Chapter 47: The Chase Is On

“Damn, I should have used my hoverbike to chase them,” said Arron. He was holding onto the handle above his door as Kix was wildly swerving through traffic making him feel as if he was going to lose his recently eaten lunch.

“Not in this rain,” said Kix.

The large group of hover-bikes shot through the many muddy puddles as they weaved through the hovercars on the side street. They were traveling so fast that their neon tail lights looked to be tails of light trailing behind them as they sped by.

“Ah! They're turning off into the park!” said Arron.

“I can see that!” said Kix.

With a large tug of the wheel, they swerved off of the road. The APC flew up into the air as it hopped over the curb and sidewalk, landing on the flooded park grass.

“The M1 guests are in close pursuit! What will happen? Place your bets on the options provided in the private chat!” said the robotic announcer.

“They don't seem fazed at all. They're just using us to make more money!” said Arron.

“It's probably one of the gangs or businesses in Sector 1. They are the only ones crazy enough to host something like this,” said Kix.

Although the flooded park's pathways could barely be seen, the hover-bikes were all still using them since it was easier to control the hover-bikes on the solid paraconcrete.

Racer #66 was in the last place and was speeding at full throttle down a path trying to catch up to the others.

Having a bright idea Racer #66 decided to try and cut corners to catch up with the others by crossing the large flooded grassy area ... but when he made a sharp turn on the grass he spun out of control and was thrown off his hover-bike.

“Should we nab him?” asked Arron.

“We need more than one person. If we stop to get him we'll lose the rest. The system can grab the data from their NerViz cloud chips if we get close enough.”

Racer #66 was now covered in mud as he stood back up and jumped back onto his hoverbike. Not wanting to get caught, he sped off in the opposite direction of the speeding APC only for it to pass by him and not stop.

The rest of the racers continued to speed through the winding paths of the park not paying any attention to the approaching APC behind them.

The rain and wind seemed to get even stronger as they got closer to the rear of the racers.

“Why is there such strong wind inside the mega-city?” asked Arron as he tried to see through the heavy downpour.

“It's just how it always is this time of year. Haven't you seen any of the weather reports before?”

The wind was now strong enough to push around the speeding APC if Kix didn't keep it under control. Of course, it was also causing hell for the riders ahead of them. A few of the riders were not lucky and were pushed off the path where they swerved out of control and crashed.

“Not yet,” said Kix.

The racers in the last place were now panicking as they kept looking behind them at the APC. Its bright floodlights blinded them if they looked too long while the loud sirens pierced through the wind and rain and only grew louder as it approached them.

“New rule! Anyone who can disable the M1 vehicle will automatically get 3rd place!” shouted the robotic voice in a cheerful tone.

Only three of the racers at the rear of the race decided that this was their only chance and gave up trying to follow the others.

Racer #32 swerved out to the left while Racer #42 went right. They both grabbed onto a metal bat with one hand and pulled it out of the holster attached to the Hover-bike's side.

They closed in onto the speeding APC with their bats raised to try and smash the vehicle.

Racer #52 was still only watching the other two to see if the plan would work or not.

“Hold on,” said Kix.

The APC swerved to the left slamming into racer #32.

The impact pushed the hoverbike off of the path where it came to an abrupt stop when it slammed into a thick bush. Rider #32 was launched off of his hoverbike and sent flying through the air upside down. He came to a complete stop when his back slammed into a nearby fake tree. His body was unnaturally wrapped around the tree before it fell to the ground motionless.

The APC swerved to the right and slammed into racer #42 who managed to hit Arron's window with his bat.

He was also sent spiraling off of the path and crash-landed in the lake, where he floundered in the water trying to stand back up and get out of the thrashing waters of the stormy lake.

Racer #52 who saw the spectacular failures of the other two, decided to try a different method.

He positioned himself right in front of the APC and... he leaped off of rolling to the side of the path. The hover-bike was sent sliding on its side back towards the APC.

Bam! Screeecchhhh!

With the impact, the hoverbike was caught under the belly of the APC and sent out yellow sparks as it drove forward.

Kix cursed as he swerved back and forth trying to dislodge the hoverbike.

“I think I'm going to be sick!” said Arron.

After several sharp turns, the mangled hoverbike was spat out behind the APC and they continued the chase.

“Looks like you all failed to disable the vehicle,” said the robotic announcer.

“Those five should be enough for the interrogators to gather the information they need,” said Kix, as he started to slow down and turn the APC back towards the injured and stranded racers.

“What's this? The M1 are giving up the chase? We can't have that, and we definitely can't have you messing with the racers. It would be bad for business. Goodbye M1 guest,” said the robotic announcer.

“What the!” Kix cried in shock.

The APC picked up speed and started barreling towards one of the large towing buildings surrounding the park.

“Slow down!” shouted Arron.

“I can't do anything! The hover controls are not responding!” shouted Kix as he tried to break or turn the hovercar away from the buildings.

Arron grabbed the cable from the back of his helmet and plugged it into the passenger side of the dashboard to see what was going on.

All the options for the hover steering and air brakes were locked. He had no way to bypass all of the locks in such a short time so he used his hacking system to brute-force its way through one of the locks to open the APC's emergency command system.

He hurriedly typed in the override code and hit enter.

[Driving mode MANUAL... Activated!]

“$%^#,” shouted Kix as the APC's wheels lowered and touched the ground.

Although the wheels gave him a bit of traction the hover drive system was still pushing them forward at full speed.

He tried to stomp down on the breaks but with the slippery flooded grass underneath it was no use.

They were now sliding sideways at a high speed and were still heading towards the building as Kix tried to fight the momentum and turn the APC away from the building.

“It's toast! We need to bail out before we're turned into pancakes!” shouted Arron.

Kix gave up trying to fight with the controls and the two fumbled with the seat buckles that did not want to unlock.

The large building’s paraconcrete wall was now fully lit up by the APC's floodlights and was growing closer at an alarming speed.

Arron managed to tear off his seat belt but the door was locked so he was forced to desperately kick out the passenger window.

Using all the strength he had, he jumped out the broken window of the speeding APC.

His body slammed into the flooded muddy grass knocking the wind out of his chest. He continued to roll on the ground away from the APC dissipating a large amount of his forward momentum before he slammed into the building's wall and lost contentiousness.