Chapter 576: Skyline Escape

A stray rocket from the terrorists’ hover-bikes slammed into the grand staircase, sending a wave of pulverized marble across the VIP lounge.

Xavier grabbed Lorde by the shoulder and hauled him away from the debris, while the three mutineers scrambled after them, their eyes darting between the ceiling assassins and the radicals.

“Guys! The ballroom is too hot! We’re pushing for the roof!” Xavier shouted, his voice carrying over the crackle of fire and the hum of the streaming drones.

Klatos didn’t need a second order. He vaulted off a ruined piano, his bladed wings catching the updraft from the shattered windows. He intercepted a mid-air hover-bike with a brutal spinning kick, sending the rider tumbling into the abyss below. Klatos stabilized the bike and hovered it near the VIP balcony.

“Rin, Lyra! Secure three more! We’re taking the targets with us!”

Lyra laughed, her hands glowing with white-hot intensity as she melted the steering lock of a nearby bike. She kicked the unconscious pilot off the seat and gestured for the terrified mutineers to climb on.

Xavier adjusted his silver mask and looked directly into the nearest drone, his expression a mix of adrenaline and forced disbelief. “Chat, I hope you’re recording this! We are currently hijacking terrorist hardware to evacuate a billionaire. If we survive this, I’m definitely going to need a long vacation.”

[ User Donation: 20,000 USC – “This is better than any action movie!” ]

[ SpaceGhost9: Bro, look behind you! That bike is about to blow! ]

[ NeonQueen: Xav is actually carrying the CEO, I can’t even. ]

Xalvoria glided toward the balcony, her crimson dress remarkably untouched by the soot and grime.

She stared at the vibrating, noisy hover-bike Lyra was holding for her with pure, unadulterated disgust. ‘I have survived the collapse of star systems, yet I am reduced to riding a crude combustion engine like a common scavenger.’

“Get on, Empress,” Xavier said, pulling Lorde onto the back of his own hijacked bike. “Unless you’d rather walk down eighty floors of stairs.”

She shot him a look that could have curdled milk, but she stepped onto the seat behind Rin, her fingers gripping the metal frame with enough force to dent it.

“Go!” Xavier ordered.

The engines roared, and the four bikes shot out of the shattered ballroom and into the open sky of Vandermis Aventine. The cold wind whipped past them at two hundred miles per hour.

Below, the city was a sprawling ocean of neon lights and vertical traffic lanes. Above, the rival assassins were already giving chase, their sleek professional gliders diving from the clouds.

“Keep the camera steady, chat!” Xavier yelled, leaning his bike into a sharp turn through a narrow canyon of skyscrapers. “We’ve got professional hitmen on our tail and a very loud CEO screaming in my ear!”

“I’M NOT SCREAMING!” Lorde yelled, his face turning a shade of purple that matched the name of his penthouses. “I’M GIVING TACTICAL INPUT!”

The chase was a blur of neon streaks and near-misses. Reva, perched on the back of the bike driven by Klatos, turned in her seat and began methodically picking off the pursuing gliders.

Each shot from her rifle sent a professional assassin spiraling into the lower slums.

Suddenly, the sky was flooded with blinding white searchlights. The roar of heavy engines drowned out the hover-bikes.

Massive corporate enforcer gunships descended from the orbital rings, their black hulls bristling with heavy artillery. They formed a literal wall of steel across the flight path, their sirens wailing with a frequency that vibrated in Xavier’s teeth.

“ATTENTION UNIDENTIFIED CRAFT,” a booming mechanical voice echoed through the skyline. “YOU ARE IN VIOLATION OF PLANETARY SECURITY CODE 9. POWER DOWN YOUR ENGINES AND PREPARE TO BE BOARDED OR BE DISINTEGRATED.”

The streaming drones circled Xavier, capturing the massive fleet of gunships closing in.

[ Viewers: 3.5 Billion… ]

[ StarGazer99: Oh no, it’s the feds. Game over. ]

[ VoidWalker: Xavier, tell them you’re with the CEO! ]

Xavier slowed his bike to a hover, the heavy barrels of the gunships’ turrets tracking his every move. He looked at Lorde, who was finally regaining his composure.

“Lorde, this is your city,” Xavier whispered, his eyes still on the camera. “Time to earn that VIP protection.”

Lorde stood up as much as he could on the back of the bike, his cybernetic eye flashing a high-priority clearance code that broadcasted directly to the enforcer fleet.

“This is Lorde! CEO of the PurpleSpring Holdings!” he roared, his voice amplified by the Strider’s comms link that Xavier had secretly patched in. “Cease fire immediately! These people are not terrorists! They are my personal security detail who just saved my life from a coordinated assassination attempt by Malakor’s dogs!”

The searchlights wavered. The heavy turrets began to tilt upward, away from the hover-bikes.

“Mr. Lorde?” a confused captain’s voice came over the open channel. “Our sensors showed you were being kidnapped.”

“Your sensors are as incompetent as your response time!” Lorde snapped, smelling blood in the water. He pointed a shaking finger at the remaining assassins retreating into the clouds. “The men I was with are dead! These mercenaries are the only reason I’m still breathing! Clear a path to the secure medical bay at the Apex Spire, or I’ll have your badges by morning!”

Xavier looked at the drone and winked.

“Well, chat,” Xavier said with a relieved sigh. “It looks like being a hero pays off. We’re getting a police escort.”

The Apex Spire medical wing felt less like a hospital and more like a high-security fortress lined with polished white marbles and guarded by drones with lethal authorization.

After the enforcer fleet escorted their hijacked hover-bikes to the landing pad, Lorde was rushed into a private diagnostic suite, leaving Xavier and the Vanguard crew in a lavish VIP waiting area.

The three mutineers sat on a levitating leather sofa, trembling under the combined gaze of Reva and Rin. Xavier stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, watching the city lights flicker while his drones hovered nearby.

‘Alright, let’s get this over with.’