Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Gundam R ❯ Risky Business ( Chapter 2 )
Gundam R
Risky Business
Lyra Kamiya
"This is your new announcer, Niban Wi-er, a, Maxwell, broadcasting live from an undisclosed location!! Today's championship race is about to go underway! Favorite to win is 'White Rabbit', but the others may provide a good round of competition. And I personally, hope Midnight wins!!" The White Rabbit's pit crew yelled back something about biased announcers and a few other things that started with the letter B. "Oh, beep yourself! Racers! On your mark, get set, GO!"
The eight Hoverbikes took off around the outside of the donut shaped colony. The course was to go around the outside 3 times, then the inside just as many. First one to the finish-or last one alive, as the case may be-was the winner.
"The White Rabbit has an early lead, followed quickly by Charger, and a tied-as-usual Valkyrie and Zeus. Bringing up the rear is Warp Turtle…" the race continued at illogical speeds as Ni rattled off her commentary. "Midnight is pulling up fast as they complete their first lap!" she chirped happily. The black HB ridden by Midnight, aka Mayonaka, zoomed past the three who'd been battling for second and approached the bright white one quickly. He remained on his tail for the next lap and a half, until they began making the curve towards the laps round the inner side of the Colony.
Suddenly, as they reached a spoke connecting the Colony to its center, he dropped and swerved sharply up on the opposite side of the White Rabbit. In shock, he swerved as well and went crashing into the spoke. In a bright flash that would have also generated a large explosive noise were it not for the vacuum of space, pieces of his HB hurling in all directions as he drifted, unconscious if alive at all, away from the blast. "Looks like the black fox took out the White Rabbit and is now officially in the lead!" Another snarl from the quickly fleeing-towards-their-pilot pit crew caused her to quickly add, "but as its only halfway through the race, it could be anyone's race!!"
The next two laps went relatively smoothly… The Cheshire Cat, at one point, miscalculated and slammed into a spoke, quickly managing to get started once more. It had been quickly apparent that he would not be catching back up to the others as Warp Turtle and Arachnid sped past, so he'd returned to his pit crew instead.
But races were never this easy, nor this subtle. Ordinarily, riders behaved almost as if they wanted to be caught, be it by the next racer back or by the police. A light started flashing from Niban's broadcast console… one of the scouts has spotted a police ship, of some sort, on its way towards the race. "ATTENTION! THEY ARE ON TO US!" Most likely cause of the discovery was the earlier explosive end to White Rabbit's spot in the race.
With nothing left to loose, Zeus and Valkyrie, ridden by Sean and Eri respectively, pushed their engines to maximum and caught up with charger. They kept along each side of him for the next half a lap… almost no race left… all three were fast approaching Midnight as well. With a signal no others saw, Valkyrie suddenly dropped back and went around the other side of Zeus, as he in turn swerved erratically, forcing Charger into a docking bay as they followed the Colony's curve back to the outer circumference. The two had performed the stunt many times before, but never this late in the race, as it normally took a good amount of time to regain their speed.
Both sped on towards the finish line, managing to somehow pass Midnight, their engines at or possibly above maximum speed as they swerved in S curves to keep the "black fox" behind them. In a flash it was over, Valkyrie beating Zeus only by the length of his bike and Midnight barely behind them. The other two intact racers crossed the line soon afterwards, Niban shouting hyper and somewhat biased commentary onto the 'waves as the others celebrated…
But no sooner had their engines come to a pause than flashing lights appeared from nowhere. Everyone hopped onto the nearest vehicle they could, Niban jumping into her transport and Lynna hopping on behind Eri, as the police ships appeared from no where. A bust like this was one to be cherished, and the fleeing racers couldn't help but feel a bit of sympathy for those who had wiped out during the race; the only way they would be able to get away in time would be to leave their damaged and often prized Hoverbikes behind. A shout of terror went through the intercom of 2 of the racers and three, albeit one of them long gone, pit-crew members. Sean's motor had stalled out, and as the others scattered away he was left, hovering above the Colony's outer surface, exposed for probable capture.
"Guys! They're comin' after me! Do something!!!"
Help never came. No sooner had Valkyrie turned around than had a ship cornered Sean to the point that it would be suicide to go back in after him. Mayonaka was too far gone already to see and had probably turned his speaker off before the race even began, but Niban had heard and started shouting something about bail money before she went out of range. Eri quickly turned back around towards the escape and told him to rip apart the communicator, now, so the others wouldn't be caught as well. The static followed by silence that came through made them guess that he had heard them.
Sean Zeus, another racer, and three pit crew members were captured at that race. Another racer decided he'd sooner take his own life than be caught, and slammed his hardly working HB into the nearest cruiser. He was unconscious upon impact, and dead before he reached the office.
Everyone always said illegal racing was an exciting sport. No one ever said it wasn't dangerous.
***********
The next afternoon one overly giddy Niban Winner, the system's most recognizable 16 year old, wandered into the local police office. She explained, in many uncertain terms, that she'd found out the night before that one of her friends was an illegal racer. She went on through an entire monologue of how ashamed she was of him, she couldn't believe someone she'd trusted as much as him could have done such a thing, and then told them she was there to bail him out. The police stared at her, scanned through their records, and looked back up at her with a look that only said "you have to be kidding me".
"Seems your 'good friend' here has three previous arrests. All for illegal racing."
She was prepared for this. "What the beep?!" she said in well rehearsed yet improve shock. "I am going to have to slap him one or something…" she started nibbling on a ginger snap as she continued her acting. "What's his bail at? His dad will *kill* him if he finds out he was in containment…"
"500x," the cop replied.
"Er, ok…" she dug through her many pockets and smiled when she found what she was looking for… she handed them a charge card, her name, photo, and several DNA and other non-replicable forms of identification on it. She set her hand on the IDpad before her and lined her eye up for corneal scan when she was asked to do each thing. As the richest, most recognizable, and most probably insane girl in the system she was well accustomed to the routine. "Everything's in order I'm guessin'?"
"That it is… but you're underage. We can't let you get him out past his third arrest without an 18-or-older's signature."
She winced, then suggested she could pay double the bail. They still refused. She suggested triple. Still no. She suggested quadruple, with a good amount of that going to each of them individually. They paused, considering this, then asked her why she wanted him out of there so badly. Had she been anyone else, she probably would have started some false sob story about him being the father of her unborn child. Instead she shrugged, "He owes me a box of ginger snaps," stuffed one of said snack food into her mouth, and walked out with a sigh. Her happy manor decreased a wee bit, quite abnormally, as she reached her three friends waiting outside. "They wouldn't let him out."
"Plan B?" Mayonaka shrugged, indifferent.
"What is plan B?" Eri questioned. "I never seem to like plan Bs."
"Bust him out," Lynna said as if it were obvious.
Silence befell the others. "How?" Niban finally asked. "And how many things get to go boom?"
"I don't know… but I do think we might be able to use 'Wing'," Ly replied, grinning slyly.
"I already don't like plan B…" Eri sighed. "Or maybe it's just that I know she came up with a better plan than me."
A/n: sounds odd for a show-like series like this… but I invite you all to vote on the subject of who, of the five main characters, should be leader. Results will be up with chapter 5, voting is open until then.