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"You know, I don't normally move this fast after meeting a guy!" Tempe joked, shouting over the wind. She hadn't met Firebrand before today and she really wasn't the type to jump on motorbikes with random guys. She had been walking through the city just to get some shopping when things had kicked off. It wasn't uncommon for random, violent arrests to occur in the street, often on fake or trumped up charges. It wasn't uncommon for there to be some resistance, from both the arrestee and their friends. It was unusual for the arrestee to start throwing fireballs at the robots trying to slam them into the ground. While he was able to fend them off in a wild display of literal firepower, reinforcements quickly came pouring in. Tempe decided to lend a hand, glad she always carried a gravity stone.
If she had her pole she would've been able to join the fight more proactively. But the gravity stone meant she could at least throw off the robots balance with a touch on them, providing an opening for the pyrotechnic to escape.
"C'mon, the radio's gonna be hot after that!" She finally got her first glimpse of him. He was a dusty purple hedgehog with high, wild orange quills. He wore a spiked leather jacket, steel-toed boots and gloves and was paused, confused over how the robots had fallen over. Tempe ran in and grabbed his arm, pulling him out of the growing crowd and towards an alley.
"Hey, wait! That's a dead-end!"
"It's fine!"
"It's not fine!" He dug his heels in and resisted her pulls. She saw a flare of fire in his palm and quickly let go, not wanting to end up singed.
"No look - listen, there's no dead ends in this city for me." She pulled out her gravity stone, showing the polished crystal to him. But he locked onto her clothing, spotting the cloudy gem around her neck.
"Oh shit. You're from the islands, right?"
"Yeah!"
"STOP. DO NOT RUN. DO NOT RESIST." More robots were quickly stomping onto the scene.
Tempe grabbed Firebrand again and pulled him after her, holding the stone tight.
"Don't think, just keep running!"
"Wait, how's this gonna work?" Firebrand kept running though, initially trying to prise his arm free but Tempe held tight. As they approached the wall, Tempe simply ran up it as naturally as she would on the ground. The most difficult part was that she had to concentrate to affect Firebrand's centre of gravity, who hesitated initially when standing on the wall.
"What-"
"That's thinking, keep going!" She pulled him again and he moved. At the top of the wall she changed gravity again so they climb over the edge normally. The change of gravity really threw off the hedgehog, who practically dropped over the wall instead.
"Ah-! How do you do that just, like that?" He got on his feet, correcting his clothes.
"Lots of practice. How do you throw fireballs?"
"...Practice." He gave her a confident smile, snapping his fingers. "Name's Firebrand."
"Tempe." She beamed back to him. They didn't get to talk any further as loud shouts echoed over the wall.
"IDENTIFIED: FIREBRAND THE HEDGEHOG. TEMPE THE HEDGEHOG. STOP. DO NOT RESIST ARREST."
"My turn now. C'mon!" Firebrand took off down the alley and Tempe followed as fast as she could. "How many can you like, take out?"
"The robots? A few but I'd be much better at it with my staff."
"Just a few? You can't like, throw cars at them?" Tempe frowned.
"What? No! I don't have that kind of power!"
"You don't? Urgh... we'll just have to settle with getting out of here then. I got a way out, you just need to keep up for now." The pair ran, slipping into twisting alleys. "And we might need to do more of that wall running stuff to get there faster. That okay?"
"Yeah, that I can easily do. Just don't lose your balance this time!" Tempe responded. Although she hoped where-ever they were going, it wouldn't be too far. She wasn't a fast runner, and wouldn't be able to keep up the pace for long.
She almost bumped into Firebrand as he suddenly stopped down another seemingly random alley.
"Here it is!" Tempe looked around and realised what Firebrand was referring to; a motorbike, exactly the kind she had seen being used by the biker gangs in the outskirts.
Firebrand straddled it and gestured for her to get on. He revved up the engine once she was behind him. "You ever ridden on a bike?"
"Not one like this. I-"
"Just hold on then!" Tempe gave a squeak as the bike lurched forward, wrapping her arms around his waist as Firebrand drove them onto the road, away from the city. The feeling of riding the bike was almost the same as riding the hoover jets back home on the islands, after the initial jump. She relaxed her grip as they drove through the outer city suburbs and into the outskirts.
They had been driving for a little while before Tempe made her little joke. Firebrand grinned. "Yeah? Well I'm the type of guy to take a girl for a ride." Tempe laughed, glad he took the joke well and didn't get himself in a twist about it.
"So, where are we heading?"
"I got a place I go to lie low when the cops decide they're gonna give me trouble. It's a bit out of the way but it's small and they never come out here looking for troublemakers. Once you're out of the city limits they generally don't bother chasing."
"Ur... am I allowed there?"
"You helped me evade the cops by having us literally run up walls. You're totally allowed." The city still loomed in the distance as they slowed, approaching a small diner named 'The Outpost'. Over the road was another establishment called 'The Knockout' - a hotel judging by the neon 'NO VACANCY' on display, although the 'NO' wasn't lit.
Firebrand parked his bike, heading over to the door and pushing it open for them. The inside of the diner was a Frankenstein monster of aesthetic. It had clearly been built with a 1950's decor in mind; black and white tiles, red leather chairs and decorative lights displaying various catchphrases and silhouettes. But the overhead lights had broken years ago, leaving over the red and blue neon lights to illuminate the diner. The walls were taken up with trinkets for sale, varying from small mechanical parts to wires to books and manuals. But it wasn't grimy or full of bugs, just cluttered. The hostess' stand had several posters and flyers for other businesses on the edge of the city. A modern radio system played an old, mellow crooner's song from long ago.
It was mostly empty, with a few people sitting at the bar and only one of the tables occupied. Firebrand led them to his preferred table, in the corner so he could easily survey the room. Tempe joined him, and checked over the menu. It was strangely varied yet limited, having one or two dishes from various cuisines to try and cater for anyone who might stop by.
"Do you come here often?"
"Yeah. Like I said, it's a good place to stay for a few nights when you need to be out of the city."
"Do you know the owners?" Tempe tilted her head. Firebrand scoffed and shook his head.
"Nah. It's attached to motel, on the other side of the street. It's cheap enough and they don't ask a bunch of questions or want ID. Just don't cause too much trouble, pay upfront and they'll let you in."
After ordering drinks and a pizza, they more formally introduced themselves.
"So, were you named Firebrand or did you choose it? A lot of people just seem to be given names down here and use whatever they are for their surname."
"I chose it. After I realised what I could do." He frowned though, looking squarely at the table. Tempe hesitated. It didn't seem like he wanted to talk about that. Thankfully he looked up at her questioningly.
"Wait. You said people are 'given names' down here. Isn't that how it works? Your parents give you a name and that's that? And what dya mean by a surname?"
"I mean. Sometimes it is." Tempe shrugged. "But a lot of people choose their name. I chose my name when I was about eight. And a surname is like. It's a second name that says what family you came from. Sometimes people change that too, if they weren't that close to their family or decide to get married."
"So you chose to be Tempe... whatever your surname is?"
"Well, technically that's a nickname. My full name is Temperance Mirrorlake."
"...that's the fanciest name I've ever heard in my life."
"Which is why I usually just go with Tempe!"
Their food arrived at that point, giving them time to finally eat and ruminate in the quiet of being with someone new.
"That gravity stuff." Firebrand began, as he picked up his second slice. "How does that work?"
"Well, it's to do with these stones. They're found deep within the islands - we don't fully understand it but they have anti-gravity properties. We reckon it's why the islands float in the sky, so we're careful about mining them." She pulled out the cut gravity stone, which gleamed beautifully in the dim lighting. "There's different colours but it doesn't really affect what they do. Essentially, if we keep half a mind on it, it just...works." She touched the gem to a slice of pizza, on the crust, and thought about it floating. And it did, glowing a soft pink.
Firebrand stared in awe at the floating pizza, reaching out to poke it. The pizza dropped before he even touched it though, and Tempe shrugged. "But it's just temporary. That's why we have the stones in our shoes usually. That way they're always connected to us and the floor we're affecting."
"Oh. That's why you do that dumb looking jump thing, isn't it? Where you keep throwing your feet out to where you're landing?" He asked, reaching for another slice that hadn't been airborne.
"Yeah!" Tempe wasn't even bothered by him calling the way she jumped 'dumb'. She picked up the fallen slice, making sure the cheese wasn't sticking to the table and biting straight into it. "What about you? You have that fire stuff, right?"
"Oh yeah." Firebrand snapped his fingers and a light flicked between his fingertips, catching onto his index finger. Now it was Tempe's turn to be amazed as she sat up straight and swallowed her bite of pizza, staring in awe at the fire.
"Woah. Is that...innate?"
"Yeah, I just. Can do it." Firebrand looked at the flame with a strange look. But he snuffed the fire and focused on his food again before Tempe could identify his expression. "It's not that fancy."
Sensing he didn't want to talk, Tempe turned to the window. All was dark now inside the diner, casting them in shades of red, blue and purple from the dim neon lights. Outside she could see the city still, a beacon of dotted lights like fallen, dirtied stars on the horizon. She turned from it, looking out to absolute darkness.
"It's not bad out there you know."
"Hm?" She turned to Firebrand, who had followed her gaze out the window. he was looking down the road, the path lit with sparse guiding lights leading away into the black.
"There's nothing there. It's just you, and the road. You can start a fire and no-one cares. You can do whatever you want. There's other cities, other towns. But they're the same really. All full of people trying to live and people desperate to stay on top of the chain, and the people in-between who are comfy enough to see the problem but who won't do anything about it, since they're getting by just fine and have got nothing to lose." His expression became stormy as he talked. Tempe nodded understandingly.
"It's so different from home... it wasn't perfect up there, but it was very different. I don't know when I'd ever get to go back."
"You can't reverse gravity and land on the bottom of the island and walk around to the surface?" Tempe raised an eyebrow, then shook her head. "Well, no. The fall would kill me. I can't float myself - I just decide what way gravity is for me. I can temporarily slow my fall with altering gravity in certain ways but from such a height, the velocity would be too much."
Firebrand paused. "...is that what you learn in maths, instead of things about trains going at different speeds and crashing into each other?"
"I guess." Tempe gave him a half smile, looking back to the sky. Firebrand followed her gaze again. They remained quiet for a little bit, finishing their food and drinks. When the bill came, Tempe put in her half and stood, stretching out.
"You staying at the motel tonight or are you gonna head back to the city?"
"...I'll probably stay for the night. This seems like it'd be a good place to get away, every now and then. And," she smiled playfully at Firebrand. "I don't have a ride back."
"I'd take you back if you wanted." Firebrand started, but Tempe shook her head.
"Nah, it's fine. It's nice to remember that there's place outside the city. But I'm getting my own room!" Firebrand took a moment to proceed what she meant, then raised an eyebrow after her.
"Really?"