The price of freedom

This was the most dangerous and audacious thing he had ever done, but something inside his guts made him sure he could make it.
The bold teenager was diving into a crossroad of flying cars. He was holding her screaming friend on his back. Nyco knew she would scold him when this little plan of his to escape from the police ended. But that was not the moment to think about his consequences, he now had to make sure he dodged the flying cars.

Hovering above them, the policeman shot his pistol at them. The kid was smart, there was no way the policeman’s big motorbike could go through and miss all the automated flying cars, that punk could actually get away if he succeeded in his little stunt. That’s why he decided to shoot them with a tracking device and follow them later.

Nyco calculated where the cars would be when he would eventually fall right next to them. There was also the fact that Emma was on his back, he had to adjust the calculations with her diameter in mind. He activated his boots momentarily to move a little bit to the left, making him miss the red sports car that almost hit him. The passenger of the automated car didn’t even see how close he was to crashing into 2 teenagers.
He activated and deactivated the boots a couple of times so he could dodge all of the cars and fall without a scratch. Emma did exactly as Nyco requested, at least the “not opening her eyes” part. He never asked her to shout all the way down, that was her idea.

The shot of the police officer was also able to bypass all the moving cars and stick itself to Emma’s skirt. Nyco dodged all the cars and reactivated the flying boots, disappearing from the officers sight. But he didn’t care, he accelerated the motorbike and took another route to follow them. He could see a red dot blinking where the tracker indicated their position.

Thinking of a good place to rest, Nyco went inside a tunnel and landed as carefully as he could. He let her passenger down delicately and asked if she was ok. The poor girl didn’t even open her eyes after she felt the floor on her feet.

-It's ok, Em. You can open your eyes now-, he assured her. The girl listened to his words and opened them. As soon as she did, she fell on her knees to feel the ground as much as possible. It took a couple of seconds for her to regain her breath. After she did, she got up and slapped Nyco on his shoulder a couple of times.

-What were you thinking?!-, she asked. -What a stupid question I just did. You weren’t thinking, were you?

-I had it under control, Em. Don’t worry-, he said, trying to calm her.

-And that’s another thing. Why would you say my name? Do you want him to identify me?-, she questioned him with another slap.

-Come oooon! That’s not going to change anything. I said Em. I could be talking about an Emily or Emianda.

-That name doesn’t even exist! If they catch me I’m gonna rat you out faster than you can say ouch!

-What do you mean "faster than I can"...Ouch!-, he complained as Emma pinched him on his belly. -Stop it-, he protested holding both her arms. What are you, a crab? Always pinching people.

-Only to those that deserve it! Which is only you, by the way-, she said trying to get rid of his grip.

-Stand still! He may be right behind us. We should keep quiet-. The fear of dealing with the cop calmed her down, to his surprise.

-You are right. What should we do? Shall we go through that staff door over there? That would surely make him lose us.

-Let me think… It’s weird that he hasn’t caught up to us yet. He is faster than my boots.

-Maybe he wasn’t expecting that crazy flying from you and lost us.

-I doubt it. It takes more than that to lose them…

-How do you know tha…

-Shhh-, he shushed her with his index finger. Let me think-. He started walking in circles inside the tunnel thinking of what might have happened. Was he setting them a trap? Did he want them to continue flying away to charge them with an attempted escape from the authorities? Nyco was scratching his head when he noticed something on Emma’s skirt. -What is that?-, he asked, pointing at it.

-What’s what?-, she wondered, turning around to check what he was pointing at. She touched it and felt what seemed to be some kind of electronic device. No matter how hard they both tried they couldn’t get it out of her skirt. -What is this thing?-, Emma asked.

-I think it’s a tracking device-, he feared.

-Oooooh. Oh no… Oh nooooo!

The policeman checked the red dot on his helmet and saw that they had stopped inside a tunnel. He was approaching them hoping he could catch them by surprise so they wouldn’t run again and cause another chase. It was too dangerous.
He then saw the light starting to move again. “Those fools are really going to make this difficult, huh!” he thought. He pressed the accelerator and went after them. He saw the red dot leave the other side of the tunnel and followed it.
“It's weird. Why are they going up in a straight line? It would be wiser to stay low and try to escape through the streets”.
After a few minutes of chasing them, he found out why they didn’t turn on any street to try and lose him. When the cop finally caught up to the signal, all that was there to catch was a flying Rocket Boot. He broke it with his police club so it would stop flying. He put his hand inside and saw his tracker inside. “Those rascals”-, he cursed.

In the opposite direction, after following the staff door and walking through various interconnected tunnels, the two rascals finally went to the surface. They had to cover their eyes from the glaring sun.

-Ah, freedom-, Nyco sighed.

-Yes, but at what cost. Those skirts aren’t cheap, you know-, Emma pointed out.

-You saw that there was no way to take the tracker off from your skirt. If we didn’t burn it with the boot’s energy blast, he could trace the pattern to our school.

-Yeah, I know… I just wish we could have saved my skirt, If only we had a pair of scissors… Oh well, What can we do. At least I’m not in your shoes-, Emma giggled watching him pulling his shirt down so his underwear wouldn’t be exposed. There’s no way a girl could walk around without a skirt, so Nyco gave her his pants. The situation amused her. -They are a bit too big for me. But they will have to do-, she said.

-You are having way too much fun with this. I live more than 3 km away from here, you know-, he complained.

-This is karma my friend. You saw me in my underwear yesterday and now the whole city will work as my avengers. It’s kind of poetic-, she laughed.

-Agh. I’m going home!-, he announced turning his back on her.

-Wait! I’ll see you this Saturday, right?-, she asked.

-Of course. Now go to school before you are late-, he answered without looking back.

She saw him slowly walking away, still pulling his shirt down so she couldn’t see his boxers. He looked so funny with just his right boot on. A smile formed on her lips after she remembered that he looked away when she had to take her skirt off so they could burn it. As soon as she took it off, she didn’t have to say anything, he immediately offered to give her his pants. Seeing how he always went out of his way to help her, warmed her heart.