“Ha, not that much of a leader now, huh, Skull racer?”, Aurora cheekily noticed as her sideways moving racing bolide went past by the leader of that race - that happened right before the series of mines getting stuck to her vehicle exploded in a cascade series of blasts, forcing her Spike to lose some of the speed and balance as it was shaken by the mines. The big - main - driving sphere glowing a dim shade of blue for a moment as Aurora concentrated her attention on keeping herself on the road - watching for the turns and her opponents.

“Ah, you..-!”, she grunted as she steered her bolide back straight and kept her eye on Rema who kept on her quite aggressive towards the ex-coffee machine. The quick dash through the minefield for a quick and easy advantage backfired on her rather quickly as well; but in these races there was no place for a slow head. It was a matter of reactions and gaining advantage at every opportunity; and so Aurora thought that she was outclassed in this episode. The roman android decided to use the boost of speed; also leaving a teasing comment back at Aurora - Rema’s comment was enough to rewire and twist around android's mind and make it inject some of this hurt-enforced spite in her body.

“I will show you who belongs to the outdated model here, you ancient roman!”, Aurora yelped, unaware even of the pun she made, her mind pulsating and twisting as she aimed to get to Rema and catch up on her, despite the obvious threat of a Skull Rider behind her; as well as the other contestants.

It was that moment when she noticed that the mine explosions of the Skull Rider’s mines on her sphere was powerful enough for the sensors in the moving drive to detect them as a force of immersion to absorb: thus giving Aurora some boost to use as well.

“So this is why you were glowing blue!”, she grinned and pulled the lever, the driving sphere exploding in the collected energy with the blue light piercing through the road dust and a massive sound of the engine to growl from underneath of that vehicle body’s - and so with a swirling energy around it, the Spike chased after the leader of the race onward.

The rush of premature success was as short lived as Claudia's lead, a shriek filling the cockpit as an android sporting additional ventilation bounced upwards off of the Dogma's nose only to be lost in the backwash of its engines. That was not going to serve well for 'crew' morale, but Claudia took some solace in blasting out one of the Skulldugg's windshields. "We've made that thing less aerodynamic, and once that boost runs out, we'll take back the lea-eeeeeh!"

A shudder and rumble rocked the ship as the cost of her precious strike through the minefield saw her buffeted by magnetic mines coming around behind. She bucked hard in her seat, more affixed to the controls she gripped then to the cushions formally under her rear, yet Bob would not be moved from his station and kept their coarse with minute adjustments to the engines till the redhead could resume control.

"Oh that bone boy is going down hard after this!" She huffed, hurling the craft into the tight turns, eager to hug the inner curse and kiss the edge of the track so close her ship was flying more on its side then it's belly. Putting the racers from her mind she ignored the tricks and traps with a singular focus on stealing an edge through racing grit.

As expected from these kinds of races, everyone was going after the leader; and that leader remained the Skull Rider. The Skulldugg belched out flame and smoke as it followed the Dogma’s patterns, zipping and drifting along the edges of the track to keep both momentum, speed, and control. If the Skull Rider heard Lydia’s remarks over the open-channel, he didn’t say so. Streaks of black stained the race track from the efforts of everyone with a physical machine, their vehicles jerking from one side to the other from the sheer turns alone.

The roads became more precarious as ever with the track bending upwards and around, massive loops in sight that would force every Ark Rider to either speed up or consider their options as the loops were harsh and without mercy. Clocking in at more than 180 degrees worth of gravity and looping, the roads would no doubt be a perilous drop if their vehicles had no magnetism or gravity stabilization. Rema was the first to experience the gravity-defying loops.

Unless she held any of the above, her only option was to speed up lest she lose momentum on the first loop and come crashing down with her enhanced horses. It was a method shared by the Skull Rider, who inched past her in a burst of speed. For a moment, it looked like the Skulldugg would challenge the loops on pure speed and inertia alone, fire still screeching out from its backside. Then, just as it reached the apex of the first loop, the car’s engines shut off with a sputtering hiss and gravity took its course.

The Skulldugg fell and flipped, twisting in the air with hard bucks, down, down, down. It landed at the very bottom of the track, the very end of the loops, with a slam. It immediately bursted forward in speed and left behind a gaping abyss behind it. A wave of applause followed in its wake. “Incredible! The Skulldugg’s closed the lead with a daring maneuver! Let’s replay that again folks!” came Wave’s voice, cutting through the crash of sound that was the audience.

“Not only did it save the Skull Rider time just dropping from the first loop to the bottom of the last, but the Skulldugg’s impact has totally demolished a good chunk of the road with its weight! Now there’s a big old valley the rest of the racers have to jump if they want that lead back!” The others could try and replicate the stunt if they dared. After all, the more time they did so in desperation meant the more distance between them and the Skull Rider; and the less between him and the finish line coming up.

---

Blue and red flames shout upward from the war chariot as it climbed faster speeds. The spiked tread wheels left hard cut marks on the gravel beneath them, an every time the rolling metal monster went airborne they'd land with an explosion of kicked up debris and sparks behind them. Rema like everyone else was focused on the skull rider, bloody intent written across her face as she squeezed her fists into tight balls of rage.

"I really, really hate showoffs." She snarled, face growing red in rage.

Now it was time for this ancient styled chariot to prove itself. The loops ahead would send any vehicle without the right materials to their death. Rema would improvise with a mix of her spiked treads and a boost of nitro fueled speed and some anti grav repulsors. With some clicks at her dashboard, Belladona emitted two large disc shaped gadgets at the bottom of her chariot. They manipulated the gravitational pull to prevent the machine from plummeting down from the looped track. Next she use the treads to stick to the road as much as possible, carving up much of the track as she quite literally dug a trench through the road to cling onto it. Like a surfer riding a wave, she'd bob and weave through the loop before coming out onto the other side. Now she is greeted with the most difficult obstacle of all, the empty chasm Skull Rider left in their wake.

Rema swore in latin and kicked the reigns to push Castor and Pollux to their limits. Blue and red fire again shot out several meters in length from the back of the chariot. As the chariot sprinted in as much speed it can muster in the short track left, Rema would make a silent prayer to the god of war to protect her.

She overshot her jump by half a football field's length. She landed on the farther side of the track easily, chariot skidding up fire and flame as the road is torn to shreds by the now well worn treads. Even better, she hand landed within spitting distance of the Skull Rider, and quickly catching up to him. Rema in a fit of pure exhilaration would scream at the top of her lungs in a war cry and fling herself over in a mighty jump to land on the back of Skull's vehicle.

"I'm coming for you! Outrun my gladius you sniveling coward!" The fanatical android crawled up his ride, gladius in her mouth. She'd soon raise herself up and attempt to strike the rider down! Her war machine stormed behind her, the horses able to keep themselves nearby as their master charged in for the close combat she loved.

Rema wanted victory, at any cost.

The boost given to Aurora’s inertia engine by the explosion of the mines launched at her and shot by the Skullrider was enough for her to compensate for the loss of speed and control over the road. Aurora’s attention though quickly shifted from her rivals to the perspective of tackling the first actual obstacle the road itself was to present to her. The spinning and twisting road would soon emerge before her in a harsh rise - angle of which was to impose danger, sense of impossibility, and in so fear. And fear gave birth to thrill.

“This is only to play in my favor!”, Aurora yelped, almost completely forgetting about her opponents at the moment, given all of them were to have their focus mostly on the race leader at the moment. For Aurora though, the perspective of tackling, throwing herself against the road obstacle, to defy gravity itself with pure speed and inertia was her main goal now, was her main focus. The road soothed and narrowed before her eyes lining up before her. She saw with the corner of her eye how the Skullrider pulled a daring trick to shorten the distance and gain more gap between him and the rest of the racers: Aurora did not even think about repeating it.

Why would she, when pulling the whole loop would give her an actual advantage? She took a firm grip on the Spike with her hands and legs, clinging herself to the vehicle and then pressed the boost; fueling her ride with the remaining of the collected inertia to gain even more speed, more boost to the speed to ride up that loop.

At a single moment, when Spike reached the top point of the loop and Aurora herself was put upside down compared to the ground, she would feel gravity disappear completely. This single second of the sensation, when speed canceled out another physical force made her andriod heart to burn brighter than ever.

“GEROOOONIIIIMOOOOOOOOO~!!!”, a loud yell, reaching almost shrieking tones she would force out of herself as Spike made it past the top of the loop and start to ride back. Speed boost added with the Spike driving down now pulled back by the gravity as well, the inertia of speed and the shape of the road.. would only fuel her engine with more inertia power, for more speed boost, for more road thrill. Speed enough not only to catch up, but also to make use of the road broken before her - a few cracks of the road shaping up a trampoline good enough.

"There's never a dull moment around here, huh?" Lydia said as the tables were turned once again during the race.

It seemed like the looping section had given the advantage again for the Skull Rider and everyone tried to catch up to him once more. The other vehicles may have had a harder time with the loops, but for the Aegis, it was just another day of flying and aerobatics.

In fact, the configuration of this section was such that Lydia could probably outperform the Rider in its own game. But first, she had to get past her Roman and the Cyberpunk opponents, leaving the foes of past and present to tangle themselves as they were already doing.

"Ok girls, I hope you have no hard feelings," Lydia said as she stalled her own engines after reaching the crest of the first loop, falling fast like a rock for a moment, before powering back in the blink of an eye and reversing the direction of her flight in an instant, pulling an extremely tight double cobra maneuver.

As she did so, Lydia pulled the trigger on the Skulldugg, aiming at its tires, or at least the weapons system that annoyed her so much.

---

There were three things Claudia could be certain of in this race.

She hated the Skulldugg with a steadily burning passion. That insane gladiator would fit right in on her crew and she'd see about poaching her after this. Lastly, that relying on jumps and pitfalls to slow a starship was laughable.

The gut busting chortles did more to slow her down then the actual threat before her, but Bob kept the Dogma steady. Lydia demonstrated why the loops weren't an issue for them, while the gladiator had powered through them without issue. Even the Spike was content to forsake any shortcut just for the chance to build momentum.

The redhead resolved herself to take the shortcut in her own fashion and shot up the loop, riding it close enough to feel the paint chip against the track before yanking back on the pitch. Without killing the engine she'd overturned the loop, blasting straight downwards at speeds she'd never dare take a turn. But a straight away? Now there she could put her oversized engines to work and blast over the valley with reckless abandon. Her body crashed into the seat, no longer perched but swaddled in the cushioning as the inertial forces struggled viciously with the ships countermeasures.

"This is race is all miiiiiiiiiine!"

The gladiator racer’s tactics were daring and bold, reflective of the warrior lifestyle she so claimed to originate from. Only a madwoman would actually board herself atop the Skulldug though given the circumstances, it was more chance than choice. Either way, the Skull Rider watched as an angry Rema slowly climbed aboard the front of his car, weapon drawn and ready to spear him right through. A collective gasp passed through the audience watching. After all, there were no rules against the act and causalities were abundant in Space Races.

But the man who wore death on his figure like an emblem would see none of it today. The Skull Rider was quicker; he suddenly rose up to his full height in his moving vehicle before rearing back and slamming a fist into Rema’s face. Harsh-grooved and leather knuckle smashed into Rema’s cheek with enough force to swat her clear off the Skulldugg like an annoying bug. Where she would land, he didn’t know or care, but the brief struggle was enough for Aurora of all people to rocket past them both and take both the lead and the race.

“And we have a winner!” Wave announced once the Spike hit the finishing line. The Skulldugg was swift behind; by this point, Lydia’s attacks on the car’s tires were moot when the finishing line was so close. Despite being the most damaged vehicle and smoking tires, the Skull Rider came in second. Rema wouldn’t fall too far behind and no doubt her stallions would catch her ricocheting form. “It looks like that last stunt cost the gladiator the win, marking her in third place. Hate to see that happen~” Wave’s voice jeered through the intercoms.

Lydia came in next, though she wasn’t penalized too greatly for it. The crowd still cheered and applauded, always appreciating her underdog tactics and charm because in the end, that was the key to winning over the crowd. Sadly, for Claudia and the Dogma, no amount of rocketing could bring back the lead and distance between herself and the other racers. The result was the redhead coming in dead last, something Wave immediately pounced on. “Ooooh, and our newbie just ate the other racers’ dust. What a shame, what a shame, and I was really rooting for that cutie…oh well, she can take her penalty in private~ But first, a word from our sponsors, Mevalo’s very own Jack in-”

The Skulldugg inched to a closing crawl at the track’s end as the first tourney race was concluded. Despite his vehicle having tanked the most damage, the Skull Rider himself seemed no worse for wear. Climbing out his car, he could be seen idly reloading the revolver he used to execute Claudia’s drone, sitting in silent indifference to the crowd’s roars or the other racers. Second place was only second best after all.

---

Gin Silti

Gin swore as he watched the race from a seat at a bar. Next to him was Jim Valerian, his human manager over at Gaelok Industries. He was going hard on Belatoni whiskey, a drink that only Belatonins could properly digest. Jim had offered him some to which he declined, as he wanted to keep his wits. After all he was supposed to be racing. He was supposed to premiere as a pro racer in the very race he was watching on the screen on the wall.

Gin ordered another drink, something the humans called cola. The massive amounts of sugar within were helping keep Gin alert. But besides being alert, Gin was also mad. He had only been involved with Gaelok Industries for a few months now, but he was already getting tired of them. While they did make it a big deal to have their own racers in this tournament, they didn’t seem to help their racers.

Gin had arrived on Mevalo a few days back, taking a civilian shuttle. His racer, Stinger-Six, was currently at a Gaelok station, where they were apparently modifying it for terrestrial racing. Usually it would be Gin who made any modifications to his racer, but the heads at Gaelok insisted that their own team of mechanics perform the modifications. Now it had been a few days and Gin hadn’t heard anything about his racer.

As Gin finished his cola, a ping sounded on Jim’s comm-pad. The drunken manager tapped his pad, bringing up a message.

“Wow, good news,” he slurred.

“What?” Gin asked.

“So turns out, they finished work on Stinger-Six. And they’re sending it here.”

“When?” Gin asked excitedly.

“Like right now,” Jim said with a smile, “Like they’re coming down to landing pad four right now.”

“Well then,” Gin stood up and grabbing Jim, “Let’s get going. Pay your tab.”

“Well you see the thing is,” Jim laughed, “Gaelok hasn’t paid me this week yet, so I’m kind of low on credits.”

Gin sighed, before placing down enough of his own credits to pay for both of them. He then dragged Jim out of the bar and into the busy street. Thanks to a lot of people being at the races themselves, the street was not quite as packed as usual. Due to that Gin was able to hail a hover cab.

Pushing Jim into the cab, the android driver turned to him and asked, “Where you headed to?”

“Landing pad four please,” Gin replied.

“Alright, but that’ll take us past the race course. I just heard that the first race is now down, so that are will be swimming with traffic soon.”

Gin sighed once again. While traffic was annoying, not knowing what was up with his racer was more annoying. So he just sat back and zoned out for the duration of the ride, Jim falling asleep next to him on account of the Belatoni whiskey.

The roman let out a roar as she's kicked from Skull Rider's ride with the swiftness of a fly swatter smacking a bug. She's sent barreling down the road from the hard force. Castor and Pollux quickly make a sharp turn to catch the falling Rema in their seat. They had to slow down and aim themselves, losing out precious time to the Skulldugg and the Spike for Aurora to cinch the victory. Belladonna barreled forward in a mad dash to cinch the third place spot before promptly crashing into a wall. The horses swung the wagon around just in time to avoid being crushed by their own vehicle. All the while Rema is rocked around like a ragdoll, barely able to hold on thanks to her android strength.

"Bovis stercu! Faex! Shit! Fuck!" The roman swore up a storm in a garbled mix of Latin and English, waving her arms and kicking the wall of the track so hard it dented inward from the impact. She'd scream out up into the heavens, just a large ball of pure rage at this point. She accepted nothing less than total victory, and getting thrown over by the Skull Rider was a humiliation she could not bear.

"Where is the winner!? I will kill them, hang them on a cross and crucify them! Where is she!?"

The speed was overwhelming, it was cutting through her face like razor blades, but to Aurora it was her who was cutting through the air, she was the speed incarnate, one together with the absolute she was trying to achieve all the time during every race. One with her bolide, one with the ground, one with the speed that cancelled all sense of time and space - there were no coordinates, there was only absoluteness of movement. Absoluteness of speed, which defied everything but its own manifestation. It was a moment of bliss when the Spike reached past the upper point of that loop and absoluteness of speed became more than absoluteness of the law of gravity and the spike started to drive down, down more, the gravity was no more defied but became one with the speed, consumed by it - and in that synthesis the speed of her bolide was only to grow, more and more.
She stopped to think.

Speed defied thinking too. There was no need for it anyway. She was the existence absolute, any thoughts would only be just a side effect of that condition; and the side effects were something she wanted to push away now; no, there was only the movement to be, objects became only reflections of their shapes as they were to swish past her, her and her bolide.
There was no end to it. She just kept on driving. The contest itself became irrelevant - one would say it was the very same mistake she made in her first race, and every race after it. But it mattered little to her. Her victory existed elsewhere.
It was that speed. It was becoming one with it.

Something was off though. She was fast, very fast. But she was not fast enough to be that far from the rest of her racers. She knew it - it was not a thought, more of a gut feeling, if an android could have one at least. More of a play of perception, when something of an expectation was not to come - but should have. Only then the sound reached her ears and mind slowly waking up from that slumber of bliss. The sound of cheer. And applauds.
She blinked.

“Wait. I won?”, she asked herself and did not ever recognize these words. She blinked again and shook her head to her surprise and confusion as she looked around herself and saw nobody. She was way past the finish line. In fact she was way past the finish line, long away from the rest of the racers. With a great hesitation she hit the brakes to make a stop and finally looked around properly, blinking and not understanding what just happened.
“I won..?”

A slow realization slowly crept up into her mind.
“I woooooooooooooooooooooooon~!”, she yelped and started to jump on top of her racing bolide.

The red head didn't know how, but somehow she'd crossed the line last. The engines were cooling and the ship's rumble had turned to a low purr before growing still in its parking berth, yet still she was pouting in the cockpit. Even the robot horses had beaten her out!

"Small mercy then that bonehead didn't win, though fuck, with everything hitting him I can hardly call it a loss for him." Claudia exhaled, head thumping back as she turned a bloodshot eye towards the muted screens showing the commentators clamoring over footage of the race. Naturally it was mainly about the upset win of the Spike, it's near perpetual acceleration proving effective because of the roadblocks put in its path. They'd spent the entire race feeding speed boosts to her and it came to bite everyone in the ass it seemed.

Naturally the last place racer was rather ignored in all the replays and quipping, except by a certain announcer who made Claudia reach for her empty hip holster whenever she heard Wave's voice now. The brass balls on her to be such a snark about it all, rubbing salt in the wound when she was so convinced she had that race. "That's it Bob, I'm calling the bitch and scheduling an private interview. Then when i've got her too myself we'll see who gets the punishment here."

The pirate's spirits raised as she cackled over her console, typing away her plan for a poorly conceived and hastily executed revenge on a media personality during a heavily publicized race.

"Oh, come on!" was all that Lydia spouted when crossed the line second-to-last.

The teal-haired cyborg had a wry smile on her lips as scratched her unruly hair, letting her frustration—not with the others, but with herself—transparent.

"Just when I have to pay back the loan for that last augmentation. Oh well... I guess I'll have to count on that sponsorship deal again," she said to herself in a rueful tone.

Despite her lack of luck, when Lydia jumped out of the Aegis' cockpit, she had nothing but a radiant smile to beam to the crowd. She couldn't do anything else when they were so supportive of her efforts, after all.

In fact, Lydia's follow-up would likely get even more of the crowd on her side. Or at least Lydia thought so as she walked to Aurora, extended her hand, and said, "Old Bones is a tough nut to crack but it seems you made it, huh? That was quite an impressive show. I hope we get the chance to go at it again soon."

---

The first race concluded with much fanfare and typical crowd reaction. The unexpected turnaround brought a new level of energy that electrified the crowd as they joined in with Aurora’s screams of victory to the air. Wave didn’t even bother to try and stop them and why would she? The crowd was half the fun and narrative of these types of things so wherever they flowed, she flowed, ready to report on it. Besides, she was much more interested in the sad little revenge plots Claudia had in mind for her, already brushing them off her social media.

If the redhead wanted to play the hard game, then that was fine by her. Mevalo City may as well have been her eyes and she saw all. Her cameras zoomed in on the raging Roman Rema, eliciting a wave of laughter and jeering from the crowd when they saw the newcomer lose her cool. The next shot focused in on Lydia’s righteous acknowledgment of the newbie winner. Wave made sure to linger her camera on that exchange with good instinct. The crowd went wild from the beaming smile to the solid comradery perceived between them. Always a sucker for those types of things, Wave mused.

“Clever girl though,” she said to herself. She knew for a fact that act alone just landed Lydia more deals and a firmer place in her fan’s hearts. “Please, wrench me why don’t you,” she barked in a laugh before something else on her feed sprang to mind. One of her camera drones caught sight of a lizard-like boy scooting into a taxi. Oh perfect, the rest of the Ark Riders were here. Tapping her intercom, Wave’s voice boomed all throughout Mevalo City.

“Congratulations to all of our first race Ark Riders! This 45th Cosmic Grand Prix will operate on a point-based system as proposed by this year’s sponsor. First place winners get three points, second and third place receive two points, and all other losers get one point. So don’t feel too bad losers, you’re still in the game~” One could hear the smirk dripping in Wave’s voice as if it was directed right into Claudia’s ear. “Oh look, our representative from Gaelok Industries has been spotted. Everyone, be sure to give a warm welcome to Gin Silti, newcomer Ark Rider!”

The camera drone floated beside Gin’s taxi, just outside the window. The lens twitched and zoomed in, getting a better look at his no doubt surprised face despite the glass. “Hope he brings good things to this year’s tourney. Everyone, you each have roughly an hour to prepare for the next race so enjoy yourselves to the fullest!” Perfectly enough time to deal with upstart naysayers too, Wave’s microphone cutting off and the feed flickering back to Rema and Claudia.

---

Metal would wrench and shatter under the violent fists of an enraged Rema. The track wall was torn to shreds by the fists that slammed and tore through them like the claws of a bear. The roman stood hunched over, staring at the ground as her blinding rage made her shake and see red. She could not decide what she wanted to do. Destroy the racers, destroy the track, climb up through the stands and crush the host. All seemed like valid targets but her conflict kept her still.

After some quiet time in thought, Rema discovered what she wanted to do. She'd leap up with powerful android legs and snatch a camera, dragging it down with her with a smack on the asphalt. She'd focus the camera on her face, and began to shout.

"That last match was a joke. A failure of a race. That went to a contestant who did not deserve it, and instead gained off of the success of greater warriors than herself. My true Roman virtue demands that I claim the first place as my own, due to my skill ad vigor. The legitimacy of this race hinges on this, so for the sake of true honor. You must give it to the rightful contestant, which is of course me."

With this bold declaration, the egotistical android would slam the camera into the ground and shatter it to pieces. Much more Mevalo property damage as the mad android gestured to the crowd with her golden gladius raised.

"The people know who their real victor is. Who the real champion of the people is! It is me, Rema Tiberius!"

Her gladiator days gave her that stage stealing charisma that all the best warriors had. Being a gladiator wasn't just about strength, it was selling yourself as someone to rally behind.

Her purple eyes would gaze over to Aurora, narrowing into slits. The gladius aimed right for the girl's chest with her arm fully stretched out and pointed toward her.

She knew just who she was going to crucify now.

Gin Silti

Much like the cabbie had said, progression through the part of the city near the track was horrible. A record number of people had shown up to see the first race, clogging the streets and airways. Eventually, Gin and Jim reached landing pad four. Gin thanked the driver, before tipping him some extra credits for driving through that chaos.

“Alright Jim, where’s my baby?” Gin asked, slightly annoyed.

“Relax,” Jim said, “They said it should just be down this hallway.”

True enough, at the end of the hallway was an open air area. Landed on it was a large cargo hauler, with Gaelok Industries printed on the side. Several workers of several species were unloading large boxes and various vehicles. Gin sprinted toward the workers, looking for his Ark Gear.

“C’mon,” he said softly as he ran past the crates and boxes.

As he passed one particularly large crate, the red hull of Stinger-Six came into view. Gin rushed to it, hoping to find it undamaged. He would be pleasantly impressed when he looked it over, finding that it was in perfect condition. The techs at Gaelok had seemed to honour their word that they wouldn’t modify his vehicle without Gin’s approval. In fact the only thing they seemed to have done to change it was giving it a new coat of paint.

“Well, they actually listened,” Gin laughed.

“I told ya,” Jim replied with a slur, the effects of the whiskey still present, “Gaelok Industries is number one.”

A human cyborg technician then approached the pair, “I take it that you’re Gin Silti, the pilot.”

“That I am.”

“Well, firstly you have our apology for the lateness of your Ark Gear’s arrival,” he bowed his head, “And secondly, if you are ready you can accompany us to the stadium.”

“I am definitely ready,” Gin said excitedly, “But I think you should go back to the hotel Jim. Sleep yourself sober.”

Jim just nodded as another Gaelok employee called him another hover cab. The cyborg technician then led Gin to a hover hauler, as other technicians loaded Stinger-Six into the back of it. Within a few minutes everything was loaded and the hauler launched off the landing pad.

As the race was now done, the streets were slightly less congested as the hauler made its way to the race track. The pilot turned on the holo news, which revealed that Gin had been spotted by the tournament. Comments would then be posted about why he wasn’t in the first race. Gin asked him to turn it off. Gin was already upset at missing the first race, as it was his time to debut. But he also knew that under the rules he wouldn’t even get the participation prize of one point.

But Gin put that thought aside as the hover hauler entered the stadium through a back entrance. Gin exited the vehicle as the technicians started unloading Stinger-Six. Gin walked over to his Ark Gear, wanting to run some diagnostics before the next race began.

Her rather pathetic attempt at entrapment ignored and a barbed reply all but whispered in her ear over the radio, Claudia's anger was left to simmer as she stomped out of the Dogma. Her footfalls heavy as she came down the loading ramp with Bob hovering along beside her, sensors idly targetting the camera drones and noting they all seemed to ignore their general direction out of pure spite.

"Hmph. That one has the right of it." The ginger snorted, changing direction to traipse towards the raving Roman who had already stomped a camera drone to scrap metal. It was a nostalgic feeling that washed over as she found herself drawn to yet another short haired psycho with a shorter temper, but knowing better wasn't going to stop her from coming alongside her and throwing an arm over the cyborg's shoulder.

"You've got the right idea of it, Remy! Just listen to the masses laughing with, all in on the joke. It's obvious a champion wouldn't win with a shut out in the first round. Ain't that boring for a gladiator? No one but wild animals would challenge you if you didn't dangle the chance of victory before 'em."

She waved to the crowd, a toothy smile on her lips far more amiable then the honeyed words she poured into the gladiator's ear. Her fingers came together, miming a gun cocked before bucking back with a mouthed 'Bang!' that sent Bob shooting upwards to knock out the repulsor of a passing camera. It rapidly lost altitude and fell to the ground before them, lens angled upward to take in the violent pair of racers.

"The next race is where we put on a show that will leave the competition in the dust, ain't that right Rema? No need to feed them a sword when they can choke on our dust instead."

Aurora made a few jumps on top of her car, all while drone mounted cameras surrounded her to make a good clear angle to capture a momentum of her joyful energy as she almost got into a dance on top of her bolide cheerfully yelping into the skies and the mass of sound shaped by all the crowd’s voices. After a moment of unexpected celebration caused by an unexpected victory, she finally jumped down on the ground and gave a pat on her bolide.

“You earn a new upgrade here, buddy~”, she said to her machine - the thing of course did not respond to her anyhow, minus the somewhat echoing sound of patted metal, all while her foot tapped on the ground and her hands moved in a cheering motion. “I wonder what else to put in your engine over there.. ah, well, we can decide later! Oh..?”, she continued talking to her machine, the tone of her voice giggly and ready to blow up from the impossible to hold all that energy within her; up until she suddenly was approached by a different racer. Lidya, a cyan haired racer, approached her with a hand proposed for a handshake and Aurora with a big smile gladly responded with both of her hands clasping on Lidya’s hand, starting to shake it energetically.

“Oh, hey there! You were on that flyer bolide, yea? It looks so damn great of a machine, so technologically advanced, can’t imagine where you got one!”, Aurora spoke further, her voice as cheerful and she kept on shaking Lidya’s hand even though obviously there was no need for to anymore, “And thank you very much! To be honest… I did not realize that I won until I hit the brakes here!”, Aurora said with a light scratch on her head - for which she finally released Lidya’s hand from her handshaking hold. “I don't even understand what I did even, but hey, it was a lot of fun!”, Aurora said with a beaming smile to rise on her lips, an expression which would then change into a light confusement - as she was to hear first, and then to see as she turned around the little show Rema put on. Without her realizing probably too.

“Sheesh, what’s with her. This is not the finale even. It is just the first race”, Aurora said both to Lydia and herself, somewhat confused by such behaviour: “She needs some chill. Though… I am certainly not the one to speak about chilling. Oh, I know, she needs to have a more optimistic attitude to things! That would help!... Oh, sweet, three points!”, she concluded with another cheer - not to herself, but to the energizing situation she found herself in most of all.

"Ah, well... yeah..."

To say that Lydia was shaking, sharing in Aurora's excitement, was an understatement. In fact she was pretty much going around as she found herself on the receiving end of a prolonged, vigorous handshake.

"That's... Ahh... Thanks. But I gotta say yours is even more interesting," Lydia replied in a shaky voice after Aurora commented about her Aegis.

"Some people just can't chill out. It's always like this," she commented absentmindedly after laying an eye on Rema—and Claudia's—unsportsmanlike behavior following the conclusion of the race.

"Anyway, I have to get going now. One hour's hardly enough time to get some repairs done. Gotta get myself in shape if I wanna turn the tables next time, right?" Lydia said as she pulled away from Aurora, leaving to do some repairs on the Aegis with a cool smile stamped on her face.

While her ship was being fixed, Lydia had a whole hour to get herself up to speed as well.

"Good thing I know just the right place to get some quick R&R," she said to herself. Lydia bought a can of the strongest energy drink she could get and left the docks and headed to one of Mevalo's shadier districts with a knowing smile on her lips.

---

Despite her cheery demeanor-something probably fabricated for the masses and crowds-Wave in fact, did not take too kindly to numerous bouts of property damage. Some minor inconvenience was to be expected prior the races of course, but racking up more even after the first one was no doubt a call for Mevalo to be involved. One camera drone hovered down on eye level to Rema and Claudia, both girls displaying their disdain for their sore losings in the first race.The crowd noticed Rema’s mad ramblings, her negative energy drawing down the mood as she called out Mevalo’s point system of fairness.

Typical. One of Wave’s drones cut the feed over to Gin who freshly arrived into the stadium. “And there’s our missing racer, Gin Silti!” The downtrodden mood vibrating through the audiences skyrocketed back to its usual ferocity as more drones circled on over to catch the lizard boy in different angles. While this distracted most of the spectators, some, quite a few bit really, chanted in agreement with Rema’s silly squabbles. The drone in front of the Roman and pirate zoomed in, ignoring the broken one at their feet.

“You know I’m not even surprised it’s you two causing troubles.” Wave’s voice emitted out of the drone, just loud enough over the crowd for both racers to hear her. Soon enough the drone’s lens flickered with the screen changing to reveal Wave herself sitting in whatever little abode she streamed from. “You’re making headlines on reputation alone. But sure, ok, say there’s a recount. Yeah sure, maybe you should get more points. Thing is….”

Wave leaned in with a smirk aimed at both girls. While it wasn’t outright malicious, it did hold contempt; rather, she was curious how they wanted to plead a case. “Why should I give more points to you? What was it you said blondie? Skill ad vigor? We already have a Mevalo approved point system in place of course, but this sounds like something merited off style from the racers. Hmm….now why would I consider something like that?”

Oh, she wasn’t saying outright no of course. Even as she spoke, she knew the Mevalo higher ups were debating to let this new rule change go forward or just automatically kick these two off the planet. Wave casually sent another drone over to follow Lydia, further distracting the audience from their little exchange. She was sure the cyan-girl’s diehard fans would love to know where it was she slipped off into between races. Of course, Wave had a pretty good idea already.

---