[03] Rusted Steel!

[Orion]

Orion sped across the open highway. The ride was bumpy, owning in no small part to the pothole ridden bitumen and the general poor upkeep of the city. Obstacles were everywhere; garbage bins had toppled, strewing rotten refuse over his path. Charred car chassis, some which still emitted streams of smoke from their blackened rooves, blocked lanes and forced Orion to take evasive action on more than one occasion. CAL was persistently late with navigation, also; whenever an intersection or T-section was approaching, the AI program in the motorcycle fumbled for an answer, umming like a primary school student being asked a question by the teacher when he wasn't paying attention. If the saiyan didn't slam on the brakes or reduce his speed to an almost crawl when arriving at the junctures, he would have overshot the mark several times. One particular incident involved the screeching of tyres as Orion firmly clamped the brakes on after missing a turn only to slide into a grease slick. The violent loss of traction almost threw the warrior from his seat.

The ingress into the urban nightmare revealed further the nigh unliveable conditions that Orion had seen thus far. It appeared that this city was abandoned after a vicious incursion of a virus; shop windows were shattered, indicative of a panic fuelled riot. Cars that hadn't been consumed by flame and sizzled to a husk were simply forsaken, left idling in the streets. The overbearing stench of dust encrusted oxygen was headache inducing, but thankfully Orion's fierce velocity managed to provide a reprieve. Structures contiguous to the highway had fallen into disrepair, some going so far as to crumble into the streets. CAL's tyres were resilient against the smaller chunks of wall but Orion reined in the mighty mechanical stallion to skirt the outsides of the boulder sized rubble.

"Are we close?" Orion shouted over the aurally dampening winds streaming over his face.

"Why, we-'re not very far at a-ll from the obj-ective at all," CAL assured.

Orion guided the nimble two wheeler left at the next intersection, travelling beneath a looming bridge. Its shadow darkened the dilapidated highway, requiring a sharper eye and sharper reflexes. Orion was beginning to enjoy the journey to his target. The open road to himself, the determined motorcycle racing unhindered and unstoppable through the ruins of a ghost town ... it was exhilarating.

"Uh, Da-ve-"

Yep, it was fantastic. Except for the chatty CAL.

"What?" Orion barked. "I'm trying to have some fun here!"

"I thought you'd li-ke to know-"

"Know what?" he yelled, snaking left and right over the road. "What's so important? Did you 'forget' to tell me about a turn?"

"Not exactly."

A thunderous crash emanated about two hundred metres down the road. A ebony monster exploded through a support beam of the bridge as it audaciously arched over the highway amidst a thick film of concrete dust before disappearing over the opposite side.

"What the hell was that?" Orion exclaimed.

"That's the tar-get, Dave," CAL informed. "You ne-ed to bring it do-wn."

"What is it?" the saiyan requested. "All I saw was a streak of black and wheels big enough to act as satellite dishes."

"It's a monster truck," CAL stated. "And it's to-ugh." A series of warning bleeps elicited from the motorcycle. "There's some-thing more troub-ling up ahead."

CAL was right. The monster truck's spectacular entrance had demolished one of the bridge's supports, pouring a river of debris over his path. Orion's fingers reached for the brakes, but he felt an electrical tinge flood them.

"Hey!" Orion roared. "What did you do to the brakes? Are you trying to kill me?"

"Of course not, Da-ve," CAL reassured. "However, I am redirecting your course of action."

"To what? A blood smear on the rubble?"

Two red buttons on the inner of the handle bars flashed. Orion hadn't noticed them until now. "Use the-se."

There was no time to think. The remnants of the support beam were rushing towards him at an alarming rate. Orion dug his thumbs into the switches, hoping for some sort of presumed salvation.

From the dual cannons attached to the front of the bike, two miniature missiles launched. Orion realised the plan now; destroy the rubble, drive on through. Yet, his heart sank a second time when he discerned the distance between the explosion in his relative position in the next several seconds.

"What the hell did you make me do that for?!" Orion blasted. "I'm going to get caught in the missiles!"

CAL laughed in a sinister, synthesised tone. "I gue-ss this one is up to you, Da-ve."

Orion groaned. "I think I know what happened to Dave."

With a helpless yell, Orion clamped down on the brake handle, ignoring the temporary buzzing in his fingers. The wheels locked up, skidding towards the imminent detonation. He thrust the vehicle sideways, attempting to add more friction and thus slow the unslowable bike.

The missiles collided with the barrier of debris, tearing a misshapen gap in its centre. Orion turned his head as flecks of concrete pelted him, but thankfully the explosion only buffeted him with a deteriorated shockwave. The motorcycle slid cleanly sideways through the demolished speed bump, bursting out of the other side of the thick dust shroud. Orion yanked down on the throttle and awkwardly straightened the motorcycle, returning to normal travel once again.

"Holy crap," Orion muttered. "That was damn close."

"We-ll done," CAL responded cheerily. "Da-ve didn't sur-vive that trick wh-en we did it."

"The game's not over yet," the saiyan answered, catching the distant bellow of the monster truck's engine. "We've still got an armoured foe to send back to the junkyard."

Orion leaned to the right, forcing the bike into a tight turn off-road. He followed the path of the monster truck through a chainlink fence that it parted with ease, past a stack of wooden crates that it smashed recklessly through and back onto the road. Ink black skid marks over the highway directed Orion to the path of the monster truck like a flashing neon sign. The growling vehicle wasn't far away, according to the audible growl of the enemy engine and the incessant navigational updates from CAL.

"Here we are," CAL explained, referring to a steep hill directly ahead. "The mon-ster truck is at the hill's ap-ex."

Orion grinned. "Excellent." Another hefty tug on the accelerator sent the motorcycle screaming up the slope, experiencing limited speed reduction as it cleared the cusp.

The monster truck was in plain view, facing Orion. His eyes widened. A veritable cache of military hardware was affixed to the massive vehicle. Various flavours of machine guns, missile launchers, harpoons and other destructive weaponry pointed menacingly at the sleek bike. Orion's mind shut down for a moment, dumbstruck at how swiftly the assurance of victory changed to palpable doubt.

"You didn't fucking mention this!" Orion scorned the AI program.

CAL chuckled. "Oh, did-n't I? I apolo-gise. I'm sure you-'ll do fine, anyway."

The mechanical click of the monster truck's offensive tools signalled the time for consternation.

"Shit. Maybe I should've waited for everyone else."