Taken genuinely aback by the surprising compliment, Wade let out a gasp and a teary smile in appreciation. He knew she loved him a lot, but he didn't think it'd ever be to the extent of talking about him at work. He let out a wider smile in appreciation of that fact. Thoughts of last night however became a lot more hurtful as a result. An air of regret roamed around him as he sat within the official's comment.
He slowly looked up at the official with tears in his eyes.
"Mr- what's your name?" Wade asked.
The official came a bit closer, staring at Wade with a slight smile.
"Phil," he answered.
"Right- Mr. Phil. I need to find her. There's so much I have to say. Too much." Wade admitted.
Phil let out an appreciative smirk, seeing how much Wade cared about his missing Ember, no matter how distraught she was that morning. That smirk soon faded to a worried look as he had to break the news to Wade.
"She- she went rogue. I don't know where she is." Phil admitted.
Wade paused, letting out a worried look himself.
"What happened- mind me asking?" he queried.
It took a moment to compose himself from such a question, eventually answering it with an air of shakiness.
"She was doing really well with her exam, then all of a sudden- BAM! She just lost all control and burned everything in sight. Then, she- she ran." Phil admitted.
Wade's worried look soon exhibited some tears, them streaking down his face. With the guilt from last night pushing to escape him, Wade did his best to remain strong - after all, it was for her. He let out a grimace, sliding into a hyper-focused look.
"Where?" Wade asked.
"She headed down the street that-a-way." Phil pointed out.
He pointed down the street to his left - Wade's right - prompting him to look in said direction.
"Alright. Did she mention anything about where exactly?" Wade continued.
"Nothing," Phil said.
Wade closed his eyes, trying his best to compose himself as another wave of guilt came over him. He gently reached over and put a hand on Phil's shoulder, staring at him in the eyes.
"Thank you... for your help." Wade thanked.
Leaving it on that note, Wade turned and made his way through the crowd. He exited the other side - elated to find his scooter still sitting on the ground. He quickly picked it up, putting a few more Shell$ into it and revving it up.
Before he could race off, Phil charged through the crowd, quickly running up to him one last time.
"Mister!" Phil exclaimed.
Wade sharply looked over to Phil, who gently approached him and held his wrist.
"Be gentle. She's vulnerable- and lovesick." Phil warned.
Wade returned him a thankful look, on the verge of tears once more. He closed his eyes as a couple of tears escaped his eyes, letting out an exhale.
"I'll do my best. Thank you," he said.
He revved his little scooter by the right handle, hopping on and screeching off.