Mom, I'm Bulletproof

Chapter 16.5: Specific Aura

The opening snapped shut behind him, and the Ergosphere made his way through his own personal flying saucer, jokingly named the Accretion Disc, through the engine room, the larder, the so-called living room lined with leather couches and an entertainment system. Past that were the bedrooms, bathrooms, until he reached the cockpit.

There was Lazlo, flying the ship by waving his hands over the various multi-colored crystals embedded in the panel in front of him.

"The cops shot at you," Lazlo said. "You, of all people."

"Just find the girl and catch up to her."

"But cops are supposed to be the good guys, and I thought we were the good guys. If they are shooting at you when you're unarmed, then are cops the bad guys?"

"We're all just guys."

"I found the girl. Whatever that thing is she's flying, it's got a specific aura, easy to track."

"Show me."

"Yeah, yeah." Lazlo's left hand darted forward for a second, with one fingertip just slightly dancing over a small green crystal off to one side. As he returned his hand, a screen in front of him lit up, showing History Girl on her flying craft speeding away from the Las Vegas strip and out over the city proper.

"Some sort of flying motorcycle thingie," Lazlo said. "It's like some punk kid designed it."

"Stay on target."

"No prob." Lazlo continued fiddling with the controls and the Ergosphere could tell that the ship was gaining on History Girl.

"We're going to have to shoot her down," the Ergosphere said.

"She's just a kid!"

"Disable whatever that thing is she's flying and bring her in for a landing. I'll take over once she's on the ground."

"You realize that all of Vegas can see us flying overhead," Lazlo said. "That includes TV new cameras and YouTube weirdos. For all we know, they're calling in the Air Force right now."

"Don't worry about it," the Ergosphere said. "We need to know what that kid knows."

Lazlo turned and looked at the Ergosphere. Lazlo's third eye, the one in the center of his forehead, blinked just slightly out of sync from the other two.

"Trust me," the Ergosphere said.

Lazlo waved his hands over the appropriate crystals, and the Ergosphere saw on the screen a streak of white light shoot out of the ship's point of view at the girl's vehicle.

The Ergosphere watched as the girl's vehicle wobbled in the air for a second. He experienced a moment of fear, worrying that the girl would fall to her death. Instead, he saw that he had been right. History Girl maintained control of her vehicle just enough to slowly but clumsily guide it to the ground.

"Bring us down as close as you can to her and open the larder delivery door."

"Already on it, boyo," Lazlo said. The Ergosphere hated it when Lazlo called him "boyo." It meant Lazlo was angry at him and they both knew it.

The Ergosphere put a hand on Lazlo's shoulder. "You did good today, Laz, but you're going to have to go back home now."

"Now? You need me. What if the kid takes off again? You can't fly this ship as good as me."

"I brought you for the Donnelly job. This girl? She's part of something else."

"I can't keep going back. There's no flying ships in the city. I'm not cut out to work in a factory."

"I understand. I'll figure something out. You have my word."

Lazlo nodded. The Ergosphere closed his eyes and bowed his head. After just a few seconds of quiet contemplation, he opened his eyes again and Lazlo had disappeared.

The Ergosphere touched his chest. Inside his heart, within the tiniest of pinpricks, Lazlo had returned to the city, and the growing industrial community he and his people called home.

Remembering the task at hand, the Ergosphere ran through the ship, past the bedrooms through the living room and into the larder, which contained food storage and a small kitchenette. The larder's delivery door swung open, filling the room with the stark desert heat from outside.

The Accretion came down on a residential street, lined with expensive-looking houses. One woman in her late 60s wearing a posh bathrobe and even more posh slippers stepped out of her front door to stare at the ship. The Ergosphere pointed a finger at her.

"Go back inside and forget you ever saw this." The woman looked confused at first, but then nodded and ran back inside.

The Ergosphere then turned his attention to History Girl. She sat on her flying machine, jerking on the handlebars, no doubt trying to get it flying again.

"We have to talk," he said.

"Who are you?"

"I'm the Ergosphere."

"The what?"

"I have a miniature black hole inside my chest that doubles as a portal to another world. That's as much as you need to know. Now tell me who you are."

"You shot me down!"

"Tell me what you know about the Temple. I have people who have a vested interest in this topic."

She glared at him. "I suppose you did help out back there in that big saloon."

"I'm an enemy of the Temple." The Ergosphere reached out a hand. "Are you?"

She stepped forward, her angry gaze staying aimed right at the Ergosphere's sunglasses. "If this is a trick, I'll kill you."

"Smart girl." 

She took his hand and shook it. The two of them then carried her flying device, which History Girl called a S.T.E.E.D., aboard his ship. The Accretion didn't have a proper cargo bay or storage area, but there was enough room in the larder for it.

The Ergosphere took the ship into the sky and enveloped it in its living fire. To any outsiders, it would have looked like the ship disappeared in a sudden explosion of unexplained green flame. That was his way of hiding the ship from the naked eye, not to mention any surveillance equipment trained on them. With the Accretion high into the upper atmosphere, it would be out of the way of any regular aircraft.

History Girl sat on one of the brown leather couches in the ship's living room. She set her cowboy hat next to her and shook her head, letting her sandy brown hair fall free around her.

"Feels nice to sit for a bit," she said. 

The Ergosphere folded his arms. "Tell me about the Temple." 

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Next: Lawless land.