The Chase Begins

Rin was flying towards them, one hand on the handle of what resembled a slim, electric, flying bike, and the other holding what looked like a white gun--pointed right at them.

"Stop right there," she screamed, her hair whipped back against the wind. She sounded angry. No, not just angry. She sounded furious.

"You got to be kidding," Akira muttered. He had never imagined that a girl in blue pajamas with a gun in her hand would chase him on her flying bike. But here she was. "She wants to kill me just because I saw an alien?"

"It's going get rough," Pako said. "Hold on tight, kid."

"I would like to follow your orders," Akira said, glaring in the direction of Pako. "But there is nothing to hold on--" Before he could finish his sentences, Akira was thrown across the night sky. At first, he was flying parallel to the ground below. But then, out of know were, his body shot up toward the sky. Akira felt like he was riding a rollercoaster that didn't have a seatbelt and was invisible and was way too fast for any human to ride.

Pako was drifting next to him, his fur whipped back in the wind.

"Can't you fly straight?" Akira had to scream to make himself heard over the drowning wind that was rushing into his eyes, whisking his hair, and fluttering his clothes.

"I can't," Pako shouted back. "I have to dodge her attacks-yo."

"Dodge?" Akira said. He was about to ask Pako what he meant by that. But before he could do that, a flash of blue-laser went past Akira's left ear. Akira's heart jumped into his throat as he watched the ball of bluish-white light blast across the empty dark sky, getting smaller and dimmer as it flew away from them. "What the..." Akira turned his body in time and saw three blue balls of energy leave Rin's gun.

"SHE IS SHOOTING AT US."

"Saw-yo," Pako said, and Akira's body was again thrown in a different direction. They were literally zigzagging across the sky.

"What is she thinking?" Akira said as more balls of energy thundered past them. "Isn't she afraid of people seeing this? And why is it taking us this long to reach the hill? I thought we are flying really fast."

"We are not going towards it," Pako said.

"What! Why?"

"She is not allowing me to move straight towards it," Pako said.

"I'm not safe here," Akira said as his body turned upside down so that the sky was now under his feet and the grid of city lights above his head. "I was hoping that she would accept me into her organization, but it seems now I'll have to go with you."

"Go with me-yo?" Pako asked while he made them move left.

"Yes," Akira said. "I don't remember how big your ship was, but I'm hoping it would be able to fit the two of us. I need to leave this plant and find--" He was about to say the nine stones. The green lady had told him not to mention that to anyone. But didn't it mean that most people knew about her and the stones? Akira wondered if Pako knew about them or the green woman too. He thought about getting some information out of Pako.

"Find what-yo?" Pako asked.

"Nothing. Forget it. Do you remember the stone that you brought with you?"

"Stone? I don't even remember why I came to this planet," Pako said.

"Stop! I will not hurt you." Akira heard Rin shout. He turned and saw that she was close enough for him to see her scrunched angry face.

"Damn, she is near," Akira said.

"I can't do anything," Pako said. "If only there was a way to slow her down."

Akira thought about it. "There is one way to do it," he said. "Can you fly close to the ground? Rin doesn't want civilians to see aliens. If we fly close to the ground, people will see us. That should distract her enough for us to get away."

"Are you sure-yo?" Pako asked.

"No, but I can't think of anything better than this."

"Got it," Pako said, and soon they were banking left, losing altitude. Rin followed them with her energy blasts, making a curving, dotted line of bright plasma balls in the dark sky.

They were falling really fast. Akira thought they wouldn't stop and hit the road, but they stopped inches above the dark, empty street and soon began zooming across it. The street ran straight and was lined by small suburban houses.

"Why is no one out," Akira asked as the houses blurred past him. "What time is it?"

"Stop!" Rin shouted from behind. She was still following them on her bike, levitating a few feet above the street.

She was getting close, and Pako was slowing down. Akira believed that the black cat was getting tired. It made sense. He was probably using a tremendous amount of energy to make them float. Just when Akira had lost all hope, a man appeared stumbling alone across the dark street as if drunk. As Akira and Pako flew past him, Akira saw a surprised look on the man's face.

"Finally," Akira muttered, smiling as they left the man and Rin behind. But his grin vanished when Rin disregarded the man and continued to charge behind them. "Ahhh, she is ignoring him!"

"I can't go any faster than this," Pako said.

It seemed Pako was asking Akira to come up with some other idea. Akira closed his mind raked his brain. But he failed to come up with anything good.

"Damn it." Akira heard Rin scream. He watched as she skidded her bike to a stop, turned around, and went back to the drunk man.

"She changed her mind!" Akira reported back to Pako.

"Yo," Pako said, and now they were again flying towards the night sky.

Curious about how Rin would handle the man, Akira continued to watch her every action. They were pretty far away from the ground to see things clearly, but Akira caught a flash of blue light and saw one of the two human figures fall to the ground.

"You got to be kidding me," Akira muttered, eyes wide, his heart racing in the throat. "S-she... she killed the guy!"