Alexis took off at the gun, and while she had every intention of running a fair race, that didn't mean she wasn't going to take advantage of some of the others who where interested in winning via just being the last on standing, as such when they approached the water hazard, she took the side closest to the water, and waited.

She didn't have to wait long ether, some one in a heavily modified Bacu came over at high speed with the intention of ramming her closer to the waters edge to get grabbed by what ever was down there, only for Alexis to have her Exia flip over him and dart off while the Bacu got grabbed and dragged under by a Hi-Gogg

Staying close to sakuya, the full cloth doing well. She had tanked some shots from a few npc suits but kept on trucking. The suit was doing well, the thrusters on the full cloth allowed it some good maneuverability despite the weight the defenses added. The suit didn't seem fast enough o overtake Sakuya's, but it was able to keep up in the corners with the suit.

The newest contestant to join the group was a tall girl that looked solidly built compared to most of the others, and was dressed in a track jacket and a pair of knee-length spats. She was a relatively new person to the whole tournament scene, but she had quite a trick up her sleeve so far as her Gunpla were concerned: set on the starting line was a startlingly impressive crimson and white Full Armor Gundam, Thunderbolt Version, fully equipped currently with all of its add-ons and additional weapons. Big differences included the assault rifle instead of a twin beam rifle, and the large railgun instead of the beam cannon mounted on the right pintle of the assault backpack.

Cracking her knuckles as she set the heavy-looking Gundam down and the Plavsky particles brought it to life, she waited for the signal as she gripped the controls, a smirk on her roundish face as she looked at her competition. They were all very impressive, and despite her nervousness, she was sure she could give them a run for their money. As soon as the green light was given and the other mobile suits erupted from the starting line, the well-built contestant flipped a switch almost immediately, the Full Armor Gundam's eyes glowing. "Full Armor Gundam, PURGE!"

With loud hisses and the heavy din of the bolts being released, the FA-78's add-on armor suddenly blew off, revealing the thinner frame underneath, the girl giving a maniacal snigger before slamming the controls forward as far as they could go. The golden eyes surged again with bright light before the mobile suit, backpack still attached, ripped forward with the help of its extremely powerful rocket boosters, propelling it forward in a burst of smoke and a crimson trail. She wasn't going to be the fastest unit out there, of course, but she was damn well going to use her loadout to her advantage.

Coming close to the water, the Gundam's sensors detected a wave of activity just underneath the surface. With a quick hand and a sharp eye, she rotated the mobile suit mid-flight, lowering the railgun to face her adversary before it erupted from the water. It was an Acguy, a very prominent underwater mobile suit, which quickly tried to grapple her with its left claw. Unfortunately, its reach was far too short for the railgun's almost instantaneous point to impact time, the weapon crackling with heavy fields of electromagnetic energy before plowing through the middle of the Acguy with a thunderous crack! It fell back to the water miserably, its inside having been cored by the shot while the newcomer returned the suit to flying position, gunning the throttle again and grinning wildly. "I didn't expect even a race to be this fun! Look out, pole positions, I'm right behind ya!"

"Time to tip the scales" Sakuya said as she aimed her long range rifle to the side as she let out multiple shots at a modified sandrock that was coming close to overtaking her. Not expecting the shots caused it to splash into the water as multiple z'goks started to climb out and grip the legs of the suit trying to drag it down. Letting out a grim smirk at the unintentional horror scene the AIs created she charged forward once more. A full armor gundam that had its armor purged was catching up seeing this Sakuya smirked as she kicked up her thrusters pushing them as far as they would go. Though she thought about she quickly changed her mind there was little point to using the sturm boosters yet.

Alexis leaned on the throttle a bit harder, weaving through what was left of traffic before just breaking free and pushing up toward Sakuya, she grinned.

Alexis pushed the throttle all the way and blew by Sakuya, and waited hand on the 'Trans-Am' button, as she figured when Sakuya kicked her suit into gear it'd turn into a full on drag race between the two of them.

Dani smiled, she was following close behind alexis. The full cloth being just as maneuverable as many of the lighter suits. The girl kept on pressing forwards as a tentacle shot up, intended for Alexis's gunpla, but winding up in the path of her crossbone. With a quick slash of a beam saber, the girl severed the tentacle and was hot on the tale of the other two and the shed armor full armor. A few beam rifle shots threw the full armor off balance and into a patch of trees, causing the gap between third and fourth to widen by a large margin. The armor was doing it's job as it tanked most of the falling off beam rifle shots, or rather, dispersing as the beam rifles didn't really have to deal with gravity.

The three Gunpla at the lead had much better pilots than most of the others, which excited her as she gripped the controls a bit tighter, pushing the FA-78 even further into its redzone. A great trail of silvery exhaust poured from the enormous boosters of the unit's backpack as she strained the model to its limits, using the numerous vernier thrusters scattered across the Gunpla's frame in order to zip and maneuver past offending racers. She was still far behind, the first three far more experienced than she, but at the very least she could separate herself from the pack.

Tapping one of her controls, she brought up a reticule for missile targeting, the launcher on the back hissing softly as its doors opened as she raised the handheld missile pod rack on the left arm of the Gundam, a persistent beeping letting her know that the seekers were hot and ready. Using her eyes to pick out firing solutions, she targeted the whole group in front of her along with the three Gunpla at the front of the pack before confirming the target lock with the steady drone of the fire control system, grinning widely, "Alright, how about some real fireworks?"

She squeezed the trigger and the missile launchers erupted from the FA-78 as she barreled forward over the water, the guided munitions streaking through the artificial sky like a cloud of angry bees roused from their nest. The individual missiles quickly found their marks, forcing them off the main course in order to dodge the incoming seekers before the followup of the missile carrier pods sealed their fate. The munitions carrier dispensed even more swarms of missiles out, the area filled with the high-speed seekers as they careened toward their victims, some setting off in proxy while others doggedly ran after Gunpla to set off their payloads.

Only a few were actually directed towards the trio at the front of the pack, her Full Armor Gundam plowing through the smoke and explosions in an attempt to close the gap. She could see the boosters emptying and their structures overheating, but she forced them to give a little more. She was getting so close-~

Sakuya small smirk quickly morphed into a full blown grin now was the time to show just how fast her suit truly was. With quick button press her hidden thrusters was revealed in the ankles and the three large sturm boosters activated quickly giving her a large amount of speed the speed she needed to push way ahead of Alexis and Dani while speeding out of the range of the missile barrage of the full armor gundam. "You'll have to go way faster if you want to beat me in speed." She called out over terminals hearing small swears and curses in return to add a bit more of insult she purged her shield allowing her to speed up a little bit more now that the heavy armament was lifted.

Alexis just smirked. Sakuya actively challenging her, some one firing on her from behind. "Faster eh?" Alexis replied. "Two words for ya. Trans-Am."

and as if on that command, the Stardust Radiance Exia lit up, glowing a 'divine gold' instead of the usual red you see with Trans-Am normally and tore after Sakuya, after images trailing behind the GN Drive powered Gundam for a few seconds before just leaving a trail of gold GN Particles in her wake as she closed the gap a Sakuya had formed so easily.

"You wanna drag race? then lets go!" Alexis challenged, purging her own arm mounted weapons, and boosting the output on her GN Drive to max, causing the Condensers on her suit to glow a bit brighter.

Dani frowned as she watched the other two pull ahead of her. "Oh crapbaskets, that's not fair!" she cried out over the comms and pushed up the speed she was going at, starting to enter the red zone of her suit. Minor transference showed her suit shaking and not liking the speed. Cursing once more, she purged the full cloth. Reducing the armor got her more speed, though less maneuverable over all. Very, very slowly the girl began to catch back up at a snails pace. Deciding to make up for her lack of speed at the moment, she took aim with the peacock smasher and squeezed the trigger repeatedly. This threw up large balls of pure energy before alexis and Sakuya, making a massive amount of obstacles for them to dodge if they didn't want to fly their suits into balls of melty energy. and considering how fast they were going towards these stationary obstacles, it'd be a very large order and one that they'd need to shed speed for in some manner or fashion.

Sakuya smirked and what would probably look like odd to most others unless they knew her specifically "time to take a old trick out of the bag huh?" Those who knew her remembered should have known this particular tactic from her days with the gerbera tetra stopping at a complete stop the gerbera gundam halted suddenly allowing for Sakuya to quickly dance away from the large beams but not before adding her own to the mix. "Now lets kick this up shall we" she called out to Dani and Alexis as she once more kicked up her speed going full force from the start the sudden boost to her standstill suit had the side effect however to kicking up a large dust cloud behind her blocking out most people's views.

Alexis dropped out of Trans-Am and fired off a few Stardust Pursuers to swat away a few of the obstacles Dani threw up in from of her and Sakuya so her Exia had room to squeeze the bulky Trans-Am Booster on her Exia through with out it get torn to shreds. When she brust through the other side, Alexis's Exia had taken a little superficial damage here and there in the name of protecting more important parts.

The moment she was clear, her Exia went back into Trans-Am almost immediately to catch up to Sakuya, intent on finishing that 'drag race' they where having.

"Forgive me full cloth, you shall not be lost in vein!" Dani cried out as she punched the boosters to the red line and the entire mobile suit shook before disintegrating around her. The red line moved farther around the circle, almost completing the full circle of the sped gauge. Pushing it up, the core fighter began to deliver shots down rane from the cannons, a pair of plasma launchers, speeding up towards sakuya and even alexis with insane acceleration, maneuverability and top speed.

Sakuya kept smirking this was fun hell more fun than she thought it would be. "Lets kick it up!" She exclaimed pushing all her thrusters to maximum output causing the trail she was leaving to create blur lines where her gunpla was though she figured Alexis had a plan in mind as well to catch up. "Time to upgrade Gerbera gundam Kai NI System active" She exclaimed as the gundam glowed slightly as blue lines appeared all over it creating a interesting effect before beginning to leak plavsky particles around it. This pushed her suit to its absolute limits making it where even with all the training she did to prepare for it to affect her body. The embody system suit she wore was designed to help protect her from this type of force and she was sure Allen was going to give her a lecture but she didn't care right now all that mattered was the finish line.

Her eyes grew wide as she saw the three leaders break apart, the visible flare and effort the Gunpla were exerting with their frames pushed to the limit lighting up her screen as her Full Armor Gundam broke free of the rabble, pouring into the distant fourth place which eclipsed them but was in turn overshadowed by the sheer lead that the pole position keepers had. There was absolutely no catching up, even with the armor purged and the boosters thrown to the point of exploding. Even as she kept up the throttle, making sure she held her fourth place throne, any hope of bringing a challenge to the group in front was lost.

She was soundly beaten.

The beeping of the console caught her eyes as the acclerator and thermal gauges hit the redline, the Full Armor Gundam plowing through the simulated atmosphere and heating up as its body was stressed to the breaking point. Whatever Gundams her opponents had, they were a damn sight hardier than one of the first Universal Century Gundams ever made. Breaking off the top just a little, she grew content to turn around and simply pick off her usurpers, blasting any challengers with the railgun still mounted to the backpack as she flew along. "Well, I'll be damned...no way I can catch up here. Guess it just shows how much better they are than me right now, heh!"