Editing Phase Q/Dream Lair

Flying through the sky with your hoverpack, you swerve between buildings, doding utility lines and birds, swirling and twisting through the air.

You’d check your map, but it fell out of your safety vest a long while ago. Anyway, it’s fun to improvise.

Taking a spontaneous left turn, you simultaneously dive down to a lower wind level. Feeling the strengths and directions of the currents at various heights as you go, you swiftly hurtle through the sky like an expert. Where once you needed frequent recourse to your measures and monitors, now you could fly blindly.

A few other flyers come close to you, although with so much vol the city can easily accommodate even its relatively large number of flyers.

Sometimes you run a bit low on speed. Then, you simply pump out a bunch more energy from your fuel pack. The main thing is not to run out mid-flight.

Dipping among trees, you can feel the city streets in all their dimensions. People high up on balconies of skyscrapers wave greetings to you. Good thing they don’t know what mission you’re on.

Winding into the core of the urban zone you’re flying through, the air becomes thick with pollution. Noises from down below make their way up, killing the tranquility you flew through on your way into town.

Here, now that you’ve left behind the relative safety of your hideout, you’re on a high state of alertness. This could interfere with your mission.

Sliding your hoverpack into reverse, you gradually ease down to the ground. The people milling about the crowded marketplace seem hardly to notice your  graceful landing. You pack up your flight control gear, and stride down the street.

In your mind, you already know where you are going. You can feel the streets as if you were walking through your old discarded map. And you know just what you’ll do once you arrive.

A tall man standing on a street corner seems to be watching you. As you go by, you adjust your path slightly to evade him. He watches you, and comes up to talk to you. As he opens his mouth, you see poorly cared for dentition, a rarity these days.

“Hey, what’s happening?” he asks.

“Oh, uh, hi. I was just, uh, out and about.”

He eyes you leerily. “Want to see something cool?”

You hesitate a sec. “Uh, not really. I’ve got to be going.”

As you slip quietly into the crowds, the man’s gaze seems to follow you.

Deking through alleys and streets, you make your way past hundreds of buildings. None of them holds what you want.

Along the way, more people seem to watch you. Can they tell what you’re up to? Or are they just picking up on your anxious pace?

No matter. You’ll continue even if a laser blast comes out of the sky and heads right towards you.

Ah, there it is.

Crawling through a half-height door, with no marking overhead, you have arrived at your destination. You walk into the dream lair.

{{Phase Q}}