PAØ - RED RABBIT

READY - STEADY - GO!

Mastered by Audio Wizzards

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THE STORY

For most ordinary residents of Neon City who had the time to concern themselves with such matters, the Red Rabbit was just another of countless legends and tales that made up the local folklore, and everyone generally had their own opinion on the matter. Some claimed it was a contract killer hired by one of the corporations, responsible for a series of never-solved disappearances of several prominent individuals who had become inconvenient. Others saw it as a supernatural entity and called it the "Red Demon," while there were even those who thought it was a private escort service with the highest level of discretion. One of the few things on which they could vaguely agree was a vague description: a red rider with a helmet resembling a rabbit's head with long ears.

But whatever you might have heard about the Red Rabbit, one thing was always the same—there was absolutely no evidence for any of the theories. None of those who adamantly claimed to have seen the Rabbit with their own eyes were ever able to present anything to substantiate their claims, and all attempts to capture this elusive specter on video ended, at best, with a red blur flashing across the frame for a fraction of a second. Even that, however, was enough for some to be utterly convinced of the truth of this tale, causing them to waste a significant part of their lives trying to prove their point.

It must be said that Suzie found this reputation rather flattering. Being "invisible" (and also damn fast) was part of her job, and all this only reinforced her belief that she was doing her job incredibly well. Sometimes during the day, she amused herself by visiting discussion forums where all those ghost hunters gathered, reinforcing or debunking each other's theories and pondering the indistinct red blurs on low-quality video recordings. Occasionally, she even joined in the discussions under fake accounts to further confuse everyone with some brand new and often utterly insane theory.

Suzie was a courier by profession, and she was undoubtedly a real person of flesh and blood, though occasionally tinged with a bit of chrome, titanium, and silicon. But as you might guess, she wasn't exactly the type of courier who, tongue out and silently begging for a tip, would hand over a half-cold pizza missing your extra onions, only to disappear disappointedly without a tip into the maze of alleys to satiate another hungry mouth. Suzie worked for a slightly different kind of clientele—people with a lot of money who, from time to time, needed something delivered somewhere discreetly, with no one knowing about it or associating them with the package. Given that this was sometimes not an easy task under the circumstances, her nickname reached the right ears in the right circles. Although her name often initially provoked a derisive reaction from a new potential client, once reassured of her existence and reminded of her quality work, their reaction in most cases shifted to amazement, relief, and above all, curiosity. Who wouldn't want their top-secret package handled by a red specter that practically doesn't exist? Being a legend had its advantages. Even these clients, however, had no idea who was really behind the red mask. Suzie guarded her identity very carefully—when she was working, no one ever saw her other than fully dressed in her bright red nano-carbon fiber suit with her head hidden in the characteristic helmet with long rabbit ears and a black visor.

At the exact time, she would appear at the precise location on her sleek Blazer (imagine a supersport with anti-gravity units instead of wheels and a jet thruster at the back, and try to guess what color it was), under a veil of impenetrable smoke, she would take the package and vanish again, all so quickly that even those present weren't sure if it all wasn't just a dream. She never spoke much with any of the clients—all communication always took place beforehand via encrypted text messages and was kept to a minimum. When, where, to where, and an offer of a generous reward. Yes / No. Half always upfront, the rest upon delivery. No exceptions.

In the end, both sides benefited from this—in this line of work, anonymity was a valuable commodity, and the less you knew, the less you could spill if things went horribly wrong. And there was always that chance. Another thing was that even Suzie herself preferred not to know who she was working for. The nature of this work made it clear that these were not exactly nice and respectable people, and she certainly didn't want to burden herself with any moral dilemmas and lose jobs because of it.

But this lifestyle suited Suzie. She loved speed and adrenaline, and she also loved money. Yet she always poured a significant portion back into her work tool in the form of various gadgets and gizmos, which she sourced from the obscure corners of the darknet, and she also spent a lot on cybernetic enhancements for her own body. After all, these were the secret to her unusual abilities. Not that she wasn't a good driver without them—quite the contrary—even if she turned off all her cybernetic enhancements, she would still outclass the vast majority of all the riders zooming around Neon City. Thanks to her implants, however, her abilities were pushed to extremes bordering on superpowers, allowing her to fully harness the incredible power hidden in her hoverbike.

One of the most important implants was undoubtedly the neural accelerator, which sped up the response of muscles to nerve impulses, allowing Suzie to react to anything much faster than ordinary mortals without cybernetic enhancements. Its functionality went hand in hand with a personal time dilator, which allowed her to perceive time in much higher "resolution," almost as if in slow motion, which was invaluable for driving at high speed. Thanks to these two toys, Suzie's reactions to any stimuli were within nanoseconds, enabling her to weave safely through the dense traffic of Neon City even when her proverbial pedal was pressed to the metal. (In reality, she controlled the speed with the handlebars). Suzie used them most often while riding, but they also had their uses outside of it—being damn fast was always useful.

Other cyber toys in her body included, for example, a neural link that allowed her to control her machine with mere thoughts, even when she wasn't sitting on it, an adrenaline booster that could push her body to its highest performance in crisis situations and maximize the benefits of the neural accelerator and time dilator, and a map module that projected navigation symbols directly onto her retina.

Separate chapters were her suit and, of course, her hoverbike, both packed to the gills with various technological gadgets primarily focused on her safety. These included, for example, a multifunctional jammer for scrambling all sorts of radars and detectors, a smoke generator, or a knockout gas canister built into the suit's cuffs in case she ever got into trouble (her helmet complemented this feature as a gas mask). The suit itself was made of hardened nano-fibers, providing resistance against most stabbing weapons, stun guns, and even some older types of firearms. Both the suit and hoverbike were also equipped with a so-called "chameleon"—a special layer of nano-diodes (working in tandem with her neural link), which allowed her suit and machine to change color in just milliseconds to anything she could think of. Then it was just a matter of folding down the ears on the helmet until they practically merged with its outline, and suddenly she looked like any moto-madman with enough money for stylish gear.

And why, out of all conceivable options, did Suzie choose the identity of the Red Rabbit? The explanation was surprisingly simple. As a child, she played a videogame with her dad, whose main hero was a green rabbit named Jazz, fighting against evil turtles. However, one could also choose his brother, a red rabbit named Spaz, who had different abilities. Whenever they played together, her dad chose Jazz, and she chose Spaz because she liked his ability to double jump and enjoyed his eccentricity. When you left the character standing still for a while, a small bird would appear out of nowhere and land on Spaz's hand. He would look at it, gobble it up without the slightest hesitation, and then let out a loud burp, which always made her laugh. Much later, when she was pondering her secret identity, the Red Rabbit was the obvious choice. She was the fast one, while everyone else was the turtles.