Thunder

Chapter One - 2

'What the hell took you so long?'

The machine was roughly six feet in length from handlebars to exhaust, and flew three feet off the ground. Its twin seats being side by side were rare, custom made, and the condition it was in showed as much. It had two sets of handlebars, with the option for either rider to control and steer and, in an emergency, split and operate independently. Being wider than other models, the machine was slower and clumsier than the single-seaters, and even the popular 'doubleback' Zoomus', but Z9 wasn't overly concerned. She had been in plenty of scrapes with Carmen in the past, and with such vehicles, there were few that could match him.

In front of them they could see the black coat of the target flapping behind him. He banked and expertly rode around a corner, throwing a gunshot back towards them as he did. The shot hit the Zoomus' visor and cracked it, spider-webbing across it like the tributaries of the Celestrian Thames.

'The guy I stole this off wasn't playing fair,' Carmen replied as he rounded the corner and scraped a winglet off the ground.

'Did you kill him?'

'Depends on if the medics get there in time,' Carmen said.

Z9 checked the skull-man's gun. Enough for three more shots. She tucked it away and inspected her original weapon. She pressed a button on the side and a small canister ejected from it. The residue of green liquid remained on the inside. She chucked it onto the racing ground and took out a spare ammunition canister she had ready, this one filled with red liquid. She slotted it in and turned the safety off.

'Get us in range,' she said.

'Trying,' Carmen answered. 'It'd be easier if this guy wasn't a good driver.'

As they sped down the alleyways and side streets after the man, heading deep into the more hidden routes of Region 27, Z9 aimed again. The streets levelled out into a decent straight. Good chance for a decent hit.

The man looked in his mirror and shot behind him with one hand still on the handlebars, as was this man's apparent trademark reckless abandon. The shots clattered off the walls of the streets, bit into the metal frameworks of homes and markets. Z9 ducked behind the windscreen, firing to the left of it. Sparks flew from the piping on the back of the Zoomus. It rocked left, almost falling into a small alleyway and bouncing off it.

'Shit,' Carmen said. 'Too tight.'

Z9 agreed. She looked down the alleyway, eyes scanning, locking, dismissing, searching again. She found what she was looking for. She double checked a mental map in her head of the Region, something she had made sure to memorise before going after the box.

'The girders,' she said. Ahead of them was a set of building works being undergone on the wall that dead-ended their street. Along with the scaffolding to be erected the next day, two wide metal girders were propped up against a small goods vehicle, angled at the ground towards the oncoming Zoomus.

'You crazy bitch,' Carmen growled. He turned to the makeshift ramp and twisted the throttle to the max.

'Z9, what's happening?' the voice in her ear asked in disgusted curiosity. Z9 paid no attention to it as the Zoomus' gravity responded to the change in ground levels. It ran up the girders whilst floating inches above their sheen, then launched into the air.

'Flying,' Z9 said. The top of the wall scraped the bottom of their Zoomus and she cringed. Carmen banked left, pointing Z9's body at the ground, whilst pulling up simultaneously. The thing bounced off the steel floor, temporarily breaking through its floating mechanism. Z9 jolted, whiplash. The Zoomus righted itself, returned to its level above ground. Carmen backed off to stop it crashing into a wall directly of them, then swung into a side street parallel to the one their target had gone through.