as written by Azrican, Script, and glmstr
Riley was, fruitlessly, stamping his own foot against the floor of the car in some vain attempt that it might help the vehicle stop at a proper distance without sending them careening off the road. While one hand gripped at the magnum strapped to his leg, the other fruitlessly reached for the hand grip at the top of the passenger side door, aptly named "Oh Shit Handles" for just this sort of situation. "Pulse the brakes Horakova, pulse -- pulse the fucking brakes!"
"What the fuck is happening up there?!" Hawke shouted out shortly until a deep thunk emanated from the back cargo compartment, a loud grunt following as the brakes screeched and the whole vehicle shuddered. Charles, though particularly well off than the other occupants perhaps due to his structure, was none the less propping one metallic leg against the passenger seat and two hands gripping at the flat, sheet metal ceiling of the van.
“I hate to see how you drive when people are shooting at you!”
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Aiyo registered the roar of the engine and the honking of the horn far too late. He looked up with a startled expression, just in time to stare straight at the oncoming vehicle for all of half a second before it slammed into him, dragging him beneath the wheels with a horrendous thud and rattle.
As the van rolled on, the boy lay twisted at an unpleasant angle in the road. Oddly, there didn't appear to be any blood.
"Oww..." he groaned to himself, staring up at the sky. Fuck, that had hurt. His whole body was screaming at him but, as ever, he was unharmed despite the pain. He lolled his head to the side to stare after the slowing van accusingly from the ground. Moving more than that could wait until it would be at least a little less painful.
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The SUV managed to screech to a halt about 20 or so feet after flattening Aiyo, and the driver seemed to burst out through the side door nearly instantly once the vehicle stopped. She ran towards the crumpled and broken corpse, but the body seemed very clearly alive. She froze in her tracks and unslung her shotgun on instinct, and called back to the van.
"Riley! I.. I don't think he's dead. Should I just put him out of his misery?" She punctuated that question with a pump of her shotgun.
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The rattling vehicle finally came to a stop, Riley letting out a short curse as the First Sergeant burst from the driver's side. He shook some of the adrenaline from his head before opening the door with a creak, nearly spilling out of the car with his rifle in one hand. In the back, Hawke and Charles tentatively tried to rearrange themselves after the car finally lurched to a stop.
"Uuuugh shit ... I think I booped my betty." Hawke said quietly, having to untangle himself from a cargo net in the back of the van. He huffed, disengaging the MMG pod from his left arm and leaving it to clang against the metal floor of the vehicle. "Jesus she's a worse driver than my sister ... the armless one."
Charles was a little too concerned to respond to the joke, instead pulling the side door of the van open and looking over to Riley and the First Sergeant. "Is it dead?"
Riley brought up the rear quickly, holding out a hand as the First Sergeant racked the shotgun. "Hold it up there -- if he was human he'd have been a god damn blood streak." He said, cautiously holding his rifle at the ready as he eyed the young man with a curious brow. "She's not a very good driver, kid ... guess you kinda' found that out the hard way." He said for one moment, kneeling down once and putting a hand onto the young man's neck.
"Yup ... definitely not your average Terran, Horakova get the medkit."
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"Uh, wat? Could you like, not?" Aiyo stared up at Erika incredulously. "As if it weren't enough you hit me with a van, you wanna shoot me now? That's just harsh."
With a groan, he sat upright, rolling his shoulders experimentally and stretching. "I'm fine. I mean, aside from the pain. That's not great, but, I'll live." He drew his eyes over each of them in turn, taking in their armament and attire. Whilst their gear wasn't anything he'd seen before... Aiyo wasn't exactly familiar with weaponry. A gun was a gun, right?
"You guys military? I thought you all fucked off already."
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"... Riley, what the fuck is wrong with this planet?" Erika shrugged and slung the gun over her shoulder again when the kid, who should have been little more than a stain on the concrete right now, started actually speaking again.
"Er, we're... uh..." Horakova glanced in either direction and then looked to Riley, keeping an awkward smile but her eyes clearly pleading him to take over the explanation.
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"Picked it up off some corpses, just out and about for a night on the town." Riley said sharply as he slung his own weapon over his shoulder, studying the youth for a moment. He digested the young man's inquiry about the former defense forces that should have been in an around the city, after their short encounters with the TAF it became clear their situation had rendered them particularly ineffective. "Not military, just some chucklefucks with guns. You alright to stand, or you want something for the pain?"
Riley gave a curt wave to the First Sergeant, ushering her to check on the car and see if it was still operable, as Charles disembarked from the vehicle carrying a large piece of kit in one dusty, battered hand. The automaton scanned left and right as he approached at a soft stride, keeping his rifle across his back. "Well, this is honestly the first time I've watched a man get up after a little incident like this."
"Yeah either someone's got a god watching over them or," Riley began, shrugging off whatever else he could have possibly said until giving the kid and sympathetic nod and stepping up from his knee. "I'm Steel Patron, name's a funny thing from over the puddle. The bucket is Charles ... Miss Hit and Run over there is Kladivo. Smackin' a kid at sixty miles an hour wasn't really on the plan today."
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"I'm aight, I've walked away from worse." Aiyo grinned, pushing himself to his feet. "You're uh, awfully geared up for a night out... and it's awfully daytimeish for that matter." He shrugged his shoulders, deciding it wasn't worth pushing the issue. It didn't make much difference to him why these guys were parading around with heavy weaponry. "But hey, whatever floats your boat."
He brushed himself down, frowning at the tire-marks on his shirt. "I'm Aiyo," he answered as he did. "And uh, if you're trying to keep a low profile," he nodded towards Erika. "Maybe don't say stuff like 'this planet'? Or, y'know, run people over. But I figure that's a given."
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"We're, uh, reenactors," Erika gave a toothy grin, not even trying to pretend that such a thing is true. Instead, she whipped out a metal canteen and drank some water from it. After quickly replacing it on her belt and lazily kicking a rock at her feet, she finally spoke up again.
"So Aiyo, what in the hell are you doing here? Here as in 'walking on the road' and as in 'still in Westeria'?"
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Charles held the medkit with two hands, lazily offering it forward until Riley put a hand on the automaton's outstretched arms. "Doesn't look like we'll need it big guy, I'll be damned if I know how he managed to get up from that though." He said calmly, looking to the young man as Erika's question came: it was an answer he might like to hear as well. The concept of remaining in the city seemed a little alien to him, and at best asking for trouble. Not too much unlike the "accident" they'd just had.
"Place looks a little worse for wear if I say so myself ... that and the whole, ominous hole in the sky." He said, letting the rifle hang from his chest and resting his hands on the receiver and stock. He gave a quick nod back to the automaton, who placed the medkit under one arm and then turned back around to the car. "Place looks like it's gotten a little ... overgrown too."
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"Eh," Aiyo shrugged. "I don't really have anywhere else to go, 'side from a refugee camp somewhere. And that's kinda lame. I'll probably move on sometime, but right now, this is as good a place as any to kill time while I figure out what I'm doing with my life."
He paused. "I mean, aside from the obvious terrible terrible things. But they aren't really a problem for me. 'least not so far."
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"Well, do you want to come with us for now?" Erika shrugged and looked back at the van, seeing potential room to fit someone as small as Aiyo in with the rest of the team. At the very least, they wouldn't have to worry about him getting hurt.
"What do you think Patron, can we keep him?"
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"Least we could do is give the young man a ride -- preferably inside the car, of course." He said, nodding calmly and hitching a thumb back to the vehicle as the automaton yanked open the side door and hauled himself back into the decrepit vehicle. "Besides, we could use a tour guide if you're so inclined as well. Maybe you'll keep Kladivo from smackin' over someone less ... normal than you." He said as he gave Erika a curt motion back to the vehicle and fetched a pack of cigarettes out from his vest.
"If gettin' ran over's the worst that happened to you I'd consider myself pretty damn lucky considering the state of things. Whole damn city looks like it's a walking freak show, no offense kid." He said, striding towards the passenger side of the vehicle and making a twirling motion with his hands to signify they would be moving on post haste. "You'll have to sit with the tin-can and chuckles in the back ... don't mind the jokes from the ugly guy, that'll just encourage him."
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Aiyo tilted his head in thought for a few moments, before shrugging. "Eh, sure. Not like I've got anything better to do, right?"
His eyes drifted pointedly to the wreck of his handheld in the street.
"Not anymore, anyway. Guess I'll have to find out if all the game stores have already been looted..." He shrugged, smiling airily. "Fair warning, my tour-guide knowledge is prooobably a little outdated, since all of..." he paused to gesture vaguely towards the giant hole in the sky "...that shit happened. Wouldn't be surprised if half the city is a different city to the one it was yesterday."
Another grin, and a shrug of his shoulders as he followed the group back to the vehicle that now probably had a vaguely Aiyo-shaped dent in its front end. "But hey, what doesn't kill you, right? And in my experience, nothing kills me. I guess that's true of anyone, but... less liberally?"
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"You still know more than we do," Erika shrugged and started back towards the vehicle. The Hykan briefly inspected the front, hoping the sizeable dent didn't ruin the engine. Only one way to find out, really. Horakova sighed and climbed back into the van, beckoning for Riley and Aiyo to do the same. A quick turn of the key and the SUV roared (more accurately "sputtered and coughed") to life again.
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"Charles, Sparks, meet Aiyo ... kid's fine after the First Sergeant's little strike out." Riley said, settling into the passenger seat and talking through the cigarette stuck between his lips as he fumbled through the glove compartment for a book of matches. "We'll be chaperoning the young man so he doesn't end up in any worse state. If getting hit with a two-ton van's the least of his worries I hate to see what else we might be dealing with in this damn city." He finished, sparking a match and drawing down the window as he gave Horakova the signal to carry on.
"An abhuman it appears. Haven't seen many of you about so much." The automaton said, blocky head scanning the youth up and down. The sight of a humanoid robot adorned in military jacket and pants not seeming to be the most out of place thing on the planet. Then, from the back, a greener voice chimed in as a gruffly face appeared over the back of the seat.
"You're not the weirdest looking one anymore Tin-Man. Look at that hair, holy shit. If Kladivo hit you how the fuck is she the squad marksman."
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"You haven't?" Aiyo raised an eyebrow at the robotic man's comment, apparently entirely unphased by his mechanical nature. "Ho boy, you guys are in for a treat then. Can't go more than a few blocks 'round here without running into someone, or something, superhuman."
He settled back in his seat with a grin. "So, what all can I tell you 'bout what's going on..? Well, the most obvious thing is the big hole in the sky. A bunch of mages from the academy out to the east showed up a few weeks back and did something to stop it getting any bigger, and since then it's just sorta sat there. Nothing's come out, 'far as I know. Nothing obvious, anyway."
As they pulled off, he sat forwards. "Uh, you'll want to avoid taking the left at the end of the road. Gravity goes sideways for about a block there."
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"I would look at the hole, but I should probably keep an eye on the road," Erika lazily pulled at the wheel to weave around various potholes and piles of rubble in the street. "Abhumans everywhere? Wow, this place is nuts," the First Sergeant listened to Aiyo's directions and avoided the perilous turn. She simply continued to drive in a straight line, albeit much slower than before.
She opened her mouth to speak again, but stopped herself and kept focusing on the road. Maybe this time they wouldn't hit somebody.
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"Sounds like something in the water then." Hawke replied from the back of the van, clicking at a lighter as he puffed at a cigarette between his lips. One foot tapped out a slow beat on the wall of the van, before he shifted quietly trying to get a clearer view out of the back. "The fuck ... "
"Or perhaps something along the lines of a genetic divergence ... I saw it in the Skies before," Charles replied curiously, one hand trying to display the human concept of interest as he drew a few fingers up to his sharp and metallic head. "I would have thought to see more genesiological breakdowns with abilities like yours however. Someone must have had a strong gene indeed."
"Don't get Bill Nye on the kid, Charles. Something tells me we'll need to -- wait a second." Riley said, reaching out to the side view mirror after something flashed and disappeared out of the tiny mirror. He yanked the small mirror up and down a few more times, before finally sticking his torso out the passenger window as the soft howl of scram jets could be heard approaching from behind. "Oh shit, Hawke you fucking see this?"
"Yeah I was hoping I didn't, looks like we've got some company!" Hawke screamed, sliding further down onto his back until he sent one foot crashing into the rear window. It popped and shattered with a crunch, the entire pane being ripped from the mounting. Meanwhile, Riley took a sharp breath and threw his cigarette out the window as he gripped at the handguard of his rifle.
"Sonuvabitch -- First Sergeant, drive. Forget about pedestrians. Fucking drive, now. Kid, you know where there's a parking garage or something? Tunnel, subway? Highway overpass?"
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"Whoa!" Aiyo turned around in his seat to stare back at the jets. "How come you guys are being chased by freakin' jet planes? Who even are they?!"
Despite the danger, the teen had a goofy grin plastered across his face. Was he... enjoying this?
"Oh, uh-" he glanced over his shoulder at the road ahead upon hearing Riley's question. "There's a mall a couple blocks ahead if you take the next right. Has an enclosed parking lot next to it. Or I guess if you wanna take the direct option, it has glass doors."
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"Commander, was that the fucking Supremacy?!" Erika whipped her head to the side to catch a brief glimpse of the aircraft, then floored the gas pedal. The strained roar of the SUV quickly drowned out any trace of aircraft engine for the car's occupants. "Why are they here?!" she shouted over the engine and heaved at the steering wheel, taking the corner at a speed that would have liquefied any pedestrians on the sidewalk, if there were any to begin with. The mall Aiyo mentioned was starting to come into view for the Hykan, and she did not let off of the accelerator. She aimed the vehicle for the front door, Darkbow didn't have time to go around and look for covered parking.
"Hold on!" Erika held the steering wheel firm as the van first drove over the curb in front of the mall's entrance, and then held one arm across her face for the next step, the front doors. A vehicle of that weight and that speed tore through the glass and metal entrance as if a plaything, but that wasn't the risk of such a maneuver. Thousands of shards of broken glass from the former entrance rained on the SUV, but the windshield seemed to hold, at least for now. Horakova gripped the wheel again with both hands and brought the car to a skidding and screeching halt near a large intersection of the mall's halls. At the very least, there was no skylight nearby.
The First Sergeant looked back towards her passengers when she finally came to a stop,
"Everyone still alive?"
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"They must've stepped up the timetable for landing operations -- they've probably got every drop-lane from here to L4 mapped and under guard now. Jack shit'll be getting off this planet anytime soon." Riley said, holding tightly onto the passenger door as the van jumped the curb and then plowed through the aluminum and glass doors of the structure. He quickly covered his face as well, glass sparkling across the two occupants in the front. Charles in the back turned his body sideways, shielding the precious equipment on the floor of the vehicle. As the tires screeched to a halt, the whole van shifted and grumbled as the First Sergeant managed to speak.
"Better than staying out on those damn streets." Riley said, hoisting his AR-91 by the strap and then promptly kicking the door open with a grunt. He rolled out from the passenger seat, nearly dropping to his knees but able to right himself with one hand on the scratched paint. He slammed the door shut, though quickly discovered in the proceeding events it had been dented rather heavily as to keep the door from closing properly. "Looks like the ride is over though, the sensors on those things can pick up a rifle from four thousand feet." He remarked, hauling open the side door of the vehicle and ensuring Charles or the others hadn't met an unfortunate end.
"Sorry about the joy ride again ... you know of any underground network or something? Tunnels, subway systems?"
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"There's a subway," Aiyo answered as he half hopped, half staggered out of the van. The bumpy ride (to put it mildly) had left him momentarily disoriented, though he still sported a stupid grin. He took a moment to brush a few stray shards of glass from his hair before he went on.
"Nearest station is at the end of the street on the far side of the mall, I think. I'd be careful going down there, though. With how much weird shit has taken residence on the surface? Fuck only knows what's lurking down in the spooky abandoned tunnels. Some horror movie tier bull, no doubt."
He turned to stare out the door, listening to the fading sound of jet engines. "Supremacy, huh? Don't suppose I get to be clued in on who they are, and why they were shooting at you guys, do I?"
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"Alright, let's go then," Erika scooped up her bags and slung her long weapons over her shoulder. "I'm pretty confident that whatever's in those tunnels is less scary than those aircraft we were running from." An odd sense of nostalgia came from this sort of scenario, hiding in tunnels from military aircraft served to remind the Hykan of the conflict back home that got her into the Exogarden in the first place.
"I'll let Patron give details about the Supremacy, but either way we should get moving," Horakova gestured towards the direction of the subway with her head and started walking.
