Part 3
May 4th, 2513
Budget – 100 Cr
Steps – 1%
Calorie Score (--)
"Griff! Slow down!" Kate yelled.
Her plea was met by deaf ears. Griff rushed down the stairs, jumping and sliding down the rail.
Their new home, in the light of day, was bigger than she'd thought. Five floors with six homes. Each family had an upstairs bedroom floor and a larger downstairs living area. That lower floor was party amounts wide, ending with a balcony so massive it was like its sole purpose was to accumulate snow.
They didn't linger on the bumpy cement on the walls that gave the impression of being made by human hands, or the colourful tile that spoke of their home being a beach home instead of a mountain one.
They had a city to explore, so they hit the snowy road.
The first thing to notice was how overdressed they were!
Tights, yoga pants, skinny… jeans? (denim did not cling to bone so tight)
But the ankles and feet… all pants had fur attached, dense fur bell bottoms.
How weren't the people of Mansfield freezing?
Griff was on her long board, spikey balls crunched through ice and snow, bouncing up and down freely. The axle consisted of metal cups that pulled in and rejected the balls hard enough to force lift, like a levitation spell.
The board lit up from the centre, currents flowing as if drawing power from his shoes. It would have been so gorgeous were
Gravity sped him down the driveway, and up a trash can that had been covered in ice like a ramp from a half pipe.
He left the earth. And Kate's soul evaporated.
Her heart skipped a beat. Griff was vertical when his board struck and slid up the lamppost. The centre of the board sparked as momentum slid it up. Snow from the lamp rained down like confetti. He looked like he was surfing a wave. It was hard to pay attention while her mind actively screamed. 'he's gonna die, he's gonna die.'
The world was ending and only she could see it!
Gravity's good favour ran dry and the board slowed but was abandoned by its rider. Griff floated, his feet twisted and, facing the floor, he stepped onto the post. But it wasn't just a step, it was a stomp, a demand against gravity and science. His feet bypassing the more logical act of climbing to running up a horizontal path. And it was working! One step could be justified under momentum, two steps maybe just good shoes, the third? The fourth? There'd be none of that. It was the sixth where gravity regained its bearings and demanded Griff's fall.
But the little shit had already kicked off the post into the slowest backflip in the world. He was sailing with the board loose in his hand and at his side.
Somehow the board hit the ground first and his weight connected with it at that exact moment upon that same slope, sliding down that improvised ramp and shooting back up the driveway where he slowed to a stop.
"Griff! What the hell was that?" Kate screamed, running at him, panic and violence warring on what she'd do when she got there.
Mother would have killed Kate, and the city would have burst into flame. The world nearly ended!
Despite sprinting, someone passed Kate like she was standing still.
"That was incredible! Seriously. What's your name kid!" The stranger screamed.
The stranger was an alarmingly gorgeous teenage girl with long and shockingly red hair, rich enough to have come from a bleeding scalp. A freckly faced super model 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 slipping between the boy and the glowing redhead.
"Hey easy now, like you said, he's just 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, attempting to be as threatening as possible. But found herself groping handfuls of the girl's chest. Red let herself be molested as a sacrifice to get a step closer to Griffen?
Time seemed to slow as desperate confusion shot panick into all the parts of her body and soul. Did the red head not care about her body? Was it a super elaborate ploy to play at a stranger's shyness? The question stuck in Kate's mind. It made sense, while Kate was flinching, she'd get right up to Griff. That notion was absurd, but at the same time… she knew people like Mother. It was in her face, that face! She was pulling off a soft gasp, trying to look adorably shy while still doubling down… because she has every intention of pouncing!
The urge to slap the logic back into Red, assuming it'd been there before, went from 'I can't hurt something so well made' to 'I must' until it overwhelmed.
Kate's hold went from testing the softness of fresh out of the stove to something that could have juiced a bowling ball. Whatever con job Red was playing wouldn't work because Kate was entirely that kind of girl. Their eyes locked and Red pulled back. The promise of pain in Kate's eyes doing the trick. Or did it? Her push had carried weight to it, but at the same time, despite being the bigger girl, there had been strength and immovable resistance to Red. The girl's fluffy sweater actually hid muscle, the way Kate's even larger one hid shameful skin folds.
"What you just did is what we call a Zenith Moment." Red said with the smile that suggested none of that had happened.
Kate's arms crossed and her frown hardened. She beat the sudden case of nerves that were rioting inside of her gut, setting things on fire.
Griff poked his dumb little head out from behind Kate, head brushing her elbow, which was ticklish but not half as tickling as his hands on his love handles.
"What's that?" He asked.
Red gawked, eyes wide, jaw low, her small mouth shaped as a solid O. The stunned expression was no con, she was genuinely shocked. It forced her to sit on the ice and take a recalibrating breath. If the world were still the Victorian era, she would have been the quaint and adorable queen people tripped over themselves to help. Hell even Kate felt the urge to help her up off the ice.
But it was bullshit. Those victorian girls in the flicks and comics always had the uncanny ability to lock their knees together so tight the jaws of life couldn't impact them. But Ms Red had on leg up high and another on the ground, her tight pants literally outlining the double stitching the outline of her panties. Also, those thighs, Red could kick a tree in half.
And then she remembered herself, like an elastic snapping, she undid herself. Her shoulders straightened, back stiffened and her legs crossed, red hair washing over half her face.
She smiled.
"You guys. You're not from here?" Red asked.
"Yay, a question for a question." Kate sighed.
"Fair enough, my name's Jackie Cordell. Maybe you've heard, no, you haven't. Again, fair enough."
Ms Red's little mouth could move when she wanted it to. She had managed to give herself a full court martial in the space of a few seconds.
"Okay, I'm Kate Simmons, this is Griff. Now before the question makes him lose what's left of his mind… what is… a Zenith?"
"Well, you know with the roid cycle." She said pointing at the sky, "The grav fluxes and only a handful of humans can naturally accommodate to it."
Red was still eyeing Griff like a tiger eyeing a steak.
"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 a spiritual peak. Beyond body and science. It's like you reach out to god and get a thumbs up to move and holy shit do you move!"
No one in the world could have convinced Kate that if Ms Red's legs had still been open, they wouldn't have found a wet patch. Hell, there was still a chance she might have been glued to the ice. But she collected herself and pushed on with her hands rubbing with conspiratorial joy.
"Ahem. In terms of the gap… It's where you reach perfect zero and grav from the roid links within you and boom. God's little go ahead activates and you're no longer a part of the universe. You're bigger, faster, stronger, greater. And the rest of the world, the layman, the civilian, the savage… they can only watch you move. Griff right there just did a 180, back pike flip on a vertical rail… all on a ramp that isn't a ramp, a board that's barely a board, and a post that's more hurdle than grind. And I got the ones and zeroes."
"Which you can't use because he is under age."
"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, those skinny arms were inside her fat. Kate would rather have been smacked with a baseball bat than be self conscious in that moment.
"Of course. Sorry about that. But can I ask?"
"Nope." Kate said, forcing Griff's hug to tighten. Kate kicked forward and then jumped on the board, chest aching with fear and adrenaline as the board surrendered to the slope's 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.
Jackie's acceleration and force were impressive, she'd been right! Those had been 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. Kate's feet raising along with the board and touching down and to her amazement they still had not gone flying. The shock kept her still, but her soul had left her body, left behind, rolling on the tar.
Griff's hold brought her back. They swayed and turned onto the middle of the street, right in front of a de-icing drone. The vehicle was giant, slow-moving and built like a brick, its front churning up ice like a cook with a stir-fry. There wasn't even time to scream, she would still try to though, as both of them bent their knees and leaned in, powering forwards, right towards it!
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Next Time:
Kate's brain says run. Her heart says stay.In a world measured by calories and scores, Tiffany speaks in something stranger — choice.And when she says, "Come see the real city," Kate knows this isn't just about finding a place. It's about finding herself.
🖤 Would you go with her? Comment your answer, ❤️ if you felt that moment, and 🔔 follow to see what waits in the dark.