Swerve City

March 31st 2102

23:57

What can only be assumed to be the leader leans closer toward Sanguchii, his head sticking through the open window frame.

"You can help me by not trashing my stuff. The roads and layouts exist for a reason. Your shabby driving skills rammed right through the Heap and trampled our equipment."

His voice was low and sounding like he'd eaten sandpaper for breakfast.

"Oh, well, that's my bad then."

Sanguchii cracks a grin at the man, but as the other three members of the presumably gang approach the vehicle, his grin falters and twitches.

The stranger straightens up, his head tilting slightly. His prosthetic arm flexes: it screeches like the cry of an injured bird. From inside the gears, a feather-like structure made of ash falls to the ground, but just before it collides, the pile of dark debris assembles into the shape of a small crow. It flutters around the stranger and perches on his shoulder.

"Ah, I get it now. The cloak made of banners should've given it away. But that bird? Now I know who you are. Nox Epsilon"

Sanguchii wasn't hiding how smug he was very well on the slightest. One side of his face was completely relaxed while the other exposed all his teeth in a great big grin. This was just some wannabe group with mediocre strength. His mocking grin didn't even sway or slightly alter. Ukira stayed silent but started thinking: if they were as weak as Sanguchii made them out to be, maybe they'd be easy pickings for his anger.

"I'm impressed. A Sin himself knows who I am."

Nox begins eyeing up the van looking for possible weak spots or entrances trying to find any sort of information to give him an upper hand.

"How interesting. I didn't think Gluttony was allowed to drive around without his leash, I wonder what your doing all the way out here with nothing but a kid"

It looked like Sanguchii was almost nervous, Nox clearly had stricken a nerve. He leans in closer, right into Sanguchii's ear.

"And that kid back there, seems to me like a glow grub you've taken in. I assume someone like yourself has a reason for that. So how about you let us accompany you? I take it you're heading to the next town over. Tell me I'm wrong."

Nox leans back out of the window and turns toward his truck, boots crunching against the dirt. The cloak of his rival groups flutters like the wings on the creatures he creates behind him. Maybe this guy really was a big deal. But if that's true, why's he just walking away after his stuff was broken?

"Is he leaving? That was way too easy, it seemed like he was something of a big shot."

Ukira finally speaks up, and looks like an idiot doing so. The words bewilder Sanguchii, who turns around so fast his jaw practically drops. In the process, he knocks his soda can off the dashboard, spilling it all over his crotch.

A loud groan follows as he smacks his head against the steering wheel. His precious van seats ruined by this punk's idiocy.

"You poor, stupid boy."

Sanguchii lets out a long, sad, monotone sigh. He finally realizes the extent of this kid's naivety when it comes to social interactions. He sits upright, drumming his fingers on the wheel, staring forward. Not moving, not blinking, just thinking.

Ukira notices. The flicker of unease and uncertainty in his "protector's" eyes, visible only through the rearview mirror. Like he's calculating something.

"That Nox... he's gone to prepare. Bring out the big guns, if you will."

Sanguchii grabs the stick, shifting the car into gear.

"I suggest you sit down and preferably don't make a fuss. Just tell me when or if they get close to us!"

The tires of the van wind up like a toy, burning rubber in an ash cloud of panic and hurry. They speed off down the highway of junk with Nox and the bikers on their tail. Every dial and gauge spins into a wild frenzy.

Sanguchii fiddles with the radio dial, switching to channel 49. The clothesline pole on the side of the van swings out, unfolding itself from the vehicle. A cable flys out, wrapping around a tall damaged and ruined lamppost, the cable tires itself along the base of the pole acting like an anchor forcing the van to do a sharp and steep turn to the left making the vehicle topple in the process. The van swerves onto two wheels and veers toward the abandoned remnants of what looks like a city.

Ukira flies off the sofa into the inner walls of the van, the sofa and everything not nailed down following his movements some almost crushing him.

The radio dial flips back to some random channel, retracting the pole back to its original flush position against the van and sweeping the cable back onto the roof. The wheels crush the rubble beneath them like a rolling pin on dough. Nox's are still in hot pursue even after such a sharp corner with them even speeding up and closing the gap on the escape artists.

Ukira sits back up, trying to lie flat on the sofa to keep from flying off it again.

Sanguchii rams the van into a small house, crashing through the doors and driving off a pile of rubble like a ramp in order to try escape cutting through the building to hop to a different section of abounded road. Sending the van airborne. Ukira follows in sync, before crashing into the floor, smacking his head.

"Please! I understand we're trying to get away from people, but CAN YOU NOT FLIP THE CAR EVERY TWO SECONDS?!"

Sanguchii rolls his eyes, focusing on the task at hand. Slamming his palms on the wheel, a swarm of portals appears around the van, collecting and hurling whatever they absorb straight back out at the pursuers. Debris slams toward Nox's truck and his biker pals, sending them bouncing around like kids on a trampoline.

Nox retaliates by summoning a flock of black birds of ash from his prosthetic. One biker with the sidecar does a (seemingly pointless) backflip onto the flatbed of the truck, dragging her bike with her. She pulls out a massive guitar, plugs it into the sidecar's speaker, and throws her helmet down.

Standing on the roof, she screams something not entirely audible before beginning to strum a riff.

She's the big guns: a heavy-metal guitar turret.

Gigantic sonic booms of radio waves fly across the street, colliding with houses, trash piles, and the van making everything bounce around like an inflatable castle.

Ukira summons his Pyrone outside the van, grabbing a streetlamp and melting it into a very impractical toll gate in an attempt to help.

The attackers immediately ram through it.

The guitarist strums again. A ray-gun of sound waves pierce through the last of Sanguchii's projectiles. In a split second, the van flys 3 meters into the sky with a long cylinder of scales appearing beneath it, A gnarly kinda cute-ugly reptilian face darts out in front with a complimentary slimy tail appearing at the back swatting away the incoming attacks.

The vans wheels fold up and transform out the way covering up the side windows. The slithering lizard opens its jaw and begins feasting on the leftovers of civilization. Clearing a path to make the getaway more efficient.

More of Sanguchii's portals appear around the front of the van picking up whatever the Kaiju doesn't and flinging it at the pursuers.

The guitarist's performance amps up with her shredding louder and harder until it crescendo in her ultimate full potential, a giant blast the size of a residential house flys hurdling towards whatever you can even class this vehicle as, a Snake Drawn Van.

Sanguchii uses a portal to siphon the attack into two, one directly into the Snakes gullet energizing it with reviewed vigor and the other right back to sender.

The redirected blast wasn't just loud it was alive. It tore through the street like a stealth bomber at supersonic speed. The wall of pure energy, along with whatever it picked up from the road, slammed directly into Nox and his crew.

The shockwave pierced the truck's windshield and bumper, jolting it to a stop and nearly flipping it. It teetered upright, leaning like a flimsy domino. The guitarist tried to block the impact, but the force launched her backwards. Catapulting her clean off the truck and into what used to be a parking lot. Her guitar gave one last screech of feedback before fading into static as not only it but the entire amp kit was destroyed by her own blast.

The truck slammed back down on all four wheels, sparking against the floor.

Sanguchii and Ukira sped off, the cracks and dents glowing deep orange before sealing themselves with mismatched patches of metal, perfectly restoring the van. The air folded inwards, warping space and sound as the scraps collided behind them.

"How did you even do that? How did you just consume the blast, WHY WAS THERE A SNAKE, I have so many questions what?"

Ukira asked, bewildered by the Sin's power.

"Well, technically, I didn't," Sanguchii replied with a chuckle. "Ouroboros did."

The words left his mouth with a smirk, and Ukira's face drooped in even deeper confusion. Sanguchii reached into the glove box and pulled out yet another can. Ukira stared in disbelief: this guy was addicted.

Cracking it open with a hiss, Sanguchii leaned back, letting go of the wheel.

"You see this baby isn't just for transport - it's alive. In exchange for letting me drive it around in this form, I feed OB pure energy, like that blast back there. The majority of what I absorb through my portals goes straight into its stomach, which isn't a bad trade off considering I never have to worry about fuel"

Ukira's confusion deepened even further before he gave up trying to understand, slumping into the sofa to rest. Before he could make a remark, the sky illuminated for a split second, a beacon of hexagonal light spreading across the clouds.

"Ah, perfect. At least we know where to go now."

OB shrank back down into the inner workings of the vehicle which apparently is just an extension of itself, the van returned to how it was less then 5 minutes ago yet now due to the all consuming snake it had even regenerated some of the damage, which didn't matter since the van dropping from 3 meters up severely damaged it. Making it worse than before the repairs.

Sanguchii muttered, pressing harder on the accelerator. The van roared toward the light. One of Nox's birds landed on the roof, but Sanguchii opened a portal ahead, blinking them forward twenty meters away from the wreck.

The van shot out at 88 mph, the tires locked up in attempt to loose the unneeded speed, especially on such unforgiving and bumpy roads. The sound cut through the air as Sanguchii chuckled and sipped from his drink.

"Where we're going is only a few hours away now. Take a nap, kiddo — I can handle it from here."

Ukira slumped over, still shaken from the fight, adrenaline still pulsing through his veins. Maybe this life of chaos wasn't so bad.

Ukira leaned back, eyelids heavy, as the van rolled through the night.

Outside, in the wreckage, Nox stood trembling. Looking up at the sky, he raised a communication device to his ear.

"They're heading to Rukia. Inform the any personal on standby in that area."