Run, Part 3: Flight

(As a reminder, this all happened a month or so before Zoofights Redux began and people began gathering at the Bar again)

Some plans looked so perfect on paper...but that was why any plan worth its salt had some sort of a testing phase. To plow on ahead, having stopped at the paper stage...well, one was taking their chances.

The machine and its weapons that Sine had replicated had been 'designed', so to speak, for a far larger, far heavier being. Sine had done her best to deal with issues such as weight and heat...but she'd overlooked a few other crucial areas. Like the fact that two high-power plasma-energy cannons designed to fight other war machines had one HELL of a kick.

Hence, instead of laying down covering fire and disabling the Volo's flying cars and SWAT-equivalent vans, Sine promptly began spraying fire everywhere, screaming in surprise and frustration as various Volo swooped and dove for cover. Some shots slammed right into the engine of one, and it drunkenly lurched and then plummeted down towards the distant streets below, the Volo inside throwing open the door and diving out to escape, his descent slowed by the emergency grav-discs he had. Sine continued yelling in pure rage (which she knew would just make it look like she MEANT to spray her guns around like a madwoman, but she was too irked and too much of a need to vent it to care) as she spun around like she was trying to replicate the Death Blossum, more explosions ripping into the front of the museum, its stairs, and the Volo's 'police-cars'.

Sine finally got her hands on the emergency thumb switch and shut down the guns, and after a split second made a snap decision and hit the emergency release switch as well. The gun apparatus undid its clamps, the gravity mechanisms she'd used to lighten its weight briefly pulsing to lift itself off of Sine and fall off her shoulders, the mechanism plummeting towards the ground below. Sine didn't really care. Her attempt to disable and retreat had turned into an accidental attempted mass murder (at least, that's how the Volo would see it), and she'd be turned into a shattered bag of meat in seconds if she tried to engage the Volo with her conventional weapons.

That just left full bore retreat, until her Sifter recharged. Suddenly hiding in the museum looked like a lot better option. But you blew that, just like you blow everything else.

A small part of Sine hoped, as she whirled the jet board around and took off down into the 'flight-streets' of the city below, that she could leave the voice behind as well as the Volo.

Go now, if you want it...

An otherworld awaits you

Don't you give up on it...

You bite the hand that feeds you 

All alone, cold fields you wander

Memories of it, cloud your sight

Fills your dreams, disturbs your slumber

Lost your way, a fallen knight...

The Volo, however, were not going to let their quarry go so easily, especially considering the fact that 1) They still thought Sine was just one of their kind with a helmet and heavy firepower, 2) She had unleashed that heavy firepower onto them, then discarded it, and 3) Their jobs and lives were built around chasing and catching Auspex who tried to fly away from them in a score of different ways. Sine's was little different than a few of them, and their tactics wouldn't need much adapting anyway. They had numbers, and unlike Sine, they actually knew the city from more than the equivalent of an advanced GPS.

Flying down into the Auspex's more conventional ground traffic wasn't enough to dissuade them either, Sine's computers barely keeping up with the wheel-based vehicles she was forced to dodge and weave around. She had expected that the Auspex might catch up to her...

Just not as quickly as they did.

The electrified nightstick slammed into Sine's shoulder and back; had her outfit not been insulated, she likely would have been stunned badly enough to faceplant into the ground or fly directly into the nearest building. Grunting, Sine spun her jetboard around and began flying backwards, blocking the next blow with her kinetic Launcher's. Despite his lack of jets, the Volo officer kept pace with Sine, flying with the aid of more advanced anti-gravity discs (which made some kind of sense. If you could manipulate gravity, it wasn't too far away from manipulating kinetic energy in general) as he continued to swing at Sine.

Or maybe it was a girl too, who knew? The Volo's 'advanced police' outfit (as Sine doubted she was being chased by the equivalent of patrol officers) removed any clue of their gender or emotional situation. The Volo could have been confident, angry, scared, or desperate, its own headgear rendered that truth a blank. Whatever its sex or feelings, it was swinging its weapon like a champion.

At least until Sine showed off one of the advantages of flying on a jetboard; it made a fair makeshift weapon, as Sine reared the board up and slammed the edge of it against the Volo, sending the bird-like humanoid flying off as Sine flipped herself back to an upward base and continued forward, going right at the next intersection...

She found three more Volo for company, heading directly for her. And these Volo had guns.

Hold now, aim is steady...
An otherworld awaits you
One thousand years, you ready?
The otherworld, it takes you...

The needle projectiles, Sine had again expected. Her rude surprise this time was when one of the Volo, instead of aiming a firearm at her, pulled something off their belt and threw it at her instead. When Sine made a sharp sideways sweep to dodge them, the projectile went with her, the bladed-boomerang like device flying for her head, Sine barely managing to dodge by ducking. She took a second to glance behind herself to confirm that it wasn't going to do a U-Turn and try and nail her in the back, and then resumed flying forward, barreling through the three Volo before she did a sharp turn to the left. The Volo were a lot better at doing U-turns then their bladed projectiles, the bird-men hot on her heels almost as soon as she had passed them.

"Grapnel." Sine said, the kinetic launcher on her left arm switching firing modes. Aiming at the tall spire of a building coming up, Sine fired off a line to latch onto the building's frame before spinning and flying backwards again, her line twisting so he arm didn't. Once again facing her pursuers, she immediately began retracting the line, arching her flight path upwards, and firing at the Volo with her other kinetic launcher, her helmet's aiming systems doing a lot to counteract her highly troublesome firing position. One took a blow to the arm and fell, the other two moving to grab their companion; Sine promptly released her line and flipped back around, diving back into the city...

Only to find herself flying directly into the grip of another Volo. And THIS Volo was their version of Murducken. Complete with Big Muscly Arms.

"SH-" Sine got out, before the masked flying man gave her a resounding headbutt. Her viewing glass cracked, her systems shouting alarms as her as the beast tried to tighten his grip. Sine promptly tested to see if the Volo's genitals were located in the general primate area, and discovered that if they weren't, whatever she rammed her blow into hurt real good too. The Beast-Volo's grip loosened, just a bit, and Sine promptly grabbed HIM, spinning her jetboard and doing a combination judo throw and pushing charge to throw the Volo downward, his body crashing violently against a rooftop, and through it, Sine's helmet picking up faint screams as she drew herself back up.

She allowed herself two seconds to check her recharging apparatus. Almost done...

The Volo weren't anywhere near done, Sine's helmet yelling at her to duck, the bladed arc projectile skimming off the tips of its pointed ears before Sine turned and kicked her jetboard back into forward high gear. Multiple Volo and two of their police 'cars' zoomed after her, barraging her with needles.

Go, into the sand, and the dust, and the sky

Go now, there's no better plan than to do or to die

Free me, pray to the faith, in the face of the light

Feed me, fill me with sin, and get ready to fight

You know you will...

You know you will... 

Sine snatched the Black Box off her belt.

"Proximity, vehicle." Sine said, and tossed the explosive over her shoulder. The Volo flew past it, thankfully, but their cars never got the chance. The explosive did not actually damage the flying vehicles, as it went off two feet from them, and the plastic that pelted the flying machines was too soft to do any damage. It was meant as a distraction.

It served. And more. One of the cars veered off so violently crashed into its fellow, the two machines falling from the sky and down into the street below. Sine jerked her head back, her eyes going wide at the sight of it.

"Fuck-!" Sine cursed. She'd just wanted them to back off a bit, not crash-!

You want what you want. Any collateral damage is acceptable.

"GOD DAMN IT JIMINY, SHUT UP!" Sine snarled as she dove back into the street again, flying through the sidewalk equivalent as Auspex frantically dove to get out of her way. In front of her, several Volo cars pulled up, attempting a classic police blockade. For a second, Sine wondered if they'd forgotten the vertical aspect of this battle. After another second, she figured it would be best to act like they hadn't, and burned towards the cars assembled at the crossroads.

The floating vehicles jerked upward eight feet as she approached. They HAD taken her likely escape into account.

Sine, however, weighed less than a car, and hence went up ten feet, flying over the air-mobile roofs.

She promptly discovered the Volo had planned for THAT too, as several were leaning out the back windows with weapons ready. More needles filled the air, Sine trying to both outrun and dodge them.

A perfect distraction for the Volo who came up from beneath her and grabbed onto her board.

"DAMN IT!" Sine yelled, as she looked down at her new passenger. She tried rattle-jerking the board as she flew on, but the Volo refused to dislodge. When she tried spinning, he held on. When she tried firing at him with her kinetic orbs, he remained in place.

Then he pulled the knife and stabbed for her left ankle.

Deep down, Sine couldn't blame the creature. She'd caused its fellow a fair bit of misery. On the surface, Sine just screamed a curse, even as her computers unlocked her foot due to their proximity alarms, Sine jerking the limb out of harm's way and then stomping her foot down onto the Volo's helmeted head several times before he let go. Sine spat another curse and turned around.

The Beast slammed into her, and Sine found her world turning upside down. With one foot out of the locking mechanism that held her on her jetboard, Sine partially fell and partially yanked the board upward as the giant muscled Volo's weight forced her backwards and down. The mechanism reacted as she programmed it, releasing Sine's other foot lest the awkward situation caused the board to break her ankle or twist her foot right off. Good for it...except Sine no longer had the ability to fly.

Her captor did.

And he was NOT pleased.

Sine though he would smash her into the ground. Instead, he tossed her upwards, then stopped on a dime and flew up after her, shoulder-ramming her before she could turn around and fire. Stunned, Sine fell briefly before she found an iron grip seizing her ankle, the Volo flying down the street and pulling her along like she weighed nothing. Sine would have complimented him on his strength and skilled use of tech...

Then he tossed her through a building window.

Sine exploded out the other side of the building, having been thrown at an angle through the two corner panes of glass, the myriad pieces slicing across her outfit...

And her belt pouches.

Time seemed to slow down for Sine as she saw her blue ruby, what she'd gone to so much trouble to get, fly out into the open air. No. She could take a beating, she could live with morally questionable acts, but she could not, WOULD NOT, give up what she'd worked so damn hard to-!

Steal.

Sine's first frantic grab missed the ruby.

She did not get to make a second, as the Beast Volo slammed into her again and drove her through the air.

Call Zephyrus and have him fight with him instead! Call Jonesy and ask to borrow her power armor this time! Call Doomrider, he'll help a friend! After all, surely they've already forgiven you and forgotten all that vitriol, right?

Fight, fight, fight

Fight, fight, FIGHT!

Fight, fight, fight

Fight, fight, FIGHT! 

Sine knew her punches would do nothing. She also figured that as much as this brute liked to go in close and hand to hand, he probably still had weapons on him.

So she swiped his nightstick. She'd handled enough alien tech to quickly locate switches, and even as the Beast jerked back as he (or she, who knew?) realized what Sine had done, she flipped on the weapon's electrified mode and promptly jammed it into the sweet spot between the Auspex's shoulder and neck. The Volo spasmed, letting go of her as the electricity shocked him...

Sine planted her boot and kicked off, flipping backwards, dropping the nightstick as she did. Her computers did the rest, the jetboard having circled around and come at her thumb-button'd command. She did not land perfectly on the locking mechanisms, but she landed well enough to keep her balance and crouch down, grabbing the edge to steady herself.

She promptly flew another edge of the board directly into the Beast-Volo's face. He let out a small, pained cry, flipping over and tumbling down towards the street as Sine put the board into a steep dive and flew down towards the street herself.

The Auspex on the ground had been too busy fleeing the falling glass to notice the blue gem scattered amongst the pieces. Sine slowed down to scoop up her prize, taking a few more seconds to lock in her feet before she rose back up, hand gripped tightly around her gem...

The needles smashed into the ground around her, the Volo on her like white on rice. Sine let out a small snarling scream in frustration and kicked in the afterburners again, blazing down the street as the Volo gave chase.

Hope dies, and you wander

The otherworld, it makes you

Dreams, they rip asunder

The otherworld, it hates you...

"FUCK OFF! I EARNED THIS! FUCK OFF!" Sine yelled, her voice lost in the wind. She let her words speak for her instead, arming her other Black Box and hurling it behind her. The explosion drove several Volo back, but more came to replace them. One of them hurled another blade-arang at her, and Sine found her dodge a second too slow, the blade of it slicing open the side of her shin. Sine fired a few kinetic orbs in response and then barreled down the street. She'd spied a thin alleyway in the row of buildings at the end of it, and her scanners and GPS told her she could fit through it. Maybe the damn Auspex would show sense and go around, or cease pursuit!

Yeah, right.

She wasn't entirely right about the alleyway either. It was wide enough to accept her...but thin enough that the sides of her jetboard struck the walls, sparks flying up among her legs as she tried to stay in her surfer-like position and keep herself from veering even an inch to the left and right. After thirty frantic feet that took two seconds that felt like ninety to cross, the alleyway widened out and Sine blazed down it.

"Yay."

The Volo flew out of the gap a few seconds later, having not been dissuaded in the slightest.

"NO!"

Sine looked behind herself to see the Volo, five strong in pursuit, chasing her like she'd stolen the whole museum instead of one little gem. Sine fired off a few shots at them. In response, the Volo all pulled out their flying boomerang esque weapons and tossed them at Sine. All at the same time, whatever kinetic systems the weapons used to outspeed their wielders rapidly encroaching on Sine.

"I HATE THOSE THINGS!"

Sine tried veering back and forth by minute degrees, trying to get the pursing projectiles to crash into the walls. No dice. She tried shooting them in mid air. No go. She debated firing chaff for a second, and then realized she didn't have any. She didn't have any time left either...

She did, however, have a third dimension. Sine promptly jerked her board up and in the tightest loop she could muster, spinning another 180 degrees to face upward. The projectiles zipped by beneath her; Sine promptly did the last thing she expected the Volo to expect, and put her machine into a steep dive directly towards them.

One veered into the wall to dodge her. Another took her jetboard in the gut and spun off, crashing into the wall as well. Sine held up the fist she had her blue ruby clenched in, and promptly decked the third Volo in the face as hard as she could, sending him spinning out in turn as Sine flew on, yelling both in triumph and due to the pain that shot up her arm.

"THAT'S WHAT YOU GET! THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CROSS-!" Sine yelled, looking back at her work and making sure the Volo weren't getting back up.

Hey Cosine. Do the math. You just took out three Volo.

Weren't there five?

Sine turned back around.

She flew into the rope the last two Volo had strung across the alleyway a second later.

The safety mechanisms probably saved her life; otherwise her tumble might have smeared her across the walls or cost her both her feet as she and her jetboard went into an out of control spin from her altered momentum. The fact that the board immediately disengaged and went tumbling down the alleyway to crash in a fiery explosion that Sine wasn't a part of was no comfort to her, as she crashed down onto the ground herself and bounce-rolled a few more dozen feet before she stopped. Every single nerve in her body seemed to wake up at once to remind her that yes, they existed, and no, they did not like that, and what the fuck was she doing, fighting giant orange fire-breathing dragons again?

"I wish..." Sine whispered. Her helmet display was awash with errors, but she could see her armor's stability ratio in the single digits. It had done its job though. Her violent stop and fall should have left her dead in and of itself, or at least with more than a few broken bones. Instead, in the words of Little Nicky in regards to an attempted fatal experience, 'That just hurt a lot.'

"Well...at least...I have...my priorities straight..." Sine whispered, opening her aching hand to look at the blue ruby within...

Ding.

"Ding?"


Sifter battery charge complete.

Sine stared at the sky, vaguely hearing the approaching Volo.

"...repeat."

Sifter battery charge complete.

Sine stared another second, and she would have laughed more when she did, except it hurt to laugh. Still a blessursed existence. Still.

Free now, ride up on it

Up to the heights, it takes you

Go now, if you want it

An otherworld awaits you...

Palming her gem, Sine reached down to her belt and snapped open the armored charge-pack, extracting the battery and reaching her to snap it into her Sifter. She rolled over onto her back...

She did not understand what the Volo said as they aimed their guns at her, yelling. But she could understand the intent.

She wondered if they could do the same.

"...don't you know...about the bird?" Sine said, and then flipped the Volo off. "Everybody knows that the bird is the word. Previous location, code STREETSHARK."

VROP.

----

"Where's my money?"

"...Miss Cosine..."

"I got you your gem, Mr. Mainx. If you honestly think I perpetuated some elaborate fraud that included looking like I ground twenty pounds of skin off myself to give you a fake gem...well, you're allowed to think it. But I know what I did, and what I did was what you wanted. Your gem, your request, is on the table in front of you. I don't feel like hanging around for it to be tested. WHERE'S. MY. MONEY?"

"...must you stick your weapon in my face?"

"Not in a mood to play around."

"...the truck is in a warehouse at Meglia and Trillo. Thirty million in gold bullion, as promised."

"Then this is done." Sine said, removing her launcher from Mainx's face. "You have your blue ruby. Make your granddaughter happy. Have a good rest of your life. Ciao."

"...was it really that disagreeable?" Mainx said.

"You have no idea, old man." Sine said, and promptly teleported out.

----

She should have been kinder. Mainx had been good to his word, stocking the truck with gold bricks, the best she could muster to universal currency. But she had as well. She'd found him his blue ruby. Now she had her money...


Yeah I bet you can bribe all your old friends back to your side...


"Just shut up. Whatever you are." Sine said, getting out of the truck, having parked it on her small asteroid home in the pocket universe she'd claimed. She really didn't want to hang around there at the moment. She'd grabbed up some medicine and bandages, blithely tapping buttons to head to a warmer, more private place. She hadn't seen Sarah among all those people buying into Jonesy's smear campaign, maybe she'd track her down...

At least that was the plan.

Until Sine warped into Desdemona's loft home...

And found Desdemona home.

"...Des?" Sine semi-squeaked in surprise. What was she doing here? She was supposed to be away this weekend at an art show!

"Welcome back. Sine." Desdemona said, but her tone indicated she was anything but.

-----

And elsewhere...


Fire began to fall from a world's sky...

"Where is she, Burning Moon? I get her first!"