Ch 6: The Summit

Join him? What is he on about?

“Ya don’t know sh*t about this world. So let me fill ya in.” Hiro spoke again in response to the silence. His voice had changed. It wasn’t bouncy. It was firm.

“Right now, we’re sitting on the top floor of a building, with thousands just like this one all around us. The grey covers the streets, the sky- this is the Barrens of Scaria.

“No plants grow here; it’s a dead zone—no man's land. Not animals, either; only mechs remain. There’s nothing left to scavenge. Ya must have found that out the hard way. But what about in other sectors?”

Hiro’s expression intensified, a crooked smirk tugged at his lips.

“Unlucky for you, this is the worst time to show up in this hellhole. The scourge is spreading faster than ever. Gangs have set up makeshift governments, marking territory as their own, controlling the transport of drugs, spell-tech, and crystals. You name it, those sneaky b*stards are smuggling it around. Like poison, crime seeps through society to its very bones. It's kill or be killed. That’s where we are right now, but that’s not where I wanna be.”

“Up there.” Hiro pointed to the sky, though all you could see was grey.

“Past all that smog, way, way up in the sky, floats a golden city. My gran used to tell me bedtime stories about it. A paradise that taunts all of us here in this sh*thole. They say it's where grand airships fly among mythical dragons. All the magic and tech you could ever dream of. Above the smog, ya can even see the sea of stars. Doesn’t that sound beautiful? The Summit- is what they call it. That’s where I wanna be.

But when the planet is dying, ya can’t save everyone. That’s where money and power come in. The Summit is where the rich and elites are.”

Hiro turned toward Ace again.

“I saw ya shoot that rifle. Just like this one.”

Clang.

Hiro threw a silver rifle on the ground. A gleaming sky-blue crystal sat at its centre.

“That mecha-bird was soaring past you, and that thing was moving quick. But in that small window, you sniped it out of mid-air. A picture-perfect shot despite holding that weapon for the very first time.

“Ace. Ya need to survive dontcha? To find your girlfriend. I need to survive to reach the Summit. So..whaddya say?” He held his hand out towards Ace, his green eyes glinting with intent.

Although he seemed to lack social cues at first, Ace’s perception of him was changing. Fast. After being saved and offered food, he was in no position to refuse. Despite that, Hiro’s proposition had ignited a spark of hope in him - the only positive feeling he’d experienced since being summoned here. He finally had a sense of direction and someone to turn to. Perhaps even in the darkest of moments, that was all a person needed. Hope.

The guns Ace had seen in this world so far weren’t too different from what he was used to. In fact, part of him was disappointed, wishing for more. Where were the grand laser beams and crazy magic weapons? You know, the type of ones that could erase people’s memories or vaporise even the Gods themselves? Did magic like that even exist in this world? It was too early to tell.

So far, the velocity of the projectiles might be different, but they more than made up for it with the fancy sights. Lining up a shot was much easier than using the iron sights he was accustomed to; the ones his father taught him to use back in the day when they went hunting. Maybe all that shooting training wasn’t for nothing after all.

Ace stood up and shook Hiro’s hand firmly.

“Let's move location,” Hiro said, gathering his belongings.

Ace followed him down the steps to the foot of the building, where the streets were now washed with an inky blue.

“Look, isn’t she a beauty?” Hiro said, pushing a metal frame on two wheels around the corner. It was carbon black laced with neon green, perfectly matching his colour palette. It was muscular but streamlined, with an angled nose leading to three wide exhausts at the back.

“Damn, she really is,” Ace replied. He had always wondered what futuristic vehicles would look like; seeing one in person was incredible, like a sneak peek of what the Earth could’ve had, generations in the future.

“And I even made it myself…well, most of it. I stole the engine from some random.”

The bike growled to life, like a beast waking from its slumber.

“Hop on then. Oh, and seatbelts on.”

“Seatbelt? There’s no seatbe-AAAA”

Slicing through the wind, the bike sped forward into the night.


                                                                              ***

Sector 8 – Forty-Five Minutes Later

It was the aftermath of an earthquake in a mechanics workshop. From the ceiling to the floor, metal trinkets and tools were strewn across every surface. In a jungle of tangled wires and glowing contraptions, there was barely any place to step. Hiro’s hideout was somehow worse than what Ace had envisioned, and what he had envisioned was not a pretty sight.

“How do you live like this?”

“Like what? Oh, I’ve been trying to fix the air conditioning for a few days now. Not sure what's wrong with it. Open the window if ya want. It’s the switch on the left.”

“The window?? You know what, never mind…”

Suddenly, a melodic tone rang out.

“Tsk. Sorry, one second.”

Hiro left for the side room, the heavy door closing behind him.

“Hello?”

“It’s me. Who are you?” The voice was deep and hollow.

“The right hand of God.”

“What’s the gamble?”

“Deadman walking.”

“Have you located the target yet?”

“No, not yet.” Hiro wiped the sweat off his forehead.

“What's taking so long? And don’t forget the debt you owe for the incident with Dragus. Ten thousand Zen. If it’s not paid within the next two weeks, then-“

“Yeah, yeah. I know. I’ll get it done.”

“Make sure you contact me the second you find him again.”

“Wait—one last thing. I’ve been thinking. It must have been the Celestial Moon itself that showed up. The density of aether. There’s no way it was just a radical.”

Hiro tensed as the words left his mouth, anticipating the response.

“You jest, Hiro. Another joke out of your mouth, and I’ll send you to meet the Primordial himself. Moon would not show up in the Barrens. And if he did, you wouldn’t be alive to tell the story. Now get back to work.”

The line was cut off.

Thud.

Ace turned his head to the sudden impact.

“Darn old geezer,” Hiro muttered under his breath, returning to the room as the heavy doors slid open, taking a seat on the beige sofa.

“Hey, what's the situation?” Ace asked.

“We need fifteen. No, twenty thousand Zen by… tomorrow. Tomorrow midnight.”

Twenty thousand Zen by midnight? Ace didn’t know how much that was. But judging from Hiro’s reaction, he assumed it was a lot. Hiro certainly thought it was a lot, and he knew a lot more about this world than Ace did.

Around the room, one thing stood out to Ace—a yellow wanted poster with a horribly drawn rendition of his face.

“Did you make that yourself?” He teased.

“Yeah, of course. I’m quite the artist, dontcha think?”

“Bounty hunters?”

“Don’t worry about them. They’re just criminals pretending to be good. All they care about is the money.”

“Twenty-two thousand Zen? Damn, if only we could turn you in…”

“Wait, you're a genius!!!”

Ace sighed, slumping his shoulders forward and putting his head in his hands.
No way we just did that cliché.

“That’s it.” Hiro exclaimed, clicking a button and projecting a holographic map onto the table.

“The closest turn-in point in the Barrens is in Sector Ten. That’s where you can turn me in and collect the money.”

“What if I take the money and leave?”

“Change of plan, I’ll hand you in.”

“Hand me in for what? For free??”

“I don’t even think they’d take you for free. I mean look at you.”

Okay Hiro. I see how it is.

Hiro reached into his pocket for another cigarette. “The problem is breaking out. The Sector Nine prison is a thirty-story fortress. No way we can do that, not by ourselves.”

“I thought you said the turn-in point is in Sector Ten?”

Hiro’s eyes widened. “That’s it. Our chance. They gotta get me there somehow. Tell me, ya ever been in a car chase?”

“Can’t say I have.”

With a swipe of his fingers, the holographic map shifted.

“Your job is to intercept the vehicle and help me break out. Good thing for us is that there’s one main bridge that connects Sectors nine and ten.”

Hiro lifted his cigarette towards his mouth before stopping abruptly. His eyebrows furrowed. He reached into his bag, placing the strange crystal gadget from before onto the table. His hand hovered above it for a second, and the aura around it shifted between colours. Indigo. Amber. Lavender.

“There’s a good chance they might go left instead of over the bridge. Be careful and don’t lose sight of the envoy. Oh, and since it's our first mission as a team. How about we give it a name? What was ya actual name again?”

“Ace-Bartholomew”

“That’s it. Operation Bartholomew.”

Really? Out of all the things you could’ve decided on. You decide on that?

For Ace, watching Hiro use his wits to put together a plan was comforting in a way. His quick thinking and confidence assured him that he had taken a chance on the right person, but had Hiro done the same? Hiro’s faith in him felt misplaced.

“How come you trust me so much?”

Hiro took a slow, deep inhale before puffing a ring of smoke.

Why is this guy trying to aura farm? Just answer the question already.

“Gut feeling.”

Hiro was willing to risk his freedom for a gut feeling. How did this fool manage to survive for this long? Ace wondered if his first impression of Hiro’s character was the accurate one.

“Okay, so we sleep now, then leave in the morning, then?”

“In the morning? No.”

“Huh? Don't you need to sleep?”

“Here,” Hiro threw something toward Ace, and he caught it cleanly in his hands. It was cold to the touch with a bright label reading “Bocari Sweet”.

“So when are we leaving then?”

“Right now.”

“Like right now, right now?”

“Operation Bartholomew commencing!”