After flattening one Maelstrom, Rocky shakes his left hand and checks the arm. Catching a body at that speed hurts. The drag almost tears his shoulder, and for a second, he thinks the prosthetic might pop.
Good thing he injected a stimulant before the rush. The discomfort fades as the drug works.
By now, the Maelstrom crew has recovered from the shock. Realizing someone punched through their block, they rage and scramble to chase.
Rocky leaves them a gift.
Two round grenades drop behind the bike and blink red. They detonate a heartbeat later. The shockwave lifts two cars onto bad angles and throws a few gangers to the pavement.
"Kill that beast!"
"Chase him!"
The rest pile into vehicles. Engines bark. Throttles pin. They surge after the bike.
Rocky hears the chase spool behind him. He looks back. Two Maelstrom riders lead the line.
He smiles and pulls a cylinder from his jacket.
He thumbs the safety. The cylinder extends. Flames spit from both ends. The heat rolling off it makes the air look liquid.
He throws it at the road behind.
The grenade goes off on contact and writes a straight fire wall across the lane.
He throws a second. Two burning lines roar and claw upward—the heat snaps at anything close.
The first car hits the fire with no time to react.—tires bubble and rip. The chassis grinds to a halt in a shower of sparks. That car will not hunt.
The rider behind it has worse luck. He plows into the flame. Every combustible on him lights at once. The bike bucks, loses control, and throws both man and machine. The slide draws a long black scar on the asphalt. The pain editor keeps him from screaming, but the bike's fuel cooks off and ends the noise.
All of that comes from the module Rocky just bought.
{Apex Legends Grenade Integration Pack}
{Contains three basic grenades from Apex Legends.}
{Fragmentation Grenade: Traditional high-explosive. Strong blast and shock. Clears space and shreds unarmored targets.}
{Thermite Grenade: High temperature fuel. On detonation, jets from both ends form a firewall on the ground. Best for blocking and sustained burn.}
{Arc Star: Dart-shaped grenade. Sticks to targets. After penetration, it delivers a disabling electric shock and detonates with high EMP effect, damaging armor and electronics.}
{Price correction: World Adjustment −10% • Gift Pack Offer −20%}
{Item module: 1,050 euros per set}
{Synthesis Workbench recipe expansion: 28,000 euros}
{Technology expansion: 35,000 euros}
To handle this mess, Rocky spent 2,000 euros on two item modules.
Two frags and two thermite walls later, only one car and a bike are still chasing.
"Rebecca! Yours," he calls.
"Got it."
Rebecca has waited for that line. Watching Rocky strip the pack with grenades shocked her. Now she wants in.
One rider keeps coming hard. From the pillion, her angle is very bad.
She lets go of Rocky's waist, hooks her legs around him, and crosses her calves in front to lock herself in place.
Stable.
She leans back, flips her pistol, sights upside down, and fires.
Her shots land. The rider never expects fire from that posture. He tries to react, but the rounds chew his face and helmet into paste.
Up front, Rocky glances down. Rebecca's calves lock hard against him. Soft pressure hugs his waist.
Short legs help here. With longer ones, this move would be a lot harder.
Spicy, he thinks, just as she uses that leverage to pull herself upright again.
"That car runs bulletproof. I can't punch through," she shouts.
She cleared the bike. The last car laughs off handgun rounds. The windshield is thick, and her current firepower will not dig it out.
"Can you throw darts? Press the center safety and stick it," Rocky says, watching the mirror and handing her two Arc Stars.
She turns the twin dart shapes in her palm, confused. "What?"
"Press the center, then stab them with the darts!"
The wind steals half of everything. Rocky raises his voice over the howl.
She still does not know why darts would beat bulletproof glass, but she trusts him. She leans back again, presses the Arc Star's safety, and watches blue arcs climb the fins.
She throws.
The blue light traces a clean arc through the night and hits the windshield. The dart looks small, but it digs in and pierces the laminated glass like it was paper. The gangsters stare at the glowing thing stuck before them for a second. Then the Arc Star fires.
A burst of electric force washes over the nose. The windshield shatters. Razor chips spray into the cabin. Electronics cough and die. Steering kicks wrong. The car loses control.
The second Arc Star follows. It rides the hole, slides into the car, and locks.
The crew has enough time to understand before the charge flashes and the inside fills with smoke, glass, and panic.