IP: 172.243.245.25
Posted on August 25, 2016 at 10:29:57 PM by vera
*On the planet Carthage things aren’t so different from Earth. The only exception being it is stuck in Earth’s Victorian era, though many inhabitants would claim it is the neo-Victorian age. Despite the era the planet seems to be stuck in, the abundance of technology is unrivaled by any other planet in the galaxy.
Vera could feel the rain soak through her shirt. It stung like an angry bee against her skin and she could feel the wind tug at her goggles. Around her the storm raged, white hot tongues of lightning and the sound of growling thunder. Somewhere in the sky were other people like her, taking advantage of the weather in order to make some extra coin. With a determined grunt, Vera nudges her toe forward onto the pedal and accelerates, gripping the bar in front with her gloved hands she slides one finger down to trigger the sail to open up. The board levels out before touching the ground and Vera zooms forward at a speed no one else would dare to travel. With her hover board cruising safely she takes the time to unhook the wire rods that would capture the lightning and funnel it into the contraption on her back. It would be stored safely there until she could get it back to the scrap yard and sell it for extra energy.
“Vera, are you there?” A voice crackles over her intercom system and Vera reaches up to switch on the tiny microphone.
“Here,” she says dodging around a tree, “following the lightning pattern. Skid, are you on the ground or are you somewhere in the atmosphere?”
“Ground currently, trying to get the right pattern. But we have a problem,” Skid says and suddenly his dark outline appears just to Vera’s left side. He’s got on all his proper gear, all the stuff that’ll save anyone from getting electrocuted -- Skid was a rich kid, his parents didn’t know he collected extra energy sources for fun when they weren’t looking. Unlike Vera, who did it because she had no other options.
Vera was about to ask when three figures dropped from the bottom of the storm clouds. “You have got to be kidding me!” Vera says under her breath, swerving towards Skid and away from the three newcomers. She didn’t mind Skid being here on her bounty, they helped each other because they’d known each other since they were in diapers, but anyone else? That meant more fighting, more work, and more time before the storm passed.
Pressing the pedal down, Vera moves out around the three newcomers and gunned her hover board. On her back she could feel the engine pack heating up as it collected rainwater to convert into steam and give her an extra boost. Another crackle of lightning in the darkness and Vera could see the outlines of the three others with Skid just behind them. Vera hunkered down as she slid through the rain and wind following the lightning, holding her rods in position to capture the electricity.
“Vera!” Skid’s voice shouted over the intercom before it went dead silent. Vera heard a loud cracking noise and then she fell.
Vera grunted, the sunlight in her eyes was annoying and why couldn’t they give her one more second of sleep? It was the weekend, she didn’t have school and work was only if a storm chanced to roll through again.
“Give me a minute,” Vera murmurs and swats at her face. When her hand hits against the water, she opens her eyes and sits bolt straight. This wasn’t her bedroom. This was an ocean. An ocean around her as far as her eyes could see and she was still dressed in all her gear, even her hover board was still attached to one foot. Yet, she was floating? Vera creases her eyebrows, sliding her hand over the water, flat and soft lie her bed -- how was this possible?
And then she started sinking, the weight of her gear pulling her down below the surface. Vera clawed at the water trying to keep herself floating, kicking and splashing to survive. Above her the sun was bright and round and brilliant even as the ocean blurred her vision. Luckily, she also still had her goggles on and could see as she began to drift further under the water. That was when she saw it. A castle under the ocean, trapped in some sort of bubble device.
A bubbling scream was all she could manage, kicking off her hover board and trying desperately to unhook the engine pack from her back. Vera could see someone far off in the distance near the bubble, someone with a tail? Surely she was dreaming, she was home in her bed and dreaming because Vera had never in her life been so sure she was watching a mermaid.
Replies:
- drifting in the foam - By anemone August 31, 2016 at 06:03:57 PM
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