Chapter 2 Part 3

Budget – 100Cr

Steps – 1%

Callery Score (-)

"Slow down Griff!" Kate yelled.

Griff rushed down the stairs, jumping and sliding down the rail.

The building, in the light of day, was bigger than she'd thought. Five floors with six homes, each family having upstairs bedrooms and a larger downstairs living room. The base wide. The top, with a balcony so massive it was like its sole purpose was to accumulate snow.

They didn't linger, hitting the snowy road. First thing to notice was how overdressed Kate was.

Tights, yoga pants, skinny… jeans? (denim did not cling to bone so tight)

But the ankles and feet… all pants had rodents attached, dense fur bell bottoms.

How weren't they freezing?

Griff was on a long board, spikey balls crunching through ice and snow, bouncing up and down freely. The axle consisted of metal cups that pulled the balls back like a levitation spell.

The board lit up from the centre, currents flowing as though drawing power from his shoes. He took advantage of the slope.

Gravity sped him down the driveway, and up a trash can that had been covered in ice.

He left the earth, rising.

Kate's heart skipped a beat, Griff was horizontal when his board struck the lamppost. The centre of the board sparked. And snow from the lamp rained down. It was hard to pay attention while her mind actively screamed. 'he's gonna die, he's gonna die.'

The world was ending. He floated, his feet twisted and, facing the floor, he kicked off and touched ground, board in hand.

"Griff! What the hell was that?" Kate screamed, running at him, panic and violence warring on what she'd do when she got there.

Despite sprinting, someone passed like she was standing still.

"That was incredible! Seriously. What's your name kid!" The stranger screamed.

The stranger was teenage girl with shockingly red hair, rich enough to have come from a bleeding scalp. Freckly faced with pale bright cheeks like light bulbs.

A hum and a shift in the wind caught Kate's attention. Two drones spun in sync behind the stranger. Kate swallowed a breath and gently put hands on Griff's shoulders, pulling him back and stepping between her and the glowing redhead.

"Hey, he's a kid." Kate warned.

"Sorry about that. I just… I dunno, want to... look. I saw it."

"Saw what?" Kate demanded.

Kate had started with her palms up as a part of the barrier. But was suddenly groping the girl to keep her back. Red let herself be molested as a sacrifice to get a step closer to Griffen.

The urge to slap the logic back into Red, assuming it'd been there before, overwhelmed.

Their eyes locked and Red pulled back. The promise of pain in Kate's eyes doing the trick.

"It was the Zenith moment." Red said swallowing.

Kate's arms crossed, Griff poked out from below.

"What's that?" He asked.

Red gawked. The shock forcing her to sit on the ice. Eventually she smiled, legs crossed.

"You guys. You're not from here?" Red asked.

"Yay, a question for question." Kate sighed.

"Fair enough, my name's Jackie Cordell. Maybe you've heard, no, you haven't. Again, fair enough."

The girl could talk fast when she wanted to. She managed to give herself a full court martial in the space of a few seconds.

"Okay, I'm Kate, this is Griff. Now, a Zenith?"

"Well, you know with the roid cycle." She said pointing at the sky, "The grav flux's and only a few humans can naturally accommodate to it."

"What does it mean to accommodate to the flux?" Kate asked.

Red sighed.

"Basically, when you jump, you put all your muscle and energy into it. You beat the shit out of gravity and rise. But gravity catches up, and you come down. But before that there's an exact moment, where up and down are exactly the same. It's amazing for plebs. The Gap is a cool moment. But the Zenith lies beyond. It's where you reach perfect zero and the gravity from the roid links within you and boom. You're no longer a part of the universe. And the rest of the world can only watch you move. Griff right there just did a 180, flip on a vertical rail. And I got the ones and zeroes."

"We know what OZ is." Griff chimed in.

Kate grabbed his face, pulling him behind her back and he wrapped his arms around her for a hug. His nose poked her spine.

"Of course. Sorry about that. But can I ask?"

"Nope." Kate said, forcing Griff's hug to tighten. Kate jumped on the board, chest aching with fear and adrenaline as the board surrendered to gravity and took off.

Jackie gave chase with her amazing speed, but even if Kate wasn't 'Griff the wonder kid', the board would obey, after all, it used to be hers. The least she could do was use it to get away from a crazy woman.

Red's acceleration and force were impressive, those were a sprinter's thighs and the form! Most impressive was her hair. The asteroid's gravity had clearly embraced Red's hair. It bounced and floated. The drones floated on, taking multiple shots between them.

Their 1s and 0s had to be shocking and dramatic.

Griff's hug changed shape, he adjusted and soon even the drone struggled to catch up. Kate wanted to scream, her own blonde locks rising like sails. The block ended, leaving open road.

"We're going too fast!" Kate cried.

"Not yet, just hold."

They bounced right off the pavement onto icy tar. The shock kept her still, but her soul had totally left her body.

Griff's hold brought her back. They swayed and turned onto the middle of the street, right in front of a de-icing drone, a giant slow-moving vehicle built like a brick, its front churning up ice.