After her last adventure in ancient Egypt, Riley felt herself tumbling through the time machine portal once again, unsure where she'd land. A few minutes later, she felt her body thump down into the saddle of a motorcycle careening from side to side while chasing another speeding vehicle through a futuristic cityscape.
"Where the hell am I now?" she muttered to herself, suddenly realizing she was dressed in a head-to-toe, tight-fitting leather bodysuit, wearing a futuristic helmet with a heads-up display.
Then she glanced down, noticing her motorcycle didn't have any wheels and that she was riding on a cushion of air, jetting through space on some kind of rocket-propelled jet-ski.
"Well at least I'm appropriately dressed for the occasion this time," she smiled, tilting her body while she darted after the levitating motorcycle in front of her.
She focused her eyes on the heads-up display on her helmet visor, scanning the blinking message inches away from her face.
'Apprehend target with extreme caution,' the message read. 'Fugitive is armed. Bounty doubled if captured alive.'
Bounty? Riley thought, squinting her eyes. Fugitive? Why am I chasing this person? And where is this place?
She glanced ahead just in time to dodge a large truck passing through an elevated intersection, locking her electronic homing signal back on the motorcycle swerving wildly between the futuristic buildings.
This doesn't look like any place on earth. At least not anything from my time. Either the time machine pushed me forward in time, or this is some unfamiliar planet. Maybe both.
But right now, Riley had more pressing concerns than figuring out where she was and when. As her target swerved around the other levitating vehicles on the invisible road, it took all her strength and wits to maintain control of her rocket-propelled vehicle. It had the same feel and controls of a motorcycle, but without any surface contact on the road surface, it felt unnerving steering the vehicle through thin air. She glanced under her feet, noticing small ailerons tilting up and down on thin foils jutting out from the underside of the space cycle.
So they finally did it, she said to herself. They finally invented a flying car. I don't know what powers this thing, but it's sure a damn sight faster than my old Triumph.
As she gunned the throttle on the swept-back handlebars, she tilted her body, letting the wings of the craft guide her through the ethereal landscape while chasing the unknown bandit.
Whoever this guy is, he sure doesn't want to be caught, she thought, as slower-moving vehicles on the gossamer highway flashed their lights when the two vehicles jetted past them. I'm not sure how much gravity exists is in this place, but I'm pretty sure if we crash into one of those weird buildings we're zipping past that I'll feel the effects of rapid deceleration just the same.
Suddenly, a large helicopter flashing blue lights appeared directly in front of them, angling its nose down toward the illuminated thoroughfare. The bandit's brake lights lit up, and he tilted his bike on its side, trying to slide underneath it. As he spiraled out of control down the highway, Riley had to pitch hard to the right to avoid hitting the dipping skids of the chopper. When she saw the target lying on the road separated from his vehicle, she braked quickly, jumping off her motorcycle onto the invisible surface.
"Halt!" she yelled, unsure what the protocol was for apprehending the unknown perpetrator. "Face down with your hands over your head!"
The target took one look at Riley and the helicopter slowly swinging around to face them, then he pulled a strange-looking pistol from behind his back, firing a light stream in her direction. She ducked as the pulse jetted inches away from her head, then she reached down to her side, retracting the pistol from a holster on her side, firing it toward the assailant's torso.
Fuck it, she thought. I don't care if they want this guy dead or alive. Right now, I just need to stop him from shooting me.
The laser beam caught the man in the left shoulder and he reached up, screaming in pain.
"You shot me!" he said, dropping his pistol as he collapsed onto his knees.
"You tried to shoot me first," Riley said, walking slowly toward the man while holding her pistol steadily with two hands.
Her gun was unlike anything she'd handled before, much lighter and more powerful than the six-shooter she'd practiced firing on Madame's ranch in 1880's Wyoming.
Thank God for Ben's steady hand, she thought to herself, remembering the sexy cowboy who'd taught her how to shoot. I guess a gun is a gun, no matter how advanced its technology. At least I still remember how to aim properly.
While the outlaw winced in pain holding his bleeding shoulder, the helicopter landed slowly behind her, buffeting her body with the force of its powerful rotors.
"Good work, Vega," a man wearing a high-tech police uniform said, walking toward the perp with his firearm raised while two other officers followed closely behind. "We'll take it from here."
Vega? Riley said, shaking her head. How do they know my name? And what am I supposed to do now?
She watched the two junior officers grab the man and drag him toward the helicopter while the one who complimented her kept his pistol trained on his back.
"So what happens now?" Riley said as he passed by, barely giving her a sideways glance.
"You know the drill," he said. "You'll have to come back to the station to collect your prize. Though I don't know how happy the chief will be when he sees how banged up the skip is. You might have a few credits shaved off the top for bringing in damaged goods."
Riley peered at the trio trudging back to the chopper, then at the long line of backed up traffic waiting for the whirlybird to clear the lane.
"Do you mind if I follow you back there?" she said, unsure where the police station was.
"Suit yourself," the lead cop said. "Just don't stray too far behind. We'll be going off marked lanes and you don't want to get slammed by any crossing traffic."
As the helicopter took off into the air, Riley peered up, noticing a latticework of crisscrossing aerial highways carrying a fast-moving stream of levitating space vehicles.
Man, those guys at Hanna-Barbera weren't far off, she said to herself as she climbed back onto her rocket bike. This place looks just like Orbit City from the old animated TV series, The Jetsons...
