Despite the eerie silence that lingered, Noir could still catch the faint scent of oil and rubber. He followed it, retracing the last directions he'd heard Jackie take on her bike. Eventually, he reached a small outpost—abandoned, clearly in a hurry. Whoever had been stationed there had left fast, grabbing only what they could carry.
On the ground, his eyes caught two skid marks: one wide and short, the other long and narrow.
"I must've just missed her," he muttered, crouching to examine them.
Just then, the faint rev of an engine broke through the stillness, followed by the harsh clatter of metal. It was far away but still within earshot for Noir.
"Jackie?" he whispered, then took off running without hesitation.
For most, the sweltering heat of Meteor Kingdom would be unbearable—but not for Noir. His endurance had been forged in Mille Dan. Back in the swamps, even on the worst rainy days, when the ground turned to quicksand and the rivers spilled over, he'd hunted, swam, and fought through it all. Compared to that, this dry, open heat was nothing.
But as the roar of the motorcycle began to fade, it was replaced by something sharper—the crack of gunfire. Noir's pace slowed.
He remembered the sound all too well.
That blast.
Theo's shotgun, the night they came face-to-face.
An attack too fast to see coming. The memory rooted him in place.
It's that weapon again, he thought, eyes scanning the horizon. Is she going toward it?
He looked up at the sky, searching for answers in the clouds.
"How do I defeat something like that?"
As he wrestled with the thought, a group of citizens came running from the direction of the mayhem, screaming in terror. He caught the fear in their faces. They were horrified.
And just like that, his hesitation vanished.
"There's no time to figure it out right now," he said aloud. "I'll just have to cross that bridge when I get there." He wasn't sure if he was using Jackie's phrase right, but it felt right enough.
Jackie. I'm on my way.