The hot desert air is still and quiet as the black and red suit of armor streaks across the sand. The man in the armor is standing up and riding, what appears to be a metallic plank approximately thirty-six inches in length. Two micro-fusion motors are thrusting from the back of the unit and the man standing on it is leaning forward, crouched down as if preparing to spring.

With his helmet on, he is breathing chilled air and monitoring his internal heads up display as he drives his vehicle across the desert sands faster and faster. "Ellis, I need you to compare your telemetry and readings with mine. I am seeing instability in the gravity repulsion and gravity conversion field. Can you confirm?"

"Racer One, I can confirm your readings, you are heading southwest at one hundred twenty miles per hour. Your gravity reading are fluxuating. I recommend you slow to eighty and maintain that until we can stabilize the gravity settings. You are cleared to commence vertical assent."

"Copy, there is an nearby ravine on my map, I will use it for the first test."

Racer One, slows the board but still marvels at its speed and smooth ride. I may never get back on a skateboard again. This is what the Silver Surfer must feel like.

Sliding into the ravine, he triggers the gravity redirector and targets the ravine wall. Kicking the board against the ground, it skips up and is now riding the ravine wall as easily as it rode the ground seconds ago. His suit and the board are both sharing a gravity field that has been redirected toward the wall, so that down for him and anything he touches is wherever the bottom of the board is pointed. His magnetic boots assist him in maintaining his grip on the board but the transition is flawless.

He rides the board and stays close to the ground while he checks the readings. "Temperature spike, still within safe parameters, gravity transition, smooth and by the numbers."

"Command copies, gravity redirection, five by five. Congratulations, Robert. It's one thing in the office to ride your skateboard on the ceiling. Its something else when you can ride the canyon wall."

"Thanks, Donna, but we are not done, no back patting yet. Going to push it up the cliff in a full vertical climb." Racer One turned slowly up the cliff face, fifteen degrees, twenty five degrees, forty-five degrees. At sixty degrees, the temperature needle red-lined, there was a difficulty with gravity shearing, when the force of true gravity and the force of the redirected gravity tear at each other, violently.

"Abort, abort Racer One, specifications exceeded." Donna maintained her professionalism and was ready to trigger the remote abort if necessary.

"Negative, shearing was expected, repulsor thrusting to compensate. Do not abort." Robert triggered the hand repulsors with his palms pointed behind him providing additional thrust. This periodic thrust, eased the trembling board and reduced the stress on the engine.

As he approached a ninety degree angle to the true ground, he increased his additional thrust and the Sled picked up speed, stopped wobbling and shot up the cliff face. Setting the board to auto-redirect to true gravity as he cleared the cliff's edge, he turned and using the repulsors pushed himself so as the board reset to true gravity it would land on the ground and not plummet back into the ravine. Those hours in the simulator had just proven their worth.

The board reset gravity norm, allowed it to return to the ground and its gravity repulsion system kicked it so as it approached the ground, the greater the source of true gravity, the stronger the repulsion, preventing the board from ever touching the earth even in a free drop to the ground. Only a person with augmented strength could withstand the gravity backlash the board experiences as it drops at terminal velocity. Robert used the repulsors to reduce the speed of his descent so there was less gravity rebound as the board landed.

"Looking good out there, I have everything you just did on the spycams.  We can go over the footage later when you get back. I am noting a drop in your power profile. The Skrull power-plant is holding up but you are losing power faster than we expected. You should head back."

Robert looked at Donna in his HUD display and noted her short braids falling behind her back, and her smooth dark complexion with those oh, so bright, and cheerful eyes staring into the camera and thought maybe he could turn in a bit early. They had been putting in an inordinate amount of hours preparing for this test and with only a few issues, this could be considered an unqualified...

What was that? A glint of light in the distance. There shouldn't be anything or anyone out here for miles.

"Command, I am heading out to investigate a flash of light about five miles from my position. Track and lock. Keep the spy eyes on me." Racer One turned hard to port and increased his speed.

What he found when he got there was stranger than he expected. The light was reflecting off of a military belt buckle. This buckle was connected to the belt of one of fifty different soldiers who were marching in formation across the desert. Their formation was excellent and as he approached he slowed the Sled until he was moving at the same speed as the formation. No one seemed to notice him.

It's not everyday you see a man on a floating skateboard, what's with these guys? They act as if they don't even see me, mused Robert.

Speeding up, he moved to the front of the formation and maintained his distance from the front of the group. "Hello, Sergeant, can you hear me?" They kept moving, oblivious to his statement.

Looking at the group more closely, Farrell decided a more vigorous effort might be needed. "ATTEN-HUUT. Company halt!" And just like that, the group stopped. And stood there frozen.

Now that they had stopped, Farrell was able to get closer and noticed the men were dirty as if they had marched quite some distance. A couple had stopped sweating which meant heat exhaustion was in their future.

"Donna, what do you make of this?"

"Mass psychosis or hallucination, possibly drug induced?"

"Is there a base they could have come from nearby, within walking distance?"

"There is a plasma destruction facility about twenty miles from here."When aliens attack the Earth, this place is where alien tech that cannot be reverse engineered and may be too dangerous to leave on Earth, is destroyed. "It is where the Skrull power plant in the Sled came from. These guys would be elites, nothing normal should have been able to do, whatever this is."

"I need you to call for backup and send them to the plasma facility. I am going to head there when I am done here. These guys look like hell. I am going to see if I can get something out of one of them. Send some retrieval squads out here to pick them up. There is not a lot of cover, but what little there is we will have to make due."

"Company. Attttt. Ease. The men assumed the parade rest position with their legs split apart an their arms crossed behind their backs. I walked directly up to the sergeant in the front of the formation and gave him a gentle slap on the cheek.

"Sergeant, can you tell me how you got here?" He blinked as if he were waking from a deep sleep.

"No, sir. I remember getting ready to relieve the commander of the watch when a strange man and a tall woman pushing a giant floating sphere just appeared at the gate. I don't remember seeing then drive up, they were just suddenly there.

The the little man, who was floating a few feet above the ground, took out a keypad and there was this high pitched sound. I don't remember anything after that. Short man, tiny mustache, big head, bigger helmet. Once he took off his trenchcoat, I remember something I had seen on the news about New York and the Fantastic Four. He looked like the Wizard, and the woman, Titania."

You have got to be kidding me, two members of the Frightful Four in the middle of the desert? And what was in the ball, a bomb, a doomsday device, a picnic lunch? What else could go wrong?

At that moment, the Gravity Sled indicated a power surge and its remaining power dropped to forty percent from sixty percent and his armor system indicated his power reserve had just dropped to twenty percent.

Great. You had to ask.

Jump to Gravity Rainbows - Part III