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deannawolTitle: Mirrorshades and Miniguns
Author:![[info]](https://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=1)
deannawol
Fandom: American Idol
Pairing/Character: Adam
Rating: 15+ (mentions and images of a violent nature)
Wordcount: 3,400+
Summary: Adam's Friday night doesn't go exactly as he planned.
Author Notes: This is, I suppose, a teaser trailer to the joint project that myself and Ara are working on for Kradam Big Bang. It's cyberpunk and it's my version of Adam's introduction. It's also the companion piece to Ara's Prologue Piece. Let us know what you think and if it's worth continuing.
The door slammed shut behind him, setting off the alarm and Adam cursed under his breath. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Damn Trix and his stupid contacts. Man couldn’t find a decent electronics cracker if you paid him and that was a serious damned problem seeing as he’d demanded ten percent of the payday up front to do just that. When Adam got out of here, he was burning the guy’s reputation so hard, he wouldn’t even get crank calls.
He heard the pitter-patter-clomp of heavy combat boots coming towards him and pulled his guns. Twin Desert Eagles, modified to fire .50 full metal jackets, etched all along the side with flame decals. Classy but functional and his kind of guns. Flicking a glance at the chronometer ticking down time in the corner of his cyber vision, Adam calculated. Still on schedule. Just.
The first body skidded around the corner and Adam opened fire. Left and right and two dead center shots. The man fell forward, almost tripping the man who came behind him. Another double shot, another body and he needed to get out of here.
“Minx, need schematics. Plot me an exit vector.”
Fingers hitting keys sounded in his ear before she answered, “Not looking good, babes. Main doors locked down. Stairwells are shut. You’re forty floors up and I got ten warm bodies coming towards you. I’m not sure you have time for me to hack the system to open it back up.”
“Not the answer I wanna hear, Minx,” Adam tried to keep calm, closing his eyes as he took a deep breath. “Get me something. Don’t worry about the security guards. I got them, just get me a door I can use.”
“On it.”
Looking around, Adam knew he couldn’t stay here. Too open, three lines of attack and no cover. This was a dead man’s option and he had plans for later. He stepped carefully, watching for heat sensors, laser beams and the ever more obvious men with guns looking to give him a couple extra holes where he didn’t want them.
Reception desk. Wooden core. No reinforcement. Useless.
Offices. Glass walled. Non-reinforced. Even worse.
Server room. Locked down. Not an option.
If he was a less optimistic guy, right about now, he’d be thinking that the universe was having a good laugh at his expense.
Elevator. Metal door. Six inches of hardened steel. Now, that he could work with.
“Minx, I’m at an elevator. Door says ‘W4’, can you get it open?” Adam asked, pressing his back against the steel plating.
“Elevators are on lock down. They’d see if I sent a car up for you. Security report says that they’ve got all the carriages rigged with C6 High Exp,” she answered.
Adam smirked, “Didn’t ask for a car, just need the doors opened.”
There was a moment of silence over the comms followed by a furious tapping of keys.
“You’re one crazy son of a bitch, babes, you know that?”
Adam allowed himself a laugh, “That’s why they pay me.”
A shadow fell on the ground, backlit by the emergency lighting. The movement caught Adam’s eye a second before the armored guard stepped around the corner and Adam took aim, shifting back into the archway of the elevator door as well as he could. He didn’t think that it would fool anyone but if it gave him another second, he’d gladly take it. He trained one of the guns on the corner, aiming at the man’s head as he flicked a glance in the other direction. His finely honed senses, and years of doing just this sort of run, told him that this guy wasn’t alone and there was no damned way he was letting some two-bit corp merc security guard get the drop on him.
The guard took cautious steps, checking out each shadow before moving on. Adam’s heart beat loudly, and he swore that it was loud enough for the other man to hear it but so far he hadn’t looked Adam’s way. He was almost past the branch of corridor to the elevators when he spotted him but he was dead before he could even start to swing his gun around. Adam willed his heart to stop beating so loudly in his ears, engaging the sound editing software installed in his cyberaudio processors and focused on the hushed sounds from the office floor.
The click of the air conditioning turning off.
The leaves of a plant settling as the air flow died.
And there under all that, the familiar sound of armor creaking. Adam closed his eyes and let his ears guide him towards the direction of the sound. To his left this time. Twenty meters, fifteen, ten.
Adam flexed his fingers, settling them on the grip of his guns and slowed his breathing. The man was sure to have heard his shot. Hell, every damned idiot in the building who had ears on the sides of their heads had probably heard the shot and was heading in his direction but he wasn’t borrowing trouble just yet.
“Come on, you bitch!”
Adam jumped at the words in his ear. He cursed under his breath. He was losing focus and doing that mid-run didn’t do anything but get you killed.
“Talk to me, Minx.”
“Two seconds.”
The elevator doors binged as they opened and mini-Uzi was pointed around the corner and Adam dodged the hail of bullets. Glass shattered and smashed under the wild gunfire. Expensive wood paneling splintered and exploded as the projectiles hit. Adam braced, watching the hand holding the weapon, watching the movements as he ducked and dived as the man sprayed the corridor. He kept his back to the wall as he edged closer, closer, closer.
Tucking one of his guns back in its holster, he braced, waiting for the opportunity to strike. Three. Two. One. He grabbed the man’s hand and pulled him forward. He stumbled and fell and Adam smashed him square between the eyes with the butt of his gun. He crumpled and fell to his knees, looking almost comical as he swayed back and forth. Adam avoided the last few reflexive shots from the Uzi before kicking it out of the man’s hand. A firm spin kick and the guy was totally out of it, dreaming of better nights as he slipped into unconsciousness.
Adam looked up and down the corridor, frowning as he let his cyberware search for sounds. But there was nothing. That hadn’t been quiet, far from it, but still there was no one running towards him, no one ready to jump out from behind a corner and avenge their friends. And Adam had a very bad feeling.
“Minx, give me a sit rep on security.”
“They’re retreating to the opposite corner of the building, babes,” she answered, “Not sure I understand it. Hacking cameras now.”
Adam went still, his finger pressing the sub voc mic that was tight to his throat, “The opposite corner?”
“Yeah,” Minx answered, “Cross referencing with building plans and… Shit, babes, get your ass outta there now. That’s a secure room.”
The last piece of the puzzle clicked into place and Adam cursed, “Shit, they’ve called in backup.”
And just like that, Adam was moving, running for the open elevator door and slipping his gun in its holster and clicking the snaps shut on both. He was leaping before he reached the edge, reaching out for the cable. He caught it and almost lost it again as his hands slipped. Thank whatever premonition he’d had earlier that made him pick up the heavy grip gloves tonight instead of his usual runner standard set. Least with these, he might have some skin left on his hands by the end of the night.
He wrapped his legs around the cable, gripping tight with his thighs and loosened his grip a little. Forty floors were too far to descend hand over hand even if he had the time to do it, so that left the express way and yeah, he didn’t need a shrink to tell him that that wasn’t even close to being a sane option. But it wasn’t as if he was inundated with options, so insanity looked like the way to go.
By twenty floors, he could feel the friction burns eating through his armored trousers. By thirty, the heat was burning his thighs. By thirty five, he had bigger problems, like how to stop himself becoming a stain at the bottom of the shaft. He shifted a little and let the sides of his combat boots grip the cable, pressing hard to cope with the strain. He tightened his hands, letting the toughened pads on the hideously expensive Dorsett Gibson gloves take the strain.
He wasn’t lucky enough to stop himself completely but he wasn’t elevator pizza either and today, that was a win, even if he was going to have embrace abstinence for the next week thanks to that damned cable, not to mention buy a new pair of armored trousers. The Kevlar was toast in the ones he was wearing and his gloves weren’t much better than scraps.
The bullet proof glass doors of the building were easily dealt with now that he’d given up trying to be sneaky. A bullet in the security panel, one in the lock and it swung open. He was out and clear in seconds. Sure they’d know that he broke out this way, but with reinforcements called for, he just didn’t have the luxury of stealth.
For those not tuned into the underground information network of the city, the word reinforcements conjured up images of more lumbering corp merc security guards firing ineffectually with nine mil handguns and the occasional Uzi that they couldn’t hit anything with, but Adam knew better. He’d done his homework. The corporation whose doors he’d just crashed through contracted out their emergency response teams to a majorly heavy hitter, Fortress Security. Right now, there were three AV13 attack gunships heading his way with some of the best corporate snipers in the city plugged into some pretty damned big guns, all waiting to lock targets on his back and blow him to whatever afterlife they believed in.
“I got trouble, Minx,” Adam said, “Get me info on how long I got.”
“Working on it. Tapping air traffic control as we speak, pretty boy, you just get to your bike and get your ass outta there. I’ll feed you info as I get it.”
Adam ran to where he had parked and clicked his plugs into bike’s interface. Schematics overlaid his vision as he thumbed the ignition. Green lights flashed up and he was good to go. It hurt to grip the engine block with his legs but the alternative was worse. Twisting the throttle up as far as it would go, he drove through the streets, blowing through stop signs and red lights. He dodged in and out of traffic, grabbing every opportunity to put more distance between the scene of his crime and his current location. Probably wouldn’t help but damn it, it wouldn’t hurt either.
“Got two inbound from the west, closing on the building now. One other circling out from there trying to catch you,” Minx told him as soon as she got the data, “I’m wiping you from every camera I can reach but if you can get under cover or hit some of the alleys, that might help. The Gauntlet is close by if you need an option.”
Adam didn’t spare the breath to acknowledge her suggestion. He knew that it was an option, but that didn’t mean it was a good one.
The Gauntlet was the closest place to Hell that the city offered. The spider web borderline between some of the biggest gangs in the city, there was guaranteed to be at least one active warzone at any given time, and usually a lot more than that. And if that wasn’t bad enough, you could add in the gangers taking random pot shots at you just because you weren’t wearing their colors. There were easier ways to die, and much as he hated to admit it, one of them was actively hunting him. He ran back over the rumors he’d heard during the week, cataloging where hostilities were high. He could probably run it but if there was any way to keep his wheels out of disputed turf, then he’d take it.
“Cap your speed,” Minx warned him, “Got another Fortress AV circling overhead. Not one of the three, another dispatch group, but don’t want them getting curious.”
Adam agreed and pulled back on the throttle, slowing down to a respectable hundred. He watched the AV pass overhead, holding his breath until it was well ahead. He’d made it. He’d… Shit! It was turning and heading back. The searchlight clicked on and he could see the miniguns start to cycle hot, gunners already tracking.
“I’m made,” he told Minx, “Going dark.”
He flicked his eyes over the icon in the bottom corner of his vision and dropped his connection to her. They probably weren’t tracking it but he wasn’t taking any chances. Besides this was going to be hard enough without having the distraction. He pushed the bike into a hard turn, his knee scraping the asphalt as he spun to face back the way he came. Soon as he was straight, he kicked the throttle up again, pushing it into the red. Adam pressed lower to the bike, molding himself to the sleek lines. His eyes hovered dangerously close to the turbo, ready to engage it as soon as it was safe.
And still the searchlight caught him.
Screw safe. He could patch himself up later. He engaged the turbo and thanked God for his boosterware. Made by God, enhanced by Bionetica, his reaction time was the only thing keeping him from wiping out as he leaned into a corner. Brickwork passed inches from his cheek, scraping the armor covering his knee. Couple of streets, just a couple of streets more and he’d lose them for sure.
Left. Right. And a shortcut through the Second Street Mall and he passed the official marker. Welcome to the Gauntlet, bastards. Don’t forget to duck.
The AV’s minigun tore up the asphalt in front of him but damned if he was letting that stop him. Bouncing down on the suspension, Adam held on as his bike hopped the crater, landing roughly and skidding on a piece of rubble. He disengaged the turbo, clicking it off as he read the gang tags around him. Diamondback territory. Good.
They were next door to the Zombies, an objectionable bunch of idiots who hated everyone and everything. Normally he would have avoided them, but for this, they were perfect. He didn’t understand the beef between them and Fortress but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that whenever the Zombies caught sight of one of the bastards in their zone, they threw pretty much everything they had at it. Didn’t sound like much. Until you found out that they had a soft spot for surface to air missiles and high explosives.
Red tags changed to grey and he heard the shouts go up and the RPGs right behind them. Ever see a fight between miniguns and shoulder mounted artillery? Not something to hang around for. Adam kicked up the throttle again, redlining the bike as he pushed her hard, dipping low enough to tear the Kevlar as he cornered. Gunshots followed him, handguns and shotguns, nothing to worry about. Nothing serious. Just kids and their grandmas taking the opportunity to show the passer through that he wasn’t welcome.
He pushed on through the Gauntlet, taking enough alleys and backways that the best tracker in the damned world couldn’t hope to follow him.
Sirens followed him for about a quarter mile before they gave up, knowing that their heavy Fords didn’t stand a hope of catching up to him and Adam waved them off with a one fingered salute. No time to stop and talk to them tonight, he had a schedule to keep. Running the Gauntlet left him of the other side of the city to where he needed to be and only a few minutes to get there. And yeah, Adam knew that part of the blame was his. He shouldn’t have agreed to do a job tonight, even if it was supposed to be a cakewalk cherry.
But he wasn’t shouldering the entirety of the fuck-up. When he got his hands around Trix’ neck, he was going to regret sticking Adam with someone whose idea of disabling the security was setting off every damned sensor in the place. Only redemption was that it had been after they’d done the datagrab and the memory drive was still safe inside his pocket. He had no idea where the idiot had gotten to and he didn’t care either.
Turning onto the freeway, Adam slid to the fast lane and dodged around the cars until he saw the exit he needed. Down the slip road and headed for home, he revelled in the adrenaline buzz, relaxing enough to appreciate it. Almost missing his turn, he swerved across the junction and got a horn blast for his trouble.
He’s off the bike as soon as it’s on its stand and ducking around the back of the club. Allison is waiting there for him by the back door, pacing nervously as she chews on a nail.
“Where have you been? I thought you were going to be late! You’re never late!”
The words jumbled together and Adam spared the second it took to kiss her on the forehead as he pushed past her into the club.
“Honey, tell me you got clothes I can change into,” he called back over his shoulder as he made his way inside, “I’ve shredded my leathers. Oh, and a top if you have one. First aid kit’s still back here, right?”
Allison was behind him with every step, talking into a radio and shouting orders. Adam stripped on his way, doing an amusing hop-skip-dance as he pulled off his trousers and left them in tatters on the floor. And damn, he knew that the cable was going to leave a mark but wow. Blue, black, red marks crawled up the insides of his thighs and made Allison gasp.
“What..? Adam…? Did you wipe out the bike? Do you need a doctor? Shoot, I didn’t know. I’ll call the backup for tonight, see if they can get down here.”
He loved her really, but she was a mother hen. He pulled the memory unit out of his armored jacket and handed it over, before spraying Second Skin over the worst of the damage. Stung like a son of a bitch but they’d be good as new in three days.
“Call Debs, tell her I got the data,” Adam instructed Allison, “Tell her that I ran into a minor hitch. They’re going to know something was stolen. Unavoidable. Oh, and can you drop a call to Minx, tell her I’m sorry I had to ditch the call and that I’m not dead.”
Allison blinked at him, her jaw dropped.
“A job? You took a job? Tonight? Damnit Adam, you promised me...”
Adam had a bad feeling about where this was going and just managed to duck a solid blow to his shoulder.
“Relax, princess, I’ve got a whole,” he looked at the countdown again, “minute and a half left. Not a problem.”
One of Allison’s boys came in with trousers and a t-shirt and Adam wasted no time in pulling on the clothing. Skintight trousers that looked as if he’d been born wearing them and a black and silver t-shirt with flame decals. He ran his fingers through his hair, fluffing it up and fixing it so that it didn’t look like he’d just done laps of the city on his bike. A little extra eye-liner, a little lip gloss and damn, he was smoking.
Closing Allison’s mouth with a crooked finger as he walked past her, he made his way to the side of the stage. The DJ caught his movement and let the canned music fade out as the house band started his intro. Adam smiled and stepped out onto the stage, adrenaline surging again. Tonight was going to be a night to remember and he was going to rock it.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Idolize is pleased to present…. SILVERFYRE!”
Author:
deannawol Fandom: American Idol
Pairing/Character: Adam
Rating: 15+ (mentions and images of a violent nature)
Wordcount: 3,400+
Summary: Adam's Friday night doesn't go exactly as he planned.
Author Notes: This is, I suppose, a teaser trailer to the joint project that myself and Ara are working on for Kradam Big Bang. It's cyberpunk and it's my version of Adam's introduction. It's also the companion piece to Ara's Prologue Piece. Let us know what you think and if it's worth continuing.
~#~#~
19:34
The door slammed shut behind him, setting off the alarm and Adam cursed under his breath. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Damn Trix and his stupid contacts. Man couldn’t find a decent electronics cracker if you paid him and that was a serious damned problem seeing as he’d demanded ten percent of the payday up front to do just that. When Adam got out of here, he was burning the guy’s reputation so hard, he wouldn’t even get crank calls.
He heard the pitter-patter-clomp of heavy combat boots coming towards him and pulled his guns. Twin Desert Eagles, modified to fire .50 full metal jackets, etched all along the side with flame decals. Classy but functional and his kind of guns. Flicking a glance at the chronometer ticking down time in the corner of his cyber vision, Adam calculated. Still on schedule. Just.
The first body skidded around the corner and Adam opened fire. Left and right and two dead center shots. The man fell forward, almost tripping the man who came behind him. Another double shot, another body and he needed to get out of here.
“Minx, need schematics. Plot me an exit vector.”
Fingers hitting keys sounded in his ear before she answered, “Not looking good, babes. Main doors locked down. Stairwells are shut. You’re forty floors up and I got ten warm bodies coming towards you. I’m not sure you have time for me to hack the system to open it back up.”
“Not the answer I wanna hear, Minx,” Adam tried to keep calm, closing his eyes as he took a deep breath. “Get me something. Don’t worry about the security guards. I got them, just get me a door I can use.”
“On it.”
18:23
Looking around, Adam knew he couldn’t stay here. Too open, three lines of attack and no cover. This was a dead man’s option and he had plans for later. He stepped carefully, watching for heat sensors, laser beams and the ever more obvious men with guns looking to give him a couple extra holes where he didn’t want them.
Reception desk. Wooden core. No reinforcement. Useless.
Offices. Glass walled. Non-reinforced. Even worse.
Server room. Locked down. Not an option.
If he was a less optimistic guy, right about now, he’d be thinking that the universe was having a good laugh at his expense.
Elevator. Metal door. Six inches of hardened steel. Now, that he could work with.
“Minx, I’m at an elevator. Door says ‘W4’, can you get it open?” Adam asked, pressing his back against the steel plating.
“Elevators are on lock down. They’d see if I sent a car up for you. Security report says that they’ve got all the carriages rigged with C6 High Exp,” she answered.
Adam smirked, “Didn’t ask for a car, just need the doors opened.”
There was a moment of silence over the comms followed by a furious tapping of keys.
“You’re one crazy son of a bitch, babes, you know that?”
Adam allowed himself a laugh, “That’s why they pay me.”
17:01
A shadow fell on the ground, backlit by the emergency lighting. The movement caught Adam’s eye a second before the armored guard stepped around the corner and Adam took aim, shifting back into the archway of the elevator door as well as he could. He didn’t think that it would fool anyone but if it gave him another second, he’d gladly take it. He trained one of the guns on the corner, aiming at the man’s head as he flicked a glance in the other direction. His finely honed senses, and years of doing just this sort of run, told him that this guy wasn’t alone and there was no damned way he was letting some two-bit corp merc security guard get the drop on him.
The guard took cautious steps, checking out each shadow before moving on. Adam’s heart beat loudly, and he swore that it was loud enough for the other man to hear it but so far he hadn’t looked Adam’s way. He was almost past the branch of corridor to the elevators when he spotted him but he was dead before he could even start to swing his gun around. Adam willed his heart to stop beating so loudly in his ears, engaging the sound editing software installed in his cyberaudio processors and focused on the hushed sounds from the office floor.
The click of the air conditioning turning off.
The leaves of a plant settling as the air flow died.
And there under all that, the familiar sound of armor creaking. Adam closed his eyes and let his ears guide him towards the direction of the sound. To his left this time. Twenty meters, fifteen, ten.
Adam flexed his fingers, settling them on the grip of his guns and slowed his breathing. The man was sure to have heard his shot. Hell, every damned idiot in the building who had ears on the sides of their heads had probably heard the shot and was heading in his direction but he wasn’t borrowing trouble just yet.
“Come on, you bitch!”
Adam jumped at the words in his ear. He cursed under his breath. He was losing focus and doing that mid-run didn’t do anything but get you killed.
“Talk to me, Minx.”
“Two seconds.”
The elevator doors binged as they opened and mini-Uzi was pointed around the corner and Adam dodged the hail of bullets. Glass shattered and smashed under the wild gunfire. Expensive wood paneling splintered and exploded as the projectiles hit. Adam braced, watching the hand holding the weapon, watching the movements as he ducked and dived as the man sprayed the corridor. He kept his back to the wall as he edged closer, closer, closer.
16:37
Tucking one of his guns back in its holster, he braced, waiting for the opportunity to strike. Three. Two. One. He grabbed the man’s hand and pulled him forward. He stumbled and fell and Adam smashed him square between the eyes with the butt of his gun. He crumpled and fell to his knees, looking almost comical as he swayed back and forth. Adam avoided the last few reflexive shots from the Uzi before kicking it out of the man’s hand. A firm spin kick and the guy was totally out of it, dreaming of better nights as he slipped into unconsciousness.
Adam looked up and down the corridor, frowning as he let his cyberware search for sounds. But there was nothing. That hadn’t been quiet, far from it, but still there was no one running towards him, no one ready to jump out from behind a corner and avenge their friends. And Adam had a very bad feeling.
“Minx, give me a sit rep on security.”
“They’re retreating to the opposite corner of the building, babes,” she answered, “Not sure I understand it. Hacking cameras now.”
Adam went still, his finger pressing the sub voc mic that was tight to his throat, “The opposite corner?”
“Yeah,” Minx answered, “Cross referencing with building plans and… Shit, babes, get your ass outta there now. That’s a secure room.”
The last piece of the puzzle clicked into place and Adam cursed, “Shit, they’ve called in backup.”
And just like that, Adam was moving, running for the open elevator door and slipping his gun in its holster and clicking the snaps shut on both. He was leaping before he reached the edge, reaching out for the cable. He caught it and almost lost it again as his hands slipped. Thank whatever premonition he’d had earlier that made him pick up the heavy grip gloves tonight instead of his usual runner standard set. Least with these, he might have some skin left on his hands by the end of the night.
He wrapped his legs around the cable, gripping tight with his thighs and loosened his grip a little. Forty floors were too far to descend hand over hand even if he had the time to do it, so that left the express way and yeah, he didn’t need a shrink to tell him that that wasn’t even close to being a sane option. But it wasn’t as if he was inundated with options, so insanity looked like the way to go.
By twenty floors, he could feel the friction burns eating through his armored trousers. By thirty, the heat was burning his thighs. By thirty five, he had bigger problems, like how to stop himself becoming a stain at the bottom of the shaft. He shifted a little and let the sides of his combat boots grip the cable, pressing hard to cope with the strain. He tightened his hands, letting the toughened pads on the hideously expensive Dorsett Gibson gloves take the strain.
He wasn’t lucky enough to stop himself completely but he wasn’t elevator pizza either and today, that was a win, even if he was going to have embrace abstinence for the next week thanks to that damned cable, not to mention buy a new pair of armored trousers. The Kevlar was toast in the ones he was wearing and his gloves weren’t much better than scraps.
16:13
The bullet proof glass doors of the building were easily dealt with now that he’d given up trying to be sneaky. A bullet in the security panel, one in the lock and it swung open. He was out and clear in seconds. Sure they’d know that he broke out this way, but with reinforcements called for, he just didn’t have the luxury of stealth.
For those not tuned into the underground information network of the city, the word reinforcements conjured up images of more lumbering corp merc security guards firing ineffectually with nine mil handguns and the occasional Uzi that they couldn’t hit anything with, but Adam knew better. He’d done his homework. The corporation whose doors he’d just crashed through contracted out their emergency response teams to a majorly heavy hitter, Fortress Security. Right now, there were three AV13 attack gunships heading his way with some of the best corporate snipers in the city plugged into some pretty damned big guns, all waiting to lock targets on his back and blow him to whatever afterlife they believed in.
“I got trouble, Minx,” Adam said, “Get me info on how long I got.”
“Working on it. Tapping air traffic control as we speak, pretty boy, you just get to your bike and get your ass outta there. I’ll feed you info as I get it.”
Adam ran to where he had parked and clicked his plugs into bike’s interface. Schematics overlaid his vision as he thumbed the ignition. Green lights flashed up and he was good to go. It hurt to grip the engine block with his legs but the alternative was worse. Twisting the throttle up as far as it would go, he drove through the streets, blowing through stop signs and red lights. He dodged in and out of traffic, grabbing every opportunity to put more distance between the scene of his crime and his current location. Probably wouldn’t help but damn it, it wouldn’t hurt either.
14:59
“Got two inbound from the west, closing on the building now. One other circling out from there trying to catch you,” Minx told him as soon as she got the data, “I’m wiping you from every camera I can reach but if you can get under cover or hit some of the alleys, that might help. The Gauntlet is close by if you need an option.”
Adam didn’t spare the breath to acknowledge her suggestion. He knew that it was an option, but that didn’t mean it was a good one.
The Gauntlet was the closest place to Hell that the city offered. The spider web borderline between some of the biggest gangs in the city, there was guaranteed to be at least one active warzone at any given time, and usually a lot more than that. And if that wasn’t bad enough, you could add in the gangers taking random pot shots at you just because you weren’t wearing their colors. There were easier ways to die, and much as he hated to admit it, one of them was actively hunting him. He ran back over the rumors he’d heard during the week, cataloging where hostilities were high. He could probably run it but if there was any way to keep his wheels out of disputed turf, then he’d take it.
“Cap your speed,” Minx warned him, “Got another Fortress AV circling overhead. Not one of the three, another dispatch group, but don’t want them getting curious.”
Adam agreed and pulled back on the throttle, slowing down to a respectable hundred. He watched the AV pass overhead, holding his breath until it was well ahead. He’d made it. He’d… Shit! It was turning and heading back. The searchlight clicked on and he could see the miniguns start to cycle hot, gunners already tracking.
13:53
“I’m made,” he told Minx, “Going dark.”
He flicked his eyes over the icon in the bottom corner of his vision and dropped his connection to her. They probably weren’t tracking it but he wasn’t taking any chances. Besides this was going to be hard enough without having the distraction. He pushed the bike into a hard turn, his knee scraping the asphalt as he spun to face back the way he came. Soon as he was straight, he kicked the throttle up again, pushing it into the red. Adam pressed lower to the bike, molding himself to the sleek lines. His eyes hovered dangerously close to the turbo, ready to engage it as soon as it was safe.
And still the searchlight caught him.
Screw safe. He could patch himself up later. He engaged the turbo and thanked God for his boosterware. Made by God, enhanced by Bionetica, his reaction time was the only thing keeping him from wiping out as he leaned into a corner. Brickwork passed inches from his cheek, scraping the armor covering his knee. Couple of streets, just a couple of streets more and he’d lose them for sure.
Left. Right. And a shortcut through the Second Street Mall and he passed the official marker. Welcome to the Gauntlet, bastards. Don’t forget to duck.
12:19
The AV’s minigun tore up the asphalt in front of him but damned if he was letting that stop him. Bouncing down on the suspension, Adam held on as his bike hopped the crater, landing roughly and skidding on a piece of rubble. He disengaged the turbo, clicking it off as he read the gang tags around him. Diamondback territory. Good.
They were next door to the Zombies, an objectionable bunch of idiots who hated everyone and everything. Normally he would have avoided them, but for this, they were perfect. He didn’t understand the beef between them and Fortress but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that whenever the Zombies caught sight of one of the bastards in their zone, they threw pretty much everything they had at it. Didn’t sound like much. Until you found out that they had a soft spot for surface to air missiles and high explosives.
Red tags changed to grey and he heard the shouts go up and the RPGs right behind them. Ever see a fight between miniguns and shoulder mounted artillery? Not something to hang around for. Adam kicked up the throttle again, redlining the bike as he pushed her hard, dipping low enough to tear the Kevlar as he cornered. Gunshots followed him, handguns and shotguns, nothing to worry about. Nothing serious. Just kids and their grandmas taking the opportunity to show the passer through that he wasn’t welcome.
He pushed on through the Gauntlet, taking enough alleys and backways that the best tracker in the damned world couldn’t hope to follow him.
07:46
Sirens followed him for about a quarter mile before they gave up, knowing that their heavy Fords didn’t stand a hope of catching up to him and Adam waved them off with a one fingered salute. No time to stop and talk to them tonight, he had a schedule to keep. Running the Gauntlet left him of the other side of the city to where he needed to be and only a few minutes to get there. And yeah, Adam knew that part of the blame was his. He shouldn’t have agreed to do a job tonight, even if it was supposed to be a cakewalk cherry.
But he wasn’t shouldering the entirety of the fuck-up. When he got his hands around Trix’ neck, he was going to regret sticking Adam with someone whose idea of disabling the security was setting off every damned sensor in the place. Only redemption was that it had been after they’d done the datagrab and the memory drive was still safe inside his pocket. He had no idea where the idiot had gotten to and he didn’t care either.
Turning onto the freeway, Adam slid to the fast lane and dodged around the cars until he saw the exit he needed. Down the slip road and headed for home, he revelled in the adrenaline buzz, relaxing enough to appreciate it. Almost missing his turn, he swerved across the junction and got a horn blast for his trouble.
03:28
He’s off the bike as soon as it’s on its stand and ducking around the back of the club. Allison is waiting there for him by the back door, pacing nervously as she chews on a nail.
“Where have you been? I thought you were going to be late! You’re never late!”
The words jumbled together and Adam spared the second it took to kiss her on the forehead as he pushed past her into the club.
“Honey, tell me you got clothes I can change into,” he called back over his shoulder as he made his way inside, “I’ve shredded my leathers. Oh, and a top if you have one. First aid kit’s still back here, right?”
Allison was behind him with every step, talking into a radio and shouting orders. Adam stripped on his way, doing an amusing hop-skip-dance as he pulled off his trousers and left them in tatters on the floor. And damn, he knew that the cable was going to leave a mark but wow. Blue, black, red marks crawled up the insides of his thighs and made Allison gasp.
“What..? Adam…? Did you wipe out the bike? Do you need a doctor? Shoot, I didn’t know. I’ll call the backup for tonight, see if they can get down here.”
He loved her really, but she was a mother hen. He pulled the memory unit out of his armored jacket and handed it over, before spraying Second Skin over the worst of the damage. Stung like a son of a bitch but they’d be good as new in three days.
“Call Debs, tell her I got the data,” Adam instructed Allison, “Tell her that I ran into a minor hitch. They’re going to know something was stolen. Unavoidable. Oh, and can you drop a call to Minx, tell her I’m sorry I had to ditch the call and that I’m not dead.”
Allison blinked at him, her jaw dropped.
“A job? You took a job? Tonight? Damnit Adam, you promised me...”
Adam had a bad feeling about where this was going and just managed to duck a solid blow to his shoulder.
“Relax, princess, I’ve got a whole,” he looked at the countdown again, “minute and a half left. Not a problem.”
One of Allison’s boys came in with trousers and a t-shirt and Adam wasted no time in pulling on the clothing. Skintight trousers that looked as if he’d been born wearing them and a black and silver t-shirt with flame decals. He ran his fingers through his hair, fluffing it up and fixing it so that it didn’t look like he’d just done laps of the city on his bike. A little extra eye-liner, a little lip gloss and damn, he was smoking.
Closing Allison’s mouth with a crooked finger as he walked past her, he made his way to the side of the stage. The DJ caught his movement and let the canned music fade out as the house band started his intro. Adam smiled and stepped out onto the stage, adrenaline surging again. Tonight was going to be a night to remember and he was going to rock it.
00:01
“Ladies and gentlemen, Idolize is pleased to present…. SILVERFYRE!”
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Date: 2011-02-10 12:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-11 12:01 am (UTC)♥
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Date: 2011-02-10 10:13 pm (UTC)Also, Cyborg/Robo/Awesome/Singer Adam! Where have you been all my life?
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Date: 2011-02-10 11:48 pm (UTC)It is going to be a while before it's written, finished and posted (sign-up's open later this month) but so far the project seems to be a go! :)
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Date: 2011-02-11 12:47 am (UTC)I'm looking forward to reading the finished story.