The Race-X

It was like a drop in on those old amusement park roller coasters that sent everyone screaming. When I dropped over the edge of the balcony, I felt like a bird. The jacket kept my face from being torn apart, the goggles allowing me to see the beautiful world of glass and greenery below me. My stance on the board allowed me to lean back, my front foot pointing the board down as I nosedived, part of me was tempted each time to just let my arms rise above my head to feel the wind whip me around. In all seriousness, I wanted to spread my wings and fly. But for my own safety reasons, that wasn’t an option. Not unless I wanted to yank my arms out of their sockets. The collar hid the smile behind my face as I came level with the top of the buildings, dipping high and over the roofs, barrel rolling next to the large glass windows of the business buildings and filthy rich apartment complexes of the inner city. The traffic of the hovercars below was a blur as I rushed by. Hovercars were too big to maneuver in and out like the hoverboards, which bound them to the magnetic tracks set below.

But we, and by we I mean those who rode hoverboards, were as limitless as we wanted. Well, not as limitless as wanted, but we were still birds among the rocks stuck in morning commute traffic. As I sped through the inner city out to more a rural area where Okoro Garage was located, I leveled out so that I was standing at the full height of my not so tall frame. The air was crisp, and I could feel how cold it was despite the thick layering of my coat. The Race-X attendees would without a doubt be dressed to the nine’s and their warmest get ups this year. The qualifying rounds were set to start in two days, and I couldn’t be more excited to see the lineup. Obviously Kit Okoro and Quinn Silver, the two most popular household names when it came to Race-X were my favorites to see, also my two to beat. But there were new and exciting teams she was looking forward to see preform. Germany, a country that had been slow to come around to the idea of Race-X were finally entering a team, and they were rumored to be as good if not better than Kit. And then, at the beginning of the month, Leader-X had said at an announcement given earlier in the month that a surprise was going to be disclosed today. I could only imagine what sort of ‘surprise’ was in store.

I rolled my hips to the right, pushing my board up so I hung half to the side as I decreased altitude, the garage quickly approaching. Even from high up as I was, I could still see the sparks from the opening, meaning the boys were hard at work fixing and touching up any last minute concerns or cosmetic issues. Naturally they would ask me how it looked before finalizing anything, being in charge of their marketing and all. I swept down just outside the arch, the puttering of the hoverboard coming to a quiet as I stepped off, sliding the hovcuffs into the panel and taking my briefcase out.

“Looking good boys, but it looks like ya missed a spot. Up there…no…no there…wait, a little to the left…wait no I mean my left not yours. Ah, there you go.” I toyed with them, giving in with a laugh and a wink. It was a high stress period yes, only days before Race-X. Everyone was worried about something, but we all knew how to have a good time. This was our job, our profession and career, and we needed to lighten it up just a bit if any of us were going to survive. I looked in the direction of the clock. In about five minutes, Leader-X was about to announce whatever little thing he had planned for this year’s race.

As I climbed up the stairs that would lead me to the overlook of the garage, a pair of feet clambered up behind me, wrapping their oil stained hands around my stomach. “Hiya babe,” I heard the familiar drawl of Kit and smiled when I swiveled around to peck him on the lips.

“Hiya stranger.”

“You’re just in time for the speech, come on lets go find boss man and sit him down for it too. Then I can model that suit for you in private. Sound good, hm?”

Part of me couldn’t believe that I was actually cool enough to date the Kit Okoro. And then, there were other parts of me that felt like Kit was the one who should have felt lucky enough to be dating me. Today, was one of those days. “Depends on how good of a boy you’ve been.” I flicked the edge of his chin and spent the rest of the climb up the stairs dodging his grabby hands.

The conference room where the boss man was already seated with a couple of his lap dogs already had the early coverage of the announcement before it began. One of them jumped up, taking my coat and handing me a cup of coffee. I was a three cuppa girl. Kit and I settled down next to each other, watching the holoscreen intently. This felt different than any other announcement than before. This felt like it was something directly relatable to me, or perhaps it was relatable to my team, therefore making it just as relatable to me. I took a sip of the bitter cup, grimacing as it burned my tongue. I turned to kit, whom had his hands folded in front of him.

“What do you think he’s going to say?”

His dark eyes turned on me. “Beats me babe, probably something about the prospects of this year’s Race-X is even more promising than it was last years. And that he’s looking forward to a good couple of months of races and such.”

Kit wasn’t the biggest fan of Leader-X. I think the whole alien from another planet thing may have thrown him off, and it sure as hell threw me for a loop too when the Cryptics first came through, but I was over it. They were a peaceful type of alien, not wanting to oppress or terrorize the human kind at all; which was better than any sort of credit we had ever given them in the old Hollywood films that we had made. I could understand his slight discomfort. I understood that an entirely new species of living thing just randomly coming in, when you thought they were just a myth, or a highly strung out conspiracy theory from the whackos. As long as Kit kept his tongue in line, he would be fine. It was my job as someone who dealt with his media, I knew the severity of keeping a tight lid on sensitive matters.

The small talk between the groups that were in the room died out to silence as Leader-X filled up the screen planted on the wall. As weird as it sounded in my head, Leader-X was an attractive man. I wasn’t sure how old he was, or what he looked like in natural form. In fact, I don’t even know if anyone knows what a Cryptic looks like in their natural form, because no human has ever seen it before. I figured that was how the alien’s wanted it, and respected that. But with every expression of respect, came an expression of out of control curiosity. Curiosity that would kill the cat, and I’m sure satisfaction wasn’t going to bring it back. Rumors flew back and forth that there was an underground circulation of people who were working in groups to try and expose what a Cryptic really looked like. Much like the other undiscovered things that roamed this planet and others, I hoped we never came across them. Everything we touched turned to an absolute mess. And I’m sure if anyone got their hands on a Cryptic it would all unravel within a matter of minutes.

“Hello, my fellow humans and Cryptics. What an honor it is to be presenting this speech to you. As I am sure all of you are eagerly aware, the 4th anniversary of the Race-X games are just upon us. It brings me great joy to be standing on the same platform with last year’s winner of Race-X, Quinn Silver,” the screen zoomed out to Quinn Silver sat behind with several members of his team with him. As several scoffs and snorts came from the own team I was a part of, I put on my own poker face to have my childish crush on him safe for another day. I looked out of the corner of my eye to see an all too familiar scowl on Kit’s face. Such a bitter loser. Not that I would be any different I’m sure, if I had been close enough to taste victory again. I squeezed his hand reassuringly and gave a smile. This would be Kit’s year, on the track and in the eye of the public. Kit kissed my knuckles and turned back to the screen.

“I know that this year’s Race-X will be unlike any other. I have seen the countries and teams registered for the try out rounds. I see great potential and many returning teams hoping to make their mark. This year’s game will truly be one to remember, and even harder to top in the years to come.” I furrowed my brows. So he did have something up his sleeve then? I looked to the boss man, his arms crossed tightly over his protruding belly. And he didn’t look too happy to be listening to this speech based on the flush crawling up his neck onto his cheeks. He hadn’t mentioned anything to me, but why? If it was going to have any sort of influence on the team, I deserved to know because I needed to know how to deal with it. I looked back at the screen, my own curiosity spiked. I could only hope that satisfaction would be my guardian angel. “It is with great privilege that I announce the authorization of another team being added to the representatives of the United States of America.”

The whole room suddenly felt as if it belonged to a bunch of corpses.

“This team however, will not represent a certain part of the United States. Instead, this new team will represent me. I have already selected a handful of team members to work on building a ship, all I need now is a racer and a gunner. That is where you, my citizens of the United States come into play,” I was biting the inside of my cheek so hard, I could taste blood. Kits grip on my hand had turned my knuckles bone white. “Anyone is available to apply as a racer or gunner as long as they have previous background working on a ship or the equivalency of racing experience. I will have a team of Cryptics to escort you to my headquarters so that you may attempt to win over my expectancies with your personality. Those who I select will then impress me with their skill to either race, or gun. The application process will begin tomorrow morning. I hope to see a generous turn out. May the Heavens be with all teams from different countries this year, and I look forward to an interesting Race-X. Thank you again, and have a blessed day.”

Leader-X folded his hands in front of him with a slight nod to the cameras and walked off. My eyes moved to Quinn Silver, who couldn’t help but let his jaw hang nervously. His teammates looked at him wearily. He and every member of Kit’s team were thinking the exact same thing. How in the hell was this possible? Was it even allowed? The human part was an absolute necessity. No Cryptic could partake in the game. I wasn’t even sure they could sponsor it. That was how strict Leader-X was about this. It was a human thing, a human form of entertainment.

I switched from marketing and media Evan to just regular Evan Friedrich. This was the chance I had been waiting for. This was real. My heart was beating like the sound of the war drums, and I knew it couldn’t be silenced anymore. I slipped my hand from inside the security of Kit’s grasp. I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Holy shit.”