Papuru Star: Coalition Carnage

Chapter 7: Limits

Past

I was only six years old when Bram, my older brother found me playing in the backyard. He had got ahold of some blue colored piece of coal from somewhere and was so excited.

Child Bram
Do you know what this means, Microtek?

Child Narshira
No.

Child Bram
I'm going to be a Superstar. You remember what a Superstar is?

Child Narshira
Oh! Like Dante! He won!

Child Bram
Yeah! He's a Supernova now. And I'm going to be just like him. But don't tell mom and dad.

Child Narshira
Why?

Child Bram
They might not want me to do it. Say I'm too young.

Child Narshira
You not too young. You're ten!

Child Bram
I know, right.

Bram was always headstrong. No matter what anyone told him; that he shouldn't or couldn't do something, he did it anyway. Sometimes, it worked out for the better, other times, not so much. But his drive to become Superstar gave me the fortitude to become a Superstar twenty-nine years later.

Present

My two Syncs, Tarshira and Gharshira are helping me check and recheck my Sho-Tek suit. The thin, antian material is tougher than it looks, but even the weakest Superstar might succeed in ripping through it with some super attack. And my opponent, Van Black, I know next to nothing about. The SRC says he's strong and fast, with an aura of low frequency radiation, but can a woman really trust something that can be so easily manipulated?

Gharshira
I still think you should wear the Chumaki.

Narshira
Have you seen the size of this guy? He's probably strong as hell.

Tarshira
It was his highest attribute.

Gharshira
His body emits radiation.

Narshira
Low level radiation. The Shomaki can handle that.

Gharshira
And if it gets not so low?

Narshira
Start praying.

I heard Roxy the hostess starting her routine and the omniband clamped over my wrist announced a sixty second countdown. My hearts started pounding when, seconds before, they were steady. I pulled my mask over my face, the digital screen inside showing all my power systems running smoothly. My Sho-Tek is state of the art, above state of the art. Took me a year to build three and thanks to my Syncs, we had them fine tuned and customized in time.

Tarshira
Good luck.

Gharshira
Don't die or we die.

Narshira
Don't worry. I got this.

I felt the tingling of the Coalition's shoddy teleportation system. Mine is much faster, as it's instantaneous, theirs takes two seconds. Damn, I'm underwater. Nature's Teeth. An eerie glow lit the area, fish and other aquatic life cast in a bluish light. And that's all I saw: water and fish.

I bring up my holographic keyboard, sea life swimming through the neon display. Okay, Casino Island is approximately sixty-four hundred kilometers from here. Jonah should be traveling at seven times sound. My cpu showed the arrival time just as I came up with the answer. Thirty minutes. My teleportation may be the fastest, but it doesn't work on inorganic substances.

I activate the thrusters in my boots, knifing through Aphlis's thick waters. Needing to survive thirty minutes means I need to prepare a few traps. I go forty feet from where they dump me and set the Backfire arrow launcher. It'll target Van Black's profile so as to not shoot any sea creatures. My sensors indicate a water spout had materialized two hundred fifty meters to my left. That might be the edge of the tornado field. Stay away from there.