~ chapter three ~ part two ~
A boarded up door and a closed sign, the sound of roaring engines.
Driving alongside the motorcycle ~
Clerk - Yelling out the window, "How fast is that thing ?"
Timepiece - "Faster !"
Clerk - "Faster than ... ?"
Timepiece - "Yes !"
The motorcycle flash jumps. He stops the car and gets out, checks the wrecked pavement beneath the jump-point. Crouches, flipping road chunk, pulls a stone to keep and drops it, pulls a joint and lights it.
A flash and torn concrete behind him, then screeches to stop, he stands and turns to her, she dismounts. He passes to her, she analyzes and shakes her head 'no'.
Clerk - "So you just ..."
Timepiece - "There are efficiency trajectories. Technically all you need do to travel the world in a day is stand still on the turning sphere. And that sphere is itself moving, at great speed. Faster than."
...
Clerk - "What about the oceans."
Timepiece - "All things are topological in two dimensions. Even you."
('Bonzo's Montreaux' by Led Zeppelin at 0:39)
Pragmatism (the character) bursts through the gate in Gaslight, to
the other side, launching a mechanical hand on a cable with a leg
compressed leap, surviving the first explosion. Ground troops turn to
fire before getting swept.
His hand grabs rail, the
cable pulls hard flinging him, while the feedback wave travels up to the
docking ring. He springs rooftop to rooftop, the light in the sky from the feedback wave's return.
Leaping through their collapse, falling beneath him, desperately trying to keep ahead of it. The return wave hits comes down and hits hard.
Leaping through their collapse, falling beneath him, desperately trying to keep ahead of it. The return wave hits comes down and hits hard.
(1:25)
The
wave comes in a horizontal plane, sweeping out the buildings from
ground up in the it's path. Continuous reverberation echoes destruction
outward, less and less on plane, to everything.
He
tears off his over-coat and pack stashes it before a leap into the
destruction below, the debris and smoke cloud engulfing him.
He emerges from the smoke on wing-suit, more chaos behind and gaining. The feedback explosion knocks him with a hard gust in glide through in a cloud of debris as they collapse around the sub-main loading street found.
(2:39)
He emerges from the smoke on wing-suit, more chaos behind and gaining. The feedback explosion knocks him with a hard gust in glide through in a cloud of debris as they collapse around the sub-main loading street found.
He hits a wall hard at the edge with a metallic clang, slumping.
Turning
over he pulls out his coat painfully. Pulls out a carton of
cigarettes, then a pack, the cellophane, lights a Bic ... cigarette in
mouth, staring at the fire ...
He pulls down comm.
Pragmatism - "Doe actual. Doe model three sixty one. I'm in."
Doe - (on comm) "Anyone else ?"
Pragmatism - "None."
...
Doe - "Can you do this ?"
Pragmatism - "I can."
...
Doe - "See you soon."
________
Nameless - Kissing her close in a misting brick alleyway, "I'll love you forever. It's not going to change."
Asherah - Ear chewing, "I'll slit your fucking throat if ever it does."
He throws her gripped wrist against the wall and takes the knife, she grins watching and grips his throat, pulling in for a kiss. He puts up her other wrist and grips them, kissing her against the wall.
________
Nameless - Kissing her close in a misting brick alleyway, "I'll love you forever. It's not going to change."
Asherah - Ear chewing, "I'll slit your fucking throat if ever it does."
He throws her gripped wrist against the wall and takes the knife, she grins watching and grips his throat, pulling in for a kiss. He puts up her other wrist and grips them, kissing her against the wall.
________
The warehouse door slams open.
Timepiece - "That's a lot of marijuana."
Clerk
- Looking at the many bales smiling, "It really really is. And now we're not even criminals anymore. Just drug dealers. A lot can change in
three years."
He motions to offer the joint again, she tips her head to the side.
Timepiece - "No."
Clerk - Pretending offense, "Well ... straight to the boss then ..."