[03] Desire for Velocity!

[Kaden]

As streetlights, fire hydrants, and even the occasional parked car whistled past Kaden, he kept his eyes focused on the road ahead. Or at least he tried to. Mounted onto the dash of his bike was a nice blinking arrow. Kaden had decided that this arrow was most likely leading him towards the finish line. While his deduction was based on virtually nothing, it felt oddly comforting to be driving in the same direction it was pointing. That, however, was the distracting part.

Every now and again, the arrow would flick to one side or the other for a second before returning to its proper place, pointing straight ahead. Initially, the courier only saw this when there was an apparent turn to take, but when it began occurring more frequently, a thought ran through his head. As he sped along the street, he watched and waited, patiently anticipating the next movement of his assumed guide.

The next time the pointed light blinked, Kaden’s motorcycle came to a screeching halt. Trying to come to a dead stop at the speeds he was traveling, though, proved to be an incredibly bad idea. The bike fishtailed wildly before smashing into a parked car and throwing Kaden clear. After tumbling across the concrete for several yards, Kaden managed to flop onto his back and wince against the pain that had decided to run rampant through his body. With a weary moan, he pulled himself to his feet and dusted himself off, thankful that his jacket didn’t bear any lasting damage.

When he made his way back onto his ride, he was surprisingly satisfied to see that the arrow continued to blink towards the sidewalk. Casting a glance around, the courier’s eyes finally fell upon a narrow alleyway that he had just stopped short of. Steering his bike carefully onto the sidewalk, he was shooting down the alley in short order.

On the other side of the alley was a wide five-lane street that appeared to serve as a main drag of their makeshift race course. Screeching into the center lane, Kaden was about to gun down the road when he noticed that the little arrows was, once again, pointing off to the side. Scanning the buildings, it was easy to see what it was trying to point out. Swerving once again, his bike began speeding for another alley.

Unfortunately for Kaden, though, his second would-be shortcut was not cleared out for a racer such as him. Instead, a seven-foot tall cyclone fence had been erected at the exit. That, in itself, wouldn’t have been too big a concern, but the massive sheet of, what appeared to be, plywood that was resting against it at an angle, was. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together.

As the apparent ramp came rushing towards Kaden, his mind simply blanked as it processed what was about to happen. He didn’t hit the brakes, he didn’t try to turn around, he didn’t even leap desperately from his bike. Instead, he simply screamed. Rocketing off a ramp at two-hundred miles per hour, Kaden flew over several more lanes of the next street before crashing back to the ground.

Try as he might, his grip refused to loosen on the handlebars of the motorcycle. He stared at his white-knuckled fists, begging them to release the bike. When it was evident that his body was not in the mood to give in, the courier turned his focus to the route ahead. He had a fleeting fear that he would be crashing full-tilt into the front of some random building. Sadly, he had no such luck. Instead, another alleyway loomed before the courier, eagerly awaiting as he dashed into its gaping maw.

Launching off of the second ramp, Kaden thought he was much more prepared for what lay in store for him on the other side of the alley. Unfortunately, he had no clue what diabolical course Gamer had plotted for him. Instead of being shot over another five-lane throughway, Kaden found himself soaring over a tiny one-way street and onto the roof of a building.

Atop the one-story mom-and-pop shop that had suddenly become Kaden’s new race track, the courier found himself physically trembling atop his sports bike. The last time he had been higher than about ten feet off the ground, he had blasted in the back and left to die – if it hadn’t been for Sage, he might have. Nonetheless, his surroundings continued to blur by him as he sped towards the roof’s termination. To his horror, it took him a little too long to realize what was waiting for him.

Instead of simply falling off the side of the building – which would have been preferable at that point – Kaden’s eyes, wide as physically possible, locked onto a third ramp that had, no doubt, been erected in his honor. Clamping his eyes shut, Kaden couldn’t even muster the strength to scream some kind of obscenity at the self-proclaimed God of Kill Town. As he leapt off one rooftop and onto another, taller building, he simply whimpered to himself.