Dressed in a black & white open robe and nothing else on his torso, a baggy trouser, his steel Glock holstered to his waist, and a black knotted cloth pouch over his shoulder, Ajax jogged about a mile away from the bar before he felt the suppression field weakening.
He had to jog another mile to finally feel the paralyzing aftereffects of the suppression field. In other words, the suppression field had been lifted.
After grinning ear-to-ear and laughing stiffly, courtesy of the mild paralysis plus shoulder pain, Ajax materialized his car—a hybrid convertible with more tech than an average house.
Just looking at it cured half of Ajax's ailments.
This was Ajax's dream car, made with enough of his love to drown a man in it, and with war, speed, and style in mind.
He had built it from scratch, and gods above and below will be damned he wasn't proud of himself for it.
The car was intended to evoke the aesthetic of a Hellcat Widebody, but compared to any Hellcat it was a werewolf in sheep's clothing. Subtly wider than a typical widebody, it had more pronounced rear haunches to accommodate wider tracks and tires.
Its roofline and floorplan were slightly lowered. The oxblood nano-ceramic layer was self-healing from minor scratches and incorporated radar-absorbing materials. It appeared 'new dark red' in low light, absorbing reflections, but shimmered in direct light.
Factored altogether, if the world was governed by sentient cars, his car would be a supermodel. Ajax thought gleefully, his hand running across its chassis.
With a chassis and body made of graphene-reinforced carbon fiber, its core was a titanium-reinforced monocoque that provided the structural rigidity necessary to handle the ungodly torque it produced without a fixed roof.
The headlights were slim, adaptive Laser-Matrix LED units, capable of projecting patterns or blinding pursuers. Concealed within the main headlight cluster were miniature high-intensity strobes, for when he was in the mood for parties and the closest rave was in another dimension.
Her taillights were the signature Charger 'racetrack' tail lights but with nanocell technology allowing them to animate or disappear for stealth.
The iconic Charger crosshair grille was set between the headlights, but unlike a typical grille, this was fabricated from aerospace-grade titanium, with active shutters for cooling, aerodynamic efficiency, and weapon activation. Behind it, well, more on that later.
Its drivetrain was a full suite of custom-built, drag race-specification components, including the transmission, driveshaft, and axles, all engineered to withstand thousands of horsepower.
Ajax entered his car and moaned, "Ahn, sweet Ronaldo… That's the spot."
The insides of his car, saturated in his personal dimension's ambient energy, immediately washed away the aftereffects of staying in the suppression field. His shoulder injury healed before he could finish his utterance.
"Massage me," he muttered. A second later, his seat started warming up and gently vibrated.
His car's inside could only be described as ruggedly luxurious.
Bridge of Weir leather in deep charcoal, Alcantara accents, exposed weave carbon fiber, and brushed, non-reflective aerospace aluminum.
The windows were bullet-proof smart-tinting glass; the driver's seat matched a helicopter pilot's seat in complexity.
A curved, configurable nanocell screen replaced the traditional instrument cluster and infotainment. The Advanced holographic Head-Up Display projected critical, and often illegal, info onto the windshield. While his key functions such as drive modes, weapon systems, and countermeasures, remained as physical, knurled aluminum switches for gloved operation.
Ajax placed his hand on the custom, flat-bottomed, leather, and carbon-fiber wheel with integrated biometric sensors and discreet buttons for various gadgets and mode activations.
"Victoria, enter diagnostics mode. Manual testing." Ajax said to the car's AI.
"Manual testing enabled," A soft monotonous feminine voice said.
"Jump," at Ajax's words, the car bounced vertically, descending softly.
"Twerk." The haunche of the car raised, its taillight making circles in the air.
"Initiate Freebird." Its multi-panel retractable hardtop, constructed from lightweight graphene-reinforced carbon fiber and transparent, bullet-resistant polycarbonate sections, retracted—letting Ajax feel the fresh air.
He pressed the hidden start button on his wheel and, with a surge of power, his car flared up.
His dream car was a super-HEV. Its powertrain had two major parts—the Internal Combustion Engine, and the Electric Motors.
The ICE was a 6.2 Liter, supercharged V8 based on Rotary Exhaust Valve tech. It powered the rear axle.
Engineered with forged internals, an upgraded supercharger, and bespoke exhaust, his car's ICE was tuned for a mind-boggling 2360 horsepower with two-thirds the weight and size of a traditional V8 ICE.
But that's not where the magic ends because it could fully control the engine's dynamic compression ratio from the dashboard, allowing it to be multi-fuel-capable. In other words, the ICE can run on gasoline, heavy fuels, CNG, hydrogen, and more. Oh, and it can also switch from one fuel to the other on the go.
For the front axle, it had dual Quark-e electric motors, one for each front wheel, delivering a combined 670 HP and instant torque for blistering acceleration and a sophisticated hybrid-electric active torque management system which is just an all-wheel-drive control on supernatural steroids.
The combined output of all that muscle was a solid and reliable 3030 HP, capable of exceeding four hundred miles per hour.
Not that Ajax ever drove that fast unless necessary, even on Germany's autobahn or Northern Australia's long roads. He generally preferred to cruise around with the roof off, and—if not for the fact that he can literally make money appear out of thin air—he would have probably only driven in the EV mode because of how much fuel it burns.
His car was a hungry beast, downed fuel like the thirstiest sponge on the planet.
Equipped with many other devices and features like the Disus X suspension system capable of making the car jump at top speed. Lightweight composite ballistic panels (B6 level) integrated into chassis.
Twin retractable 10mm SMGs and taser darts blessed by a pagan god between the headlights. Retractable barrage jammers up top. Hermetic seals to prevent chemical attacks. Electrified handles for the nuisances. Retractable dispensers for oil slicks, smoke screens, or caltrops, integrated into the rear diffuser area and deployable tire shredders from the side sills.
Encrypted satellite, cellular, and short-wave radio communication suite, 360-degree optical cameras, thermal imaging, LIDAR, and directional microphones, flowing into the AI and HUD.
Thermal signature reduction system capable of cooling the exhaust in seconds, license plate rotator, and the countless magic circles engrave to ensure undetectability by magical forces…
This was his batmobile—lovingly named, Cuddleberry.