Transversals

XXIII. Slums

The tank rose on four, spider-like legs and the two guns on either side expanded into claws with a snap, blue electricity encasing them like a pulsating net with lightning thread, always moving. The hum was the electricity. The clinking was that thing moving along.

The policeman smirked and crossed his arms before the thing, considerably smaller. "YOU ARE UNDER ARREST," the robotic voice called out to the eerily empty street, save us. "OBLIGE NOW AND NO FORCE WILL BE USED."

I reached beside me for Ben's hand again, but his were holding his coat collar. His navy eyes stayed trained up at the thing, revving the electricity.

I turned back to the tank. "Please tell me you're not fixing your collar right now," I whispered to him out the corner of my mouth.

"No," he replied, voice low. "Just stay close."

The robot's claw hands glowed blindingly blue and snapped down towards us. Ben tore his coat off, extended his wings, grabbed my waist, and flew up.

I looked down, the blue electricity hitting the pavement and spreading down the whole street like a web of lightning, traveling up buildings and dissipating. I couldn't look back at the monster as we rose up and up, only straight ahead and at the city on either side of us, hundreds of feet below. My heart started to pound again and I held onto Ben's arms for dear life, which had slid down and locked under my armpits once more.

"Stay calm, I have to gain altitude and lose them in the clouds," Ben said to me over the roaring wind. He continued flying up, up, away from the city. Cold water misted my face, and a bolt of blue shot through the clouds right before us.

Ben pulled back and I dug my fingernails into his arm. More blue started being shot up at us, aimlessly, but Ben horizontally glided away from the blue volts being shot through the clouds that we were flying over. I resisted the urge to scream. I did not like heights, not one bit.

A bolt came through the clouds headed for Ben's left wing, and I instinctively whipped my arm out to take the hit. I yelled out as a jolting pain coursed through me and started to shake as blinding pain took over, squeezing my eyes shut, biting my bottom lip hard to quiet the scream.

"Harley, Harley, are you okay?!" Ben frantically shouted to me. "Harley!"

Jesus Christ, did it hurt. It was making my heart pound so hard my body felt like it was being jerked back and forth, my entire arm tingled painfully and pulsated as if a thousand knives were pushing in and out of my skin. My arm stayed stuck in its extended position and my vision faded in and out. Pain.

Ben desperately yelled to me over the wind. "I can't go down yet, hold on!"

I consciously shut my eyes and shuddered, jaw closed so tight I thought it'd shatter. The pain started to subside, and I breathed heavily, gasping for air. My arm prickled painfully still, like cactus needles instead of knives.

"Holy shit, are you okay?" Ben said. "Harley, talk to me!"

"I'm fine," I croaked, finally being able to drop my arm as the shots of blue were less frequent and farther off course from us, pain dissipating. My whole body shook another moment, ridding all traces of pain, and then I had composed myself. "I'm okay."

I could feel Ben's eyes burning into me, but the shots of voltage through the clouds had stopped and he was starting to lose altitude. Cold mist stung my face again and the city came into view. Or rather, the slums of the Ingenist world. They were simple shacks built in the shadows of an industrial plant, perhaps where the power for the city is located. It was a singular spot surrounded by snow, but I could see the lights of city behind us reflected onto the drifts. An isolated area, what could be more perfect.