Chapter 8 - Stars Aligned
After the race ended, Proxy, a racer with pink hair, approached Nexi who was taking off her racing gloves at the pitstop.
“Nexxxx! I got on the podium today!”
Proxy hugged Nexi. She was still sweaty from the race.
“I heard in the announcement. Great job.”
“I was like brrr and wapppp and then I was on Rinova’s tail but then he escaped me! That coward went to hide behind Garner!”
“Mhhmm.”
“Where were you Nex? I couldn’t find you! …and why are you looking so sad?”
“I was P8, it’s nothing… we all lose sometimes–”
“Nooo, what happened? Did the car malfunction?”
“Yep. How did you know? The electric motor broke.”
“I knew it! Nexi would never lose in a fair fight! Don’t blame yourself, Nex… you deserve a way better car!”
“Haha… yep.”
“I heard what you did in the tunnel to pass Rinova, Nex! You were so cool!”
“Thanks… August, congrats on the podium again by the way!”
Proxy smiled and gestured mini hearts to Nexi while walking away. She went to join the other podium finishers at the post race interview.
Garner was tapping on the table and leaning back on his chair, while Rinova was pretending that he wasn’t there so that Garner wouldn’t notice him. Proxy took a seat next to Garner.
“Sorry, I was late!”
The interviewer, Cruize, started.
“Inspiring win, Mr. Rinova! How do you feel after your first GRS race and first GRS win?”
“I am incredibly grateful to Forefront for letting me race in their amazing machines, thank you, Mr. Jackson Cooper– And this win itself… is for Jett Cooper. Thank you, Jett, for letting me prove myself in the race seat”
“A very humble speech from Mr. Rinova! Thanking the people who let him race and win here today! Mr. Garner, how do you feel about your win today?”
“I didn’t win, I lost.”
“Second place is still an incredible achievement!”
“Whatever, I was too slow. I got second, end of story.”
“Proxy! How do you feel?”
“It was extremely difficult to chase those top of the line race cars! I am proud that even with my limited resources I could still keep up with them! This time I might not get first, but my gold medal is inevitable for sure!”
“Very confident speech from Proxy! Spoken like a true racer!”
Reiji, Nexi, and other racers were watching behind the cameras. Reiji got up and was leaving. Nexi called out to him.
“Hey, Reiji, you going now?”
“Yes.”
“Are you a little mad you didn’t win?”
“Nope, I’ve done my job.”
“…Alright, see you then.”
“Nexi, don’t let this loss get to you,” Reiji said while walking away.
Nexi looked at Reiji.
“What? No I’m not gonna let it.”
“Good. We still need a racer like you.”
Reiji left.
At the Tokyo hideout, Kaito's phone rang. Reiji was calling.
“Gotta go pick up Mr. Yamada Reiji.”
“I’ll go too!” Nina said.
Mikey waved as they were leaving in the Chaser.
The GRS post race interview was playing on the TV. Rinova was speaking.
“Neo-gen helped me stay focused during the race, letting me do what I needed to do. It saved my life many times too– even I can make human mistakes, Neo-gen kept me in line.”
“Just listen to Neo-gen and you’ll win, am I right?– hahaha! This is a massive comeback for Forefront after that controversial incident!” Cruize joked.
Cipher snapped his laptop shut.
“Ugh–”
“You alright?”
“This Forefront– they are untouchable! They are evil! I hate them.”
“Come on, Cipher, they can’t be that bad. I know they sent the Blacklines after us… but we were technically breaking the law.”
“They are that bad.”
“They invented Neo-gen, which made the streets safer for the racers and pedestrians though.”
“I did, Mikey. MY Neo-gen”
“Cipher… What do you mean?”
Cipher sighed and placed his laptop on the sofa.
“Here's the truth, Mikey. I used to work for Forefront.”
“Wha…”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“I was ID-less, homeless, basically a nobody! But I’m booksmart, I excel academically when they let me hold a pen. Forefront took notice and let a ‘nobody’ prove himself– they recruited me to work on their new AI. My colleagues hated me, they don’t see me as equal– hell, I don’t see them as equal either! They are all dumber! Hah!”
Cipher glanced to see that Mikey’s eyes were fixed on him. Cipher calmed down.
“...I basically made Neo-gen all by myself, and they took all the credit, framed me for fraud, then kicked me out.”
“You… made the Neo-gen that Jett uses, Cipher?”
“Yeah… But no, not this current one. They injected some corporate bullshit into it. My prototype was pure.”
“What are you going to do? They completely wronged you.”
“Hah– what can I do? Only root for their downfall!… We can’t do anything, Mikey… we are ID-less, homeless, and still a ‘nobody’.”
“We don’t have to be nobodies forever…”
“We have no IDs, to them we don’t exist.”
“Reiji got into GRS.”
“GRS picked him, Mikey.”
“Forefront picked you!”
“And look what happened.”
Mikey couldn’t say anything.
“…Everyone needs to hear your story!”
Mikey scratched his head.
…
Cipher patted Mikey’s head.
“It’s okay, Mikey, I’ll get over it eventually… people always do.”
Nexi was wearing a mask and sunglasses in the middle of the night. She stood in front of her warehouse garage with a parked flat-bed tow truck with a car on the bed covered by a tarp.
“So you want me to deliver this prototype race car to District 7? And you can’t teleport it because it’s classified?” the tow truck driver asked Nexi.
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Are you sure I’m the right person for the job?”
“Non-associates will actually be beneficial for this situation, because you will have nothing to gain from knowing anything about the car.”
“You’ll be racing in this thing? Testing it?”
“Just listening to it.”
“I see. Off I go, then.”
“Thank you again for coming, sir.”
The tow truck exited the lot. Nexi took off her mask and glasses and breathed a sigh of relief.
Reiji returned to Tokyo's hideout in the Chaser. Kaito parked the car and Nina jumped out humming. The tired Reiji exited the car. He raced the entire day.
“Reiji, glad to see you back, good racing,” Mikey said.
“Thanks.”
“Reiji, why did you fight that hard in stage 1?” Cipher asked.
Nina turned to Cipher.
“Dude! That’s rude! Of course Reiji would try his best!”
“It was incredibly entertaining,” Vance added.
“Thanks guys, I actually did it because of my sponsor,” Reiji revealed.
“Sponsor?”
“Sponsor called. They said if I make it to the second stage they will triple my pay.”
“Kaito, how much was he making before?” Mikey asked.
“Two mill on a good season.”
“WHAT?” Cipher and Vance shouted
Nina counted on her fingers.
“WE GOT SIX MILL?”
“We got 50k gits left and a fuel truck.”
Nina grabbed Reiji’s shirt collar and shook him violently.
“YOU IDIOT!!!!”
Kaito grabbed her shoulder.
“It was my call, Nina.”
Nina teared up.
“Both of you are idiots!”
Kaito turned to Vance.
“You guys can borrow the fuel truck for now, you wanted to sell the fuel right? The gas station and the fuel is your property after all. We bought the fuel truck as an investment, we were thinking of selling fuel from district 0 too.”
Vance smiled.
“Thinking like a true businessman.”
“Same wavelengths, businesswoman.”
After resting a bit, Reiji was helping Cipher on the computer.
“Man, it’s so convenient to have an ID!” Cipher said.
“I know, right?”
“Now that I can use the Telelink, I can check Forefront’s internal communications.”
Cipher hacked into Forefront’s network.
“Are you guys still wanted?” Reiji asked.
“Wait hold on…no…we are not wanted…they are saying that we have already been ‘erased’.”
“Is that good…?”
“Yes! Perfect!”
“Are you guys going home now?”
“Yes, it’s about time.”
Vance’s crew stood on the teleporter pad with the fully filled fuel truck while Tokyo’s crew waited at the control panel to see them off. Vance put a blindfold on Mikey.
Kaito called out from the control panel.
“District 1, correct?”
“Wait wait, no we should not teleport back to the financial district yet– it’s too risky. Vance, what are districts close to the residential district that have a teleporter we could use?”
“I wouldn’t say close, but district 7 is quite safe to teleport.”
“Okay! District 7 it is then!”
Kaito typed on the control panel.
“See you guys later,” Reiji said.
“Safe Teley!” Nina said.
“Reiji, I’ll keep watching you every GRS race!” Mikey told him.
“Doesn’t have to be every, I’m embarrassed, appreciate it though.”
Vance and Kaito made eye contact.
“Any last words?” Kaito joked.
“Dumbass, we’ll still have to return the fuel truck.”
Kaito laughed.
Vance’s crew vanished from District 0, they promised each other a reunion.
Nexi wore the mask and sunglasses again. In district 7, the tow truck driver arrived with the car at dawn.
The district looked like an industrial sprawl with rusted but still fully functional machinery.
Machines still churned in the worker’s absence.
The tow truck slowly lowered Nexi’s car onto the road.
“Perfect.”
“Welp, I’ll be leaving now.”
Nexi waved the tow truck driver goodbye and checked her surroundings. Even a working industrial city, quiet at dawn, could still have stray workers around. She opened the tarp to reveal… Blue Jay.
“Let’s get you some exercise, Blue Jay.”
Vance's crew teleported to district 7 with their new fuel truck.
Vance rolled out the pad in her GR GT.
“Me and Cipher are going to go sell this fuel, I know of a buyer here. Mikey if you are interested, there’s an abandoned racetrack right over there. You could go check it out.”
Cipher asked Vance from the fuel truck.
“Actual racetracks still exist? Aren’t they all repurposed?”
“This city determined that it’s not profitable to repurpose the track, so it sits.”
Mikey started his RX-8.
“We’ll be right back, Mikey,” Vance said.
The GR GT screamed down the wide empty streets.
Cipher shouted from the slow fuel truck.
“God damn it, Vance! Wait for me!”
Nexi was in her Blue Jay, she drove on the overgrown racetrack. The apexes were physical unlike in GRS tracks, where racers have to visualize them. Nexi carried her 911 over these faded apexes, feeling every bump. She could feel when her rear tires were slipping out– no Xogic needed. Her understeer into corners didn’t feel like a punishment, but like learning a lesson.
Nexi noticed a red mica RX-8 on the same track in front of her.
Who… is that?
Nexi stepped on the throttle to get a closer look.
Nexi said to herself clearly unaware of her own hypocrisy.
“What is an old car like that doing here?”
The RX-8 noticed Nexi and started driving more purposefully.
Guess we are battling now.
Nexi got closer to the RX-8, she noticed the RX-8 rears slipping.
“Oopsies?”
The RX-8 counter-steered and corrected the course.
Nexi giggled to herself.
They both danced through corners.
“I’m going to pass you now…”
Nexi drifted to the outside.
The RX-8 lifted, letting Nexi pass cleanly.
Guess we are not battling after all.
Nexi floored it out of the corner, the Blue Jay easily pulled away from the RX-8.
I might have overdid it, should I wait for him?
They entered more corners.
The RX-8 creeped its way back up to her.
Nexi checked her mirror and was impressed.
Huh… so I’m losing in the corners.
Nexi intentionally lifted as she entered the corner so that her rear tires slipped out for a bit. She caught her steering wheel and corrected it. She gave a wide grin.
This is fun.
Nexi blipped the throttle and downshifted.
“Let’s see if you can keep up!”
Nexi precisely directed her car into each corner while the RX-8 flowed into each one.
They were having a friendly tug of war.
The RX-8 flicked and drifted.
Nexi watched from her mirror.
“You are not afraid of oversteer at all, are you?”
Nexi pulled ahead because the RX-8 drifted.
“You are not afraid to lose time either… you are just… driving.”
Nexi rolled to a stop.
The RX-8 did the same.
Nexi rolled down her window and gave a thumbs-up. She put her mask and sunglasses back on and exited the car.
“Hi… hello–”
No response.
“I’m… Jolene, that was fun, who might you be?”
The slightly awkward Mikey stepped out of the RX-8.
“My name’s Mikey…”
Nexi's eyes widened, but the sunglasses were blocking Mikey from seeing it.
“I– saw you drift. You must be a professional.”
“No… I actually just started driving.”
“You are lying– why are you so comfortable with oversteer? Aren’t you afraid you are going to crash?”
“The car tells me more when it’s sideways.”
“…Do you come here often?”
“No, this is my first time, I’m from district 12.”
Nexi turned around and placed her hand on her mask.
Unbelievable…
Nexi turned back to Mikey.
“I– I’m gonna go now, see you later, Mikey!”
“Yep… I want to drive with you again, Jolene.”
“If the stars aligned again… haha…”
Is that the kid from the hospital?
He shouldn’t be here…
He drives better than most GRS drivers…
I need to know more about him…
But not right now.
I need to process this.
Nexi got into the Blue Jay and drove off.
