11-28-2016, 03:39 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-28-2016, 01:00 PM by Kelly MacAryn.
Edit Reason: Sentence structure, missing words. Basically posted-at-2-AM damage control.
)
Tier Four was a dramatic change.
Kelly had stepped into the high-speed elevator on Tier-Two, where it was late afternoon. He'd had to change elevators at Tier-Three, and go through a security checkpoint manned by two storm-troopers with a hand-held scanner. It had been daylight there too, and while not quite as impressive as the first two tiers, it had still been in line with their general aesthetic.
Not so on Tier-Four. The traveler stepped out of the turbo-lift and into a vibrant, roaring neon midnight.
Dark obelisks and vaguely pyramidal towers butted up against the sable-black artificial sky, wrapped in electric billboards. Far from graceful slopes and a spacious aesthetic, these were blackened, kilometer-high monoliths, their no-nonsense lines and severe curves highlighted by brightly lit piping in every conceivable eye-stabbing shade. Instead of challenging the sky, they dominated it, and called it filthy names. The skyline here felt threatening and close, as though a mob of looming titans cloaked in gaudy advertisements was trying to press-gang you into buying weapons, and condoms, and beer, and toothpaste, and television, and Dataverse access, and life-insurance, and real-estate, and yes, Pepsi.
Weaving through this electric jungle, the aerial traffic was fast, loud, and furious, little more than ranks of shadows flashing past the neon lights. Sleek, dangerous-looking sport-flyers, hover-bikes, and mean-looking beaters driven by millionaires, miscreants and maniacs screamed past a hundred stories up, powered by turbojet fans and old, inefficient vector-impulsors glowing with cherenkov radiation.
At ground level, the windy, narrow avenues snaked between the malls and the housing projects, the casinos and betting parlors and bars, and the labyrinthine tower-foundations. They were crowded with people of every size, color, and species, and lined with stalls draped in charms, knicknacks and glowing chemical tubes, where street-level hucksters hawked their wares. The Imperial presence was light, the storm-troopers as lost in the crowd as everyone else, and the air smelled of unwashed bodies, desperation, and frantic, electric hope - the kind that said yes, you could buy happiness, but only if you bought everything else first.
If the other Tiers were imitations of Tier-One, then this was its dark reflection.
Drifting through a sea of moving bodies, Kelly loosened his tie. He felt light-headed, and he was fairly sure it wasn't the crowd.
Not now...
Fortunately, it passed quickly, the wave of devastating fatigue he'd been expecting failed to materialize - but even so, he felt different. The buzzing under his skin, which he'd grown accustomed to in the - had it only been nine hours? - since he'd left the frozen fields, had abruptly changed to more of a soothing hum. The power was still there, the forces at his command didn't feel like they'd changed in magnitude, and he was still stuck with his basic, rinky-dink human senses. Now though, his psychokinetic potential felt more controlled, more responsive.
Still no extrasensory haptic feedback. I can feel my own body though.
Pushing through the crowd, he smiled, and he shifted his mindset just a little bit.
"Sussurusshhh...."
It wasn't exactly a grand explosion of otherworldly power - more like a strong breeze. But oh, the difference it made! Kelly could feel the sudden tension in his body, the responsiveness, the solidity, the sheer force! His clothes and hair whip-cracked as he strode through the crowd, blown by a wind that touched nobody else. He felt stronger than any human being, tough as a block of concrete and probably fast enough that it wouldn't even be frustrating if he had to fight. Even the power itself felt stronger as it washed through him like the waters of a cool stream...
Somatic vector overlay - a psychokinetic enhancement of my own physical form.... I think I've done this before.
It was tiring though. Even though the overlay made him much more durable, the physical stress on his body was tremendous.
He turned it off - no use wearing himself out sooner than necessary.
Kelly looked around, suddenly self-conscious. He wasn't the only Prime, after all. Even though the surveillance on this level seemed practically non-existent, with this many people around, there was probably somebody nearby who'd been able to feel that. Nobody was looking his way, but that didn't necessarily meant anything.
I don't want to draw attention to myself here. I have a job to do.
Doing his best to get lost in the crowd, Kelly hurried on his way.
Kelly had stepped into the high-speed elevator on Tier-Two, where it was late afternoon. He'd had to change elevators at Tier-Three, and go through a security checkpoint manned by two storm-troopers with a hand-held scanner. It had been daylight there too, and while not quite as impressive as the first two tiers, it had still been in line with their general aesthetic.
Not so on Tier-Four. The traveler stepped out of the turbo-lift and into a vibrant, roaring neon midnight.
Dark obelisks and vaguely pyramidal towers butted up against the sable-black artificial sky, wrapped in electric billboards. Far from graceful slopes and a spacious aesthetic, these were blackened, kilometer-high monoliths, their no-nonsense lines and severe curves highlighted by brightly lit piping in every conceivable eye-stabbing shade. Instead of challenging the sky, they dominated it, and called it filthy names. The skyline here felt threatening and close, as though a mob of looming titans cloaked in gaudy advertisements was trying to press-gang you into buying weapons, and condoms, and beer, and toothpaste, and television, and Dataverse access, and life-insurance, and real-estate, and yes, Pepsi.
Weaving through this electric jungle, the aerial traffic was fast, loud, and furious, little more than ranks of shadows flashing past the neon lights. Sleek, dangerous-looking sport-flyers, hover-bikes, and mean-looking beaters driven by millionaires, miscreants and maniacs screamed past a hundred stories up, powered by turbojet fans and old, inefficient vector-impulsors glowing with cherenkov radiation.
At ground level, the windy, narrow avenues snaked between the malls and the housing projects, the casinos and betting parlors and bars, and the labyrinthine tower-foundations. They were crowded with people of every size, color, and species, and lined with stalls draped in charms, knicknacks and glowing chemical tubes, where street-level hucksters hawked their wares. The Imperial presence was light, the storm-troopers as lost in the crowd as everyone else, and the air smelled of unwashed bodies, desperation, and frantic, electric hope - the kind that said yes, you could buy happiness, but only if you bought everything else first.
If the other Tiers were imitations of Tier-One, then this was its dark reflection.
Drifting through a sea of moving bodies, Kelly loosened his tie. He felt light-headed, and he was fairly sure it wasn't the crowd.
Not now...
Fortunately, it passed quickly, the wave of devastating fatigue he'd been expecting failed to materialize - but even so, he felt different. The buzzing under his skin, which he'd grown accustomed to in the - had it only been nine hours? - since he'd left the frozen fields, had abruptly changed to more of a soothing hum. The power was still there, the forces at his command didn't feel like they'd changed in magnitude, and he was still stuck with his basic, rinky-dink human senses. Now though, his psychokinetic potential felt more controlled, more responsive.
Still no extrasensory haptic feedback. I can feel my own body though.
Pushing through the crowd, he smiled, and he shifted his mindset just a little bit.
"Sussurusshhh...."
It wasn't exactly a grand explosion of otherworldly power - more like a strong breeze. But oh, the difference it made! Kelly could feel the sudden tension in his body, the responsiveness, the solidity, the sheer force! His clothes and hair whip-cracked as he strode through the crowd, blown by a wind that touched nobody else. He felt stronger than any human being, tough as a block of concrete and probably fast enough that it wouldn't even be frustrating if he had to fight. Even the power itself felt stronger as it washed through him like the waters of a cool stream...
Somatic vector overlay - a psychokinetic enhancement of my own physical form.... I think I've done this before.
It was tiring though. Even though the overlay made him much more durable, the physical stress on his body was tremendous.
He turned it off - no use wearing himself out sooner than necessary.
Kelly looked around, suddenly self-conscious. He wasn't the only Prime, after all. Even though the surveillance on this level seemed practically non-existent, with this many people around, there was probably somebody nearby who'd been able to feel that. Nobody was looking his way, but that didn't necessarily meant anything.
I don't want to draw attention to myself here. I have a job to do.
Doing his best to get lost in the crowd, Kelly hurried on his way.
Quote:731 words according to wordcounter.net
5674 words total. Minimum word-count reached!
Meet with Pepsiman at PepsiCo HQ on Tier-2 (accomplished)
Travel to Tier 4 (Accomplished)