(This is going to be the last chapter of my story I'm going to post, I don't want anyone stealing my idea and writing the story before I can.... seriously.)
The fight with the highway bandits turned out to be very tiring. Darc began to decide whether or not to turn around and head back. He decided on riding five more miles before turning in.
Darc began to catch the smell of a nearby lake. He saw the tracks of a bullet train running under the highway up ahead. He usually drives up to this spot before turning back.
A gigantic explosion destroyed the road ahead. The magnitude of the blast caused the whole highway to shake and almost made Darc fall off his bike.
"The hell?!" Darc jerked his bike on an angle and slid to a stop before going off the demolished road.
When his motorcycle came to a complete stop he climbed off to examine the damage. He walked to the edge and peered over the side, the large clumps of highway slammed into the ground, covering the railroad tracks for bullet trains.
Darc gasped, "That was too close, I could have been killed!"
He heard a fluttery sound behind him, like the sound of clothing blowing in the wind. He turned back to the highway but saw nothing. Then he noticed something moving from the top of a burnt out highway lamppost. He looked up and saw a figure standing on the top of the lamp.
The figure jumped down from the lamp and landed on the road, it was a man. He looked to be about the same age as Darc, perhaps a year or so younger. His long smoky gray hair moving like waves in the wind. He wore no shoes and no shirt, but had long cargo pants and a war vest, both of them with an urban camo design.
"Who are you?" Darc demanded. For a moment he thought this guy was a friend of Adrian's sent to teach him some respect, but then he remembered that Adrian wasn't the type of guy to let others do his dirty work for him, plus Adrian doesn't have any friends. On top of that, Darc had never seen this guy in the academy before. He wasn't a student.
The man didn't answer and began to walk towards Darc. When the man got closer he noticed that his eyes were red, an unusual color for someones eyes. The only person Darc knows that has eyes like that is Adrian. Dec's attention tore off from the man's eyes when he noticed the tattoos on his arms. They were intricate patterns and designs that in no way resembled a regular tattoo. That's when he noticed the lines of his tattoo were actually the lines used in a transmutation circle. Some people draw transmutation patterns on their bodies so they wouldn't have to waste time drawing them to use Alchemy. But Darc had nothing to worry about; from the looks of it this man doesn't have any power sources to create an Alchemic reaction. But that didn't mean this guy wasn't dangerous.
Darc ran over to his bike and pressed the button on his dashboard. The man let out a grunt and brought both his fists into the ground. The transmutation patterns on his arms flashed with a brilliant red light. The same light left his arms and surged into the ground.
The energy caused the ground to buckle up in a path toward Darc, kind of like a small earthquake. The road was blown apart under Dec's bike. The motorcycle flipped a few times in the air before landing with an unpleasant "crack" on the other side of the road.
The attack had knocked Darc off his feet. When he gathered his senses he thought, That's not possible! How can he use Alchemy without a power source?
One of the swords from his bike had fallen out when the compartments opened. It was a couple of feet away.
He saw the man jump from behind the ripped up road ahead. Darc rolled to the side and out of the way. The man planted his fists in the ground where Darc had been, his arms flashed with the light and exploded the ground underneath.
Darc rolled over to the sword. It was a lightweight samurai style sword with a shock generator. He grabbed it and got to his feet, but when he looked back his enemy had disappeared. All that remained from his attack was a gaping hole in the ground.
A sudden red flash appeared from under his feet. Darc aught sight of this and dove to the side. The ground blasted upward along with a jet of red light.
Darc turned his dive into a roll when he met the ground. He rolled to his feet and readied himself for whatever might happen nest. The man climbed out from the hole ha had just blown in the ground. He stared at Darc with a menacing glare.
"SINH," he muttered.
Puzzled, Darc asked, "Sin? What's that supposed to mean?"
A very feint, but noticeable, whistle blew in the distance. The man first looked in the direction it came, and then looked back at Darc. He slammed his fist into the ground again. Darc ran at him but the ground imploded before he could reach his attacker. When the cloud of dust dispersed the man had disappeared again. He had made another hole in the ground. Darc went up to the hole and looked down. There was no sign of his attacker anywhere underneath the highway.
The whistle blew again, this time louder than before. Darc went to the edge of the road and gasped when he saw what it was. A train was heading down the tracks, straight toward the wrecked highway. The train was miles away, but seeing as how it's a bullet train it wouldn't take long for it to get here.
"That train's going to crash into the highway! I've got to do something!" Darc saw a split in the railroad where it turned into two tracks. If he could manage to get there before the train did he could switch the track before it ran into the destroyed highway.
He ran over to his bike and pulled it to its wheels. He put his sword back into its compartment and hopped into the bike's seat.
"Come on... come on..." he repeated as he tried to turn the engine back on. He heard the whistle of the train again. After a few more tries the motorcycle roared to life. Darc closed the compartments and drove down one of the nearby exits.
The ground in this area was flat and had virtually no trees, so Darc was able to drive across the grass. He saw how fast the train was moving; at this speed he wouldn't make it in time.
Desperate, Darc pressed a different button on his dashboard. The armor protecting the motorcycle's back wheel shifted as two large, and four small extra exhaust pipes slid out. Blue flames shot out of the pipes and propelled the bike even faster. Recent tests showed Darc that with this boost the motorcycle could reach speeds of up to twice as fast as the bike's normal velocity. These small jets consumed lots of energy, so Darc had to install a separate engine just for them.
Darc was coming up to the railroad split, a long pole stood out from between the two tracks. It was one of those switchers that changed the direction of the tracks by leaning to either side. Sure enough, it was leaning toward the track that went into the wreckage.
Darc wouldn't have enough time to stop his bike before the train passed by, he would have to jump off his motorcycle and grab the pole to force it to the other side. It was risky, and it might even threaten his life, but Darc knew that these were the type of situations that professional mercenaries have to face every day.
He slowly put his feet on the seat and stood up, he leaned forward and quickly planned out his timing. When the moment came, he jumped.
The bike swerved out of control and fell over when Darc leaped off. From the added propulsion of his motorcycle his jump was more powerful than he expected, he didn't have enough time to think about whether or not he might overshoot his target.
As fortune would have it his jump was right on the mark. He grabbed the pole and held on tight as his momentum forced the switch to one side. A successful "click" sounded from inside the mechanism.
It seemed fortune had suddenly betrayed him when the pole snapped in half after the tracks had switched, Dec's jump was too powerful and it caused it to break. Both the pole and Darc fell into the railroad track. Bullet trains drive along tall, U shaped tracks that kept the train from flying off its path. There was no way Darc could get out before the train came by. He closed his eyes and braced himself just as the train shot around the corner.
A powerful gust of wind slammed passed his body as his ears popped from the sudden change of pressure. The wind pounded against his body for a few seconds, then it stopped.
Darc slowly opened his eyes. He saw the stars shimmering in the night sky above him. Quickly, he got to his feet to check himself, he was completely unharmed. Bullet trains move due to magnetism so they never touch the ground. Darc looked over his shoulder and saw the bullet train slowing to a halt about half a mile down the track.
He didn't want his face to be plastered all over the news, even if he was branded as a hero. So, he climbed out of the tracks and found his bike. He rode back onto the highway and headed back to the academy.
Gender:
Points: 4119
Reviews: 103