She breathed out while she inserted the key into the socket in front of her next to the handle bars. Turned it and heard the breaths of its loud engine turning on. She  giggled softly, happy to hear it since it had been ages since she rode. 


She looked at Justin, who also just turned on his engine and started to reverse onto the street. He then drove forward towards the exit of the car back. She felt excited to go to the shopping sector since she loved its colours. So she used her legs to reverse the bike from its parking position onto the road behind, turning it towards the exit. 


Skyler took off her feet from the ground,  pulling them to the holders for them. The bike’s wheels started to roll forward and began to gain speed. The cracking of the tarmac slowly got quieter and quieter until she squeezed the brakes and slowly came to a stop. 


The rumble of the bike while idling was still as loud as before. and Skyler put her right foot on the ground when she reached the exit. making the bike lean towards her. She waited for the passing cars to go. Then she pushed off and leaned towards the right to turn. 


She changed gears one to two to three. “Whoo hoo I love this” she exclaimed loudly. To everyone else who was walking along, it  was just muffled noise due to her helmet. 


She increased the speed, the bike revved loudly and echoed through the narrow buildings along the way. While speeding through the roads towards the motorway, she thought about the trials ahead. 


“A mission to see if I’m a good fit, eh?” She smirked confidently under her helmet without realising.  Justin was just ahead of her in his car, and they finally exited the city. 


Skyler got onto the dual carriageway until they got to a roundabout. She put her foot down again onto the pavement. They waited for the lights to change to green. Both Skyler and Justin hit their respective instruments which made their lights flash yellow. Justin turned his steering wheel towards the left. 



They were going around the roundabout to the third exit to the motorway. “The shopping sector,” she thought while driving down the motorway, swerving through different cars and trucks. The scenery was so barren and bare, with just a couple of lakes here and there, that Skyler zoomed past,focused on the way to the barrier. 


When both of them got to the barrier, Justin moved his car to the security booth, where a grunt leaned out of the window. “Oh detective, you again.” He sounded annoyed. Justin looked at the grunt “don’t you dare look down at me I’m your superior” he said while the grunt mumbled and grabbed the lever, pulling on it, and the barrier pulled apart and rose. 


“Thanks,” Justin said while driving through it. The barrier shut after him. “Next!” The grunt shouted, so Skyler pulled up to the window and put down her right foot. Skyler kicked the stand out whilst getting off it, She turned the  key to stop the engine of her bike. Then she unbuckled her helmet, took it off as her blue oceanic eyes locked on the grunt’s. “Papers, please, civilian. You know the drill,” he said while Skyler took out the key and put it into the other lock on the back of her seat. 


Skyler pulled it up and took out a card, which she handed over to the grunt. “Please confirm your name and date of birth.” He looked at her and back at the card. “also your magic.” He inserted the card into a machine “This machine is called the verdict, it detects any falsified information. It double checks your voice and runs it against that card  you just gave me.” He explained. 





Skyler just groaned “I know that already,” she said while crossing her arms and tapping her foot. “Don’t be sassy with me girl, if the information is wrong I’m able to arrest you,” he said coldly. 


“So tell me,” he said with the machine beeping next to him. “Skyler Amberlight, my age is 21, I was born on July 7th 2002, and my magic is umbra” 


It buzzed loudly “are you sure you’re 21 years old?” he asked while tapping the machine. “t shows an error icon on your age.” “Yes I am bloody sure!” she yelled, annoyed at him, “Woah miss don’t yell” he reached for something next to him while his eyes glowed red. “Calm down and restate your age or” he showed a collar with many holes around it “you will be under arrest for identity theft and lying to an officer.” 


She gulped and took a deep breath. She was feeling nervous about being arrested, since she would not be able to be a protector afterwards. “I’m  21 years old, I just haven't changed my age yet.” She explained into the microphone. The machine had no errors anymore. “Well then miss, you should change it before you get to any other sectors.” His eyes turned back to grey and he put down the collar on the desk next to him. 


Skyler stepped back, and leaned against her bike. “Thank god,” she thought while cupping her head. “You're good to go, miss Amberlight.” He pulled the lever and the barrier rose again. “Thank you, mister security guard,” she said while the grunt gave her ID back to her through the window. 


Skyler grabbed it, and put it back into the zipper bag. She then slid it back in the  compartment of her bike. She shut the compartment by slamming the seat back down, locking it in place. Skyler threw her left leg over the bike and inserted the key back into the lock between the handlebars and the speedometer. 


Skyler turned it and the bike came alive once again. She put her helmet back on and  used her feet to push off to gain momentum. Skyler went through the barrier as the grunt closed the window and put up a sign saying “on break.”  


After the barrier, she saw many skyscrapers with water falling from them into fountains.  The water sprayed towards her, hitting the visor. “Bloody hell” she shouted. The water made it harder to see the road of the motorway. She stopped on the side of it, kicking the stand from the bike to keep it stationary while she wiped off the particles of water from her visor.


When the water was removed, she saw the colours refracting off the puddles. It made colours on the windows of the skyscrapers, turning them into paintings. “I am always amazed about this sector.” She thought, smiling underneath her helmet. The uncomfortable buzz from her watch made her look down at it. 


It was Justin calling, and she answered. “Skyler, where are you? I thought you were behind me.” His hologram projected off her watch. “I got held up by the guard since my age was wrong on my documents” She lifted her visor, her eyes glowing blue like the ocean.


 “Also got some water on my visor from those fountains.” Justin moved out frame and the hologram showed off a five story hotel. “Meet me at the oceanic home,” he said while coming back in frame. 


“Be there in a few.” She pressed the hang up button.  She kicked the stand,  pushed off, and went back onto the motorway.


More and more skyscrapers came into view then entirely engulfed the sky, just letting some specks of sun through it.  She got off the motorway to the main street of the city, traversing through the narrow passages towards the hotel that Justin was at.  


When Skyler got there, she saw Justin leaning against a barrier, drinking coffee and holding a box of cigarettes. Justin waved her to an empty space in the parking area. She pulled up and parked her bike. 


She lifted her visor and looked at him. “Are you smoking?” She asked.Justin shook his head and looked at the old box of cigarettes. “This was my father’s.” Skyler looked confused. “Your father’s?” she asked while getting off the bike. 


“Yes, my fathers.” Justin said and Skyler just stared and stood still while the bike still rumbled loudly. “Oh” she whispered while holding her arm “I’m sorry for your loss” she said with a slight frown. 


“Oh don’t be, it was ages ago when I was a child.”  He put the box back in his trench coat pocket. She felt awkward about asking. Justin coughed to clear the awkwardness from the air around them. 


“So why are we at a 5 star hotel Justin, you know I won’t be able to afford this right?” Justin shook his head. “Oh no, we’re not staying here, this was just a way to find you.” He chuckled while Skyler looked confused. “Then where are going” 


“Somewhere on the outskirts.” He pressed a button on his watch and a holographic image of a run down hotel with trash cans outside it on fire appeared. “There was a request from the owners of that hotel,” he pointed to it, “to clear out a bandit camp because they’re damaging their property.” 


“So why are we standing here?”  Her eyes flickered purple. “There’s bad guys, we need to squash them, right?” She shouted and got back on her bike. “It’s not that simple, Skyler,” he said calmly. “We have to investigate where the bandit camp is located.” He shut down the holographic image. “Then we need to get permission to storm it from HQ.”


Skyler’s eyes stopped flickering from purple back to blue as she calmed down. “Okay. So what should we do first?” she asked. Justin stood back while Skyler rolled her bike onto the road from the parking spot. “Ask the owners of the hotel.”


“Eh, why?” Skyler asked, confused. Justin leaned against his car “well we need to know what is happening and why the bandits are attacking them for” he said 


Skyler raised her eyebrow. “But we got the gist of it since they requested the protectors' help, so why do we need to ask? To get the same answer?” She turned on her engine. “Because one of them could be lying or conspiring with the bandits,” Justin said.


“Oh…” Skyler realised that she needs to keep everything face value, things could be not as they seem. She nodded at Justin's statement and lowered her visor. She gently pushed her bike forward until she got to the intersection between the car park and the road. 


***


When they reached the hotel, they were shocked. Since the holographic image was captured a mere day ago things had changed a lot. The hotel was almost destroyed. It now had no doors, wooden barred windows and the lawn was completely covered in ash. 


“By the primordials” Skyler thought to herself when she got off her bike. She kicked the stand and took off her protective gear and helmet. She laid those things in the cabinet underneath the seat. 


She walked to Justin’s car and saw him opening his boot, taking out her suitcase and putting it on the ground. “Here you go Skyler.” She hummed gently and grasped onto the handle, wheeling it behind her towards the entrance. 


The wheels of the suitcase rolled across the pavement, and up the rickety steps through the doors. The interior was wooden with its walls in disrepair. “Hello?” Skyler called. Her voice echoed through the desolate lobby. 



They walked to the front desk and rang the bell while waiting for the owners to come. Skyler whistled and Justin put his hand in his pocket, fiddling with his old box of cigarettes. The piercing noise of the wind going through the broken windows made them turn their heads.


“I guess the owners weren’t able to get those repaired” Skyler said whilst Justin nodded. But when they turned their heads back,  they saw a man with a large dusty leather book. “Good evening,” the man said  as he laid it on the desk.  The dust went everywhere, making all three of them cough. 


“Sorry about that,” he said with a chuckle and picked up a feather with ink dripping from the tip. “So what brings you here?” He asked politely. Justin went in front of Skyler and smiled. “Ah, we are here for the architecture,” he said. The owner chuckled, “yeah the architecture is quite breathtaking since it defies logic.”


The owner locked on Justin's eyes. “How many days are you staying?” he asked while putting out the feather to Justin. “Since you don’t have a booking.”  


“About a week,” Justin said. The owner jotted down the days on the book. “For some sightseeing, right?” Justin nodded. “Yeah, for sightseeing since it’s a beautiful place. Even though it’s for shopping,” 


“Two rooms, right?” Justin nodded. “That would be 120 primerules,” the owner said with a smile at Justin. Then he pushed a machine with a dent on top of it. “Please put your indicator on this to complete your purchase,” he said with a piercing smile like he was some sort of robot. 


Justin obliged. He took off his watch and laid it on the dent. “Purchase complete! Thanks for doing business.”Skyler was just staring at something. “Um excuse me,  what are you looking at?” The owner asked. Skyler scratched her head and blinked. “Well, your architecture is quite beautiful even though it’s a bit rough!” She chuckled, hiding the fact she was just staring at the owner's shadow and seeing the changes of the tone of it. 


“Thank you,” he said, and gave Justin and Skyler keys to their respective rooms. Both of them went to put their belongings in their rooms.


***
Skyler went to Justin’s room. She was impressed that he got out his laptop and equipment to spy. “Nice going spy,” Skyler said, leaning against a wall. “What now?” Justin asked confused, spinning in the chair to face her.


She shrugged, “never mind.” She went towards the door “I’ll be seeing you tomorrow,” she said. “Oh, Skyler, just to let you know, if you go vigilante and stuff you might end up in prison.” Justin told her before she grabbed the handle. 


Skyler rolled her eyes. “Why would I ever do that?” Justin rubbed his eyebrows. “You seem like the type of person who would,” he said. Skyler felt attacked. She opened the door and slammed it behind her. “Fucker” she muttered while walking down the corridor to her own room. 


But before she opened her door, her ears picked up someone talking. She got curious about what the conversation was about, so she quietly walked to the landing and crouched against it, turning her head to listen better and make it clearer.


The first thing she heard was a man with a trembling voice saying “please let her go you, already got everything!” She leaned her head out a bit to see who it was. She saw the owner talking to a person who had a bunny mask on, and who was quite bulky, with bracelets around their arms. “No, not yet.” 


The owner gasped and walked back until he hit his desk. The man with the bunny mask stood over him, looking down at him with a threatening demeanour. “You want me to get more people to give you?” 
He asked gulping and sweating heavily. 


“Yes…” The masked fellow replied and the owner widened his eyes. “No! You got enough from my business.” He looked into the red coloured eyes of the mask. “J-just give me my wife and daughter,” he pleaded. But the masked man grabbed him by the throat and slammed his face on the desk over and over again until it was covered in dark red. “Didn’t you hear me pesky bug? You’re mine and do what I command,” the masked man said before dropping the owner onto the floor. 


Skyler covered her mouth and thought, “why does this keep happening to me?” She slowly turned around, trying not to make a peep of noise while getting up from her crouched position 


She walked quickly to her room. her heartbeat beat rapidly. She could now barely hear anything else except her heart.