“What should we do?” Yuri asked.
“Let’s follow Thunder’s advice,” I said. “If there’s an air car on the roof, then we should be going up.”
“Sounds good to me. Let’s get moving up,” Yuri agreed with me. The elevator started to go in the other direction. Because his vocal chords are different, Mugi can’t speak in the same way as humans. However, he can understand everything we say.
We arrived at the roof.
It was easy to spot the air car. It was camouflaged under a cover next to the entrance to the emergency stairs. We pulled off the cover. It was the same car we saw them leaving from the Alternera-Lamier Hotel in during the day. When we were wondering where they were going, well, it seems they were going here. You can never tell how things are going to turn out.
We got in the air car and took off. I was driving. Yuri had a cloudy look in her eyes. Don’t worry, leave it to me!
Day hadn’t broken yet. Of course, it was still nighttime! It hadn’t even been an hour since we had entered the building. The sky was still dark, but on the ground below it looked like daytime, from all the lights and activity.
I flew above, through the darkness, then when we got to a nearby building, I circled it and descended. The air car felt like it had a powerful engine, and I guessed I hadn’t even seen what this baby could do yet. I assumed the altitude monitor warning devices had been removed. I was traveling fifteen centimeters above the highway standard altitude, and no warning buzzers were going off.
I was flying on against the thirty-meter-high air car highway, which was built away from buildings. Obviously this was a traffic violation, but who was going to see us? Anyway, we are WWWA Trouble Consultants. No problem.
I got on the highway. For now, we headed toward Arabel’s residence. Maybe we were being rude, bringing even more baggage into his home in the form of the unconscious siblings, but where else could we go? He’d forgive us.
“Kei…” Yuri whispered loudly from the passenger seat. Her tone was stiff. “We’ve been followed.”
“No way…!”
As I was thinking about how impossible a notion that could be I looked into the rear-view screen. I could see beams filling the display. All I knew for sure was that there was one vehicle behind us. Whether or not it was following us, I couldn’t decide.
“They came down from above the highway,” Yuri stuck out her chin. Well, if that was true, then it was suspicious if they indeed didn’t enter the air-car highway from a bypass, but came down from above. Then if we stay on the highway, we should be able to tell what kind of people we are dealing with: criminals, or cohorts of the security-guard yakuza.
“Let’s speed up a little,” I said. “We have a honey of an engine, 500 kph is child’s play. If they can keep up, then we’ll know that they came prepared.”
“This isn’t a joke.” Yuri was turning red. “You may be prepared to go five hundred kilos, but what about me? Ask me before you start making these kinds of decisions!”
“Ha ha! I can’t hear you!”
I pushed the rear jet to maximum. The speedometer jumped straight up. This thing had some pickup! The G-forces pressed me back into my bucket seat. Our speed hit 500 kph. The highway lights and neon signs looked exactly like stars when jumping into warp speed. Traces like comet tails streamed off them as they passed. This… this is cool! I gotta remember that I am driving…
“Don’t look, Kei,” said Yuri. “But, they are still behind us.”
I took a quick glance at the rear-view screen to see. My cheek twitched. It was the same headlights as before. In a seemingly taunting move, they maintained the exact same distance behind us as before, despite the speed.
“If you get it now, feel free to slow down!” Yuri added sarcastically. “My nerves have just about reached their limit.”
Shrug, nya! I snorted my nose, and turned off the rear-jet propulsion. Scaredy cat! Are you even qualified to ride in an air car?!
I slowed the air car down to 300 kph. That’s about the top end of a normal cruising pace. Yawn… Boring.
“Son of a…” Yuri spat out. What could it be now? I was thinking. I looked at the screen.
“They are really going to do it.”
The shine from the headlights suddenly got so big it was blinding. It was just a blurred white mass. The car behind us didn’t slow down.
“Git-git out of the way…”
A voice floated in from the rear. It was Thunder. Yuri quickly twisted her neck to look back.
“Thunder…”
She used her best worried voice. Ugh! Dammit! If I wasn’t driving right now…!
“We gotta git outta the way!” said Thunder. At some point Lucha had also regained consciousness.
“Those guys are killers! They don’ care about anything. Who knows what kinda psychos you will find if they catch us…”
“What the hell is he talking about?” I asked, laughing. “We are WWWA Crime TCs! Make no mistake! I’ll tear those yakuza troops into scrap!”
“Really…” Thunder chuckled. “Y’all ‘re the Dirty Pair, huh?”
“Gurp—!”
I was speechless. How, how could he be so cruel? That’s the last line I wanted to hear from a handsome hunk like Thunder. Is that how cursed we were? Sickening. It’s like something out of a nightmare… Just knock it off! Don’t let those words come near your mouth. Our codename is Lovely Angels!
There was almost no distance between us and the car following us. Almost time for some carnage…
I opened up the lower propulsion jets. We jumped straight up with a jolt. Pow, pow, pow… Red laser streaks came from the air car behind us. The radioactive-looking beams were now coming from far below. Look at yourselves! You can’t screw with us!
I turned the air car around and pointed it straight down. Might as well do them in before they do us in. Time to turn the tables.
“Stop! Kei!” Yuri shouted. Somehow she was always sensitive to the moment I went into attack mode.
What’s that? Oops, too late now! You can’t win by always trying to get away.
I was going to make a dash for the enemy air car’s tail, and plunged nose first. Victory was ours. Here’s how we would win this battle.
“Yuri, open your window and shoot them with your laser!” I shouted. We could hit the engine or the driver, wherever, the results would be the same. Even the complaining Yuri could see the plan, and she was quiet and focused.
With the checkmate killing blow set, all that was left was the final strike… but at the last moment the enemy deftly scooted aside, avoiding our attack.
“Hey, hey, hey…”
No doubt, that pilot know how to handle his vehicle. While I cursed to myself, I turned the air car around. Aack! I don’t want to go out like this! Laser beams were hitting our air car all over.
“This is what I thought would happen,” Yuri scorned me openly. Giving up already? Here’s where the fun really begins!
I pegged the acceleration, again. I blew off the highway and slipped into the chasm between two buildings.
“Ka, kyaa…!”
Yuri choked out a crackled yelp. Where’s your nerve?! You think this is scary… ?
We had flown into an area filled with skyscrapers. It must have been Topaz City’s administrative district. Typical of Lamier, there were casinos even here.
Weaving between buildings, I was driving the air car like a maniac—nope, not driving, but flying. Who knew where we were going? Left, then right, then up, then down—we were greased lightning—or so I thought, as the enemy air car was still right on our tail. And on top of that they were shooting lasers at us. Who could possibly keep up with me?!
Suddenly a building popped up right in front of us.
It totally came from out of nowhere. My hair stood on end. I slammed the reverse thrusters and lower thrusters on max. Yuri made a sound like a retching scream, and my ears starting ringing. When your body suddenly experiences just over six Gs your head starts to swim, and you feel like you are going to throw up.
Ka-BOOM! We heard the sound of an explosion from far away. I softly hit the gas and brought our altitude down. It turns out the explosion wasn’t that far away. The G-forces had affected my hearing. For one moment the air car chasing us hadn’t been able to keep up with my flying, and had flown into that building at 500 kph. The owner of the building was going to be mad, but at least government buildings aren’t full of people at night. I was sure they had insurance, anyway.
“Hoo ho ho ho…”
I was riding high. I mean, that fierce air car chase, and we came out victorious! I felt like a million bucks! Yuri glared at me with a bitter look. But there was nothing she could say. Naturally! These hands saved her life. What could she possibly have to complain about? Floating on adrenaline I turned the air car on its tail and did a celebratory zig-zag. My pride had clouded my vision.
“Kei, look out!” Yuri screamed. My eyes opened wide, and I grasped the lever tight. But it was too late.
A gaudy laser advertising tower stood right in our path. The air car flew straight into the steel truss holding the tower up.
The air car’s exterior made a crunching sound and I could feel the engine lose power. Whump, our altitude dropped. We must have fallen out of the advertising tower, as the brilliant lights were now pulling away behind us. Even still, the stalling air car had suffered some pretty serious damage. Smoke started pouring out here and there on the inside.
“Idiot! Stupid! Brainless! Third-rate! Rude! Irresponsible! Numbskull! Redhead!…”
As Yuri showered me with her rather limited supply of insults, I frantically landed what was left of our vehicle in the center of a nearby park.