(Extended Lore UPDATE) The Endurance of Hope
#Early Morning Kaira’s eyes snap open. She can’t hear the mice scurrying between the half rotten floorboards anymore. Not good. “Move Kaira!” She raised her head to squint through the poorly boarded up hole in the ceiling, two floors above her in the decrepit building, through the rising smog in the mid level slums so thick, so acrid, it hurt not to wheeze, into the twilight haze that perpetually pervaded the atmosphere. The moon or stars, were smudged by the ever burning light from blurred unidentifiable hexchem and mechanical sources. She’d let herself doze off leaning against the moist molded scraps of wallpaper. But now she was alert. “Move, Move.” The desperate determination coerced her to full awareness. What time was it? She needed to remember exactly where she was. She had almost lost count of the days. How many had it been, how many did she have left to go? But what did days past matter, if she was caught, how far she got didn’t matter if she didn’t finish. She was so tired, she’d awoken ready to collapse. Her body was frustratingly reluctant to obey her scrambling mind’s commands. “Run,” the last word she caught from her father, as the Zaun officials wrenched him away, as she snatched at her last moments with him, was the only thing left she had to fuel her. She only had so much endurance left for more than hope. “Keep going don’t stop” “Three years and half a quarter, so close” These thoughts drained her energy, it used her up to think them, but she needed them to keep going.
“They are close.” She had sworn to herself that she would never be caught again, it would be an unthinkable betrayal of her family’s hopes, to their freedom of body and mind. Its burden weighed more on her than her exhaustion, it helped her push her limp limbs ahead of her. She shifted her Buzzsaw Power Accelerator, and dragged herself across the wall. Moving out of the feeble shaft of light leaking from the hole in the ceiling wouldn’t be enough. “They are here.” She could feel her pursuers like they were breathing down her back, they way it felt when she blew through an alley bat colony in the middle of the night, frenetic little leathery nails grasping her back, scratching to grab on. “Three years and half a quarter…” She’d worked so hard to get this far. “It doesn’t matter how much noise it makes,” Kaira murmured. They know where she is. She can’t remember what it felt like not to be tired. Her endurance can only last so far on hope alone. But hope is enough. The buzzsaw shrieks into a blur. The boarded wall behind her explodes into splinters. Mildewed green insulation spews everywhere, saturating the dust. Iron shod boots pound to the new ragged opening in the third story of the building. Only to see a fleeting shadow, as the motor’s throbbing echo faded into the distance. “Not this time.”
#Tremble Its another three hours before she lets herself collapse, legs trembling. Maybe, just maybe she’s put enough distance between her and them, before they caught up again. She sprawled limply on the cool slick grimy ground, her only energy not spent, used up heaving on the shag carpet air and trying not to cough as she rapaciously gasped, willing her lungs to feed her oxygen, desperately fighting asphyxia, and praying she was far enough from any sources of terribly debilitating gas. Her mind buzzed lethargically on the lack of oxygen, it was difficult to form complete thoughts. She’d dealt with partial paralysis before, spending too much time near one of the main sewer pipe grates. She’d learned her lesson, with the way corporations carelessly handled by products here, anywhere near the sewers should be a no go zone. She really hoped that she wasn’t near one now, that would make her condition worse, leaving her a stalled engine in her current condition. She couldn’t be bothered with that now though, her half formed thoughts were focused solely on regaining her breath. She lay there in that agonizingly vulnerable position attempting to calm her panicked heartbeat and regain her composure while she could. Yet tired as she she was her eyelids stubbornly refused to droop down. “They got too close this time.” Her legs still won't stop apprehensively spasming, unconsciously still locked in the pattern on constant movement not wanting to stop. She felt like she was still moving. That made her even more tired, but her body still wouldn’t give in. “Never thought... I’d be too exhausted to rest, “she gasped. Rest is overrated, she wants a coma. Dragging her fingernails through the grime beneath her, she tries to pull herself up and shoulder her way forward. But her trembling legs refused hold her weight. She’d have to move again soon, her only ally was a head start. Time is not on her side as much as she would like to think it is. She wasn't careful enough to try to cover her tracks or leave a false trail for them this time. Maybe she was too tired or just didn’t care, she just wanted to get away. “They must be getting more desperate to be endlessly pursuing me through the night with it getting closer to the deadline.” Now she's getting fed up. “Curse those _____, they don't rest.” Unlike her they have the luxury of shifts. Whenever one of them gets tired they switch out with another on a never ending conveyor belt, conveying her, pushing her along closer and closer to the edge and over. They are single minded, bent like an overused Allen wrench on achieving their goal, like many other Zaun born; it’s a common mindset to pursue something to the ends of humanity, people here don’t let anything get in their way. Zaun borns prided themselves on the freeness of their city-state that allowed them to do as they pleased. They know she's tired, they know the end of their chase is close. It's only a matter of time before she slips up, slips up for good and lets them get her again. They will be hungry to end it. “Dangit Kaira, you're getting sloppy, Do you want them them catch you?” It’s not fair, she wants to sob, but she’ll never give them that satisfaction, never give in, never let them get to her, weaken her. She’ll leave them a nice present this time, just to show them she still has some fight left in her. Then she’ll run. Again.
#Reminisce The sound of the throbbing engine pounds her wind battered ears. She has to keep squinting ahead to watch out for obstacles that maliciously zip out of the dust, trying to steal one of her limbs, but she whips out of their range every time. Almost, her elbow still smarts from trading blows with a stationary vent that had it in for her. But it's hard to weave through the night at this speed when the ground is uneven from neglect and various pipes and throwaways literally litters every foot of free space. The rubble and cracks in the ground in bad alleys were especially rough on her wheels, hopefully they would hold out for a while before she had to repair or replaced them. She really would rather not have them breaking under her feet and making her faceplant. Especially when noxious sludge sometimes oozed in channels through the debris from leaky pipes. It only made it harder that she was barely awake enough to keep her head up straight. Her heart punched her throat every time her head jerked back up after a moment of unconsciousness. Actually it wasn’t so bad since it sometimes saved her from getting surprise haircuts from the wires that were strung between every building. With everyone stealing power from everyone else, it wasn’t a surprise that she sometimes had to pause to use the buzzsaw blade on her Power Accelerator to cut a free path. Everyone was trying to siphon power from everyone else and cache it away for their own selfish uses. Every Zaun born was criminal in some way form or fashion, some are open about it, and others just tried to hide it. Everyone had ulterior motives. Sometimes the goal was just to claim that they are the best at what they did. For fame, riches, recognition, authority, or space and privacy to continue to do as they pleased.
It was almost as bad as Bilgewater, that place was full of people you wouldn't want to run into in a dark alley, except those alleys were nearly spotless, like the alley she’s moving through now. Sometimes she catches a break and grace grants her a smooth runway for a few precious unstressed moments. Bilgewater alleys weren’t littered with thrown away ideas, and byproducts because there people made use of everything, they were scavengers. You literally couldn’t find a single piece of scrap metal there, that or the strong gusts of sea winds blew it away. At least that’s what she’d heard. Sometimes in these places she feels more relaxed than when she finds a sheltered place to rest her head. She could let the strain off her legs and just lean back on her Power Accelerator back cushion. She doesn't even have to think about it. “It's just muscle memory, that keeps you going, you're not doing anything, let your inertia do all the work.” Its not working so well. “You're not thinking, you're just moving ‘cause you're too tired to keep going, but too tired to put in the effort to stop yourself.”
The reverberating engine behind her sends a soothing rush up her back, like when she rode in the back of her father’s car on a sunlit day. The car’s soft purring engine would persuade her to slip into sleep every time, even when she tried to force herself to stay awake she always eventually nodded off. She wanted to go in with her father to his lab to see what he was working on. But the car foiled her everytime, and they were already way on their way back when ever she woke back up. “The wind in my hair feels so good - wait!?” Her father never drove with the windows open, the smog even near the city center would get in and make her cough. Her eyes flicked open, she’s still zipping through the alley, letting her lolling head lean far too close to the speed-blurred acid rain pockmarked bricks of a wall to be too good for her health. Her short reminisce cut short as she’s shoved back to her bleak present. She stumbles but catches her balance. “That’s right, muscle memory. Don’t think. Just run.”
Kaira has spent her entire life running. Through the lower streets of Zaun. Across rooftops. From gangs, and mob bosses. From city officials and opportunistic citizens. Hardly ever resting, always on the move. Her father betrayed the city-state of Zaun by withholding information about tests he was working for the Science Conglomerate Association of Zaun. Or better known to the common people as S.C.A.Z. Renowned scientists and inventors were often contracted to work and research there for the advancement of the industries and large corporations who paid them. More were contracted for the yearly Techmaturgy Conference when it's time rolled around.
Her father had always insisted on working alone. Even when he was working on research for the yearly Techmaturgy Conference for the advancement of Zaun, he decided he would rather not have someone else use the results or procedures of his work for their own selfish purposes.
She doesn’t even know what exactly he was willing to accept imprisonment for beyond that. Besides the S.C.A.Z. had always been a shaky half-formulated organization at best, the people of Zaun were never the best at working with each other. One of their biggest motivations was only if they could squeeze something out of the teamwork to advance their own position, if they were assured to get something out of it for their own benefit. Beyond money, or connections or a desperate situation where they had to share the same parachute, they didn’t work together willing unless they had ulterior motives.
It was at best an inefficient attempt at an existing model better implemented elsewhere. Her father “accepted” imprisonment for his alleged crimes, feigning surrender in order to keep his work safely hidden, in a place they would never think to look lest he walk free and let their suspicions wonder and find out based on his interactions with people close to him. While he is locked away the key to information he has hidden roams free. What he didn’t know was that although he had given up his freedom that the Zaun officials would not be satisfied with just him, that they would try to imprison the rest of his family.
When her mother was eventually imprisoned as well, Kaira was the only one left, and with only a fleeting urgent last message from her father before he was taken away: “Run.” She had loved her family so much. Kaira swore that she would survive for their sake. For her father’s sake and hopes even if she didn’t fully understand it.
Exhaustive years went by. She let her guard down for one day, let herself think even for a few hours that she was safe. Hours was something she couldn’t afford. They captured her.
Kaira never forgave herself for that day. Worse, they made her a deal. Instead of mere imprisonment they forced her to fight giant mechanical monstrosities for entertainment in the huge cavernous underground coliseums of cement and gaping dank sewer pipes; betting on which one would be the one to crush her to a pulp. For every fifty wins she could shorten her mother’s hundred year sentence by one day. They thought she could never do it. But her years of running kept her light on her feet, staying just out of reach of the giant mechanical behemoths and whittling them down until they were inoperable and fell apart. Eager viewers began to bet on her instead.
Growing tired of embarrassment and trying to save face, the chief enforcer that had chased for for years before her sent her a message in her rusted barred bare concrete box of holding cell during the few minutes between the near endless death sentence attempts. Much to her astonishment, one that she couldn’t refuse. One last competition: If she could avoid his search force for just another 5 years, he would free her mother. If she didn’t, it was prison for life. He was confident that if he could catch her once, he could do it again, then he’d put her in jail proper, and the whole fiasco would be behind him. But she knew better than that now. She was never safe, and wouldn’t allow herself to think so ever again. She wouldn’t be caught again.
#Plans Hiding was not an option. Kaira couldn’t stay anywhere in one place for too long. The best places to rest were also the worst places to stay. Out of the way crannies were the easiest to get cornered in. There was a myriad of ways for them to find her, she could never seem to shake them off her trail for too long no matter what direction she traveled. If they were not employing their own technology to track her movements, they contracted people who could do it better; People who knew the city-state inside and out, every alley, every backway, trap door, and hidden route, even the ones Kaira herself didn’t know or dare to use herself. Zaun was a huge place but that was not to her advantage, not since they had made her a public target. Traveling at night was the best way to avoid contact with other people, but it also made her predictable. In the daylight she slunk along the edges of centers of activity, it was slower, but staying carefully hidden while moving was paramount. Any eye that trawled over her meant she only had to move out of that area sooner. That would defeat the purpose of throwing them off her trail. Running day and night was becoming increasingly tiring, and her pursuers were only becoming increasingly aggressive. “I can’t keep this up. But I can’t stay in one place either. One way or another they will find me. Always sooner than I need.” But there was might be one way that she could at least make it harder for them to follow her. Leave Zaun.
Throughout her early years of running, the borders along the western city-state limits had been tight, buzzing with activity. Her capture would have been worth quite a lot to a lowly border patrolman. Enough to boost his status to a more comfortable position. Everyone was competing for a piece of her now. She could never chance an escape from the city through the land borders to the west, the thought of leaving had never occurred as a possibility to her until now.
All she had to do was get across the river to Piltover. The depleted, barren wilderness beyond Zaun’s land borders would make tracking her easier, but even though Piltover was the better option as the closest city-state, the river was a huge obstacle. You really couldn’t even call it a river, more like an inland sea. It was wide enough that the tops of Piltover's tallest coastal skyscrapers were just barely visible through Zaun’s smog, like the faded gray short brittle sticks that made sad excuses for dead grass that were sometimes visible in the cracks in the rubble that was a sad excuse for a road.
Zaun had a deep rivalry with Piltover. They are constantly in bitter scientific advancement contests with each other, the roots of it went further back than anyone could remember. You really couldn’t be born in one city-state and not grow up to have a strong distaste and begrudging recognition for the other. .
Where Zaun was a place of unchecked scientific experiment, were research knew no bounds and the environment was an instrument meant to be bent to will, to take advantage of and throw away when you were done; Piltover was a clean, orderly, place where people worked together to create things for the common good. Zaun borns wouldn't share an idea to save their lives lest someone steal it, take the credit, backstab them, or kill them for it. If this is done covertly enough the peace enforcers wouldn’t work real hard to figure out what happened. P’s were only ever used by the higher up officials to make sure that there were no disturbances that would hurt Zaun’s outward reputation, or decrease the city-state’s progress. Resources wouldn’t be wasted on petty crimes if the disturbance was small enough. Efficient progress was the goal Zaun borns were hardwired into by birth.
People who called Zaun home could hardly stand Piltover’s insistent practice of mutual partnership. It made no sense, such methods of teamwork could only slow their progression down, they were too nice. Fierce competition was the only way for truly superior growth; “If someone wasn’t chasing you down, you could never get faster.” Pilties thought that they could actually get anywhere by not doing absolutely everything necessary as a means to make something ultimately far superior in the end.
The river served as a border between the starkly juxtaposed ideologies, obvious as it was wide. But maybe the upcoming Zeppelin race during the Techmaturgy Conference could provide a way for Kaira. Every year during a time of agreed upon truce, the two city states would come together for a more cordial if yet still tense set of contests. One of the most exciting of which was the Zeppelin race; the culmination of both cities’ best work put on display to see which was definitely the better. This year both zeppelins would dock in Zaun and race across the river to Piltover.
If anything at all, the one and only thing that all Zaun borns constantly worked together towards was the advancement of their own city state. They wanted to be the best and especially better than Piltover, so for the Conference they would be willing to work together to prove that they were better.
With the nearing arrival of the Techmaturgy Conference and the Festival of Flight the security along the border would weaken as forces would be pulled into the center of the city along the river ports to help facilitate the Techmaturgy Conference. It would be the biggest event of the year as it always was and a huge amount of labor would be needed for security and to construct the necessary structures to accommodate the influx of activity, population and competitions to promote Zaun’s technological advancements. But Kaira knew that her enemies knew that as well, they would be expecting her to take advantage of the lack of security along the western land borders, and there their search forces, separated from the main Zaun forces would concentrate in preparation. Traps of all kinds would be laid, awaiting her arrival. She was an opportunist no doubt, but she wasn't naive. She took risks, but to risk taking such an obvious route was pure stupidity, she’d be throwing herself into her clutches. They had forced her to make many sacrifices of character but losing composure and taking desperate risks wasn’t one.
“No wonder. This was part of their plan. This is the end game, this wasn’t just a race, it was a competition for them. They are trying to end this by the Conference. This was meant to be the end all along.” For the past year and a half she had been forced to travel westward all this time. Any time she had tried to travel too far in any other direction there was always some station, some activity, some garrison, some wall in her way. They would always appear, as if they had been waiting for her. The search force had been slowly combing through the city in a wide arc, shadowing her path and blocking escape as it coerced her in the opposite direction. No, they didn’t always know where she was, but they knew the direction she was headed because they were corralling her, hoping that she would think she could try to take advantage of current events and make a run for the border they were pushing her toward, falling into their trap.
“But that won’t happen. So far I have been playing along. I know what they are thinking, so I’ll do the one thing they wouldn’t think of.”
#The One Thing They Wouldn’t Think Of Kaira had never left Zaun before and had only heard stories about what the rest of the world was like. Zaun was the only home she had ever known, and as much as the city was increasingly against her, she could never disown it. But in Piltover, she might have a slight chance at safety, where the Zaun search forces wouldn’t have such an easy time chasing her. A place where the whole city-state wouldn’t be against her. Piltover just might be the city of the future it so claimed to be, at least for her and her family.
The thought of going there simultaneously made Kaira want to gag and feel able to straighten up like the possibility of a burden being lifted off her back. But she would have to cross almost the entirety of Zaun, and the whole city-state would be against her, pushing back at every turn. Once she had made it back across Zaun, she would have to make it through the very wide open very public very busy center center, through the bustling festival and competition grounds of the Techmaturgy Conference fair, and then make it to the even more open sparse zeppelin docking pedestal, board one, and stowaway on an enclosed metal capsule held above the deep water by a balloon filled with flammable gas, racing across and not get caught.
Now she had to chance to plan an escape, to leave all it behind, give her mother a chance at freedom. Surely it was worth the risk, if it meant her mother’s release. It would be a huge burden to lift off of her, since she knew that both her mother and father were depending on her success. Her mother didn’t know this. The only information she heard was that, at the very least Kaira was being taken care of and still at the estate and excelling in her studies, and being well fed, just as the Zaun Officials had been ordered to report to her. Supposedly they were to give her mother monthly update at just how well she was doing. “Isn’t it wonderful Madam, your daughter continues to do very well in her studies. With your husband’s money we have procured the best tutors in Zaun for her, she has far outstripped her peers and it appears she will be ready for the College of Mechanics early. Don’t you worry she is being well fed, and the curfew is strictly enforced.” Of course her mother wouldn’t believe this no doubt obviously fake information, delivered drenched with sarcastically exaggerated enthusiasm. There was no chance that anyone of the upper echelon involved with this case would be willing to even give her a glimmer of hope or truth. It made her sick, but it saddened her too, her mother would have disapproved of what Kaira was doing for her sake. She was a fiercely independent woman, she would never have allowed it, and even when she was freed her emotions would be evenly split between anger at Kaira for sacrificing what she had for her, and satisfaction for Kaira taking the opportunity to beat the corrupt Zaun officials at their own game.
She would reverse her tracks and head toward the city center, to the big event full of eyes. But first she would have to make it past the search force’s driving wall. And that was something she couldn’t do it alone.
#More Trouble Than It’s Worth “I really shouldn’t be here, of anywhere, this is definitely not the place to be.” It was late afternoon, she’d been traveling north west all day long. The dull mute sphere of the sun descending through the oscillating shades of smog was nearly blocked out by the thick clouds of gas in the densely polluted slums as it sunk towards the thickly clustered roof tops. The tall buildings here were so close together, the light hardly reached the ground from the roofs. Kaira knew that she would be nearing the curve of the moving bastion combing wall of the search force anytime now. As fast as she moved she knew she would not be able to make it past the edge without being seen by one of them. And yet though she knew she wasn’t within the search force’s detection range, someone, no some people were pursuing her, and they were right on her heels. “I was hoping to only run into run of them not all of them.” This was not a part of the plan.
She really shouldn’t be here, it went against everything she had been through. She had avoided contact with other people for years. It was a part of her mindset now, the presence of people was inherently equated to imminent danger. Everyone would be trying to turn her in. One she could handle, knock them out if it came to that, but not groups of people. Not that she had a choice now. But whatever happened it had to be worth it, risks had to be made for her plan to work.
“I’m out of options, I have to take this chance. Its either that or let the officials drive me to the border into their trap,” Kaira reasoned with herself.
She had to move fast, whoever was chasing her, she couldn't let them get the jump on her. Kaira knew exactly where she was, and the people here were the kinds of people who knocked you out first and asked questions when you woke up tied to pillar with everything useful stripped away. They weren’t the type to act nice and help without some type of compensation, and that usually took the form of helping themselves to all a person’s stuff to compensate themselves for the effort to track down the intruder down.
The increasing lack of light only intensified her urgency.
“I’ve got to find a place to defend myself, I am not going to be able to shake these guys off.”
They were different, they knew the area much better than she did and they would catch up. She had to increase the gap between them to prepare herself before that happened. She accelerated, speeding up more than what was safe in the crowded backway choked with metal pipes, vents, conduits, and piles of trash. Her mind was solely focused on widening the gap, yet they persisted, she could hear more and more footsteps joining the discordant drumming, intensifying, sure footed, swift and shockingly - keeping pace. “I am not going to end here.” She was flying now, barely perceiving what was ahead before it whipped behind her, her eyes teared from the wind itching her eyes as it blew into her face and around it, her jacket tugged and whipped at her back as if it was trying to throw itself off. She shot across the trickle of sickly violet sludge before she could even think to consider whether or not to avoid it. A sinister hissing sound instantly wheezed from her feet as a nauseating smell seeped up her nose clogging her windpipe. Getting caught was bad, breaking down? That was disastrous.
“Please hold out for just a little while longer. Just a few more turns,” She pleaded An opening space would be just around the corner. Through the gloom of the dusk within the backway shaded from the dying sun by tall slum buildings and viaducts, she could see the hint of light permeating at the edge of the backway wall ahead. If she built her skates well enough they could sustain a bit longer. Long enough to make it. Abruptly her smooth glide became wobbly and bumpy. Her skate wheels deformed as they turned, breaking down and wrenching the rest of her skate struts into abstract shapes, “Nope, nope nope, nope, not face planting, not toda-” Her wheel struts groaned, squealing in protest. Snapping, her legs flung out behind her, as her desperate momentum, threw her forward. “Let go of the accelerator lever, let go of the accelerator!” She shot forward, no longer any part of her body connected to the ground, the buzzsaw accelerator barely under control spun wildly as it fishtailed behind her. She ripped her hands from the handles of the accelerator at her sides and threw them forward in an desperate attempt to break her fall. “Please don't hit me, please slow down and don't rip me to shreds,” she pleaded. The buzzsaw was completely out of her control now, and she couldn’t peel her eyes off the ground that rushed up to meet her, to look behind her to see where it was headed. The ground smashed into her hands, crushing her knees She skidded across the backway bouncing atop throwaway debris, her momentum whipping her legs over her head as her torso was scrapped to a near stop. She heard the high pitch grating whine of her buzzsaw accelerator whip by as it barely missed her head. She bounced once more turning sideways, before he back smacked into a hard rough immovable wall. Kaira clenched the inside of her lips with her teeth, crushing a howl inside her, as her back arched in torment.
Kaira concentrated on breathing in short quick gasps, trying in vain to suppress the agony. She took in her surroundings through held-in-tear-blurred vision. She was in an opening in the backway surrounded by sheer walls of slum buildings on all sides, with only the thin gap ahead of her that she had entered through. The last rays of the sunset seeping over the top edge of the walls faintly lit the clearing up, revealing the solid rough, inconsistently laid brick walls. The power accelerator lay on its side next to her left arm, the buzzsaw still lazily turning in the air. Looking down, the deformed wheels on her skates glistened as the acidic liquid dribbled off and blackened the ground beneath. “Get up, get up Kaira, don’t let them see you on the ground,” This was not good, she was grounded, if things didn’t go as planned she had no way of escaping. Shakily using the accelerator handles as a crutch, she lurched to her feet. Keeping her eyes focused on the ground was the only way she could hold down the bile in her throat, as her roiling stomach squeezed in on itself. When she looked up her pursuers were already inside the entrance to the clearing.
A thin short boy pushed through the center of the pack stepping forward as the larger ones parted before him. More were filling in the clearing through the backway, crowding the clearing.
“Nice machine you got there, what is it? Kaira didn’t respond. “Hey! I’m talking to you there, ain’t nobody else around here, and that means you came to the wrong place. Our place.” The entire group’s eyes focused at her with animosity. This was definitely not going according to plan.
#Just The Same? Kaira looked around, there were too many of them, covered in dirt, grease, cuts, blisters, and bruises. They wore makeshift clothing, bandages, ripped and patched canvas, dry cracked leather fasteners, overalls, cleated boots, and metal joint pads. Each either had a satchel or oversized pockets, filled with tools and spare parts. One was wearing a gas mask. The one that had spoken stepped forward again, he wore welder goggles around his neck and fingerless gloves with metal bracings, his left arm was thinly covered less by dirt grey streaked rag-bandages than by the numerous scars and welts crawling up his arm they were meant to protect. These kids were more than tough, they were bred in it. She had to show them she meant business, or they would take advantage of her. “Hands off, no one touches the machine” “I didn’t ask if I could touch it, and if I wanted to, you couldn’t stop me. I asked what it is,” he repeated again more forcefully. “A personal power accelerator,” Kaira said, “ I am not going to go more into detail than that. I don’t need them figuring out what it’s used for to figure out who I am,” she thought. “Really? Kinda like the one the girl who's running from Zaun’s elite search force uses, huh? Thats real interesting,” his voice dripped with disdain and sarcasm. Kaira jerked, tensing up, swiftly drawing a breath to steady herself. She couldn’t let them see her surprise. “I thought-!” she exclaimed in her head. But what was she surprised for? He was shrewd, but then everyone would have known of her by now, she couldn't hide anymore.
“I need your help,” she conceded. “Huh?!” “Take me in, I need to get to the river ports.” “You, join us? You’re resourceful, I’ve give you that. Insane too, if you think we’d just let you join us, you're an intruder. You can’t stay here.” “I wouldn’t have come here without a reason, I need help” “You’re a liability. That’s worse than dead weight. There's a target on your back, and if you were with us, then there’d be a target all over our backs too.” Kaira couldn’t contain her stress anymore, she burst out, “We all already have targets on our backs! How many times have Zaun officials, caught one of you and imprisoned one of your own while you were trying to steal something? Wouldn’t you do what it took to get them back? I’m just the same as you, the city of Zaun turned against me in more ways than one, but not before taking my family, taking the people closest to me away and locking them up. For what, for trying to just live life, for greed? How are we any different? I am just trying to do all that I can to free them! And I’ll get to the river docks with or without your help. But if I get caught I might just tell the P’s that -” Before she could finish, the boy stepped up closing the gap, snatching the collars of Kaira’s jacket in clenched fists, and slammed her back into the wall. The impact forced the air out of her lungs, and she held back a wince as he glared into her eyes. “Dont. We may share a similar problem or two, but we are not the same. If you really value your family’s freedom, then you would be smart to think clearly about how to handle the situation you are in right now.” He was right, she wasn’t in a place where she could afford to think only about her plan. Not only her safety, but her family’s freedom were now tightly clenched in this boy's fist. And these alley kids didn’t let go of valuable things once they had a tight grip on them, and he was squeezing the life blood out of it. “Let me remind you. You. Are. In. Our. Place.” Each period was punctuated by another small shove into the wall. He was taking advantage of her pain. “If the search force is chasing me, they will spare less for patrols here. I can help you, but I need your help first.” she said through gritted teeth. The boy didn’t stop glaring at her, the others behind him shifted closer. There were more now. “That won’t do,” he tightened his grip on her His eyes like low grade steel wool scoured hers. He was not going to just cave in to her request. He didn’t have to say that he wasn’t going to let her go or help her unless he was sure that he was going to come out with the advantage and that she wouldn’t betray them, she knew he knew that she knew that. The alley kids behind him made sure that she knew that as well. They were deliberately blocking the exit to the already cramped space, and they formed a tight semi circle around them, she could see the agitation bristling off them, like sparks from a grinder belt on steel.
“Just get me to the docks,” it was getting harder to get her breath in and it felt like her voice was being squeezed through two gears in her throat.
She struggled not to let her voice shake, wrestling for control over her vocal chords that refused to cooperate. The boy had not released his iron shackle fists on her collar as he held her to the wall, close to her neck. His glare was unrelenting, it seared a hole straight through her, she felt like a glass lab, open for all to see what was inside her mind. The group of other kids were crowding the remaining space. They were beginning to become restless, a one or two began to pull out objects that coldly glinted, reflecting the last dying lights from the setting sun. If she couldn’t convince him now, it was over. “If you get me through the conference, I’ll make sure that I keep the search force busy.” this was her last shot.” He narrowed his eyes. Then his glare shifted to something else, Kaira couldn’t put a name to it, “only as far as the Conference entrance.” Inside Kaira slumped over from relief, she was too tired and still too on edge to celebrate this small turn of events, but she was smart enough not to let on that she was grateful, to express appreciation, would cause them to seek more compensation. If you gave them a hex-screw they would snatch the whole bin. “Close enough then.” He let go of her collar and turned back to the group. They began to slip the various tools, and sharp objects they had been aimless handling back into pockets and satchels. She caught more than one look of disappointment. Hesitating he glanced over his shoulder. “Oh and for this plan to work… your gonna have to let me use that machine.”
#Breaking Past “While you have this, be extremely careful, the skates can be fixed but not this, not nearly as easily. It’s my only way of getting around, my only advantage, my only way of defending myself.” “You can running defending?” He squinted at her. Kaira ignored the jab. “It means a lot to me.” It's my only connection to my dad, she thought. “Do not let this get damaged.”
The search force’s combing wall was just ahead. Soon Kaira would be nearing a group of patrolmen. Normally this would be a huge problem, as one saw her, more and more would begin to appear as the the ends of the arc of the wall would curve in an attempt to entrap her. More would appear in her path to enforce the wall and block an eastward path, forcing her once again to resume a westward pattern, before it was too late. It would mean the beginning of another set of endless hours of running, with the day and night melding together as she lost track of time, during her short unfulfilling rests where she couldn’t sleep. The fact that sun was blocked out by dense smog in the day time, and the night was artificially lit up with sky glow from the wasted power in inefficient lighting only made it harder for her exhausted mind to tell the difference.
But this time Kaira was ready. The group of kids had given her much needed food, and a full three hours of uneasy rest in one of their hidden safe houses around the city-state while one of their own mechanics worked to fix her skates and improve their suspension. Kaira felt like she was ready to take on the world, the search force wouldn’t stand a chance, not against her and her temporary team with their plan. They wouldn’t see her coming and when they realized it, it would be too late.
“Ok here’s your chance. We got you as close as we can the rest is up to you. Follow the plan and be ready to hand that machine to me,” the boy was getting too comfortable with ordering Kaira around for her liking.
They had scouted the way ahead. Kaira knew exactly what areas to avoid and where to go to punch through the thinnest, most fatigued section of the search force wall. Just as Zaun people always took advantage in any situation they could. “Let's stick it to em.”
The hand off was just ahead around the corner. Kaira raced forward, grabbing the pipe at the corner of the building, whipping around. The abrupt change in direction jerked her arm and yanked her body from the ground flinging her feet into the air. As her body twisted, suspended horizontally, she pulled in her trailing arm to launch the personal accelerator ahead beneath her. The boy was just ahead in position, wearing a makeshift mock jacket and clothes liker her. He waited and caught the machine as it charged toward him and shot off without a pause. The whole exchange took no more than a few seconds. But it seemed to last much longer, as she watched the only thing that had remained constant her entire life leave her hands. This was the thing that had gotten her through numerous challenges, had seen all the torture and strife, and exhaustion as she had, it had kept her safe. It was more than a machine to her. She was willingly letting go of the only connection she had to her dad, in a way it was like he was protecting her through his gift to her. But she had to let go of it in order to get back to her family. The motors rumbling barely eased off before the boy got his hands on the accelerator to throttle himself forward, instantly shooting himself ahead. Kaira used her momentum to vault herself atop the crates and pallets stacked along the wall, clambering up the towered debris until she dove behind a stained rubber curtain into one of the kids safe zones behind a used metal parts vendor. It was up to her now to find her way. She would jump on the used parts vendor’s truck headed to the Convention and stow away, until it had entered to gates.
Kaira had never been without her personal power accelerator before. She felt clumsy, naked and vulnerable, with her machine not with her, but she had to deal with it. The buzzsaw power accelerator was too bulky to be hidden well enough to stow away with. Now it was up to her to make it to the Conference Fair Grounds undetected, she would have to trust the alley kids to get her Personal Accelerator back to her.
Fifteen minutes into waiting in hiding in the middle of the Conference grounds Kaira found herself reviewing the plan. The boy was supposed to give the pursuers the slip and catch up to her to hand off the machine. Where was he? He was late. Kaira could feel the crowds pushing in on her, limiting her mobility, she hated that, every minute felt like another person looked too closely at her, her tight chest not letting her lungs get enough oxygen. What if he got caught, or got in an accident and broke it, she'd be stuck, stranded!
“Hey! That’s her! There she is!” For a second it Kaira’s mind didn’t let her register her predicament. Then the shock, panic, and desperation, and smashed into her at once, the pressure of the situation buckling her knees. He hadn’t made it, he’d been caught, it was all over for all of them. Kaira knew she wouldn’t make it far. Although the P’s were working their way as fast as they could wading through the crowds, it would only take a matter of time, before the crowds themselves realized who exactly was being chased. Kaira started easing away trying not to call attention to herself. But her heart was working overdrive as her mind screamed at her to run and it was all she could do to force her legs not to immediately obey. Suddenly a contraption crashed into the ground directly in her path. Kaira nearly tripped over it, her eyes still trained nervously behind her watching the P’s slow but deliberate advance, and search the crowds for any hint that they had caught on. It was her personal power accelerator, she painfully tore her eyes from behind her to see they alley boy standing on a booth table. It was a sight for tired eyes. He had come through after all. Kaira realized she never should have doubted the alley kids resousfulness, they had pulled through and really saved her butt in this most dire time of need,
“Why would u think I would work with you so easily?” Kaira was taken aback, why would he say that? He continued on, “of course we could let you get away, and maybe that would draw the main enforcer forces away, or we could trade you in, such a precious sought after little item, for a few invaluable rulebreakers who are really one of us, I thought maybe, this was the better deal and I like the dividends it paid, especially since I know how that machine works now.” “Wait, So, you led them here!?” “Well I've done my job, haven’t I?” “That wasn’t a part of our deal!” “Only one of many. And I can't say I'm feeling too bad for doing such a great job at getting stick it to two uppity waste-of-spaces for the price of one. I am sorry to say this is where the assistance ends, I’ll be content to sit back and watch what happens now that I've done my end, this is as far as I go the rest is up to the rest of you. “I - ! Little - ! The things I would do to-” Kaira was in so much shock, she didn’t know what she wanted to say, each sentence fought space it didn’t have. There were too many emotions fighting for attention, they distorted her focus too much to think clearly. “Oh no no no. Better think fast and clearly about what you wanna dooo~, they are quite close, better run like you always do.” His sing songy, taunting voice was so annoying, Kaira was tempted not to care about the quickly approaching P’s. But she knew that it wasn’t worth it, She cut her advance, glared at him one more time, kicked around, and gunned the motor. As she dashed off, the yelling officers rushed past as well. “She's getting away, you guys better pick up the pace, I have no clue where she is going, and I don't intend to help, see ya.” It was now or never, it was time to haul major butt, or bite the sawdust. She raced and weaved through the thick crowd, shoving resisting play-dough walls of people out of her way. The zeppelins huge arching domes loomed before her, though barriers of human heads momentarily blocked her getting in her line of sight. That made her more desperate. She knocked them out of her way. She had to keep the ballooning fabric in sight, as close as she was, as quickly as she was closing the gap, it felt like the sight was shrinking away from her, like it would be dissipating before her eyes the next time something got in her way. And it was. The horns blared. The cannon cracked. As the tops of the ribbed domes began to slowly rise. Kaira slammed thought the last of the crowd. Her stumble transforming into an awkward leap over the barrier fence, her toes caught the top, and she jerked it away. It seemed like every thing was could to get in her way was trying its darndest. No, no. I am going to make this, this is it, I have no choice. Kaira clenched her already tightly gripped fist harder around the handle, thrusting her machine past full throttle, it took all her strength to not let the rushing air, blast her head back from the intense burst of speed as she shot toward the nearest mooring line as it began to straighten out as it was pulled taunt. The nylon mooring line was as thick as twice that of the light poles in Zauns city center, which was wide, but not enough. Kaira didn't have time to worry about slipping off or finding a way to keep herself balanced as she shot up. Sharp pinging twangs and thwaps began to snap from behind her as she began her assent. She was cutting up her only way up as she went, and the line was sloping upward more and more. The power accelerator gave a short wheezing cough, that bit into her soul, like it was ripping her skin off Oh, come on don't stall on me keep it up, almost half way there, don't fall. The line was already past forty-five degrees and quickly getting steeper as the zeppelin rose higher. Almost to the top almost there. Come one you can make it. Suddenly the line reached its limit. Kaira was expecting as snapping sound. Funny how it sounded like a gunshot. Straight to the heart, it felt like one. Only her heart felt like it stopped, frigged cold long before it should have, before the mooring line began to buckle and rend itself, trying to squish it self back to into itself after being released from so much tension. It wanted to get back on the ground. Kaira didn't. Gravity had other plans. It said screw you, you’re coming to me. After the gunshot a strange silence took over. She couldn’t hear the wind shrieking anymore, she couldn’t hear the crowd shouting anymore, she couldn’t hear her thoughts anymore. Her mind went blank. Lucky her mouth had a mind of its own, it screamed her throat raw. Her already white knuckled fist held on the the only thing left, her accelerator. As it lurched off the last pitiful inch of the slacking nylon, as she hurtled toward and down. The gray blue sky, full of hope over the top of the zeppelin’s top disappeared behind a mass of stretched, blank, impartial fabric. The metal and glass cabin beneath flew up in her face. She smashed through it into the cargo hold smashing through cardboard boxes.