Zero Sum

On towards headquarters

Rock carried the still unconscious John over his shoulders, "but he's heavier than he looks." Rock's legs moved blindingly fast, thanks to his enhanced abilities.

Still traveling through the forests on the outskirts of the city. His regular speed on foot was more than enough to make up for the time lost during the fight. Leaping into the air and soaring like an eagle over the occasional boulder or other obstacle in their path.

If he wanted to of course, Rock could move as fast as a bullet train. But he had to consider John, his normal body probably could not handle such strain.

A highway was coming up, that cut a path through the woods. Rock decided it was better to leap over it, not only to avoid traffic but to avoid being spotted.

Right as they were sailing through the air, right above the highway, John just happened to wake up and yelled out in terror, "what is happening?"

"Hey stop moving around back there," Rock shouted back, "or you will mess up my landing."

"I woke up in the middle of the air," protested a flailing John, "how do you expect me to react? Also where is my bike?"

"Yeah about that," began Rock, "I kind of remembered that too, while I was already about halfway to the base. You must have a homing system on that thing right? I would be surprised if it didn't with all that high tech and firepower it was packing."

"Homing system? Yeah it does have a homing signal, but it's on my bike!"

"Well, some might call that a design flaw." Rock replied as he landed and continued carrying John over his back, "hey how much speed do you think your body can take? I could make it there much faster if I went all out."

"My guidance system is damaged too," John said looking at his now shattered watch. No doubt shattered during the fight. "I can't use it to drive my bike back here on its own now."

"Forget about the bike for now," Pietros interjected, "I can take you back there once we are through with this meeting of ours." He met a near vertical cliff, and leaping high into the air, began using outcroppings of rock as small steps to make his way up towards the top.

John seemed to concur that making it to the meeting was the priority right now, and stopped asking about his abandoned bike. "We're almost there," he said, "what are we going to say if they ask why we were held up?"

"Relax," Rock made his way to the top of the cliff. Then, readjusting John's dangling body over his shoulder like it were sack of rice, "I can really pick up the pace now." Even before the words were out of his mouth, Rock ramped up his speed, running even faster than before through the woods ahead. "Now that I don't need to worry about you falling off."

The trees looked like just a blur to John. His face was pointed behind them, while his body kind of just held on for dear life. If he had to choose between riding on this maniacs shoulders or facing off against another ambush, it seemed he had better odds of surviving the ambush.

John held on tighter now as they made the last leg of the journey to, "Mazo Bolcav." Kyra's voice said.

"Yeah," Pietros thought, without bothering to look around. He knew Kyra was nowhere nearby. Her voice was only being broadcast into his mind, courtesy of the neural link chip that she had placed into his head before he had left. 

"The underground headquarters of the Radiant Ten," chimed in Kyra, "no outsider has ever seen this before lair and lived, until now!"

"Don't give them any ideas," thought Pietros, "there is a reason these guys have existed in the shadows for centuries. No unwelcome guests."

Pietros had agreed to let Kyra place the neural link into him for two things. First, she was going to record what he saw and start forming a map of the interior. It would come in handy for later. 

"How much further now?" John asked terrified while quite literally hanging on for his life.

"At the rate we are going, maybe another five minutes or less," replied Pietros, who had honestly forgotten he was hauling John as he raced through the forest. All he could focus on right now was the fact that he was headed to Mondus.

Which was part of the second thing he was relying on Myra for, as a voice of reason. He hated working for Mondus, and just the thought that he was helping him. Well if something was to happen during the meeting and make Pietros snap, he was relying on Kyra to help regulate his anger.

"Don't worry, I made sure that the neural link would be undetectable to anyone," Kyra said a little too proudly.

"And you made it so the chip will melt away from my skull within 24 hours?" Pietros thought half asking and half ordering. He did not want his mind invaded any longer than that. 

"Of course," assured Kyra, "theoretically," she mumbled.

"You guaranteed me this thing would not permanent," Pietros rumbled angrily in his mind. 

Kyra kind of winced at his reprimand. She had promised him that, "but this tech is still very much experimental," she tried to reason and then got defensive, "the fact that I was able to get it working at all is a miracle. So, you're welcome."

"Well it isn't you with a bug in your brain, all you do is talk into a mic and hear my thoughts on your speaker setup."

"It's no big deal, remember the link chip doesn't read your mind, it only relays the words that originate in the speech center of your brain. I don't hear any words that you aren't about to say out loud."

"And not just that," interjected Pietros, "you get to see and hear everything I do while I am wearing this thing in my head. So you can appreciate why I am counting on this chip to be temporary."

"Oh is that right? You are planning on doing or saying something you don't want me to witness?" Kyra teased.

Pietros groaned audibly and just dropped the topic. The entrance was just up ahead now. But Pietros had to leap high into the air in order to reach it. It was designed that way so no regular vehicle or wanderer would ever reach the entrance. "Heading in now," he thought out as he stood in front of a cavernous pathway.

"Mind putting me down now?" John asked, still patiently resting on Pietros shoulders.

Pietros only acknowledgement was leaning forward and allowing John to kind of just roll off of his shoulders. John got to his legs and tried to find some far away corner, where he would presumably proceed to vomit into.

The sunlit forest was at their backs now. Ahead lay jagged rocks both above and below. There was a crack in the rocks above that let a few rays of sunshine in. The light disappeared ahead and any uninitiated ones would quickly become lost.

"There was no need for you to rush in unannounced," said a voice from the dark. We were monitoring your approach and were just about to send some sentry units, to personally escort you inside."