Lost Rain

Outrun - Chapter 310

The apartment complex was mostly abandoned. It was kinda eerie on our way up. Advertisements along the walls and ceiling played to ghosts, making the halls twist and twirled with colorful lights that no one could see. Massive waste of electricity, but waste was the name of the game for Aythryn City though.

There were a few Fang scattered around. They were way above the bottom feeders out front that were in charge of keeping people away. Most of them simply glanced at us and then moved o...

Outrun - Chapter 309

It’d been a day since we went to see Uncle Ezra. He was busy with stuff regarding the military. I thought Mira would want to hang out with her dad more, but weirdly enough she seemed to be avoiding him. There was definitely something going on there. 

I wasn’t idle either. Yesterday, after leaving the diner, I ran several small Gravitic crystals over to Absolom Clinic as a payment for Doctor Cumen. I didn’t get to see her expression since she wasn’t there, but Nael sent me a...

Outrun - Chapter 308

I sat next to Mira in the booth of a diner not far from Blitz Base. I was planning on originally just heading into the base to meet Uncle Ezra as he landed, but that plan fell through. He insisted we stayed off the base as much as possible. Must be worried a traitor was still in the base. I told him it was gang, of course, but he wasn’t convinced.

Which brought up a weird point. Was Mira really just captured by bad luck? Or was she set up by a traitor in the FSA’s military as a way ...

Outrun - Chapter 307

I worked on stuff for a couple hours while I tried to figure out how to approach Mira. For her part, she sat around on one of my work tables and idly watched me busy myself running from one machine to the next. 

My autominer robots I was designing were mostly complete. My prototype was slowly coming along. It started with six legs supporting an upper body about the size of a cat. Honestly, it looked like a miniature version of the spider-tank that chased me around. 

It e...

Myth//OS - Chapter 59

-🝰-

I sat inside of a hospital room. The heavy scent of chemicals burned my nose far more than they usually did, and the clinical whites of the room were like a flashbang.

Beep! Beep!

A console next to an inhabited bed beeped lightly with life signs. I couldn’t see who it was though. I was down on the ground, much lower than my usual height. I could see Lucia sitting in a chair nearby though. Her face was heavy with worry.

How did we get h...

Outrun - Chapter 306

”Shiro!?” Mira appeared at the door to the bathroom in a flash, wide-eyed and ready to go. “You alright?”

”Ah- sorry… d-didn’t mean to wake you up.” I glanced at my mikata, dipping my head without looking at her.

”What’s wrong- Oh.” Mira paused at the door, staring up at my hair.

”Yeah.” I forced a laugh and backed away from the mirror. I’d have to go buy some hair-dye now… at least it wasn’t anything too crazy. I just had a couple streaks of ...

Outrun - Chapter 305

”Trust me. It’s all part of the plan. I’m just- I-I’m faking being nervous so she won’t feel uncomfortable around me! Yeah- yeah, that’s the reason!” A voice called out, though it sounded far away.

“You’d sound a lot more convincing if you weren’t trembling…”

Ugh- my head. It pounded with a headache that just wouldn’t go away no matter how much I tossed and turned. My eye scrunched tight and I wormed my way deeper into my blanket, trying to just go back t...

Outrun - Chapter 304

“Here.” I handed the stuff over to Fox. Or, more accurately, I offered them and they kinda just floated over to her. Probably some kind of magic? I wasn’t a hundred percent sure. Aetherial Perception was going crazy in the Aether.

“Hmm…” Fox looked over the parts, looking far more confident and in control with something to focus on. They twisted in the air in front of her, feathers twirling. “U-um, th-this will take a minute. C-can one of y-you show Shiro around?”

...

Outrun - Chapter 303

I was knocked onto my rear by a particularly large fox and then literally drowned in fur. There were so many of them that it was hard to breath. I lightly ruffled the kit that jumped up onto me’s ears, and that seemed to just set the rest of them off. It wasn’t all bad. Their fur was incredibly soft, and rubbing up against me kept making me laugh at the ticklish sensation. Not to mention they were incredibly cute. 

The kit that was in my arms was plucked out by one in heavy arm...

Outrun - Chapter 302

As it turned out, getting the hibiscus set up right was hard. So much harder than I gave it credit for. Thankfully, Mira took it off my hands and focused on getting everything done all by herself. She seemed just happy to have something to do considering recent events.

When night rolled around, she opted to sleep on the couch for the first time since I rescued her. I decided to take it as a sign that she was recovering. It was probably for the best to be honest. Becoming highly dependen...

Outrun - Chapter 301

We didn’t hang around the speakeasy for long. I just swung by quick enough to get some parts printing. There were two new projects I had my eye on. The micro-fabricator for Nael was the first. The second was an autominer I’d been roughly sketching recently. 

I needed space. Building a workshop above ground could work. I could just go buy a warehouse and set something up, even. It wasn’t a perfect idea though. I had first hand experience with how easy it was to infiltrate plac...

Myth//OS - Chapter 58

I pushed open the door and got my first look at the man that would become my manager. Although he was wheelchair bound, the guy was incredibly well built. It looked like he just got out of the military a day ago rather than honorably discharged several years ago. 

He had a similar grizzled veteran vibe that Sarge had, though he seemed a bit more tame. Being off the battlefield could dull even the sharpest of claws. That didn’t mean they weren’t still deadly though.

While ...

Outrun - Chapter 300

While Mira settled back into her own skin, I left the room to speak with Nael. I found the man sitting down on the edge of the clinic by himself reading a book. Doctor Cumen was gone. Hadn’t seen her since yesterday she did some more final checks on Mira to ensure everything still went smoothly. I forced my steps to become loud.

“Shiro.” Nael closed his book and looked up. “Is she up?”

”Chek. Getting used to the modified chrome.” I stopped in front of him and shifted...

Outrun - Chapter 299

Mira paused behind me. I likewise ground to a stop and looked back at her. Snow drifted around her, settling on her beanie, halo, and shoulders. “You okay?”

My mikata looked back toward the hover bike parked on the roof and huddled into a poncho. It was one of the extras I ordered. “I- I don’t know about this- what if something goes wrong- how much do you trust this doctor- can we just leave?”

“Mira. Look at me.” I moved to her side, standing on my tippy-toes to even...

Myth//OS - Chapter 57

Outrun - Chapter 298

I parked near the HQ and left a spectral flock bird stashed inside one of my saddlebags just in case. I didn’t get the vibe I’d be arrested from the short call I had with Hope, but it never hurt to be safe. I’d rather be over prepared than caught off guard and captured.

”I told you. I’m fine . . . I’ll be back in a bit.” I whispered gently. The Packheart Ring caught the near silent whisper and transmitted it to the its linked ring.

“If you say so- it's not somethin...

Myth//OS - Chapter 56

It started with a bang. Literally. The cannon on top of the APC fired off when they closed in, starting the entire fight off. The cannon wasn’t aimed at Temoc and the Wardens, who could probably survive one way or another. It was aimed at the grunts in tac-gear. 

When the cannon fired, several things happened almost instantaneously. The entire cave shook for one. The sound echoed around loud enough to destroy my eardrums if I didn’t have Ebonshroud earplugs on hand. 

Myth//OS - Chapter 55

Outrun - Chapter 297

I snuck down to the server room, easily bypassing most of the security. I’d done this dozens of times by now. This place couldn’t hold up to some of the other security I’d gotten through in the past. There were more turrets scattered around, but they were just as useless as always. Guns didn’t matter if no one knew where to shoot.

The biggest issue I ran across was people, but a confident stride and flicks of Fear the Reaper kept most corpo-drones away from me. As for actual sec...

Outrun - Chapter 296

I left Mira behind. I could still feel her with the ring though. She was like a second heartbeat filling me with a soft comfort knowing that I wasn’t alone. If it had this much of an effect on me, hopefully it’d have a strong effect on her. Mira had made it clear she didn’t want to be alone. As much as I wanted to fulfill that wish, I had things I needed to do.

While flying out on my newly finished hover bike, I tested the ring a few more times. I had to actually speak for her to ...

Myth//OS - Chapter 54

Outrun - Chapter 295

“Why are we in the closest- this is really tight with two people.” Mira pressed into the cleaning closet behind me. She may have had a point. When I finally buy this building and made the bar public-ish, I’ll have to expand the entry.

“Just- just give me a sec.” I hit the hidden release brick, revealing the pad to open the main doors. I put in the password and the mechanisms behind the walls started to move. “It’s O five, two five, twenty-seventy-three.”

“Your bi...

Myth//OS - Chapter 53

Outrun - Chapter 294

I waited for Mira to get in the shower before I bought the flowers from Hummingbird. I wasn’t a hundred percent what to expect. The Aether trembled, and a cardboard box popped out like some kind of wild express delivery.

”Oh…” I stared at the box, hesitantly reaching out a hand to it. There was a note stuck to the top of the box.

I pulled it off, opening it up. It was done on fancy flower stationary. ‘Thank you for the purchase! Enjoy your flowers, new Scion! Hope you li...

Myth//OS - Chapter 52

Myth//OS - Chapter 51

I flicked my scythe super far down the hall, controlling it almost like I had telekinesis. The Will Wire really was something else. Although it didn’t have a ton of push and pull strength at base, if I manipulated it just right I could get a surprising amount of force from the scythe. It flicked and flashed, leaving the net of wires behind it.

Wumph! 

I fired another thorn weave down the hall, close to me to keep them from approaching, and checked on my companions....

Outrun - Chapter 293

I rested my head on my fist, idly watching Mira chow down on a massive burger like she’d been starved for months. This was already the third platter of pizza-sized burger that I’d bought. At this rate, she’d single-handedly chew through my wallet.

She shifted in her seat, wiping her hands off on a napkin. “Are you not hungry- why’s she just watching me- damn, this is so good.”

”Not really.” It was a small issue with drinking Jack’s Sun Kicker every morning. The s...

Myth//OS - Chapter 50

Myth//OS - Bastions’s Districts

Someone on RR asked for a map of Bastion’s districts. Completely went over my head that this might be a good thing to share. Here it is though. Sorry if my handwriting is hard to read.

The white lines are district dividers, and the red ones are Bastion’s walls.

Also, a chapter is coming today for Myth//OS. I got caught up on a new experimental project and completely blanked writing on it today. Maybe in the next couple hours if I can find the time?

Outrun - Chapter 292

I helped Mira out the back door and to an elevator, taking it slow. She moved like a snail, seemingly struggling with the black exoskeleton. It wasn’t that the exoskeleton had faults—I’d checked it several times and had to admit it was high-quality chrome—just that she wasn’t used to it.

“Sorry I’m so slow- I’m always so usele-“ She cut herself off. It seemed she was slowly but surely getting a grasp on her five thought processes all trying to leak out, for better or w...