Chapter 1 – Test Drive
The street lights streaked by in a flash, but in the next instant they were far below the small figure that ascended towards the heavy clouds of the night’s sky that cloaked Sentinel City, trails of white-hot flame streaking out in the night behind them. The whine of jet turbines filled the night and threatened to shatter the windows of the upper floors of the skyscrapers, but in the next moment the source was long gone. Soon the clouds had consumed the fast-moving form, and yet still it continued toward the heavens.
“Whoa now, girl, just how far you gonna push that engine on its first ride?”
“What was it that you always told me about cars, Becky? You have to break them in hard? Same thing applies here, yes?” Emi laughed as she tore through the clouds, all her system readouts in the green, her thrust rating only barely edging the yellow range as she was suddenly bathed in moonlight, having burst through the thick clouds. Her radar picked up multiple signals from aircraft in the area, all far below her, most civilian, but at least a couple that were government or military, having non-standard or non-existent transponders.
“I never had any doubts in your designs, hon, but I ain’t never built no power armor in my basement before neither,” Becky replied, her Texas drawl loud and clear in Emi’s ears. “Still nothin’ on the local radar or flight control; they ain’t picked you up. No leaks on that reactor, right?”
“Reactor is fine,” Emi replied, entering into a rapid spiral as she continued to ascend. Her displays told her it was quite frigid this high up, and that the air density had dropped sharply, but she felt none of it. The armor covered every inch of her, and had its own life support systems. plus with the miniature nuclear reactor she had designed to act as the power source, the armor had power to spare. “No radiation leakage, no output fluctuations, temperatures are perfect range. Feeling a little hot in here, though; think the internal cooling needs work.” Glancing at her altimeter and blinking sweat from her eyes, Emi dared to look down, and saw the specs of light that made up the city, and several others that spread over the surrounding towns. “Oh wow…I didn’t think it would be so small looking…”
“Well, you’re dang high, if you hadn’t noticed,” Becky said, laughing. “Hot damn, girl, you did it! Now you gonna tell me where your daddy got hold of all those different metals and circuits and stuff we used?”
“Uh…well…” Emi laughed nervously. “About that, just don’t say anything when you see him again?”
“Ah, hell, don’t worry about it none; if he’s anything like my daddy then he’s got so many secrets we’ll never know half of’em. You gonna head back here tonight or just gonna try to fly all the way to Japan while you’re up there?”
“No, there’s still so much to test,” Emi replied, pulling up her checklist on her HUD with but a thought. “Your neural interface works very good; super responsive. Starting dive test now, and then pull-up and maneuvering tests. Maybe after that the weapons and sensors; certainly can’t test the weapons back home.” She reached up to wipe at the sweat on her brow, but felt the faint thud of armor hitting armor, and rolled her eyes. That was going to take some getting used to.
“Okay, just be careful, huh? I know that’s all super-dense and super-light compounds and all, but I don’t know what you’re gonna experience if you hit the ground at high speed. I worry about you, you know. If somethin’ goes sideways, make sure to try and land on your feet so them shock absorbers’ll kick in.”
Emi smiled as she cut thrust, her momentum carrying her upward a bit more before she rolled and turned back toward the surface, and kicked her thrusters back on full. “Thanks, Becky. I’ll be home before you know it, just in time for sunrise bedtime! Though maybe a shower would be nice first…”
“Well, for you at least…I still ain’t slept in six months,” Becky replied with a chuckle. “I’ll let you know if I see anything off on the numbers and try to help out if I can.”
Emi nodded, though of course Becky couldn’t see her as she sped back through the clouds and toward the streets of Sentinel City. The next thirty minutes went by in a literal blur, with her pulling up mere inches from the ground, then darting between buildings and through alleys, even weaving between traffic. She got plenty of awed looks from people as she flew past,but she paid them no mind. The dream that had consumed every waking moment of her life since that event in Tokyo had set off all the strangeness in the world was finally coming true. She and Becky had built the most advanced powered armor in the world, and she was actually flying in it!
Her own miniature giant robot!
Once she had calmed down from the high speed maneuvering tests, Emi regained altitude and flew over the city, testing her various scanning devices and vision modes. As she zoomed in on a particular street far below, she caught sight of a trio of panel trucks driving at high speed. Zooming in on the rear truck with her thermal imaging, she saw half a dozen people inside besides the driver, same with the second truck. It also looked like they were all packing guns. Taking a look at the lead truck, she saw only the driver, but when she switched back to her normal vision, she saw that the truck had been reinforced, with a ramming grill on the front.
“Hey, Becky, do you see that?”
“What? Oh, no, I wasn’t lookin’ at your screen,” Becky replied. Emi heard some shuffling on the other side of the line. “Hang on…sorry, was uh…indulging my curiosities a bit…oh, okay. Well, that looks kinda weird. And are they all packing guns? Where’s that at?”
“Heading down 1st Street in Oakdale,” Emi said. “I don’t think they’re up to any good.”
“People who carry that much firepower rarely-” Becky was cut off as the lead truck pulled away from the followers, the driver flipping atop the roof, then leaping clear and landing on an overhanging lamp post just before the truck plowed through the front of a store. The fact that the driver had bright pink hair, wore a gas mask and a maid uniform hadn’t been missed either. “Holy crap! That’s ninja-level shit right there!”
“I’m going in!” Emi said, altering course towards the scene. She could see the other two trucks had pulled up to flank the hole in the side of the building, and the people inside them, all dressed like maids and packing automatic rifles, hurried inside, though a few stayed outside and took up guarding positions. They almost looked professional.
“Whoa now, hold your horses!” Becky said quickly.
“I can stop them!”
“You ain’t even tested that big gun you’re packin’, or anything else for up close and personal work on that armor. We don’t even know iffin’ the armor will hold up against a rifle at close range; some a them guns they’re packin’ ain’t just firin’ suped-up squirrel bullets!” Becky saw several AK-style rifles, plus a couple FN-FAL rifles that were .308 caliber, good enough for snipers, pretty big for use in an urban setting.
“Consider this a field test then!” Emi said, gritting her teeth as she routed more power into her thrusters, pushing them to the redline. “Be there in ten seconds. Initiating ass-kicking protocols!”
“Damn it…I done rubbed off on you in all the wrong ways…” Becky said, then sighed, though Emi could tell she was smiling. “You do your thing, then, I’ll be watchin’ and givin’ the cops a ring. Looks like that’s a jewelry store and those maids are wantin’ to gussy up a bit. Give’em a good ass-kickin’, ya hear?”
“Ryokai!”
Hey there, y’all! Hope you’re enjoying the new year, though I suppose it might be a bit early to make any judgment calls in that regard.
So, here we are, the opening chapter of the first story in my superhero setting! I don’t have a set goal for length on this one, but I do have the basic outline done. The idea here is to keep things a bit more fast-paced than the Asylum story, as well as to practice my abilities in writing action scenes with multiple character perspectives while sprinkling plenty of bondage and kinky throughout.
This is vaguely following the story of the first game of Mutants & Masterminds I ever ran, though in this case, the characters that were NPCs in that game are now taking up the major roles in this kinkier version of the universe. Cause… it’s sexier that way. Though I have plans on introducing the player characters at some point as ‘NPCs’ in this one. Already have to some extent, as you’ll see in chapter 2.
Anyway, hope you enjoy this story over the coming weeks, and as usual, future chapters will be viewable for members of the Urban Verse, though I will continue offering previews for the chapters (however much shorter they might be). Please join up if you haven’t already, and please let me know if you have any questions or comments! Always love hearing from you!
Till next time, Urban out!
