Saturday, June 6, 2020

Page 2346

~~((National Yo-Yo Day - page 11 of 20))~~
For a few moments, Hector was tumbling through open air again, loose iron appendages dangling freely as he struggled to maintain his bearings. Where was he in relation to the wrecking balls? It was hard to--

There. Above him. About to pass him by.

He hooked onto the nearest one at the last second, and it yanked him forward with enough force to knock the breath out of his lungs and leave him feeling light-headed. He teetered on the brink of passing out before regaining himself with only seconds to register the fact that the wrecking ball he was attached to was about to collide with the tower, too.

No time. He pushed for more iron. More weight to the tower. And some quick links--spindly attempts to bridge the gap between the tower and the ball. To soften the blow, maybe.

He let go just before impact again, but this time, he couldn't even tell what happened to the tower, because he went sailing straight onward and completely overshot everything.

The wind wasn't circling anymore, he realized. The tornado had fully dissipated, and now he was just in freefall with the remaining wrecking balls. One was close to him, but the others were far away, flying off into the forest or toward the tarmac.

He had to concentrate on landing safely. That was the priority. The mission depended on it.

Flight. He could fly, couldn't he? That would soften any landing, but for the life of him, he couldn't summon to mind how he'd managed to pull that off before.

Simplify.

That was what was in his head--or at least, that was what one of the thought processes was telling him. What were the others saying? Nothing? He couldn't tell.

Didn't matter.

Velocity states were simple enough. An iron plate between him and the ground. Pushing him upward with enough force to ease his descent. But not by enough. So he added another. And another.

Layers.

Then a few more to slow his horizontal speed as well.

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