The sky flashed blue and red.
A flying police cruiser lowered itself from the smog. It looked like a shark made of black metal. The word POLICE was painted in neon letters on the side.
"Stay down!" Jory screamed, pulling Kaelen behind a crate.
A loud speaker on the car boomed.
"ILLEGAL EXIT DETECTED. SLAVE UNIT 89-VOS. SURRENDER NOW OR BE TERMINATED."
Kaelen peeked over the crate. The cruiser had a turret gun on the bottom. It was aiming right at them.
"They know my name," Kaelen grinned. Blood dripped from his nose to his chin. "I'm famous."
"They are going to turn us into paste!" Jory cried.
Behind the police car, two more were coming. Then three more. The sky was filling with enemies.
Kaelen looked at his hands. They were shaking. He was tired. Using the 'Logic Breaker' power took energy. If he used it too much, his brain would melt.
I can't fight an army, Kaelen thought. Not yet.
"We need to run," Kaelen said.
"Run where?" Jory pointed at the open street. "They have guns. We have legs. We won't make it ten feet!"
Kaelen looked at the police cruiser hovering above them. It was floating on a cushion of blue anti-gravity energy.
"Gravity," Kaelen whispered. "It's such a fragile rule."
He stood up.
"Hey!" Kaelen shouted at the police car. he waved his hands. "Look at me!"
The turret turned toward him.
"TARGET LOCKING."
Kaelen focused his eyes on the blue energy holding the car up. He didn't try to break the car. He tried to break the idea that the car could fly.
Cars don't fly, Kaelen told himself. That is stupid. Cars fall.
He pushed his madness into the engine.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: LOGIC BREAKER]
[TARGET: ANTI-GRAVITY ENGINE]
[RESULT: REALITY REJECTED]
SPUTTER.
The blue light under the police car turned off.
For a second, the car just hung there, confused. Then, physics remembered how to work.
CRASH.
The flying car dropped like a stone. It smashed into the concrete platform right in front of Kaelen. Metal crumpled. Glass shattered. The shockwave knocked the other miners down.
"Go!" Kaelen yelled.
He grabbed Jory by the collar and sprinted.
They ran past the smoking wreck of the police car. They ran toward the edge of the platform where a maze of dirty alleyways began.
RAT-TAT-TAT.
The other police cars started shooting. Bullets chewed up the ground behind them.
Kaelen didn't look back. He ran faster than he had ever run in his life. His lungs burned. His legs felt like lead.
They dove into a narrow alleyway between two giant factories. It was dark, wet, and smelled like garbage.
"Keep moving!" Kaelen ordered.
They scrambled over trash cans and splashed through puddles of green slime. The sound of sirens faded a little bit, but the drones were still buzzing overhead.
They ran for ten minutes until they couldn't breathe.
Jory collapsed against a wet brick wall. He gasped for air. "I... I think... we lost them."
Kaelen leaned against a dumpster. He was dizzy. His vision was blurry.
He looked at the group. Only three miners had made it. Jory, a young girl named Mina, and a big silent man named Jax. The rest were gone.
"Where are we?" Mina whispered. She was shaking.
Kaelen looked up. The buildings here were so tall they blocked the sky. Neon signs flickered in the dark.
GIRLS - GUNS - NOODLES.
CYBER-PARTS: CHEAP.
They were in the Slums. The bottom of the city.
Kaelen slid down the wall to sit on the ground. He closed his eyes for a second.
DING.
A blue screen appeared in his mind.
[COMBAT REPORT]
[ENEMIES DEFEATED: 1 POLICE CRUISER]
[EXPERIENCE GAINED: 500]
[WARNING: MANA (SANITY) LOW.]
Kaelen laughed weakly. "We are in the trash can of the city."
"What do we do now?" Jax asked. His voice was deep. "We have no food. We have no money. We are fugitives."
Kaelen opened his eyes. The blue light in his irises was dim, but it was still there.
"We don't need money," Kaelen said. "We are going to take what we need."
He looked at the flashing neon sign across the street that said CYBER-PARTS.
"First," Kaelen said, standing up on shaky legs. "I need a weapon that doesn't make my brain bleed."