A Prologue Part Two ~ Growing Up(sample)

Chapter Eighteen ~ Testing Boundaries Part III:

The enemy scrambled and started moving in different directions, as they returned fire in mounted combat. Reine raised her pistol at Randi and fired squarely at his chest, as she started forward and activated her beam-saber. Her teen opponent flicked his wrist and caught two beam-saber hilts, as they fell from his sleeves; before he activated them and raised them in a fluid motion reflecting her pistol fire with ease.

The Faltori heir leaned forward and charged back at her, as he spoke in anger, "You asked for it!"

She crouched on her board and pulled her blade back under her pistol arm, as they rushed at each other. She continued to fire her pistol, as he blocked her on approach. She brought her blade across at his legs, and he blocked her, before he struck back at her with his other saber.

The two clashed, as she activated her buckler and blocked him with her shield; she retorted cheerfully, "Let's Jam! See if you can keep up!"

The exchange was furious, as she quickly parried blow after blow. For a moment the two circled each other in a blur of motion, as both made wild swings with their beam-sabers; neither warrior struck a blow. Total chaos broke out, as Acovis stopped firing and pressed a key on his computer over his rifle.

Fast-paced music started to play loudly, heavy with electronic distortion and a rumbling bass; over all, it seemed like an appropriate choice. Every kid, on both sides of the conflict, were now speeding about attacking each other; the scene looked intense, as the Xavior crew suddenly started away from the fight. Reine spun off from Randi, deactivated her shield, and holstered her pistol; she joined her crew in retreat.

She yelled, "Sprint!"

She suddenly hoped they would survive this, as she looked at her crew each in turn; they all briefly activated race mode kneeling on the hoverboards. She turned and looked back to see seven attackers left; the enemy started to open fire again, so Reine quickly adjusted her trajectory with the thruster controls to jerk out of enemy fire and stood on the board, before she did a switchfoot. 'My crew has a head start,' she thought, 'that won't help us much against those numbers.'

"Fire back," she yelped.

Her crew fired back from behind her, and she reactivated her shield, as the enemy gained on them. They dipped and turned down the alley, as they followed the escape path. Her crew picked up speed and rapidly approached the 'tower'.

Each alley they turned down, the enemy was getting closer and closer. She had to weave back and forth, as she blocked and parried incoming fire; which forced her crew to stop returning fire briefly, as they entered the tower plaza. Her group shot through the stairwell entrance without hesitation, the kids were a blur of motion and light.

They each hopped onto the rail in turn, speeding down the 'tower' faster and faster. Randi also entered the 'tower' stairwell followed by his group. The attempt to escape would seem in vain, as the enemy stayed close behind.

She kicked off the rail doing a backflip onto the wall, as combat started again. Randi followed after her and caught up to take a few swings, causing her to parry frantically with her beam-saber and bash the wall with her buckler - resulting in an explosive amount of force, the act sent her flying across the tower to a lower part of the wall. Her opponent slashed the wall and followed after her again, doing a backflip before landing right behind her gliding along the wall.

Meanwhile, her crew found themselves in a serious fire-fight and had started evasive maneuvers as well. Her friends fought off his minions, as she dueled Randi - the scene once again became chaos. They neared the exit for her residential district rapidly.

She struggled to fight off Randi's dual beam-saber attack in the last moment before she kicked off the wall to the rail again. He nicked her sword-arm with the tip of his beam-saber in transition. Reine gritted her teeth and kicked off the rail, as she grabbed her board with her shield-arm; while she spun towards the exit.