"Going up?" Ren squeaked, burying her face in the rough fabric of howl's trench coat.
"Going up," Howl confirmed.
He hit the brick wall ten feet up, his boots finding purchase on a narrow window ledge. He didn't stop. He moved with a terrifying animalistic grace, scrambling vertically like a spider. His fingers found cracks in the mortar, his muscles coiling and releasing in perfect rhythm.
Whoosh-Whoosh
The DVC drop-ship descended into the canyon of the street below, its turbines kicking up a spray of dirty water. Blue searchlights swept the alley they had just vacated.
"Target lost. Scanning thermal signatures," a mechanical voice boomed from the ships speakers, echoing off the wet concrete.
Howl reached the roof of the four story tenement and vaulted over the parapet. He landed in a crouch setting Ren down but keeping a hand on her shoulder to steady her.
"Stay low," he hissed.
The roof was a graveyard of rusted HVAC units and tangled wires. Howl peered over the edge. The drop-ship was hovering, its sensors sweeping the building faces.
"They're tracking your heat," Howl said, looking back at Ren. "You're running hot. Like a furnace."
Ren hugged herself, shivering despite the heat radiating from her skin. "I can't… I can't turn it off. It just happens when I'm scared."
"Then we need to move faster than they can scan," Howl said he tapped a bulky, jury-rigged device on his belt. It looked like a pager from the previous century, held together with duct tape. He pressed a button, and let out a sharp, piercing whistle that cut through the sound of rain.
"Come on, girl," he muttered.
Three streets away, deep in the bowels of a boarded-up parking garage, an engine roared to life.
Ren jumped. "What was that?"
"My ride," Howl said. He grabbed her hand again. "We need to get to the overpass. Can you jump?"
Ren looked at the gap between the buildings, "a good fifteen feet of empty air with a fifty-foot drop to the streets below. Are you crazy!?"
"Occupational hazard," Howl grinned, showing slightly too many teeth.
He didn't give her time to argue. He grabbed her by the waist and sprinted toward the edge. Ren screamed as they launched into the void. For a second, they were weightless, suspended against the backdrop of massive, holographic advertisements selling "Aegis Insurance" and "Pure Water."
They landed hard on the adjacent roof, rolling to absorb the impact. Howl was up instantly, pulling Ren to her feet.
"Keep moving!"
They sprinted across the rooftop, dodging vents and satellite dishes. Ahead of them, the roof ended, dropping off into a wide, suspended highway—the Sector 4 overpass.
ROAR.
The sound of the engine was getting louder, a guttural, mechanical growl that vibrated in Ren's chest.
"Jump!" Howl yelled.
They leaped off the roof, plummeting toward the highway below.
Mid-air, a shape burst through a pile of construction debris on the overpass ramp. It was a motorcycle, but massive — a matte-black beast of a machine with exposed pipes, magnetic hub-less wheels, and a front cowling that looked distinctly like the skull of a wolf.
It caught air, timing its jump perfectly to meet them.
Howl landed heavily on the bike's seat, the suspension groaning but holding. He gripped the handlebars, his claws retracting so he could throttle the engine. Ren landed behind him, wrapping he arms around his waist in a death grip.
The bike hit the wet pavement, fishtailing violently.
"Mongrel! Stabilize!" Howl shouted.
The bikes AI chirped a compliance tone— a sound like a digital bark. The rear wheel locked, sliding the bike sideways before the tires found traction. With a scream of burning rubber, the machine shot forward, weaving through the late night traffic of the Undergrowth.
"What is this thing?" Ren yelled over the wind.
"He's a dog!" Howl shouted back. "Mostly!"
He gunned the throttle, weaving between a slow-moving cargo truck and a graffiti covered barrier. The speedometer on the tank climbed: 80… 100… 120.
Behind them, the DVC drop-ship turned, its searchlights locking onto the black motorcycle.
"Target acquired," the voice boomed.
"Hold on!" Howl yelled.
He banked hard to the left taking an off ramp, that led down into the deeper, darker levels of Sector 5. But as they descended, the air around them began to crackle with static electricity. The hairs on Howl's arms stood up.
He glanced in the rearview mirror. It wasn't just the police anymore.
A sleek, white-and-gold hover-car, emblazoned with the Aegis Corp logo, it was descending from the canopy layer above. It moved silently, effortlessly, contrasting with the gritty, loud mechanical roar of Mongrel.
A figure stood on the roof of the hover-car, surfing it like a board. He was young, wearing high tech goggles and a suit that glowed with blue LED strips.
"Oh great," Howl groaned. "A streamer."
"A what?" Ren asked.
"A sidekick," Howl spat the word out like a curse. "One of the corporate kids. They chase vigilantes for views."
The figure in the car leaped off, turning into a blur of blue lightning. He zipped through the air, running along the vertical walls of buildings flanking the highway, closing the distance in seconds.
He pulled up alongside Mongrel, hovering on a disc of static energy, holding a smartphone in one hand to film himself.
"What's up Oakhaven!" The kid shouted, his voice amplified by his suit. "This is Volt, coming at you live! We got a code 6; runaway and a Synthetic stray! Let's light em up!"
Howl swerved, barley dodging the blast that scorched the asphalt.
"Ren!" Howl shouted. "I need you to do the heat thing again!"
"I can't control it!"
"I don't need control! I need a smoke screen!" Howl pointed at the wet road ahead. "Boil the rain!"
Ren squeezed her eyes shut. She focused on the fear, on the heat bubbling in her chest. She pushed it out, directing it at the ground.
HISSSSS
A massive cloud of steam exploded from the road as REN's heat vaporized the standing water. The entire highway was enveloped in a thick, blinding fog.
"Hey, I can't see!" Volt's voice cracked in the wind.
"Mongrel! Silent mode!" Howl commanded.
The roar of the engine cut out instantly, replaced by the quiet hum of an electric battery. Howl killed the lights. They became a ghost in the fog.
He took a sharp turn right into a narrow maintenance tunnel, disappearing into the darkness of the sewer system, leaving the confused Sidekick, and the DVC drop-ship circling blindly in the steam above.
Howl slowed the bike to a crawl as they navigated the damp, echoing tunne. He let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding.
"Nice work kid," he murmured.
Ren slumped against his back, exhausted. "Where are we going?"
"Where's your home?" Howl questioned.
"I don't have one." Ren replied sadly lower her head.
Howl looked ahead into the gloom, his amber eyes adjusting to the dark.
"So you're just another stray." Howl pondered.