Wonderer's Wish World 2: Evolutionary Rebirth

Bad Brains

Day 32

Time: 7:34 PM

Location: Above Nightlight City

Five poked his head out of the ship, frowning as he looked down at the ground when the ship came to a pause. Darius followed suit, but unlike Five, he didn't see anything to warrant any kind of reaction.

"We're here," Five told him, gravely, and Darius blinked at him.

"But... there's nothing here," he pointed out, looking down at the grocery store below them.

Five looked at him like he was insane. "It's... under the ground."

"Oh," Darius felt himself flush. "Right."

Five backed away from the edge, taking Darius with him.

"Be ready," he warned. "As soon as we step out, Gaz is going to take this ship away, and she's going to crash it so the cops can't find us."

Darius tilted his head at that, but he nodded anyway. That was probably a good idea, though it seemed a waste. No one else but cops seemed to have flying cars, so it was likely they wouldn't be able to skip the traffic (and there was an INSANE amount of traffic, which Darius had already spotted below him on the ride here) over to the hotel.

But Darius also didn't want to get shot down when they were inevitably found, so he was fine with leaving it behind.

The ship lowered, and when it was near the ground but hadn't quite landed, Five hopped out, and Darius tripped over his feet trying to follow him, expecting to land before they disembarked.

If Five saw him stumble as his feet hit the pavement, he didn't mention it, and the two continued to the store in silence. They were approaching the back, not the front, with dozens of employees buzzing about, some unloading trucks, others clearly on their break, but while he and Five got some odd looks, no one seemed too suspicious of the two, and while Darius was grateful, he wondered why. Two young boys jumping out of a ship couldn't be an everyday occurrence.

Out of the corner of his eye, Darius saw Five glance back, perhaps to check on the ship, but as he did, his eyes suddenly widened, and before Darius could blink, Five had wrapped a hand around his shoulder and was rushing forward, pulling Darius along with him. In front of him, Darius saw employees shouting and rushing about, trying to get away from them, or whatever was behind them.

They were almost to the store when heat hit Darius' back and he was shoved forward, his ears ringing when a loud horrible sound of metal screeching and an electrical whine cut through the air. His face hit the concrete painfully (the second time today!) and Darius tasted red as he coughed, the air hot and heavy on his tongue.

Darius pushed himself up, feeling his chest contracting painfully as he gulped in the air like he was starving for it. His throat felt wrong and his nose felt stuffy, almost like he had a fever. He wiped a hand over his face and it came away wet, though Darius didn't know if that was because of blood or because of sweat.

As Darius picked himself up from the floor, he saw Five approaching from the corner of his eye, shaking his head as if trying to get rid of the same ringing sound Darius had, but other than that, he didn't look like he had a scratch on him.

Darius didn't call out to Five, not immediately, anyway. Instead, he turned, shifting onto his butt as he looked for what in the world had happened behind him.

His mouth fell open as he saw the ship he had just been in seconds earlier shattered on the ground, nearly torn in two and doused with flame flickering hundreds of feet into the air, like a bonfire. Darius followed the flame up into the sky with his eyes, desperately checking the clouds for any other sign of flying ships. Was the ship shot down? Were there police ships now flying overhead, just out of sight with the intent to shoot him full of holes?