*************
“Pedal bikes?”
Jay smiled, though it did seem forced. Amy sat down on Maxx’s hood, unable to process what her Sponsor had just told them. “Pedal bikes?” she repeated. “Seriously?”
“They can’t be serious!” Maxx shouted. They had just arrived to the hanger to wait for the Race to start. Many of the other Racers and their programs were also being told what the Race was going to be. “Pedal bikes? There hasn’t been a race like that since…”
“It was Roadster’s first Race,” Jay cut in. “It was back before the programs were put into Racers’ heads. And Roadster always moaned the fact that the pedal bike races went away with the new programs. He always thought that it was very nostalgic to have a simple race. The officials decided not even a few hours ago.”
“Wonderful,” Maxx pouted, his engine revving in distress. “Pedal bikes. It’s so outdated!”
“You’ve been a pedal bike before,” Amy mentioned to him.
“Yes,” he hissed. “But it was a joke that first day! You never been on me in that form!”
“He has a point,” Amy agreed. She eyed Jay, who didn’t seem the least bit worried. “Aren’t you worried about this?” she asked. “Nobody’s practiced pedal bikes.”
“That’s great,” he pointed out. “That way no one has the advantage. And you’ve been on a bike before. It should be easy.”
“The last time I was on a bike was when I was fifteen,” Amy told him. “Then some idiot drove over it, broke it, and my Mom couldn’t afford to get me a new one. It’s been a few years!”
“You’ll be fine,” he brushed off. “As they say, you never forget to ride a bike.”
Amy grunted out a sigh. There was no use talking to him.
“I guess we have no choice,” she grumbled, standing up. “Maxx. Pedal bike.”
Crack!
The silver sports car transformed into a small dinky bike. Maxx turned the front wheel, seeming very distressed by his new form. Around them, other Racers changed their programs, now tiny bikes taking place of the huge vehicles that had been there previously. Amy knew that the commentator would have trouble keeping the Racers apart, even if the Racers themselves were wearing their colors. Amy’s second color, red, was barely on her jumpsuit, just a red v-belt around her waist.
“This is ridiculous.”
Amy and Jay turned to find Silver Fox set up beside them. The veteran Racer looked on disapprovingly at her program, a similar bike as Maxx was. Her posture was very ridged and her expression hard.
“I can’t believe that they agreed to a Race like this,” she muttered darkly. “It hasn’t been done with these programs. There’s been no testing, no regulations made… Do they even know if this is safe for us?”
Amy exchanged a worried glance with Jay. No, the officials wouldn’t worry about things like that. They were in the pockets of the Sponsors, who plotted the deaths of their Racers.
Safety would be the last thing on their minds.
“So that’s it,” Jay whispered, finally showing some concern. “They’re trying to bump off more Racers this way…”
Amy said nothing, feeling her stomach drop. How many Racers would die today? A mass accident? It wouldn’t be the first in the Circuit’s history. Far from it. There was always one very few years. And there was always some sort of official story about why it happened. A malfunction in a program, adverse weather, among other excuses. If such an accident happened during the Race, they’d chop it up to the fact that no one was ready for the bike race, that the Racers hadn’t prepared well enough for it.
These people, she thought darkly. They make me sick.
“Don’t worry, Jay,” she said, standing a bit taller. “I’ll make it. I’ll win this Race.”
“Be careful,” he warned, his eyes filled with worry. “I much rather have you live through the Race than win it dead.”
She smirked. “As I said. Don’t worry. I’ll end this Race with a quick win.”
*********
It felt very strange at the starting line. Instead of the steady hum of a dozen engines, the track was uncomfortably silent. The Racers stood over their bikes, the small bikes seeming very pathetic for a Race. And the Racers were over dressed for it too. All of them wore their padded jumpsuits with huge helmets to protect their heads. Amy wondered how many of them would fair in the Race, having to pedal the entire time in such bulky clothing. She wondered how she was going to make it.
“You sure the change in tactic is going to help?” Maxx asked in her ear. With the helmet on, his voice was directed into her ear.
“It has to work,” she muttered, looking at the track. It was a long dirt road. It was usually for motorized dirt bike Races, where jumping tricks were scored and helped people in the ranking. However, she doubted that many tricks were going to be preformed today. Most everyone would want to just get the Race over with.
“Everyone wants to be done with this Race,” she explained. “Everyone. I don’t think that there’s a single Racer who is happy about this. They’ll clamor for the lead and keep it. We have to take that lead first off and keep it. It’s the only way.”
“If you say so,” Maxx said, uncertain. “I’m not familiar with these Races.”
“Neither is anyone else,” she reminded him, just as Jay had to remind them. Everyone was on equal footing now. No training, all surprised. It was pure speed that was going to win this Race. She had to smirk.
She always wondered if she were the fastest Speeder.
Red.
“Stupid idiots,” Maxx muttered in her ear.
Orange.
“Making us do this…”
Yellow.
“Maxx,” she muttered. “Shut up.”
Green.
Unlike the previous races, there was no sudden shriek of engines revving, tires burning, no loud sounds. Just the sound of a bike on dirt.
A lot of bikes on dirt.
Amy had rarely used her Talent in this way. Oh, there had been a time or two that she would use her Speed when she needed to get somewhere fast, either on her bike or on foot, but that was always a short jaunt. Not this. This was a Race, where everyone was trying to get to the end. Everyone trying to win.
Amy knew that her place in the start was in the middle of the Racers was going to be hard to get in front. She ignored Maxx continued mutters and focused only on trying to get ahead. While the track had been designed for dirt bikes, it was large compared with the pedal bikes that they Raced. It was easy to weave between other Racers, quickly gaining the top.
“Come on, legs,” she muttered, pushing herself forward. “We can do this!”
Other Racers started slowing down, blurring with the rest of the background. It was common knowledge that not all Talented were the same level. There were some who tried to classify different levels of Talented, but the differences were slight.
She could only hope that she was slightly better than the rest.
Then came the first hill. If she had been on a dirt bike, she would have just revved Maxx’s engine to get to the top. Now she was relying on her own legs. Her legs burned as she pedaled, her breathing started to come faster. Just because she could be fast at things didn’t mean that she had unlimited energy. If she had been doing this without her Talent, she would be running out of energy at the same rate.
She started to slow down as she pedaled up the hill, other Racers quickly catching up with her.
“No,” she heaved, feeling sweat roll down her cheeks. “I won’t give in!”
The top of the hill came and she knew what to do. She immediately stopped pedaling. Gravity took over, taking her and Maxx down the hill at a faster rate than what she could pedal. She didn’t dare pedal downhill. It was easy to loose control going too fast, even for a Speeder. Physics still applied. Going too fast would cause a wreck.
Crash!
“Ooo,” the commentator said in her ear. “That has got to hurt! There’s a pile up on the hill, several Racers are now out of the Race. That’s what you get when you pedal down hill.”
“Exactly,” she muttered as she started pedaling again on flat ground, taking the chance to look around. There were only a handful of Racers left, Silver Fox being one of them. Amy focused forward, urging her body to its limits. She had to win this Race. It would get her to the next one. Then the Finals.
Loosing was not an option.
The Race soon turned into a close race, with her struggling to keep in with the rest of the Racers. They too tried to get to the finish line first. They probably also wanted to know who was the fastest Speeder.
Hills, turns, dips, they all blended into one another, with no one taking a clear lead. One moment, she would have it, the next someone else would take it only to have it taken by another.
“This is an exciting Race, folks!” the commentator said. “With no clear leader, the win could go to any of these fine Racers. Perhaps we should have more pedal bike Races in the future!”
Maxx snorted. “Not if I have something to say about it!”
The finish line was in sight.
“Come on!” Amy yelled, pushing every last ounce of Speed she had left into her legs. “Let’s win this thing!”
The other Racers were side by side. This was no Race to hurt the others. It was simply to get across the finish line. There was no time to cause a wreck. Even if they wanted to, they were simply too close to get away with it.
Amy and the others crossed the finish line.
“And it’s too close to tell!” the commentator said. “We’re going to have to wait for the officials to tell us who won.”
They all skid to a stop, all of them looking annoyed as they pulled off their helmets.
“You know,” Silver Fox said, glaring in the direction of the audience. “They do that too often.”
“Yeah,” another Racer said, looking grumpy. “We have way too many close calls.”
Amy said nothing. What use were words? She either won or she didn’t. She thought she was the lead, but… How was she supposed to know? They were all going too fast.
“Um,” Maxx said, turning his front wheel to her. “Aims?”
“Yeah?” she asked distractedly. Her gaze was latched on the official tent, where they were reviewing the tape.
“Could you change me back into something else?” he begged. “I feel so outdated!”
“Oh,” she said, snapping back to what was happening around her. The other Racers were also changing their programs, some to dirt bikes, others to cars.
“Maxx,” she commanded, “sports car.”
He turned into her favorite form, completely silver and nothing like the others. It was always the same with the Racers. Because they could pick what form their programs could be in, they tried to have their programs take a different form from everyone else. It was a variety they needed.
“And the officials are coming out of the tent!”
Amy and the other Racers hurried over to the tent, a place made way for them from the reporters who also surrounded the tent. About half the cameras were turned to them, wanting to catch their reactions to the announcement.
“The winners go thus,” an official said, standing at a microphone on a raised stage. “Fifth place, Racer Magnus.” A polite applause. The Racer stomped off in a huff. “Forth place, Racer Humming Jay.” Another polite round. This Racer nodded gratefully and stayed to hear the rest. “Third, Racer Bolt Lighting.” Breaths were held. The next name would reveal who was the winner.
“Second place,” the announcer said, his expression bland. “Racer Silver Fox. Which means…”
Amy didn’t hear anything else as the cheers boomed and people crowded around her, congratulating her. She couldn’t stop grinning. She knew by the third name that she was in the next Race, the top three always go, but this meant that she won.
I’m the fastest Speeder in this Circuit, she thought. There was something smug about that.
*********
“Now, don’t let it go all to your head.”
Amy rolled her eyes. She, Jay, Hacker, and Sally were back in Hacker’s shop as the mechanic checked on Maxx again. While there was a party to celebrate the win of the Race that night, she had declined, saying that the Race was in the memory of Roadster. It wouldn’t be right to celebrate her win when they should be celebrating Roadster’s life. They all accepted the excuse and let her be.
So she sat with Jay on the couch, rolling her eyes at her Sponsor.
“I doubt that it’ll go to my head,” she said. “I have my first round of tests next week. I’m going to be plenty busy studying to worry about letting small things like a win go to my head.”
Jay huffed. “I’m just concerned,” he said. “That’s all.”
“I think there’s a bit more than that,” Hacker said beneath Maxx. Her program was in his usual form and rather enjoyed Hacker’s checkup.
“Hacker,” Jay warned.
“What?” the mechanic asked, tapping his foot on the floor. He and Sally had created a code with foot taps so she could know which tool he needed. She sat on the floor next to Maxx, taking out the tool and handing it over to her boyfriend.
“You’re too uptight, Jay,” Sally said, resting her hand on Hacker’s leg. “You need to learn how to relax.”
Jay snorted. “Relax? This has nothing to do about being relaxed or not. This is about Amy’s safety. I heard some of the other Sponsors. They aren’t happy that you won. You’re a favorite to win the Final.”
“Wonderful,” Amy said sarcastically. “I already know that they want to kill me. Now they’re unhappy with me. I’m sorry I offended them by pursuing my goals.”
“Amy,” Jay sighed. “You really don’t want to anger people who are trying to kill you.”
“There’s nothing I can do,” she pointed out. “We’ve already disabled Maxx’s secret kill code. If they’re going to kill me, they’re going to find a way.”
“Ugh,” he said, throwing his hands up. “There’s no use talking to you!”
“He checks out,” Hacker said, rolling out from beneath her car. “I just suggest keeping him in this form for a couple of days. His program wasn’t used to the pedal bike. Let’s get his program get used to being normal again.”
“Fine,” Amy grumbled, stalking over and getting into Maxx. “I’ll do that. Now, excuse me, I’ve got to study.” She slammed the door and backed off, too annoyed to think of anything else.
***********
Ah, a nice lovely argument between Amy and Jay. I think I’ll be going into April strong. Speaking of April… Guess what time it is!
That’s right! It’s Camp NaNoWriMo! And just in time too. I literally only have a two paragraphs more of the story. And thanks to it being Camp NaNo, I get to choose my word count. Instead of 50K, I’m doing 60K. Time to push my limits a bit.
So check back again after April for the story to continue! Enjoy the journey!
No comments:
Post a Comment