Airith- the Kentilan War Page 13

  Rapha was about to snap back when he saw it. The triple-barreled blasters propped over the roof of each waver. His joints turned to water. But a thought crossed his mind.

  “Phara, do we have a backup engine?” His Katalina and Penelope had subpar bac up engines that barely worked but gave just enough juice to keep him from flunking a race. A high-class waver should be exemplary.

  “Yes.” A few controls on the dash flickered with her light. “But they’re not the same tier engines as the ones running the craft. I doubt they can handle any real challenge.”

  “Yeah, well, we’ll see.” Rapha punched the second ignition and the craft kicked, the new surge of energy helping them pick up speed and gain distance. They needed to make the tunnel in better time, or those blasters would mince right through them. They didn’t have a chance, and Rapha doubted he could dodge that many blasts at once.

  The waver diced through seconds, nearing the tunnel, Rapha bent over the throttle. His mind had become one with the metal bird, willing it to fly at the speed of light. They were almost there. From the corner of his sight, he saw the air ripple in what was the slightest of distortion, almost unnoticeable in the racing blur all around them. The ripple was gone… and then the road before him erupted in white fire.

  He yanked hard at the throttle and swerved to dodge the inferno. The heat sizzled his skin, the hairs on it cracking and shriveling. The blazing horror rush forward to meet them, the blinding chaos slapping the waver to a hard right. Rapha ground the brakes and steeled his grip on the throttle, the waver skidding inches from a death fall. He yanked a hard left and the waver skid back into place. The road ahead was death. The entrance to the tunnel was burning white, heat so hot the heat sensors of the waver were screaming red alerts. The skin on his face sung.

  “We’re going to die if we go there!” Airith yelled over the din.

  But if we don’t go through there, we forfeit the race. We still die anyway, Rapha thought—until another explosion behind them caught his attention. He checked the rear feed just in time to see an enemy waver capsize.

  “Go, Airith!” he yipped.

  Airith slunk back into the front seat.

  “What? You can’t take them out?”

  “We’ve got just five plasma shells left. I blew through two batches and only managed to nail one.” Airith’s expression was hooded and grim, but Rapha knew her emotions were roiling underneath, and one of those was shame.

  “Incoming!” Phara announced as heavy fire rained over them.

  Rapha swung left and right, moving his body in sync with the waver as they dodged. A blast made contact and Rapha lost control. The wave spun a full three-sixty. Rapha worked the pedal and brakes, though, and managed to the steady the waver again.

  “Phara, do we have enough energy to warp a mile forward?!”

  “No, we don’t. We barely have enough to run the rest of the race!” The fear in Phara’s voice was the harbinger of death itself. It was such a strange cord to hear from Phara, that it summed up the severity of the situation for Rapha.

  “Phara, could use your tentacle thing to give us a lift? Like a very high lift!”

  “I could give you ten feet of projection, why?”

  “I need you to do that in the next ten seconds.”

  “Give me fifteen, I have to draw power from myself.”

  “We only have ten! Phara, show me the front cannon controls.” Phara’s light flickered over a few knobs and two co-joined joysticks.

  “Airith, man the front guns. Those blasters should be able to blast us another way in!”

  Airith snapped to action on command. It almost surprised Rapha.

  The blistering heat was visible in sweltering lines against the windshield and the throttle began to heat. Rapha could feel his pores oozing sweat. The waver was just a mile out from the burning mouth.

  “Phara, now!” Rapha banged his head into the roof of the waver before he could finish. He hadn’t prepared for the sudden up thrust. The waver soared high above the blazing furnace.

  “Airith!” Rapha roared, but she was already going, the cannon fire from the front guns continuously digging into what was level ground, melting away granite, piping, and tar, creating a sizeable hole that they flew right through.

  The waver landed a few feet from the fiery entrance, with Rapha and Airith in one piece. The waver, not so much. A screeching sound tailed after them, courtesy of the back fender having come loose leaving a trail of sparks behind them. Rapha figured it was little price to pay for the stunt they had just pulled. Overhead, the yellow tunnel lights flicked past and the track was only wide enough for two wavers to contend.

  “I can’t believe that shit worked!” Rapha gasped.

  Airith was too strained to comment, but the race wasn’t over yet. They were only halfway to the finish.

  “Incoming.”

  Phara’s announcement stomped Rapha’s joy. He glimpsed the rear feed just as a Virginity waver dropped through their escape route. It was the earless female driver.

  “How did she lift her waver?” Airith fumed.

  “Looks like we’re not the only ones with tricks under the hood.”

  Rapha stepped down on the pedal, the acceleration building and the waver picking up speed. Rapha checked his rear feed; the Virginity waver was gaining on them. He eyed the dash for some other gimmick and came up empty. Then he gave Airith the stare.

  “Don’t even think about it. There’s no way those last few shells can do shit to her. You already know.” Airith shrugged.

  “She’s weaponizing!” Phara warned.

  Both Rapha and Airith grimaced at the feed. Two panels on the hood of the incoming waver slid open and the tops of what looked like projectiles began to emerge. Rapha was already going as fast as he could, running on both the main engines and the back-up engines.

  “Phara? Any tricks?”

  “I’m exhausted, I can barely keep myself connected to this vessel. I’m sorry to say that I cannot help.”

  The emergent projectiles launched mid-air, and Rapha saw that they were war drones. Who kept war drones under their hood? Rapha panicked, kicking at the pedal, willing the waver to go farther and faster. Up ahead, the end of the tunnel loomed closer and closer, a semi-circle of daylight.

  “I’ll try to take the drones out.” Airith was gone before Rapha could turn to her. “I’ll be your eyes at the rear, follow my directions and maybe we might have a chance!”

  The attack began almost immediately, the chattering of machine guns a steady stream pelting the car and whistling over Rapha’s head. The windshield before him erupted, a million needles hitting him at once. He ducked his head to protect his eyes, pulling the waver with him. The craft slapped hard into the closest tunnel wall, the grating of metal against concrete filling his ears.

  “Rapha!” Phara screamed.

  “Rapha!” Airith screamed as an explosion behind the craft rocked him back to his senses. He regained composure, yanked at the throttle, and pulled the waver back into the race.

  “Airith are you okay?”

  “I took out one. We’re out of shells. Shit!” Airith dropped back hard as the craft jerked forward and the temperature jumped to scorching levels.

  Rapha gritted his teeth through the pain as he moved the waver to dodge the assault. The waver swerved out of the blast’s radius, but the sizzling heat remained just behind him. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the mangled red-hot hole that had been blown into the back of the roof.

  “It took out our rear cannon. Our ass is open,” Airith groaned, picking herself up, blood trailing down the side of her face.

  Rapha’s heart lurched. “Airith, are you okay?” The sudden change from dim-lit yellow to bright sunshine blinded him, but his senses narrowed enough to read the track. A sharp bend greeted them at the opening. Rapha scaled it easily. Satisfaction tingled down his back and he smirked to himself.

  “We still have the drone to deal with.”

  Phar
a reeled him back in and he checked the rear feed. The drone and its master had scaled the bend. Behind them, a burning waver zoomed off the sharp cusp, to the driver’s death. Rapha knew the waver. It was Cyclops’s, and there was no surgery or mechanical enhancement that could bring him back from this one. Rapha shook his head; well, with Homecity, you never knew.

  “Rapha! The race is not over!” Airith screamed down his ear.

  They were on the outskirts of the city now, the horizon the brown, scorched patch of desolate lands, all controlled by Mox. They were nearing the finish line. Only problem was, there was still another pesky driver at their tail. Brown dust erupted all around them, shrouding the road ahead. The hover propellers underneath the car were stirring up a smokescreen. It was to their disadvantage and advantage; they were blind. But hopefully, the hormone-crazed psycho tailing them was blind as well. It was impossible to tell, only a hopeful thought.

  “She’s gaining on us!” Phara alerted.

  It was useless to check his rear feed but still, Rapha did. Swarms of red dust covered his view, but he could pick up the faint beating of high-tier engines.

  “Phara, track her signature. Put it on display. We’re almost blind here.” Rapha was paying attention to the track map and the moving cursor that represented them; apart from that, he was blind. At his request, one of the monitors came alive with a radar exhibiting two heat signatures en route to the finish line. One was Rapha’s beast and the other was the psychotic female trying to kill them. She was barely half a mile out and quickly closing in. The cogs in his head started turning. They were out of ammo in their rear guns. His eyes searched the dash, hoping to see what he was looking for. Another trick maybe? Come on, baby, you’re full of surprises!

  “Phara! Got any juice for shields?”

  “I can barely keep my consciousness awake.”

  “She’s disappeared!”

  Airith’s scream was horror and dismay. Only one heat signature was mobile on the radar, and it was them. Rapha blinked and shot the rear feed a twisted gaze, hopeful and consternated, his whole being paused. Nothing happened as the fog enveloping them thinned to usher them to the south border of Sierra Ave. The knot in his chest slacked and he drew a breath.

  “We’re almost there!” Airith bounced in her seat, eye wide with marvel.

  Rapha couldn’t rejoice just yet; one eye was glued to the radar. Then a force slammed into them. Rapha’s head bounced hard against metal. A hand shot out and grabbed the throttle.

  “Fuck.” It was Airith’s hand, and the waver tossed and turned, struggling to oppose the force. His head was floating until he looked to his side and locked gazes with that familiar vicious set of eyes that instantly chilled his toes. Her cackle was a wide, wicked chainsaw of yellow teeth, leaning closely toward them as the mechanical monster she drove edged them slowly but surely toward the edge of the track.

  Rapha sprang back into real time, snatched the throttle, and let go of the pedal. The waver suddenly dragged, dropping speed. The exerting force cracked like a whip, pulling the Virginity waver along with them. The craft vaulted over them, and the beast spun in the same direction, Rapha clutching the brakes and gritting his teeth. He could see the frantic driver inside. Her eyes held his for just a split second, then she disappeared over the edge and his waver skidded to a near stop, nose a few feet off the edge.

  “I-Is everyone okay? Airith? Phara?” Rapha tossed his gaze about. Airith looked pissed, shaken, and unkept. Her lips moved, trying for a retort, but none came.

  “We still have a race to win,” Phara stated, and Rapha couldn’t agree more. He stomped on the pedal and shot life back into the engines. The metal bird zoomed for the finish. Rapha eyed the rear feed. Not a single waver in sight. He looked up ahead. The finish loomed, a fiery arch with bright burning letters. They were home free.

  Then there was a sword driving right at him, dividing his vision. His heart stopped and his mind froze.

  “Duck!” Airith’s scream accompanied another hack into the roof from above.

  Rapha cocked his head to a side as the metal flashed white in the corner of his view and disappeared.

  “She’s on top of us!” Phara alerted them.

  Rapha yanked the throttle to a hard left and heard something tumble above him before heavy aerinite boots bludgeoned the side of his head. The impact uprooted a tooth, which rattled about in his mouth. The nerves screamed and everything spun. He kicked at the pedal and the waver lurched forward. A body slammed against what was left of the windshield, shards went flying, and Rapha ducked away, but the sharp stings covered his shoulders. Her snarling half-mouth flashed before him, as she tried to aim the plasma gun in her hand. Rapha stepped on the brakes. The fiery light exploded from her hand, blotting half of his sight, the heat scorching past his head and leaving a loud ringing in his ear. The force threw her onto her back, and she tossed about on the hood like a rag doll, attached by her foot to a cord from the roof of the waver.

  “Airith! Cut her off!” Rapha saw her and she was okay… and mad. She was reaching behind her, then her sword flashed pink and black as she lunged forward like a wanton let loose, her rage the death in her eyes. Rapha didn’t need to complete his statement. Airith sliced at the cord. It snapped, and with it, half a leg came off, dangling wildly in midair, spraying bright warm blood. Rapha tasted it milliseconds before the owner’s scream—the last thing he heard before she rolled and disappeared under the nose of the waver.

  Airith sank back into her seat as Rapha fought the jittering waver back into submission.

  “Now, that was something.” Phara’s voice was almost a whisper as Rapha nodded fearfully at Airith. Before them, the finish line and half a leg waved them on.

  *

  Airith eyed Rapha from the corner of her sight. That stupid smirk from his victory pose after the race still lingered. The crowd had raved, and he had got all the shine, mostly. Now sharp probes to the small of her back nudged her on as they trudged back to Mox’s lair. One of the whores on display catcalled at Rapha. His eyes shone at her. Airith smacked his arm, not out of insecurity or the envy that she should be allowed, but from a need to assert to herself, that she had a thing with someone, a forlorn fury of confused emotions she never quite tried to understand. It was something Mother had only allowed her to acknowledge from afar, the warmth shared by loved ones, a weakness to exploit, a complexity to study. She never thought she’d find herself ensnared as she was now.

  Nude men with heavy firepower ushered them in. The doors retracted with their usual fizz, parting to the dim lit expanse that was Mox’s retreat. He was sitting right where they had left him the night before, with one leg crossed and his staff in his hand. The only difference now was the scowl that strained the skin against his high cheekbones. His eyes were empty pits that conveyed spite and his usually quirked lips were taut and still. A nudge to her back caused her to move forward. She was flanked by Rapha and Phara. The brother and sister, as she liked to think in her mind and as she had thought for long time. It still made her heart ache with something. Something she didn’t admit.

  Sitting away from Mox and flanked by his two vixens was Toddboy. He was pulling deep from a hit between his fingers and was the first one up and across the room to meet them. He grabbed Rapha and pulled him into a big hug.

  “I could almost kiss you right now, Rapha.”

  “But we lost? You don’t get the armor.” Rapha frowned.

  Toddboy stepped back to inspect Rapha. “But I did get to rake in big wins on your win. Don’t you wonder whose idea it was that you drove that beautiful monster?”

  “That was your plan?” Rapha flung a right.

  Toddboy easily stepped out of the impact radius. “Of course, it was my plan. You think you would have won without it?” Toddboy cocked a sly smile.

  “We almost died!” Airith screamed.

  “Shut it. I don’t speak to you.”

  Toddboy was up close before she could reach for her hilt. The g
rim abyss in his eyes forbore despicable imaginations. She could tell. She had killed many men like him. Movement in the corner of her view alerted her to the towering military expatriate standing next to her master, her cannon hand leveled and at the ready. Airith did not spare her so much as a glance.

  “Don’t talk to her like that.” Rapha stepped between them, simmering.

  “I won’t have to if she stays quiet,” Toddboy spat.

  Only then did Mox break his silence. He seemed to have been enjoying their little squabble, his fingers and legs crossed, with eyes watching fervently.

  “My word. I always honor it. Even when the levy is heavy.” He cast his face away, with the back of his hand to his forehead. “A word kept precedes you. And although beneficial in business, many at times, it has turned out to be my Waterloo.” He sighed. “Well!” His grim mask slipped, and his eccentric persona returned. He was out of his seat and in Rapha’s face before Airith could flinch.