G.A.P.S.

Hyper car Insanity

With the bot rushing towards me, I barely even think. Doing exactly what Chloe did,  I let the intended stab slip past me, then grab the arm to start rolling the robot over me. When I am halfway to slamming the bot on the ground, a vicious snap rings throughout the room. The knife clatters to the floor, the robot screaming in pain as the body with a broken arm hits the ground. I am completely untouched, everyone just stands with their mouths open, not believing what just happened. With the awful howling beginning to annoy me, I walk over to the bot and snap it's head sideways, breaking what would have been a neck. Death in under three seconds.

The cage lifts from the floor, disappearing into a storage cell in the ceiling. As a large cheer rises from the training group, Chloe and Burns rush over to me. Chloe starts to high five me, but stops for some reason. Maybe she just wants to stay professional? "How in the world did you do that, man? That took Shadekill months to do that, and it took me two years!" Burns clearly is impressed, the crowd of other trainees come out to fist bump me and gawk in amazement. Chloe walks back up to me, saying, "Follow me. We need to talk about this with Mrs. Z." As I leave the training room, I hear Burns calling for a technician, he must be talking through a subdermal radio.

Heading back to Mrs. Z's office, I ask Chloe, "Do you think that me shifting forms triggered the cage and the knife?" She thinks for a bit, then replies "I doubt it, but there is a possibility. We find a few bugs in all of the codes we have for all of the tech at our facility, so your shift might have triggered something." Climbing up the stairs to the tower, Mrs. Z notices me and gets a grim look on her face. She gestures for us to walk inside, so Chloe triggers the door to open and we go into the office.

"Shadekill, if you can't keep your trainees under control, I will have to restrict you from instructor duties." "That's not a problem I'm having right now, something bad happened in the training room just a little while ago." She tells Mrs. Z everything in detail, saying that she thought it was a programming glitch that needed to be rewritten, and that training should be put on hold temporarily. Mrs. Z thinks it over, making sure that the decision she makes is the right one. "Training bots are off limits, but keep the trainees occupied with the shooting range and the simulators for our Prowlers. Cobra, from now on you will be placed in accelerated training, with Shadekill as your personal mentor. Any objections from either of you?" We both shake our heads. "Good. It's time for Cobra to get some time in a Prowler, show him to the track." As we turn to leave, she adds one last comment. "Let him use one of the Jackal Prowlers, if you can."

Once we leave the office, Chloe gets a big grin on her face. "A Jackal Prowler. A JACKAL. PROWLER. Do you have any idea how amazing that is?" Seeing as how I still know almost nothing about most of the things G.A.P.S has, the only answer I can give is, "Not really..." She turns to look at me, stunned. Then she realizes I haven't even been here for a day, so she elaborates on said awesomeness.

"The Jackal Prowler is the most advanced version of Prowlers we have, they have to be driven by hand. Our techs say that the way the car handles make it impossible to drive remotely because it will crash. It has an engine that runs purely off of the surrounding nitrogen, and it hits speeds of almost 300 miles an hour. As far as I know, nobody has even been allowed to drive one yet, and you get to be the first one if that's true. Of course I have to be second, but you'll need the experience as much as I do, if not more. Hyper cars are something that just need to be driven to be believed."

We reach an elevator, and we start to head up, I'm guessing that we need to go to the surface because the track must be immense. The doors open to a giant mechanic's garage, filled with machines for working on cars. Someone walks over to us, grease on his hands and jumpsuit. "You guys here for a Prowler?" "A Jackal, if possible." Chloe says. The mechanic gets a smile on his face, "Luckily for you two, we just finished one up about half hour ago, and you're the first to drive any of them. Follow me." Walking over to an underground parking garage, filled with high end sports cars, the mechanic uses an iris scanner and asks for the Jackal Prowler. Some whirring sounds come from the garage, and the Prowler is parked on a plate that comes to the entrance by a track placed in the concrete.

The Jackal Prowler is a low slung, aggresive hyper car of insanity. No gas pedal, no brake pedal, no steering wheel. Anything conventional has left the garage. The car only seats one passenger face down, surrounded by a HUD of information. The entire car looks like it shifts to rebalance weight at any moment, no wonder it can't be driven by the simulators I saw earlier. The wheels are high quality, with traction that places second to none. Dark, menacing black body with what must surely be an entire arsenal of weapons and tech. Trusted only to the most elite drivers in the world. All threatening you to hit 300 miles an hour.

Chloe starts shivering with anticipation, I've gotten goosebumps myself, and the car is just waiting to be used. I walk over to the hollow pit of controls and get myself familiar with everything. It handles just like my transportation form, just with handles instead of gloves, and physical buttons instead of mental controls. I ever so slightly nudge the power on, and a roar comes from behind me so powerful, I feel like it asks to run on the track at full speed. I get it out of the garage and into a desert of hills and heat, mirages are everywhere. Pulling up to a track entrance, I see a birds eye view of the track: Over 40 turns, a nine mile straightaway, all meant to punish every system a car had, but the Jackal Prowler just wanted to spit in the face of danger. Taking it onto the track, I put it in neutral and slam down on the power. Deafening war cries of a thousand animals run through my ears, giving me the last little incentive I need. It gets put into drive and I run the track with every inch being a journey of pure adrenaline. I take every curve at the limits, pushing them more and more, running the tires into the ground to get me flying at 300 miles and hour on the perfect straightaway. Nothing can stop me unless I command it to.

After I get my time in, I head back to the garage where Chloe is jumping off the ground with joy. "You're gonna miss this car once you get out of it." I tell her. She runs towards the Prowler and instantly heads for the track, where squealing tires and the aggresive army of beasts roar across the sand. Not too long after, Chloe gets back and we return to the other trainees.