Claws skittered as Alethea turned a corner. Her feet sliding out from under her making her compensate by planting her hands on the ground and running on all fours. Sparks flew from both hand and feet as they skittered over the pavement. Alethea was basically drifting around the corner, both her hands and feet were moving over the surface in a different direction than she was moving. She was moving almost sideways with her momentum as she scrabbled against the ground trying to change direction before she went over the side of the road.
This was probably why vehicles tended to use rubber on the road rather than metal.
On the topic of rubber, a guttural roar rapidly approached behind her as Skyler turned hard, tires squealing at their limits as the bike gained fast. She had been quicker off the line than it had been, but it quickly became clear that even though her new legs were amazing, she was not going to win a drag race with an actual vehicle. Hence why she had turned off and gone up more curvy roads. If he could get off the line faster than him, surely she could turn faster too, but NOOO, metal claws didn’t grip asphalt as well as polybutadiene rubber. Heck she’d probably be faster if…
Around the next turn she slid off on purpose. Hitting the dirt hard her feet sank in, compressing the dirt and grit under them hard, but they gripped. She kicked off hard and moved, if was definitely different, less turning the corner and more sliding off an launching again. She did it again on the next corner, and the next. It gave her a bit of a gain, not much, but a bit. It only worked to long as she could keep them on this windy road on the edge of town. She new it wouldn’t last, couldn’t last, eventually things would straighten out, even for a little bit and she’d be overtaken, and….
Was something burning?
Her nose alerted her to the scent, but she wasn’t sure of the direction. She found her mind wandering and as she rounded the next corner she slowed, pushed off less hard and looked around. Eventually she found the source. Hopping over to the metal barrier on the edge of the road she looked out at the lowland areas below her, the flowing frees and fields that ended with the city in the background, and a small pillar of smoke rising from it and blowing their direction with the wind.
Skyler skidded his bike to a stop just behind her and got off, “Babe, something wrong?”
She didn’t answer him, just staring at the sooty pillar. What was burning she wondered? A house? A business?
Skyler followed her eyes to what she was looking at, “It doesn’t look big, and I like I see some lights of fire engines down there. It’ll be out in no time.” There were indeed firetrucks, her eyes saw them much more clearly than just the lights. They would get it out fast, and it wasn’t big. Still she couldn’t look away. Were the people safe? Did they get out? What if they didn’t?
Her legs felt hot, a creeping sensation like standing directly in front of a forced air heater a bit too long. It didn’t make sense. Her legs didn’t ‘feel’ things in the same way, and registering temperature was one thing but being hot was another.
Skyler reached out an placed a hand on her shoulder. “Should we head home?”
She flinched away hard. “No.. No no… too hot … don’t…” She stumbled and started to scoot away, she felt the memory, the bringing, her arms, her legs. Everything it was…. Happening again.
“Ale… you weren’t hot… its fine it….”
She wasn’t hearing him. Her eyes were burning. Smoke and heat getting to them. She clamped her hands to her face shutting her eyes as hard as she could as the fluid in them started to expend from the heat, the same heat that was making the skin on her face peel. And she started screaming. …. Alethea wasn’t sure how long it had been before she came back to reality. What brought her back was a blast of cold water over face. Her eyes opened to the sight of a terrified looking bunny emptying his water bottle over her.
“…S-Skyler…”
“ALE!” He dropped the bottle and knelt down next to her and help her struggle up to a sitting position, “Babe. You were… screaming about burning up and…. I didn’t know what to do.”
She pressed her face to his chest, “I... wasn’t actually burning just… a memory.”
He wrapped his arms around her, and she let herself melt into his chest. His hand rubbed her back, gently stroking up and down on her. He didn’t say anything, didn’t need to, both of them knew what had happened. The reason why Alethea was a reassembled amalgamation of flesh and metal was that she had gotten trapped in a fire. It wasn’t a fast injury, it wasn’t over quickly, and she had been conscious for a good bit of it.
She shivered a bit in his arms. Probably partially from the water he shocked her back to awareness with, and partially the mud on the side of the road she had fallen into. He only tightened his hug on her and started to lift, “I’ll get you home. Ok?”
She nodded a bit as she was lifted and her wet muddy butt was planted on the seat of his bike, “your ride’s gunna get dirty…”
“It’s fine, babe. It’ll live.” He slid in front of her, grabbing onto the handlebars, “Think you can hold onto me?”
She nodded and wrapped her arms around his warm athletic frame, she was so glad she had someone to pick her up right now. Despite what she had been through, she hadn’t expected to just, black out into a screaming mess at the scent of a distant housefire. What if she had been alone? How long would she have just laid on the side of the road? Would someone nice have found her? Someone less nice?
A comforting rumble started up beneath her. Echoing through her man and up through her crotch and then the rest of her. She found herself smiling a little and the pleasant grumble and purred with it, hoping Skyler could feel her own rumbles alongside his bike’s.
